Executor

The Executor (Исполнитель) is an orderly wearing a stage costume provided by the Theatre — a heavy cloak and a bird mask.

Description
"Orderlies—the volunteer medical assistants—use these costumes borrowed from the local theatre as protective cloaks. This is the traditional costume of the Reaper, an allegory of Death. The mask of Muu Shubuun, «the wicked bird.» Part of the Reaper costume from the local theatre. It doesn’t have eyeholes: the mask is mounted above an actor’s head, who peeks through a hole in the cloak."

- From the Pathologic 2 art book

Executors are characters who play many roles. Sometimes their presence is caused by in-game matters, such as the spread of infection or to deliver information to characters; in other cases, they breach the fourth wall in order to speak directly to the player — often appearing to explain discrete game mechanics or to represent the game’s developers.

The Executors will appear as both plague orderlies in protective costume, as well as figures of the Sand Plague. These figures are often referred to as Talon (known as Claw in Pathologic) and Beak, two Executors with a meta knowledge of the game's events. These specific Executors may be present during midnight pantomimes.

They are your ever-present companions who guide you through the game — or perhaps deceive you. They also appear at the end of each day at the Theatre to perform a pantomime based on the events of the day, or to predict the future.

It's hard to say how many Executors there are in the Town and if the Executor appearing here and there are the same two people or not.

Pathologic
When the player begins their journey as either the Bachelor, Haruspex, or Changeling an Executor (alongside a Tragedian if they are the Bachelor or the Changeling) will be waiting along some of their first steps, ready to explain to them how to play and exist in the word of Pathologic. They will teach the player information such as how to sate hunger and sate exhaustion, as well as how to manage time and dialogue.

If the player fails to complete certain crucial tasks, or if the Plague otherwise advances, an Executor will appear outside the door of a Bound who has fallen ill as a result. The player will be unable to speak with the sick individual unless they provide temporary medicine, or outright cure them.

On the final day of Pathologic an Executor can be spoken to in the Theatre regarding the events of the game. They, alongside the Tragedian, are refered to as "The People Who Executed the Whole Thing" and act as virtual stand-ins for the developers.

Pathologic 2
In Pathologic 2 the Sand Plague will appear as an Executor who until Day 10 is refered to only as ???. The Executor will mock the Haruspex's efforts and insist that they are going to be the winner of the story. After the events at the Crowstone the Executor will be named "Murky's Friend". On Day 10 following the infection of Isidor Burakh's List the Executor will then be refereed to as "Sand Plague".

Not all Executors are bad omens, however. Many of the Town's orderlies will don the garb of the Executor - a costume of Steppe creature called Muu Shubuun, "the wicked bird" - in order to protect themselves from the Sand Plague. The distribution of theatrical Executor costumes are overseen by the Bachelor.

On the midnight Pantomimes of Day 3, Day 4 and Day 10 the Executors Talon and Beak are the primary speakers. On the midnight of Day 3 Talon and Beak are present in the wings, and mock the efforts of the three healers on stage.

Pathologic: The Marble Nest
In Pathologic: The Marble Nest the Executor appear both as orderlies and manifestations of Death. On some occasions the same Executor may appear as both, flicking in and out of their orderly persona and their true meaning of Death. An Executor is the one to reveal to the Bachelor that he is truly dreaming, lost in his sickness-addled mind. Outside of the dream he is dying and the Executor offers to allow him to pass. The Bachelor may take the Executor's offer or, instead, he may becoming the Player and refuse to die, beginning the cycle anew.

Gallery
Pathologic 2=