12.

20 10:08 PM
Here we go. The full story/timeline of Rusty Lake, based on accepted events and a
few theories I’ve gathered from this subreddit. This is my interpretation, and I’m
sure I got something wrong, so feel free to contest or add anything in comments.
Literally all of the spoilers ahead. This probably isn’t something you should read
if you haven’t played the games, although you’re certainly welcome to try. This is
more of a way of making sense of all the events that occur, and is probably easier
to understand with more context.

FIRST EDIT: Added theory of Caroline fusing with Jakob to form Mr. Owl, as well as
altered the elevator timeline to place Birthday and Theatre after The Cave and
Paradox.

Important Characters:

Caroline Eilander: The original creator of the elixir

Jakob Eilander: Caroline’s son

Aldous and William Vanderboom: Alchemists, brothers

Harvey: Parrot

Laura Vanderboom: “The Woman”

Dale Vandermeer: Detective

Important terms/Locations:

Rusty Lake (The Lake): Likely located in the Netherlands, causes lots of weird
stuff to happen

Paradise Island: Island in the center of the Lake, location of Rusty Lake Hotel

Vanderboom House: Located at the Lake, sits atop the cave of Caroline’s research

The Elixir of Life and Death (The Elixir): Immortality juice, originally created by
Caroline

Pair: Required for the elixir, two living things drink the elixir, one dies and one
ascends

Corrupted Soul: Black eyeless creature, produced occasionally when someone dies

Hybrid: Human with an animal head and features, referred to as Mr./Ms. [Animal],
semi-immortal

Black Cube: Represents bad memories

White Cube: Represents good memories.

Blue Cube: Allows one to change the past

1700s:

Caroline Eilander and her husband, Nicholas, live on Paradise Island with Nicholas’
mother, Margaret, his brother, Gerard, and the couple’s three children: Elizabeth,
David, and Jakob. Caroline is an alchemist and develops the recipe for the elixir,
using the Lake as a basis. However, her family wishes to maintain Paradise Island
through a ritual that requires a human sacrifice. They wish to sacrifice Jakob, but
Caroline, loving her first-born son, sends him away on a boat. The family
sacrifices Caroline instead.

Caroline’s death causes the island to be cursed by the ten Biblical plagues.
Nicholas writes a letter to his son, luring him back to the island to eliminate the
plagues and sacrifice him. Jakob, seemingly unaware of his family’s intentions,
returns and cures each plague. He lowers a black cube into the lake for each
plague, thus assembling the ingredients for his mother’s recipe.

For the final plague (Death of the Firstborn), aware of his fate somewhat, he
descends into the Lake to prepare for the ritual. He speaks to his mother’s
Corrupted Soul and retrieves five animal masks for his family: A rabbit for his
brother, a pheasant for his sister, a pigeon for his grandmother, a boar for his
uncle, and a deer for his father (the leader). They burn him in a giant wooden owl
in the Lake. The Lake accepts him and he and his mother become the first Pair. He
is reborn as Mr. Owl, the first Hybrid. His family, through the ritual, become
Hybrids with the animal masks. Caroline’s fate is unknown, although it is possible
that her Soul fuses with Jakob to become Mr. Owl. The Rusty Lake Hotel manifests
itself on the island, presided by Mr. Owl.

1800s:

Aldous and William Vanderboom find Caroline’s research beneath the Lake. They
synthesize the elixir, using a black egg as the main ingredient. Aldous, having
already made a plan with Mr. Owl, tells his brother to drink first. The elixir
kills William and produces a seed. Aldous drinks and becomes Mr. Crow, completing
the second Pair. He takes the seed, proclaiming that it contains the future of
Rusty Lake. He then leaves to assist Mr. Owl. William becomes a Corrupted Soul.

Aldous sends the seed to James Vanderboom, William’s nephew (it is unknown whether
James is Aldous’ son). James goes to live alone in the Vanderboom House, planting
the seed in the yard. He also discovers his uncle’s body. He marries his
girlfriend, Mary and they have triplets: Samuel, Emma, and Albert. James discovers
Caroline’s and his family’s research and recreates the elixir. He becomes a pair
with his dog, who becomes immortal while he dies.

