Thread by @HQunhHn18868141

When doing world quests around Fontaine, you may encounter keywords like "Narzissenkreuz Institute" or "Narzissenkreuz Ordo". You may be left confused by the quest "Narzissenkreuz Adventure". This thread may not answer all of your questions, but it may answer some of them. (1/55)

So here is a summary of Narzissenkreuz Institute (NI) lore. Disclaimer:
There is still much of Narzissenkreuz's lore to be revealed. This thread is only trying to make sense of the information given until 4.0. (So there will be some assumptions and speculation). (2/55)

Firstly, Narzissenkreuz Institute is the centre of this lore piece, and it is essentially a very special orphanage, as some of its members grew up to become important historical figures in Fontaine and its Director is a currently unnamed Oceanid. (3/55)

We shall have a run down of our characters.

There are at least 2 (and maybe 1 more) generations of Narzissenkreuz children that we know of. I will be calling it Gen1 and Gen2 for convenience sake.
Gen1 includes Basil Elton, Emanuel Guillotin, and Karl Ingold. (4/55)

Basil Elton was the Admiral of the Fontaine Armada before retiring and accepted the position of Vice Director of NI. Though, during the cataclysm she returned to her position as a naval general and pursued the great beast Elynas with her ship, the Sponsian. (5/55)

She and her ship perished during the battle with Elynas.

Because she was the then Vice Director of the NI, she was concerned for the children under her. And so, she wanted her childhood friends: Emanuel and Karl to take care of the children in case she can’t return. (6/55)

Emanuel Guillotin was a Marechaussee Hunter who grew traumatised after directing the Siege of Poisson. After the Siege of Poisson, he retired and later adopted two children with the name of Alain and Mary-Ann at the insistence of Basil. (7/55)

Karl Ingold was a reporter who delivered the negotiation demands from Eduardo Baker (a rebel) and co. to presumably the Court of Fontaine (this incident is related to the Siege of Poisson). (8/55)

In the cataclysm, he adopted Eduardo Baker’s son – Jakob – and Renault de Petrichor’s son – Rene.
During the cataclysm, he would accompany his adoptive sons, Jakob and Rene on their expedition in Sumeru’s desert. (9/55)

But before touching on Gen2, I would have to elaborate on Gen1.5. During the process of researching, I found out about one of the kids who was under Basil’s care but didn’t know the children from Gen2 prior to their meeting outside of the NI. (10/55)

His name is Carter, possibly corresponding with “Colonel Kate '' in the story of Ann’s. That is all you have to know for now. Speaking of which, the characters in the quest “The Narzissenkreuz Adventure '' correspond to real characters in NI from Gen1.5 and Gen2. (11/55)

Moving onto the first character of Gen2, we have Alain Guillotin. He corresponds with “Al” in the story. Alain was a child genius and was quickly accepted to the Institute of Natural Philosophy (IoNP). (12/55)

He seems rather cold and aloof to people who weren’t his younger sister or his friends from the NI.
His younger sister is Mary-Ann Guillotin. She corresponds with “Ann”, possibly also corresponds to “Petit Chou” and/or “Princess Lyris” in the story. (13/55)

She seems to have a pleasant personality and is, thus, loved by basically everyone. According to Carter’s account, even though Mary-Ann is the youngest among them, when she is around Alain, Rene, and Jakob, she acts like their older sister. (14/55)

It is still unclear why we meet her as an Oceanid. She might have been born an Oceanid or was turned into one (I am leaning toward the latter option).
Next up is Rene, who should correspond with “Ney” in the story. His biological father is Renault de Petrichor, (15/55)

a mayor who was killed or arrested during the Siege of Poisson. Perhaps, because of that, he has a distaste for law enforcers. In one of the Enigmatic Papers, he expressed wariness toward Emanuel Guillotin, NOTABLY for being a part of the Maison Gardiennage (16/55)

and not because he directed the Siege of Poisson (which made him an orphan in the first place). We can infer that Rene was unaware that Emanuel was the person who directed the Siege of Poisson.
We first learned of Rene with “Rene’s Investigation Note” in 3.6. (17/55)

Rene was implied to be older than Jakob. In “Rene’s Investigation Notes”, Rene said all of his teeth have come in, while Jakob only has his third tooth in (which also put them around the age range of 11 to 13 during the expedition). (18/55)

The last of our main characters is Jakob, who corresponds with “Jak” in the story. His biological father is Eduardo Baker, a notorious rebel who had been taken care of in the Siege of Poisson. He seems to have an anxious personality. (19/55)

