Some thoughts about don’t starve together and whatever They are, what happened to Charlie and my theories and some hcs
[The !! means that i wished to add something there; i am still posting this because i am tired of rethinking this; can add something in comments and reblogs if i find words for it; I also didn’t really have an order except for the information and headcanons related to Charlie and Metheus being at the end]
Names and meanings and lying:
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gestalt - general quality and character;
something whole that is different / more than its components
shroud
⁃ Hide by covering / surrounding
⁃ 2: a piece of clothing used to wrap a dead body (based on the deaths from Shadows, this is also fitting, especially for Charlie who has her whole body in shadows)
tenebrae (only plural in Latin)
⁃ darkness; darkness of night;
⁃ (poetic) shadow of death (Charlie dies in my hcs)
⁃ prison, dungeon (??? well the Shadows and Their control can be a prison, especially for the one on the Throne)
⁃ gloom or darkness of the mind (?? Charlie does seem sad)
Tenebrae (religious, based mainly on one description) - somewhat reminded me of ds ending and DSTs beginning - while not exactly 15 candles on a triangle which get extinguished, the lights near the Nightmare Throne, does somewhat remind me of that of Tenebrae; the middle candle (in Don’t Starve’s case - Charlie with fiery hair) is meant to represent Jesus, in some versions of
Most names are lying first, then more real (if we’re looking through dst progression - first ‘Constant’ and Shadows, then the Moon, then ‘Gestalt’, ‘Alter’, ‘Them’ and then ‘Shrouden’ and ‘Tenebrau’.ofc it depends and not really proves my point, but it somewhat does .ig
[Them (also possibly Horrors) as in the gods; Tenebrau/ Shrouden/ Darkness/Terrors /Shadows/ Shadow aligned(?) are at least one/some of Them, and Alter/ Moon/ Lunar aligned are other types. They clash in canon and hate each other. And haven’t truly shown themselves]
Alter (as Alter, not ‘Moon’) is shown as an eye. Tenebrau is also shown as an eye. You know what usually has two eyes? A body! Maybe They are one and the same?
Yes, They do give more damage to the opposing side, and yes you can’t have both affinities at once, but,, who knows?
(black and white swirl imagery (with a brownish overlay). ‘usual’ black shadows being souls, and white gestalts also possibly being souls, while Willows ambers and Wortoxs souls being very clearly souls (with a swirl).( I dont have a reason / idea about Abigail being rather white for an ‘unaligned’ soul, but she doesn’t really seem like a gestalt since she does have an outline..whatever))
Some relations which are often true:
White +Blue/Green/Turquoise (sometimes darker) for Alter
And Water and ice: due to the Lunar island being in water, Crab King being water related, post-Lunar Rift creatures having ice in their body and icy powers (And maybe
Black + Red/Magenta/Purple (often lighter) for Tenebrau
Fire: Fumarole biome being hot, Night lights having red gems, but this isn’t really that much, so maybe fire works against both (also, fire working against Miasma and gestalts ‘intrusion’? Possibly related against them or just not thought out idk)
(Check Maxs usual eyeshadow and Lunar and Wizard and all other characters lunar)
Brown/Orange neutral
(Also ‘pure’ ghost made out of ‘pure’ materials (post-Rifts) are (usually?) created to inhabit a body.?)
Thulecite, orange and brown; color symbolism and non aligned relations? Aka Wigfrid and Woody and Warbis armor and headgear having planar damage and flat planar defence, being the only ones who have that even while unaligned and being related to those colors
And thulecite being able to hold shadows, gestalts and pure gestalts (maybe also pure Shadows, but we haven’t been able to try or see that)
Gestalts can be stopped from possessing by fire, which is somewhat related to shadows
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(Gestalts? What are they? And Other shadows, /shadow possession?)
