#Arknights lore speculation

[chatonarya]

CN Terra Historicus uploaded a new post today for the Lone Trail rerun. It's Saria speaking in a hearing in Max D.C. regarding the events of LT itself and Rhine Lab's plans moving forward.

(General summary here.)

Of interest is the fact that it mentions RL's collaboration with Karlan Trade and their intention to build facilities in Kjerag to investigate and research the hole in the starpod, as she reasons it won't last forever and they do not have sufficient energy to reproduce that hole created by Kristen again. She also cites Kjerag's advantages such as their altitude and Catastrophe-free atmosphere, as well as the reference opinions of "Speaker Gnosis Edelweiss, who was the chief technical officer of Karlan Trade", which state that only Karlan Trade can build the facilities to RL's standards on the Kjerag terrain.

This is obviously foreshadowing Kjerag 3 and reveals the true purpose and source of that CG from Concept PV 4.

We know well by now by his BoC skin lore that Gnosis becomes Kjerag's first Speaker of the Parliament in the future, but I'm a little surprised to see it happen so quickly and apparently offscreen at the moment.

The abolition of the Tri-Clan Council is already a seismic shift for Kjerag, because the Council and the Court have jointly governed Kjerag for almost as long as it has existed. In addition, BoC skins generally (but not always) take place in a nebulous time in the future. To have it casually dropped like this with no development or warning is a little shocking, as I still don't believe Kjerag would accept Gnosis in such a public position of power if his reputation wasn't cleared at some point beforehand.

But perhaps the details themselves will be revealed during Kjerag 3, which is shaping up to be quite big. What's not surprising, on the other hand, is that even as Speaker, Gnosis is still heavily involved in the technological development of Kjerag. He wouldn't dedicate his heart and soul towards building it up (and succeeding!) only to step back and permit some other party to waltz in and do as they please, after all!

[paradizetobefound]

So like another important originium bit is some information on circumstances on infected to non-infected transmission. Aside from Astgenne case (infection transmitting between twins who share similar arts and are in emotional state) there is "we have plenty of cases where an Infected infects others with Originium Arts because of their emotional outbursts, and we also have cases of patients becoming infected after prolonged exposure to their family members"

Now I had a hypothesis before that originium may become less active once it finds a living host since it "attunes" itself to their bio-information, essentially locks onto them as long as they are alive. It appeared in my mind after comparing how we had an infected person state that someone receiving a small cut from an originium lesion of an infected is hardly dangerous and how Schwarz got infected when playing with originium rocks as a kid. In context of originium being specifically geared towards recording information contained within living things, and originium's peculiar interactions with mind (including the cases where oripathy directly affects the psyche) is also seemed plausible. I was not certain however. Yet this information Astgenne files info seems to imply that something along there lines may be a case - if originium truly "locks on" its host, then the cases where it is transmitted as result of the infected and non-infected existing in a sort of "resonance" or commonality would be a logical conclusion.

It would also serve as a reasonable and potential explanation to

a) why Sankta exile their infected from Laterano aka the largest concentration of individuals who are mentally and emotionally connected by means of their halo and their Law (also considering that only pure Sankta are Sankta, uh, while we do not know their original population when they just appeared, let's just say many Sankta being at least distantly or not so distantly related plus well maybe some incest is not out of realms of possibility but feel free to ignore that)

b) why the Seaborn main modus operandi towards originium seems to be an attempt to suppress it (debatable that it is what they are truly doing and not just something inherent also debatable it is an issue at all) since with their close involvement between different seaborn on every level originium could theoretically become very dangerous for them

c) why originium may have easy time spreading between Sarkaz as a) Sarkaz bloodlines witchcraft (also uh, also possibly presence of incest within the clans who am I kidding) b) also can establish mental connections but differently and less consistently then Sankta

Note that abc part is an outright speculation and that even if any of those apply, they are likely not the only factor at play. Especially since, well, we do not know which degree of separation is the limit before the chance it affects the infection transmission possibility becomes irrelevant.

[logomaru]

Almost 7000 words on Logos Arknights

My Logos lore document has been updated with the release of CH13 for the global servers. Please read it on desktop if you would like to see the screenshots, resizing them is a ding dong.

Completely Normal Thesis Here

Feel free to send any asks for clarification or further speculation. It's 1:40AM and I really should go to bed.

I am a very normal person. Thanks.

[kc5rings]

Since we’re getting closer to new stuff on CN side getting announced and I think speculation is fun, what are some niche side plot things/world lore things you’d hope to see come up in future Arknights events?

My top five in order would be

Going into Hoshiguma’s hinted at history and some info about Oni in general on terra since they sit in an interesting place in the setting as things stand

Finding out who exactly kidnapped Plume and why

More info on the state of Minos and what role Pallas played there and what/who the Minoan goddess of war is

More info on the coven or whatever the place Myrrh is from is

Something that goes into the fact that what seems like Dullahan type Sarkaz do/did exist

[stelladess]

Ok I am soon finished up with these major projects that have been kicking my ass and we got the trailer for season 3 of Arknights anime, so I need to rewatch the previous seasons and re-read a bunch of Ch´en scenes from the game in preparation for that bigger thing I was writing about Ch´en´s character arc in the anime vs the game. (Mostly cause I feel Ch´en is the character hurt the most by changes in the anime, Amiya is also altered quite a bit but in ways that I find are more understandable, some of the changes with her will come up in this because it intersects with Ch´en´s arc but it will not be my focus because I generally think that Amiya is handled very well in the anime, even if they change some things about her. Also to be clear I will not just complain, I like some things they do with Ch´en in the anime and I will also talk about why I think her arc in the game works so well for me).