He was mentioned to be crying or bawling in various notes and papers (which is sort of noticeable since he was usually the only person who was mentioned to be crying) and it was usually Rene who comforted him. It is said that he trusted Rene completely. (20/55)

Bonus: Seymour, corresponding to “Mori”. There could be many Seymours. The original Seymour might be a dog in Alain and Mary-Ann’s childhood. Later, Alain made a thinking machine to assist his sister, which should be the mechanical dog Seymour. (21/55)

There are also likely 1 to 2 other unknown kids who take the place of the storyteller and Princess Lyris. However, I don’t think there is sufficient information to discuss them in 4.0. There is also the theory of Lyris being the Director herself, but I disagree with it (22/55)

So that wrapped up the basic rundown of the characters. Now we move onto the timeline. I will be skipping some currently unimportant events.
1. Basil Elton retired from her position and became the Vice Director of the NI. (23/55)

2. Carter joined and graduated from the NI under Basil’s care.
3. Emanuel Guillotin directed Siege of Poisson, making Jakob and Rene orphaned. After this incident, Emanuel retired from his position as Marechaussee Hunter.
4. Jakob, Rene, Mary-Ann, and Alain joined NI. (24/55)

Note: It is unknown when exactly Mary-Ann and Alain joined NI, but they must have joined after Carter graduated.
5. The cataclysm happened. The NI got flooded. Elynas, a beast likely created by Rhinedottir, appeared and wreaked havoc in Fontaine. (25/55)

This caused Basil Elton to return to her position as a naval general to pursue and kill Elynas. The Sponsian was also repaired.
Basil entrusted the children to her friends: Rene and Jakob to Karl Ingold; Alain and Mary-Ann to Emanuel Guillotin. (26/55)

6. Rene, Jakob, and Karl went to the Sumeru’s desert for an expedition, in which Rene discovered that the composition of his body and that of Jakob’s were similar to the “sacred lotus”. By contrast, the “sacred lotus” has nothing in common with Karl’s body. (27/55)

7. In the desert, Jakob seems to have experienced something life threatening, and to save him, Rene performed a questionable procedure on Jakob against the adults’ words (it is unclear who are the adults he was referring to). (28/55)

After Rene’s procedure, Jakob didn’t need to eat anymore, but Rene still told him to eat to keep up the ruse in front of Karl. It is implied Jakob can physically transform into an Iniquitous Baptist after this procedure. (29/55)

8. Rene discovered the document left by the Khaenri’ahns and figured out the “world-formula”, which helped him calculate the end of the world. Because of this, the two boys tried to find a way to prevent the end of the world, (30/55)

which probably involves the procedure that Rene performed on Jakob and a certain “will” that is unclear at the moment (it might be related to the Abyss?). Karl, Jakob, and Rene returned to Fontaine to meet up with Alain. (31/55)

9. Basil Elton and the Sponsian perished during the battle with Elynas. Elynas himself was also killed. It is unclear whether it was Basil and her crew who managed to kill Elynas.
10. Alain enrolled in the Institute of Natural Philosophy (IoNP). (32/55)

Carter was assigned as Alain’s assistant.
11. Jakob and Rene investigated the remains of Elynas and discovered a “will'' within him.
12. Jakob consumed some of Elynas’s blood probably out of desperation and impatience without Rene’s agreement. (33/55)

13. Rene and Jakob managed to open some kinds of “passage” that is likely identical to the one the Rifthounds usually open, because Rene mentioned that Rifthounds emerged from the “passage” they created. (34/55)

14. Alain recommended Jakob and Rene to the IoNP, Jakob and Rene eventually got admitted and were assigned to Alain’s lab, which studies ousia and pneuma energy and controlled annihilation reaction. (35/55)

15. Carter was often sick and took many days off. During this time, Mary-Ann, Alain, Jakob, and Rene would visit him. During one of these visits, Jakob learned that Carter was also from NI. As Carter’s condition got worse, Jakob notified Rene. (36/55)

16. Rene and Jakob splitted from Alain and started working on their own research presumably about Elynas and other Abyssal matters.
17. Carter witnessed Alain making a major breakthrough in ousiapneuma/controlled annihilation reaction technology. (37/55)

18. Rene confirmed that Elynas’s flesh and blood have similar properties to the Scarlet Quartz (Quartz formed from the blood of Durin) and the filth in Chasm. During this time, he established a cult-like society to combat the end of the world. (38/55)

