lore-discussion-spoilers

[harsh pecan]

It’s both

[keen shore]

A moth had to lead me to the cave where the boogie kid was. I didn’t know it existed before then. Most embarrassing moment of my sky life

[tulip aspen]

okey, so all the ones who've been relived

[keen shore]

Oh, that’s interesting - mine conveniently aligned with the ones I’d ascended, from what I could tell…

Maybe it’s just everyone who doesn’t appear in that scene when they’re flying to orbit/everyone who does?? I’m not sure

[tranquil harbor]

It makes the most sense to have 'been relived' as the criteria, because during your first go you can't have anyone ascended. But are there more criteria or is it completely random beyond that

[rustic heron]

Maybe, but it's definitely not all of them. I've relived all the spirits that can be relived, but only a select few are present.

I had a crazy thought that those would be the spirits that would be possible for TS, but we have yet to see Yeti return home, and he's definitely one of them.

[keen shore]

Yeah, I have no idea. I’ve tried paying some attention to who shows up, not for tracking purposes but just to be like “oh yeah hello!!!”, but the fact that they only show up for a second each makes it really hard

[tranquil harbor]

Is it something we'd be able to find out from the game files?

[keen shore]

Maybe…? I don’t know enouh about how games work to tell

[rustic heron]

I doubt it, since Android's files have been decompiled (I think), and no one has found out anything.

[tranquil harbor]

Or is it just something the people with the data thought no one would care to know? obviously you can't answer that, I'm just musing

[rustic heron]

That's possible as well. I'd look myself, but given how consistent it is between different players its likely just hardcoded.

[tranquil harbor]

Yeah, I've seen the lady who sells you the drum a lot, but the fact that seasonal spirits are included means they'd have to add them tho. Unless hardcoded means something else entirely

[keen shore]

All I can remember is that the prophet of earth keeps showing up for me, which I am incredibly happy about since they’re my second favorite spirit, but I’m pretty sure the others change

[rustic heron]

Quickly, how many Elder have y'all ascended? I might need a favor.

[keen shore]

…None

[tranquil harbor]

Ha imagine having a constellation complete -moth gang-

[keen shore]

I don’t have enough money to - I feel like I would be more motivated if you could actually interact with them after, yknow?

[rustic heron]

Okay, the reason why I ask is, on my way down from Orbit, I noticed distinctly one star in the sky in that cutscene. I have ascended only Forest Elder.

[tranquil harbor]

Let. Us. Hug. The. Elders. TGC.

[keen shore]

IF THIS IS TRUE AND YOU ASCEND THEM ALL WHAT CONSTELLATION DO THEY MAKE

[rustic heron]

That's the big question, ain't it?

[keen shore]

I need to know now. My best bet is that circle with the lines pointing out that you see on the Eden door

[rustic heron]

We need more veterans who have ascended Elders.
@tulip aspen , you're Sky kid is old. How many Elders have you ascended?

[tranquil harbor]

I thought eden had a cape constellation

[keen shore]

I mean the one where you have to light up the buttons on the bottom to go through

[tranquil harbor]

I wonder if you could make the crown constellation

[rustic heron]

Wait. Do mantas have feathers?

[keen shore]

Probably not, but it’s nice to imagine they do

[rustic heron]

The reason why I ask is that the chimes in Wind Paths have huge feathers, and none of the birds are big enough to have feathers that large.

[tranquil harbor]

But are they manta colored feathers?

[rustic heron]

Yup. White and gold.

[tranquil harbor]

Mantas have feathers confirmed, where is Jam /jk

[keen shore]

It could be from although,,, mantas having feathers is a really cute idea

[tranquil harbor]

I see Elder bird a lot in art is that Megabird or is it like, a thingy from a past season or somethin'?

[rustic heron]

Oh, and in case any of you hadn't noticed: if you fly high enough in Sanctuary, some of the mantas will flock around you while you fly.

[keen shore]

It was shown in a cutscene at the end of season of rhythm, teased in flight concept art, and then never shown again. There are a lot of theories about it, ranging from it being a more bird like version of the whale to it being a form that the rhythm guide can shapeshift into. It’s not Megabird

[tranquil harbor]

thank u

[keen shore]

We have very little content on it, but everyone loves it because why wouldn’t you

[tranquil harbor]

It is very pretty

[rustic heron]

Okay, so in Tinkering Chimesmith's house, there is a Flight season symbol that, if you stomp on, will play unique music for Wind Paths.

[hard marsh]

a coincidence, I was thinking about that Rhythm bird

I heard about the theory that Rhythm guide can shapeshift to it (possibly from how they're missing in the cutscene with the bird) and Rhythm guide is quite popular in fan works

But I recently noticed, The Thoughtful Director is the one that looks more.. clearly inspired by the bird. similar mask (just looks more 'stout') and cape

[tranquil harbor]

Who is thoughtful director? Also from rythm?

[hard marsh]

yeah this guy

[rustic heron]

Okay, so after you stomp and play the music from Tinkering Chimesmith, the music changes based on whether you are flying or not.

When not flying, it's just piano. When you fly, there's a violin or something that accompanies the piano.

[half shadow]

flight activated bluetooth

[hard marsh]

Also the way the ultimate gift hair (owl hair) is also on the director, and in the final cutscene that made people theorize the Guide might be able to shapeshift into the bird, the Director is also missing... really doesn't help

[tranquil harbor]

I was not given a picture, and I feel like it was implied I was to be given a picture

[rustic heron]

Blessings can be used for all kinds of magic, including changing one's body.

[hard marsh]

Aight, I can't send pics here
but it's one of the spirits in the season. Thoughtful Director

[half shadow]

I don’t think I’m sold on the Rhythm guide = Rhythm bird theory but I do like it

[tranquil harbor]

I'm gonna look him up myself, don't worry, but I had been waiting because it sounded like I should, no harm no foul

[rustic heron]

You can't, unfortunately. The seasonal guides for the earliest seasons don't have seasonal quests, and so they peaced from the game forever.

[tranquil harbor]

I meant a picture

[hard marsh]

yea I figured I was going to send a pic, but on desktop I can't.. for some reason. You can easily look up pics of them though, both the seasonal guide and spirit

//Yeah I'm also not sold
the more I try to look up lore about Rhythm guide and spirits the more I think.. the Guide/Quest giver is just like a random dude (in an endearing way)

[half shadow]

This is the thoughtful director

[rustic heron]

Moths are also banned from looking at pictures of earlier seasons. Try it; you'll only see a blank photo. /j

[tranquil harbor]

Luckily for me, am Moth+ (I've also heard we're called butterflies)

[rustic heron]

You are the chosen moff.

[tranquil harbor]

wish chosen director had a better pic. He's at an odd angle and the brightness makes it hard to tell detail

I wonder if the director and the guide are related

[hard marsh]

The Guide is incredibly popular especially in the asian/fanart side of the community. I don't want to think they're popular because of the hair only, but I also feel like I'm missing out on things people know about the guide (the season of Rhythm was also before seasons have interactive quests) so I researched more

The guide = bird theory.... I don't know how popular it is, it's fun but I don't buy into it

while both the Guide and the Director are missing in the final cutscenes, The Director is present on the bird in the adventure pass art. I don't know if that's intentional or if they just forgot them lmao

[tulip aspen]

0, i don't grind because i like enjoying the game /hj

||well, i do grind, but i dont spend any of it, if that makes sense? i always have around 200-400 candles, and 60-100 hearts, and it kinda never deviates from that for some reason lol||

[half shadow]

I’ve ascended the isle and i’ve got 97 on wasteland but i don’t think i’m a “veteran” though

[tulip aspen]

i grinded out ascensions on all my spirits as fast as i could (for 1-2 months after i started going to eden)

[half shadow]

i don’t particularly care about any of the elder hairs but i like to slowly plug away at it every now and then

[tulip aspen]

yeah I'd never care to 100% the constellations because the elder hairs suck anyways

[rustic heron]

Just for that, I know all your theories are bogus. /j

In all seriousness, I need the info because, on my way down from Orbit, I saw exactly one star in the sky, and I know I've ascended one Elder. I want to know if the two are related, and you see more stars in the sky when you ascend more Elders.

Salem mentioned they might also make a constellation.

[unreal relic]

Huh

[tulip aspen]

crabs!
their eyes do glow red, i honestly dont fault myself never noticing cos their whole body is red so like how would i tell or notice

ngl, i dont know why we havent theorized about this, this is a direct correlation with the two darkness monsters, their eyes glow red when they see Light to attack

ill have to discuss with salem or anyone later for sure

@rustic heron
maybe in #questions-and-help or #outfit-requests ?

either way asking someone to go to orbit is a big ask in general so it'll be tough to get someone to go get the screenshots if someone doesnt already have them

[tranquil harbor]

Doesn't eden reset around now tho?

[rustic heron]

My Skykid lost all their winged light to drowning in order to get video footage of what happens when Skykids drown. No ask is too big.

[tulip aspen]

true!
so hurry lapis, clock's ticking!

also 100%er vets usually dont do eden anymore, and vets in general tbh, we already have waaaaaayyyy too much AC

[raw crypt]

I’ve got most ascended, I wouldn’t mind going to eden later today

[rustic heron]

YOU BEAUTY.

[tulip aspen]

legend

[tranquil harbor]

So is the star sparkle during the trip to the last place or is it at the last place where you meet up with the elders?

[tulip aspen]

thats no big deal tho, eden is exhausting, especially when played alone, that's 40+ minutes of your time locked in

[unreal relic]

Dem you madlad, what was it like? :0

[rustic heron]

Okay, so on your way down from Eden, after entering the Orbit gate, there will be a cutscene as your Skykid descends to Home Space. During that cutscene, I saw a star shining. If you could take a screenshot as you descend during that cutscene, you would become my personal hero.

[harsh pecan]

Eyyy 👏

[tulip aspen]

lets hope it works!

[tranquil harbor]

If you can go to eden yourself you should get a screenshot too Lapis. they can be compared

[harsh pecan]

r/madlads

[rustic heron]

See for yourself.

[hard marsh]

Skykid painful drowning

[tranquil harbor]

So no special animation for drowning? Looks like eden with less dramatic flare

[unreal relic]

Daaannngggg that is pain right there

[rustic heron]

I’m goon’ to Eden bois. Wish me luck.

[unreal relic]

True, the devs might wanna get on that

But at the same time I don't think any of them expected someone to actually drown themselves for the sake of something like this XD

[tulip aspen]

that's just the normal death animation yeah, it just sends you to the pity room like usual

[tranquil harbor]

No special drowning animation is one of those things where it'd be a nice touch, but it's also going to be so rare that I also get it'd be a total waste of time to put it in

[rustic heron]

I’m likely the only one who’s ever done it completely. I’ll do it again too if they ever did add a drowning animation.

[tranquil harbor]

You're doing god's work lapis

[nimble ingot]

"You have lost all of your Light"

How is a simple statement sound so ominous?

[rustic heron]

Light is not only your lifeforce, but also the key to divinity and salvation in Sky. You haven't just died; you've lost yourself completely, body and soul.

[tranquil harbor]

Your kid is extra dead. Also like, we know our lil characters are kids and that probably helps subconsciously

"Oh I just watched a baby die"

[nimble ingot]

That makes it almost sound like a death in Darksouls.

YOU HAVE DIED

[rustic heron]

What I wouldn't give to have the Dark Souls death splash screen show up in Sky when you lose all your light.

[nimble ingot]

*Fights the Leviathan. *

YOU HAVE LOST ALL OF YOUR LIGHT

[tranquil harbor]

I wonder if we're even gonna get to fight it, or if it's just there for cutscenes and it's gonna be season of flight's 'burn some plants' and we just gotta dodge some regular krills or something

[tulip aspen]

sad

[rustic heron]

Sky kids fight the Eden diamond. No more giving away your life; instead, you fly straight into the storm and punch the Diamond and the light kid within.

[nimble ingot]

Imagine hundreds of skykids, flying towards the eden crystal with flight of the Valkeries playing.

Then they would have caused another massive explosion. XD

[tranquil harbor]

Forest Mama lets us borrow her hammer

[raw crypt]

ok so i imagined if u say stars u did eden at night and instead of waiting till 9 or smth tomorrow i did eden at 3 am (not clickbait)

[raw crypt]

I saw three stars but I have more than 3 elders ascended

[rustic heron]

A champion of champions. Blessed be your travels forever.

[raw crypt]

also managed to stick the landing for once and got the elder statues, as well i bugged out and thought this message was interesting when i hopped back on (just putting here in case someone needs them GJDHDH)

[rustic heron]

Okay, so I saw 4 stars. I’m not sure what’s controlling this, but it seems to change depending on when one does Eden maybe?

Bonus pics:

[unreal relic]

Random thing here I wanna ask

So the elders have fanon names and that’s cool, but what about the normal spirits? Do they have fanon names or are we free to make our own for them?

[rustic heron]

Their usually named after their emote.

[unreal relic]

Ahhhhh, but no name that reflects the naming conventions of the world of Sky?

[tulip aspen]

theres 5 in that second shot of the video

they all blink in and out erratically so screenshots probably aren't the best for this situation, just video

[tulip aspen]

whoaaaAaaaa

[tranquil harbor]

No names. I guess you could just use the randomly generated names given to sky kids

[unreal relic]

Aight then, just making sure

Thanks :D

I might end up writing one-shot fanfics of the spirits’ memories if I could muster the mental effort to do so so I’ll let ya’ll know if that happens or not—

[nimble ingot]

Pardon?
I ran eden every week since the season of Enchantment.

[pastel brook]

munches popcorn

Hush, you're disturbing my beauty sleep!

Hush, you're disturbing my beauty sleep!

[unreal relic]

Wut the

[autumn wasp]

What do you do with all that AC?

[boreal nebula]

Prove Vault is more like a tower with a solid base carved inside the mountain

Walls not very visible on background

Color alteration glitch/bug, 2 days ago, before update

For a while I thought the colors could hint something, but not all light creatures are teal (even golden bells are very bright red) , also "darkstone"/lightcrystals was very shiny sometimes

[nimble ingot]

Nothing. lol.
It is fun to know that I can buy out the forgotten ark spell if I wanted to.

[nimble ingot]

lol is that the metallic glitch still a thing?
(I really hope so)

[boreal nebula]

Idk, I got lucky to get this last for hours the dqy before update was mandatory

Sadly after rentering GW (I instant skipped Elder cutscene I was krilled and instictively quit the game🥲

That was the Krill who said Hello

Sadly Eden wasn't anywhere in sight in Citadel

Not sure I it was actually the metal bug.. if only I could have visited Forest...

Cause twins looked as usual

[merry snow]

Btw can someone tell what's this channel for and what's lore. I kinda Googled it but it showed up something diff

[unreal relic]

Basically this channel is for overanalyzing everything in Sky and trying to tie everything together into a cohesive narrative story that is all but stated in the actual game

Lore in internet definition is more or less the underlying story of something, what makes something what it is in a game or a piece of media that tells a story

[tranquil harbor]

Like, 'the kingdom fell to ruin and now sky kids inhabit it' is lore.

[formal oxide]

lore is like a backstory! a plot of the whole game, not a single character but all the ideas for worldbuilding

[tranquil harbor]

In a fandom context, lore can be used in a much broader sense, so discussing 'do sky children eat?' also counts

[late wasp]

easily one of the most epic scenes i've seen

[nimble ingot]

The lore channel is where players can talk about the things the see in tbe game, the things they learned about the game and go over the details to see if there is a story behind it all.

The lore is the story of Sky, what skykid can find if they know where to look.

The game is open to jnterpretation, so what can be canon (true to the game) might not be obvious or ever revealed. Which means players can add their own ideas as theories.

