Not unlike many other role-playing games, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 immediately thrusts the player knee-deep into its unique, bespoke universe. This often means catching up with the setting and the vibe of its world, but also with its unique verbiage. Gommage, specifically, is a term you'll quickly come to grips with, as it signifies the single most important event in the life of a Lumiere citizen: their death.

Down below, we've put together all the information we have on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Gommage. Crucially, this also includes a wealth of spoilers for the game in general. If you're not interested in having the story unravel in front of you and just want to make heads and tales of the whole thing, scroll on ahead. If, however, you'd prefer to figure things out at your own pace, know that Expedition 33 does explain all the important bits and bobs later on.

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What is the Gommage in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?

The Gommage is the process by which citizens of Lumiere die, more or less. It denotes the Paintress's wiping of the Monolith, leading to the deaths of everyone of that specific age. Following the Gommage, the Paintress writes a smaller number on the Monolith, which begins the next annual countdown to the next year's Gommage. The government of Lumiere is attempting to stop the Paintress from continuing her countdown by mounting Expeditions, but with 67 of them already having failed, it's not looking good.

That's the crux of the matter, and what follows below are SPOILERS.

Believe it or not, the city of Lumiere, the Continent, the Monolith, and all the characters found in Expedition 33 are actually the artificial creations of the Paintress's dead son. The Paintress (Aline), her husband (Renoir), her late son (Verso), and her daughter (Maelle/Alicia) are all meta-creatures that exist beyond the scope of the world of Expedition 33.

Following the death of the Aline's son, she chooses to live out the rest of her days in his painted creation: the city of Lumiere. Renoir opposes this and uses his substantial Chromatic powers to slowly chip away at his son's creations, which manifests through the annual event of the Gommage. Renoir's logic is that Aline will leave the world of Expedition 33 after it's all been torn down, and he doesn't care what this means for the citizens of Lumiere or the Continent.

What this all means is that the Paintress' Monolith is actually an attempt to warn the citizens of Lumiere of their impending doom, with the Gommage itself being a separate, if related process driven forward by Renoir himself.

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