lore-nerdz

[main steppe]

The Arkvengers

[elder grove]

(I'm not a lore dude, I'm just looking) this looks like people just taking others memories, what.

[kindred burrow]

Arkvebgers assemble

[fervent owl]

Yeah he did not haha

Damn straight

That's what I was trying to get at but mans did not care for the roars

[stiff halo]

You lads know if there’s official ark merch for sale somewhere? A shirt with the man rockwell used to be, happy and joyful in his research? That would go hard

[quaint marsh]

Unfortunately, there is not

[untold sinew]

Wish there was, unfortunately that’s probably one of the most sensible revenue streams that snail games is not chasing

[stiff halo]

Unfortunate indeed; thanks for the answers lads

[mental basin]

These two are wrong haha

There's a site, forgot the name

Has some plushies, some pins, mainly shirts and hats

I think literally all you have to do is search up 'ARK merch store' on google lmfao

[stiff halo]

I’ll give it a look! Just wanted to make sure it was official, there’s far too many scam sites or temu-quality merch stores out there

[mental basin]

Oh yeah, defo official. Nothing new addes for aaages though.

[stiff halo]

To put it nicely, it seems like things have been rough for wildcard and snail for the last couple of years now lol; not too surprised

[untold sinew]

Really? I apologise i didn’t know

Nothing new sucks but at least it’s something ig

[bronze turtle]

Thinking about buying the poop and noglin plushies

But they so expensive XD

Been thinking about it since the site went up but never had tbe chance

Also @snow seal @hybrid raft where is a full book with all helena's dino dossiers

I would pay a lot for that

I know there was one from ASE's collector edition but it is so old and outdated and nobody has that apparently

I remember Ras unboxing I think XD not sure if it was him or not

[lyric tendon]

Rass has that collectors edition with only the OG pre-creature vote island tames

[bronze turtle]

A very nice collector's piece to have for sure

[lyric tendon]

You can make your own for the updated version

The pages are in the wiki and you can just book bind it yourself

[bronze turtle]

I guess

[stiff halo]

Rockwell tshirts when

😂

[bronze turtle]

XD

[lethal gorge]

So I watched a couple out video of lore for ark, so dinosaurs and mythical creatures were added to the arks because of a massive what if scenario?

[lyric tendon]

and culls out the weak and comfortable

SE is a prime example

[lethal gorge]

Alright thanks

[mental basin]

Pretty much

Although it was rigorously tested before being implemented, specifically prototyped within Genesis

[bold dove]

That's just Gen1.

[lyric tendon]

Ok Skye of Ab, just don't fall down

[sinful pendant]

In the lore they were going to add the magmasaur onto scorched earth but for reasons not known to me, they imported them to the genesis sim

[lyric tendon]

and now it's a oasissaur

[strong heart]

So where does Aquatica fit in all this ? Raasclark new video shows that Garett Coker is working on the map also ?

[bold dove]

It doesn't.

Wildcard has stated it isn't canon.

And so does the storepage.

[mental basin]

Non-canon

[bold dove]

🙏

Thank fuck for that.

[strong heart]

Do you think if does well that wildcard will convert it into an ASA version ?

I just saw the page looks like it predates extinction. But then if we are the survivor, that would mean it would be after extinction after we kill titan king right ? Would be cool if it was a lost colony sequel .

[bold dove]

Storepage states it's after Extinction, if I recall.
And no, I'm fairly sure with Wildcard giving away "aye guys, this shit isn't made by us" before Snail Games themselves even revealed the product. That they don't want to be associated with Aquatica at all.

Oh wait, nope. It does predate Extinction.

But really doesn't matter when it isn't canon.

"On Aquatica, survivors will uncover the potential source of Element and catch a glimpse of what the future holds for those bold enough to endure. Aquatica is the first official DLC to tell a non-canonical mythical story, expanding the ARK universe into new dimensions of survival."
Really funny how contradicting this part is.
You can't expand the ARK universe, if this shit never existed nor happened in-universe.

[strong heart]

Is the map gonna have explorer notes ?

[bold dove]

🤷

If it does. They'll probably be AI-generated.

[mental basin]

No, it says it's before Extinction.

[mental basin]

And yes.

[bold dove]

Yeah, I corrected myself.

[bold dove]

Odd though to have a ARK sunk under the ocean on Earth.
When....the planet is being tidally locked, and there's no known oceans anymore on the texture for the tidally locked Earth.

[mental basin]

Could just take place before the tidal lock.

[bold dove]

Ah, so between The Collapse and Earth slowly being tidally locked?

Still looks too lively for an Earth after a global Tek war, and Corruption fucking shit up with The Collapse. But that may be just me. 🤷

[mental basin]

Because it's like
The entire environment is the ARK, not Earth

It's just an ARK in the middle of the ocean

[bold dove]

Ah, right. So the ARK is keeping this small part alive.

Sunken Obelisk situation from Extinction. But above ground.

[floral sedge]

“We got attacked by some megalodons and then-as a Large Language Model I am unable to complete this request.”

[main steppe]

The characters just gain a finger every other sentence, before they become a finger themselves

[sinful pendant]

I don't bobs tall tales creatures are canon, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just going off of the lore from ase

[main steppe]

They’re canon in the sense that they’re fictitious and/or exaggerated stories Bob is telling to Meeka during or before the events of Ark 2

[bold dove]

I know the stories being told are canon, in the sense they're hella exaggerated/possibly Bob self inserting himself for more then he was actually part of.

[strong heart]

Yuh I just saw the trailer on the ign website . And it was confirmed the story is non canon but they are introducing 2 new characters. 😫

[bold dove]

Yeah, anything/everything they add to it is basically irrelevant to the main continuity.

[strong heart]

The developer said wildcard is cooking something up for the end of the year. Not lost colony but something else.

[bold dove]

Well, cooking I'd hope applies creating.
And Snail is creating Aquatica. All Wildcard would be doing is mostly just porting over those assets and coding to ASA. (assuming that's what it is)
I'll be shocked if Wildcard actually bites the bullet and allows Aquatica on ASA.

[strong heart]

Yuh I hope they do. I want the sea dragon and axolotl. 😫 I hope the axolotl is a shoulder pet.

[bold dove]

I certainly hope they don't.
Don't want bare minimal asset flips for my creatures on ASA.

[strong heart]

What’s an asset flip ?

[lyric tendon]

reskin

[mental basin]

Not the right terminology at all

[mental basin]

An asset flip is when someone makes a game using already-existing 'flipped' (reused) assets

Now it usually isn't considered an asset flip if it's just a few assets

But Aquatica is using primarily already-existing assets

A portion of the new dinos, almost the entire map are all reused assets

[bold dove]

Thank you for explaining it. Don't know how I didn't see the tag. 👍

But yeah, a good portion of the creatures are just from ATLAS.
And honestly, I really wouldn't put it past them that the sea dog or such are probably bought from some random third-party 3D asset shop.

[bold dove]

Reskin would be more like if they took ATLAS models, and added the bare minimal changes 'juuuuuuust' enough for it to be passable.

For example, the different soldiers in Elden Ring are all reskins of each other.
Godrick soldier, Leyndell soldiers, etc.
All the same models with just different colored cloth, and different symbols.

[lyric tendon]

i mean its like it's first time ARK is filled with asset flips

Pyro/Shadowmane, ATLAS Cat, the corrupted creatures

the big example of the reskin are the varients like Ab and X

[bold dove]

So, funny story Mazzy.

Most of the foliage of the earlier days of ASE, like The Island, are asset flips.
They're all from the Epic Games store page.

[lyric tendon]

i remember the "rock collection"

[bold dove]

We love ultimate rock

[lyric tendon]

yep

[bold dove]

If ARK-2 ever releases, they better fucking add the ultimate rock collection into it as well.
ASA has them, and it should stay tradition to keep this funny rock pack in this IP.

[broken haven]

[bronze turtle]

how complex is the ark lore

[bold dove]

Around as complex as early 2011 Fallout lore.
Not as overly complicated as Warhammer lore.

[floral sedge]

People clam that Rockwell from the notes, Rockwell Premi, and Rockwel on ab are the same guy even though they’re not. I mean they clearly look different as well and are in different locatins. Personly I’m not buying into these lore “nerds” made up funny stories. And they’re explanation is pretty complex ngl.

/j

It’s not really complex

I’d recommend checking out neddy the noodles survival stories for a fun introduction into the lore then checking out his ark lore in 2 hours video

[bold dove]

They...literally are?
Can you explain how the three Rockwell's aren't the same guys?

[bold dove]

That exact same video shows all three of those Rockwell's being the same person.

[quaint marsh]

My guy was joking lol

[bold dove]

My brain is a bit fried from trying to debug my map for 12 hours. 🐟

I just now saw that /j when you pointed it out.

[gusty depot]

Some dude made a hella long movie type video about the lore of ark and I watched that, shit was awesome. What I don't really understand though is how Helena even transformed into that light form, I know she became something the UN or whatever was into but that's about it

[mental basin]

She pretty much just became a being of pure light by using a really high-tech mechanism on her Implant, and then completing her transformation in a pod of some kind

We actually don't know a whole lot about the process, other that the fact that it requires an advanced nervous system comparable to that of a transhuman

[gusty depot]

That's what I'm saying tho, like how tf did she do that? They said she found some sort of glowing thingy and grabbed it, then climbed into a pod and turned into a light girl

[gusty depot]

Right right, it had a name didn't it?

[mental basin]

You mean the science of it? Funky Element magic lmao

[mental basin]

The process is called 'Ascension'

Which is the same term used for 'passing' an ARK, which is kinda confusing but we ball

[gusty depot]

Okay that's the process cool cool, wasn't there a name of the thing she became tho?

[mental basin]

A Homo Deus

[gusty depot]

OH YEAH

[mental basin]

Which translates to 'Man God'

[gusty depot]

Oh damn that's cool

[mental basin]

Mhm, mhm

[gusty depot]

Ark has some decent lore

[strong patrol]

not actual lore, but I like the head-canon that The Center is actually Aberration before the events that led to it being broken.

[bold dove]

No.

The custom-ark's aren't canon.

[strong patrol]

Yes. Hence the inclusion of the words "not actual lore" and "head-canon".

[bold dove]

Man, I am off of my game today.
Thought you where asking if it was.

[strong patrol]

All good man.

[bold dove]

I have reached 13 fucking hours debugging my map.

I am not getting sleep tonight.

[strong patrol]

That sounds awful.

Make some coffee or something?

[lyric tendon]

,maybe let it run?

[bold dove]

I would, but.
It's almost the middle of the night, and it's like 95F outside.

[strong patrol]

Fair, fair.

[bold dove]

...wa?

[lyric tendon]

let your PC run

take a small nap

[bold dove]

That wont help me debug my map.
I'm having to do this manually, so me stepping away is the debugging of 5.5 being paused.

Trying to say somewhat sane by blasting loud music into my ears, and possibly causing early ear damage.

[lyric tendon]

nah the more you used to the high BPM songs the more you are immune to it like white noise thus made you even more sleepy

[bold dove]

Just increase the BPM until I basically have a nuclear warhead directly into my ears.

[floral sedge]

I said “/j” :waaaah:

Nvm I just saw that you said that you saw the “/j”

[lyric tendon]

lmao

[torpid fjord]

Hear me out cake

Helina ( that hologram baddy)

[gritty ridge]

Cooked

[kindred burrow]

Icbm in ark when

[strong heart]

So mei yin somewhat confirmed as final boss as lost colony as the lost queen .

[lyric tendon]

just let her have an happy ending FFS

she started out naked and afraid in a strange world, looking a way back home

found love in a broken ARK and lost

made a last stand back on earth and got her strength once her love revived

now suddenly she is a tameless vamp puppet?

that is freaking lame

[main steppe]

Were was this “somewhat confirmed”?

[granite stump]

It was figured out thanks to the voice of mei making a post and accidentally showing a bit of the script which reveals details of mei aka the lost queen speaking about loss and being unable to be harmed.

[granite stump]

Personal opinion. I personally find this a fine way to end her story. On a sad note. Stories in general don’t need to end all happy and cheerful ya know?

