#FP is misunderstood fr

[orangedoorhingeinstorage]

Rambly post about RW Qualia and mostly Five Pebbles

Old thing I wrote on a Padlet board of mine that I'm semi proud of, warning: rambly asf, also only took the base game as a basis. Enjoy!

The Ancient civilization and their descendants held their memories as something valuable, using pearls to archive them, those type being memory construct pearls. The concept of memories is closely tied to qualia: A personal experience, something that can’t be comprehended by another person completely other than the individual itself. They are sensations that are hard to convey through written language.

Five Pebble’s Pearl dialogue:

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.

With the advancement of bioengineering, they would take a step further and preserve raw memories and qualia of an individual in cabinet beasts at the memory crypts.

Shaded Citadel pearl:

“The assorted memories and qualia include:

Watching dust suspended in a ray of sun (Old age). Eating a very tasty meal (Young child). Defeating an opponent in a debate contest and being applauded by fellow team members (Late childhood/Early adulthood).”

Survivor and Monk’s campaign begin with memories of their time reunited with their family. Memories can also be seen in their dreams. And their journey consist of moving on from the past and those memories that hold them in the carnal plane and to enter into the spiritual one, as the many others who left their memories to be cherished by the carnal plane did, drawn to the void again and again, an endless drip drip drip

In Rain World, the previous civilization studied thoroughly the nature of the void, but for a time that was just restricted to only theory, and they only could understand the nature of transcendence after experiencing it themselves. To grasp the boundless infinite of the cosmic void.

Qualia also heavily influenced the naming convention of the descendants of the ancients and the iterators. With the benefactors names being more "ornate and lavish" due to their ego, great ambition and various titles. That being true to most of public figures.

As seen in 5P pearl dialogue, the iterators themselves share the concept of qualia, with Moon commenting on the Garbage Wastes pearl being hard to translate to you due to it being his personal experience.

Garbage Wastes pearl:“It’s written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand. It's a methodology for global ascension of course - quite good, although the Peripherists or the Slab Mongers certainly wouldn't agree!”.

It’s also seen in one Five Pebbles pearls that he tries to “experience” what is it being like a lower creature, to research the solution of the Great Problem, ascending the world. But even as an Iterator, he struggles to do so as he is godlike comparison, with his experience being different from the average creature. The Iterators know a lot, but they’re restrained due the taboo and their somewhat limited worldview.

Five Pebbles pearl dialogue: “It is the impression of being a small creature, like a wall climbing lizard, and looking up into the branches of a big tree. The last third is partly overwritten with a number series I vaguely recognize, but without my memory…”

Moon Survivor/Monk dialogue:“He's sick, you know. Being corrupted from the inside by his own experiments. Maybe they all are by now, who knows. We weren't designed to transcend, and it drives us mad.”

Moon receiving her first neuron:

We were supposed to help everyone, you know. Everything. That was our purpose: a great gift to the lesser beings of the world. When facing our inability to do so, we all reacted differently. Many with madness.

Outskirts Pearl:

This is true for all living things, but some actually break the cycle. That doesn't apply to you or me though, you are too entangled in your animal struggles, and for me not breaking that cycle is an integral part of the design. Our mantras keep repeating.

The best Five Pebbles can do is granting you the gift of communication, the mark of enligthment and lead you to the old path, as a definitive solution hasn't been found, and it is uncertain if SOS actually ever found one.

The bad news is that no definitive solution has been found. And every moment the equipment erodes to a new state of decay. I can't help you collectively, or individually. I can't even help myself.

Everyone had a theory. Some said that she did have a solution, but that the solution itself was somehow dangerous. These later became known as the Triangulators, who think that a solution should be inferred without being directly discovered. Some said she never had a solution, she just died. And when the systems broke down an erroneous signal was sent. One camp claimed that dying was the solution.

And that frustration of trying to comprehend the individual experience of everything in the World and solve the puzzle of The Great Problem leads him into trying to find a way out himself, not caring about others around him. Posing risk into himself and others.

FP: I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for them. Why do we do this?

EP: It is not a new idea, but it needs to be vented occasionally. What if there is no universal solution? What if perception is in fact existence, and when Sliver of Straw sent the triple positive it was not a mistake? What if crossing oneself out, or even just death, is the way? We need to consider the possibility.