SPOILER ALERT

The beauty of Draugen is that the game gives you a lot of hints, and you have to link this clues that come most close to the truth as possible, without a final answer since all the people who could give you the answer is either dead or went away. Is like journalists do in real life when they are covering an old story or, better yet, archeologists searching for the past.

BEFORE TRYING ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS:
Let me sum up things about the town
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remeber the characters:

Johan, Frederik and Arne are brothers. (Johan and Frederik are twins, Arne is the Younger brother)
Anna is Johans wife
Ruth is daughter of Johan and Anna
Simon is son of Frederik and Margaret
Ruth and Simon, thus, are cousin.

Graavik is a small Norwegian town that discovers an ore mine and starts to prosper. This mine is managed by two brothers (Johan and Frederik). A foreign American company invest in this mine. Then, the workers found another thing in the mine: old Norse relics and coins. Frederik wants to sell the relics to the foreign company who showed interest, but Johan disagrees, perhaps because he wants to keep the relics for the rightful owners: The people of Norway.

Ruth, daughter of Johan find the relics exploring the cave with Simon, her cousin (the files we find throughout the game suggests some kind of crush between Ruth and Simon. And Anna, in her diary, says her daughter Ruth is hidding something from her, perhaps this incursions to the mine to grab relics. Remeber the box and drawnings in her room?). Frederik finds his niece Ruth exploring and taking some relics in the mine and gets angry (but not at killing point). She runs frightened, as Alice says "to the place she feels most safe" (the church) and fall off the cliff. Johan blames Simon (his nephew, son of Frederik) of killing her, this divides the town in two:

Faction 1 -> The ones who thinks Simon killed Ruth, calling Simon and Frederik "Child Killer"

Faction 2 -> The ones who think it was an accident.

I don't think the towns people knows about the relics, since Frederik killed the workers who knew by making a cave in the mine (even his and Johans younger brother, Arne was killed) so he could sell this relics to the foreign company. (Remember the accident? The tore picture in Frederiks Store? The foreign companny Letters in the safe?)

People in the town starts to fight and some commits suicide (because of the conflict, believing its a curse). And, if we follow Annas diary, is possible that a disease happened too.

Edward, at some point, say to Alice the relics and coins don't have monetary value, but can be sold to museums. We have to remember that around this time, many company was investing and financing archeological expeditions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOW, I WILL TRY ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS THE WAY I UNDERSTOOD THE GAME

1-> My guess is the same as yours about Alice. Probably the way he imagines his sister, if she had lived. The Angel (or like they say in the credits, the "Entity") must be his conflicts between science/religion. Like, even being a science dude, a part of him want to believe there is a heaven to where his sister went.

2 to 4-> Money and contracts. Most probably one of the brothers made a millionaire contract with a company for some kind of ore (gold, diamond, etc... as Alice says the mine had), but they managed to found something else: old Norse relics and coins. That is what probably made the foreign company (that want those relics) demand on one of the brother to kill the workers and, ultimately, made the brothers fight, since other people could stole these relics.

5 to 6 and 9-> The town was divided. I want to believe Ruths death was accidental. But the town was divided. Some believed one of the brothers (or better, the son of one of the brothers, Simon) killed Ruth and so on. Murder could had happened between the villagers, since they were divided into two factions. Some commited suicide.

Other possibility is sickness. Remember Anna? She got sick and stayed some days in bed as she informs in her diary (some days just before the arrival of Edward). And died some days later. And her dead body was in the bed when we enter the room.

7-> Yeah... this one I thought a little far fetched but... Ok, so, he still thinks his sister is alive, he heard the names of these people and town (Graavik) in one of his travels. So, in his delusional mind he thinks his sister is alive, covering a story there about the rumors he heard elsewhere.

He managed to contact a family there through letters (in June remember? when the village still had some people in it. There are letters in Frederik store), have a answer back and that skyrocket his delusional mind thinking his sister is there. This is probably the most close as possible to why he went to Graavik....

I didn't like either.

8 -> His mind. Delusion.

10 -> I think she call him monster because of his delusions. Alice is a part of him that knows his sister is dead. So when he dig a grave, and thanks god for the corpse not being his sister, his "good" part snap.

Alice is the part of him that knows his sister is dead telling his a monster for being relived the dead persons is not his sister and for violate another dead persons tomb.

11 -> Me too!!! How disappointing = (

12 -> The traitors were one of the two factions that divided the village. Probably the ones who believed the death of Ruth was accidental.

