LadyWYT Posted March 15, 2025 Report Posted March 15, 2025 Finally sitting my butt down and doing a write-up on my thoughts. In case it wasn't obvious from the title, there will be spoilers ahead, so if you haven't yet played the main story and wish the content to remain unspoiled, stop reading now and come back later once you've played through it. You have been warned! And with that being said, let's dive into it... The Resonance Archive While it's the location central to chapter 1, the library message has been altered to include other location names. Likewise, the old alchemist who left the message is confirmed to be Tobias and not Jonas, though that will become obvious later on. In any case, only two of the mentioned locations you'll actually visit in chapter 2--the Lazaret, and Nadiya. The Spoils could be a reference to the Devastation, since the trader mentions it being a horrible place when asked about it, however, I think the Spoils may be something else given that the Devastation doesn't seem to have had its name changed over the years. The Cardinals likely refers to a proper fortified town, quite possibly a religious hub. The Quiet doesn't really hold much hint of what it might be, but I suspect it may possibly be where Jonas might be hiding. The Lazaret The first of the locations that the player will visit, it's not very big but gets the job down, and the atmosphere here is well done. It was a quarantine zone for those infected with Rot, as well as a place for alchemists to study the victims in the hopes of finding a solution. Judging by the loot that you can find in the cells, no one was spared--commoners, children, even nobles and royalty were imprisoned here and used for research. In regards to the scribbling on the walls, some of the marks seem to just be a tally of days, while some of the "writing" outside the cells could just be research notes...though that doesn't really make as much sense. A lot of the writing seems to be nonsense scribbled by infected, given that the scribbles are somewhat esoteric and seem to depict Rot monsters or other strange images. Which also leads to wonder that given several of the prisoners were likely commoners who didn't know how to write...does being infected somehow give them that capacity? I'm not sure, but it's very unsettling, and given a lot of scribbles are outside the cells, I suspect either the researchers themselves were eventually infected, or there was some sort of jailbreak towards the end. In any case, the location design is solid, though I think it should've been a little bigger, with the clue you need to find hidden better so that players need to actually do some thorough searching to find. The other thing I found worthy of note is that one of the images scribbled on the wall resembles a certain old friend, at least somewhat, though I'm not sure if that's intentional or just a coincidence. Nadiya The name of the village, and the second place you will visit. A quaint little medieval village, though it quickly becomes apparent that the villagers don't really know what happened to the Old World, or what's really going on now as a result. Tobias is a legendary figure that's long dead, in their minds, and the few that know of the Devastation seem to be aware that something horrible once happened there long ago, but are otherwise unaware of what happened and why. To further illustrate that much time has passed since the end of the Old World, all of the villagers have different accents, and none of them can read Old World writing(though they express surprise when you can). The Devastation The main core of the challenge, and likely the third place you'll visit, assuming you didn't seek out Tobias first. I believe the Tower at the center houses the Jonas machine depicted in the Salvation tapestry(which I've dubbed the Salvation Engine), since the Tower machine features a prominent clock-thing towards the top, and several outlying bits of auxiliary buildings that seem to match what's depicted in the tapestry. Additionally, it's made fairly clear that this device is what allowed the player to return as a seraph, as well as what likely wiped out the Rot and started the temporal mess in the present...especially since the entire place seems to be one giant rift and part of it is frozen in a temporal anomaly. In regards to the machine itself, it seems to have been powered by some sort of energy core at the center, which seems to have been overloaded somehow and exploded. The clock-thing at the top is also interesting, since the hands are aligned in the present near the 11 o'clock position, but are in entirely different positions in the past. Though in all fairness, that particular piece might be a device for tracked planets or dimensional alignment, and not an actual clock. Either way, it's interesting to see the differences between the past and the present, and the overall mess suggests that things perhaps didn't quite go as planned when the machine was fired up. As a side note on the Mad Crow--really enjoyed this boss design. I suspect we might see the Crow turn up again at some point, since it's only chased off by the player and not killed. Tobias Tobias's cave is probably the last place you will visit on the journey, although it's possible to visit him prior to going to the Devastation. If you talk to him prior to the Devastation, you can get a little insight into his relation to the player in the Old World, since he apologizes for playing the taskmaster once more. That remark suggests that while the player may not be a close friend, they were at least a close ally in order to be receiving orders directly from Tobias(and perhaps Jonas himself) with relative frequency. In any case, the cave was my favorite of the locations, and the design for Tobias is very smart, since it offers a solid reason for why the player needs to be the one retrieving the macguffins and otherwise doing things. As for why