#that's just how i like to interpret them though - if you like to interpret slugcats in a more anthropomorphized/humanized fashion

[flickering-nightfall]

[ask-dced]

For LttM: What are some things you like or found fascinating about the slugcats and scavengers you've met so far?

BSM: It's one thing to watch their daily lives... it's another to be a part of them. BSM: Let's see... for instance, Crack of Lightning. She has gone through her elite training and rites, yet she has found her passion to be in tailoring. BSM: I've been trying to learn from her, though the process has had some unforeseen complications. I... don't have a lot of memory storage at the moment. And though I have intermittent access to my memory arrays, writing to them is far more resource intensive than reading from them. Pearls are even worse for this... BSM: So, I have to pick and choose what information to retain, and what I will need to overwrite. BSM: But that isn't what you asked about, is it? Sorry, yes... Lightning. She's rough around the edges, but doesn't mind me watching her work. She's been teaching me how to sew, and suggesting I practice by repairing my cloak a bit. Which... I agree, though I am worried I might just make it worse. BSM: I'd... rather keep my cloak in one piece... or two pieces, considering a part has already been torn off to cover my broken eye. BSM: Then there's Artificer, or Firemaker, as the scavengers call them. I am... familiar with their story. A toll passing gone wrong, two pups lost, and the toll ultimately deciding to save Artificer's life. Whether it was an act of mercy or a punishment to prevent them from cycling back, I cannot say. The scavengers who made that decision are long dead by their hands. BSM: I cannot condone the acts of violence they enacted on the scavenger population. But I can somewhat relate to the irrationality and confusion that would come with losing someone close to you, even if I never had a relationship as close as that of a mother and their children. BSM: Regardless, they have been helping me greatly with mobility in the outside world. They've been carrying me to the arrays every few cycles so I can communicate with the others, like I am doing here. I think they prefer it to the scavenger den. I can feel the tension in their body when they're there, even as they sleep. Maybe they're concerned about my safety, or about the scavengers turning on them, or them turning on the scavengers... but... BSM: ... BSM: Moon Upon Lone Shore is not my child, but she is probably the closest I can get, given what I am. I'm her... aunt, to put it in their terms. A figure who has a significant involvement in her life. Which... I can't help but be proud of. BSM: It means a lot to me that I can have a positive, tangible impact on their lives, rather than one that is abstracted by Spines. No offense to it, of course, but I have found that I like the direct interactions I've had with... everyone, really. BSM: I especially appreciate how open most of them are. They don't hide their true feelings behind flowery language and pleasantries... not that they aren't kind. They're just more... blunt. Direct. Something which I have grown to appreciate, especially as I don't have as much energy to dedicate to decoding and interpreting their words. BSM: It's... strange, isn't it? How I have grown attached to these creatures that I have known for less than a percent of my lifetime, while... BSM: Never mind that. I shouldn't speak ill of those who have transcended. They were our parents, after all.

BSM: ... BSM: Maybe I should take a cue from the scavengers in this regard.

Author's note: This blog is still alive. I've just been Art Fighting, drawing, writing, etc. This has been a bit lower on my priorities, in the end.

Things will likely remain slow on here, but I do intend to continue maintaining it. I have, what, 15ish questions in my ask box? Probably won't get to everything in the end, but asks are still open.

I hope you enjoy today's answer, I quite like it!

[its-the-sa]

Here's another giant ask because I've been thinking about this for a while and I needed to share it with somebody.

The scavenger chieftain is really merciful towards Arti, given the circumstances. When I first reached that part, I was expecting to be sniped by a spear from across the map. But he doesn't attack you, despite having every reason to. Like, the Metropolis scavengers most likely have literally nothing to do with the scavengers that killed Arti's kids, and it's not like they understand why Arti is doing what she's doing. The scav king knows Arti has killed countless members of his group, probably people he knew personally and cared about. Maybe even his family.

But he doesn't attack you. You have to start the fight. He just points to the exit. He wants you to back away, to stop before you take this final step and seal your fate. He should have all the reasons in the world to want you dead by now, but he gives you a final chance to walk away.

It's what made me interested in the scav king as a character. For some reason, he doesn't want to fight you. One idea I had is that he's well aware of Arti being trapped in a cycle of violence, either due to having experienced something similar or his understanding of karma. (He has the mark of communication and I'm willing to bet he's met the Metropolis echo, who was also trapped in a cycle of violence. He's probably heard an explanation of the cycles and karma from Five Pebbles as well.) So, he knows very well what Arti is getting herself into and hopes that maybe she can still see reason before it's too late.

Another idea I had, and this is totally fanon and not supported by anything in-game but I thought it sounded fun- what if they knew each other before? Like, what if they were friends all the way back when Arti lived in the Garbage Wastes and wasn't hostile to scavengers, and the scav king was just a normal dude. Just a regular John J. Scavenger. Eventually, he finds the citizen ID drone and brings a bunch of his friends to the Metropolis, gets the mark of communication from Five Pebbles (who, I imagine at this point, doesn't really care that much if the scavengers live in his city and only gets mad at them once they start ripping out bits of his can). Flash forward years later and this normal scav is now a chieftain with a prosperous tribe, and he's wondering what happened to that weird red slugcat he met all those years ago when they re-appear out of nowhere and begin violently murdering his tribe members. That would be A Little Awkward Huh.

That's just my silly little headcanon, I'd love to hear your thoughts though. How do you interpret the scav king's actions here?

bro, you pretty much just summed up exactly why i ship them lol.

the scav king is the ONE person who refuses to treat arti like a monster, even when she's so far gone that she even disgusts and horrifies herself. he's the one person who will not feed into her spiral of self-loathing, no matter how hard she tries to earn his hatred. he refuses to strike first no matter how many times she tries to kill him. he always tries to reason with her. he always fights one-on-one, even though he has an entire kill squad ready to back him up.

but he doesnt let her victimize him, either. he gives her a choice, and he respects the choice she makes even when it's the wrong one. he kills her without hesitation when she forces his hand, but then he's always ready to offer mercy again, always ready to give her another chance.

and i just feel like that's exactly what arti needs. someone who is both compassionate enough and resilient enough to weather the storm of her rage until it burns itself out, and still be willing to offer mercy when she's finally ready to accept it.