19. Carter fell ill again and Rene became even more worried. Jakob suggested to Rene that they perform on Carter the same procedure that Rene performed on Jakob when they were at the desert to save Carter’s life. (39/55)

20. After some hesitation, Rene informed Carter of this and they started the procedure.
21. This experiment/surgery could be counted as a failure. Carter deteriorated until he became something else but is still alive with somewhat functioning vocal cords. (40/55)

22. Alain broke off working relationship with Rene. He continued his research in kinematics and material science and eventually made a thinking machine in the shape of a mechanical dog (Seymour) to assist his younger sister, Mary-Ann. (41/55)

23. Alain joined the Marechaussee Hunters. Mary-Ann joined the Marechaussee Hunters before him but I still can’t determine when exactly she joined.
24. Rene (and presumably Jakob) revisited Petrichor and discovered something regarding Remuria(?) (42/55)

25. Rene and Jakob visited the Narzissenkreuz Institute (which had been drowned) and the Director. Rene realised the Narzissenkreuz Institute is an ancient building and researching it may have merits. Rene discovered something in the Institute (43/55)

Note: I have yet to comprehend his findings, so I cannot elaborate. (44/55)

26. Jakob designed the building for the Narzissenkreuz Ordo (NO) and the people in the society started building them. Rene, along with many other members of the NO, leads a certain “her”, whom I speculate to be the Director of NI, to the building. (45/55)

27. Then, Rene presumably absorbed everyone (excluding Jakob but presumably including the Director), effectively becoming a hivemind.
28. Battle inside Elynas: Jakob and Rene-hivemind vs Mary-Ann, Alain, Seymour (the mechanical dog), and presumably Emanuel and Karl. (46/55)

Many members of the Marechaussee Hunters died, Emanuel who got dissolved, Mary-Ann and Karl seemingly also got dissolved, Seymour got seriously broken and abandoned, Alain survived but seemingly gave up on fighting the NO. (47/55)

Rene-hivemind asked Alain to join their cause but he declined.
29. Alain established the Fontaine Research Institute.
30. Alain retired and did some unknown, unpublished research in his final years. (48/55)

31. Recently, Jakob tried to gather Elynas’s blood through Mamere but failed. He also tried to revive Elynas for reasons I don't understand. (49/55)

Some interesting bits that I want to mention: Carter was the one who gave Alain the idea of a thinking machine that can take pictures. Later, Alain made a thinking machine in the shape of a mechanical dog with a Kamera for a face to give to his sister. (50/55)

After the fallout with Rene and Jakob, Alain seems to have grown more impatient.
There was another child in Gen1 with the name Dwight, but his name is all we know about currently, so I did not discuss him. It is plausible that he was the Director of IoNP. (51/55)

Enigmatic Page (IV), Rene compared Alain to a villain, a serial killer of sorts, because Alain “only likes things he can figure out completely”, which is ironic in hindsight. (52/55)

At the beginning, Rene’s goal is to combat the destruction of the world, but after the failed operation with Carter, he seems to be also motivated by guilt. During the battle inside Elynas, he still wanted to create a future for Alain and Mary-Ann, who opposed him. (53/55)

There are still some questions that I am sure that we all share. For example, what happened during the “Siege of Poisson '' that made Emanuel Guillotin so traumatised? Who is Princess Lyris? Is she real? Why are Rene and Jakob’s bodies similar to the “sacred lotus”? (54/55)

Or how many kids are there in Gen2? As of version 4.0, I still can’t answer these questions, but I am looking forward to the next version where more of this plot is revealed. For now, I hope this thread has cleared some of your confusion, or at least not worsened it. (55/55)

P/S: In hindsight I should have divided it into 2 parts.

This is my first lore thread please be lenient 🥹

@fieliz_navidad They said it is not impossible, although it wouldn’t be their first thought (They also said the transliteration would be “lilisi”).
I know the name “Lilith” special, but “Lyris” also has its significance. (2/4)

@fieliz_navidad I am terrible at researching outside the game, so take this with a grain of salt, but “Lyris” is listed as one of the Oceanids in Greek Mythology, which fits the context we have.
(3/4) theoi.com/Nymphe/Okeanid…

@fieliz_navidad Anyways, what I mean is although it is possible that “Lyris” is a mistranslation, I wouldn’t declare it such just yet.

Man...I really wish that we can trust the translation team.(4/4)

@luluraemi I actually have written up a doc summarizing the Narzissenkreuz lore too. It's basically this thread but in more detail. If you interested, you can DM me, I will share it with you.