#Where the Iterators each get to keep their Slugcats.

[cubicpeebles]

????.??? - PUBLIC

Big Sis Moon, Five Pebbles, Seven Red Suns, No Significant Harassment

BSM: I have put Ruffles into a little costume! Aren't they adorable!

FP: It is a pleasant surprise to see you taking part in events that used to be celebrated by our creators.

FP: And yes, the costume is adorable.

SRS: Putting our companions into costumes is a nice idea. I think I'll try that as well!

BSM: Oh dear.

NSH: Hah!

BSM: I am going to remove the costume now. Ruffles looks... uncomfortable.

SRS: The messenger looks quite charming all dressed up!

BSM: Aww!

NSH: I've found a costume. I'm gonna try putting it on the beast... Wish me luck...

FP: Shall I join in on the festivities as well?

FP: I doubt I will have much luck concidering the uncooperative behaviour of the Ruffian.

BSM: You should try!

NSH: HAHAHA!

NSH: Look at this thing!

NSH: Agh! It's biting!

SRS: Oh my.

FP: This is not going very well.

FP: It is growling at me very loudly.

NSH: Come on! You can do it!

NSH: Don't be scared Pebbsi ~

FP: You are not helping. And do not call me that.

BSM: Please be careful...

FP: Well then. That did not go as planned.

BSM: Oh no!

NSH: Well there goes the Overseer!

SRS: Perhaps you should refrain from attempting to dress it up again.

FP: I agree.

[thornsawawa]

rain world fanart challenge thing :)

this is actually remade from a year ago!! ill put the old version under read more along with explaining each choice.

i dont even know where i found this template, but atleast it has credit on it so i dont have to go dig that up.

this is actually more 8 small painting studies (the watcher one isnt really a painting) than me wanting to express what my favs are. because alot of these choices i genuinely couldnt choose and just picked one that was ONE of my favourites.

thoughts and old art below

for the favourite campaign, i chose saint because i was genuinely so invested in its story while ALSO loving the gameplay! spearmaster? love the story. campaign is kind of hell though, i wouldnt really replay unless i had to. rivulet? awesome story and campaign, but its short and i didnt really click with it like i did saints. and saint has echoes and undergrowth my favs. its only natural

for the favourite slugcat, i honestly spent like 15 minutes just debating what to put here. because i love monk, but i also love saint! and spearmaster! and hunter! and all the others too! but i put monk in the end because no other slugcat makes me go 'SKSGHSKSJH AWWW MONK MONK MONK MONK' like that

for the hardest campaign, i put hunters because for everything else my strategy is throw myself into the problem until it works. keep trying (and iterating hehe), and any consquences i suffer from it can be remedied with some good ol grinding the gameplay loop (which i find quite fun). for hunter, you cant do that. the times i have the most fun in hunter is actually when im at karma 1 and sleeping and dying and knowing since im already at karma 1 the fights i get into with vultures for fun arent gonna softlock me. i love hunter as a slugcat tho <3

for the lizard i chose white lizard because i think they are cool. blue lizards and yellow lizards are close too

the watcherrrrrrrrrr in celebration of there being just over 100 days till the release of their dlc

the favourite iterator is a similar situation to the favourite slugcat. how do i choose that? i love moon, i love pebbles, i love suns, i love sos, i love nsh, i love them all!!! in the end i chose moon this time for a similar reason to monk, but more 'oh its moon!!! lovely!!! i love her'

the passage i chose is pilgrim because i LOVE echoes. so cool! so very awesome. and the art? amazing. getting the passage? tedious but quite fun!

miros vultures are just cool i giggle whenever i see one im not even mad when they kill me. same with regular miros birds but like miros vultures are so cool they can fly with wings that look like they have knife feathers and shoot explosive lazers out of their eyes now

and undergrowth because.. have you seen undergrowth? its the saints drainage system and while i think drainage system is cool undergrowth is cooler. its so good. i could and have spent hours just messing around in there. the atmosphere, sound, art, colours, and gameplay are all great. and it has one of my favourite echoes!!

thank you for reading all that, if you did xD i am prone to yapping

this was made feburary of this year. i say you can pretty clearly see the improvement :3

[its-the-sa]

Different anon. God just boiling down the slugcats to 'animals' angers me in a way I didn't think I could be angry. Yes, they are animals, but by all means they are cognitive and understand complex emotions, communicate with a supposedly complex language, are able to be taught to do things. Why else would the iterators use them as messengers constantly? It's not like they're messenger pigeons where it's just going from point A to point B, they understand exact instructions. If this was just some random animal, making groans and grunts, they wouldn't be able to understand what Five Pebbles even meant when he was explaining how to ascend. Even with the mark, could you imagine if he told a lizard this? Artificer, arguably, is a prime example of this. Just an animal would get over their fallen children, sure they'd grieve but in the end they'd just make more. Arti not only is so enraged by their death, that she is physically incapable of ascension, but also swears vengeance upon a whole other species. This isn't just some animal who lost her children, this is a mother who is enraged at her children's murder. Sure, they aren't on the same level as humans are. Like obviously. But I'd argue it makes sense that a scavenger and a slugcat could fall down the path of enemies to lovers. Especially when you consider the fact that death isn't permanent in Rain World's universe. That would definitely change one's perspective on it. I dunno if I make sense, I'm juggling like three things at once, but I had to say what I needed to say. Wording bad, slugcat smort.

tbh it took me a minute to figure out what this was even referring to, because honestly I don't think that anon meant to use the word 'animal' to dehumanize arti in the first place. it sounded to me like they were just using it as a non-human equivalent for 'person', like "why would anyone fall for a person who committed hate crimes against them?" which is a valid question. it never even occurred to me that they could have meant it in the sense of calling her an inferior creature.

that said... you ARE 100% right and you should say it, lmao.

I very nearly got into this exact argument once, bc i saw some comments from a guy scoffing at the idea of arti showing mercy to baby scavs. because by his logic, 'she is just an animal, so she isn't bound by human morality. in the wild, animals kill any young that don't belong to them without hesitation'. and it just pissed me off so much, because not only was it such an edgy "mercy is for the WEAK!" alpha-male bullshit take, it was also just factually wrong. many animals can and do adopt the young of other animals, even other species, especially when they've just lost their own. and like you said, they can grieve, but then they move on. they keep surviving, and making more babies. they don't dwell on injustice, or let rage consume them to the point that it becomes a hindrance to their own survival. they don't go on single-minded revenge quests. they dont try to justify their own violence by demonizing entire species, and they dont end up plagued by guilt in their sleep. those are very, very human things.

and yeah, i see a lot of people theorize that it's the mark of communication that grants the slugcats higher intelligence, but I don't really buy that either. i think the mark just lets them understand the iterator's language. they must've already had the capacity to understand it, or else it wouldn't work at all. it'd be like trying to install windows on a calculator. also, even without the mark, slugcats are obviously shown to communicate with each other. they have their own culture, they tell stories and make art, and they're apparently able to understand karma and the nature of the cycle at least enough to be able to ascend. so like... any creature thats capable of spiritual enlightenment must at least be sapient, right??

it seems like in the absence of the ancients, both slugcats and scavs are beginning to move in to their niche in the ecosystem

[ask-the-splitmind-au]

I'm still interested in how iterators take control of slugcats' bodies? Who gets it the hardest, and who doesn't need to make special efforts to do it? (not counting Saint and Silver)

This one needs some explaining, sooooo text time it is!

