my take on the story

[Hal13]

Disclaimer: this topic is meant more like a dump of thoughts, impressions and speculations, but feel free to comment on it, if you like.
I will quote myself from other topics (though shorten the quote to the relevant parts for this topic) and will add links to the post i quote.

First the chat seems to function for the whole world therefore i think seraphs are at least partially telepathic beings, able to communicate with any other seraph in the world they are in.

There is no indication for active monsters since the fall, before any seraph enters the world. And Monsters seem to not attack (nor being attacked by) anything other than seraphs. With temporal storms only happening around Seraphs and becoming stronger the longer any seraph is in the world, it seems implied that Seraphs are connected to its past and traveled through time. I'm unsure if the existence of seraphs may be the reason for these phenomenons and they might be harbingers of technological advancement but also the fall. On the other side it could be possible Seraphs are only some kind of refugees from that past and every phenomenon connected to the rust world is only really in their head. They could suffer from some kind of ptsd/paranoid schizophrenia combination caused by traumatic experiences before the fall or when they were fleeing, and amplified by their slight telepathy. Unstable regions could just be associated with some region where they or another seraph experienced a trauma, temporal storms could be mental breakdowns, temporal stability an indication of sanity, or better clear thinking, and the monsters, especially drifters, could just be imaginary persons etc. like they remember them. the flax fibers found on these might just be the seraphs own hair and rusty gears and other loot could just have been laying around in a pattern triggering the seraph.

from: https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/3589-new-lovecraftian-monsters-inspired-by-scp/?do=findComment&comment=14606

On 12/30/2020 at 9:27 PM, Hal13 said:

I think about monsters of the rust world as of having at least animal levels of intellect and hunting down seraphs (player characters) or being relics from before the fall not minding anything until disturbed (by a seraph nearby) like locusts.

 

 

from:https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/3430-do-we-need-temporal-storms/?do=findComment&comment=14529

On 12/29/2020 at 2:31 AM, Hal13 said:

Did you notice drifters and all the other rust world monsters seem to not attack anything other than player characters? And the less sanity/temporal stability is left the fiercer they spawn? And that they only start spawning after the player character enters the world? And did you notice temporal storms only start to happen after the player character enters the world too? And they become stronger the longer the pc is on it?
Everything i've seen so far, hints to player characters somehow having left the past, known as rust world, and this past is trying to get them back where they belong, a collabsing somewhat hightech world, whose remains can be found in the new world you play in.

from: https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/3430-do-we-need-temporal-storms/?do=findComment&comment=14590

On 12/30/2020 at 5:45 PM, Hal13 said:

You don't notice it (if you don't read the things on the loading screen) but the inhabitants do, default settings are 5 days after the first seraph spawns in the world drifters and locusts will start spawning, and temporal storms seem new to the world or at least start to become more severe only after the first seraph enters the world. the original inhabitants would notice.

On the other side as the normal inhabitants are unaffected by these phenomenons it may be just something only seraphs experience.
But still when you compare a singleplayer world and a multiplayer world (of course only comparing defaults), in the first case you won't encounter neither temporal storm nor monsters for at least a few days, in the second you can encounter both the moment you join, therefore having NPC seraphs spawn in settlements makes no sense for me, and that's the reason too why i think lorewise these things are connected to seraphs entering this world, maybe they always followed and seraphs are kinda some harbingers of doom?

[Hal13]

some thoughts on temporal gears and translocators.

from: https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/2998-temporal-tech/?do=findComment&comment=14773

Just now, Hal13 said:

The temporal gears:

rusty gears seem to be broken temporal gears. therefore the gears are able to rust and the rust is of redish-brownish color, therefore i think most of it should be iron.

in working state they seem to glow slightly blue... like water absorbing radiation in a fission reactor... maybe everything is able to survive deadly doses of radiation in VS? I mean Seraphs seem to be able to hold things which are 1300+°C hot in their bare hands and the traders are able to barehandedly kill even an armored seraph with only a few hits... or the gears absorb radiation better than water and therefore no radiation leaves the gear?

the temporal gears seem to work fine for traders which seem more human than seraphs (player character) as they respawn similar like seraphs do, they keep their memories, but other than seraphs they don't respawn instantanously. And as they hold a grudge indefinitely i guess there may be some major unpleasantries to respawning for them.

The translocators:

fixing one location might fix the other location because there aren't really 2 devices, the translocator might behave like an einstein-rosen bridge.

they seem easy to fix therefore i'd suspect, they were disabled on purpose with the intend of possibly using them again.

With temporal gears working for humans and seraphs but seemingly better for the latter i'd guess seraphs brought the translocators and temporal tech with them somehow?
or they were only discovered and especially seraphs made use of them in big style and something woke up because of it? humans seem to not have used them and even forgotten about them since the fall.