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Safe to say that Animal Well has taken the award for "scariest weiner dog in gaming"

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commissioned @humthespam for my favorite god-like AI full of karma

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Entanglement, Impurity, and Kegare in Rain World

I mentioned before in another post that I would touch on the topic of impurity, rot, and kegare and how it continuously reappears in Vanilla and ESPECIALLY Watcher. Here it is.

But yes, it can't really be understated how important these are to the themes lore of ascension and entanglement in RW and the dichotomy that exists

This topic relates to FP, Hunter, Watcher, and the Ancients. It's all over the place man.

I actually got this idea from Darthz, who was the one who brought it up to me initially. I'm just expanding on it and writing it all down further

What is Kegare and Why Am I Bringing It Up

Kegare is a Shinto concept. Specifically it represents pollution alongside magakoto (abnormality) and tsumi (imperfection). The avoidance of these taboos itself is called imi. Though I'm only mentioning kegare, technically I am referring to all 3 of these terms (to make things easier)

It was accumulated through and/or caused by being victim of disaster, proximity to death, being physically unclean, committing terrible actions, or even childbirth (for sexism reasons. Don't worry about it)

It operates very similarly to karma, being determined by cause and effect and was amoral and natural. Though it was taboo, and those who may have had it were avoided, it was not out of sinful reasoning

"Also, suffering is not regarded as a form of punishment for human behavior, but, rather, as a natural element of human experience."

Having too much kegare would bring more misfortune, illness, and disaster with whoever carried it

About the Ancients and Karma Gates

The ancients themselves seem to ALSO have a taboo of a similar nature.

"May Not as long as the Stars stay fixed on their Celestial Spheres Grey Hand, Impure Blood, Inheritable Corruption, Parasites, or malfunction settle in Your establishment."

Though this isn't much to go off of.

Though maybe we can look to some outside sources. The steam released by the karma gates is said to be decontaminating. This is big. This is huge

Here you can see the steam coming out of either a vent below the grate, or coming off a heating coil, before the other side opens up.

These gates exist and were built in order to filter out and decontaminate whoever passes through, similar to harae. You wouldn't want any impurities passing through your temples and homes and facilities, would you?

"...and when the production was automated it would generally remain on the same site. So that the old stones could... radiate the material with holiness, I suppose."

Even in industrially automated processes, there was some spiritualism involved. Decontamination may have been pretty important as to not dirty up those so called holy stones

You see these gates in front of the AU voidbath and the path to FP in a long hallway. You even see it in Verdant Waterways, which may have just been a huge water purification plant! So the decontamination is still a factor there

Ancient Urban, FP's Roof, and Verdant Waterways in order.

"I was embalmed, adorned, readied for the journey."

If being dunked in void fluid required you to first be embalmed and sterilized, what does that imply? There was a worry of decomposition or decay when it came to the process of ascension.

About Five Pebbles and Hunter

Now seeing how kegare exists within the beliefs or actions of the Ancients and how much they wanted to prevent it from settling, what about seeing the consequences for yourself?

Five Pebbles contracted the rot after essentially killing Moon, something that would cause kegare (or, specifically tsumi here). He tried to break his taboos and ended up entangling himself further and also terribly hurting someone else, bringing with him sorrow that he tries to make up for in Hunter (see how often he mentions Moon?)

Though yes, it was CERTAINLY caused by him fucking up an experiment. Metaphorically, it is a form of kegare

Even the wording for the rot. Unfortunate... corruption... its a natural but terrible thing that happens

"He's sick, you know. Being corrupted from the inside by his own experiments.""...on his first fit of corruption he dumped a lot of infected material there..."

I even feel that the one off dialogue about FP and not using holy ash was subtle foreshadowing to what he's experiencing

Even in the only other place rot appears and spreads in is an actual DUMP!

But what about Hunter?

I believe that Hunter and Five Pebbles are intended to be narrative parallels to each other, having tried to change themselves in an act of desperation, but failing and contracting a disease.

"We both have something... unfortunate growing in us."

But how did Hunter get this "unfortunate" disease? Is it even The Rot?

Well... it's not directly the rot. But it's confirmed to be RELATED to it.

As for the cause of Hunter's disorder? I think this quote from the 1.5 kickstarter announcement can answer part of it.

"...It is a being pushing beyond the confines of its place in the ecosystem, and thus is karmically imbalanced in this world."