[tranquil harbor]

Wait is that tower the wasteland area AND the vault?

Lore chat is also where we discuss inconsequential things like if mantas taste like meat

[boreal nebula]

IMO Vault is a tower that connect GW to Eden, only us we see it a realm/gamr level

[tranquil harbor]

'lore' in this context isn't just the story/history, but also allows for discussion of the world building/mechanics itself

[late wasp]

yeah, vault is just a building within the Wasteland Citadel.
you do go through a long corridor within the mountain though, where the Vault is located within.

[merry snow]

Ouu now I understand thanks y'all!!

[boreal nebula]

Even in Isle Temple hall the murals depict Vaul as a tower with a sphere + emblem on the top@tranquil harbor

[nimble ingot]

Vault could be partially build inside the mountain. What could have been a tower higher up might have been destroyed in the storm.

[tranquil harbor]

So that's not the vault in the pic, but just the wasteland citadel?

I've been up all night and I'm tired, everything is confusing right now

[boreal nebula]

Indeed, consider it embedded (50/50) on the side of it

[late wasp]

something like this
it is a "vault" (literally as the same says) inside the Eden Mountain, but it ascends to the surface somewhere by the mountain top.

[boreal nebula]

The red wall on the background ||usually imvisible|| is Vault if you ask me

[tranquil harbor]

yeah but I was thinking the tower above the doorway was vault

Not like, always, but you posted those and started talking and my sleepy brain went 'Wait hold up, that's the vault????'

[boreal nebula]

That with the king shape on the top?
Most likely no, Vault has a sphere on the top (both visible in Eden and Isle Temple Hall Murals

[nimble ingot]

There is a mural in the cave of prophecy that is similar to that (except from the front)

[late wasp]

there is also a zhao concept art showing the vault inside the mountain

[tranquil harbor]

Sleepy brain struck, I am happy I was just confused because that tower is so teeny

[boreal nebula]

We see that part in Vaul, but maybe its a memory from the how Eden could have been, with the giant Elders altars I mean, the archives of Vault seems to be mostly underground

So I wonder how much we could take Prophecy murals too litteraly (is Forest upside down? /jk)

[late wasp]

I've come to accept "it's all real"
Sky World's magic / illusions are tangible.
it matters not if its a conjured tea party table or a table done by a craftsman.
the memories / illusions cast from the Data-Crystals in the Vault are creating real things.
problem was that they are creating those things all at the same time, and so the whole place look like a dream, or a place where the rules of physics no longer apply.

It goes to show the true power of the Ancestor's tech/magic.

[boreal nebula]

Clues of my idea

[boreal nebula]

I am ready this transcript of a Q&A and it's funny how things we give importance in lore get called not much relevant 🥲 😅
#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[late wasp]

oh definitely, i really do think, like Jam does, that some things are just added without much thought put into them or care for lore.

but it's fun to create an uniting logic behind it all anyway

[boreal nebula]

LOL, I mean, there was a question about the water mural before entering office and there answer was "it s a scene of the last stage (Orbit) [...] but there is no deep meaning" 😂

[nimble ingot]

I had an appithany, one that made me see what @sharp lichen theorised on. (If I am not mistaken)

The king and the skykids may be connected in a way that is not immediately obvious.

I'll start at the beginning. It may have some loose threads, because I am treading on ground that theorists have touched upon in the past.

The game draws inspiration from real world ancient cultures and mythology.
TGC has done this before in Journey, except in that game, it was a mix of Islam, Chinese and Egyptian mythology with The hero's Journey as the driving force for the plot.
In Sky, it may include Greek, Roman, European and Buddhistic influences (there are others, but these have appeared in the majority of the game).

Looking at the Greek myths. I will jump to the Pheonix for the sake of brevity.
The pheonix is a bird that represents time and the cycle of life, one that can carry on despite death.
The megabird has a lot of similarities, namely it being made of light and flame, and residing in Orbit, the stage of rebirth.

In the concept art of the game, Megabird used to be depicted along side the King. A man that would rule over the kingdom and grant souls the ability to ascend. This is an analysis of what the King may have been and what his role was. Namely being compared to the Greek figure, Father time (also known as the Grim Reaper).

The curent game takes place in a time where the king is gone. Where spirits cannot ascend on their own and the cycle of life has been broken.
The game tells the tale of how skykids seek out these spirits, sheperd them to the temples and help them ascend.
With skykids, the cycle of life in the world of sky can once more be made whole.

The winged light may likely be the fragments of the King (I was not fully on board with that, but for the sake of making the thoery work. The winged light must mean that they are from the megabird, or the king. While I dont have the proof, this will hopefully be good enough as a start.

In the words of the Cooper, the astronaut in Interstellar, "We are the bridge."
Us skykids are standing in for the role the king used to serve. We are the ones now helping the world heal.

But why?
Why are we doing this?

Skykids alone are not the solution. We are but a piece of the puzzle.
We are continously discovering new areas as we reconnect with the spirits.

We might be looking for the lost Prince of Sky.

Why is that?
Without a ruler, Eden will remain ina state of chaos, and the world cannot fully heal. With the King gone, there must be a prince.

I am not going to say a skykid can be this Prince. What I am saying that we might be able to gin him, eventually.

Only time will tell.

Thank you to the theorists that have stuck around thus far and thank you lore chat for being yourselves.
May this hive mind of madlads live on till Eden freezes over.

[boreal nebula]

I too think king had some role on ascending spirits (instead of trying to harness energy from Megabird I hope we was trying to get a direct bridge to Orbit)

[late wasp]

my personal take is that the King is Lucifer trying to become an artificial megabird lol

[undone harbor]

King stays there to collect the ticket
No illegal ascending y’all

[harsh pecan]

I really like your theory

[nimble ingot]

Thank you.

There are bits that were influenced by the lore chat. I Dont even know what parts would belong to who exactly, aside for Baudshaw and his king theories.

[boreal nebula]

Lore is mostly opensource

[sly pasture]

hey, lore chat
I've been building my own seasonal timeline for a while, but I can't for the love of Krill figure out what is the lore behind Gratitude and Rhytm. I get that their seasons may be a bit barebones because they were among the first seasons to be developed, but I want to hear y'all theories about it, so tell me what you figured out from them

[harsh pecan]

Idk about Gratitude but imo Rhythm is just a group of performers trying to find eachother or something

[rigid mural]

I linked Gratitude to candles since their masks fit the colors (white, red and gold) & they look like some kind of ceremonial troupe associated with renewal enough to be chosen to host the eastern lunar new year (days of fortune).

Perhaps they worshipped light and candles.

[late wasp]

do they appear in other seasons?

[nimble ingot]

Maybe?
maybe in dreams

[boreal nebula]

I wonder if crystals are alive

They seem to retreat as we get closer to them as if they are in agony / in pain and don't want Sky kids to get closer to them till they lash back.
I also wonder if the blue crystals (pretty similar to those in Abyss and maybe in Forest I call "Light Crystal" ||as implied by Tearful Light Miner||) on the first sky kids fallen /petrified are a form of sky kid bleed/pure light solidified , cause it looks escaping in a radical direction and also our lightsoul after we crumble

[formal skiff]

huh interesting observation

[tulip aspen]

nice lol

[tulip aspen]

im not exactly following tho, so y'all are saying the shine glitch images SHOW the vault poking out of the mountain?

[late wasp]

shine glitch images?

[tulip aspen]

oh nevermind sophos, only teb said it sorry

[raw crypt]

Oops accidentally sent early GJDHDJDJ, but the texture is visible without the bug as well! Noticed it while messing around one day

[tulip aspen]

how in the blazes did you get THAT out of bounds

also hmm
i think thatd giant room that wall is covering is wasteland elder's throne room
that place is massive

[raw crypt]

I think that could be the case, since vault would probably be a bit further back given the halls before and after the throne room
And I just ascended normally (i had brazier to recharge) tho sometimes the windwall would act up

[frigid tinsel]

Dunno how much this’ll help but I’m doing Eden with a friend later today and I have no elders ascended. Control group ig

[frigid tinsel]

You can see that wall without the glitch if you get on top of the Wasteland temple

[keen shore]

I have only been able to think of one theory so far on why others are gray before you light them. The downside is that it sounds like a conspiracy your weird uncle would post on Facebook

[frigid tinsel]

i think it falls under the technical limitation option but I am curious about what people think about it lore wise

[signal burrow]

If anyone here has read the Dragons in our Midst series, I believe the red stones in Eden are candlestones omL. The candlestones drain light energy and that’s what the stones in Eden do 😳 Hope comparison to other fandoms is ok.

Also similar to red Lyrium from Dragon Age o.o

[frigid tinsel]

you're on the right track. in Sky, red is almost synonymous with darkness corruption and darkness is a force that consumes light. krills' eyes and crabs turn red when they spot light-saturated skykids. when they attack, skykids lose light.

so the red crystals in Eden have been dubbed corrupted darkstones. unlike regular darkstones and power diamonds, these actively suck out light. while they're inanimate and can't pursue skykids, they will drain light within their proximity.

addendum: don't be afraid to bring in viewpoints from other series. it's helpful getting other perspectives or drawing on similarities.

[tawdry whale]

is there any ongoing theory that the skids and stuff on the sky planet aren't carbon based?

[half shadow]

I’ve been lowkey thinking about that. I think that they’re instead “Light-based”

[tawdry whale]

would also explain why both them and their clothes are fireproof

[signal burrow]

@frigid tinsel I’m glad to know the fandom name for them! I’ve been fascinated by the stones for awhile.

[frigid tinsel]

My Working Theory on the Composition of a Skykid
–clothing, hair, masks & other cosmetics made of light.
–a humanoid physical shell made of some magic-induced earthen material (i.e. clay, stone, ash, charcoal, or meteorite) that has a hole in the chest and eyes.
–this hollow shell is full of light, such as winged light and neutral light.
–their cape, a manifestation of winged light.
–their flame, manifesting as the light in the hole in their chest and held outside their bodies via a red candle.
–their soul, appearing as a blue sparkle.

[late wasp]

i've thought about silicon lifeforms.
but usually I just default to them being Crystal Gems lmao

[signal burrow]

@half shadow What about plasma based?

[half shadow]

Plasma? Maybe! I dunno how much sense it is to equate real world science to Sky all the time though

[frigid tinsel]

same, I've been drawing on Steven Universe lore for my theory the composition of skykids. they're made of light, specifically their cosmetics and flames being composed of tangible/material light. like the Gems, skids have a physical part of their body – their shell – full of more fluid light

[signal burrow]

@half shadow I only do it to help find references to make my fan art more realistic.

[half shadow]

makes sense! sometimes it’s fun to get deep into the “scientific” explanation for things like magic in games, I know I like to think about that stuff a lot too

[frigid tinsel]

a lot of fantasy and science fantasy media has and should have a magic system, rules to follow in order to make narrative sense in the long run. also helps makes the magic and the world itself feel cohesive. Sky has a magic system, just need to figure it out. and it's fun if not a bit frustrating

[keen shore]

I’m late, sorry, but my “first try” explanation for how it works is based off of my concept of how spirit memories work. Bear with me here, because it’s really weird. If it’s hard to understand, I don’t blame you - I am STRUGGLING to explain it.

My idea for those currently is that the spirits are trapped in a plane of reality similar to ours, the one someone was talking about a few days ago that could be manipulated by memories/imagination and where all the “illusionary” stuff like Vault, the tents on the ark, etc. come from. The purple light/meditating would just be a means of making that reality more visible in ours, leading to things that look like illusions or out of place. The spirits are currently trapped in this dimension, forced to relive a specific memory over and over again; lighting each memory allows them to project what’s happening in their brain into your world so you can help them work past it.

Yeah, that was super weird and there’s probably a better explanation, sorry. Anyway, on to the actual subject now.

Strangers would work in a similar way. They exist as you in a similar parallel(?) reality overlaid over ours and lighting them helps them project their actual desired forms into yours. This would somewhat explain gameplay things like server splits, why you would need to friend someone to see them again, and why you can “summon” your friends in home to light them or give them hearts even when they’re already playing the game.

I was not lying when I said this sounds like a conspiracy theory. I am fully aware of how bonkers it is and am struggling to figure out a better explanation for it

[frigid tinsel]

doesn't sound like a conspiracy theory when we're already legitimizing alternate planes of reality and it makes cohesive sense

[keen shore]

You say that, but if I tried to explain this to someone who doesn’t frequent this chat, they would think I was insane

[frigid tinsel]

true, they don't got lorechat on the brain

[keen shore]

…to be fair, they’d probably look at me the same way if I told them 50+% of vault isn’t real, which is a reasonable reaction even though that bit is basically confirmed

[half shadow]

you step into lorechat and are infected with brainworms

I just did some digging and found my old headcanons about Skykid “culture” if anybody would like to read

[frigid tinsel]

👀

[formal skiff]

Yes i would read

Ok I LOVE THAT

[keen shore]

Those are so good and really cute <3 I love the bit about celebrating someone’s first candle even if it’s not very well made

[half shadow]

thank yall

[rustic heron]

Skykid culture is the culture of a 5th grade classroom: Playing in the mud, doing cartwheels, and screaming loudly.

[half shadow]

a moths first candle: lumpy, kind of sagging to one side, the wick is sputtering

surrounding “older” skykids: LOUD HYPING UP HONKS

[formal skiff]

YEEAAAHHHH

[half shadow]

and sometimes having deep introspective thoughts about death and the universe and bonding over the shared feelings of the weight of existence truly dawning upon everyone at the same time

[keen shore]

And then they go and make another mud pie

[rustic heron]

Moff: Writes metaphysical treaty in the mud
Also moff: Eats it.

[frigid tinsel]

this is why moths bite people and scream incoherently

[formal skiff]

Indeed…
remembers questioning existence at eleven pm last night

[half shadow]

freshly fallen post-Eden skids have wobbly legs and sometimes need some helping around for a little bit after

[formal skiff]

Awww

[frigid tinsel]

like astronauts returning from space

[keen shore]

Moths would totally attempt to eat everything they find, including dirt, considering they have no knowledge of stuff that would be poisonous/harmful for humans to eat and cannot be harmed by eating it, considering it would just burn up inside them. Worst case scenario, someone eats a firework and has to reform their body afterwards, but it’s not like they die permanently

[rustic heron]

Veterans also do this, but in secret, because they enjoy the earthy aftertaste of mud.

[keen shore]

I imagine there’s a spot near home or somewhere else that’s just filled with candle cakes, and everyone takes naps there to recharge

[rustic heron]

Moths make candle forts, entirely out of candles and mud.

[half shadow]

the shores of home are covered in sandcastles and sand-candles and doodles in the sand

[rustic heron]

Moths: Make flower crowns for each other
Also moths: Jojo pose with flower crowns

[frigid tinsel]

I've always imagined spirits who visit Homespace teaching and helping skykids make the holiday structures like the giant sandcastles, the igloo, and pier, or growing that one giant cherry blossom spirit tree. the ice rink the skids came up themselves and there's that same group who get excited at first snowfall cos they get to start cultivating the ice to make the rink.

[keen shore]

Do you think moths roll around in the mud sometimes in order to make their outer shells stronger + get rid of any scratches?

[rustic heron]

Or MUD ARMOR.

[frigid tinsel]

moth covered in mud: with this I am impervious to krills!
krill:

[frigid tinsel]

headcanon: Sleepy Traveler is an enigma. they're the only spirit who has ever arrived at Homespace by boat. sometimes they show up at the Forgotten Ark to restock spells and nobody has a clue how they got there (in my ficverse, the wasteland navigators help them but they just show up and everyone is just "wut is this guy"). whenever they're Home, there's always a few younger skykids who try to convince them to ascend but they wave them off. the older skids have just given up on them. at untold times, the Traveler packs up and leaves.