no one seems to recognize Tobias as being the same guy that founded Nadiya...he doesn't get out much, and despite his unique appearance I daresay those that do see him only see what they expect to. That is, a random old man, and not a legendary figure that should be long dead. Tobias's explanation of the player's class background confirms one of my earlier theories, in that the player was indeed part of the Falxian forces and not some random individual pulled from the Old World. Additionally, Tobias also sets the record somewhat straight on how much time has passed since the Old World's end. According to his calculations, it's been about 500 years. The Rot Perhaps the biggest revelation Tobias has to offer...Jonas's experiment failed. At least, mostly. I daresay what happened was an event similar to what happened with the Elder Scroll and Alduin in Skyrim's main story--instead of actually defeating the Rot, the machine simply scrambled time and threw the Rot forward to some point in the future, hence why the Rot is returning now. I daresay it did similar with the seraphs--they're either Falxian forces that died in the Old World and have been pulled back to the land of the living, or they were Falxian forces that were near the machine when it was activated and got flung forward through time as a result. In any case, Tobias makes it clear that such a plan should not be repeated under any circumstances. How he knows that the Rot is returning, I'm not sure. It might have something to do with his time at the Lazaret(poor guy!), though I suspect he either saw evidence of it in his travels, or has heard suspicious rumors. It could also be a result of his alchemy work. Jonas Falx While I don't know where Jonas is, I do believe he's still very much alive given how Tobias talks about him. The two were close friends, practically brothers, and Tobias seems to have crossed paths with him at least once post-cataclysm, since he mentions Jonas being no help when it came to figuring out a solution to the current problems. If Jonas were dead, I don't believe Tobias would be speaking about him in that fashion. I also think it's unlikely that Jonas is corrupted or a seraph, since the player is the first seraph that Tobias has encountered and Tobias doesn't note anything odd about Jonas otherwise. Most likely, Jonas is in a similar state to Tobias--something close to human but immortal--and went into hiding post-cataclysm, refusing to return to society or otherwise have anything to do with his former scientific endeavors. The poor man suffered a mental breakdown from watching his dreams crumble, the stress of the expectations placed on him, and having most of those around him start worshiping him as a god, so it's no wonder he would have that kind of reaction. While I believe he's just in hiding as a result of the mental breakdown, I also won't rule out the possibility that he's died or otherwise been corrupted by something since crossing paths with Tobias. I would think if something like that had happened, Tobias would probably know, since it seems like the two might try to stay in contact with each other given their prior friendship, but it's also possible that Jonas cut contact entirely or that Tobias has been otherwise too busy trying to figure out what to do on his own. Where the story is likely headed For chapter 3, I daresay we'll be returning to Tobias and using the Lens to travel to another dimension in the hopes of gaining some new technology/secrets or otherwise learning more about the Rust, the Rot, or seraphs in general(probably some combination of these). Whether it's the Rust world itself, or whatever lies beyond, I'm not sure, but I expect most of the chapter 3 locations to be those pocket dimensions, though there may be another small location or two added to the normal world as well. There were, after all, three other locations mentioned in the Archive message, that I would assume we would be visiting at some point. I also expect to be crossing paths with Jonas at some point, though I daresay that won't happen until much later in the main story, likely towards the end. I'm guessing we'll end up needing his help to defeat the Rot and set things right, and will probably need to find and navigate whatever trap-fortified bunker he's hidden himself in...and then convince him to help us. Or we could simply be stumbling across his bones and need to piece together whatever fragments of information we can find in his journals. Worst case scenario, we'll need to battle a corrupted Jonas, though I find this unlikely at this time. Another important thing to note, is that if time itself is to be fixed and the temporal storms stopped, doing so may mean that the player character needs to sacrifice themselves to achieve that goal. Now granted, if that ends up being the case, I still expect the player to be able to keep playing their world after the credits roll, as if nothing had happened, since losing a world with a lot of progress tends to make for an unhappy player. But from a narrative standpoint, if you heal whatever "time wound" keeps causing the temporal storms, I daresay you also close whatever rift in time keeps allowing the seraphs to respawn(and by extension, keeps characters like Tobias alive). Of course, such a thing might not be necessary, or the player could be selfish and refuse to go that far...but in that case, the alternative is either having the world potentially fall apart via temporal storm, or being locked away by humanity's remnants if/when they stop trusting seraphs. Those who can't die, after all, would eventually become very powerful, and would therefore pose a significant threat to mortals, so despite the remnants of humanity being friendly now, it's only logical that they will eventually turn hostile. Therefore, the best case scenario, in my opinion, is for seraphs to sacrifice themselves to save the world, either losing their immortality and living out the rest of their now-mortal lives, or simply ceasing to exist in the present and returning from whence they came. ----- Thus concludes my initial thoughts on chapter 2. I think I covered pretty much everything, but in the event I forgot something, I suppose I'll be writing more posts later. 2 1 1