Samuel and Emma, while playing, cause Albert to become disfigured, giving him a
lifelong resentment of his siblings. He wears masks throughout his life as an
adult. Mr. Crow appears briefly, implying that he continues to manipulate the lives
of his family, a necessary sacrifice. As an adult, a flower impregnates Emma. She
gives birth to a son, Frank.

In a currently unexplained tangent, Vincent Van Gogh has an experience in his

bedroom in Arles. He encounters his Corrupted Soul and kills it.

Samuel meets Ida, a fortune teller who he falls in love with. Albert, still bearing
resentment towards his family, causes his nephew, Frank, to fall down a well. Emma,
searching for her son, writes him a letter and gives it to Harvey, who is currently
a parrot.

At Rusty Lake Hotel, the five Eilanders (in their Hybrid forms) are summoned by Mr.
Owl to stay five nights and have five dinners. Unaware that he is Jakob, the family
accepts. The Hotel employs Mr. Crow, Mr. Toad, Mr. Bat, and Harvey, who is now a
parrot Hybrid. Over five days, Harvey (under Mr. Owl’s orders) kills each family
member, trapping their Corrupted Souls and serving them to the other guests and
finally, Mr. Owl. Mr. Deer’s skull is mounted on the wall. Mr. Rabbit’s Soul
appears somewhat different, wearing a white rabbit mask and appearing outside Mr.
Rabbit’s window before his death.
Three years later, the Corrupted Souls escape. Mr. Owl summons a beam of light from
the sky that turns Harvey into a parrot. Harvey escapes and the Corrupted Souls
enter the Lake.

Samuel and Ida marry, although Albert is secretly in love with her. They have a
son, Leonard. Emma kills herself, unable to find her son. Mr. Crow gives Albert Mr.
Deer’s skull as a mask.
1900s:

Mary dies suddenly, perhaps killed by Albert. Shortly afterward, Albert, wearing
Mr. Deer’s skull, kills Samuel and Ida with voodoo dolls. Having preserved one of
Ida’s eggs, he mixes it with his semen and a green liquid (possibly the elixir) and
artificially creates his and Ida’s daughter, Rose. Leonard goes off to war, losing
a leg in battle.

Rose, using an Ouija board, communicates with William’s Soul and learns of a
ritual, in which, using three timepieces and ten sacrifices from ten family
members, William can be resurrected. William has been collecting sacrifices since
his death, but he needs Rose’s help to complete the ritual. She agrees.

Rose finds Frank in the well and saves him. Frank confronts Albert and kills him.
Rose enlists the help of her cousins in the ritual. Leonard finds a timepiece in
the yard. Frank receives the letter from his mother and finds the second timepiece.
Rose finds the third timepiece in the graveyard.

The three meet in the cave beneath the house. The seed that James planted has
become a tree, the roots of which have permeated the room. Taking the timepieces
and the sacrifices from themselves and their family, the three cousins are
entangled in the roots. William is reincarnated as Laura Vanderboom, Rose’s
daughter. Rose appears to survive the process, but the fate of the other two
cousins are unknown.

Dale Vandermeer celebrates his ninth birthday. In the middle of the party, another
version of Mr. Rabbit (who is now the white rabbit from the mask) bursts in and
kills Dale’s family, taking the pistol that was used to kill Ms. Pheasant (his
sister) in the Hotel. By claiming this substance from a past life, he is able to
escape his past fate, and his Soul is no longer trapped with the rest of his
family. Dale becomes a detective.

1960s:

Laura Vanderboom, suffering from mental illness and seemingly trapped in a doorless
room, receives a phone call from Mr. Crow. This begins to set off visions of a
Corrupted Soul that she is unable to escape. Harvey, who is now her pet parrot,
lays a black egg. Laura attempts to eat this egg, triggering William’s memories of
the egg that killed him and worsening her mental health significantly.

Laura wins a newspaper contest, receiving a free trip to Rusty Lake Mental Health
and Fishing. She breaks up with her boyfriend, Bob Hill, and travels to the Lake,
staying in an abandoned cabin on the edge of the Lake. She takes Harvey with her.
As she fishes, she encounters a Corrupted Soul which attacks her. Harvey manages to
fend off the Corrupted Soul.