Hermit

The Hermit by the big dust-eater in the Pearl Canyon

## Biographical information

### Date of birth

Unknown, but she remarks on possibly a hundred years having passed since her breakaway from the Academy in a conversation with the player.

## Appearances

### Debut

Homestead Arcana

**Arlet Fielding**, better known as **The Hermit**, is a main character in Homestead Arcana.

She first appears after the player clears the Pearl Canyon of Miasma. She gifts a flying broom to the player, remarks on the player's promising potential, and says she will appear every 3 days at the entrance to the Miasma-covered Petrified Forest to answer the player's questions (via Chat interaction) as well as ask the player questions in return for the information.

The Hermit carries a multipurpose staff that includes measurement tools and loupes, among others, and wears a filter mask both in and outside the Miasma using a tank worn on her back with tubes connected to her mask to increase the filter's capacity.

## Life

Little is known about the Hermit besides the few factoids she drops in conversation and what is learned from journals.

The Hermit hails from South Falls, a town which has since become a ghost town. Her parents were bodyguards for traveling merchants. She mentions that she never fit in with the townsfolk.

### Arlet's Journals

As the story progresses, the player gathers 8 pages from Arlet's journals and learns more about the Hermit's relationship with Theresa Gilbert, her time at the Academy after the Theresa's transfer, and her ultimate corruption (or possible) transcendence caused by the Miasma.

### The Academy

At approximately the same age as the player's (around 1800s A.B.), the Hermit was recruited by the Academy as a Scholar and belonged to the Pearl Canyon Chapter. While at the Academy, she discovered the Fielding-Gilbert Method with fellow Scholar and friend, Theresa Gilbert.

Although the Academy's original vision was to "understand the mysteries of the Miasma" (*Academy Orientation Manual* journal), both Arlet and Theresa felt that the Academy had strayed from its vision by severely restricting independent experiments and increasing the bureaucracy for research approvals.

> *"Nowadays The Academy only has eyes for easy results, a last-ditch effort to keep the remaining Chapters from shuttering. The real questions go unwanted."* — Winter 13th, 1816 A.B. (*Arlet's Journal Page 6*)
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#### The Fielding-Gilbert Method

From journals picked up in the wild, the player learns that together with Theresa Gilbert, the Hermit co-authored the Fielding-Gilbert Method. The scar fertilizer jar discovered at Aunt Tilly's abandoned homestead utilizes this method. The description of the method is as follows:

>  *"This requires concocting a fertilizer that is poured into a Miasma scar, wherein the dust-eater burrows into the infected earth and absorb[s] the Miasma. The roots, if able to prosper, also double as a suture for the terran wound and seal the pocket from lethal Miasma bursts." —* Author Unknown (*The Fielding-Gilbert Method* journal)
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Fielding and Gilbert were writing up a report for the Academy in the Winter of 1815 A.B. on the discovery when a series of Little Rock Council executive orders led to more sanctions on the Academy's activities. The first was a ban on filtered masks, preventing safe exploration of the Miasma, and the second was a halt on all Academy experiments in Spring of 1816 A.B (*Arlet's Journal Page 1 & 2*).

### Probation, Final Trips to the Miasma, and Transformation

Soon after, Theresa's unsanctioned experiments were discovered by the Academy's leaders, the Magusi. On Summer 2nd, 1816 A.B., Mg. Agnes Bookwater of the Carver Springs Chapter issued a notice of transfer to Pearl Canyon Chapter's Mg. Sheridan Maplebark, ordering to transfer Theresa to the Hickory Bluffs Chapter and placing her on Arcanic Probation (*Academy Notice of Transfer* journal). Arlet had an opportunity to defend Theresa, but chose to stay with the Academy and later voiced regret about her decision (*Arlet's Journal Page 3*).

In the Winter of 1816 A.B., Arlet reports that she saw Theresa in the Miasma-covered Petrified Forest without a filter mask. She confirms her own suspicions that Theresa had been living in the Miasma, sparking her curiosity to understand the Miasma and its relationship with Theresa better.

> *"*[...] *Theresa was alive, living in the Miasma since her transfer. I could see her face... she wasn't even wearing a mask. That much exposure... maskless... most wouldn't last more than a few hours. I need to understand."* — (*Arlet's Journal Page 7*)
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This presumably led to Arlet's own probation, according to her last journal page, in which she writes that she was granted permission by the Academy to venture into the Miasma "amidst [her] probation." On this final trip into the Miasma, Arlet witnesses an unusual event that took place at the Forest Temple, near her prior encounter with Theresa:

> *"In an instant, everything went pink, purple then black. Every scar in the area must've burst simultaneously.*
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> *I came to with my mask unsecured... Something within me told me I didn't need it anymore. It also told me that leaving the Miasma would bring me harm.*
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> *My journey with the Academy is complete. I'm part of something bigger now.*
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> *One with the cloud. Transformed. Evolved."* — Date unknown (*Arlet's Journal Page 8*)
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## After the Academy

### Pearl Canyon Encounters

At the time of the player's first encounter with the Hermit, she recalls little about her life before the Miasma. When asked by the player how old she is, the Hermit vaguely remarks that she has lost count and that it may have been a hundred years. In their second conversation after the player has first enters the Forest, the Hermit calls herself "a scientist of sorts" and remarks that she still conducts research, although "progress has been slow as of late." She lives on a homestead in the Ancient Swamp, with her familiar as her only company.

