This Prologue walkthrough records every choice that can change dialogue, resources, faction satisfaction, quests, personality progression, or later availability.
Spoiler warning: This guide explains hidden values and whether apparently important decisions actually survive the prologue.
The prologue has two very different kinds of decisions. The opening audiences are a tutorial preview whose economic results are erased. The six-part origin story is the real personality setup: all 12 trait points carry into the campaign, and the final life-or-death choice also decides whether Oliver can ever be recruited.
Across every order-dependent route, the prologue contains 32 distinct choice labels. A single run shows 31 because two Scholar resolutions are mutually exclusive; both are documented below.
The Opening Audience Preview
You begin with 3,826 funds and inflated faction satisfaction. People, Nobles, and Scholars are randomly set from 20 to 27, while Merchants are set to 18. The Worker, Scholar, and Merchant may be handled in any order. A fourth, forced audience with the Noble and Dragon Knight always follows them.
This entire sequence is temporary. After it ends, funds return to 100, every faction returns to 5 satisfaction, and the preview quest list is cleared. None of the choices in the next three tables changes your real starting position.
The Worker and the Agricultural Curse
| Step | Choice | Immediate result | Lasting consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening question | What’s going on? | Continues the conversation. | None. |
| Decision | Ah, a classic children’s prank, I know it well. Here’s a little royal help. | Costs 60 funds and gives People +1 satisfaction. | None; both changes are reset after the preview. |
| Decision | Must be of magical origin. I shall send a mystic knight. | Adds Agricultural curse to the preview quest list and changes the later Scholar resolution. | None after the prologue; the quest is cleared and the preview-only route flag has no later use. |
Both decisions lead to the same farewell. The royal-help branch only spends preview money. The knight branch displays Agricultural curse and also changes one later Scholar response, but neither effect survives the prologue.
The preview quest is a two-cycle Diplomacy assignment in Milkford with Agility 3, Magic 4, and Wits 4 requirements and 1-3 damage. Its listed success rewards are 100 funds, Scholars +1, and Merchants +1. You never receive a Round Table phase in which to assign it, so those rewards cannot be earned before the quest is cleared.
The Scholar’s Confession
| Step | Choice | Immediate result | Lasting consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening response | … You blew up another laboratory? | Changes dialogue only. | None. |
| Opening response | … You stole another dragon egg? | Changes dialogue only. | None. |
| Opening response | Don’t worry, I’m sure we can help. | A Wise-colored roleplay line; it adds no Wise points. | None. |
| Decision | You idiots… better find a solution yourselves. | Scholars lose 1 satisfaction. | None; the loss is reset after the preview. |
| Conditional decision | A farming ghost? I’ve already got someone on it, matter settled. | Appears only if you already chose the Worker’s mystic-knight option; Scholars gain 1 satisfaction. | None after the preview. |
| Decision | I’ll send someone to exorcise it. | Appears only if the Worker did not already send a knight; adds Agricultural curse to the preview quest list. | None; the quest list is cleared before the personality test. |
The Wise-colored response is available here because it only asks for Wise to rank within the top four traits. Your personality values have not been chosen yet, and selecting it does not grant Wise points. All three opening responses reach the same resolution.
The two quest-resolution lines are mutually exclusive. If you already sent a mystic knight for the Worker, choose “A farming ghost? I’ve already got someone on it, matter settled.” for a temporary Scholars +1. Otherwise the game offers “I’ll send someone to exorcise it.” and adds Agricultural curse instead.
The Merchant’s Shortage
| Step | Choice | Immediate result | Lasting consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision | Use buckwheat instead; it’s better anyway. | Requires Scholars satisfaction 20 and gives Merchants +1 satisfaction. | None; the gain is reset after the preview. |
| Decision | We’ll use our personal wheat reserves to support the affected regions. | Requires and costs 200 funds, and gives Merchants +2 satisfaction. | None; both changes are reset after the preview. |
The reserves option is always affordable with the preview’s 3,826 funds. The buckwheat option is usually available, but there is one order-sensitive exception: if Scholars started at exactly 20 and you first chose “You idiots…”, their score falls to 19 and buckwheat is disabled. Handle the Merchant first, or use the Worker’s mystic-knight route before the Scholar, if you want to guarantee access to it.
Ermen, the Dragon Knight, and the Kingslayer
After the three selectable audiences, a Noble appears and the scene is forcibly interrupted by the Dragon Knight. These choices belong to Ermen the Wise, the doomed Sovereign seen a century before the main character. All seven labels are narrative only.
| Step | Choice | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | How fares my favourite knight? | The Dragon Knight says she is your only remaining knight. None; the scene rejoins. |
| Greeting | What is it? | The Dragon Knight pauses, then gives the same warning. None; the scene rejoins. |
| Evacuation | Stay calm and evacuate the occupants of the Tower. | Continues to the same evacuation order. None. |
| Evacuation | I’ll deal with him myself… Leave now! | Continues to the same evacuation order. None. |
| Forced bridge | I SAID GO. THIS IS AN ORDER FROM YOUR SOVEREIGN! | The Dragon Knight obeys and leaves you to face the Kingslayer. None. |
| Final stance | I know why you are here, but I shall not give in… or the Empire will take us all. | Reaches Ermen’s death and the Tower’s destruction. None; the other stance reaches the same ending. |
| Final stance | If this is where it must all end, so be it. | Reaches Ermen’s death and the Tower’s destruction. None; the other stance reaches the same ending. |
Every route reaches Ermen’s death and the destruction of the old Tower. None of these choices changes the preview’s money, satisfaction, quest list, or any lasting state.