[tawdry whale]

wait what if skids cant go in rain but can in water bc of the humidity. like it softens their clay

[frigid tinsel]

possible. I've liken the rain to acid rain, but instead of acid the rain is infected with darkness, which leeches out their light.

[tawdry whale]

i think that'd make all the water polluted too
(though maybe its safe diluted since the geyser in sanc?)

i guess it really could be likened to alcohol where at high concentrations it can hurt your skin and you can drink it (like slouch)
the dark crabs are just wasted

[frigid tinsel]

well Forest is the only place it rains in-game. in-universe, maybe it rains occasionally elsewhere (weather patterns, yknow) but because it isn't constant, the darkness is diluted or there isn't that much darkness in the rain that occurs outside of Forest

[tawdry whale]

oooo

[keen shore]

• There are more spirits on the ark murals than there are spirits we can save
• Sleepy Traveler has consistent access to spells and appears in a boat similar to the one we use to travel to the forgotten ark

Coincidence? I think not. Sleepy traveler is secretly an enchantment spirit

Am still trying to think of ways to explain why strangers are gray before you light them btw. If anyone has ideas please share them, the other realities theory is the only one popping into my brain atm

If home really is an illusionary/alternate reality space, then maybe the traveler isn’t really a spirit in of themselves but a kind of… I don’t know how to explain it, like Megabird realized we needed someone to buy spells from and someone’s appearance just got recycled for them. …maybe it’s one of the spirits I was talking out yesterday, whose personalities and memories got eaten away by darkness so only their appearance/energy would remain

Imagine finally getting to die and god turns you into an npc

[rustic heron]

You know, I went over the new Intro again, and now I'm not so convinced about the dying thing again.

[half shadow]

wdym?

[magic minnow]

||Okay. I’m curious. I was doing some clipping and…We don’t normally see the person on the boat where the entrance of the office is.
Who’s the lonely one rowing/roaming the boat around the office? I wonderrrr….||

||Also decided to take pics of the inside of the house since it’s hard to see. But who’s the house belong to? The boat rowing fellow?? The world may never know HMMMMM||
||I also appreciate the house and the developers bothering to model things inside the house even though it’s hard to see. I enjoy these kinds of things in games||

[frigid tinsel]

First off, yes! A fellow ‘fro enjoyer.

Secondly, the Office mural is of the light cycle. This isn’t quite the image on the water, but similar enough. Some think it could be the king.

Also wow how’d you get in the house?

Btw you don’t have to spoiler censor in this channel.

[lyric isle]

YO EX QUESTGIVER LINKED TO MY MOTH SEASON ALL ALONG 👀👀👀👀👀👀

I enjoy this theory a lot

[magic minnow]

(Ooooh okay. Thank you! I didn’t know if I should spoiler them just in case :’D)
Oooo I had a feeling the king might be involved. I also had another thought about the row boat at the office too. Are our Sky children maybe the reincarnation of the king since we revolve around the office too? So many questions that I would love answered someday from the creators haha!
And YEA it was a bit of trial and error since the camera moves SO MUCH but I managed to try to angle myself and keep the camera steady so I can see the inside

[keen shore]

I debated tagging you in the original post but was like “nah. I don’t want to be annoying”

[lyric isle]

is it bad to consider the offseason qg and sleepy traveller the same person? it’s for comfort reasons on my end

[late wasp]

I would like to point something out.
a minor observation and lore bit, the kind I like the most, instead of the large themes in the game

[lyric isle]

not lore. just because i’m really really really missing them and am wanting to consider now an opportunity to see them

[keen shore]

Them being the same person is hilarious and kind of scary because it implies that they’re some mysterious powerful spirit who not only has unlimited spell access, but is capable of self duplication and manifesting candles out of nowhere

Personally I see them as two separate people & the off season qg finally decided to ascend, or (like I mentioned earlier) an illusion/manifestation made in home specifically for the purpose of giving us certain things (spells/candles) just because it makes the most sense to me, but maybe they got valley elder-ed

[lyric isle]

i’m not letting them be forgotten. anything that keeps the memory alive until we see them again if ever will do

[rustic heron]

The intro refers to the Ancestors as Spirits, and when we relive their memories, we "awaken" them, not free them. That's the exact wording used in the new intro.

[keen shore]

Adding alarm clock to the list of secondary functions skykids can have

[lyric isle]

my quest in the long term is to honour their existence as to not let them fade into a forgotten memory of older players

even if i’m only doing this for a small portion of the fanbase, every little helps

[keen shore]

Agreed, I feel so bad.. imagine losing your job to a statue

[rustic heron]

Offseason QG should be forgotten and wiped from the annals of history. /j

[lyric isle]

being openly upset about it won’t help. i plan to make comics and fanart and stuff but only after those are planned

i rant about them too much here but yeah

[late wasp]

honestly I have no idea what could have possibly be wrong with what I typed. I formatted it to be cute and everything.
(I HATE THE BOT)

treasure reef has an arch at the entrance with primitive style
indicating it was an ancient site where the Cave Shrine for Mantas existed
Ancestor Civilization exploited and spoiled this sacred site into the facility

[rustic heron]

Sounds abour right. Ancestors are actually terrible, if you think about it. They had what's coming to them.

[keen shore]

OH I NOTICED THAT TOO!! It has one of the flight arches at the entrance. My interpretation of it was more along the lines of that technology being exploited to lure light creatures into the facility, though, instead of being there before the facility

[lyric isle]

the thing that always makes me cackle is that one tiny spirit on the mural screaming at the leviathan

[keen shore]

I mean, they’re just like us humans. …they’d probably exploited their home environment less than we have

[rustic heron]

People are also bad.

[late wasp]

it's like seeing a Native American sacred site, and finding out there is gold and diamonds under it.
then starting an entire mining facility, and even some research in it, with total disregard.

[lyric isle]

top 10 murals of moments before disaster

[late wasp]

all and all, I just like to think it probably represent a Pre-Industrial Wasteland culture, where they have a deep respect for the sea creatures, since they are a seafaring culture.

[lyric isle]

wait but what’s a sea creature and what’s not

I think the usual ones are all amphibious

but e.g. the fish and looooong eel and the leviathan are purely water-based (whatever the word is) though

[lyric isle]

dw I am aware of this despite how much I gush about the spirits

they are the biggest friends. but they also did things

[late wasp]

honestly this is the worst experience with a bot I ever had

[rustic heron]

Welcome to my world. My fight against Skybot is eternal, and I always lose.

[late wasp]

if at least it dm'd the deleted message.
for a server so large to not even have this basic feature.

[keen shore]

I guess I have to retype it, to be fair I should have known that was a censored word

Basically what I was saying is that I was uncomfortable with the line of thought that “because some people within a group did bad things, and others benefited from it, that means they all deserve to die” because 1) humans are the same way and 2) it leads to more disturbing implications the longer you think about it, in terms of what it can justify

Obviously not trying to start an argument or anything here, just wanted to point out my POV

[lyric isle]

spirits are still my best friends. they didn’t do great things but I still love them a lot as characters

[late wasp]

you are right. we are seeing the effects of that thinking in those darker times.
lapis probably only said "ancestors" (generalized) to save time, but I'm glad you said this, salem.

[rustic heron]

Yeah. I likely made it sound more impactful than intended by being so curt. To elaborate, I don't see it in terms of "deserve" or not deserve, but in terms that actions have consequence. The manipulation of the environment had consequences of suffering for all, deserved or not.

[lyric isle]

why else would I be so angry about the offseason questgiver

you can tell I adore the spirits

[keen shore]

No problem! It’s difficult to talk about these things in depth when a bot is censoring half the words you need for it, and assumed it was shortened for brevity, just wanted to mention how wary that whole line of thinking made me

[rustic heron]

I know we're not supposed to talk about current events, but you needn't look far for the human analogue. The actions of a few have lead to the suffering of many, suffice it to say. Ancestors, and we, are helpless to stop the consequences of inane decisions made at the behest of pride and vanity.

[late wasp]

the year is 2025, thatdoodlebot censorship got so out of hand that lorechat communicates with caveman speech to avoid having paragraphs of eloquent speech deleted.
short simple sentences.

"ancestor bad?"
"ancestor bad yes"

[lyric isle]

I definitely need to work on getting less angry about the situation and express how strongly I feel in other ways

I need to let go. Still not letting them be forgotten though

[keen shore]

Back to the main topic because we obviously drifted away from it - the idea that those arches were there BEFORE the refinery builders is really neat. You can see some chimes hanging off of them [or what used to be chimes. They’re all gray and derelict now]. I feel like if those chimes weren’t useful, the arch would just get destroyed to make more room for refinery buildings, so maybe me and Sophos are both right and they got misused later to lure light creatures in?

[rustic heron]

OF QG GOAT. ☑️ & ❤️

[lyric isle]

goat?

[late wasp]

Greatest of all Time

[keen shore]

They’re not around any more… god turned them into an actual goat for some reason and we’re still trying to figure out why

[rustic heron]

The mountain goat for the Caves and Cliffs update had to come from somewhere.

[lyric isle]

I don’t know what to do anymore but wish to express my anger as a wish to keep them…well, not alive, but alive in terms of presence in the memories of others through art instead of angry outbursts

and hope to encourage others to do so too for future gens of players

don’t answer “where did the qg go” when offseason hits as “it’s normal”. answer it as “there was one before”

[keen shore]

I’m still mad they got removed too, I miss them </3 the statue just doesn’t feel the same

There’s probably <10 people [incl us] who actually cared about and were sad for the change, though, sadly

[lyric isle]

i’m still livid
i’m keeping the memory alive. that’s my goal

[rustic heron]

OF QG: Was I a good Quest Giver?
Death: No. I heard you were one of the best.

[keen shore]

It’s a really weird experience getting invested in/liking spirits and the lore of sky in general, but being fully aware the entire time that you’re somehow in the minority and almost everyone else in the player base cares much more about candles and cosmetics.

It’s one of the reasons I rarely leave this chat, because I just don’t care about either of those things and seeing them and only them be the main focus of the player base can feel oddly… alienating?

[lyric isle]

made a tiny server in order to have a few close friends to talk about the spirits to as oh boy do I feel that

[late wasp]

i have the entire server muted, save for this channel. I have no idea what the other 300k+ members do.

[keen shore]

Sophos made me think of an important question. …could spirits take off their clothes and change into a different outfit if they wanted to, or are they just stuck in those clothes forever?

[lyric isle]

considering Rally and Grandma and Skater, I’d say so for former

[rustic heron]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[tranquil harbor]

Yeah, Skater blows that question out of the water. Speaking of skater, I miss her skating around in the rink, tgc I want her back

[late wasp]

my recent realization was that the jars being transported carry Spells/Blessings.
since we can buy spells/blessing from these jars @ Home.

considering some spells/blessings are related to cloth changing, I assume they do. Using these.
Also... ||there will be canonical wardrobes soon|| (beta)

[keen shore]

Okay good point about the skater… So, if they took off their clothes, would there just be like a ghostly looking pair of pants lying around? Would they be able to put on jusr any clothes or do they have to go to the Ghost Clothes Store and wear Spirit Clothes

[lyric isle]

you get skater back, I get offseason qg back
the perfect double whammy

[tranquil harbor]

Skater's cape and mask weren't spirit clothes, so they don't need Special Spirit ClothesTM per say

Also, why can't off season qg just walk around home space and give out hugs. Somebody has to be taking care of the sky kids

[lyric isle]

FEEDBACK THAT FEEDBACK THAT

[late wasp]

actually, come to think of it.
we see an ancestor change clothes in one memory of the Sanctuary Islands

[keen shore]

Logically, the clothes probably jsut manifest out of the same light as the spirits themselves, so they just change clothes whenever they want. Which begs the question, how much of themselves can they transform? Is it possible to idk enter the forgotten ark one day and the enchantment guide has cat ears on?

[yes, I think the enchantment guide is a cat person, and will not elaborate]

[tranquil harbor]

First: where is feedback?

Second: Whenever an ancestor changes clothes they just add stuff on top of their model. So is it lore or gameplay limitations

Also, the clothes being not blue and spirity implies they are not the same material as the spirits possibly

[lyric isle]

@tranquil harbor #live-feedback

questgiver hugs is one of my favourite updates. but I will not rest until we can hug the offseason qg because they’re one too and deserve it

[tranquil harbor]

There isn't a single message in that channel, I will die from awkwardness if I do it. You are free to steal my idea bro -hides under my sky kid's cape-

[rustic heron]

(˵ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°˵)

[lyric isle]

only nothing there (deleted as you send) for privacy and to avoid arguments

but i understand

[keen shore]

Why are most base game spirits dressed in such similar clothes? Did they all just come together one day and decide to manifest in identical outfits to mess with people?

[lyric isle]

cultural thing prob

[late wasp]

tbf, we manifest with some default drip
i imagine their are born with some peasant clothing

[tranquil harbor]

Probably a mix of cultural and technical time saving. Lots of games reuse model things. It's easy to put every spirit in the same dress

[lyric isle]

probably gameplay limitation and for consistency’s sake - look at the switch trailer. that’s prob more accurate to spirit wear

[keen shore]

Imagine dying and god tells you “sorry… you’re too poor to change clothes, you’re stuck in this forever”

Maybe this is why they want our candles so bad

[rustic heron]

OF QG is Sky's Satan confirmed.

[lyric isle]

I still run up to the questgiver when I pick up my dailies

it only feels polite

[tranquil harbor]

Does questgiver give you candles or do you have to go to the statue? I go to the statue because I thought that's how it works

[late wasp]

sorry to ask, but what is OF LMAO
i'm trying to figure out, but I can't

[keen shore]

You enter the forest elder cutscene to see that the forest elder has decided to manifest as their fursona for the day. What do you do

[lyric isle]

I headcanon the questgiver still gives them but the rock is an alerting device or something

[tranquil harbor]

Vol did you make the suggestion in feedback?

QG outsourced to a program lmao

[rustic heron]

Oh my God. I meant to abbreviate Off Season, but I did OF instead of OS. Damn.

[lyric isle]

tbh I came up with this theory on the spot and it is purposefully in spite

[keen shore]

The off-season QG is crouched inside the statue (which is hollow) because they’re shy

Don’t give Lapis any ideas

[lyric isle]

one of the first things I plan to do when I get the black cape (which I am for the purpose of being the qg) is to stamp on the rock

[tranquil harbor]

I couldn't even figure out what OF was supposed to mean until that got deleted lmao, y'all

[rustic heron]

I'd subscribe to Vault Elder's OF.

[lyric isle]

uhh lapis not to ruin the fun but you might get in trouble so hold up with that

[tranquil harbor]

You guys are gonna get in trouble

But that makes me crave valley elder social media lol. Work out regimens and athlete diets let's go
maybe posing with the sky kids who bring them light

[rustic heron]

Valley Elder selfies. Enough said.

[tranquil harbor]

One of them fleeing like hell is on their heels because they made the other one angry. It's just blurry figures

[lyric isle]

I want to watch Juggler play NotITG on stream while juggling

that one thing Ash said has stuck with me forever
Juggler being a streamer in her silly hints

[rustic heron]

I think I found an Eden boat in the Sanctuary reef.

[tranquil harbor]

Wait, that he would be a streamer or streamers are legit a thing in sky rofl

[tulip aspen]

you're going to get MUTED MATE

[tranquil harbor]

xtreme juggle tricks stream

[lyric isle]

apparently people have played DDR while juggling and that’s my headcanon for something they’d do, in a modernish Sky AU in my head

plays rhythm games while being from Rhythm

[tranquil harbor]

Season of Rhythm spirits were performers right? It'd make sense to possibly stream their performances. Streamer Juggler would be an asset

[lyric isle]

sorry for derailing the conversation so much but I have this anxiety of the questgiver being forgotten if I don’t discuss them so

[tranquil harbor]

He was gone before I got here but I'm on board for his return

[half shadow]

if I had better brain power today I would love to ramble about how sky is a very hopepunk game but alas it’s not a great mental day lads

[lyric isle]

what’s hopepunk?

