Much of the castle is old and hasn't been tended to for centuries. When the shadow arrives, it won't take long until things start falling apart.
”
Alexander speaking with Daniel about reinforcing the castle.
The Archives is a section of Brennenburg Castle accessed from the Entrance Hall. Daniel's main objective in the Archives is to find the key to the Wine Cellar.
The Archives is the area of Brennenburg Castle used to store books and writings of all sorts. Because of the supposedly rare and fragile nature of the works stored here, there are very few light sources around. This is to keep the books from taking damage. As such, this area is a very dark and gloomy part of the castle. Other than the few windows in the area's gallery which let in the dim moonlight, the Archives are almost completely shrouded in darkness. On the other hand, a large amount of tinderboxes can be found in the various rooms in the Archives, as well as the first three entries of Daniel's diary; that when found, will cause Daniel to black out and experience a very vivid flashback about his first encounter with the Orb.
The rooms in the Archives are labelled with large wooden signs, spelling out the purpose of each room in Latin. The areas include one room for the storage of rare books, one room for catalogues, a study, a room for ancient tomes, a room for storing maps, a large window gallery, the local history room, a "layout room," and the hidden small study room where the key to the Wine Cellar can be found. While exploring the rooms, unsettling noises can be heard, such as a piano playing and the whimpering of a Brute (although none will be encountered in this area). If the player were to hurry to the piano to investigate the music coming from it, it would cease making noise.
Layout[]
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Light sources[]
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There are 24 Candles, 0 Torches, 13 Lamps and 0 Fires.
Flashbacks[]
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1. Triggers in "Floor Plans" room when go between two shelves and near maps of "East Wing" and "Western Wings".
2. Triggers in "Local History" room with book puzzle as soon as you crawled through hole.
Walkthrough[]
"Do you see, Daniel? A whole other world – isn't it beautiful?"
In the first room on the right, labeled "Rare Books," the first of Daniel's diary entries is found on a table.
In the room across the hall, labeled "Catalogues," there is a tinderbox in the top drawer of the desk. There is a note on the bookshelf to the left.
Exiting through the other, ajar door, there is another room on the other side of the hallway, labeled "Study." Another diary entry is on a desk. The middle drawer of this desk contains a tinderbox.
The other door leads to a new hallway, with a room labeled "Old Tomes" in front of you. To the right is a small chest containing a tinderbox and an oil potion. Near it is a stove, which has a tinderbox inside.
Return to the hallway and turn right. You will find the door to a room labeled "Local History" locked. Turning right will take you to a gallery. At the far end to your left is a fireplace. A tinderbox rests on its mantle to the left.
Continuing through the doorway to the left, there is an oil potion on the table near the windows on the right.
To the left, there is a short hallway. In the room on the right, labeled "Floor Plans," there is a tinderbox on the first set of shelves to the left. At the other end of the room by the boarded-up window, there is a small chest containing two tinderboxes and an oil potion.
In the opposite room, labeled "Maps," there is a desk with a tinderbox in the top drawer and a third diary entry on it. Picking up the diary entry triggers an interactive flashback of Daniel discovering an Orb in Algeria.
You may have noticed the weak wall in this area. Throw an object, such as one of the rocks in the map room, at the wall to break it. The resulting hole leads to the Local History room from earlier.
Going near this wall or the map room door will cause the ceiling to collapse back where you entered the area.
In the flashback, Alexander points out a clicking sound. When you pull on one of sliding books (which look different from all the real books), you will hear this same sound. Find and pull all three before the clicking stops to open a secret door.
There is an oil potion on a bookshelf to the right of the locked door.
At the far end of the room, there are three display cases. The middle one has a note in it. Break the glass with a crate or book to get the note.
The Wine Cellar Key is on the desk in the secret room. A note is in the top drawer of the desk.
When you pick up the key, you will hear something forcing open the locked door to the Local History room.
