Being

This article contains major spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.

The Being is a major character in Darkwood. It only makes an appearance in the True Ending, and appears to be located inside a giant canyon overgrown with tree-roots.

The Being radiates a bright light, and resembles a huge organ. What looks like a distorted face can be seen inside it. A deep heartbeat can be heard upon nearing it. The canyon that the Being is found in is filled with hundreds of sleeping people and corpses. Thus, The Being is likely the reason people turn into Savages and the source of the 'Call' that some experience while in the Darkwood (like Maciek). Anyone who answers this call will try to make their way to the Being, falling asleep and eventually starving to death. Touching it fills the Protagonist with a feeling of warmth and happiness. Continued exposure will turn people into Sleepers, slumbering in bliss as their body feeds the roots entangling them.

The Being tries to trick the Protagonist in the False Ending, to make them go to sleep. In reality, The Protagonist's unconscious body is entangled in roots, and will waste away, fertilizing The Being. If the Protagonist explores their home and the surrounding area, they will discover that something is wrong, and that they are in fact dreaming.

The Being is implied that it is, quite literally, the very heart of the woods, and is the driving force behind the wood's rapid expanse. It is also responsible for the whispers and murmurs of the woods throughout the game.

The player is able to kill the being by taking the Flamethrower from Maciek and burning it down. Killing The Being will result in the total destruction of most of the woods, and is implied to end most of the weird things happening in them.

Upon destroying it, however, it blocks your path as a final act, sealing the Protagonist's fate. There is a little branch that the Protagonist can try to escape on, but in the end, escape is impossible. After that, the fates of all the other inhabitants of the forest are revealed, and the military (or the Outsiders) come in to restore order to the region.