secretlyscraptrap

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spider eye arrangements

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inheritance cycle (eragon novels) by christopher paolini

The Inheritance Cycle (Novel Series, 2001)

Explain your reasoning in the tags!

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being a writer leads to a genuinely helpful but also very stupid kind of mindfulness where you'll be having a sobbing breakdown or the worst anxiety attack of your life and think "okay, I really need to pay attention to how this feels. so I can incorporate it into my fanfiction."

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🚨 HELP URGENTLY NEEDED🚨 ✅ - PLEASE CHECK END OF STORY 🔍📌 Hello dears! I am Louay and thank you for looking at us with kindness and I ask for your full support to help me achieve my goal. I urgently need your support now to help me survive and be safe. Gaza is a dangerous place both in terms of work and life. I need your support and make sure that my family's basic needs are met until the Rafah crossing is reopened and they are transferred to safety and security. Please help the family survive through your small donations or through your contributions to people. Thank you so much for standing by there 😭🇵🇸 https://gofund.me/2e021402 @90-ghost

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What silly little robots, I'm sure Pebbles will be fine and won't do anything impulsive

There's also this shitpost I made- I,, I don't know

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I just got described as an "ad hating commie" by someone because I said a minute of youtube ads is unpleasant. fully spent 5 minutes arguing and defending youtube ads. insane stuff

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Shitpost about my Versions of the Scugs cause idk

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quick lil sketch of centaur spears. "how does spears lug around that heavy tail?" and this came into my mind

ALSO WHAT IF SPEARS HAD EYE OF RA SYMBOLISM

RA LIKE THE EGYPTIAN SUN GOD

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Sky showin’ his sister a snail :)

Lil sketchy drawing I threw together. Wanted to make them look similar, but totally different at the same time. Sky’s got much rounder shapes, whereas Peril is pointy. They’re both kinda thin and lanky and share a little bit of the same face and smile. Sky isn’t blushing, I just wanted to give him rosy cheeks.

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🙏 and 🪰?

What character portrayal do you hate the most?

Five Pebbles or Monk, both get dumbed down to grumpy and/or naïve younger sibling. A lot of Five Pebbles' potential characterisation gets thrown out the window by people who don't fully understand the game's story. And Monk isn't a pathetic little baby, they jumped off the ledge while Surv fell by accident; they also seem a lot more... confident? around lizards

What character do you think deserved to get more lore?

(I'm interpreting deserved more lore really as deserved more screentime)

I would've loved to have seen how NSH & SRS were during the time of Riv and Saint, Sigs especially. Imagine bringing him a lantern or pearl or something, and he half-heartedly jokes about his old friends, the good times they had together and how it all went downhill. Imagine him breaking his humorous tone for once in his life and saying something like "they - the iterators and the ancients - were all foolish and misguided", and telling the slugcat that higher intelligence ≠ higher wisdom

also Monk

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Rain World Ask Game!

🐌🐱: What is your favorite Slugcat and why?

🍐: Do you kin/copinglink any characters?

💞(insert a ship): What is your opinion on (insert a ship)?

😈: What do you like the least about rain world?

🐌💢: What is your least favorite Slugcat?

💔: What is your least favorite ship?

💭(insert character): What do you think is the most unique headcanon you have about (insert character)?

✨: Rank your top five ships

🏳️‍🌈: What are your Lgbtq+ headcanons for the characters?

🧸: What are your health headcanons for the characters?

🪰: What character portrayl do you hate the most?

🙏: What character do you think deserved to get more lore?

🥱: What is your least favorite campaign?

🤩: What is your favorite campaign?

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Qualia and Ascension in Rain World

(To clarify I'm mostly talking about base-game lore and not including Downpour, but honestly most of these things can transfer over)

Qualia

One thing that’s relatively hidden in Rain World’s text and subtext is the concept of qualia. Qualia is described as being, “sensory experiences that have distinctive subjective qualities but lack any meaning or external reference to the objects or events that cause them.” It’s a personal sensory experience that cannot be comprehended by another person other than the individual themself, and are often hard to convey via language.

Qualia is a reoccurring motif in Rain World, but what’s more important is the way in which it’s conveyed to the player. The picture that’s painted is that of a world or civilization that placed a great importance on the individuals’ experience, and it’s shown through pearls or environmental details.

Here are some examples of qualia appearing in the text through pearls.

“It's qualia, or a moment - a very short one. Someone is holding a black stone, and twisting it slightly as they drag their finger across the rough surface. The entire sequence is shorter than a heartbeat, but the resolution is extraordinary.”

“A memory... but not really visual, or even concrete, in its character. It reminds of the feeling of a warm wind, but not the physical feeling but the... inner feeling. I don't think it has much utility unless you are doing some very fringe Regeneraist research.”

“This one... is authored by Five Pebbles, when he was young. There has been an attempt to scramble the data, but it's sloppily done, and most is still somewhat legible. It's written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand.”

