Lore

The Story

Intro:

The story starts with Zdzisław Nowak, a mildly known painter with deep aspirations to Hieronymus Bosch. Driven to depression by his unrealistic aspirations and not being able to meet them, Nowak casts himself down an old stone quarry, shattering his skull on impact and nearly killing himself. Despite not being technically dead yet, he has virtually zero chances of making it out.

On impact, he falls into Purgatory, and is split into two distinct parts; Bosch, an oil "demon" potentially representing the side of Nowak that drove him to end his life and the one with aspirations to Hieronymus, being invisible to most people as he technically represents Nowak's "mind". And Nowak, a golden skeleton which seemingly just represents Nowak as he is/was, the "human" part.

Nowak does not remember anything prior to their death, however Bosch does, and lies to Nowak to trick him into finding and killing their body outside Purgatory, in the old quarry he lies in.

Bosch starts leading Nowak through Purgatory, a brutal journey to reach their goal.

Upon finding the Pitiful Corpse, Bosch immediately starts berating it with peculiar accusations, such as implication that Nowak was not above petty murder and generally seemingly wasn't the "best" person, so to say.

Bad Ending:

If you comply to Bosch and kill the Pitiful Corpse, Nowak has essentially just finished off his own suicide in some desperate attempt at ending it all.

A rushed and panicked sequence of events plays out, as the world around Nowak dissolves into a black void, Bosch melts away, and Nowak is left alone in said void.

Nowak has died, horribly at that.

Interlude:

If you do not comply with Bosch, the Pitiful Corpse "rejects death", causing Bosch to go absolutely livid and begin berating them both even more. During this sequence it is revealed that Nowak and Bosch are one and the same person, and Bosch was just trying to be finally done with it all and end their life.

Bosch then starts violently "killing" Nowak over and over again, before growing tired of trying and leaving to contemplate something.

This may be representative of the Pitiful Corpse not being able to bring itself to end its life.

After Nowak is left all alone by Bosch who has gone off to somewhere, Nowak is left wandering Purgatory without direction, before coming across a mysterious man playing a guitar named Zanguango. Nowak and Zanguango have a chat, during which Nowak comes to the realization of his and Bosch's situation and the reason for their death and disparity.

Nowak sets out to find Bosch, soon finding him alone. Bosch says that some kind of Intruders have found them, and that it's too late to do anything, that they are in grave existential danger. These Intruders are Heaven and Osman Sinnoks. (won't be discussed here as they are both individually and collectively an entire topic of their own.)

Nowak says that he doesn't care about any of that and promises himself and Bosch to overcome their inner demons that led to their death in the first place, promising inner peace.

They set out into Purgatory once more, this time the journey being much more difficult.

The place that was previously The Quarry has changed and is now The Garden. The most famous work of Nowak's idol, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, brought to a physical and hostile form, representing their inner demons of the unhealthy aspirations to Hieronymus and their looming hopelessness to match it.

But forcing their way through this hostile place that is their own mind, they come face to face with The Intruder, the final obstacle standing in the way of their inner peace.

Intruders

Heaven

Heaven is a manifestation of The Garden, whose nature is actually explained pretty closely albeit cryptically by the Gospel unlock dialogue (in fact Gospel might just be the very same part of the garden as Heaven is, considering it is made of marble and invokes the same themes).

To Nowak, Heaven is largely tied to his artistic problems, and more generally tied to the human condition, wishing that he could just be satisfied with his art and not plunge into artistic frustration and self-doubt, metaphorized with him saying he wishes he could just paint an endless grid of tiles and be happy. This however is (as would be obvious to literally any artist) is really not how that goes down and never has, and as said by the steam background description of Heaven "perhaps only with different anatomy could we experience eternal bliss" and "could you imagine a heaven that doesn't sour into a hell?" The Heaven that Nowak imagines is not a heaven at all, but a sisyphean hell (which is where the Sisyphus quote comes in).

There are also other themes (there's a lot of themes to Heaven, this thing is made of raw symbolism.) Such as the labyrinth below which might be a negative reflection of the grid of spaces, and the bridges that stretch across it and notably Heaven seemingly having taken out a chunk of one that Nowak was crossing. The body of Heaven we fight is also a cross between a human and a wolf skeleton dripping with oil. The oil is obviously meant to represent the oil paint that Nowak drew with and generally artistic themes, however the wolf skull is a bit less clear. It being an animal, unaffected by the human condition, might have some symbolic importance, as well as it being a wolf, a predator, maybe reflecting Heaven's nature at the same time. (Keep in mind that this thing is, again, made of raw symbolism, there is a whole lot of interpretation going on here).

As you might have realized, Heaven also isn't really a thing exclusive to Nowak. Almost everyone experiences the same kind of existential dread that Heaven represents at some point in their lives, and as such Heaven is a very unique manifestation of the Garden that appears the same to everyone, unaffected by individual perceptions of the Garden. Even when you defeat it it doesn't die, it just goes away, presumably to torment some other person.

