lore-discussion-spoilers

[robust zephyr]

So many questions, it makes my brain hurt

[wintry matrix]

im not used on this room being so active haha

[karmic pelican]

Damn okey👺

[robust zephyr]

Probably about to become even more busy then the general chat

[earnest briar]

“Why is the kingdom like this? Why does the King want to build that big diamond, even though it’s causing so many people and creatures to be hurt?”
“Here, watch this expository Powerpoint presentation of The Lore™️”

[supple sluice]

My guess is that they stored their memories to teach the younger generation even if the older folk all die out (which they did). Lamed even does this when they show the player the murals of all the elders in their prime, with the last mural of Eden found in a ruined room.

They're trying to show us their wisdom so we can learn from it. It's like what the elder does during Journey, the spiritual ancestor to Sky:Cotl.

[eager burrow]

You joke, but someone here actually would. (Heck, if I have time, I might—)

[robust zephyr]

This may sound silly, but like, skykids, we only get a whistle and I think a gasp?

Do skykids have voices?! Or do we really communicate through honks?!

[wintry matrix]

give it the 2000s power point transition animations too please

[earnest briar]

please do, it would be so funny

[wintry matrix]

make sure every picture has frame and reflection!

[supple sluice]

And it must be in comic sans with gaudy rainbow colors

[eager burrow]

Noted!

[wintry matrix]

yes, the word art headlines too

[supple sluice]

Maybe instead of including actual screnshots use stock photos to represent things? XD

[eager burrow]

Excellent question! ^v^
I personally like to think we have ‘voices’, but perhaps the honks are part of a complex language we as players are not privy to.

[wintry matrix]

"Here we can see our little king eating dirt."

"One time manta bite him and now he wants revenge on entire manta population."

[robust zephyr]

Why does a skykid always rebirth

Why do we have adults that are spirits, are they actually dead?!

We're there princesses in the sky world?! (Assuming yes I hope-)

I have many many questions 🥺

[earnest briar]

the Krill have to be actual krill pngs enlarged to Sky Krill size, and with a singular googly eye.

[wintry matrix]

only as title, ancestors and skids dont have biological gender (though that doesnt mean they cant choose how they want to be reffered as)

[wintry matrix]

badly painted to black in ms paint

and make sure every stock image you use has very visible watermark over it and fake png background

[supple sluice]

And the crabs must be actual crabs with a really bad dark tint and low saturation

[wintry matrix]

oh and valley twins will be just one singular baby with reflection as second twin

this function i mean

[earnest briar]

I love how this has turned from serious lore discussions to “the Elders’ group project slideshow, but they’re out of budget because it all went towards the fancy architecture and technology in Eden”

[wintry matrix]

nah they are just boomers who dont know how to properly use pc software i mean have you ever seen boomers posting on facebook? it do be like that

[supple sluice]

Wasteland elder smacking the keyboard with their massive spear while vault elder squints and takes 5 mins to press a key

[earnest briar]

they need glasses 💔

[wintry matrix]

vault elder honest reaction

[eager burrow]

Being curious isn’t a bad thing! Wanting to learn is really good, actually!
Simple answers (as simple as I can make them) to your questions:

1: The Rebirth is part of the Life/Light Cycle! It’s kinda just How Things Work here. You’re born from the Light, you live your life, then you go to Eden (it was once a beautiful, sacred place) to be reconnected with the Light. We assume most creatures do not rebirth, but we have Purpose: to cleanse the Darkness in Sky, and there’s still much work to be done!

2: Yes, there are Adult Spirits who are ‘dead’. These are spirits of Ancestors who died before and/or during the Catastrophe/Cataclysm (Eden Exploding). Some people theorize these are memories from these Ancestors, or even whole-on ghosts/bodiless Light entities! There are also many Child Ancestor spirits!

3: Skykids and Ancestor Spirits alike are not assigned any genders, and are, in-game, biologically genderless! However, this doesn’t mean they cannot choose how they want to be referred to as. :)) the community also may use a generalized gender for some of the spirits and Elders (ex: the Forest Elder is typically perceived as feminine, and so people use feminine pronouns when referring to that Elder)

Hope that helps!

[eager burrow]

Forest Elder shaking head and sighing bc they’re the tech savvy one but nobody’s listening to their directions

[robust zephyr]

Regarding #2, the trailer is going to maybe be the thing that puts all the lore into a cannon event, right, explains about that eden explosion?

[wintry matrix]

valley twins filming the rest of elders being boomers for tiktok

[eager burrow]

At the very least it’s helping give context to the event! Sky Lore’s been intentionally made to be open-to-interpretation, as ShatteredTomte said! It encourages theorizing and community. If the Two Embers gives us solid answers, that’s fantastic! If not, it gives us more evidence and new ideas to explore, at the very least. ^v^

[wintry matrix]

can i offer you a branch in this trying times

bet this guys death will be ueue

[robust zephyr]

If Oreo isn't in it then I dont wanna watch it

Half joking.

[supple sluice]

Valley elders fighting because one keeps adding that they're superior to the other on their slide

[wintry matrix]

one more thing i noticed before i got home and wanted to mention - we can see the pipes already having cracks and the light seeping out before the explosion even happens (and also manatees in various stages of growth on the bottom left)

one more shot shere the cracks are visible

[eager burrow]

OH, VERY GOOD OBSERVATION!! I did not notice that!

Speaking of, anybody nab any good screenshots of Vault’s whole headpiece? I was only able to get small portions, and I want to get as many samples of the potential ‘script’ on it as I can!

[robust zephyr]

Like this?

😭 im sorry

[wintry matrix]

#lore-discussion-spoilers message

lmk if you need more, i can go say hi to her again

[eager burrow]

I meant in the Trailer 😅 sorry, should’ve clarified!

[wintry matrix]

it is the same text!

[eager burrow]

Yeah; trailer is cleaner though (no hate to the game version, trailer version’s just.. prettier. Easier to read)

I got this:

[midnight sonnet]

I’m surprised there’s not a lot of infrastructure

[eager burrow]

Garcis!

[wintry matrix]

aw you were faster, i was looking if there is clear shot in the other trailer she appears in

[midnight sonnet]

If not infrastructure then we should have a lot more rubble

[eager burrow]

Different angles are helpful! ^v^

[wintry matrix]

it is not visible unfortunately

but it looks pretty simmilar to the glyphs in journey, maybe someone did research on that and it might help you

[eager burrow]

Perhaps not needed bc lots and lots and lots of tents? We don’t see a whole ton of “permanent” housing or shops in the areas we see in the trailers.
Also, it’s been 500 years in-game since the Cataclysm; gives things time to sink into the mire and get lost.

[wintry matrix]

lots of it also got buried in sand, same case as isle

[eager burrow]

Aaah that’s a very good point, I’ll add that to my to-do list!

[midnight sonnet]

I know I just have this inkling that there should be.. has to be something more well preserved and more “alive” so to speak (i really want to see how they would furnish their homes and live)

[wintry matrix]

also i managed to get high enough yesterday to take some clean shots of the wasteland temple

[midnight sonnet]

This is why I want an archeological based season so I can dig up a well preserved town and see the culture of sky in all its past glory

[wintry matrix]

if you have the water cape from days of nature and do peeking emote in treasure reef, you can see through it how the buildings looked whole before they got flooded

[midnight sonnet]

Where?!?!? How?!?! I wanna do that

[wintry matrix]

that cape filters out clouds and water when you look through it (also both the cape and shoes "dissolve" in water) so you can see stuff you normally cant see

[narrow marsh]

Absolutely! The Ruler was unquestionably so focused on "the grand plan", whatever that may be, that they couldn't see the hurt it was bringing to the people they cared so much about.

I relate so much to the burden of obsession, of tunnel vision, of finding 'Answers' and 'fixing' things around me at the cost of taking away the humanity of life. At the cost of forgetting to Love.

It's the reason I am so passionate about the Connection Spectrum, after all; I am projecting my own journey of fixing so much in my own personal world that I've broken. 🕯️

[wintry matrix]

navigator emote works too but it is more vertical than peeking emote, you can also get a friend with that cape and make them do hug emote and then look through their water cape without hugging them

[celest birch]

Speaking of things, do you pals still recall the soldiers seen in the trailer?

Given how absolutely none was seen wearing the helmet we see Wasteland Elder and Fainting Warrior wear, it really makes me think that the helmet was a sign of a higher rank, like a commander. 🤔

[wintry matrix]

king snatched their helmets to make more pipes out of them

[celest birch]

I do also wonder if we might also see parts of collab areas show up, but in a non-collab setting like Starlight and Crescent. Imagine if Starlight is actually Starlight Prisons and Crescent is City of Mooncrest.

[narrow marsh]

Or "newer", as some theories propose 🕯️
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[celest birch]

I totally refer to Starlight as "Starlight Prisons" because when we had the TS group of them, they didn´t leave their assigned places at all unlike dunno, every single other spirit in a TS group known, as if they´re actually imprisoned within their respectable areas.

[robust zephyr]

Newer would be amazing

[narrow marsh]

Oh, I hadn't seen this, but personally I hope they don't go this route in terms of what they intend to express. It'll all be up to them in the end though!

[celest birch]

Not so much of his soul as it is his light by this point.

[narrow marsh]

Absolutely! Remembrance is such a great example of memory lanterns being used as they do

[narrow marsh]

Listen, if TGC doesn't, we inevitably will

[celest birch]

Speaking of manatees, talk about using them in the similar way camels are used.

[eager burrow]

Well… technically even his light was once MB’s/the Universe’s.

It’s no more his light than it is ours.

[karmic pelican]

YES THANK YOU😝

[celest birch]

Which does remind me: are scaredy manatees at Peaks literally just babus that are finding us scary due to never seeing anything like us before? 🥺

Mhm; would be nonetheless referred to as "his light" as in light that came from his sacrifice.

[robust zephyr]

I love this game so so much

[narrow marsh]

I appreciated this interpretation very much

Since we have plenty of curious new folks with questions, this seems like a good time to revisit the reminder to take field trips to important places in-game, for any player who is interested in Lore. There are plenty of in-game activities and quests that hint at some major Themes or story beats of Sky, and if you haven't experienced one of the listed items below, you may be missing crucial information that doesn't even need to be read!

Here's a list of areas and activities that I find crucial towards the overall lore investigation. Without having finished or visited these, you might be missing out on valuable information!

• AURORA questline
• AURORA concert
• Season of Abyss
• Final Shattering memory
• Cave in Prairie Peaks
• Season of Prophecy
• Remembrance Spirit memories
• A specific quest in Season of Performance
• All murals
  And more!
  "Murals" is a term we use to reference *any* messages left by the living Ancestors. (The Spirits before they died.) Any and every artistic detail left by the Ancestors, whether it's the glowing drawings on the walls, detailed pictures carved into the architecture of Temples and structures- murals are *everywhere*! And they explain a lot more about the Ancestor kingdom and what they did than you might initially expect! Look out for them!

I hope this helps someone, and I wish us all happy hunting! 🕯️

[eager burrow]

The point TheLuca was making was not disproving nor disagreeing with yours. They are curious about the actual mechanics of the lanterns: what makes them work? What is the process by which the memories get stored? Are they voice activated? Flame activated? So on and so forth.

[celest birch]

While I´m here, curious about whether or not those memory lanterns can break.

[eager burrow]

The answer to that is probably, yes. Ancestor tech, while impressive, was not and is not indestructible or infallible.

[celest birch]

Or glitch up in one way or another.

[narrow marsh]

My research points towards mind activated. A specific fellow theorist of mine has pointed out that it seems to also or only be Light-activated, but if each speck/mote of Light substance is alive, then what is occuring is the Light substance in your flame Connecting with the Light in the power diamond. 🕯️
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[narrow marsh]

Hey now, don't talk about Starlight Desert like that

[cobalt palm]

Not meaning to self promote, but just putting here as I have released my breakdown on the latest Two Embers trailer here
#promote-your-sky-content message

[wintry matrix]

they also all have chains on them

[wintry matrix]

well they are babies for sure, todays trailer website clarified that the manatee stewie found is indeed a baby (plus we see teen or maybe even adult manatees in trailer too)

also hey i was kinda right with this

[robust zephyr]

Snagged these from the clip, theyre taking light from the animals 😭

[eager burrow]

Yep! :((

[cobalt palm]

That's what we learn from Forest temple

[eager burrow]

Yes. Ooples is new to the lore! ^v^
Besides, and correct me if I’m wrong, we haven’t seen devices like this being actively used in-game. It’s a new device to us! :0 Identifying it is important!

[wintry matrix]

oh! i wanted to take photo of that simmilar thing in vault

it is not exactly the same, just vaguely simmilar shape but its just... there... never used in any quest or cutscene

[wintry matrix]

aw they put reset barrier there

lemme see if i find screenshot from the person that let me know about it

HA

it is kiiiinda simmilar shape to that device and its been there for ages

[dusk dove]

Have we figured out what in-game part of GW corresponds to the first scene of the trailer?

[wintry matrix]

broken temple

theres even that fallen down watchtower (and my fallen down skid)

[dusk dove]

...Wait, but... the child scales a large set of pipes...? Wouldn't that be the battlefield?

[cobalt palm]

The vault artifact

[wintry matrix]

there are pipes only in the back just like in broken temple

[cobalt palm]

I was thinking that building was more like the one in battleground

[wintry matrix]

i dont think they would allow refugees this close to the temple

[dusk dove]

^ I believe it is battlefield

[cobalt palm]

The wasteland temple is probably quite deep before getting to vault, which is probably where they're trying to get to

[dusk dove]

The pipes appeared to be in the location of the exit to shipwreck

[scenic pebble]

hear me out with this one
we can be pretty sure it's outside the walls but it could probably even be some other spot, not necessarily where we land in Wasteland

[wintry matrix]

🤓 👆

you can use the temple as your anchor + wasteland is not all the way around whole mountain

what i mean by this is that there isnt many alternate spots where this could be

[ancient canopy]

Ruler's City could just be referring to the mountain, like you see how the tents are pitched up outside the giant walls

I fully believe the first scene takes place in the Battlefield. These buildings and the alignment of the giant turrets matches with the battlefield, like u notice the biggest turret is off centered from the main building, which is exactly as shown here

The GW temple seems to be the main access point to the Ruler's City, yk like the giant access doorway

[dusk dove]

Where is the room where the child is shown sleeping beside the manatee?

[ancient canopy]

In the trailers, the building seems to be of a much older architecture so probably Prairie? But can't tell much from the interior alone

I gotta make a comparison pic fr. Thank goodness my warp point is at the battlefield so I can make the pov comparisons

[dusk dove]

<3

[wintry matrix]

cant be prairie because stewie enters this room through the tubes with light

[ancient canopy]

This made me think, the remaining building that surrounded the Eden survived simply bc they're build to withstand the explosion and the krills, due to stronger materials? Like how the rich would build stronger architecture than the likes of peasants or middle classes

[wintry matrix]

theres still the out of bounds refinery on the left from broken temple, it can be there if they ever release that map

[ancient canopy]

Ohhh right the pipes! Could be one of those out of bound buildings

[wintry matrix]

it has lot of pipes going and also a bridge/aquaduct over water

[ancient canopy]

Still I wonder what is the purpose of that building where stewie naps with the manatee. Like what is the stone used for?

[eager burrow]

That stone looks an awful lot like the ones we find Spirits in front of at the different social spaces for each part of the Kingdom; pretty sure it’s a grave marker.

[ancient canopy]

Except it's thicker and it seems to be placed in a way that it's more important than a grave marker, which is why I'm hesitant of calling it a grave

[wintry matrix]

there really arent any walls in current battlefield, the only "walls" besides the big temple one are all cliffs

[dusk dove]

well, clearly there are ruined structures around the perimeter

[ancient canopy]

Those are sand cliffs. Desertification

[wintry matrix]

that stone could be a lamp actually! it has vaguely simmilar design as those in forest and wasteland lobby

[ancient canopy]

Like didn't one mention the krills had razed the buildings, that only few survived?

I'll log in later and make a comparison pic, so you'll get what I'm seeing

[eager burrow]

Very vague relation, but you might be onto something!