The Ruined Tower Cutscene
The history of the Tower plays after Ermen’s death. There are no choices in this scene. When it ends, the preview’s funds and faction satisfaction are restored to their real new-game values, and Agricultural curse is removed if you unlocked it.
The Six-Part Personality Test
Each answer secretly adds 2 points to one of four personality traits: Wise, Kind, Audacious, or Tyrannic. These points are permanent. You always gain 12 total points, but each trait appears as an option only three times, so the most you can place into one trait during the prologue is 6.
| Stage | Choice | Hidden modifier |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Follow the cat and trust its instincts to find another way out. | Wise +2. |
| 1 | Take the cat in your arms and try to jump through the flames of the collapsed doorway. | Kind +2. |
| 2 | Meow with precision. No one can tell you’re not an actual cat. | Audacious +2. |
| 2 | Try to adopt the deepest voice you can, ‘IT’S JUST ME, A KID RAN AWAY TO THE OTHER SIDE!’ | Tyrannic +2. |
| 3 | Run towards the child and try to push the knight away from him. | Kind +2. |
| 3 | Taunt the knight: he should be picking on a leper (you) instead of a toddler way stronger than him. | Audacious +2. |
| 4 | Find a leper-shaped rock in the forest and hide behind it. | Wise +2. |
| 4 | Hide in a field and pretend to be a scarecrow. | Audacious +2. |
| 5 | Remove the bandage from one of your wounds and try to trip him up with it. | Wise +2. |
| 5 | Try hitting him with a piece of wood. | Tyrannic +2. |
| 6 | Leave him there and run away before he wakes up. | Kind +2; Oliver survives. |
| 6 | Smash his skull in with a stone. He deserves it for trying to murder you. | Tyrannic +2; Oliver is killed. |
There are 64 possible answer combinations. Every narrative branch rejoins the same escape. The first five choices differ only in the distribution of personality points. The sixth also records whether you killed the attacker.
Personality levels unlock at the following totals:
| Trait | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Prologue maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyrannic | 10 | 22 | 40 | 6 |
| Wise | 10 | 22 | 42 | 6 |
| Kind | 10 | 22 | 42 | 6 |
| Audacious | 10 | 22 | 42 | 6 |
That means the personality test cannot unlock a level by itself. A maximized trait starts 4 points short of Level 1. The raw totals still matter immediately: later dialogue can compare which traits are highest, including ties, while level-gated choices appear once you reach the thresholds above. These six test answers do not change knight affinity. Later trait-required dialogue choices can please or annoy recruited knights according to their preferences.
To seed one trait as strongly as possible, take its three listed answers: Wise in stages 1, 4, and 5; Kind in 1, 3, and 6; Audacious in 2, 3, and 4; or Tyrannic in 2, 5, and 6.
Oliver’s Delayed Outcome
The attacker in the final memory is Oliver, even though the prologue does not name him.
- “Smash his skull in with a stone. He deserves it for trying to murder you.” gives Tyrannic +2 and kills Oliver. His Cycle 19 candidacy is removed, so he can never join the Round Table. This also removes his affinity conversations, romance, paired knight conversations, callback and departure scenes, Oliver’s magic degree, and his special involvement in Spying on the Magical Council.
- “Leave him there and run away before he wakes up.” gives Kind +2 and preserves Oliver’s Cycle 19 candidacy and all of that later content.
This consequence survives rewinds. Returning to an earlier normal cycle does not undo the prologue decision.
Arriving at the Tower
The arrival cinematic contains no choices. When Arlin asks how you came to the Tower, the two replies are cosmetic:
| Choice | Outcome |
|---|---|
| I had to flee my village because of the Empire. | Arlin gives the same response as the other choice. None; both routes rejoin. |
| I was attacked by the Empire, then my steps brought me here. | Arlin gives the same response as the other choice. None; both routes rejoin. |
Arlin gives exactly the same explanation of the Empire, the prophecy, and the Golden Key after either answer. No personality points, faction satisfaction, funds, quests, or relationship values change. Completing the scene records that you have seen the introduction, which can open a shortened Omniscient replay route later; the reply you choose does not affect that unlock.
Prologue End State
The prologue ends after Arlin’s introduction. You enter the first normal cycle with:
- 100 funds
- 5 satisfaction with People, Nobles, Scholars, and Merchants
- 12 personality points distributed according to the six test answers
- Oliver alive and recruitable later, or permanently removed, according to the final personality-test choice
- No Agricultural curse quest from the opening preview
The A New Sovereign achievement unlocks at this boundary. Arlin’s audience tutorial and Lady Angelica’s arrival occur afterward, at the start of the first normal cycle.