Think about the slugcat's mind like a circle. Inside of that circle lives the Iterator consciousness, and that's where they 'are' when they're not in control. In order to be in control, the iterator needs to get out of that circle. They then need to pass the wall of the circle. Let's say your average slugcat with an average amount of willpower has an average thickness to that circle wall. The iterator needs to exert some willpower to forcibly take control from the slugcat, and the slugcat would need to exert willpower to take control from the iterator.

If a slugcat or iterator willingly shifts control, then it's like the wall disappears entirely. And sometimes, the 'dormant' half is forcibly dragged out of the circle and put in control against their will. (This is rare, but some duos will force the other in control if they're too emotional)

With this in mind, here's how each sluggie and iterator get along:

Artificer and Pebbles share the body in a 80/20 kind of way, Arti's favor. This isn't because Arti forces control or because she's too strong-willed for Pebbles, but simply because Pebbles does not want control most of the time. If he wants to be in charge, Arti usually just lets him have it.

Arti is notable for frequently forcing Pebbles in control when she's in a funk. If she thinks she's going to be a danger to those around her, she usually switches. If she gets too depressed about her past or emotional about her rampage, she usually switches. Pebbles is not a fan of that.

-

Rivulet and Moon are pretty even with each other. Going back to the circle metaphor, they don't have one, or if they do, it's thin. The only time one of them has really ever forced control is when Moon will stop Ruffles from doing something irreversibly bad. Also, in the ongoing Splitmind arc, Ruffles has been blocking Moon from control and since Moon doesn't have practice forcing it, she's pretty much stuck unless Rivulet wants her out.

-

Spearmaster and Suns are about 60/40, Spears' favor. Suns likes talking and being in control, but dislikes the feeling of being in the body they made. Spearmaster is used to being forced out of control and doesn't try to resist it, but more just lets Suns do their thing.

-

Gourmand and Wind are quite even, both understand there are times when the other should be in control, and both have their own viewpoints and disagreements. Both have forced control on the other, and both have willingly given it up. They're probably the healthiest scugerator, mentally.

-

Hunter and NSH are usually fighting for control, not because NSH is being mean, but because he wants to be stupid and Hunter doesn't like that. NSH is...lacking in self-control and self-preservation. Hunter is done with the headache, and so just usually blocks NSH from taking control most of the time. NSH wants to be stupid and silly, so the two often bicker over this when nobody's around. (Who knows, you might see it someday)

-

Ranger and Innocence are 80/20, Innocence's favor. She is taking full advantage of this child. Somebody stop her, the real villain is over here. (/hj) Ranger listens to almost anything she says, and truthfully, despite being mature for his age, doesn't fully grasp the concept of the split mind and truly thinks Innocence is his imaginary friend.

Nobody ruin this for him, please.

-

That brings us to Saint and Sliver. A constant mental battle. Both of heavily fortified mental walls and both are constantly trying to stop the other one from doing what they want. At first, Sliver and Saint were actually super healthy. They wanted to both ascend, so they did that. It was after the first fail that Sliver started to go a little mad, and Saint didn't want to keep failing to ascend (They worry that one day, they'll have tried too much and might truly get stuck like the echoes are, instead of being able to still live in the world). That was where their issues started.

[boiled-bronze]

Anthro Inv redesign!

Wasn't going to post this originally because I didn't put too much effort in the shading but I felt like yapping about my anthro au on main hehe

Ever since The Watcher's dlc got announced I was kinda stumped with my au because there was some weird complicated lore that relied on Inv and Nightcat not being canon, it was something like, Inv, Nightcat and Saint were representations of different forces of nature (movement, stillness and death/end respectively) and said forces always had some representation in every sentient species (as in, there are Iterator analogues for each force, with SOS being a representation of the third one), and, I honestly think Watcher is absolutely not going to follow Downpour's canon so it would still make sense to make them a separate thing, but I kinda stopped liking the whole concept for my au and now I decided to rework almost all of the lore :]

I wanted Enot to have a very strange design originally, anachronistic with very modern clothes that would not be suited for the cold environment at all, and unnaturally spiky fur despite not being a snow slugcat, I never really liked it much but I thought it was good enough for the strange demigod-esque looser that they were. Now however, they are mostly just a random guy, just a regular looser. I still wanted them to keep the modern style but they no longer have access to heavily processed materials, only elaborate sewing machinery from a very distant Iterator's facility many cycles ago, they also still have fur but they are a snow slugcat now, and the "continuous movement" motif is still there, with them being a traveler with very bad luck, and a very emotionally irresponsible person.

I'm still working on their character, I have an idea to where I want their arc to go, but I'm unsure of what their relationships with the other characters would be (mostly I don't know if my au should have reversal in it, I already have a lot of ships on this and maybe not every character needs to be in a romantic relationship actually xP)

Probably going to rework Artificer's design next, and I'm still lost on what to do with Nightcat Watcher as a character, but I'm slowly getting there I think!

[spotsupstuff]

If you are still accepting requests, can you draw fish overseers with colors? Do they have something extra compared to others overseers? And what is you take on them?

ok u got me here i can't say no to a req related to my own ocs

Fish's overseers are normal, actually!

he starts turning them back on during the Tinkerer's "campaign" (i've been thinkin how to turn the story and my scugs into campaigns lately, first comes Tinktink and then Seafarer)

the FUNKY thing that showed up in one of the pics with the baby scav is a completely different thing, actually!

based off of one of the images that Iggy randomly flips through in the game, i present you pearl delivery drones or, by the proper name, Pigeon Drones

their function was originally essentially the same to a carrier pigeon. they can hold on to one pearl and deliver it somewhere- they were mostly used between the residents of the iterator cities. gotta get that comfortable life goin, yanno. they are present mostly with the older iterators, Gen 1s to around the middle age of Gen 2s (Fish is an early Gen 2). so Pebbles, for example, wouldn't really be familiar with these! they went out of style and practice when citizen ID drones got the function to call other ID drones

Pigeon Drones were one of the first things the iterators tried using to communicate between each other without the broadcasts. they look far too much like weird overgrown batflies though n gon snapped up by just about any wildlife too often to be reliable, so the idea got discarded. and that made way for NSH and his invention of slugcats as messangers

in the Tinkerer's campaign the player can find a Pigeon Drone while exploring the Marketplace of Piscis (Fish's city). that can be then taken to Fish, he fixes it, tasks the player to bring him one of his neurons which he then inserts into the drone to power it up and also to extend his consciousness into

from then on the drone (basically Fish himself) trails after the player, guides them to Tinkerer's story points, can be used to distract predators or make them move out of the way or it can be given a pearl which it will then deliver to Fish's puppet chamber safely. Tinktink and Seaf are stuck on high rep with the scavs and cannot harm them, so the drone is supposed to be one more way for the player to keep colored pearls out of the scavs' reach. naturally this means the player will be without the drone until they make their way back to Fish again where he then reads the pearl for them. the drone has an estimated number of cycles before it makes it to Fish, so if the player is faster they can actually beat the thing to him (passages wouldn't work for this)

[foxett]

does creek have any lore-? and if so tell us. (this is a threat)

Ohoh, glad you ask because Creek has a LOT of lore.

