#worldess edda

[many-faced]

Edda does not like her reborn duo counterpart

Aka - Edda fuckin hates Cam

Sorry for the lack of worldless content, I prommie I still like the game the hyperfixation has just died down a little

Someone do something to reinvest me/silly

[octahedral-chaos]

I kind of like the idea of Winged AU! Edda also being partially inspired by male Indian Paradise Flycatchers, specifically with the tail.

Aven would definitely have frigatebird wings and tail, but Edda would have albatross wings and Indian Paradise Flycatcher tail, if that makes sense.

[sqarletsworldlesswandering]

A'ight, time for some of the aforementioned Yote To Another World shenanigans, featuring the duo getting slam dunked into the following worlds:

Hollow Knight, Bug Fables, and Subnautica

Some potential spoilers for Hollow Knight and significant spoilers for Bug Fables ahead! Some Subnautica spoilers too.

The Bug Games!

Hollow Knight:

By Hollow Knight worldbuilding, I'd lean towards them both being moths. Although perhaps Edda is a moth, while Aven is someone in the Grimm Troupe?

If we ignore more strict in-world logic, I'd lean towards Edda being a Mantis of some kind, while Aven might be a spider/weaver. Although we could have Aven as a vessel of some kind - something void-touched.

Bug Fables:

Aven could be a non-hive affiliated wasp, but there are other good options. We don't see many mantises in the game, but the mantis vibes of Bug Fables makes Aven a better fit for it than Edda, though only narrowly. Either one could easily fit a mantis. Maybe they both are. I could also see Edda as a beetle of some kind, since she's got the better defenses.

Now, magic is interesting in Bug Fables, since it's correlated mostly with crystals or crystal-connected items. So either the duo has trinkets that grant them magic, or they've got crystal bits embedded in them. The roaches in particular seem to have discovered most of the magical formats, so that could imply that the duo got tangled up in that. Maybe Edda has charms or a pendants of some kind that give her lighting and frost magic, and Aven got the short end of the stick tangled in roach experiments. We never see a zombie mantis in-game, and that sounds terrifying, but maybe he's got another Leif-type situation. That, or he dodged the cordyceps and just got the crystal embedded in him. This could easily be switched as well.

Subnautica time!

Given Edda's aversion to water, this...freaks her out. A lot. But then she realizes it's not hurting her and starts enjoying being able to "fly" underwater. That said, she's not overly fond of being human (she doesn't know that's what she is, but still).

Aven, on the other hand, is perfectly chill about the water, but is actively freaked out about being squishy and all of the other stuff in the water with them.

Timeline wise, I'm going to write after the Kharaa bacterium gets sorted.

Edda makes the distinct mistake of thinking she can take on a Reaper leviathan, then realizes combat does not work the same anymore, and nopes out at the speed of light.

Also, the duo has some... experiences with the sudden need to actually breathe, including but not limited to nearly suffocating underwater. Edda learns her lesson quickly, Aven... not so much.

Some dialog snippets for kicks and giggles:

Edda: Aven what is this thing we're in? Why do I hear water? Why is that smoking-?

Aven: WHY AM I SQUISHY?!

---------

Edda: My stomach hurts. And it's making weird noises.

Aven: *blinks, then holds out a flopping peeper*

Edda: Aven what the heck?

Aven: *Shrugs and takes a bite out of it, then immediately spits it out.*

Edda: ...Nice job.

---------

Aven: Edda why are you swimming towards the giant shadow?

Edda: I can fight it.

Aven: No, no you can't-

Edda: Aven we've killed a Demon before I'll be fine.

*five minutes later...*

Edda: I WILL NOT BE FINE I WILL NOT BE FINE-

---------

Edda: Aven if I have to retrieve your deep-fried corpse from a thermal vent I will feed you to the leviathans.

---------

Aven: Edda, the Cyclops cannot reach you down there please come back.

Edda: It's fine, I'm being careful, and HER NAME IS CYDNEY, Aven.

---------

Aven: Edda, I have 30 seconds of oxygen left, get your butt up here or I'm leaving you behind.

Aven: ...Edda please come back I don't want to leave you behind I do not like being alone down here-

---------

*Discovering the Sea Dragon*

Aven: WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT EYE IS THAT-

Edda: Maybe if we're very quiet it will leave...?

*distant roar*

Edda: nevermind we will be the ones leaving Avenmoveover-!

Also imagine: Duo but something happens so now they are stuck in an unfamiliar World in an unfamiliar form...

(AKA Throw the Duo in whatever Game/ TV Show/ etc you want, as any species from that Media!)