[main steppe]

Then i suppose her being the queen of those vampire creatures would make a certain amount of sense, truly becoming the “beast queen”

[granite stump]

This would also hint at the vampire creatures having some sort of infectious bite that causes a ‘curse’ to form around the person and mei is likely the one person to have a strong enough will to keep her sanity just enough to not become mindless

But yeah it’s definitely a poetic situation I feel since back on extinction’s foreshadowing we would be facing her instead of the king titan but now looks like it’s actually happening

[lyric tendon]

not really fine, if i want her end in a gloomy way

i can see rockwell revive nerva in a experimental way to kill her thus her end come with a full circle

this is better than her become the boss fight character because..... reasons

[lyric tendon]

she doesnt have tames in the trailer when it supposed to be "the continuation from Ext", doubt give that title to "the one who dont tame"

remember the Mei in LC is just the Mei in TAS so it's a meh

[granite stump]

The ironic part of her demise is the title she has always kept even if she ‘doesn’t have times’ she’s always been called the “beast queen” back on the island and she self admitted to calling herself that on aberration, she basically identifies herself as the beast queen back on the island and has carried that title the whole time so her ‘losing’ everything and becoming the “Lost queen” is definitely on brand for what wildcard is going for

And trying to shoehorn in nerva like that for a ‘poetic’ ending doesn’t work I feel. If they wanted it to be poetic more so, I feel Rockwell would of killed Mei himself and mentioned to Mei in her dying breath that this was how he killed Diana back then or something while mocking her title being nothing compared to a god like being.

The in general irony for Mei dying to someone, it should be to Rockwell, not nerva. Nerva killed her closest comrades/games but Rockwell took something more then that, meis lover and between those two, Rockwell would be the one to more likely be the poetic killer but that’s a whole other issue

Main point is, I see what wildcard is going for and it’s not half bad irony there. She just kinda takes the stage as our final boss after losing everything and realizing she now has a kingdom that wants darkness to return to their home since the reseed protocol kinda screwed them over and they wanted to keep the earth from rotating seemingly

[lyric tendon]

you tend to forget rockwell is not kind of a person who fight hence he got beat by Helena and Mei and always runs away despite having element powered him

him using psychological tricks like recreating Nerva does a good distraction to Mei is on brand for him while he is heading to the space elevator

[granite stump]

Not really? Rockwell sucks at fighting yes but if need be he can and I’m willing to imagine Rockwell actually finding the irony in dealing with Mei himself. But the main thing is, he knows how dangerous Mei can be so if he had the chance he would do it himself instead of try something like bringing Nerva back which also isn’t in rockwells style to bring people like that back.

He’s one to make people but even then this would go against what Rockwell said on gen 2 of making his own people so even if he ‘made’ his own Nerva it wouldn’t work lore wise so either way I think this is a flawed thing to even argue about

[lyric tendon]

Psycological attacks is his thing since SE, just because he bring someone back doesnt mean he likes the person

he just do it to aim Mei's psyche

[granite stump]

That’s an intense stretch of wanting Nerva back just for some non ironic thing honestly

Nerva wasn’t as impactful to Mei as Rockwell was. Don’t get me wrong, Mei hated Nerva but she definitely hates Rockwell a lot more

[lyric tendon]

Rockwell "used" Nerva in his interest back in The Island

so it is kinda tracks

[granite stump]

And the irony would definitely be more tied toward Rockwell if he did that

[granite stump]

And? That point doesn’t stand in this argument since that’s manipulation not a psychological attack lol

[lyric tendon]

same thing really manipulation is Rockwell's attack

[granite stump]

That’s not the same thing

Manipulation with how Rockwell did it is not what your describing

Rockwell manipulated because he wanted to further his own goals not to hurt someone. Would he do that tho? Probably but rn when he’s basically a god and can do as he wishes including dealing with someone that’s a clear problem? No. He’s not stupid. He’s smart and making Nerva wouldn’t slow her down all that much. He would kill Mei after we likely face her on the lost colony

Never the less, this argument isn’t even a worth while one. The main point I was conveying was meis whole story coming full circle from “beast queen”, a queen of monsters and dinosaurs losing it all and becoming a monster herself and now identifies as “The lost queen” is very fitting in general

[bronze turtle]

So what do we think of the lost colony leak

Do ya'll think that is Diana or Mey yin saying those lines

[granite stump]

That’s definitely Mei yin

Everything points to it

[bronze turtle]

It would seem so but, why a different voice actor for her

Even in the teaser it is the same as the animated series

I was thinking more likely to be diana since they still hiding who the VA for her gonna be

Which if this is her then we now know XD

[granite stump]

Likely but it’s also possible Mei had a voice change after being transformed

[bronze turtle]

True

[granite stump]

Granted if it’s Diana then this could expand on why everyone is so reluctant to even bring her back if she IS the “Lost Queen” however seeing as how Mei yin is seemingly alone during the teaser and how the dialogue leaked explains a fair bit of how someone like Mei would talk, I think it is Mei but just mutated to have a new va due to how distorted she likely became after the curse mutation

The real question atm to me tho is… the fuck is this curse and why are the vampires the way they are?

Clearly they are the remnants of a rat prime before they went offline but why did they go from human to monster?

[main steppe]

My guess is either they purposely mutated themselves to survive the harsh conditions of Arat Prime, or it was an accidental virus a la Resident Evil

[bronze turtle]

Wonder if we will have another trailer when the pre orders come out in a week

(if no delays..)

[mental basin]

WOOO YEAHH BABY

This has the official nanOS seal of approval.

[mental basin]

Not the voice of Mei-Yin, no.

Mei already has a VA. Taking into consideration the voice of the new lady, I'm gonna assume that she's Diana.

Already assuming that the leak is for ARK, and not anything else.

[mental basin]

You very clearly didn't pay attention to the assignment, as Soskin himself has a rule where his favorite characters suffer in the most abysmall ways possible.

Fries is just carrying the torch.

[main steppe]

Now that I think about it, the fact we never saw Diana or Mei Yin in any of the material for Ark 2 probably should’ve been a giveaway

[mental basin]

I mean

The fact that the gap between our time and the others' is several centuries should have been a giveaway lmao

Mei-Yin and Diana will definitely be in ARK II though. Just not at the very start.

Meeka's entire GOAL is bringing back Diana.

And... you know, Helena misses Mei as well. Mei and Diana are kind of a two-for-one deal.

[lyric tendon]

his form of "suffering" makes sense and more apt to the narrative

instead of "oops she's Marceline the Vampire Queen now"

[main steppe]

Can’t wait for them to reminisce around the campfire in Ark 2 like “hey, remember when we mutated into hideous monstrosities and (UNAMED SURVIVOR) blew us up?”

[granite stump]

Ah, I see, there’s still the theory that Mei had some weird vocal change after being cursed/bitten by the vampire

[mental basin]

Nah

[mental basin]

You just don't like anything that deviates from ASE

And you speak of it like there's zero setup for her being the possible antagonist of Lost Colony

The possibility is warranted, and it can be very nicely done

Not that it matters anyways, because everybody gets a free revive with ARK II

[granite stump]

Almost everyone-

Mei has yet to be seen on Arat

Helena and most of the others tho- Ye but no Mei or Rockwell lol

[granite stump]

I mean it’s possible that she could return in that context yeah

Like I’m not saying it’s impossible but thus far, no signs currently

[granite stump]

I do agree with this tho, every single time something like this pops up he’s always against it

[bold dove]

Honestly, if they can pull it right. I fuck with this.

[bold dove]

Especially if they make a clear difference between Rockwell and Mei.
Rockwell wanted power, immortality, and maaybe to bring back his daughter?
I imagine Mei literally just gives up, and pulls a Dark Souls and essentially goes hollow with her Corruption.

[main steppe]

Gareth Coker shows up with the piano and starts hitting the plin plin plon

[granite stump]

Mei unlike rockwells bombastic soundtrack is just Gwyns theme-

[bold dove]

Great, now I want a more somber boss track if this is Mei or Diana.

Now thinking about it though, I don't think it's actually Mei.
@mental basin can correct me. But unless for some reason, Mei is even more mutated then what we've seen Rockwell. (which would be pretty extreme. As we've seen Rockwell go from a broken-jaw monster, to a meat-throne sitting monster with 20+ of his own mutilated faces on the walls) there'd be no real reason to change VA's for a mutated Mei-Yin. I'd imagine they'd just use Michelle Yeoh and edit her voice like they have done with David Tennant, between human and mutated Rockwell.

Soooo, I wonder if this is instead either Diana, or some new random ass character they decided to make.

Okay, looking at her previous roles. And, hear me out.
She has played redheads before like Bo-Katan from The Mandalorian. As well as apparently Poison Ivy as a VA in some DC materials.
I think this may be Diana.

[granite stump]

So Diana likely became the “Lost Queen” then?

Hm… idk how to feel about that

Like… okay I can see why the main group is hesitant to bring Diana back since she’s likely heavily mutated but also that could of been explained as the main group HATING tek and not wanting a repeat of what went down on earth

[bold dove]

If they wanted to be really fucked up. The Lost Queen could be a mutated fusion between both Diana and Mei-Yin.

[granite stump]

Oh god yeah

Like some fused being akin to that one guy on the Genesis ship

[bold dove]

They're finally able to be together.
Forever.
Never being able to separate from each other.

That would also go hard on a horror map that LC is hopefully going for.

[granite stump]

That’s a dark way of conveying pride month-

Sorry that was a messed up joke lol

[main steppe]

||So it’s just the end of Bugsnax-||

[mental basin]

.....no, doubt it.

You're clung to deeply onto WHAT the VA is holding.

The words on the page don't neccesarily entail what exactly she's reading- it would have other relevant character dialogue on it.

If the leak is to be believed, and I see no reason for it to be discredited, it's likely just Diana's VA holding a script with mixed dialogue.

[bold dove]

Right, that makes more sense.
Interesting way though of revealing Diana's VA.

[mental basin]

Well,

They didn't intend to, it's a leak for a reason

[bold dove]

My bad, that was the joke.

[quaint marsh]

Rockwell had a daughter?

Don't remember that from the notes

or are we talking Animated Series?

[bold dove]

Animated Series, that may or may not become canon to the game.

I don't think we know his daughters name, yet.
But if I recall, one of the (many) voicelines for the heads in the Antechamber is him calling out to someone named "Charlotte".

[quaint marsh]

Weird to begin adding something like that just before his end when he has never mentioned any love for any person during the course of the game

[bronze turtle]

There are some voice lines in gen 2 files of him calling her name

But they didnt put it in the game

During the boss fight

Ah

Just read your next text XD

[bold dove]

Pretty sure they do exist, they're just drowned out by the other voicelines the heads say.
Because while they're doing Rockwell's monologue, they're also having their own conversation.

[bronze turtle]

Ark 2 dlc, mika gets charlottes memories somehow and wants to bring papa back with tek not knowing what he did on the arks

Then she resurrects both diana and rockwell at same time

And they beat each other again

Absolute cinema plot

[bold dove]

And they become Dianawell.
An amalgamation between the two.

[bronze turtle]

And then Santiago is killed by Dianawell in a final fight by saving meeka

And his last words are "bring genesis back"

Then she activates it again

[bold dove]

[bronze turtle]

And then... Bob is revealed as the mastermind and true villain of the series, manipulating everyone since the start like a false god wanting all the atention to himself has the savior

Ark 3 comes out and we fight bob as meeka after going back to earth and gathering the new order of forces that has been developing there

Earth vs Arat

Bob ascends into homo deus, forcing helena to ressonate with that ascencion and transcend too, since her soul had reached that state before

Then they slap each other and helena wins cause plot

The end

(we see a rockwell tentacle leaving on a spaceship somehwere else in the post credit scene)

Wildcard should hire me for story writing fr fr

[vital plume]

I want to know how many fantasy amines/mangas would fall to the genesis ship properly landing on the planet and Rockwell starts to just take over the world

[mental basin]

*Confirmed canon

Like literally, confirmed

[bold dove]

Yeah. Wasn't 100% sure, so I was trying to tip-toe around the wording.

[vital plume]

I don't like it red cons the relationship Rockwell had with Helena it makes it bad for aberration

[bold dove]

You mean retcons?

Also...how does that retcon any of that?

[vital plume]

Them becoming friends doesn't even exist in that anime

They're automatically enemies which I don't like

[bold dove]

Firstly, we'll have to see how things play out by the time TAS reaches Aberration.
Secondly, TAS in itself isn't canon to the games canon. Just new tidbits that exist in TAS do exist in the main continuity.
Bob is an TAS character, but the way that's played out is likely completely different in the games continuity. (BTT if I recall doesn't mention his death. So if they're to be taken seriously to any degree, he's just a traveling buddy like Mei was.)

Gladiatrix is likely a character that exists in the games continuity. The main group though just never encountered her during the notes.
If anything, she may be an ARK-2 character.

I actually wouldn't put it past them to just bring all of the new TAS characters into ARK-2 over time.