First is probably the fact she was originally built much smaller (at about 5,4 hehe). Shortly after her activation, there was a fight between two ancients in her chamber (they're all violent bastards)

Instead of a regular iterator who calms fights with words, she kills them both with her pure pissed determination.

That causes the ancients to have an idea, since "If violent iterator, then can we use for getting beat up?" (Creek's ancients really were tied to karma 1 🔥)

She was edited with multiple extra things, such as being taller (the final 6,4 height), having the weird pods (cavities, one of each forearm and on each leg) which act as storage spots, extra sharp fingers (capable of cutting...) And they accidentally bent her antenna and didn't bother to fix it.

Since then she basically lives fighting her own creators constantly. Until they dip, that is (many are echoed but whatever hehe)

Post that, she finnaly starts interacting with her local group. With no previous interaction with iterators, she barely knows how to act and comes off as a jerk. Nobody really likes her aside from Destination, who looks up to her, and Wind, who tolerates everyone.

Not much happens between then, part of her lore is [Note: this can be taken as both canon and not canon to my lore. I myself dont know whether to keep it or not] is kinda liking SRS, but also sunstone moment, uh oh, Creek gets pissed and golden pearl to suns.

Creek, around the same time, gets pissed at Treetop for existing and being a gay mess and tells him something hurtful, gets banned from chats, L.

Then the fun begins. Introducing, Pork soda arc creek, or Sodacreek as i call it. Guilt is catching up to her, she's miserable, a little suicidal, like any iterator. She is half high half dead constantly. The only thing keeping her company is a slugcat that she made at some point.

Oh yeah that ends.

She's back to being a jerk for a bit. Around the time where destination almost manages to ascend (oops that's lore) makes moor fuck up an experiment which gives him the rot (trying to strengthen his structure's supports with a self replicating substance that develops into a rot-like thingy)

Since destination tries to kill everyone with a kill switch pearl she steals from Sea (the senior.), Creek accidentally caused Wind to die and gets back into depression arc.

At the time of writing this (4:36 am ✨ no sleep yet), i have been thinking about Moor being okay with it, giving her a hug (my iterators are off their strings! At least partially), ect.

Welp i am about to collapse like LttM did so i better rest hhh

[paintedelm]

WENT INSANE A FEW NIGHTS AGO MADE MORE RAINWORLD OCS

Lore under text cutoff:

Doubting Plurality was a generation 3 iterator, constructed near the end of the ancient's time. Their can was built rather haphazardly near a fault line, thus causing frequent tremors across the area. Cities were never built atop it due to safety hazards, instead being left on it's own to work on the Great problem.

After the ancients disappeared, countless cycles went by, and small tremors from the fault line grew into earthquakes, damaging Plurality's can more each cycle, getting so bad he could hardly keep up with maintenance while also simultaneously working on the Great problem. More stress on her mind and her can eventually caused it to collapse, falling apart into several pieces.

Left with only a quarter of their neuron flies, and no way to leave their collapsed chamber, all they could do was wait.

And wait..

Countless cycles went by, flora and fauna took up life inside the broken pieces of his can, the rains began eroding away them, and earthquakes shook the area as they always did, lizards or other hungry creatures would prey on a neuron fly or two.

One cycle, a small, young slugcat slipped inside the remains of it's chamber through a small hole. They'd come to find a friend in that slugcat, even if they couldn't really understand eachother.

Sorry, that's all I've got for now, I'm pretty tired from school.. I had to take two finals, but now I can finally say that my school year is over, and im on summer break! Which means I might actually be able to post more, which is always good.

Have a wonderful morning, afternoon, or night, depending on where you're viewing this post from! :]

[kool-kat1324]

Okay, so now that it’s been spilled that I like Rain World…

…OC dump time.

In order of creation and appearance:

Ventus/Ven, an Avian slugcat (my own subspecies!) based off of a trumpet manucode! He’s very showy and prideful, and he hates it when he gets hurt or dirty. I don’t have much else on him yet.

Cami: a Chameleon slugcat (another of my own subspecies)- she’s very shy and doesn’t like to talk much. I don’t have anything else lol

Slag: a Rock slugcat (again, another subspecies lol). He’s rude and tough and doesn’t get along with others easily.

[Not pictured: Magma, another Rock slugcat, based off of lava rocks — she’s Slag’s best buddy and is equally rude.]

[Not pictured: Kin: a mutating slugcat that decided from a young age to live with a tribe of scavs. They mutated accordingly and took on a more scav-like appearance. When they first joined, the scavs didn’t yet see them as one of their own, even if they were friendly — but over time they became more like family, earning the name Kin, due to a personal headcanon of mine. Kin can still mutate to gain abilities of other species, though those mutations are less permanent.]

The pink one is currently unnamed, but she’s my persona. She’s a cave-dweller. Her markings glow in the dark, as well as the anglerfish-esque lure on her head, and the whisker-like feelers on her face and limbs. She doesn’t see very well, but she’s able to feel her surroundings, which helps, and the feelers are sensitive enough to even detect changes in air direction (to detect nearby movement or weather changes). Her legs are long and powerful, able to leap further and run faster, and she can cling onto and stay put on walls with her sharp claws.

The Interceptor: currently has no real name, but they are a slugcat that failed to reach ascension and basically made it everyone else’s problem. Out of spite, they became hostile and attacked adults of any species — especially fellow slugcats — to keep them from reaching ascension and to perpetuate the cycle of reincarnation. They refuse to attack babies, due to the fact they are not in the cycle yet and killing them would be pointless.

Flowers in the Meadow, Nature’s Bloom: a forgotten iterator. She focused more on plant life than creature life, creating various flora to populate different ecosystems and planting her own personal gardens. As the rain became heavier and more aggressive, her gardens got continually washed away, but each cycle they’d regrow more abundantly, due to additional hydration and minerals washed in by the rains. It eventually got to the point where her entire sector — including herself — became much too overgrown with plant life, and she and her gardens were forgotten.

[parageist]

im just gonna answer all 50 things and then anyone who wants to comment on my responses can lol

1. so many honestly. im hyperfixated on rain world rn though so probably al the scavengers, slugcats, and iterators xD

2. lighters are so satisfying to use, and don’t create a bunch of waste. plus matches always make me a bit scared that they’ll break or burn me and they just seem so inconsistent. but when you get a match to light, it’s a whole different magical experience. i feel like some post-apocalyptic bunker-dweller lighting my oil lantern to go scavenge through some abandoned train tunnels for supplies. very fun

3. as long as it isn’t too cold, stormy, or there’s wildfire smoke outside, then yeah. some bugs do manage to get in though :/

4. some sort of undefined ghostly entity or energy force that manifests itself into multiple different beings, explaining why encounters with cryptids are always so inconsistent and all over the place

5. dark brown

6. do what? You’re mother?😈

7. hair ties but sometimes they get tangled and i get freaked out

8. i think there’s like one or two somewhere in the corner or in my closet

9. i hate coffee, it tastes vile. i love hot chocolate though, but normally i just drink a protein shake or some soda each morning to get my energy boost. i should try tea more often though

10. mhm :3

11. i wanna start a dnd group but im so overwhelmed and bad at scheduling things ;-; it’s been way too long since i last played

12. like in terms of the weather? it’s overcast and drizzly, like most days from october-march here in the PNW