In the only journal that can reasonably be presumed to be written by the Hermit (due to its discovery after *Arlet's* *Journal* pages), she remarks on the transformation she underwent while in the Miasma, which led to her losing touch with her identity, the sense of time, memories of people and places.

> *"I'm different now... inseparable and dependent on the Miasma. Time has abandoned me. It all bleeds.*
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>    *The person I was is just a memory... A mere acquaintance I'm losing touch with. Only a smattering of flashes remain. No people, no places... the only thing intact is my drive to explore... discover... to spread.*
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> *The single constant amid the blurred days is the cloud itself. I can feel it. Feel it when it's hungry. Feel it when it's threatened...*
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> *Fate, forever enmeshed with the Miasma. The Miasma speaks to me and I to it.*
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> *It says someone is coming to destroy it.*
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> *I cannot allow that to happen.*
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> *When it hurts, I hurt. When it's pleased, I am pleased. When it's destroyed, I will cease to be.*
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> *All become one..." —* (*Personal Diary* journal)
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While living in the Miasma, the Hermit continued perfecting her witchcraft. In a journal found next to the Ice Step Spell Recipe in the Ancient Swamp, the player learns that the Hermit has come up with a method of traveling called "void travel," which eliminates the need for using other spells to avoid creatures or impassable terrain. After each of the few interactions the player has with the Hermit, she can be seen disappearing in a purple-black cloud, possibly utilizing void travel to instantly teleport to another location.

### Arlet's Abandoned Camp in the Forest

While exploring the Petrified Forest, the player has two encounters with the Hermit. The first is near the first Miasma Scar, and the second takes place in front of an abandoned camp. When asked if the camp is hers, the Hermit confirms that she used to live here together with others, possibly fellow Scholars who also abandoned the Academy and went on to explore the Miasma independently. However, after the event recounted in the *Personal Diary* journal, Arlet woke up to find everyone else dead, while she felt "alive, more than ever."

### Swamp Encounters

Since then, Arlet relocated to the Swamp, where the next set of encounters between her and the player takes place. She also met her now familiar at the Swamp.

***WARNING:** Spoilers ahead!*

It is later discovered that the Hermit knew all along the player's intention to clear the Miasma, and she wanted to learn more about the player in an attempt to thwart their progress. The Hermit becomes the player's main antagonist, warning the player twice to turn back each time they meet in the Petrified Forest.
She is more explicit with her intentions when the player meets her at the first Swamp scar, and she threatens the player with a battle if they don't stop.
This culminates in a one-sided battle at the Dust-eater Scar in the Swamp, where the Hermit's familiar follows the player around and attempts to land attacks as the player unlocks the Dust-eater tree while avoiding attacks.

## Familiar

The Hermit sympathizes with Miasma creatures, evidenced by her comments to the player wherein she offers advice regarding familiar nutrition, gifts the player a piece of Mystery Jerky to feed to Huckleberry, and hints that the player's clearing of the Miasma is detrimental to Huckleberry's health (along with her own familiar, herself, and ultimately the natural course of life).

In a conversation outside the Forest, the Hermit mentions that her familiar is not suited for "this atmosphere" and needs water [in subtitles] or is semi-aquatic [in conversation voiceover]. There is a Hint Tablet in the Swamp that describes the creature, which is native to the Swamp and dwells in the water. The player encounters the creature as a new type of enemy while exploring the Swamp. The Hint Tablet provides tips for avoiding these creatures using two spells (see quote below). Although in this Hint Tablet the Hermit resists attachment to the giant water-dwelling creature, the player later finds out that she ended up bonding with it.

> *"I admit, I did not think the creature would become so attached to me. It must think it's my familiar now, which may get in the way of my research. On land, I avoid alerting it by turning into shadow. But once I walk on water, I have no option but to quicken my pace before it notices me."* — (*Vision of the Creature* hint tablet)
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In a final cutscene, Huckleberry jumps into the fight in his true form, as large and scary as the Hermit's familiar, and kills the Hermit's familiar followed by the Hermit herself, giving the player a chance to finish the job of clearing the Miasma from the Swamp.