Lila

> A haze, composed of many human minds intersecting. A construction of thoughts of many hosts. ...composed by an intersection of many rays of attention.
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**Overview** Dialogue Gallery

## Lila

### Aliases

The nocturnal queen (by herself)
Princess (by Strupnev)

### Affiliation

The Lawrence Fraternity (figure of worship)

### Status

Active (possessing William's body)

**Lila** is the main antagonist and main playable character of *Who's Lila?*. Who she is and what she is are the central mysteries of the game that the player must try to solve.

The game presents itself as though William Clarke is the main playable character, but it is revealed fairly early on that Lila, who is inhabiting William's body, is in fact the main controllable character.

## Appearance

Lila is self-described as a "more beautiful" version of Tanya Kennedy. Upon first glance they appear very similar, only being told apart by subtle differences in their hair and face. This visual similarity causes much distress and confusion for William once he meets Tanya.

In most of her appearances, Lila appears completely humanoid. However, there are a few instances where she appears in a less corporeal form. During the extended flashback that takes place in the Hospital, William and Lila can be seen having a conversation, in which Lila's appearance gradually becomes more abstract. In the first scene, she appears normal. In the second, she becomes somewhat ghostly, appearing see-through, and wispy. In the final scene, she has become completely abstract, appearing as a shining disc with the image of her face.

## Personality

As an entity who thrives off of the attention given to her by humans, she is incredibly narcissistic and manipulative, doing whatever she deems necessary in order to continue feeding off of attention.

Lila is also shown to be very intelligent and philosophical, which she displays during her conversations with William and Detective Yu. She often uses this to her advantage, posing complex philosophical questions in order to disarm and confuse whoever she is talking to.

On the whole, she seems to despise humanity and easily becomes jealous, of William for the friend group he formed, and of Tanya for sharing a similar appearance and catching William's attention. She hates Tanya for these reasons, but also despises Martha Jennings for reasons that are not entirely clear, going so far as to make it her main mission to murder her.

## Backstory

### Origins

Throughout the game, many possibilities of what Lila is are presented to the player, some being explicitly named by her during a conversation with Detective Yu about the High Priestess (a tulpa formed from Will's tormented psyche, the vengeful spirit of Tanya, a US government experiment, a metaphor for mental abuse). None of them however are explicitly confirmed to be correct in-game. During their discussion of the Hierophant card, Detective Yu gives perhaps the most informative description of Lila's nature: "...a haze, composed of many human minds intersecting. A construction of thoughts of many hosts. ...composed by an intersection of many rays of attention."

Regardless of her exact nature and origins, she came to be the main idol that was worshiped by the Lawrence Fraternity. They set up a farm in order to have a steady supply of animal sacrifices to give her and regularly used yantras and hallucinogenic mushrooms in order to communicate with her.

### Relationship with William

At some point, William began getting closer to Father Lawrence and began communicating to Lila as well. He seemed to form a strong bond with her over a short period of time, and talked with her a lot more regularly than the other members of the fraternity. He also ended up writing her name in his journal despite Lawrence's warning not to do so.

On November 12, Lila told William to stay home and not attending the Fraternity meeting for that day, sparing his life from the fire that destroyed Lawrence's apartment and wiped out nearly every other member of the Fraternity. This left him as one of her only hosts, besides Strupnev.

The next day, William learned of the fire and quickly realized what Lila had done. Disgusted with her actions, he locked her out of his mind (by metaphorically removing her reel from his projector and throwing it down a pit, seen in the Tower ending), allowing him to forget about her for a time.

The memory of Lila began to reawaken on the night of November 20, when William attended a party at Matt Hurley's house and met Tanya Kennedy for the first time, whose strikingly similar appearance to Lila made William remember her.

Lila seemed to take full control of William's body on the day that he and Tanya went to her house to talk in bed together (seen in The Lovers ending). Now able to do whatever she pleased, she took Tanya to William's apartment and murdered her in the kitchen. Her body was then dismembered and gradually disposed of in the trash dumpster of William's Apartment. This is the point at which the game's story begins and we, the player, take control of Lila, piloting William's body.

## Plot

Lila's actions and fate depend on what choices the player makes throughout the gameplay. Regardless of their actions though, Lila always remains in control of William's body, seemingly with no chance for him to ever regain control. She has trouble with making proper, natural facial expressions and has to make conscious effort to move her facial muscles. She therefore practices expressions in the mirror each day and uses a note as reference.

Lila sometimes encounters other entities that are similar to her or know of her true identity. These include Detective Yu, Mr. Frank, The Empress, and the Waitress, all of whom refer to Lila by name when speaking to her.

After getting any ending that takes place in the police station for the first time, Detective Yu appears and invites Lila to discuss things with him in his office. From that point forward, a special save can be loaded where Lila and Yu can discuss the various endings of the game by means of Tarot cards. Here, significant information about Lila's personality and true nature can be revealed, and is also where the game's climax takes place.

During Lila and Yu's discussion of the Hierophant card, Yu is tricked into thinking that shooting at her (and as a result killing William) will cause Lila to stop existing. However, regardless of whether he decides to shoot or spare William, it is revealed that she would still exist even without William as a host, or any hosts at all for that matter. Lila then tells Yu (but not *you*, the player) another secret about what she truly is. Whatever this horrible truth is terrifies Yu, who calls it "the most vile and the last trick of them all".

## Trivia

* Lila and Tanya are the only characters whose faces were not generated by AI. A woman named Veronica provided her likeness for the characters, as revealed in the game's credits.