lore-discussion-spoilers

[devout wadi]

its also worth noting that orbit is in the middle of an?? ocean?? it seems

for comparison, a screenshot from eightbithd’s pre-live release beta playthrough

[scarlet wren]

not uncommon for majority of levels to have water surrounding them

[devout wadi]

nah i mean it just? seems similar to the beta beginning

being in the middle of an ocean kind of thing

[scarlet wren]

hmm

[devout wadi]

almost like “ending at the beginning” vibes

[scarlet wren]

OHhh

that is pretty neat

[devout wadi]

yeah! hahah

[hushed steeple]

when i did my eden yesterday, i suddenly felt really grateful to those statues you light that restore the light of your wings. And that made me wonder about it --

What if it's like a statue of a protective deity/spirit

i know some countries have those statues on the road that are like.. for protection. since i grew up in a christian household, the shape makes me think of the virgin mary

[proven sigil]

i kinda think of those statues as descendants that were unable to complete their mission

as in, since they probably didnt know what to do about the red diamond and the other fallen statues, the darkness corrupted them maybe

[scarlet wren]

that statue reminds me of one of Vault elder's concept drawings

[hushed steeple]

oh i mean the one that's also at home @proven sigil

i think people call it the home statue?

yea! @scarlet wren because it also reminds of the vault elder, the statue is now gives me like.. motherly vibes to me.

[scarlet wren]

yeah!!

[hushed steeple]

QwQ i kept thinking "thank you mother" as i went around lighting the statues in eden

[scarlet wren]

i guess personally i like to think of them as Vault Elder giving you their blessing of a safe journey in a way

AHHA

i love that

[hushed steeple]

yeaa!

[hushed steeple]

miss the vault mother? have your own mini-vault mother for the road

oooo yes pls

that image now makes me think of the home statue as maybe... like a secondary elder

[scarlet wren]

HJKFHJDFJK

[hushed steeple]

in the background protecting the kids

[scarlet wren]

i love that idea a lot

a little off topic but i was talking about that statue in the middle of an eden run just like
"that's right it's lore time" (while red rocks were pelting everyone

[hushed steeple]

😄 yes... you are the best teacher

hEY kIds enjoying the fieLD TRIP?!

TIME TO LEARN

[scarlet wren]

i can't believe i'm ms frizzle

[hushed steeple]

yes plis

[trim ice]

If i drew something from the concepts would i have to tag it as spoiler?

[hushed steeple]

huuhh good question

i'd say yes if it relates to eden...

[trim ice]

i wanna draw those funky fox looking dudes

[hushed steeple]

ooo cool i never saw these! mm if they're scrapped concepts, then i don't see why you need a spoiler tag

[trim ice]

yay

i wish they hadnt been scrapped

theyre so adorable

[hushed steeple]

yea! they're super cute!

[scarlet wren]

i love them so much

[trim ice]

heck yeah

this ones good too

[hushed steeple]

whoooaaa... so interesting! are these pinned somewhere or are you just googling??

[trim ice]

theyre pinned!

[hushed steeple]

nice nice nice

[trim ice]

in the character designs link i think

[hushed steeple]

got ittt thanks!

[trim ice]

np!

[hushed steeple]

oh wow i never checked the pins for lore... so much info

[trim ice]

yeah

[scarlet wren]

always check the pins

[hushed steeple]

nEveR

i like surPriSe

[maiden glen]

check the pins soop they hold knowledge

[hushed steeple]

you'll have to pIN me down to get me

[scarlet wren]

📌

[proven sigil]

ah the home statue @hushed steeple yea that looks so familiar

maybe its like a reminder?

that theyre with you?

[buoyant scroll]

-Initiating meditation with megabird-

[jovial nacelle]

What is a mega bird>

[wraith sky]

Count me in there cin

[cold steppe]

Is the megabird in the Eden orbit constellation?

[crimson grove]

You can search for megabird in:spoilers-lore-discussion to get started on the topic

There’s quite a lot to unpack

[little mesa]

Ok I have some questions about eden

[wraith sky]

Lol all I see is megamoth now

I have fifty million

[jovial nacelle]

What is mega bird-

[little mesa]

What is edens role in the lore

[crimson grove]

Discovering the megabird meaning is a personal journey

[wraith sky]

Not literally fifty million though my brain can’t do that much

[little mesa]

What even is the lore

[maiden glen]

We are working on it

[little mesa]

Why does the rain drain your energy but other water is just fine

[crimson grove]

The lore in sky is a bit complicated because it’s not very clear lol

There’s many theories (many, many...)

[cold steppe]

This is SO COOL

[little mesa]

Is it acid rain?

Because swimming in water doesn’t drain energy

[scarlet wren]

i've always thought of it as acid rain

[little mesa]

Ok

[scarlet wren]

forest is referred to as a factory somwhere in concept iirc

[crimson grove]

Same. The rain is clearly toxic since it drains our energy and other animals are impacted too. Jellyfishes only appear in forest when the rain stops

Maybe the rain comes from wasteland

[little mesa]

Perhaps

[jovial nacelle]

No, I think sky kids are just weak to cold water.

Same to wasteland

[little mesa]

What about the fact we can swin in the water

[crimson grove]

Water in forest isn’t damaging

Only the rain

[jovial nacelle]

I meant the rain-

[buoyant scroll]

Though, I’m pretty sure the waters in Valley are also cold, but it doesn’t deplete the energy.

[jovial nacelle]

I think, some waters are compatible and safe for sky kids.

While some others like in wasteland is filled with cold water.

or sewage.

[little mesa]

What are the lost stars, who are they?

[jovial nacelle]

The elders.

I think

[little mesa]

Hmm

[wraith sky]

I was in the valley and at times my energy depleted a bit

[jovial nacelle]

or the light kids you get.

[cold steppe]

The megabird picture way back in October is pretty cool

[jovial nacelle]

Are the lost stars.

WAIT

what-

Show me it

[cold steppe]

megabird in:spoilers-lore-discussion

[little mesa]

Augh

[jovial nacelle]

Pins?

[little mesa]

The lore seems daunting

[crimson grove]

We return the lost stars to the fallen, which are other players. Maybe winged light represents other players as well

[little mesa]

Maybe

[cold steppe]

I just copy-pasted what Mirian put up into the search bar

Then sorted by oldest

[crimson grove]

Yeah just copy that to the search bar to search for megabird in this channel!

The pins are very valuable tho so you can check them out as well

[jovial nacelle]

Are we aloud to say spoilers here-

allowed*

[buoyant scroll]

i wonder what part of the game does the pic appear bc i may have fogotten

[crimson grove]

Yes!

[cold steppe]

yes

[jovial nacelle]

Oh

I see

[cold steppe]

Eden

[crimson grove]

When related to lore anything is okay here

[cold steppe]

It's called spoilers-lore-discussion

[buoyant scroll]

ye i know! but i wonder when in eden agsbdhdbdb
i figured it was after the 3rd area when you die

[jovial nacelle]

Maybe the winged lights are the souls or the remaining light we give to in eden when we do the part of ascending.

and it scattered.

Similar to us ascending.

When we go to one of the worlds we see the winged light.

[little mesa]

Are there multiple endings to eden

[jovial nacelle]

So, it practically means we shed our light when ascending or dieing-

I think

[cold steppe]

not that I know of

[little mesa]

Ok

[jovial nacelle]

kO

[little mesa]

I just noticed

There are no voice chats here

[cold steppe]

That would be super hard to mod

[little mesa]

Fair enough

[jovial nacelle]

And we cant swear

[little mesa]

Swear

[jovial nacelle]

and mods will probably join the voice chat to catch bad guys

[crimson grove]

That isn’t the topic for this channel

[jovial nacelle]

and...

Sorry-

[little mesa]

Your right

[sly kestrel]

Someone said something earlier, I forgot who
But the stars we bring back home are the elders

[crimson grove]

I think winged light might be the fallen we save in eden, they return to the world like us after being reborn

Yeah but what about the other stars/winged light?

[little mesa]

And the fallen are only brought back by the winged light

[cold steppe]

Does anyone know where Hage Jiisama's album is?