But the most prominent examples of qualia and it’s importance in this world are the Memory Crypts and possibly ancient naming conventions. The deep purple pearl (shortened) found in Shaded Citadel states,

“In this vessel is the living memories of Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel, of the House of Braids (…) Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel nobly decided to ascend in the beginning of 1514.008, after graciously donating all (ALL!) earthly possessions to the local Iterator project (Unparalleled Innocence), and left these memories to be cherished by the carnal plane. The assorted memories and qualia include:”

Ancients likely mutated their own neural tissue into the cabinet beasts we see in Shaded, which were used to store their memories and qualia before ascension. Even james said once "how 5 pebs got the rot is a good hint here" in response to someone asking how cabinet beasts work, and how they're made.

Adding on to this, ancient (and iterator) naming conventions seem to be built off of the concept of qualia, with them focusing on individual images or experiences.

Nineteen Spades, Endless Reflections

Droplets upon Five Large Droplets

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets

Looks to the Moon

Generally, this all points to a world focused on the expression and preservation of the individual experience. You could even consider some of the echo dialogue as more evidence for this running motif, but I already have too many quotes lol.

Ascension

So now time to talk about my interpretation of ascension. In short, you turn into a worm, but I should probably explain more than that.

So its been surfacing on rw-tumblr that the light in the end of the game is called the egg in files. Although file names shouldn't be taken as fact or canon, it is pretty obvious given the birth imagery.

But something a little lesser known is what happens to the worm that takes us down to the void-sea depths. Void worms normally have a bright glowing effect, on their body, which is present for ours as well. But after it unhooks us, it swims down, and when it passes us on it's way back that glowing effect is gone.

To be honest, I don't really think this can be interpreted in many ways, but the most obvious one and the one I personally subscribe to is that the worm laid the egg. Biology and spirituality really aren't that different in Rain World, it's implied that karma is stored in the brain through Five Pebbles's slideshow. Adding on to that, we see voidspawn after eating an iterator neuron. One's spiritual state is innately tied to their mental state, and that dictates what and what they can't perceive.

And for that reason I decide to take a more biology leaning approach to what happens in the ending. At face value, we are fertilizing the egg of a void worm to be reborn into a voidspawn.

Not only do void spawn and void worms have multiple characteristics in common, (worm like bodies, tendrils/tentacles, glowing heads, void spawn look microbial and void worms are likely some of the oldest "life" in game)

but voidspawn are seen inside egg-like coverings and share the same egg light seen in the end of the game, confirmed to be the same thing by Videocult in a livestream they did.

I believe that all this points to ascension being re-birth into a voidspawn, which eventually undergoes metamorphose into a worm. Higher-dimensional beings, who manifest and give birth to a new world.

So how does this tie in with qualia? Another thing you might know is that the area in which void spawn are most plentiful is Shaded Citadel and areas in Shoreline near Shaded. And shaded is absolutely packed with Cabinet Beasts, even outside Memory Crypts. I believe these qualia-storing creatures are what manifest voidspawn.

From what we see in ascension, it still looks physical and largely based around the real world. Hunter still has his scars and see's an iterator, survivor sees the slug tree in a more mystical and formless state, and monk sees survivor frankly just looking like a normal slugcat. I think that ascension is a product of qualia. We transcend our earthly knowledge via the egg, and our own qualia is used to give birth to a new world. This is why voidspawn appear most in Shaded Citadel.

Now I won't be getting into Void-Worm theories too much here, I'm mostly focused on ascension but I can't ignore the Gnosticism parallels. For those who don't know, Void Worms heavily resemble the Yaldaboath from Gnosticism, along with sharing some similar celestial motifs.

and running with that some people theorize that, like the Yaldabaoth, void worms are responsible for manifesting the material world. Ascension seems to be a mix of the concepts of Gnosis and Nirvana, but I believe it might lean more on Gnosis.

From my limited knowledge, Gnosis is a few things, some of which being a state achieved from experiences or intuitions, and an essential part to salvation is personal knowledge. While researching a bit, I came across this text by Peter Wilberg called "From NEW AGE to NEW GNOSIS" which brings up some comparisons between Gnosticism and qualia as well.

"Gnosis is subjective knowledge of an inner universe made up not of matter, energy, space or time but of countless qualitative spheres or ‘planes’ of awareness – a knowledge obtained directly through inter- subjective resonance. It is the subjective science of this inner universe."

One thing though that has been brought up when discussing this is how this can be consolidated with the tone of the ending. It is pretty un-ambiguously happy, but if we're going with the Void worm Yaldaboath theory then that would put a bit of a sour twist on it right?

I agreed with these for some time, but now I actually think it ties in perfectly with Rain World's core themes as stated by the devs, "overcoming differences and finding empathy." I don't think the void worms are "evil" or malevolent, but I think they (and subsequently us after ascending) play a key role in demonstrating this theme.

By manifesting the physical world, we allow these souls to experience life and develop their own qualia so one day they can ascend themselves. We are shown compassion, and pass it forward.

