#twin-bladed knife
The Leader of Envisioned is barely mentioned, but after giving this person some thought, (s)he could play a more significant role in Dishonored story.
Spoilers from D2, DOTO and books below!
We saw the Leader of Envisioned in D2 cutscene about the Outsider’s origin - a person holding the Twin-bladed Knife, at the head of the altar. In TRoD book the Outsider looked directly in his/her face just before his throat was cut.
Breanna mentioned that the anomaly at Shindaerey Peak is similar to the disruption caused by the ritual performed in Stilton’s manor, but probably much older. Does it exist because miners discovered the Eye there? Or maybe someone powerful tore through the boundary of the Void, just like Delilah did, and came back to reality many years ago? ( “How many of the founders are still there?”)
All Envisioned at Shindaerey Peak have been already transformed into immortal stone-like creatures by their constant exposure to the Void. But there is one thing to consider: Delilah managed to regain her human form after harnessing the power of the ritual grounds in the Void, growing stronger and becoming a part of the Outsider. The Leader could probably do the same, maybe even more with a knowledge given by The Eye of the Dead God. The ritual altar is still a powerful source of magic even after DOTO, just like Billie’s artifacts.
The Leader was once the owner of the Twin-bladed Knife, used to create the Outsider. The knife was discovered later in a Tyvian salt mine by Zhukov, 4 years before D2. What happened in between, it hasn’t been revealed yet.
Can the Leader be somehow related to the Abbey of the Everyman? There is a striking similarity between the Twin-bladed Knife and the Overseer’s swords. The creation of the Abbey is still a mystery – at some point they rose up as a militant group and ruthlessly wiped out other religious factions, including followers of the Outsider at Whitecliff. It was revealed in DOTO that the high-ranked members of the Abbey know the true nature of the Outsider (as the boy sacrificed in the ritual) and perceive a possibility of his fall as a catastrophe (just like the Cult of the Outsider). The Abbey might be also responsible for erasing all records about Shindaerey Peak in Karnaca (“Here, the Void is closest to the surface of reality, breaking through and spilling out all the fear and power the Abbey of the Everyman tries to hide.”).
Now about the Outsider… Many parallels can be drawn between the Outsider and Billie, the two of them have lived lives that mirror each other, including a savior/mentor figure (The Outsider seems to have a strange sentiment about Daud, chose to die from his hand, and did everything to make it possible, before Billie jumped in). There is little mention of his relation with Envisioned - he died a horrible death by their hands, but I got the impression that maybe he wasn’t killed right away after they took him from the streets. He speaks more like someone who was betrayed.
“When I knew them, they had names – and ambitions.”
“Daud spared you life, all those years ago. But I was taught the lesson that you still haven’t learned: some wounds stay with you even in the Void.”.
„You think you are alone, Daud? You think you are the only one who is in pain? Running from a past you cannot forget, the memory of evil deeds a fire inside your mind – a fire that, no matter how hard you try, you cannot extinguish, not fully.”
If we will ever get D3, I would like to see a confrontation between the human Outsider and the Leader (if both of them are still alive, a lot of “if” here ;) ).