Of course just my take on it, and in particular I would preface it with saying I have not gotten very into the lore of some of the other Lungmen characters except for what is in the main story, I began playing Arknights around the time chapter 11 came out on global because I had enjoyed the anime adaptation and thought the Victoria arc and Il Siracusano trailers looked really cool. So I did not have the backdrop of having speculated and read into the operator profiles of all the older characters, I did go and read a bunch of Hoshiguma related stuff because I realized partway through writing that post the first time that it is impossible to talk about Ch´en in the Reunion arc without talking about Hoshiguma. And I wanted to see so my take on Hoshiguma´s motives and beliefs was contradicted anywhere already, I did not find anything that contradicted my idea of Hoshiguma but I could of course be wrong if something comes up in Dossoles Holiday or Lin or Swire´s module stories or something.

[dlartistanon]

Oh man cis anti bros ruined Arknights for me. I tried it out because I also liked another gacha (path to nowhere) which has a huge WLW fandom, way bigger than the dudes. So wishing for more of that I tried arknights.

The Arknights fandom is not girl friendly imho.

The doctor is supposed to be a gender neutral short person with according to some media long hair and according to the anime a female/gender neutral voice.

But the fandom made it a tall buff dude that’s going to repopulate all kinds of different species with their many waifus and ignoring character-character relationships.

Sorry for my rant, but boi was a seriously disappointed when I found that out.

I'm sorry to hear that. I don't play PTN, but I have friends who do, and one of the things they said about it really stuck with me, regarding how both player characters are written (Chief and Doctor).

According to them, Chief has more of an actual defined personality compared to Doctor. Chief is their own character within the setting. While Chief is established, Doctor is in this weird nebulous gray zone of being half-established and half-self-insert. And that is honestly one of the most frustrating things about AK's writing.

On one hand, I like the canonical lore of Doctor: their parental relationship with Amiya, their awkward, sometimes hostile dynamic with Kal'tsit, their lingering feelings of depression and detachment surrounding their amnesia, their implied autism, their gender neutrality, they're physically weak (easily winded going up/down the stairs), sensitive to sunlight, their observational skills, their fondness towards physical contact, their extremely negative reaction towards child soldiers, their academic background in neurology/history... they're a weirdo who pours hot water directly into their mouth.

But all that ends up being half-baked when the devs say that Doctor is meant to represent the player. And I just don't like that. It's a giant reminder of self-insertion, but again, incredibly weird when they have all this lore/characterization?

Look at this image:

This concept is speculated to be a somewhat of a "canon" design for Doctor. Quite feminine-looking, wouldn't you say so? Interestingly enough, no similar art of a "male" Doctor design has surfaced anywhere to my knowledge. The closest is in the art book but their face is covered in shadow and their hairstyle is a lot like Thorns'. The anime adaptation Prelude to Dawn adds to the mix by making Doctor 165 cm tall, with white hair, pale eyes, and an androgynous voice (by a female VA).

All of this ends up making the claim that Doctor is a self-insert very wishy-washy. You can't really claim Doctor as canonically nonbinary if the player chooses to see/interpret them as male or female. Because they're a self-insert. But are they really? By giving Doctor more lore/characterization, how can the claim of them being a self-insert hold up? It doesn't make sense.

It's incredibly frustrating how HG wants to have both cakes, but it doesn't work. So the result ends up feeling incredibly half-baked, fumbling both sides. At this point, there's no real and true illusion of player insertion.

It just annoys me the more I think about it. I don't want Doctor to be any % self-insert. I want them to be an actual established character.

But I apologize for going off on my own tangent. I absolutely hate how the Doctor is largely portrayed in fandom too. The automatic default to reading them as male (people can claim "gender neutral", but a lot of the time the actual portrayal/writing really comes off like a cis dude). The mischaracterization and overall gross treatment of complex female characters who have layered and nuanced relationships with other female characters. You're not alone there. I think it's amazing how the PtN fandom has more Female Chief than Male, and how much more popular WLW is. You're lucky.

[rimeiii]

Forget your tears - be brave, and fall asleep (WHB Belial x MC)

Revisited the chapter 8 Mephisto boss fight (and by extension the second phase BGM Lullabye) because the recent trailer for Arknights anime season 2, Perish in Frost, had a tiny snippet of it that maybe sent the entire fandom into a frenzy. Then I remember seeing a post speculating about the effects of the seed of the fruit of knowledge on a human with the most angst-filled HC in which it turns the human into an ally of the angels. And thus, this was born.

Also served as a distraction to the entire PM situation so...yeah. Apologies for any shit writing.

Tags: GN Reader x WHB Belial. Written before launch, so prepare for lore inaccuracies. Angst. Likely not proofread. Also it's been a while since I last wrote something and this is my first rodeo with reader insert so...

Title is taken from the English translated lyrics to Lullabye from the Arknights OST!

Belial had always associated music with comfort.

Ever since he'd lost his voice to the angels when he was young, he'd always experienced nightmares. Try as he might, no matter how much he actively attempted to suppress the memories of that day, they'd return to him when his psyche was at its most susceptible. Like a monster laying in wait, these memories would remain dormant - deceptively harmless, until they'd viciously resurface in his unconscious mind.

He'll always remember. The agony of his vocal cords getting burnt away, the searing pain in his throat as his voice is completely annihilated, the demons of Paradise Lost regretfully telling him there was nothing they could do about his voice.

The way his heart ached unbearably harshly as he is beset upon the realization that he is effectively rendered mute. The soul-crushing realization that he can no longer sing, melodies and lyrics becoming nothing more than ideas locked in his mind. The deep despair as it dawned on him that he could no longer communicate effectively with anyone.

Pain made way to sadness, to the despair of loss, to anger at the angels.

Belial was young, at the time. Impulsive and perhaps a little bit rash, fueled by wrath towards the beings that stripped him of his voice. A wrath so uncontrollable that even with Jjyu doing his utmost best to keep Belial's anger in check, residual traces of his wrath remain.

