slugcatmusings

[slugcatmusings]

WEAVER, huh? Hmmmmmm....

HMMMMMMMMMMMM...

Within the code of Watcher there's leftovers (or base code) for something known as the Weaver, or VoidWeaver.

A devtools item for "weaverspot" appears between the devtools for 2 of the Primary Characters. As well as this, WeaverSpot naturally appears in Sunlit Port

Feather assets for the weaver

Here is an unused track: Weaver Energy

And also the code I found related to it. Here it appears in many of the room settings alongside the ST, Ripple Warp, and Flower Bed objects

Here it appears for the Map HUD code (code which shows you if a region is infected or contains ST) and is also where its referred to as VoidWeaver

I'm not particularly good at reading C#, and this was all I could find

I have many personal theories on what the Weaver/Void Weaver could be, but its clearly connected to the next Watcher update and will definitely be a key part of future plot/lore

[slugcatmusings]

So I was throwing myself back into hell again (starting to replay the Watcher), minding my own business, when I suddenly had a flashback to that one lore pearl from Subterranean (it’s the teal one, I think), and went “wait… wait a second.”

“If you leave a stone on the ground, and come back some time later, it’s covered in dust.  This happens everywhere, and over several lifetimes of creatures such as you, the ground slowly builds upwards.”

Implying the dust falls from the sky, since the Void Sea is what lies below, right?  So… if it’s falling from above, somewhere…

(Endgame region spoilers below the cut)

There are falling stars in Outer Rim.  The sandstorms here have the same green as the stars in it.  There are things in the background apparently called STARCATCHERS.  The architecture here is OLD.  It’s Depths architecture, the same civilization that predated the Benefactors/Ancients/whatever you want to call the iterators’ creators by who knows how long, and it’s being buried in the sands by the ever-blowing sandstorms.

I looked at Shattered Terrace next since it’s the other ending-related endgame area and… 

It’s newer architecture, more akin to the architecture we see in the base game, but it’s falling apart.  Bits of rubble are floating off in defiance of gravity, while other parts of it have collapsed and been worn down into the dust you see blowing on the wind. 

In Outer Rim, we see the ground being built up with stardust.  In Shattered Terrace, we see the world dissolving.  The two endgame areas of the Watcher are representations of the beginning and end of that very cycle of the world that Moon explains to us with the Subterranean pearl.

[slugcatmusings]

im so normal im oso normal. the normal. very normal

[slugcatmusings]

watcher, drawn in animal jam masterpiece studio.

[slugcatmusings]

Oh yeah I absolutely agree with you that there's multiverse shenanigans of some kind going on here, so it's not just you! I've been thinking about this ever since the first ending (don't know if you've seen that ending yet OP so no spoilers, no worries), where there was a line of dialogue that had me going back to one of the trailers for the dlc and going "HMMMMM hold on a sec."

Specifically, going back to the ripples trailer. It's pretty obvious (or at least seems pretty obvious to me) that the ripples spoken of in the trailer are a metaphor for the cycle - from one side a ring, another a spiral, another the movement of a line, etc. Sounds very similar to that lore pearl moon reads in the base game, talking about how some Ancients interpreted the cycle. But it also got me thinking - how else could you interpret ripples? Is there another potential meaning for them there?

What made me REALLY start thinking about alternate realities was considering the effects that ripples have on the REFLECTIONS on a surface of a body of water. They distort them, make them unrecognizable. One little drop of water barely creates a distortion in the reflection on the surface - it's still recognizable as the thing it was before. But if it starts pouring rain, billions of droplets hitting the water at once, the reflection gets churned into something unrecognizable. You can't tell what it is anymore.

Couldn't help but think of those "reflections" as being alternate universes - especially since the Void Sea is supposed to be infinite, and that seems like a good base for time travel and alternate reality shenanigans right there. All worlds are but reflections on the surface of the sea, and the more cycles create ripples on the surface, the more distorted those reflections become.

Ripples work as a surprisingly good metaphor to describe a multiverse actually, if you think about it. What is a ripple but a small change caused by an inciting incident? The droplet falling into the water is a major event in history, but the ripples spreading out from the point of impact are the little changes that are INSPIRED by that event that make the world what it is in the present. So, lots of Big Events happening in a world's history (many drops of water) means a LOT of Little Changes (many, many ripples.)