[ancient canopy]

Notice the turrets at the back matches in terms of the alignment

On the right side, which isn't shown as much in the trailer, these cliffs are actually walls bc that's where we enter battlefield from the shipwreck. These "cliffs" have the pipes connecting through them

I believe this is the shipwreck. See the walls

[ancient canopy]

The buildings around the temple and medical bay were completely ruined

[torpid grail]

If that's where we go to battlefield, isn't there normally an area the same height as the wall behind the wall in game? But here in the trailer there is just empty space behind the wall

[ancient canopy]

Also why I believe this is the battlefield: the GW temple directly connects to the Vault, and here we see the members of Vault acolytes, especially Vault elder themselves

[ancient canopy]

In 500 years time frame, the landscape changes a lot

Maybe at some point an earthquake uplifted the land behind the wall or the sands built up there

Like I do notice a slope when we enter the battlefield. I think the sands had been building up behind the wall, creating massive dunes. Even you could barely see the medical bay the moment you enter battlefield

[torpid grail]

Also it looks like the spire must have been rebuilt somewhere in that timeframe, because in game there are two triangles at the base of the triangle that aren't there in the trailer

[ancient canopy]

That's possible! Perhaps during the war the spire was destroyed, and then rebuilt but then got nuked

[torpid grail]

Yeah, it definitely seems like the same area, but there are some interesting differences

[ancient canopy]

Or maybe they just carved / painted it out once more, probably an attempt to emphasis the importance of the King. That's the easier way than rebuilding it

Wait. Hold on

[ancient canopy]

Nah I think the smaller spires were completely destroyed. You can see the symmetry in terms of structure below

Nvm I'm half asleep LOL but yeah maybe recarved or rebuilt

[midnight sonnet]

This goes hard

[dusk dove]

plus windows

[ancient canopy]

Yeah I think that part is more detailed. Perhaps carved

[wintry matrix]

its way too late for me to process all this

[ancient canopy]

Yess they match well!!

[torpid grail]

Also the top of the central door is a totally different distance from the pyramid

[dusk dove]

[ancient canopy]

Probably doesn't matter as much. It's simply an artist liberty

[dusk dove]

I left my sky kid sleeping at the very top of that spire, and when i got back I was several inches to the left, in potential danger of falling, if sky physics were different. But I am SAFE from the patrolling krills.

[midnight sonnet]

I can’t wait to see the valley when it was Alive

[ancient canopy]

Sameeee!! Tbh maybe will be featured in Part 2. Bc Part 1 features GW > Vault > Eden

[wintry matrix]

meanwhile some 3D artist in tgc sweating nervously

[torpid grail]

Regardless of slight game/two embers differences, it still looks absolutely amazing! I'm so exited

[ancient canopy]

Likewise!! These similarities are crazy to see

[wintry matrix]

watch it being fixed before release, something like this is fixable in this timeframe

[midnight sonnet]

Mhm but Valley and Prairie (+forest) is going to look so baller as they still look alive today even after a massive war and after 500 years of being abandoned so imagine those places when they were in full swing

[ancient canopy]

Nope. Not really (I'm an animation graduate)

You'd need to add extra time to remodel, then put in the animation and then render again. Doubt 2 months is enough

[midnight sonnet]

Like imagine how bustling and colorful the Valley will be when it’s full of colorful people with colorful dreams

[ancient canopy]

Once official trailer is out. It's considered final

[torpid grail]

Idk. They'd have to re-render each frame with it, and it can take 10-20+ hours to render a frame I think

[ancient canopy]

Especially the high quality of these scenes. Definitely hours of rendering

[midnight sonnet]

Imagine the wonderful plant life in prairie and imagine the sanctuary islands being so full of life and wonder

[torpid grail]

Yeah I make a simple scene in blender and it takes 20 hours to render with cycles. Of course they have way better computers for it, but still

[ancient canopy]

I remember my laptop literally was dying when trying to render even a STILL image to match the movie quality but the end result barely matches bc it was dead lmao

[midnight sonnet]

Like I’m excited for the massive lore but I’m also so excited for the mundane things

[dusk dove]

the random things we can physically place in the game the smallest details are gonna be so fun to point out!

[ancient canopy]

So no, given a studio that's likely a subsidiary of TGC, I don't think they have enough or as big technology for the big name studios like Pixar and Disney for faster rendering. Literally why it took them YEARS to even release 2E since the first teases

[midnight sonnet]

Mjmbmhmhnb I’m so hype to see the places we’ve gone too when they were alive and bustling

Like I can see The valley being such a colorful place like the village is going to have tapestries, markets, restaurants and other fun things I can just feel it

[dusk dove]

I dont expect much glowup for valley, it's a BEAUTIFUL location that's still quite intact structurally

I wanna see if they show how the Races originally went since the spirits didnt have capes

[midnight sonnet]

I expect there to be a lot more textiles that might’ve eroded

That comes with more color but I also expect more bustle

[dusk dove]

[ancient canopy]

I'm really excited to see the prairie in the heyday. Part 2 seems to take place even deeper past than 500 years bc I think that was before the rise of the king

[midnight sonnet]

Like not much will change but I can just feel it in my bones that there’s gonna be so much more color probably related to the teams in the races and more clothes and hopefully a fashion epicenter and stuff to do with the arts, textiles and entertainment

Like I can see the buildings already having large tapestries devoted to the persons who lives theres favorite team

[dusk dove]

...Wait... the last shot of the mountain from the base is still from battlefield...?

why does the structure holding the crystal look like something straight out of orbit-

[midnight sonnet]

Because it’s Eden

[ancient canopy]

This?
Yeah I imagine the structure got thrown upwards during the explosion

[dusk dove]

the scale of Vault confuses me, how big is it really?

[ancient canopy]

Probably massive. Bc u needed the elevator
I think it's built within the mountain

Tbh the eden crystal is actually held in the structure below the orbit thing

(2nd and 3rd are from the Skyfest reveal trailer)

[midnight sonnet]

I think that has to be his house

[ancient canopy]

The king and their giant crystal roommate

But yeah the floating thing could be the King's House, bc of how he floats down in the trailer in front of the giant crystal

[dusk dove]

so that's resh in the picture

[ancient canopy]

The king is literally bathing himself in the crystal light directly even in his own room

How posh 😭

[dusk dove]

love how we get a split second scene of daleth before he shaved most of his hair

[ancient canopy]

I don't think that's daleth. Bc the Isle Elder was the one who carried the first King, waaaaaay back in time

Even so they're not as large as he is when compared to a skykid ( = Dusk Ember size)

Daleth was literally giant and hunched back. Even carries a staff taller than him

[midnight sonnet]

That’s how corrupt leaders work

[midnight sonnet]

MAYBE THATS GRANDPA

[ancient canopy]

I believe the old man was Dusk's fatherly figure, or maybe a friend they met along the way

[midnight sonnet]

FROM THE SEASON

[dusk dove]

?

[ancient canopy]

I would cry if he is their grandpa (even though Dusk is literally referred as an orphan in the blogspot)

Ahhh this is hard to explain xD I recommend you look through the basic lore explanations in this server, and maybe links pinned here

[midnight sonnet]

Maybe it’s the grandpa from the season of the bluebird

[ancient canopy]

Nope nope

[dusk dove]

certainly an adoptive guardian of sorts

[midnight sonnet]

I’m putting out ideas

[ancient canopy]

That's what I believe too! Seems like that split second scene was where grandpa saved dusk's manatee from being obliterated by the crystal thing

[dusk dove]

sorry can u explain what this means, im confused

[ancient canopy]

Alright so.
Isle Elder is believed to be the ferryman who first brought the King when he was a kid, prophesied to be the king in future. So they had existed long time before the events of the trailer. Plus compared to the skykid, which is about Dusk Ember's size, Isle Elder is quite big and tall. But in this scene the difference isn't as large

[narrow marsh]

I wonder if the irradiated Light gives off intense UVs, which would totally reinforce the ideas we've had of Darkness kinda working like cancer. 🕯️

[dusk dove]

...In the original sky animation? the one with the child spirits on the boat that gets swarmed by friendly mantas?

[ancient canopy]

Why did you call them daleth?

[dusk dove]

development names for the elders list Resh as the king, Tsadi as golden wastes elder, Daleth as Isle Elder, etc etc

if the theory is that this guardian with the cane is not isle elder, then

[ancient canopy]

Yeah! I think that scene is when Isle Elder called the kids to be transported in a boat. That was in an old teaser.

I believe the scene was for Part 2

[dusk dove]

ohhhhh

[ancient canopy]

Part 1 focuses on Dusk Ember, at the era when the ruler was at its peak

Part 2 seems to be about Dawn Ember, likely the origin of the king

[midnight sonnet]

Yep the beginning and end of a great kingdom

[half yacht]

is it me or dose eden have no people at all? i mean citizens. it feels empty as if people come for one reason and its to go back to the stars. could the crystal turning red and destroying everything was cus of jealousy? or anger? i remember in the art gallery a year ago in skyfest there was a drawing of what seems to be eden elder talking about a sacrifice. could it be that after everything, he sacrificed himself?

[dusk dove]

I only just now found the 2-year-old animation teaser

[ancient canopy]

There you go xD
Also find the PC release trailer too, it shows a short scene of what seems to be Part 2

[dusk dove]

Saw the steam release trailer, that's the one i was referring to earlier

[ancient canopy]

Oh wait it was 2 years ago? PC was released just last year

[dusk dove]

original animation trailer, 2 years ago. steam release trailer, one? year ago

[midnight sonnet]

I wonder how the mountain that became Eden used to look like before it became a glorified power generator

[ancient canopy]

Have you seen the Switch release trailers too? I think it shows the scenes from part 2

[ancient canopy]

Hopefully part 2 shows that

[midnight sonnet]

Like I wonder if it looked like a place that earned its name of Eden with beautiful plants and flowers and animals

[ancient canopy]

That would be fitting

[midnight sonnet]

Like hopefully we will see it in that form because it only adds to the lore

[dusk dove]

what if the light creatures were forced to migrate from eden?

[midnight sonnet]

Because it certainly doesn’t look like a place called Eden anymore so it probably was one of the most richest places in all of sky it was rich in light, plant life and life in general like it was a hub of all things alive and wonderful

Maybe it was the cradle of the ancestors ancient civilization prior to the kings existence like I’m talking way before the sky kingdom even existed and when the ancestors were just getting started

[ancient canopy]

Ahh I also look forward to part 2 very much,,, two embers is making me very excited lol

[midnight sonnet]

And maybe the king had a beautiful temple on the top that worked with the environment before he turned to corruption

[ancient canopy]

In some of older teasers, we did see Isle with the grass and trees so it's possible that eden was once lush and full of life

[ancient canopy]

Omg imagine the gold and white colours on these structures before the corruption

[midnight sonnet]

Maybe even the most lush because with a name like Eden it would’ve probably been beautiful

[ancient canopy]

And then, after corruption, GW and the precinct of the mountain was completely barren. Even the trailer shows that (minus some plants in certain scenes)

[midnight sonnet]

Yes and it was one of the only buildings because they didn’t wanna mess with the area

[midnight sonnet]

Like TGC that would be beautiful for storytelling

[half yacht]

the fact when we fly up after giving up our light and we find ourselves in a vary pretty place with jellyfishs and mantas and such back the idea up so much

[ancient canopy]

Can't wait to see the contrast between these 2 parts

[ancient canopy]

It feels like the jellies and mantas are reclaiming the area

[midnight sonnet]

That Eden used to be a place of wonder a place of lush life worthy of the name Eden to only become a barren corrupt waste with the only thing tying itself back to the past being it’s name; Eden

[eager burrow]

The Eden as we know it today was the epicenter of the when the massive diamond exploded, kicking off the downfall of the Ancestor civilization. It’s dark, dreary, hazardous to even stand around, and no longer beautiful (after conventional standards).
The Eden back in the day was undoubtedly deserving of such a name. Eden was (and still technically is) a place where Ancestors and light creatures (and us!) went at the end of their lives to reconnect with the Greater Light (Megabird, the Universe, whatever you’d like to call it). It was undoubtedly a highly sacred place to the Ancestor people. It makes sense their culture would coalesce around such a place— especially after the King decided to stay in the Golden Vally (then likely moved up to the top of the mountain with the addition of the Diamond).

[midnight sonnet]

They were probably forced to fly away from their natural habitats in the Eden of Old

[eager burrow]

Every time you go through Eden, you’re joining other light creatures on their journey out of life and back to where they came from. It’s quite beautiful, really.

[midnight sonnet]

But imagine being able to play in the Eden of old

[ancient canopy]

I really love how the two sides of the Eden was portrayed, one it was a sacred place, seems to be the pathway to enlightenment (the reconnection with the megabird feels like the Buddhist concept of enlightenment and reincarnation), and the other being the source of destruction and downfall of the civilisation.

Reminds me of the two sided nature of irl volcanoes. They provide nourishment to the life through the ashes (which is why farmers like to farm near mountains, and many cultures see them as sacred like the Fuji and the Merapi), at the same time they're destructive

[midnight sonnet]

Getting to explore the trees, rivers, lakes etc all that natural wonder

[half yacht]

i would loovvveee to be able to do thisss. isle would have more people

[midnight sonnet]

Isle was probably a sacred place too

[eager burrow]

Isle prolly doesn’t have that many people so as not to overwhelm new players too quickly.

Or did you mean in a past-tense sense? Bc we see that in the trailers, it was quite inhabited.

[midnight sonnet]

Having a glimpse in game of the realms in their prime would make me so happy

[half yacht]

yeah but it surely had alot of people living there in the past

[eager burrow]

Hence my second message: “Or did you mean in a past-tense sense? Bc we see that in the trailers, it was quite inhabited.”

[ancient canopy]

In the artbook, I saw that Eden was once a place of pilgrimage, where people would go to there to attain enlightenment and ascend

[midnight sonnet]

That + explosive biodiversity makes so much sense to me

[ancient canopy]

Sky has a ton of buddhist concepts so it all makes sense

The king, who's too attached to the worldly materialism and greedy, did not successfully attain enlightenment and the creatures were unable to do so and that's how corruption spread. I think the corruption was an epidemic there due to that

[midnight sonnet]

I would krill for there being just a singular lone flower in the sand dunes of Eden to represent hope or something

[eager burrow]

You’d have to get all the way to the sandy part first, and that’s a nightmare on your own. That red rock rain is just the worst.

[midnight sonnet]

Like no matter what Eden is still somewhat Sacred

[eager burrow]

It is, after a fashion. There’s just a massive Storm of Doom hovering over it and Causing Problems.

[midnight sonnet]

There is nothing you can do to fully corrupt Eden it’s still Eden

I just realized i need to go to bed but hopefully my ideas of eden are cool enough that you enjoyed the conversation

Also Eden is explosive in both its old sacred form and Diamond form

Just one was explosive biodiversity and the other is more literal explosion

[severe fjord]

Does anyone else want a mantee pet like in the trailer

[sour sphinx]

Oh, that's good info Part of me now hopes we'll revive Eden. Including the Crystal. But it's probably either doubtful or it'll take forever to do that

[narrow marsh]

The entire moral of the story is that you never can stop the Cycle of life and Light. The Ruler tried to take all of the Light and contain it all in one cramped place (the diamond) and it inevitably exploded. It is impossible to permanently halt Nature. 🕯️

[dusk dove]

YES YES YES YES YES YES

i would KRILL for a manatee companion or a plush or a honk

[severe fjord]

Sameeee hopefully with the two embers seasons!!

[dusk dove]

[sour sphinx]

Since I'm deciding for my Sky Kid to be a relative to the King, I've decided to have a creative detail to have a miniature diamond on her hair ties that'll indicate her being in the royal family besides the King 👑

[spiral vault]

A show based on the previous history of the Sky world: https://sky-children-of-the-light.fandom.com/wiki/Sky:_The_Two_Embers

The phrase "Two Embers" is related to the two most important characters in the Sky world. The first is the Ruler of Eden, also known as Resh, who never appears in-game but made dark decisions that destroyed the Sky world. The second is the Hopeful Steward, who helps to rebuild the world.

"* It tells the story of two children, and the drama about the two of them trying to help people. One of them seeks power to change the world, but in the process he’s corrupted and destroyed. The other one tries to save the world by convincing the former world to give up its power. The boy becomes a king.*"

This phrasing is still so weird to me. Both characters are technically "corrupted" in the lore, but the first kid feels more like the king.

I have to wonder if these will appear as props in the Two Embers season...

[peak tangle]

i have returned, also jesus yall have been doin work, 610 new messages since i left

[spiral vault]

I thought it as well, but it may just be a coincidence. They don't appear to have much regular spirits shown in the background, perhaps for timeline reasons.