*Yeets them into Outer Wilds*

There are so many games I would smoosh them into, including but not limited to:

Outer Wilds (you get to be Hearthians exploring the universe, woot woot!)

Sky (Ah, a form so familiar yet so unfamiliar. Also now Aven gets to discover how Edda feels about water for himself.)

Rain World (Has already basically happened, but yeah. Don't get eaten you two.)

Hyper Light Drifter (Have fun wandering around, you have guns now!)

Solar Ash (Welcome to a black hole and the joys of skating around as your means of travel. Oh, and existentialism.)

Oneshot (Have fun with another existential crisis)

Abzu (Go have fun exploring the beautiful ocean.)

Subnautica (Go have fun being traumatized by the beautiful ocean.)

Bug Fables (Bugs! Need I say more?)

Hollow Knight (Bugs, but with more angst. Also gets interesting because of the in-world associations with stars/light.)

Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps (You get to be adorable lovable tree spirits, run for your life, and beat stuff up.)

Transformers Prime (Robots. Have fun being giant robots. I would draw this if I could draw transformers.)

This is way too much fun to mull around in my brain, and all of these involve some serious freaking out on the Duo's end (sorry you two). Especially Solar Ash, Subnautica, and TFP, at a guess. Abzu too, at least on Edda's part. But at least that one is very chill.

[nihil-nan]

For the ask game:

⭐️ - Favourite Starfolk?

🪐 - Favourite Realm?

💫 - Who do you like more: Edda or Aven? Why or why not?

🎭 - Have any ocs? If so, talk about them!

🥏 - Funniest thing that happened in your playthrough? Or funniest thing you've heard about Worldless?

⭐️ this one's going to be difficult because I'm as attached to the duo as I am to Summum, I used to fav the duo the most because I had salt with Summum but now that I finished the game I found that I appreciate Summum way more (I want to be Aven basically as much as I want to be a giant green dragon in a melancholic artificial void- I wish my room had these vibes fr)

🪐EASILY Purple map, if you couldn't tell already I'm in love with melancholic places in this game (and Summum's realm is a second favourite of mine). But like, purple map is ✅️purple, ✅️where the duo cling, ✅️has pretty stuff hanging from cliffs in the sky, ✅️upward rain, ✅️love the plants, ✅️✅️✅️I just love that place. Tbh Summum's place would've been a contestant if it weren't for green (<purple to me) but still that one, and golden citadel place are up there somewhere (perhaps i should make a tier list)

💫Ok they are STRINKINGLY close but if I had to pick I'd pick Aven, Aven is more oriented towards quick strikes and magic which appeals to me more, has claws and a cool freaking scarf, silly looking bean, does wind magic and is an arsonist, I was going to say terrifying to look at but is a potato when you friend him but I also like about Edda that she looks fairly innocent until her personality shows (as the menace she is). I still love Edda a lot and relate to her oftentimes but on a scale of 100 I like Aven a 100 and Edda a 98

🎭 Ok I did a very quick sketch of what I thought Eddaven (can I call them eden btw? I like that name way more) so that's one. I thought about like a "paradox" starfolk which is black with a blue star rather than an orange (I never drew it) point of the paradox is that it appears to want to find another starfolk to team up with WITHOUT changing its nature, but because starfolk either reject others (blue types) while others change their natures (orange types) that means that OC will never have a counterpart and their search is pointless (yes I'm projecting kinda)

🥏 This wasn't funny to me until I watched an actual walkthrough of the path of determination, but the fact that I did the path of determination with without wall running with not a sliver of doubt in my mind that maybe this is too difficult? was so funny to me afterwards. Oh and how long it took me to realise LN was Angel's spear.

[stimboardofatourneykid]

a self care kit of Edda from Worldless for anon!

🪐-🪐

⚔️-⚔️

🪐-🪐

[sqarletsworldlesswandering]

Just gonna chuck in my two cents, cuz I had feelings about the ending too. This gets kinda wacky on the interpretive side, so do with that what you will.

I remember feeling much the same way, if slightly more curious. I remember sorta... asking myself if that was it or if there was something else, and having this weird mix of dread and acceptance that there might not be more.

There's a reason my AU ends the way it does - I wanted an ending that felt less like goodbye.

As a test of skill, you're absolutely right. It's not a test of skill at all - because there is no skill in the world that can defy god. From one standpoint, it feels unsatisfying, but from another, it's a massive storytelling device, like Mystic said. Nothing quite feels like a sucker punch like beating near-deities, only to have all of that ripped from under you. I suspect the ultimate test of skill is meant to be the fight with Summum - he's the closest thing to a perfect entity. That, and the boss rush.

