The Narrator

The Narrator, as seen in the mirror

**The Narrator** is a major character in the game Slay the Princess. He acts in the role of guide to the Player, as well as the person who describes what happens as a result of their choices and actions.

## Description

The Narrator is a disembodied voice meant to guide and advise the Player, and to provide truthful details of the events as they occur. The Narrator can sound neutral at times and generally acts helpful, but if questioned or confronted by the Player and the Voices, He can become irritated and sarcastic. The Narrator is adamant that the Player kills the Princess no matter what, and at worst will physically force the Player to do it, regardless of the Player's opinions on the matter.

As the chapters progress, unlike the Player, He will claim not to remember meeting in the first chapter, nor the events that had occurred. However, through dialogue between the Player and the Princess, the Narrator will eventually realize that the time loops are true, as the Player and Voices say. In certain routes, such as The Prisoner (likely due to the entity behind the Princess being ready to awaken), the Narrator will finally admit that He knows more than He is telling, considering that the Player getting a second chance are a "contingency" if they failed to kill the Princess in Chapter 1. The Narrator further states that the Player was kept purposely "in the dark for as long as [he] could keep [them] there," as it was "important. Necessary, even." He ends by stating that He wanted to be "the first version of [him] that [the Player] met," and "didn't want to be confronted by the alternative." The Narrator admits that this was "pathetic" of Him, but refuses to reveal too much to the Player, insisting it will make their "mind swim into dangerous waters" and that they must continue on with their mission in ignorance.

In contrast, when the Player asks about the mirror that appears inside the Cabin in the subsequent chapters, the Narrator will refuse to believe that it exists.

## The Echo

  **Warning!** This section contains spoilers.

After the final route is completed, the Princess is taken by a multitude of hands, and the voice of the Narrator fades. The Player is once again placed before the mirror within a swirling abyss, which in previous routes showed the Player's reflection. This time, however, there is no reflection. The voice of the Narrator returns, and the Player can see the Narrator's true form: a crow-like creature, reflected in the mirror's glass before the mirror shatters of its own accord. Still, the Narrator's form is visible in every shard of the mirror and can still speak with the Player. He reveals that he is an "echo" of a being, "a dead man," that had not only crafted the entity behind the Princess, the Shifting Mound, but also the Player themselves. The Player's true form is "The Long Quiet, a god meant to "rid the world of death," "with all the power" necessary to kill the Shifting Mound. This being had tried to use the Echo in order to keep the Player and the Shifting Mound trapped in a never-ending loop of realities, preventing them from escaping or remembering their true selves until the Princess was finally destroyed. Each time the Player "died," he and the Princess were simply moved to a new "world" to start the process over again. However, the "construct" holding them will no longer work, due to the Player beginning to recover their true self.

The Player may ask the Echo several questions, but each time this occurs, a fragment of the shattered mirror vanishes; this is essentially a time limit to question the Echo before it disappears forever. As the fragments get down to the final pieces, the Echo implores the Player, no matter what, to kill the Shifting Mound, so that she will not destroy everything, stating that all the people who will die because of her are "real" in all worlds. It is implied by the Shifting Mound that the Echo's original self, the being that created them, wanted her gone out of fear of death, what the Shifting Mound was capable of.

## Gallery

The Good Ending by the NarratorThe Evidence written by the NarratorThe Echo seen in the shattered mirror