There was this is really old discussion about it, it was inspired by a concept art,

#lore-discussion-spoilers message

Scroll down as well

[eager burrow]

That’s fascinating, but I’m sorry to remind you, OC stuff—even if it’s “lore-related”— is not for this channel.
I believe you can talk abt this in the general chat, but only actual lore hc/theories are allowed in this one. Thank you.

[spiral vault]

The size difference is a bit weird, Isle Elder would be taller than that imo and there's no big "Isle Elder" features

[peak tangle]

also im goin on another ship rant: WHY ARE THERE LIFEBOATS STILL ON THE SHIP?!? theyre gone when we reach the ship in sky! oh yeah also HOW DID THE SHIP NOT SINK FURTHER INTO THE SAND EITHER THEN OR BY THE TIME WE REACHED IT?!?

ok hopefully this is the last ship rant

[spiral vault]

We'll probably see some of these characters in the in-game season. Probably the old hugger, the person with the stick who knocked over the lamp, maybe the sick bandana spirit?

Here's a quick summary of the entire Sky lore.

1. There was a past civilization of Ancestor Spirits

2. The civilization slowly declined from the darkness

3. A massive event known as the Shattering destroyed everyone and turned them into spirits

4. Skykids are sent down to help restore the spirits

The current game, Sky:Children of the Light, takes place at 4. The Two Embers show will take place at 2.

Maybe, another theory of mine is that the Vault Elder is showing memories of the Sky kingdom as a whole, and how the world came to be.

And Stewie is the only one to do it because they're a skykid (?) just like the Ruler (?)

I'm still a bit confused by Jenova Chen's quote about "500 years before skykids walked", because Hopeful Steward in-game is very much like a skykid.

Maybe they turn into skykids? Idk

[spiral vault]

The battlefield and Wasteland temple area

(also sorry for the backread, I'm really really excited about this in a way I haven't been for Sky lore in a long time)

[spiral vault]

This is probably where the season area for the tie-in season will be set

[spiral vault]

That would be cool, but I feel like they're focusing so much on Wasteland for a reason. Like, in Stewie's perspective, the Golden Wasteland is basically the entire world, it's all they ever know

It gives so much life and detail to the one single realm.

[spiral vault]

I feel like navigation rules go out of the window when the ship goes in the air

[eager burrow]

Thank you!

[eager burrow]

Maybe they fell off bc earthquakes or creatures or a straggling band of desperate survivors came along and took them— the boat might not’ve been lost to the sands bc, I don’t know, sometimes nature likes to mess with us.
Point is, I don’t have concrete answer for this specific of a question, perhaps looking into irl instances may help guide you in finding the answers you need?

[untold ridge]

Guys i been wondering, y'know the masks we and the spirits ussually wear? Why do the sky people wear them? What is their significance? While some wear masks others dont

[eager burrow]

Wait, how was Hope corrupted? Are you referring to their calcification/dying before we came along to revive them? Or is there a finer lore detail I don’t remember? :0

[untold ridge]

I hope you did not have a stroke reading this

[peak tangle]

ok fair point, the nature likes to mess with us part, as the Peter Iredale which wrecked back in 1905 is still visible above the sand here in oregon

[peak tangle]

what do you mean “navigation rules”

[eager burrow]

It’s culture thing of some kind. Just kinda one of the way things are; perhaps ‘true faces’ are considered special, so generally, they cover up? Or, more terrifyingly perhaps, the masks grow with the individual.

[peak tangle]

i guess the crew took their sweet [honk] time getting off the ship via the lifeboats or something. maybe waiting for rescue before they finally gave up and abandoned ship?

[eager burrow]

It’s possible!

[untold ridge]

I mean considering you can remove masks and so and hell even some spirits you can make them change masks (the aunt in the new season) im not sure how it holds up

[peak tangle]

but then again, seems confusing looking back and forth between saluting captains memory in game and there being no sign of life on the ship in embers

wait, if they abandoned ship via the lifeboats before the ship started breaking up (applying some common [?] sense here), wouldnt the captain be floating in his memory?

[eager burrow]

I mean… we—and the ancestors, it seems— are creatures made of flexible stone. I posited the growth idea because it seems the child who would one day become King has little nubs on their mask like the precursors of the classic spikes we know the King has in the early teasers.
Also it’s the Cousin who we change masks with.
Also, we consider certain parts of our body ‘taboo’ or “special” irl—especially in different religions/cultures— hence why modesty and clothing exist, and we can still change our clothes all the time, so long as those bits are covered. I’m just proposing the idea that maybe the Ancestors’s culture has some different ideas of modesty.
In the whole game, we only have a few instances of true ‘maskless’ spirits, so it must not be that common.

[untold ridge]

Hmm, I see

[eager burrow]

No idea. Maybe some of them left, and some got left behind. :((

[spiral vault]

Yeah, that. The Ruler's corruption could be more metaphorical

[spiral vault]

Like ship design idk 😭

[peak tangle]

oh, nautical rules got it

[spiral vault]

Perhaps saluting captain died a long time before we see the shipwreck in Two Embers?

[eager burrow]

I always viewed that as a spiritual/moral corruption as opposed to a physical one. The King clearly thought they could control the Cycle/have more Power than they should have, and that clearly led to problems: the over-harvesting of resources, the pollution of the land, their people getting sick, and ultimately, the whole of the Kingdom getting blasted by a fantasy nuke.
Hope doesn’t seem to share those same traits of corruption— they’re actively trying to restore and heal and help; not unlike our own role in the game. Their calcification/death is more a long-term result of the Shattering, if anything, and not a moral/spiritual corruption, but simply a tragic, sad death.
So. I’ve always seen it as this:
The Dawn Ember started out good, grew up, became King, and slowly became corrupted by greed and power (maybe they even had good intentions to start with!).
The Dusk Ember, the one we call Hope/Hopeful Steward, tries to fix the damage the King has done, going so far as to try and convince the latter to relinquish their power, give up their greed.

[spiral vault]

That's a good interpretation, but the one weird caveat is the final line, where it simply says "the boy becomes a king" after all that. I don't know which boy it's referring to!

Jenova has always been a bit goofy marketing the Two Embers. In China, the Dusk Ember is a girl, but in English, the Dusk Ember is a boy turned gender neutral.

[eager burrow]

Huh, I didn’t know that.
Perhaps the line was meant to be earlier? Or perhaps it’s a hint to the ascension of a New King? I dunno; there’s not much to rule over in Sky anymore.

Hopefully (lol) we’ll get more answers as the Two Embers and the associated seasons come out.

[jade night]

the way I YELLED at the Two Embers trailer when i realized all my theories were right and especially on the design of dark infection and what caused it and the cure... Ahh, just too happy, it's been too long, lore chat

[wintry matrix]

Flexible stone… sky kids are made out of play dough then

[eager burrow]

I would’ve said clay but that’s pretty funny

[midnight sonnet]

Yeah I know I just wanna see it sometime

[grave laurel]

I always saw it as like, hardened wax, but flexible stone makes a bit more sense

[eager burrow]

Ooh, wax would make a lot of sense thematically (what with candles being a HUGE deal and whatnot)!
I just always assumed stone bc of the sculpted look we have, and the way our feet sound like they clack/cronch on different surfaces in a very hard way for being bare. Also we become full-blown stone statues in Eden upon losing all Light. And the sound is very VERY crackly/stone hardening.
I can really see the wax angle though!
There’s some really interesting sub-surface scattering going on when you look at the way the average Skykid glows. It feels VERY candle-like. And the skin doesn’t have quite the same texture as the obvious stone texture on the masks, it’s more smooth, feels softer. And it’s matte, not shiny— lots of smooth/polished stone would be shiny.

Makes me curious: If we are, indeed, made of stone, what kind is it?

[distant pebble]

whatever meteors can be made of

[eager burrow]

Oh, mm, fair. Walked into that one.

[normal ermine]

Were literally the superior generation.

We have our own light, we don't need food, water or even sleep (technically) to survive, we have no interest in power and are just kind, extremely durable, we can FLY.

And the ultimate ability is to be able to copy others.

Our skids are completely expressionless when they are first brought into this world (they have emotions, they just don't know how to express them), so to compensate for this, we relive other spirits memories to learn the expression and meaning behind it (thus learning how to react to things). But this also works with skills (back flip , cartwheel, LITERALLY TELEKINESIS ).

I would say that sky kids are op.

[distant pebble]

They can't quite die at least at this point in time so uh yes

[eager burrow]

Can’t die when the Great Phoenix (trying out a new name for MB) has things for us to do!

[distant pebble]

How many names do they need 💔

[eager burrow]

… ow dang i thought it was cool

[normal ermine]

We're not entirely durable though.

We can take damage by crabs, dark worms, simply drowning, red shards and krills. Although we can take multiple hits from krills before dying, unlike ancestors who would likely die on impact.

[distant pebble]

oh dw I was joking

[distant pebble]

we recover in a much easier and quicker way though

[wintry matrix]

We can stand inside a fire without any problem plus our core (heart) is litetally flame so I doubt it is wax

If concept of money even is a thing in sky kingdom, we dont seem to be paying for anything spirits give us (candles and hearts are game mechanic, im talking from lore PoV), the concept of wealth in sky could very much be “old timey” where you are richer the more things (and what things) you own and entire market works on trading rather than transaction

Just a random thought i had while i was listening to aurora and that song came out and i remembered you saying this

[wintry matrix]

Our body making bell sound when we run into something is mechanic to not make inexperienced fliers feel bad for bonking in everything around (source: one of interviews in pinned messages here), i wouldnt include that one to discussion and theorizing either

Unless of course anybody wants to discuss the “language” like honking and making chime sound while “saying” hi to someone and stuff (I dont think skids or ancestors even have vocal cords, the only entities we saw talking to us in words are Prince, Aurora and to some degree megabird in form of those words at the very start of the game when you first enter isle + narrators in 9CD, blue bird and moomin seasons)

[eager burrow]

Are we talking in-game or two embers, bc in one of the teasers for two embers we get pretty clear audio of ancestor children laughing.
You can’t audibly laugh like that (proper ‘hahaha!’) without vocal cords.
We can also hear the soldiers/warriors shouting in the official trailer (there’s also brief snatches of background city-noise, but it’s difficult to hear beneath the birds and music; the soldiers can be clearly heard).

[river veldt]

sorry for the morbid question, but...
do you think, if you go digging into the sands of GW, you can find corpses of the ancestors?

[eager burrow]

If we wanna get morbid you already interact with their calcified bodies when reliving memories. :))

To better answer your question, I’m not wholly sure. But honestly? Maybe we might!

[wintry matrix]

By vocal cords I mean human vocal cords. Parrots and ravens can mimic laugh too without actually having proper vocal cords for that

[wintry matrix]

If they died unnatural death then yes. If they went through eden then you can dig the ancestors by picking your own skin

Unless light creature or ancestor dies unaturally (by darkness for example) there are no remains left because all creatures go to die in eden to become one with the light again and enter reborn process

I guess being killed counts as unnatural death because you didnt make it to the eden

[eager burrow]

So you’re of the opinion Ancestors and Skykids are more likely to have something more akin to a syrinx (what birds use to call) and not a larynx? /gen

[wintry matrix]

Yes because they dont really have mouths either (atleast we dont know), they might have some separate organ that can make those sounds, maybe like frogs or maybe like beetles/cicada but it is able to create much bigger variety of sounds

They might for example use the gas created by the fire in their core to make sounds, though so far we didnt see ancestors having core (maybe cuz they are dead lol)

[eager burrow]

Huh. Interesting.
Do we think the cups provided in Aviary at the little outdoor café are empty, then? No mouth=no need to eat/drink?
Doesn’t explain why the tea sets you can get have liquid tea that diminishes as you use it tho.

Guess osmosis is our bestie.

[wintry matrix]

Tbh there can be anything in that cup, maybe even some “liquid light” or simmilar thing that we can just absorb into ourselves

There can be wax in that cup for example, the simmilar one you collect from candles

Maybe we will see ancestors eating and drinking in two embers

[winged bison]

in one of the short clips of the boat, verbal speech is heard in the background right at the beginning, but you cannot hear what is being said because so many people are talking in the background so it has distorted into a 'crowd noise'- thought I add that in there haha

[wintry matrix]

Or your brain thinks it is speech, it can be mix of random sounds that creates illusion of speech plus majority of ancestors wear masks, if they were talking, the voices we hear would be muffled

[narrow marsh]

I agree that this is more akin to the sounds skykids make when using Expressions, such as shushing, deep breath, etc 🕯️

[robust flare]

It could be that they don't have mouths because they want us to project our own feelings onto the masks we wear. And avoid uncanny valley
And since we are related to ancestors, they're the same way

[wintry matrix]

Some spirits do use those expressions with sound too though, easiest example to access is stewie doing simple lvl 1 wave or performance guide lvl 4 waving at you when you enter harmony hall

[narrow marsh]

It was less an observation about all humanoids and just specifically skykids. Spirits have a lot of functional flexibility because they are fluidly projected Light, and our only proofs for living Ancestors unfortunately is Two Embers. It's important to be wary of the ramifications that Spirits and their living counterparts may be fundamentally different from each other. 🕯️

[river veldt]

Yeah, I was thinking about all the soldiers that died in battlefield

[distant pebble]

Tbh it just seems like a stylistic choice
Aurora and prince don't have mouths either but something tells me at least Aurora should have one

[sour sphinx]

Oh oops 😬 I kinda didn't know that lore and theories are only allowed in here but gtk

[robust flare]

https://jungpage.org/learn/articles/technology-and-environment/681-the-star-in-man-jung-and-technology

[river veldt]

hello!
am i allowed to share news from Netease (chinese sky) about the two embers?
they watch the same animation as we do, but some info about the show that is shared with chinese players isn't shared with the global audience

[narrow marsh]

This is definitely the most important takeaway for me from the TTE sound design. It almost sounds like it's just emanating from their entire person, rather than from underneath the mask.

[narrow marsh]

I'm not sure, but I don't see why not

[river veldt]

what about sharing a video with my own voiceover, discussing said news?
i know this server is strict about privacy, so is that allowed?

[narrow marsh]

If the community devs really end up having a problem with you sharing paraphrases of what was said as is, the most they'll do is delete your messages and give you a gentle slap on the wrist. If you'd like to avoid that completely, I suppose you can approach a mod about it, but it may be a while before you get an answer. 🕯️

[wintry matrix]

granny vault is also bit smaller in the trailer though

like a lot smaller, she looks even smaller than some adult spirits in game

[peak tangle]

for some reason i confused myself reading this

[peak tangle]

the answer is yes

[wintry matrix]

i dont think that one will open buddy

it has no format suffix

[scenic pebble]

just open it with an image editor, it worked out for me

[river veldt]

to be fair, lamed has always been the shortest elder

models are from vault elder cutscene

[earnest briar]

The return of the chibi unit of measurement!!!

[wintry matrix]

how much is it in centimeters?

[river veldt]

2'6" = 76.2 cm
3'3" = 100 cm
5'0" = 150 cm
7'6" = 228.6 cm
10'0" = 304.8 cm

[celest violet]

Do we have any measurements for the Ruler?

[wintry matrix]

he has no ingame model so far so no

[celest violet]

Didn’t the Ruler have a model for Light Awaits tho? Like really early on in the og beta

[wintry matrix]

thing is it was beta, from my own observation, the elder models changed, including size (mostly visible on twins), in cutscenes they still use the old and less detailed models while on orbit it is completely different model, same could go for the king

twins are like one head taller in cutscene than on orbit for example

[celest violet]

I hope we’ll finally get the Ruler elder when TGC drops the Two Embers season

[versed blade]

interesting, skykids are only slightly shorter than normal humans then?

[grave laurel]

HELPPP

[eager burrow]

What’s the average skid/moth height?

[pastel brook]

A "moth" is a new player. They have brown wings, they flap around uncontrollably, and they are drawn to flame!

[wintry matrix]

each player starts with unique height

[eager burrow]

Oh, huh. Now THAT I did not know! Learnin somethin new every day!
Well, there goes my idea for measuring the avg skid against the avg human to get an irl estimate of size!

(The visual comparisons are super nice for my brain to parse, y’know?)

[glad brook]

whats this lore about the king spirit idk who it is and how they look like

[wintry matrix]

inhale pinned messages and search tab are your friend

[narrow marsh]

Wait... so it's slightly different for each moth?

[rain frost]

My friend researched it - apparently there are small medium and large moths, each with minute differences. We only looked into it because neither of us have ever used a height potion so we thought we'd be the same height, but I'm ever so slightly shorter

[wintry matrix]

wiki has category dedicated to that in spells section with chart as well

my alt has close to smallest natural (no potions) height while my main was around medium size iirc

[narrow marsh]

Wow!