[little mesa]

Huh?

[crimson grove]

We ascend the elders through Eden but giving ascended candles to all the other spirits first

[sly kestrel]

Oh I’m jus talking about the intro and the 6 fallen stars/elders
But if ur talking about star stars, idk about that

[cold steppe]

I'm combing through the records, but haven't found it yet

[sly kestrel]

We can only make theories

[crimson grove]

Yeah lots of theories

You might be able to find it looking for their messages in the search

[sly kestrel]

And his doc is in the pinned messages

It’s his summary of the live-streams

And what we got from it

[little mesa]

My theory is that the children of light are made out of darkness

[cold steppe]

I found the album

SUPER interesting

https://imgur.com/a/W6mXT4S Lots of info about the megabird from Hage Jiisama's album

[modest sequoia]

Definitely lore-ish
New talk by Jenova Chen
https://youtu.be/AL-StB8qmII

[sly kestrel]

I @cold steppe wow I never knew he made that....

[cold steppe]

Took me a while to find it. I think it's from October

Yep, October 21, 2019

[sly kestrel]

I never read it before

Wow

I actually learned some stuff

[proven sigil]

“Throughout the world there are these imprints this child of light, a character you are connected to and have a relationship with”

I read this and I'm wondering

since Eden is basically where you die, what if the winged lights you collect and try to return is basically a piece of the statue children in question

[sharp vortex]

I realize “Home” is not a lonely random island in the middle of the ocean

And btw

The sun in the kingdom is actually not a sun?

In Eden also shows the “sun” too

But the “sun” in prairie looks round, or is it because the light? Lol

Idk if this is related to lore or anything, sry

XD

[modest sequoia]

Its more thematic, less and less light as the outlook gets bleak...

Prarie daylight happy funtimes, Eden you gonna die-times

[sharp vortex]

Fair enough

[sly kestrel]

@sharp vortex that island ur looking at is the island where u first start the game

[sharp vortex]

The sun at Home is also round, so I have no idea

Oh really?

It was long ago, I can’t even remember how I first started the game xD

[modest sequoia]

You still start at home home, even from the beginning

[sharp vortex]

Ok I just go watch some “starting game” videos, and yeah, you started at Home tho

[proven sigil]

Kinda looks like an eclipse

[sharp vortex]

Ikr

[modest sequoia]

Ongoing eclipse until you reach the bad place

[delicate belfry]

that is such a cool detail

everything was peaceful until the krills/firenation attacked lmaoo

darn eclipses

[modest sequoia]

Fun sortof ticking clock, as it were

Counting down to the fireworks show

[sharp vortex]

It might be because of the light, but the eclipse in Wasteland does look bigger than the one in Eden

Haven’t tried to see if Vault has one so idk xD

[delicate belfry]

wait a sec... there’s no map instance where the sun is blocked by the moon and leaves a ring. that’d be a pretty cool sky for a special map

[sharp vortex]

Solar eclipse hmm, sounds fun

[modest sequoia]

NC Wyeth, The Giant 1923

One of Jenova's main inspirations for Sky

[north quiver]

:0

[delicate belfry]

aaah I love that painting. that’s so cool

I’m reading through that imgur album. wow I just realized the golden pots in wasteland’s ship are the same ones that are in the final room of forest/first room of wasteland

randomly: I find it really interesting and cool that gold isn’t really considered a coveted metal. it only shows up in practical things. like in prairie towers,or in small pairs as land marks, in the ceiling etc. but all the shrines/memorials are in stone. no elders wear gold.

[proven sigil]

What album

[delicate belfry]

this one https://imgur.com/a/W6mXT4S o/

[proven sigil]

And yeah, gold is practically useful

Nice

[north quiver]

Y’all mind if I

[wind bone]

@north quiver can you repost this in #sky-memes with a spoiler tag? This channel is for lore discussion

[north quiver]

Hhdhdh I’m on mobile,, I don’t think I can,,

[wind bone]

!picspoiler

[pastel brook]

To spoiler tag a picture, click the “Mark as spoiler” box when you upload it (desktop), or rename the file name to begin with “SPOILER_”. On iOS export image to the Files app > rename > share to Discord.

[humble barn]

was watching the video DrapTap showed us

I think I have never seen these megabird images before

and sky sealions!

[sly kestrel]

I never seen any of this before either

[humble barn]

There also are many other very beautiful concept art pics! If you have no time to watch the whole video the art was shown around here: https://youtu.be/AL-StB8qmII?t=3409 (but I think the map was shown before those art pics)

[sly kestrel]

I think I’ll watch that video

[crimson grove]

saves video to add to pinned messages later

[icy pewter]

oh the moosatees!

i love those guys...i'm not sure what they were called/if they had a name but ive been calling them moosatees (moose manatees) haha

[humble barn]

Ooo

also a tiny one flying with them looks like a baby manta we have seen in concept art

[inland dune]

One question, when we start the game, who’s the narrator?

I have a feeling it’s vault elder

Since it seems as if that would be her voice

AND she seems to be expecting us

Though I’m not sure

[humble barn]

There are some theories including Vault elder being the one.
Some people think it's Eden elder (the king).
And some other people, myself included, think the narrator is Megabird

My sister believes it's Isle elder

[inland dune]

Oh

Thanks @humble barn

[mystic moat]

Wrong channel

[safe thistle]

oh sorry!

I'll delete it

which channel then?

:/

[mystic moat]

Probably #beta-discussion

[safe thistle]

ah!

thank you

[jovial nacelle]

The narrator would either be the eden

Or...

A dead elder

Vault elder wouldn’t be possible since she is fallen and from a vault...

And also, would have a less connection to call since again she is faraway

It might be the megabird

Or the light itself

[maiden glen]

Ok so

I’d say it’s Edens elder or as many call them “the King” (Dont know if the two are related Jin the lore we’ve all brought up but 🤷‍♂️)
It calls the player “my child” and I’d gu e s. S?? That the idea of Eden being the kids home is an accepted theory- (it’s at least probable) so, reviving the player could very well be Edens final act, hence the “not around to save” part

[sly kestrel]

I don’t remember “my child”
I thought it was “wake up child”
But idk, I haven’t heard the intro in a while

[scarlet wren]

ye it was wake up child

[maiden glen]

jdj$mke oops-

point still kinda stands though?

[sharp vortex]

Uh it’s actually “wake up, my child”

[maiden glen]

Hwjeheoelw I checked pins Granny and Jay r right sorry guys. S

[sharp vortex]

Lol what?

[maiden glen]

HWIRHEIEEHOW ??

Is that from now or early on

[sharp vortex]

Idk

[maiden glen]

probably early on bc. E

[sharp vortex]

Oof maybe I should create new account to see, sry guys xD

[wary prism]

wonder why they changed it

[maiden glen]

Winder

Wonder*

F

[sly kestrel]

Do I see a.....MANDELA EFFECT

Nah jk
Ur right that was from an old version, the current version we have now is “wake up child”

[crimson grove]

The intro had many versions before the current one

[wind bone]

The prophecy mirian....

[open perch]

Lmao

[cold steppe]

~~so now I'm lowkey obsessed with the megabird... thanks @livid crypt ~~

This is the view from the top of the stairs. Really pretty picture of the head of what might be the mega bird. Notice the skykids seem to be flying toward it. Is this a reference to the trip to orbit itself, or the history of sky?

I took a few pictures in different places in orbit to see if more of the megabird could be seen. It seemed like the perspective couldn’t be changed no matter where I stood on the star path. Next time I might go into the water on either time and see what it looks like, though I did take one from off the bridge with no visible difference other than the colors changed slightly

I noticed that the bird seems to center itself above the door. Everything appears to be going into the door (stars, creatures of light, skykids, etc.) and there’s moving clouds that are going into the door. Could going through the door be us passing into the megabird, which will cause us to be reborn?

