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herrscherofmagic · 3 months ago

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Some Early Speculation on Silver Palace Lore

The Detective's Identity & Powers, the True Nature of Silvernia, and the Power of the "author"

(copy-pasted from my reddit post)

Since this is going to be a VERY long and rambly post, I'll give a very quick summary up front:

TL;DR: I suspect the main character of Silver Palace, the Detective, is essentially an "author". Silvernia itself may exist not in an ordinary planet but as a city within a world that exists only within a fairy-tale, and the Detective might be able to enter these fairy-tale worlds and reshape their "Fate".

Of course, this is a VERY bold claim to make, so naturally I've got some evidence to support my hypothesis. Although, since it's still very early on in the game's story (it was literally revealed a few days ago ffs), naturally this is going to be highly speculative.

In this post, I have two main goals: first is to review what we actually know about the theme/setting of Silver Palace based on the promo material that has been released so far; second is to share my own thoughts about the theme. So, I'll start with the factual stuff first, and then move towards my own ideas and guesses afterwards, so that it's clear which part is canon and which is my own speculation.

Silvernia

Obviously enough, Silvernia is the setting of Silver Palace, as stated in this official announcement. Silver Palace is stated to take place in "a prosperous metropolis with a Victorian aesthetic," with the goal being to "unravel the mysteries in Silvernia, an industrialized metropolis built on the power of Silverium."

Of course, this does leave a question. Silvernia is stated to be a metropolis, so what exists around Silvernia? That is to say, where is it?

Though it may seem obvious, I'd like to clearly state an example of how a town fits within a greater geography:

Neighborhood > Town > City > Metropolitan Area > Region > Nation-state > Continent > Planet.

Point being, usually a work of fiction doesn't just plop a town in the middle of an empty nameless void. Not every story gives a lot of detail about the world beyond the main town's borders, but there's usually at least some hint of what lies beyond. Travelers may arrive from afar, the town may be part of a greater nation, and so on.

Of course we've only got the tiniest sliver of worldbuilding for Silvernia so far, so we can't make any solid conclusions yet about the setting. But we do know that Silvernia is likely just one town in some greater nation/region, given the following passage from the official reveal announcement:

"The discovery of Silverium was the key to Silvernia's industrialization. This revolutionary element transformed technology and daily life beyond imagination, attracting numerous residents and fostering innovation. The city became a hub of miracles, driven by the massive industrialization and monetization of Silverium under the city’s administration."

This means Silvernia is not the only town, as it's said to be a "hub", and to have "[attracted] numerous residents". We don't have a name with which to describe the region or nation that Silvernia is in, but we know there's something else beyond its borders.

Furthermore, there's the "palace" seen in the distant background of one of the opening shots of the reveal trailer, "The Golden Age of Detectives". We don't yet know if that palace lies within Silvernia itself, or if it's just outside of the city, but it's safe to say that it's going to be a very special place in the story.

There's a reason I want to emphasize that we know the game is set in Silvernia, but we don't know exactly where Silvernia itself is. I'll elaborate on that later, but I think this is an important idea to keep in mind for the rest of this post.

The Detective

The main character of the game is simply introduced as "The Detective". Of course, with the game having just been revealed this week, we know quite little about them.

Per the website's character cards, the female and male Detectives are given the titles "The Raven's Claws" and the "The Raven's Beak" respectively. Aside from general personality traits, we also learn that they are "searching for the truth behind the death of a loved one."

Curiously, they also left Silvernia "for three years following a disaster" but have returned to the city. For now, we don't know where they left to, but we know they left Silvernia itself.

Also, note that this doesn't say the Detective is FROM Silvernia. Only that they left it. To illustrate what I mean, imagine *I* were to move to New York City IRL, tomorrow, and become a famous detective. Then one day I leave NYC, and return 3 years later. Well, I did "[leave NYC] for three years," and then "returned to the city." But I wasn't FROM New York City, I moved there long after I was born elsewhere.

Likewise, it's entirely possible that while the Detective resided in Silvernia at some point, they might not have been born there. They could've been born else, moved into Silvernia and developed a reputation as a detective, and then left, only to return 3 years later. Again, the idea that the Detective might not be a Silvernia native is an important detail to keep in mind!

Fairy tales

The promo material so far doesn't explicitly mention the word "fairy tale", but there is a clear reference to a famous fairy tale in the form of the boss title "The Cinderella", shown in the official gameplay trailer at the 9:30 timestamp. Iconic pumpkin-y carriage included!

The thing is, not all works of fiction that have fairy tale elements are explicitly about fairy tales. For instance, werewolves (or just more generally, wolf-like beings) are a classic fictional trope and featured in some fairy tales; but we wouldn't say that a piece of fiction such as Twilight is "about fairy tales". It's about that one fairy tale element, not the entire genre of fairy tales as a whole.

