The First Generation: The Origins of the Lost Tapes and Neutral Perks

Even though you wrote this theory a year ago I wanted to add a little bonus mini theory:

Maybe the first generation of survivors (or at least this group) was possibly these survivors from the launch trailer:

Even though it's not the same amount of survivors as there are the perks you've listed it's been said by the devs that the nurse has been in the Entity realm the longest out of all killers, maybe the trapper was here when this group of survivors came along or at least he's encountering them again. In this time.

I read somewhere that originally Claudette was white and Meg black. Could be that the launch trailer was made when that was still the case but I like your theory better

A really solid theory, and i hope the devs are going to let us dig deeper in the role

What if the reference to "the pioneers" in plunderers implies there were even more survivors before our cast? There could be a whole civilization somewhere inside the entities realm for all we know.

Also, when these quotes refer to 'he' do they talk about a killer or the Entity?

well, the 'she' comes from french grammar and its lack of a neutral form for stuff like this. maybe the survivors could have perceived it as a 'he' for a reason?

This is by far one the best theories I've read so far out there, and I was doing my own research for these perks. And a sad possibility from your theory of the first generation of survivors is that they are most likely to have gone to the Void. My only evidence of this is a quote from The Observer in Tome 2

"Several Survivors went mad trying to escape the trial. They had with them memories of previous incarnations so that one Survivor began dashing his head against a wall convinced he was reliving a nightmare he had just escaped. The other Survivors drowned him in mud to shut him up. It seems to me Survivors are torches growing dimmer and dimmer with every trial. Some stop to feel altogether and are doomed to The Void. Others go raving mad and need to be silenced by others."

Although it falls apart when there are 8 survivors instead of 7 as stated here, but #########, thinking about this is crazy when a puzzle piece is missing its chip and ruins the whole picture.

I feel like they do retain some part of their memories given that Déjà vu is a perk that has no real quote from a survivor. I think they all developed a sense of recollection when in a trial. With the perks that don't have a quote connected them you can actually make a story with just the names of said perks.

The survivors when they first start a trial are in shock and are overwhelmed by a feeling of dread (This is Not Happening). Their next trial is when they feel like they've been here before (Déjà vu). After a couple of other trials with failing each time they have developed a sense of knowing where the killer is or when he's approaching almost like a gut feeling (Premonition). They know what he plans and what he does, he hides his traps and it's not the first time they've been caught in one. Getting caught in one meant the demise of everything they worked hard for in trying to escape, although they've been caught in so many they know how to get out quicker than last time (Slippery Meat). They have to relive this nightmare every time they don't make it, and they were so close last time. They know what to do and know how quick they can be if they put their mind to it (Resilience). With freedom on the horizon they know they'll make it. (We'll Make It)

Of course once they do make it out that's when things go down hill. They can never leave and they start to go mad and lose hope. But hEY THAT'S JUST A THEORY.

Well since this was necro'ed again for some reason, I'll say I too really really like this theory.

And it can still hold true more than a year later in December 2020 as far as we know.

Soon when

It is heavily insinuated in the lore that the Entity takes a piece of survivors when they die, and that there appears to be a finite amount that survivors can take before they lose their spark and become useless.

From reading the lore, it sounds that - eventually - survivors lose their fighting spirit - that semblance of hope and workmanship. Because of this, as the Entity feeds on these aspects of humanity - their souls wither and wane until they become a numb husk that is incapable of feeling fear, incapable of feeling tension or joy. At these points, they are diluted beyond the Entity's ability to feed off of them, and are no longer useful.

My wife and I talked about this a lot and came to a singular conclusion:

There is a way that any survivor can escape the trial, any one of the survivors can either be banished - or finally allowed to die as the Entity refuses to replicate and resurrect them for eternity.

Death is not an escape.

Life is the escape.

What do all survivors have in common? They fight tooth and nail against the forces of darkness, and absolutely will not conform to the deathly nature of the world around them. To their dying breath - they kick and scream and struggle. They resist the terminal of their life.

What is the opposite of this? To give in, to conform and accept. To cease to struggle and to embrace the ending of their own life with open arms.

The Entity feeds on hope, on the struggle between killer and survivor - the entity becomes elated as the team of battered and bruised people inch their way ever closer to life - only to be cut down and dragged into the shadows for the ultimate destruction of that once vibrant hope, palpable frustration and anguish whets the being's appetite.

If you want to escape the Entity - give in. Hope for nothing, believe in nothing. Inure yourself to the world and embrace the oblivion.

Survivors never give in.

If you want to escape: give in.

I believe either one of these could be the case for the last batch of survivors. Perhaps they simply were Entity food for far too long and became useless - so they were simply 'discontinued' by the Entity, who removed them from the memory of the others to prevent the realization of the truth: if all survivors gave in, if all 31 survivors chose to give in and refuse the fight - to accept their place as food for the Entity... the Entity would starve. Perhaps some of those original survivors learned of this and chose to give in - to end their tenure in the Entity's Realm. Who knows, maybe the Entity placed them right back where they were initially abducted - maybe they got out of the realm and survived.

Maybe none of the survivors are the originals, and all we see are the Entity's perfect replicas to supply itself with an infinite supply of food. Perhaps the Entity simply had a change in pallet and stopped replicating certain survivors because it didn't like what they had to offer - what their collective consciousness added to the Fog. Maybe that's why we only have one perk each, the other two from each survivor is missing, because the Entity didn't like them in its trials - so the Entity kept the good ones and threw out the bad ones.

If this is the case, the Entity can get bored of a survivor's selection and ostensibly kill them, harvesting only the best one to continue in the minds of the other replicants that it creates for food.