13 -> It's open for interpretation, but I believe the idea is about a delusional and mental sick person. No curses in my opinion, just Norse mitology mixed with a troubled mind.

14 -> What? = P

15 -> Draugen is actually the way to call the creature in Norse Folklore in that language, I guess. Not about drown. But can be a reference for both the creature and the accidents. one of the things that triggered his mental illness. Remember the Story he read for Alice in Ruths room about the Draugr?

16 -> I guess the only survivor was the priest that, as Edward guess, went far away from the village after the two factions fought. It would explain who buried the corpses.

Regarding the question 12, about the traitors: Here we have a tiny possibility that the towns people knew about the relics, and called traitors the villagers who supported Frederik in selling the relics to the foreign company. Perhaps some even suspected that he did the cave in (as we know he did, because of the letter in the safe in Frederiks farm).

I know there are some flaws in the game story, but I loved the atmosphere, the characters and specially the open to interpretation story (a lot of clues there, but no final answer).

Hope that helped somehow

Master (ninja) indeed. You almost wrote a novel. Great to read this right after finishing the game. Thank you.

Originally posted by Annenouk:

Master (ninja) indeed. You almost wrote a novel. Great to read this right after finishing the game. Thank you.

Thanks Annenouk, glad to be helpful = )

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this game.

I pretty much agree with Master Ninja, but in some cases I thought differently. Here is what I wanted to add:

Q2-4. Johan and Fredrik disagreed over what to do about the old Norse burial site they found while mining for iron ore. Johan wanted to shut down the mine and let people know. Fredrik wanted to pretend it's not there and continue mining (like his investors said in their letter to him). I don't think anyone wanted to sell the relics, they knew the legends and didn't want to be cursed.

Q5. People were dying of "tæring ?" (tubercolosis?) according to the church register... but that's not certain.

Q7. Edward likely heard the name "Graavik" uttered by the couple who settled in Boston (see their letter to Fredrik). He invented the idea his sister was a journalist on her way to Graavik. He wrote to the Ålesund police about Betty's "disappearance", they gave him Anna Fretland's name. He then wrote to Anna, repeating the tale, and she invited him over.

Q8. Nobody was ringing the bell in the church. The church was boarded up and nobody was in there. Edward needed to get himself saved by the bell, because Alice was starting to convince him to look into the villagers rather than continue his quest to find and save Betty.

Q9. The man hanged himself because he thought he, and the village, were cursed. We don't know who he is (the church registry says Sigrid Gabri??? died of suicide, hanging... but Sigrid is a woman's name)

Q13. The curse is all-encompassing. The curse killed the miners and shut down the mine. The curse caused animosity between Johan's faction and Fredrick's faction. The curse gave them bad harvests, killed their livestock and brought disease. Or at least, that's the explanation that superstitious villagers believed, to avoid introspection of their own attitudes and behaviour.

Q15. Draugen / Draugr (have you ever played Skyrim?) are vengeful ghosts/zombies who live in old Norse burial sites and attack grave robbers. They can also curse people, bring disease to villages and kill livestock. They can even just kill people with bad luck. The fate of the entire village is set by the villagers' belief in draugr, so it's an apt name for the game.

Q16. Apart from the two villagers who moved to Boston, and the visiting priest, we don't know of any other survivors. The villagers killed each other or died of disease, drowning, etc.

I'm wondering if the man hanged isn't actually Johan.
He mentionned in his letter that after settling thing with his brother, he will join Anna and Ruth by the sea.

It's just a guess, but since there isn't a trace of the twin brothers, at least I didn't found one, they either killed each other, or one killed the other and suicide himself aftewards by drowning or hanging.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Alice and Edward's next story.

Originally posted by Doc Shinpao:

I'm wondering if the man hanged isn't actually Johan.
He mentionned in his letter that after settling thing with his brother, he will join Anna and Ruth by the sea.

It's just a guess, but since there isn't a trace of the twin brothers, at least I didn't found one, they either killed each other, or one killed the other and suicide himself aftewards by drowning or hanging.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Alice and Edward's next story.

We both Doc!

@kyzer WOW, I loved the theories! Didn't imagine that way, pretty interesting theories = )

I still think there is a lot to backup the relics (deviding the people) theories though. Specially regarding Frederik and Ruth, with the hidden relics in her room.

Thank you for the replies, and sorry for the weird 14th question! Must've zoned out while typing.