However, I think there's a few reasons to suspect that Silver Palace is really about "fairy tales" as a genre, or perhaps more broadly stories in general, and not just borrowing fairy tale elements. For instance, the aforementioned boss title is a clear example of a reference to an iconic fairy tale. But in addition to that, there's a variety of other magical elements reminiscent of fairy tale works, with visual imagery like the floating islands and the grand palace we see in the background of Silvernia.

More importantly, however, is the voiceline said by the purple-haired lady who appears again as "The Cinderella" in the trailer. Shout-out to u/Quintail's post "The Cinderella Theory" for making that connection, which is a big part of what inspired me to make my own post!

To quote from the trailer:

"Fairy tales mean something else to us. I already knew, none of us could escape Fate. Unless... You are the author."

-"The Cinderella"...?

And this leads us into the next section, which is leaning much more heavily into my own speculation, but does have a few key pieces of evidence from the trailer itself.

The Author

"Unless... You are the author." What a line, huh?

I suspect this is ultimately going to be the core theme of Silver Palace: THE theme that sets it apart from any other game of its genre, more unique than the Victorian aesthetic or the combat or the character designs. Authorship.

That image is the ending shot of an interesting transition: the trailer is at a chaotic, climactic scene with the city seemingly being destroyed in a fiery disaster. The city seems to fold in on itself in dramatic fashion, the two halves drawing close to each other then smashing together... but then camera zooms out from a close-up of a book, and we see the Detective sitting in a mysterious chair, holding that book as if she had just shut it herself.

Curiously, there appears to be a mysterious tower/structure in the distance which remains static, not folding in unlike the rest of the city. How peculiar, eh?

There's something else I'd like to mention, which comes not from the trailers themselves, but from the game reveal website... specifically, its soundtrack.

If you go to the Silver Palace website you'll hear a music track playing in the background, but you can also check it out via this YouTube video. What's fascinating is that the music track starts with a sound almost like a typewriter, and then at the 0:57 timestamp of that video you can hear a scribbling sound in the background. Alongside the scribling, there are occasional page-flip sounds starting from the 1:17 timestamp, and even a creaking sound reminiscent of the creaking of a wooden chair.

All those different sound cues come together to paint a mental image of, you guessed it: an author sitting at a desk, writing away. This means we've got this theme of authorship not just in the trailer but in the BGM of the game's very own website.

I suspect we're going to learn, either early on or perhaps in some big reveal, that the Detective isn't just a detective but also an "author" of some sort, and that the city of Silvernia does not exist as an ordinary city on an ordinary planet, but rather as a world within a "fairy tale".

This possibility makes "The Cinderella"(?)'s comment especially interesting as she says "Fairy tales mean something else to us," emphasis added by me. This makes me feel as though there must be a deeper connection between herself and the Detective, and that the two of them also seem to have some unique circumstance that makes them very distinct from all the other inhabitants of Silvernia.

It's hard to say exactly what is going on, but I suspect that there is some deeper conflict/ruin afflicting Silvernia, and the solution will rely on the Detective gaining some sort of power to "rewrite" the story of Silvernia. That is to say, perhaps nobody within Silvernia itself could truly "save" this city, and instead an outside power must change the "Fate" of Silvernia themself.

This introduces the possibility that the conflict between the Detective and "The Cinderella" could be that they have two different ideas of how to accomplish this, though this is pure speculation on my part.

To further speculate, I suspect this might also be how Silver Palace will achieve a longer service life. I'm sure we could spend IRL years learning all about Silvernia, but an alternative possibility could be that if Silvernia is just one of several other "fairy tale worlds", then we might travel between these different worlds as the Detective.

Remember I made a big fuss about how we don't know where Silvernia is? This is why! We know that Silvernia likely has some other cities/towns/settlements around it, but we don't know how expansive that world is. We don't know if it is on one out of several continents on a planet, nor do we know if there is a single nation under which it exists, or if there are any other nations, and so on. And if Silvernia is truly a "fairy-tale world" then perhaps there isn't any other place to explore beyond Silvernia's own worlds: it may have come into being as-is with the first pen-strokes that wrote this fairy tale.

Instead of exploring other lands within the singular world that Silvernia itself exists in, we might travel between these different "fairy tale worlds" to explore other settings. Again, though, this is more speculation, and it'd be INCREDIBLY easy for the developers to prove me wrong by just saying "oh yeah btw Silvernia exists on [xyz] planet", or something like that.