[hushed steeple]

^^

[rustic heron]

If they are forgotten, then let them be forgotten. Nothing is eternal. Their time is gone, their job is done. Let them, and yourself, rest.

[half shadow]

here, from wiki:

Hopepunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, positioned as a counter to grimdark. Works in the hopepunk subgenre are about characters fighting for positive change, radical kindness, and communal responses to challenges.

[tranquil harbor]

That's just straight up canon tho

[late wasp]

what qg?

[tulip aspen]

wth where is that

[lyric isle]

they were important, but never got a proper farewell - was just removed from history in a sense just like that

and I’m very angry about this

[half shadow]

“The aesthetic of hopepunk is generally agreed to incorporate a mood of gentleness or softness and a sense of self-awareness of weaponized optimism, with a worldview that fighting for positive social systems is a worthwhile fight. There is an emphasis on cooperation as opposed to conflict. There is an awareness within hopepunk works that happy endings are not guaranteed and that nothing is permanent.”

[tranquil harbor]

the office portal

37 second slow mode is good when the chat is busy but when it's not it's just long enough to make me go nuts

[hushed steeple]

Who u talking about?

[half shadow]

Yknow what’s messed up? On switch we don’t get the tired shopkeeper spirit or whatever their name is. I didn’t even know they were a thing until I tried out Sky on my phone

brb running to #wishlist-and-ideas-archived

[lyric isle]

I can tell you’re joking but I’m scared of that being the only response I get in a few seasons’ time so can you not (not mad dw)

[tranquil harbor]

I get that apparently they're there to send you to the merch shop but come on, let switch users have some flavor

[lyric isle]

i’m just really angry that we got little notice, in the middle of a season. no chance to say goodbye properly

[half shadow]

It’d be nice to see that fella again

[lyric isle]

nice is an understatement

[half shadow]

It’d be very swag epic to see that fella again

[hushed steeple]

What fella?

[tranquil harbor]

Off season quest giver

[lyric isle]

the offseason ex-questgiver

[hushed steeple]

Ohh

[half shadow]

Yeah, they looked like this and gave out daily quests when there wasn’t a seasonal guide around:

[tranquil harbor]

Let them walk around home and give us hugs. Make them the baby sitter

Also, while the stone is great, having a spirit stand there to let you remember where your quests are at a glance is still useful

[hushed steeple]

They are such a happy fella c:

[lyric isle]

mind if I save that picture
very high-quality

[half shadow]

them and the shopkeeper should show up playing cards or something at home

[lyric isle]

and I want them back but doubt enough people actually care and i’m struggling dealing with that

[late wasp]

i love them 💍

[half shadow]

… huh, who has been the off season quest giver since they were shelved?

[lyric isle]

nobody

that’s the problem

[late wasp]

the antler head guy iirc
they were for the new year AND the valentines quest

[half shadow]

conspiracy theory; it’s the same guy he just has the deer cosmetic now

wait oh my god it totally is

[lyric isle]

shall we actually talk about lore now? been going on about this more than enough and going in circles every time

[late wasp]

real theory: fish actually played a role in Season of Abyss, and you can see him being credited in the Credits. He was one of the many fishes in Treasure Reef.

[half shadow]

the questgiver decided to embrace the furry lifestyle in their retirement i’m very proud of them

[late wasp]

they finally saved enough candles from their off season job to buy a cosmetic

[half shadow]

SPEAKING OF FISH

The fish in the reef changed their appearance! Now they look even more similar to the “koi” fish, though I did really like the other ones. I would love to have more fish variations ingame though I think that’d be super cool

[tranquil harbor]

koi fish are fresh water fish after all... Wait, does sky have salt water? Does it have fresh water? Are they all the same beyond 'polluted or not polluted'

[half shadow]

TGC if you’re listening: I will design fish for you and I’ll do it for free

[late wasp]

in the future we will definitely get more fish-season

[tranquil harbor]

I want stuff like turtles. We have mantas and fish, gimme something less aquatic

I mean, I guess they're all aquatic but turtles are different in spirit

[late wasp]

OH YEAS. But really I just want PETS.
I would legit spend a portion of my income in cosmetics if they were pets.

[tranquil harbor]

Your very own Oreo: Just $55.99!

[late wasp]

give me 5
||just gotta call the bank and borrow some money||

[half shadow]

Koi are fresh water, yeah! Though the fish in the small ponds we’ve seen arent technically “koi” like in real life, they obviously don’t really resemble irl koi. They look more like little swordtails or platys - other freshwater fish of course but we don’t even know for sure if water differences matter to Light-based life forms

[tranquil harbor]

Sky kid gets a little pet carrier backpack. Using it places a pet on the ground who will run around your kid, maybe even follow them around (unless you get too far away or somethin'). It has a 'pet' button. We already have head birds and rabbits, the head slot could be used for pets

[half shadow]

About the fish changes though, I am wondering why theyd do that. Was it to make the the relation between those fish and the “koi” fish more obvious? The orange shade is very reminiscent, and they also share the same little behavior of swirling around the player. Brb gonna go take high def fish pictures for comparison. If I can’t be a marine biologist in real life then I might as well be one in Sky

[tranquil harbor]

the koi fish swirl? I thought the ones at home were terrified of me and trying to escape

[lyric isle]

I don’t want pets because they would seriously overtake the game
but the idea is nice

[rustic heron]

You can already have pets in Sky.

Just go to Isle and light a moth. THey'll follow you everywhere.

[tranquil harbor]

No, it must become ThatPetGame. It's the only way forward /jk

[brittle spruce]

Another one is the bird in Wind Paths

[half shadow]

oh. those don’t work. dangit hold on EDIT: agh i don’t think i can get the videos to work but they were SUPER GOOD

[tranquil harbor]

??? Did someone call me?

[half shadow]

Nono I pinged you to reply and show the videos of the fish I had taken, but I deleted the message because the videos weren’t working, sorry!

[tranquil harbor]

ah, okay

[half shadow]

EY I GOT IT! Here’s the fish swirl comparison videos!:

It’s not a 1:1 but I think they still do the same kinda twirling thing, which is pretty cool

[acoustic merlin]

Okay, so if i wanna dive in and like,, find the story of sky where do i start?

[odd pagoda]

I think there’s a google doc pinned here somewhere with Sky lore

[acoustic merlin]

Oohhoo

[tranquil harbor]

underwater fish learned from the butterflies

[odd pagoda]

There’s also concept art from Sky: Light Awaits, though I’m not sure if all is canon or not, there’s a timeline on the website here if I remember correctly https://www.tomzhao.com/

[tranquil harbor]

There is a sky kid using a crab as an umbrella loooool

[acoustic merlin]

I love the concept art its so preddy eheh

Omg crab umbrella

[tranquil harbor]

@tulip aspen this art says the arowanas have feathers/scales. Might be of interest to you (but it's concept so -shrug-)

[tulip aspen]

which one?

[hushed steeple]

You got picture? I know the “koi” now have a white underbelly again!

[tranquil harbor]

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cf9836e9d1c5200018df596/1582059251784-DS6YZWVQEK2P1D153E6S/086_Sky.jpg?format=2500w this one @tulip aspen

[glossy barn]

WOAHHHH

[harsh pecan]

:0

[tulip aspen]

o
hmm okay well lets see

that concept has light creatures.... recharging?

which is a really cool concept, but it doesn't exist anymore; because Light creatures are (in launch game) pure and total sources of Light, they can't lose Light or anything

this matches up with the fact that, in the concepts, they were going moreso with a theme of darkness being moreso metaphorical than just being a material condition
"the darkness inside you takes over"
(hate, pessimism, etc)

that doesn't exist as much anymore, especially for Light creatures and darkness as story beats; it became a lot simpler and black and white

Light creatures are just pure essence / sources of Light and darkness is just a name for the corrupted Light that comes out of power diamonds, creating darkness pollution

[tranquil harbor]

Hmmm, interesting

head empty, only crab umbrella

[tulip aspen]

whoa, it shows light creatures eating wax, never noticed

[tranquil harbor]

I was wondering if that was a fish or just a view of the descendant's own 'feathers'

[tulip aspen]

coelecanth is prolly the one that most looks like they have feathers for sure, even in modern in-game

definitely very fascinating, thanks for the tag!

[tranquil harbor]

There's so much in there, even if being concept makes a lot of it dubious

Huh, the fish is actually shaped like our flying sky kids...

[tulip aspen]

i saw a fish but it could be

also yea concepts are dubious, they aren't ever proof or even evidence, and despite whatever lapis makes of it we've never used it as solid evidence smh

as al and lapis said, it's merely a means to an end; it gives us more ideas to brainstorm about

it can also support in game evidence, just never confirm anything on it's own

[tranquil harbor]

Yeah, but lore chat isn't about being 'correct' so it's all fun. But since you'd been raving about that topic I thought you'd like it

[tulip aspen]

i did!

[rigid mural]

remember painted mantas

[tranquil harbor]

Oh god that's gorgeous

[boreal nebula]

I saw thAt too one day during SoAssembly. You look exhausted, would you like an hammock? || Sadly it works just as a hammock, unlike at that time, when it could be used with Table Drive Glitch||

But it was funny that metal glitch was capable of showing it from the very start of the battlefield map

[tranquil harbor]

Mantas were clearly used as transportation/pets of some sort, so I don't see why painting them is impossible

[harsh pecan]

I wish we could see that in-game

[rigid mural]

it stemmed from a convo where we talked about dyeing wooly mantas, then we thought about pride in valley and then these.
it would make sense too, to tell racers apart

[formal skiff]

This is so PRETTYYY

[tranquil harbor]

Imagine an entire festival where painting mantas was tradition.

[rigid mural]

YEAH you get me

[formal skiff]

The older mantas who just sit there resigned to their fate as small children coat them in colors, cackling

[tranquil harbor]

For the love of god please

[rigid mural]

some mantas enjoy the personal attentions (and treats meant to keep them calm)

[boreal nebula]

#lore-discussion-spoilers message

I think I read something about the little house in the transcript of a Q&A in this pinned comment

Even if im this transcript the watermural is "belittled" there are theories about the man drawn as the king or could be a man
In other takes of that concept it was never drawn clearly as king with a crown but it is debatable even because there is a wide variety of styles studied in conceptarts / development stages

[raw crypt]

I really love the idea of sky children painting things, like they saw the murals and went “What if we could do that too!” And that extends to painting mantas like the ancestors did in this hc, very cute,,, and I have it in my hc that skykids also paint patterns on their capes, kids love paint and so do i

[tranquil harbor]

little rainbow hand prints everywhere. They're kids, they'd probably love these activities.

Now I'm just imagining the back of the home closet mountain covered in hand prints. It's their space, and they want to decorate it.

[boreal nebula]

🥲

[boreal nebula]

mittens hand prints cause sky kids (seems to) have thumbs but no other fingers

[tranquil harbor]

Apparently that's a technological limitation tho

[rigid mural]

what if you see fingers on these prints tho

[sharp lichen]

Hmm, I’m not sure whether Skykids are supposed to have fingers or not

[harsh pecan]

Probs not

[tranquil harbor]

The spirts definitely do, at least. Do we have official art of sky kids with fingers?

[harsh pecan]

bloom guide flashbacks

[boreal nebula]

I used an old bug fix update picture from #news to make this meme, also by duplicating the only hand showed in The Original Picture

[boreal nebula]

A sky kid can dream

they probably look at up at Ancestors beautiful hands as model for that handprints 🙌

[tranquil harbor]

that hand has closed finger indents

[keen shore]

~~Am I seeing something wrong or are these all pride flag combos

Horrible idea… ancestor paints their manta gray, black, and green and calls it Aromantac~~

Fun fact! There are no murals with handprints on them, for whatever reason. The conclusion I drew from that personally was that the mural paint is toxic in some way so you wouldn’t want it to get on your skin

[formal skiff]

I THINK YOU MEAN AMAZING IDEA FFHHVDSCHJFA

[keen shore]

That idea is why we’re banned from painting/naming mantas as players. It’s what I would immediately do if given the chance

[formal skiff]

Y e s

Ngl I’d name every Manta in the game. One would be Arson.

[frigid tinsel]

dididsns I did run out of light up there and the wind walls blew me back, then i got server switched into active krills. that picture was rough.

[keen shore]

Mantas are weird in this chat’s recent hypothetical sky lore because it’s like they fulfill all of the functions for domesticated animals: transportation, used for resources ||[draining light, I see this as the sky version of raising animals for food - depending on ancestor biology maybe they did actually eat them too]||, wool, and just being pets. I wonder what ancestors’ general attitudes towards them were - it has to be weird to keep something as a pet while simultaneously being accustomed to draining the light of something just like it, right?

[formal skiff]

Maybe it’s because they are the most prominent large animal in Sky, so we try to make this one species fit into all the functions humans have for the huge variety of animals we have.

[frigid tinsel]

maybe not all ancestors were aware of how power diamonds were made

[keen shore]

Maybe there were different breeds “bred” for different purposes? Like wooly mantas being “bred” to weave fabric, and mantas used to harvest light from being larger/brighter than others? [I put quotes around bred because I doubt mantas reproduce in the same way as our domestic animals]

Obviously we wouldn’t find much evidence of this in game, so it’s just headcanon lore

[boreal nebula]

Anyway I just came to point out how Memory Projectors used as spotlights (unlike the spotlight prop I used) and even seem to pass unnoticed despite being right over your head from where you start performing with Skater Girl

Last but not Least : there are sounds of the beautiful TLP spirit (I forgot the name) Whistling to cheer the performance of Skater Girl

[formal skiff]

I like that idea. Maybe the little ones were more pets in the way we see them, and varying sizes were used more for racing or more for draining.

[formal skiff]

Maybe they’re
Maybe they’re projecting the memory of the skater??????? Idk???

[frigid tinsel]

maybe earlier generations used mantas for more tame reasons, like pets and racing, but as darkstone tech developed, mantas began being seen as common cattle and were treated as such. having a pet manta in the later generations is akin to someone irl having a pet pig

[boreal nebula]

One of my joke theory is that Megabird modelled sky kids on the same image of Ancestors but tiny and undefined ||cause Megabind is myopic ||

[rustic heron]

Pigs are super smart and make wonderful pets. Maybe I’m not getting the reference.

[tulip aspen]

that's great editing

[tulip aspen]

honestly that's likely the apparent answer

[frigid tinsel]

at least in America, when people think pig, they think bacon and pork. an animal to eat, not to keep as a pet

[rustic heron]

Americans are dumb. I’ve lived here long enough to know that much.

Anyway, most cattle are intelligent and don’t deserve to be eaten. Kinda like mantas.

[tulip aspen]

f o o d

when i used to work on farms as a kid pigs were a heckin hassle i stg

SALEMMMM I HAVE THOOOUGGHTS

[frigid tinsel]

yes, pigs are rather intelligent and could make nice pets, but they're also bred for their meat.
addendum: I don't eat bacon/pork unless it's all that's available.
relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHFL941W0w

[rustic heron]

Same. I stopped eating beef entirely, and now I can’t even look at a steak without thinking about how cows are very social creatures and form lasting friendships with other cows.

[tulip aspen]

crabs having red eyes is getting me thinking:

both krill and crabs get red eyes when they prepare to attack a light creature

ive had an idea before that krill are scanning us and our light when their spotlight hits us, and this feature is making me wonder if im slightly more spot on than i thought

anyone have any adverse ideas about what red eyes could mean from dark creatures?