Last good picture I could get of the megabird before it goes all bright

Too bright to see anything above, but you can see the movement of the light going into the door

You can actually see more of the megabird the further you go from orbit. These pictures are from the credits before the candle scene. The megabird and sky also turns yellow when you’re the furthest from orbit in the credits, which is the same color the spirits turn when they are ascended. Is the color change of the spirits related to the megabird? What color should the spirits be?

Also, the fact that the megabird gets bigger the further you are from Eden supports the theory that you are going into the megabird. Though I’m not sure what the circle in/by the megabird is supposed to be.

Not the best video, but I noticed that as you ascend the stairs, what looks like a moon rises from above the door. Could this be the space in the megabird?

[cerulean remnant]

i just noticed in valley one of the towers is filled with light and cracking because of it

[delicate belfry]

the main platform in vault is also cracking I believe. Actually... they sure like putting diamonds on the bottom of floating structures. So the red diamond in eden could have been the main diamond that was making the whole ruined castle float? It’s interesting that it’s also what launches sky kids into space

[cold steppe]

I think the diamond in Eden is a power diamond

[delicate belfry]

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was posted before but I did an eden run today and I barely had time to take a photo of an elder stone circle within eden. rip that rock blocking the center memorial stone

and yeah! I feel dumb, I didn’t consider what that power diamond was doing there. I had assumed it was the center piece of the area... not the possible bottom of the castle

[modest sequoia]

Someone didn't want to go in the jar

[vivid parcel]

Oof

[elfin vessel]

@delicate belfry that’s the stone circle at the top of vault

[next arrow]

wat is megabird it just looks like swirls

[warped reef]

If i’m correct the megabird was a concept from old dev drawings, but it made it into the game as you see above. It’s from orbit during the credits and in certain areas of orbit before you’re reborn

But this is the lore channel so it’s more fun going far beyond the facts

[delicate belfry]

@elfin vessel ohh I see! Aw man if it was another elder that would have been such a cool mystery

[cold steppe]

There’s some support for an Eden elder

Somewhere in the pinned posts, I think, and also in Hage Jiisama’s album

[proven sigil]

Yeah, something about a king, and the prince, supposedly

I still think a prince saving you is cool

[autumn kite]

I still don't quite get what the megabird is supposed to be/represent, I probably missed something along the way

[scarlet wren]

i don’t think anyone is sure of what it is lol

i do have one idea but I’d like to gather more evidence some time

[hushed steeple]

@cold steppe Megabird, you mean... THE FENIX?

[eternal kindle]

what's the lore of the game

[cold steppe]

The megabird was very prominent in concept art, but isn’t really seen in game except for maybe in orbit

[lost hull]

Don’t phoenixes stand for rebirth?

[cold steppe]

Yes. But the concept art specifically referred to it as a megabird

[hushed steeple]

Looks more like a Fenix/Phoenix, whatever

[lost hull]

I like the word megabird. It sounds like the name of a ship or something

[hushed steeple]

Yeah but it's a Phoenix

[sly kestrel]

Doesn’t really resemble a bird
It supposed to represent a high entity or......tbh Idk how to explain it but don’t think of it too much as a physical bird

[cerulean remnant]

wait its an actual living thing?

[wary prism]

more like a cosmic being i think?

[cerulean remnant]

ohj

[drifting copper]

the megabird doesn’t really seem like a phoenix imo

[sly kestrel]

It would be cool if there was a pheonix in the game, but as for the megabird
They are 2 totally different things

[cold steppe]

Concept art

Megabird concept art found in Hage Jiima’s Imgur album

From the company’s Instagram. Not sure if that’s a megabird or some other bird

[scarlet wren]

^^^ that bird is the winter bird and i'm pretty sure is a separate thing from mega bird

[sly kestrel]

Would be cool if we could ride that bird
But anyways ^^^
It is a separate thing from the megabird

[cold steppe]

It’s so pretty

[proven sigil]

i wanna pet

[spring blaze]

goodbye, cute birds

[proven sigil]

nuuuuuuuuuu i liked them

i liked those birds

[spring blaze]

[cerulean remnant]

i noticed in the credits some of the passing stars seem to be sucking towards them always three lines of light, does this have any kind of importance?

[sudden sleet]

@cerulean remnant in the orbit meditation area, there are also lines of light like that that are actually birds (and mantas?) flying towards something on the horizon. I expect what you saw is supposed to be similar.

[tired axle]

Guys

Look at this

If this is true then that means the “Children of the light” things is fake

[scarlet wren]

i think this is a guide to making a mask irl my dude

[tired axle]

Then we are actually consuming the supposed stars which are the actual children of the light

Nah nah

Understand my point tho 😂

[wind bone]

Isn’t that how to make a mask irl

[sly kestrel]

I.....lost brain cells

[proven sigil]

lmao inb4 the skykids are all automata

[whole burrow]

I got a shot of this lil cute puppy 😄

Is this oreo?

[scarlet wren]

that would be him!

butttt I’m not sure if you meant to share the for lore discussion

[whole burrow]

Oh

I don’t know xD

[scarlet wren]

keep in mind this is the Lore discussion channel, if you have spoiler related questions they go in #questions-and-help with spoiler tags^^

Edit: Forgot about eden, those go in #eden-spoilers

[silent thunder]

#questions-and-help #lore-discussion-spoilers

Hi guys... not sure where to ask for tips/help but I'm stuck in the entrance eye of eden. It practically blew me away. How to survive?

[crimson grove]

Best place to talk about Eden is in #eden-spoilers ^^

[silent thunder]

@crimson grove noted. Thank youuu

[hushed steeple]

Guys, wanna know what i’ve learned in wasteland???

Wasteland is soooo freaking pretty

:~~~3

[hexed turret]

You sure it wasn’t someone who took some glowing mushrooms

[hushed steeple]

Lmaooo, oof i just saw a ray of sunshine, perhaps hope?

Then captured the moment

[hexed turret]

I would cook mushroom crab stew

[exotic shuttle]

in valley, where is the sound of cheering coming from?

like is it ghosts? or are the sky kids imagining it?

[steel trellis]

past spirits perhaps 👀?? cuz we know the kids are experiencing the past events thru them

[exotic shuttle]

maybe yeah

i can’t stop wondering about it whenever i do the race

[steel trellis]

now that i think abt it, maybe it’s like an echo?? u know how u hear sea in some shells cause there’re sound waves trapped inside? maybe it’s smth similar but with memories

[exotic shuttle]

ooo that’s such a cool idea

[cold steppe]

That would be so cool

[hushed steeple]

What if Wasteland Elder died to get Vault Elder into the Vault

[cold steppe]

Interesting

It definitely looks like he was either seriously wounded or very exhausted in the scene

[steel trellis]

@hushed steeple dont hurt me like that dONT HURT ME LIKE THAT-

[hushed steeple]

Wasteland: *be you see me running away from Krill? , like a weakling?

[steel trellis]

oh god sjsjsj

i love wasteland elder sm bruh you don’t even k n o w

[hushed steeple]

Lol, I adore em ;0;

(oop i thought this was the meme channel :’D)

[steel trellis]

they: * exist *
me: 💗💕💕💖💘💝💕💓💗💞💝💘🥺

[snow loom]

Also in the beta cutscene their statue was broken at the end of it

I’m still curious to what would be of them at the end of that

[steel trellis]

aww man poor wl elder

[devout wadi]

not really a lore thing, but i remembered i had a dream about someone with 15 wedges. 😭😭 scary

i’ll draw what their cape looked like when i met them in the dream

[proven sigil]

plz show it

[rotund cipher]

i think i can imagine what over 10 wedges looks like

like the old wedge designs in soft live

[maiden glen]

Ooooooh yea

So pretty

[rotund cipher]

just < > s to the outside of the marking!

imagine if it was like the wings in delta rune's logo though

i mean you get more "wings" after all

i think that'd be too much though

[snow loom]

I mostly think wasteland beta is neat because you never see anything like that in the main game

[crimson grove]

I mean the story and all cutscenes changed since then not only wasteland, it’s way different now

[snow loom]

Yeah I know, but I still think it’d be neat to know more

[crimson grove]

Like in the old isle cutscene the elder would be the one to give you your cape, and their mask would break again after

[snow loom]