Osman Sinnoks

Osman is one of, if not the largest enigmas in the lore, though we do know some things. Osman and Nowak share an "ontological relation" basically meaning they are fundamentally similar by their very being, as well as Osman coming from a differing world than Nowak. This is all to say that Osman is essentially "alternate universe Nowak", to put it simply.

Osman, just like Nowak, seeks renown. However, unlike Nowak who accepted that he doesn't need to chase fame to be happy with art, Osman seems to be hellbent on making his name known, seemingly being ready and having already done unspeakable and inhuman things in the name of this goal. Nowak is also needed for this goal apparently, but it's unknown why or how. Another similarity is existential danger. While we do not know what the vast majority of his dialogue is on about, there are potential meanings to specifically the phrases "beast machine" and "mortal horizon."

"Beast Machine" may refer to the philosophy that humans are nothing more than soulless meat automatons (As seen in this Anil Seth video Here) And the phrase "Mortal Horizon" may refer to the idea that we cannot truly perceive the world, and simply interpret it to the best of our minds ability based on a small trickle of incoming stimuli. The tooltip of the ability "none of this was ever real." seems to support this. It is also worth noting that the Beast Machine is an actual thing rather than strictly a thought in the world of Brutal Orchestra, though this has only been teased and we don't know what it is.

During the Osman fight it is also important to take note of the background. The oily blackness dominating the scene is the same as the one encompassing Nowak's Corpse, representing death and the border of Nowak's own little world he will never leave.

The scene between the blackness is potentially a glimpse into Osman's very own manifestation of the Garden. The phase one scene is potentially where he died, akin to The Quarry where Nowak died, and the second phase scene is likely of similar nature of the infinite pooling oil and marble hands that Nowak sees in his own garden. The reason why it looks like guts may be due to Osmans relation to Francis Bacon, just like Nowak has relations to Hieronymus Bosch. A common staple of Bacon's work is gore, and notably screaming gaping mouths similar to the one seen in the background (apparently called Ghola Gorealis (no we don't know what it means)), his garden resembling Bacon's works in the same fashion as Nowak's Garden resembling works of Hieronymus Bosch.

The reason we could see a glimpse into Osman's garden may be due to Nowak and Osman's fundamental similarities, having similar mindsets/problems/whatever makes this possible, analogous to understanding how someone else feels/thinks.

Keep in mind however that as stated at the beginning while a lot of this might be correct, a lot of this is still theory building since Osman is such a mysterious figure, do not let this discourage to potentially make your own interpretations.

True Ending:

Overcoming the Intruder, the true ending ensues.

The Pitiful Corpse gets up, mere minutes away from death. Rather than slumping back down into hopelessness, it begins painting with its own blood on the walls of the Quarry, abandoning their need for the renown of their idol to be happy, and are instead simply content with drawing. They paint the Brutal Orchestra, their own journey through a personal purgatory and ultimate symbol of their inner peace, not feeling the need to make a perfect artwork of renown but simply needing that it be real, if only for a moment.

Nowak dies all the same but having become actually content with themselves and in peace.

The World

This section focuses on the world of Brutal Orchestra.

Nowak's World:

The world from which Nowak comes from is extremely similar to ours, being around 98% the same as ours. The remaining 2% is for creative wiggle room. Its time period is around the end of WW2, which is why you see so many War related items in shops. It is unknown what role, if any, Nowak played during the war.

Purgatory:

Can you imagine it? The countless other worlds that intersect with this place? So many lives, so much love, beauty, and loss that all dumps down into this Purgatory. And now, in the dark, we feel their endless echo of death. - Swallow the Sea Steam background.

Purgatory won't just eat you alive, it will take you apart and put you back together like the doll of a disturbed child. You'll be shown sights and sounds through organs you thought impossible. You'll lose your sense of self and pray to strange, uncaring gods. You'll lose sight of what it ever even meant to be human. - Egg of Incubus steam background.

Purgatory is unsurprisingly a place where things go when they die. However it has a lot of strange properties, one of which being that Purgatory is a place where all things from all worlds go to die, not just Nowak's, it's a similar state to Xen from Half Life, where most of it's Fauna is not actually native to Purgatory, and are instead just beings that died from other worlds, with a few exceptions.

As confirmed by Talia, these are all of the major "worlds".

Nowak’s World:

Characters like Anton, Bimini, Clive, Dimitri, Hickory, Roids etc are from here.

Swallow the Sea World:

Mung, Goa, Wringles, Ouroboros, Voboola, Inner Children, LongLiver.

Devour World:

Flarbs, Mordrake, Gizo, Keko.

Mega Fauna World:

Revola, Scrungie, SmoothSkin, Ungod, Pearl.

