Some scattered thoughts about Starcatchers: What we can infer about their structure, and why they were built
I’ve been thinking about Outer Rim lately. While largely linear, I have been having trouble visualizing its larger structure.
Many of the rooms are named some variant of “Starcatcher”, so we can assume that at least some part of the region is part of one of the Starcatcher superstructures, which can be seen in the background of the region.
However, I have a hard time telling if it’s meant to be two neighboring Starcatchers, or the two walls of one larger Starcatcher.
(Extensive rambling below, including discussion of Watcher 1.5)
Outer Rim can be divided into four main sections: The Throne (to the far West), a western Desert, an eastern City, and a Starcatcher to the far East.
The East and West halves are more or less mirrors of each other. They could be two separate Starcatchers, or two mirrored walls of one larger Starcatcher.
I’ve highlighted the different parts of the region below (taking some liberties, assuming that there are some parts of the Starcatcher superstructures which are inaccessible to the player).
The rooms to the east are mostly named some variation of “Starcatcher”, so we can assume that at least that part of the region is confirmed to be part of the Starcatcher superstructure.
To the far west is the Throne, which shares some structural similarities with the Starcatcher to the East, albeit distorted by the rot. I think it’s safe to assume that this used to be another part of a Starcatcher.
In the center of the region are two towers: one in the western desert, and one in the eastern city. These structures might be disconnected from the Starcatcher(s), or they could be just another wall, connected to the Starcatcher “bowl”. I’ve roughly laid out what this might look like below.
Though, I think it’s more likely that these are disconnected towers, as many solitary towers like these can be seen by the other Starcatchers in the distance.
So, because the two halves of Outer Rim are mirror images, these are either two mirrored Starcatcher “bowls” with two towers between them, or are the walls of one large Starcatcher, with both the city and desert inside the “bowl”.
If the east and west ends of Outer Rim are the walls of one singular Starcatcher, the "bowl" might span the entire region, which I've highlighted roughly below:
It's hard to tell which is the case. However, the name "Outer Rim" brings to mind the idea of traversing the rim of one of these Starcatcher "bowls". There's also an image in the Watcher game files called "otr_bigtube", presumably meant to be the inner wall of one of these Starcatcher bowls.
This post also shows what this was roughly meant to look like in-game:
Evidently this was scrapped during production, but it does suggest that at least part of Outer Rim is meant to be the inside of one of the Starcatchers. Whether this was meant to span the entire region, or just the Eastern Starcatcher portion, is unclear.
In addition Watcher 1.5 added some new rooms to Outer Rim. Previously, the easternmost room only showed the "inner" side of one of these Starcatcher walls, but more rooms were added showing the "outer" side, facing a large chasm.
To me this reinforces the idea that the eastern Starcatcher rooms are an eastern wall, especially given the lighting changes between the two sides. The "inner" side is a bit dimmer with a notable lack of stardust, while the "outer" side is lighter and stardust can be seen blowing in the distance.
Regardless of whether or not Outer Rim represents one Starcatcher or two smaller ones, we can still make inferences about the general structure of Starcatchers.
The main part of the structure, which I've been calling the "bowl", is a large, hollow cylinder which sits atop a mess of mechanical shapes. I assume this is where the "city" rooms of Outer Rim are located.
In the distant Starcatcher sprites, there are vague vertical columns which appear to support the bowl, and this column motif can be found throughout Outer Rim's "city" rooms.
There are also horizontal "bridges" jutting out from the sides of the city portion, which I believe are reflected by a few of Outer Rim's rooms on both the east and west sides.
Finally, there are tall towers found both around the Starcatchers and on their rims, which support large rectangular structures.
Both the towers and the inner walls of the Starcatchers have circular windows. WORA_STARCATCHER07 in particular has slowly rotating fan blades in these windows, so I've taken to calling them turbines.
I've made a (VERY rough) map of what I think typical Starcatchers look like on the inside. There is a long bridge which spans the length of the bowl, while the inner part of the bowl contains many turbines, which spin as stardust and wind passes through them.