WATCHER SPOILERS (and speculation/interpretation) BELOW, PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION

alright, I want to preface this by saying I could be totally wrong, and this is just how I'm interpreting/theorizing about things, hopefully I'm not missing anything as I've just finished my playthrough but if I have please let me know

I Really love how like, even though technically watcher and downpour seem to be completely different realities/universes judging by everything, it was written in such a way where like, they still can coexist if that makes sense, not like "one of these is just a 'what if'/this never happened/none of what happened really mattered" or such, at least that's the vibes I'm getting?

like... Lemme explain: the way I'm invisioning it is as follows: the rw universe is like a book, each page is a different universe/plane of reality/ something along those lines

I think pre binkly (I'm calling the echo binkly because it's funny and I've been calling them that even before we knew they were an echo) Watcher existed in either the vanilla or DP universe, considering how when you have dp on certain dp creatures spawn Im gonna say the latter (but I think either way can work, it doesn't really matter which one) And then uh. Category 5 binkly event happened so that obviously is no longer the case, like. The moment you end up in the twisted rotten vanilla regions after your first encounter with them....

Of course that's just my interpretation, I like the idea that while the watcher does initially start in either the dp universe or vanilla universe depending on who you ask, after you first encounter the echo you're thrown into a completely new universe/reality entirely, + it explains some things like how rot spreads across different regions in Watcher's campaign but can't expand beyond pebbles in DP before just Dying, different laws of reality at play potentially? I really like thinking about the concept of parallel realities and universes in media but maybe I'm looking Too Deep Into Things haha

[slugcatmusings]

Thoughts on Slugcat Mythology UwU

So for the most part I’ve been musing about biology here, but recently I’ve started musing about slugcat culture.  If slugcats are (as I like to think) a sapient species (if not a very advanced one) how might they perceive the world?

More specifically, because I am a fantasy worldbuilder over a science fiction one and I like coming up with stories about gods and monsters, what might slugcat MYTHOLOGY be like?

Rain World is a very harsh world to live in.  It’s full of deadly weather, enormous predators, abominations of nature, and countless other threats for a tiny slugcat, and unlike their predecessors the ancients, the slugcats don’t yet have the scientific knowledge to understand how everything works.  They’re not a united society, more like a bunch of tribes and loners struggling to survive.  Many things they didn’t understand would be attributed to the work of gods or spirits, and they’d revere things that help a scug clan not only survive, but thrive, and whisper warnings to their pups to stay out of dangerous places.

Perhaps the slugcats have gods of the hunt or the bounty of nature, beings who grant them strength to bring down mighty beasts to feed the clan or gift them luck to find food to bring home to their families.  Or maybe they worship gods who have blessed them with resilience, the determination to keep stubbornly going no matter what dangers the world might throw at them.

There are stories of strange beings which live in the metal mountains that tower above the rains and clouds, who gift knowledge never before known.  There are pictures of them carved into trees and stones, odd tailless gods of another long-gone people chained inside their temples with great halos of pearls circling them like satellites.

The slugcats tell of a plague inflicted on those who intrude on the decaying ruins, one that lingers in the highest, twisting places of the world, and oozes into the depths.  A corruption that consumes the body and in turn forces it to consume, friends turning upon friends, littermates upon littermates, parents upon pups, as it eats the entire world starting from the tallest of peaks.  There are stories of what might happen if its endless hunger consumes all, the world becoming nothing but disease and rot.

There are great heroes of legend, slugcats who ventured beyond their lands to bring home wisdom and lead their peoples into posterity.  There are stories of the messengers of the gods, slugcats chosen to bring the holy words and wisdom of the gods to new recipients, for the cost of never living amongst their kind again.  There are stories of great wars between colonies, of slugcat pitted against slugcat for the struggle of survival.  There are whispers of monstrous slugcats who have bathed in the blood of their enemies and become drunk on the slaughter, stuck in a never-ending cycle of bloodshed and pain.

There are tales of a great sea of gold beneath the earth, so deep below that the rains cannot reach them.  A sea which offers an end to the strife and suffering.  A place where the people of the past turned to, when their gods could not save them, and the realm that chained gods long for, hoping to reach it once they’ve broken their bonds.

