This lore explanation is going to be assuming you know the broad strokes of the game’s plot and, like I am, stuck wondering about the finer details.

I tried my best to be succinct while comprehensive, though I think my thoughts came out all a bit messy and disjointed anyways. I’m aware of honolulu’s take, though I didn’t reference it while writing this. Our interpretations align in some ways and diverge wildly in others. Everything here has double meanings, interconnections, inconsistencies and more. Don’t take one single explanation as gospel, keep wondering and keep dreaming about this game, because art is about questions. These are the answers I personally reached to those questions.

I had to answer these questions for my own sake, because if I didn’t, I would still be stuck in the maze. That’s a little dramatic-sounding, but it’s true. So, that said…

Gamble to pass, or perish.

Lorelei Weiss is a German-born mixed media artist. She has had difficult family issues in the past and never knew her father, but she was largely able to overcome these issues and see a successful art career. In 1960 she was commissioned to use technology developed by KLB Electronic Arte Symposium, where she developed her parodic computer. This is where she first met Renzo Nero, whom she would soon agree to help create his next project, an interactive film called “The Third Eye.”

We’ll talk more about the events of 1963 in Renzo Nero’s section.

Following the incident in 1963, Lorelei was cleared of suspicion and hid from the public eye. Just because she was gone, however, didn’t mean she wasn’t busy. At some point afterward, she joined the Third Eye Movement and joined an expedition to Sulawesi in 1982, to find the Third Eye. It’s likely she already suspected what they were hoping to find wasn’t truly there. Most who came with the expedition likely committed suicide, but Lorelei left alive. That year, she went on to found a game company called “Simogo”, that would go on to create a large number of amazing titles in cooperation with KLB Electronics.

It’s possible Lorelei blinded herself in Sulawesi, though if she didn’t, she would eventually lose her eyesight from natural causes. In 2014, she was moved to Schöner Tag care home, and passed away from an illness. Though it's censored, digging through the game's files lets us see what the illness is: Alzheimer's. Lorelei had forgotten what she did in the year 1963.

Renzo Nero is an Italian gay filmmaker with a penchant for gambling and superstition. We know little about his past before the 60’s, but we do see his library of films. Every film Nero made starred a character whose name began with R, whose life is changed due to a character named with L. “The Third Eye” is the first story to reverse this with its main character of L, which may have foreshadowed Lorelei’s role as the main character of Renzo’s story.

We also know Renzo Nero saw through The Third Eye at some point before the events of the game.

Renzo struck a deal with an American firm, led by Robert Sidney, to develop a film called “The Third Eye.” Renzo’s film “Un Animale Teribile” ruined his public appeal and ultimately led to the Americans cutting ties with him and removing all funding. Renzo wasn’t swayed. He invited Lorelei to Hotel Letztes Jahr under the assumption that he had rented out the location, when it was in fact barren because it was scheduled for demolition.

Renzo wanted to utilize the OCU-3 for “The Third Eye.” The exact specifics of what he wanted to do are too vague to say confidently, but there’s a few things we can glean. It was his first and only attempt at Cinema Sostenuto, the idea of removing the audience from the cinema. He considered his art a form of terrorism, and said it existed to escape capitalism and overthrow the industrial entertainment complex.

My personal belief is that “The Third Eye,” if completed, would have shown anyone who dared to watch it the Red Maze. They too would see the Red Beast and would remove their eyeballs, thus the film would remain “untarnished by greedy eyes.”

Whatever his plans were, they never reached fruition, as Lorelei began to reasonably fear for her life in an incident that ultimately ended in her defenestrating him.

Renate is the keeper of the Augenwaldberg manor, which would be remodeled into Hotel Letztes Jahr. She is a character in “The Third Eye.”

The Owl Girl is a younger version of Renate, as we hear in the script. Parallels between Renate and owls are drawn throughout the game. It could be also argued Renzo is associated with dogs, Lorelei with cats, Lorenzo with horses - but all of these connections are a bit more tenuous than the owl thing.

A deliberate parallel between her and Lorelei is that neither knew their fathers, who had both seen terrible things. Renate’s father constructed the Red Maze, likely in oil and paint. He may have drawn the Maze Man.

Lorenzo the Great is a magician, and a member of the Brotherhood. He was exiled for revealing their secrets, and sent to investigate Renate. He is a character in “The Third Eye.”

Lorenzo was painted into existence by Renate, who in turn was written into existence by Renzo. There's a lot of reverse-causality going on here, but we have to accept that The Third Eye can transcend time.

He headed to Renate's mansion, which would later become the hotel. There at the mansion, he discovered what they were hoping to find: The Third Eye. But things went wrong. I won’t even try to summarize what happens in “The Third Eye” script, but he accidentally kills Renate, and is ashamed of his actions.

