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| “ | You've changed. It's like everything was taken apart and put back together by someone who doesn't understand how it works. I HAVE BECOME WHOLE AGAIN. I wear no mask. AND I HATE EVERYTHING. | „ |
| ~ Adler to a dormant Falke. |
| “ | Once again. You've returned. Are you really willing to go through with this once more? You've seen what happens. This world cannot take much more. This may be our last chance. If you go back. It'll all fall apart. I can't let that happen. YOU SELFISH MONSTER... YOU'LL DESTROY EVERYTHING. | „ |
| ~ Adler pleading to Elster to stop in order to preserve reality. |
ADLR (anagram for Administration, Data Processing, Logistics Replika), or simply "Adler" is the main antagonist of the 2022 survival horror video game SIGNALIS.
He is a member of the Generation 5 High Command Specialist Replikas, who are Protektor Führungskommando Administrator units created by the Eusan Nation. During the course of game he attempts to prevent both Elster and Isa Itou from reaching their goals, that being reuniting with their loved ones.
Biography[]
Origin and Work at Sierpinski[]
Adler was a member of a line of Replikas created by the totalitarian Eusan Nation, serving to assist the Falke units in directing the other Replikas below them. His neural patterns appeared to have been derived by a Gestalt (human) acting as a doctor or investigator who had checked Ariane Yeong to test her for potential bioresonance power back in the planet of Rotfront.
He was assigned to AEON Facility S-23 Sierpinski somewhere on the Leng planet, and as was the norm he was the only ADLR Unit there. He became the facility's administrator who ordered the Replikas around and kept S-23 working. However, when Faulke went to the mines, she fell sick and eventually went into a coma. With her absence, all of the Replikas in the facility became completely lost, with Adler being the most affected by this. Although he was forced to maintain the entire facility on his own, Adler didn't help much with the situation and instead retreated himself to his dorm. There he wrote on his diary, recounting his experiences, and eventually began comforting himself by listening to the ticking of a mechanical device that was confiscated by another Replika.
Soon reality began resetting itself, with Falke operating again before falling back sick, while Adler barely noticed this change. However, as he wrote on his dairies, he saw that the dates had been repeating and at first thought he was going mad. As this went on, almost everyone in the facility fell ill, with the Gestalts dying while the Replikas mutated. Meanwhile, Adler became determined to get to the bottom of this and find out what was going on and discover the cause of this, which unbeknownst to him was because of Ariane's dying dream combining with her bioresonance. He went to the mines and presumably into the Flesh Below as something was calling to him. There he apparently discovered the truth and sought to fix the distortion and keep reality from being destroyed.
Encounter with Elster[]
Adler learned about an Elster unit he had previously seen and clearly didn't belong in the facility, and figuring that she was contributing to the degradation of reality he sought to kill her in order to prevent her from reaching Ariane. However, because they were all trapped in a repeating loop, Elster always came back, causing Adler to kill her countless times in different manners which included throwing her down an empty elevator shaft until a large pile of bodies formed that would cushion the latest iteration of Elster. Isa Itou also found herself in Sierpinski, and Adler sought to kill her also as she wasn't supposed to be here since she had died sometime prior to the current events just like Elster.
He followed Isa into the mines, holding a rifle in order to dispose of her just as he did the previous times. Unfortunately for Adler, as he was checking the massive hole that led to the Flesh Below he was surprised from behind by Isa who stabbed him in his right eye with a knife before he fell into the hole. After Isa took his rifle, Adler went to the red gate of eternity where Falke's mind had originally intermingled with that of Ariane's and Elster's and there he encountered Elster herself. He told her how it was impossible for them to move on and how Falke became sick after passing through the gate and causing all of this, and warned her about what lied beyond, but Elster ignored him as she made her way through the eternity.
Falke then appeared before Adler who made his way to her quarters where her unconscious body rested. Kissing her Adler stated how reality was being deconstructed and recreated by some force which didn't know how things were supposed to work, and soon he himself got corrupted just like the other Replikas but still retaining some of his mindset.
