Rw Lore - Blog Posts

RIPPLES. THE CYCLE. LORE ( I'm theorising, there is watcher spoilers so everything is under the cut )

throughout both the game and even trailers, you are constantly told and reminded about ripples and how you should view cycles as them

so that's what I did!! here's the diagram I made

here you have two cycles, cycles are a bump in a ripple ( forgot the proper name lol) anyway I've yet to figure out how exactly you get moved to the previous cycle, but it probably has something to do with the void spawn, either way, as time moves on and the ripples expand and go forwards new material is pushed into the plane of consciousness, dust falling from the sky, but as this happens, material is pushed down into where the cycle came from as well 'dissolving' it, you see this as the void sea ( note the void sea you see ingame is still in the plane of consciousness, because obviously you can perceive it, you 'leave' once you enter the egg, which is the edge of the cycle )

also ripplespace, it's just the space outside the ripples, although like in the diagram the watcher only sees the area that mixes with the cycle otherwise, they would cease to exist

anyway I came up with this randomly during math class so sorry about inconsistencies in the diagram,

I'll also probably have to think about this more, to fit in pieces like void worms, void spawn and ripple spawn ( already have like paragraphs of theories on them but it doesn't entirely work with this ) and all that stuff

height chart!

I realised I haven't done one for things other than iterators so here!

pebbles is mad he's short.

I think my favorite aspects of the watcher (spoilers but you already went through all of it already. maybe tag this for ppl that haven't?? idk just covering the bases so I can say this) is the diversity of the locations coupled with all the new environmental aspects. Desolate Tract and Signal Spires are probably my favorite places. also. ROT VOID WORM. GENUINELY. HARMFUL TO MY PSYCHE HRJGAJAHZAGNGBGH. idk just dumping this here because I'm following you and I need to throw the afterthoughts of the rollercoaster at someone who has beaten it already. still trying to organize all my theories but holy moly is it insane

again obvs, WATCHER SPOILERS

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like many others I have mixed opinions on the regions, some of the regions were absolutely stunning, some i liked were desolate track, rusted wrecks and outer rim. but some regions did feel a lot less peaceful as those ones, and I personally felt that some of the regions feel out of place. with the vanilla map you have context but in the watcher all you have is what you see right now. and I think this part of the watcher is brang down even more by the fact some of the spawns are awful, and how you are ACTUALLY clueless on where to go.

currently I think I have my big theories down rn, but yeah it's definitely A LOT to process through and think about

my thoughts on watcher in its ENTIRETY

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MAJOR SPOILERS

also some watcher art I forgot to post

the watcher. was one fuck ton of a roller coaster. from the excitement of opening the game, to the annoyingly slow progress, to the absolute devastation of the throne and unfortunate evolution. to finally. the first ending. the past ending

I struggled heavily throughout the campaign, progress feels impossible and gameplay wise it's not the best, but it does make up for it lore wise.

I was absolutely devastated over the future ending and Prince and the rot taking over. but now I've taken the time to think I think it's interesting, I at least believe prince is interesting. the rot trying to replicate an iterator, as that's where it's dna is based. and even more cooler, in unfortunate evolution where the rot replicates VOID WORMS. it's such an interesting concept, but it makes SENSE. iterators are powered by VOID FLUID, of course the rot would also imitate it.

as for the past ending. seeing this ending definitely shifted my view in the watcher entirely, and I don't think without it I would enjoy the watcher the way I do now, it's a perfect contrast to the future ending. you get to see the ancients and how they lived. the echo talks about how they were raised with other children by multiple people! overall, gameplay, the watcher is frustrating and slow and so, so much backtracking without any knowledge of where to go, but lore wise and how it's story is shown? absolutely beautiful. to the point it did almost cry lol.

also I believe the past ending takes place on pebbles! the pearls on the shelves are the same colours as the ones in his chamber! but there is definitely no solid proof. I hope the future updates add onto this side of the timeline more, and we can see how they lived more

ok here is a vague transcript of spinning top (watcher echo)'s voicelines. slowed down

now is as good a time as any to mention that i know the meanings behind moon and pebbles' names

looks to the moon ^

five pebbles ^

nobody can call him five boulders hes just that motherfucking gravel that people wont stop ingesting :(

the symbol of enlightenment

the symbol of enlightenment in rain world is the symbol for a fUCKING LAMP IN A CIRCUIT DIAGRAM. am i the ONLY person who has noticed it because i have literally never seen it be talked about. the enlightenment symbol in karma is also the enlightenment symbol in a circuit. a circuit. a cycle

whole rain world lore the mind electric 👍

Brain World Time!