Unlike the other three main characters, Lorenzo has no recorded death date, and his room number is his year of birth rather than his year of death.

We encounter Lorenzo in Teatro Rosso. The magicians in the quiz club are not Lorenzo but the Brotherhood, which will be discussed later.

"The Third Eye" is a film by Renzo Nero. It's also something else, but I'll get to that.

"The Third Eye" is all the events that happened in 1847. Lorenzo and Renate are characters who were going to be played by Renzo and Lorelei respectively. It's unclear if any actual filming of the story occurred.

It's possible Renzo intended to push Lorelei out the window, killing her, as was the conclusion of that story. Either way, Lorelei perceived her life was in danger, and ultimately pushed him instead.

The Third Eye is also the name of a god, or godlike power, to bring fiction to life. It might be allegorical for the concept of artistic inspiration.

Lorenzo and Renate really did exist in the year 1847, because of the Third Eye. They were brought to life, and their histories were as well. They also didn't exist, fiction and fact blurred.

The Third Eye takes many forms. It first arrived on earth in the form of a comet, as told in Lorenzo’s story. It existed in Renate’s time as the Red Maze, and in Lorelei’s time as the OCU-3.

Which is to say, OCU-3 was either powered by the Third Eye or was the Third Eye itself. The maze inside it is also a manifestation of the Third Eye.

At the very end of the game, the nine maze fragments unite into an Enneahedron, which shows Lorelei that she killed Renzo Nero. The Enneahedron may be the true form of The Third Eye.

This one’s going to be tricky. I feel like I’m still missing something.

The OCU-3 was a computer built by KLB Electronics and experimented with by Lorelei Weiss. It was described, in Connection Issue 3 2022, as “an entire interactive retrospective.”

According to the OCU-3, KLB Electronics was founded in 1847 - however, there are three dates listed instead of two, so that seems a tad unreliable. If it really was founded in 1847, then Lorenzo would most likely have been the one to found it.

KLB Electronics could be a front for the Brotherhood. It also might not be. They have an incredibly suspicious track record, though I can’t find any solid proof connecting them to the Brotherhood. I also don’t know what the name “KLB” stands for, or otherwise represents.

The theory that I’ve chosen to believe is that KLB Electronics was founded by Lorelei’s father. Renate’s father constructed the Red Maze, so this would make their stories parallel further. Furthermore, when you call 1960, you get in touch with Joe, a staff member of KLB. Joe refers to Lorelei as “Little L,” oddly similar to how Lorelei’s mother called her “Little Lore.”

Regardless, their technology seems supernatural, related to the Third Eye, and capable of storing memories. (The descriptions of the videocassettes indicate that they store memories.) It can be presumed that the OCU-3 stored Lorelei and Renzo’s memories, whether Lorelei was aware of this or not.

The OCU-3 was discovered in 2022 and reactivated in 2024. We hear in Connected Issue 3 2022 that it was found by an online user named “Putih.” Putih is a name meaning “white,” just as Weiss means “white,” so it can be presumed the OCU-3 was discovered either by Lorelei, someone continuing her legacy in her stead, or an alternate version of her.

How I interpret “The Last Dream” is this: The OCU-3 contained a memory of 1963 Lorelei, and when the machine was activated, she reached across time and space to tell the truth to Lorelei before she died in 2014. That's what we are doing in this game, by playing as her. It’s likely that Simogo had to release it in the form of a piece of art (a game) to pull off this feat.

The Red Beast, also known as Mammon, is a terrifying creature.

In real life, the earliest known cave painting was found in Sulawesi, dated back to approximately 44,000 years ago. It’s a depiction of an animal, drawn in red ink, being attacked by hunters. The hunters are drawn several times smaller than the animal is.

In the Bible, Mammon is a concept or demon of money, who typically lures people in with promises of wealth.

So, in this game, the first ever cave painting was brought to life by the Third Eye in the Paleolithic Era, when it was first drawn. The Red Beast killed many.

The Red Beast is also capitalism itself, the need for art to profit. The game draws parallels between it and money on multiple occasions.

After some consideration, I believe the Maze Men are servants of the Red Beast. In their human forms, they were formerly the seven brothers, Renate’s father, and Lorelei’s father. (The Maze Man implies Renate is his daughter in one of the script pages.)

Lorenzo says in The Third Eye, page 49:

“And when The Third Eye blinked, The Red Beast laid an egg within. The Third Eye closed, and their bastard offspring was born thousands of years later.”