Yeah the twins cutscene was wilding

[crimson grove]

Seems like they changed that concept in development so it doesn’t end in a sad way anymore

[snow loom]

I’ve seen them all

I suppose I just wanna know what happens if one would break like that

Like the original one leaves us with some implications but not really many answers

[crimson grove]

Not really any answers

[snow loom]

Just a few vague implications and theories

Even now his is cracked

[chilly jewel]

Wonder if there are other eggs in other maps

[elfin vessel]

That’s the only one that’s been found

It’s a literal easter egg

[chrome geyser]

I noticed something while going through Eden a few days ago

these two statues are the only ones that have crystals like this

for some slight proof,here’s some other statues that are right after those two

not exactly a piece of lore to be analyzed,but i thought it’d be pretty neat to show in here lmao

[proven sigil]

Those are kids who lost their light and became lost to the point of no return

Prolly affected by eden's darkness

[exotic shuttle]

i just noticed that when you get out your candle, the light in your chest disappears

so it really is kind of like your candle is your heart/soul/whatever

i know someone’s suggested this already because of the heart-halo around the candle, this is extra evidence

[proven sigil]

I... Never noticed

Hold on

oh yeah i see it now

The heart-fire thing

[exotic shuttle]

makes me wonder what’d happen if you dropped your candle

[proven sigil]

I mean, usually i just think that the candles magically appear

And disappear

[exotic shuttle]

yeah. probably best not to think about where we keep all our regular candles too, some people have hundreds

they’re just magic candles i guess

[hushed steeple]

What if our bodies were actually made of wax and when we give someone a candle we just wax-bend a piece of ourselves into a candle

[signal zinc]

anna oop- kinda had the same idea a bit xD

[proven sigil]

The candles exist in your own personal hammerspace

[snow loom]

Forest elder would like to know your location

[feral rover]

So have "Journey/Sky same universe" theories been done to death yet?

[proven sigil]

Yeah but lets hear it anyway

[elfin vessel]

@chrome geyser didn’t realise those blue things were statues

Thought they were like some dark plant thing

[proven sigil]

Ah, no

They were impaled

[delicate belfry]

oof. those poor kids

[proven sigil]

One of them disintegrates, yanno

[delicate belfry]

awww. but wow... I do like that underlying sadness tgc puts in their games

[sly kestrel]

In the old beta, there used to be dark crystals that came out of ur body at eden

That was when dark stone was a thing

[spice night]

Some seasonal spoilers if u need to
(There will be more)

[scarlet wren]

... this is the,, lore channel ,,

[craggy panther]

i also cannot read,

SNXNXK

sorry!

ill take it down

i didnt read past spoilers and then sent and closed discord snxkxk

[scarlet wren]

thank you haha

[craggy panther]

snskd np!

[dire agate]

It took me several months of playing to notice this, and it seems that many people still don't know:
Your skykid's candle isn't kept in hammerspace, it's embedded in their chest. The glowing orb is the flame. When the candle is being held, it disappears.
It's a bit hard to see in these pictures. It was much easier before the update that made chest lights smaller.

[small osprey]

Woah! Nice eye!

That makes sense as to why they can pull a candle out of nowhere

[mystic steppe]

Oh cool

[drifting copper]

i think someone talked about it before oof

[scarlet wren]

it has been brought up in this channel but alway nice to get more people to see it

[drifting copper]

has it been brought up that the krills are just the things from journey but more leggy?

[wind bone]

I don’t think so

War machines from journey are cloth creatures trapped in a stone body to collect as much cloth as possible for power

The krill are just.... a random threat

[drifting copper]

well both games seem to have similar elements and even realm design

won’t be surprised if krills were a sort of product after getting cloth creatures out of a stone body

maybe it’s just forest elder’s experiment gone wrong lmao

[wary prism]

if you try to bring out a candle and you're out of light the candle comes out unlit
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/632004389137154048/657802799131918368/image0.jpg

[drifting copper]

oooo yeah i noticed when i was last at eden

[wary prism]

i wasn't recharging even though i was right next to a friend for some reason, they had to bring out their candle to light mine for me to get back my light

[drifting copper]

they’re out of light so can’t really recharge anyone

[wary prism]

i meant that i (who was out of light) could not be recharged by my friend with light

till they brought their candle out

[hushed steeple]

is this where I would post my theory of the backstory to the game?

[split osprey]

Yeah!

[serene pasture]

Soooo has anyone figured out why rain hurts us but not going under water?

[tall narwhal]

RIGHT!!!

[split osprey]

Maybe the impact of the raindrops on our Sky kids are more damaging than just lying in water.

[serene pasture]

Hmmm

[tall narwhal]

I think the water in wasteland and Eden is poisoned. That’s why that’s the only water that effects us if we touch or go under

[serene pasture]

What about the rain?

[tall narwhal]

Maybe it’s like birds and bugs?

[serene pasture]

Tho we are “sky kids” kids get sick in rain hhhh

[tall narwhal]

They can’t or have a lot of trouble flying in the rain

[serene pasture]

Idk thats my only thought on that XD

Ooof

[drifting copper]

i think it’s like the water in wasteland and eden that went through the cycle and turned into endless rain in forest

or vice versa

[orchid fox]

But then wouldn’t the water in the forest also hurt you?

Not just he rain

The

[drifting copper]

the water’s a different uhhh

i forgot the science term

different density

i feel like that’s something lmao

[orchid fox]

Maybe the rain has darkness or smthin in it so it would go down under the normal water in the forest? 😂

And then it would also hurt the sky kids

[exotic shuttle]

if the rain is acid rain, maybe there’s something in the earth of forest that neutralises the acid once it hits the ground

idk

[maiden glen]

Well the water wasn’t always contaminated in the forest spirit scenes, many have umbrellas. Suggesting rain was common there. And the water would be mostly pure compared to the oil-y gunk in wasteland

[orchid fox]

That’s interesting 🤔

[maiden glen]

So there’s a thing to say about wasteland not always being the dead ruin that it is rn, probably more of a desert environment with cleaner water,

[exotic shuttle]

i wish we knew what GW used to look like

[orchid fox]

The wasteland is right next to valley....

[exotic shuttle]

right so probably similar

[orchid fox]

So maybe GW used to look like Valley?

[exotic shuttle]

makes sense

[orchid fox]

How would the krill have come?

Valley has no creatures like that

I think

[maiden glen]

I don’t know tbh, I’d give my whole spiel but I can’t think straight rn
My guess is still, desert climate, rocky cliffs, an oasis or two. The oily stuff may have come from the pipes and swelled the bodies of water, or just acted like an actual oil spill and ruined the whole ecological system,

[drifting copper]

kinda reminds me of journey’s landscape

[exotic shuttle]

i wonder if krills always looked so dark and corrupted, or if they’ve been polluted by whatever polluted wasteland

[proven sigil]

maybe polluted

[celest spoke]

I have a crack theory that krill are essentially immortal feral guard dogs— it’s not so much that they’re attacking us; they’re trying to protect the old homes/ships of their former owners and can’t recognize that we’re related

[hushed steeple]

The rain is the tears of the stone kid figures in eden

I have a whole theory/belief of the game but i am too lazy to type and slmeone probs already thought of it

[modest sequoia]

Rain drains us and clouds charge us.

I just realized that makes no sense

[thick mountain]

Omg just found out the ||white cape is 50 hearts....|| I’m never gonna get it 😭

[fluid dirge]

||take advantage of the double heart days! it took me about 2 weeks to a month (i wasn't keeping exact track) to get the black cape which is the same amount.. you just have to know how many hearts you can get in a day||

[scarlet wren]

this is the lore channel

also i don't think that the white cape and it's price is a spoiler but ok

[drifting copper]

are people so lazy to even read

they keep barging in here talking about not lore things

[sand abyss]

lore......come backkk

WAIT

Did someone talk about the memory of the Rhythm's Vault spirit and the Blue cape spirit?

