man it must be so cool to have grown enough to do multiple interviews directly with the devs. Congrats and thank you for using your influence to get us these answers and tidbits!
Thanks so much for the kind words! Its crazy. The devs are actually so kind I didnt even need a big following. My first interview was done when I had around 1.2k subs. Theyve done one with a guy with under 200 subscribers too but he "knew a guy". But either way. Yes. It is VERY cool and meaningful for me to be able to chat with them!
@@TheLoreExplorer seems to me that they recognise the adoration your videos show towards their creation, and see the same spark of exploration and wonder that they all share and wanted to bring forth from their game :)
The river doubled as a water cooler for their Virtual World. That’s just some unbelievable thought to world building and attention to detail right there.
I JUST REALIZED the in universe artist for all of the stylized reels must be the prisoner, their own projection has the same style, and they even have the final shot of the eye vision with the dead owlk skull being covered by grass in their house, the only part that would be off is that it implies they painted their own version of them being captured and imprisoned, but since the projection and the incomplete reel are the same, they have to have seen it before anyways, so for them to be the one who painted it wouldn't be that much of a jump, also the slides always depicted the owlks as getting scary when they go rampage into willingful ignorance and hiding knowledge, or even when they cath the prisoner, it would be odd if not for the prisoner being the artist
@@antoniamakridakis1289 lmao, they've been using art made as criticism of them as propaganda for themselves, real smart owlks! Ok i get they're scared of losing any knowledge but it's still funny
Also, all the reels that depict the imprisonment of the prisoner or after the event are not paintings. They're photographic pictures. It's almost as if they lost their painter right around the same time the whole imprisoning debacle occurred.
How is that different from the big version of the simulated ringed planet though? Like....no one wanted to reach it anyway. Idk. Youre probably right. Im just a dumb dumb
@@TheLoreExplorer The difference is from where he is, he's not able to see the big version. So they put it there specifically to remind him he's not free. It doesn't move, it's always there.
@@TheLoreExplorer I think there's some dramatic irony in the fact that what they did to the Prisoner is not really that far off from what they brought upon themselves. The ringed planet is the _only_ thing the Prisoner can look at through that telescope. The other inhabitants... well, they have some stars and "natural" landscapes to admire in addition to that, but it's largely the same deal - the world outside is beyond their reach at that point, and all they have left is a constant reminder of what they lost. The difference to them, of course, is in the fact that the prison was built long before they actually started dying out. At the time, they must have thought of it as a taunt, a reminder that the Prisoner couldn't simply go out and explore instead of admiring from a distance, unlike everyone else. It all just seems so different when you have the option to get out, even if you don't intend to use it. Just another day in the dream...
@@TheLoreExplorer I believe its just a tool for self-delusion for the owlks, they probably put it there for the same reason they put stars in the sky. sure they cant reach these stars, but if the stars weren't there it would remind them "this isn't real" every time they looked up. but for the prisoner who wants to escape i think its more of a taunt, like alex said.
@@TheLoreExplorer Considering that the Prisoner is somewhat obsessed with the Eye (or at least enough to have its symbol in its house and disable the silencer), I see the simulated planet as kind of a harsh reminder of why the Prisoner is locked up. "You get to observe the ONLY thing that is real and important" or something similar. Full denial of the Eye's existence from the other inhabitants.
5:10 There's this dialogue in the story 17776 by Jon Bois(it can be read online, go try it it's really good) where the characters discuss how tragic it is to die before humanity reaches immortality. The fact that this shrine is for all inhabitants that died before the simulation makes it hit harder, because they're remembering people that might have lived forever if only the simulation was created sooner.
It also reminds me of this movie called "Mr. Nobody." The last mortal human among immortals is about to die and he refuses immortality because it makes life completely insignificant. Every choice, experience, and moment he has ever had is now null and void because he has forever to experience it, rather than having a time limit for it.
17:08 solar sails for an interstellar spaceship ARE actually a good idea! In fact, they're the only realistic concept we currently have to make interstellar travel possible in real life! But the little green glass things are definitely just light detectors, nothing else. We already have those IRL.