13. this morning

14. yes please!! fun fact that smell is called petrichor (meaning “rock blood”) and is caused by an organic compound called geosmin. both of those words are really cool sounding imo. bouta make an oc named Petrichor Geosmin

15. i have created several eldritch homunculi chained up in my basement🙂

16. anyone can drive, but not everyone can do it as unsafe and illegally as i can 😎

17. nearsighted i think? up close things appear normal with or without my glasses, but far away things are significantly blurrier without them

18. color-safe shampoo and conditioner. that’s it. lmao

19. if you wanted that :)

20. SODAAAAA!!!💥💥🔥💯

21. so many trinkets that half of my closet is full of them

22. peculiar

23. as long as i have warm clothing or someone to cuddle with then it’s cool

24. chillin, maybe a bit of weedery. either that or a dramatic anime battle where i keep making jojo references

25. both because i’m Normal (OCD) about how i smell to others!🙂

26. there’s so many it hurts to think

27. 6 ish

28. with a smile for hours at a time. jk lmao. if i’m sick, around sick people, at a medical place, or someone asks me to then sure, but otherwise i don’t like the sensation of masks and they fog up my glasses

29. as warm as possible before i meet my pain threshold

30. im eating my plate of dinner right now and there’s a few mugs

31. so fuckin many but im really into mashup week megamix rn. something about all the synchronized beats and tracks and references make my dissociated mess of a brain reassemble some gears

32. no but i hate the towels that like leave bits of fuzz on your skin. fowl

33. some japanese gardens in the city. the whole atmosphere was ruined by a bunch of lawnmowers and wasp nests though :/

34. revenge a minecraft parody by captainsparklez and tryhardninja. and a bunch of other songs

35. pst. it’s currently 501pm rn

36. one

37. nobody 🥲

38. i only use liquid soap

39. sometimes but i should more given how much i bite my lips. completely unrelated but one time i took a huge chomp out of a stick of deodorant for no discernible reason :3

40. i had a brotein par

41. in a hearse. To its grave.

42. discord

43. good but i’m white so i can’t take much

44. trump? putin? jeff bezos? elon musk? idk even if i did kill one of them, it’s not gonna solve much. the system is rotten to its core, evil figureheads just give us someone to point all the blame to

45. uhhhhh i played rainworld instead of going to school, worked on my halloween costume, then played more rain world, finished saint again and almost cried, then i sorted my stickers and made poor life decisions with my sleep schedule :)

46. christmas vacation i guess? idk they all kinda blend together

47. “just really tired (sob puddle emoji)”

48. fourteen. and no that is not something to brag about. i was and still am a very stupid kid

49. i did it once but idk how

50. yes please!! :33

here’s weirder asks

who is/are your comfort character(s)?

lighter or matches?

do you leave the window open at night?

which cryptyd being do you believe in?

what color are your eyes?

why did you do that?

hair-ties or scrunchies?

how many water bottles are in your room right now?

which do you prefer, hot coffee or cold coffee?

would you slaughter the rich?

favorite extracurricular activity?

what kind of day is it?

when was the last time you ate?

do you love the smell of earth after it rains?

are you a parent? (all answers qualify)

can you drive?

are you farsighted or nearsighted?

what hair products do you use?

imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails?

do you say soda or pop?

something you’ve kept since childhood?

what type of person are you?

how do you feel about chilly weather?

if we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing?

perfume/body spray or lotion?

a scenario that you’ve replayed multiple times?

about how many hours of sleep did you get?

do you wear a mask?

how do you like your shower water?

is there dishes in your room?

what type of music keeps you grounded?

do you have a favorite towel?

the last adventure you’ve been on?

is there a song you know every word to by heart?

what’s your timezone?

how many times have you changed your url?

someone in your life, other than a relative, you’ve known for 10+ years?

a soap bar that smells good?

do you use lip balm?

did you have any snacks today?

how do you take your coffee?

an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken site?

what’s your take on spicy foods?

you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it?

can you remember what happened yesterday?

favorite holiday film?

what was the last message you sent?

when did you first try an alcohol beverage?

can you skip rocks?

can i tag you in random stuff?

[my-multiversal-storage]

A pearl

During you’re travels in this broken world, you have found a reddish pearl.

You know that usually the colored pearls have some information, so maybe this one has some information of interest.

And luckly, you have yourself a pearl reader, so you should be able to read it.

--------

after getting to you're place of residing and gretting the slugcat that has also been residing there, you took out the pearl reader and read whatever there was on the pearl.

ENTRY LOG 1

It has been a few weeks since… the incident that brought all of the creatures into our world. And it’s been a couple of days since I possessed this… Puppet of sorts, it enabled me to know a lot more about the other world and bringing me to an intelligence comparable to our greatest scientist in the A.A.H.W, along with other unknown benefits for now.

However, it seems that possessing this body made me unable to separate from it at all, and it looks like this body cannot leave the room we found it in. But this is merely a step back as it seems that I can still possess other bodies to do my biting, so not much of a loss in that regard.

Another thing to note is that it looks like there is some sorts of communications going through my head, but it will take some time before I get totally used to this body and be able to use all of its capabilities.

As of right now I only have three objectives. 1.- get used to this body, 2.- learn more about where it came from, 3.- Find a way to get out of this room.

--------

ENTRY LOG 2

I have gotten progress in objectives 1 and 2 as so far.

Apparently, this body is an Iterator, a biomechanical artificial intelligence created and utilized by the Ancients in order to assist in solving the Great Problem.

The great problem being, the cycles of life and death that they wanted to escape from. Apparently, in their world, after a period of time happened, the ones who died beforehand would just come back like nothing happened, something that has seemed to transfer to have remained in this world’s collision.

The Iterators were supposed to find a way to escape these cycles without having a chance of failure, the failure being “echoification”, or at least that’s the name some Ancients gave it.

But apparently, they failed since no solution was found and the Ancients abandoned them without much thought in a massive ascension event of sorts, leaving the Iterators behind with an almost impossible assignment.

Regardless, the Iterators are able to process thousands, if not millions of simulations at a time, and they are equipped with labs to experiment with purposed organisms, beings assigned with one or multiple tasks.

One of such that every Iterators have are “Overseers” thin, hologram-like beings that pop out of the terrain rapidly and observe creatures in the world around them, one of the main ways the Iterators viewed the outside world of their “cans”.

Also, they can communicate with each other by a communication network, that being the main place where I got the information needed of the other world.

Just by this, one would assume that I wouldn’t need my scientist because of all the things I can do now, but I will retain from doing so for two reasons.

1.- As much I have some what praised the Iterators for their capabilities, one of their main flaws aside from the incapability of leaving their “cans”, is that they require an absurd amount of water to cool off their systems, if not done so, this could lad to a lag build up, leading to a collapse of the Iterator. But also due to the water intake there are massive rains that pulverize any creatures that were on the surface when that happened. Luckily, after realizing such predicament, we relocated the A.A.H.W on top of this Iterator, so we wouldn’t have to deal with that.

2.- Apparently, one of the Iterator’s experiments went horribly south and resulted in a situation that was truly problematic, that being the other reason that I decided to keep the scientists, I will only help in whatever they are doing, while also working on the Improbability Drive myself.

