I played Even if Tempest and its FD on the recommendation of a friend and WOOOOOW. What a ride. WHAT A RIDE. I'm going to be slowly rereading and gushing about it over the next week.
When people play otome games, generally you're meant to self-insert into the MC and imagine yourself with one of the LIs, right? Well, not for me. Not this time. This fucker has stolen my heart and became my blorbo at the same time and I'm going to SHOUT about it.
OK but imagine the apocalypse happened and you had to flee Earth and you couldn’t take any animals with you, and then when you finally came back to see what’s become of the world, there’s your cat sitting next to your rebuilt house like “I fixed it for you. I knew you’d come back if I did.”
Pre-manufacturing cultures will really be like, here is the most elegant and gorgeous outfit you can imagine, and it’s achieved entirely with rectangles, ropes, and pins.
Over and over again, across the world, in cultures that never even knew of each others’ existences. Just, rectangles, knots, and pins. And I love that for them.
People seem to have missed that Originium is the only way to hold back Aether and blight that has been found so far, like we can theorize all we want about how viable it'd be to run everything on Talos on Aegir tech instead and not need any Originium ever, but that misses the part where without having Originium around the Shit That Tears Living Matter Apart is overwhelming.
Also there's the part where Originium on Talos-II is severely weakened in several ways by the Aether but that's a whole different topic (that people also missed)
Some of the stuff I was thinking of when making this post was probably in dialogue so I can't easily go find it again, but for some of the text that I got this from.
Firstly, the entry on the Aetherside notes that while Originium can reduce depth readings and contain breaches, sometimes Originium activity is instead suppressed by rifts. The examples listed are of tech derived from Originium but there's no reason to think the same would not apply to plain Originium before being turned into anything else. This positions the Aether and Originium as opposing forces of a sort (with Protorig as a synthesis of some kind it seems)
Additionally, from the Originium Science Park onwards, there's a bunch of notes you can find outlining how Originium on Talos-II is different from on Terra, how it has lower cultivation efficiency and activity. There's no reason given with these (rather there's asked why) but given the section on the Aetherside prior an obvious reason presents itself
Further evidence I would point to as Originium and Aether being opposing in some way and Aether generally strangling Originium a bit on Talos-II would be depth readings, we see these everywhere we go and the entry on them describes them as being able to create a bell curve of blight probability distribution as depth scales from 0 to 1. We see low depth in areas such as the hub, and higher depth in areas like the power plateau
The Aetherside is also described in terms of depth readings, with the universe that it is being considered a depth of 1
Which then brings me to the fascinating Originium related exceptions to these established rules of depth, such as the Cradle of the Ages, a place suffused with Originium.
And, most critically, at the intro of the game, the first thing we see, while inside Originium
So we know that Originium can contain blight and Aether rifts, but that conversely Aether can suppress Originium devices, we know that Originium in general is notably weakened compared to how it was on Terra, and we also know that there's some measurement of Aether vs Originium in depth that seems to go from -1 to 1, and that Talos-II save for very particular Originium loaded points are all leaning more towards the Aether.
So there's nowhere where it explicitly says it in a string of words but, the insinuation is certainly there at the moment ya know.
As for if Perlica is being Naive about Originium, damn near everyone on Talos-II is not just her, its the material that makes everything in civilization run and they're facing issues with it not working nearly as much as its supposed to while its disastrous effects are relegated to memories of others. Its natural for them to be acting like this towards it, and people drastically overblow how callous Perlica acts about Originium. There's a part in the Origin Lodespring when walking into the Cradle of Ages when Chen asks her why Endfield isn't mining all the Originium there since there's so much of it (Enough to shift the depth readings in favour of Originium even) and Perlica replies that Endfield does not need that much, it mines as much as it needs and overproduction just for the sake of getting more is a foolish idea since she's well aware that mining Originium leads to Oripathy. She knows that mining it is making people sick but once again the entire civilization on this planet is relying on this material to exist, it is a necessity and there's going to be no way around mining Originium. Her displaying consideration for mining only what is required to attempt to minimize Oripathy compared to the mining as much as possible use undesireables as slave labour approach that for example Ursus had is a really good way for the game to approach the fact that Terran and Talosian civilization cannot exist without Originium, and one that completely flew over the head of like half the people on this website.
I also could've sworn it's somewhere within the dialogue (along with something about the Aetherside corrupting data, which is insanely interesting if you consider that originium's was originally made to preserve data), but we're all wayy past the originium park section of the story by now and there's no transcript that we could check.
I was actually arguing that Ardashir and Nefarith's activities with the Aetherside may actually be done so originium doesn't turn as destructive as it is in Terra, which is why he was so surprised to find that Endmin is back to spreading originium instead of maintaining the originium-aether balance. But the CORD thing kind of cast doubt on my theory. These notes should be enough to spark another discussion, though, so thank you very much! Hopefully they go deeper into this topic soon in the main story!
People seem to have missed that Originium is the only way to hold back Aether and blight that has been found so far, like we can theorize all we want about how viable it'd be to run everything on Talos on Aegir tech instead and not need any Originium ever, but that misses the part where without having Originium around the Shit That Tears Living Matter Apart is overwhelming.
