sluglore

[sluglore]

⚠️ ((MASSIVE WATCHER SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AND ALL OF THE POST-GAME))

Some assorted ramblings about Watcher lorestuff. These are mostly concerning the Second Ending; I might make another post later. shrugs. I don't want to posit these as the "Correct" readings or whatever, just the ones I'm currently fond of. Hopefully you get something out of this.

The Kingdom, a Distorted Reflection of The Void Sea

A Triple Affirmative?

The Prince's "Kingdom" exists as an alternative Solution, a distorted reflection of Ascension, as the title suggests. The language used to describe its glorious vision is strikingly reminiscent of language around the Great Problem:

"Imagine: a single substrate… Life!Throughout all time! Nothing lost. No one lost. A living memory of all life, forever! From bug to god, all as one. None above the other. A TRUE end to the pattern. That is my vision."

– The Prince (Rot Friend!)

I mean, I'm not sure how much more explicitly Prince can state it. Its Kingdom is THE solution, in its eyes. A catalog of all things, living forever, free from the struggles of the Cycle. And this Solution is farther-reaching than any we've ever seen; the (Prince's) Rot Engulfs everything. It does not discriminate between bug and god, between rock and carbon, between microbe and macro-organism. All are welcome in its Kingdom, and that Kingdom is ever-growing.

Of course, I am speaking from a theoretical standpoint here; I am not advocating for the Kingdom as a "true" Solution. I don't believe the Great Problem can ever be solved; it is against the nature of the world. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Regardless, I believe the Kingdom to be untenable.

Certain regions in Watcher cannot be infected, which may suggest this Solution is not as all-encompassing as it seems. But Watcher plays with the fabric of space and time and the realms between the material and the Void, so this may be a moot point. Regardless, I'd rather focus on Philosophy than Practicality.

This "Solution" is Thoroughly Undesirable; we wish to leave the carnal plane of suffering and repetition, not bind ourselves to it forever!

Sure, nothing will be "lost", but who will be there to appreciate the memories of its little amalgamation? The Prince? And what of the ingredients it has ingested? Digested into soup of flesh, where all are one, and all are nothing.

This Solution, naturally, is presented as an alternative to Ascension, a side-stepping of the Great Problem. But I have a slightly different proposition:

The Kingdom is the Antithesis to the Ascension, just like the Rot is the Antithesis to Void Sea.

Ascension Versus Assimilation

The nature of Ascension is vague, but one possible interpretation I find of note is a melding of one's many disparate selves, no longer separated. A fullness of Self, and a fullness of perspective, freed to move on to world beyond the Carnal Plane. Even with more collective interpretations, I do believe each moving part is of equal significance. It is a mural of stained glass; an integration of many pieces arranged to form a greater whole.

Each piece fits together, but each piece is distinct. There is a harmony to this, and no one is above the other. A freedom from the struggles of the carnal plane and the oppression of the Cycle.

In the Kingdom, however, these many pieces eventually blend into an indistinguishable mass, equal by nature of their assimilation, rather than integration.

"Oh, you have brought sundries? You can leave them here if you wish, as a contribution. My processes will dissolve them to their base components and those components will be added to the mass. Nothing to waste, every bit counts!"

– The Prince, when brought an item

Its dialogue does not change based on item. This frustrated me, but in hindsight, I believe it serves to further my point. The details do not matter to the Prince; everything is broken down to its base components and assimilated into the Mass.

A World without Death, but also a Story without Continuation.

Opposing Forces

"As with all great deeds, my work is not without great challenge. It has taken eons and the light fades. The paths close and change. I can almost feel... a will... at odds with my own."

– The Prince

My buddy gandolph said something really insightful about the nature of the Rot we see in the Watcher. They've said it better than I can, so I'll just leave this here:

(this is all inference. just one reading of many)

I find this extremely compelling, and I'm big into the idea of the Rot and the Void Sea acting as opposing forces as well as foils.

"...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.

So why doesn't the ground collide with the sky? Because far down, under the very very old layers of the earth, the rock is being dissolved or removed. The entity which does this is known as the Void Sea."

– Subterranean Teal Pearl

Rot is an unmitigated growth, often compared to cancerous cells. It is life without termination; a construction with no completion. It builds and builds, grows and grows, assimilates and assimilates...

The Void Sea counteracts this force by dissolving this unmitigated growth and allowing new life to spring forth. To allow for new birth, there must also be space for death. For change.

Where Rot remains, Void moves forward. The Kingdom would keep its inhabited trapped in this world for all eternity, whilst Ascension seeks to ferry them to the next.