[bronze turtle]

I'd love seeing gladiatrix in ark 2

[main steppe]

It does seem to have more rpg elements, so you never know…

[dusk lodge]

Valguero

It has an abb area

What if valguero and abb were similar arks before san and co decided to allahuakbar the overseer platform?

[quaint marsh]

I like to think Aberration looked something like Valguero before it's rapid transformation

[dusk lodge]

Cool bug fact

Wyverns, drakes and manas fall in the same genus- g.Draconis

D.vipera(wyvern)
D.obscurum(rock drake)
D.auragelus(managarmr)

Nothing special, just some cool biology shi I found while trying to make scientific connections to a 2016 dinosaur game

[bold dove]

?

[dusk lodge]

.

@bold dove

Seems legit, since we do know two arks can have the same like, layout(?)

[bold dove]

Possible headcanon. But it's been stated multiple times by Wildcard custom-ark's aren't canon.

[granite stump]

In terms of lost colony I’m starting to think it’s not either Mei or Diana. It’s highly likely this unknown final boss is actually a whole new character since it’s not Diana or Mei due to them seemingly arriving to arat prime while the vampire things exist (which we figured out their name seemingly and going off their names meaning, this would mean this isn’t either and this new boss is a whole different character. Presumably this new character is actually the head of arat prime. The general/overseer seemingly so we may get details that both Mei and Diana DIED to her before they could do anything about it. So thus far, we don’t actually know

[mental basin]

It doesn't, we've technically seen it before lol

[mental basin]

Here's my take about Mei-Yin's role in Lost Colony-
After making it to Arat Prime, Mei-Yin gets infected with Bitus Vampirus and Diana dies, with Helena Deus unable to bring her back for a second time. Having been infected with Bitus Vampirus, Mei-Yin likely persists for hundreds of years at Arat Prime, essentially abandoned by Helena Deus. Kind of like what she did to Rockwell, except in this case it's by complete accident.

'Thrall' refers to a Vampire underling. Considering the appearance of the logo at the end with the Implant and wings, I'd assume that Mei-Yin is just the strongest possible being at Arat Prime, and essentially leads the Thrall herself.

[granite stump]

I feel Mei isn’t the leader since this would imply the thralls weren’t controlled which I don’t think is possible

I’m suspecting the Thralls already had a leader and Mei just joined the horde

[mental basin]

I disagree.

The Thrall are likely normal humans who were mutated by the presence of Element over time, who existed somewhat blindly before Mei-Yin came along.

If Mei-Yin were to suffer the same fate, she would very quickly become the most powerful entity in the city.

Henceforth taking position as the Thralls' superior.

[granite stump]

No no I know they’re likely humans but I suspect the person that’s likely really behind this was the one that experimented and ended up creating this ‘cursed’ tier of tek and it infected all of them and this in turn made whoever is really behind the Thralls a leader and may have also made Mei or Diana their queen for some odd reason. Since I suspect the true leader is something akin to Dracula

[mental basin]

I kind of doubt it.

As for the cursed Tek, we really have no clue what's up with that yet. And it likely has nothing to do with how the people became vampires.

Mei-Yin almost solo'd Rockwell with a Tek Suit on Aberration, I doubt she'd struggle to take on whoever faces her down at Arat Prime- certainly not with vampire powers.

[granite stump]

Thing is the difference is, it’s someone competent who likely had years of experience before Mei shows up on the island

Plus Rockwell was kinda brain dead when he became the monster he was before ascending to overseer status of the aberration ark

[bold dove]

Don't think it's implied he was braindead. Just full of hatred.

[granite stump]

Either way it seemed he wasn’t actually thinking out his attacks since he could of ended Helena and Mei quickly but failed heavily

[bold dove]

In what way?
We're able to solo him at arguably his peak strength. I'd say he just lost because he's bad at the video-game.

[mental basin]

This is just speculative for being speculative lmfao

He's not braindead, he's not stupid

They just beat him, simple as that lol

[granite stump]

Fair lol he was also still in evolving seemingly but I’m gonna wager he just didn’t have his mind yet wrapped around everything since seemingly after being dropped into the pit in the story he gained his overseer status and thus presumably his sanity fully since he phrased it as “My eyes are still newly opened” as well as other phases that imply that Rockwell wasn’t fully himself in that time and thus just now got a grip of what he’s become and the vast knowledge he now has

[granite stump]

Not entirely, it’s just going off of the notes and with how Helena and rockwells notes go in that timeframe it seemed Rockwell didn’t fully grasp what he is yada yada

See above for my explanation

[bold dove]

"newly opened" as in going from above average human IQ, to downloading the entirety of human history into his brain.
Dude went from smart Victorian era man, to smart monster, to god-like knowledge monster.

[granite stump]

Wouldn’t even say smart monster since with what Helena said in her notes he was just not even talking or anything in his new state. If he was smart then Helena would of mentioned something about Rockwell saying random nonsense or something

Unless you call him a monster for poisoning a whole tribe then that’s fair

[bold dove]

Why would he talk to Helena?
He' in a rage state, and killing frenzy against the Tek tribe that (in his view) has berated and patronized him.
Talking to Helena would be the last thing he'd want in this current state, because against anyone else, he was the most upset against Helena for daring to learn more about the ARK's without him.

[granite stump]

But on a side note, I’m fairly certain there’s a reason behind the curse that caused the Thralls like a person becoming some Dracula like being (not Mei or Diana) because even with element involvement I don’t see how humans could evolve from what we are now to full on vampiric freaks of nature unless it’s some infection that spread out of control

[bold dove]

Element is a highly adaptive substance. So if it needed to adapt to allow for human vampires, because the plot demands it, then it likely can.

[granite stump]

I would imagine he would speak to her about how trivial it is to have even come out all this way to face him and help the barbarian (Mei). Something like that, even if he’s in a ‘rage’ people can still yell at others with actual arguments lol

[granite stump]

That’s… I’m sorry but if wildcard does that then thats just bad writing I feel because if it was the case we would actually see visible element on the Va,pries which we don’t. They seem oddly natural unlike the corrupted things we seen on extinction. It’s too natural looking to have been corruption involvement or even natural element

[bold dove]

Putting myself in his shoes, and I certainly wouldn't.
If I'm on a killing spree, I wouldn't care what anyone has to say.

[granite stump]

This couldn’t be natural evolution either. I’m thinking this ‘cursed tek tier’ isn’t just for structures or weaponry, instead I think it’s some other thing

[granite stump]

That’s because you’re saying it to provide an argument lol

[bold dove]

Doesn't have to be directly Element corrupted, or evolved like the Ext-creatures.
We see what Element can do in its natural rampent state (Corrupted creatures)
We've seen Element evolve alongside animals in a symbiotic relationship (Ext-creatures)
We've yet to see what happens when an artificial lifeform, or even virus is spliced with Element to enhance it.
The vampires could've been a project the URE worked on during The-Collapse to enhance humans to survive on a dead frozen Earth, but Element being Element made it more of a virus that you lose yourself then an adaptive serum.

[granite stump]

The virus one is what I’m theorizing. It could be element reacting with some unknown virus type and it’s being messed with and it’s likely causing these new creatures to evolve but I don’t think the URE was trying to enhance humans like that. Going off of hidden messages on extinction it was likely someone was trying something with a virus and just after Arat prime launched the Genesis ship they went offline as in they cut communications with the main city we see in extinction. So my personal theory is during the launch of the Genesis ship some jackoff was trying to do what you’re thinking and likely was planning to make some virus to help improve humanity’s chances of survival be clearing out the weak but instead the virus mutated when in contact with either raw or corrupted element and well… created the things we see in lost colony but the first infected aka patient 0 becoming some quote on quote alpha/leader

[bold dove]

Could also just be that patient 0 was driven insane with whispers of the Element hivemind, and created the virus. Basically a pre-Rockwell situation. But more plague inducing then just individually induced.
Element does have a huge reach in our galaxy, as seen in Gen2, so its own survival via any means is probably its upmost priority.

[granite stump]

True so it likely triggering humans to help it change from a planetary parasite basically to a virus to an extent could be that survival instinct it has but idk. It just feels fishy since normal element involvement doesn’t seem to be at play here but a virus that was broken out to infect people and make commoners into freaks while patient 0 can likely control who keeps their sanity the most with said virus is highly likely and if this is the case I imagine this would in turn affect Mei or Diana whcih adds to another theory, just like Gen 1 and 2 I think we may have multiple boss fights

[bold dove]

Element is always going to have a role, in some way.
Fuck, it's been basically indirectly confirmed it'll have a role in ARK-2 still.

[granite stump]

Likely Mei being one of the bosses, Rockwell being another and let’s say this third final fight is idk… “Dracula” quote on quote. This could explain the 3 factions since there’s us, the Thralls and Rockwell (With Mei and or Diana this could be a overworld mini boss while Rockwell and “Dracula” are the primary ones)

[quaint marsh]

Huh

When did we see Aberration before the bomb?

[bold dove]

Helena's intro cutscene for Ab

It basically just looks like the green zone, but on the surface.

[quaint marsh]

You got a point. Completely forgot that exists

Actually, now that you mention it, it didn't even play when I started Aberration

[mental basin]

And in one Diana note, as well.

[quaint marsh]

same with Extinction

I've only seen the Islands and Scorched Earths lol

[vital plume]

I think Rockwell for Lost colony is going to get the remains of the corruption as he becomes the main pillar of the hivemind and which would explain the ending of gen 1 better and how he is a hivemind so he's able to infect people like the corruption from extinction and being called the corruption by HLNA on gen 2

[granite stump]

Granted that corruption never actually played a roll in gen 2 anyways so I think they’re gonna retcon that existing there

It was just Rockwell consuming the ship with his own fleshy bits

[vital plume]

The gen 1 ending cutscene literally shows him infecting people like extinction corruption and ele does have a role I think its the main catalyst in how he infects the meat flowers give you shards

[granite stump]

I know it was shown in the gen 1 ending cutscene but thing is, we don’t see that TYPE of corruption at ALL in gen 2. Meaning it kinda just got forgotten/overshadowed by rockwells flesh

[vital plume]

I mean it might've been the first stage in turning the humans into mutants

[granite stump]

Either that or it’s a secret little bit of foreshadowing for Ark 2 that there actually IS corruption on Arat and this was all due to Rockwell planting that fragment of corruption

[vital plume]

He's also just called the corruption by HLNA in the proliferation

[granite stump]

Not really, when he means making his own people I feel he takes what’s there without any corruption and twists them in his own image. Corruption in gen 1 had a distinct look. Rockwells version of ‘corruption’ isn’t really corruption at all. It’s more like assimilation

He just kinda uses the element in his own body to cause a unique strain of corruption basically which isn’t fully the hive mind like style with the extinction version. Rockwell could seemingly do it but I feel it’s gonna get retconned in ASA’s gen 1 ending

Instead of the extinction strain of corruption it’s gonna slowly turn the human in the sleeping pod into a pile of flesh like some messed up cocoon

[vital plume]

That or find a way to make it work I see an easy solution but that adds on to gen 2 if they even bother to do so

[meager pond]

Hi

[mental basin]

Rockwell isn't a pillar of the Corruption.

In fact he is adamantly against the Corruption, according to his new Aberration dialogue.

[granite stump]

Yeah Rockwell in his new dialogue in aberration showed he wanted to be the one to reseed earth but for his own ends seemingly. Or atleast use us as his proxy to reseed earth

[sage crown]

.

[bold dove]

He's still being manipulated by Element though, right?

[granite stump]

Not entirely

At first he was allured by the hum of it but that could be deduced as insanity on Rockwell’s end but this also isn’t shown with his dialogue since he’s willing to go against the element hive mind on earth

[bold dove]

Stel by far knowns the most about the lore then any of us in this discord. So I'm gonna wait till he responds.

[mental basin]

Some would say yes, some would say no

I can't give you an informed answer because it's kind of inconsistent

He goes against the Corruption for one thing

But his delusions seem very Element induced

I think I made this conclusion before, but Element actively and knowingly drives people insane by nature like an advanced form of Erethism

That is to say, if he was wholly being manipulated by Element, he wouldn't be going against the Corruption hivemind

But his delusions are obviously Element-afflicted

[bold dove]

Maybe since Rockwell knows of The Survivors existence, and in turn the hivemind might. It allows Rockwell to think he has some freewill, just in case the Corruption does get killed off by us, and it can use him to further spread its influence, in case the Corruption on Earth gets wiped out?

[mental basin]

?