Perhaps it was an effect of Satan's influence on the demons of Gehenna. Perhaps his anger was just that potent. Perhaps, he was angry at how he never obtained a peaceful rest.

But either way, Belial's turbulent emotions remained - until Solomon arrived and managed to quell his raging emotions.

Solomon came with a song. A lullaby, a song to soothe a troubled soul. Though the melody seems anything but - a melancholic melody in a tongue Belial is unfamiliar with, yet carries with it the sorrow of a protector in the night. Silent, yet steadfast, always ready to be a sanctuary.

It was enough for his restless heart to grow calm.

Even after Solomon left, there remains a recording of Solomon singing the lullaby. It always became a source of a comfort for Belial, a brief calm within the turbulent storm that was their war against the angels. And it has become his way to remember his beloved Solomon, the only being in the entire universe to be able to calm his restless heart.

It was his main source for comfort, at this point.

~

The very first time Belial heard someone else sing the very lullaby that only exists in recordings, it was sung by Solomon's descendant, (Y/N).

It was late, while they were settling down for the night. They were changing into their sleepwear in Belial's room, who was bundled up in the covers while beckoning them towards him. And unconsciously, perhaps due to the comfort of the darkness surrounding them, they started humming that familiar tune.

Immediately, Belial grew still. Is that...

Fortunately, Jjyu was quick to pick up on Belial's confusion, as usual.

"Hey, that song..." Jjyu murmured, quiet and shaky, breaking the fragile silence of the night. Seeing that he caught their attention, he continued his question. "How do you know it?"

"Hm? Oh, my parents used to sing it to me whenever I couldn't sleep, back when I was a kid." (Y/N) replied. Belial noted the slightly subdued delivery of their statement and immediately sat up straight, scooting over to create more space for them.

"It's been a long time since I last heard them sing, but it has always stuck with me up 'til now, y'know?" (Y/N) laughed weakly as they settled down beside Belial. They snuggled closer to Belial, nuzzling their head into the crook of his neck, savoring his warmth and presence. "Even after they're long gone, I still remember their voices, and the lullaby."

"Where are they now?" Jjyu asked, even though both he and Belial had a feeling they knew what was coming next.

A sad, rueful smile made its way onto (Y/N)'s lips.

"Gone."

Immediately, Belial wrapped his arm around (Y/N), giving their shoulder a comforting squeeze. I'm sorry.

"It's been years, Beli. I'm fine now." They replied. He noted the slight tinge of grief in their voice but refused to comment further on it, seeing as they diverted the conversation to another topic. "Why did you ask about the song, though?"

"Solomon used to sing that lullaby whenever Belial would get nightmares." Jjyu supplied easily. "It would calm him down after one."

(Y/N) hummed contemplatively. "I'm probably not as good as Solomon, but if you want, I don't mind singing for you if you get any more nightmares, Beli."

Jjyu looked like he was uncertain, however one look at Belial must have showed how the other demon was truly thankful for the offer. Because while Solomon's singing was the one that calmed him down all those years ago, he still thought the way (Y/N) hummed the lullaby in question is soothing and beautiful in its own right. And, because of that, he decided he wanted to hear them sing.

"Thank you, (Y/N). We'll take you up on that offer."

(And hey, at least Jjyu isn't being an asshole for once.)

~

There's a lot to be said about the significance of music, especially for someone like Belial, who loves and appreciates all the intricacies that came with music and its structure.

The lullaby he'd always come to associate with comfort had also become associated with (Y/N), the human who had won over his heart. They sang it with such profound emotion, sorrow and solace blending into a heartrending harmony, so similar yet so unlike how Solomon used to sing it to him. It was soulful, soothing, and calming all at once.

It was so unlike the way they sing it now, consumed by the heavenly powers and transmogrified into a heavenly being, becoming a berserk "angel" hell-bent on killing the very people they once considered friends.

(Jjyu would prefer calling whatever they transformed into as a monster. Belial would be inclined to agree - if not for the fact it was (Y/N) they were talking about.)

Their voice is raw, broken and distorted. Rage, anguish, anger, and despair, all intermixed into a cacophony of grating noises. It was so unlike the charming and beautiful voice Belial was used to, and it hurts.

It hurts, because he knows why (Y/N) turned into this heavenly being in the first place. Because he knows they sacrificed themself, offered themself up to keep the demons safe. Knows, that even if it meant they were to die, they were willing to give up their life for the demons they have grown to cherish.

And yet Belial, still stuck in denial, desperately searches their eyes for any sign of the human he had grown affectionate towards. A spark of life, a hint of familiarity, something, anything-

Nothing. There is nothing.

They are unfamiliar in his eyes. A husk of their former self, blazing a warpath of complete and utter annihilation of Hell and its denizens.

Was this what (Y/N) meant when they told me to gain the strength needed to kill them?

His allies are all too far away from him. Satan made his orders clear, no matter how painful it was for them all - kill (Y/N).

He has a clear shot at the moment. Though their movements are erratic, they often remain still for long periods of time - exhaustion, perhaps, due to taking up a form they are not used to. Yet they continue singing, as if it could relieve some of the pain and anguish their forced transformation has caused them.

And Belial remembers.

He remembers them singing to him until he falls asleep.

He remembers the comfort from their voice, singing to him such a familiar lullaby.

He remembers them, eventually recording themself singing the lullaby and giving the recording to him.

So similar, yet so different to how she's singing it right now.

He can't bear seeing them suffer in a fate worse than death, nor can he bear hearing the lullaby, now distorted beyond belief. So he takes aim despite his tears, aims the muzzle of his sniper rifle at their forehead...

BLAM!

They crumple into the ground in a heap, before immediately turning to dust.

Belial sobs, and Jjyu wails with him, the pair of them unable to retrieve any trace of their prior existence.

And the lullaby, a song he associated with comfort once upon a time, is now identic of anguish, of the loss of a loved one.