Unfortunate Evolution:

Unfortunate Evolution is an interesting segment, and I feel it illustrates this dichotomy between Rot and Void quite deftly. Once you enter, you cannot warp out, giving this a Cinematic sort of feel. I do believe it is meant to parallel the entrance into the Void Sea at the end of the basegame, just... twisted.

The use of zero gravity signifies a relation to Iterator Internals, but I think the drastic shift in movement is a purposeful parallel to swimming in the Void Sea. This movement is harder to control than swimming, though. You can't move very far forward without pushing off a wall or throwing something or otherwise utilizing pre-existing momentum.

You "swim" upwards, in contrast to swimming downwards into the Void Sea

Unfortunate Evolution feels cold and desolate, still and quiet, like a corpse. In contrast, the Void Sea, as liquid, feels brimming with life and movement.

You're teased with a glimpse of the "Rot worm", though it's initially sectioned off from you, rather than a being sharing that same space.

As you venture into the open space, the background is dark and dilapidated. Contrast this with the increase in Light as you venture further into the Void Sea, especially with how many lights you see. Illumination versus Obfuscation.

The biggest difference is perhaps in the results of these meetings.

The Void Worm guides you towards enlightenment, facilitating your journey towards ascension. It interacts with you, bringing you with it, cutting your string, and then it allows you to complete your journey. You swim into the light, ascending, and the game ends.

The Rot Worm, meanwhile, tells you nothing, takes you nowhere, and hardly even seems to acknowledge you. You swim past it and end up at a portal that takes you back to Outer Rim. And then you continue on like nothing ever happened. It's... notably Anti-climactic, at least to me. But I believe that is the point. The Rot Worm (and UE by extension) is only an imitation of the familiar; a fleeting distraction in a much longer journey.

...Or, it was like that for me, at least. Maybe it's not intentional, but I think this reading is very neat. The Prince's Rot has no enlightenment or salvation or even ending to offer you. Just an indiscriminate consumption of all in its wake and the stagnation that follows.

The Conclusion:

Therefore, the Prince's "Enlightenment" is antithetical to its very being. There are many ways to interpret the ending, of course. Perhaps this was a counteraction from the Void Sea, restraining the Prince in its hubris and re-establishing the cycle of death and rebirth. Was this a conscious act, or simply a natural occurrence? I'm unsure. Alternatively, but not mutually exclusive to this reading, is the suggestion that the Prince was "paralyzed from its contradictory existence", as gandolph stated.

The contradiction of the Prince's Self and Ego versus the unification and equality of all life. The contradiction of its pursuit of enlightenment and cataloguing with its mindless desire for consumption and assimilation. The contradiction between their inherited imperative and its implicit nature.

At the Prince's Coronation, its Kingdom crumbles. Karma Flowers engulf its corruption, and so life is born anew. In a way, I suppose its blessed substrate has been achieved, just not in the way it expected. The rot will be consumed, just like the dust before it.

UPDATE: adding these images of Survivor's Ending and Prince's Ending for further comparison.

Side-by-side, you can see the resemblance between the Slugtree and the Throne, though there are also some notable differences:

The Slugtree's trunk is much thicker, making it seem healthy and long-lasting. Throne's "trunk", by contrast, seems sickly and distorted

Slugtree is covered in "leaves" whilst the Throne is (at least by silhouette) barren. Again, the Slugtree appears full of life whilst the Throne is sickly and dying

Slugtree is full of light; Throne's only light is the Karma flowers now growing atop it / consuming it

Also note how the slugtree is full of slugcats that form a greater image together but still exist as their own beings . nothing to add for throne here but it adds to the "Ascension is Integration whilst Kingdom is Assimilation" reading

sorry for poor organization. here are some more thoughts:

A Prince Versus a King

Okay luna this is really cool, but like, isn't the Prince just a datamined name anyways? does it being a 'Prince' instead of a 'King' even matter?

great question guy I made up in my head just now. Everything matters, of course, but here are my thoughts on it being a 'Prince' specifically:

The Prince is likely meant to serve as a foil to Spinning Top (Echo Friend), as the Prince is a nascent consciousness, and ST is a child. Naming it 'Prince' strengthens this connection.

The Prince is not a child, however. Children learn and grow. Children eventually become adults, and they move on. We see this with Spinning Top. As we accompany on them on their journey throughout space-time, we prompt the self-reflection necessary to process their memories and accept the next chapter in their life. (There's a whole post I could write about ST and their insight into Echoes, but that's for another time.) By its very nature, the Prince can never move on. It does not have Self reflection, because Self is all it can ever truly know. All it learns is assimilated into the mass. Like I said, its attempts at enlightenment are contradicted by its nature as Rot. Hence, they serve as foils.

