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The Fall of the House of Usher

Original Story

The narrator approaches the gloomy house of usher on horseback. The sight fills him with dread, even more so when he sees its reflection in the tarn by the house. The narrator was summoned by the lord of the house and boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who is ill, both physically and mentally. The lineage of Usher has not branched out, but persisted in a straight line from ancestors to descendants, with Roderick being the only current Usher. The house looks dilapidated, but oddly intact as a whole, with a peculiar zigzag fissure propagating from the roof into the tarn.

Upon the narrator's arrival, a servant takes the horse, and the narrator enters the house. A valet guides him to the lord's studio. On the way, they pass armorial trophies, and the physician, who accosts the narrator with trepidation. They arrive in the large studio, which looks lifeless. The narrator is greeted by Roderick, who looks like a husk of his former humanity. His behavior seems erratic, and so does his voice.

Roderick describes his illness as hereditary, and causing him to be agitated and overwhelmed by nearly everything his senses register. He is terrified by the events of the future, and speaks of a shadowy influence that looms over the estate.

Conversion to Playable Map

The tarn forms a mirror of the real house. The first boss consists of beings from a mirrored world attempting to cross over. A dull vapor lies over the tarn.

 

Some input from the overarching lore:

Necría: Goddess of Lingering Souls

  • Refuses to let the family die

  • Keeps their souls stuck in the house

  • Causes revenants, faint breathing behind walls, and “the living dead”

  • Forces memories to repeat, replay, and haunt

  • Enables the dead sibling (or ancestor) to rise again

  • Hates the idea of a bloodline fading into oblivion

Necría’s philosophy: “No soul should pass until its pain is heard.” She binds the family to their suffering.

Lethebron: God of Forgotten Death

  • Wants the family erased completely

  • Slowly unravels their memories, history, and lineage

  • Saps the house of identity, making halls look unfamiliar

  • Causes names to fade from documents, portraits to blur

  • Weakens the bloodline until it collapses

  • Considers the family a “rot” that should be removed cleanly

Lethebron’s philosophy: “Nothing is more merciful than oblivion.” He wipes the slate clean.

Why this family?

The family may have practiced forbidden rituals to preserve their ancestors or turn death into a form of power.
Lethebron sees this as an abomination. Perhaps they were supposed to guard or bury a sacred relic of oblivion… but instead preserved it, studied it, or even used it to stave off death. An ancestor committed a crime of memory and death: murdered someone whose soul wouldn’t pass, erased someone from history, preserved someone who should have died, Thus triggering the wrath of both gods.

Necría’s Signs (Lingering Life):

  • Soft sobbing or breathing behind walls

  • Portraits whose eyes sometimes open

  • A sibling or ancestor who “dies” yet does not stay dead

  • Rooms that feel suffocating or too warm

  • The presence of mold or growth—life in the wrong places

  • Family members developing uncanny vitality before collapsing

Lethebron’s Signs (Encroaching Oblivion):

  • Rooms that change arrangement when not observed

  • Names disappearing from books and diaries

  • Characters forgetting their own heritage

  • Paint flaking off walls to reveal… nothing beneath

  • Doors that lead to blank spaces or unfinished corridors

  • The house physically sagging, as if losing structural memory

The feud creates a tug-of-war:

  • Necría binds the souls, keeping them alive unnaturally.

  • Lethebron erases their identities, making them hollow and doomed.

The result is a family that: cannot truly live, cannot truly die, cannot remember enough to heal, cannot forget enough to be free

This is exactly the Usher energy: “animated corpses with fading minds, trapped in a house that reflects their ruin.”

The Siblings Become the Avatars of Each God

One is upheld by Necría, refusing to die. One is erased by Lethebron, fading into madness. Their final confrontation decides the fate of the house.

The House Collapses When the Balance Snaps. If Necría wins → the souls burst out, the house becomes a haunted prison.
If Lethebron wins → the house sinks, dissolves, or turns to dust.

The Player Can Influence Which God Prevails

  • helping the souls move on → Lethebron wins

  • preserving the dying family → Necría wins

  • breaking the cycle → both lose, the house is freed

Neither god is fully wrong.

  • Necría preserves—but also imprisons.

  • Lethebron releases—but by annihilating.

The family is a battlefield between:

  • memory vs. oblivion

  • clinging vs. letting go

  • unfinished life vs. unmarked death

It becomes a story where the house is not merely dying—it is being torn between two competing concepts of death.

THE EXACT CURSE

“The Curse of the Divided Death”

The family is caught in a divine tug-of-war: Necría won’t let them die. Lethebron won’t let them live or be remembered.

Manifestations of the curse:

  • Family members slowly lose memories, but not vital functions.

  • They grow pale, thin, and restless—yet remain alive far past their natural lifespan.

  • They feel the house calling them back if they try to leave.

  • They sometimes “die” briefly—but revive with less memory each time.

  • Portraits shift between clarity (Necría) and blankness (Lethebron).

  • The family name is slowly disappearing from records in the outside world.

Purpose of the curse:
The gods are fighting over the family’s ancestral soul, which was split generations ago.

NPC CONCEPTS

A. The Fading Heir (Lethebron’s Chosen)

  • Sickly, quiet, gentle

  • Barely remembers childhood

  • Rooms become unfamiliar to him

  • Sometimes speaks in the past tense without noticing

  • Has visions of blank white corridors and drowning
    Goal: acceptance of oblivion (or resisting it).

B. The Returning Sister (Necría’s Chosen)

  • Dramatic, intense, “waxen” in appearance

  • Her heart stops occasionally—but she keeps walking

  • Appears in the player’s room at night, confused

  • Knows she is dead but refuses to be done
    Goal: cling to life and force memory to remain.

C. The Housekeeper (Neutral Mortal Anchor)

  • Old servant who remembers more than he should

  • Thinks the house is “breathing”

  • Inadvertently serves both gods with his caretaking

  • Provides exposition through fragmented stories

D. The Archivist (External Contact)

  • Expert on noble genealogies

  • Has begun to notice that all records of the family are disappearing

  • Contacts the player or arrives seeking answers

HOUSE LAYOUT AS A THEOLOGICAL BATTLEGROUND

The mansion itself is the “stage” where Necría and Lethebron struggle. Each area leans toward one deity.

Lethebron’s Wings (Oblivion)

  • Empty hallways that end in blank walls

  • Rooms with no furniture

  • Staircases that lead nowhere

  • Paintings with erased faces

  • Doors that open to darkness

Gameplay effect: disorientation, lost map, puzzles involving missing elements.

Necría’s Wings (Lingering Death)

  • Locked children’s rooms filled with toys untouched for decades

  • Conservatory with overgrown, moist vegetation

  • A crypt that is warm rather than cold

  • Rooms echo with footsteps or weeping

  • Dead insects that move slightly when watched

Gameplay effect: hauntings, revenants, animated memories.

The Central Hall (The War Zone)

  • A massive portrait that flickers between complete and blank

  • A grand staircase that “shifts sides” depending on the god in ascendance

  • A central chandelier that sometimes glows like a heartbeat

The Brothers of the Spoon 

The house—now plagued, weakened, and isolated—is the perfect place for the Brothers of the Spoon to appear offering “help.”

The family is starving for:

  • memories

  • comfort

  • closure

  • identity
    Mesorthan feeds on emotional deprivation as much as physical hunger.

They may:

  • bring food to the starving family

  • care for the sick heir

  • perform “comforting” rituals

  • place enchanted spoons in rooms

Every kindness binds the house to Mesorthan.

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