The various towers scattered around might also house turbines, but some of them have inner "funnel" structures which possibly exist to collect and filter captured stardust.
So, finally, the reason why I have done all this thinking. What the hell are Starcatchers even built to do? They catch stars, obviously, with the assumption that the dust and falling lights in the distance are these "stars".
I've talked in the past about why Rain World's stars are green. Whether or not the falling stars in Outer Rim are the same ones which can be seen atop The Wall in vanilla is unknown, but the parallels seem intentional to me. I have my own ideas about what Outer Rim's stars might be, but that is a post for a different time. Let's just assume that they're something worth collecting.
The Cold Storage pearl makes mention of something called "Star Energies":
... and as Thought-Leader of this Most Righteous Congregation of Minds and Souls, it humbly falls to me to present these
concerns before you regarding the curious plan for the harvesting of so-called Star Energies.
The dimming pallor of our own dear star does concern, yes, and some solution must be found. But many say this is simply the result of Dust
--yes the most natural of all things!-- which appears to precipitate increasingly these recent cycles.
To trust our Blessed Future to esoteric Energies and Fields and yet again more inscrutable Calculations and Resonances seems reckless!
Do we even know wherefore this energy comes? And what Else may come with it?
Further datum is needed before such drastic measures are taken! Many even say the falling Dust may yet decrease on its own!
I, One Glass Cylinder, Perpetual Servant Elect of Knowledge and Resources, propose to form a committee to study...
TEXT_STARDUST
At least at the time of this pearl's writing, it seems that these "star energies" are poorly understood, but there is some interest in harvesting it.
I don't think "star energies" were viewed as a potential power source, because Benefactor society already has access to Void Fluid. The concerns in this pearl seem to be about the Sun ("our own dear star") and its decreasing brightness. Perhaps the "star energies" are being viewed as a replacement for some other resource which is obtained from the Sun.
The author attributes the Sun's dimming to an increase in dustfall, which is a known natural process.
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.
-Looks to the Moon (SB_Filtration)
It's unclear if this dust is the same dust which falls in Outer Rim. I'm inclined to say no, because the dust seen atop Five Pebbles is lacking the distinct green flecks seen in Outer Rim's dust.
We don't know if anything came of this committee proposed to study "star energies", but a pearl can be found in Outer Rim which contains an image:
It's unclear what this is, but its placement in Outer Rim leads me to believe that it has something to do with the Starcatchers.
It appears to be some sort of "arm" connecting to one of the falling stars. I personally think it resembles a lightning rod; maybe this is the way these "star energies" are harvested?
(The arm also appears to resemble an iterator puppet arm. I don't think this one is iterator-related, but maybe it's a similar technology?)
I will note that the player doesn't have access to any Outer Rim structures like the "arm" seen in this pearl, so perhaps it isn't Starcatcher related... but its placement inside of one of Outer Rim's towers feels deliberate to me.
At the end of all of this, I'm afraid that I still can't answer the question of what Stardust and Falling Stars are and why the Benefactors might want to harvest them, but at least after 1.5 we have a bit more information about their connection to the Starcatchers.
I've also completely glazed over the fact that Outer Rim appears to be a mirror image of the vanilla world, which the Outer Rim towers being parallels to the Filtration System drills reaching down into the Void. They're both reaching into the "void" to harvest something, in a way. One up and one down.
TL;DR: I believe the Starcatchers and the towers surrounding them were built by the benefactors to collect, harvest, and filter both Stardust and larger Falling Stars for some unknown reason, but it may or may not have to do with the Sun and it's apparent dimming brightness.
I, of course, could be reading too much into all of this. Or maybe I'm not reading enough into it. Thanks for reading, and if you have any theories about Starcatchers or Stardust and why the Benefactors might have wanted to harvest it, please let me know.
found a neat interaction with the halo earlier... i noticed it appeared around rot. mebi pointed out that this actually gives you immunity from being grabbed by rot so heres a very poor quality demonstration