The term 'Prince' may suggest an attempt at humility, which is deeply ironic, but understandable. Prince proselytizes about its world of equality, but inherently this cannot be, because it has placed itself at the top of everything, implicitly, by assuming its way is best for everyone. A Kingdom needs its ruler, and Prince has graciously accepted such a role.

I think my favorite reading, however, is that the Prince is simply yet to succeed its Throne. That there is some point it hasn't reached, something still left to achieve. Perhaps once its Kingdom's construction has completed?

The Ending, then, serves as its "Coronation." A crown of Karma flowers for the freshly-appointed King. An Elegy to Ignorance.

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EDIT: also want to make a nuance disclaimer that rot in General is not inherently the same as Prince Rot / Kingdom specifically yay . and im just a little guy make sure to read lots of different posts 🙏👍

there's also much to be said about the Throne and the Rot and the Brain Trees and etc but someone else can do that much better than me. And also another disclaimer that this reading may become outdated with future updates yay. happy watching everyone

[sluglore]

Dissecting the Watcher's story & characters

This is a pretty long post.

I've seen a number of people claiming that the Watcher DLC has no story and that the slugcat has no characterization, but I definitely think it's there.

(SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE DLC!) There are no spoilers for the secondary ending until about halfway down, where there is a warning.

Adventurous...

Since this post gets a bit meandering, I will spell out the general framework of the story here:

The Watcher is a shy, lonely individual who desperately struggles to find companionship after their childhood was cut short. They will go to great lengths to achieve this connection.

Timid mouse

"And through the middle of it all, a lonely lost slugcat trying their best to outlast the ravages of a warped world."

Why are they called the Watcher? It's due to their nonconfrontational, withdrawn demeanor. This is immediately apparent in the intro dream:

When Watcher's parent steps up to fight the aggressive slugcat, Watcher's sibling joins in. But Watcher just hides away, afraid to confront the danger. It's unclear if their family survived the tussle, but they never reunite again. Watcher's shy demeanor has severed them from their family.

Time passes and Watcher grows a bit older, wandering around in what seems like a futile search for their family. Here, they meet Spinning Top, the child Echo.

A desire to bond

Within the DLC's story, youthfulness is tied to a fear of isolation & loneliness.

Spinning Top has been lost & drifting for a long time. When they ascended, they feared the loss of connection to their old life and their loved ones. So they remained on world, searching for a sign that their loved ones still miss them.

This desperate pursuit has led them to travel across reality for eons and eons. By the time Watcher meets them, Spinning Top is now combing through places that have no relation to their life. Spinning Top won't find any sign of grief or remembrance in Coral Caves or Rusted Wreck, so why are they drifting along these pointless locations?

Spinning Top's loneliness and persistence arose because, as a child, they lacked the experience of maturing and could not handle the radical acceptance required to ascend. They are scared to accept the truth: their childhood has come and gone. Their loved ones eventually moved on and also left the world behind. Spinning Top is the only one holding onto this long-defunct family.

Shadow reflecting radiance

Watcher and Spinning Top are very similar characters. Both are lonely children that have been severed from their parents and siblings, and wish to revive the childhood that was ripped away from them. They're desperate to rekindle some kind of connection.

Throughout the campaign, Watcher continually searches for Spinning Top because they're the only individual that Watcher has seen who could bring a greater connection than chomping, fleeing, or stabbing. They even give Watcher the gift of infant godhood!

These childlike characters both find companionship in each other. In fact, Watcher's companionship is what gives Spinning Top the strength to return to the location of their actual memory, and confront the truth of their loneliness.

"All my mothers and fathers and crechemates who went along without me… Do they note my absence? I've traveled from the furthest future to the very seed of our past, and I see no evidence. Only echoes and strays. Aloof. Alone. Afraid."

Spinning Top accepts that it is best to grow up and move on, and so they disappear, finally ascending for real. Watcher, however, does not seem to learn the same lesson from this journey.

While they may seem happy playing with toys, it's still a symbol of juvenility. Despite everything that has happened to them, they still embody a desire to recapture their lost childhood.

And now, Watcher is alone once more. Soon, they will seek out a new companion.

Ripplespace as a symbol of isolation

Before I discuss the second ending, I want to talk about Watcher's abilities and the symbols they embody.

The ripple-world that Watcher is (accidentally?) transported to by Spinning Top is a continuation of the aching, drifting nature of these two characters. They are unable to stay in place for long, constantly seraching for a sign of connection.