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Curated list of Rain World analysis I like

The Ancients dragonpropaganda on popular misconceptions about the Ancients' culture ikayblythe's speculative biology kociamieta's notes on Ancient character design

Character analysis eliias-bouchard on NSH's portrayal ikayblythe on Pebbles' age and motivations pocket-goat's thoughts about Moon in the context of the Saint campaign shkika on Moon and Pebbles' relationship shkika on whether Moon and Pebbles are siblings skybristle's and my own thoughts on the decay of Moon's organic parts

General speculative biology chaotic-minds-think-alike's interpretation of lizards dragonpropaganda on the relationship of purposed organisms to ingame fauna flickering-nightfall's interpretation of the reproductive strategies and social structures of various species in the game

Iterator anatomy bonniesband's exposition on the Rot as a type of cancer copepods and myself on whether parts of post-collapse Moon beyond the puppet could be conscious copepods on viewing iterators as more than the puppet delta-orionis' method for estimating the height of Iterator cans delta-orionis and myself discuss the meaning of the terms "Recursive Transform Array" and "Abstract Convergence Manifold" orangedoorhingeinstorage and kayjaypax on movable components in the memory conflux and adjacent systems skybristle's and my own thoughts on the decay of moon's organic parts my theory about how an Iterator's memories are stored and why Moon doesn't forget anything when she loses a neuron

Iterator puppet anatomy aluminum-angels' interpretation bitsbug's puppet interpretation copepods' mechanical interpretation: moon & pebbles / post-collapse moon flickering-nightfall's journey to understand the puppet arm: part 1 / part 2 flickering-nightfall on the "umbilical" ikayblythe's arthropoidal interpretation: overview / endoskeletons / "skin" joowee-feftynn observes that puppets can't walk spotsupstuff on the relationship between puppet and can trashiiplant's ragdoll interpretation yellowsnacc's "jello-covered skeleton" interpretation

Slugcat anatomy arrayydee's slugcat design artihunter's take on the fur/slime question dopscratch's mollusk/mustelid interpretation honey-marrow's interpretation of Spearmaster's anatomy

Themes and storytelling comrade-slugcat and myself on themes of inevitability and futility in Monk & Survivor's campaigns dragonpropaganda on how Rain World's level design is based on the idea of civilizations successively building upon each others' ruins grunckle's theory relating ascension, void worms, and voidspawn together through the idea of qualia grunckle's illustration of the parallels between the iterators and void worms and some connections to Gnosticism seventeendeer on the thematic significance of ascension and the player's agency in choosing it Miscellaneous bitsbug and ikayblythe discuss the age of the ecosystem flecks-of-stardust's theory that (in vanilla) the Chimney Canopy pearl was created by Five Pebbles grunckle's notes on what we know about the cosmology of Rain World ikayblythe's speculative geology of the surface and void sea monkmain on the illustration for Stolen Enlightenment my theory on the meaning of "HR_LAYERS_OF_REALITY" my timeline of architecture on the surface rw-me elaborates on the canonicity of Downpour shkika on the distances between members of the local group shkika, flecks-of-stardust, and fluffybunny35 discuss why it rains in Shaded Citadel soaricarus, flickering-nightfall, and myself on why Seven Red Suns is probably not a member of the "local group" yunnifo discusses Rivulet ending projections

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Hii!! I love your art so so much! I was wondering if you have any tips on how to design ancients? If you do I'd be incredibly grateful!!

thank you!!! here's my thought process when drawing ancients, hope you find something useful in it!

i have a pureref board with some images i got from the game files, such as these murals:

they're incredibly helpful for referencing ancient fashion, anatomy, and just as inspiration in general.

however, their masks are never truly shown; unless you count a specific ad projection, which is what actually inspired me to start drawing ancients:

it's probably a joke like most ad projections, but i found it quite helpful!

now for actually designing and drawing them...

messing around with basic shapes is a fun way to think about the masks. and then you can accessorize forever

i don't have much to say here; this probably depends on how you want to stylize their anatomy. i don't draw them the same way i would draw people, their proportions kind of resemble those of cartoon characters? with double chests as well

now for another fun part!

the unholy combination of streetwear and ceremonial armor! and probably my favorite part.

have fun!

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Hii!! I love your art so so much! I was wondering if you have any tips on how to design ancients? If you do I'd be incredibly grateful!!

thank you!!! here's my thought process when drawing ancients, hope you find something useful in it!

i have a pureref board with some images i got from the game files, such as these murals:

they're incredibly helpful for referencing ancient fashion, anatomy, and just as inspiration in general.

however, their masks are never truly shown; unless you count a specific ad projection, which is what actually inspired me to start drawing ancients:

it's probably a joke like most ad projections, but i found it quite helpful!

now for actually designing and drawing them...

messing around with basic shapes is a fun way to think about the masks. and then you can accessorize forever

i don't have much to say here; this probably depends on how you want to stylize their anatomy. i don't draw them the same way i would draw people, their proportions kind of resemble those of cartoon characters? with double chests as well

now for another fun part!

the unholy combination of streetwear and ceremonial armor! and probably my favorite part.

have fun!

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Real.