#itref

[rna-world]

DEBUNKING COMMON RAIN WORLD MISINTERPRETATIONS

The target audience for this was for people who don't know too much about the game as well, so I'm going to explain things that a normal player might already know.

Rain World is known for how it simply throws you into the world with almost no tutorial, and is often praised for it.

But this lack of explanation if you do not go out of your way to find it has also lead to a lot of misinterpretations from those who did not read all the game’s available information, or misunderstood what they were being told. I used to watch some RW lore videos that would explain and summarize these things, and in the past I believed them.

I’ve since stopped doing that after having some time to actually process what I’ve been reading, and I’m here to say...

YOU ARE ALL WRONG ABOUT RAIN WORLD.

Ok, hyperbole. Not everyone believes these, and art can always be interpreted in different ways by different people, and I won’t stop you from having these beliefs. But also, there’s plenty of ingame content which completely disproves most of these unsubstantiated points from those who do not fully research the game before making videos about it.

Looking at you Tale Foundry…

The purpose of this is to pick apart some of the sadly far too common points I’ve heard many times before from Youtube videos, to Tumblr posts, to people I’ve spoken to on Discord.

Starting with my least favorite…

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“The 5 karma were seen as sinful”

Obvious westernization of a game based off fucking Buddhism aside, there’s no ingame text directly supporting this claim. There isn’t any that says otherwise, but we have good reason to believe this isn’t the case.

The 5 natural urges, as they’re sometimes called, were NATURAL. They were what bound you to the cycle. They never worsened your life or made you a terrible person should you keep following them, but an aspect of life on the same level as suffering or ecstasy.

Hey, I’ll break down the 5 karma and their meanings to show you that they're not just "sins"

I believe the natural urges have 2 different meanings: an animalistic one, and a more “human” one.

KARMA 1 This obviously represents violence, as you see one guy stabbing the other. I believe it also represents competition and intense emotions, For example: Artificer experiencing intense grief and lashing out in violence as a result. It was not the violence that started it, but her emotions. (Yes, its Downpour. But it’s a good point.)

KARMA 2

They’re having sex. They’re fucking. They’re- ok you get it. Karma 2 represents reproduction. But, I also believe it’s desire. Joyful bodily experiences, and such. The 2 figures seen here are in a much more playful pose than if they were simply doing this only to reproduce. No, they’re having fun.

KAMRA 3 Connection. Bonding with others. Yet also trade and personal belongings. Attachment to things that are not yourself.

KARMA 4 It’s mentioned ingame that this represents gluttony It’s overindulgence, you know. Similarly to karma 2, it can also be searching for fulfillment. I'm not particularly good at telling what the meaning of this could be.

KARMA 5 Self preservation. Self preservation can come in many forms, from an animal running away from a predator or somebody getting defensive after being accused of something or being threatened, this one is rather vague about its meaning.

I do this to show that the 5 urges have very NEUTRAL meanings. It being positive or negative is entire dependant on context. They’re not sinful, get out of here with that Catholic shit!

The 5 karmas have both positive, negative, and neutral contexts which they can fit into.

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“The ancients hated being alive”

The ancients simply hated the cycle itself and its unknowable properties, as well as being much more aware of things like karma and the urges. Rather, they valued being effortless to disconnect themselves from this cycle.

“This was an eternal dilemma to them - they were burdened by great ambition, yet deeply convinced that striving in itself was an unforgivable vice. They tried very hard to be effortless.” – Bright Green Pearl (DS)

Some practices did of course include things like starving yourself, but as mentioned by Moon, these methods proved to be mostly obsolete. Void Fluid fundamentally changed their culture from what we see. Rather, we do see the ancients enjoying life and valuing it in their own way, which is INCREDIBLY important to some of the games themes, but I’ll get into that later.