[feral radish]

Was looking at the Aurora Concert and realised something during the golden wasteland scene. The starting scene in the two embers trailer takes place right in front of the Warrior Elder's temple.

[grave laurel]

selfie of resh in one of the shattering memories i took a while ago (ignore valley elder)
maybe they put resh there as a symbolic thing, but i like to imagine when it exploded he was shot upwards upside down like that one manhole cover incident

[elder meteor]

this breaks my heart, if you look at the child with the dark stone growing on their arm, they look almost exactly the same as the spirit in the second image

[torpid grail]

You mean the blurry one in the foreground of the second image?

[elder meteor]

yes :3

[earnest briar]

I wonder if Steward gave that candle to the little kid because he thought it’s Light would help them?

[elder meteor]

maybe they had healed the manatee with the light they had and thought it would also work on the little kid

[sour sphinx]

Dang so many more lores since the recent trailer came out 😅 I have a guess for Alef/Resh: maybe if his mom ends up dying from the corruption sickness, he decided to help people his own way with dark crystals but (my guess) the corruption sickness got worse and The King kept finding more "cures" for them but still never worked out. And part of that, war got involved too

[wintry matrix]

Tbh based on the background, the second scene seems to be happening in vault, maybe Lamed made them reminiscent of all the stuff they did (in order to record the memories maybe?), that expression necessary doesnt have to mean sadness, it might be reaction to what happened prior to that, it can even be mid blink or that in order to record the memory, one has to give up their life and thats what is happening here (with possibility of the purgatory room happening shortly after)

[elder meteor]

perhaps, the reason id connected it to death is because of the image being the representation on the website for grief

[wintry matrix]

We can see them healing little fish from darkness with the light as well, maybe the old guy (who could very much lived through era before Alef came) teach them the “old times” technique of using light, its like if you now went and started using herbs instead of meds or instead of electricity you started using petroleum lamps

[wintry matrix]

Maybe they succesfully healed the kid but then the kid got killed

[frosty fjord]

hi.. is there any lore related to the blue eggs in Hidden forest?

[wintry matrix]

old "observe eagle nest" daily from light awaits

[frosty fjord]

Uhh can i get a little more explanation..?

[wintry matrix]

Old daily quest from beta

[frosty fjord]

Ohhh! Like just observing it?
I could like that quest lol

[wintry matrix]

Yes jist like you admire the sapling or visit hot springs

The murals in little cave in forest docks were also daily iirc

[frosty fjord]

Thanks!!! I'd really love to see this quest coming back though

[frosty fjord]

Ohhhhh! That's so cool... I think they should replace the following a friend quest with this 🥲

[wintry matrix]

They wont because this is social game

You can always find someone to help you with friend related dailies in #looking-for-group-live or do certain ones (h5, hug, hold hand) with some spirits

[frosty fjord]

Haha i have some friends but its just that sometimes they are not available

[peak tangle]

oh neat!

[cobalt palm]

https://www.wohlmut.com/kevin/pictures/DClass/BuddhistSky.htm

This was just shared on the official Facebook, and I think it is a great writeup, while I think there are a lot of other influences of Buddhist culture on Sky, such as the bells being reminiscent of prayer wheels, the medatative feeling of candle running, and to an extent, the gardening of removing dark plants to let others grow, this is a great viewpoint on Eden being the place where we do not lose as we die, but we win by the amount of our generosity.
Hope you enjoy reading it.

[river veldt]

also, lamed is HUGE in orbit, even taller than tsadi
which makes no sense

[river veldt]

as skykids, they're the height of human children!

[wintry matrix]

Napoleon complex

Check for any high heels next time

[sour sphinx]

Do you think we'll get a Shard Eruption event in the Two Embers like how we get them every now and then in-game? If so, maybe it's because the Crystal can't physically handle the pressure from being used and turning red and Shard Eruptions came along.

[wintry matrix]

Well there sure will be one very big shard eruption alright

[cobalt palm]

I noticed that after being ascended, the Bereft Veteran's earlier stage in life during the memories are not ascended, only when they get to the age where they use a stick to walk do they become the golden ascended colour, so I wonder if the life stages each spirit goes through in their memories become different aspects which could be ascended.
Hopefully we will see more on that when the Gratitude spirits return for Radiance, or the Belonging spirits return after the Blue Bird.

[spring kelp]

Hey, so I found this guy in the end of the eye of Eden, and I have never seen this before. I was wondering if any of y'all knew.

Oh okay, thank y'all for telling me

[wintry matrix]

no problem! welcome here

[wintry matrix]

how so i never noticed the moomin book has front and back cover in different colors huh??

[wintry matrix]

also this part (and everything between this and you losing your last winged light) is called Orbit just some info for future when you will maybe need help with something eden/orbit related or something, to make it easier for other peeps here to understand exactly what map you mean

eden is everything prior to that in that realm

(this is not by any means meant to be scolding)

[spring kelp]

Oh, thank you so much! I had no idea
And I didn't take it as scolding, no worries 😊

[tacit hornet]

Someone said this is the eden elder symbol, like the one at eden door, but it doesn't look like this

[narrow marsh]

Still a bit stuck on cyan, i thought blue was hard but this is harder

Here was the thought process for developing Blue, again, as a refresher 🕯️

[earnest briar]

“Untethered” or “Freedom” comes to mind as possibilities.

[wintry matrix]

simmilar thing is high above the door in eden lobby, i wanted to document both eventually, just didnt have time yet, i was concrunching past two weeks and leving for a con tommorow

[narrow marsh]

That'll definitely help with the workshop!

The tricky, picky aspect of this is that just like with the Spectrums of Connection and Indifference and Love and Control, I want to emphasize motion across the Spectrums, rather than set alignment with any of the various poles/polarizations. Cyan still represents, somehow, constant transformation back into other colors, and I need to make sure I respect and reflect that. So while Freedom and Untether showcase certain aspects of Cyan, I'll need to find a way to incorporate those aspects alongside it's other's. We're getting there!

[midnight sonnet]

laughs eviliy in theology theory

[earnest briar]

Perhaps “unbound” would work better, then? It’s not bound to one state of being, it can go anywhere and become many things, just like how air/the atmosphere spans the entire planet and allows all life to exist.

[narrow marsh]

Oh that may be getting closer

[fringe chasm]

So like what’s the lore about us, the player? Like our player characters?

[wintry matrix]

pinned messages and search bar is your friend, this has been discussed here multiple times

[fringe chasm]

Oh I must not have seen it! My b

[eager burrow]

You’re alright! No harm in asking. ^v^

[narrow marsh]

To be frank and to be clear, the pins are not my friend
With so many jumbled concept arts and hour-long livestreams buried in the pins with a complete lack of chronology, I actually don't personally recommend pins to anyone less scrutinizing than someone who researches as profoundly as, say, Maelstrom or Luca. 📖
It's enough to give any newcomer a headache and a half 🕯️

[narrow marsh]

That's a great question!

Skykids seem to all come from, well, the Sky but we can also observe that they are given directions and goals when they first enter the Isle of Dawn. This voice refers to itself as "we" and "us", saying they came from above (the Sky) and fell into the kingdom.. kinda like how we do! But who is the "we", and why do we work for them?
If they are the people who lived in this kingdom before we arrived, then why are we forever children while they seemed to have a whole kingdom and didn't have our magical abilities?

We can't be 100% certain on the specifics, but we can look at the differences between skykids and other humanoid Beings we've seen! Since the vitality and abilities of any Being in Sky wholly revolves around their connection to the Light, we should use that as a central aspect that determines what makes characters different from one another.

Ancestor people (the normal civilians in the kingdom)

• prone to lasting 'Darkness sickness'
• unable to fly
• had weaker Connection to The Light
• was difficult for them to use Light spells and 'magic'
• trapped in memories by Darkness
• they weren't reborn as living Ancestors when they died

(Ancestor Spirits

• the immortal incarnations of the Ancestors
• rejoins The Light, and remains there in the Sky
• descends down from the Sky to visit and be with us!
• creates Spaces
• can share ethereal gifts of Light and culture with us

Elders

• supposedly some of the oldest Beings in the kingdom
• much stronger magic and abilities than Ancestors
  It's important to note that they may have been given these powers after first being normal Ancestors; we're not sure!
• could create Spaces
• their bodies reformed the same as when they were alive
• they remain with The Light after death

Descendants (skykids)

• can fly
• can easily collect Light
• can easily use Light in spells and magic
• can easily meditate and create their own small Spaces (other planes of reality 😵‍💫)
• can take many, many hits from Darkness and still heal themselves after
• reborn as themselves despite dying constantly
• strongest Connection with The Light

TGC has stated in interviews that they didn't want skychildren to feel too much like "angels", but in this story, they do take up that role pretty effectively; sent down by a giant magical thing up in the Sky to save the Spirits.

They are almost certainly a different 'thing' than the Ancestor people were.

Hope this helps! 🕯️

[wintry matrix]

oooh i was promoted to researcher

[narrow marsh]

We're all whatever we wanna be!

[wintry matrix]

anyways this is somehow so funny dying constantly every sunday

stewie must be used to our shenanigans at this point and maybe regretting showing us the way to eden

"Is it bird? Is it manta? No, its just my stupid best friend again..."

[ashen fractal]

Speaking of pinned concept art, wasn't there concept art that sky kids were "halfway" between light and dark? If I'm look at Tom Zhao's website right.

(And yeah looking through pins tasks time. I'm still getting through all of them )

[wintry matrix]

are you reffering to this?

also in concept arts there is this alef art and i love it so much

🤏

also

[narrow marsh]

I immediately recognized it as this too!

[wintry matrix]

both are from the same pic

[ashen fractal]

Tysm!!

[narrow marsh]

Omg the Connection Spectrum

[ashen fractal]

Yeah I've been looking at these a lot. I'm part for design elements and picking apart murals with art theory and also because I like to draw.

But themes of balance and how things go wrong when they are out of balance are pretty common in other tgc games.

[wintry matrix]

anyways, im going to bed (1 am here) and will be active again on monday, going to con tommorow but feel free to tag me if anything!

hopefully next week i will finally have time again to do some new photo studies

[ashen fractal]

I don't talk in here a lot but I do love the photo studies and love reading everyone's theories

[narrow marsh]

I have a bit more time now so I'll introduce you to a bizarre rabbithole I fell down a year ago.
Yes, our immediate assumption is that this graph is showcasing a linear spectrum from Light to Darkness. But if you look closely, you may begin to realize that that's not necessarily the case.

What's your thoughts on the Megabird being shown as outside either bubble? And why do you think Darkness itself isn't necessarily shown here on the graphic?

[ashen fractal]

I mean Light isn't depicted technically either. But also I feel like my answer in part is:

As concept art you usually highlight major concepts and not always in a literal way. It's a baseline, not how Light, Darkness, or the Megabird are in the story.

Thinking as someone who's done art and graphic design, something outside the circle may still fit in those circles but usually it's just an overarching concept I want, and not something I want to define.

... idk if this makes sense

[cobalt palm]

Ooh please share!

[narrow marsh]

Absolutely! So now it's just our goal as theorists to interpret how it all fits into what Themes 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

[sour sphinx]

Would the Mega Bird be mentioned in the Two Embers?? I've seen or read some theories that he or she was probably worshipped like some kind of God/Goddess

[eager burrow]

We theorize that, yes! Whether or not we see evidence of an organized religion in the show is more up in the air, but there’s always a chance! (Even if that chance is quite small!)
If we do, it’s more likely to be a background detail, if anything. Tapestries, murals, maybe a small gathering at a spot to worship (whatever that might’ve looked like to the Ancestor people), or even little altars or shrines scattered across the city and landscapes.

[ashen fractal]

Going off only murals I've seen in game I don't remember seeing the Megabird in any? Are there some? The world never seemed to have any kind of specific organized religion and I liked that vagueness. At most it seems more like animism which seemed more natural to me and fit the tone. But again, my bias and only what I have seen, I haven't gotten through every mural in game since I am both looking them up and then trying to take my own photos.

But also as someone who doesn't like to make theories with so little info tldr: not sure but I would be surprised if they showed up since the show was stated that it was supposed to focus on the journeys of the characters that represented the Two Embers. Entirely a guess there.

I guess this would depend on whether you consider certain belief systems religions or not. And what you would consider worship.

[versed blade]

i believe the in-game mural of the megabird is in the tunnel to the secret area

[eager burrow]

Yep! It’s the the only in-game depiction we have of Megabird so far (minus the massive thing we see in Orbit/the credits)!

[ashen fractal]

The one we see in orbit I doubt anyone but the Elders/Skykids (maybe Hopeful Steward) could have seen. So I'm not sure that would contribute to an in world religion unless everyone could see it at some point (that is entirely possible though).

Where is this image in game

[eager burrow]

There’s a secret area you can get to if you have a special cape (I unfortunately do not have it) or on special parts of the year (Days of Fortune and… I forget the other one)

It’s a giant, moving, swirling mural/work beneath the portal that takes you to the secret place. (Friend sent a picture of it in-game)

[ashen fractal]

Oh so it's in the ||office||

[eager burrow]

Just before it; it’s beneath the portal that takes you there, but yes :))

[ashen fractal]

Sometimes things like this feel a little too meta for me but I love the mural

[narrow marsh]

The Megabird is no longer depicted in Ancestor murals, unfortunately.
My theory, however, is that you see it directly, personally. 🕯️

[eager burrow]

I love that last image… the design philosophy of it is so beautiful

[narrow marsh]

Connection🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

[versed blade]

i like the theory that the megabird and the Light are the same

[ashen fractal]

I beleive it's real in game I guess what I mean to say is whether anyone in world 500 years ago formed a religion around it is another thing.
It could have been relatively unknown (aside from the Elders) or could have been just taken as "a thing that exists".

Like how we know Light exists irl.

[eager burrow]

!This is SPECULATION!
It’s not out of the question someone might’ve been able to ‘see beyond’ or perhaps had a NDE or something that revealed the Connections to Light to them and they might’ve gone on to say things abt it?
!Speculation OVER!

[ashen fractal]

I just meant my speculation is it wasn't a religion. I don't think my opinion is more valid nor do I think I'm right honestly. Just bias and a hunch

[narrow marsh]

Absolutely! Since there is virtually no canon representation of Megan acknowledgement in Live, the story has quite possibly changed to be that the Ancestors just saw Light as Nature and not as a conscious ethereal metaphysical biological macroorganism that is all telepathically linked to itself and congregates up in space in an artificial sun hovering just over the planet like a moon

If I were an Ancestor though, I'd absolutely be telling everyone and be called crazy

[narrow marsh]

...Non-disclosure eggreement?

Also you said the same thing I just did, but you were talking about the person while I positioned myself as them

[eager burrow]

PFF SORRY 😭
NDE stands for ‘near-death experience’
I didn’t know if it would be bonked by the bot, yk?

[narrow marsh]

There have been some cool alternate religious concepts we've explored over the past year, particularly regarding the Season of AURORA 🕯️
(Here's mine )
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[ashen fractal]

Oh I remember reading that! I do like how game mechanics can tell their own story sometimes. But also I guess my thought is that it was more animism based/natural process oriented beliefs rather than a belief in a specific entity. I am not sure if this is right but my understanding of the spirits (particularly the Aurora ones) was that they were already dead and as such may have some understanding now that they didn't previously. It also seemed like each of them was... chosen for their actions in life almost? idk the entire concert felt more like a lesson for the audience or moral retelling rather than some spirits summoning an idea of a god. Having watched it, it felt more like she was "summoned" by us more than those who came with her. And the spirits that came with her were there to impart a lesson.

The "summoned by us" works both through the real world and gameplay (something it seems that happens more with Sky than tgc's earlier games) and so it is both meant in universe and as an explanation for the Season itself irl.

I would almost put "The Light" above "The Megabird" in a sense but I don't think you can I guess quantify anything between Light, Dark, and Megabird really.

[spiral vault]

I also was overjoyed, but more about the presentation and music/atmosphere than the story. I think we've known the story for a long time actually

[sharp orchid]

Gosh, I am so hellishly late, but I finally got to read everything and realized how I heavily I overlooked the significance of the spirits. This is just... oh, it is something to be in awe of. Thank you greatly for sharing this with me. I really loved skimming through things. I'm helping a few friends of mine get through Sky, and they're so attentive to what the spirits are 'saying.' It's given me a second chance

[spiral vault]

I kinda wish we had more skills to lern, telekinesis is cool but it's not that useful, maybe we could learn new flying techniques and such

[sharp orchid]

Has there ever been a physical representation of the Megabird? It's the first time I see the name, so I'm curious

[spiral vault]

I think Hopeful Steward is a bit taller than a chibi (like, standard skykid size) so the size comparison is actually accurate in-game.