There are prophecies of a guide who will one day lead the dying gods to their final resting places, deep beneath the earth.  Of the world one day crumbling, and everything ending in one last dying gasp - for everything lives and dies again, becoming something new, and the world is no different.

[slugcatmusings]

Not my usual thing, but figured people following my musings blog might be interested in a Rain World rp!

Interested in Joining a Rain World RP?

I run an informal Rain World roleplay on Discord, and currently it's only me and a small group of my friends actually taking part. I'm looking for more people that might be interested in joining, since there's only so much you can do with like, 4 players (and like 2 others that come and go at random.)

So if you're interested in playing as slugcat OCs (with a chance to play some canon slugcats too) in a long-reaching canon-divergent version of RW with iterator OCs, custom regions, reincarnating slugcats and scavs, and a budding civilization of scugs (or if you want to know more about the rp before you commit) feel free to hit me up in Private Messages, and I'll send you an invite to the server!

[slugcatmusings]

Okay I know i said i'd freak out about it later but i just went to wishlist this thing on steam and -

Is anyone else getting apocalypse vibes from this? "The world beneath your feet cracks and crumbles?" "Outlast the ravages of a warped world?" Either there's like, ordinary natural disasters going on, or it's that one lore bit about the Ancients believing the Void Sea was eating everything from below (which saint's campaign kind of proves) coming true even more. Is this campaign gonna be a post-apocalypse apocalypse? Apocalypse 2 electric boogaloo? VOID SEA LORE???? O.O

YOOOO NEW DLC ANNOUNCEMENT HELLO???

[slugcatmusings]

YOOOO NEW DLC ANNOUNCEMENT HELLO???

[slugcatmusings]

Random thought that I may expand on later - the self-destruction taboo in the iterators' DNA is supposed to stop them from altering already existing parts of themselves right? I'm also guessing that iterators probably have means of replicating certain parts like inspectors or neuron flies if they're damaged/killed.

So, potential loophole to the self-destruction taboo, or at least a loophole allowing them to "alter" their own parts - take whatever process involves creating smaller parts of an iterator and start tweaking the DNA. If the taboo prevents you from altering EXISTING tissues, then simply make some pre-altered.

[slugcatmusings]

@bitsbug

Hell yeah, more theories! Even if it was a counterargument I wouldn’t mind too much. When I said in my original post that me and a friend were “chatting” about Rot theories, I actually meant “casual debating” lol, it was fun and it lead to me coming up with my full theory above in the first place! Sometimes you need a good debate to throw ideas back and forth in order to get your brain juices flowing.

Anyway, your idea makes sense too! And honestly is probably closer to whatever the game devs had in mind for canon lol. I just like going into very detailed worldbuilding, so my brain is used to making weird connections that probably weren’t meant to be made but make sense anyway.

Especially since I’m going to admit right here and now that my theory probably leans more towards the “spectacle” side of the spectrum over “canonically accurate.” Me and Unnamed Friend were debating over Rot theories because we were trying to come up with ideas for a small Rain World rp I run for a group of my friends, and spectacle creates better, more intriguing stories… also I wanted a potential cure for the Rot, because screw the Ancients for not letting the iterators have that!

Also, just a fun little thought… your theory could potentially work with mine! After all, if the parasite is present in ALL cells now, that includes the gene-modifying purposed organisms – and since presumably the gene-changing ability is linked to the organisms’s own DNA, that means that the Rot parasite has access to those genes and can use them appropriately ;P

@kniloas

Oh, yeah, the Inspector! Honestly the inspector did kinda get pushed to the wayside during my theorizing, whenever I start writing something I’m REALLY into I tend to hyperfocus. Thanks for bringing that up! I HAVE noticed the similarities between the Rot and Inspectors, including how the Rot seems to waste away outside the cans. Though I didn’t mention it (mistake on my behalf) my theory DOES cover the Inspectors. After all, if the parasites are in EVERY cell in the ancients’ purposed organisms, that includes the ones of the Inspectors, doesn’t it? And the wasting away could be explained by the fact that while yes, the cells have been hijacked, they’re still PEBBLES’ cells ordinarily – they’re not meant to be outside his “body” and the parasite can’t (or hasn’t yet been able to) change that.

