Lore Dive: Adam Francis
Overview:
On the surface, some people may not have much to say about someone in particular. However, if you take a closer look, then the words that someone initially said would have drastically changed. Adam Francis is a very straightforward, yet mysterious individual who many glance over. What many fail to recognize is that Adam Francis may be one of the most important pieces to the overall story of Dead By Daylight, as studying the story of Adam gives valuable insight that is hard to come across in many other characters. In this post, I will be doing a lore analysis on Adam Francis and will try to review as much as I possibly can. REMINDER: In no way is all of this information confirmed. Some of this information is just theorized.
General Background:
From Adam’s backstory, we learn that he was born in Rollington Town in Kingston, Jamaica. Very early on in his life, Adam lost his father when he was 2 to a car accident. Because of this, his uncle took care of him. It is highly probable that his uncle is his father’s brother as there is zero mention of Adam’s mother.
Throughout school, Adam was very studious, preferring to focus on his studies under the guidance of his uncle who taught Adam to greatly value education. These studies would go on to stick with Adam for the rest of his life. The entirety of Adam’s childhood wasn’t completely peaceful, however, as he was a target for bullies. However, Adam refused to entertain the idea of being bothered by the bullies because of his strength of character. Adam quickly learned that he did not need to fight them to prove that he was better than them, resulting in the bullying not having a heavy impact on him.
After high school, Adam studied at Kingston College to become a teacher and discovered his father’s published works, indicating that his father could be a notable alumni for Kingston College. During his college years, he met some friends who all had an interest in music, implying that a hobby of Adam’s was most likely listening to music. However, that would only remain a hobby as he saw his life path sticking with education. Thanks to his studying and high grades, he earned admission to higher education at an unknown university. During this time, Adam noticed a demand for teachers abroad. After studying at university, Adam eventually graduated and was ready for the next step in his life.
Before he could travel abroad, Adam needed to earn some extra money for the trip overseas. Therefore, he decided to teach some extra classes. For the next year, Adam had to work extra hard by teaching extra classes and was eventually able to afford a plane ride. Adam applied for a position in Kagoshima, Japan, and earned the position.
At first, Adam was disoriented, living with a hectic schedule and not being very fluent in Japanese. However, he quickly adapted after a few months and found his flow. He was beginning to feel connected with his students through extra-curricular activities, gained more experience with his language skills, and even exceeded the expectations of the school, resulting in him being able to treat himself to luxurious restaurants and already plan his first vacation. This suggests that Adam is a highly-skilled teacher and likely earned a higher pay. However, this would not last.
One day while riding a train to work, the train lost control and derailed, flipping upside down as a result. Chaos occurred as passengers screamed and panicked. To Adam, it was as if his whole world slowed down. He watched as an unhinged door flew right at a nearby passenger. The last thing Adam did was to take the hit instead of the girl by rolling in the way to save her life. He prepared for the impact and shut his eyes, ready for whatever may happen next.
What happened was not what he expected though as he opened his eyes to find himself and the train surrounded by fog. Ice flowed through his body as a dark whisper was hardly audible as Adam drifted off into a sleep. Little did Adam know, he was now in the Realm of The Entity.
Compared to other survivor backstories released around the same time as Adam’s, we are able to gain a decent amount of information about Adam. However, there are still multiple mysteries surrounding his character. The first I would like to cover is about his parents.
The Mystery Behind Adam’s Parents
A common theme surrounding many characters in Dead By Daylight is the relationship with their parents. These relationships range from being very healthy, very unhealthy, or somewhere in the middle. For Adam, however, he never got to have a relationship with his parents. In the case of Adam’s mother, we hear absolutely nothing about her as Adam’s background makes zero comment about her. Meanwhile, we do get to learn a little bit about Adam’s father. As covered previously, Adam’s father most likely was a teacher as he had published works at Kingston College, the school where he most likely went. However, when Adam was only 2 years old, he died in a vehicular accident. IF you’re thinking that this sounds familiar, it’s because it should as there are very large similarities between Adam and his own father. These similarities lead me to believe the next topic of this lore dive; repeating history.
Repetition of History
After studying the background of Adam and his father, I picked up on a crucial pattern that their history is quite similar.
- Both went to Kingston College
- Both became teachers
- Both had published works (heavily implied that Adam had published works during his time as a teacher)
- Both “died” in vehicular accidents
If we consider the possibility that history is repeating itself, then that could mean that Adam and his father could have been in the vehicle at the same time at the time of his father’s death. I believe what may have happened is that a tragic impact could have killed Adam, so instead of it doing so, Adam’s father swerved the car in the opposite direction so he could take the impact, sacrificing himself in the process. Adam did a very similar thing on the train ride. He sacrificed himself to save a kid, but after that, he was captured by The Entity. If we consider that history is repeating itself, then that could mean that Adam’s father was also captured by The Entity. But why? Why would The Entity want to capture both Adam and his father?