--------

ENTRY LOG 3

Progress has been slow but it was useful, I have completely adapted to the puppet I now possess and I am able to comprehend much better the Improbability Drive by myself and made a remote controller of the machine if a dire situation were to arise.

But at the moment, I am still trapped inside the room, but with my current knowledge of the Improbability Drive, I should be able to detach from the arm and be able to finally leave the room I am stuck at the moment while still remaining my new intelligence.

But leaving that behind, there has been some confusion among the other Iterators, specifically in the matter of how they all got here in the first place, and where “here” even is.

On that note, some have noticed me inside the communications, luckily, I was able to change this Iterator’s name and introduced myself as another Iterator that had never communicated before, of course this method wasn’t perfect and some even questioned how I stayed off the communications at all.

But with the current situation at their hand, they quickly brushed that aside and continued discussing the whole “we are mot in the place we should be” matter.

I’ve gotten the idea to, when the time comes, recruit some of them to my cause with the promise to finally be able to find the solution to the “triple affirmative”, and I’m sure the majority of them wouldn’t refuse to my proposal with that promise, and with their help, I would finally find a way to kill HIM for good.

And that another thing I wanted to get on, with the whole cycle’s thing going on, it is more far than obvious that HE will be more relentless due to the fact that now, HE won’t be afraid of death since its somewhat practically none existent (not that HE feared it beforehand).

So now more than ever, I have to find a way to finally get rid of HIM without leaving the smallest chance of HIM returning, and for now at least the “triple affirmative” is the best bet at the moment, but I will still look for other options for either, incapacitate him long enough to use the “triple affirmative” on HIM, or to find another way to get rid of HIM for good.

Recently I have found a director of a scientific project by the name of Phobos, the project was called “project nexus” but because of the cycles he stated “A major part of this project has been already resolved”, he didn’t say what that “major part” was, but with what I have been able to see through my overseers, I’ve deduced that this project was at it’s core a cloning project.

Seeing this, I could repurpose the hole project to the militarization of said clones, I shall assign Dr. Christoff and Dr. Hofnarr to said project, hopefully we can make enough soldiers to have a fighting chance against HIM.

--------

ENTRY LOG 4

It has been a long while since I’ve written in this log, because there had been big problems at the moment, and I think this shall be the last entry I’m going to make before I store this information in a “pearl” or somewhere else, but for now let’s recapitulate everything that has happened.

A few days after I assigned Dr. Hofnarr and Dr. Christoff to director Phobos, there were some sightings close to the A.A.H.W, so I assigned a group of grunts with some engineers to investigate the sightings.

What they found where a group of a species we now know as scavengers, at first there were a bit of conflict since neither of us understood the other, but we were able to somehow convince them to send their leader to me, in the hopes of finally reaching an agreement.

I had to modify a bit another ability of the Iterators called “the mark of communication”, an ability normally used so the Iterators could communicate, but it was only one sided since they thought the other beings weren’t as smart as they now know they are.

But with some minor modifications, I was able to make it two sided so we could communicate properly.

After a bit of back and forward, I was able to determine that the scavengers were mostly trying to find a place to reside at the moment, and it wasn’t hard to figure out that the massive can must have looked like a place to reside, even more so since they had previously been on another one like these, but he wouldn’t tell me the why they abandoned the previous one.

One thing I noticed was that they had a fascination for pearls, I wasn’t able to truly figure out why, but it helped in the deal I had with him.

We would give them somewhere to reside alongside with other benefits like giving them a supply of pearls, as long as they: 1.- Didn’t went destroying my can for resources. And 2.- Helped in the security of the A. A. H. W’s main base of operations alongside other places.

He accepted the deal, and there weren’t any other problems with that, aside from having to teach them how to operate firearms, but they seem to quickly learn.

A couple of weeks later, I was finally able to configure the Improbability Drive enough to separate me from the arm without sacrificing any of the capabilities of the Iterator, but it seemed that I didn’t calibrate it enough, because it also happened with other Iterators as well, due to the massive hysteria that went arose on the communication network.

I wanted to only make it happen to myself so I would be able to offer freedom of their “cans” in exchange to make them work for my cause, but because of this I won’t be able to act on this plan, a major step back sadly.

A few days later, I had attended a meeting with director Phobos, since I wanted to know how his project was going, it was there where he actually revealed to me what where the original intentions of “project nexus”.

He wanted to achieve immortality and power through this project, but due to the cycles, the immortality was no longer a part of this project, now mostly focusing on the power aspect, but finding little to no success until I assigned Dr. Hofnarr and Dr. Christof on his project.

After that conversation we had, I made sure to send one or more Overseers in the case he wanted to rebel against me, never can be too careful.

Thing that was proven right due to the fact that it wasn’t Phobos who decided to rebel, but it was Dr. Christoff who did so.

Before I was able to override his level access, he went to where we kept the “halo” and started a whole outbreak, he destroyed many laboratories and researches in his hopes of destroying all of the project nexus.

One of the many casualties of this outbreak was Dr. Hofnarr, he was studying “Dissonant energy” from “The other place” that had been as of recently covered in a golden hue according to him, but during the outbreak a “sleeper agent” had managed to access his laboratory.

While I don’t know the exact details of what happened, I can presume that Hofnarr tried to defend himself, but due to the commotion a bit of “Dissonant energy” leaked out, killing the “sleeper agent” while damaging Hofnarr’s brain.

After 9 hours, Christoff who had named himself as “Jesus” finally left due to the injuries he had sustained, taking the Halo with him, but not after damaging major parts of the A.A.H.W, fortunately we were able to recover from such losses.

However, as stated before, Hofnarr’s brain was damaged to the point that he lost all his memories as Hofnarr, and no matter what we tried, we weren’t able to recover him back.

So, for now he’ll be just another assassin, going by the name of “Tricky” (can’t believe that’s the name he decided to go by…) it will take some time to truly train him to the fullest of capacity, but I have an idea on how to make him truly dangerous against… THEM

And that’s the last thing I wanted to mention, as of recent, there had been some sightings of HIM along side what the scavengers call “the red death”, the true reason the scavengers had abandoned the previous “can” they were residing on, more reason to find the “triple affirmative” and get rid of them for good.

That’s the last I shall write on this, no more reason to continue since I’ve catch up with everything, and this was more to get used to the Iterator body I now possess, who knows maybe I’ll try to modify it to have more battle capabilities, but that’s all I shall write here.

END OF LOG

--------

well... that sure was something alright...

____________

WELP!... this is the first BIG lore dump i made for this... im not a Madness Combat lore expert, so if there is anythig that i should do make it better, please say so!

[ask-the-splitmind-au]

Meet the Spearmaster! (Splitmind AU)

Reblogs > Likes (Reblogging helps out a lot, even if it doesn't seem like much!)

The fucked-up science fair project

Some more lore on the designing of Spearmaster is that I wanted my iterator-made sluggies to learn a lot harder into the 'slug' part of slugcat. As such, Spearmaster (and Hunter) have the little feelers on their face, as well as feeling a lot slimier and lacking a lot of fur. Plus, the little ruffle thing around their sides looks really cute to me.

Tagging Station

@doodlebug091

@keeper-of-magic

@angeliteonfridgeduty

@stupidscav

@batnip

@riverripplespeaks

@cherry-b0mber

@luxdraconia

@voldkat

@lunas-sketchbook

(I was also gonna ping every follower, but 1) they'll see this anyway probably and 2) THERE'S ALREADY 20 OF YOU WHAT??)