I'd also like to give credit to another fellow redditor, this time for a comment they made: u/Mugenity wrote this comment speculating how they thought Silver Palace will distinguish between its different seasons. This was the second big inspiration for me to write this post, and I want to make sure they get the recognition for saying it in the first place, because I don't know if I would've even made that connection myself had I not seen what they wrote and then revisited the trailers and spent more time thinking about it.

Ending Thoughts

Now, this could be the end of the post, but I have a few more thoughts to share.

Mostly, I'd like to share a mix of speculations about some other lore points that would support the "we're an author writing/editing a book and traveling between stories" hypothesis regarding what Silver Palace's theme could be. That is to say, these thoughts themselves are mostly unsubstantiated, but could be supported by future lore and story reveals, and which would support my main idea in turn if they are proven true.

1) The Detective's powers

It's pretty clear that the Detective has some sort of special power, but I think the nature of that power is going to be key to understanding whether they are a natural inhabitant of Silvernia or perhaps someone entirely separate from that setting. It's hard to say right now, though.

What's interesting to me is the visual details of the mount you can summon & of the weapons that the Detective uses. That alone doesn't suggest that the Detective is someone who exists beyond the scope of Silvernia, but we can see that these silvery details are similar to the mysterious chair from the "You are the author" shot.

There is also a line from the trailer that's quite easy to overlook: "The city is like liquid silver, always changing." It's a simple metaphor, but when we consider the silvery-effects of the protagonist, and the name of the game being "Silver Palace", there could be a deeper meaning to that line. But of course, it's hard to say for sure right now.

2) The "Vortex"

Speaking of the "Silver Palace"... it's hard to say for sure what that means, but of course one possibility is that the strange structure in the background of Silvernia is itself the "Silver Palace". I'm not sure if that's the case, but regardless, there's another interesting detail about that structure. There is a strange vortex-like entity hovering well above that palace, with big glowy blue vfx and whatnot. However, we see a similar vortex somewhere else: at the top of the chair in that author scene.

I'd like to note that the Detective is sitting in a fairly small chair, and that behind them is what appears to be almost like a mirror or window. I say it could be a mirror because if we consider the fairy tale theme that Silver Palace seems to have, there's an obvious literary reference to be made. Just like the game makes reference to the story of Cinderella, perhaps that mirror can be a reference to another iconic literary work: Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. (As a reminder for those who may not know, "looking glass" is a synonym of "mirror")

Unfortunately I haven't actually read that book for myself, but the Wikipedia article summarizes it fairly well. Alice, the same Alice from Alice in Wonderland, enters yet another fantastical world (you know... like a fairy tale world?) by stepping through a looking glass (aka a mirror). Magical mirrors are also just a general classic fantasy/fairy-tale trope, like the magic mirror that the witch in the Snow White fairy tale uses.

Another thing is that it's hard to say whether that vortex is emerging from within the looking glass, or if it's destroying the looking glass. Either way, though, while it's hard to say what the connection there is, there has to be some sort of connection between that palace, the world within which Silvernia exists, and the Detective's powers.

I think it's going to be worth keeping an eye out to see if these silvery effects appear elsewhere in the game. If a bunch of random folks also use silvery powers, and they aren't at all related to each other, then it might just be for a cool vibe and not a sign of some deeper unique power. However, if we find that NOBODY else ever uses these types of powers, and nobody else uses mounts in the way that the Detective does, and so on... well, that would be a pretty big hint that the silvery powers are something special to the Detective.

One last note about these silvery powers: I suspect this silvery power could represent mercury, aka quicksilver, which might have some significance because of mercury's ancient history in alchemy and esoteric knowledge.

I won't elaborate on this here, though, as I'm not very familiar w/ the history of alchemy and can't speak w/ much authority on it. But I still wish to mention it because I'm sure one of y'all might know a thing or two about alchemy, and perhaps someone else might look into this further.

What I can guess, though, without much evidence at all, is that since mercury/quicksilver has some significance in alchemy as a fundamental element, the Detective's silvery powers might be representative of some fundamental power of creation/manipulation of reality. Again, though... HIGHLY speculative, and I can't really back this up with any solid evidence yet.

3) The Raven's Claws and Beak

This is going to be a very short section, in contrast with the rest of this post, because it is HIGHLY speculative and only one step removed from lunacy, lmao

As mentioned earlier, the two different protagonists (male and female) have different titles. We also know that the Detective apparently lost a "loved one". The identity of the "loved one" is very much unknown at this point, but I want to suggest the possibility that the Detective might actually have been one of two siblings, and that the other sibling died and is the Detective that you don't choose in your story. I.e. if you pick the female Detective then perhaps in your game, it would be the male "Detective" who passed away; and vice-versa if you pick the male Detective.