The Ice
The very close similarities between Adam and his father can infer that there could be other very close similarities. Perhaps one additional similarity could be the transition into The Entity’s Realm. Whenever Adam was in the process of getting transferred into The Entity’s Realm, something peculiar happened first.
“Ice seemed to flow through his body, reaching his lips first, then the tip of his fingers before spreading to his legs. Lulled by the warm hum of the dark whisper, he closed his eyes, drifting.”
Given from what we can read from Adam’s backstory, we can tell that he is a reliable narrator. The event of his father’s “death” at the age of 2 was what he was probably told by his uncle. Therefore, it would be perfectly normal for the backstory to say that Adam’s father died as that is what Adam was told. So when it comes to this final transition stage, we read that Adam’s body was traveling through and around his body. No other survivor experienced ice surrounding themself except for Adam. The first thing that comes to mind is The Entity possibly trying to preserve Adam for an unknown reason. However, if we consider that the same thing happened to Adam’s father, then his father would have had this same experience, but perhaps with a different outcome. I have a few theories on what the ice could mean.
Theory #1: Adam’s Parents are part of a previous generation of Imperiatti and Adam is an indirect old Pariah
With this possibility, it would explain the extreme mystery behind Adam’s mother not being present, but also can explain the disappearance with Adam’s father. This can give us more insight as to what The Entity does to members of The Imperiatti. We already know that The Entity will use The Pariahs as survivors for its trials, but The Imperiatti would be different. The Imperiatti was the group that directly tried to battle The Entity. I believe The Pariahs were meant to serve as the next generation should the current Imperiatti fall. Knowing this, it is possible that The Entity preserves The Imperiatti within ice due to them being a risk. This would mean that The Entity does have additional powers that have to do with ice that have not been previously seen before. In terms of alleviating risks, The Entity would not want to have another situation like it had with Talbot Grimes, so the risk of roaming Imperiatti members alone is enough to not let them have the chance. This could match Adam to be an unofficial Pariah due to serving in the trials, but this remains unknown. Additionally, there is still one question: Why try to preserve Adam in the ice?
Theory #2: The Entity fought over Adam with another unknown Ancient
This theory is interesting as the idea of introducing more ancients in the world of Dead By Daylight always fascinated me. However, we still need to determine whether this makes sense or not. What this theory proposes is that while Adam was in the transition phase, an ancient at the caliber of The Entity tried to capture Adam for itself. This unknown ancient has frost-like powers and attempted to encase Adam in ice for an unknown reason, possibly preservation. However, The Entity fought off this ancient, therefore preserving Adam for itself. Adam then wakes up in The Entity’s Realm and the rest is history. Once again, however, we still have the same question from the previous theory: Why try to preserve Adam in the ice?
Adam’s New Purpose
After reviewing both possible theories, both have the same question despite having their differences. As for which theory is more possible, there is just no way to know for sure and is left up to speculation. The first theory ties Adam’s parents in perfectly and fills in those blanks, but one power that we have never seen of The Entity’s is ice. The second theory elaborates much more on the ice, but the fate of Adam’s parents is left completely obscured. Regardless of which theory you believe in, there is still an extremely important reason for preserving Adam in the ice. That reason is Adam’s potential.
Regardless of the theory you believe in, The Entity saw a lot of potential in Adam for a specific reason. We know that The Entity greatly prefers individuals with potential as we have seen in the example with The Spirit. In case people don’t know, The Spirit’s father was originally going to become a killer, but The Spirit had more potential. Therefore, The Entity took her rather than her father. When it comes to survivors, I believe The Entity captures those with potential as well. Although the primary goal is to consume the survivors’ hope, there are a few that have unique traits that have come very close to beating The Entity such as Talbot Grimes (The Blight). Talbot used to be a survivor, but after a very long battle and quest for finding a way out of The Entity’s Realm, he ultimately failed and became a killer. Adam is another special case that I believe The Entity wanted to focus on. With both theories, The Entity ultimately prevents Adam from getting trapped in ice. Why? Because of his potential. This potential that Adam has built up on his entire life is what I believe The Entity admires about Adam. An admiration that would lead to a special kind of long-term “experiment”.
The Entity’s Experiment on Adam Francis
It was not clear at first as to how skilled of a survivor Adam would be, but similar to Adam adapting to life in Kagoshima, he would adapt to The Entity’s Realm. Unique perks of survivors are what I believe defines them to the core. If you look at Adam’s perks, all three of his unique perks adapt to the primary, yet broad three threats in a trial:
- Diversion: Used to avoid getting caught in the first place. Adam quickly learned that if he could prevent being found, then he would not have to worry about anything else.