The miniature planet is probably the ultimate: Go sit in the corner and think about what you have done. Its there to remind him what he went against. To be locked away with your guild in the room.
Indeed it is. I just needed more time to get some perspective. If they didnt add that for the prisoner their entire "prison" would just become reality. And they wouldnt even remember they were in prison after long enough. The telescope and planet serve as this reminder.
I think the reason why they said that the telescope is part of the prison is because it creates even more distance between the Prisoner and the home planet. The Owlks have created what we can assume is a one-to-one copy of their home planet (if not the closest thing to it), but the only part of the simulation the Prisoner is able to explore is a few rooms with a telescope and a staff. The only way the Prisoner gets to exerperience the home planet is by looking at it with a telescope, almost teasing the Prisoner in a way.
Not only. The idea of the simulation is about forgetting the 'real' world. They must have thought of the possibility that the prisoner forgets about the outside of the prison like the others do of the outside of the simulation. The ringed planet is for the prisoner to keep the memory of being inprisoned. To keep the prisoner from becoming adapted to the thought of the prison being 'the whole there is'.
Agreed, in one of the slide reels you can see the prisoner among the Owlks being comforted at the sight of their home, so they may have known he was especially distraught at just spying an image of what home used to be like.
To me the biggest reveal is that the Owlks knew about the heat death of the universe. This implies perhaps they interpreted the eye vision correctly, they knew the supernovas would happen, they just responded to this information in a hateful way. But they knew even more than the nomai and due to their efforts some of them will succeed to eke out a life for a while post heat-death
I thought something similar. If they knew about the heat death it also makes way more sense for them to have made the sim. They werent just so scared of reality they wanted to hide. They knew there would be nothing else relatively soon. And basically did the best they could with what they knew they could do. It makes things just a bit more nuanced and understandable.
@@TheLoreExplorer I thought the ability to "live after death" was an accidental discovery about the sim, though. They specifically show one of their elders dying coincidentally as they're ready to enter the sim by the fire. I get that the point of that reel is to teach the player about dying to bypass the alarm, but the inhabitants featured in it seemed to be surprised and affected by what happened. After all, they needed to set up test chambers to make sure the artifacts work while they're sleeping. How would they intentionally test if they work while they're dead?
Im not sure accidental is the right term. The elderly owlk was clearly dying and they rushed him to the sim on purpose. So maybe that was the plan all along. They could have just recorded it for the sake of saving the information. Or they may have planned to live generationally. Build the sim as a comfortable place to outlive the heat death and spend most of their time. But only wake up to procreate and care for the ship. Then they slowly lost track of reality. Either way. Thats a direct quote from the devs. The Whole point was to outlive the heatdeath. edit*to be clear I know even the owlk seemed surprised to be alive. But that could be surprise that it actually worked
@@TheLoreExplorer Given the reel that lets us know that one can live in the simulation after dying in the real world is classified as a "glitch reel" I'd say it was definitely not the intended purpose- at first anyways. It might've began as a simple way to "go back" to their own world. Of course when they realized they could live Forever™ surely that changed, and they started making preparations for the Stranger being empty and as self-sustaining as possible. "It's a feature" is a real phenomenon!
Well. Technically a glitch report and glitch are different things. It couldve came in as a glitch report but the creators said "Oh. No thats not a glitch". And either way really. The whole point of the sim was to live past the heat death of the universe. And so we know they werent just so scared of reality they hopped in the sim to hide. Whether the extended life part was part of the plan or later implemented? I dont think it matters much. My only point was they didnt simply hide in their sim due to fear. It was actually a sensible plan of sorts.
I wonder if maybe the idea with the mini planet was something like, they allowed the prisoner to gaze at their home planet from afar in their prison. It's like teasing the prisoner by dangling their memories of home and freedom right in front of them. Hence, dick move.