But yes, there appear to be bottles of arsenic in a couple of locations. Which seemed odd. Made me wonder if it was related to the plague, if maybe it was an arsenic mine, or whatnot. Seemed very suggestive from the game developers.

Glad to see this, I have same questions, especially the mine cave, Edward found a weird pin in the cave. it's so special that the game's designers ask players to take it in the end, so it must mean something. It looks like some kind of sea monster (draugen ?) which remind me Deep Ones in Innsmouth. (I know Deep Ones looks like fish and the monster on this pin is more like an octopus, maybe we can just...ignore thisXD ) So I pretend this is a Cthulhu story. So the curse, disease, madness, mine cave, shadow behind windows, it may explain all these things. Thank you, Lovecraft.

Re the 15 - Why the game is called Draugen - I believe the developers decided to put double purpose/meaning in it. The first one was on the surface: exactly what's in the story. The villagers believed Draugen was behind illness, drowning, suicides, death; believed that they were cursed by it. The second one is a bit more subtle: the key for it is in the Ruth's book about Draugen. It describes it as a creature that can put you in a dream and if you don't wake up from it - you die; but if you do wake up - then you'll survive, but someone you love will die instead. This is exactly what happens to the main character - he can 'wake up' and return his memories, but that would also make him realize his sister is dead; i.e. such act would 'kill' her. According to Alice, it wasn't the first time he was trying to find her, but it looks like it was the first time he decided not to keep dreaming, but face the truth, 'wake up', admit his sister was dead and keep going, become alive.

Originally posted by Hexus:

Re the 15 - Why the game is called Draugen - I believe the developers decided to put double purpose/meaning in it. The first one was on the surface: exactly what's in the story. The villagers believed Draugen was behind illness, drowning, suicides, death; believed that they were cursed by it. The second one is a bit more subtle: the key for it is in the Ruth's book about Draugen. It describes it as a creature that can put you in a dream and if you don't wake up from it - you die; but if you do wake up - then you'll survive, but someone you love will die instead. This is exactly what happens to the main character - he can 'wake up' and return his memories, but that would also make him realize his sister is dead; i.e. such act would 'kill' her. According to Alice, it wasn't the first time he was trying to find her, but it looks like it was the first time he decided not to keep dreaming, but face the truth, 'wake up', admit his sister was dead and keep going, become alive.

Nice understanding! Really enjoyed the explanation.

I'm wondering if the hanged man was even really there, or just a figment of Edward's imagination. He felt guilty for the death of Elizabeth, and the hanged man could just be a symbol for what he feels should be his fate, given that feeling. It is interesting that Edward and Lissie find the hanged man straight after learning what happened to Ruth. The parallels between Ruth's death and that of Elizabeth are obvious, and learning of Ruth's fate could have stirred unpleasant memories in Edward's mind, hence the manifestation of a hanged man.

Glad to see this discussion, and Hexus you nailed it!
To Master Ninja, I would like to ask one thing about your theory: if Fredrick manages to kill the workers who made the discovery, why couldn't he at the end sell those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ artifacts? It doesn't make sense.
Finally, anyone has any idea about the very weird stomp in the mud? XD

Originally posted by Elia Scattolon:

Glad to see this discussion, and Hexus you nailed it!
To Master Ninja, I would like to ask one thing about your theory: if Fredrick manages to kill the workers who made the discovery, why couldn't he at the end sell those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ artifacts? It doesn't make sense.
Finally, anyone has any idea about the very weird stomp in the mud? XD

Sorry friend, I played a long time ago, but I remember it was very fun to try to pinpoint where the Story went with the fragmented information they give during the gameplay. I really enjoyed this game.

Originally posted by Elia Scattolon:

if Fredrick manages to kill the workers who made the discovery, why couldn't he at the end sell those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ artifacts? It doesn't make sense.

I don't believe the investors were actually interested in the artifacts. They were just afraid that such a historically significant discovery would threaten the mining operation. They wanted the chamber boarded up and everyone to keep quiet.

Frederik and Johan disagreed about what to do, and somehow Johan was forced or bribed to leave the business. A little later three workers were killed in a tragic but unrelated accident. The mine went out of business, leaving Frederik with a pile of debt.

Originally posted by Elia Scattolon:

Finally, anyone has any idea about the very weird stomp in the mud? XD

Probably just some animal. Edward was chasing crows and goats all the way down the hill.

I really wish Alice was a person and not imaginary friend. Starting to hate these tropes.