ifoz Posted March 16, 2025 Report Posted March 16, 2025 (edited) 10 hours ago, LadyWYT said: Judging by the loot that you can find in the cells, no one was spared--commoners, children, even nobles and royalty were imprisoned here and used for research. It wasn't only for research - in the words of Tobias, "those too important or too powerful to simply die" would be sent there to be kept alive as long as possible. 10 hours ago, LadyWYT said: I believe the Tower at the center houses the Jonas machine depicted in the Salvation tapestry(which I've dubbed the Salvation Engine), since the Tower machine features a prominent clock-thing towards the top, and several outlying bits of auxiliary buildings that seem to match what's depicted in the tapestry. I personally don't think it is. Tobias makes it clear he built the place in the new world with the help of generations of Nadiyans, and the machinery behind the locked door in his cave comes from the tower. Granted he could have theoretically repurposed the salvation engine bits since tower conduits are found in one of the surrounding ruins, but I personally doubt it. The grand machine (salvation engine) seems too important to the plot to reveal in only the second chapter. 10 hours ago, LadyWYT said: As a side note on the Mad Crow--really enjoyed this boss design. I suspect we might see the Crow turn up again at some point, since it's only chased off by the player and not killed. In 1.20 pre-1, you could actually spawn a tame, "uncorrupted" Erel who looked brand new and could be told to "wait" and "follow" the player, much like a tamed locust. This is really intriguing considering we never actually kill the Erel in chapter 2. 10 hours ago, LadyWYT said: Falxian forces that were near the machine when it was activated and got flung forward through time as a result. In any case, Tobias makes it clear that such a plan should not be repeated under any circumstances. Definitely this one. Tobias says that those close to the machine when it was activated were blasted into time limbo. He also says "I suspected there were many who were lost, but not perished", which is a reference to the fact we know that there are multiple Seraphs out there. 10 hours ago, LadyWYT said: There were, after all, three other locations mentioned in the Archive message, that I would assume we would be visiting at some point. My personal theory is that these will comprise chapter 3. Tobias says the Lens will take years to integrate, so it makes sense he might send us off somewhere to find out more or perhaps just as a "vacation" of sorts (probably with a twist that one of these places is actually overrun). 10 hours ago, LadyWYT said: Therefore, the best case scenario, in my opinion, is for seraphs to sacrifice themselves to save the world, either losing their immortality and living out the rest of their now-mortal lives, or simply ceasing to exist in the present and returning from whence they came. I hope if they go the "give up your Seraphdom" ending, we get them turning back into regular humans. I think that would be a nice way to wrap things up in regards to the Seraphs. Y'know, if Jonas is alive... Perhaps he would be the big sacrifice. I could see that thematically being fitting in a "circle of life" type of way. Edited March 16, 2025 by ifoz 2 1
LadyWYT Posted March 16, 2025 Author Report Posted March 16, 2025 9 hours ago, ifoz said: I personally don't think it is. Tobias makes it clear he built the place in the new world with the help of generations of Nadiyans, and the machinery behind the locked door in his cave comes from the tower. Granted he could have theoretically repurposed the salvation engine bits since tower conduits are found in one of the surrounding ruins, but I personally doubt it. The grand machine (salvation engine) seems too important to the plot to reveal in only the second chapter. I like this theory too, however, the main hole I see in it is the time and skill required to build all the stuff we see at the Devastation. Granted, maybe Tobias also built several eidolons and other robots to help, since we see eidolon parts floating around the area. But otherwise it seems like it would have taken too much time for the 500 years that have passed, for the Nadiyans to also completely forget what actually happened there. Perhaps those involved simply refused to talk about what happened with anyone else, and the truth was eventually forgotten, but it seems a stretch. The other bit I have a tough time wrapping my mind around is how did Tobias and anyone else survive the resulting explosion when the machine blew up? That's part of the reason I lean towards it being the Salvation Engine. I don't think it's too important to reveal in the second chapter, as it silently answers the question of how we got to where we are to begin with. I suspect there are much grander machines in the works, that we will either be finding or building later. Fantastical machines aside though, it's Jonas Falx who will be the biggest reveal, unless I'm mistaken. 