[keen shore]

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure the memory lanterns project JUST memories if that makes sense. We see them a ton in vault; we light them mostly in order to help the elevator move up, but there’s also a few pre-lit ones just outside the archives.

I’m mentioning this because as many people have said before, vault just breaks apart as you go up, despite the sheer amount of lanterns. Looking at teb’s screenshot, one lantern seems to do enough on its own to project the entire scene, even letting you interact with it and having sounds added in as well, not to mention the light/time of day changing.

So… if vault is filled with these lanterns that preserve and project memories that well, why does it start looking so incoherent as you go up? Wouldn’t it look much more like its original form did? The argument that the memories in those lanterns somehow got corrupted over time doesn’t really add up in comparison to how the dreams lantern works. Those memories of vault’s original structure would probably only be recorded if the spirits inside thought it was about to be destroyed and wanted to preserve it, so probably after dreams takes place, meaning that the vault lanterns should work better than the dreams one… but it’s the exact opposite.

But why? Do these lanterns project something else other than memories, something more abstract? Are they nonfunctional in Vault and Vault is made up of something else entirely?

[boreal nebula]

I feel ||Watched ||

[tulip aspen]

i think it's more like the idea that there's so so so many projectors hidden behind the illusion that all you see is just warped projections, and maybe it gets a bit out of control too

still doesnt explain how we teleport from elder's island back onto the elevator (to get knocked off of it by diamond)

perhaps i should explain the projection theory's arguments better in my doc cos i didnt tbh, cos that's a really good question for me to answer in it

[rustic heron]

It is more abstract, I think. If you think about dreams and their hypothesised purpose, the dreams we have at night is a way to cope with the memories we’ve formed during the day, applying those memories to the schemas we have within our mind as a way for us to understand and to cope.

Vault is like that. It takes our memories, applies a schema/filter for them to be more easily digested/more positive, and records the actual memory while we digest and come to terms with those past experiences.

[frigid tinsel]

there's not a lot of foods I can eat. I don't not eat it for moral reasons but cos I don't want my body to kill me in retaliation.

[boreal nebula]

I think thy turn red because of anger because unlike kills they do not need to spot you directly even When you put them onthe stove

[keen shore]

A bit late (sorry) but I also wanted to add something

Krill and crab eyes before they spot you are blue.
Krill and crab eyes when they spot you turn red

Normal darkstone is blue,
Corrupted darkstone is red

[rustic heron]

Ah. I’m a garbage can. I can eat pretty much anything, but I have the palette of a rock and I’m not terribly sensitive to taste.

[tulip aspen]

thats a bit too abstract tho lol

[frigid tinsel]

I wrote this earlier for someone

in Sky, red is almost synonymous with darkness corruption and darkness is a force that consumes light. krills' eyes and crabs turn red when they spot light-saturated skykids. when they attack, skykids lose light.
also red is sterotyped as evil in the West so makes sense to code bad things as red for BEWARE FEAR BAD THING AHEAD BE CAREFUL

[rustic heron]

Why is it too abstract?

[tulip aspen]

crab eyes are white i think, but either way there's still a color connection going on here!

[keen shore]

This is one angle I was thinking of, but the thing that made me reconsider it is the fact that we don’t know if they would cancel out like that - and if they would, why would the vault spirits make and use so many of them, knowing that the more they made, the more useless they would be? And if they didn’t cancel out, the empty space in Vault would be crammed to the top with tons of different projected things, but it’s the opposite… it’s just empty

[tulip aspen]

you're basing it off real human dreams, this is more like "i had a vision" type beat

or, at least my perception of dreams in sky, and in this scenario, are like that, maybe that's just my thing

[frigid tinsel]

heh, Lapis's theory still makes sense

[rustic heron]

Surprisingly, this game is made by humans, who use human concepts.

Kind of a shocker, ain’t it?

[keen shore]

For reference in this convo while I think of a reply to lapis:

My canon explanation for vault’s appearance: trying to think through that atm
My headcanon explanation for vault’s appearance: it’s the vault elder’s fading memory of what vault used to look like

[tulip aspen]

no not really

i do love playing our games but ive had a really long day so sorry nothing for now

[boreal nebula]

There is no bot reaction at the moment but just incase

Litltle edit to make a meme Lapis uzed more faithful to the charactsr

[rigid mural]

got a vid somewhere where i noted both crab and krills behave in a similar way

[tulip aspen]

its true, its just the best explanation for the projection theory ig

[tulip aspen]

nicenice danke shen

i tried to observe crebs walking for that old dev quote
'the way they walk hints at how they were created!'
ive got no clue tho

i like how their bottom section is like completely unconnected to the top section tho, hm

[keen shore]

This is a good point and would explain why vault looks so… weird. It also aligns with the perception of the level as based off midnight. I don’t really have too much to build on the logic of this post because it might be the canon explanation; my only issue with it is that it doesn’t make too much sense in terms of lore. The dreams memory above just looks like a detailed snapshot of the past, maybe what a fresh memory would look like, so why would the vault spirits make what they were recording purposefully more incoherent to seem like a dream?? I guess you could use the argument that the memories projected in vault weren’t remembered that well as they were being recorded, like the spirits recording them forgot bits, which is fair considering how flawed human memory is - but it seems like that would apply to dreams as well

[frigid tinsel]

maybe the ancestors used the projectors to – hear me out – project things? could be memories, could be a movie. for an event, they could be projecting special effects

[tulip aspen]

nah lapis still has a point; if it's a DREAM, it'd be subject to their minds not being perfect computers and creating errors in the mindspace reality

if it's a projection tho then yeah it has less room to mess up

[keen shore]

I hope a version of movies exist(ed) in the world of sky, it would be hilarious if skykids are allowed to die once a week but no one lets them see R rated movies

[rustic heron]

To the contrary, they were recorded too well. It’s hard for kids to cope with the horrors of a war-torn reality, and even adults have trouble coming to terms with the world.

They took the memories and recorded them, but they presented something abstract and comforting while it was being recorded. Basically, a living dream.

It was a service to help a troubled mind as it ascended to be reborn. A dream to help ease regrets about a life lived, a comfort to the weary.

Be honest: would you want your greatest regrets broadcast to you again in vivid detail, or presented to you as a means of self-forgiveness?

[frigid tinsel]

i headcanon that skykids sharing their flames can share memories with each other and see it like a movie.

[keen shore]

This is a neat idea; does it imply that every spirit ascending it saw something different? And if so, how would the ancestors who actually Lived there deal with that?

And taking it a step further, is a corrupted version of this process the reason spirit memories are a thing?

[tulip aspen]

that's a cool idea, that after the long pilgrimage to Eden, the vault was intended to rest the minds of the weary travelers, so they can ascend in truer peace

i admit id have a bias against it, as the vault shows the full history of the kingdom and i had always headcanoned that the vault was locked to most peasants, a secret archive for the kingdom's history

[rigid mural]

i think it's the pattern: crab and krills both go around in circles until they spot a sky kid, hiss/growl before lunging at them while screeching/roaring. Both also seem to suffer or at least be stopped as you can judge from the pained sound crabs make when hitting a wall by mistake or krills looking momentarily stunned after attacking (their spotlight doesn't work until it flickers alight when they reach their patrol route).

[keen shore]

I just realized I horribly messed up a sentence and possibly made everyone misinterpret it

Fixed version: “I guess you could use the argument that the memories projected in vault weren’t remembered that well as they were being recorded, like the spirits recording them forgot bits, which is fair considering how flawed human memory is - but it seems like that would apply to the Season of Dreams quest [not dreams as in the things you experience sleeping each night!!] as well”

[tulip aspen]

aaaah okay lol
what seasons of dreams quest?

[keen shore]

The last one, depicted in teb’s screenshots (#lore-discussion-spoilers message) that one lantern is managing to project the entire scene somehow

[rustic heron]

They saw their life in the best way possible. The scholars living there likely had to view everything, good and bad, completely raw. The meditative practices were likely put in place to help them cope with seeing everything. They detached themselves from it to see it for what it is, and to not be burdened by sadness and regret.

@tulip aspen ,
What is the history of a kingdom but the history of its people? And who better to know the people’s history but the people themselves?

[tulip aspen]

OH WOW
hmmmmmm i mean, yeah, like the lighting and everything, the spotlight, the snow, the confetti, the fireworks

that all makes sense!
but it can cross lines possibly... what if the skater is projected too?

[keen shore]

Bottom level of sky lore iceberg: All spirits are projected by vault lanterns. Nothing is real /j

[tulip aspen]

yee i could see ancestors sitting down on the elevator as smooth jazz plays and they just see pretty images as they rise up towards eden lmao

[rustic heron]

Every copy of Sky is a customised memory projection.

[tulip aspen]

that was actually one of my first things i ever considered as a loremoth

[keen shore]

Ancestor ascending the elevator: wow this is so cool, I’m so happy they included the races I won :-)
Vault spirit watching: I can’t believe this idiot fell off their manta in the middle of a race

[rustic heron]

Forest Elder ascending Elevator: Amazing! Look at all the darkstone tech I helped create for Vault! This is incredible!

Vault Elder: playing all the fursuit memories on loop with the volume down

[keen shore]

The reason archives is forbidden to be accessed by most ancestors is because that’s where the popcorn machine is

[rustic heron]

And Tsadi’s karaoke sessions. Note that Tsadi has the musical prowess of a spear and shield, so they were sealed away from innocent ears.

[frigid tinsel]

could see Wasteland Elder doing indigenous war chants

[keen shore]

False idea about vault: the reason vault never got involved in the [HYPOTHETICAL] civil war is because everyone respected its position as a sacred site or whatever and didnt attack it
Real truth about vault: nobody ever attacked vault because they were worried everyone inside would broadcast their super embarrassing memories to everyone

[rigid mural]

vault blackmailing ??? in MY lore chat ???

[keen shore]

Vault is an underground tower who has to get most of their resources from outside and which doesn’t have any cool weapons like wasteland. Blackmail is necessary sometimes

[tranquil harbor]

Don't mess with the vault elder

[frigid tinsel]

lmao i had an idea that Vault Elder experimented on the Valley Elder(s) for my ficverse. no longer canon tho

[rustic heron]

Embarrassing memory: The real reason why the Valley twins lost their arms.

The high-five was a cover-up.

[keen shore]

A firework and a really dumb dare were both almost definitely involved

[half shadow]

EPIC HIGH-FIVE FAIL 14 DEAD 2 INJURED

[rustic heron]

They tried to do a real falcon punch on each other.

[lofty void]

HHABSHSHSHAHAJSJBNOOOOOOO

[keen shore]

Fun fact. What actually happened with the arms was that one twin lost both of theirs and the other was fine. The unharmed one got so fed up with their twin’s “forest elder said it’s my turn to have the arms” jokes that through some weird magic shenanigan, they managed to give their sibling one of their arms to shut them up

[rustic heron]

Experiment 106: why are the twins so dumb, and can I fix it?

[keen shore]

“If I duplicate the valley elder can I also duplicate their brain cell?”
Update: experiment failed. There are two of them now and the brain cell has managed to split equally between them. We are doomed

[half shadow]

Brofist gone wrong

[rustic heron]

Valley Twins are the beevis and butthead of Sky.

[frigid tinsel]

i mean in this draft it's still sorta canon. gotta fix that

[keen shore]

Hey what if you use it as a cover up for the actual reason they split
Edit: the way I wrote this makes it sound like the valley elders got divorced.

[tranquil harbor]

I've been validated /jk

[rustic heron]

Friendship with Valley twin 2 ended. Now Wasteland Elder is my best friend.

[frigid tinsel]

Golden Valley

[keen shore]

I totally see the wasteland elder as being the valley twins’ older sibling

[frigid tinsel]

Wasteland Elder definitely taught the Valley Elder(s) combat

i should just finish this fic at this point and post it tbh

[keen shore]

AWWW THATS SO COOL

[sharp lichen]

Good night! I’ve not been very active on Lorechat recently

[tulip aspen]

que you were active for the past 3 days

[full saddle]

Heyaaa Lorechattt, I missed youuu

[compact shale]

hello i am carsick

[harsh pecan]

Hi

[full saddle]

Ello I'm Laura

[full saddle]

Henlooo

[tulip aspen]

hi carsick

[compact shale]

hey jam what's been happenin in the past

[tulip aspen]

hmm

[tulip aspen]

jellies are light siphonophorae
mantas are single-celled membranes
vault may have been a therepeudic part of the ancestor's pilgrimage, showing them the best parts of the journey they made

darkness creatures having red eyes when they notice you may significant

and darkness plants, as well as being parasitic towards light, may also be attracted to the negative emotions of ancestors

[sharp lichen]

We’ve made a lot of progress

[compact shale]

could you elaborate on that 3rd part

[rustic heron]

Darkness plants gather where negative emotions are strongest, and since the scholars meditate, they are able to suppress their negative emotions and that’s why there are no darkness plants in Vault, despite the large number of dead Ancestors.

To be fair, this is Salem’s theory; I merely helped.

[tulip aspen]

the negative emotion theory was cool but im afraid that evidence mentioned is kinda null cos it doesnt explain prairie, isle, and valley not having them

[compact shale]

whoah wicked

[rustic heron]

Simple: those areas are under constant sunlight. Darkness only thrives in, well, darkness. I’m wrong.

[frigid tinsel]

except there are darkness plants in prairie, isle, and valley. all in caves or attached to light sources (prairie bells)

[tulip aspen]

lapis made a take that the vault was basically a therapeutic passageway from the bottom of the mountain to the top; ancestors are transported on the elevator through positive and important projections of the kingdom, showing them how great the journey was, psychologically aiding them in becoming more connected to their kind and their journey, all leading to Eden, to ascension

a bit of a paraphrase, i may not be saying or projecting the theory exactly as lapis would want perhaps

lapis can u explain it better?

[sharp lichen]

Aw, I know how it feels to have your theory countered.

[rustic heron]

No, just the part about darkness plants is the other realms. Alasdair had my back there.

[sharp lichen]

Huh, I’m still not sure on this whole argument

[frigid tinsel]

darkness plants don't seem able to grow in direct sunlight (all in caves or under rain cover) unless attached to a light source (see: prairie bells)

[sharp lichen]

So it’s both? They grow when people experience negative emotions in the dark? And how does attaching oneself to a light source prevent them from dying off?

[keen shore]

Psst this is actually not my theory! Mine is that darkness plants are the “soft” bits of ancestor/creature corpses (as in not bone), not that they’re created by negative emotion :3c

[frigid tinsel]

i think, based on how this theory works, is that if darkness seeds somewhere with a negative emotion and is in a physically dark location, plants can sprout. the exception being if there's a nearby source of light energy

[keen shore]

Alternatively and what I switched it to was that darkness plants seed on where light creatures incl ancestors died and sap away their light. For spirits, who after death are made entirely out of light, this would mean their personality, memories and so on got eaten away, and all that’s left is the wax energy we get from burning them

[tulip aspen]

i mean you are right about the sunlight; it's been proven viable for darkness and dark creatures in general

it'd be cool if they very intentionally put darkness plants by places where they wanted to show narratively that bad things happened to ancestors, but i dont think that's the case; just like your cool idea about crabs and those golden canisters, it unfortunately hasn't always been relevant in every situation with crabs or canisters

[sharp lichen]

This seems better. And this could explain why darkness plants regrow after every day

[tulip aspen]

oh right, they DO grow in prairie!
that's a really cool observation that they might only exist in the village via directly sapping light from the bells

[frigid tinsel]

i'm on that candle grind – I know where most darkness plants sprout

makes me wonder what happened in Valley's catacombs

[keen shore]

My explanation for why darkness is there is actually darker - basically, with the rising clouds and destroyed bridges, it would have been really easy for someone to get stranded on one of those islands and just die of starvation. The bells theory makes a bit more sense though.

