Lore and Theories

Although the lore of NiTS is not the focal point of the games, some information can be gathered through the fanart and the phone calls at the start of each night, with the sole exceptions of Night 5 and Night 7. (there is no Night 6)

Section 1: The Old Location
It can be loosely inferred that there was an old location from the art put up around the walls of the sewers (See the second image).

This location most likely housed the original versions of Powie, Kruggy, Gordon Ratsey, an unnamed rat animatronic, & a cat animatronic (See the third image).

OG Kruggy, Gordon Ratsey, and Powie may have cannibalized the unnamed rat animatronic to become the mutant versions of themselves. This would explain why both the mutant and regular version of the rats are present at the same time with the mutants being the original, "withered" versions of the rats.

The rat in the second image is just the withered version of OG Gordon Ratsey. The rat in the middle of image 1 is withered OG Kruggy.

It should be noted that there is a possibility that the unnamed Rat on the right in Image 1 is OG Joe Gi, however the rat is lacking his wig and gavel making it difficult to tell. If this is the case then the mutant animatronics would have had to cannibalize either the cat, which explains the question as to why there is no cat-matronic in NiTS, or a secret animatronic not yet seen.

There is also a possibility that there was an OG Peon that was cannibalized by Mutant Powie, hence the second, smaller head on his shoulder.

Section 2: The next generation
In the second image, you can see a magician ratmatronic, as well as a chef rat. This chef could be the exact same Gordon Ratsey in the main game, though the art is visually different than Gordon's model in-game.

On the other hand, the magician is unlike any other rat in the game, as it has never been seen. It could be the newer variant of the unnamed rat, possibly Peon (though this is dubious at best), or even a new design altogether.

What matters however, is that these rats appear to be in an industrial complex, likely similar to the one our player is in in the main game, potentially due to both being either being the exact same facility, or otherwise extremely similar. The original Powie seems to have gone rogue, no longer in charge of the shows, perhaps being jealous of the showtime these newer variants have, as opposed to him.

In addition, the rats also seem to have inert paranormal capabilities.

In Night 3, Phone Guy mentions that the rats are becoming "More human-like" & are also "Trying to communicate" with him. It can be assumed that, based on the fact there is no call on Night 5, he has joined the rats in either:


 * Their goals
 * OR
 * Freeing them from the sewer

For the final one, he states that "The Corporation is dissatisfied with our work". This could imply he is being fired for posing a threat to Corporation security.