... what was this ask about again? lol

RIGHT, ok. so. motivation. lets do this.

first of all I love the idea that they knew each other in the past. it would make a lot of sense, and it'd fit perfectly with my headcanon that arti used to be friends with the garbage wastes scavs before everything went to hell. and I love the drama that would come from two old friends having to fight each other to the death.

it's not the case in my personal headcanon though, just because I already have a backstory fleshed out for the scav king that would make it pretty much impossible for them to have met before.

however, i DO think that he sympathizes with arti because he's been though something similar. I think he lost someone very important to him when he was young, and just like arti, he also threw himself into a futile quest for revenge because he didnt know how else to cope. but instead of going on solo rampage, he raised a whole ass army and started a war.

he got to where he is through sheer spite and thirst for vengeance. he never really wanted to be a leader; he just wanted manpower to throw at his enemy. but after seeing his people get killed in service to him, he realized he is responsible for them now, and he needs to put their safety and wellbeing before his vendetta. so, while he is still angry and he does still carry his old grudge, it no longer consumes his life. he's learned that there are more important things to live for.

so, yeah, he definitely understands arti's rage. and he sympathizes with her, because he has his own people's blood on his hands, too. but he's learning, and he's trying to be better, and he believes that arti can be better too if someone gives her a reason to try.

...also, his default personality has 0.00 aggression and 0.99 sympathy stats, so he is arguably just wired to be Like That, lol

(i say 'default' because technically his stats are randomized each time you fight him, but he always uses the same sprite, which is scav king ID 8875. so to me that ID's stats are the canon ones, lol )

[carp3tpasta]

I did the thing!!

Here's the template

Reasons under the cut

Favorite campaign: This was really difficult, as I enjoy most of them pretty equally. I couldn't narrow it down to one and had to go with top three. I love Hunter's campaign because of the challenge and story, and because it was the first to be different than the first two [no hate, I love the first two]. Ofc, because Hunter is my favorite slugcat too. I really love Artificer's campaign. Being able to explode is super fun [I love arson >:) /j]. Though the Karma mechanic can be annoying, I think it adds to the tragedy of Artificer in a way. I think the campaign would've been way too short without it too. Rivulet is top three cuz. Speed. And the storyline of that campaign...I will never stop crying.

Honorable mentions: Survivor, Spear Master and Saint

Favorite Slugcat: Hunter is my favorite slugcat because of the tragedy of their story and their character. Hunter did not deserve their fate, and even though the ascension ending is a far more peaceful end for them, they still never got the chance to live a full life.

Hardest Campaign: This was kinda difficult to decide as well because some campaigns have things that are both difficult for me and easy for me. But I ended up choosing Saint because it is a lot more difficult to defend yourself and how it is more difficult to find food before you freeze.

Honorable mentions: Spear Master, Artificer

Favorite Lizard: Yellow/Orange lizards because their antennae are cute, and I like that they live in packs and communicate with each other. They are just really silly, and I like them.

Honorable mentions: Cyan: So jump :), but they've caused me much pain. White: They remind me of cats because they're so sleepy, and I like their camouflage ability. They also have caused me much pain.

Favorite Iterator: Five Pebbles is my favorite character in the entire game. His story is a tragedy through and through. He shuts everyone out because he is desperate, angry, and jaded. He hurts everyone who cares about him in one way or another and, worst of all, kills his sister. The Rot he develops, in my interpretation, is a representation of his guilt, that slowly consumes him literally and figuratively. Before he succumbs to it though, he gives the only thing prolonging his life to the person he hurt the most. A representation of the heart. In his own blind rage, he failed to see the value in what he had, and like Hunter, never truly got to live. By the time he does realize, it is too late, and all he can do is give all he has left to Moon in a final attempt to make things right.

Favorite Passage: I like combat. It is fun

Honorable Mentions: The Scholar, The Mother

Favorite Species: King Vultures [and Vultures in general] are just super cool to me. They're terrifying but cool. Like, what is that thing!!?? It's horrible but so neat at the same time!!

Favorite Region: This was also difficult. I decided on Five Pebbles because of how mind-blowing it is the first time you traverse it. Especially with the lead up to it. Traveling through Memory Crypts and Exterior, getting closer to this mysterious destination that isn't just abandoned structures anymore. I think it really highlights how excellent the environmental storytelling is in Rain World. Also, Random Gods is so good. This isn't my favorite region in terms of being there for fun, however. But I couldn't choose one favorite for those either.

They are: Chimney Canopy, Industrial Complex, Outskirts and Shoreline

[shrimpricebowl]

do you have any refs of your iterator or slugcat designs? :0

i don't for my current ones, but theyre much more simplified now because i just preferred the loose neckline and made them more plushie-like, hence the lack of segmented limbs.... i think the puppets are more plushie-like because they ragdoll a LOT and moon being darker and desaturated post-collapse is because she's constantly exposed to rain, like how plushies get darker when theyre wet because of absorption....... basically they're heavily based off their ingame appearance (with the exception of srs & sos; srs still has the layered clothes and sos has a veil)

i did make these ref sheets back in july; riv had a more scaley(???) look like ....kaliskis??? so they had some weird white spots going on (which ill admit. didn't draw too well HSHDJSHDHS) i also interpreted the rot as some sort of. Melting. thing. which causes the tentacles

as for cw and ui, i only have this drawing i did soon after the "iterators under the blue sky" post since i wanted to explore them more...

their forehead markings are actually based off a chamber projection! i think it was moon's??? i don't remember but while looking through the game files there were nsh and srs' markings with their corresponding colors, so i just assumed the unknown ones were cw's and ui's ....

but yeah, i don't have a ref for my current iterator/slugcat designs since they're just heavily based off the game now (with minor changes)... they do have different necklines though

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group E Round 4

[image ID: the first image is of No Significant Harassment, a shadowy figure standing behind a sleeping pink-red, fox-like creature. their green hands seem to be holding up the floating creature. the second image is of Shrimp, a black creature with a blue and white collar. he has bright white eyes, 4 spindly legs, a long tail, and an oblong head. end ID]

