LadyWYT

This is true, to an extent. You do get used to the hazards after a while, which makes them less scary, but I'm not sure it makes them any less dangerous. Too much complacency can kill just as effectively as a lack of experience. For example, an experienced player may not need to bring healing items or the best armor while caving, but getting trapped in a ruin with higher tier drifter moaning at the door might make the same player wish they'd come better prepared. One thing Vintage Story has done exceptionally well so far is give an underlying creepiness to the story that unsettles the player and makes the monsters feel more dangerous, without feeling unfair or stepping into outright horror territory(which, as others in the thread have pointed out, would absolutely be a turn off for some players). The two driving factors behind the creepiness, in my opinion, are as follows: 1. Atmosphere Light is a valuable resource, whether it be daylight or some other light source, and not just for keeping monsters from spawning. Nights are actually dark, even with a full moon, and if you don't have a light source you're not going to be able to see the pitfall that might be right in front of you, or that bear that may be lurking nearby. Likewise, to properly explore most caves, you will need to bring a light source with you. Light sources, however, have a limited range, so unless you really sink resources into lighting everything up in your exploration, there's always going to be darkness looming. Sometimes there's a light source that isn't yours, further down the depths where you may least expect one(and it's not always clear whether it's a ruin, locusts, or glowworms). In any case, the limited vision means that your mind now has to fill in the blanks on what could be lurking out there, and what one's imagination comes up with is often worse than what's actually there. A new player won't know what to expect, and thus may have wilder anticipations and be more easily frightened. An experienced player will have an idea of what to expect, and thus be harder to frighten, but still won't know exactly where the baddies are lurking or when they'll show up. On a similar note, the lore of the world and "set designs" give you enough information to figure out that something horrible happened in the past, but leaves a lot of the details up to your own imagination. 2. Animation and Sound Design What I consider to be the proverbial cherry on top of the cake, in many ways. I don't find drifters terribly scary, at least judging purely by looks. They look interesting, for sure, but they strike me as being derpy cave sloths, which is a little adorable. What creeps me out about them is the animations, and they currently have two types available--the standard hunched over look and the crawlers. The hunched over ones are bad enough, as they end up being a vaguely humanoid shape that comes running at you from out of the dark, often in packs. The crawlers are the ones that tend to actually scare me though, because not only do they typically end up being a blur of movement in the corner of my vision, but they can fit through one block holes. And I just never really know where or when they'll turn up in those underground tunnels. The other creepy thing about drifters that I found--they don't just sit there doing nothing, waiting for a target to show up. They have actual idle animations they will play, provided they don't notice your presence. I encountered one in a cave once, on its hands and knees seemingly crying its eyes out on the ground. I've heard they worship the Jonas machines as well, though I have yet to encounter this. Why they do any of this, I don't know. There are some implications in a few of the lore books, but currently it's mostly left up to the imagination. The fact that they seem to have a "life" outside of "I need to kill the player" is incredibly creepy though, because it's not something I've really seen in other games(at least in this fashion). The game's sound design deserves a mention as well. The drifters sounds menacing enough, without being over the top. The bells don't actually attack you, but nothing makes your heart race like hearing one go off, without actually being able to see where it is. Likewise, the machine-like ambience that comes with temporal instability(as well as the machines located in the Archive) is both cool and unnerving at the same time. --------- Anyway, I've rambled enough. I'm not sure how much of it makes sense, as it's hard to put the thoughts and feelings into words. The closest example I can think, that's easier to explain, is how Subnautica manages to pull off the scare factor. It's not the creatures you can see that are terrifying, for the most part. If you can see it, you can identify it and therefore deal with it. It's what you can't see that is terrifying.