[besiegedhunter]

Why Lupos fear Projekt Red. Il Siracusano lore

So personally speaking Red has always been one of the more mysterious characters in Arknights to me and chief amongst the reasons is how she scares other Lupos. A thing that even theorizing why never made total sense.

But then Il Siracusano came out with so much Beast Lord lore and somehow made it more confusing.

(It's quite a long post so)

What I'm referring to is the last moments of the story before the Zarro boss fight in IS-10:

This. This is effectively the same effect that Red has one other Lupos which it draws attention to by referring to it as a 'chill' such as Red's talent name as well as when later in the event Crownslayer meets Red again

Now on the surface this makes sense. Red is Grandma's Fang and Grandma is a Beast Lord who'd be able to do the same thing. We also know that Crownslayer's mentor taught her a bite so there's techniques that Beast Lords pass onto their Fang.

Except it's not as clean cut as that because we don't see any sort of ability like this outside of Red. Neither Bernado or Lunacub exhibit this ability. There's also no accounts of any other character, playable or not, showing anything similar outside of the Nightmare Knight.

Then you take into account this from Lunacub's files on the Beast Lords:

"Polar opposite of Originium"

We know that like them there are also Feranmuts like Nian and her siblings who have no connection to Originium at all and don't use Originium arts wherein lies the problem.

It's not an Originium Art, it's inherit to Beast Lords and yet Red seems to be capable of it also.

So two options:

One is read the end of that screenshot. "Researchers struggle to find the profound differences between them and us." and we know thanks to Mephisto that if an Ancient goes into the Sarcophagus that they revert into an animal.

Not only that however. This is speculation but between both of Mephisto's boss fights we see that he's capable of healing and making husks out of corpses that he controls however in his second one after going into the sarcophagus he gains the ability to teleport.

I can't say whether this is a Feranmut ability but between the abnormal size as well as this, it's a possibility that it's between a regular bird and a Beast Lord.

But pushing that aside, it's possible that Ancients have abilities deep inside of them that they share with Beast Lords that they can bring out but that it's rare that they do.

Maybe this is the explanation for this part of Horn's files though it, like other aspects of some characters, isn't a 1 for 1 thing like Zarro and Red.

Second option is that it is "functionally the same" but actually has a different origin. I'd rationalize it as Grandma seeing how useful this ability is (assuming Zarro even used it consciously and other Beast Lords do too) and so tried creating something identical.

Maybe it's Red getting drenched in presumably wolf blood, with it lingering on her that other Lupos can smell and that sets off a fear response? This being my original theory based off Red's tendency to identify Fangs through scent as well as this pit from Executor and Vermail's vignette in Operational Intelligence.

Now the thing I would say about this one in particular is that, if killing enough of a certain animal/race makes said race terrified of you then why do we not see that from people such as Hellagur or Lappland or long lived characters?

But that's all I'll say on that because I do have a secret third option which is only secret because it is the worst and if true then wow that's cruel.

And that is that Red isn't the one who has these effects on Lupos but instead it's Grandma who can't be seen but is with Red, possibly intentionally doing this as to stop Red from staying from her mission OR and perhaps more interestingly (and ooc) is Grandma permanently gives off this effect.

Is there evidence? Well sadly there may be.

Here we see another Wolf Beast Lord making herself imperceptible to Rhode Island's personnel and in the second screenshot it's possible that she's hiding herself from even Lunacub, though it may also be that she left to somewhere.

Then there's Red's dialogue after her first promotion where she says she can hear Grandma. I repeat "heard" aka she didn't see her.

Now consider this: Zarro and Grandma are the same being with the same abilities and he went to Lungmen just to tell Texas he needs her for something and also that he raced across Il Siracusano to meet Bernado after he put his plan to detach the new city from Volsinii into action

The fact he doesn't use any sort of long distance communication implies to me that Wolf Beast Lords aren't capable of it, meaning it's improbable that Grandma wasn't there

So if Grandma has probably visited Rhodes Island, wasn't even seen by Red and would naturally have the same ability as Zarro while Red having it opens a billion questions,

It's arguably the most likely one.

Now that's all on the brain storming but if I can have a little more of your time, please read this:

Red's Trust 2. The one after her questioning the importance of family and preceding wondering if her life would be different if she wasn't a wolf hunter (aka groomed by a evil wolf to win a murder game so said wolf can become the leader of their pack off her efforts)

Now consider that the reason why they're afraid of her, why she can't befriend her fellow Lupos is because the person who has controlled her her whole life is still there, warding them off

Think about that the next time you see one of those tail hunter memes

[lemon-dokuro]

I really hope we get a portugese man-o-war aegir girl/boy in Arknights someday. I don't really care if they're playable either, it's about the possibility, you know! There's a glaucus girl and a starfish man, so why not go even further? A nudibranch would also be great. Maybe the bunny-looking one, they're pretty well-known for being cute. Also! I wish Arknights was more popular with the speculative biology crowd. Would absolutely love to see a more science-based look into their weird fantasy animal people. I mainly want aegir discussion since they're the most diverse (Pudding, a seal girl, is an aegir, that's insane), but a plausible explaination for furry/scalie characters would also be interesting. Though it's probably too internally inconsistent and fantastical if you actually get to systematizing it. A seal is an aegir, but a mongoose is a felin, that sort of thing. And the teekaz races are also a whole can of worms. And I don't know enough lore to talk about this anyway! Oh well.

[meeblo]

Ok so, funny aah theory I have for Endfield to explain whatever is going on; it's not an alternate universe, but more of a dimensional world. We know with Expeditioner's Joklumarkar (IS4) and Sami icefields lore that dimensional portals and beings do exist. While those seem corrupted, unlike anything we are familiar with, it's likely they are related to how the Ancients arrived to Terra in the first place. I doubt they came from space, considering the sky barrier, so they probably came from another dimension, which is some fucked up shit but interesting.

