#rain world speculation

[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.

[tododgedroplets]

Iterator Naming Schemes

*fair warning, some assumptions are made for the sake of having more to go off of (although not many)

**some of this is stuff others have already said, but for the sake of simplicity is listed here

***disclaimer: i could be wrong maybe perchance and also i suck at parts of speech. bucket of salt.

Iterator names are between 2-4 words. Whether the length is tied to anything is unclear. They can include abstract concepts (Unparalleled Innocence), verb phrases (Looks to the Moon), physical objects (Five Pebbles), and whatever No Significant Harassment is. While they may seem initially nonsensical (Epoch of Clouds), they’re not random words thrown together and do make some degree of sense. (They don’t seem to be negative names (like calling an iterator Failing Calculators or something), but the list of names is small enough that it is possible we just haven’t seen any. Additionally, iterators names only have one set of items where Ancients may have two. (Ancients have longer names. Please don’t confuse them!)

List of canonical iterator names (including some pseudonyms, etc):

Looks to the Moon (Action phrase, [verb preposition article noun])

Five Pebbles (number noun [plural])

Erratic Pulse (adjective noun)

No Significant Harassment (noun phrase??)

Seven Red Suns (number color noun [plural])

Chasing Wind (verb noun)

Grey Wind (color noun)

Unparalleled Innocence (adjective noun)

Sliver of Straw (noun preposition noun)

Epoch of Clouds (noun preposition noun)

Gazing Stars (verb noun [plural])

Pleading Intellect (verb noun)

Secluded Instinct (adjective noun)

Wandering Omen (verb noun)

Bell of Gesture (noun preposition noun) (👎)

HR, NGI, etc do not have full known names and as such are not considered.

(I try to make my iterator names sound like canon (spending hours in some cases), so for the sake of examples, some of the best ones:

Thirteen Golden Strings (number adjective noun [plural])

Lacking Pertinent Scrutiny (verb adjective noun)

Calling Comets (verb noun [plural])

Dodging Droplets (same as CC)

Silence for the Dissonant (noun ? article ?)

Stillness of Spirits (adjective(?) preposition noun [plural])

Glimmers Through the Void (verb preposition(?) article noun)

Fallen Bliss (adverb? noun) *implies negative, possibly not a realistic name

Unending Oneiric Elegy (adjective adjective noun (i think?)

Whispered Memory ((counting this as an) adjective noun)

An Unsent Message (article adjective noun))

[mebis-reblogs]

...just realized something

The echo golden flakes

Are the dust falling from the heavens

[harborchild]

ok i should go to bed but i have another nutcase theroy ok

so like, theres been speculation that the Rot has some connection to karma cuz it has those X-es on it right?

i have something to add to that

so the Karma Color is Gold

and if you invert that you get

Blue

and the Rot is BLUE!

[tododgedroplets]

what if ancients and iterators have different sets of pronouns

maybe they’re just normal pronouns with an extra syllable, maybe they’re totally different with extra syllables

definitely there would be a neutral, fem, and masc pronoun set and ofc there’d be others but like

what if

maybe some would go by the regular length ones as a protest or just in general

(creatures would have the same pronouns as usual and use whatever the “normal” equivalent is when referring to an iterator/ancient)

idk just something I’ve been rotating in my head, no examples because the rotations haven’t gotten there yet

[crowcall1ng]

following the idea that benefactors are given one part of a name during childhood and then given the second during adulthood, it is likely that the iterators are not given separate naming conventions, but just given the one name because the benefactors considered the iterators their children.