????

## Friendship Bonuses

**Hermaeus Faradouchi** is a character in *Gleaner Heights*.

Hermaeus was a resident of Gleaner Heights some decades before the Main Character moved in. He is one of the key figures in the events that shaped the fate of Gleaner Heights.

## Appearance

Hermaeus has black, parted hair and a small moustache. He is wearing a black suit. His complexion appears quite pale.

## Personality

Hermaeus was ambitious and single-minded. Trying to uphold his family's legacy, he set his mind in continuing the research of his ancestors. His goal was to contact the otherworldly being that resides underneath Gleaner Heights, unlock impossible knowledge and possibly transcend human consciousness. In his pride, however, Hermaeus failed to see the dangers that such ventures entail.

## History

Hermaeus Faradouchi was the descendant of a wealthy family. Apparently his ancestors had formed (or participated in) a cult devoted to the study of the occult and obscure arcana. A particular ancestor of Hermaeus, Anselmo Faradouchi, was the Governor of the first settlement in Gleaner Heights. The settlement was built on top of the ruins belonging to a civilization who worshipped ancient, alien beings, and possibly the subject of their worship was the reason of their downfall and eventual extinction.

It is not known if the Faradouchis were meddling with the supernatural before that, or Anselmo was the first one to come into contact with it. In any case, such contact proved to be too destructive for the human mind, and the Faradouchi family descended into madness. In a desperate attempt to save whatever was left, Anselmo tried to cut off any contact with the Dreamer by hiding the Mysterious Stone, an artifact which facilitates communication with such entities (and probably originates from their own plane of existence), in Egypt.

Many years later, however, Hermaeus discovered the location of the Stone and obtained it. Hermaeus was married to a woman called Francesca, and they were expecting a child. However, by using the Stone and making contact with the otherworldly entity, in the dark lake below the town's summit, Hermaeus too began descending into madness. Being impossible to comprehend the will of the Dreamer, and posessed by the raging spirits that flow from the dark lake, he ended up going completely insane, murdering his own wife while in their house. He didn't harm, however, their newborn baby. In a moment of clarity, possibly due to the emotional stress of struggling not to kill the baby, or due to him having just killed his own wife, or both, he decided to contain his madness, and by extent the influence of the Dreamer to other innocents, by collapsing the entrance to the dark lake and then immurring himself in the villa cellar. All he took with him was a painting depicting his wife.

By sacrificing himself, Hermaeus managed to contain the influence of the Dreamer for a time, until Tobias' and Denny's exploits inadvertently restored the entity's connection with the rest of the world.

In the present, the ghost of Hermaeus visits the player on the third night of the game.

## Events

Late at night someone knocks on the player's door. He comes in and looks around, asking for water.

## Trivia

* Hermaeus' first name is possibly a reference to Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of knowledge in the videogame The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. In that game, Hermaeus Mora's form bears a strong resemblance to a Lovecraftian entity.
* Hermaeus was also the name of an ancient Indo-Greek King.
* Mr. Faradouchi is the name of a Mafia Don in the videogame Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis. He can be added as a contact and offers services to the player but he is never seen in the game.
* The last sentence in Hermaeus' journal is *"In pace requiescat"*. It is Latin for *"May he/she rest in peace"*. This is also the last sentence in Edgar Allan Poe's short story The cask of Amontillado, in which a person is buried alive within the walls of their own cellar.
* If the player breaks the top wall of the villa's cellar with the hammer, they will enter Hermaeus' final place, where his dessicated remains, a few bricks and masonry tools and a painting of Francesca are. Acid drips from the portrait's eyes and has dug a hole in the floor, disappearing below.
* Geographically, the acid pool that the player discovers in the game is directly below the room with that portrait. The acidic "tears" of Francesca are the reason players can gain access to the Villa in the first place.
* If the player discovers Hermaeus' resting place, a possible main Menu background is unlocked. In it, Hermaeus is shown inside that place, possibly still alive. His wife's painting looks normal.
* When visiting the player, Hermaeus' ghost asks for a glass of water, stating he is very thirsty, which makes sense in a morbid way, considering he probably died of dehydration during his self-entombment.
* It is implied that the Theater Man may be the surviving child of Hermaeus and Francesca, due to his extensive knowledge of the family's history and his unnatural knowledge of past events, locations, and the townsfolk lives and secrets, as well as his seemingly magical abilities when performing on stage. These weird characteristics may be a byproduct of coming in contact with the Otherworldly as an infant, possibly through a posessed Hermaeus, however the Theater Man has a generally neutral disposition towards the player, no matter their choices.
* Along with the Main Character (if the player reaches the dark lake with enough sins and chooses accordingly) and his ancestor Anselmo, Hermaeus is the only other person able to resist the Dreamer's influence, even temporarily.