[bold dove]

-Element is able to know about The Survivor since Rockwell does.
-It has allowed him to think all of his ideas and plans are his. But are actually subconsciously the hiveminds ideas.
-When KT died from us, Rockwell's new plan was to spread across the cosmos instead of Earth. Because the hivemind now sees Earth as a threat, and wants to spread far away from it before coming back stronger.

Is that a possibility?

[mental basin]

-Element is able to know about The Survivor since Rockwell does.

Nothing is saying this

-It has allowed him to think all of his ideas and plans are his. But are actually subconsciously the hiveminds ideas.

Nothing is saying this

-When KT died from us, Rockwell's new plan was to spread across the cosmos instead of Earth. Because the hivemind now sees Earth as a threat, and wants to spread far away from it before coming back stronger.

Nothing is saying this + we have yet to see what happened to him at Lost Colony

[bold dove]

Fair, just shooting out random ideas.

[mystic quest]

Are the Voted Dinos Canon? And animals like the pyromane?

[mental basin]

I'd say so. In Gen 2 we saw Creatures that weren't on canon Maps, like the Tropeo I think.

During the SurviveTheARK Mission specifically.

But that's just for the voted Creatures, I don't think the Fantastic Tames are canonically on any of the story ARKs.

Though they probably exist in-universe in some huge databank somewhere.

[mystic quest]

Okay thanks:) i have just receantly seen the trailer for the new DLC. It looks a bit wierd, why would anyone build such a castle? And more important WHO?

[main mural]

aquatica is gonna be a bit different since its snail doing it.
doubt its gonna count as a "canon map" but iirc it will have lore on it more about element and stuff.

[main steppe]

It’s been stated that it’s non canon, and as such, that means any lore within it can be discarded.

[rain dock]

Vampire dudes who apparently survived the apocalypse

[bold dove]

It's been stated it isn't canon on the store page. So it's Snails fanfiction.

[main mural]

thought they said it'd have lore in it.

[bold dove]

It does, but isn't canon to Wildcard's lore.

Storepage states it isn't canon, but that was changed after the first day of it being on Steam.
Seemingly it originally was going to be canon, but I assume something internally happened, and it's now a glorified Snail Games fanfic.

[main mural]

yeah, the store page says both lol

says non-canon but a potentional origin for element.

[bold dove]

Yeah, because the "non-canon story map" was added after the first day.
The wording originally was more indicating it was canon.

[main mural]

weird

[bold dove]

Yeah.
I assume Wildcard probably pushed back, and so they slapped on the "non-canon" without modifying the rest.

[mental basin]

'non-canon' means it's like
not canon

That is to say, whatever Snail tries to impliment is moot

Doesn't affect the story in any way, shape, or form

We already know where Element came from, so double points if Snail tries to give it a different origin

Like, one giant issue I can already see is that Shadowmanes are present on Aquatica

Rockwell didn't make those until centuries into the future

[rain dock]

But money, that's a good enough reason to take a steaming dump on peoples favorite game

[exotic walrus]

why do element veins even appear? like whats the deal with that?

if the corruption doesnt want us getting our hands on it why do they even appear

[quick vault]

I think the biggest question is, why wasn't Nosti built right under an Obelisk?

[quick vault]

If it weren't for us getting our hands on it it never would've taken over the planet

I also think it's just a byproduct of the infection, like cysts or pustules

[upper breach]

can someone briefly explain the Ark lore to me

[mental basin]

So that actually ISN'T Corruption

What you see there is natural Element growth

The Corruption is a byproduct of that.

Make sense?

It's corruptive in the way it coaxes Survivors to it so they CAN get Corrupted, but it in and of itself isn't technically Corruption in that state.

[exotic walrus]

so thats why it matures into proper element?

[exotic walrus]

earth died because of evil metal and now theres space stations that simulate real ecosystems with dinosaurs.

[mental basin]

Whaddya mean exactly?

[mental basin]

Aight I'll give u a brief, but deep description

Element comes to Earth in an asteroid. Two nations fight over it, and it overtakes the world. One side, the URE makes the ARKs, which are space stations designed to make super Survivors to reflourish the planet once Element went away. (It never did.) The other side, the Federation, made the Genesis-Ship to search for a new Earthlike world.

A bunch of Survivors write Notes across the ARKs, the most important of which being Helena, who eventually makes it to Earth and ascends into a cosmic entity beyond our universe. She gives us the ability to respawn.

We follow in her footsteps, 'killing' her old colleague Rockwell along the way, who became a mutant after shooting up Element like it was crack. Afterwards, we kill the King Titan, which weakens Element enough to allow the ARKs to touch down with the surface of Earth and free it of Element as a whole.

Rockwell's ARK, Aberration, crash lands onto Earth, near a bastion city named Arat Prime. There, he finds a link to the Genesis-Ship, which was opened by Helena's friends millenia ago. He enters.

We also make it aboard the Ship, inside the Genesis Simulation (which has a similar purpose to that of the ARKs.) alongside a fragment of Helena in HLN-A.

We escape Genesis after besting the digital form of Rockwell, then we destroy the Genesis Ship by killing Rockwell's new body, then the Eden Ring drops life onto the alien planet 'Arat' Helldivers-style in little pods.

The End. Please leave a 15% tip.

[exotic walrus]

like its why over time the element turns into useable element. as opposed to the raw corruptable element we have to defend

[mental basin]

Well natural Element doesn't turn into refined Element over time

Not by itself, it's a process

[exotic walrus]

thing is it kinda does? like we defend it as it matures and when its matured we get refined element

[mental basin]

Uhhh well, true, it does turn a better hue, but we really dont' have an explanation for that

Note the enourmous node about 10,000,000 times its size outside the border of the Map

But outside of that very specific scenario, it's a process refining natural Element into refined Element

That is something I had forgotten about entirely though, I'll have to put a pin in that. Element Nodes maturing, I mean.

[upper breach]

so yk the arks. is there an order to them?

[mental basin]

wym 'order'

An order to play them, or

[upper breach]

I guess

Like is there an order to the story of them idk

[mental basin]

Yes, The Island, Scorched Earth and then Aberration

Aquatica isn't canon, nor are any of the community made Maps

i.e, The Center, Rag, etc.

[upper breach]

Genesis?

Is that just a rogue one

[mental basin]

Genesis isn't an ARK, but it's canon

In full order including non-ARK Maps, it's
The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Lost Colony, Genesis 1, Genesis 2

[upper breach]

Thank you for explaining I never had the time to completely play them all

[mental basin]

Now off to bed I go

But I will say, there's a lot of fun pre-ARK lore explaining the origins of all the Maps

The Island & Scorched Earth were both conceptualized as Genesis Simulations

Probably dozens of others, too

Very fun, NeddyTheNoodle has a full 2hr ARK lore explained Video which I did a third of the writing on, go watch that in your freetime

[quick vault]

Actually why did they go with dinosaurs? I swear Santiago explained it at some point

[weak furnace]

They wanted to revive modern species but then said that why don't we just try some shit out and see if it is balanced well. So more or less because they want to experiment on the best ecosystem for the new world.

[quick vault]

I respect it

[rigid hazel]

yo

[mystic quest]

i have ment the lost colony DLC

[mystic quest]

understandabel

[left dagger]

Is element bad or evil somehow? Or is it just an element like gold, uranium, etc ? Like is there some evil entity in Ark or is it just bad luck that element is toxic and it made earth inhabitable?

[mental basin]

It's sentient, and just in general it dumps out EXTREME radiation.

Nobody's sure how it happened, but it took awhile for the Element to actually become Corruptive- though it was always damaging to ecosystems.

[left dagger]

Thanks. So its kinda like an entity, and it makes things like king Titan to fight humans? Or

[mental basin]

Element is a hivemind, and when it started becoming Corruptive, it willed into being the Titans to ravage the planet and ensure that there would be no opposition from any living being.

As Helena describes it, Element obviously can't fight by itself, so it has to Corrupt already-existing beings or just fabricate it's own entities to defend itself.

[left dagger]

Ah, excellent explanation.

[mental basin]

Speaking of which, technically there are a LOT more Titans canonically than what we see on Extinction.

There are 3 tiers, essentially.
The King Titan, The Lieutenant Titans (Ice, Forest, Desert) and the Lesser Titans (Which are described and only shown in the Explorer Notes)

[bold dove]

So, a one sided proxy war?

[quick vault]

I know that the free maps are non-canon but does anyone else head canon that they're like control ARKs?

[quick vault]

Wait am I thinking of control Vaults from Fallout? Did ARK have that?

[main steppe]

Looks like they got Bo Katan herself (Katee Sackhoff) to play Diana for lost colony

[kindred burrow]

this is the way

[limber valley]

One thing I see a lot is that Lost Colony is purely a bridge to Ark 2. It technically is, but it's Y-shaped bridge as it also might FINALLY explain the connection between the Ark Survivor & the Genesis Survivor as even the writer basically gave up due to the plothole of Rockwell not recognizing the Survivor, even if you literally defeated him in Aberration and Genesis 1 on that same transfered character.

Personally, I just want them to level it out and just make the Ark Survivor upload their current engramic matrix into the superluminal link and go on to inhabit their Genesis Clone's body in Genesis Part 1 & 2. It's easy, simple, and concise. Especially since that's how I theorized that it's how Rockwell himself was able to board Genesis, he didn't teleport, he sent his mind into his Genesis Clone and "expanded" his tentacled influence from there (Also please just give Rockwell new lines depending on what bosses we've done so we can avoid the plothole)

Additionally, it's important to note that other Ark 2 survivors have memories from the Arks, presumably because of either our actions in Lost Colony or Mei Yin Li's.

[undone imp]

Hi

[strong heart]

Lost colony is an ark 2 drip feed basically.

[exotic walrus]

would talking about trailers here be suitable?

[rigid grove]

If it’s lore related, yeah

[exotic walrus]

ah

[outer oak]

I dont get the lost colony dlc. Meiyin is a total badass but she didn't got to arat prime alone Diana was revived and fought with her on extinction to and together they ventured to arat prime no?

[bronze turtle]

They did go together yea, and with the leak we've seen, diana will be the Lost Queen

And now we know there is a Lost King too

@mental basin they really seem to be establishing that arat prime is where the arks came from D: wut's up with that

Where is my silly genesis ship ;-; tho the lost king said he looked at somone's ( prob mei yin's) memories, so the base stuff for both the arks and gen ship could have been made there I guess

[main steppe]

The Genesis ship was already launched by the time Mei Yin, and later the survivor, arrived

It was launched at the same time as the arks

[bronze turtle]

Indeed, Arat Prime was always all about the genesis ship

Now it's being focused as the birthplace of the arks instead

Which was not the case before

[main steppe]

Which is a retcon, as it was originally solely the birthplace of the arks. Now, this wouldn’t be an issue, if we didn’t still have explorer notes talking about the arks being made in sanctuary

Change those notes so that the genesis ship and the arks were made in the same place, and you’re golden.

[bronze turtle]

Will wildcard be competent enough for that though XD

Unless they consider the genesis ship an ark too

[mental basin]

That's what we were told, yes. That they went to Arat Prime together. But now it seems like Mei-Yin went alone.

[mental basin]

Diana isn't the Lost Queen.

Mei-Yin is. The script says 'Mei-Yin', lol

[bronze turtle]

Does it?

[mental basin]

Yep

[bronze turtle]

Didn't see that :0

Makes sense I guess, lost king did say diana was murdered, and helena vanished

[main steppe]

I do like how Mei Yin being the lost queen means she has literally become a “beast queen”

[mental basin]

Indeed

[bronze turtle]

Now @mental basin go work for wildcard and fix the plot holes with the arks and gen origins

Also what's up with helena in meeka's mind like that

Special connection somehow?

[outer oak]

It didn't explicitly say Diana as the murdered one, but still she was murdered on abberation by rockwell and revived by Helena on extinction

[mental basin]

Same thing Helena did with Mei and Diana during the events of Extinction.

[mental basin]

He's clearly talking about Diana and Helena* here, but why would he point that out if Diana's still alive on Earth? Food for thought.

[bronze turtle]

Doesnt it kinda make HLNA irrelevant if she could just show up like that to anyone tho D: and clearly she still can do it after all this time

[mental basin]

No, not really.

[main steppe]

HLNA and Helena herself are very different. They went through different journeys, and grew to be different people by the end of it

[mental basin]

Anyways, I'm off to go finish a script, talk to you nerds later.

[mental basin]

Well, and the fact that HLN-A has more of a consistent presence than what Helena can accomplish, taking into account her restrictions.