Not exactly a seraph, but the main character I generally play as in a lot of games, Vintage Story included. Though I suppose it still counts given that a seraph is more of a color swap than anything else, assuming no other characters included for context. I may throw this into Photoshop for a rough color job and see what he looks like as a proper seraph. Would absolutely love a pelt like that to wear in-game though! May end up figuring out how to mod one myself, assuming barbarian fashion isn't added in later. I also doodled a picture of Thunderlord Dave for a thread the other day, which you can find here: I like those colors too! Blue happens to be my favorite color! Although I generally pick one of the other options when it comes to skin tone; it's hard to pick a good eye color that contrasts well. I like the extra detail on the hairpin as well. Makes me wonder what the character's backstory is. A scout with a taste for the finer things, perhaps?

Another thought that crossed my mind--instead of atmospheric changes, what about some sort of temporal clock you could craft to check when the next temporal storm is coming? It could be crafted from temporal gears, a Jonas part or two(like the intricately wound spring), and maybe an electrum plate or some electrum widgets. While it would be one of the late-game tech items, it would give better, more immersive options for planning around temporal storms, while still leaving the early storms as something of a sneaky hazard. It would be especially useful in those save files that haven't been played in a while too. In regards to the clockmaker class, I'm not sure if they would have any special detail related to the temporal clock or not. It seems like they should, given they specialize in clockwork mechanisms, but making it a craftable exclusive to them seems like it might make them too strong a pick compared to the other classes. If it was an exclusive recipe, other classes could acquire the clock via trading, I suppose, or perhaps rare dungeon loot. Rather than an exclusive recipe though, clockmakers could just be able to craft temporal clocks using fewer temporal gears, or perhaps without needing the blueprint if it's a recipe requiring one. As a side note, having an item like the temporal clock would give more use to the temporal gears outside of setting spawn points, restoring stability, or the tuning spear and translocators. While they're somewhat of a rare item, it's not too hard to acquire a couple of trunks full by the time you're acquiring steel, and I really hate just throwing them away.

I've been poking around looking at the options as well, though more of out curiosity as I've not yet decided to really jump into the multiplayer aspect of the game. Though I have seen a few roleplaying servers advertised, they didn't quite hit the right note of what I would be looking for. Speaking from RP experience in other games--the easiest RP to find is generally walk-ups, which tends to be pretty casual and never really delves deep into character connections or stories. It can lead to deeper story arcs though, depending on the players involved. The main drawback I've found to walk-ups is that the quality tends to be rather random, and it's often easier to find RP opportunities if you're the one initiating interactions rather than waiting for someone to interact with your character(which is great for extroverted players/characters, but can be a little daunting to the introverts). When it comes to more serious RP content, I think the main ingredient for success is to find a group that can play at the same time on a regular basis and has shared tastes and goals when it comes to overall storyline and characters. It can be more difficult to find the right group, of course, but the results are generally better. Anyway, I wish you luck on your quest! The game seems ripe with roleplaying potential, it may just take some time to find the right group.

Thanks! I don't draw mechanical things very often at all, but I do draw dragons. So many dragons. My strategy here was drawing a dragonish shape and then sticking bits of machine all over.

@ifoz Pics when it's done?

It may not be exactly what was requested, but I hope it delivers! Dave, and one of his minions. I've not been able to see Dave in game yet due to hardware limitations.

The artist in me loves this idea! For bigger sculptures, you could have to mold each piece individually, fire it, and then glue them together with pitch glue. At the very least, it'd be nice to have some terra cotta tiles that you could use for easy flooring/wall coverings, if you wanted to spruce up your buildings without spending a lot of time and material chiseling. Alternatively--glazes. Keep the basic pottery we already have, but add a way to mix glazes in a barrel. Then dip already fired pottery in the glaze and fire again to get pottery that's a different color. That could be a way to get some of the fancy pottery without needing to rely solely on trader RNG, with the tradeoff of requiring more resources and time. For some really interesting pottery--fire in a pit packed full of pine cones or something similar to get a raku look(texturing could be similar to bismuth). Or have a paint system where dyes can be used to color designs on certain materials, like pottery or wood. Then we could not only have prettier pots, but could decorate other stuff as well.