Pre - Suns

Well, as 'Pre-Suns' as it gets, considering they made them.

Spears was initially created by Suns as a way to deliver the gold pearl to Pebbles. Suns carefully made their organism, placed the pearl inside it's body, and sent it on it's merry little way. Spearmaster did it's duty, delivering the pearl, but on it's way back, was viciously attacked and the pearl was ripped from it's body. Not sure if Suns wanted a pearl like this floating around, Spearmaster decided to lay the pearl to rest somewhere far, where (hopefully) nobody else could find it.

When Spears got back, Suns mostly just told it to do fuck-all until they needed a messenger again. It was always to give sensitive information, usually to Five Pebbles, regarding the process of self-ascension. Overall, Spears grew used to this routine and Suns never really saw Spears as a living creature, rather, an object.

That changed upon the latest, deep red pearl, once Pebbles began rejecting normal communications. After seeing the pearl so violently ripped out, and realizing just how diligent the messenger was in their journeys, Suns' opinion of the little fellow changed and they treated it more like a pet cat when it returned.

Post - Suns

Similar to Ruffles and Moon, Suns was visited by a small dark slugcat that spoke perfectly with no clear indication as to how. After it explained how it was an iterator living within the creature's mind, Suns became intrigued at the idea that this could be the answer. It gave Suns the unique pearl with the information on how to do such, and told it that should the process be a success, pass the pearl on to others nearby when it was no longer of use to them. The creature also advised Suns to craft the ideal body for this, and Suns simply held up Spearmaster, believing their organism to be a perfect host.

Suns attempted to explain everything to Spears, but (in typical cat fashion) they weren't particularly listening. Suns went ahead with the procedure, and bound their mind to Spears'. When the pair came to, Spears was terrified at the sudden loss of life in Suns' puppet until they explained everything from within their head. Suns wanted to take the pearl to Pebbles first, hoping he was still in good enough health to make use of it, but Spears refused to set paw near his can again. Suns decided to let Spears keep doing their thing, but wanted to explore the world a little before they'd think about trying ascension.

Despite this, Spearmaster never really met any other slugcats, even though they were a fast traveler. Suns kept encouraging them to visit other iterators, but each one they went to already seemed to have gotten the message. Interestingly, Spearmaster did meet a green pup with the same eye, and he was quick to spill that Unparalleled Innocence was in his head. Spears found the fellow charming, but had no interest in keeping a young child alive and left shortly after.

Spearmaster travels afar, guided by Suns to find any remaining iterators and share the message with those it has not reached. Secretly, Spearmaster hopes to find the first slugcat who shared the idea with them, since they found themselves quite fond of the creature, despite only seeing them.

[scavworld]

16, 21, and 22?

16. Which of the Downpour slugcats are you most excited for?

Spearmaster or Saint! The Spearmaster's mechanics seem very interesting and the Saint's grapple tongue seems like it will be fun to play around with!

21. What is your favorite thing about the game?

Not sure if this counts since it isn't technically part of the game itself, but something I have enjoyed is bonding with others over the game, especially my partner, Lizard Mod :) They got the game for me as a gift and initially neither of us knew anything about it at all! But together we both learned about it and it is something we still talk about and bond over to this day. I have many fond memories of hours spent with them as we livestreamed the game to each other and it has been fun seeing how much of an impact this game has had on our lives and relationship. I have also enjoyed bonding over others with this blog! Sadly I am not too active in other community spaces such as the Discord, but this blog has given me more of a peek into the community and it has been nothing but delightful interacting with you all through this blog and bonding over are shared adoration for this game, so thank you all very much for that!

Buuuuut if we are talking about things that are directly part of the game, the atmosphere! I think Rain World has one of the most expertly and beautifully crafted atmospheres of any game I have played. The artstyle, sound design, music, and even gameplay all weave together perfectly for me. I'd love to be able to go back and reexperience the game again blind for the first time. Being able to forget that you are even playing a video game and just getting absorbed into this vast alien world is so magical. I have seen many games that try to achieve the same feeling, but Rain World is the only game I have ever actually seen pull it off for me personally!

22. Have you played around with any mods for the game?

A bit! But not as much as I would like to. For this blog I always have the sharpener mod active, as it lets me take nice clear crisp photos of scavengers! (Fun tip: If you want to take crisp screenshots without the anti-aliasing effect the game uses to make things look slightly blurry, just turn on windowed mode and the pixels will be clear). I have played some Jolly Coop with Lizard Mod and dabbled in some region mods though, but I cannot remember the names of most of them unfortunately since I didn't get very far in exploring them. I've played some of the custom slugcat mods too and some of them are really fun! I like Sporecat and the Wanderer from the Drought mod. Also that mod that lets you play as the iterators is pretty great. It is fun to imagine Moon going full "survival-mode" and hauling herself all the way to FP's chamber just to throw a rock at him.

Once I installed that mod where you have to keep moving otherwise you will explode and I forgot I had it installed for like a week. Needless to say it made getting scavenger pictures pretty difficult!

[regalbopper]

I think this post solved nearly all of the confusion that comes with respawns being canonized, and especially with some of the introductions of Downpour because the slugcats were originally a mod that VideoCult canonized. However, I think some of those special cases actually deepen these themes of qualia, and despite the confusion should be considered part of the story. After all, Downpour did have a lot of work done on it by VideoCult to make the More Slugcats mod fit.

The first question is always "why didn't Arti's spugpups come back?" Or any slugpups for that matter, why do they seem to die forever? The answer is that tie of mental state to spiritual state, and how qualia links everything together. So, the slugpups are simply not developed enough to respawn alongside you, and stay in your cycle. I believe they still respawn, but in another cycle, or "plane" as Gnosticism would say, at a point before they met you.

This is also what I think is meant by the echoes, where your cycle has to converge with theirs to percieve them, and even then only temporarily. Each creature is locked in its own personal plane, where it respawns at the last moment of concentrated qualia. The echoes even show this, like the Farm Arrays echo reminiscing about their life in the Farm Arrays, confused why they still look at this simple farmland even as it becomes overgrown and eventually snows over. For the Slugcats, a shelter is exactly that moment of qualia, where the experience of peaceful rest is not related to the previous events, and sleep serves as a way to ease the transition between death and rebirth.

The next question is Hunter. Why is he on permadeath mode with a time limit? Again we go back to that link between the physical brain and karma, Hunter has cancer. And not just any cancer, he has The Rot, which is explicitly a brain cancer that infects nueral tissue. When he dies, either before the time limit or when he reaches it, the Rot completely takes over before he can respawn, leaving behind the Hunter Longlegs that we see in Gourmand's campaign if you failed a Hunter save before playing Gourmand. It's possible Hunter does respawn, but before the start of his campaign and before the Rot stopped him from being able to keep the qualia of shelters, perhaps in the arms of No Significant Harassment like he sees when he ascends.

That would explain why we always have the chance to replay the campaign and avoid dying this time.

Next, Saint. What the hell is happening with Saint? To begin, the oversized and difficulty-spiked elephant in the room is Rubicon.