No Significant Harassment

They're just a silly little guy. A jokester. Significant harassment if you will. Anyway, a more in depth run down: They're a city sized supercomputer built by a Buddhist adjacent society to figure out how to transcend the 'Great Cycle' (semi-metaphorical cycle of death and rebirth) in a safer way than the previous method (submerging oneself in the 'void sea' which is a mysterious golden liquid that dissolves whatever it touches). Despite being built for this express purpose NSH never really shows a pressing interest in ascension, even cracking jokes about those who are still looking for a solution. Whether this is due to indifference, dislike of, or humor to cope with being unable to ascend is not clear and really up to interpretation. Example: NSH: I wish them super good luck in that endeavor. How is it going to happen? Have the overseers gnaw through bedrock until their entire can crashes down in the void sea? BSM: Please be respectful when speaking of the Void Sea. Grey Wind, where did you hear this? CW: I really shouldn't say. He's going to attempt some sort of breeding program. Thought you might want to know. NSH: Haha with the slimers, lizards and etceteras? Surely the answer was in a lizard skull all along! He's very flippant, but does care very intensely for those close to him. NSH: Moon? It's me again. NSH: I do not know if you are receiving these. Please signal in any way you can. NSH: I need to talk to you. I need to know you're okay. NSH: … NSH: Its difficult for us to assist you over this distance. NSH: Even more difficult for us to do anything in the midst of these tantrums. NSH: Were going to try everything that we can. NSH: Just hold on a little longer. (Context for previous convo: They genetically engineered a super organism of a slugcat (the species you play as in Rain World) to help reset his coworker/sibling after her collapse and restart her systems. He was so desperate to fix her that he accidentally messed up the slugcat's (Hunter) genetic code and as a result it became riddle with the Rot (relatively similar to aggressive cancer) :( which parallels his other coworker/siblings condition who also has the rot. ) He canonically uses he/they pronouns too! Nonbinary swag! NSH has major internet troll vibes. He has sent a data pearl of "something distasteful" to his neighbors on several(?) occasions and causes chaos. If he had access to the wider internet he'd probably be an influencer So…yeah! Vote NSH this website likes the allure of heavy machinery and stuff like that so… there you go. Kind of a blorbo. End post.

Shrimp

Ok so Shrimp is public enemy #1 and I love him. He's the funny little guy you see on your loading screen during the game who you don't think much of until eventually you find an asylum on one of the floors of the Upturned Inn and oops! Shrimp is there! And you need to free him to progress, which Ik is alarmed by even though you can also just tell him you didn't see/free Shrimp. You can put a collar on this little guy to make him look snazzy, despite how little he's with you. On the floors where he's friendly he kind of just follows you around, so you get to have a little buddy for parts of the game! He's basically just your pet dog who may or may not be severely dangerous. And by may or may not I mean a definite yes he is, because he turns aggressive when he gets especially hungry. He can eat the food objects scattered around, though, so that's avoidable! He can also stay with you for nice little elevator rides, which does concern Ik, but it works out! until he starts trying to attack you but if you don't feed your dog then I don't care if it attacks you [additional propaganda 1] [additional propaganda 2] [additional propaganda 3]

[amerricanartwork]

9. and 20. please.

Also love the new lil scugsona. Very fitting for you.

@scavworld's Rain World Questionnaire

Thanks for the ask! Just a quick note, that little character was actually meant to be a scug-ified version of my regular avatar, which I should probably make a ref for soon. I've always just liked the idea that it can "transform" into a different creature to match whatever fandom I'm dealing with, so I thought I'd portray it as a slugcat in this case!

Anyway though, onto the actual questions...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

9. What are your opinions on Five Pebbles (character)?

Ohhh, now that's a very interesting matter! I really like characters like him because they're so fascinating to me! For now I will disregard the fantastical element of him being a massive supercomputer, because even though in-and-of-itself I think that's such a unique concept even in fiction, especially after I realized that Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon really are the core of not just the "story" of Rain World but even the in-game environment itself, I imagine I'll have another chance to touch up on this so I'll save my longer thoughts on that for later.

That being said, I'll start by saying I love thinking about characters from a psychological perspective, trying to figure out why they are the way they are, why they do what they do, what they really want vs. what they think they want, how they really perceive themselves vs. how they present themselves publicly, etc. Characters like Five Pebbles are always an especially interesting choice for this kind of pondering, because, as flawed as they may be, so much of the situation around them also contributed to their downfall that I refuse to let everyone else off the hook too. And since I also don't believe anyone is inherently a "bad" person, it's really fun to ponder just how these characters go from being alright people to doing such terrible things and meeting such tragic ends.

To put it shortly, Five Pebbles (and other characters like him) is in my interpretation a great example of karma in the more real-life meaning, and the "you attract more of what you think about the most" idea. Five Pebbles always seemed to feel trapped by and at arms with his surroundings, from the great opposition to his very existence from the True Anointed Citadel, to him literally being physically stuck to Looks to the Moon, to the fear of opposition he must have had as a Sliverist, to him being stuck dealing with the rot, and finally with his collapse, left as a tiny fraction of himself buried in the cold, lifeless remains of his superstructure, with truly no way out on his own. Because he was so focused on escaping the perceived confines around him, all he did, albeit unknowingly, was end up finding more nets to get trapped in.

And again, while I think everyone around him did contribute to his awful end in some way, stories like these are still pretty sad to me because, in the end, I think these characters themselves need to learn to change their thinking, yet all the harshness they face can so easily lead them to create a vicious cycle. Five Pebbles isn't the first character I've enjoyed strongly whose story seemed to play out this way, and as sad as it is, it's also very intriguing.

And besides, it opens up plenty of potential for redemption arc AU stories—!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

20. What is something you think the game could improve on?

The short answer: incentive.

The long answer: Let me start off by saying Rain World, to me, is fascinating largely as more of an art project than a normal video game. It's amazing how a relatively simple concept of a small animal in an urban environment they can't understand morphed into something so vast and extensive, combining nature with technology, science with religion, sci-fi with fantasy, and dunking it all in a super unique aesthetic that fuses urban street style with fancy ancient artwork, it's amazing!

BUT so much of this is lost to players because the game does, in my opinion, a pretty bad job of conveying it all. It's very confusing , especially to new players, and the only means of discovering the greater context of the story, besides just hearing it from other players/fans, is if not downright frustrating at least very tedious. And that's just getting the story itself. I think most people who have played this game haven't even made it that far, because the gameplay alone is so difficult the first time playing that if you aren't captivated by the mystery factor of the environment (or like me and also stubbornly dedicated to getting the bragging rights of having beat such a difficult game), you're too busy just trying to not die every other cycle to bother really exploring and ferrying the pearls to Moon, much less making sense of what you uncover.

I think the blank stare of the slugcats looking up at Five Pebbles perfectly encapsulates what I'm getting at here. You've got this absolutely fascinating story about a mechanical god who flew too close to the sun in a desperate attempt to escape the confines of his life, meanwhile the little slugcat is just all "...'kay", because what does this little animal care about the crazy religious hubris of some long-gone existence-hating people and their sad crumbling calculator robots when all it wants its is to just find more food and not get eaten again?