And at both you AND @raidhosketchonhematite, OWO NSH ASCENSION THEORY HELLO?? I’ve never seen that theory before but it WOULD explain why NSH is so prevalent in Hunter’s cutscene, when any creature ever seen in any of the other ascension cutscenes are kinda ghostly-looking! I never even considered that, that is – honestly an amazing idea! Though how on earth would NSH have come up with the idea of hitching a ride in his slugcat, and in Rot of all things?

What is the Rot? Why is the Rot?

Spoiler Warning and Holy Wall of Text Batman Warning. I got WAY too into questioning the turbo-cancer here, hopefully my rambling makes sense.

So, the Rot is… weird, from a biological standpoint. Really weird, if you stop to think about it. It’s most frequently described as some variation of cancer, and it certainly fits the criteria for it. Caused by damage to DNA? Check. Multiplies uncontrollably? Check. Comes in both benign and malignant forms, one stationary and the other mobile? Big fat check. Heck, even the Rot cysts eating other creatures kind of fits, according to some research I’ve done – there are apparently cancer cells that will eat other cells, which makes sense in hindsight since cancer cells are cells that have lost important genetic restrictions, which may include whatever lets cells identify other cells as “do not eat.”

(I ain’t a biology whiz and I’m doing research on the fly while getting my thoughts out here, so take whatever I say about biology with a grain of salt)

So, Rot is clearly cancer of some kind, right? Case closed. Except when me and a friend of mine were talking Rain World theories on Discord, she brought up some interesting points that got me thinking.

First point: Rot cells obviously mutate in a way that affects FAR more than just cell replication and termination. Some of the cysts can HEAR. As far as I know, cells in the body do not hear sounds. They communicate via chemical signals and maybe, MAYBE react to temperature. Hearing involves complicated, specialized sensory apparatus to pick up on vibrations in the air. Even if you simplify it and say that it’s only vibrations, that’s STILL a multicellular thing, not a single-cell thing. It’s something that took millions of years to evolve on Earth, if not billions.

And while Rain World’s timeline goes on for long enough that it those kinds of mutations might happen eventually, Rot cysts have the ability to hear pretty much right from the start – because even the Proto-Long-Legs react to your presence like the Daddy Long Legs do, and the Rot in Spearmaster’s campaign, where Pebbles has recently contracted it, reacts the same way as it does in later campaigns. It’s already able to hear.

As far as I know, cancer just means the same cell duplicating over and over again. Are more mutations possible with each division, as errors are made in the DNA during splitting? Probably. But not to THAT extent. There’s no way a lump of cancer somehow mutated the exact complicated genetic blueprint needed to grow organs, at least not without outside interference.

Second point: Cases of Rot are way too consistent across the board. Now, we don’t have a huge sample size to work from, but from what we see from both Pebbles’ Rot, and Hunter Long Legs, they’re… pretty similar. Hunter Long Legs is basically a mobile Rot cyst. They move the same way, seem to grow the same way (starts as a growth inside/on the body before eventually freeing itself from whatever wall/flesh it grew from in some capacity and moving elsewhere), they have the same senses, and they even eat the same way, via something like phagocytosis (how white blood cells “eat” invading organisms via engulfing them and breaking them down in a sac in their main “body.”)

Now, this doesn’t tell us much, because cancer, when it does emerge, is pretty consistent in symptoms/what the mutated cells do once they start replicating. It’s pretty much the same regardless of whatever organism the cancer is happening in. But what ISN’T consistent is what causes the DNA error in the cancer cell in the first place. IRL, cancer can be caused by all kinds of things – smoking, radiation poisoning, being out in the sun too long, drinking deadly chemicals and whatnot, anything that damages DNA. But in RW, the only time we ever hear Rot talked about, or see it present, is in the context of an iterator having f*cked up while mucking around with DNA. Pebbles was trying to create an organism that could change his own genome, and No Significant Harassment created Hunter as a messenger and probably mucked something up in the process in his haste to get them to Moon.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other causes of it, of course, we’re working with a sample size of two in an apocalyptic world with who knows how much potentially DNA-damaging stuff around, but… that’s still awfully consistent.