Charcarrion World:

Charcarrion

Smokestacks World:

SmokeStacks, Fogs

Bronzo World:

Bronzo, Bananas

Osman World:

Osman Sinnoks

Native Purgatory:

Despite most things coming from outside Purgatory, there's a few entities which seem to be native specifically to it, those being:

The Demons, the one inside Charcarrion, and the Incubus, the father of the Heir. There are other Demons as well but those are the only two we know anything about

The Garden entities, and the Garden as a whole are a fully native Purgatory thing, safe to say that Heaven is the same.

Arguably Jumbleguts and Spoggles since while they may originate not from Purgatory sources they only can exist in Purgatory.

And then there are a bunch of stray treasures from other worlds.

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Far Shore:

The first area encounter during the game. The Far Shore, as the name implies, is a large shore around an ocean called the "Maelstrom" (you can see the Maelstrom in the background during the Mobius boss fight).

The Far shore is where most humanoids decide to rot in, seen by the large number of NPC's you encounter there. This is most likely due to the fact that compared to the Orpheum, The Far Shore is relatively peaceful.

The "sand" in the far shore is actually people, just reduced to sand by erosion, while the various "rocks" you see are some kind of living stones.

These rocks shape themselves into what nearby things are roughly thinking about, which results in mostly skulls/bones from the various thoughts of death they receive. This is why far away rocks in combat are more abstract, as they are in a more relaxed state because there isn't much nearby. The funky cacti are a feedback loop that stuck; someone began to think about cacti a long time ago, causing the rocks to become cacti which causes people to see that and keep thinking about cacti. The process is now infinite and is nigh impossible to stop.

The water of The Maelstrom is said to be “goopy.” The exact consistency of the water is variable, at the surface level it is similar to that of watered-down maple syrup, but it gets thicker the deeper you go.

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Orpheum:

The second area the player encounters; a constantly raining, mountainous area. It is mostly influenced by an enormous being called the Ungod: it causes the rain and clouds to form and causes the tumors to grow on Music Men, though this wasn't always the case.

Before the Ungod showed up, "Humans" attempted to build some kind of society underground, resulting in a settlement called "Tunnel City". Unfortunately, the City collapsed when the Ungod arrived in the Orpheum. It is unknown how recent the Ungod’s advent was, although Mobius was in Purgatory before it occurred.

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The Quarry:

The game's final area during easy mode. The Quarry doesn't contain any enemies whatsoever apart from This Pitiful Corpse as a "final" "boss". The Quarry is an old stone mine which was used to source materials to build a church in Nowak's home town, and in which Nowak jumped into and died in. It is worthy to note that this area may just be an another form of The Garden, as at this point during nowaks journey his main existential problem was killing himself/his own death, and self-acceptance and beating his aspirations only came after.

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Garden:

The third and final area the player encounters.

In-game, the Garden appears as a vast landscape made of black oil and speckled with large marble hands facing the horizon.

The Garden is, in a literal sense, the painting by Hieronymus Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights", albeit it has been around for an incredibly long time and the oil paint it was made with has decayed into black sludge, the human inhabitants depicted have devolved into sex-obsessed beasts, and the demons run rampant although unchanged. This is, however, deceptive to what it actually is.

The Garden (or whatever its true name is, if it even has one) can be thought of as one's own mind, the deepest reaches of it, fears and aspirations. It appears completely different to everyone, and takes form based on their minds. In a way, the Garden is a purgatory, a place which manifests your demons into a personalized hell.

In Nowak's case, it manifests in having to overcome great challenges to achieve inner peace.

Miscellaneous

• Not everything dies the same way. Stuff from Earth can't heal or reproduce in Purgatory. Stuff from Swallow the Sea grows much bigger. Stuff from Devour is pretty much unaffected. Death is a weird and unfair thing.
• For example, as can be seen, Humans very often arrive as skeletons into Purgatory, but even then the unfairness can be seen here, as some humans are "lucky" enough to fall in with their flesh left, like Roids. In the end it doesn't really matter, as eventually it would just degrade and fall off, unless they find a mean to keep it around.
• The objects from the real world you see in the game, Items, the clothes people are wearing, etc, aren't actually from the "real" world. Talia sees them as sort of being like platonic objects. The ideal form of trash item is a joke about this.
• The landscape of most of Purgatory is unique in that it doesn't seem to be entirely natural, rather instead being made of countless eons worth of dead things falling into Purgatory, decaying, and building upwards. The sand in the Far Shore is in actuality ground up bones reduced to fine grains by constant wear and tear of living beings, the Orpheum's slate is even more ancient dead things which have congealed and hardened into rock, and there is implication of even deeper layers which are also made of dead things. Even the water of The Maelstrom seems to be bodily fluids seeped out from corpses, as it has a bizarre syrupy consistency. From this, it can be assumed that The Garden is the ACTUAL Purgatory, and everything else is just a heap of corpses elevating everything away from it.