I guess the ringed planet is further away than when you see it in any other part of the simulation, so their home moon must be implied to be somewhere in the distance rather than where the Prisoner would be observing from. Also, this has been my favourite interpretation ever since watching this part of Joseph Anderson's playthrough: ua-cam.com/video/ultevcFIulk/v-deo.html
It's also a "you chose the eye over your home so now you'll sit here and look at home forever" situation, where they're forcing their own beliefs onto the prisoner instead of letting him have the eye like he had in his home
@@struanpeat5116 yeah, that’s a unique way to look at it. Frankly, it can be interpreted a number of ways, and I find that really interesting- to some, it’s an act of respect or kindness. To others, and I suppose to Mobius Digital, it’s a slap in the face.
@@MooseyVGM i always saw it as a habbit, they created a space in the simulation and so they must have a moon, even if it's a tini one. but it could also be a religious practice, that to be whole and to be an owlk was to view/worship the planet, and despite stripping him of identity and freedom they couldn't knowingly stip him of spiritual enligtenment
@@struanpeat5116 Yeah I thought it was just because they NEED to see the Ringed World so much. I mean think of how much they did just to feel like they were at home again. I imagined the idea that someone could go without being able to look at the Ringed World was impossible. So they gave the Prisoner a little window.
Thank you and the devs for doing this interview! It's great getting even small insight into the mysteries of the DLC. As for why the devs see it as a dick move to have a mini version of the ringed planet in the prison, I think a tiny detail overlooked is the fact that in the prison, it's very heavily obscured by the barred window leading up to it, while in the rest of the simulation it can be clearly seen up in the sky no problem. Even the Prisoner's telescope in the prison looks extremely weathered, to the point that I dunno if it would serve him much use. Heck, maybe the others intentionally broke it? It's like giving him a breadcrumb while the rest feast, if that makes sense.
17:20 fun fact, the green glass is also on top of the little shuttle ships docked in the hangars. I assume they travel by pointing the glass towards the greatest light source nearby.
Nice job Explorer! You seem to have asked exactly the right questions to glean a little more info about the Strangers some of us have been dying to know. The idea of the Owlks being afraid of losing information/life of any kind has long been my theory as to why they didn't permanently destroy the reels, as well as why they kept the prisoner alive, but the exception of them destroying the codes to unlock the prisoner always threw me off from fully accepting it, so it's nice to see that's what they were trying to put across. It's also interesting to find out why those traps were put there. I have to admit I never really considered that they were looking for sympathizers. It's interesting that the Owlks did plan to outlive the heat-death of the universe though; did they actually have some perpetual energy machine, or were they just planning to live as long as they could with what they had? Either way it's a shame they didn't foresee the breaking of the dam upon moving out of the supernova range... in hindsight they probably should have moved out of range *before* entering the simulation. When it comes to the green glass light tech... well, it's obvious they aren't *realistic* solar sails, as you obviously can't push a raft with light created from an object standing on the raft being captured by the raft again... but hey, this is Outer Wilds, where the rules of the universe aren't quite the same in all instances and you have trees creating bubbles of oxygen. And oh boy, that timeline answers so many questions and creates so many more. It's interesting to see how reactive the Owlks were, and how significantly the prisoner's betrayal affected them. They clearly never expected one of their own to betray them, and the steps they took to make sure it never happened again really emphasizes the Owlks' fear and paranoia.
Im so glad you appreciated it! I was worried people thought Id have asked dumb questions because theyd want to know big secrets. To try to touch on one of your questions though. The devs mention that the stranger received power from the sun. Which imo is sort of dumb for an interstellar ship. And sort of speaks against the idea they even could live past the second phase of heat death if it needed the suns energy. So they probably were just going to power up and try to live as long as they could after all suns die. If they didnt permanently retreat into the sim they probably couldve found or created a more permanent energy source. From what I understand black holes live long beyond the phase where all suns die. The nomai used them to power cities and what not. So the owlks probably could too if the owlks wanted. We also see they can keep fires going for 280k years. Silly. But heat does = energy. And so does explosions. Which we see the green fire create. So maybe there is something there too. We also see nomai tech which are completely separate from a power source for 280k years and are still lit and active. A lot of the vessel works. The orbital probe cannons tracking module. Cities on giants deep and so others. So its not too crazy to think theyd at least live thousands. If not hundreds of thousands of years past the loss of all suns. But really idk how they could live past the heat death. I think they were just doing the best with what they have.