There's not really anything to support that hypothesis, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning nonetheless because it does hint at a motive for why the Detective is even involved in... well, whatever the hell is going on with this potential fairy-tale world-hopping madness, lol

4) Scrapbook/collage visual motifs

Another short section, this is something I want to put on the record but which I can't really make a full theory out of just yet. I noticed that there seems to be a couple of interesting artworks with a very unique visual style that is reminiscent of scrapbooking and/or the art of collage, i.e. combining pre-existing graphical elements together into something new.

I suspect this could be another hint at the whole "we're an author and this world is a fairy tale we're entering" thing, as it's easy to imagine the Detective keeping their own scrapbook of memories of different stories they've entered/written(?). However, since there's only two artworks I can use as evidence, I think it's a very weak assertion to make and thus didn't include it as part of the original argument I made.

5) The "Author" in meta-narrative fiction

One of the biggest reasons I've gone through all the effort to make this sort of long-winded rambly essay/post is because I find fiction that deals w/ the theme of narrative to be incredibly fascinating. So, the possibility of Silver Palace being a piece of fiction like that greatly intrigues me, and that alone would be enough to convince me to give this game a try! of course all the other stuff like gameplay helps too :)

So, to wrap up this post, I wanted to share a few thoughts on how some fictional works approach the idea of "the author" as part of the experience of storytelling.

First, I would like to mention a particular literary work: the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, published in 1966. It's a play in the aburdist theatre genre, and it's essentially exploring the idea of how minor characters exist within a fictional work.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, and they play a rather unremarkable role in Shakespeare's work. In contrast, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is entirely focused on these two characters. However, instead of trying to write some spin-off narrative in Shakespeare's style, this play treats the characters quite literally as "characters". It's... kinda hard to explain. I really suggest just reading the synopsis on Wikipedia because it really is quite fascinating, but it's not the sort of simple 4th-wall-breaking thing you see in something like Deadpool.

Second, I'd like to share a video essay by Curious Archive on YouTube. In his video "What Happens After a God Goes Mad?" he explores the trope of "mad gods" in fiction, but without spoiling too much of it, he eventually dives into an exploration of how the author themself is almost like a "mad god" to their fictional works. I don't want to explain any more than that, though, as the video is very well-made and worth a watch to see how he builds his argument up to that ending.

I mention these two things because I think they're good ways to learn a bit about how fiction can explore these themes of narrative in different ways. I think it's really quite fascinating when a story makes you contemplate its very own structure, and makes you question things you take for granted with storytelling.

With Silver Palace, I still can't say with certainty that the developers intend to dive into these sorts of themes. But I truly believe that the potential is there!

It'd be very fascinating to see if the Detective themself acts as a sort of "Author", a higher authority above the worlds they explore, yet submerging themself within these worlds and blending in with their inhabitants so as to rewrite the story in a way that suits the people of these worlds. Instead of being some imposing figure shaping the story as they personally want, perhaps they wish to shape the story with a genuine interest in making the stories' inhabitants' lives better.

Alternatively... perhaps they don't care at all about that stuff. After all, the game's character intro for the Detective says they're trying to find the mystery behind their loved one's death. So perhaps these fairy-tale worlds are ultimately meaningless to them, and that in of itself might be a source of conflict and distress for these worlds.

There's so, so much room to explore the relationship between an author and their fictional works, or between an author and the characters they create. And ultimately, we as players help to shape the story with the choices we make (and the website for this game does hint that we might have some meaningful choices to make, saying "Allies or Adversaries: Your Choice Casts the Die"). And the developers provide the framework of this story, presenting it to us so that we may interact with it in our own ways. And then some random person online might make a pointlessly long rant about these stories and how we influence and shape them and how the characters within influence and shape each other and— well... you get the point ^.^

...

For any of y'all who've made it this far, thank you for reading through this whole lovely rambling rant!

It's crazy that I was able to pull this much meaning out of just a handful of trailers and artworks, and to be honest I fully expect to be like 99% wrong with this. But still, I think the very process of making this sort of hypothesis is enjoyable in of itself, and if it turns out to be true to any degree that's just a bonus :)

#HOLY SHIT I MADE A THEORY POST ABOUT A GAME THAT'S NOT A HOYOVERSE GAME #god I have SOOOO many thoughts on this game #I love the MC's design so damn much (i'm probably gonna go w/ fem MC but the guy is fine too)#and the whole idea of the author metanarrative thing is just ughjkladfhlgdjlafhdf #it's past 1am and i'm rly tired so plz just read the post and y'all will hopefully see my vision (delusion) <3 #silver palace #silver palace detective #detective svpl #svpl detective

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