Why is there an entire area of shuffled up rooms, some from regions long before Saint's campaign, that is nearly as big as Five Pepples' interior down here? Why is it clearly trying to stop Saint from perpetuating what seems to be his own cycle of becoming an echo only to be returned where the campaign began and somehow reverted to normal, by a ghostly slugcat? I think it's explained by what you said about the Void Worms being responsible for the creation of new worlds, as well as by how the Void Sea works. What we are told us that the Void Sea eats up the world from below as new particles are added on top, burying what came before. If the Void Worms can build a new world, then building Rubicon as a prison for Saint isn't too far fetched. Whatever the reason for its creation, it must be slowly taking resources away from their efforts to layer the new world on top, because by the time of Saint's campaign the Void Sea seems to have eaten way past where it did before, without any clear layering on top.

Saint is trying to Ascend EVERYTHING. He's trying to get the Void Sea to eat up the whole world, one cycle at a time, one ascended Void Worm at a time. He's trying to wipe the slate clean, but why? I think the answer is simply it's his purpose. He has been purposed to Ascend the Iterators, and there are too many of them, in too many different cycles, for him to get them all manually. He does not want to wipe out the Void Worms, only leave a blank slate for the new world to be built from. Saint gives Karma 10 to every creature he comes across, preparing them for when the Void Sea consumes them. It may explode their brains while he's at it, but it's mercy compared to the perpetual torment of deathless memory. Saint is ending the world, and here that is good because it means a new world will be built on top using the sacrifice of all those forcibly Ascended, repopulating all of the Void Worms he had to Ascend to get here. It may not be a good ending for the world, but it is a new beginning for what will replace it when nothing remains.

I'm shocked how well I was able to see all of @grunckle 's observations about the story's themes fitting Downpour, but it does make sense since VideoCult took a lot of creative liberties with the More Slugcats mod. I could probably go on more of a tangent about how Gourmand follows the tenet of Qualia and memory preservation while disobeying almost everything about Ancient culture, or how lizard lineage could work despite the slugcat resetting to before they killed the lizard if they die, but I think this post is long enough and I'll leave someone else to phrase all that better than I can.

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 heavelly resemble the Yaldaboath from Gnosticism, 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.

[cycles-of-rain]

-C listened to Gunpowder patiently and intently, taking internal notes about the important information and details of that creature’s appearance. “Bio-mechanical creatures? Those creatures aren’t impossible to exist but..not naturally. They could be experiments, probably a product of one of those Iterators’s actions. He also said that Orbit is like a giant computer, Right? That wouldn’t be possible in this type of place, unless it is only a computer to stay in a certain place without moving. And since everything looks giant as a slugcat, it must be the reason of that description.” C thought. A mark? Now that’s quite intriguing. C simply did a small nod of understanding, as he didn’t have much to say or ask at all.-

Really? That’s..odd, in a way. There could be many reasons for him to do such, possibly one of those reasons was to make you be able to understand him and the others creatures too. It would also be nice to be able to see that mark if it visible, or at least the way he did it if that’s possible. As for that bio-mechanical creature, I have my suspicions about what caused them to have artificial limbs.

-C observed the cicada fly’s fate along with how the mimic acts and attacks it’s prey and as soon as C saw Gunpowder’s actions and that he is waiting for him, C quickly bounded over the place where the plant was before entering the pipe at the other end of the room. As C listened to Gunpowder, C glanced around the place, looking for Plum before spotting her seconds later. So she can follow them well..perfect.-

Roger that.

-Was all he managed to say to show that he understood the information and that he will keep it in mind. C followed them whenever they had to move to another place and observed his actions, taking a moment to gaze at what Gunpowder pointed. C took that moment to stare at the dent they can use, he was tempted to check how it looks like, but he knew that they’d use one soon enough thanks to Gunpowder. Keeping that in mind, C followed them once again. C analyzed the place, letting out a low hum of understanding before gazing up at Gunpowder.-

So there are many predators here.. I’m not exactly sure what a dropwig is, but that’s a possibility if there are dark places here. We could try to make two of those lizards fight each other and take down the third lizard, or make the third lizard fight the dropwig if there’s one. We could also use the spears and bombs to get rid of them, though the first idea would either use less weapons or none depending on what happens.

-C said, trying to help in a way by thinking of ideas they could do despite of wanting to fight those predators.-

:Oh! Yeah one second.: He stopped, closing his eyes and focusing for a moment. A small orb of light appeared above his head, having a faint grey glow. :Dunno how he did it, probably some weird science. I think he might’ve made the Miros too? Not sure though, never asked.: It shrugged. Wasn’t much of a concern to spark after all, spark just focused on killing or avoiding them.

:Oh, dropwigs are like- really big insects that hang from the ceiling and ambush any prey that moves below it.: Shade pointed to a long brown plant with many different grasslike ‘leaves’ :One’s right there, it’s hiding right now but you can tell cause of it’s shape.: The supposed plant twitched slightly as a lizard walked below it. :And it’ll make a pretty good distraction.: And just like that a spear was suddenly imbedded in its side. It fell onto one of the pinks, who happily snatched it and started moving towards a den. :C’mon!: Powder leapt off the small ledge, rolling to and jumping over the lizard onto a ledge that lead into a small rebar tunnel. They moved over and up, reaching the front of the tall ledge sticking out of the left side of the room. He climbed up over the edge using some small poles, crouching low and slowly creeping up on the two lizards on the platform above.

[entergamingxp]

Inside gaming’s least safe safe rooms • Eurogamer.net

Via Facebook group chat, I’m speaking with Suguru Murakoshi and Hiroko Usuda from the now-defunct Team Silent. We’re talking about their time working on Silent Hill 4: The Room as director and designer, respectively – diving into the creation of Room 302, the apartment that kicks off the story and remains ever-present in the narrative.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SILENT HILL 4, DOOM ETERNAL, DEATH STRANDING, WARHAMMER END TIMES – VERMINTIDE, FATAL FRAME 3: THE TORMENTED, AND AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT.

It’s the only save point in the game, naturally turning it into a safe room. Over time, however, this initial promise of safety is broken by a series of increasingly dangerous hauntings, turning your home into an unfamiliar and hostile space.

“The concept of Silent Hill 4 was clear from the early stages of development – the fear of eroding the safest places,” director Murakoshi tells me. “Three teams came up with a plan, and the concept of a room was chosen because it was the scariest of them. Since then, rooms have always been at the core.”

Room 302 is terryfying from the off because it doesn’t let you unlock the door from the inside. But at least the room is presented as your sanctuary. It’s only halfway into the story that things change. Looking back, Usuda considers this a “contrasting expression”.

Silent Hill 4’s Room 302.

Safe rooms have long been present in video games. Survival horror has treated them as a tradition over the years, offering players a shelter to save their progress, resupply, and regain their breath. They are great motivators to continue venturing further in Resident Evil games despite the unforeseen horrors waiting on the other side of the door. Iterations on this idea can be seen in other genres as well, present in the likes of Dark Souls’ bonfires, Darkest Dungeon’s camps, and many others. Although the purpose of each safe room may differ, the expectation from players is the safe room is, in fact, safe. But some developers have subverted this expectation, finding a new way to expose horror in previously guarded spaces.