For a bit of devil's advocate, I will say that I think the difficulty of just playing the game and then figuring out its story, first of all is pretty "realistic" from the perspective of simulating a real-life ecosystem and having an animal discover complex lore in a way that they'd be physically capable of, but secondly has led the Rain World fandom to be really tight-knit compared to other fandoms I've seen. It seems like everyone I've come across is at least in the process of playing through all the campaigns, if not having already completed them and established some level of their own interpretation of the story, because they are all genuinely interested in the game, its characters, world, story, and themes enough to persevere through all the struggles of gameplay and lore confusion to enjoy it. However, it's also the same thing that makes this fandom rather small, which is also fine by me; I think there's lots of value in quality niche content!

With all that said though, I can't deny that I think this game isn't very good at getting players geuninely interested in all it has to offer. For evidence, consider how few players have even met Five Pebbles, who is perhaps the most important character in the entire game story-wise (Steam achievements has the "The Journey" Achievement at 12.0% of players as of posting this). Even from my experiences, I didn't even know what "Sliverist" actually meant until a couple weeks ago, and I've been playing this game and involved in the fandom for months at this point!

So yeah. To sumarize, in my opinion, Rain World is a fascinating and very inspiring art project, but most of what it has to offer is lost to most players because it's terrible at giving you a reason to care about it all. Thus, the main thing I think it could improve upon is giving players a reason to care about its worldbuilding and story enough to continue playing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Well, that was long, but pretty fun! I hope these answers suffice! Keep the questions coming!

[spotsupstuff]

What do you think about the RW ships? just curious is all.

hmmm.. well! first i do wanna preface this with the obligatory "i'm not hating on anybody with this, u do u and i do me is my genuine philosophy. i'll respect u from the distance if you do the same for me"

aight so i'm not gon list every ship in the fandom that has spawned in outta the stardust n give my specific opinion on it, cuz i'm not exactly keepin up

the only two ships i don't mind n find cute on the paper are NSH x Moon and Arti x Gour cuz both of them have that Old People Love Each Other in Easy Peace Despite The Circumstances Surrounding Them kick to them. i'm a weak bitch for that type of troupe for romantic relationships. not gon do anythin with 'em in my own stuff, though

i find myself more interested in the entirely and wholly platonic interpretation of everything in the game. platonic love is a matter of course, makin the story flow feel more smoother to me for that while also stayin nicely close to that religious narrative of the game (u can fight me on this but the Ancients' religion isn't *wrong*. the bad thing that happened with it is that it was taken to extremes and variety wasn't allowed. i could tell you why riddin oneself of the third and fifth sin isn't a bad idea at all- afterall, i kind of live by that myself!- and what they probably meant by riddin yourself of the sins without the extremist approach)

for the other ships... 🤔

well, the iterators are far too rooted in my head as sibs to vibe with ships with them, but more properly told: • Suns and Pebs are too much of "teacher and naive student" to me and i also find this dynamic more interesting to explore. uuuuu how spicy it is to think of Suns brainwashing Pebs but meaning it well uuuuuuuuuu • Suns and NSH are... let's just say that if i was in NSH's place and Suns talked to me like that i'd slap them so fuckin hard n if i WAS in a romantic relationship with them i'd dump them then and there (not in a bitchy ex kind of way, i'd be still down to talk, but i can't imagine bein in a relationship where the other half calls the most likely inevitable death of your closest friend a "setback" to their brainwashing of that friend's little brother would be Very healthy) • n i think what is the only other iterator ship left, Sliver and Moon... i find it kind of silly, honestly? like as far as *i* know the main reason why that exists is cuz Moon remembers what happened with Sliver after being given her own pearl about some notes she wrote herself on Sliver despite being baround three gazillion bagillion braincells short. i don't really see that as a strong incentive to start shippin 'em cuz like. you give Moon a very solid memory jogger and right in her second set of monologue she states that Sliver is literally a legend among the itties-titties. the best i can compare it to a real life thing is asking an american if they have any idea who Abraham Lincoln was at all. or asking a slovak if they knew who Finally managed to solidly establish our language after centuries of oppression. like of Course you're going to know That even on ur deathbed??? those are incredibly important historical figures for you n your home!!! also c'mon she remembers the feckin bug pupae, if THAT stuck in there this big boy info is def gon be kickin around

as for the slugcats... well ehh..... you can probably guess from what i mainly draw that i'm not Too focused on the slugs, only maybe Hunter so my slugshippin lore knowledge is p weak. when i first saw the slugshippin take off before i started postin bout RW again i thought it was silly to ship animals n still kinda do? 🤷‍♀️ doesn't help that canonically they have no business meeting each other except Monk n Surv (that is a strong No to shippin) and Hunter's writhing corpse n Gour (we are Not ducks we do not support necrophilia). i generally like to stick to the timeline, personally. good world-building. i respect good world-building too much to deviate too hard

BUT! i am going to use my status as pre-Downpour RW veteran and tell you to not listen to the whiny wrinkly babies in the tag that wail about how slugshippin is ruining the fandom. fuck 'em bitches, you do what u wanna (within moral common sense)

[disclosed-spire]

1, 9 and 10 for the ask game.

1. the character everyone gets wrong.

To me, it'd be Rivulet or Artificer.

Rivulet because I don't think people actually take into account how smart they really are. Rivulet isn't some ADHD fast slugcat on rain world's mushrooms or anything. Riv is fast not because they're hyper or something, but it's because they have death constantly looming over their shoulders because of the rain. They practiced being fast so they wouldn't die. Not only that, but Rivulet performed the iterator equivalent of a heart transplant, and in my head, that would be extremely difficult to do. Rivulet is extremely smart, and I don't see them get a lot of credit for this

The other one would be Artificer. Even though Arti has a lot of grief on her shoulders (and I get it. Artificer did NOT have to go through that. What she went through was absolutely horrible, and nobody should have to), I feel that trying to kill an entire species is taking it way too far. Artificer isn't badass for killing every scavenger on sight, she's actually just committing reckless murder because the victim so happens to be a scavenger. Cheiftian Scavenger didn't even know Arti or what happened, Arti just killed an innocent scavenger out of blind rage. This is hinted at multiple times in Arti's campaign as well. Arti's dreams about killing scavengers have the most twisted music to accompany them, Arti is stuck at karma 1 as punishment, Five Pebbles even calls Arti out saying that he finds it appalling. I'd say that Artificer has gone way too far with killing scavengers, as I think she became obsessed, given the dreams. I love Arti, don't get me wrong! It's just that the cannon existence of Arti is extremely messed up though because of the reckless murder.

This is also why I love the interpretations of Artificer trying to make up for the past mistakes, and not going through with killing Chieftain.

9. worst part of canon.

Hm... This one is a tough one. I like almost everything about Rain World, and like to see the positives for even the things I dislike strangely enough.

