Who is ERAM, anyway (and why I think ERAM is potentially The Roaring Knight)?
I've seen a lot of DELTARUNE theories as of late that attribute various happenings to ERAM. ERAM is the one talking to us in the /thankyou emails! ERAM is in charge of the FRIEND army! Etc, etc, etc. This has struck me as odd, because... we barely know anything about ERAM.
I feel like perhaps, because we don't know much about ERAM, they've become a safe "fill-in" answer to some of our mysteries. But I think if we're going to use ERAM as an answer to any questions, we need to start really trying to figure out who they actually are.
In this post, I will posit that ERAM is the Mantle game's representation of The Roaring Knight/December Holiday. I honestly don't even know if that's correct, but I want to start somewhere! I'd love for people to either prove me wrong or prove me right—the goal of this post is to start a discussion in the community about ERAM's identity, and I'd be happy to hear any and all ideas people have.
Let's start by establishing how the Mantle game actually works. We know that Tenna built the boards by altering this original game, so I believe it is somewhat safe to assume they function similarly. I bring this up because Tenna informs Susie that the characters in the game are being controlled by their Dark World counterparts "backstage with a controller." Thus, we can assume ERAM is being controlled real-time by someone in the Dark World, and ERAM doesn't just exist within the confines of the game. Kris even asks Ramb at one point if someone was backstage with them while they were playing the Mantle game (which Ramb denies).
What exactly does this mean for ERAM's identity? It's not like we know any characters that look like ERAM. However, I also don't think we know what ERAM actually looks like. I believe ERAM is hiding their true identity under the Shadow Mantle. ERAM makes a point to say that they're "holding" the Shadow Mantle:
That means ERAM is NOT the Shadow Mantle, even though, in-game, ERAM basically just looks like a living version of the Mantle. If ERAM truly is using the Shadow Mantle to obscure their identity, that means we don't have a lot to go off of based on this sprite.
That being said... ERAM's design does have two notable things:
A large mouth that serves as ERAM's only distinct facial feature.
Kinda sounds like someone else we know, right?
Listen, I don't think this is a 1:1 match. I DO however think that it could be how The Knight, disguised by the Shadow Mantle, would be portrayed in a 16-bit game.
Speaking of how things could be portrayed differently due to the restrictions of a 16-bit game, consider ERAM's theme, "BURNING EYES." Do me a favor and listen to the first 5-6 seconds of BURNING EYES a few times over:
Now listen to the first 5-6 seconds of The Roaring Knight's theme, "Black Knife":
While the pitch of the notes is not the same, the rhythm is unarguably similar. Again, I know it's not 1:1. But the start of BURNING EYES sounds like if you took Black Knife and forced an NES to try and output it.
If anyone that has the official Chapter 3 + 4 Piano Score book would like to chime in on this one, I would greatly appreciate it.
ERAM talks in normal capitalization. The Deltarune Wiki sums up their main personality traits as being playful yet sinister, and having a fascination with Kris. Of course, we haven't heard (seen?) The Knight speak. But we do know the Knight has an almost playful side to them, laughing at Susie and taunting the Fun Gang before summoning the Titan in Chapter 4—much like how ERAM taunts Kris before fighting them. And of course, we know that much like ERAM, The Knight has a fascination with Kris.
I also know that some people like to theorize that the voice at the start of the game who interrupts the goner-maker sequence is Dess/The Knight:
Notably, this voice also speaks with normal capitalization and is incredibly ominous.
So... that's not a lot to go off of, huh? But like I said at the start, I want this to be the start of a conversation instead of an end-all be-all theory. I honestly think the strongest part of what I've gone over is the similarity between the openings of ERAM and The Knight's respective themes, especially when considering how important music is to the storytelling of DELTARUNE.
I know that a former popular candidate for ERAM was FRIEND, but now that we know FRIEND is, ahem, "not so smart," I find that one hard to believe.
Please let me know what you think! :)
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