( oh and that other vault spirit who just join along at the end of the memory )

Cos when seeing the spirit memory, the thinking spirit was there, perhaps curious about what's inside the Vault

like what kind of knowledges do these Scholars keeping from the public's eyes?

that or just Thinking spirit thinking about foods

[drifting copper]

lmaooo

but yeah i noticed the seasonal spirit was with one of the vault spirits

why though

[sand abyss]

Good question tho
Probably the Blue Cape Spirit is like the tour guide for the Thinking Spirit

since after all the Thinking Spirit is from of a travelling band hence wanting to have some time exploring some places before heading to their home.

perhaps so? 👀

Scholar Mask/Hat with long hair

[frosty patio]

Hello! Do you guys perhaps know if the animations for each spirit are compilated somewhere? Or do I have to go get every spirit again and record them for myself? I'd love to analyze each of them and maybe create background stories for the spirits. Thank you!

[exotic shuttle]

xkumah there’s screenshots of each spirit’s memories in the pins

[steep folio]

I find it interesting that the daily quests say to "melt darkness" instead of burn darkness

I always thought of it as burning

maybe this has some kind of backstory behind it??

i feel like burning has a negative connotation with it

and burning is like changing the chemical makeup of something and like fundamentally changing it

so maybe by referring to it as "melting"

like melting the darkness plants gives you light or candle wax

so darkness plants aren't bad they are just not in the right state, and by melting it and altering it a little you can make something good and useful

ok idk what im saying

[proven sigil]

Darkness is usually associated with cold, and light with warmth

I think thats why it says melt the darkness

[modest sequoia]

Maybe a leftover from the 'stone' days?

Or Maybe they don't want to encourage foliage arsony

[proven sigil]

[merry valley]

The krills r mad at us because we burned them

[snow loom]

BBQ time

[atomic shard]

Do you think the light beings were all cast out because they all began eating krill and that's what corrupted them
I kid I kid

[spring blaze]

they're in the wrng order but

[maiden glen]

YA I SAW THEM AND I WA SLIKE. Omg it’s THEM,,

I love seeing the relations between all the spirits in seasons

also gives an insight to how Vault could have worked and I.

[spring blaze]

also shows that these bunch of spirits existed at the same time!

[maiden glen]

YA!

I keep seeing the seasonal as the baby of the Vault and honestly , I’m living for it

[spring blaze]

really! i see the juggle one as more baby

hes babby

[maiden glen]

Out of the troupe yea! They seem. True baby

[wary prism]

Tiny,,

[maiden glen]

But compared to the seemingly older ones in Vault, (because they’ve all been p old looking so far) I jus,,, see em as baby

[wary prism]

Wonder what the troupe is doing all split up

[maiden glen]

I know right-

[wary prism]

Most of them just seemed to be wandering around?

[maiden glen]

Ya,

[spring blaze]

the one in isle is like.. checking stuff out

[wary prism]

The broken boats!

[maiden glen]

I was going through and. I kinda expected to see others like in Belonging? But no they’re all, alone.
I wonder why

YEA!

[spring blaze]

maybe the final cutscene wherr u get the ultimate reward shows them together?

[maiden glen]

:0

Omg now I’m excited to see it

[spring blaze]

my god the belonging ending was so darn sweet

[maiden glen]

IT WASSS

[wary prism]

grandma

[spring blaze]

LIKE IM FAMILY???? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[maiden glen]

It gave us an insight to a family, These funky babies seem like close friends so I wonder how the dynamic was

[spring blaze]

yeah! like before belonging, i think the only family we really saw was the hands on hips stance memory

[maiden glen]

Mhm

[wary prism]

Yeah! That one is so sweet

[spring blaze]

watching that memory, it sorta makes me think that some of the memories we relieved from the spirits are the ones most happiest of them

ESPECIALLY in prairie

or something of importance

[maiden glen]

yaaaaa

Happy or important memoies

Memories*

[wary prism]

Cry spirt ,,,,,

[spring blaze]

yeah

thats important ans not happy

[wary prism]

Some of them are quite whimsical though like the yawn spirit

[maiden glen]

For Valley and Wasteland I see them. As. Either how they died ( ) or something they wish they could do more of (the spirits in the races)

[spring blaze]

or.. maybe the memories we relieved were the last moment these spirits lived before the big eden explosion happened

if we’re going with the big eden explosion

[wary prism]

[spring blaze]

like

oh gees

that makes the HANDS ON HIPS STANCE EVEN SADDER

IMAGINE SPENDING TIME WITH YOUR CHILD, HAPPY AND PLAYING AND OVERLOOKING YOUR HOME AND YOU JUST DIE

[wary prism]

nO

[hushed steeple]

I wanna know krill lore

Like why the krill

why are they there.

[maiden glen]

OH. Y GOD WAIT NO THAT MAKES THINGS SADDER-

the flip spirit in citadel no-

He was jus. Playin ykno

[spring blaze]

THEY WERE HAVING FUN

[maiden glen]

YA IM

[spring blaze]

also! juno theres a lot of theories on the krills

omg the laugh spirit-

[hushed steeple]

hi everybody that was my first post in the lore discussion channel

[wary prism]

I feel like the levels are chronological though, and that not all the spirits existed at the same time? Since it’d be like the guys down in Isle had basically no stuff while Valley was hoarding it if they did concurrently exist

[spring blaze]

were they corrupted creatures? are krills actually machines?

[hushed steeple]

i have big hair and pretty cape

and all I know is they eat me

[spring blaze]

im leaning more in the "krills are machines"

[hushed steeple]

but like, why you know

I like that

[spring blaze]

ya they munch on light

[hushed steeple]

because of the way the light looks for u and changes they seem like robots or machines of some sort

[maiden glen]

Hmm yea,, they could be. Though nothing in Sky is confirmed to be organic, so we don’t know

[snow loom]

Maybe but they don’t really look all that mechanical, at least to me

[hushed steeple]

but the way they move in set paths and don’t deviate is very mechanical

[spring blaze]

i used to think they were more corrupted creatures but the more i think about it, the more they look more mechanical

like what juno says

[snow loom]

Yeah true

[spring blaze]

and the sounds they make sounds mech for me imo

[hushed steeple]

they just go round & round till they spot something

[exotic shuttle]

could be some kind of mixture

[spring blaze]

like if u listen at the noise they make after spotting you, it sounds like a helicopter

[hushed steeple]

the first time I played wasteland the sound made me jump out of my skin

[spring blaze]

a mix of both machine and a bio living thing?

like a cyborg?

[hushed steeple]

oh biomechanics

[maiden glen]

Hm,

[hushed steeple]

I love to see it.

maybe they’re real creatures mechanically engineered

the choices for the light colours seem very mechanical tho because like blue and red are pretty standard robot colours

blue is code for peaceful and red is always DANGER

and it seems like that’s their only two settings

I wanna tickle one

[spring blaze]

heard legends where you can ride one

yeah in eden red is like "DANGER DANGER ROCK RAIN"

[maiden glen]

Yesyes

[spring blaze]

eden used to be blue back in the ol beta daus

[maiden glen]

Oooooh

I heard Valley used to be purple as well

[exotic shuttle]

there’s a theory that krills used to be security for the vault

[spring blaze]

o havent heard of that

[exotic shuttle]

or maybe police, with the flashing blue and red lights

[spring blaze]

i always hearthe krills were the enemies

[atomic shard]

I wonder...
I just wonder if krill used to be light creatures once but were corrupted and then that ended up driving out everyone if that were the case

[spring blaze]

but

[atomic shard]

Cause they're excellent security yeah

[spring blaze]

i said a while back that the krills reminds me of patrol helicopters

[hushed steeple]

omg krill police

I love that

that’s my headcanon now

if there was a krill call what do yall think it would sound like

[spring blaze]

like cmon, theyre patrolling graveyard, red and blue, they sound like helicopters, and they have that spotlight?? cmon haha

an ungodly screech

[hushed steeple]

I love it

[spring blaze]

like the crab, but worse and more choppy

[hushed steeple]

it would be super hard to get & it makes everybody in the area fall down for a sec

[spring blaze]

the crab call doesnt rlly sound crabby, it sounds like a baby krill call

imo

[hushed steeple]