Hah, maybe I should run with the mini-series idea and dump my Nord warrior into a temporal storm. Whiterun has good insurance, but I don't think it covers acts of Akatosh, haha! I do like the Nordic aesthetic and have been wanting to do a playthrough on a Cool start. One thing that crossed my mind earlier though--if drifters are eldritch abominations created by messing with the flow of time, would seraphs qualify as eldritch entities on the opposite side of the spectrum? I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "good" eldritch being, though if it does end up being the case the seraphs do seem to be regarded in a neutral or positive light by remaining humans. That being said, I'm still waiting to stumble across some NPCs later who may be something less than friendly towards seraphs(although not outright hostile either).

This seems to be the best solution to my problems. If I'm more diligent about using what I already have, then I'll have more space to store what I actually need for big projects. I should probably also plan my projects a little better so that I know what I'm going to need/want in advance, and make sure there's an appropriate spot to hold all the materials while I'm working. I've been trying that in the current world I'm playing with, and it seems to be working...as long as don't get distracted running around looking for treasures, that is! Ah, the drawbacks of wanting to collect everything...

The most I've figured out so far: 1. Only full blocks can be chiseled. With default settings, the base block must also be a solid block that is unaffected by gravity(that is, not gravel or sand). 2. Right-click a block with a chisel in your main hand and hammer in your off-hand to turn it into a chiseled block. Left-click to remove pixels, right-click to add them back. Pressing "F" when targeting the block will open up a set of options to help chisel designs more efficiently. 3. To add material to the base chiseled block, press "F" to open the chisel menu, then drop blocks of the material you wish to add into the "+" icon. On default settings, added materials must be in full block form, and must qualify as stable enough to chisel. So blocks like sand and gravel can't be added, while others such as cracked stone can be added only under certain conditions. What these conditions are, I'm not certain, but what I've generally found is that materials like cracked stone can't really be used for really fine, delicate details unless it's a case where there is solid material behind it as a support(such as inlay on floor tiles, for example). 4. Blocks can be moved after chiseling, but I've not messed with it enough to see whether this can always be done without destroying the chiseled block. Generally, when I start chiseling something, I don't want to mess with it once I finish the work.

I do like the text warnings, as they generally get my attention immediately and give me time to either prepare for battle or get to a safe spot. At the same time, it would be nice to have a more immersive transition. Maybe instead of the thunder and lightning, those weird metallic clanking noises that come with temporal storms/rifts? I think those noises also start creeping in when your stability meter starts getting low. For a really dastardly approach--put small flickers of movement in the distance, toward the corners of the screen. Faint puffs of rusty particles or ghost drifters; something to provide enough movement to catch the player's attention but not enough to actually identify.

Hundreds of hours later and I still get paddled by hazards if I'm not careful. What a great game, heh heh. One of my favorite things has been learning the chisel system. It's time consuming, but allows so much customization that's not really possible in other games.

I really like this idea! I've been thinking on ways to acquire more Jonas parts here lately, and while I don't mind them being difficult to acquire, it's a little frustrating sometimes to be entirely at the mercy of RNG(especially if I want to build multiple of a specific thing for some reason). The initial idea I had was that maybe we could later meet Jonas Falx(or some other important NPC), and complete quests in return for parts, if not buy them outright. However, I like your idea much better since it doesn't turn a potentially important NPC into a glorified vending machine. I think you could also use the machine for more than just the creation of Jonas parts. If I recall correctly, gem cutting was on the development roadmap. The assembler could also be used to cut gemstones and create jewelry. Maybe even socket gemstones into pieces of equipment?