"[...]'In this vessel is the living memories of Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel, of the House of Braids[…] Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel nobly decided to ascend in the beginning of 1514.008, after graciously donating all (ALL!) earthly possessions to the local Iterator project (Unparalleled Innocence), and left these memories to be cherished by the carnal plane.The assorted memories and qualia include:Watching dust suspended in a ray of sun (Old age). Eating a very tasty meal (Young child). Defeating an opponent in a debate contest, and being applauded by fellow team members (Late childhood/Early adulthood).’...and the list goes on. I'm sorry, little creature, I won't read all of this - the list is six hundred and twenty items long.” – Deep Magenta (SH)

There’s quite a lot to pick apart here, I had to cut down some parts short, but even the cut parts have important details. Just not important enough for me to bring up here.

The Memory Crypts we see ingame are… well where memories are kept. The qualia (personalized experiences) is stored within these mutated fleshy neural organisms referred to as “cabinet beasts”. These of course, contain the “living memories” or qualia of those who have ascended. There are people smarter than me who have already covered these ideas of course, so I won't go TOO indepth.

The ancients greatly valued titles and achievements just as us. They still lived normal lives. As well as this, they valued personal experiences and memories of the carnal realm so much they built an entire citadel to store memories.

As we can see as well, Seventeen Axes has quite a lot of enjoyable memories from throughout their life. Eating nice food and winning a debate contest and getting validation from their peers? That sounds rather… complacent with the 3rd and 4th natural urges, doesn’t it?

I do not believe this screams “I hate being alive!” as much as people have made it out to be, and is honestly ruins part of the game’s messages of compassion and personalized experiences, especially in the game’s ending where Survivor dreams of home.

“You have no name. I once had! I was embalmed, adorned, readied for the journey. So proud. There was jubilation! My name was sung, loud and clear. Did they know? That I didn't quite leave, didn't quite stay? Should I be ashamed? That I linger here, where my memories are kept? Should I be ashamed that I now envy your flesh prison?” - Four Needles under Plentiful Leaves

This is leaning into personal theory territory, but...

I personally believe that the ancients were somewhat terrified of the unpredictability of the cycle and the fact that life would always have more suffering in it.

RW’s religion is heavily based off Buddhism. This is well known of course. The Cycle is a variation of Samsara. Now, I’m not Buddhist, and I’ve tried to do my research about some of these topics. Feel free to correct me, I’m simply going off what I know. (Also I'd love to hear what you have to say regarding your thoughts on the game!)

In Buddhism, each new life you could be taken into the body of an animal, or even end up being tortured in hell for a very, very, VERY long time if you made the wrong decisions, which made escaping it as soon as you could seem like a rather reasonable thing to do.

The ancients never fully grasped the scope of the cycle, and the prospects of having your soul wake up in the body of some miserable worm with no memory of your past or any ideas of your future might’ve seemed bleak.

Suffering is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean they hated being alive, like I said before.

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“Rain World is post-apocalyptic.”

It really isn’t. There was never any apocalypse. The ancients simply left on their own accord, leaving behind their mark on the world that will slowly be buried once again in the ever so present cycle.

“The bones of forgotten civilizations, heaped like so many sticks.” - Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets

The world is thriving, even. The purposed organisms left behind have evolved and taken over and become it’s own ecosystem.

The iterators are dying though. Dying very slowly, but soon they’ll all decay and everything will move on.

It’s all just another manifestation of the cycle.

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“The creatures in Rain World cannot die”

This is definitely something I hear from people who haven’t played much of the game and only hear about it from outside sources and watch the gameplay.

Yes, it is easy to believe this. As slugcat, when you die, you wake back up again. This is entirely a gameplay thing and not actually related to the lore. Saying this might seem like I'm avoiding the question at hand here, but the rules that apply to you do not seem to apply to other creatures.

Every creature in the game has a 4 integer ID (it can go higher, but not in a standard playthrough).

This makes every creature you see an individual of sorts with its own randomized values or appearance.

As well as this, creatures spawn from specific marked dens. When you kill a creature that spawns from a certain den, the next cycle, that creature’s ID will never appear again. Instead, the den spawn is replaced by a creature of the same species with a different ID, or a new species entirely.

Through gameplay, you see that the respawn rules that apply to you do not apply to other creatures. I’ve heard many points about how these dead creatures are transported to another alternate universe where they are alive, but I really do not want to delve into that theory. You do that yourself.