I changed it to darkness plants being parasitic to explain the darkness covered canth bones in forest. Interestingly enough, this theory implies the massive darkness plants present in wasteland are the mass graves of soldiers whose light got parasitized after death

Original post and the thread that I continued from it is here #lore-discussion-spoilers message

[sharp lichen]

I think a combination of Alasdair and Salem’s theories about darkness is a good way of explaining why they come back every day (and it works in general)

[frigid tinsel]

I find darkness to be a force that consumes and hold onto light (energy), of course darkness plants (fungi?) would then sprout by and on light sources

in the presence of negative emotions, especially ones caused by its own appearance, darkness would find greater nourishment

[tulip aspen]

yee i prefer the "parasite on light" concept as well

however, i think both the "parasite" concept and the "negativity" concept can coexist, with the parasite concept as a base and the negativity concept being a more anatomical quotient of the plants

im literally so proud of everyone this is so cool why have we made so much progress this week

[keen shore]

A difference between me and alasdairs theories from what I can tell is that mine says that the light darkness plants parasitize has to have been alive/part of a light creature at some point, because it doesn’t sprout around WL or most candles. It’s a lot easier to say that something died near the prairie shrines than to make a whole convoluted explanation to why it only sprouts at those candles and not at others

This was a headcanon I at first considered because it was horrifying and I loved it. And then I was like… wait… this could actually be right

[rustic heron]

The one qualm I have with the parasite notion is that, if that’s the case, then the darkness plants would have died long ago. It’s been centuries since the Ancestors died, and light is not infinite (intro pun intended).

[tulip aspen]

well red candles are still an extremely touchy subject lorewise, there are times when I've considered they arent canon at all

and wl may only visible to skykids, maybe only skykids can see the imprints (of other skykids)

and remember it's not sprouting there cos of the candles, but because of that bell (within that idea)

however yes that is indeed still stretchy cos we dont know if bells have any further secrets; it really is easier to say someone(many) died there

[tulip aspen]

well if ate-up ancestors exist for us to save, then the other parasites should still exist too?

in any case it may just be that we're not supposed to think about that; about how long it's been

otherwise that logic would fall against krill too, who are also likely parasitic

they do want light, but we dont know if they need it to survive/not-die

so perhaps that goes for all darkness; it won't die without lack of sustenance LMAO SAME SALEM

[keen shore]

1] good pun :-)
2] my explanation for that is one of two things -
2a] darkness plants need light to grow, but not to stay alive. They don’t really work like plants do, if that makes sense - the plant part is a misnomer. They’re not really alive, but more like physical manifestations of darkness itself. Saying they’re parasites is a bit of [personification?plantification?] in this case, but it gives the general idea. This is why the clusters of darkness we see never expand beyond the size we see them first.
2b] the light digesting? part happens EXTREMELY slowly. This isn’t just wax they’re digesting, it’s people’s souls in the form of light. My idea would be that the spirits are extremely complex and their light eroded slowly, which is why there’s any left at all

[frigid tinsel]

I don't think darkness plants need a sustainable source of light energy in order to continue living, only to grow. darkness consumes and holds onto light, keeping it in a stable state within it rather than extinguishing it. while sucking light from light beings would extinguish the beings, the light itself is now within the darkness plants. darkness plants would only grow by accumulating more light.

Salem stop looking in my head and stealing my ideas.

[keen shore]

Hahahaha I am right behind you and reading what you type >:3c

[tulip aspen]

exactly, it happens really slow, otherwise the mantas we see trapped in trees in forest (a mechanic i wish we'd seen more of) would be melting alive before we get to them lolol

[rustic heron]

As for the crabs, these murals (thanks Salem!) are my strongest proof:
The Ancestors placed the containers seen here, which we know are made of darkstone and are the same shape as the shipping containers filled with light, and later one tons of crabs come out.

This, and the locality of golden containers with crabs makes it pretty convincing.

[tulip aspen]

lmao all three of us said the same thing at the same time

i said it first in my edit above salem, salem said it longest and prolly worded best, and al summed it all up

[keen shore]

I actually thought of it as I was typing, maybe I just stole your brainwaves or something

[tulip aspen]

OMG LAPIS WHAT THATS BRILLIANT

oh wait no hold on

crabs are in the first part of the mural, they're just off to the side

so i think what the murals are trying to say is when they poured [light or dark water?] into the lake, crabs got attracted to the [dark water?], drank it, and became aggressive, scaring off all beings of light

.
ig it could be seen as it made even more crabs tho? hmmmmm

how have i never seen that first part of the mural

[tranquil harbor]

How long have I been missing crab lore?

[rustic heron]

What if instead of light, Darkness plants fed off the darkness of Ancestors?

[frigid tinsel]

darkness thriving in the darkness of ancestors

[harsh pecan]

Internal or external darkness?

[tranquil harbor]

Their despair would have rushed them to ruin even faster, creating a chain loop

[harsh pecan]

Ooo ye

[keen shore]

I assume this is about fermented darkstone being crabs, right?

I actually interpreted that mural differently, weirdly enough. It’s hard to tell where the original location of it is because iirc the only spot in forgotten ark with a pool of water that size is in the cave where the indifferent alchemist’s memory is, but this mural clearly shows open sky overheard.

About the golden containers - it’s worth noting that stone pots are shown in this mural, which ancestors seemed to use to store practically Anything in. The hermit’s cave, the assembly hideouts, and iirc the abyss ship are all filled with them. It’s possible that they could just be gathering clean water.

The crabs being okay at first in the first and then swarming out in the second made me think that the water there maybe got polluted like forest’s rain, corrupting them.

I had an idea a while ago that these murals [the ones in the caves] were actually made by a group of ancestors who’d abandoned the area long before the ench spirits arrived, maybe even a similar group to the treasure reef refinery builders, which would explain the water pollution pretty easily. I’m not sure about that, though, considering the style and color match the ark murals better than the reef murals

[harsh pecan]

It tastes good

[rustic heron]

Exactly. We see in the switch trailer, location of Krills, and the use of light to burn darkness plants, that creatures of darkness fear light.

As for the darkness plants on the prayer wheels, take a look at this part of the trailer, and this image of a the prayer wheels:

Notice the similarities? They used these creatures to make the wheels.

[tranquil harbor]

so it's not metal but a shell (I mean they could still have shells made of metal but-)

[frigid tinsel]

So that’s why crabs are mad

[violet sundial]

Just a quick thought, i think Darkness just feeds off of light as a whole, and I think light powers most of the ancestors machinery, including the bell towers, so… idk i might be wrong but thats my two cents i still do agree that darkness can grow from Ancestors deathbeds though….

[tulip aspen]

stop making fun of my typooooiooiiii

[keen shore]

To be honest, I see this as more of a hermit crab situation, with crabs entering discarded shells to hide from the light - simply because a perfect looking bell like that growing on top of a creature is a bit odd to me, although definitely not impossible. We do see these bells in forest, and considering the main thing in forest was a refinery, it’s entirely possible these bells were either used for luring light creatures OR they were built pre refinery and just stopped being maintained. If it’s the second, pretty easy to see how crabs got ahold of them

[tulip aspen]

whoaaaaaa

so their shells arent made of bells, their bells are made of shells??????? 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫

[tulip aspen]

hmm maybe but i like both ideas now
(yes im originally hermit crab too)

[keen shore]

What if it’s like… they got into their bells, and their shell grew on top of/around the bell and that’s why it’s gray in the trailer

[tulip aspen]

i think it's gray in the trailer just as a color aesthetic, nothing more tbh

[keen shore]

Also the crab eyes in the trailer are really similar to the leviathan’s, wonder why they didn’t just go for the eyes they already had? Wondering if these are a separate species from the crabs we have around today

[tulip aspen]

they definitely are ye

i prefer the idea that darkness didnt exist yet at this time, and was caused because of the king finding darkstone and creating problems,
so I've also considered that leviathans and bell crabs.... aren't.... made from darkness pollution?

thats really hard for me to say ouch-

perhaps there is an even earlier darkness, a primordial one so to speak-
it can still derive from corruption of light, just not in the same way

maybe in the deepest depths of the ocean?
the forest we see in the trailer exists under the sea south of where we begin our journey, so maybe they still live right there, just under the shores....
(giving you hints for where to make the next underwater diving season tgc, take the hint)

[keen shore]

Do we have a general idea as to when the switch trailer takes place? I know it says centuries ago, but considering we don’t know how long ago the timeline itself is, that doesn’t help a lot. I say this because darkness plants exist in canon at least as far back as forest’s main timeline [you see one in tearful light miner’s spirit memory, growing out of their friend’s chest]

[rustic heron]

They're not crabs; they're spiders, like the ones in the concept art:

This also ties into why there are spider masks that the prophets wear.

[keen shore]

I love spiders, but whose idea was it to make a boss design that’s just a spider with human hands. Why??? Why would you do that

[frigid tinsel]

Vela’s Light & Darkness Balance theory, where darkness always existed in tandem with light, but power diamond manufacturing threw off the balance: #lore-discussion-spoilers message

we also have the quip "from darkness, light is born" from thatskyshop

then the last dev Q&A implied that light creatures emerged from the oceans, in the darkest depths

[tulip aspen]

reminds me of this guy i knew that helped make fran bow

||PLEASE do not look it up||

[rustic heron]

That's my favourite boss aesthetic. It was done in Okami, which I've beaten 16 times.

[frigid tinsel]

seems like a Nintendo thing tbh

[tulip aspen]

ngl ive been extremely anti "lightdark balance" and campaigned for contrary until the contrary became the accepted norm-

i should sit this one out

[compact shale]

ah yes

Therapy Elevator

awwwwww...?

[rustic heron]

I follow this too, especially considering that the murals in Abyss suggest the Leviathan was there when the Ancestors first arrived in the area.

[keen shore]

I mean, if water and darkness are inherently connected, then the existence of a water prophet implies that darkness was considered equally important to early sky civilization, so…

[tulip aspen]

yee, it and the spiders feel primordial

[keen shore]

It took us only a few minutes to turn the therapy elevator into a blackmail elevator, unfortunately

[compact shale]

WHAT HOW

[rustic heron]

The Sky is connected to the light, where the greatest light is in space. The water is connected to darkness, where the greatest darkness is in the ...

Abyss.

[frigid tinsel]

[insert elevator music here]

[keen shore]

#lore-discussion-spoilers message

[frigid tinsel]

isn't eeby deeby an elevator?
if so, I have a meme idea

[compact shale]

Resh goes up the blackmail elevator and the entire kingdom sees proof of his many divorces /j

[rustic heron]

My heathen brain doesn't understand the language of the gods. What's an "eeby deeby"?

[tulip aspen]

lorechat moments

[tulip aspen]

yea, so light creatures form in the shallows, and cursed darkness creatures (technically light creatures but just plain evil) form in the deepest depths if light sinks that far

WE'RE ESTABLISHING NEW LIGHT SCIENCE YES

[compact shale]

if you're unlucky, your star will fall into water and... good luck with that lmao

[frigid tinsel]

Sea: Children of the Dark

[keen shore]

LOL YOU REMEMBERED

[rustic heron]

Against all the the evil that the Abyss can conjure, all the wickedness that Ancestor-kind can produce, we will send unto them only you. Light and Fly, until it is united.

Doom-moff revs up their flamethrower

[keen shore]

I’m still unsure about whether the deep ocean being a place of darkness means that darkness/corruption actually forms there, or whether it just means that darkness just gravitates to that area due to the complete lack of light

[rustic heron]

Corruption is separate from darkness. Darkness creatures aren't evil, just averse to light.

[frigid tinsel]

maybe darkness gravitates there due to the lack of light and just due to the sheer mass of it, darkness conglomerates into a living things

[rustic heron]

All this talk about crabs is making me hungry. I haven't had crab in about a year now.

[frigid tinsel]

i mean, we don't know how life on Earth actually started. we know the conditions were around, the primordial soup of life-giving nutrients, but what actually sparked the first living being?

[tulip aspen]

ah, so THATS how all those 14-yo-moment krill kids are created!!

[tulip aspen]

LETS GOOOOOOOO

[keen shore]

Keep in mind also the immense pressure of the bottom of the ocean, too. Darkness could be forced together because of that instead of just coming together on its own.

Considering the theme we’ve been talking about recently for light creatures is them being conglomerates/many organisms in one, I wonder how the darkness creatures would work in comparison

[half shadow]

Deep sea hydrothermal vents are the mainly recognized idea, which would be cool if Sky mirrors that

[tulip aspen]

I'm like legitimately happy guys this is awesome
it tried to autocorrect legitimately to lesbian and you know what maybe i am lesbian happy, this is all just so fantastic

[frigid tinsel]

lorechat discovers the origins of life, coming to a theater near you

[tulip aspen]

i could hug all of you in sky rn, we're making PROGRESS

[frigid tinsel]

lorechat transes
Jam's gender /j

[tulip aspen]

wouldnt be the first time sky turned me lgbt 💀
||commodore tho...... ||

[keen shore]

What are some examples of darkness creatures besides the leviathan… maybe those red-eyed spiders? It would make sense for that theme of having many red eyes to be common in darkness creatures, but it also means that crabs (and obv krill, although this is confirmed already) are corrupted light creatures

[rustic heron]

There are several leading theories. Life may have started around hydrothermal vents, where the chemo-synthetization may have sparked advanced organic molecular structures containing self-replicating processes may have produced viral-like organisms made entirely of protein and memory-containing moleculare structures.

This would eventually lead to the formation of organelles, who would operate with specific chemical processes, and through symbiotic relationships would eventually form the first unicellular beings.

After that, they would propagate, some developing solar-based respiration methods to generate energy-dense molecules for later energy storage. Then more unicellular organisms would develop to consume those and take their energy, leading to an arms race of evolution that would culminate in several advanced naked primates talking about a digital representation of a fantasy world by sending quantized levels of electricity over thousands of miles.

... I dabble a bit in speculative evolution.

[tulip aspen]

yee, spiders and levis are our only examples, hopefully we get more eheheheh

[frigid tinsel]

good thing the Sky spiders are extinct.
right, TGC? 👀

[tranquil harbor]

Just wait till next season

[rustic heron]

That's one of my big motivators for crabs being synthetic; they are not creatures of light or creatures of darkness. They can be found in all environments.

Yo, someone should do a speculative evolution analysis for the life in Sky. That would be almost salaciously amazing.

[keen shore]

Psst - if spiders are connected to darkness, and the earth prophet uses a spider as a symbol, does that mean that the element of Earth is connected to darkness as well? And if so… how does that extend to clayshell skykid theory? Can we half the ench/prophecy lights into ones that are darkness or light aligned? Are turtles darkness creatures, considering the water prophet uses that as their symbol? Something to think about

[rustic heron]

Something else to wonder: Where are the turtle shells?

[tulip aspen]

they did say they're making more underwater content, and made WAFOs about done underwater questions we had

[rustic heron]

I can't stop thinking about the impossible DOOM x Sky collaboration. Can you imagine Doom Guy teaching the Skykids about using the super shotgun and how to properly gut a Krill? That's the most wholesome unwholesomeness ever.

Just imagine Doom Guy followed by an army of Moffs, all holding flamethrowers, as they march straigh into Golden Wasteland.

[keen shore]

You fool… we ARE the flamethrowers

[frigid tinsel]

yall ain't sending good vibes about spiders being in game

[keen shore]

I love the spider ❤️ my beloved
If it comes, I hope they make it jumping spider inspired

[rustic heron]

Moff with the BFC: Big Fudgin' Candle.

