A Plague Tale: Innocence recap — Explaining the story so far to prepare for Requiem

The A Plague Tale series from Asobo Studio and Focus Entertainment reimagines 14th-century France and the Black Death with an alternative history featuring more tragedy, supernatural elements, and danger. In 2019, A Plague Tale: Innocence began the journey of siblings Amicia and Hugo de Rune as they scrambled to survive a hostile and unfriendly world. Now, players can continue the story in A Plague Tale: Requiem, set months after the events that transpired in its predecessor.

As it has been years since many players explored the world created in A Plague Tale: Innocence, necessitating a summary of all that happened in the first half of this incredible story. A Plague Tale: Requiem is the conclusion of Amicia and Hugo’s journey, and requires knowledge of their past to make sense of their present.

Being a recap of everything that happened in A Plague Tale: Innocence, this guide is packed with spoilers. If you still intend to play Innocence or have yet to finish it, I suggest avoiding reading further in this guide. A Plague Tale: Innocence is still one of the best games on Xbox, even if Requiem improves and expands on it in every way. Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about the story of A Plague Tale: Innocence, and where the long-awaited sequel picks up.

The tale of Amicia and Hugo de Rune

A Plague Tale: Innocence and Requiem follows the stories of Amicia and Hugo de Rune, siblings of a minor noble family in 14th-century France. Amicia is the eldest daughter of the de Rune family, and is the apple of her father Robert’s eye. Hugo, Amicia’s younger brother, is confined to his rooms due to a mysterious illness that has afflicted him since birth and causes regular seizures. Amicia and Hugo’s mother, Beatrice, is often close to Hugo to care for his needs and research how his illness may be cured.

During this period, the 100 Years War between England in France is ongoing, while the stories of the terrible Black Death plague have reached even the noble family of a modest French town. Innocence begins with Amicia and Lord Robert de Rune embarking on a friendly adventure through the forests surrounding their estate, with Robert teaching Amicia how to perfect her use of the sling and use it to hunt. Unfortunately, this peaceful time doesn’t last long before disaster strikes.

Amicia’s hunting dog and faithful companion, Lion, is killed in a horrific manner by the earliest signs of A Plague Tale’s infamous ravenous rat hordes. Lord Robert and Amicia quickly hurry back to the de Rune estate, where Amicia is commanded to check on Hugo and Beatrice while he prepares to investigate the ominous threat occupying his lands.

Shortly after Amicia is reunited with her brother and mother, the Inquisition appears at the de Rune estate under the command of the brutal Captain Nicholas. Without remorse, the Inquisition executes Lord Robert de Rune and begins slaughtering the servants of the de Rune estate in search of Hugo. Beatrice, Amicia, and Hugo must flee their family estate to escape the Inquisition, but Beatrice is left behind and believed to be killed in the process. Suddenly, Amicia and Hugo are orphaned in an impossibly large and hostile world, beset on all sides by Inquisition soldiers and the continued arrival of murderous rat hordes.

So the tale of Amicia and Hugo de Rune begins in A Plague Tale: Innocence.

An adventure through A Plague Tale: Innocence

Hugo’s biggest challenge throughout A Plague Tale: Innocence is dealing with his separation from the safety and familiarity of his home and mother, while Amicia struggles with the realities of the world outside her home. In a matter of hours, the 15-year-old girl loses her family and home, is saddled with the responsibility of caring for an ill brother she barely knows, witnesses terrible atrocities, and is forced to kill and fight to survive. Both Amicia and Hugo are tested by their ordeals, and must learn to rely on each other to have any hope of success.

At the beginning of their journey, Amicia and Hugo follow the only lead they have available to them, given before their separation by their mother, Beatrice. The duo search for a local doctor, Laurentius, who may be able to help Hugo manage his worsening condition. During this search, Amicia and Hugo discover that the Black Death plague has reached the settlement their family oversaw, and has resulted in a mob-like mentality from the locals. Amicia and Hugo are inadvertently separated, and Amicia is forced to take a life for the first time in order to reunite with her younger brother.

After learning that the plague-riddled rats that are now swarming over France avoid light at all cost, build nests out of human remains, and will voraciously consume any flesh they can find, Amicia and Hugo finally track down the whereabouts of Laurentius. Unfortunately, Laurentius has contracted the plague due to his proximity to the rats’ victims, and is on his deathbed. The duo instead meet his apprentice, Lucas, who suggests that the besieged siblings search for Château d’Ombrage, the ancient ruins of a castle that may provide safety from the Inquisition.

Lucas joins Amicia and Hugo after rats destroy the farm where he and Laurentius lived, showcasing that the danger of the rats is far more than their bite. While they journey to Château d’Ombrage, Lucas teaches Amicia and Hugo that the name of his crippling illness is the Prima Macula, although he knows little about the nature of the disease. Shortly after, the group comes across a pair of thieves looting a battlefield they were crossing, and Amicia and Hugo are arrested by English soldiers. The English intend to sell the siblings to the Inquisition.

