Knell

Key release facts

Release date

October 27th, 2026

Type

Game

Platforms

Linux, PC, and macOS

Developer

Mainframe Gaming

Publisher

Mainframe Gaming

Official description

Original English source text provided by IGDB.

The plague took the parish. Not slowly, and not in any order that let the dead be buried properly — there were pits, and there were pyres, and afterwards there was nobody left to ring for anyone. Only the bell remembers them now, and the bell must be kept. A passing bell is rung as a soul leaves the body, to say: pray now. This one has begun calling something back instead. Every night the dead rise to silence it, and every night one keeper stands in the churchyard between them and the rope. A keeper's life is a lit candle; the dead do not wound you, they gutter you. When the wick fails, the vigil ends. The slain give up the lights that were lit for them. Gather those, lay them to rest, and grow strong enough to last the hour — because the night sends its officers in turn. At the tenth toll the Verger comes, who kept order in processions in life and keeps it still. At the twentieth, the Congregation: a golem pressed together out of the ash of everyone who ever prayed here. Survive until matins, the first prayer of dawn, and the bell has been kept one more night. Sweep up the ash at the end and the parish is restored by a little. Then the sun goes down again.

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