#watcher 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.

[ladyofthebookcase]

spoilers

WHAT . WHAT. WHAT. the SKY WHALE?????? also those structures in the distance look like pyramids... i suspect we're on top of another one of those, given how their communication array thingies look, but the pyramid shape is what really interests me here since i think at some point someone on the dev team had said that iterator structures were originally going to be giant pyramids. i wonder if this means we're in the past in this specific region... maybe watcher is travelling through time as well as space... much to think about. i also think the heat deposit(?) region (the one with the fire) had huge iterator structure vibes, those blue things that fly around seemed like more advanced and specialized guard neurons or inspectors or sumn. the heat/static electricity generators also feel like some kind of version of pebbles' and moon's electric arrays, but i'm not sure if they would be more or less advanced. and turbulent pump could be a part of an iterator's water filtration? in the reservoir? idk im just speculating now. i would be fascinated to know what desolate tract is, just like at all-- when i first got there i found it kind of underwhelming but i think it's one of my top regions for this dlc just because of how bizarre it is. i love that place and its giant slop beasts. (that said pls don't tell me! i want to find out on my own.)