[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

[Cybolic]

I don't think the kids died in Mexico, the dates makes sense only if they were killed at the underground temple. Mandus sacrificed them in a ritual and ate their hearts.

I don't know... the Mexico expedition is often referred to as a tragedy and no-one mentions the children. The only evidence there is that the children are alive after that, are their two diary entries in October, which is found while Mandus still believes they are trapped somewhere in the machine so could be his imagination.

For example Father Jeremiah's Journal, October 1st 1899: "A changed man since Mexico. It is to be praised that in the face of such appalling tragedy, and from the confines of his sickbed, as he is often chained to, he conducts one of the greatest and most benevolent charities in all of London.".

If they are alive after Mexico, which tragedy are people referring to (it can't be the loss of his wife, that's many years previous and his illness is hardly a tragedy) and when does he then actually kill them?

I think it's possible - though I'm not sure I like that interpretation - that they died in Mexico; Mandus returned with high fever, eventually believing himself to have build his slaughterhouse into the Machine and sacrificed his children and that the whole game takes place in this fever fantasy.

The more I think about it, this explanation seems to make the most sense :/