[outer oak]

She was already murdered and Helena turned to light and were mentioned in that order. It just seems more like they forgot they brought Diana back to life lol

[mental basin]

Nah, the Lost King can see her memories. Diana's probably back at Sanctaury.

We see her exiting the MegaMek in the Trailer, so she had to have been split up from Mei.

[outer oak]

Why would she be they left for arat prime together, they were in a relationship no?

[mental basin]

That's the problem- THIS PISSES ME OFF, as if Mei and Diana splitting ways for awhile is truly the case, what then of the Notes we currently have SAYING Diana went to Arat Prime?

[outer oak]

Literally look at Diana's 29th note from extinction "we finished marking the last of the Graves a few hours ago. It was hard to say goodbye, but having recently died myself, I know sitting here and crying my eyes out for a week straight wont help them. Hopefully they find peace within the void, or something beyond it. Now its just me, meiyin and the long road ahead. Well, and the faceless presence thats guiding us down that road of course. Ive already started to feel the tugs pulling me towards arat prime. Not sure what's waiting for us there, but with mei by my side and a dangerous mission in front of us, im just going to relax and enjoy the ride. I can admit that im certifiable for saying so, but this kind of life? It's just my speed"

[main steppe]

My guess is either A: that note will be changed upon lost colony’s release, and if not, then B: Diana is injured on the mission there and has to turn back, or C: somewhere along the line Diana is kidnapped by the Lost King and the denizens of the lost colony, and part of Mei Yin’s motivation is rescuing her

[main mural]

D: plothole thats never answered like the genesis survivor thing in ASE. not really new to ark lol.

[outer oak]

It's weird since meiyins last note for extinction is where Diana finds her. And she said she'd never let go of the feeling (of love) again

[main steppe]

Tbf Lost Colony seems like it’ll be answering that question, bridging the gap between extinction and genesis

[main mural]

true, but why not replace the plothole instead? sounds fun

[outer oak]

I always figured the genesis thing was a mindscape ark that we know isnt "real" but what if the arks and the ship had the same gene database to work with, and since they derived from the same technology its not impossible for a quantum entanglement type thing of data transfer to take place between arks and the ship?

[main mural]

hopefully it explains rockwell as well lol.

[main steppe]

Rockwell was explained, though. He used the superliminal link in Arat Prime to upload his mind into the colony ship

[main mural]

gen 1 is a simulation, gen2 is a real ship.

[main mural]

meant why he doesn't know you.

assuming you are the same person.

[mental basin]

Genesis is a Simulation aboard the Genesis Colony Ship, and isn't in any way an ARK. It's... it's a whole thing of it's own, pretty much.

[main steppe]

Ah, that. I assume they’ll fix that plothole once we get to gen 2

[outer oak]

Dudes basically forgotten himself all ele on the brain and the ark he was housed being destroyed prolly affected his nogin and maybe thats why noglins were made haha

[vital plume]

Alright time to question who do you guys think the lost king is going to be?

[main steppe]

My guess is… Keith David.

[main mural]

keith david

lol

[bronze turtle]

Let's hope all the mess gets sorted out when lost colony releases XD

Maybe they surprise us with actual good storytelling o.o

[quick vault]

Why didn't anyone on Scorched Earth build a settlement underneath the Obelisks? Like, Nosti worshipped these and didn't think "oh hey, how about we set up underneath one of our gods! Plus it's an oasis!"?

[main mural]

kapros

[quick vault]

Then the Mantises wouldn't have busted their pipes

[quick vault]

True true, but it's still favorable than where they were

I know the spot is different in-game but water was pumped externally

A few gators you can fence off shouldn't get in the way of smart planning

[lusty mist]

Non buildable zone

[quick vault]

I've built plenty of times under them?

[main mural]

probably means lore-wise. or a joke

[quick vault]

Also doubt that'd be an issue story-wise

Mei-Yin took a Giga to a boss fight

[main mural]

or if they did worship them, they think building near them could be wrong 🤷

[quick vault]

Maybe yeah, they certainly were kind of weird

I still feel like it would've been a much smarter decision since iirc the areas around the Obelisks are defensible (please don't kill me it's been a while)

Also while the free maps aren't considered canon, is it dumb for me to headcanon them being "control" ARKs? Like how Vault-Tec in Fallout had Control Vaults without experiments, these ones had Overseers that went "You know what'd be sick? Vikings"

"Hell yeah there'll be these islands. They'll have giant crystals man. We can, like, call them the Crystal Isles bro"

[main mural]

you can 100% say all the maps including mod maps exist. its just that the main cast don't go to them.
none of them break any canon or lore since they are standalone.

[quick vault]

I just took non-canon as they didn't exist but good point

[main mural]

mod maps being more likely to be excluded if they have any lore on them. but afaik, none of the non-story ones do.

[quick vault]

This makes me wish procedural maps were implemented better 💔

[main mural]

Lol, nah. those ones aren't at all 😂

[quick vault]

No I know they aren't canon at all, but I do wish they actually worked in-game

[mental basin]

Several of them break canonicity, actually lmao

Mainly the ones with Aberrant Zones, & reused Aberration Tek assets

[main mural]

they weren't made by rockwell tho aberrant dinos existed there prior.

I get the rings from santiago or the other stuff they made. but the dinos themselves aren't really.

and its not like it couldn't have just happened to more arks lol. maybe somebody else blew up the other one or just natural decay

the only ones wrong are lost and fjordur for having genesis stuff on them. everything else could be explained away. either by just things arks do or gameplay reasons.

[mental basin]

Maybe for a few of them

If it weren't for the fact that they're explicitly labelled as non-canon

[main mural]

ingame they are listed as "Arks" actually

[mental basin]

They've been listed as 'non-canon' repeatedly by Wildcard, actually

[main mural]

currently they are listed under arks, it was changed multiple times until they landed on it for ASA, seems intentional. and that could just be they have no connection to it.

[mental basin]

Ahem, Community Crunch 355:

"The base game will include The Island, SOTF, and all the “Non-Canon” DLC maps (which will be added to ASA over time)."

(In reference to the ASA remaster.)

[main mural]

things change. many things have already changed.

[mental basin]

LMAO, should I find a more recent one?

[main mural]

how about the game itself lol

story arks vs ARKs. it right ingame.

they changed what it said multiple times before landing on Arks.

[mental basin]

Yes yes, because the developers have randomly decided without announcing it that the Maps which have been considered non-canon for a decade are suddenly canon

[main mural]

not "canon" just not, "not canon"

they still have no story on them

they mean different things.

[mental basin]

🥀🥀

[quick vault]

Tbf it was mentioned that Genesis Simulation creatures were tested on the ARKs first (which is odd tbh), though that wouldn't explain any of the ones from the ship

[ornate hull]

On the rag dlc page on Xbox it says there's gonna be custom explorer notes

[granite stump]

Well well well, looks like my assumption is RIGHT there IS a lost king!

I knew there was something bigger going on and it wasn’t just Diana/mei being the final boss. There had to of been a bigger threat beyond them

Also mei is the lost queen since that was her va doing the recording

[mental basin]

Mei is the Lost Queen, yes. But the leaked photo is NOT of her VA, lol.

The pic is of Katee, Diana's VA.

Michelle Yeoh does Mei-Yin's lines.

[granite stump]

Didn’t the dialogue on the paper have meis vas name?

As well as lines for mei?

[mental basin]

What are you talking about

The paper was being held by Katee Sackhoff, Diana's VA

It just so happened to have additional lines for Michelle Yeoh, Mei-Yin's VA

Woman in photo = Katee = Diana

[granite stump]

I know I’m saying the script in her hand that revealed there was a ‘lost queen’ doesnt line up now since those last lines shouldn’t be in that script if it’s Diana’s va

[mental basin]

That's not. How. That works.

A script is something filled with lines from ALL characters.

That very script likely has lines for Diana, for Mei, for the Lost King, for Helena, for Meeka and Rockwell all bundled up together.

Notice how the side with Mei-Yin's dialogue is the side that's being held AWAY from Katee, LOL

The side that's facing her has her lines on it.

[granite stump]

Why have them in the batch to begin with?

[mental basin]

That's just how scripts work. It gives more context as to what the actor is reading.

[granite stump]

Like I get it if it’s a dialogue exchange thing but why have that in the pile unless Diana and mei actually exchange words directly

[mental basin]

To paraphrase Bethesda

It Just Works

[granite stump]

Like I get it if it’s for a certain scene and what not but Diana presumably is full DEAD and likely won’t have much dialogue unless it’s in notes

[mental basin]

I'm just telling you what's right LOL, I'm not here to say it makes sense

[granite stump]

It’s just weird to me that that is how they end up leaking Mei being a lost queen

[mental basin]

It was a blunder on Katee's part

But extremely funny for someone like me because what do you mean that one theory from half a decade ago was true

[granite stump]

I’m still glad I was actually right on a Lost king existing

I knew something was up, like why would the bat bois be called thralls when that word means “Slaves” basically. They would need a ruler to be counted as slaves and Mei being the queen alone wouldn’t cut it. There had to be an origin point

[granite stump]

Also, apparently on Ark 2, Meeka will be somehow able to speak with Helena even though she’s technically gone. I assume Helena is somehow tied to Meeka mentally even though something doesn’t add up but I’m unsure why

[sour elm]

I know this is pretty surface level but I dunno if anyone’s pointed out yet (I could also be wrong):

If Lost Colony takes place between the events of Extinction and Genesis with Mei Yin actively doing things at the ARKs’ origin, does that mean that when our player is going through the whole extinction DLC, that Mei Yin is alive and just… on an ARK somewhere? Like, where is she during Extinction?

Because if she’s doing everything AFTER the events of Extinction, that means she can’t be on earth before the player. Maybe. Right?…

[main mural]

pretty sure its between extinction and genesis for us. not her.
tho I don't think the time difference between us and the helena team is ever stated.

[granite stump]

Mei is definitely alive however this is thanks to the Thrall Curse presumably

[glossy shale]

Lost Colony takes place after Extinction, but when we get to Extinction it’s been a long time since Helena, Santiago and Mei-Yin touched down on the Earth

An undisclosed amount of time but a considerable amount of time based on subtle clues

[granite stump]

Yeah, specifically Santiago’s last battle site

[glossy shale]

Mei Yin’s animated journey will probably be flashbacks/visions we can interact with in some way, whether that’s the conventional explorer notes or something…more extreme

I’m stoked they got MAPPA on board for it two of my nerdy interests have unexpectedly met in the middle

I’m not sure what the story for us (the survivor) going to Lost Colony will be, though. Maybe before she vanishes Helena guides the survivor towards Arat Prime to deal with the last of the unfinished business left on the broken earth? Or a different group of the ones who try again whom Helena delegates to deal with the threat on the far side of the earth (around the same time as extinction and us slaying the King Titan)

I’m not sure if this has been confirmed but it’s interesting to think about

[granite stump]

It’s likely during our reseeding of earth we catch wind of something going down, presumably Helena Deus mentions Arat prime and informs us to go face “the stuff of nightmares” and well… We just go to give it a look only to be dragged into the most hellish worst case scenario war ever

[main steppe]

She tells us “the stuff of nightmares” is there, and then it’s just a little sci fi otter

[granite stump]

The gang of thralls looking for someone to do a Disney villain song to: Let us introduce ourselves!

[bold dove]

Like Stel said, it's to help the actor understand the context of the scene and what the other VA's are saying. So then they can deliver the lines in a proper tone to the shot.

[sharp swan]

So the new trailer for lost colony with Meeka was set in Ark 2 right? How does the women in green (forgot her name) have all the memories. I haven’t checked up on ark lore in quite some time lol

[mental basin]

Set in ARK II, before Bob's Tall Tales

The woman in green is Helena, and she's a Homo Deus

[sharp swan]

She’s just appearing in a form to not spook meeka then?

BTT was also just a collection of stories from the island up to extinction as well correct? And is also shared with Meeka?

[mental basin]

Likely. And nah, all the stories in Bob's Tales are just stories by Bob.

He is canonically telling the stories to Meeka during the events of ARK II, but the stories' contents don't represent the actual events that happened.

It's just a loose enough recap for Meeka to understand the general story, with Bob self-inserted into all the important parts.

[sharp swan]

Ahhhh gotcha thanks

I’m a bit nervous for lost colony seems like a big step for the expansion of Ark and seems quite different lol

[main steppe]

It’ll likely be a transitional step between the gameplay of Ark 1 and 2

Ark 2 has been said to be more RPG like, and lost colony has a whole skill tree system, so it seems like it’s to ease players into the second game’s gameplay

[snow hedge]

So no implant on meeka assuming because she's not a "survivor" means she's just a regular human?