Also there's the part where Originium on Talos-II is severely weakened in several ways by the Aether but that's a whole different topic (that people also missed)
Originium vs. Ætherside: the Duality of Perlica and Ardashir
So! I just finished the Wuling story today, and I need to put down my thoughts about the opposing narratives on the amnesiac Endministrator by Perlica and Ardashir. Before we begin, a quick disclaimer: I am a month one Arknights player, but I'm not that well-versed in Arknights lore. Arknights story is long and meandering, guys; you think early Genshin was bad, well, it has nothing on early Arknights. They're both games with great lore, but the delivery sometimes leave something to be desired; probably because it's difficult to translate from Chinese to English in a concise and accurate manner.
Anyway, moving on. Personally, I think the dueling narrative between Perlica and Ardashir is very much intentional, because just a couple days before launch, they presented us with this: a trailer narrated by Ardashir and Perlica, both seemingly talking to the Endministrator.
"You are trapped by a meaningless duty that was never yours," is how Ardashir begins. "A path already proven to end in utter defeat."
Certainly sounds like a classic villain dialogue, trying to break the hero's spirit. Perlica plays into this idea, emphasizing that Endmin is the leader of Endfield Industries, the paragon and most important companion of every Endfielder. Again, Ardashir disagrees.
But the thing is, when you get into the game, you'll find that Ardashir certainly doesn't seem to be outright lying. Perlica and Ardashir both described how the Endministrator toiled, led, and sacrificed for the sake of the Civilization Band. However, their perception of people are very different. Perlica spoke of how Endmin's efforts bore fruit; how their sacrifice was honored and respected by the people.
Ardashir, on the other hand, talks of abandonment and loneliness. And he isn't the only one! Even the trailer agrees that Endmin was not always fully supported by the people, something that Perlica barely even brushed on in the main story in favor of reassuring Endmin that they will be on Endmin's side, always. Almost as if she's trying to make up for something. But I digress.
So where does this difference of perspective come from? Possibly from their differing backgrounds. Apparently, if you pay attention during the prologue, you could hear the Endmin giving Perlica her name, implying that the Endmin saved her as a child. It makes sense, then, that she would've grown up with a degree of hero worship and unprecedented hope in her childhood savior.
Meanwhile, Ardashir is noted to be an uncommon name amongst the people of Talos-II, having originated from Sargon, a Terran Empire. For context, Terra is the planet the people of Talos-II were on, before they came (back) to Talos. Ardashir himself seems to confirm that he knows what Sargon is like: he immediately responds that Wuling look far more appealing than 'the windswept lands of ochre dust.' With his horns, his ears, his tail, and his ability to manipulate space, the current prevailing theory is that he's a Lich, a species known for space manipulation Arts and immortality. It's quite possible that Ardashir's birth predates people's return to Talos-II; perhaps he is even older than Endmin themselves! Accordingly, he seems to be more protective of the Endministrator; he talks of Endmin like he doesn't want to see them suffer.
Regardless, this difference should not be enough to put them at odds. After all, both Perlica and Ardashir seem to wish for Endmin's approval. Perlica said that she is executing the Zeroth directive under the Endmin's order; Ardashir implied that whatever he's doing right now would be met with the Endmin's approval, if Endmin had not lost their memories. However, the Endmin has lost their memories, which means they are going with Perlica's path instead. What is Perlica's path?
That's right! Perlica and Endfield Industries are trying to reboot life. Even the trailer said that. Now this is the part that'll be ringing alarm bells for Arknights players, because (major spoiler) in Arknights, originium is no natural phenomenon, but a substance created to assimilate data from living things, in such a way that life can be 'regrown' from there. One such example is the Endfield reconveners, who was 'cloned' from 'data' stored in originium. So if the Zeroth Directive's aim is indeed to reboot life, then spreading originium throughout Talos-II via industrialization and assimilating data on all life does seem like the proper first step.
But there is a problem in this plan, and we can see it from the reconveners; despite having been 'copied' from the originium, they are still, very much, their own distinct person. Seen this way, rebooting life does not actually save anyone; at best, it's an abandonment of those who are already alive. Thus, on the opposing side of this plan is Ardashir and Nefarith, who use the power of the Ætherside to spread blights. Æther itself is noted to be the antithesis of originium, a substance that caused some sort of data corruption as opposed to originium's data-preserving nature. Just from that, best guess is that Ardashir and Nefarith are trying to corrupt originium data to disrupt this life-rebooting plan. Quite possibly, this plan was hatched by the Endministrator in the first place. After all...
...Ardashir did seemingly call Endmin 'the final lord I served.'
So why the Zeroth Directive, then? Maybe what Ardashir said was true, and at the very end, Endministrator lost hope in people after being 'abandoned'. Maybe that's why Perlica is so insistent on reminding Endmin that the people of Endfield really adore and respect the Endmin. Or maybe it's a natural consequence of originium being corrupted by the Æther. After all, if you pay attention, you'll notice that everyone consistently states that Endmin's connection to originium is far deeper than it appears; at one point, the Endmin was even referred to as Originium itself.
Or maybe, just maybe, Endmin's memory loss was not part of the plan, and Endmin was forced into it by something far more sinister...
...but explaining that would take a deeper dive into Arknights lore, so it probably should be a story for another day.
germansingergirl
stormborns
2087
gracieabrams
snowghoul
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
