Ramblings on the Salvation Engine and Other Things

[LadyWYT]

I have this sneaking hunch that one of our main goals will be to find and shut down the Salvation Engine somehow. We know from the Salvation tapestry and other lore pieces that Jonas Falx created some sort of machine that sent his followers(presumably) forward in time in an effort to save humanity(and turning said followers into seraphs in the process). Now as to how the machine accomplished that task or whether it's still operational remains to be seen; at minimum, it's capable of turning humans into other entities and spitting them out somewhere else in the timeline.

You know what other entities pop up out of nowhere? Drifters. Now, we never see seraphs pop out of any rifts or anything; they just appear out of thin air so it's not quite the same. Likewise, it's somewhat ambiguous as to what created the drifters in the first place. The Rot Beast tapestry and other bits of lore suggest they're beasts and humans that were infected and mutated by the Rot plague. In the segment "Breakdown", we read Falx describing the "other world" leaking into ours as he works--the effects most notable in his inventions first. Now if the Salvation Engine could mutate humans into seraphs somehow(the positive outcome?), then it stands to reason that it could mutate the infected into the metal-riddled monstrosities that are drifters. And if Falx and his followers were all catapulted forward in time by this machine...presumably no one was there to turn it off.

Assuming that the Engine kept running after this point, it stands to reason that perhaps it eventually fell prey to the Rust dimension's influence and started warping the Rot monsters into the drifters we encounter today. It would also explain how the rifts open and close in the first place, and perhaps why the temporal storms happen. If it's a machine that's being ever more corrupted or slowly breaking down, it would stand to reason that its effects will become much worse and more unpredictable over time. If that turns out to be the case, I can only assume that it's going to be critical to find the thing and shut it down, if not destroy it completely.

As for what effect shutting it down might have on seraphs, I'm not sure. I suppose that depends on whether or not it's responsible for a seraph's ability to create "returning points" and otherwise stay anchored in the world, among other things. I'm guessing that at this point though, we're probably operating independently of the machine, although I could be wrong and our connection to the machine might be what pulls us(but no one else) into temporal storms. What's more of a curiosity to me though is the theory about the Engine potentially being responsible for creating both seraphs and drifters and dumping them into the world in similar manners. If that indeed turns out to be correct, the implications there are fairly major, as it would mean that the players themselves are technically eldritch monstrosities as well.

[cjc813]

Fascinating... so what if we find ourselves in a position where we have to shut down this machine to save the world, but in doing so we have to give up our immortality?

That'd be a pretty neat story beat. (From a game mechanic standpoint, we'd still want the player to respawn. But from a narrative perspective, it'd be pretty cool.)

[I need to go to bed. This game's story is just... I'm hooked. It's so good.]

[Maelstrom]

On 2/25/2025 at 9:03 PM, cjc813 said:

Fascinating... so what if we find ourselves in a position where we have to shut down this machine to save the world, but in doing so we have to give up our immortality?

That'd be a pretty neat story beat.

That's usually what happens in Lovecraft's stories.  I actually expect when the salvation machine is shut down, we seraphim will go with it.   And this is one seraph that will work towards that day as this world needs to return to the way it was before that accursed Falx meddled in the affairs of dragons; or in this case, alternate dimensions.

[ifoz]

22 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

That's usually what happens in Lovecraft's stories.  I actually expect when the salvation machine is shut down, we seraphim will go with it.   And this is one seraph that will work towards that day as this world needs to return to the way it was before that accursed Falx meddled in the affairs of dragons; or in this case, alternate dimensions.

I feel like they could do it where the Seraphs simply return to being human, since that would allow players to continue their worlds even after beating the story.

So they'd still be giving up their canon immortality and other powers, in exchange for repairing the state of the world - while still allowing the player to keep their place within their own in-game world.

I feel like it would be either that, or Jonas (if still alive) having to sacrifice himself to restore the world.

Edited June 7, 2025 by ifoz

[Maelstrom]

I think Jonas is dead already, but if not his death will most certainly be part of the story, probably in chapter 7, maybe 8.  In Lovecraft the one that brings stuff into the world from other dimensions is usually killed by others.  I expect that if Jonas is still alive we will have to kill him.

For game considerations, we'll probably live on as is, but in my head canon in order for the eradication of the impact of Rot and the Rust world, we seraphim will have to exit the world.  Probably return back to your sleep state before Tobias' tower was activated.

Edited June 7, 2025 by Maelstrom

[ifoz]

7 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

For game considerations, we'll probably live on as is, but in my head canon in order for the eradication of the impact of Rot and the Rust world, we seraphim will have to exit the world.  Probably return back to your sleep state before Tobias' tower was activated

It could be, but considering the time-stasis was directly due to Jonas' meddling, having them return to being human would be a true reset of all the temporal powers at play.