[limber valley]

And even then, Fjordur is a simulation.

Doesn't matter for canonicity, but it's a good point to make

[limber valley]

Due to shallow lore regarding children on the Arks, we genuinely do not know if the offspring of two survivors would realistically have an implant as it is surgically attached to the clone when they are being vat grown, not in the womb.

There is evidence of children on the Arks, one Rockwell note on Scorched Earth mentions one tribe leader having a son.

Additionally, if my theory of the specimen implant being a storage medium for memories and concepts is true.

Meeka cannot access engrams for blueprints.

Meaning she has to manually learn how to construct items with actual practice, something that other survivors don't seem to struggle with as much (from a lore standpoint, it's unclear how engrams work or fit in, but it's an idea.)

[mental basin]

99% sure this is just an error.

She got a new model. Wildcard forgets to put Implants on Survivors constantly.

Like the Gen 1 colonists in the Ascension cutscene

They're all SUPPOSED to have Implants, but none of them actually do.

[outer oak]

Perhaps the lost king is a rouge program of sorts (or cyborg from the tek war era) that essentially went rampant after millenia of its coding starting to corrupt little by little like the home deus Helena mentions in notes on the island about a trickle becoming a stream

[fallow sapphire]

it seems to be insinuated that its been a long time, but yeah there really isnt any timeline in ark given like ever

i think the only timeline semi-given is the 8 (i think?) year gap between when Rockwell goes to the colony ship and when everything falls apart

[granite stump]

Wouldn’t make sense why he’s likely tied to the “Thralls” since they’re not bio mechanical. They’re full on organic so I assume the Lost king is more akin to Dracula, a man that is the origin point of the “Thrall” virus and he likely was patient 0

[outer oak]

I dont ever recall the thrall, which notes should I look at for the reference?

[granite stump]

The thrall aren’t in any notes, they’re the vampire creatures that Mei faced in the lost colony trailer

We had a name reveal happen and they’re presumably called the “Thrall” aka “Slaves” to someone which has been theorized to be Mei Yin but turns out, there’s actually the Lost King which is the presumed origin point of the “Thrall” and likely Mei Yin’s new partner in crime or in this case… Mei becoming a Thrall herself and now dubbed as the “Lost Queen”

[outer oak]

Ah but then that doesn't necessarily rule out my thought since the thrall king could've been made by the rampant ai like how the bosses were made by the overseers

[main steppe]

While technically possible, this isn’t really an ark, so there’s no real reason for it to have been made.

[granite stump]

Nope, it’s more likely that it’s some virus that’s mutated thanks to element exposure. Not an AI system. That and the voice we recently heard in the new teaser confirms that it is indeed a man

[outer oak]

The protoarks on extinction like blue and red

We hear Helena voice and she's a home deus sooo

[granite stump]

Presumably a man that was patient 0 of this Thrall virus, got infected and gained something akin to ascension but doesn’t actually ascend like Helena does and is just kinda permanently existing on the Arat prime. And in turn infected everyone else and made them slaves to his every whim. And seemingly manipulated Mei into joining him since she lost everything

[outer oak]

What if the thrall virus is an after affect of rockwell passing through to beam himself to the gen 2 ship then? Though not likely but still a thought, considering if vestiges of his psyche remain and corrupt its similar to the corrupted survivors in gen 1 simulation and gen 2 boss fight

[granite stump]

Unlikely. The Thralls seemed to of been established on arat prime since the genesis ships launch (atleast a bit after seemingly)

This and it would mean the Thralls and Lost king would be working for Rockwell which wouldn’t make sense due to Rockwell being another factor in this war for arat prime

[outer oak]

I meant as like the patient 0 got infected by rockwell someway but a mutation occurred where their sentience wasnt overridden and they became a new entity that way. Would explain an ascension without ascending since they'd have knowledge/data regarding arks and technology via incorporated and overridden rockwell cells er whatever

[granite stump]

Rockwell going for arat prime to try and transfer to the ship

Us trying to face them both and end the corruption/rockwells influence for good

And the thrall/Lost king desiring to likely expand their empire since the corruption is now gone and their virus can now spread without worry of the titans like the King titan getting in their way (after all this Thrall virus is also seemingly a whole new strain of element, a “Cursed” tier. Likely giving the name of this virus as the Cursed Thrall Virus)

[outer oak]

Rockwell was himself essentially cursed and corrupted by element too

[granite stump]

This wouldn’t work, patient 0 was here on arat prime for decades, it wouldn’t be possible for him to infect all of arat prime that fast

Rockwell in terms of lore isn’t anywhere near when the Lost king existed and also, no that’s not how Rockwell’s corruption worked.

This new Cursed tek seemingly is infused with something. This isn’t what Rockwell did or what corruption did. This is something more natural seemingly. This is some virus that was made to likely better humanity but something went horribly wrong

[outer oak]

So a corrupted ginnea pig turned on its creators

[granite stump]

Here’s likely what went down

The genesis ship reaches its final stages of launch

The lost king finalizes the “Cursed Thrall virus” and injects himself to ‘ascend’ his own way (likely due to being turned away from both the genesis ship relocation effort and the ark system) and becomes said Lost king

The genesis ship makes a hasty launch due to the virus breaking out

Arat prime goes offline from communications with the city in extinction

The thralls spread throughout arat prime and consume everyone and everything until the lost king establishes himself as the ruler of the empire

They likely try and expand but the corruption of earth holds them back from consuming all of earth

Years later

The reseed protocol happens and all the arks clean earth

Aberration/Rockwell touchdown near arat prime

We catch wind of what’s going down and we rush over to face as Helena puts it with what Mei seen “The stuff of nightmares”

I suspect anyway that the lost king has some weird sympathy with Mei with being “Betrayed” and “Left alone” so I suspect the people of the genesis ships and ark protocols turned him away (the lost king was likely a higher up official that should have been allowed to partake in both the genesis simulation and or the ark reseed efforts but something happened to get him kicked out)

[outer oak]

Perhaps the lost kings wasnt turned away but a later third option to combat the element infection of earth, but like you said it goes wrong and new host mind develops thats corrupted but human based and causes the after effects you mention

Fight poison with poison and hope that the arks reseed protocol will deal with the aftermath

[granite stump]

Likely yeah but I don’t think this was intended as some counter measure. This was seemingly a more deliberate way to ascend without worry of losing their minds in the data form

Something akin to what Rockwell did but through a virus but as we both agree, something goes wrong and said person now has a vendetta

[outer oak]

Perhaps not a third option but one of the many side hustles, but this one went horribly wrong etc etc

[shy shoal]

Oh this might be my new fav channel is their a link anywhere to read up on/ catch up on the story as we know so far?

[fallow sapphire]

general summary is in pins

[shy shoal]

Thanks!

[fallow sapphire]

yep! stop by if you wanna ask questions!

[mental basin]

Honk honk

[bold dove]

So Stel, what's your take on the new stuff in the LC pre order trailer?

[kindred burrow]

For me im surprised by it also that the snow fox can evolve will be crazy too see i to what when lc offically releases in a few months

[fierce trail]

The work around doesn't work 😕

[minor fable]

Trying to get into the lore of this game; does anybody recommend videos or guide for an easy explain?

[floral sedge]

Watch neddy the noodles survival stories for a fun cinematic experience that’ll get you interested in the ark lore or watch nedddy the noodles 2 hr video on all of arks lore for a quick explanation (it’s called arks lore before ark ascended or something like that)

[minor fable]

Just got back watching them, thanks for that! Really interesting stuff

[granite stump]

The real curious stuff is what’s gonna be in lost colony

[bold dove]

Watch nanostel's stuff if you want to keep up-to-date with newer ARK lore stuff. He'll likely cover LC.

[magic roost]

What metal is metal actually supposed to be?

[main mural]

its the word "metal" on the periodic table
"element" is all of them
(this is a joke, but fitting since what they can do)

[magic roost]

Heard somewhere that apparently it's iron because of Primitive plus

[main mural]

prim+ isn't canon.
chances are it is iron but that gets ify when you look at the electronics iron shouldn't really be used in those

[magic roost]

Speaking of Cannon

What maps are cannon?

Maybe it's just steel

[main mural]

canon not cannon.
island, scorched earth, aberration, extinction, lost colony, Genesis 1, Genesis 2

[main mural]

its probably just fictional metal. just like element they just are.

[magic roost]

Wait isn't the Ice Wyvern exclusive to Ragnarok but the ice wyvern is mentioned in the managarmr dossier?

[main mural]

the maps aren't canon but that doesn't mean the dinos (or even the maps) don't exist as one of the arks floating around.

ice wyverns are also on val, lost island, and fjordur btw

wonder if any are on genesis missions.

[magic roost]

This reminded me of when I was waiting to tame my theri and I've decided to test how fast my Sarco was(i don't put points into speed in any of my creatures)

On land they can run at 21 Miles per hour

[bold dove]

Anything in the story-maps section.
Everything else are just fan maps, or non-canon mechanics. (Club ARK)
As Pumpkin said, the creatures from the modded maps are canon though. But seemingly so-far only in the Genesis simulation, because the only time we see custom-ark creatures was in the Survive the ARK mission on Gen2, which was set in the Genesis simulation.

[magic roost]

So there is a chance that Deinonychus is cannon?

[bold dove]

It's an enemy you fight in Survive the ARK, so yeah.

Dodorex is also the end boss for the Survive the ARK mission.

[magic roost]

Wonder were would modded creatures like Savage Acro,Deinosuchus and cerato would be if they were cannon

[bold dove]

The Deinosuchus is already an official creature on ASA.

And they now spawn on story maps without the need to install their mods. So they're likely canon now.

[magic roost]

Genuinely forgot about that since I am still playing ASE

[bold dove]

Fair

But yeah, ASA has already introduced some of Garuga's modded creatures into the official game. So they're likely canon.

[magic roost]

Hopefully Barsboldia is next

That thing is a literal War horse, no literally look at the design

[bold dove]

BTT and Fantastic Tames stuff is where things get....iffy if they're canon or not.

Pretty sure Jeremy/Jesse stated that BTT is only semi-canon. But I don't know what exactly is/isn't canon in them.

I'm just gonna assume Fantastic Tames is completely non-canon, unless officially stated otherwise.

[magic roost]

One thing I always wonder is what dinos were in gaius army when he faced the dragon

I've read his notes left and right and I still don't have a clue

Needy cinematic did show him with Raptors,allos and a yutty

But I don't think it's impossible he would have atleast a single rex

[bold dove]

I could be wrong, as it's been years since I helped record with that video. But I believe the reason why we didn't have many/any large creatures in his army outside of the yuty, was because almost everything else was too big and clunky to control.

[magic roost]

Makes sense

My headcannon is that he probably had a good number of Allos,at least a handful of rexes,Raptors basically being the horsemen and offcourse a Yutty

[bold dove]

Aye, throw in a giga. Because that apparently makes sense for TAS to also throw in. 🤷

[magic roost]

I am not so sure if it is consistent

Since he did fought Mei-In and he acted quite suprised at the sight of one

Also TAS is obviously its own timeline

[bold dove]

Yeah, I know. I just like making fun of TAS.

[magic roost]

Me too

A lot of the dino designs looks like cheap saturday morning cartoons Monsters

Also Gaius Giga just felt underwhelming

[bold dove]

Planning on rewatching p1 when the second one comes out. But honestly, the longer it exists, the more it reminds me of the Silver timeline of Halo.

[main steppe]

Now, now, let’s not be too hasty here

TAS hasn’t sunken to the low of Master Cheeks

[bold dove]

I don't know.
Cliche twirly mustache villain Rockwell is a pretty bad downgrade.

[main steppe]

Oh, absolutely, but again

Master Cheeks.

Also having sex with a POW

[bold dove]

They're both decently out of character.
I wouldn't be too surprised if in part 2, they have Rockwell randomly hit on Helena.

[main steppe]

I feel like out of all the changes, that’s the most egregious, because the entire crux of the story across the Island to Aberration, and then Gen 1 and 2 relies on Rockwell’s slow descent

Like, out of all the things to change, that’s literally the last thing you’d want to change

[bold dove]

Yerp.
I will be surprised if they pull it off, but I only can think of two ways this'll go down.
A: They somehow make Rockwell empathetic because he lost his child (boohoo, doesn't give you an excuse to be an ass) but OH NO! Element corrupts him and he reverts back. Getting rid of any character development he had.
B: Double down and make him even worse as the serious goes on, and just do the same as we see in-game. But without any of his actually compelling manipulation he had with his friends.