I remember, in particular, that the fight with Worldless instilled a feeling of helplessness. This dawning realization that I can't do anything about this. That this is a force with which I cannot reckon. Also like Mystic said, Worldless doesn't stop you from attacking. They just... let it sink in that your attacks do nothing. You can fight all you want, but that bar in the corner? There's nothing you can actually do to it. I do find it fascinating that during that fight, you can ping your sonar as much as you want, unlike others.

Also in an interesting interpretive light (and assuming I'm not horribly misremembering), the ultimate victory at the end? It's almost entirely hands off. I, the player, don't do anything. The characters move. Aven/Edda acts mostly on their own to save their friend. Not because we ping them to. Not because we have no choice. They're the ones moving now. Our final interaction with them is a single last prompt, on the precipice of re-creation. One button. It almost feels like giving permission, saying, "Go. Do what you can. I'll let go now." It felt like this strange... release, of these two. A goodbye to the two stars to move on and do something better on their own, in a world that we don't get to see (yet). I get the impression there's more to uncover, based on how the team talks about the game.

It was unclear to me how much of what was going on was Worldless just... letting them win, and how much was a genuine overpowering/force of will. But the end result was a recreation, which is also - ironically - what Worldless was about to do anyways. It just happened on Edda and Aven's terms instead.

I like to think that when Aven/Edda desperately tried to help the other, Worldess finally saw just what they were looking for. They saw this pure, caring bond between two of their creations, and realized that this is what they were searching for, and it wasn't something they could force. In finding that, they at last let themselves be overtaken so that this new force with a genuine concept of personal bond could create in their wake.

I do think it's interesting as well that Worldless doesn't bother to speak in a language the stars understand, or we the player. We have to go elsewhere and decipher it (or, alternatively, the stars understand just fine and it's only the player that doesn't).

Anyways, rambling and philosophizing aside.

I definitely agree that the ending felt a little wonky in some ways. There are ways it's a really cool concept, but I wonder if the execution could have been done differently. I liked the length it gave to the leadup of getting impaled - that felt agonizingly tense and well executed all things considered. But the sequence immediately after felt very short and kinda abrupt. Things move just a little too fast, and it's got this bittersweet flavor that definitely left me feeling a little hollow. In my mind, that's a sign they did something right, because emotions happened. But it's also a little unsatisfying. Reminds me a little of endings for games like Journey, where it loops. When I first saw the ending, I almost wonder if it was a loop of some kind, but then again, the creation is so very different.

TL;DR, you have a point. I personally both agree and disagree for a few different reasons that I haven't articulated very well (not that you asked exactly, but still), and regardless of that, I definitely agree that it feels unsatisfying in many regards.

Okay that's my two bits Imma shut up. And maybe come back and reword this sometime when my brain is braining properly.

so! After desperately searching all of worldless, there is no secret ending i have found. Which sucks, because i have a few problems with the main ending I think you guys can agree on. Spoilers under cut…

So. First off, the buildup. The sky cracking open as we slowly kill more and more green entities and our gray companion freaking out only to die was AWESOME to see. If only there was an actual final boss to go along with it…

Second off. I had no final test of skill, really. I spent all this time building up fighting skills, and for what? The devil fight? The green dragon thing? They didn’t end the game, so clearly theres something stronger I have to beat. But, nope. Practically a cutscene.

third off, the ending. Now this may just be me but i don’t like the sudden jump from “edda desperately trying to save aven via absorbing him” to “big bang.” The idea of them absorbing eachother is the entire concept of the first half of the game, but i wish they followed through with it.

okay, disappointing rant over. I have to get this out there lol

[many-faced]

my first contribution to the transmasc Edda AU originated by @octahedral-chaos

look he cut his hair short :>

[many-faced]

*Kicks door*

*Places Transmasc! Edda down*

*Leaves*

(AKA this AU still is rotating in my brain)

[increases the speed of the rotation disc]

it is a very fun AU :>

[nihil-nan]

Some more funny Corvus Lupus thingy,

Imagine the duo painting! Like those wolf painting videos.

I mean

It'd still be pretty difficult without hands I'd think

But this reminds me of How to Train your Dragon with Toothless drawing in the sand

And he eventually aced and could create pretty accurate depictions to communicate

So I have hope, maybe they'll show the humans the primordial universe they came from

[octahedral-chaos]

Also I'm still thinking about my boy Aster... he's so silly...

I think they'll be really curious if he manages to encounter another starfolk, since he "woke up" after Edda recreates the Universe.

(Basic recap on Aster's lore: He got sealed off and was dormant for the entirety of the Worldess plot. Got unsealed after the ending, but was still dormant for a very long time and only woke up after crash-landing in Skyworld.)