So, combining these points and everything we know to be canon, Rot is:

an organism that lives inside another organism

Until a certain condition is met, it cannot harm said host organism.

Once said condition is met, it goes out of control, wreaking havoc on the organism’s systems and mutating, giving it sensory capabilities and an appetite

Said condition is apparently someone messing up when re-arranging genomes, in yourself or others

It is widespread across multiple different species, at least iterators and slugcats but potentially other species as well.

Once you have a bad case of it, it is apparently NOT CURABLE. Pebbles tried everything he could think of but apparently exhausted all of his options by the time of the Survivor/Monk campaigns.

So, with all the context FINALLY laid out, here’s my wild theory: Rot isn’t a cancer. It’s a symbiote turned parasite. Specifically, I believe it’s a symbiotic microbe that lives inside the cells that make up every other creature in Rain World, and is held in check by a specific gene that all species share, and altering or getting rid of that gene causes it to go berserk, taking over and eventually mutating the host cells.

Yeah, I did watch Parasite Eve let’s plays as a kid, why do you ask? Anyway, hear me out here.

There is precedence for single-celled organisms living inside of other single-celled organisms. They’re referred to as intracellular endosymbiots (hopefully I got the spelling right there), and the most well-known one is probably the mitochondria. The powerhouse of the cell is thought to be descended from some bacteria way, WAY back that was engulfed by a larger cell and not only survived it, but BENEFITED from it. Since then those ancient proto-mitochondria and eukaryotic cells have mutually evolved to be dependent on each other. So it’s entirely possible for something similar to have happened in Rain World.

However, I don’t think it happened NATURALLY, here. Because something that’s able to take over a cell entirely and begin wildly mutating it is NOT something your average cell wants inside of it. There’s a VERY high chance of extinction if you do that. Which means that of course those funky bio-tech loving Ancients either took a look at a wildly dangerous cellular parasite and went “hmmm we can use this” or made one themselves.

Why did they do this? Who knows! Currently, I’m tied between “they needed a better powerhouse for the cell to power the various weird adaptations they’re building into various creatures,” “there was some sort of disease that this parasite gave immunity against and they wanted to make use of it,” and “it gave their creations massively powerful regeneration factors that made them much easier to maintain.” Possibly it was all three. Whatever the reason, the Ancients either found or created this parasite, and put it into their creations’ cells, hoping to reap the benefits.

Well, they got the benefits, but they also got a microbe that hijacked the cells and harnessed their pre-existing DNA blueprints to build organisms disguised as great big blobs of cancer. Which is not exactly ideal, but hey, they just had to figure out a way of keeping the cell hijacking from happening! And the way they ended up going about it was to alter the thing so that so long as there was a specific DNA sequence in the cell, it laid mostly dormant. All the benefits, none of the risks – so long as that specific string of genes remained intact.

And then BECAUSE it was so beneficial, they spread their artificial symbiote and it’s genetic reins throughout ALL of their creations, from the smallest pipe-cleaning slugs to the iterators. Which meant that as their purposed organisms replaced most of the original ecosystem, they spread the symbiote as well. Thus making it possible for pretty much ANY creature on the planet to come down with a bad case of the Rot. And with the iterators, I wouldn’t be surprised if this symbiote is tied to their self-destruction taboos. Try to cross yourself out? Well, it’s gonna maybe happen now, but it’ll be a slow painful death as you’re eaten alive from the inside and all your own parts turn against you, so was it really worth it?

And they never told their creations this perhaps even actively hid it, because why tell them the cause of the main deterrent to them mucking with their taboos? They might find a way around it. The iterators were left ignorant of how Rot works, and because of this they never figured out that Rot HAD a cure after all: rebuilding that genome that reins in the symbiote. Because why in the name of the Void would they repeat the same mistakes that gave them Rot in the first place, and potentially make it worse?

[slugcatmusings]

What is the Rot? Why is the Rot?

Spoiler Warning and Holy Wall of Text Batman Warning. I got WAY too into questioning the turbo-cancer here, hopefully my rambling makes sense.