Endfield could be taking place in exploring another dimension of Terra, where Angelina has been sent - I mean, she has been dispatched here by Rhodes Island, and yet when we see Rhodes's landship in Endfield, it doesn't seem to live its best ship life. It could be interesting if they managed to enter in contact with some interdimensional company and accepted to explore their world because it could bring a lot about the origin of Originium and a possible Oripathy cure.

Interesting, I didn't realize that the demons were confirmed to be extradimensional rather than just from outside Terra. I considered in passing that Endfield might be another dimension as a way of explaining Kal'tsit that isn't Kal'tsit and Ch'en that isn't Ch'en, but I didn't give it any more thought than that until I saw a post speculating that a few shots in the trailer contained a portal, with the Endministrator and that bossfight we saw a glimpse of on one side and Angelina teased at the end of the trailer on the other side.

I hadn't considered the ancients being extradimensional. I had always just assumed their arrival on Terra (or creation by whatever precursor civilization left behind things like the Chernobog sarcophagus and The Law, if you subscribe to that theory) predated the construction of the fake sky. But given the gate in Sami it's definitely possible they could have arrived that way, after that fake sky was already a thing.

And I really have no idea what is going on with the suspended Rhodes Island landship crashing into a tower of Babel, or that statue of Patriot. They both had the same white-grey stone texture and color to them, but otherwise I have no idea what to make of them. If Talos-II is in a separate dimension, maybe they're aspects of Terra leaking through into Talos-II? but for it to be those highly specific things at that scale without any other things showing this is a wider phenomena, that wouldn't make a ton of sense imo, so I don't really have a guess I'm confident in.

I'm somewhat split on the alternate dimension theory. I vastly prefer it to there just being no lore or story connection at all, and thankfully the Angelina announcement has ruled that out. But I think Endfield and Arknights being in the same universe has more interesting potential than separate dimensions, because it forces them to give more concrete and specific explanations for things rather than being able to handwave away things by going "oh that's just this dimension's Kal'tsit don't worry about it".

[chatonarya]

Aside from the Forerunner connection, there are two smaller details in SilverAsh's Never-Melting Ice skin that are very significant lore-wise that I would like to point out.

First, the emblem on his shoes.

This is the symbol of the Vine-Bear Court, represented by Kjerag's three mountains. It's most significantly seen in this CG from BI-ST-1 during the Tri-Clan Council. See it behind the Great Elder's seat in the hall, and also in Karlan Square.

(As a side-note, three is a significant arc number in Kjerag: three clans; three mountains; the three Silverash siblings; the three main Browntails Ratatos, Sciurus, Yucatan; the three main Paleroches Arctosz, Gulo, Valais; the three Karlan Trade founders; the three-year gap between BI and RS.)

I'd also like to draw attention to the crests of the three clans here, so we can see how their shapes are represented in the triple mountain symbol with the triangles and circles (green is the Paleroches, blue is the Silverashes, red is self-explanatory). (Source: Terra: A Journey.)

Next, the emblem on Enciodes's belt, seen most clearly in the promotional spread for "The Pilgrim."

This is the same emblem as one of Degenbrecher's medals, specifically, the third one, as seen in her module and on her E0 art.

This is the "Warrior of Kjeragandr" medal, which is a medal of honor issued by Vine-Bear Court, and if I understand correctly (limited MTL), is implied to have been given to Degenbrecher by Enya.

So here in this skin, Enciodes is wearing not just one, but two symbols of parties who have historically opposed him: the Vine-Bear Court, and potentially the Saintess as well.

Perhaps, at last, be it though in the hour of necessity, he has received their blessing? Perhaps, at last, they have made peace?

[a-dream-below]

There is rather crack theory I have for a while. I think I have an idea of what creature Doctor is based on. This theory took inspiration in fan on and reaching but I can't help but wonder how everything snaps together.

Beginning with easy. What we know about? Not Ancient due to difference between how Sarcophagus deals with mephisto and docta. Unique blood, that counters overexposure to Arts. Can be blue. Which already interesting, you remember who actually have blue liquid inside of them? Abyssal gang. Skalter token mentioned "a quill formed of cartilage. A light blue liquid drops from point".

Skalter's lines also quite intriguing. Legit no one else calls Doctor kin. Skadi don't do it. Her kin are Abyssal Hunters. They are bound by blood. Skalter however don't even have blood inside. After Ling's event we can say that Skalter is Skadi plus an abyssal god fragment. GF can and will possess people. That's a main story arc. Do maaaybe both of them cares? We can't know did Doctor ever met abyssal god before. But we know that skeleton in RI the ship is of whale.

Remember the theory after DM that Doctor was possessed by whoever's this skeleton was? I do. And isn't that weird that Ship keel is a mechanical spine of all things? And we got new rooms after we "grew" spine? Ines told that Tallulah have two shadows inside. That's later was explained as Кощей and Tallulah shadows. But Doctor had one, big, uncaring and uncanny. Like a whale?

Things will get even weirder later when we began to analyse all of this together. Big and scary whale, huh? People on Reddit got to conclusion that skeleton belongs to either sperm whale, proto-whale, or mosasaurus. Sperm whale are big and scary whales, a single species that can eat Crown slayer, Golem or whatever Reunion look got slipped through blue box.

But you know how the fuck a proto sperm whale is named? It's a goddamn leviathan.

And that makes ashitton of sense. HG was noticed to love between others this to things. Moby Dick (not only in Under Tides) and intergrating an obscure mythological creature in Terras world. That version of Кощей they used is significantly less known than an egg-hunting quest. I myself knew this version due to an audio tape with this tale being a large part of my childhood. So, going for this isn't ooc for HG. First of all it gives us a reason to chill with Sarkaz. Also reading the mightiest source of knowledge, Wikipedia ofc, I found a theory that Leviathan might be another rep of Babylon just like Rider! Nero from Fate. That would be crossover of century. Monsters of Babylon, and here me with loli Nero.