- Deliverance: Should he get caught, Adam’s sheer willpower to escape the primary source of a sacrifice further proved that The Entity’s hunch that Adam had potential was right. Adam’s ability to completely defy the odds and escape from a meat hook is exceptionally powerful from a lore standpoint.
- Autodidact: Able to greatly assist his allies within the trials. If we only consider survivors with their unique perks and if all perks are at optimal level, then Adam has one of, if not the best healing skills out of all the survivors, further proving his competence.
So what is the point of all of this? The answer is to use Adam as a test. However, Adam is not just some labrat. He is much more. He is possibly The Entity’s newest adversary.
The Entity Finds Adam to be a Worthy Adversary
Considering Adam’s past, his potential, and later proven capabilities, I believe that The Entity finds Adam to be a worthy adversary. There are multiple hints and additional details to explain in this segment. Remember, Adam had neither of his parents around for long and was eventually taken in by his uncle. His uncle was the one to teach him all that he knows for the most part, with his father possibly being an influence when it comes to a career choice. Therefore, there is a particular relationship that Adam has with The Entity.
The Entity admires Adam’s skills, therefore,
The Entity admires Adam’s uncle’s teachings
The Entity wants to further secure its Realm
But wants Adam to find the weak points
Another example of The Entity’s prediction is through some cosmetics. Adam’s Hallowed Blight and Deep Rift outfits have similar, but important descriptions that further explain Adam’s potential:
“An overwhelming amount of research lay scattered and disorganized across Vigo’s workshop. He did what he could to recover the most important work.” - Hallowed Blight Outfit
“An overwhelming amount of research lay scattered and disorganized across Vigo’s workshop. He did what he could to recover anything about this realm.” - Deep Rift Outfit
Although it is unknown if it was Adam who collected the research or if it was a previous professor who wore it, it slightly links Adam to further potential that The Entity saw in him.
There are not only these details, but more obscure ones that no one would think twice about when it comes to Adam’s lore. However, this next point has the potential to further support The Entity’s admiration for Adam. The way this admiration is shown is through cosmetics. Specifically, the winter sweaters.
The Winter Sweaters Symbolize The Entity’s Respect for Adam
Definitely one of the biggest stretches in this lore dive, but not completely out of the question, there is a possibility that the winter sweaters show a little more of The Entity’s thoughts. To start, we have to go back to the Ice Theories. Again, regardless of which theory you believe in, Adam was about to be encased in ice. However, whether The Entity saw more potential in him than the Imperiatti or if The Entity fought off the other cosmic ancient, Adam ended up as a survivor in The Entity’s Realm. I think that the dates of when characters come into the game did not have much of an impact on the lore, but for this case, I think it matters. Adam Francis was first introduced on September 18, 2018. However, when you look at when the winter sweaters were released, they were released on December 17, 2018, 90 days after Adam was introduced into the game. Once again, I don’t think that release date of characters defines how long they have been in The Entity’s Realm as we have characters like Vittorio Toscano who can immediately prove that theory false, but in the case of the winter sweaters, I think it matters. If The Entity wanted to watch Adam prove he is capable for 90 days, I think that is plenty of time to then be impressed with Adam’s performance. Therefore, The Entity would have celebrated. Celebrations of The Entity are not out of the question as The Entity’s birthday was canonically celebrated. The first appearance of The Entity’s birthday was in Arcus 129 of Tome 3:
“A knock at the door and an invitation attached to a bottle of whiskey waiting for me at the foot of the door. I kneeled to inspect the invitation. “You are cordially invited to The Entity’s Birthday”. The Entity has a birthday? Am I losing my mind… my grip or reality… whatever that actually means here… Is this some kind of a prank by a marooned soul?”
This is not a prank as the cutscene from Tome 11 shows another appearance of The Entity’s birthday party:
Tome 11 - Devotion: The House of Arkham (The Observer) - Dead by Daylight
This proves that celebrations for The Entity are very much real and that The Entity bringing in winter sweaters would be no exception. As for where the cosmetics come from, The Entity is responsible from a lore standpoint for bringing in the cosmetics, giving survivors the illusion of things they may have worn while possibly giving them additional fragments of hope in the process. The thing that stands out about the winter sweaters is their symbolism. Specifically, two points are prominent. First, the primary use of sweaters is to keep yourself warm and to avoid the cold. This ties back to the Ice Theories and how The Entity rejected the ice freezing over Adam regardless of it was out of fear of power from an equivalent to that of an Imperiatti or if it was fighting off another ancient. The Entity could have then manifested the sweaters and gave the sweaters to the survivors as an indirect celebration of its continued power. The second is quite possibly the most important point: the descriptions of the sweaters. I understand that some may think that they are just random descriptions slapped on by the developers, but taking second glances at little details shows deeper meaning. Some descriptions are straightforward like a narrator, others are indirectly taunting the survivors, others point out flaws of survivors, and a select few show what I believe is a personality of The Entity.