So, the Rot is… weird, from a biological standpoint. Really weird, if you stop to think about it. It’s most frequently described as some variation of cancer, and it certainly fits the criteria for it. Caused by damage to DNA? Check. Multiplies uncontrollably? Check. Comes in both benign and malignant forms, one stationary and the other mobile? Big fat check. Heck, even the Rot cysts eating other creatures kind of fits, according to some research I’ve done – there are apparently cancer cells that will eat other cells, which makes sense in hindsight since cancer cells are cells that have lost important genetic restrictions, which may include whatever lets cells identify other cells as “do not eat.”

(I ain’t a biology whiz and I’m doing research on the fly while getting my thoughts out here, so take whatever I say about biology with a grain of salt)

So, Rot is clearly cancer of some kind, right? Case closed. Except when me and a friend of mine were talking Rain World theories on Discord, she brought up some interesting points that got me thinking.

First point: Rot cells obviously mutate in a way that affects FAR more than just cell replication and termination. Some of the cysts can HEAR. As far as I know, cells in the body do not hear sounds. They communicate via chemical signals and maybe, MAYBE react to temperature. Hearing involves complicated, specialized sensory apparatus to pick up on vibrations in the air. Even if you simplify it and say that it’s only vibrations, that’s STILL a multicellular thing, not a single-cell thing. It’s something that took millions of years to evolve on Earth, if not billions.

And while Rain World’s timeline goes on for long enough that it those kinds of mutations might happen eventually, Rot cysts have the ability to hear pretty much right from the start – because even the Proto-Long-Legs react to your presence like the Daddy Long Legs do, and the Rot in Spearmaster’s campaign, where Pebbles has recently contracted it, reacts the same way as it does in later campaigns. It’s already able to hear.

As far as I know, cancer just means the same cell duplicating over and over again. Are more mutations possible with each division, as errors are made in the DNA during splitting? Probably. But not to THAT extent. There’s no way a lump of cancer somehow mutated the exact complicated genetic blueprint needed to grow organs, at least not without outside interference.

Second point: Cases of Rot are way too consistent across the board. Now, we don’t have a huge sample size to work from, but from what we see from both Pebbles’ Rot, and Hunter Long Legs, they’re… pretty similar. Hunter Long Legs is basically a mobile Rot cyst. They move the same way, seem to grow the same way (starts as a growth inside/on the body before eventually freeing itself from whatever wall/flesh it grew from in some capacity and moving elsewhere), they have the same senses, and they even eat the same way, via something like phagocytosis (how white blood cells “eat” invading organisms via engulfing them and breaking them down in a sac in their main “body.”)

Now, this doesn’t tell us much, because cancer, when it does emerge, is pretty consistent in symptoms/what the mutated cells do once they start replicating. It’s pretty much the same regardless of whatever organism the cancer is happening in. But what ISN’T consistent is what causes the DNA error in the cancer cell in the first place. IRL, cancer can be caused by all kinds of things – smoking, radiation poisoning, being out in the sun too long, drinking deadly chemicals and whatnot, anything that damages DNA. But in RW, the only time we ever hear Rot talked about, or see it present, is in the context of an iterator having f*cked up while mucking around with DNA. Pebbles was trying to create an organism that could change his own genome, and No Significant Harassment created Hunter as a messenger and probably mucked something up in the process in his haste to get them to Moon.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other causes of it, of course, we’re working with a sample size of two in an apocalyptic world with who knows how much potentially DNA-damaging stuff around, but… that’s still awfully consistent.

So, combining these points and everything we know to be canon, Rot is:

an organism that lives inside another organism

Until a certain condition is met, it cannot harm said host organism.

Once said condition is met, it goes out of control, wreaking havoc on the organism’s systems and mutating, giving it sensory capabilities and an appetite

Said condition is apparently someone messing up when re-arranging genomes, in yourself or others

It is widespread across multiple different species, at least iterators and slugcats but potentially other species as well.

Once you have a bad case of it, it is apparently NOT CURABLE. Pebbles tried everything he could think of but apparently exhausted all of his options by the time of the Survivor/Monk campaigns.

So, with all the context FINALLY laid out, here’s my wild theory: Rot isn’t a cancer. It’s a symbiote turned parasite. Specifically, I believe it’s a symbiotic microbe that lives inside the cells that make up every other creature in Rain World, and is held in check by a specific gene that all species share, and altering or getting rid of that gene causes it to go berserk, taking over and eventually mutating the host cells.