But then we know the old guy that Steward was hugging couldn't be the Isle Elder, way too short

[spiral vault]

It could also be the other way around, the ruler uses darkstones to advance the Sky kingdom but then it causes repercussions with their parents dying

[spiral vault]

Only in the final credits scene. Otherwise, it's just murals and design motifs

[narrow marsh]

That's a great argument for that line of interpretation! Functionally, and literally, AURORA was absolutely summoned by us!
The intentional feeling of Connection to who we are in real life is so crucial to what TGC's work is.

As for my view of how the Spirits of the season worked is in part due to the interesting visual of them creating the bubble found at the coliseum. 🕯️

[narrow marsh]

That's great! What have been your thoughts of late? 🕯️

[sharp orchid]

Honestly, I've just been so enamoured by the implications of what little things I noticed. I started paying more attention to the spirits I've been reliving with friends. How bleak Hidden Forest and Golden Wasteland are, especially the latter. How we as Children of the Light interact with our environment. Clearly, we are of great significance to the once fragile balance that existed long ago

I'm striving to understand more about this. How so many got trapped in Eden and how it seems we free or save them

[narrow marsh]

The meaning behind all Spirits of the Forest mean so much to me and are so underrated in my opinion.

Did you know that each realm represents a different stage of life? With Isle being birth and Eden being death. 🕯️

[sharp orchid]

Yes, actually! I made that discovery when I paid a visit to The Office. It was quite interesting, but it also sort of made sense? Maybe... by the loss of youth, one treasures memories and strives to preserve them more, as portrayed by Vault of Knowledge?

[spiral vault]

They also represent the cycle of civilization in a way, but that's less of an emotional theme and more of a worldbuilding fact. Each realm gets more "advanced" in a way

[sharp orchid]

Uh-huh! It was mainly Hidden Forest that ushered that age, right? At least, that's what my light reading lead me to conclude

[narrow marsh]

Oh absolutely, but I've never heard anyone word it that way!

Psychologically, a lot of defensive mechnisms come into play as a result of feeling regret or sorrow and anguish over the trials of adulthood. Many middle-aged adults end up feeling like they either never got to experience life as fully as they could, or that they did experience life in exciting ways, but that it was so brief they cling to those memories and hold onto them forever wishing they could only just have those feelings again.

Very cool 🕯️

[sour sphinx]

You know how the Vault Elder has that scar (or the damage of her mask) on the side of her face? Maybe it'll show how she got it. Right now, I'm guessing she got it from what we saw the last and final memory in Shattering. The Eden Crystal blowing up

[narrow marsh]

Hidden Forest was the turning point, as most Darkstone was found and mined in that realm 🕯️

[sharp orchid]

Ah! May be because I'm only recently ruminating over Sky's hidden treasures and symbolism. I used to make sense of things as I went, until I close the game

The Vault of Knowledge, I would say, reflects wisdom and experience amassed over time. But the passage of time leaves its own blemishes, too. Things lose strength. Fade faster. After all, nothing last forever, right? That seems to be a common theme in Sky. Impermanence and change

[narrow marsh]

For sure. One of the central hidden Themes I've come to notice about the story of the Ancestors is the desperation to hold on to things. To bottle life, and keep it forever. To make time; to make life stand still.
To isolate, to strand, to freeze, to keep everything as perfect as they could.

To Control. 🕯️

[sour sphinx]

This might be sad but I have a guess on what happened to the Elders after civilians died off: Isle Elder's mask had gotten damaged; Prairie Elder (which I'm guessing) has been exhausted; Forest Elder, I noticed she has rubbed her wrist (which I'm also guessing) her hands and wrists got hurt or something; Valley Elder Twins-- I'm not sure if they had any injuries but they're competitive and energetic towards us 😆; Wasteland Elder has probably gotten injured; Vault Elder got scared (visible on her mask); Eden Elder/King either he died or his injuries were worse than the Elders and is currently went into hiding (not sure where)

[ashen fractal]

Since original concept art did show sky kids "battling" a figure in the storm I think the idea of putting the Eden Elder in game was scrapped altogether and so my guess is they'll never show up more than they already may have.

Whether they are dead, fused with the crystal, shattered into peices that made the sky kids, shattered in general, returned to the stars or the last figure we hug before we're reborn, all of those serve the same purpose. I doubt they are hiding given the themes of Sky... unless they wanted to bring back the Eden Elder which feels... off to me? Just feels like that would be wrong. If a core theme is death and rebirth having the character be able to hide from that breaks the theme I feel like.

[distant pebble]

Mekh has a (probably) mekhanical hand
and Sag has a scratch oh their mask

[river veldt]

The grandpa has a short beard instead of long beard, and has a lot more hair!

He also knocked over a mini Resh statue in another scene, which is cool!

He seems to be very protective of stewie (given that she’s an orphan) and he also strongly opposes Resh.

I like to think he’s stewie’s grandparent figure.

[halcyon wren]

Forest Elder is the one character I NEED to know more about, they seem so pivotal in the rise and fall of Darkstone tech. More than anything, I want a memoir of their story and how they felt seeing the progression of their invention and its effect on their people I doubt TTE will cover their story in depth, but I'm hopeful that more spin-offs may be made for each of the Elders

[narrow marsh]

The Forest Elder's page in the art book is awesome, but we'll all get to see the same art and text narration during the next Skyfest! 🕯️

[rose quiver]

yall idk where to put this but the krill attack in the two embers trailer is diabolical

[valid dagger]

I thought so too. The way the krill didn't have the blue light to appear first, but straight up red light and insanely fast charging at warrior is extremely dreadful

[eager burrow]

I— I didnt even realize it wasnt even blue to begin with

[valid dagger]

In the earlier version of trailer, the krill does have the blue light, but in the latest trailer, they straight up locked into their target

[eager burrow]

Ah, got it (they edited the trailer? Or did you mean in a different/earlier trailer, and I misread that?)

[valid dagger]

I mean it was in earlier version of trailer, but maybe tgc somehow improved some aspect of the current trailer. I remember in earlier version trailer, the warrior doesn't have a darkstone embedded on their spears. But now they have. The same could be said on the krills

[eager burrow]

Oh, curious.

[muted salmon]

anyone noticed they have darkstone in the spears? I wonder why

[cobalt palm]

Grandpa yeets-a-lot wants to take a closer look at that

[rose quiver]

that krill said 5 seconds who

ok these are 4 secs apart haha

[distant pebble]

i love that we can kinda see stuff that's supposed to be their mouths

[grave laurel]

Plot twist, this is actually resh, defeated by an old man

[cobalt palm]

No wonder Resh had to build the towers so much bigger after this incident

[atomic sapphire]

Average Gramps lore

[sour sphinx]

If I had to guess the Krills are pretty powerful when taking our light away. But in Two Embers, I feel like they're a bit OP

[narrow marsh]

Something crucial to add here that I noticed when finally watching the trailer myself, is that it doesn't actually have 'teeth' and it definitely doesn't have a lower jaw; all of the spiky things below it's head seemed to act likea real shrimp or sea creature's mouth from real life, with all the weird creepy little appendages waving around that are used to pull food in.

[valid dagger]

I noticed that. I assumed that's because the spears belonged to king's warrior. Because the darkstone is highly related to the king as its creator.

Also, if you noticed at the battlefield of wasteland, there's two kind of shield that warriors used at battle. One is sun-shaped, and the other is diamond-shaped. Both of diamond-shaped shield and the darkstone spears was used by king's warriors.

[eager burrow]

GRAMPA YEETS-A-LOT IM WHEEZING—

[scenic pebble]

it... it finally clicked
damn, that's like, hella sad now that i think about it

[midnight sonnet]

I myself is working on a thesis on the theology in the game

[narrow marsh]

Yeah! Anything new to share? 🕯️

[midnight sonnet]

Not exactly but the basis of the theology is the sacred nature of birds in the sky kingdom

The Megabird I believe may have been interpreted as the sun by some people and a phoenix like figure

[sour sphinx]

I was curiously recently thinking about this: Is the Two Embers also going to show Alef's (Dawn Child?) side of the story here in there while also telling Hopeful Stewart's (Dusk Child?) story?

[halcyon wren]

The keynote speech from last years SkyFest made it sound like we'd be getting two stories, one for the Dusk ember and one for the Dawn ember, they may or may not exist in the same time period

[sour sphinx]

I was starting to wonder about them maybe being either in the same time period or in different ones. If the time periods are different (as far as I know is what most people are saying) Alef (Dawn Child?) is King Resh and is a grown up in Hopeful Stewart (Dusk Child?) time line

[grave laurel]

I think it will be stewies story first, then Alef’s/resh’s

[spiral vault]

My theory is that they're causing a distraction to allow for Hopeful Steward to get to the temple

[sour sphinx]

Ooh, I like that theory 😃 That way she'll get to the Elder (Not sure why I say Stewart is a she because to me she looks like a young girl in the show and I've heard her voice and it sounds like a girl's voice

[spiral vault]

Where have you heard the voice?

I've seen people view Stewie as both a boy and a girl. I refer to Stewie as a they because that's what the game and show seem to use

[distant pebble]

it doesn't matter no spirit has canon gender because it's up to you
If that's what bothers you

[spiral vault]

You're absolutely right, but it's still a bit confusing, especially because TGC itself has been a bit vague and inconsistent regarding this

[earnest briar]

their pronouns are yes/no/maybe/so

[sour sphinx]

I know there's no specific gender in the spirits. I like to take a guess to see which gender they have.

[spiral vault]

Even with Hopeful Steward, it changes depending on the time and place: #lore-discussion-spoilers message

[ashen fractal]

In some languages even names are strictly gendered and there are no "gender neutral" names or pronouns. Which might be the source of some of why tgc used the term boy.
I do think it would be nice to have a peice of fiction that is widely consumed but does have majority agender cast. And with the way the characters look it's easy to have them be ambiguous. People read different people as different genders from what they are all the time. I always thought the point with the characters in Sky was it doesn't truly matter and it's secondary to the journey everyone undertakes anyway. I so hope tgc use they in the English translation.

[wintry matrix]

Two embers page refers to them as boy. But I heard other languages call them girl

[mossy girder]

Is the Skybeta test application form closed now?

[grave laurel]

Resh’s are was/were

[sour sphinx]

Really 😯 I call her a "she" for some reason in Two Embers

[wintry matrix]

Whats the reason

[scenic pebble]

aight
this was meant to be a part of my triangle monography but i'm gonna also drop it here
while most portals in game have the pot shape some have a memory lantern shape
the fun part is that they don't appear only in The Vault which may imply the tower scholars to have worked outside every now and then
although i wonder how many of these times was just me seeing things
so remember
behind your back, the Vaultoids conspire in plain sight

[wintry matrix]

its actually candle shape

[spiral vault]

I kinda want to check Hopeful Steward's name in all languages to see what the gender is

[narrow marsh]

Those accursed Vaultoids!

[distant pebble]

Vaultoloid

[narrow marsh]

In the netease presentations, the Embers were referred to as "the boy and the girl".

The direct dev quote states that the lack of gender of characters is meant to create Space for you to interpret characters however you personally wanted!
But in terms of studying how the devs see each character, there's naturally quite a lot to explore. Even within and amonst the developers in both the netease and america crews, different opinions may still arise! I'm sure some devs see Stewie as a boy, some as a girl, some as an enby icon like I've seen them but in the end this is just the power and beauty of ambiguity allowing diverse interpretation to occur.

As we continue discourse on gender for Lore, we all have to remember that the ambiguity is a tool, not an obstacle. 🕯️

[earnest briar]

Some pictures I took during Days of Nature, but forgot to share here before now. The lily pads and the river Dark Plants share some peculiar similarities. Perhaps this could point towards more evidence for my Dark Plant phytoremediation theory?

I forgot to get pictures of the underside of the river Dark Plants, but I recall that when you pull them out of the riverbed, they have short stems with small spheres at the end.

https://www.lakerestoration.com/aquatic_plant_id/waterlily/?srsltid=AfmBOoovg6yvWLUI1DPGqk6cYgnVz2Lc1CernQoOtKgZgGKfykVGLbve In the real world, water lilies/lily pads have “thick stems and extremely long root systems that make cutting or hand pulling nearly impossible.” Their leaves also do not always grow on the water’s surface, and can grow while remaining underwater if they receive enough sunlight. So if the river Dark Plants are water lilies that have absorbed darkness from the shards that fell, growing underwater instead of sprouting all the way to the water’s surface could still be feasible for the plants.

[earnest briar]

As for why the Dark Plants have such short stems and can easily be pulled loose by Sky Kids, despite the aforementioned detail about water lilies being incredibly difficult to remove by hand, I do have a hypothesis about that. And it has to do with a fancy little scientific term called “abscission.”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11740850/

[earnest briar]

Abscission is the process of parts of a plant being separated and shed from the main body. It can occur naturally with the changing of the seasons (trees shedding their leaves in autumn, as an example), but it can also be done as a stress response in order to protect the main body. Pest infestation? Not enough nutrients, water, etc. to support the entire plant? Abscission will occur.
After the plants have absorbed enough darkness, lily leaves that the darkness becomes concentrated within can be disconnected/detached/weakened enough that it can be separated from the rest of the plant. We help pull the Dark Plant leaves loose and burn them, and thanks to the root system of the plants being left unharmed, new leaves/pads will eventually sprout to replace the ones that were lost.

Have I been overthinking this too much, and making extreme leaps of logic and connections to try to justify my theory? Probably, yeah!
But I won’t deny that I have fun trying to piece together ideas of how Sky’s world might work by drawing from real world processes.

[narrow marsh]

Pulled loose? When does that happen

[earnest briar]

The Dark Plants that sprout around the shards that fell in the water during Days of Nature. (And technically still kinda can, if you happen to be in Prairie Peaks at the right time on a day where shards fall in Prairie.) You have to pull them loose from the riverbed, and they will then float to the surface and drift downstream.
During Nature they’re supposed to be stopped by the dams that the Moments Spirits set up, so that we can burn them, but the dams disappeared after Nature, so now they just sorta come to a halt just before the little waterfalls.

[feral radish]

If you have watched the two embers trailer, there is a scene where you see a tower scholar (the one wearing the tall scripture mask) working in some sort of light reinvigoration clinic? So they definitely seem to have work outside the vault as well!

Also has anyone got any thoughts on why the capital has so many walls, but no housing / buildings in between?

[nimble ingot]

It awfully seems more like a fortress. There are some towers that resemble that of the Valley of Triumph's upper class housing. And the turret towers certainly act as defence (or offense).

The very top piece that float above the summit could be the palace or castle itself.
Within, there could be servants, priests and other staff for the King.

[feral radish]

I was looking at some early concept art and noticed one of the intentions for each stage was to advance the level of technology. Isle of Dawn features very basic stone-work. Daylight Prairie features some new darkstone tech (those gold manta call towers?). Then we get to forest where the architecture is still basic but features a lot of tech in most of its structures. Then getting to the Valley and beyond and you see these tall overwhelming buildings! Found it odd that those areas featured little to no darkstone tech.

[nimble ingot]

I recall the concept art you are referring to.

I would love it if the devs would confirm whether this idea still persists in the game. Though given it is early concept art and the game's final design of these portals naturally differ. We sadly only have that concept art to speculate, not use as proof.

It does seem like the civilisation of the kingdoms have their different stages or specialisation.
Eden seems to be the most advanced and/or most royal/rich member of the kingdoms.

[feral radish]

Found this scene too. If you look closely you can see fires from the streets and smoke billowing upwards. Looks like there was some sort of attack, maybe from a civil war?

[nimble ingot]

could be amidst a battle with dark creatures (dark dragons), or possibly general fires.
General fires could be forges, or sources of warmth (it is very high up, so it can be cold).

[feral radish]

It's clear there was a sort of crisis before the shattering. We see in specific scenes the Isle of Dawn was covered in grasslands, instead of desert, I think this can also be seen in aurora's concert. So as the King continued to gather light, people fled from their settlements to the capital region. That is why there is a hastily put together slum camp at the bottom of the mountain, the residents are treated with care at clinics and are protected by the soldiers. We also see lots of broken arks outside the walls.