9 hours ago, ifoz said: My personal theory is that these will comprise chapter 3. Tobias says the Lens will take years to integrate, so it makes sense he might send us off somewhere to find out more or perhaps just as a "vacation" of sorts (probably with a twist that one of these places is actually overrun). Hmmm...I didn't consider that. That's very possible, though I still lean toward using the Lens in chapter 3. If I'm recalling correctly, I think Tyron mentioned playing around with the pocket dimension mechanic more in the near future, although that could also be in reference to fleshing out the sailboats more. But sticking at least 2 of the 3 locations into chapter 3 would make a lot of sense, as well as make "The Journey" feel even more epic. Not that we don't already do a lot of traveling in chapter 2, but more travel in chapter 3 turns it into more of LOTR-style grand adventure. We'll see! 10 hours ago, ifoz said: I hope if they go the "give up your Seraphdom" ending, we get them turning back into regular humans. I think that would be a nice way to wrap things up in regards to the Seraphs. Y'know, if Jonas is alive... Perhaps he would be the big sacrifice. I could see that thematically being fitting in a "circle of life" type of way. I agree, though it's possible they could opt for multiple endings depending on player choices and that could be the "good" ending. In regards to Jonas sacrificing himself, I think that would be a bittersweet end and rather fitting for his character...not that we've seen him. The poor man's been through so much, and given so much of his own time and resources to trying to make the world a better place only to see his plans almost backfire completely. The worst end for him I can think is if he decided to follow in the footsteps of the Old World nobles as a result of his trauma, and become a tyrant in the New World. 2 1
Maelstrom Posted May 27, 2025 Report Posted May 27, 2025 (edited) On 3/15/2025 at 12:32 PM, LadyWYT said: Where the story is likely headed For chapter 3, I daresay we'll be returning to Tobias and using the Lens to travel to another dimension in the hopes of gaining some new technology/secrets or otherwise learning more about the Rust, the Rot, or seraphs in general(probably some combination of these). Whether it's the Rust world itself, or whatever lies beyond, I'm not sure, but I expect most of the chapter 3 locations to be those pocket dimensions, though there may be another small location or two added to the normal world as well. There were, after all, three other locations mentioned in the Archive message, that I would assume we would be visiting at some point. I also expect to be crossing paths with Jonas at some point, though I daresay that won't happen until much later in the main story, likely towards the end. I'm guessing we'll end up needing his help to defeat the Rot and set things right, and will probably need to find and navigate whatever trap-fortified bunker he's hidden himself in...and then convince him to help us. Or we could simply be stumbling across his bones and need to piece together whatever fragments of information we can find in his journals. Worst case scenario, we'll need to battle a corrupted Jonas, though I find this unlikely at this time. Another important thing to note, is that if time itself is to be fixed and the temporal storms stopped, doing so may mean that the player character needs to sacrifice themselves to achieve that goal. Now granted, if that ends up being the case, I still expect the player to be able to keep playing their world after the credits roll, as if nothing had happened, since losing a world with a lot of progress tends to make for an unhappy player. But from a narrative standpoint, if you heal whatever "time wound" keeps causing the temporal storms, I daresay you also close whatever rift in time keeps allowing the seraphs to respawn(and by extension, keeps characters like Tobias alive). Of course, such a thing might not be necessary, or the player could be selfish and refuse to go that far...but in that case, the alternative is either having the world potentially fall apart via temporal storm, or being locked away by humanity's remnants if/when they stop trusting seraphs. Those who can't die, after all, would eventually become very powerful, and would therefore pose a significant threat to mortals, so despite the remnants of humanity being friendly now, it's only logical that they will eventually turn hostile. Therefore, the best case scenario, in my opinion, is for seraphs to sacrifice themselves to save the world, either losing their immortality and living out the rest of their now-mortal lives, or simply ceasing to exist in the present and returning from whence they came. I disagree. Even when Jonas had initially used the lens to begin his astonishing engineering career, he never went to the other dimension. While it is possible the lens could be used to create a device to bridge the dimensions, given that this is a Lovecraftian inspired story, I sincerely doubt it. Very rarely in Lovecraft do humans travel to alternate dimensions. Of all the stories I've read the only time a character travels to another dimension that alternate dimension is a dream dimension, not an actual dimension where otherworldly beings come from. The shenanigans that happen in Lovecraft's stories are what happens when otherworldly beings (or things) affect earth and what humans do to fix the impact the alternate dimension caused. The story devs are masters are Lvoecraftian story telling. I also disagree that Jonas is alive. My recollection of Tobias' work that caused the Devastation is from him carrying on without Jonas and he doesn't do as good a job as his mentor, thus causing what we saw in the Devastation. Any references to Jonas seems to be Tobias' memories from before the rot was cleansed. My anticipations/speculations/hallucinations/salivations for future updates - Tobias will send us on retreival missions, one or more of which will use the Timeflip skill to solve problems in one or more story locations (like the Spoil). It seems that the devs have taken a page out of the ChronoTrigger playbook. We will also have another/more runins with Tobias' pet Mad Crow. New locations will also be insanely far away and potential return trips to various locations may make development of steam powered transportation enticing (probably for late chapters, ie. 5 or 6 plus). Edited May 27, 2025 by Maelstrom
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