I love the crab call

it’s like wheeeeeee

[exotic shuttle]

i think it’s the sky kids’ interpretation. sort of like how pigs don’t actually go “oink”

[hushed steeple]

maybe we’re the ones that aren’t real

and krill are the only real things left

cuz facing reality is scary

maybe it’s a metaphor 🥺

[spring blaze]

sky is a huge “realitys scary” metaphor

[hushed steeple]

absolutely

[spring blaze]

the realms is actually based off of staged of life and time of the day too

[exotic shuttle]

but it can be fun too. it’s about the dark and the light

[hushed steeple]

it’s like, 9/10 times you do better in eden if you have friends & I think that’s a metaphor for how you might be able to do a lot of stuff on your own but sometimes you have to admit u need help

in my case any way, getting through the first part is really difficult without friends unless you’ve been playing ages

[spring blaze]

isle = birth, dawn
prairie = childhood, day
forest = teenage, rain
valley = adulthood, sunset
wasteland = we call this one midlife crisis, or later into adulthood, dusk
vault = old age, night
eden = death, storm
orbit = afterlife

[hushed steeple]

hmmmmm midlife crisis krill police

is there like a general accepted lore around the game or is a lot of it up to interpretation

[spring blaze]

oh god, theyre all pretty much up to interpretation

[rich swift]

So does anyone else think golden wasteland and eden look like weird failed experiments?

[spring blaze]

the only confirmed lore is what we see in the game like the spirit memories and the environment

eden definitely had a failed experiment

[rich swift]

It looks like the people were amassing light in butterfly jars and bringing them all to eden

[spring blaze]

or build; the red diamond in the storm lock

[rich swift]

Then they had warriors after athletes and weird pipes and stuff

Yeah

[spring blaze]

wasteland is more of a dump than anything

[rich swift]

It looks like it was like the valley of triumph at some point though

Untill they added factory pipe things

[spring blaze]

the first building we enter in, the one with the manta, the interior looks like the forest temple

[rich swift]

Yeah

It has that ceiling part but crashed down

I think it got caught up directly in Edens explosion or cataclysm or whatever

[spring blaze]

its the closest thing to eden aside from vault

thing about vault is that its confusing af

[rich swift]

It’s like it’s own dimension

[spring blaze]

yeah

[rich swift]

That’s probably why it’s safe

[spring blaze]

we dk whats real and whats not in there

true

[rich swift]

But also empty

Well the real altar is up in orbit

So maybe the vault is like the antennae that connects all the spirit altar realms together

For the big ancestors

The place you go where you meditate at each temple

[spring blaze]

hm maybe

like

vault is so close to eden yet its so clean when we first enter

[exotic shuttle]

btw there is a small amount of canon lore confirmed in livestreams too. you can find that info in the pins.

[rich swift]

It makes me think of Lothal in Star Wars Rebels lol

[spring blaze]

then after meditating we see it in ruins

[rich swift]

But we’re also at the top of the tower

Which is what the vault is

And there’s no door or stairs

We just appear up there

[spring blaze]

the ruins reminds me more of lvl 1 vault than anything

yeah we see the elevator broken but theres no.. levels under unless the real vault tower just had holes in the floor for the elevator to go up in lmao

[rich swift]

Yeah but we’re up closer to Eden after riding an elevator in another dimension so

I dunno lol

[spring blaze]

vault is an enigma

[exotic shuttle]

also, you can see broken pieces of vault floating around in the castle in orbit

[rich swift]

I think it’s like the temple in Steven Universe

[exotic shuttle]

like maybe in reality vault is destroyed

[rich swift]

Yeah

You also get weird psychic emotes in the vault

[spring blaze]

i mean, its a massive library wheres theres scholars in the place, so i think of all the spirits in the kingdom, the scholars are able to do psychic stuff

studied their entire life to float, then they see us with our magic capes haha

[rich swift]

They probably helped invent all the weird technology and shrines and capes even

[snow loom]

So I was talking about how my friend though the twins were a boy and a girl, and I thought they were both boys

[rich swift]

Some spirits had capes too though

[snow loom]

Then my friend pointed something out that I though was interesting?

That all of the male elders had flat portal roofs, and the girls had pointy ones

[rich swift]

Portal roofs?

[snow loom]

One of the twins half’s is spikey

The other one looks like it was but it got broken so now it’s flat

[spring blaze]

the top of the portal gates

[rich swift]

I think the twin with the not spikey hair is the girl

Oh

[spring blaze]

i think in the file names the names of the twins were like

girl and boy??

or just twins

[rich swift]

The pinned section seemed to follow my theories so far

[spring blaze]

elder bro and sis

[rich swift]

But I thought the jar guy was able to make butterflies out of jars with fire lol

[spring blaze]

which part of the pinned?

[rich swift]

I guess the first elder could Shepard them

[snow loom]

If the friends thing about roofs signifying gender is right

[rich swift]

The google doc at the top

[snow loom]

That’d mean they’re both biologically girls?

[rich swift]

I think it’s like that because they’re not both girls

One and the other

[spring blaze]

who knows

[snow loom]

If they were then the other one would’ve just been flat?

[rich swift]

🤷🏾‍♂️

[spring blaze]

it was mentioned before that i THINK the file names for those were elder bro and elder sis

[snow loom]

Not a broken pointy one?

[spring blaze]

cant confirm since idk how to files

[exotic shuttle]

it’s hard to say whether the pointy/flat roof thing indicates their gender or it’s just a coincidence

[snow loom]

Yeah

That’s what I was thinking

But assuming it does does this mean one was previously a girl?

[exotic shuttle]

i guess it might

i see where you’re coming from

[snow loom]

Then there’s the door order

On the eden gate

[exotic shuttle]

door order?

[cobalt galleon]

Heck yeah Brother Twin said trans rights

[snow loom]

It goes prairie forest vault wasteland valley

[exotic shuttle]

oooh interesting

[spring blaze]

i think it makes sense for vault to be on the top

then we have the diamond symbol with the bell

i see it as the king

[exotic shuttle]

makes sense

i wish we knew more about the king...

[snow loom]

Note the lack of isle

[spring blaze]

evem isle gramps is ignored in the game

[snow loom]

In the beginning cutscene a star manifests from the clouds

I’ve been debating about who it is for awhile

Position wise it’d be the twins

But the lack of gramps means it might be him?

[exotic shuttle]

possibly could be the king

[snow loom]

Yeah that was my original thought

But it seems like any of the 3 could be candidates

[exotic shuttle]

true

i was just thinking of this bit from the lore doc

In the intro the stars surround an individual who doesn’t fall and the Eden elder doesn’t fall with the rest but comes from the clouds

[scarlet wren]

oh there's an explanation for isle not being there

[spring blaze]

really??

[snow loom]

Ya bois gonna go feral if it’s “symmetry”

[scarlet wren]

something about that particular model being from aviary, there idea is that you got blessings from each of the realms? but isle was not accessible in way it is now

[exotic shuttle]

ahhh makes sense

[spring blaze]

i dont stand for my isle gramps erasure

[snow loom]

Maybe they’ll add him later?

[spring blaze]

in old beta i think gramps gave you your cape after going through isle

now hes just :( there

[green pine]

Just got back to playing sky after being too busy for a week, and as I was going through my daily runs, my mind wandered and led to a big ol' wall of text, enjoy

Whether intentional or not, I noticed some interesting subtle parallels between the levels and mankind's development of technology and pollution, further supporting the idea of bad technological advancement the spirits are meant to have according to concept notes, and in a way that ties in Valley, the oddball beautiful place stuck between Forest and Wasteland.
Of course there's the basic progression of peaceful beauty with little human impact in Prairie, start of technological advancements and downfalls in Forest, and resulting wasteland of Wasteland that we're all familiar with, but there's much deeper ties to real-world progression of technology and pollution here:

Isle is less a showing of what the place was like before people got there, and more represents what humans saw new lands as, a big sandbox to start their civilization in and claim as their own, with nothing there to oppose them. Throughout history, humans constantly tried to conquer more land, regardless of where it was or the condition it was in, just claiming everything to make it their own. In Isle, we see old boats that were used to reach it, as if people arrived from another area, seeking out places they can conquer, new sandboxes to build in. Like with the settlement of North America, where British settlers came in to take over the New World, rapidly searching for and taking land and not caring about who lived there before or how suitable the land was, worry about that after the fact.