Watcher's "gift" of invisibility is a clear extension of their characterization. They tackle threats by hiding away, slipping past unnoticed. As their Ripple level rises, the cloak begins pushing Watcher further out of their typical plane of reality, creating tears into a wholly different plane. And when they reach the (as of now) maximum Ripple level, Watcher is fully pulled out of the material plane and into Ripplespace. Here, they are truly alone except for the primitive, gnawing voidspawn.

Every gift seems to give way to a curse of isolation. Watcher has to detach themselves from reality itself to survive, and the gift-giver Spinning Top leaves them behind.

Endless hunger

SPOILERS FOR THE SECOND ENDING.

SPOILERS FOR THE SECOND ENDING.

Here's a cool divider.

While the purple Throne Rot seen across the campaign may not play by the same rules as Five Pebbles' Rot, its behavior is equivalent. The Rot is the ultimate embodiment of primal struggle, a collective consciousness of brain meat that forever hungers to consume as much of the world as it can reach. It is not unintelligent, but it is very one-minded.

From The Throne itself, a giant flower blooms and gives birth to the Prince.

The Prince is a piece of the Throne Rot that has partially separated itself from its collective consciousness. It is an individual connected to the Throne Rot, but it has its own mind. "STARVING, pressing, grinding, SQUEEZING against... us? But now... I? A... SELF. And… an OTHER."

The Prince is an imitation of an Iterator puppet. This part of his identity causes him to believe that he was born to solve the Big Problem, by assimilating the entire world into the Throne Rot. "The imperative that was in THEM [the Iterators] remains in me." "Imagine: a single substrate… Life! (...) Nothing lost. No one lost. From bug to god, all as one. A TRUE end to the pattern."

I personally don't believe this was the original goal of the Throne Rot, but rather the Prince instinctually assigning purpose to his new life as an individual. He rationalizes his intrinsic hunger to consume in the lens of a "higher" ideal.

You can see how the Prince reflects Watcher's desire for connection in a deeply twisted manner. They're both in an endless pursuit to connect—Watcher offers itself to others as a companion, while the Prince takes companions and forces them into himself.

Opposing will

The Prince loves Watcher. He considers them to be a great friend, as they are the primary individual responsible for spreading the Throne Rot and the only one to have witnessed their genesis. "You have done so much for me, I will not burden you with my troubles. Please, rest here as long as you wish. You are always safe here, my dear friend. You, who were there for me."

Watcher has finally found it—a new companion, who showers them with praise and affection. Out of an acute desire to retain this friend, they go on to spread the Throne Rot across all the threads that connect the ripple-world. Every viable world is corrupted.

Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—something goes terribly wrong for the Prince. "I can almost feel... a will... at odds with my own."

Karma is antithetical to corruption. When the Throne Rot sufficiently engulfs the "fringes" of the ripple-world (Outer Rim and the Rotted vanilla regions), these regions become unstable and you cannot create a warp to escape them. However, there are pockets in The Throne where a bed of Karma Flowers allows you to exit. It's unknown if the phenomenon is natural or intelligent, but Karma inherently opposes the Rot.

When Watcher returns after corrupting all the regions, Karma Flower begin sprouting from the ground of The Throne. The Prince attempts to keep them in, but he ultimately fails—he freezes up, and countless Karma Flowers sprout from the corruption. The Throne Rot might not be outright dead, but its power has clearly been drained. The Prince has failed.

Karma Flowers are all over the map now. The "unstable fringes" have also been stabilized by their presence. You can create a warp to leave Outer Rim and the Throne from anywhere, and the same goes for the Rotted vanilla regions.

Going by the tone of the select screen art, Watcher just seems to mourn their loss. Another new friend, unceremoniously ripped from them.

Moving forward

Watcher cannot seem to find connection. Their family left and possibly died. They helped Spinning Top mature, but Spinning Top left—given that they viewed corporeal and primal life as absurd, they were bound to do this.

Watcher may have attained infant godhood, but their powers encourage them to hide away and detach themselves from the world, concealing them in the desolate Ripplespace with nothing but occasionally violent voidspawn.

It's almost scary how this godlet is willing to go such great lengths to secure companionship, falling for the Prince and corrupting the entire accessible ripple-world to make their friend happy. This friendship ends fruitlessly, too.

Watcher will eventually have a full conclusion to their story. So where will they go from here?

Narratively, I don't think Watcher will get what they want. Their next (and final, I believe) venture for companionship will end in ruin once again... but possibly, Watcher will recognize that while other people come and go, the only constant who will always be there for them is Watcher themselves, and they will learn to overcome the trauma and yearning of their lost childhood.

That's my slightly blunt prediction for the overarching theme of the Watcher.

