I think it’s interesting to find out who these people are. I’m assuming they are Ivo Shandor followers from “The Cult of Gozer”.
The “missing reward” image is strange.
Why the recurring theme of the octopus? Is it a callback to Cthulhu? Or is the disemboweling of the octopus in deference to Tiamat (the enemy of Gozer) who was depicted as a salt water creature in ancient descriptions.
Why does the octopus have eyes all over its body?
Why is there a person with Down’s syndrome in one of the pictures. The Cult of Gozer doesn’t sound like the club that would be welcoming to disabled people.
And what does “Briggs caught with no monkey” mean?
And why on Earth is there a man in a dress?
PS: The Doritos logo is the 2000-2005 version though, not the 1991 version.
A good number of the portraits are from Shandor Island, of the various members of the Shandor family. A couple are portraits featured in the New York Public Library.
The newspaper, board with the Subway map and lobby are not ones I recognise… A couple may be from deleted content from the game.
The board full of architectural renderings is probably from the architecture office in the Times Square level.
I don’t recognise the collection of signs and notices, that may be from the Times Square/parade levels.
The kitchenware and Doritos images might be unused adverts.
Octopi are creepy, and suggestive of otherworldly creatures like the Lovecraftian old ones.
Man in a dress? That’s Ivo Shandor’s mother, Ilyssa Selwyn’s ancestor.
I figured something like that. I believe they are also meant to represent members of the “Cult of Gozer” or Gozer worshippers, not just family.
I also think that the people portrayed were part of the team at Terminal Reality / Sierra, etc. It would be nice to figure out who these people are. This is like the ultimate easter egg / treasure hunt in GBTVG.
For example; I think this may be the Lead Level Designer Andy Dombroski
The guy on the right of the first pic and and second from the left on the second pic could be Shawn Spetch the Environment Artist. The third guy from the left could be Brendan Goss the Executive Producer.
Spoiler!- > I’m still leaning toward the Gozer / Tiamat battle explanation as heard in the audio logs in the museum level. That Tiamat banished Gozer from our world.
Tiamat was exclusively a salt water God (primordial goddess of the salt sea). The interesting thing about octopi (and all cephalopods) is that they are exclusively salt water creatures and cannot exist in fresh water. None of them.
The imagery of the Cult of Gozer manhandling and apparently dissecting(?) the octopi in the paintings leads me to think it is symbolism of condescension against Tiamat.
Spoiler! → Also with Shandor having eliminated Gozer, it would make sense that the Island might have latent remnants of Tiamat haunting it as shown in the concept art.
The eyes all over the body still puzzle me though. Neither Tiamat, Cthulhu or the Kraken myths feature that detail.
I wish some of the artists who made the drawings could come to this forum and comment to stop us guessing though