Prairie is after things have settled down and the land has been populated and controlled, people getting to enjoy the place in full, with simple mechanical technology and a heavy reliance on nature for food and other products.

Forest is very reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution, where technology suddenly jumped forward in massive bounds, but bringing with it lots of pollution and grime, all of which being very easy to see with the naked eye. In forest we have mass production of the power diamonds in a factory-like manner, a sudden abundance of dark plants and acid rain like the pollution brought from usage of coal and oil. The methods that used those resources at the time were crude enough that the pollution was clearly visible, for example covering trees in smoke and ash that forced the Peppered Moth to evolve a darker appearance in some places. Acid rain, the kind we see in Forest, was first noted in the 17th century (1600s), while the IR started around 1760, with the appearance of acid rain rising dramatically ever since it began. The technology was too early in development to reduce its pollution and visual impact much through further development, and in some ways people didn't know that it could or should be reduced.

Valley is more like our modern times, where pollution is present (and more than likely worse than before) but in many aspects hard to spot in a visual sense. There's no signs of pollution we can see in Valley, but in today's time - aside from things like litter or so on that are swept away en mass to places out of our view - most signs of pollution are ones you have to actively look for and sometimes use methods of detection that require scientific tools, like tracking global warming or water contamination and so on. The places that do have large visual examples of pollution are usually in less-developed areas that aren't able to clear it up as well, and are often out of our day-to-day thoughts. Regardless of how much destruction is being done to the world and how much of it we know about, it's not in our face like with Forest and the IR, instead being invisible to the naked eye or hidden away somewhere else.

Additionally, a huge majority of things in the modern world focus on entertainment of some kind, and what do we see in Valley? A place that's obsessed and centered around entertainment, specifically races and other sports. The region is overseen by two young adults as well, the youngest of the elders by far, analogous to the increasing role and power younger generations are having in societal and economic developments nowadays. We don't see much of the region, a very linear path with a fork that merges back to the temple, and while all of the levels are designed to show that there'smore beyond what we play in, in Valley it's so narrow and focused on the single aspect of racing that it implies the region is trying to direct you away from something, cover up or distract from a dark secret while it quickly rushes you out. A secret like intense pollution that's not immediately obvious or easy to see, like with the modern day.

And of course, Wasteland is the consequence of going too far in technology without taking care to balance out and undo the effects of pollution it brings, though there's a few different ways it can be interpreted. In one, the 'Golden' part of Wasteland's name implies the place used to be magnificent and prosperous, but fell to ruin from the spirits advancing too far without restraint. The pipes dumping sludge would be from the region frantically trying to get pollution away from their living place, but being too late, the damage already done. In another, 'Golden' could be from the spirits seeing the place as a perfect stroke of luck, a polluter's idea of striking gold, finding sparse lands they could dump their pollution to to forget about and not have to deal with, as shown by the large pipes bringing in sludge that turn the water toxic and sleek with oil, here being used to dump pollution from other regions, no one living in Wasteland except to oversee the place and guard the entrance to the Vault, hidden in a barren, polluted landscape they knew people would be wary to enter or would not believe leads to anything important. The potential war, if there was one, could be analogous here to future resource wars, which will occur if we don't get reliable enough sources of clean, renewable energy.

For the crabs, they would be byproducts of pollution and bad choices, plaguing those who made them; in Forest for the start of it all, in Valley's abandoned storage room either for the spirits choosing to leave behind their old tools and old practices or for the analogy of locking away the things they don't want (the place was already abandoned by the time of the Belonging family according to clues from the livestream) connecting to hiding secrets like the unseen pollution, in Wasteland for obvious reasons, and in Vault's ruined archives (which were the extra secret archives, according to the livestream) for all the dark secrets hidden within.
For the Krill, through this lens they could be seen as the force of nature fighting against the spirits' actions and pollution, the punishing force of consequence. Fate dooming these people for the things they have done, and nature reclaiming the lands after mankind is gone.

Eden in this perspective would be the final blow to humanity: itself, going too far and becoming too desperate, creating and using something that decimates their species, like how a chain reaction of nations launching nukes at each other would destroy us all, but the planet would still be around to create new life in enough time, rebirthing itself as it inevitable recovers, new beings coming into existence.
Vault doesn't really go along with this very much as it's more tied directly to game lore than it is messages and analogies, but there you go, a much fuller look at the subtle connections between the levels and real-world human progression.

[cold steppe]

that’s SO COOL

[modest lion]

That’s deep

[cold steppe]

Perhaps the large amount of clouds in Valley could be a subtle indication of the pollution? It seems to have more focus on clouds than other areas. Also, everything is tinted slightly reddish, which could also show pollution

[viscid rampart]

Best fan theory I’ve ever seen in my life. Also in valley the ground has already turned into sand. Deserts and pollution on its way. Ice in a desert means the abnormal weather effects.

[cold steppe]

Also, going with what you’ve laid out, the name Valley of Triumph seems to indicate that it’s in a time period that could be considered the height of that civilization’s achievements

[viscid rampart]

This whole game is so deep, it’s about the cycle of life

I did not know what I was going into when I started this game

[cold steppe]

Yeah, it’s amazing. That even though everything seems hopeless, there’s still life

[maiden glen]

Valley has snow, not sand

[viscid rampart]

Some snow and some sand. In the race the sand was red

[cold steppe]

It kind of feels like a mix of both

Like snow on top of sand

It’s interesting that the frozen lake has a bunch of holes in it. What is the purpose of them, other than game design?

[viscid rampart]

The last bit of unpolluted water? Idk, but in valley there is no water body other than the underground lake.

[cold steppe]

Oh, interesting

You’re right

[snow loom]

[green pine]

Speaking of Valley, something I haven't noticed before (either I happened to not see or it's only like this in the Season of Winter/Rhythm version of the Ice Rink) is that the towers at the sliding race entrance are more broken and completely grayscale (including the gold trimmings which exist on both pairs), while the ones for the flying race are less destroyed, have color in the gold trim, and still have bits of what looks like paint covering part of them

[cold steppe]

Valley is gorgeous, but it just seems so barren

[viscid rampart]

In valley it always look like sunset

For some reason

[green pine]

not to mention the slide entrance has what looks like the foundation for a bridge that's now gone, as if it was connected to the center of the rink and then removed at some point in time

[viscid rampart]

Yes there is definitely a destroyed bridge

[cold steppe]

The eternal sunset kind of relates to the time theory. It’s the last high part of the civilization before the night (destruction)

[viscid rampart]

Yes

[cold steppe]

I think someone brought this up earlier in this channel- that the game seems to go through the entire “day”

It goes from dawn to night, then repeats through Eden

[green pine]

you could say it's the last moments before midnight on the Doomsday Clock

[cold steppe]

Yeah

[viscid rampart]

Personally I would think that the destruction of the bridge in sliding race means people has destroyed their base and put their minds in the clouds (?) I can’t explain very well but it means people are going for unrealistic things

[cold steppe]

Or it’s like an explanation that sliding (old) is being replaced by flying (new)

[crimson grove]

A bit late to the eden gate lacking isle mask discussion, but back when it was in the aviary days (which was located right after isle) there were portals to all levels with the masks engraved on the top, and the game told you to collect their blessings to face the storm (or similar wording), and upon finishing a level the mask would light up on the eden gate. When all the masks were lit, you could open the gate with friends. since isle was before the aviary you already finished it before any of that, and the eden gate at home is the same model even tho they added a isle portal

[cold steppe]

As Logan pointed out, the gray towers look like older architecture, which could indicate that they were built before. Then flying became more popular, so they let the sliding race fall more into disrepair

The flying race seems to be in better shape overall. The buildings are mostly intact and colorful, and they even get the whole citadel thing