Also speaking of Fate, Tiamom is parallel to Leviathan as primordial snake god from same region. Description in Bible btw is pretty similar to Ines' description. A very important detail that while Leviathan is always the Leviathan, gender is debatable. If my theory's true, my respect to HG. That is the commitment. Plus there's a lot of clues of Doctor being a really old being. Being a leftover from different world probably counts as primordial for denizens of new one.

Being a old cultural symbol led to other readingsof it. To the Moby Dick, which led to naming ancient cachalots Melville's Leviathan, to Gnosticism's Hellmouth, and the least expected part of all of this, Ouroboros!

I would write even more, but I got tired of writing my crackpot theory. It's just make sense, and where, my dear Hypergryph, is my Ouroboros and Leviathan in Arknights. How the hell we still didn't get one. You at least teased Phoenix.

[paradizetobefound]

On Doctor Kal’tsit

I am not sure I am ready to make a full blown theory on Doctor Kal’tsit (or that I will ever be ready to make those massive meta-posts I love reading on late rainy evenings).

But general observations on Kal’tsit. What do we know about her? Mostly it is just a list of some basic information on the Cold Lynx, with an addition of musings and commentary. I think if it is all together, something may be gleamed from it over time.

She is cold and rational and rather pragmatic. She hates Doctor for some of their actions yet considers them competent enough for the job, to the point where despite being fully capable of vetoing their return, she decides to remain silent. She considers Doctor as person capable to one day find a solution to oripathy, a currently incurable disease. Despite that she struggles to deal with her hatred towards Doctor in any constructive way.

Considering everything else about her character, Doctor MUST have done something that went against everything Kal’tsit stood for, or was a huge deeply personal blow.

I don’t think it could have been [Theresa]’s death because there is implied a rift between them during the time they worked together, and all things point towards the fact that Doctor didn’t stay around after she was killed (as a lot of members that joined when the company RI was founded only meet Doctor now and it existed for 2 years, when Theresa died about 3 years ago, and around this time Doctor went afaik. Those facts might be incorrect).

In her extra episode she is compared to a machine by a character who is implied to be a juvenile form of an aquatic eldritch abomination. In the same episode she laments that her being just a cold machine would have made her job easier (note parallel to Doctor who at their worst became a cold and calculating war machine). We also discover that she was assigned to aid Amiya and Doctor by someone (some assume it is Theresa requesting her to remain with the two but I am not sure)

She is caring and self-sacrificing and takes her duties as Doctor very seriously. In OpInt she is all but stated to consume stimulants in order to be able to perform very long and stressful operations on patients on which most other practicioners would have long gived up on.

It seems that she is not exactly good at being open about her emotions. She cares for a good number of characters and most often, this care is expressed rather coldly, and most noticeable when she becomes angry (worried).

In the same episode it is revealed that she has tendency of picking up orphans... more specifically, orphans with background of a lab experiment (though normal orphans too). In fact, she has a somewhat soft spot towards them. She raised Projekt Red (whom she at some point started pushing Doctor’s way presumably both to keep an eye on them and because Doctor is good at dealing difficult people like Red and helping them, being an acknowledged teacher), her involvement with Popucar and so on. Furthermore, it is specifically noted that Popucar’s case evoked sadness from Kal’tsit.

She was a part of research team in Ursus that was tasked with studying the same sarcofagus to which Doctor presumably lost their memories to. She taught at least one of her collegues when they were young and yet considered whatever was hidden inside the Sarcofagus too dangerous to let any of the research team live.

Next point is her involvement with the abyssals and the aquatic civilization. She is stated to save their population throught her intervention. She also knows Aegirian and personally treats Specter, an Aegirian.

It is possible she herself a former test-subject or an artificial human. In chapter 7 a young girl who was born (and possibly created, if translations got it right) in the lab. Her special ability, that makes her extremelly deadly despite her tender age and a case of oripathy is an invisible entity that she controls. This entity is tied to her.

Now. Doctor Kal’tsit unique ability is a presumably parasitic originium based (likely) being, a dragon oddly reminiscent of a mangled spine (which... fits with how she brings it out). Now, he (?) has something like a mind of his own. The similarity in such specific and seemingly rare power might imply similarity in origin (note that both Rosmontis and Kal’tsit also look rather similar). Or rather that Doctor Kal’tsit was a prototype for Rosmontis considering how old she is.

In chapter 7 it is revealed that Kal’tsit has not changed in appearance for at least several decades - this is how long since Patriot left Kazdel and had last seen her (also, she is refered to by him as Lady, in currently available translation).

Now what can be assumed from that?

First of all, most likely the hatred is connected to the following factors: the cure to oripathy (note that it is questioned several times if RI REALLY aims to -cure- oripathy and even might be implied by Amiya’s lines, where she noted that the circle of hatred can be broken either by changing the world or by removing oripathy entirely. It depends on interpretation), then there is sarcofagus (and doctor’s mysterious involvement with it). But there must be more factors. The rift between them seems to date back rather far after all.

Secondly, Doctor Kal’tsit might have been not dissimilar to most fighters turned medics. If she was artificially made, she was meant as a war machine that repurposed herseft into medic. If this is the case, it might have been conencted to both her cold demeanor and poor social skills and her emotional reactions to young people who were essentially denied any choice when they were too young by being made into weapons (which is to be frank is a normal reaction, but with Kal’tsit is it clearly personal one).

Thirdly. If there were experiments, they were continued long after Kal’tsit was born. If this is the case, Kal’tsit’s backstory will be revealed among with them.

Next is the connection to Aegir. It is pretty obvious by this point that there are a lot of unethical human experimentation going on with the Abyssals and related faction. It is possible, that the faction responsible for either Kal’tsit or Rosmontis was involved with Abyssals.