Taking a left and heading back to the gallery, you will see a Servant Grunt walking away ahead of you. This first encounter is not dangerous; it will not notice you, and will disappear shortly after passing through the doorway.
Going all the way back to where the ceiling collapsed behind you earlier will spawn a Grunt directly behind you if you approach the rubble. However, this is a hallucination, so it cannot hurt you.
Technically, both possible Grunts that can appear in this level are hallucinations, so they are harmless.
In the "Catalogues" room to your immediate left, a tinderbox can be found in a desk.(15)
In the study, where a part of Daniel's diary can be found, a tinderbox can be found in the desk.(16)
Two tinderboxes can be found in the "Old Tomes" section of the library. One is in a chest with an oil container, and another is in a small fireplace.(17 & 18)
On top of the fireplace at the far end of the window gallery.(19)
Three tinderboxes can be found in the "Floor Plans" room. One on a shelf, and two in a chest at the far end of the room.(20, 21 & 22)
In the "Maps" section of library, where another part of Daniel's diary lies.(23)
An oil container can be found in the "Old Tomes" section of the Archives.
Another oil container can be found on a table at the part of the Archives furthest away from the entrance. It's close to a piano.
One oil container can be found in the "Floor Plans" section of the Archives.
One final oil container can be found in a corner of the room where you have to pull the books to open the door to the room where you get the Wine Cellar key.
Daniel's Diary - Algeria – Found in three parts: one on the table in the "Rare Books" section of the Archives; another is found on the desk in the "Study" room; and a third is found in the "Maps" section. The third of these is an interactive one.
Wilhelm's Contract – Found in a bookshelf in the Catalogues room in the Archives.
Local Folklore – Found on display in the Archives' Local History room. You'll have to break the display to get it.
The hidden room in Archives where the Wine Cellar key can be found
Early in the game's development, the Archives were originally planned to be much larger, featuring two additional sections: an "abandoned" section containing a page of the Historian's Diary and a "storage" section that would include hearing the historian scream (likely intended to be a hallucination) just before encountering a "Paper Storage" room infested with Spiders. After going through this "spider lair", Daniel would find the Hollow Needle in a "Pen Storage" room. These areas were scrapped in the final game; they appear to have been repurposed as the Old Archives and the Cellar Archives, the latter being where one finds the Hollow Needle in the final version of the game.[1]
Instead of finding the Lantern in the "abandoned" section of the Archives that became the Old Archives, it was found inside the secret room where the Wine Cellar Key is found in the final game.
It is unknown what the Hollow Needle would have been used for.
There would have been three additional Historian diary entries found in the main area of the Archives.
A spiderweb was where the cave-in occurs, blocking the way to the storage section. The player was required to use the Pot of Acid to dissolve it. The web later became the flesh blocking the way to the Refinery in the Entrance Hall.
There is a Grunt that is set to spawn if the player somehow goes through the other doorway (the one that the usual Grunt goes into), which would have walked through the doorway that the player usually comes out of. Presumably, this would have been possible if the player takes an alternate route through the Study, though this is impossible in the final version of the level due to the door to the Study being locked after picking up the Wine Cellar Key.
The original layout of the level shows that formerly, the wall separating Catalogues and Rare Books from the Study and Old Tomes rooms did not exist. Therefore, it was possible to enter the gallery through either doorway after leaving the Local History room.
At certain times in the area, a piano will play an eerie tune. If the player has closed the lid on the piano before it started to play, it will be open again when revisiting after the music has stopped. This might be reference to the film The Others.
The hallucination of the Grunt that appears when Daniel goes back to the cave-in is perhaps put in as some sort of "punishment" for not going straight in the same direction the first Grunt went and instead going the complete opposite way.
Even though the hole in the wall states that it is "fragile, but not breakable by hand," it can still be broken by rapidly clicking the weakened area. Whether this is a glitch or intended is unknown.
Gallery[]
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