[rustic heron]

The spider has eight arms with human hands, and puts out all the candles behind you that you lit. They then grab you and take you to a dark place.

[pastel brook]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/593565781166391316/832872714967842826/Untitled90_20210416150354.png

[keen shore]

What happens next. Do we kiss

[rustic heron]

Where do you think the small spiders come from?

A potter must have clay to mold.

[frigid tinsel]

At least spiders drown in the deep

[keen shore]

Okay, but seriously, I want to know how dark creatures work. Do they have bones like some light creatures do? [if turtles count as dark creatures, the answer to this is probably yes] Why are there so much less living dark creatures than corrupted light creatures - where are they?

[rustic heron]

You pick up a pot to gather some water with for your Skykid friends. On your way to the lake, you feel something warm and wet dripping from the pot. But you haven't filled it with water yet.

You taste it - it's salty. But as soon as you felt it, it stops. You ignore what happened and fill the pot at the lake, not noticing the almost-silent gurgles and small bubbles coming from the pot.

[lofty void]

oh
oh no

[rustic heron]

Light creatures are used as energy. Dark creatures are used as building materials.

[frigid tinsel]

welcome to lorechat! a skid just ate a spider

[eager pagoda]

I'm new to lorechat where the heck do I start

[tranquil harbor]

By walking right back out before you're absorbed by the insanity

[frigid tinsel]

forfeit some of your sanity

[true moon]

hello

[keen shore]

I swear to god, we can spend hours theory posting, but as soon as a cursed conversation begins, that’s when all the new people appear
I am not complaining, but why does this keep happening

[rustic heron]

Start with what you want to learn about. Ask some questions. Become consumed by the unending hunger for lore and knowledge. And don't forget to make some friends!

[harsh pecan]

Are you sure want to walk down this path?

[tranquil harbor]

Because the cursed ones are the most fun

[rustic heron]

I need to write down the fanfic of the potter. Spiders make pottery out of Skykids is top notch horror.

[eager pagoda]

okay so everyone in this chat is insane

I like it I'm in although I'll probably just lurk while you guys do all the dirty work

[keen shore]

Prairie elder dark secret…

[harsh pecan]

Do they melt kids until they’re good enough to be made into pots?

[true moon]

because we maybe bringing another lore too? XD

[frigid tinsel]

don't get me started on their spies

[harsh pecan]

Ah yes, the dirty work

[rustic heron]

Prairie Elder: There wasn't enough darkstone, and there were so many order for butterflies. sobs Please forgive me.

[keen shore]

Prairie elder isn’t real, it’s just a bunch of spiders in their clothes

[rustic heron]

Prairie Elder - thousands of spiders in an Elder corpse.

[frigid tinsel]

we lose our sanity so the rest of the Sky fandom can know what's going on. if TGC isn't careful, the community will sacrifice us for content like the Hollow Knight fandom has to Mossbag

[harsh pecan]

Prairie Elder has been found guilty

[rustic heron]

Prairie Elder: You look so soft and malleable. We- I mean I, would like your help in making some pots. Please, young child of light, come this way, into my workshop.

[harsh pecan]

The child was never found

[tranquil harbor]

this is getting less family friendly by the second

[true moon]

except for one shoe

[rustic heron]

Sometimes you find that the pots are wet, even when there's nothing inside of them. Sometimes, when it is very quiet, you can hear soft echoes coming from the pots, almost like moans and sobs.

[harsh pecan]

Sentient pot-children?

[eager pagoda]

Sky: children of the pots

[rustic heron]

Don't be silly. Pots can't think. Or cry. Or beg for help.

[harsh pecan]

That’s what the police thought

[frigid tinsel]

context: Team Cherry (creators of Hollow Knight) had been teasing the sequel, Silksong, for a little while then went radio silent about it. five years have passed and the HK fandom is still awaiting Silksong. a (joke) rumor started that Team Cherry isn't going to release Silksong because they don't want Mossbag, a famous HK lore theorist, to uncover the lore too quickly. so the HK fandom decided to sacrifice Mossbag for Silksong. insanity ensues.

if TGC isn't careful, we'll be in Mossbag's shoes.

[keen shore]

This is the only game you can say the phrase “the pots are made out of stone instead of clay because all the clay got used up making children” and others will understand you

[tranquil harbor]

I still think the kids are made of wax

[rustic heron]

Haha, that'll never happen. Besides, we don't have anyone in the lore server of great prominence to sacrifice...right?

[tulip aspen]

😃

[eager pagoda]

so we can use the kids to forge candles?

[tranquil harbor]

Yes

[frigid tinsel]

your vibes ain't good, Jam

[harsh pecan]

So…

wax 👉 child 👉 pot

[rustic heron]

Damn that sounds raw

[tulip aspen]

in the abyss, we just said so lol

bones tho.....m

[harsh pecan]

Skybot is the perfect sacrifice

[tulip aspen]

i mean, i havent gotten to play them much but i assure you my vibraphone skills are decent

[frigid tinsel]

good idea, thatskybot will be our scrapegoat

[frigid tinsel]

i'm not arachnophobic, but i dislike spiders.

[tulip aspen]

isnt that the same thing

[rustic heron]

You know, I have no evidence of this, but I'd like to think all the previous animal-elder designs were the original Elders, and the current Elders murdered them and took their power and place.

[harsh pecan]

Gotta love these conspiracy theories

[rustic heron]

Haha, Prairie Elder is Spider-Kin.

[frigid tinsel]

no. my mom is arachnophobic and she's run out of the house at the sight of spiders. I can look at them, be fascinated by them, but I dislike them.

[tulip aspen]

i had a head/game canon for a remade Sky, where it was moreso a stealth adventure rpg, and to meet the elders you'd have to defeat the giant darkness creatures that killed them, stole their light, and are guarding their throne

the first boss, the monkey, would just be a chase scene where you'd chase it all across the temple

[eager pagoda]

I will consider this as canon and nobody can stop me /j

[tulip aspen]

checks out ig?

[tulip aspen]

yea im aware its a botw cliche, but the only other alternative is them being turned into the giant monster, and i dont like that version of the idea tbh

[frigid tinsel]

i'm the one who kills spiders

[keen shore]

I mean maybe, but wouldn’t they have come up to dark areas like Eden and Wasteland by now? Hmmm…. [if they were deep enough in the ocean, though, they might not notice any change]

Using my ideas about light creature conglomerates and just lorechat observations, darkness is connected to loneliness, permanence/immortality [not continuing the cycle of rebirth] and the deep ocean. My addition is that it might also be connected to vastness just because of the sheer size and space of the night sky - all the lights contained in Megabird are the minority, if you think about it.

So… applying that to darkness creatures, they’d be solitary, absolutely massive, and both/either near immortal and/or deeply resistant to change. Yeah, that checks out!

[keen shore]

I’m the one who picks them up and takes them outside

[rustic heron]

TIL Megabird is a darkness creature. Thanks Jam, very cool.

[tulip aspen]

i dont think they follow the same rules tho

remember where we see them in the trailer; it's a forest south of isle; so in other words, it's dozens of feet deep beneath the shore now, since we know the ocean levels raised

[keen shore]

Technically Megabird isn’t one creature, but a massive conglomerate of all their souls, so it wouldn’t fulfill the loneliness/individuality requirement - but the rest checks out

[frigid tinsel]

you're never lonely with Megabird

[rustic heron]

They always ask where the Megabird is, but never how the Megabird is.

[tulip aspen]

h o w and w h y

[keen shore]

Is there an equivalent of Megabird but for darkness? An all enveloping, isolating void, like the manifestation of the feeling you get when you realize just how vast space is?

[tulip aspen]

yeah, space. /hj

the 'void' may be something more metaphysical, metaphorical, and just 'felt', but so is God, so are universal energies, it's all very powerful

[frigid tinsel]

existential dread

[hushed steeple]

anyone have the paper that wrote what ts do we have this month? (dm pls)

[rustic heron]

The lore bible for Sky.

[tulip aspen]

wha
maybe go to #questions-and-help?

[rustic heron]

Sir, this is a lore chat.

[harsh pecan]

Are you a Megabird Atheist?

[rustic heron]

You have no idea what you've just done.

[harsh pecan]

Oh?

[tulip aspen]

ignore it lapis it's okay
anyways
Hey lapis I've got a new theory i need to ask about
||Are you a Megabird Atheist?||

[frigid tinsel]

darkness isn't quite void though. it isn't nothing, rather the seclusion of something. it takes light, holds it, but doesn't extinguish it. it's dark because it prevents the light it contains from shining out. sorta like the event horizon of a black hole – utterly lightless because nothing can escape its boundaries.

[rustic heron]

Yup mhmm quite verily yes. Let's focus on that instead.

[keen shore]

So darkness might also have a connection to gravity, maybe, due to aforementioned possible connection with earth + deep sea pressure + black holes ?

[harsh pecan]

[tulip aspen]

yea, and with these laws we can justify the creation of PureDark creatures within the Abyss

[rustic heron]

I don't think we've seen any black holes in Sky, unless...

WAIT DO YOU THINK THE PITY ROOM IS A BLACK HOLE???

[frigid tinsel]

i was just thinking that

[half shadow]

I remember saying something about Eden = black hole earlier

[keen shore]

I mean, if we’re stars and dying takes us to the pity room, then…

[rustic heron]

Y'ALL WE ARE ON THE SAME MENTAL WAVELENGTH

[harsh pecan]

Wow

[frigid tinsel]

darkness petrified skykids, turning them into statues. the last of their light – their soul – is surrounded by darkness, trapped in a stone body. from the skykid's perspective, all they see if the darkness around them, holding them.

[keen shore]

If gravity = darkness then flight = light

[rustic heron]

Yup. Flight is a path to divinity.
Which is why Blessing theory works.

[dapper cedar]

Why was the Vault depiction of the elder twins looks different from the elder twins in valley?

[rustic heron]

Can you show us the difference?

[keen shore]

I’m wondering… what if light and life are inherently connected? What if dark creatures are an anomaly that isn’t meant to exist, because darkness is inherently connected to death - and that’s why all the corrupted light creatures seem almost… reanimated… hmmmm

EDIT: I WILL I HAVE THE MURAL

[harsh pecan]

They look the same

[frigid tinsel]

pics from Vault OOB excursion

[frigid tinsel]

for once i'm before you Salem /lh

[rustic heron]

No one could tell them two apart, so they got differing chic haircuts.

[dapper cedar]

yea, that one

[frigid tinsel]

Vault mural makes it look like the Valley Elder(s) have mohawks

[keen shore]

In actuality I think it’s some sort of headdress - let me check something else really quick

[harsh pecan]

Ohhh, they probs changed their hairstyle

[frigid tinsel]

don't they have more zany hair in concept art?

[keen shore]

Valley elders in prophecy murals, depicted with their normal triangular heads. [in the second mural they’re the ones on the boat]

[frigid tinsel]

they have the same hair there.
would it just be simplicity's sake? the murals are simplified drawings

[keen shore]

Maybe… the triangles do almost seem to be simplified versions of the “hair” in the vault mural. Hmmm, one second

[frigid tinsel]

this gonna make me rework another thing in the angst fic huh

[keen shore]

#lore-discussion-spoilers message two triangles are behind their heads in their vault statue, suggesting the same spiky formation near their head - maybe it’s like a crown?

For reference on how sky crowns look, here’s the king + crown. It looks pretty similar, just straight instead of curved backwards, but could be wrong - it seems odd that it would be hair, for consistency in their designs if nothing else

[frigid tinsel]

On their portal too

[tranquil harbor]

It looks like they're actually playing their sport in the weird spikey picture, so they may be wearing helmets, vs when they're doing elder duty things

[frigid tinsel]

oh
occam's razor – simplest explanation. it's a bloody helmet

[tranquil harbor]

Lol. Sometimes simplicity is best. At the very least we know their sport includes a ball

[keen shore]

#lore-discussion-spoilers message guessed it, but why would they be wearing it on a boat in the prophecy murals?

[frigid tinsel]

thank Ennarcia from keeping me from doing a sleep-deprived thought spiral

[frigid tinsel]

maybe they got called to do the thing at Eden thing in the middle of a game and didn't have time to take off their helmets.

[tranquil harbor]

looool but what mural? It looks like their trademark 'both twins are spikey triangle heads' on all these pics but the one

[keen shore]

They never take it off because each one of them is afraid that, if they do, as soon as the head protection comes off their twin will immediately whack them in the head with a paddle

[tranquil harbor]

The bob cut has proved that at least one of them is willing to get violent with the paddle

Unless they were just trying to steal the light like a basketball? But probably not

[frigid tinsel]

Chosen One: hey, come to Eden with the lights I gave you
Valley Elder(s): now?
Chosen One: yes now, right now
Valley Elder(s): can't we take five or–
Chosen One: now
Valley Elder(s):

[tranquil harbor]

Ride in with the squad

[keen shore]

Tbf, all the other elders in the vault murals are depicted doing the thing they’re most associated with, for example wasteland elder has a spear and shield — WAIT A MINUTE. WHY IS THE SHIELD SHAPED LIKE THAT

[tranquil harbor]

Might be an old shield, or his constellation is just like that even tho he doesn't use a shield that shape

All the constellations are vague shapes. The twin's have paddles and yet their constellation is not a straight X

[keen shore]

I mean, yeah, but if you get close you can see that the image on top is their paddles, but not for this one. Doesn’t wasteland elder have a circle shield next to their statue?

[frigid tinsel]

yes, they have the circle sun shield

[tranquil harbor]

But the shield in the constellation is the more stereotypical shape of a shield, when you think of one. The only time I think of a shield that is round is when it's made of wood

[keen shore]

To be honest, when I think of shields I think of either circles or rectangles, but I can see what you mean with the easily identifiable shape

[tranquil harbor]

Maybe because the first shield I think of is like, the Hylian shield from zelda, and its got that square with a point shape

[keen shore]

I need to sleep, goodnight <3 looks pointedly at @frigid tinsel

[frigid tinsel]

smh /lh
sleep well

[tranquil harbor]

you get back here

[gilded socket]

Let me try to summarize my version of the lore
There was a world of spirits filled with many of them, the center of their domain lies in Eden
Some catastrophe caused their entire domain to be covered in darkness, therefore making them disappear
Since then MOTHS (or as I call them Sky Children) have been going into Eden to find lost memories of spirits and deliver light to Eden (?)

No not since then
Sky children have existed before the fall of the spirits, however they weren't able to fly before

[rustic heron]

There's no indication that Skykids have existed during the same era as the Spirits. But other than that, more or less.

[gilded socket]

Actually I think a sky kid was shown in a spirit's memory in Isle of Dawn

[frigid tinsel]

Chosen One

[gilded socket]

Is it also safe to assume that whatever the disaster was, the point nemo would be somewhere in Eden?

[harsh pecan]

I think so

[tulip aspen]

@keen shore if you put titles/captions on each mural in the masterlist than it'll be really handy for pc users; because then we can control F and get what we need instantly

[tulip aspen]

plus they have weird hair, whats up with that

[half shadow]

It just looks like they have a helmet on

[hushed steeple]

Dying is very cheap emotional impact. Its the cheapest. Without the orbit or rebirth after, It would be worthless. Instead, its now a mysterious thing. It has meaning.

[verbal burrow]

Correct there is

Altho what are the moths really

[hushed steeple]

Some peeps think that was the first, hence, prototype, skykid.

Guys, I think I found the little prince's sheep
Also what is this

[verbal burrow]

Oof ,then they probably thought of the characters first but I think the moths were some what created after and the big light ball in the sky (heaven after death to Eden)was were we fell and it guided us to seek out theses lost spirits and return light to them

[gilded socket]

So basically sky kids merely exist to allow spirits to pass on?