We all broke a sweat after hearing the news Nemesis was now able to break into safe rooms in the Resident Evil 3 remake. The news turned out to be untrue, thankfully, but other video games are not so reserved. Unsafe rooms, as I like to call them, have slowly emerged throughout the years. Illusions manifest themselves as psychological torments in Death Stranding’s private rooms. Doom Eternal’s hub area, being the most recent example, suffers an unexpected attack at one point during the story. “This stronghold will now serve as your prison,” speaks the voice of Khan Maykr, now infiltrated into your navigation system. Demons quickly reveal themselves to be lurking in the shadows, ready to attack.

Doom Eternal’s safe room goes from this…

To this.

These moments can leave a long-lasting impression on players, but timing is everything when it comes to surprising them. Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide’s The Red Moon Inn was created as an interactive space in which players could spend time in-between missions. Over time, the inn became a community hub, and studio Fatshark added special events and interactive elements to capitalise on this.

Fatshark unexpectedly threw all that out of the window via a free DLC mission in which the hub is overrun by Skaven. “We had a door to the cellar from the launch of Vermintide, and the community speculated about what was behind it,” producer Mrten Stormdal tells me over email. “We wanted to create an element of surprise, and the players’ interest made it more fun for us as developers to come up with the story.”

This sudden outburst had a positive reception from the community, which Stormdal remembers fondly. “Watching streamers playing through it for the first time was priceless, they never knew what hit them. This is probably partly because it took so long before we did it. It needs to be introduced very carefully, and very scarcely, since it is supposed to be a safe room first and foremost.”

Videocult co-creator and composer James Therrien argues for and against adding these events into safe rooms, both from a developer and player perspective, based upon the news around Nemesis allegedly infiltrating them. “For me, it depends on the game’s intention. For a dynamic, unfair game like Rain World I believe it could fit well if done smartly, as with horror games where an encroachment of the in-game narrative into the ‘safe space’ of the UI can be used for solid and terrifying dramatic effect,” he explains.

“But that’s me speaking as a creator, enthusiastic to use and subvert whatever tools are available [for] me to convey emotion and narrative to my audience. As a player, I would absolutely throw my controller and complain on Twitter if I had just completed some long game passage and then died unexpectedly, when my heretofore established ‘safe space’ suddenly isn’t and I have to start the section all over again!”

In the early iterations of Rain World, a survival game in which you play a nomadic slugcat who must hunt enough food to survive, hibernation dens were planned on being fewer in numbers and larger in size, leading players to make them their home for some time, bringing supplies and resources. But as the world grew bigger, the idea of counting with just a few central safe nodes became impractical. You can still store food and items in the final dens, but it’s more of a hidden mechanic than an overt one.

If you end up hibernating while lacking the proper amount of resources, however, the process will carry on as usual, but not without consequences. You are unable to save your game until you rest in a new shelter with enough food, and the slugcat will look thinner and weigh less during the so-called starvation mode. Midway through development, the studio had the idea of letting creatures invade these dens, forcing the player to find a new one.

“We allowed for that behavior to take place in the game’s architecture, but then in testing it became a nightmare, they liked the dens too much!” Therrien says. “Eventually we had to hack it a number of ways to prevent hostile creatures from entering dens, as often the game would save that state and then a player’s save file might be ruined by them waking up with a hungry lizard… permanently! Even the layers of hacks we put in are not always successful, and a player will have to deal with an irate scavenger or lizard roommate. But it’s worth it because players can also intentionally hibernate with tamed or befriended creatures, which adds so much to the game.”

Rain World.

Silent Hill 4’s Room 302 isn’t the only famous unsafe room. The mansion in Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented also serves as a shelter for most of your time in the game, since it’s only when you dream that ethereal beings manifest themselves in the Manor of Sleep. But over time that protection begins to fall apart as paranormal presences bleed into reality. Looking over your shoulder becomes mandatory.

Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented.

Another known example is the Back Hall from Amnesia: The Dark Descent. After escaping the archive tunnels and witnessing first hand some of the horrors that await Daniel in the story, you find yourself in a big, surprisingly illuminated room. There’s an eerie fountain in its centre that doesn’t give much confidence, but it’s the soothing music (the track is fittingly called ‘Safe Ambient’) and the sudden change of environment that provide a feeling that wasn’t in any of the rooms before it.

Such feeling is later swept away by the presence of The Shadow, an invisible enemy who is constantly chasing Daniel around the manor and its whereabouts. The water in the fountain turns red and organic residue invades the hall completely. Another safe space mutates into anything but.

“A core element of the game is being hunted by this vast horror that destroys everything in its past,” creative director and Frictional Games co-founder Thomas Grip tells me. “So we wanted to make sure the environments had this sense of changing as this threat grew. Players were unlikely to revisit many of the levels, so the hub levels felt like the right place to do this.

“We didn’t want players to become too used to the environments, as that kills that sense of uncertainty you want in a horror game. You get good horror when people look around and don’t know what they might find. If players feel their surroundings are very stable and familiar, you won’t have that. So, the trick is to always keep changing.”

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Looking back, Silent Hill 4’s use of room 302 as the only recurrent save point was a gamble in terms of player exhaustion. “At the time, I didn’t intend to put save points outside the room,” Murakoshi continues. “However, it’s insanely inconceivable in recent games. 2004 was different from the current game situation. [Taking it into consideration], I think it was not balanced, but for me the difficulty before returning to the save point was not so high.” He adds that in today’s context, Silent Hill 4 would need to be more kind towards the player, but most of the choices made back in the early 2000s would remain, such as expressing a normal daily life on the outside as much as possible, granting the illusion that one day you might resume your routine with the others.

This included the neighbors occasionally appearing in the door’s fisheye, along with everything you could see from the room’s window. (Usuda based the window on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.) I also asked Murakoshi if the shifting house from Kojima Productions’ horror tease P.T. could be considered a safe room, which he immediately denied, recalling the initial sense of shelter in room 302: “That house is not safe. It doesn’t have any elements to give you a sense of security.”

Gloomwood’s developer Dillon Rogers has been documenting these spaces on Twitter for almost two years now, and argues disrupting a safe room doesn’t involve just timing, but also the consideration of what comes next, based on the effect it has on the player. Knowing that a safe room no longer holds its initial purpose can be good tension in its own right, but periods of time dedicated to allowing players to let down their guard are equally important to prevent exhaustion.

Room 302. Silent Hill 4: The Room. (Team Silent, 2004) pic.twitter.com/1OLZTPUEiX

— The Safe Room (@TheSaferooms) May 9, 2018

In his game, phonographs serve as the typewriter equivalent, and players can tell when one is nearby because the devices play music. Depending on the difficulty, wax cylinders also need to be used to save their current progress. As of now, Rogers doesn’t want to reveal if the game ever disrupts its rules, which is probably for the better. “You have to be quite careful about breaking the sanctity of the safe room as once that bell has been rung, you can’t unring it,” he tells me.

The first memory he has about a traditional safe room being broken comes from the original Resident Evil 2. There’s one moment in the utility building behind the police station where two zombies attack during one of the series’ iconic door opening sequences, which were only supposed to be a stylish way of presenting loading screen transitions between rooms up to that point.

“I don’t think that moment would have worked as well if the original Resident Evil hadn’t built up a full game’s worth of expectations,” Rogers says. “The player entered the sequel knowing the original game always assumed the door sequences and safe rooms were off-limits, and when the game broke both rules at once – it was frightening.”

Now that’s a contrasting expression.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/inside-gamings-least-safe-safe-rooms-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-gamings-least-safe-safe-rooms-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net