I'd have to say Saint's ending. If anyone hasn't guessed by now, Saint is my favorite slugcat for a multitude of reasons. I just dislike the ending. Saint is stuck in a permanent hell basically, and it drives me nuts trying to think about what happens in the future future. When the void sea finally eats away at the world, does Saint fall into Rubicon, leave, then only to fall back in again because there's no solid ground? What happens when every iterator is finally ascended? Do they just wander the world ascending the smaller creatures instead? What happens when there's nothing left? A lot of these are probably irrelevant, and might not make sense, as I also doubt some of the questions too. (Mainly the void sea eating away at everything one, and the nothing left to ascend one too) Saint's ending leaves me with more questions than answers, and leaves me generally confused.

Despite this, I also still like Saints ending at the same time. The game leaves it up to headcannons to find out what happens to Saint, and I've got my own headcannons with it to ease my own mind

If you mean only PURELY dislike, I'd say Rain Deer AI, but that's cheating bc almost everyone hates it.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I think The Cheiftian Scavenger needs more love. I like to think that they're kind and that they make sure that their scav colony thrives, and cares a lot about their people. Five Pebbles having beef with the scavengers is actually just a huge miscommunication, and if he communicated with the scavengers better, I'm sure they would've understood.

If the scavengers can understand and set up pearl tolls, echoes, and make graffiti, I'm sure they would understand that they're actually hurting Five Pebbles, or at the very least, putting him in distress. Five Pebbles just didn't communicate it well enough. *cough cough* Not the first time he failed to communicate either *cough cough*

If you want to have a friendly debate with me about these, go ahead! I'm open to hearing other perspectives and changing my thoughts!

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

Moonstone discourse feels very pointless. There's a lot of back and forth about "you can't prove that they're siblings" and "NSH literally calls them siblings" and it then derails into a bunch of arguments that sound a lot less like serious arguments and a lot more like talking around the actual argument. A lot of people will play through Rain World and see them as siblings because they're written like estranged siblings. Just like how a lot of people will assume Survivor and Monk are siblings despite the lack of explicit dialogue calling them siblings because they were seen around the same slugcat in the intro cutscene. The game's writing expects you to come to your own conclusions based off implication. Many of the people arguing that Moonstone is not an incest ship are ignoring the fact that it often is treated as an incest ship by Moonstone shippers. Shipping them doesn't require you to be ok with incest, but I don't buy thay the arguments over the semantics of Moon and Pebble's relationship are made in good faith. Thing is, with iterator relationships, there's a lot of room for interpretation. When I write iterators, everyone sees their group senior as something adjacent to elder siblings. So, in my writing, Moon X NSH, for example, would be inappropriate. That doesn't reflect badly upon Lilypad shippers; it's literally just a genuine difference in interpretation. And fun thing about RW's story structure, your interpretations dont have to be rooted in canon. How many interpretations of NSH and SRS depict Suns are the slugcat expert despite NSH canonically having more experience? How many evil Suns AUs exist despite the fact that Suns is literally the protagonist of the SM chatlogs. How many ppl like to interpret Artificer as being close to Pebbles despite Pebbles being a condescending asshole to her? These interpretations are all fine and valid despite being contradicted by canon. A lot of these could be described as "the fun option." However, arguing over semantics in a game where the semantics are loose at best isn't conductive. If you like Moonstone as a non-incest ship, that's honestly fine. It's a different take on canon than my own, but it's frankly not a problem. It just feels more like ppl latch onto the ship because it's taboo and then get mad when people point out that it's taboo, so they start trying to talk around the issue. My thoughts are a bit rambly and I'm trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, which, admittedly, might be the wrong approach here. Though I also think looking at how fandom derives canon into its fanon is super interesting. I guess this is partially arguement, partially me nerding out. I'm not the most conclusive person, I'm just a bit bored at the current Moonstone conversation and want to move onto something more interesting.

.

[omensgate]

since i run this blog lets look under the hood and see my definitive opinion on every ship which may become increasingly incoherent because i dont have any particularly strong feelings and wringing words out of me is like. water from rag. it stops eventually

SURVFICER v FULL MOON this is going to be a running theme with anything with survivor (and monk) in it; i dont really care about them because i cant imagine them having any personality. i also personally imagine surviver as just a wee babe. gourmand and nightcat are fun, i totally forgot nightcat is literally in its colony. thats sweet! very homely. so i voted for full moon

SOLAR ECLIPSE v CHERRY BOMB sorry to disappoint everyone. i really dont ship artihunter, i imagine them as fundamentally incompatible and in anything i write id write them as bitterly, bitterly divorced. i dont get behind the headcanon that hunter is malicious, and definitely not to the extent that artificer is. it might be run off from vanilla rw where hunter was The combat slugcat but coming from downpour without having the framework of there only being Four slugcats for Four archetypes, the way IVE interpreted hunter is that its on a just and righteous quest to SAVE someone, not go on a murder tour, especially when its character select specifies its high aggression is just due to its digestive system. for them to be divorced though they have to be married first so yes i did vote for artihunter but i cant imagine them ever being on the same level in the end. hunters final death bumping to highest karma while arti without effort is bound to karma 1 is so opposites. its interesting. i dont think theyre frolicking through flower fields cheering and dancing together but theyre so intriguing. solar eclipse of course is nothing to me. nightcat in general has no substance (sorry. i love it but its just nightcat) and monk is nothing also.

BLOOD MOON v KEBAB i voted for kebab not because i care about them but because nightcat is nothing to me. ive seen others write tactful analysis slotting them together so thats all i need to be convinced. also i just like gourmand. its so charming!

SPEARMONK v REVERSAL Spearmonk is nothing at all. i think you could write something fun with peace loving monk startled by spearmasters necessary violence to feed but aside from that its nothing. reversal on the other hand is funny so i did vote for it. gives mad like.. discord and fluttershy energy in my mind

LAGSPIKE v SUPERNOVA i did vote for supernova and then regret it a little bit because i see lagspike is winning now but ive seen such compelling fanart of supernova and i like anything related to stars. im also in the nightcat is a freak of nature camp (see my inv lore) which fits in nice against artis karma trap. lagspike is funny too though, idk why when i think dating sim moments i think spearmaster

CANDY CANE v SEAFOOD candy cane is of course nothing to me. seafood is (shrug). it reminds me of playing with my (boy)friend as gourmand where he (arti) carried me around for mobility. the pair of quick movement carrying something that can kill in one hit is super nice.