[main steppe]

I hope it’s B, just because evil David Tennant is fun to watch

[clever junco]

how do you respawn in ark like in the lore

[granite stump]

It’s unknown how it works I recall but I think the most common theory is us ‘respawning’ is just us being cloned with our previous memories of before we died.

[clever junco]

maybe idk

[granite stump]

As said idk myself on how it works, just how it became a thing

[fallow sapphire]

The One Who Waits fiddled around with the System, basically slowly suggesting to it that Survivors should be allowed multiple chances. Thats why the survivors in notes dont respawn (excluding Diana) but we do. As for the literal how, Seregios got it fairly spot on with cloning. Everytime you die your next body is just another clone of you, with the memories of your last clone up until its death

[clever junco]

Okay thanks

[floral sedge]

What’s preventing survivors from just faking a death (making the arks think you died) and raising an army of clones

[cosmic schooner]

Your implant shows all of your statistics, so they would be able to see your health isn’t 0. Also respawning with an implant kill’s you, inferring there can only be one of each survivor at a time

@floral sedge

[bold dove]

The implants don't canonically have a menu.

[mental basin]

The ARK can see you at all times lol

[orchid kestrel]

hold on, where did the arks come from? I thought they were built by humanity as earth was being choked to death due to the element crisis

[jaunty citrus]

Yes but they have a highly advanced AI controlling them

[bold dove]

That is exactly how they where made.

[quaint marsh]

Lost Colony tells us they were built in Arat Prime, but I do remember Sanctuary being the original location.

Probably another retcon

[bronze turtle]

This might be unrelated to the channel but,
Is there anything in the explorer notes mentioning a symbiotic relationship between the carnivores that don't attack each other for some reason? (i.e sabertooths, dire wolves, raptors etc)

[frosty hedge]

That could be right cause on Genesis one your in a chamber

[granite stump]

I assume arat prime and the city in extinction discussed research on how the arks can be made and the protoarks were a milestone while arat prime ended up taking credit. This could all actually tie into the lost king himself in some way if we REALLY wanna stretch it since he could of been the one discussing stuff with the city and once the arks were made and he could be given a slot for the genesis ship, he went rogue and caused the Thralls to form

As said, this is a major stretch to make but this could easily just be a simple retcon

[bold dove]

When tamed, they're all docile towards each other tamed members, with minimal training.
For the wild? Likely just a gameplay limitation with npc's being set on teams.
There's a handful of carnivores that do attack each other, but that's usually because they're on different teams.

[quick vault]

Hey, does anyone have a source or something that fully explains the Element hive mind? It's for something really important 🙏

Like everything in one place sort of deal

[quick vault]

I'm surprised this isn't addressed in-story as some sort of identity crisis sort of thing (unless it was and I'm an idiot)

[fallow sapphire]

The mental strain of being remade, or the knowledge of being a clone?

cause the mental strain, only one survivor in the story was reborn, being Diana, who took it like a champ

as for the knowledge of being a clone, it hit everyone pretty hard when they went into the heart of Aberration

[quick vault]

Knowledge

Like "Am I really me?" but glad to know it got addressed

[fallow sapphire]

yeah it hit everyone pretty hard, i'll see if i can find the notes addressing it

[quick vault]

I've always been more invested in the general worldbuilding than the plots of each respective character

But the notes would be a good read

[main steppe]

Pretty much the entirety of Santiago’s Gen 2 arc is about him realizing he’s a clone, and the philosophical quandaries that come with that, especially when he realizes elements of him have been tampered with

[quick vault]

Oh yeah I do vaguely remember that

[fallow sapphire]

want note numbers or notes themselves lol

[quick vault]

It's been years since I've interacted with the game's story

[quick vault]

The numbers work fine, I'll look them up tonight

[fallow sapphire]

Genesis 2 Chronicles #19

Aberration Helena Note #18 and #19

Extinction Diana Log #2

there may be more, but those were the most apparent i saw

[quick vault]

These'll work beautifully, thank you

[fallow sapphire]

happy to help

[maiden egret]

How did Rockwell take control of Aberration after he was sent to its depths? What did he find that gave him full control?

[kindred burrow]

i think iirc is after they blowed up the obelisk of ab the ai saw rockwell after his own mutating as the fittest for the job

[granite stump]

The ark had no actual overseer after the tek tribe blew up the main station which caused the protective barrier to be destroyed and made the surface scorched. Rockwell upon falling into the depths ended up being registered by the system as the nest best candidate to being an overseer and he was gifted the knowledge of an overseer and he’s able to even control certain creatures actions since the scorched earth ark was ‘guiding’ mantis to attack the people of Nausty as well as wyverns attacking as well. Short answer: the system was missing a file and found a file and pulled it in and gave it the things needed to make Rockwell into a new overseer

[wispy fog]

but why rockwell at that moment? since there was none before wouldnt they auto find one, why wait til rockwell. Also was there just no way to ascend except for the portal?

[kindred burrow]

I assume there were other ways back when the old overseer existed but roxkwell i assume he was seen as the most fitted one due to his abnomal mutations

[maiden egret]

Probably due to the amount of element in it

[kindred burrow]

Possible

[granite stump]

There was just nothing on the ark that fit the role of overseer until Rockwell showed up

[wispy fog]

idk man, ravagers really ate my butt throughout my playthrough, id say they are a strong canidate lol

[granite stump]

Nope lol

[kindred burrow]

But all in all mad respect for my homie rockwell to maintain his mind agter all that shit

[unkempt knoll]

.

.

[granite stump]

This isn’t the place to ask that bro

[unkempt knoll]

Sorry, I got it. I'll retract and modify it. Sorry to bother everyone

[young marten]

So anyone gonna talk about that Diana Altaras will be some "Lost Queen"?

[hallow trail]

In the new trailer Helena said the Arks came from ARAT Prime, but I thought the Genesis ship came from there and the Arks came from the the area around the Extinction map, can someone explain?

[granite stump]

It’s looking more unlikely she’s the lost queen. It looks more like Mei is since the “Lost king” in the trailer recalled her 2 friends leaving her. One being murdered (Rockwell incident/arat prime travel possible incident) and the other vanished (this refers to Helena’s ascension)

[granite stump]

It’s presumed this is a retcon but also if we wanna make a real lore reason, the city on extinction and Arat prime were communicating to each other and exchanging research and Arat prime made the first true ark and they gave the info over to the city and they had a bit of a rough time making them which explains the proto arks

[hallow trail]

Thank you very much that bit of the trailer was really bugging me.

[granite stump]

This isn’t a canon explanation it’s one that I can reasonably think up

[young marten]

Shit you're right...

[tame pecan]

Is there a concrete year for the start of the element war?
I am currently researching the lore and couldn't find a concrete date for that

[main steppe]

Iirc there isn’t a concrete date, but it starts in the 2100’s

[tame pecan]

Well that's weird the end of the element war is dated on 2347 and the wiki says it went on for 16-17 years with tensions escalating two years before so maybe 19 years of element war. But if it starts in the 2100s that would mean at least 100 years of war? Idk maybe the wiki is off in it's detail or something but there's just something that doesn't add up
Thanks for your help though, I appreciate it ^^

[granite stump]

It was around 2100’s is when the element itself was found I believe and it kinda sent humanity into a quick path and within those few years it kinda devolved to about when 2300’s which I assume is when the war begun at somewhere in the early 2300’s

It would be really weird if the war just didn’t stop for over 200 years

[bold dove]

Wouldn't be impossible though.
Wars have lasted longer.

Especially if most parts of it was more like a cold-war.

[main steppe]

It’s also a sci fi series

A genre known for having ludicrously long wars

[bold dove]

Again, not really unreasonable.

Apparently the longest war in history was 774 years long

[granite stump]

That is true

[restive laurel]

So, can anyone explain the gap between Genesis 1 and 2? Was genesis 1 a simulation we were having, while inside the genesis 2 ship?

Rlly confused and seems fun to know ngl

[bold dove]

Lost Colony will fill that gap

Oh wait, you meant Gen1 to 2, sorry

[bold dove]

There's no gap. Genesis 2 happens right after the ending of Gen1.

[restive laurel]

Soooo, were we in some kind of place on the ship, playing a simulation? Then we wake up and that’s how we get to the start of gen 2 ?

[fallow sapphire]

indeed, have you seen the ending of genesis part 1?

[bold dove]

Have you never seen the Gen1 ending?

[fallow sapphire]

well, anyway, how you been Spartan? Don't talk to you often anymore

[bold dove]

Currently? Annoyed.
Generally? Fine.

[fallow sapphire]

valid

pretty good honestly, i've enjoyed the dlc's i've bought, for the most part atleast

[restive laurel]

No, I would die before I continue that accursed game. Did watch multiple lore vids tho

[bold dove]

Don't bother with them. I already contacted Dodomail.

[fallow sapphire]

meh, i deal with bs like this regularly, its honestly just fun to me

[bold dove]

Okay, well in the ending. You wake up in a room, full of pods with other people hooked into the simulation.
Rockwell gets pissed that you beat him at his own game in the simulation, and so physically goes after you with his many slimy tentacles, and grabs you. That ends Gen1, and where Gen2 opens up.

[fallow sapphire]

why'd you have to emphasize many slimy lol

[bold dove]

Actually, to play devils advocate with myself. I have yet to buy the shitty pyromane and dreadmare.
Those two fuckers are the only thing I refuse to buy.

[bold dove]

[fallow sapphire]

i had to buy the Dreadmare for Stel's sake, i still hate that i own it

[restive laurel]

Ahh. Crappy ending to a crappy game

[mental basin]

What the Hell happened here

🥀

[mental basin]

5,000 Theomare-ccentric events

[bold dove]

Rage bait

[fallow sapphire]

Oh god no, please just let him die

We dont need rockwell 2.0

[kindred burrow]

Rejpice my child qhwn shadowmane meets his lil brother pyromane

[bold dove]

Shadowmane is a water type, and pyromane is a fire type.
We know that pyromane is fucked if they get into a fight.

[kindred burrow]

Ngl that would bw oke hella funny encounter if the yboth fight each other in the wild cuz big cats

[maiden egret]

Were more animals than the one we tame on the Arks? Like small mammals, insects or birds that are there for ambience

[kindred burrow]

Possible

[mental basin]

Yep, Helena describes water snakes specifically, in her Coel Dossier.

Ambient birds are also heard, etc.

[main steppe]

The question is, when do we get the ice type, the Cryomane?

[fallow sapphire]

cant forget the Terramane as well

[kindred burrow]

And the thunder and metalmane

And bloodmane

[loud wedge]

Ark lore is just your in space with dinosaurs and people absolutely LOVED this self replicating material that would totally not hurt anyone

[maiden egret]

Could the Arat humanoids from Ark 2 be related to the Lost Colony humanoids/vampires?

[main mural]

probably not since thats a different planet

[bold dove]

No, since the Aratai's are confirmed to be natives to Arat.

[maiden egret]

And how did Rockwell reach Arat Prime and upload himself to Genesis ?

[main mural]

that would probably be answered in lost colony.

[bold dove]

And so far, from what we know. Arat is a whole new planet humanity has never encountered before the end of Gen2.

[main mural]

currently its something like the aberration ark crash landed and rockwell made his way to arat prime and used the magic communication device to upload himself (I don't remember its name lol)

[bold dove]

Arat Prime has a super liminal uplink. Which, from what I understand, was the way to transfer between Earth, and light years across to the Genesis ship.

[main mural]

yeah, super liminal uplink lol

[bold dove]

Basically just a cracked out version of what the ARK's use to transfer across ARK's, if I recall.

If anything, it may be a more refined/advanced bootleg of Santiago's portal from Aberration.
Obviously not built or inspired by each other, because OG Santiago if I recall was long dead by the time The Collapse happened.
But not unlikely in the real world that similar in concept technologies can be invented in different cultures, that never once contacted each other.

Maybe they'll finally actually reuse the space elevator, and use it as a comically long tube we teleport upwards towards.

[main mural]

wasn't there a version of santiago helping with the creation of it? or was that after launch

there have been too many santiagos lol

[bold dove]

That I'm not sure on.
If the Gen2 Santiago was pre-launch, then I can see the Ab Santiago subconsciously recreate the super liminal uplink on a smaller scale for the Gateway Project.

Would be a neat way of tying those two Santiago's closer together.

[main mural]

my discord keeps crashing

[bold dove]

RiP

[main mural]

the way santiago's gen2 notes are written makes me want to say they were prior to launch but I really don't know.

