Alright, let's talk horses.
Here's the big question of the day/week/month... or hour/minute/moment:
DO HORSES EXIST IN THE WORLD OF DISHONORED?
I personally believe they do... but my belief is mostly speculation, so as a seeker of knowledge, I wish to pose the above question to you, my fellow Dishonored players, so you can tell me what you think.
Horse in steel barding pulling a coach
Evidence for:
First, we have this here pic:
Now, this picture was originally (from my understanding at least) pre-release artwork.
Carriages, railcars, and coaches are motorized in the actual game. Coaches seem to be able to travel OFF of the steel rails, thus making them more accessible to older areas of the city.
I would normally say then that the developers decided to drop the concept of horses. Perhaps it was too difficult to add them. Perhaps, the direction just went a different way. I mean after all this picture is just pre-release art and doesn't appear in the game... right?
Wrong.
The above picture DOES appear as a portrait IN-GAME. Thus, someone, some character in the game had to have painted it... and more than likely, said artist of said portrait had to have been aware of the animal that appears in this portrait.
Secondly, during the mission High Overseer Campbell, as you're messing around the area of John Clavering Boulevard, there are a number of random announcements. One of these mentioned what I thought was the name of a livery that was closed down due to the plague. Liveries are usually places where horses can get cared for, or even rented... BUT in some areas liveries can care for other types of animals including oxen. So, the livery could mean just about any beast of burden.
Well, turns out I remembered wrong. The actual name of the place/business that was closed was a Pennyworth's Tack and Saddle Emporium. Now, tack can be used for most beasts of burden (including again oxen). However, most saddles are NOT used by oxen, but rather.... yep, you guessed it: HORSES!
Now, could other animals use saddles? Yes. Camels, yaks, friggin' elephants... as well as mules and donkeys. Dishonored being a slightly fantasy based game, there could even be large canines, birds, or other creatures somewhere in the world that could also use saddles, but there's even less evidence of them existing than the horses.
Okay, so let's have some evidence against the existence of equines in our beloved game:
Firstly, Dunwall and by extension the Empire itself is highly militaristic. The Navy's always being mentioned. And more importantly, there is the City Watch of Dunwall. But what about the Cavalry?
Any mention of that? Of brave soldiers riding out with their horses and fending off whoever they're fending off?
Nope. Nadda. Nil. Nyet. Nein. None.
At first glance this would suggest that there is no cavalry because there's kinda no animal that could be used to create said cavalry. HOWEVER... up until The Knife of Dunwall DLC there was really no mention of the Dunwall Army either. I mean, based off of JUST the main game, there is exactly one guy... (ONE!) that wears the red coat of the Dunwall Army.
General Tobias
It's General Tobias for all of you people looking for him. This is him here:
He appears in the seventh mission, Return to the Tower. At first I thought he was just some super fancy Watch Officer. After Daud's DLC was released, however, I learned different. All members of Dunwall's Army wear red uniforms. They seem to work closely with the City Watch, but appear to be a separate force.
This led me to believe then, that perhaps there are other military groups out there that haven't been introduced to us. I mean there are even special units known as Estate Officers, so perhaps there are Cavalrymen out there that are waiting to be revealed.
Lastly for evidence against, there's always the actual LACK of a friggin' horse anywhere in the game. Okay, that in and of itself isn't really proof. I mean for example, there's a brothel known as the Golden Cat YET there are no feline creatures ANYWHERE in the game. Not even a mention outside of the title of the brothel, and a caricature of the animal of the sign.
Does that mean that cats don't exist? Mm... honestly, I believe they do. And therefore I believe that horses also exist in the game. But, that's just me.
So, let me know what you think. I'm interested in hearing thoughts on this matter.
And as always... thank you for taking the time to read my (long-winded) blog.