One example of a basic description would be with Felix’s sweater. This description is incredibly basic and in no way implies anything specific:
“A cozy, professional sweater for mingling with executives during the winter season.”
A sweater that indirectly taunts the survivor could be with Jake’s sweater:
“Well, it’s a happy ending for the bears.”
Feng Min’s sweater’s description, when considering her backstory, points out a critical flaw of hers: perfection and keeping her fans happy, something she got overwhelmed by. This description tries to pressure her:
“Just because it’s the Holidays, that’s no excuse to neglect gaming. There are people to beat and XP to gain!”
A few sweaters show rare glimpses of what I believe is The Entity showing a fascination with humanity’s culture. One example could be with Kate’s sweater:
“Wild Horses and music. The untamed and the untamable.”
We can even see The Entity adapting to humanity’s culture and gaining an understanding of it. The description of Ace’s sweater shows that The Entity may have even gone the lengths to learn what games we play:
“It’s time to show your winning hand.”
However, even after reviewing all of the sweaters, there are none that bear the same meaning behind Adam’s and further support why I believe The Entity finds Adam impressive. Adam’s Teacher’s Pet sweater reads:
“I really can’t show favoritism. But you’re the best.”
Whether we will see Adam Francis rise up to the caliber of Talbot Grimes or Vigo has yet to be known, but it is definitely a decent possibility that he could be a future or current key player in finding out more about The Entity’s Realm and maybe even a new escape route out of the Realm.
Thanks For Reading!
If you made it this far, then thank you so much. Regardless of how much of this lore dive people read, I appreciate your time. I understand that some of these theories could be leaps, but that is part of the point of these lore dives: to theorize what could be. Adam Francis has always been an underrated character in my opinion and I’m really happy that I took another look at his story as it really does make me interested about the answers we have only for me to ask more questions. Once again, not all of this information is confirmed as a lot of it is theorized. Let me know what you think!
Thanks,
icemancat
Comments
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That was an interesting read! I'm not fully up with the lore, so I don't feel qualified to offer too much judgement. One thing I will suggest though, is that I'm not too sure about the potential for Adam to be connected to the Pariahs, at least through BHVR's initial design / intentions.
What I've noticed is that they tend to do things in batches, like it's laid out on a roadmap at the start of the year or similar, before changing direction the following year. An easy / visual example of this is the Boon / Scourge Hook era - they were happening every chapter for a while and then just dropped.
In this case, I think I've seen something similar about the Pariahs, i.e. Elodie / Felix etc. all come out around the same time, and people are quick to express disappointment that these chars never got a tome. It's like they had a plan for the Pariahs to be a very big deal, and then either panicked and backed out, or somebody higher up chose to go a different direction for the year ahead, pulling the plug on developing the Pariahs in the process.
That's just my theory anyway. My point being that I think Adam comes out much sooner than the Pariahs were likely to have been conceived, if that makes sense?
I've enjoyed reading your workings! But I wouldn't put too much stock in the Ice thing either, personally. It feels more like an individual writer's interpretation of Entity intervention. i.e. a tangible descriptive effect, rather than a deeper meaning. I'd be very surprised if they broke their own perfectly meta all encompassing connected world by introducing a rival to the Entity! Haha!
Please don't let me discourage you! I too feel Adam has potential to fill a bigger role! My head canon is formed largely around a picture I saw on twitter a while back of the the mystery of his disappearance or similar. In my head he's been a mysterious enigma ever since, working / investigating something big in the overworld of the fog. I too put stock in the character perks as reflections of their character, and I love the potential that Deliverance affords to just disappear at will!
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Another thing to note: if I recall correctly, adams perks were based on working hard for a powerful effect.
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Interesting, do you know where this recollection comes from? Is it from the perk descriptions themselves, or was it something discussed by the developers around his time of release? Just curious, no pressure to answer!
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Great stuff! I’m not clued up on the lore so it was a very interesting and entertaining read! Maybe you could do a YouTube vid - you seem very meticulous and well versed - I think it would translate well on the Tube!
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always nice to see these huge explorations about the greater meaning or purpose of a character.
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Mostly the fact that his whole backstory revolves around working hard for success, and his perks reflect that by all needing to be earned (Autodidact = healing penalties for a bit, deliverance = unhooking another person first, P E B B L E = being in the killers terror radius.
I just thought it was neat that his perks fit the theming of his lore.
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Ah fair enough! Was just curious to see if I missed something by not being around at the time of his release! Thank you. :)
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