Anna is in essence the Goddess Diana, the Goddess of fertility, growth and nature.

She has existed and been worshiped since before the Bronze Age, as the protagonist discovers through reading texts and combining his intuitions.

When a man and a woman married, Anna's cultists would vow themselves not only to each other, but to the earth goddess. The bride would be seen to be a priestess of the Goddess, and any transgression against her would also be done against the Goddess. The Goddess could forgive such transgressions only "through acts of penitence or harsh punishments."

During parts of the wedding ritual, the groom would replace the name of his wife with that of the Goddess, Anna.

Anna is associated with the Maple Tree.

One day, a young man is injured in the woods. Anna comes upon him, brings him back to her house and uses simple medical herbs to heal him.

The young man's life is saved and he falls in love with Anna, but when the local villagers hear his reports of being saved from death by the reclusive woman, they accuse her of witchcraft and she is burnt at the stake.

Anna grows furious [at men].

NB: Given what the lore tells us about the nature of females in the cult, it's possible that this witch was merely a remaining cultist of Anna, and not the Goddess herself.

Some years later, a young male sculptor is hired by the nobility of the Italian Alps to carve a statue of a repentant Mary Magdalene. Looking for inspiration, the craftsman walks into the nearby forest, only to glimpse an enchanting young woman. Losing sight of her and unable to find her again, he returned to his sculpting task and sets to recreating the woman's likeness so he might 'see her again.' The sculptor works day and night and eventually starves to death, leaving the statue completed before him. Everyone assumes it's intended to be Mary Magdalene. Documents in the game suggest that that one of the noble family who commissioned the work falls in love with the statue.

At some point the statue ends up in the local church.

In subsequent years, the statue draws in young men, causing within them a strong infatuation, making them forget their female love interests. Such is made more peculiar to the priests as they note that their gifts are reminiscent of offerings to pagan deities.

The lives of men are consumed and destroyed by their love for the statue of Anna.

Some years later, a sabot craftsman wanders through the woods and encounters the beautiful Anna and immediately gains an intense affection. Asking woodsman of her identity, they suppose it is the mythologized witch of the region, which they call Anna.

The devoted Sabot maker researches Anna and supposes she's not a regular woman, but a magical entity. He sets to learning of her cult from locally sourced magical texts. In the course of his studies, he finds that the temple of Anna has been long hidden beneath the ancestral house he shares with his brother. Assuming this is an act of fate, he acquires the masks described in these texts (masks created through alchemy to reproduce sight of the supernatural found rarely in some humans) to summon the goddess, so he might see her once more.

His brother questions his insanity and tries to break him free of his madness, but to no avail.

NB: I can't find anything about the Sabot maker after this point. Feel free to comment on this point. Due to the wooden figures throughout the game, it is perhaps possible that he was turned into one of these himself, given the in-game texts elucidating that the Goddess may punish those who perform the forbidden summoning ritual. This is further supported by 'The Sabot Maker's Way' ending, in which the protagonist of the game is himself, turned into a wooden figure.

The Sabot Maker is the reason all of the magical goods in the game reside in the house; they are the leftovers of his discovery of the temple and his summoning of Anna.

The main story of the game takes place within the Sabot maker's ancestral house.

The plot reveals that the protagonist, his wife and two infants have contracted with the descendant of the afforementiond Sabot Maker (Notice the Sabot, two mountains and tower in the land lord's family crest; on the contract), to rent the property for a summer vacation. This agreement is made under the strict and explicit condition that the lower floors of the house and the catacombs beneath are off-limits and not to be accessed.

This prophibition perhaps hints that the family is aware of the temple's existence and the house's grim past. Still, they lease it out.

Being an Archeology professor by trade, it is likely no concidence that this particular house in the middle of nowhere was chosen by the protagonist. In his diary, the protagonist reveals that he will have much to teach his students of Anna when he returns, suggesting that Anna has perhaps previously been a subject of study.

NB: In real life, this area of the Italian Alps has a long history of naturalist cults. The game is awash with Dianic symbolism and fertility dolls (very similar to that of the Venus of Willendor, found in nearby Austria).

The protagonist encounters Anna in the woods, like so many men before him, and is driven to amorous insanity. He, like the Sabot maker before him, studies the cult of Anna, and discovering the legend of the statue, steals it from the church. The wife of the protagonist grows concerned and jealous over her husband's devotion, and smashes the statue's face. In a fit of rage, the protagonist murders his wife by decapitating her with an Axe (a scene recreated many times in the game), and unable to bear the cries of his children, murders them also.

As ascribed by the in-game texts, in the Bronze Age, when a man and a woman married, cultists of Anna would vow themselves not only to each other, but to the earth goddess. The bride would be seen to be a priestess of the Goddess, and any transgression against the female would also be done to the Goddess. The Goddess could forgive such transgressions only "through acts of penitence or harsh punishments."

So offended by his actions, the protagonist is expelled from the house and is found by the towns people wandering the woods with amnesia. After spending some time in medical care, he continues his life until his dreams of the sabot maker's house draw him back to Anna.

The game has eight or nine endings, but for the purpose of this guide, we'll focus on the ending which you receive if you find all of the intuitions: 'The Whole Truth'.

The protagonist descends the catacombs and finds scenes of himself killing his wife, as well as a collection of fertility idols protected by a rock with a symbol of Dianic witchcraft. Strolling onward, he finds the white marble statue of Anna amongst a 'sea of candles' and accompanied by two wooden baby dolls.

Anna expresses in a voice-over that now the protagonist is aware of the truth, she can never let him go, because he might 'do it again'. The tunnel collapses behind them, but the protagonist is content to die, curled up in the presence of his Goddess.

The plot is ambiguous due to the uncertainty of the protagonist as to whether or not the sawmill is real or merely a dream, as well as the strange phenomena that occur throughout the story. If the player finds every intuition, he is treated to an extra scene post-credits, that reveals that locked away in an inaccessible chained cupboard, lies a fresco of a woman depicted as a saint, labeled 'Anna' and a dark figure stood next to her, labeled as the Zoroastrian god of destruction, Angra Mainyu.

In Zoroastrian mythology, Angra Mainyu is the god of destruction, and the source of all evil in the world. He has a polar opposite which is the source of all good in the world. Some scholars however, suggest that both deities are simply the two different facets of the one being.

Anna's Mask (as it is called on its Steam Trading Card), is demonic and evil looking, and despite that, it is labeled quite differently: The Goddess Mask.

This leads to the possibility that Anna is herself drawing the player in to torture him for the deeds committed in her temple against the protagonist's bride and her children. Half of her wants revenge, and the other facet, wants to save the man, by wiping his memory of events and expelling him.

Conversely, it is possible that whomever becomes the lover of Anna becomes the embodiment of Angra Mainyu, and is as such driven to destruction and murder. The revelation via intuitions that 'the black figure wants me to stay' and that 'the black figure is me' perhaps reveals this is a latent manifestation of Angra Mainyu. If this is the case then perhaps Anna cannot let you leave, as upon learning the truth and regaining that part of himself, the protagonist is once more one with the dark spirit of destruction.