*Scene: a trader's wagon in the middle of nowhere* *Trader: "Hey you! You're finally awake! You were trying to escape the rifts, right? Same as me, and that thief over there." *Camera pans to a Malefactor, tied up in the corner* That really tempts me to take one of my characters(or write a new one), plunk them into Vintage Story, and then chronicle whatever ensues via a series of short stories. Though that also requires a lot of focus that I'm not sure I have currently, to achieve the quality I'd want. Some of the armor sets also support this--the full plate and brigandine that we have in the game was more common toward the late Middle Ages, if I recall correctly. Central Europe would be a great setting for the Old World too; you could easily have multiple cultures mixing in one area via trade routes. As a side note, I also learned last night that apparently Anego Studios is based in Latvia, which fits that description perfectly.

Ooooo, yes! It could be a rare type of ruins that has special blueprints that unlocks new recipes for your class, and/or have loot related to a particular class. For example, a tailor shop could have recipes for new clothing, or existing clothing that doesn't currently have a recipe, in addition to having things like sewing kits, linen scraps, or the occasional article of clothing to find. Blackguard barracks could have pieces of their gear to find. There could also be lore books to add some extra exposition on what role each class played during the crisis. Having ruins like this would also offer an option to acquire class-exclusive items in singleplayer without needing to disable the class-exclusive crafting or relying on trader RNG. The main issue would be balancing the loot. If there's too much loot then a lot of the early game could be skipped outright, and loot that is too high-tier can dampen the feeling of accomplishment that comes with achieving new tiers of equipment. On the other hand, it can be refreshing to stumble across a really nice tool earlier in the game, as it can save you a lot of time and effort that can then be devoted to other things(like building). I found a pair of glasses in the Archive! Although given all the drifters that inhabit the world, and what happens during temporal storms...maybe it's for the best that traders can't see very well, haha. I like the goofiness of the seraphs as well, especially the expressions. The main character I play as can actually have a proper resting battle face via the angry expression(although when I draw him, he's usually smiling. Go figure!), which I also find adorably hilarious. The instruments as the voices adds to the effect; it illustrates the character's general personality while skirting the issue of everyone having the exact same voice(like how most Nords in Skyrim sound).

This is what I try to do, as well as having a centralized general storage area. That being said, I tend to accumulate a lot of stuff too because I may need it for building later. Depending on the items involved, it may not be stuff I can easily go gather more of on a whim either. I didn't even think of this; I'll have to try this in one of my worlds! Until now, I've been keeping the raw ore chunks and just smashing them up as I need to.

I agree--there's more than a few references that match the real world, so that's probably what the old world in Vintage Story was. The world we actually play in, however...I'm not really sure. Given that the Resonance Archive seems to have been constructed prior to the events of whatever Jonas accomplished with his master plan, I'd say we're still in the real world, or what's left of it after the calamity. With all the time shenanigans going on, it could also be an alternate timeline altogether. On the subject of character classes though, I wonder if there will be some unique dialogue options and NPC reactions for each one. It would help further integrate the player into the story, rather than just serving to change play style a bit. The traders already have a few different greeting options to pick from, although each one results in the same general conclusion. The other thing I really want to know regarding traders...why on earth are seraph eyes so huge in comparison?! Is it just a difference that will be resolved later with model/texture updates, or is that a legitimate difference between seraphs and humans? I know seraphs tend to be taller on average, with pale bluish skin tones, but if the eyes are canonically that big in comparison to a human's it is a little goofy.

Could be! I'm not sure if the names associated with specific clothing items will be of any importance later, or whether they're just there to add some flavor and nothing more. It could go either way. With how crafty the devs seem to be with world-building though I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the names come up later. The theory does make sense though, when I stop and think about it. The Malefactor class description makes it obvious that whoever this individual is meant to be has done terrible things. Could be your run of the mill criminal, but it could easily be more than that. Upon looking up some of the stories as a refresher...wow, I missed a few pages of some of those books, somehow. I definitely think you're on to something with the falconer having a connection to the Flock. Perhaps the messenger that delivers the final message to the corrupt noble? Emric seems to have been the guy who was spying. As for who "Sparrow" is, I'm not sure. Perhaps the leader of the local chapter of the Flock? I think at the very least it stands to reason that the player Malefactor may have been a spy at one time(or other minion of corrupt nobility) and opted to join the resistance. In regards to the similarity in clothing style--from a technical standpoint it's easier to make variations of one basic design than it is to have a completely unique design for each article of clothing. Having many shared designs also helps the art style of the other stuff in the game mesh well together. Looking at it from a lore standpoint though, characters from the same region should share the same general fashions, provided they're from the same culture anyway. Medieval clothing especially is often designed to serve more specific functions to solve environmental challenges, as much as it is an expression of individual taste.