The true nature of the cyclic world (cerebral realms) is brain, and you can see it slowly get unveiled as the worlds get pushed to the fringes of reality

Fetid Glen has a lobetree (C10) and sentient rot spores floating through it. Fetid is also a future alternate version of Salination (see F05), and both regions only connect to each other and Shattered Terrace, which is incredibly odd.

Perhaps Fetid is not meant to exist, and is being pushed further and further outwards by the ripples. The brain-thoughtform nature of the world slowly beginning to bloom right before you

All the rot (vanilla) regions have the braintree talks and lobetrees too, the Unstable Fringes. OTR does as well, but you see it paired without the rot!

It's clear that the braintree stuff comes first, and THEN the rot

(Notice how similar the stalks seen here are to the Brain Tree from the kickstater? The one that never got implemented but was apparently somehow important? Isn't that so fucking awesome. I always stood by you Brain Tree :) )

As the brain world nature of these strands becomes apparent, it becomes unstable and begins to decay and fall apart. After all, if you had your skin peeled off, wouldn't it get infected more easily?

The rot that Watcher drags along with them is not the same. There is no brain-related imagery that comes with it. Instead these odd trees show up, along with the rot and goop we all know

What's happening in Watcher is that Spinning Top and Watcher have basically been touching the diseased corpse of fringe cerebral realities never meant to be explored and getting all that disease onto perfectly fine realms

Thankfully, because none of these realities are of the True Material, the world isn't going to end or anything

The cerebral realms, the ones your mind is stuck in- the STRANDS- are all simply shattered reflections of a TRUE reality in which your body ACTUALLY lies. The one where you wake up, eat, survive, and shelter again. The one where Hunter delivers the payload. Not the ones ST mentions where you are eaten by crawling and flying things

Also considering these realms are all thoughtform realities caused by material realm brain activity it makes sense why they would also fall apart so easily.

These realities are the unfortunate, tangled mess The tall, messy fur you crawl through The fishing net that traps you

It's not JUST about escaping the material reality, its about escaping the constantly moving and shifting brain worlds your mind and soul are trapped in. The Cycle.

Why is it like this? I don't know. This is just how Rain World's metaphysics works

i know this post is fairly old, but. it wasn't. it's five pebbles. i did consider it being moon because i have never seen an overseer in pebbles to my recollection, but i noticed there were rot spots on the background wall, and just for confirmation i checked the interactive map. and it lines up exactly with SS_LAB8

(this is also not the only image of that specific room in the projections, there's another one of the left side. i dont know why or how iggy has those images, but then again it also has a of nineteen spades endless reflection and voidspawn and whatever the golden stick in drainage is. that thing has seen some shit it was not supposed to see)

the 'fuses' spaz out and rapidly flicker red whenever they sense processing traffic, so im thinking this is something to do with moon's forced broadcast. or the rot in general this also probably did happen to moon. but this isnt a photo of it

I wonder if this iggy projection was taken from Looks to the Moon

imagine, as she is about to collapse, fuses blowing up and bleeding out from the heat the lack of water and the slag buildup

does five pebbles often disappear for very long periods of time or something

suns. what do you mean "not in a long while" he has literally been radio silent for 27,552 cycles. i understand that iterators perceive time as faster than we do but what the fuck . is pebbles disappearing for tens of thousands of cycles a normal occurrence why were they so casual about it if you say 1 cycle = 24 hours (it is probably longer) that makes 27,552 cycles = 75.5 years. it only took 6 cycles for moon to become desperate enough to force communications with pebbles so she was probably dead by then as well. how did this even happen without suns having any idea about it. talk to other local groups a bit more jesus christ dude