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They get you (close) to death and then possess you, (Alter does get you close to death - sleep from all(?) gestalts is pretty close to death I'd say, since it doesn't heal you and you can't control your body + Wilson animation when he is possesed by a gestalt, while shadows are usually more aggressive and do kill you. and actually possess you, meanwhile Lunar side hasn’t been shown possessing a human body (in game; there are files where a gestalt looks similar to a player))
I think Shadows in Williams and Charlie's case got them to an (almost) death situation and "helped" and/or resurrected them, but then used them/ made their bodies Theirs; (this also happens /happened with: Ancients, creatures possessed(?) by the Masques, and the many things of Lunar possession, ( look up Lunar aligned on dst wiki and almost all except crab related (?) are Lunar possessed / possessing(the gestalt types) ; but crab is also influenced based on him having a Lunar altar, so he isn't really unpossessed/uninfluenced)
Wanda is different, since she 'cheated', but . she is influenced by shadows, and she also ages like Maxwell and Charlie, (ages faster, (whereas in constant there's no such thing usually called aging of humans) — this also happens with Shadow Chester (food spoils faster in it)); I can't remember it's name, but there is a dst theory video that talked about the faster aging thing of Lunar things, but not Shadows, maybe I should include that here
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Metheus and Cyclum
Metheus and Cyclum (is that his name?) were, as I assume, very respected Ancients in their civilization, likely even their rulers. They died, like other Ancients, but I think something different happened to them — instead of turning into ordinary shadow creatures (sometimes trapped in their old bodies turned into thulecite?; this is possibly implied by the Artificer, Elytra and Visionist's bodies, which possibly turned into something else by shadows, implied by the Atrium's statues) their shadows (aka souls/ghosts) possessed Reanimated Skeleton /Ancient Fuelweaver (Cyclum) and Charlie/ Shadow Queen (Metheus) (some thoughts: Cyclum's soul/control over 'Ancient Fuelweavers' body(because I think it was a body of something other than him, based on the paintings of Ancients history I forgot their name) gets stronger when near . something important to him. Well i guess he was important to the Atrium, and Caves are at least on the same plane, so that's why he has at least some control there. But I don't really have an idea of the relations of the Ancient Guardian.. and a bit about Charlie : I think the reason why the Shadow Queen can materialize in AFs Arena is not only due to needing to materialize (because you know, when the Grue attacks it doesn't need anything other than The Hand(s?)), but also due to strong emotions,Charlie wanting to see the survivors maybe, but mainly Metheus and whatever she thinks. This is also why The Doll, the role in the first stage play, says 'and flowers bloomed under his hand' or whatever — that is Metheus misremembering! The "Great Maxwell" hadn't done that, but Reanimated Skeleton does do that! The stage was one of the reasons I think Charlie could sometimes overtake Them and do something she likes? (I don't really know about the latest Grue? Version that . The one that's more Ancient-like; maybe it's Metheus, since it is more Ancient-like, but also Tenebrau, since she does look like she's wearing a mask and also looks much more shadowed)
*Them as in Shrouden /Tenebrau/Shadows /Terrors here
Charlie W. /Charlie, the Assistant /pre-Constant /pre-ressurection /pre-nightmared body/ pre-shadow influence (?)
Short? At least shorter than her future forms
Hair is real, at least not shadow, shaped like roses
A rose in her hair (unbloomed / a bud?) (possibly inspired by Wigfrid)
can wear ‘open’ clothing, and almost any colors
when she wears gloves, they are visible + different than the rest of her body (in almost all of my drawings they are black, her hands are not (yet))
in my hcs I give her some wrinkles, not as much as some other versions (shadowed and shaded Charlie and all that posts-canon Charlie controlled stuff), but in canon she has the least wrinkles overall
I usually give her black /dark natural pupils (and white eyeballs) with light highlights, but in canon she has white pupils with black line art, which I draw sometimes too
Usually draw her very happy, she isnt feeling bad often for long times
Too trusting, thinks of herself as lesser
I also give her a bit longer face than in canon. sometimes
Curly hair, possibly straightened or styled with gel
Chinese of course
(I draw her darker skinned sometimes. Or give her a longer and a bigger nose. Might do it more often though)
Charlie /post-ressurection, pre-Grue/shaded (?) Charlie
Hair 'styled', but a bit more fire-looking (but doesn’t move like fire),out of shadow ; rose still in her hair
Body in Shadow, mind (control of body) — not yet; in other words, she still controls it
Resurrected by Them / or! similar to William, almost died but brought back by Them.. and they both had to repay for it (aka they had to be Their 'human' form.. well, as human as they could look under Their will)