I've been trying to be more diligent about keeping all my stuff organized in my base, and for the first several hours of gameplay I do pretty well. It's usually around the bronze tier or iron tier that the inevitable chest nest starts to appear around my base, lol. I build chests, I build trunks, I build crates, but stuff seems to stack up faster than I can really find places to store it so I'm not sure if I'm missing something or not. Crates and chests seem to be equal in regards to available storage slots, with the difference being that crates are limited to a single item type and can be more clearly labeled. Food is the only thing I don't have issues with when it comes to storing and organizing things--it all fits neatly in a cellar or two and it's also something I'm consistently cycling through.

Thanks! I got the idea from the scenario described within "The Spy and the Sparrow" story. The narrator mentioned getting in potential trouble with Blackguards, which is one of the classes the player can pick from. Other lore mentions Falx having a humble background, a trait shared by many of his followers. Given that the current player classes all seem to be some sort of common folk rather than nobility, it just made sense. Given the current ambiguity of the Forlorn Hope, I'm wondering if the story will be rather linear in how it plays out, or if we'll be able to influence the final outcomes a bit depending on the choices we make as players. I don't expect anything majorly groundbreaking in the case of the latter. Like most stories, I expect the world to be saved by the good guys(or at least, the "good" guys to push back the bad stuff enough for the world to carry on), but the different outcomes could be which characters live and which ones die in the process of saving it. If the Forlorn Hope(or someone else, for that matter) turns out to be an antagonistic faction that also seeks to stop whatever is going on with the Rot/Rust, that would offer a prime opportunity for the player to pick who dominates the world in the aftermath. Do Falx and his allies prevail, resulting in a society with a lot more freedom and opportunity for everyone to prosper? Or does the player side with the nobility of old, and force a return to feudalism and privileged aristocracy? There could also be an option to side with a Rust cult too, I suppose, although I'm not really sure how a "win" for them could be written while still maintaining a playable save file at the story's conclusion(without blatantly ignoring everything you just did to get there, that is). Perhaps it would be less a "win" for the Rust, and more a case of most major characters winding up dead in the process of dealing with the Rust and society as a whole remaining in fractured chaos. ----- Back on the Alchemist for a moment--a thought crossed my mind while at work today. Regarding his mention of flux, and adding his own blood to it for some unknown purpose--I bet this refers to the same mechanic that the player uses to restore their temporal stability with temporal gears. Some temporal stability is returned immediately for the exchange of one temporal gear and a bit of health. So working off that as a base, I'm guessing that the flux mentioned is probably the glowing teal temporal stuff that we see utilized in Jonas tech. Adding a seraph's blood to the substance induces temporal stability, as well as having other potential effects and uses that we have yet to see. At a minimum, I'd say it's certainly more evidence for the Alchemist being a seraph, and I wouldn't be surprised if the next story arc explains more about who/what seraphs are and what's special about them.

So that's what that tapestry is! I've found the bottom half of it, but have yet to find the top half. It's one of the few I've been missing. Given that seraphs seem to lose most memory of who they were, do you suppose that Jonas remembers himself? I would assume that he could probably piece together enough clues to figure it out, in the event that he had forgotten. I really want to find that tapestry now--perhaps I should load that world back up and try to finish collecting all the things. I had shelved it in favor of paring down my list of active mods, at least until I get some hardware upgraded. My computer handles the game just fine, but it starts getting painful too far into the wilds. Had some severe lag spikes when exploring the Archive and I know it wasn't due to temporal shenanigans, lol. Any theories on who or what the Forlorn Hope is? I stumbled across that tapestry the other day, and have read the flavor text on the pieces of equipment, but I've not deduced much other than they seem to be an order similar to the Blackguards, perhaps with members of nobility rather than commoners. I'd hesitate to call them friendly, if they still exist. They might not be outright hostile to individuals associated with Falx, but I could see them(or perhaps a different faction) playing an antagonistic role later on. Disagreements on how to safeguard humanity, and whatnot.