Excuse my unprofessional language, but this is kind of stupid. Billions and billions of little timeline splits accounting for every single insect and microbe that dies seems far too complex of a solution. Occam's Razor and all that.

With this gameplay element you see, I also want to give LORE explanations as to why this is incredibly stupid.

1) If death had no impact, the 5 natural urges would not matter

If no creatures died, there would be no point in eating (karma 4), competing with other species (karma 1), or any form of self preservation (karma 5). Reproduction (karma 2) has no role and there would be absolutely no reason to do anything any longer. All natural processes would be useless.

2) Light Blue Pearl

The information received from the cycle is most likely from the Light Blue Pearl, found in Outskirts.

“[...]The repeating mantra is important because it symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and death, and the termination verse is a symbol for ascension above and beyond it. I don't know how familiar you are with the nature of life and death, but I imagine like all living creatures you have some intuitive knowledge? Then you know that death isn't the end - birth and death are connected to each other like a ring, or some say a spiral. Some say a spiral that in turn forms a ring. Some ramble in agonizing longevity. But the basis is agreed upon: like sleep like death, you wake up again - whether you want to or not. This is true for all living things, but some actually break the cycle. That doesn't apply to you or me though, you are too entangled in your animal struggles, and for me not breaking that cycle is an integral part of the design. Our mantras keep repeating.”

“Then you know that death isn't the end - birth and death are connected to each other like a ring, or some say a spiral. Some say a spiral that in turn forms a ring.“

This line is very misunderstood. Moon specifically mentions birth and death. She mentions death. She never brings up the notion that nothing truly dies either.

As well as this, Moon says that “some say”, implying that even the ancients weren’t sure what the cycle was either. This is more important to my point regarding how the unfathomable nature of the cycle was why the Ancients were so averse to it from above, though.

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“Sliver of Straw found the solution.”/"There is/isn't solution"

No she didn’t.

.

.

Ok fine I’ll explain.

If you’ve played Rain World you know that the purpose of the iterators is to find the solution to the “Great Problem”, the problem of how to ascend ALL living creatures.

You’ll also know Sliver sent out the Triple Affirmative…

“[...]affirmative that a solution has been found, affirmative that the solution is portable, and affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and generally applicable. She's also one of few that has ever been confirmed as exhaustively incapacitated, or dead. We do not die easily.[…]” - Pale Yellow (SL)

After sending out this affirmative, the iterators became conflicted. They never could figure out if she really ascended and had found the solution, or if it was some sort of catastrophic error.

The answer to the Great Problem is clearly intended to be as obscured as possible. There cannot be an answer one way or the other. The themes of it and the endless tolling of the iterators would not be as impactful if we knew there was or wasn’t a solution.

“[...]Either way, after that these different factions developed, as well as a huge forensic effort to recreate and simulate Sliver of Straw's last moments. Some of the simulations were wrapped in a simulation wrapped in a simulation, in case something dangerous might happen. Nothing much has come from it.[…]“ - Pale Yellow (SL)

Here’s my favorite way of explaining what I mean…

Imagine Schrodinger's Cat, the famous thought experiment. There’s a 50/50 chance that when you open the box, you either find the Solution, or find out there is No Solution.

Except you cannot open the box. And the box is entirely theoretical and nobody’s seen it. It seems impossible, but maybe one day you’ll find that box. That’s what the Great Problem is.

Sliver apparently having found the solution would have completely broken everything. Five Pebbles wouldn’t have ended up hurting himself and Moon had Sliver finding the solution been known with certainty. He was taking a shot in the dark.

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“Ascension is akin to suicide.”

I strongly believe this point harms the role that ascension and the void sea play in Rain World’s narrative. Ascension is meant to be a final destination, a goal you build up to and prepare for when you’ve lived every bit of life you possible could, and can now move on.

Bringing up the Memory Crypt pearl from earlier, Seventeen Axes lived an incredibly fulfilling life from what we see, and ascended happily.