Ending[]
Following Falke's death at the hands of Elster, he encountered her once again at the gate, warning her that if she continued the loop all reality would inevitably be destroyed. Elster again tried to ignore him, prompting Adler to lunge at her and use Isa's knife to stab her in the right eye, but at the same time she shot him in the stomach. Although both mortally wounded, Elster managed to momentarily regain herself and proceeded beyond the gate while Adler pleaded her to stop but was all futile as his plea fell on deaf ears. He presumably died, though it is possible that he was revived back to the beginning with no memory of what had transpired depending on the ending. He appears in all three endings with no difference to his final fate except for the secret ending in which both he and Falke are absent.
Appearance[]
Adler appeared as a caucasian man standing 175cm tall with a mechanical and robotic body, and a human face with blue eyes and dark blue hair. After being corrupted by the reality distortion Adler, like other corrupted Replikas, was covered with flesh, growing all over his body and over his right eye which was taken out by Isa, while his hair fell out and his face became skull-looking.
Powers and Abilities[]
Adler was a Replika unit, a human-looking biomechanical android with components mimicking those of the Gestalts' organs and fluids. His line was in charge of managing and overseeing administrative tasks, being responsible for allowing Replika units of the Operational Command, such as Falke units, to directly control the Protektor units. He served as a counterpart to Falke and helped her by doing the paperwork and calculations.
The line worked best when isolated as they didn't work well with each other, and were specifically designed to be emotionally dependent on their Falke units. Adler was also susceptible to bioresonance, a mysterious power present in the Falke and Kolibri units and in extremely few Gestalts that could affect reality, thoughts of others and life. This allowed those units to more easily control Adler in addition to his dependency.
Personality[]
Adler was a pragmatic worker at Sierpinski who originally only wished to do his job which was overseeing the work of other fellow Replikas. Like most Replikas, he highly revered his superior Falke, with Adler being especially closer to her as his line was dependent on the Faulkes, though he would get easily bored and required many fetish objects in order to remain stable. After Falke fell ill for unknown reasons, Adler was heavily affected by this and retreated to his dorm where he wrote on his diary and barely helped the other Replikas. In his dairies Adler was shown to be scared and unsure of what was happening. He had a fascination for a ticking mechanism known as the Astrolabe for reasons he himself was unsure why. Adler seemed to have been acquainted with a Kolibri who helped him in coordinating the Replikas, but when she became corrupted he found it hard to maintain the entire facility. When reality became more distorted, Adler was lost as all of the workers became sick, but he found solace at the decrease of the workload since it meant less maintenance for him. As he kept writing his dairies, Adler began freaking out after seeing that he had already written entries for the current date, not remembering writing those, which led to him discovering that they were all trapped in a time loop and felt like he was alone in this situation. However, he held himself together and rejected the possibility of him going mad though he did accept that he had also become sick like everyone else. Despite this he was determined to not succumb and find the answers on why this was happening.
Adler figured it out that the distortion and the loop was connected to mysterious appearance of an Elster unit and Isa Itou who weren't supposed to be in Sierpinski. He would go on to kill or attempt to kill Elster countless times in hopes of preserving reality. By this time, Adler became more cryptic and violent, immediately attempting to kill both Elster and Isa upon encountering them, not giving any explanation over his actions to the two women who had no memory about what was going on at first. Unfortunately for Adler, Elster persevered, causing him to become depressed, hopeless and nihilistic. Eventhough he still loved Falke, Adler dropped all of his humanity and stated that he hated everything. Following Faulke's death at the hands of Elster Adler sought to kill her in a last ditch attempt to preserve reality, but as he failed once again, he accused her of being a selfish monster who was going to destroy everything only so she could be reunited with her long gone partner.