[chasing-obsession]

If you are interested in Arknights Lore, I am begging you to go and read it for yourself. There's been a LOT of wild theories and speculation being tossed out there right now that are basically being presented as fact and so many of them don't stand up even to a little bit of scrutiny when compared to actual text.

Places to read AK lore (tumblr hates links apparently so search terms are bolded):

The game itself. It's available via the google and app store. It can be played on a smart phone, any ios or Android tablet or a PC/laptop through the use of an emulator. The big two are Bluestacks and LD Player. (Support the devs but be careful of the gacha part. It's still a form of gambling.)

Arknights Story Reader. This contains transcripts of all Main Chapter, Event and Side Stories along with Operators Recs. It also includes a handful of the side stuff seen in certain events, namely the secret endings from NearLight and stuff from SN. The text for all four regions is included here.

Aceship. This site contains transcripts of operator stats, abilities, modules, module lore, operator record lore and voicelines. I think they also have skin lore.

There’s some people posting read out-louds and the cutscenes from the game on youtube. There’s also people summarizing each event/lore. If you want to read the story without any voice overs, I recommend searching for Shoul Arknights Story Collection. They’ve captured all the story sequences and uploaded it to their channel.

But seriously. PLEASE go look at the source material and make your own decisions. Don’t accept spoonfed answers.

One last caveat to all this.

CN Lore.

This is story from events, chapters and characters that have been release on the mainland Chinese servers but have NOT out on Global yet (this includes the EN/JP/KR servers). Be careful when dealing with CN Lore. I personally have found that there’s a ton of misinformation out there or just very bad translations. Don’t take just one person’s take/summary/opinion on CN lore. The best thing to do with that is to read lots of people’s summaries, if you can find them, or just wait until the Global version drops six months later.

EDIT 10/28/22:

Removed the Arknights Wiki recommendation and replaced it with the Story Reader for better accessibility, more source content and less nonsense.

Also enjoy the anime everyone.

[zeravmeta]

Arknights CH11 spoilers + theory speculation about Surtr (long)

So in CH11 it was confirmed that Nightingale is indeed a biological experiment that Theresis made in an attempt to recreate Theresa, with the goal being that they’re trying to pull Theresa out of the Sarkaz Collective Consciousnesses afterlife and modify her in order to control her public image and unify the scattered Sarkaz across Terra, unaware that Theresa is still alive inside Amiya. They finally managed to make a doppelganger of Theresa, but all she can do is follow orders, she doesn’t really have any of Theresa’s knowledge or experiences.

I think Surtr might also be one of these experiments, but in a different sense.

Now, obviously it’d be easy to say “oh yeah they share amnesia” but it’s the actual details surrounding their circumstances that make me wonder. Both Nightingale and Surtr share a very similar type of memory issue, where it’s not just that they don’t have memories, but in fact have memories they shouldn’t have: Nightingale, despite scoring averagely on the operator written exams, has an incredible grasp on medicine and biology as well as healing arts that are supposedly outside her range. In her profile, Amiya is unable to distinguish what Nightingales personality is because Nightingale herself is wearing a persona where she isn’t able to properly distinguish who she is. In the same vein, Surtr herself has no recollection of who she is or even how long or far shes been traveling, with the only thing in her head being scattered amounts of random imagery, locations, and people she’s never met. There’s also how their stats are listed in their profiles

Both Nightingale and Surtr have mostly average/below average ratings on their profiles for their competency as operators, with a single excellent/outstanding trait. There’s also the different in their competencies: Nightingale excels at healing Arts and can literally take away peoples pains, while Surtr is an incredibly powerful fighter despite having basically no Originum Arts.

This type of issue seems oddly specific but it makes sense when you consider what Theresa is: the King of Sarkaz, not just in title but in blood and weapon. Being the King of Sarkaz isn’t just in being recognized, but actually inheriting the Arts that denote someone as a worthy successor, the Arts that Amiya has. The Arts that work on empathy and accessing the memories of previously alive Sarkaz by connecting to the Sarkaz Collective Consciousness.

I go into more detail on Sarkaz modification and the empathy power here, but basically in trying to recreate Theresa, Theresis was also trying to recreate her Arts that work via memory and empathy, and the reason why both Nightingale and Surtr have so many scattered memories and have trouble distinguishing their senses of self is because the Arts weren’t properly recreated.

All that said, I think that Surtr specifically, despite having been an attempt at recreating Theresa, was for another goal: The recreation of long dead Sarkaz subraces.

CH11 starts with Theresis calling the various kings of the different Sarkaz races with the goal of forcefully occupying Victoria while it’s unstable in order to conquer it and then declare to the world that he’s going to take over Terra in a giant unification war. The different types of Sarkaz have been alluded to and mentioned throughout the overarching lore (you can view the list of them here), but I want to mention a specific one: the Diaboli.

The Diaboli are the eponymous “Flame Demons”, and you’ll notice that Ifrit is listed as one of them, however it’s also known that Ifrit is an experiment by Rhine Labs, where Ifrit herself was originally a Savra who was modified with remnant shards of Diaboli. You’ll notice in Surtr’s profile that, despite her game play mechanic being that of a powerful Arts nuke, her in game lore actually lists her Originum Adaptability as flawed. Comparatively, Originum Adaptability is Ifrit’s one outstanding trait, so what explains this discrepancy if they’re both supposed to be Diaboli?