As you said, I think as the world was drained of magic, dark creatures started appearing in the areas where there was no light as all, such as the abyss, hence why the largest dark creature so far is found there and also why the krill appear out of the water.

I think at some point, the people found out the gathering of light is what led to the world's current crisis, so they rebelled and now we see fires in the upper district shown in the picture above. This led to the king coming under pressure which is also inferred in one of the poems from the season of shattering.

Bare at the precipice
Unseen fractures crumble in the chasm
The stars under fathomless weight <---
Reaching to light and to dark
Carrying memory of all that was held
In the final moment of shattering

Also believe the diamond was then put towards acting as a shield to defend against an imminent dark storm, as despite being at the top of a mountain range, the sky always appears like its about to rain, or just dark in general. Plus the scene where the king shatters the diamond and the scene where the red-hue storm floods the city are not close chronologically, an old teaser shows the city overloading with light, causing it to suddenly dim, then the storm comes in!

[wintry matrix]

princess Alef

by briefly looking at this chat during waiting for panels and stuff i will sure have a lot to read on my way home tommorow

[wintry matrix]

Please stop asking in unrelated channels. If you have questions, ask in #questions-and-help

[midnight sonnet]

Omg Girlboss Alef could be a possibility

That would change everything (I am obviously joking but girlboss Alef would be cool to be confirmed because their the most important character basically and if they were a girl that would be so mother)

[wintry matrix]

It would be so funny if Eden was destroyed only because Alef had his girl days (if you know what i mean, i dont want my message nuked)

The red

[midnight sonnet]

But girlboss ya know she’s just a girl

[nimble ingot]

Thinking about the biblical myth of Eden. A female bringing the destruction of the garden would be something.

[wintry matrix]

Lamed was busy healing citizens and forgot to give Alef heating pad and chocolate and thats why Eden was destroyed

[midnight sonnet]

Ooooooo that’d be interesting but It was technically both Adam and Eve who destroyed it so maybe Alef is both King and Queen

[wintry matrix]

Bigender icon

[midnight sonnet]

Ya know what yeah that makes me happy because that means she and he could rule as one equal force together

[wintry matrix]

Stewie the enby icon and Alef the bigender icon is actually so relatabale lol, one has neither and the second has both

now I remembered the All or Nothing thing on tumblr from back then

[midnight sonnet]

As a bicon in the gender sense

Like Stewie being Agender and Alef being Bigender makes perfect sense to me

From now on Alef is both She and He at least to me and he’s the queen and she’s the king

[wintry matrix]

Do you remember the hello kitty edits of 2010s? Now imagine Resh like that thats our girlboss king

[midnight sonnet]

Yeah he’s also our beautiful queen

[wintry matrix]

i should go to sleep, its half to two at morning and tommorow is last con day, i need to look fresh for cosplay lol

[midnight sonnet]

You go sleep, sleep for King Resh and Queen Alef (their the same person but yeah anyway)

[wintry matrix]

I will have the most amazing beauty sleep that only Alef can dream of

Alef as princess leia in that one star wars quote that i forgot how it goes in english “… you are our only hope(ful steward)”

[midnight sonnet]

Technically that’s possible because she could be any gender

Which is possible I think there’s just been a bias of sorts because Alef is the ruler of everything right so I think many just put the he personage on her because well we do live in a patriarchal society so many do assume that most high levels of authority are mostly male. But really Alef could be anything so I will assume that he’s both girl and boy King and Queen

[earnest briar]

Anyone can be a girlboss, regardless of gender identification or position of authority. Same as anyone can be a boydisaster. It’s all about The Vibes✨💅

[eager burrow]

Huh, I’ve never heard a version where the Eden was destroyed by Eve. I’ve always heard that her decision led to her and Adam getting cast out, yes, but the Garden was still there (hence the need for a cherubim to guard it). Interesting! /gen

[distant pebble]

mostly concepts describing them as king

[nimble ingot]

I meant that a women was the cause of the 'first sin'
Apologies if it seemed like I meant it as the destruction of the garden.

The people were cast out and the garden was sealed off. Just like the Sky Eden being sealed behind a gate that prevented mortals from re-entering paradise.

[lucid bridge]

That’s really cool. I like that theory. Absorbing it into my mind rn

[earnest briar]

Thank you! It’s this whole other thing that I’ve gone on tangents about in the past, but to sum it up, I believe that Dark Plants are nature’s way of cleaning up darkness pollution, rather than directly coming from Darkness itself.

[lucid bridge]

I think that’s a cool idea. It’s like carnivores on Earth. They aren’t evil, because they’re nature, and thus neutral. I believe the Darkness is neutral, too, and on Sky’s planet, dark creatures are just predators.

[sour sphinx]

Since light creatures become dark creatures such as the Krill, would the Elder Manta become King Krill when darkened?

I'm also curious: I wonder, like the Nine Colored Deer getting rid of dark energy and us helping her get rid of the Krills, would we do that without Nine Colored Deer in the future or not possible yet?

[distant pebble]

we can burn plants
we literally do that when reliving spirit memory
we do that to statues in the Eye

[midnight sonnet]

That’s true but there has been multiple women who’ve called themselves king in history

Resh could truly be either or both

[distant pebble]

Yeah, but considering how much power Resh supposedly had they could just name themself whatever imo

But both is a great and my personal favorite option

[midnight sonnet]

Yeah like they had incredible amounts of power why would she ever want to bother with being one presentation over the other like I don’t think he’d give a krill about that he’s the queen of all sky

And them being both is perfect

[distant pebble]

He picked King cuz sounds are shorter trust me

[midnight sonnet]

Yeah she probably did and King Resh sounds cool as hell but I think Princess is what he may have been called prior to that because it’s cuter

Their our bicon ya know

[wintry matrix]

I dont know if it was mentioned already as Im out of town and discord is bit awkward to read longer messages on phone but darkness plants also look like flytraps

[wintry matrix]

Or got tired by other people around saying “yaaaassss queeeen” everytime they see each other

[scenic pebble]

last time i checked you didn't have to be male to be a king
but that was over 600 years ago so something might've changed

[distant pebble]

we're not talking male we're talking Alef

[distant pebble]

and then they said you go king

[narrow marsh]

Something very important to keep in mind is that the character being discussed is not 'canonically' dubbed "the king".

The artbook talks about this character quite a lot, and they've formatted the text blocks of the artbook to functionally be borderline explaining canon. (Borderline, do not treat it as scripture without some caution)

As the book continues to discuss the character multiple times, two names are used repeatedly:

***"The Child"

"The Ruler"***

I personally quite like that, in both the artbook and in interviews, the devs have shifted almost completely away from saying "king" towards treating the canon name as being "The Ruler". This abides by their own thematic functionalities on lack of gender, and feels much more ominous and regal. Clearly they've been matching my studies on ontological semantics

Hope this helps everyone with this discussion! ❤️ 🕯️

[distant pebble]

📏

[wintry matrix]

More appropriate ruler for our bicon Alef

[feral radish]

I said in an earlier post the scene from one of the earlier teasers depicts the king overloading the crystal instead of directly shattering it. This along with the scenes of dark skies around the cities implies the diamond was used as a shield in the days before the incident. Then in their final act, the king overloaded the light in the diamond beyond safe boundaries, leading it to shatter and disperse light back across the realms, but also sacrificing the city to the storm in the process.

[narrow marsh]

We've been theorizing over "Overload" as the direct concept of how the diamond eventually Shattered! If Darkstone is meant to absorb Light as energy, then what happens if there is a limit of "too much"..?

[sour sphinx]

Maybe the Eye of Eden (the crystal) had too much and it became corrupted which ended the world five centuries ago?

[midnight sonnet]

It has been 20 or so generations since the kingdom of sky shattered

[feral radish]

I REALLY need to get that book!

[feral radish]

I am very interested in the actual purpose of the diamond itself. Even the capital looks hastily put together. Only an upper class settlement exists at the peak of the mountain, and slums made by incoming refugees at the bottom. What about the middle class? Why are there dozens of walls with nothing but rock and pipe in between. I think the King had a greater goal in mind.

[celest birch]

Darkstone is said to store light/energy for eventual use, thus the ♦️ was definitely meant to be some sort of "perpetuum mobile"-type storage that doesn´t just draw light in, but also souls as well to be turned into more energy if you ask me.

[river veldt]

why is eden not visible from isle?

[celest birch]

Temple is probably blocking access, together with clouds.

[river veldt]

is this a deliberate game design choice?

[feral radish]

I would assume so, the Isle of Dawn is more akin to a security checkpoint. Given how it used to be grassland, we can assume the golden wasteland was surrounded by sea, so only arks built and controlled by the kingdom is the only alternative access. Otherwise the only way to get into the kingdom on foot it by taking a boat across the clouds to the temple.

[narrow marsh]

Light substance and soul motes are functionally synonymous, as far as current theoretical studies of the Cycle of Light suggest. 🕯️

[feral radish]

You can see another slum area here, most likely people waiting to be granted access to the capital region. This is the Isle of Dawn pre light-drain.

[river veldt]

i don't think it's a slum, but a marketplace where people set up tents/stalls & can buy and sell goods

sort of like past GW

[feral radish]

Looking back on some other pics I am intrigued by this one in particular. It looks like this is post-shattering. The Warrior Elder's temple no longer has glowing blue darkstones, and the city has been ruined by the storm. And yet we see the floating castle intact and a blue hue most likely coming from the diamond. However, we see the diamond is red in the game, so did it become red sometime later after the initial incident?

[celest birch]

Can imagine this was moments before the Shattering; once the explosion itself happened, it turned red.

[river veldt]

come to think of it, isle and GW have parallels

• they're near the sea, so sandy beaches
• marketplace
• strong connections with the ruler: from their humble beginnings to their corruption (both meanings!) and downfall

[celest birch]

Since we can see the Ruler activating it, which then leads to the storm forming like this. Horrible still. 😰

[feral radish]

Does that mean the King sacrificed the lower city for something else? A ritual perhaps? You can see where the character stands the red hue of the dark creature storm has completely blanketed the elder's temple and the surrounding slums.

[midnight sonnet]

And proves to me that Eden must’ve been a lush paradise prior

[celest birch]

I wouldn´t be surprised if this was done in order to stop the war/rebellions from happening. 😰

[river veldt]

eden thrived at the expense of the war and irreversible ecological destruction of past wasteland

[feral radish]

Thank Shattered Tomte for this amazing photo, it essentially cements that the ruler sacrificed themselves in a final act to save the kingdom. So we can infer they intentionally shattered the diamond to create an explosion big enough to spread light across the kingdom.

[celest birch]

And since one of the Shattering poems uses black-hole synonyms, this also makes me think that once the ♦️ was activated, it acted like a great vacuum for light and potentially souls. 😰

Aka when it was activated, but before the Shattering explosion.

And yes, his sacrifice was either the key to the explosion or the aftermath.

Even if this passage also makes me think that those dark clouds are the void. 😰

[feral radish]

Here's a pic of the diamond activated, you can see the dozens of pipes filled with light emitting a stronger glow, almost like its going to explode. But the question is, which way is the light flowing? Yes light creatures are the main source of light, but we only see that for smaller darkstones. However, another picture from Shattered Tomte says that the ruler built the diamond on that specific mountain because it allowed them the ability to scrape light from the cycle of life itself. Sort of like a nexus point.

[celest birch]

Oh indeed and well, that remains to be seen in the animated series; all depends whenever the light is moving inwards or outwards. If it´s inwards, then yikes

While if it´s outwards, then I´m getting literal supernova-grade explosions in my mind, which are more horrific than any nuke we can ever imagine.

Which would kind of fit, since supernovae do happen when massive stars die and collapse on themselves so fast, they pretty much go into the greatest boom of all Universe ... and well, darkstones were known as "artificial stars".

[feral radish]

That is so oddly poetic. A super nova obliterates everything in close proximity, but releases nebulae across a greater distance, which would eventually form new stars. Kind of like the Sky Kids being the essence of the Ruler and making their way back to Eden to return the light they have.

[celest birch]

Oh yes ... and once all light goes into the skies, then the ♦️ turns this vile red color with the King literally being shattered himself and Elders destroyed.

Honestly, a supernova would definitely answer why has the Kingdom literally been obliterated as well as that one shard falling into Duets Concert Hall in Cellist memory.

Which also means that the ♦️we see today is a remnant of that supernova that at times still overloads itself with energy and thus unleashing shards all over the realms like a pulsar/neutron star, which are essentially undead stars.

[feral radish]

Diamond we see now is like you said, a black hole. It is absorbing all light left in the world. A leaking bucket that needs to be constantly filled with water.

[celest birch]

Yet we´re still able to ascend together with others and wl we´ve given to the Lost Ones, mind you, thus it isn´t a complete one. Thank all.

[narrow marsh]

Not a slum! Temporary shelters were a part of traditional Ancestor culture. 🕯️
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[feral radish]

Indeed. It just looks quite familiar to the settlement at the bottom of the capital in the new trailer, which does seem to be more like a poverty-stricken area. As they have masses of sick people approaching a clinic for help. This camp seems to be more like a temporary way-station where people pass through to get to the kingdom. Thank you for pointing that out though! I knew they had a migrant culture but didn't know their settlements looked like this!

[narrow marsh]

There is likely going to be a major timeskip between the first and second season, with the first season showing the end of the kingdom (called The Dusk Era) and the second season likely being about the beginning of the kingdom (The Dawn Era).
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[narrow marsh]

As you begin to explore more about the Soul Cycle and the great migrations, as well as what occurs between the traditions of the Fire/Dawn Era to the Ruler's regime, it all begins to click
Very cool stuff 🕯️

[sour sphinx]

I guess this is why we call the two main characters the Dawn Child and the Dusk Child. The Dawn Child would be Alef/Resh and in theory he becomes King and the Dusk Child (a popular guess is the kid being Hopeful Stewart) is during the King's reign (when Alef/Resh is a grown up) and the Kingdom (and other Realms) are starting to come to an end

[feral radish]

The one thing I don't get is. Is that doesn't the Ruler come from the same realm as the Elders, possibly even above? If that is so then how did they start out as a regular child like any other civilian. We also see the Dawn temple fully established and the child's mother is already suffering from darkstone crystallisation. I have doubts about whether the dawn child will actually become the King we know and love today.

Then again, this literally explains that the Elders and Ruler were once regular civilians. But that still doesn't answer why the mother has crystals on her arm which is a sign of losing light. And this was only seen after the King had established the light draining machine / darkstone tech.

[sour sphinx]

I'm guessing he did lose his mom and after becoming king, he wants to "help" people by taking or using energy from dark crystals

[wintry matrix]

Well we see the hovering castle still intact literally in game too-

Also hey im home finally!

[wintry matrix]

Hes just a quirky girlie

[wintry matrix]

Im gonna read everything tommorow but lmk if you need any photo documentation related to convo here over the weekend

[wintry matrix]

Friendly reminder that we also see Alef first on isle of dawn and Stewie in wasteland and those maps are called Dawn and Dusk

And one single ember can start a fire

[halcyon wren]

lolol I just woke up and back reading this convo sent me😂 "the red"

[sour sphinx]

Heck

[wintry matrix]

I dont know if it is censored or not 😭😭

[feral radish]

The 'intact' castle in question. /j But in all seriousness, I agree it is still largely together, to an extent. But don't forget that when we ascend we see all the towers collapsing. So it is actively crumbling but at a very slow rate.

[wintry matrix]

In compare to the rest it is pretty much intact

[feral radish]

This bit!

[wintry matrix]

yeah indoors are pretty much standing still

it starts to break only as you approach the broken off floating part of it

[spice musk]

Idk if i ever shared this here, so if I haven't, this is eye of eden from far up without the red fog!

[narrow marsh]

It's so strange how the diamond seems so close there! I almost have a hunch that from OOB glitches and attempts to reach it that I've seen before, the diamond stays a set distance away from you at all time.
Very cool though, thank you so much for sharing! 🕯️

[spice musk]

here's more pics of it!!

[cobalt palm]

I put this together after you posted about the similar shapes, to me they all appear to be converging to the shape of a candle

#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[cobalt palm]

That passage says "a child, along with civilian villagers"
The child doesn't necessarily need to have come from the same place as those villagers, and could theoretically still be the one who fell from the stars as we see in Ushering's memory in Dawn.