Love this video! Helped me realize so much I hadn't noticed. Like the fact that the photos before one of the forbidden archives is a memorial and how that connects to the owlks fear of loss.
Personally I still would love to see an interview with Andrew Prahlow, and learn more about the music theory and why certain instruments or leitmotifs were used
It would've been interesting to see their response to questions about the owelks' lifespans. Were the ones that built the simulation the same ones that built the stranger? Was the prisoner around when the eye was first silenced? If so, how long was it silenced before the prisoner released it? Because either the Nomai weren't around/spacefaring before it was first silenced and so never recieved the signal until the prisoner released it (either meaning they were pretty new when the prisoner woke up, OR the Owelk's live thousands of years and it had been silenced for thousands of years as the Nomai explored the galaxy), or they had been spacefaring for a while, but their technology improved to be able to recieve the signal only after it had been silenced. Don't know if any of that makes sense, it's hard to explain/think about
The signal travels at the speed of light, which is ultimately finite. If the eye was 30 thousand light years away when the signal was released, then it would have been just flying through the universe for 30 thousand years (during which time owl elks go to sleep for a long time) before someone finally heard it. Quite literally an echo of the eye.
@@kepler6873 yeah I know that, but the eye was active for possibly billions of years before they heard and eventually silenced it. I'm just wondering why the Nomai never recieved the signal BEFORE the Owelks silenced it for the first time
You can actually see the prisoner in the reel where they found out about the dangers of the eye. So i’d say that the elks who reached the eye are the same who built the simulation. No clue about the elks who built the ship tho.
@@littlechickeyhudak Maybe the Nomai didn't have evolved enough (biologically or technologically) to read the signal before. Also only one Nomai ship managed to read the eye's signal
i think it could be due to a distance thing. because only one nomai vessel read the signal, that means the signal died out before it had reached any of the others. its possible that it didnt die out and it just hasnt reached them in the 280k+ years since the nomai heard it, but the universe doesn't appear to be that big in this game. the nomai have been out of reach of the eye's signal, then the prisoner released it again at just the right time
I love this, it’s so cool to see the creators perspectives on things and it’s so cool that Lore can actually get these answers! Also my theory about the green glass: you know how the owlks will sometimes have their eyes glowing and sometimes not? We I think they use the glow in their eyes to operate the light activated stuff. (Maybe, it’s just a theory)
I like the inverted planets at the end, and the explanation, while simple, makes sense to me. After entering the Eye, and reuniting the travelers, Chet says that they enjoyed learning, but that the rules were about to change. I think that their claim was about more than just the universe would be re-created, but that the laws of physics and reality in general would be altered in some way.
The clarifications on the Owlks' fear of loss also deepens the meaning behind the reel burning devices. How scared must they have been of what they'd learned that they would go to such a length as to destroy their preservations themselves
Well, they just switched from physical to digital. But the lengths they went through to forget that fear is telling. Especially considering they built a ship to survive this event. So imagine being so scared of a bomb you want to forget it exists....after youve already made sure youd survive a direct hit. Oh wow. I finally think I understand. Thanks to this comment. The Owlks werent scared that theyd die. Or that the eye would end the universe. They knew those would happen and planned to survive it. Though they wanted to be alone....they didnt want to KNOW they were alone in the universe. They wanted to forget everyone else died. Wow. Im almost in tears....I hope im not just making that up lol edit* either way. Thanks for commenting
I watched your "Prisoner's Motives" videos right after watching this one, and I think I get what the devs meant by the telescope within the prison being a "dick move." The prisoner had a more outward- and forward-looking mindset than the other Owlks, represented by the telescope at his home. As part of his punishment for acting on that outlook, the other Owlks make it so that the only thing his telescope in the prison can gaze on is a memory, looking backward instead of forward. Punishing him by forcing him to comport to their worldview in the most literal-yet-symbolic way possible.
After a while. Here’s my thoughts on this. The telescope and moon are sick moves for this reason. During a certain ending we get told that reality is like a half remembered dream. But what if we had a few reminders that reality was indeed real. And we were trapped. We’d never be able to truly forget. At first. I thought this reminder was a blessing. A reminder of home. Something of comfort. But when contemplating on the type of existence the prisoner has. It probably doesn’t serve as that.
