LadyWYT

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.