As far as others losing light, my early guess is that the pipes pulling light into Eden are all going to the diamond, and none of that light is able to ascend to "The Light" or get reborn back into the world again, so the darkness or void (possibly semantics on which) takes that lights place, and starts to form crystals on the creatures of light.
The latest trailer implies that it's not just spirits who are affected, but fish, manatees, and possibly other light creatures too, so it may be an additive effect, like how introducing small amounts of poison in a food chain can multiply as you go up that chain.
So the smaller creatures are less affected by it, but the larger creatures, including ancestors get it much worse.
It does also seem to be an allegory on consumption and waste, but sort of in reverse, rather than leaving waste, they are taking all the light, and darknesd creeps in from that void of light.

[cobalt palm]

Also early theory call on the episodes.
Part one
1 - establishing the world, maybe the elders, and the plight of the darkness affecting the ancestors, and general world. (call to action on the main character possibly Steward's part)
2 - Steward discovers what is happening with the pipes, and sneaks into vault / eden / light processing factory, culminating in getting caught by an unknown character (cliffhanger)
3 - that character turns out to be a vault scholar / the vault elder and find out they are also concerned about the darkness
Ruler starts the diamond, and the first krill appear
4 - the Steward with the help of Vault ancestors learns of the lights curative properties, and cycles of light.
Rebellion against the Ruler breaks out, many are krilled, but one manages to get through to the wasteland gate (aurora seed scene).
As they get to the Ruler, the Elders surround the diamond, as it shatters.
Ultimately making the Ruler look like a villain. (shattering memory scene)

Part two
1 - flashback to the ruler as a child, travelling from Dawn through the realms, learning about the power of lights.
2 - later, founding the Elders, establishing their power, expanding the realms, and starting on the Eden project
3 - start with the completion of the diamond, show how good civilisation became because of the Ruler, though darkness is beginning to creep in, to save the ancestors, the Ruler decides to selflessly sacrifice themselves, and cut to the final scene of part 1 showing they weren't the villain we thought they were in part one, and become a far more nuanced character
4 - before the shattering happens, Steward gathers a bunch of spirits (who we know as the guides) to found Aviary as a quiet sanctuary away from the Ruler.
As a last hope, they take one candle to the place where we fall, and become a husk as a shard breaks the Aviary tower, and causes rubble to fall in the doorway.
Steward just gets through, but before succumbing to the husk, leave the candle ready for us to find.

[feral radish]

Amazing work! Love how you can see the original pathway to the diamond lined with old statues and pillars.

[feral radish]

Love both of these conclusions!

[spiral vault]

I think so, probably because they wanted the main focal point to be the Isle Temple

[spiral vault]

This is a good prediction, but I have one big idea: the Steward's manatee won't make it. We don't see it in-game and in the Vault cutscenes, so they might die between episodes 3 and 4.

[cobalt palm]

They go off to prairie peaks with all the other doomed manatee friends

[spiral vault]

I also think Hopeful Steward goes to Eden first to try to convince the Ruler

[distant pebble]

i'd say it was 1 😋

[distant pebble]

yeah and their in-gamr time is literally dusk and dawn

[narrow marsh]

I think what they were mentioning and wondering about was how Alef's parent had darkness on them when Darkstone hadn't been industrialized yet. 🕯️

[brave geyser]

Is antler kid lore video playlist a good starting point for lore? I'm trying to catch my brother up to speed and need help explaining the lore, but he takes in YouTube videos better than words.

[narrow marsh]

Lore content is lore content! What matters is getting people engaged with Sky; the details of what's 'accurate' work themselves out with time and trial and much, much, much error.
But if you're asking for a 'rating', here's one.

At my first glance, Antler Kid's videos seem to be pretty old and therefore partially prone to not having updated information ready to them. It's also a lot of their own theorizing and workshopping their personal brainstorms, also due to that era, which aligns with the community-wide progress that I've read happened here in Lorechat during that time three years ago.

But, again, as I said! What matters the most is that we share more, enjoy things more, out of love and passion for this world and story, instead of critical scrutiny. Hope this helps! ❤️ 🕯️

[sour sphinx]

I find the Orbit amazing and beautiful whenever we fly through. As we go through the afterlife version of Eden, we would see Mantas, birds, Jellyfish. Including one Elder Manta and the Elder Jellyfishs (or is King/Queen Jellyfishs) because of the crown shape on their head. I'm guessing they are currently ascending or successfully ascending (at the end)

[wintry matrix]

so hmm is there some lore in days of color that should i document as the event progresses? i dont think so but better asking

bloom and nature kinda had some lore

[wintry matrix]

your manta friend you meet in prairie villages is also waiting for you at reborn gate

[scenic pebble]

it do be purely subjective but i can see some of the portal shapes to look more like candles
but i think some look like pots and mostly the ones in the Vault look like memory lanterns

[cobalt palm]

I thought a little more on that, and remembered someone saying that darkness was a natural part of the world, so it could be that this kind of dark crystal sickness was still affecting the ancestors before the industrialisation, but not as widespread.
The industrialisation just sped up that process, as more light was being taken that could be replenished in the world, and when the diamond was charged, it completely halted that flow, so rapidly increased the severity of darkness taking control.

[signal spire]

im wondering how much sky is influenced by judaism, but im not very sure? is there anything more than the elders names being hebrew internally?

the vast majority of influence i see reflected in sky is buddhist, mostly tibetan

[wintry matrix]

we have this #lore-discussion-spoilers message

[signal spire]

there does seem to be some influence from judaism as i look back.

Theres the theory that skykids are made out of clay (clinking sound), and some people have made comparisons with golems.

And of course the name “Eden”

[wintry matrix]

huh, i nerver noticed ark uses purple fire and not yellow one

[narrow marsh]

My theories have been developing it not as 'natural', but as inherent to being part of the emotional process of the Connection Spectrum.

Even in real life, mental states heavily affect your physical health, with modern science suggesting they directly correlate. This should only reflect more strongly in Sky, with all of our collaborative investigations on Light substance and it's tendencies to change colors and take different forms at a highly emotional rate... suggesting a transformation of Light itself.

Because of this, I really am starting to believe that the Darkness plague of the late Fire Era (early Dawn Era) will become a result of decreasing mental health, not only in pilgrim Ancestor tribes, but also in the ecosystem as well. Something would be happening that reduces the overall Connection to the Light in the Sky, and it would affect everyone and everything, resulting in a calcification of Light substance across the board. 🕯️

[wintry matrix]

is there any realm/map yall need to have documented sooner than rest?

[feral radish]

Yin and Yang, light cannot exist without the dark. In the Nintendo Trailer, we see dark crabs already present in a forest area, far outside the Kingdom, as at the end of the trailer, they arrive at the Isle of Dawn, which is still thriving and covered in grass meaning the dark crabs were present pre-darkstone.

[feral radish]

Wish they elaborated on these concepts more. How did these arks find colored light from distant lands? Are they different in that they have unique properties, etc. Also the cave of prophecies, which has murals telling us the 4 Elders, excluding granny and the dawn elder, all represent one of the four elements. And shows us how the Ruler overcame these trials which ultimately led to them beginning their ascension to the throne. No explanation about the significance of the elements. We need more!

[wintry matrix]

some say he is giving them the elements, some say he is taking them away and honestly both would work, especially when we know what Alef/Resh has become later

[spiral vault]

My interpretation is giving, we see the Elders use the elements for various purposes

[sour sphinx]

If he were taking them away, would we say the Prophecy Guide locked up the trials for keeping them safe until someone like us would use them wisely and use them for good reason?

[spiral vault]

It's possible that the Ruler gave the elements to the Elders in exchange for power or influence.

[spiral vault]

That would be kinda "skykid-like" of them to share the light, but it's distorted as the Ruler only uses it as a bargaining chip to further their own power

[sour sphinx]

We successfully went through the Elemental Trials. Does it mean anything once we complete them all?

[wintry matrix]

maybe we will see once two embers season drops, kinda like blue bird is "part 2" of season of belonging, two embers could be part 2 of multiple seasons related to it (shattering and prophecy mostly imo)

[sour sphinx]

It's probably going to be likely to see the Dawn Child do the Elemental Trials to test him worthy. Though, not sure which episode is from his perspective of the story.
In theories we've seen and read, he went through and survived all the Elemental Trials and we've done the same when no one else could in the past.

[spiral vault]

Not really, because we're already kinda the masters of the Sky world in a way

Or the easier answer is that the Prophecy can only be fulfilled once

[wintry matrix]

i still find curious we get to see the end before the beginning, they must be cooking something

im still somehow holding on that Lamed will send Stewie "down the memory lane" aka pseudo-past in form of Alef's memories to do something there to change his mind and we will see the entire dawn part through Stewie's eyes or something idk

just brainstorming because of that memory lantern scene from trailer and the fact that how exactly they work is still a mystery

[spiral vault]

It depends on how long the flashback is, they could go on for episodes or just contain it to a 10-minute summary

[wintry matrix]

they eventually meet in purgatory room and alef is in form of child and not his adult self so maybe it is memory or maybe thats his "inner child" (pun intended) after he (or propably both of them) died

[spiral vault]

We don't really see the Ruler's body, it could very well be still a child underneath

That would be an interesting surprise to the new viewers, this imposing ruler is actually a child who's covered themselves up

[wintry matrix]

or maybe kings corruption is so bad he cant control himself anymore and its basically trapped in his own body and wants to be saved from it and that purgatory scene happens inside him, i definitely saw this trope in some movie before

[wintry matrix]

we saw hand and that one was too big to belong to a kid

[earnest briar]

mech suit

[wintry matrix]

didnt look mechanic

the look and movements were way too soft to be mechanical

he also seems to be leaning on the fance with both hands and the hand movement is giving frustrated vibes so eitehr Lamed told him something awful or he is fighting himself from inside

also theres this weird "spike" on his back

[scenic pebble]

oh, so that's where all the cut funding to the army mech went

and one last thing
was Resh infected?
and if so, when?

[wintry matrix]

it could be just elbow but it is way too much in the center for it imo because you can see his other hand still leaning on the fence in the close up scene and that move does not create folded(?) arm but straightened

hard to see but his other hand is here

[eager burrow]

It could really just be an elbow.

The King gives very ‘tall, lanky’ vibes, so I’d expect limbs to have much weirder proportions than our usual skids and spirits.

As for the other hand being there, it looks like at first it is, and then there was some movement pulling it away, ie, hand on a hip or reaching into a pocket or some other nonsense we can’t see from that angle.

It’s that, or the King’s body is doing some really unpleasant breaking.

[wintry matrix]

im going frame by frame to check if it is visible in different scenes and this made me giggle

🧍
♦️

look at this chonker

also no, cant find any anomalities on kings body in other scenes

[scenic pebble]

how much of his body do we see?

[wintry matrix]

feminine guard

[violet night]

it might be his elbow with how his body is slightly twisted, so he would possibly be putting more weight on his left arm causing him to bend it more

[eager burrow]

Excellent observation, I hadn’t noticed the turning! That could absolutely produce a bend.

[wintry matrix]

just back side all the time basically + profile of his mask from the scene with lamed but if you look realllllyyyyy closely, you can see his real head under that mask here, it is little bit darker than that mask

also he looks barefoot, my guy, you will get sick like that spent all the money on kingdom and cant affor pair of shoes

[violet night]

gotta feel all those rocks that’ll one day fly at sky kids

[wintry matrix]

they say it is good for your soles

[violet night]

and your soul!

[wintry matrix]

it is so intense you will feel like flying when you touch it!

[violet night]

that’s got me thinking if how fun it would be to catch one of the rocks and fly with it

[wintry matrix]

oh god thats terrifying

[violet night]

i cant tell if those are just its little front legs bc it looks like it is unhinging its jaw

[wintry matrix]

trying to figure out what those two small islands on north are, they are way too close to the boat to be any of those four ones

[violet night]

my guess is just time and erosion and stuff since some of the ones around the boat are nothing more than a few rocks now

[wintry matrix]

im standing near the broken wall (where wl is)

[wintry matrix]

the boat also has big hole in the middle now yeah

[violet night]

just overall time based environmental decay maybe? or just added into the animation because it makes it feel ever so slightly less empty

[austere patrol]

Hi, I have been playing sky for a few months, but I still don't understand the lore. Could someone please explaint it to me? 🥺

[wintry matrix]

ummm

theres no wind barrier like usually is, dang it, i should have bring fire with me

[scenic pebble]

i won't lie
the idea that Resh was struggling with the darkstone sickness sounds fitting
a sick kingdom with a sick king
but Resh wasn't just a simple Ancestor
no, he was something else so it is only fitting that his symptoms would be.. different
and the Shard would finally have it's purpose, keeping Resh alive while he tries to find a cure or something else
or maybe the voices just saw all the pipes coming into Eden and started screaming about the Golden Throne
i doubt he would've just let himself die, too much was placed upon his for him to just leave it. he was too important or so he thought
i'm not so sure where i'm going with this whole tyrade, maybe just hoping that they won't make Resh into a stereotypical bad guy

[wintry matrix]

they are as confused as me lol

exploration time i guess

it is weirdly detailed for it to be just background

it has collision and thexture on all sides except back side, maybe next season shipwreck map expansion hmm?

[violet night]

that would be really cool and i hope we do get some sort of expansion

[wintry matrix]

and now my game froze on both devices huh

[earnest briar]

that definitely looks like a mouth and teeth and mandibles and I do NOT like it.

[sour sphinx]

A female guard?? Most of the time I see buff guys who show business It seems women can do the same

[dark mountain]

Is that a krill!?

[sour sphinx]

Yep 👍🏼👍🏼 They're starting to come around when the apocalypse is starting

[dark mountain]

terrifying

i need to see this trailer
was away from Sky for a few months, and I'm catching up on the lore chat XD

[sick nova]

Oh, to be not bogged down by hardware limitations.🥹

Who are they? Are they cannon? They look kinda cool.

[narrow marsh]

I believe those are from a chinese artist, and not real concept art. I've been confused by it too before; as it's been shared around as such for years.

[sour sphinx]

Since the recent trailer came out, I've been looking around the location of where the Vault Elder was with a group of people in Wasteland. What we see in today's Sky, the location from that recent trailer is the mini temple that's in the battlefield area. Just before going into Wasteland Elder's temple

[narrow marsh]

Here it is, if you still needed help! 🕯️
https://youtu.be/FWepS03YbFU?si=HAADMqpeh2hNqA9K

[wintry matrix]

Welcome back!

[narrow marsh]

Oh! Apologies for the shortened answer earlier, everyone, but here's the longer one: despite being a fan concept, it has a utility and intention of illustrating and showcasing some real designs from TGC during the earlier years in the creation of Sky!

One of the most important thing the fan artist expresses, is about the early-development concept of Motes.
Anyone who doesn't know about Motes can learn what they were through the message linked below:
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[wintry matrix]

Those are fanart yes but it is pretty much redraw of what you can find on Tom Zhao’s concept art site

We sent it at the same time

[sick nova]

Ah thank you. Thought what I’ve found on Pinterest were concept art. Would’ve been interesting lore wise if that was the case. Though I do think even the real Skykid concept art looks cool. Hope they get recycled into something else. Seriously doubt it though.

[wintry matrix]

the motes got recycled into warrior of love hairstyle and thats pretty much it

though im still sad they got rid of this map together with it, it looks gorg

always thought this is teth but its resh when you waste all the money on building supercharged crystal so now you have to flip the burgers darkstones

[grave laurel]

“I guess we doing motes now” ah image

[valid dagger]

The mini safety glove he wears had me laughing there. Like, he already use the hook cane, so why bother? I know he might be teaching teth, but teth is doing everything bare handed as a blacksmith. And we got resh here like "safety first" when he's the one that initiate the whole shattering event

[wintry matrix]

dont forget he is our bicon, he doesnt want to ruin his manicure and baby soft skin 💅 ✨

[scenic pebble]

this do be looking more like an experimental thingy so it would be more like he doesn't want anyone else to do it

[wintry matrix]

babys little chemist set 🥹

[distant pebble]

made me remember the basic volcano eruption thingy and yeah uh eden eruptions haha

[wintry matrix]

that was his school project

do you think he got A for that

they told him to simulate eruption but did not specify the size of it

[distant pebble]

I'd give her an A+

i don't think the grade was announced yet

[eager burrow]

If he showed his work and formatted it the way his teacher told him to, I’m sure he did!
(Picturing the posterboard presentation of the experiment, classic science fair style)

[earnest briar]

“Why I built an artificial sun, and how this will fix everything, including the economy”.
(It did not fix the economy.)

[wintry matrix]

i dont know why but after i read this my barin automatically went "Elders! Today! We gonna! Steal! The moonuntain of Eden!"