The mini version of the planet in the prison is a dick move because the prisoner has to be constantly reminded of the home they can never return to. Since they don’t even get to really experience the simulation they never forget about reality or the fact that they destroyed their home planet. Serves no but but to make an eternal punishment even worse.
@@TheLoreExplorer The inhabitants in the simulation can see the ringed planet in all its glory. It is bright and beautiful in the sky. In the prison, it's tiny and obscured between multiple layers of bars. It's almost frustrating to try to look at (although maybe this point is refuted if the telescope can see through those bars). In either case, I think it's more a matter of "you can never leave this prison to see it in its full glory" rather than "you can never go back home."
I think the mini planet is a dick move because he’s imprisoned. The Owlk didn’t just miss their planet, they also missed all the people left behind or that died in their believed fruitless journey to the Eye of the Universe. The recreated version of their homeworld serves to fool them but it also serves to keep them together, so they never have to lose anyone again. For the Prisoner, they allow him to see the planet in the sky, but without that sense of community, it makes that prison all the more stifling and torturous. “You get to see what we all wanted, but you do not get to be there with us. You will remember how alone you are every time you look up at the world we lost.” That kind of vibe
I feel silly for thinking that the burnt building in the sim was a reflection of the burnt church now. It makes way more sense for it to be the prisoner's house, especially since his IRL body is missing from that area. Also imo the reason why they gave the prisoner a view of the planet was just as a reminder of the outside & their old home. The others get to live freely in the full simulation of their home world with all the movies they want while the prisoner only gets that tiny window in his little box.
16:48 I disagree that the orb itself on the raft is the propulsion- you can see on the underside of the raft there's loops which are the real propulsion sources
I had always really wished I could find the server room for the simulation, I'm glad the devs at least wanted to put it physically in. I just wish in the interview they pointed out where it would exist
Ive always assumed thats where the quantum moon broke off from, even though the sizes dont really fit. But maybe quantum stuff, who knows. Also is that a ”planet”, or part of the eye as a whole? Idk honestly
In the beginning of a journey exists 3 fractions of Owlks: 1) mainlanders, who lived on Lowlands and Reservoir, they control all exits and controls, they are rulers, engineers and may be coders. 2) islanders - most religion Owlks, they create church of the Eye and they have most significant Green Temple. Majority blame islanders on flying mission to the Eye. They were punished: in the Dream World it is hard to find islanders style buildings. 3) mountaineer - most mystics and science ones. They have a lantern laboratory. But they also have ... second church of the Eye. And this church was not destroyed, but renamed to "Green fire + slide reels". And it looks like it means "Knowledge to everyone". This small group of believers or followers of Discoverer/future Prisoner. While majority decided to hide signal of the Eye and hide themselves, go into Dream World, "green sliders" start to produce own slider reels. Not professional cartoon-like, but raw memory 1st person visions. They add "how to open door in the temple", lantern-helper to show secret tunnel to the island temple, slider reels and memory sticks in lantern-laboratory. Another small group of mountaineers - "secret police" (evil-looking persons on reels), they wish to find all members of "green sliders" and they punished Discoverer by cutting 1 horn (on Eye discovery he has 2 horns), but with no result. Discoverer woke up and his "green sliders" told everyone to continue the journey, but he was punished to be in individual prison. To the ground Dreamworld was added Underground one. So, falling glitch is a final one of 3. Prison was in Underground level. It consisted 1 black room with 1 chair with no candles or windows and with impossibility to switch off the lantern. Yes, that why Prisoner wait so long and drown at the end. "Secret police" added Forbidden archive on Underground level. And it created 3 hidden places (the are in mountain style), where they hide and digitalizing all slide reels. They also add lock to controls of blocking module. Prisoner followers/"Green sliders" fount how all passes created, where passes were hidden in real world and Dream World. They wrote on reels and memory sticks. They also add lantern-helpers to find secret places, and put reels here. They even a bit open prison and added room looks like church-hall with candles, window, telescope and "small Saturn". But before "escaping operation" of the Prisoner was done, "Secret police" prevent it maybe by burning a house with telescope in the Dream World. They destroyed all controls (controls of signal module, controls pulling out the water a Prison and others). "Secret police" found helpers in mountain church, locked it, turn reels in the secret places into deathly traps and fired rest of reels. Also destroy all passes to unlocks the Prison.