Extra thoughts

Scav Prediction

I personally believe the next arc will involve Scavengers. In the old pre-release Watcher concept, Watcher journyed with an enlightened Scavenger. While James Primate has stated before that Downpour kinda stole the old concept's thunder (i.e. with Artificer), I get a strong indication that the next arc will still involve Scavengers because of the new Acolytes.

Acolytes are Scavengers who are BRIMMING with attributes that reflect a knowledge of Karma and Ripples.

Acolytes wear glowing golden masks and clothes

A faint Karma symbol between 6-10 surrounds them, suggesting that they are already enlightened (or their armor is imbued with some kind of karmic concentration)

When they are grabbed by a predator, they initiate a crazy karmic retaliation blast to free themselves (which I failed to get a GIF of)

The blindfolded Disciple Acolytes emit a sort of karmic echolocation ping that detects entities from a distance

The definition of an "acolyte" is "a person assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession". The celebrant is someone performing a rite; often a priest. This implies the acolytes are carrying something out for a leader who is almost certainly not the Chieftain Scavenger in Downpour.

Overall, these guys know something, and I think we're going to find out why.

[sluglore]

looking to finally post some of my mostly pre-written lore analysis so that I can get it out before Watcher releases but there's so much ground to cover that it's SO HARD.. :')

like right now i'm hoping to push out a post explaining why I don't think the benefactors were suicidal, but it also builds up off of other information like: everything we know about the cycles, karma flower significance and benefactor history, all of which require entire posts dedicated to them and it's just ARGHHH...

I have a lot of crudely compiled stuff that I could share, like 4 pages of explaining the cycles, and although it already circulates as a resource on the official rain world discord, I'm not satisfied enough to share it here yet :( perfectionism is my greatest enemy

[sluglore]

As one of the people that helped spread the term “Benefactor,” @opashoo you put it into words so well,, I still plan on making my own post explaining it one day but you got most of the important points I want to make, especially the misconceptions about it being some “true canon term." They've been a little sad to see and I'm happy someone addressed it.

At the end of the day Benefactors is a neat community-made term that can be useful for addressing the layers of history within rain world, but I need more people to realize that you don't need to correct people just because they use the term ancients :')

The intention is to help widen the scope of RW lore discussion not narrow it!! It's not meant to be a replacement as much as a potential tool, anyways that's all I have to say, loved your analysis!

when and why did people start calling the Ancients "benefactors" instead??? did someone see that one line from Pebbles and decided it was a better name????? im so confused.

[sluglore]

an interesting implication in rain world is that igneous (and possibly metamorphic) rocks simply don't exist. Like, it's an obvious implication of the cosmology but it's fucked up to think about.

with such a limited selection of rocks to experience, it's no wonder the Noble Benefactors decided to leave the material world tbh. i would do so also

[sluglore]

Clogged capillary

got inspired

tip me at ko-fi?

[sluglore]

Hey everyone, I HIGHLY recommend this video from @consumerofuranium!! it goes over some of the most prevalent lore misconceptions, and it looks like this may be a turning point for Rain World lore discussion on YouTube! Me and some lore-obsessed friends got the chance to review it before it was posted so we can absolutely stand by its quality :)

[sluglore]

Hey all, I’m planning on making a review of most well known rain world history summary YouTube videos, if you have any you want me to specifically check out, leave a comment and I’ll check it out. I want to be fair and to help shed light on prevalent misconceptions while also recognizing what each video does well, and where there’s room for interpretation :)

So far I’m reviewing Solemn Sunday’s summary, Dazombes short summary and UraniumEaters latest video, they don’t have to be well known for me to look at them though!

[sluglore]

SECOND CHAPTER IS FINISHED!!!! Rain world: Echoes Of The Great Cycle

Chapter 3 "Unseen Lands" P64 (BTW I would greatly apricate if people shared it, I worked really hard on this)

[sluglore]

That Tale Foundry video on Rain World still ticks me off. It’s so egregiously badly researched it cheapens all their other videos by comparison. The admittance that they only watched other video essays, did not play the game, did not even read the official wiki. God! Awful!

They talk about the ending saying “this ending is neat but… I don’t get what it has to do with slugcat’s family <:(“ like Jesus fuck when you’re writing that line does it not occur to you to do any fucking research. Like at this point you’re a few cool PNG poses from a goddamn content farm.

[sluglore]

how do I beat Rainworld

Do not fear death

[sluglore]

[sluglore]

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

[sluglore]

I previously posted this but i felt like the scugs were very out of place, so i drew them again and added some other creatures to it

Anyways

I hate the COLD

[sluglore]

The Rain World animation I started making 2 years ago is done.

Link to high resolution version on Youtube. Contains some flashing.

[sluglore]

Guardians

[sluglore]