As well as this, Buddhism strongly encourages those who wish to liberate themselves to discover their own path, which is also subtly shown through the gameplay, as there are many many routes you can take to Five Pebbles, Looks To The Moon, and The Depths.

I do also think this is why Five Pebbles failed. He tried to brute force his way to ascension.

Suicide implies that ascension is only meant to be a fruitless escape and that it’s wrong to ascend. I… do not want to go into why suicide is bad. It’s a strong topic and I’m just here to talk about video games. But ascension is a neutral thing that you can choose to do or not do and to wait until you’re ready.

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Conclusion...

I really only have the time to cover these 6 misconceptions, and I believe it should be enough. There have been many others I’ve seen, such as the ancients being malicious or that there weren’t any civilizations before them, but there’s not as much to say about them, and they aren’t as common.

Rain World is a very confusing game. I’m not upset at people who think these things to be true, and I do not believe they’re stupid or don’t have any media literacy. I just wish that the people who did actually cover this game did some more looking into it, and actually discussing it with Rain World fans.

Also I should say, that during this entire discussion I have avoided talking about Downpour- RW’s DLC- as it’s more of a official fanmade project. And so much of what it says may not be entirely in line with Vanilla. Because my life isn’t easy and of course there has to be an incredibly divisive and confusing thing like this that I need to avoid bringing up so that way the conversation isn’t muddled.

Thanks if you managed to make it through all this by the way

[rna-world]

they're like gods that are chained to their cans I think. they only have great power over you once you enter their chamber.

well that and they Literally shaped the land with the rainfall

they're gods, but they're extremely limited and held down by so many rules

I don’t get how people think iterators are gods. 5p only said he was godlike in comparison to a slugcat. I’m godlike in comparison to my dog does that mean I’m worshipped? no. (Unless there’s something I’m missing, which I could very well be.) also it’s five sir “unreliable narrator” pebbles

like I do think interpretations that make iterators gods can be fun and interesting but like, that’s just A Person. idk

.

[awesomefurioustimemachinest-blog]

BunnyPub - An Innovative Interactive Mining Community

I have been using BunnyPubcommunity recently, and following are my personal insights into this community.

BunnyPub community is quite different from most of the blockchain content platforms. Currently, it seems that BunnyPub is making itself into a forum. Its biggest feature is that the tokens obtained through interactive mining by users in BunnyPub community can be cashed.

A lot of blockchain contentplatforms have emerged in China, each of which has its token incentive system.However, many of these tokens haven’t been listed on Exchanges, and when willthey be listed remains unknown.

Therefore, there are certain risksfor users to deep plough on blockchain content platforms. It’s possible forthem to get no financial gain after spending lots of time and efforts. But,from a non-utilitarian point of view, even if the tokens of these contentplatforms can not be cashed, it is of certain meaning and value to have so manyauthors and readers communicating together.

BunnyPub community is based on BitRabbitExchange, therefore the community tokens that can be obtained by interactivemining are also the platform tokens (carrot and BRB) of BitRabbit Exchange, ofwhich BRB is the main platform token and carrot the sub-platform token, justlike the relationship between HT and HPT of Huobi.

The trading pair of carrot has beenlisted on the BitRabbit Exchange. The worth of 7000 carrot now is about 160yuan. BRB has not yet been listed, but will be soon. The internal price of BRBis set to be 0.5 dollar (about 3 yuan), which is quite valuable.

So we don’t need to worry about thecashing of token when participating in the interactive mining in BunnyPubcommunity. What’s more, you can also reward posts with tokens such as BTC, ETH,EOS in BunnyPub community. I’ve seen a post receiving a reward of 0.5 BTC, wow!

From the perspective of the cashingof tokens, no doubt BunnyPub has its unique advantage.

What about the design of tokeneconomic mechanism of BunnyPub community?

According to the official, BRB canbe produced by post, reply, like, or other interactive behaviors of users inBunnyPub community. The daily output of BRB is a certain percentage of the netprofit that the community gained on the previous day which is converted to BRBaccording to the average price of BRB on the day. Since it’s the promotionperiod of the community, the official team will take out their BRB quota formarketing promotion.