Quotes[]
| “ | I had a dream tonight. Another memory of my Gestalt life I believe - I was wearing my uniform. There was a young woman, her hair white as snow, and I was conducting some sort of test. I had a deck of cards with astronomical symbols on them, and asked her to guess the planet on the card I was holding. | „ |
| ~ An entry in Adler's diary showing his Persona Degradation or Gestalt Memory Resurfacing. |
| “ | I was playing with that mechanical lock box again, of which I am now sure is some kind of astronomical calendar, when I suddenly remembered a conversation I had with another Replika when I was inspecting the mining site. However, it was clearly a model I have never seen before - some type of engineer with an orange chest-piece. In my memory, she was just another member of our staff, but no such Replika was ever stationed on Sierpinski, Replika memory is not the most reliable, they say - but never before have I experienced such a strange phenomenon. | „ |
| ~ Adler's first encounter with Elster. |
| “ | The little enigma of that box could only distract me from the chaos around me for so long. All the box contained was a small notebook, of which all pages turned out to be blank. It has been miserable since our beloved Commander has fallen ill. I long for her stern guidance, that overwhelming authority in which she bathes a room. | „ |
| ~ Adler wishing for Falke's command. |
| “ | More sick, making my work ever harder. How are we meant to shoulder this workload with no reinforcements? My only consolation is that as our Protektor staff decreases, so does the workforce we oversee. While more and more Replika end up in the hospital wing, Gestalt workers seem to succumb much too fast for any attempts at treatment. | „ |
| ~ Adler describing the chaos happening at Sierpinski. |
| “ | Why is my diary filled with entries! cannot recall writing? Why are they all dated to today? Has the loss of my beloved Commander finally gotten to my mind? Am I going insane? I fear what will happen to me if anyone finds out... I am alone in this. If they discover my notes, I'll be decommissioned, too. | „ |
| ~ Adler discovering that the day had been repeating itself. |
| “ | It feels as though in this room, I peer into another version of reality. How? I do not know. Perhaps I, too, have become sick like the others, without realizing. But I will not succumb. | „ |
| ~ Adler describing his experience in the loop. |
| “ | A slow accumulation of reproduction errors - a gradual corruption of information - a story, misremembered, slowly morphing with each retelling-like genetic material, mutating and evolving - like the Replika mind, copied over and over from an aging template. | „ |
| ~ Adler's interpretation of the loop. |
| “ | I know you're here. I've done this countless times before. You don’t belong here. | „ |
| ~ Adler hunting Isa. |
| “ | It's Impossible to move on. I have been here so many times, but I have never returned. The commander never talked about what she saw out there. I'm sure whatever it was, it was what made her fall sick. Something about her changed when she returned. She was no longer our beloved leader Falke. What waits beyond the threshold? | „ |
| ~ Adler to Elster at the gate. |
| “ | You must turn back. There is nothing for you there. You've tried so many times, and you've failed every time. Don't you see that you're ruining everything? This is your final warning. | „ |
| ~ Adler's note moments before Elster fights Falke. |
| “ | Are you still looking for answers where there are only questions? There's nothing but heartbreak at the end. | „ |
| ~ The description of the Key of Eternity, seemingly spoken by Adler. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The name for Adler's Replika line, just like other Replikas, is a reference to a species of birds as they are known in German, with Adler translating to "Eagle".
- Adler's line is the only Replika line to be male instead of female like every other line.
- Adler's line "I wear no mask" is one of the many direct references to the King in Yellow, with this line being spoken by the King's emissary the Pallid Mask.
- From this it has been suggested that by the end of the game Adler had been overtaken by the eldritch being connected to the bioresonance (either the King in Yellow himself or the mysterious Red Eye) and became a vessel for it.
- It is believed that due to their similar appearance, the Gestalt named Nikolai Nguyen who worked at Rotfront Sector C had provided the neural patterns for Adler. However, that is disputed because Adler's memories are seemingly from a doctor or investigator who is probably older than Ariane, while Nikolai was a writer and appears to be the same age as her.
- Due to the ambiguity of the game, it is unknown if Adler was a recreation of an already existing unit encountered by Ariane and representing Elster's doubts and insecurity about reuniting with Ariane and ending her life, or a real Adler unit who got involved in Ariane's reality dreaming against his will.
- A boss fight appeared to have been planned to occur at a stage named Somewhere where the player would've fought Adler, either by himself or alongside Falke, but was scrapped.
External Links[]
- Adler at the SIGNALIS Wiki