Yeah, I did watch Parasite Eve let’s plays as a kid, why do you ask? Anyway, hear me out here.

There is precedence for single-celled organisms living inside of other single-celled organisms. They’re referred to as intracellular endosymbiots (hopefully I got the spelling right there), and the most well-known one is probably the mitochondria. The powerhouse of the cell is thought to be descended from some bacteria way, WAY back that was engulfed by a larger cell and not only survived it, but BENEFITED from it. Since then those ancient proto-mitochondria and eukaryotic cells have mutually evolved to be dependent on each other. So it’s entirely possible for something similar to have happened in Rain World.

However, I don’t think it happened NATURALLY, here. Because something that’s able to take over a cell entirely and begin wildly mutating it is NOT something your average cell wants inside of it. There’s a VERY high chance of extinction if you do that. Which means that of course those funky bio-tech loving Ancients either took a look at a wildly dangerous cellular parasite and went “hmmm we can use this” or made one themselves.

Why did they do this? Who knows! Currently, I’m tied between “they needed a better powerhouse for the cell to power the various weird adaptations they’re building into various creatures,” “there was some sort of disease that this parasite gave immunity against and they wanted to make use of it,” and “it gave their creations massively powerful regeneration factors that made them much easier to maintain.” Possibly it was all three. Whatever the reason, the Ancients either found or created this parasite, and put it into their creations’ cells, hoping to reap the benefits.

Well, they got the benefits, but they also got a microbe that hijacked the cells and harnessed their pre-existing DNA blueprints to build organisms disguised as great big blobs of cancer. Which is not exactly ideal, but hey, they just had to figure out a way of keeping the cell hijacking from happening! And the way they ended up going about it was to alter the thing so that so long as there was a specific DNA sequence in the cell, it laid mostly dormant. All the benefits, none of the risks – so long as that specific string of genes remained intact.

And then BECAUSE it was so beneficial, they spread their artificial symbiote and it’s genetic reins throughout ALL of their creations, from the smallest pipe-cleaning slugs to the iterators. Which meant that as their purposed organisms replaced most of the original ecosystem, they spread the symbiote as well. Thus making it possible for pretty much ANY creature on the planet to come down with a bad case of the Rot. And with the iterators, I wouldn’t be surprised if this symbiote is tied to their self-destruction taboos. Try to cross yourself out? Well, it’s gonna maybe happen now, but it’ll be a slow painful death as you’re eaten alive from the inside and all your own parts turn against you, so was it really worth it?

And they never told their creations this perhaps even actively hid it, because why tell them the cause of the main deterrent to them mucking with their taboos? They might find a way around it. The iterators were left ignorant of how Rot works, and because of this they never figured out that Rot HAD a cure after all: rebuilding that genome that reins in the symbiote. Because why in the name of the Void would they repeat the same mistakes that gave them Rot in the first place, and potentially make it worse?

[slugcatmusings]

“The Artificer’s campaign has little impact on the overall story” bitch I cannot stress how much of an impact the Artificer had on the entire world. You just need to pay attention to some things.

By the time of the Artificer, Scavengers are basically in the middle of a massive golden age. They have a Chieftain (with a mark of communication (maybe Five Pebbles gave them the mark and citizen ID drone and tried to use them for something but they rebelled and found Metropolis)) with armour made from Red Centipede Scales, they have a permanent home in metropolis above the rain, they figured out how to harvest electrical scrap and broken down Rarefaction Cells from the ruins of Looks To The Moon and pieces of Five Pebbles to make electric spears and Singularity Bombs, they even have specially trained Elite Scavengers, which did exist before in the time of the Spearmaster but it’s still worth bringing them up.

Overall, Scavengers are at a golden age of invention and life in general.

And then they anger the Artificer, who slaughters countless Scavengers, kills their Chieftain and drives them out of Metropolis, locking the gate behind them.

After that, a new Chieftain is never made, armour like the chieftain once wore is never made again, Scavengers suffer a massive population loss, they can’t enter Metropolis without a Citizen ID Drone and Elite Scavengers slowly disappear as the methods used to teach them and the knowledge of how to scavenge and create electric spears and singularity bombs is lost, with the last Elite Scavengers being seen in the Hunter’s campaign, which happens next in the timeline. In other words, the Artificer literally sent Scavengers into a dark age.