For example, if the previous day'snet profit of the community was 3,000 dollars, and the average price of BRB onthat day was 2 dollars, the number of BRB produced on that day was 1,500.

Then there is a question here: Whatis the net profit of the community?

The official staff tell me that itrefers to the profit of the Exchange and the future advertising revenue of thecommunity.

The mechanism is completelydifferent from the daily fixed token incentive mechanism of other platforms.From some point, the mining mechanism of BunnyPub is a disguised dividend.

For previous Exchanges,"transaction is mining, holding tokens is dividend". But instead ofsharing transaction mining profit with users holding tokens, the mechanism of BitRabbitExchange shares the profit of the Exchange with the users of BunnyPub communitythrough post and reply.

According to the interactive miningmechanism, the daily output of BRB is unfixed (except for the advertising revenue),because the daily transaction volume of the Exchange is floating. Moretransaction volume means more transaction fees, more transaction fees meansmore output of BRB in the community for incentive.

In other words, the interactivemining revenue of users in BunnyPub community is closely related to the transactionvolume of BitRabbit Exchange. According to the official disclosure, only acertain percentage of the community's net profit will be used for interactivemining rewards, the specific proportion is unknown yet.

In addition, 20% of total BRBreward obtained by the post is rewarded to the author (the author will nolonger receive the interactive reward of the post), and the remaining 80% is rewardedto the users who interact with the post.

In other words, BRB rewardencourages users to like and reply the posts.

In short, according to the token economicmechanism design, the user revenue of BunnyPub community is related to two factors.

One is the transaction volume ofBitRabbit Exchange. More transaction volume means more transaction fees, andmore transaction fees means more output of BRB in the community for incentive.

The other is the activity of theuser's post. The activity is closely related to the likes and replies receivedby the post. The higher the activity is, the more BRB the user will berewarded.

Currently BunnyPub doesn’t have anylocking system, so how can the price of BRB keep rising? Current circulation ofBRB is still very small, it’s easy for the official team to push up the price.But what to do when the circulation of BRB increases?

Overall, the interactive miningmodel of BunnyPub community based on the Exchange is a pioneer, since thetraffice of the Exchange and content community is very expensive. BunnyPub communityis essentially fuse and match the traffic of the Exchange and contentcommunity, so as to generate greater traffic aggregation effect and more value.

But since I have not read thewhitepaper of BunnyPub community, I know very little about its specific model,such as the distribution rules of token and other application scenarios of BRBexcept for mining.

BunnyPub community still at thetrial operation stage now. It will be iterated. I really forward to the launchingof its APP after the National Day.

[rna-world]

anybody else see the fetus imagery in the iterator puppets btw. is this just me. have I already mentioned this. does anybody else see it.

[rna-world]

Iterator Spec Bio (Part 1)

I'm probably going to upload each one in it's own post, but here's an introduction to what this is going to be.

See, I've been trying to explain how iterators synthesize nutrients for a while, and have FINALLY started properly developing it. All this stuff from now on is just words I've copied from my existing master document of the subject at hand.

FOREWARNING

The definition of organ that I will use for iterator is a region or room within the structure of the iterator designated to a specific purpose. The Memory Conflux is an organ. This does not define the systems that connect them, however, such as the areas between RTA, MC, and GSB within Five Pebbles. I will also use node, organ, and colony interchangeably. Many organs are hidden away in other areas or even within the walls. These are the more “dangerous” ones. Rather, the environments within these organs are so extreme that no standard living creature could survive in them, or that being closed off is integral to their functioning.

Primary Chemosynthetic Node (PCN)

The Primary Chemosynthetic Node is the most integral part of iterator metabolism, and acts as the starting point. Hence the name “Primary” PCNs are sponge-like cubes which intake boiling fluid filled with noxious chemicals, such as many sulfur compounds. They are rather small. Within the lining of this manifold are many many colonies of small worms (referred to as “Tube Worms”) filtering the chemical-filled water. These worms work with symbiotic microbes in order to produce usable organic compounds, which flow into a central cavity to be used by other organs. This mimics conditions near hydrothermal vents, though it requires a constant source of heat powered by electricity in order to function. These nodes are often lined in rows, and may be very long. An iterator will contain multiple PCNs. There may be multiple tanks for intake and for outtake.

