Timeline Breakdown Dunwall’s turning points and secrets
Step into a city that wears its contradictions on every soot stained wall. The Dunwall arc in Dishonored unfolds as a living timeline where politics, plague, and supernatural power collide. At its heart lies a throne disputed by intrigue, honor, and the consequences of choice.
The moment the Empress loses her life and Corvo is framed sets the clock ticking. Lord Regent Hiram Burrows seizes control through fear and manipulation while the rat plague tightens its grip on the lower wards. The city morphs from a proud imperial capital into a stage where every decision reshapes destinies, and every corridor hides a secret 💠.
Core beats in the Dunwall arc
- The Empress Jessamine Kaldwin is assassinated in a palace plot, with Daud commonly identified as the killer by the public.
- Corvo Attano is condemned for the crime he did not commit, and the rightful heir’s fate hangs in the balance as he fights to clear his name.
- The political machine tightens under the Lord Regent Burrows, who wields power through surveillance, mercenaries, and a loyalist faction.
- The Hound Pits Pub becomes the hub for resistance planning, a base where conspiracies mingle with hope and survival.
- The rat plague intensifies the stakes, turning urban districts into pressure cookers where timing and stealth decide who lives and who dies.
- Emily Kaldwin’s future as empress rises or falls with each choice the player makes, making the timeline feel personalized and volatile.
As the story advances the timeline branches toward endings that reflect your decisions. If Burrows falls and the city pivots toward reform, the post portrait of Dunwall looks very different from a regime that endures. The same city becomes a mirror of the player’s ethics, with outcomes that echo through subsequent chapters of the series. The interplay between choice and consequence is what makes each run feel like a distinct chapter in an evolving history.
DLC and timeline extensions
The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches add new threads to the central narrative fabric. Daud and his crew push the timeline beyond the palace walls, revealing how private vendettas intersect with public power. These chapters deepen moral ambiguity and show that Dunwall’s clockwork is not limited to one city block but echoes across other corners of the empire. For fans, the expansions are a natural extension that invites fresh theories about what comes after the credits.
The post launch patch history for the remasters improved enemy AI, refined powers, and balanced stealth edges to keep the rhythm of the timeline satisfying across playthroughs. In practice this means you can experiment with different approaches and still feel the city breathing, reacting to your choices in real time. The result is a timeline that rewards experimentation and memory, letting you sculpt your own legend within the same haunted streets.
Community insights and modding culture
PC players treat Dunwall as a canvas for narrative exploration. Modding communities experiment with district layouts and renamed wards to test alternate outcomes, while preserving the core atmosphere that makes the city iconic. The grit of the architecture, the clash of industrial smithies with whale bone aesthetics, and the hush of hidden corridors all fuel fan theories and fan art alike. It is a world designed for immersion, and that invites creative reimaginings that feel authentic to the original mood.
Arkane’s design philosophy emphasizes player agency in a setting built from secrets and shadows. Designers repeatedly highlight that the timeline is a flexible scaffold rather than a rigid ledger. That mindset shows up in both the base game and its expansions, encouraging players to test the limits of what Dunwall can become under different routes. The city persists beyond a single playthrough, becoming a cumulative memory of your choices.
Arkane designers have long spoken about letting players write their own outcomes in a city built from secrets and shadows
The result is a timeline that remains evocative long after the credits roll. For theorists and modders the story becomes a playground where you can map how a single decision twists a ward’s fate or how a minor ally can tip the balance of power. The enduring charm of Dunwall lies in its capacity to remember you. It is a living archive of your stealth, your bravado, and your moral calculus 💠
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