Well, Ifrit is a Savra that was modified with Sarkaz DNA, while Surtr is a full-blooded Sarkaz. Ifrit’s Arts are likely what made Rhine Labs want to infuse her with Diaboli shards in the first place to make a powerful Flame Demon because the powers would be complementary. But Surtr? Well, it wouldn’t really matter how powerful her Originum Arts are if she’s just using an ability inherent to her type of Sarkaz. That’s why no one can explain why her sword becomes super heated and can shred through anything: because Surtr is just using powers inherent to that of Diaboli Sarkaz, the sword itself isn’t special. Even if her Originum Adaptability is weak, all she’s really doing is a basic infusion of Arts into her weapon, something that nearly everyone on Terra can do if they even have an inkling of how to use Arts. I do want to note that Sarkaz Arts are constantly exemplified and detailed as their own special type compared to other Originum Arts, so it’s not a stretch to say that certain Sarkaz gained their denotation because they have specific types of arts to their names. Mudrock, for example, is a Gargoyle type Sarkaz and can thus use Arts that are about controlling the earth, but even a Gargoyle whose Originum Arts are weak would likely be able to control earth in some way.

But all this then begs the question: If Theresis was just trying to make a clone of Theresa, why does Nightingale look so distinct? Why bother with other types of Sarkaz and not just use his own blood to try and recreate his sister?

It’s because of Kazdel itself.

With the biological experiments, it’s not simply that they were trying to make a Theresa body double: they’re instituting a full on Kazdel repopulation program of all the various Sarkaz subraces that have slowly been eroded over the years due to the racism against them and the mercenary lifestyle they’re forced to adopt. It’s not just that Surtr was a clone experiment of Theresa, she was a recreation experiment to try and make Diaboli Sarkaz again. We know it’s possible, too, because Ifrit (who was originally a Savra) was able to be converted into a DIaboli Sarkaz by Rhine Labs with only mere fragments of these long dead Sarkaz, and Kazdel technology is far beyond what many people believe specifically because they’ve kept it hidden. If Rhine Labs was able to make Ifrit into a Sarkaz with only a few shards, I’d imagine that Kazdel would likely have access to more Sarkaz relics and ancient DNA to try and use.

And given that Theresis intends to forcefully occupy Victoria and declare war on the rest of Terra, this may also be a way to make tons of powerful, subservient soldiers.

Basically, Surtr is another one of the biological experiments by the Confessarius to try and recreate Theresa, likely a “newer” model that's far more stable and powerful physically compared to Nightingale, but she’s a “failure” in a similar way because she has a jumble of different memories and lifetimes since they couldn’t recreate the King of Sarkaz’ empathy powers correctly. Where Nightingale was likely a test run for the King of Sarkaz empathy power specifically (which is why her Arts are so powerful), Surtr’s base was that of the now functionally extinct Diaboli, because Theresis is also using these experiments to not only remake extinct Sarkaz subraces but also create an entire army of them by using the Confessarius to continually pull Sarkaz wills out of the Sarkaz Collective Consciousness. A true army of demons from hell.

[studentofetherium]

After some amount of thinking, these are the characters or factions that I think would work best for IS seasons or future manhwa— the latter to the latter and the former to be former, as multiple characters can better support a manhwa while single characters work better as motifs

manhwa

Mr. Lee's Detective Agency — i think the Detective Agency would work really well as a serialized story. mostly episodic mysteries plus an overarching story seems like a great setup for a self-contained story in the world of Arknights

Op Reserve A6 — similarly to the A1 manhwa, this is a group who meaningfully lack screentime, yet have become fan favorites due to their low star ubiquity. this could play very similarly to the A1 manhwa, showing how the characters got started together and came to be at RI together

Op A4 — this would be a bit different. while the 3* ops are mostly new recruits and trainees, the 2*s are older ops with more experience. thus, a manhwa showing their past exploits would be really interesting, both as a means of exploring these underutilized characters and to show the world that's existed around them

ABC gang — Siracusa's gangs are their own whole big thing capable of carrying one or more big events on their own, but with the ABC gang, i think the three of them would have a small and personal enough narrative that i think it would work as a manhwa rather than an event or an oprec. once again, show their history, show how they met, etc

Penguin Logistics — for how overexposed people claim they are to Penguin Logistics, they have remarkably little lore. a single event, some oprecs, and a second event which focuses on a couple characters from the group. the reason why i think PL would work well for a manhwa is they in general, they're too goofy for the main game. Arknights can play itself for comedy sometimes, but it's never as silly and over the top as PL's baseline, which is why a lot of people dislike Arknights' best event, Code of Brawl. so give them a manhwa instead and let the company be sequestered to their own little space. they could use more screentime, tho, as outside of their one event, Penguin Logistics characters haven't gotten screentime as Penguin Logistics characters— whenever Mostima and Exusiai are relevant, it's to Lateranian stuff, Croissant showed up in the Gavial event on her own, and Texas and Sora both lack much screentime at all. this would be a good opportunity to shine light on the group dynamics

IS season

for IS seasons, i think an important factor is that the character not lend themself to simple straightforward stories, as IS is an opportunity to explore more alinear and less direct characters

Deepcolor — Deepcolor is inexplicable. she's one of the few launch characters to still lack anything, be it story appearances, an oprec, or even a skin. the holes in her backstory can be filled in with other Aegir lore that's come out, but she still needs more. for IS in particular, I think painting as a motif would make for a good topic, like Gothic opera music does for Crimson Solitaire. only strike against this is that it seems Mizuki is about to get an IS, but this could happen a while later to not be too fishy

Iris — Iris and Bena and whatever the fuck else is happening in their castle in Victoria would make a great setting for an IS. there's some vague stuff about what's going on there, but from what we know, a dreamlike Alice in Wonderland aesthetic would fit the abstract nature of IS

Surtr — an IS delving through Surtr's fragmented memories would make for a very abstract setting, but would also give Surtr much needed lore, as like with Deepcolor, she's quite lacking, with the holes being made up for elsewhere, which ultimately only leads to speculation

Conviction — Arknights takes itself serious, as previously mentioned, but IS would be a good home for Mx. Conviction the April Fool's character. it's a place for sillier stories that don't necessarily need to be canon, so if it ever gets too weird, they can just write it off

just some idle thoughts! i think all of these should happen, personally