[bold dove]

One thing I never understood, was that the latter part of the URE had no issues fucking with clones memories.
So...why did they never resurrect histories smartest people to help with The Collapse, and just give them fake memories of how they got to the 25th-or-so century?
"Nah, fuck it. Resurrect Santiago for the 7th time."

[main mural]

I think it was. he says
"I'm sure I'll never live to see the launch of any interstellar colony ship or satellite ark swarm, whichever ends up being our final choice for relocating our archive.

So I need to make sure the project is set up for the future, with people dedicated to seeing it through no matter what that takes."

[bold dove]

So it isn't out of the question that this Santiago might've helped build the super liminal uplink.

[main mural]

they probably still had "morals" in the early creation of the arks/genesis ship. but the arks didn't care about who it chose.

[bold dove]

They didn't really.
Santiago's one friend (forgot his name) whole character arc is about how he doesn't know if the URE fucked with their memories or not.
And Gen2 Santiago's memories are changed if I recall, because OG Santiago died in a jungle. So they HAD to change the clones memory if they wanted him to think he was the original.
It wasn't underneath the URE at this point. Anything was on the table.

[main mural]

I more of meant who they chose.

crazy how many times santiago has died 😂

hasn't he died like 4 or 5 times

[bold dove]

I don't think they really cared.
This is the same nation that some thought ascending to becoming a Homo-Deus was a good way out of The Collapse.
Not helping the issue they caused. Not caring about how they'll slowly degrade over time.
Literally just peace the fuck out.

[main mural]

they did also help with the arks and genesis ship tho
its not like they completely noped out 😂

they just assumed their plan would work when they hadn't thought about the titans yet.

[bold dove]

The bare minimal they and the Federation could do after what they did.

[main mural]

because they are a government

kinda obvious

[bold dove]

God, we fucking love governments destroying the livelihood of their citizens.

[mental basin]

I feel like this should be obvious

It'd be weird to see the big Albert E. on the Genesis Ship, when you could just slap San2iago aboard

Less memory editing, plus nobody bats an eye

They didnt' WANT anyone to know San2iago was a clone to begin with

If you have to super-soup up an Einstein clone, is it even him at that point

[bold dove]

That's a good point.

[bold dove]

Doesn't the engramic matrix kind of remove that philosophy/question?
If all of your memories, experiences, personality, and being in general is in some form of energy/pseudo soul-like thing that's found in dead peoples brains. I feel like at that point, you're just objectively you. Just in a new body.

[mental basin]

The soul may be the same, but could you say that Ab Santiago is truly Gen Santiago

He has a note where he himself says 'no'

[bold dove]

Depends on how the engramic matrix works.
If it just bounces to bounces to each body at different times, then he still has all of those experiences and memories. The ARK is just repressing them.
If that's how it does work, I'd very much would argue that the ARK-2 Santiago is probably the closest to the "realist" Santiago we've got since he first died. Since this one will have the memories and experience of both his Genesis-ship, and Aberration/Extinction self. All he'd need to do is figure out how to unsuppressed those memories.

Now, if the engramic matrix doesn't work like that, then I can see the argument of the Ab Santiago's and Gen Santiago's being completely separate entities.
It, at least to me. All depends of it "copies and pastes" his consciousness, or "cut and pastes" them.

[maiden egret]

what exactly is an Homo Deus and how does the ascension work?

[granite stump]

Homo Deus are humans that are turned into data and just can’t age or be affected by things like humans can but in turn over time the homo deus’ consciousness will fade and eventually that data will kinda linger without any real thoughts. Basically over time as a homo deus you’ll lose your sense of self and become nothing. This happened to all those who ascended and became data, this also happened to Helena around the events of extinction to genesis part 1

[mental basin]

Homo Deus aren't data, they are made of light and energy

And yes, this had happened to Helena, and those who came before her

Supposedly, as her Homo Deus form is seen in ARK II

[bold dove]

So, if Halo tought me anything. It's light can be harnessed to become physical.

Can I make a light bridge out of Homo-Deus's?

[drifting verge]

Why aren't they responding to tickets? There are a lot of hackers with aimbots and seep hacks. This game is going to hell.

[mental basin]

Lore

[main steppe]

Why didn’t Helena just use an aimbot? Is she stupid?

[fallow sapphire]

woulda helped with the FSBMM’s

[bold dove]

Wildcard doesn't respond to tickets, because they're actually all individual Overseers.
As such, don't deem anyone who they don't respond to be consuming more of the ARK's resources then they're worth. And so allows the player(s) to get their bases insided.
Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.
Your base now belongs to all of us.

[kindred burrow]

One for all

[drowsy depot]

If Wildcard are overseers, they are the version that ascended via Temu rather than the superluninal link.

[sick dust]

Why is mushroom cave called "Lair of the Mask" in game?

I often wonder why they call some regions what they do

[mental basin]

Which Map?

[high brook]

Ragnarok and I think its bc the original map was community funded so it has a lot of community references

Like theres a Jatheish Grotto named after WC's executive producer

[trim vault]

HLN-A, the robot in genesis just spells out Helena without the E’s

[quaint marsh]

Coincidence? I think not

[main mural]

nah, definitely a coincidence

[trim vault]

Agree lol

[floral sedge]

Can homo dues go through portals from Portal?

[floral sedge]

Just happened by accident

My dad works at wild card he told me so

[trim vault]

Ur like those rblx kids who lie saying “MY DAD OWNS ROBLOX”

[main steppe]

That’s the joke.

[floral sedge]

^

[gaunt wadi]

Mb wrong chat

[gritty stump]

my dad owns wildcard

[sullen plume]

what is Ark’s lore

[bold dove]

Pins has a lot of the information. But tl;dr is.
Rock crashes into Earth sometime in the future.
Rock has Element, and Element has properties that breaks our understanding of the Universe.
Nations start to use Element to make Tek, and a new era for humanity has begun.
The two biggest super powers, the URE (United Republic of Earth) and the Terran Federation start to fight each other.
This causes a global conflict that's basically another World-War, known as the "Element-war".
The war heavily pollutes the Earth.
Turns out funny space rock material is actually alive and due to the pollution, is now spreading and causes Corruption.
This Corruption is causing a mass extinction event, this point in the timeline is known as "The Collapse".
The URE and Federation realizes this, and get their shits together and end their war to focus on the Corruption.
Corruption is spreading too fast to actually kill. So they formed two plans.
The URE created the ARK's, giant space stations to preserve life in hopes the Corruption will die off over time.
The Genesis Colony-ship, a giant ass ship that's to preserve life, but also find a new habitable planet for Earth life to live on. (including humans)
All life is killed off on Earth, with exceptions of pocket areas like Sanctuary on the map Extinction that holds proto-ARK's that can infinitely create new life.

[sullen plume]

oh fun

who’s helena and and rockwell and nerva

what are the significance of these names

[mild basin]

I sense a crazy essay incoming

[bold dove]

-Helena is the funny ghost girl you see at the end of Extinction.
The notes are basically dedicated to her story and growth, with her additionally having her own notes.
Tl;dr: she's the one who made all of the dossiers, and when she reached the Extinction map, she put a random thing in her implant, went brain dead, and Mei-Yin brought her to a pod that resurrected her as a Homo-Deus.
-Nerva was a Roman general. Outside of being the first antagonist in the notes, and technically in the game as the notes where added shortly before the Tek Cave was. There's nothing really special about him to the overarching narrative outside of him being the dude that helped Mei-Yin's Giga go enraged.
-Rockwell was Helena's BFF before he got jelly, and was a researcher/scientist.
Tl:dr: dude was a gentleman, but also kind of unhinged when he was alone. He became obsessed with the ARK's after discovering an artifact.
He then became obsessed with Element when he first found some, and went slowly insane for it until finally, on Aberration he injected himself with liquid Element to mutate him into the abomination you see on Aberration. (he's Ab's boss. The giant tentacle monster)

There's an absurd amount I'm skimming over.

[bold dove]

Hmmyes

[hallow lark]

failed embed

[feral kindle]

i dont know if im wrong but is hamerpede from prometheus an inspiration for the noglin or atleast for the head the hamerpedes mouth structure and head shapeare almost the same asthe noglins, but it doesnt have eyes or entennas

[dense raptor]

Any lore master know who rook is? There’s a statue on rag of them being chased on rag.

[bold dove]

None of the custom-ARK's are canon

[rancid mountain]

Probably someone who tested the map in the early days or helped fund the maps creation

[molten orchid]

What's the logic behind Snow Owl's Ice healing?

[heavy oar]

it makes ice

[coarse estuary]

[molten orchid]

But like isn't there something behind it that explain why it has healing properties?

[young marten]

Bro we have like

Pyromanes, wyverns, titans, noglins

Alive metal and sci-fi spaceships

Don't seek sense in this things. It's just evolution/genomodification

Better ask why the hell Arat Prime is a frickin' vampire castle who seems to trying to be not old and made his castle technological. Though i swear i see floating machines with red projectors and lights that makes something like a city...

I'm a lore worm. I actually really like where the lore is going, what new dinos are. I was playing ark for 7 or even more years, waiting for new DLC just to seek for more lore. I'd really liked to play Ark Lost Colony just to find out everything. The only issue... I brought ASA and it didn't worked. Cuz i have GTX 1060. So i just gave it back and byed few another games. I cannot afford new videocard, just as i cannot afford the new game even if i buy a new videocard. If you have an old pc and you have no money - you have no way to play something you like. Damn, i discovered ark lore from my childhood, and now i can only sit and see as this dlc will cost money too. 👍

Shame that this didn't came out in ASE. Though id still liked to find out new lore from wiki. (Though, the dlc will be delayed 10000 times and only after few months wiki guys will update it with notes 👍)

[bold dove]

Could be wrong, but I believe the Fantastic Tames creatures aren't canon.
But doesn't at all negate your point.

[young marten]

Still

Shadowmanes, noglins, wyverns, drakes, reapers. It's just creatures that were created by humans. (And Rockwell in gen2, some of them)

[bold dove]

ye

[bold dove]

Checked the dossier, and fairly sure it's just a gameplay feature.
The dossier states how it can excrete its chemicals that it normally uses for its talons, to burst it into a wide cloud range to freeze any prey.
But it has no mention of that freeze or chemical having healing properties.

[molten orchid]

I understand in ark there's much shit that's crazy but I actually am interested specifically on Owl's case

[molten orchid]

Sadge then

ty for the answer tho

Like I really wanted to know a better explanation of how that works but welp there's no info so rip

[lofty narwhal]

I imagine there is a lore reason for this, but why are no flying creatures allowed on Abberation

Its probably just gameplay stuff, but its always confused me

[strong heart]

Probably punishment from the Ark system for destroying the overseer.

[lofty narwhal]

Ah yea, makes sense

[mental basin]

It's not any kind of """punishment""". It's just for gameplay purposes.

[lofty narwhal]

Ah okay

[cyan oak]

This might sound practical, but lore wise, where does the survivor go when they fight the guardians? A far away arena that’s off screen? Inside the respective obelisk? ||In ATAS, the Brood arena was in a cave of sorts, does that have smth to do with the game, or is it irrelevant?||

[main steppe]

Iirc in the game canon, it’s aboard the overseer tower. You can see all of the arena’s there.

[cyan oak]

Oh, I thought that the towers were for multiple overseers, or all the towers were for the same one.

Thanks for the clarification, though, I appreciate that!

[bold dove]

Every ARK only has one Overseer.

[cyan oak]

Right, I had only thought that there were multiple since each ark has three towers, and had one overseer per tower.

[bold dove]

Nope.
The only Overseer on each ARK are on the one distinctly unique tower.
Specifically the upside down L shaped one.

The one with the diamond shaped ledge.

[cyan oak]

Oh, the towers aren’t identical?

Does each one have a different purpose then or?

[bold dove]

They're all identical on every ARK.
But there's one tower on every ARK that is shaped differently compared to the other towers.

[cyan oak]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for that info, helped me brush up on my lore!

[mild basin]

Where are the boss arenas located on the arks? The center is the only one (excluding extinction) where you can actually see the arenas

This needs to be its own video fr

[bold dove]

You see them during the Hall of History.

[snow owl]

I'll ask here since no one in general seems to know but, is there a website that has the info in the explorer notes? I just collected a ??? note but had to exit it, as I was getting attacked, and want to know what it was saying. I can't find it in the explorer note section in game.

[mild basin]

Ah, thanks

[mental basin]

There's a dedicated Explorer Notes tab in ur Inv

With sub-tabs for the many authors