SPEARHUNTER v LANTERNFISH lanternfish is nothing to me (i imagine nightcat too timid to jive with rivulets energy...) spearhunter is very interesting. i think i did say before i got into rw community that i was confused why everyone shipped spearmaster and rivulet without ever including hunter who serves a similar purpose. i prefer spearhunter over other spearmaster ships for character roundedness, i like how i imagine hunters confidence to uplift spearmaster

GOURVIVOR v SCRAMBLED EGGS i dont care about either of these. i voted for scrambled eggs because 1. i care about survivor less and 2. funny name! AND OF COURSE, have bombs toghether.

SURSAINT v BARBECUE well. everyone likes barbecue. im not so sure if i super get it but its what everyone else likes and i dont care about survivor

NACHOCHEESE v SPEARVIVOR spearvivor is nothing to me of course, and nachocheese has some ardent defenders. i think both characters classify as "silly" so i vote for it.

COUNTERSTRIKE v RIVSAINT yes i voted for the losing team -_- ive seen more people ship counterstrike than rivsaint. the only appeal i can think of is theyre close in time. neither really have anything going on, i just dont think about socialization with rivulet or saint a lot. hunter and inv can both do anything to me

CHERRY PIE v BOOMSTICK this one.. makes me so sad and i hate that the randomizer pit them against each other on week one. i voted for cherry pie because the image of gourmand taking care of hunter as its sickness progresses breaks me apart. to me their characterization is both "take like slowly but take it, and for all its worth" which is so important to me. and spearmaster and artificer, i get the appeal, i think personally theyd make each other worse and be a vortex of bad feelings supporting each others negativity which would be so fun. but cherry pie is cuter so i voted for it.

MONKHUNTER v MONKMAND when i keep thinking about stinker brackets i think about this one. i dont super care about monk. the opposites of monk and hunter are the only reason i vote for it but its like, gun to my head. i have no feelings in particular

SPEEDRUN v PIRANHA this one is so hard and im not going to reveal my choice because i feel like i cant make one now... i think speedrun has a more palpable hypey energy but piranha has such an endearing charm with moons saviors together... hard to say .

MONKFICER v ERROR 404 who ever thought of monkficer. no one. and my dark secret? im super kinning inv and im kissing myself in the mirror. its clear. its also the ship that super got me into rain world so its special to me.

FISHTICKS v GODMODE i know everyone ships fishsticks. i just dont care about it. spearmaster is too exasperated for me i could only ever use it as a gag. godmode on the other hand is everything to me. these 2 are definitely echoes. theyre also definitely divorced extremely badly. but see artihunter; they have to be married first.

SURVULET v CHERRYBUSH hunters death karma and aggression with saints karma drain and pacifism is so intriguing and enamoring to me. and the name is also very cute. i imagine saint as very pretentious religiously and i imagine it preaching aggressively at hunter in its time of weakness. i imagine a sort of softness not traditionally born from the situation worming its way into both of their hearts with hunters short time on the earth as hunter the slugcat and saints continual treading. and. need i say; survulet is Nothing.

SPEARNIGHT v MONKSAINT monk is as ever nothing to me. spearnight is fun because i think they look the same, and i imagine them both very reserved. but its more of "the one i dont care about slightly less" situation again

NIGHTSAINT v MONKVULET voted for this one because i think nightcat and inv are the same guy so read godmode. genuinely surprised anyone ships monkvulet because, say it with me guys. monk is nothing to me

BATHBOMB v SPEARSAINT imagine the energy with bathbomb! spearmaster and saint are both so placcid its not so interesting. but imagine the shenanigans with riv and arti. i dont super care but they are funny to me, mostly i love the name

SAINTMAND v PAPRIKA GOURMAND AND SAINT ARE DAD ENERGY TO ME Like socks and sandals and shorts sitting on the porch energy to me. paprika is nothing ive seen before so i do not care.

thank you. goodnight.

[glowingvoid]

Okay but can we not witch-hunt people for their Seven Red Suns interpretation?

This game has characters that can be interpreted in many ways.

There's no wrong way to interpret the slugcats. Enot can be a freak or just some guy. Saint can be evil or calm. Monk can be inexperienced or very experienced. Hunter can be rude or kind

It's not hurting anyone for someone to headcanon SRS as a groomer, it's also not hurting anyone to headcanon them as just confused

The only times it is hurting anyone is when people say "if you think this, you should never be in the fandom again and you suck"

You're allowed to dislike a portrayl, but you aren't allowed to hate on a person for it.

I don't like groomer SRS interpretation much because I see the "groomer" traits as just autism traits (I project into SRS a lot). I don't like it when people seriously think Suns is a groomer because it makes me worried that I'll be accused of grooming someone (especially with the Pansear thing that happened. The "endorsing a groomer" thing looked a lot like autistic traits. How ever I'm not going to armchair diagnose Pan with autism because I have more respect than that for her. Though Pansear suspected it and was going through screening)

But am I going to go tell someone who confesses that they see SRS as a groomer that they should never come into this fandom anymore? No!

But I have seen some good villain!Suns AUs that I think are awesome, and that's different because those are AUs and not what you genuinely think Suns does.

But now I'm just complaining so end of story

[aquilamage]

got to Five Pebbles in Hunter!!!!!!!! (screams)

so he yoinks NSH's neuron and is like hm. interesting. I could use this. but it looks like it was made specifically for Looks to the Moon, who's doing a lot worse than me. She (first time this game has pronouned them, lol) is not too far from here, "much shorter than customary. A circumstance that has led to some difficulties between us"

"some difficulties" is a hell of a way to phrase it, you little shit, but yeah! Also, he's talking about Looks to the Moon!!!!!!! Something I have very much wanted from the game so!!!

"I am not without responsibility for her situation." Once again, you don't fucking say, but also! Freely admitting to what he's done in a situation where he absolutely could have left that out! (Also like, helps confirm this is pre-survivor Looks to the Moon died after the shit that went down in those Sky Islands pearls)

"It would only be suiting that I aided in this...rescue mission." And then some stuff about you're fucking dying. I was not equipped to help before shit went fucked but I can help a little, and then he adds some cycles!

"You do not have much time. It is admirable what you choose to do with it" <- this shit fucks with me because a) It immediately reminded me of Looks to the Moon's very similar comment to Hunter and aaaaaaaa tiny sibling parallel and also b) it says a lot about him that he would have that interpretation of the events when he could be thinking something else like that we're foolish or stupid or wasting what we have and AUGH

"Send my regards" FIVE PEBBLES I AM BITING YOU. Send my regards. How exactly?!? You little fuck you go write your sister a pearl letter right the fuck now I will sit my little slugcat butt on your floor and WAIT! agdj;bfdkgrrr

Anyway then he says "Thank you little creature" which I have to assume is about the fact that I'm trying to help Looks to the Moon and therefore I am screaming!!!

