Being

This article contains major spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.

The Being is an immensely powerful eldritch entity which serves as the overarching antagonist of Darkwood. It only makes an appearance in the Epilogue, and appears to be located inside a giant canyon overgrown with tree-roots, and is surrounded by hundreds of Sleepers and corpses. Physically it resembles an enormous heart-like creature, that constantly emits fog-like gaseous substance, which hides it, and is worshipped by humans that it mentally controls. Its true nature and motivation, aside from consuming humans and spreading its influence, are unclear.

Backstory

The Being crashed as a part of meteor in August 1975 in a valley in a forest in Poland known as Darkwood, the initial collision sent shards of metallic ore throughout the forest. Its heart appears to be comprised mainly of a pulsing mass of giant roots but there appears to be a partially amorphous humanoid-face formed over this. Its life blood is the White Substance which has shape-shifting abilities and can conduct electricity. The roots of the Being grew quickly and spread beneath the ground, forming an immense underground network of roots, and it began to copy the world around it, replicating trees at such a rate that by the time of the game around 85% of the trees in the woods were clones/replicas of the original trees. According to the Note about Wall of Trees, this growth takes the form of a uniform, honeycomb-like structure. The ability of the White Substance to conduct electricity appears to allow the Being to gain some control over electrical devices, by the time of the game it has consumed the Radio Tower, which permitted it to then interact with radios throughout the forest.

The White Substance allows the Being to not only replicate trees but also animals, humans, and even inorganic objects. These clones/replicas however are often imperfect, and their origins in the White Substance can be seen in their frequently pale and warped surfaces. Since the Being does not always appear to be able to differentiate between objects, clones/replicas are often recreated as fused entities that were in close proximity to one another, such as the man who starved eating snails (the Snail), the man shot in the Tunnel with his cross, the Hunter with his trophy (the Wolfman), the Outsider with his gas mask (the Trader; likely derived from the Protagonist), and the grandmother in her mouldering house (the Mushroom Granny). It can be inferred from this pattern that Swampers, Centipedes, Human Spiders, and Banshees were all created the same way. In most cases, the bodies that were used as the blueprints to create these clones/replicas can still be found in game wrapped in roots. Savages, Chompers, and Big Dogs on the other hand arose as a result of infection by the Plague, and not replicated forms.

The Plague is an aerial borne pathogen that is exuded by the Being as a continuous cloud of spores, the levels of which become extremely high during the night - sudden exposure to these levels of spores for humans unacclimatised to the woods is fatal (99% of the time), and the only way to keep these spores at safe levels during the night is to flood hideouts with a gas derived from heating and unknown liquid substance upon a stove. Exposure at even low levels however can still result in infection, and as result all visiting outsiders have to wear hazmat suits and masks to protect themselves. As these spores appear to be active through the region, and the roots themselves can be heard moving at night on occasion, it is likely they are expelled by ALL parts of the root network that are linked to the Being. Symptoms of infection are numerous, but the primary ones appear to be the visual and auditory hallucinations, the intense desire to head towards the Being, and increased aggression.

Those infected with the plague often speak of hearing a female voice, and interpret as belonging to that of a loved one (a relative, friend, or partner), and share the delusion that the Road Home (the road to the Being) is the only way home, even when they are already in their homes (see Cripple Dialogue).

The Being has made the valley where it is located into a trap. There are tunnels that allow people to get in, but these tunnels then close so that no one can get out. Roots have made the walls of the valley steep and slippery enough that no one can get out any other way. Those who reach the Being will eventually fall into a deep, euphoric dream, and slowly starve to death, consumed by the tree roots surrounding the Being.

In the Bliss Ending, the Protagonist succumbs to the Being's influence and remains asleep until they are themselves consumed. In the Burn Them All ending, the Protagonist breaks free of its control and burns the Being and the Darkwood to the ground, ending the Plague and its creations once and for all.

Epilogue

In the Burn Them All ending, at the center of the Heart of the Forest, the Protagonist will encounter the Being. He may place his hand on the Being and question the Being, but it will offer no answers to his questions. The Protagonist must fight to remove their hand from it, or he will fall back asleep. The Protagonist will then seize a flamethrower from another Sleeper and former Outsider, Maciek.

The Protagonist now has the ability to set the Being and its surroundings on fire. The Protagonist may attempt to escape on a small branch clogged with fleeing Sleepers, but his surroundings will catch fire so quickly he and the Sleepers will all burn to death.