I'm loving the lore as well, and there's just so much to unpack! I must've missed the upside-down room--will have to pay closer attention the next time that I'm there! One thing I forgot to mention in my original post--the mysterious recording on the Library's resonator. The third recording is obviously a pre-incident conversation that serves to explain to the player what the contraption is and how it works. The second recording is the one left by the Old Alchemist. The first recording was left by at least two individuals, although who they are or what they are doing there, or when their visit took place remains a mystery. The scraping of metal on stone and rythmic clicking suggest maybe the Eidolon was active at the time, or perhaps a semi-mechanical entity. It could also refer to a hidden mechanism in the Archive itself. On a whim I also googled "rubedo" and it seems to be a Latin word meaning "redness", while also referring to the finished work of an alchemist. Continuing with the theory that the Old Alchemist is indeed Jonas Falx, I'm thinking that the mentioned combination of blood and temporal flux was possibly a critical key in whatever took place with the Salvation Engine; either to allow the plan to function in the first place, or bringing about the temporal chaos that exists in the world as we know it. The Alchemist also mentions that "rubedo" applies to more than just blood/turning things to gold; rust just happens to be a red color as well. ------ "Aren't you listening? I said there's too many missing. Sure, we were dying like mayflies and mind you, some things are a bit hazy for me towards the end, but even so. They can't have all perished and they can't have all turned. I cannot be the only one. But where are they? That's what it always comes back to." "No, they hardly know anything. Of course it pains me to see them suffer. They're like... little lost children huddled in their homes. But it's for the best. We had all the knowledge in the world. And worlds beyond! And what good did it do us? No. Best leave them to it. Let them think of me as some mad old sorcerer and leave me in peace." I'm not sure if the Alchemist is talking to himself during the recording, or someone else, but he does seem to be talking about the seraphs here, at least in the first part, although it could just refer to humans too. Humans do still exist in the world--the traders are still human, after all, and mention the existence of villages. While they are polite, they also treat the player as an "other", mentioning that "more like you" have been appearing out of nowhere of late. As for the "they" in "they can't have all turned", this could refer to either seraphs, or drifters. Seraphs were turned from human, although the how or why isn't really known. The scenes described in "Confession" portray much of humanity's remnant displaying drifter-like behavior, although they seem to treat the author(presumably Falx) with great reverence. Of course, I suppose the Alchemist's second statement could just be describing the current remnants of humanity struggling to survive in the new world. Another oddity that crossed my mind earlier today in regards to the seraphs--someone had to have known a little about them prior to the player's arrival, given the existence of the tapestries and paintings in-game. From a technical standpoint, they're just items that players can use to decorate, but the tapestries specifically have a definite lore component to them and are described in a different fashion than the flavor text accompanying other items. The tapestries seem to depict greenish-grey humanoids in most cases(seraphs), with dark grey humanoids that seem to be a match for drifters. The same dark grey humanoid also appears in the Rot tapestry. The tapestry descriptions also seem to be written from the perspective of the player character; the scenes depicted carry a certain familiarity with the prior and current realities, but the details are all still fuzzy. There also seems to be a distinct disdain for the nobility, which seems logical for a band of common folk loyal to Falx. In any case, it does beg the question--who made the tapestries in the first place? Was it other seraphs, who perhaps also built some of the ruins we find scattered around but didn't survive? Was it remnants of humanity, although that seems a bit of a stretch especially given that survivors perhaps hold some animosity towards Falx regarding whatever happened with his plan. It could also just be a bit of a plot hole that may or may not be clarified later on. ----- So much to consider, haha. I'm probably going to end up starting another world and giving a different class a whirl, and pick apart the pieces some more. I think I've found most of the current available lore in the game; the only bits that seem to be missing are a couple of tapestries and maybe a scroll or two.