The mini ringed planet might be there because it looks convincing at first glance, looking through the telescope reveals it's clearly a fake, lesser version, even moreso than the one over the rest of the simulation. It teases at the idea of home, but is ultimately cruel prank and reminder that the Prisoner can't have even a dream of home.
Awesome video Lore! I do have question that's been on my mind for a while, so lemme know if you know the answer. When we meet the Prisoner, it's clear they've been in there for quite some time. And once we free them, they supposedly walk into the water, waking them up and therefore killing them. So my question is: why didn't they just blow out their own fire? As depressing as it sounds, the Prisoner wouldn't have anything to live for in there, so why just sit there and wait for nothing? Maybe I've missed something obvious, but I'd love to hear if you or anyone else has any exlpanations/theories!
Correct. And the vision we bring to the prisoner proves this to them. We show a symbol of the eye on old Nomai ruins. And not only that. But we are inspired by this very symbol to take to the stars. So the prisoner feels safe in passing their dream onto us.
For the new universe, I interpreted the spheres as Dyson sphere like structures around a star, not a planet with a melted core. To be clear: I don’t mean that they’re artificial. I don’t think it’s as simple as gravity is inverted, because that obviously wouldn’t work. It seems that many laws of physics are different in this new universe. Probably entirely new laws, etc.
They are brittle hollow with a molten core instead of a black hole. Or even protostars or whatever youd want to call em. The black hole forms later on because the crust of those planets have inherent gravitational properties. Which is why the gravity can be inverted. You also have to keep in mind physics can be entirely different in this new universe.
@@TheLoreExplorer that’s my point. I don’t think you can use anything from the previous universe to explain this new one. Anything and everything could have changed. There’s no need for the crust to have inherent gravitational properties if the new universe doesn’t even work that way.
I just dont understand how you could say "because that obviously wouldnt work". But we sort of know it could. Thats what happened on brittle. The eye uses our memories to help form the next universe. They could be exactly the same as the laws from ours. Or slightly different. Or not at all. But theres no rules saying you have to throw out everything old. It makes sense and would work. Also...its kind of what we see as well.
@@TheLoreExplorer of course. Anything could carry over. But my point is that you can’t rely on anything carrying over. It’s a potential hypothesis, but definitely not a proof. It’s just like the real world, there’s many ways to get to the same answer, and as you dig deeper you may discover that the route you took doesn’t quite align with your continued observations, so you have to re-visit your earlier assumptions.
Im not relying on anything carrying over. I just remember hearing stories that very early on the concept for brittle was a molten core which would boil water and send the pieces flying into space. And that seems to be what we see to me. But tbh I dont know what a natural dyson sphere is. And with the river and trees and whatnot I dont see how it would collect energy. It seems much more likely to me its what we know since it shaped by our memories.
I didn't put it together before this video that the reason the vision from the prison shows you the way to the symbol room was because that's what tells you how to get into the eye satellite control center.
From my understanding, there is a 100 million project utilizing solar sails where it is hypothesized that it would be able to travel (maximum velocity ) 20 percent the speed of light. So, it isn't too far-fetched to say that solar sails can be utilized effectively. Also, on another note ( sorry off topic ), I don't know if this has already been discussed but I think the color of the robes that the owlks wear symbolizes age.
