#i love theorizing so much you can't even begin to imagine. the cogs in my head are SPINNING

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

So anyway, calling it now (and spoilers for Burrow's End Episode 1), the Red Warren is located in Chernobyl's 'Red Forest' and all the trees are red due to the radiation. The dust cloud was kicked up by vehicles moving along the road and the radiation within the dust is toxic if inhaled but it didn't affect the stoats until it was stirred up into the air by the heavy machinery. (This exact thing happened recently in the news, I believe)

The 'blue' is most likely the glow of radiation as seen through water (it's kept in water to keep it cool so it is always glowing blue). I'm assuming that one stoat saw it and passed the legend down through the generations. They mentioned in the intro that the blue gifted them their intelligence (paraphrasing) so perhaps they are mutated stoats and that's why they have language and societies?

The 'incorrect' and 'unnatural' rocks they talked about are probably overgrown roads and pavement. That would explain the 'burnt' smell. And it would explain why the dust cloud smelled like pavement if it was being stirred up by vehicles.

It was mentioned that Thorn remembered the smell from the clothes of the things he saw. That was a massive hint, as it's been established that animals don't have clothes in this world. So obviously Thorn came across some humans. He probably got his electrical burn from them somehow and maybe he also saw their machines?

Anyway, I'll be interested to see if this is indeed Chernobyl (or perhaps a fictional Chernobyl-like radioactive place)