The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno

I remember being really excited for this game when I saw it advertised, it was released in 2010 so that was when I was at school in Sixth Form. I was clearly making very good use of my EMA money because I got the limited edition which they called the Death edition. It came with a holographic case and an extra disk with content, and my favourite bit was exclusive access to an online version of the origin text for the game. It was a poem by Dante Alighieri who was alive during the 13th and 14th century, called the Divine Comedy. I can't for the life of me find that website any more, I am not even sure if it is still available, but luckily - possibly due to this game - there are online versions available. I have found the full poem here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm
I wont pop it on here because I assume there are all kinds of legal things around sharing it, and it is actually really long, especially for a poem. It is pretty much a story in all fairness.

Some artwork for the game, all of which is amazing

What I will do this time round is take each paragraph at a time and look into it from there, because the story is much longer than the previous post I did for Okami. So what can you expect? Probably something like a.. Three or four part thing?
The story follows Dante, a crusader who, despite his faith, has committed numerous atrocities during the Third Crusade. At the city of Acre, Dante is entrusted to keep a group of Saracen prisoners safe so King Richard I could obtain a holy relic from Saladin. But once he brutally slaughters them, Dante is ordered to take the holy relic. During the attack, Dante is stabbed in the back by an assassin, whereupon Death appears and condemns to "everlasting damnation for his sins," despite being promised by a Bishop that his sins would be absolved. Dante refuses to accept his fate, vows to redeem himself, and defeats Death, taking his scythe. Dante leaves the Crusade, stitching a red holy cross-shaped tapestry onto his torso, depicting every sin he has committed in the past. He returns to Florence, only to find his lover Beatrice Portinari and father Alighiero brutally murdered. Beatrice's soul appears before Dante, telling him that she knew he would come after her before a shadowy manifestation of Lucifer drags her into darkness. After making it to a chapel, Dante blesses the holy cross that Beatrice gave him upon making their vows to be true to each other, to protect him against the evils that await. Upon doing so, a crack in the earth opens up, allowing Dante to descend to the Gates of Hell.

Dante
So he name of the games protagonist is Dante and I don't think this has any specific bearing on the story as the writer of the Divine Comedy was also called Dante. I have had a dig around and it looks like homage to him as clearly - he is no longer alive any more but provided the inspiration for this games development. If you search the name 'Dante' it finds the writer as the first hit. The name itself, in many languages, actually means enduring which fits perfectly with the story line, enduring the nine levels of hell for his love.

The Third Crusade - Siege of Acre
So as the name of this suggests, it is the Third Crusade which has also been known as the King's Crusade. The crusades were conquests by European Kings/leaders to gain control over the holy lands, as they were known. The main conflicts were against the armies of Saladin who had come into power by succeeding his father. This was basically a race war, Christians trying to expel Muslims from cities such as Jerusalem and in this example, Acre.

An image of the siege of Acre

I will stick to this area as the story of the game is focused on the city of Acre, well at least the start is. This siege was one of the first of the Third Crusade and the Christians in this instance won the battle to claim Acre. Whilst the basis of the game are fictional, I feel it does tie in with the story of actual events. In the siege, the crusaders armies managed to capture a garrison of Saladin's troops so it then came to negotiations and ransoms for the release of these people. An agreement could not be met fast enough for the taste of King Richard who then decided to execute the prisoners, around 2700, in front of the Saladin army. In return they executed all of their hostages. According to the story of the game, they were due to exchange the hostages for a holy relic, until Dante murdered them. He didn't do this in front of the army but in the prison cells but I can see the similarities between the two. Dante was then sent to retrieve the relic in a siege to make up for his actions.

Death
Death is death, but is often embodied in game as a character that is visible and interact-able. Now, Death as an entity was first depicted as a skeleton in a black cloak carrying a large scythe, but this was in the 15th century so way after the Divine Comedy was written. In the poem itself, death is not mentioned as far as I can see; then again it is quite hard to understand being written in old language. In the game, Dante is stabbed by an assassin during the attack for the relic and dies? I say that with a question mark because, he denies his death pledging to redeem himself and kills Death - I don't know what happens to him if he 'dies.' The idea of Death coming to meet him fits in with the first depictions of the entity, as it was said he would come and meet you to take you to the next plane of existence.

An early depiction of a personification of death

So for me, I think this means that there is no link between Death in the game and the original text, but the fact that he is travelling to hell, possibly suggests that he is dead already.

Beatrice Portinari
So this lady, is quoted to be in the Divine Comedy itself and also in the game. She was also, a real person who Dante, the poet, actually met and considered to be his greatest inspiration. He only met her a couple of times but used her as inspiration for an entire piece of work and also as a character in the Divine Comedy who acts as a guide through the Inferno. Within the game, Beatrice is Dante's spouse which I feel like is a playing up to the possible feelings the poet had for the real person. Once again, this is all speculation because of course, they are all long gone and there is only so much of their literature available to give us an idea.

So here is the end of the first part, I will of course get going with the second straight away because I am very much enjoying all this. Exciting.