(they did indeed steal the mountain of eden away from the light creatures)

[distant pebble]

best channel on server

[earnest briar]

I’m now reminded of that semi-serious, semi-silly idea I proposed here once that the reason we don’t see a moon when going to space to reach Orbit is because the moon is Orbit. Or part of it at least.

[sick nova]

I remember that. Love that picture. Some of the concepts shown there I’m kinda bummed it didn’t make it in the game.😞

[clever crane]

Agreed

[earnest briar]

We’ve got careful observations of game environments and piecing together details within them to form theories about Ancestor culture (virtual archeology and anthropology), philosophical musings about the nature of the Sky world and concepts that govern it (special shoutout to @narrow marsh), studying the various organisms to understand the dynamics at play between each other and the larger world (biology and botany), and we’ve even got a healthy dose of silly jokes and japery. Lorechat is a channel with a balanced ecosystem!

[wintry matrix]

i love those silly headcanons honestly

when i was at con this weekend, i randomly opened lorechat and there were two huge pictures of shrimp and i started laughing so bad bacause it was so random lol

i still dont know what was the deal cuz i didnt have time to read all the messages but it was funny for sure

[earnest briar]

jumpscare

[scenic pebble]

sometimes i wonder how many lurkers lurk on here

[eager burrow]

A great many, I’m sure! I’m partial to just observing the conversation sometimes because I have nothing new or particularly interesting to contribute to it.

[earnest briar]

I appreciate you being here nonetheless, and leaving reactions on messages is still a way to interact and let people know you’re engaging with the discussion.

[nimble ingot]

Sometimes wonder how many folks from older seasons still check this channel as well.

[narrow marsh]

You're welcome

[narrow marsh]

The most beautiful thing about Sky Lore is that, despite it being on the internet and us having access to the ability to document and filter searches and whatnot, is that I find it to be quite the oral tradition!

New loremoths, on average, will hear about lore tidbits before they ever find these things on their own. @nimble ingot and I have had a very important conversation in the past regarding how modern loremoths have far greater advantages towards learning than those in the past, simply because there are so many who have become teachers in their own right. Everyone is so eager to share, and that excitement, passed down, given, kept and stored, is what makes the broader Lore community in and out of this channel so, so wonderful.

To listen, to observe, to silently regard, is a strength, not an insufficency. We need more people in this world who can listen. I am trying to be better at listening to people, instead of always having a say; always being the devil's advocate. Just because we listen to the world, and let others have room to speak, it doesn't mean we don't think. Everyone who hears about Lore is just as much a part of this Oral Tradition as anyone who speaks. To imagine the strands between the Constellations, the cosmic web tying every mind together to create what is Sky Lore; I can't help but feel so Connected. ❤️ 🕯️

[pastel brook]

A "moth" is a new player. They have brown wings, they flap around uncontrollably, and they are drawn to flame!

[sour sphinx]

I was re-livng a spirit in Isle of Dawn and thought about this kid while doing it. I probably know the answer to this but would this kid be Alef/Resh? And would he be the first child to fall from a star and be born from it?

[eager burrow]

Yep! That’s the current consensus, I believe! ^v^

[sour sphinx]

He wasn't the only one to be born from a fallen star. We were also

[narrow marsh]

The entire kingdom fell from the sky, according to the Isle introduction. 🕯️

[grave laurel]

i think so, the adult spirit matches the one we see with alef(?) in the trailers and aurora concert

also, speaking of falling skykids, both our trail when we are struck out of the sky, and Alef’s are blue. The stars that fall from the sky during aurora’s the seed are also blue. So, are those falling stars actually falling skykids, and the ones we give our light to in eden are skykids that fell and died due to the shattering?

[sour sphinx]

The fallen stars during The Seed in Concert were Sky Kids??? I didn't think about it I thought they were just regular Fallen Stars and destroying the military.
I know some of us were born 500 years later and know almost nothing about what had happened in the past. But we're currently learning now

[grave laurel]

i thought so too, but they have blue trails, which our skykid also has at the start of the game when we get struck out of the sky

[wintry matrix]

well it also fell INTO all corners of sky after it exploded-

[wintry matrix]

because aurora one is same memory, just different pov and yes those are stargazer and the other guy i forgot name of

[wintry matrix]

i did bit of deep dive into this not so long ago #lore-discussion-spoilers message

if you scroll up theres deep dive to other aurora songs too

[sour sphinx]

Someone said the Mega Bird sent us down to be born. Oh, here's a thought!! What if we were originally going to be born during Alef/Resh's time but weren't able to because of what happened and we're born during today's Sky instead?

[wintry matrix]

yes, the megabird being "mother" to all light creatures, including us, is mentioned in concept art (and also literally seen in game during ascend lol)

and no, we are not meant to be originally born back then, we are new generation that is suppsoed to repopulate the land

[narrow marsh]

Our terminologies may be getting confused with one another's

[wintry matrix]

well eden was pretty big part of the kingdom still-

plus have you seen the range of the sonic wave after nuclear explosion? i bet everything went flying

[narrow marsh]

What I was talking about was the origin if all Ancestors. The voice in the cave at the beginning of Isle says "they" fell [from the sky, with pictures of falling stars] and built a kingdom in the clouds. 🕯️

[wintry matrix]

i always saw the "kingdom in the sky" being eden but it does not make sense chronologically

unless resh is not who built it, only expanded it but we dont see eden in any of the memories even in angles where we should

there is no eden castle visible in concert version of runaway for example

[eager burrow]

I always interpreted “…a kingdom in the clouds.” to be, quite literally, the Kingdom of Sky. Yes, much is on the ground, but everything— with the exception of the Golden Valley— feels like it takes place at much higher elevations. Clouds and mists form more readily, and don’t generally go away.
(Oh, that’s odd,.. do we think the clouds not following regular weather patterns is a result of the Shattering, perhaps? Or maybe those clouds are just special?)
Anyway. The ‘kingdom in the clouds’ always felt like a very big arrow pointing to the Kingdom of Sky, saying, “YOU ARE HERE! :)”

[spiral vault]

Here's a really quick summary:

1.There was a past civilization of Ancestor Spirits,

2. The civilization slowly declined from the darkness,

3. A massive event known as the Shattering destroyed everyone and turned them into spirits,

4.Skykids are sent down to help restore the spirits

there are also lore videos that can help summarize it in a video form

[austere patrol]

😮 ty!

[spiral vault]

I imagine this could be on the "other side" of the Eden mountain

[spiral vault]

I don't think the aurora's seed blue thingies are skykids, they act more like magical weaponry to me

[gentle grove]

omg if you have any vids you’d recommend pls send them my way

also i’m not a lore analyzing person and this has probably been said but is this related to the series coming out or is it a bug

[distant pebble]

bug

[gentle grove]

woag how does that even happen, creepy ahh sky kid in my rebirth area

lowkey pretty tho

[distant pebble]

consideing the fact that they seem to just explode
and the fact that they land in a krill-filled field would be just cruel if these were alive

[distant pebble]

it does say first of "us" built it
I'm not sure who is us tho

[distant pebble]

but I'm always here for hardcore MB or any higher deity behavior

[obtuse tapir]

What im about to say here does not contribute to lore conversations
But can i just say
I LOVE sky's old concepts
Even though I'm happy with the current sky, its just so interesting to see how sky used to be and other features and scrapped content, its just so cool

[wintry matrix]

i like the old PNR, the live one we got is for sure better gameplay wise but the light awaits one has certain type of charm and vibe that im fond of, if that map was put in live servers (ofc without the storm part, just the map itself) either as the stretch you have to walk in purgatory room to the beam of light or on orbit to rebirth gate, i wouldnt mind

also light awaits aviary

[scenic pebble]

i'm not gonna lie
all the circular architecture and green cloudless pastures make it seem fit for a Sky sequel more than anything

[wintry matrix]

sequel called Land

[scenic pebble]

Adolescents Of The Land

[eager burrow]

Land: Teenagers of the Earth

[daring sorrel]

What makes water different?
On the starting points except the nest. The water there doesn't drain the player's light, but forest's rain or desert's ponds do.

[wintry matrix]

water is WASTEland is polluted

in forest it is polluted rain that drains your light, if you step in water while covered (cave or umbrella) or stop the rain by activating all the bridges in brook, it does not drain your light

anyway welcome on the server!

[eager burrow]

I believe there’s also a theory about the temperature of the water mattering as well; something about the colder the water, the more harmful to the Skykid it is? Bc in the Water Trial the water is absolutely frigid and puts you out immediately, as opposed to the Forest and GW water, which just slowly sucks away your light.

[wintry matrix]

unrelated but theres 4 mantas following you from forest temple as you enter fourth realm

[eager burrow]

Yeah! Isn’t it cute?

[wintry matrix]

everything manta is cute unless they kidnap me in prairie

[wintry matrix]

your daily dose of shard eruption shots

next time i will check where exactly it will land and take a shot from that spot as it falls directly on my head

floating thingalings bugged so might get a shot of those forgot to bribg camera again

[feral radish]

Is there any reason why the civilisation make it a norm to wear masks? We only see less than a dozen spirits without masks.

[feral radish]

Don't we descend back to Isle of Dawn / Aviary Village as the same blue lights though? I thought it was showing Sky Kids beginning to fall to land after the civilisation was destroyed. Albeit most of them landed in the Golden Wasteland which doesn't make sense~

[jovial nebula]

oooh i never thought about this actually makes sense that they removed the water in the valley ice rink then

[wintry matrix]

no, they removed it because it was there before season of abyss (so before diving mechanic) and when the season came, people were asking why they cant dive there too so tgc made it hollow

[wintry matrix]

there might be something about it in the art book > @narrow marsh (sorry for ping)

[wintry matrix]

the seed memory is set in the past 500 years ago! it is not us

[jovial nebula]

that may technically be true… but its still fun to think about

[wintry matrix]

it is true i saw one persons video about it from that time

[feral radish]

Doesn't the specific scene of the blue lights falling happen after the previous of the warriors fighting the light creatures? How are we sure there wasn't an implied time skip in those few seconds? Also haven't the Sky Kids been travelling to Eden for a long time. I don't think a few hundred years would matter considering their task.

[wintry matrix]

i went through the entire thing frame by frame here #lore-discussion-spoilers message the lights happen DURING the fight, not after

jenova chen said two embers and everything around it happened befoe sky kids even existed, 500 years ago https://x.com/JenovaChen/status/1924628221133521070

also poor stewie 500 years all alone

maybe thats why they always sit or stand facing the way where we spawn after logging (if aviary is set as starting point), they are waiting for us 😭

[eager burrow]

Honestly, there could be any reason! My opinion is that it’s not unlike us wearing clothes. It’s just a thing we wear. Could be perhaps it started as a religious or modesty thing in the earlier days, but, more modernly, it’s just a part of society and just a thing you can wear. That’s my interpretation, though.

[wintry matrix]

speaking of masks i wonder if they will change stewies mask to the black one from 2E, they are wearing it in revival promo art too

[earnest briar]

Although sometimes I forget to do this, when I pass by Steward when entering Aviary, I like to stop to give them a hug.

[wintry matrix]

i hug them everyday too

always when i stop in aviary for extra wax

[feral radish]

Most of the citizens wear the same mask, the orange-tinted one with a horizontal line through the middle of it. I always assumed the masks were worn to represent hierarchy, or show affiliation to a specific nations / group. So when the Kingdom was destroyed, Stewie changed their mask to show that they no longer belong to any specific group / gained freedom?

[wintry matrix]

im talking about two embers where everyone has the same mask, including stewie

[feral radish]

But what I want to know is where they got that fashionable scarf! 😍

[wintry matrix]

season of revival ultimate cape, you cant get it anymore

[feral radish]

Sorry, memory got mixed up. You mean this mask?

[wintry matrix]

yes

aw i thought you gonna spell chonker

[feral radish]

Point still stands though. The masks are definitely a representation of hierarchy.

[earnest briar]

Steward may technically be over 500 years old in lore, (if you count being petrified as being alive and experiencing the passage of time), but I’ve been playing for somewhere between 4 and 5 years now, so they’re more like a younger sibling or cousin to me.

[wintry matrix]

round boi

[wintry matrix]

i consider them best friend/soulmate of my skid two sides of the same coin

[feral radish]

Imagine if Eden was more intact at Global Release, and overtime the devs secretly degraded the castle structure between seasons.

[wintry matrix]

thats... kinda what they did between light awaits and cotl

[feral radish]

We desire a prop that let's us have a mandatory picnic with Stewie anywhere.

[feral radish]

I saw the images taken by a beta player. I think I need to take a better look though!

[wintry matrix]

just tell them there will be manatees and they will go no prop needed

[feral radish]

Manatee Plush / Fashionable Scarf with STAR Feature. Would be ~ $70.

[wintry matrix]

light awaits eden looked more like wasteland and pnr was long hall full of statues (that i adore and want to return at some point)

[feral radish]

Yes, is this the one you were thinking of?

[wintry matrix]

fashionable scarf and a plushie you say...

[feral radish]

This reminds me of a question I thought about during the Two Embers trailer. We see a scene of the city overrun with the red-hue darkness / storm. And yet the castle remains fully intact and the crystal is still glowing bright blue. So did the King sacrifice the lower city for something?

[wintry matrix]

nope! here is what i mean #lore-discussion-spoilers message

[feral radish]

Ah yes I had read through this a few days ago haha. This picture is the one that spawned this idea in my head! I like how the iconic arch structure is still on the ground and not floating into space. And over time the updates put it where it is today!

[wintry matrix]

this is the old pnr hall im talking about, i can see it being without storm around rebirth gate or in purgatory room after you hug the child and head to beam of light

ALIFamily on youtube has video where you can see it in game (it wont let me send the link here), it is second oldest video on their channel

[spiral vault]

Yeah, but I'm more looking at the exploding part. We gently fall down regularly

[spiral vault]

I have to wonder if this is another artists' error, maybe Hopeful Steward was originally gonna be maskelss, plus the height is different

[wintry matrix]

they reused the strong gust of wind without rocks from light awaits in the nightmare version of moomin quest

[spiral vault]

I think this wouldl be the child hug scene? With the reflective void area

[spiral vault]

My best guess is the red stuff is just there for artistic purposes, to look ominous.

This might be later in the series, after Hopeful Steward lost a lot

[wintry matrix]

i still think it is early version of this

[earnest briar]

that cape is so pretty…I want…

[wintry matrix]

the red hue is from fire! in different shot we can see the city burning

[spiral vault]

It could also be krill searchlights or something

It looks like it's coming from behind the Wasteland Temple

[wintry matrix]

nah, you can see smoke pillars coming out of the buidlings too

and if you play it in the trailer, the lights flicker as fire does, they dont move in krill way

you can see it 0:27 - 0:30 in the gamescom 2023 trailer

also this outfit better be 2E season cosmetic

[spiral vault]

I'm talking about here, the origin of the red hue seems to be from the bottom part

[wintry matrix]

oh that one, yeah but imo the area of it is way too big to be from krill (unless resh deployed leviathan)

[feral radish]

I am so curious about this mysterious attack that occured just before the shattering. I assume its a civil war?

[wintry matrix]

yes but we also dont know for sure

season of remembrance memories seem to take place from this time

• both versions of the seed, seed is like final moments before the fall methinks

[spiral vault]

We don't really know how far apart the Seed is from the Shattering

[wintry matrix]

but we already see krills in there so it is not that far

[spiral vault]

Strangely enough, we don't directly see a civil war between two factions of Ancestor Spirits in Two Embers

[eager burrow]

That looks like fire! 🔥 The coloring is a little different, but I think it’s safe to chalk the color-difference up to a direction/art thing. Trying to keep the scene on the cooler end of the color spectrum perhaps?
Anyway! Things in the sky, often clouds and smoke, are generally lit from beneath like that when stuff below it is on fire. When there’s a LOT of fire happening close to your location, the sky can also turn red! (Source: Research and Personal experience. I lived in California for a long time; the state’s on fire a lot haha)
The color change is due to all the particulates in the air (smoke and ash, mostly) scattering the light that’s passing through it. Kinda similar to what happens when the sun sets, but that’s caused by the sun’s different angle from our frame of reference from Earth.

[spiral vault]

From how it's framed, it kinda looks like the entrance to Vault is on fire

[feral radish]

You make a good point with the perception of the fire. But it just seems a bit too red, for me at least. 😅 If you look at the pictures above, the one TheLuca posted of the city has clear orange fires, burning under the same sky / lighting. The picture I posted further above is in the same environment, but the red hue is much deeper than the fires.