Fortunately, Melie and Arthur, the thieves responsible for Amicia and Hugo’s predicament, are convinced to help them escape by Lucas. The freshly expanded group head to Château d’Ombrage, which appears to be a suitable and fortified home capable of repelling the rats. In order for Lucas to work on a cure for Hugo, though, he’ll need an ancient book known as the Sanguinis Itinera.

Amicia travels to the nearby city of Guyenne, home to a University possessing the Sanguinis Itinera and information on the Order, a mysterious organization of alchemists that are linked in some way to Hugo’s disease. It’s also home to the Cathedral, where the Inquisition is based. While traveling through the city, Amicia learns that the Inquisition is after Hugo because the Prima Macula is intrinsically linked to the rats and the plague.

While searching for the Sanguinis Itinera, Amicia meets Rodric, the young son of a blacksmith, who helps her find the book. As they escape, they learn that Vitalis, the leader of the Inquisition, intends to use Hugo and the Prima Macula to dominate the world, although it’s still not clear at this point how Hugo’s condition has the power to do this.

Weeks pass with the group — now six strong — safely resting at the Château d’Ombrage. When Amicia and Hugo learn that their mother is still alive, however, and is being held prisoner by the Inquisition, it causes Hugo’s condition to dramatically worsen nearly to the point of his death. Pushed to find more answers not provided by the Sanguinis Itinera, Amicia and Lucas return to the de Rune estate to follow Beatrice’s footsteps.

At the de Rune estate, Amicia and Lucas discover Beatrice’s secret alchemist laboratory, where they learn that the Prima Macula is an ancient disease that is directly responsible for the onset of the plague and its incredibly powerful, terrible rat swarms. In Hugo’s blood is the power to change the world with the plague, and potentially the power to end it as well. The duo learn about the Justinian Plague, which strongly resembled the modern Black Death and was also caused by a Carrier of the Prima Macula. With Beatrice’s research and lab, Lucas is able to create an elixir to help Hugo combat the progression of the disease.

After Hugo is saved, he flees the Château d’Ombrage in a desperate attempt to rescue his mother, leaving Amicia and the group behind. During his rescue attempt, Hugo learns that the Prima Macula gives him the ability to summon and control rats, although he is captured by the Inquisition and fails to rescue his mother. Weeks later, Captain Nicholas of the Inquisition attacks the Château d’Ombrage with Hugo’s deadly abilities, killing Arthur in the process. Fortunately, Amicia is able to get through to Hugo and works together with him to defeat Captain Nicholas.

Château d’Ombrage has been overwhelmed by rats, but the group already has a plan in mind. Amicia, Hugo, Lucas, Melie (distraught by the death of her brother), and Rodric set out to defeat Vitalis, stop the Inquisition from using Hugo and the Prima Macula, and rescue Beatrice de Rune from their grasp. On the way to the Cathedral, Rodric gives his life to protect Amicia and Hugo.

Finally, the conclusion to the weeks-long battle with the Inquisition comes to a head when Amicia and Hugo confront Vitalis. It is revealed that Vitalis used Hugo’s blood to obtain the power of the Prima Macula, and intends to use the disease to unleash rats on the world. Amicia and Hugo work to defeat Vitalis, with Hugo battling Vitalis’ rats while Amicia uses her sling. In the end, Vitalis falls, the rats retreat and the plague quiets, and Beatrice is saved. Guyenne is all but destroyed, but the Inquisition has been defeated and Hugo is no longer in immediate danger from the Prima Macula.

Melie chooses to leave the group and find her own way, bereft of her brother’s companionship. Amicia, Hugo, and Beatrice de Rune, along with Lucas (who intends to learn from Beatrice as an alchemist), set off to leave Guyenne and the past events behind in search of safety and answers for Hugo. Innocence is left behind as well, and the first half of Amicia and Hugo’s story is concluded.

Where A Plague Tale: Requiem begins

A Plague Tale: Requiem is set six months after the ending of Innocence. Amicia, Hugo, Beatrice, and Lucas are traveling to find Magister Vaudin, a respected member of the Order. Beatrice is also involved with the Order, a group of alchemists that specialize in the research and treatment of the Prima Macula. Beatrice believes that the Order will be able to help Hugo and find a cure, although Amicia is not as confident.

For weeks, Hugo has been afflicted by a recurring dream showing an island possessed of two mountains, a fiery bird, and a mysterious pond at the foot of a giant tree, the waters of which capable of reversing the effects of the Prima Macula and healing him. Amicia will have to decide how best to help the brother she has grown to fervently love, who continues to be negatively affected by the persistent progression of the disease with which he was born.

During A Plague Tale: Requiem, players will meet new characters like Sophia and Arnaud, and will need to unravel the final mysteries behind the Prima Macula and its history. This is the final chapter of Amicia and Hugo’s story, with the duo traveling to all-new lands in search of peace, safety, and an end to the violence, death, and destruction that trails them wherever they go.