This seems to relate to what the Maze Man says in the Library prototype, which goes by too fast to read so I’ll post it here:

“Thousands of years ago. Thousands of years ago in the Indonesian cave The Third Eye blinked and we spirited away. We stole the deep egg to lay in the Italian chamber. We desired three seeds for the deep egg. We descended through the quiz club and we knew the first seed was beyond. We found the first seed with eyes not real and it had been nothing since it was a baby owl. Then we descended through the Prussian forest and beyond the trees the second seed found us. An imagined headgear appeared from which the seed had grown. All it knew was its magic show for no one. A voice echoed from the Italian chamber. It drew us to the third seed. The voice whispered: “Man can not destroy alone. A woman with laser eyes must join me.” The third seed wore the foretold laser eyes. Unlike the first and second she was more than nothing. The deep egg was filled with three seeds. We laid the deep egg in the Italian chamber.”

The three seeds are Renate, Lorenzo and Lorelei, respectively.

The Brotherhood, also known as Cineterzo, also known as The Third Eye Movement, is a collection of artists who sought the Third Eye to permanently defeat the Red Beast. Lorenzo and Renzo were among its members. It's possible other members were alternate (story) versions of Renzo.

It’s possible The Third Eye Movement is a separate organization which Lorelei joined, but since the two are very similar I’m choosing to interpret it as an alternative title for the Brotherhood.

The Seven Brothers are the original founders of the Brotherhood. Their story is encountered in the library, but since it’s out of order and not in Lorelei’s Memories, I’ve decided to transcribe it here. Feel free to scroll past if you’ve already read it.

The world had turned gray, and the red was fading. The master had left, thus it was time for the world to die. The prophets spoke of a last hope hidden beneath the earth.
The seven brothers had heard whispers of the first of painters, those who crawled out of the dark chasm, only to be devoured by their own creation.
The Eldest Brother commanded with his last breath: Seek the birthplace of The Red Beast, may he be born there again.
The seven painters were the finest, brightest shining stars of their age. Who better to create God once again? With ropes, lanterns, and brushes, they went below.
The masterpiece had long left the cave, spreading art and death in its wake. But, it was said that there were fragments of the red in the deep.
One of the brothers was trapped in a tunnel, but art waits for no man, so his brothers bid him farewell. The brother sang at first, but then he wailed. He died before his song did.
In the deep, the brothers grew weary and forlorn. No trace of The Red Beast had been found, perhaps he was just a lie. Their faith burned out, and so did their lanterns.
The most righteous of the brothers decided that he should paint their God. Thus, he cut the wrists of his resting brothers, and they watched him work as they lay dying.
The brother had created a masterpiece beyond human comprehension and the world was saved again. But, such terrible divine beauty was not meant for mortal eyes, so the brother did right, and blinded himself.

The Brotherhood's goal is emblematic of the conflict between art and capitalism, the true topic that this game is exploring. Does art need a purpose? Can it be entirely self-serving, or does it exist for an audience? Art doesn't provide anyone material benefit, so does it do anything at all?

In a literal sense, the laser eyes are blindness. Everyone who experiences them is in truth, blind. Renate gained laser eyes when the vermillion tears destroyed what was left of her failing eyesight. Renzo blinded himself after encountering the Red Beast, as Lorelei likely did as well. The thematic connection between Laser Eyes and the OCU-3’s laser graphics should also be apparent.

But, people who have the Laser Eyes seem to experience clarity as well. Renate claims her vision is restored. Lorelei “sees it all.” This is because they have all come to know a truth, even if they haven’t come to accept it.

Renate says in The Third Eye, page 57: “To be gifted is to be infested. Ideas are tiny red eggs in your brain.”

I believe The Third Eye was lost long before the Brotherhood went looking for it. There is a reason it goes missing time and time again. There’s a reason those who find it always meet with tragedy. The Red Beast laid an egg in it, and it was infested. Inspiration is corrupted, as it has been from the dawn of humanity. Art must always serve capitalism. Art is only as good as its spectators. Art can never exist only for the eyes of the cosmos. Beauty must always serve a need.

As an audience, this is something we implicitly know, but we are challenged to ask if this reality is tragic. Why must art always be for someone else? Why can’t it be sacred?

People who understand the truth in this story tend to blind themselves, but experience true sight, in a way. This is what the laser eyes are. Renate was blinded when the vermillion tears failed to cure her eyes. Lorelei went blind after encountering the Red Beast in Sulawesi in 1982. To blind yourself is to make there be one less pair of greedy eyes in the world.

This is as close to the truth as we will ever get.

Thanks for reading, I really enjoyed writing this. I had to do three separate 100% playthroughs in order to be as confident in my answers as I am, and there are still holes and details that confuse me.

I don’t know if Simogo’s staff reads these things or not, but on the chance they do, I’d like to thank all of you for one of the finest puzzle games I’ve ever played. Your creativity, spirit and ambition are pronounced wholeheartedly in every nook and cranny of this maze you built for us, and the pride you surely feel is earned in whole.

This game will be in my thoughts forever, but for today, my time with it has finally concluded.

For the rest of you, I’ll be willing to discuss this post further in the comments if anyone’s interested.