Fuck! He's such a good character!!!!!!!! If it weren't for the fact that I'm severely biased for Looks to the Moon and he hurt them I would be calling him the "they did nothing wrong (said fully knowing they did all that shit)" fandom term I forget what it is.

Like despite everything he did he still cares about his sibling and wsdklsfdlkasflkj LET THEM TALK! GAME! I'm that reaction image drawing of a person on all fours with red eyes and something clutched between their sharp teeth and then they violently shake their head back and forth holding the thing!!!!!!!

So yeah now I'm gonna circle back around to Looks to the Moon and resurrect her. I am soooo desperately hoping this is gonna trigger some kind of new dialogue because fuck! Even without direct communication if it turns out she does now know that Five Pebbles helped!?!?!? I will tear myself open about that.

Currently I am traveling with NSH's neuron and also a pearl I accidentally stole from Five Pebbles' room. (I dropped what else I was holding and grabbed it trying to get the other thing back. He said "Yes, help yourself. They are not edible." which I am interpreting as being said in the most hilariously dry voice possible). I had no idea you could actually take his pearls and am now both in general curious what it says and also wondering if having something of his will trigger a reaction from Looks to the Moon about seeing him that just showing up might not.

After that though I'm planning on going to a backup save from just before this and stealing one of Five Pebbles' neurons to see if a) that would also revive Looks to the Moon (current hypothesis is no especially after Pebbles saying the other neuron was specifically formatted to help her) and b) if it gives different regular neuron-giving dialogue than in Survivor and Monk.

Also I saw the Hunter Five Pebbles dialogue twice because the first time I accidentally stayed in too long and he killed me about it. The second time through I tried to see if he would react to NSH's pearl and had that out and the neuron in my stomach (when I had it the other way around before), but he just made me spit out the neuron and didn't react differently. So now I gotta also check and see what he has to say if I show up without the neuron at all.

[starsails-and-slugcats]

Summary Post

Hello! I’m Four Stars over Clouded Shores and welcome to @starsails-and-slugcats, home of the Stellarator AU!

The basic premise goes like this:

Several generations have passed since the Ancients fled their home planet before it was entirely consumed by the Void Sea, escaping from the eldritch creatures within that had shackled them to the Cycle for their harvest of souls. 

The remainder of their species and their planet’s surviving flora and fauna live aboard their Iterators: once static superstructures tasked with solving the Great Problem, now turned space-faring vessels that navigate between the stars and watch over their inhabitants.

This blog follows Looks to the Moon and the rest of her Local Fleet as they travel and deal with all sorts of things, from questions sent by their Ancients to the shenanigans of their messenger slugcats and everything within and without.

Ask Guidelines: 

Asks will generally be framed as being asked from an Ancient to their Iterator via citizen drone, or from an otherwise in-universe character. (No characters from canon though! Those are all accounted for here. OCs welcome!)

While there’s some room for interpretation, like for sending pearls and other such offerings, magic anons and other universe-breaking asks will not be used.

Answers will be in plain text most of the time, for time and motivation’s sake. I’ll try to add art for important events or visual aids though!

While I’d prefer most asks to be addressed to the characters, I would also love to be asked about the AU if you have any questions! If you want to ask me something directly, just address it to “Mod” or “Stars.”

Updates may be sporadic for a while as I figure out how I want this to go. Thanks for your patience!

[fadebolt]

This is one of the few cases where I have literally not seen the post, and have no idea who the person is and what they have done, so I'm a little blind to the whole picture. I still absolutely trust everybody under this post, though it would be unfair of me to make my judgement of a situation without all the context.

Either way, I don't think there's anything wrong with Survivor or Monk ships. The game seems to imply that they have grown up between the intro cutscene, and the time you get to control them, which I can easily accept, since the areas between the giant hole and the start of their campaigns, should be enough to sustain a Slugpup, and have basically no creatures, so the inexperience of first time players is still shared with their Slugcat.

As others have mentioned, their sizes also support this. Adolescent humans are roughly the same size as adults, sure, but that doesn't necessarily apply to every other animal out there (especially to fictional ones), so this wouldn't really hold up as an argument.

How Monk has failed to stumble into Survivor despite these supposed implication is something I can't really explain, however. Though that small plothole is present, no matter what your personal interpretation is, so that wouldn't really work as a "gotcha!" moment, since they still fell at roughly the same time, which we have clear evidence for.

For a ship to be problematic, you really need official statements and information to confirm it (like LttM and FP calling each other siblings in the official story), which is something we don't really have here. Survivor x Monk did become weird due a very common fan interpretation (unless there was a Tweet from Videocult where they confirmed them to be siblings, which there might have been), but them being siblings is way more prevalent in the community, than them being minors, soooo I'm not sure if that could work, either.

Yeah, I'm genuinely struggling to think of valid arguments that could make their ships problematic, especially when the shippers themselves are clearly depicting them as adults. If you're trying to be part of the Rain World community, it would really be best to just accept that your interpretations might not align with the ones that others have. The game's very vague and obtuse, so it's pretty much an inevitability, so there's really no point in nagging at others due to what are ultimately just your personal headcanons.

Honestly really confused about the shipping drama (should I call it that?) that’s been going around recently.

Neither Survivor nor Monk are canonically minors- in fact, not a single slugcat has a canon age. Depending on your interpretation, any slugcat could be a minor or an adult. Saying that shipping Surv or Monk with somebody is pedophilia is blatantly wrong and those who say it are just treating their headcanons as truth.

If you can link me to a tweet or something the developers made saying otherwise, please do. Unless it is confirmed that Surv and Monk are minors, claiming people are proshippers or are disgusting is just straight up wrong.

[spotsupstuff]

It f*cking makes sense!!!!! Love all of your Cycle explanation!!!!