With the death of the Being, The Plague and root network ravaging the forest will cease to exist, and the Darkwood will be consumed by the flames over the course of several days. Depending on the choices of the Protagonist up to this point, some characters may manage to hide from the flames and escape from the woods.

See Endings and Transcript.

Dialogue

I'm standing in front of an enormous being.

• Place hand on the being

I feel an overwhelming, soothing feeling of security and happiness. The vast valley, at the bottom of which I stand, curves upwards, closing over my head. The rust of distant trees turns into a single, silent murmur. I feel I'm coming home. To my flat. To my room with a window and a bed.

• Listen

Something like a sound, continuous and low, is coming my way. In the depth of the pulsating space surrounding me, I can see vague shapes. Their outline blurs and fades away every time I try to focus on them. Suddenly the sound envelops me, only to instantly disappear a moment later. I can feel someone's presence far above me.

• Who are you?

I'm drowning in an illuminating, pulsating whiteness. I squeeze my eyes shut, but the bright vastness continues to blind me. The silent grunt grows stronger with every moment. It stratifies into an unlimited number of abstract, incomprehensible sounds, only to combine into a distant, wailing voice. My eyes fill up with tears, my hands are trembling.

• What do you want?

The everpresent whiteness blinds me. It explodes with brightness once more and then starts vibrating. Suddenly I realize that the pleasant feeling of warmth has been replaced by coldness. The coldness of the void that surrounds me.

• Stop listening

• Withdraw your hand

I feel a heat emanating from the being. I sense my pulse slowing down, a calmness. I want to rest, come back home. To my bed. I want to lie down. To fall sleep.

• Do nothing

I embrace the being with my both hands. My body feels limp. I collapse into a soft, warm, pulsating earth. I feel that my tensed body will finally experience relief. It's the end of my journey. I can rest.

• Withdraw your hand!

I don't want to do it. Still, my hand pushes the being away. The warmth that was emanating from it disappears, replaced by piercing coldness.

• Do nothing

I'm coming back to rest. Rest in my flat.

• Withdraw your hand!
• Do nothing

Trivia/Speculation

• The White Substance shows remarkably rapid growth/healing abilites as long as it remains connected to the Being. This is what makes it virtually impossible to anyone to cut their way out of the woods, as the Doctor mentions the trees appear to grow back in front of his own eyes. The Protagonist experiences similarly if he breaks a branch (an arm) of the Talking Tree, as it reforms almost instantly.
• Though the Being does not (or cannot) speak to the Protagonist in the Epilogue, it may be the source of voices heard over the radio or in dreams. If these voices are the Being, most of them are repetitive requests to come to it. However, there are a few major exceptions:
  • In The Apartment dream, the Protagonist can find a hidden secret passageway. At the end of the secret passageway is a TV set that will say "Teddy Bear, you shouldn't be here." The dream will then immediately end.
  • In the Cottage near the Junkyard, the radio will ask "Are you her?" It is unclear who this is supposed to refer to.
  • In the Inferno Night Event (only received if the Player has set the Talking Tree on fire on the same day), the radio will ask "Why did you do it?" The surroundings will then catch fire and the Protagonist will be swarmed by Burning Villagers- potentially a foreshadowing of the Burn Them All ending, or as retribution for the Player's actions during the day.
  • In the Apartment Basement (Epilogue), a radio can be found. Repeatedly fiddling with it will eventually cause it to ask the Protagonist to "Sleep."
• The Being's existence is foreshadowed in The Forest dream, where interacting with a lamp will cause it to transform into a glowing small child surrounded by hundreds of corpses.
• Though most of the creatures in the Darkwood seem to act fairly autonomously, Savages in particular seem to be at least somewhat under the control of the Being. Savages are known to draw strange ritual markings (one can be found in each Chapter), tie corpses to trees so that they may be absorbed by the Forest, and arrange human and animal corpses in bizarre poses similar to animal-human creatures such as Banshees.
• The Shiny Stones have been confirmed to be fragments of the meteor (that contained the Being) by Acid Wizard in a AMA on Reddit in July 2023.

Gallery

The Being appears as an infant in the Protagonist's Dream.

The Being's disguise is falling apart.

The Being can be seen here in the vague shape of a humanoid as it burns. What slightly resembles a mouth with teeth on a headlike appendage can be seen, as well as randomly scattered eyes, along with what might be an arm.