This is likely because of the fact that Hunter CHOSE to start killing and eating meat when it previously did not need to. It engaged with unsanitary acts of eating raw meat and hunting and killing, possibly out of desperation

And considering Hunter's disease, this and the karmic imbalance could very much be tied into each other. The fact that Hunter also accepts to deliver the Green Neuron, when it could have simply abandoned at any point, also shows that they're willing to also make up for the misfortune they carry, similar to Five Pebbles

Whatever it is, its clear disease, desperation, and karmic alignment all correspond and relate to each other. This desperation which is entangling, and which the Drainage pearl warns about, how struggling in the fishing net only results in you being more tangled in it

Also, the use of unfortunate in that pearl is not lost on me

"It says that the world is an unfortunate mess."

About Watcher

Watcher definitely ALSO leans into the uncleanliness aspect, as you can tell with the absurd amount of rot that's around everywhere

As well as this... there are no karma gates. The warps cannot cleanse you of whatever you carry between regions. Both ST and Watcher are like 2 kids dragging mud (rot) with them where they go

"So glad I cannot sniff! Spoiled meat, dissolving proteins. Yeeck."

There are entire regions dedicated to just this raw Pollution. It's disgusting and dirty and nobody wants to be in it, yet its clear this is just a natural thing. An unfortunate reality

The rot IS just straight up entanglement and the embodiment of the cycle itself, only existing to Consume and Reproduce. Its sticky and web-like, it corrupts and eats and decays. It's pretty in your face about what it is. The fact FP caught it while being desperate...? But I already talked about that before.

As well as this, Outer Rim is caked in mud, and so is Badlands (which warps to Unfortunate Evolution). These are the only places currently that have mud at all, and both lead to rot one way or another. The regions themselves Are Just Disgusting

Not to mention Station Annex (which also leads to UE) is just littered with lizard corpses...

Conclusion

Rot is kegare. A pollution of existence that is brought by disaster or terrible actions, and which causes misfortune and brings even more disaster

The Ancients themselves must have known of this- or at least known of a similar phenomenon to the rot with the same root and effect, and so built karma gates and continued practices to keep themselves clean while they lived and while they ascended

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somewhere in an alternate universe

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rivulet tortures arti for her crimes (2025)

original image

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How I’m feeling right now

In the middle of artfight crunch and a semi reboot to the main blog! Look out ahead yall 👀👀

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Round 2, day 2

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its pride month, survivor slugcat. you know what that means.

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havne't drawnn spesmaranmter in a while

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*smoothens your arificer*

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finally finished the refs for my main rain world OCs! Let me know which one’s your favorite!

the top row was all designed by me and the bottom row was designed by toyhouse users PebbleOak, MlSSlNGN0, Five-Pebbles, and windmoth in order from left to right.

Here’s some brief descriptions on them:

The Mimic is a purposed slugcat who serves as an iterator’s messenger. They can blend in with their surroundings and mimic lizards.

The Magpie is an outgoing and playful slugcat who enjoys stealing pearls and keeps them in the sack she carries. Because of this, is always on the run from scavengers.

The Virulent is highly venomous, and can use the barb on its tail to poison enemies. They can make poison spears and are toxic to eat.

The Anomaly is another purposed slugcat, created to solve the great problem. They are partially made of antimatter and can destroy matter by swiping with their claws.

The Snare, while appearing like a normal slugcat, is severely infected by the rot. They have rot tentacles inside their mouth (not shown on the reference) that they use to catch prey.

The Lutra is a seafaring slugcat who can hold their breath for a very long time underwater. He enjoys exploring the ocean and overall has a more positive outlook on life than the other slugcats.

The Navigator leads a small colony of slugcats called The Wayfarers. Her mapmaking skills helps her colony not get lost. Snare used to be part of her colony, but she kicked them out when they became infected.

The Exile is Magpie’s sibling, but was separated from them when he killed a scavenger and was cast out to a snowy mountain. He uses the pelt of the scavenger he killed to warm himself.

these are all very simplified descriptions of them so feel free to ask for more info!

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Hollow Knight OC!! She’s a locust named Lina. she doesn’t have much of a backstory yet but I’m thinking of one!

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We both have Mimics :0

My Mimic:

hehehehehehehehehehehe

Mimic friends!!

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select screen art for my oc!

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When it comes to rain world's cosmology and metaphyics, I don't believe there will be a concrete answer to the structure of the strands or realities. I've attempted a few models myself, and I think its utterly futile

The system that governs RW's universe is inherently chaotic and can't be mapped out without cutting out some parts. It's like trying to make a 100% realistic food web of an entire ecosystem

Instead, I hope to focus on some general rules and patterns that show up related to the strands and alternate realities. It doesn't really matter their positioning in the world or the metaphysics of them, but that they're there, and the impact they have

I mean, I invite you guys to attempt to try and model it. But the Ancients themselves had trouble, they couldn't even agree on the cycle being a loop, a spiral, or a loop that forms into a spiral