Would love to hear of the OG Gods Folks, and who was the God of the respawn mechanic? How many OG Gods where at the beginning? What was the original idea/theme of the Void and the Void Worms before it was corrupted for you?

ha yeah!!!! yeah it does!! welcome to the Spot Lore Technique where stuff makes sense because we are using My rules and my rules say we should tastefully disregard some canon bits, bullshit stuff and play Connect 4

okay so this turned out hardly organized n i don't think nor feel like helping it, so click here for brain word vomit. took like four hours to get it all down, i got excited:

the Folk Gods differed from local culture to local culture so there's different interpretations! similarly to the deal stuff with Odin/Thor, Perún and Zeus. certain themes stick together (like leading god + thunder/lightning in the examples) and connect interpretations of the Folk Gods, though sometimes a singular God can be split into more in tales cuz it fits better for their situation for whatever reason

the thing with pagan/folk gods is that they often stand behind some kind of Thing that impacts the people a lot (the seasons, the weather, stuff like that), so trynna count them all including the minor gods would be fuckin. Ouchie n there's only so much world-building my hands can take so i'mma leave that as an open number

the Folk Gods i KNOW i want to have are Gods that would match with these karma symbols

and then some nature-based Gods, like maybe for the seasons. and then, of course!!! The Anemoi!!!!! Zephyrus, Boreas, Euros and Notos are all actual Gods in the pagan believes. it's why Sparrows defaults to calling our Euros "Caper". after learning about the Folk Gods, our Euros kind of lets go of how exactly he wants to be called and mentally defaults to Caper as well. an Iterator silently worshipping the original Gods... what a puzzling, unexpected thing

(the Anemoi iterator names are- i actually threw them together hastily, but i've been freaking out about it for a bit now Specifically cuz i didn't plan this out, but the other pieces of their names (that Sparrows would default to calling them)- Caper, Abet, Blessing and Biting/Bite- actually Really well reflect their roles in the Iterators'-post-mass-ascension story and i'm SO proud of that. i just wanted to gush about that real quick, excuse me jlkgsjldkckl)

i've been actually thinkin about making a second set of the Anemoi, with Apeliotes, Keikias, Lips and Skeiron, if only to fluff up the Iterator group a bit, so we will see

they are using the greek names cuz i'm too lazy to bother with figuring out some special names for them. let's have shout outs to cultures with the god names outside of the 10 karma symbol ones

oh and they weren't originally meaning to be using actual Names in the Iterator names (-looks guiltily at the canon Ittie names-). the Anemoi iterators are just special cases. it all started with Zephyr- which is an actual normal word in the english language, That's her name, she isn't actually named after a God- but someone was like "hey, what if we do a set out of this" and now we have the Anemoi Iterators with special treatement and in leading roles of Things (Haboob is one of them but she's. kind of an outsider in their lil group- it's a whole thing, but this isn't the post for it)

the God of the respawn mechanic was most likely the God that ends up standing for the Survival karma symbol!!

other notable gods: • the God of the tenth karma, also known as The One Who Exonerates, the Reaper or, to us, known as the Saint ;D (I STILL HAVE TO PLAY THE FUCKIN SAINT CAMPAIGN but I think this take is gon stay). The Saint is an incarnation of the God, it took the form of a slugcat cuz they are all indeed extinct during that time n it's kind of the God's trademark Thing to become something like the walking dead. "this species isn't supposed to be alive anymore. why is one of them walking towards me right now?" (imagine a dodo bird threateningly approaching you with flashing eyes, bro wtf...). it came down into the mortal realm like this to sweep away all remnants of the previous civilization (the Ancients) so the life cycle of the planet may begin anew again (as inspired by the Aztec myth of Earth having multiple incarnations/live times. i could swear there's smth like this in Theosophy as well but ergh -shrugs-). i've read quite a few things about the tales of Gods or clean beings like that coming down when i was a kid (i was a strange one) and REALLY fuckin adore how Saint collecting the echoes to get its final ascension ability can mirror really well the journey that incarnated clean beings have to go thru. they may be Gods, holy things, but they still need to Learn when they come here to offer their help and love • the God of the fourth karma. it's Gourmand. shkiki kept yellin at me about how fuckin horrid this take is when i first came to this conclusion in our DMs so now it's FUCKIN canon to me. spite fuels me still. Gourmand is an ACTUAL FUCKIN GOD. he came down to the world to just chill 🤙 • the God of the sixth karma. Maybe. i'd like to poke 'em just because they are connect to Moon (that's Yet another thing- Moon is the sixth iterator ever created n the first ten mirror these gods and the Karma symbols. i want to design the other 9 at some point, i really do)

a big trademark thing for incarnations of the Gods is that they are always kind, in their own way. if it's blindly vengeful like Artificer, it can't be a God in the flesh

i'm gueesing you mean more the global religion than the void itself- the void stays pretty static n normal when compared to canon i think. it does what it does for the world, pushing the planet's cycle along by eating away at the buried physical past, the Void Worms are like guides within it. they take the creatures who fall into this dark to the light, to become everything and nothing at the same time- reach that Nirvana

the void is a way of ascension and progression for the *world*, not the sapient creatures- the Ancients played with something so much more grander than they could ever hope to be. spaient creatures are meant to have fun on top of the world and then polish themselves into godly cleanness (reachin max karma) n then ascend. the void ascension method is just plain wrong

the GLOBAL religion's initial idea was that the sins are just things one should beware not to cling on to (or become obsessed with/addicted to). clinging creates tension, it produces the fear of loss. one should not live in fear. in the constant stress produced by the anticipation of "when will i lose this. when will i lose it. when. when. when.". for example the fifth sin- do not cling to survival because if you are going to be terrified of not make it you will be unable to live your life to the fullest. it doesn't mean the exact opposite in return- one should not desire death, and, one should not fear death. all comes and goes and the best thing one can do is accept it

the Extremists of this came in and sharpened this well-meaning affable wisdom into strict rules of "You Can't Have This At All and if you DO You Will Suffer." (aka haha christianity irl). you can't fight against violence with violence even if it's your only choice, you can't feel lust and give your partner carnal love, you can't have friends and other such relationships, you shouldn't have food and ultimately- we all should not live at all. this Extremist version of the faith was the aggressive thing that colonized the rest of the world and forced everyone to look the same way towards own destruction

the Extremists are why the respawn gimmick gift of the God was turned into a curse. they made everyone look at how it hurts to die and that dying Once only promises that it will happen again. "there is never any end to it!" they whine and screech. the gift was originally seen as a good thing because it was that *second chance*... that even if your loved one will die even when they tried so hard not to, you won't have to go through the pain of losing them for good. they'll be here, they are here, you still have the time to give each other the love. it's okay

so quite literally just a case of seeing the glass half full and half empty. the Extremists brought in the negative thinking (And Therefore The Iterators Too). that was ALL especially catastrophic for the lower circles cuz the higher ones at least lived in comfort and not too much of fear of death

fuckin... poor Sparrows here almost got crushed by Euros' rain when she was like 4, has had to live in fear of the oxygen poisoning, almost being chomped by all sorts of animals and having to force herself to think that this is all okay, how it's supposed to be, because otherwise she might as well go crazy or get so emotionally destroyed she'd end up being a completely different, depression-riddled person. all the while the royals up in Ales are sipping at nectar, watching the birds fly and staring into crystal balls and other such divination things