This could indicate that flying became so popular, the citadel was built around the idea

[exotic shuttle]

i wonder about that, since it doesn’t seem like the ancestors could fly

[viscid rampart]

Old technology taken over by new ones true, like the old landlines now being replaced by smartphones

[cold steppe]

Yeah

[exotic shuttle]

maybe it was a boat race tho, since they had flying boats

[cold steppe]

Maybe

[green pine]

Though with the gray towers, the fact that even the trim is grey seems to imply that a lot of the gold we see in Valley is fake, unless it was just unintentional and got caught with the rest of the towers when it was being turned grey

[viscid rampart]

Vain stuff pursued by the rich

[cold steppe]

Yeah

[viscid rampart]

Also a great point...the whole valley thing is “downhill” if someone noticed. Although exciting, we are actually going downhill

[cold steppe]

That’s true. Pretty much all of Valley is going downhill. And it’s downhill to go into Wasteland

[celest spoke]

Big dead bird lying on bench in front of Citadel

[viscid rampart]

This game is deep and we fall through a hole and lose like 2 of our flight bars when we go through the portal to wasteland

[cold steppe]

But then again, a valley implies mountains on either side. You come from the “mountain” of forest

[viscid rampart]

That’s impact already

[cold steppe]

Wasteland seems to be somewhat uphill

@celest spoke I think the bird in valley used to be revivable in older versions of the game (or so I’ve heard)

[viscid rampart]

Because we’re just about to uncover our greatest secret

[crimson grove]

@viscid rampart this is a family friendly server, so please don't swear (even if it's abbreviated)

[green pine]

the bird was a part of an old season spirit quest, they just haven't removed the model from the area

[viscid rampart]

Ok. Edited

[crimson grove]

i wonder how things that were removed or added at different times in-game have an impact in the lore, or are just kind of "there" now

[viscid rampart]

They changed the portal to bird’s nest and the secret area to forest.

[crimson grove]

like the bird in the citadel, the eden gate, the fact that development wise, the flying race got added long after the sliding one

at least it gives us a bunch of things to theorize about ^^

[viscid rampart]

I had to struggle so hard to fly to it now I just walk in

[green pine]

btw, what's with the tiny two-player door next to the Valley Rhythm spirit's quest tunnel?

[viscid rampart]

It was for last season’s seasonal quest

[atomic shard]

Yeah I always wondered about that XD;;

[wary prism]

It was for gratitude, wasn’t it?

[atomic shard]

ohhhh
I only came around when Belonging came out

[cold steppe]

It was definitely before Lightseekers

[green pine]

Ah, thank you ansolas

[viscid rampart]

I only played for 1 month

[green pine]

interesting that it would pop in for Winter's return 🤔

[crimson grove]

it makes sense now that old locations like that are not removed, with traveling spirits. its waiting for their return

[viscid rampart]

I know a ||defunct spirit location in isle of dawn, it’s a big hole to the left||

[green pine]

Ah, you're right

[viscid rampart]

This season will be my first season to participate in

[tired axle]

Oh we still talking about the civilization

[rich swift]

That tiny two player door in valley is where you gave the trial of spirit to become a Jedi

Take*

@viscid rampart me too

[green pine]

Something interesting I noticed about this rock formation in the second half of the flying race.. the shape of the rocks and general size and path of the spot they’re in feels eerily similar to the ones at the end of the sliding portion of the ascent to Orbit
Likely either my mind running wild, some slight asset repurposing, or an interesting callback in orbit that points to other places in the world 🤔

[green pine]

I noticed the Wasteland shipwreck area got a little touch-up, now with dark, hardened sand that got mixed with the polluted sludge
Was it ever like this in older versions of the game? Or has TGC snuck in yet another update to Wasteland’s visual lore

[crimson grove]

It’s from this new recent update but it looks kind of odd

They changed some lighting and other textures so maybe it was a bug? Looks a bit weird and harsh how it transitions from sand to dark sand

[cunning pelican]

I thought that they were tide marks, maybe the water level was higher than now and it is still slowly going down. Just hope the tide will not turn and everything gets flooded.

It definitely looks a lot like when tide goes out in rivers

[green pine]

the darker sand has a completely different sound when you walk on it, like gravel or hard dirt

[cunning pelican]

Yes. Like dried out and hardened silt

[fierce robin]

And it’s slick like ice. You can skate on it!

[desert ginkgo]

If the lowering of the water level is true, then it seems like the sand just got junked up with pollution.

[violet moss]

Wait but it looks like it’s the only spot that has it. If the tide got higher then lower the shore everywhere else should also look like that.

Wait I’m wrong, ignore me

I thought it was only that little island

😬

[lost hull]

Wait I’m still confused

What was the Eden explosion?

[violet moss]

?

[lost hull]

There was something way earlier in the chat about an Eden explosion basically killing the spirits

I didn’t scroll up to see where that theory came from

[violet moss]

I thought the krill, or darkness, killed the spirits

Like the memories show that one spirit sailing

And how everything seems abandoned, like the broken building pieces in the one prairie area.

And in the valleys citadel.

I think that is what it is called

[lost hull]

Yeah it seems like everything just died out suddenly tho

Like there was almost no resistance

Everything in Sky is basically empty and barren

I don’t mean that in a bad way

But it’s like everything has been left behind

Suddenly

[sly kestrel]

Their spirit memories are memories based on the emote being unlocked, not how they died

[pulsar ice]

possibly, i have a feeling it was the last meaningful memory they had before they died

i mean, we're all on a pretty general consensus that the original sky ppl died from some form of darkness, as seen by the crying spirit and pretty much every spirit in wasteland, etc

[lost hull]

So the darkness literally came over the sky people

Kind of like pollution or maybe even a shockwave

[crimson grove]

oh back when eden had an "end" you could survive, there was one oob past the end trigger that showed the crystal (the same we see now in the distance) exploding, with all the elders blown away and turned into stone

[maiden glen]

WOAH WAIT WHAT

[atomic shard]

D:

That just sounds sad

[maiden glen]

[crimson grove]

it was never part of the actual level and it got entirely removed when they changed eden to what it is now, but they were probably talking about that

i will get pics 👀

[maiden glen]

Omg yes

[atomic shard]

yes please
this is vital

impart the knowledge upon us

[crimson grove]

this was around may 2019, eden was very very different than what it is now so have that in mind

[candid hedge]

That’s some death stranding kind of stuff

[crimson grove]

it was quite hard to get there with many wind walls and warp walls, but it was just behind the end of the level

[sly kestrel]

That

I never knew about that

Wow

[crimson grove]

it always had me thinking it would be the "true ending" for the game, maybe added at a later date... and then eden got reworked completely

but who knows.... maybe we will see it one day 👀

[maiden glen]

One day,,

That’s so c o o l tho- Blue eden,, bro,

[crimson grove]

everything is blue because the rocks were blue back then, but the crystal on the middle pulsed just like the one we have now

and it was BIG, you can't see it that well in those pics

i was alone that day and i planned to come back with friends and take more pics..... alas, eden update and it was gone

also when i first was there i didnt see it, but you can see all the elders. isle and prairie are the easiest ones to spot

[sly kestrel]

I would honestly love see that

I seen those screenshots before but I never knew they were floating elders

Poor guys 🥺

[crimson grove]

they all died

everything died

my personal theory was that all the spirits and light creatures died on that explosion, except butterflies and maybe mantas that were possibly kept in the big pots we see in prairie

[drifting copper]

why did it explode though

must’ve been a powerful explosion to have blown even the elders away hhhhhh

[old storm]

D:

[crimson grove]

why did it explode though exactly

well back then eden was blue and all the rocks and the structures you see in the pics are very similar to other elder technology, such as the floating platforms in vault

so maybe they caused it

[old storm]

so the elders kinda created said explosion?

[crimson grove]

maybe

found a video! it really shows a bit more of the area if you want to see

oh how i wish i could go back and explore more

[old storm]

tyty

[atomic shard]

So I guess that could go with the idea that technology and advancement backfired on them in order for the world to want to reset to a more pristine natural time?
That's my interpretation-