As demonstrated in the image, there are 3 distinct organisms within the colonial structure of the node. - The insulating membranous layer, which stores excess nutrients and helps regulate conditions. - A tough epidermal layer, with individuals containing a flagellum which controls waterflow through the manifold. - Tube Worms, which anchor to the epidermal layer.

Small, shelled organisms pick off dead Tube Worms. They’re extremophiles, and will die once taken out of the PCN for an extended amount of time. This is used to an advantage, as these organisms will travel to other organisms to decompose and reuse resources when near death, or when commanded to through chemical signals distributed in the node. However, I will be exploring this more on a different post elaborating more on the organisms specialized in decomposition and the disposal of dead or dying matter.

[rna-world]

Yeah sliver is the only one confirmed dead, but her death was notable BECAUSE of the Triple Affirmative. I think Moon mentions somewhere that she was one of the few confirmed dead. Sliver is just the only one named

everyone calling iterators immortal when they say (it was pebbles nsh or suns but i cant remember which bastard. i think it was pebbles to suns) in game that they die of old age

[rna-world]

Leviathan animation slowed down, also from devlog

[rna-world]

[looking at an iterator] is it... yknow *gestures broadly* doomed a life of perpetual decay without escape?

[rna-world]

iterators are artificial intelligences in the way that evolution could never create a creature that grandiose and so so chained down by purpose

[rna-world]

this is what rainworld's trophic pyramid looks like

[rna-world]

FUCK YOU (UNSHADES YOUR CITADEL)

[rna-world]

Anyways I think iterators have WAY more crammed into them than we see. All the open areas are mostly just for the neuronflies which transmit and store small amounts of data and memory in a small, modifiable package as well as some internal sensory

Things such as simulations or parallel processes are instead delegated to a much faster system, like in the area we see in SS_I03 or DM_O02

[rna-world]

I thought about it and I'm starting to realize that I LOVE rarefaction cells as a metaphorical tool and allegory, but I hate them in a worldbuilding aspect

[rna-world]

I'm still so impressed by the differences between LTTM and FP's structures, the downpour team did a really good job of giving moon this very cluttered and unkempt look. Theres so much more jagged-ness in the rooms along with all the hanging wires and bits that you don't see in Pebbles. Her memory conflux is so different...

This alongside the few "I feel like I'm not meant to be here" areas and the very.... "veiny" feel it all has

[rna-world]

Iterator Speculative Biology: Aerobic Respiration

Considering as we know it, iterators use neurons similar to our own. Neurons need oxygen to survive. And a lot of it. Perhaps these neurons use another way to metabolize ATPs without oxygen, but the energy produced by these methods would not be enough for the sheer amount of energy required, and also its a whole lot easier to go off what we already know about cellular respiration rather than trying to create a whole new system.

Why am I making this point? Living things need oxygen of course. But this oxygen would need to be transported somehow. This is what this post is about.

Iterators do not have red blood cells, as that would require a bone marrow or like for the cells to be produced in, and functioning at such a small scale would not be enough to account for their large bodies.

Rather, I believe hemocyanin is saturated throughout their lymphatic systems or in fluids between neurons in their arrays or other organs (similar to cerebrospinal fluids).

While not being able to carry as much oxygen as hemoglobin, hemocyanin can float freely in extracellular fluid (this term doesn't work AS well with iterators, considering they contain entire organisms on their own rather than individual cells. But bear with me for a moment and think of these zooid organisms as cells within the iterator, as they basically serve a similar function)

Essentially how this would function is that oxygen is produced via some other organ or colony within the iterator, which is then picked up by hemocyanin and transported through (or alongside) the lymphatic systems to areas with a high anaerobic metabolism

[rna-world]

the mark for the route to the subterranean gate is referred to as "scavmark" so clearly they've had some experience with the void sea. why do They Know