It takes until the time of the SAINT for Scavengers to show real signs of recovery, now appearing in larger numbers than before. And even THEN Scavengers never do anything like they did during the time of the Artificer. The Artificer plunged Scavengers into a dark age for countless years, and they STILL haven’t recovered.

And that’s not all. According to the wiki, Scavengers are afraid of Slugpups, most likely because they remember how the last time they killed one they were hit by the full force of an angry explosive lobbing goddess of destruction that slaughtered countless members of their kind. They are afraid of Slugpups in all campaigns, even the Saint’s. So even by the time of the Saint Scavengers know not to mess with Slugpups, presumably because the last time they did so is a legend among Scavengers by that point in time.

Hell, the Artificer’s existence even explains something about the Hunter. The reason that the Hunter starts with a negative reputation among Scavengers is because they look like the fucking Artificer. Scavengers look at the Hunter and see the goddess of vengeance and destruction that they’ve only ever heard of from stories.

Both of them have red fur and a scar on one eye, and will the time gap between campaigns, there’s a good chance that only a few Scavengers that saw the Artificer in person are even alive by that point in time (without even taking into account how the Artificer murdered so many Scavengers that it’s probably rare that a Scavenger saw them and lived to tell the tale), meaning that the Artificer is probably told about in Scavenger stories and her appearance would therefore differ, leaving the most obvious details like the scar on one eye and red fur.

[slugcatmusings]

Horrendous wrinkled beast jumpscare

(also enjoy this doodle of a potential baby vulture yall)

Oh my god it's so ugly, I love it!!!!! :D

[slugcatmusings]

Another thing me and my sister also talked about, during our convo mentioned in the last post?  Chickens will get broody about anything remotely egg-shaped and sometimes smol animals like kittens, just try to tuck them underneath themselves to keep them warm.

Now imagine a big vulture brooding over their probably ugly hatchlings and a couple slugpups that crawled into the nest too.

[slugcatmusings]

Vulture Grubs are Mimics

Adghsdjgsdg so - I was not expecting an actual Rain World Downpour dev to reblog my iterators are colonial organisms post.  Also they said that the brain organisms in iterators are named CoralBrain in the files so???  Is this??? Confirmation??  About my theory?? O.O

Anyway enough fangirling about that, onto more musings!  This time isn’t so grand as the iterators - me and my sis like talking about various rain world worldbuilding stuff (I’ve been coming up with fanfic ideas and I like bouncing ideas off of her in the car when driving her places), and today the topic of “what the heck are vulture grubs” came up!  

(Alongside the topics of “is symbiosis with the Rot possible” and “what would a large population of carnivorous slugcats need to survive in Metropolis” which yes are both related to the fanfic idea.)

Our first thought - and the theory that my sister supported for half the resulting debate - was that vulture grubs are just, you know, vulture babies.  They make lasers like king vultures when summoning vultures, and when distressed call for help and have adult vultures answer.  However, my sister also pointed out that vultures sometimes seem to eat the grubs, and while some species have cannibalism as a thing I’m kinda meh about the idea - it's an actual thing that happens in nature, yeah, but... well, meh.

So what are vulture grubs if not baby vultures?  Baby vulture mimics!  You know how some animals will imitate other, more dangerous animals to scare off predators?  That’s what the grubs are doing!  They’ve evolved to mimic baby vultures in order to discourage predators from eating them.  The structures on their heads vaguely resemble king vulture heads in shape, and the lasers are DEFINITELY a mimicry of the king vulture lasers.  The screech, too, is probably a mimicry - they sound like distressed baby vultures, and that along with the flashy laser light show draws vultures to the noise, which usually means that whatever big predator was attacking the grub is scared away in a panic!

Of course, sometimes that gets the grub eaten by the vulture, but it’d get them eaten a LOT less often by big predators, which would mean they’d survive for longer and in greater numbers than they would normally.

[slugcatmusings]

... less serious follow-up to the last post.  Iterators are arthropods.  They have big metal exoskeletons with all the squishy bits inside, lots of eyes and legs, and have “segments” in their bodies in the form of rooms.  Thank my sister for THAT image.