[Flatcher Goth]

[Video]

As many of you know - in Gothic 1, the event of Xardas ' death was originally planned. In August 2000, the corresponding music written for this event was also published on this forum along with some other melodies. As you can guess, the reason for the publication was the fact that the developers in the course of developing the game were forced to abandon some of their ideas.
Some time ago, we decided to get more information about these canceled events, and for this reason, we contacted some ex-PB storywriters to get needed knowledges. One of them apparently managed to recall a rough vision of the event with the Death of Xardas. I enclose here an excerpt from an open interview given to our man:

- In an early version of the story, I believe that Xardas was turning into an opponent for the characters (at that time a co-op multiplayer design was evaluated but dropped). I am not sure about the details, but some shrouded thought in the back of my head recalls that the player might have played a role in defeating Xardas.
Gomez surely did have a short biography, but there were no plans at that time of what the NPCs would do after the fall of the barrier. When the biographies were written, the end of the game was still undecided in details.

- An unexpected twist, it reminded me of the behavior of Inquisitor Mendoza from game Risen, when the hero tried to imprison the Titan back into the trap, and Mendoza tried to try to subdue him to defeat the other titans. In PB team, it was decided to use their unused or discarded ideas in their future projects in reinterpreted versions, perhaps this is just the case. In Risen 1, the Saurian culture is also somewhat similar to the Orcish, especially the design of their underground dwellings. They, too, like the orcs most of the time sat in caves and at the end of the game, when the situation reached its apogee, got out and tried to destroy everything they came across on the way. (for example, an attempt to capture a monastery)
I try to answer this question myself - why would Xardas become an enemy for a hero? If Xardas was originally conceived as an enemy who did not want to destroy the barrier but to subdue the Archdemon could he also as in the release version before the final battle pretend to be an ally for the hero? If the situation unfolded as well as in the release version, and just before the final Xardas appeared and became something of a traitor to the hero when he learned the true motive of Xardas - to take over the world by subjugating Sleeper, then this is a very clever move that would definitely strengthen Story. Although on the other hand, Piranhas may have abandoned this idea, because Xardas was too important a person to just take him off the chessboard, because he could and should be used in the continuation of the story as a key character. Who knows.....
In the release version, Mad Cor Galom tries to awaken Sleeper. Maybe storyline with him was developed as a replacement for the discarded idea with Xardas.
Hmm, this thought already as the previously soared I have in subconscious.. I assumed that the storyline with Inquisitor Mendoza could have been developed on the basis of a discarded idea with Xardas... I'm hope that not mistaken and opposite - got right to the point...

PS: We are becoming more and more convinced that the Gothic plot from 2000 year is not compatible with the plot of the Gothic Sequel. Events with the death of Xardas and destroy of the old camp by orcs are not compatible with Sequel.
In case of implementation of Gothic with such a plot, the authors would have created a completely different continuation, the main action of which would have unfolded in a different place (Khorinis and surrounding areas) and they would not have made sense to return to this stupid template with repeated opposition to the sleeper and the use of their canceled ideas.
"True" Gothic 2 not would be like nor sequel nor a project "Gothic 2" developed in 2002.

[Konig Robar der 2.]

and there was me thinking Bodo Henkel just died.

[lali]

Well, a lot of speculation here but not much known for sure. We had already spoken about, that it is not a problem story wise if the orcs capture and partly destroy the old camp in the course of the G1 plot and humans find refuge there six or so months later, when the orcs are gone.

And the planned event related to Xardas is just delayed according to the Sequel, there is not that much problem from my point of view. But still I'm happy of this new stuff you find out and maybe you find something more, so that we do not need to speculate anymore on that.

Apart from the ending, the exact course of the KDW ritual would be useful or the exact planning related to the water cave's Corristo freepoints. But might be, that no one remembers that anymore.

[Kyle07]

I always thought that his sleep could be seen as some kind of death. Like for Y'Berion.

[Blue Force]

Gronkh?

[Gregox]

I asked and speculated many times about that track, when I first saw and listened to it. Either, like you said, Xardas was supposed to be an opponent at the end with a cutscene or his sleep was meant as his death.
Either way, I also wondered if they wanted to make him an enemy in Gothic 3, since the end of Gothic 2 hinted at Xardas having used the hero to achieve his goal to become the avatar of Beliar (even though he doesn't serve him).

Still, very interestin, what they planned with him. But I'm glad they decided to keep him alive as a key character.

[lali]

Hier wäre übrigens noch eine kleine Info dazu aus den Skripten, die auf andere Pläne hindeutet:
"Xardas im Alten Tempel (bevor er sich wieder wegteleportiert)" (in ZS_Intercept.d).