I finally made it to the Archive today(it was incredible!), and left with several musings that I'm now left to ponder until the next update. Apologies if the following is a little disjointed--it was an exciting expedition and I had to get the musings out. Hopefully it both makes sense and is interesting to read(though read no further if you don't want spoilers!) 1. Whatever the temporal gears are made of seems to exist in both a solid and liquid state, given the tank of glowing teal fluid in the engineering room. Perhaps the gears are just made of a metal that is infused with temporal essence somehow. What this essence does, I don't know, but at the very least it provides a source of light to some parts of the facility, as well as some sort of power source for the machines. I think this temporal energy may exist in a gas form as well, given that I dropped a temporal gear near the Library's gassifier and it started emitting teal particles. I'll have to try it again sometime in the future to see if I can repeat the incident. 2. Given the lore I've uncovered from the Archives and pieced together from random bits elsewhere, I'm guessing that the Rot was either triggered by humanity delving too deep in search of riches, or nobles paying scientists to push the limits of technology without heeding the potential dangers. There could be an entirely different reason too, as the Rot's origins haven't been made clear aside from it serving as the catalyst to drive the remnants of humanity underground and Falx to build the machine noted in the "Salvation" tapestry(I'll dub this the Salvation Engine for future reference). 3. . One detail that stood out to me was the abundance of massive rusty tendrils reaching from the depths of the Nobles Quarters--I didn't see spikes like this anywhere else in the Archives. "The Spy and the Sparrow" account found in the Library suggests that one of the nobles had spies infiltrating the ranks of Falx and his allies, while other lore bits indicate nobility's disdain for Falx's humble heritage and others of common birth. The "Danger of Temporality" tapestry seems to tell of some sort of paradise dimension, while warning of messing with powers that aren't well understood. In short, something especially horrific happened in the Nobles' Quarters, and I think perhaps they stole some of Falx's technology in a bid to save themselves first(and/or keep Falx from being heralded as a hero) only to make some miscalculations and potentially trigger the invasion from the Rust. If the nobles were secretly tampering with Jonas tech and caused the Rust to start bleeding through, it could also explain why machines--especially automatons--started to go haywire when they had been docile before. Bells, however, could be explained as simply being hostile to anything that isn't human(which, the player is no longer human). Likewise, if the nobles and their lackeys were at ground zero of an invasion from the Rust...it could also explain where drifters come from and why they seem a melted mess of flesh and rusted metal. If Falx's Salvation Engine could turn humans to seraphs, a miscalculation with similar experiments could turn humans into abominations. 4. The Echo Chamber in the center of the complex and the resonators themselves bear an eerie design similarity to the thunderlord mech thing/Dave that appears during temporal storms. Dave's head and neck look like a more twisted, inverted part of the resonator. The Library's resonator archive mentions some sort of part resembling a creepy worm, that picks up signals to record in the resonator's echo chamber for posterity. I don't know if the two are actually linked somehow or if it's just an odd coincidence. 5. The "old alchemist" mentioned in the Library almost has to be Jonas Falx. Given what the archive describes, he achieved success with his Salvation Engine, although I'm guessing it was only partial given that he doesn't seem to know where any of the targets(the players) ended up. I would assume that Falx is a seraph as well now, given the implication that those subjected to the Salvation Engine became the seraphs. As to where we might find him, I'm not sure. I recall reading that villages are planned for the game, and the traders mention rare settlements that are hidden away(as well as others "like you" who just "appeared"). Perhaps he might be found in one of those, maybe with a whole workshop and special quests. Of course, if the next story arc contains another dungeon, Falx could end up being a target to rescue as well.