That sounds a bit sad

[hushed steeple]

Who called out my name!?

[verbal burrow]

I will agree it's a big gap😅

[hushed steeple]

I was testing words for why my long joke post about literal moths got deleted

Moon was one of the tested words

[eager pagoda]

At the start of the game they tell us to "return our fallen stars home" so yes, skykids exist just to let spirits pass on

[hushed steeple]

Wait, does that mean I'll get deleted!

proceeds to fade out of reality

[verbal burrow]

It's just how come the moths weren't effects when all the spirits disappeared

[gilded socket]

Also can I make sure? Are moths and sky kids the same?

[hushed steeple]

Nah it was a completely different word. I should have known it would have been deleted here, even though its context was innocent

[hushed steeple]

Because the ones already in existent at that time were probably in Eden

......dead

[hushed steeple]

They can be differentiated by the shape of their antenna. Which will never have clubbed ends.

[hushed steeple]

What?

Oooohhhhh

[verbal burrow]

So the moths and to the spirits are different in some way, moths aka us are able to be reborn

[gilded socket]

So we used to play as MOTHS in the past?

[hushed steeple]

Oh your useing moth as a species name. Nah it just means beginner player. Skykid has been used by devs and players alike for both expert players and moths.

[verbal burrow]

Oof so that's what it means 😅

[hushed steeple]

Yeah! Since they have the soft hair, and brown cape! Very cute! I have seen others use it as a species name though. Its rare but seen before.

I hear Japanese players call them sparrows!

[ocean wigeon]

hi lore chat

[gilded socket]

Oh
Welp in that case
Do we have any leads on what the catastrophe could have been?

[verbal burrow]

Oof I'm making a comic of the game so this lore stuff will definitely help me

[hushed steeple]

Didn't........
Didn't this look different before?

Maybe I'm imagining things but I could've sworn this looked different.

[hushed steeple]

You heard about king already yeah?

[gilded socket]

king?
No not really

[verbal burrow]

The king krill

[hushed steeple]

What about dark stone

Cool. Eden king ties back into that skykid in isle memory too

[gilded socket]

Oh you mean the one from Season of Abyss?

Also haven't heard of dark stone either

[verbal burrow]

What do u guys think about the krills

[hushed steeple]

The King: supposed sky kid ruler from long ago that became corrupted. Has only really been seen in concept art.

So King/Prince is the cut eden elder. Though devs confirm he still exist in the story of the game, hes no longer physically present. Hes still everywhere in, more subtle ways...

[gilded socket]

I would disclose my thoughts on them but they would get this message banned so I will refrain from stating it

[hushed steeple]

Krills are confirmed to be corrupted light creatures. As to what they are, thats up to you for now. But my money is on these guys

[hushed steeple]

This used to have the kings sign, right?

[hushed steeple]

Isnt that the target from abyss? I like to collect the ones with diagonal points. Though it would be funny if every diamond was his face and they where shooting at it.

[verbal burrow]

We might be able to get clues from the trailer, maybe something in there will probably show what is going on

[west niche]

is it possible for the krills eye to be dark stone or no? This question is weird idk what to say

[hushed steeple]

I think they actually were at some point. But it seems that they changed it. The only way for me to know for sure is if I look back at my day one video so I'll be right back.

Theres a lot to be taken from the trailer. Ancestors coming from outside sky kingdom and green isle is a big deal

[hushed steeple]

I remember discussing it with ameoba, I don’t think it had diagonal spikes? But true, I have no picture of it. Would mean something interesting if they changed it.

[verbal burrow]

I just feel like there something missing ,but I don't know what tho, this game uses alot of symbolism

[hushed steeple]

Theres way more than something missing. Current game basically has no in game backstory. It has to be collected from old concept art. Theres even an old lore timeline.

I'll have to go check later, I don't have immediate access to my phone right now.

Well, dark stone interacts with mural invisible ink paint.

[verbal burrow]

Dang ,so ig there leaving it up to this channel and others to figure it out

[gilded socket]

It is something I feel a bit off about this game, but I respect tgc's decision to make this open ended

[hushed steeple]

Devs confirm there is a concrete story.....its just.....not concretely stated anywhere in the game :/ oopsy doopsy.

Evolution exists, and its very prominent in mantas.

[verbal burrow]

Good point

[gilded socket]

There is a concrete story, but it seems it might only cover the big picture. As for the specifics, that is up to us.

[hushed steeple]

Perhaps the concrete details, were the moffs we sacrificed to the metaphorical Eden king along the way.

[gilded socket]

bruh

[verbal burrow]

Moon said somethin about evolution ,most of the creatures have a are mostly white and yellow.im not sure this means anything but it just a thought I hade

[hushed steeple]

Personally, I think the story has to do with pride making the stars fall, (a nod to fallen angels) and over time the prince rises to become king, becomes corrupt with darkstone, everything is messed up, eden explodes, king mysteriously goes missing and skykids who mysteriously look like prince fall to save the ones left behind and connect them back to megabird

[gilded socket]

In a way I feel bad for sky kids

They were made to be servants to clean up the mess someone left behind for them.
And then once they finish they just disappear, reborn, repeat.

[hushed steeple]

The features I find change the most between mantas are size and wings/fins/flippers

[verbal burrow]

Therefore as we try to save those memories , sacrifices (as are porous) to bring the memories back to life

[tranquil harbor]

they 'clean up the mess' by running around, playing, and making friends. It's a pretty sweet gig, besides Eden

[hushed steeple]

Yeah I hear that all the time. But I kinda...disagree? An eternal childhood mostly spent playing and buying cosmetics with an occasional optional weekly death does not quite fit.

I think re inhabiting the land was also part of their purpose

My favorite example of evolution in mantas is the big ol' blind mantas

[gilded socket]

I mean that just seems like something out of their actual job.
Their existence is for that, but they are still alive after all.

[tranquil harbor]

For all we know Eden isn't in their job description, and they choose to go there because they're little sweet hearts who can't stand to leave the others behind

[verbal burrow]

I disagree as

[gilded socket]

Maybe
Still the anatomy of sky kids still convinces me that Eden is their ultimate purpose

[verbal burrow]

True

[hushed steeple]

But hey, I get it. Angst tasty or something. I like my angst more complex than dying now and then. But if its your preferred flavor, I can’t knock it!

[hushed steeple]

THEN EXPLAIN THE UNQUENCHABLE MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM!!!!!

[tranquil harbor]

all children love pranks, but ultimately all our interactions with each other and the spirits are forced into the sweet route, so it stands to reason the sky kids' default is 'sweety'

[hushed steeple]

Stop proving me wrong with true and effective strong concrete points.

[tranquil harbor]

Heck, the default of the player base is 'adopt new players and show them all the winged light/money' so like

[hushed steeple]

They got a lot of stuff built into their design. Colors from light creatures, monochrome from ancestor spirits. And the point they are eternal children. To look at something like that and say it only has one purpose...mmmmm

[gilded socket]

I feel like a fallacy here is that we're judging what sky kids would do from what we've seen in the playerbase.
What if sky kids are themselves? Without us controlling them?

[verbal burrow]

Wait aren't candles used to have a connection with a spirit

[hushed steeple]

||I want to listen to music, so I'm going to pretend I left because I had to do something important||

Ok, I definitely have something important to do so byeeeeeeeee!!!!

[hushed steeple]

Official art and concepts show skykids playful and child like.

Teeheeheehehehehe

Its 1 am Im not sure why I came here knowing I should go to bed. Sometimes I hate lorechat and sometimes I can’t stay away

[gilded socket]

I mean they are still kids.
Before I move on to my next discussion can I talk about stuff related to religion?

[tranquil harbor]

It's still 'sweetheart' because of the options we can do. Like, we as a player base can lie or something, but all the candle unlocks on the friendship tree are things like high fives and hugs, the spirit quests require helping spirits. Our game mechanic options say the same thing as our personal options

[verbal burrow]

It's 2:22am for me bud , I'm in. Same situation

[gilded socket]

laughs in 2 pm
Anyways

[hushed steeple]

Wowza yall. Im gonna head off nighto.

[tranquil harbor]

I can't get off until I've fought HalfOfAPerson to the death in trial by candle race /jk

[verbal burrow]

I'm glad I was able to discuss this with y'all I shall talk to y'all tomorrow

[gilded socket]

oh no

[tranquil harbor]

All theories are valid buddy except the valley elders being married

[gilded socket]

what

[tranquil harbor]

I played mostly blind on my first playthrough and when I met them went 'yeah, these guys are a squabbling married couple' only to find out it has been explicitly confirmed they're twins

I second guess all my takes on this game now

[gilded socket]

Amazing

Anyways what is Orbit? Never heard of that before

[tranquil harbor]

Have you beaten the game?

[gilded socket]

I don't think so
I took one step in Eden and immediately nope'd out

[tranquil harbor]

How okay are you with spoilers?

[gilded socket]

Pretty fine tbh

[tranquil harbor]

It's the place after eden

[gilded socket]

Oh nO HoW coUlD You nOT gIVe a SpoILer waRNiNg /s

Yes I am reaffirming again it is sarcastic

Anyways wow sky kids in space

[main nest]

tbh this whole channel is a spoiler warning

[gilded socket]

Fair

[tranquil harbor]

Always good to be polite tho

[verbal burrow]

I been thought they were twins they fight like brother and sister

[tranquil harbor]

The same things that can queue them as twins (working as one, squabbling) can also be seen as that one couple who got together because they were Fierce RivalsTM who eventually evolved into more. Which, Valley of Triumph gives them the rivalry excuse

I did come from a place of logic

[main nest]

I think it's easy to find hints for both theories. Being close relatives is more likely in my view as they share almost identical body frames and features compared to other elders' variance in appearances.

But the whole Valley does give of a lot of romantic vibes so I can totally see where you're coming from.

[gilded socket]

Gonna be honest
I don't see them being a couple at all

[tranquil harbor]

It's straight up canon they're twins. Like, verbally stated and everything
Thank you for being the first person to go 'yeah you're not a complete moron' tho

[gilded socket]

I wouldn't describe it as romantic, but it's more of grand and ceremonial.

Still I guess I can see why someone might think that way.

Also question
Why do these spirits really like sliding?

[twilit blade]

Tbh who wouldn't xD

Edit: I forgor the cooldown

[gilded socket]

I would like sliding if face planting into the ground wasn't a risk

[tranquil harbor]

The cool down is awful when chat is slow.

[twilit blade]

I guess spirits won't have to worry much about face planting if they're not alive

On another note, you can say it adds onto their now free nature and nothing holding them back?

[gilded socket]

I mean
These spirits can definitely feel pain

[tranquil harbor]

The Valley is a very sports oriented place as it is. It's likely the people there were taught to be good at things like sledding and skating by nature of the environment

[twilit blade]

I think it's interesting that they also tackle other forms of art as well like music and.. Well just music for now I suppose

[tranquil harbor]

Yeah, they're not just 'sports', they're straight up 'entertainment'

[gilded socket]

Is dancing shown?

[tranquil harbor]

The young skater from the village of dreams incorporates dancing into her routines. It's very likely

[gilded socket]

I mean aren't sports entertainment for us?'

[twilit blade]

We also have seen pottery and fireworks in the last maze area in Valley

Basically the entirety of Valley is the ":D Area"

[tranquil harbor]

Sports are entertainment, but generally when one says 'sports' they only mean sports. Things like music and acting aren't included

[tulip aspen]

yes, but valley is the renaissance theme in general; exploration of social environments, expression, fun

music acting and art will be implied in the kingdom's success and heritage

[tranquil harbor]

Yeah, that's what's so great about it. It's not just 'the sports level'. It has a lot of culture

[tulip aspen]

its true, but only for people who care

from face, in game value, yes, it's just the sports level

[tranquil harbor]

Jam this is lore chat
Our entire thing is caring about it

[tulip aspen]

yes, that's my point

[tranquil harbor]

I thought u had the 3 am brain fog

[tulip aspen]

bru

[gilded socket]

but
but sliding
:(
Jokes aside I like how some worlds represents an aspect of Sky's society
If Valley of Triumph is to socio-cultural factors
Wasteland is for defense
Prairie is for economy (?)
Forest is technology
Library is
Well that one is obvious

[tranquil harbor]

According to the poetry on the Prairie Elder's merch pin, it is in fact where farming took place, however, Prairie and Isle also represent the game world. Isle is the fact that we're in a ruined civilization (the switch trailer almost made me cry when I realized it was isle), while Prairie is that it's actually still meant to be hopeful and happy, wasteland and eden not withstanding

[hushed steeple]

Guys sorry if this is offtopic but i just read that skykids are made of clay and their insides are light?

[tranquil harbor]

That isn't canon, just theories

[hushed steeple]

Oh ok thx

[gilded socket]

So yes Prairie is economy
And yeah that thing about the game world itself is nice

Also @hushed steeple it's a widely accepted theory.
As @tranquil harbor said, it is not confirmed.

[tranquil harbor]

I didn't word my point 'about the game world' right I don't think. Isle is the aspect of Society's crumble

@hushed steeple I'm a fan of 'they kids are made of wax' myself, but if u want to hear more about the clay thing, I think it was @tulip aspen 's theory

[gilded socket]

I see

[nimble ingot]

There is also a Greek link about skykids being possibly similar to Clay Golems.
Artificiial creations that were given life.

There is also the Pinnochio theory that skykids are not truly human children, but they still act like it.

[tranquil harbor]

I don't even think the ancestors are human children, to be fair to the sky kids

[gilded socket]

I don't think humans really exist in Sky

[nimble ingot]

I see.
May I ask what you think of the ancestors in Sky?

[tranquil harbor]

Ancestors used magic, and had pitch black skin. The spirits who don't seem to wear masks don't even seem to have noses. If humans exist in the sky universe, then the sky world is another planet. alien theory let's go

[gilded socket]

I was about to ask what then I realized I did see their skins so
E

[tranquil harbor]

The switch trailer was very enlightening
Seriously, the texture on the masks and the clothing and such, I'm going absolutely gaga over it

[gilded socket]

So Sky Kids are in a really awkward position imo

Imagine being born into the world
You're told your purpose is (according to what people think in this server)
Deliver light to a castle constantly covered in darkness and full off hazards
Bring peace to a lot of people who passed
While somehow re-establishing civilization
And being a child

I-
Man how are they fine with this

[tranquil harbor]

Children often do things without thinking because they don't know better. Including be tricked and taken advantage of in terrible ways (tho I don't think their 'boss' is malevolent)

[gilded socket]

What would even be their boss? That part confuses me. What is giving these kids the purpose since everyone else is dead aside from a king whose condition and whereabouts are unknown and is potentially malicious?

[nimble ingot]

The lack of mout and noses are likely a stylidtic choice in the game.
Characters such as the gloating narcissist, and the valley elders have models that feature a nose.
Even skykids heads has subtle geometry that implies they have noses even if it is just the shape of the face.

I am not going to dismiss the fact entirely, for the sake of being objective where applicable. But the ancestors in the game have some common features to humans.

[gilded socket]

I mean most characters do have humanoid features but that doesn't mean they're exactly human.

[tranquil harbor]

The switch trailer still reveals that their skin is pitch black, so unless they bathe in charcoal, I'm inclined to believe they're... something else
As for the boss: Megabird I guess? For all we know it's the lingering will of the spirits, or even the elders

[quick terrace]

the day we get spirits with toes is the day I get struck with psychic damage

[nimble ingot]

According to devs in the oast, the king is not around to be saved. Ergo it seems like he is gone, unfortunately.

The other major character in the lore is whatvis called the Megabird. A divine deity that brings light and life to the world of Sky.

[gilded socket]

Beeg birb