(The) Grue /Nightmare Monster/ Shadow Monster/ Her or /Them
Their form, Charlies body fully(?) controlled by Them
Face is a pale white/ pure white mask; eyes and mouth are holes with shadow leaking through (and a shadow creature behind?),pupil is white, and shadow hands that hold the mask (not like that in canon)
If squinting(?), the pupil is shrinking, not the ‘skin’ near the eyes
Controls the dark(ness) of course
Body just an approximate form for people to somewhat get what She is
Usually only uses / needs hands to control, only shows Her hand (doesn’t (need to) show herself)
“The price of Life” idk
Hair moves like fire
Canines/Sharp teeth, possibly black like in terrorbeaks
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Horrored Charlie/ Terrified Charlie / post-Grue
Hair fire-like
Unstable; takes a lot to get more control than Them over her body
Scared of what ‘she’ had done
I draw her pupils as multiple black lines, in canon she has (fully) black pupils, which I think are also shaky?(I do draw them shaky, since she is unstable and sad and everything bad..,,,)
(Her body ages much faster than usual + in Constant, it doesn’t happen to humans, usually)
Stopped trying to control herself later
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A 'mix', but not really a 50/50 of Charlie and Them, in the way that 50%s Their look, 50%'s her mind (which i see often??); mostly Metheus (i wont go in depth about her here, but Metheus /Her(?) took Charlie's physical body after being shadowed, and Cyclum took reanimated skeletons( its the mix of the atrium and the heart (and the key?,)that gives cyclum control over the body,,, might change)), lots of Them, and Charlie rarely shows up !in my thoughts!!
In canon has black eyes w/o highlights; i give her either black eyes w/o highlights or white eyes on white sclera, with black lineart
When Charlie does have control, in canon her eyes turn white; i give her highlights in eyes
White gloves, but you’d think it’s her skin; she hides them
A form They and/or Metheus use to show Themselves; but Charlie often seeps through (body is usually in Grue /?Hand form, this form is to present to survivors)
Smiling
I give her eyeshadow and grey/black lips, but it is actually shadows’ shadow(?)
I do draw her often as a mask; if not by similarity to my Grue, then by moves(?)
shoulders are those high arks(?)
Sharp shapes
Maybe a bit sharper teeth
The Ancient Shadow ?????? Whatever that creature from the Forgone video was
Metheus took over
“Breaking the stone will reveal long-since-gone bug underneath” or whatever
Face is a mask, worse than before - plain, doesn’t even pretend to be human
Shadows strip down everywhere
A tail - part of the shadow of the former body
Even stronger fire-like hair
Sharp shapes
The things protruding out of her body have red endings (might need to look at more post-rift creatures)
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Metheus’ shadow
“An ancient, now just a shadow in a search of a new body”
Her face mask broke I guess
I don’t know what else to say about her
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Post canon / post-Constant and hopefully post-Them (fullly)
Shadows still left a mark:
Shadowed Charlie (name of her and Horrored Charlie might change or/and switch)/post-Grue
Purely my headcanon, but I draw her often so she’s included
Hunched, possibly feels weird about being so tall, especially since she somehow somewhat interacts with the really small survivors
Somewhat controls her body, a bit more stable than Horrored
Hair ‘wet’(somewhat due to being a bit closer to water and Lunar), possibly looks like rotten rose, not ‘shaped’
Less sharp than shadow forms, also more color variety
also a bit bluer / greener/ lighter ‘clothing’ due to bigger Lunar influence, but also possibly more brown/orange (‘unaligned’ colors)
Dark circles and darker lips from shadows’ influence
Shadow drips from her body, hair, eyes, and mouth;
feels(wow) naked and cold (ehh. Well based on some wx-78’s phrases, you can (not) feel what you want to; of course I think there are limits, but ye)
so tries to get non-shadow coverage; (tries to shadow weave non-shadow looking and feeling clothes, or gets actual (well, as real as she can pretend they are; after all, everything on constant is played until it feels real) clothing from survivors
Pupils can be - shaky: black lines/ dots/ circles or ‘regular’ eyes with highlights and shading, or even shaky shaded eyes, if she feels weird/ wrong and good or/and motivated at the same time (or just too happy)
Also give her two feathers, a black and a red one; this was to match her with Swashbuckler Wigfrid, (but not only for that now) ; (she uses the black feather to write when she can’t speak or see Wigfrid and other survivors?)
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Post Constant forms get mixed (well yknow time flows differently in the Constant), not everything is a 100% fact, I do change things often
If you have any thoughts, questions or anything, I’d be happy to hear what you say about this! Thanks for reading!
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