yeah i guess the Owlks saw the Eye kill everyone and everything because in a way it does because it ends the universe and even though the universe is ending when we reach it it wisent when the Owlks reached it if that makes any sense
From a design perspective I think it's simply to make the prisoners stand out. So when you look at the reels you can spot them out and when you meet them you notice that they are different. As for lore/story reasons it could have broken for so many reasons, I think was an accident in building the dam or the artifacts
Has anyone asked them about the Owlks connection with ghost matter? That's the one big question I still have, notably why is it _in_ the stranger? It was environmentally sealed beyond the docking bays and that one blown test chamber, so why do we find it in the artifact construction shack and one of the slide burning temples, was it a substance familiar to them that somehow powered their ghost fire and/or green glass tech? Furthermore, considering the Nomai appeared to have no knowledge of this matter, despite being a well travelled and well researched people who mastered warp travel, one would have to assume it's something incredibly rare (possibly even non-naturally occuring), so is it possibly something unique to the Owlks home system or even something of their own construction? Possibly even a waste product that they had "disposed" of some time long ago by launching into the depths of space that just happened to find it's way to _this_ system some time after they arrived as the interloper? Or was it the waste of some other civilization (or very rare naturally occuring object) that also happened upon the Owlks system some time before but didn't "pop" the same way, allowing them to research and utilize it as a resource, and another one just happened upon the system they were chilling in later? Orrrr, is the ghost matter in the stranger just an oversight, or somehow explainable as from the interloper like the rest of it? The nature and origin of ghost matter was always mysterious, and it's existence on the stranger introduces so much many more interesting questions, but I never see anyone else asking them when it's like, all I can think about 😅
Ghost matter is named after its property to just kinda go through other matter. And as the stranger was parked by the time the interloper came and exploded the ghost matter spread there as well. Thats the only connection as far as anyone knows :: )
I would not think that the hollow planets we see in the ending have 'reverse gravity' but rather have gravity from the centrifugal force as they rotate their molten cores. The same kind of gravity (from centrifugal force) that The Stranger creates with its spin.
I mean the devs say they are inverted spaces. I dont think I say reverse gravity but sorry if I do. Interestingly the devs have stated that the crust of brittle hollow has inherent gravitational properties. So reverse gravity isnt the best way to say it. But that explanation works. Centrifugal force would only really work on the equator of a planet.
I know it’s too late but i just remembered someone from the campfire said the rules are about to change. So logic in our current universe doesn’t apply to the new one in game
I'm guessing that the server room is still on the Stranger, but was blocked off, probably by boulders or dirt or something, so the simulations could never be destroyed. Think about it: The owlks destroyed the signal blocker interface so no one could mess with it again, why wouldn't they extend that fear to make sure the simulations were always maintained?
I dont think thats the case. The inhabitants were deathly afraid to lose info. A church. A switch to shut off the eye probe. None of this was info. But that sim housed literally all info. Not even the prisoner would have destroyed that. And I dont think they ever imagined being found by another intelligent species.
Fair points. I did only finish the DLC yesterday so I'm still a bit new to this species' habits (aside from performing chiropractic neck adjustments). My headcanon is that there's just a _really_ hard to find button somewhere that opens a secret room and leads to it.
Interesting -- I've always interpreted the visible planet from the prisoner's room as a sort of coda to the story of what the owelks did to them. Despite the prisoner defying the owelks' utterly staunch hatred of the Eye and potentially realizing their absolute worst fears and bringing about the death of the owelks and the end of the universe, compelling the owelks to lock the prisoner up for eternity, there was this decision of quiet compassion to give the prisoner a peaceful view of the sky to remind them of home and provide a place to stargaze from
It could have been kindness in their minds maybe, but the whole point of the Prisoner was that it was tired of the simulation, so having the only thing they can see be a constant artificial reminder of home would be painful. The fact that the Prisoner is sitting in the dark instead of looking up at the planet, even though they are the only one that was shown to still be interested in space, is telling.
I suppose what is so confusing about it to me is the stuff being said about the mini ringed planet can also be said about the big one. I just dont see the difference. They are both reminders that they arent home. Both places they cant get to.
@@TheLoreExplorer I don't think the mini version is supposed to be its own thing, the devs just added it in because the big one didn't line up right with the window. Hence, why they didn't understand your question about it having lore implications, because they aren't supposed to be 2 different entities. The only way you would know that they are actually 2 different entities is by going out of bounds (aka, not their intent). Regardless, what the devs were saying is that the Prisoner's cell could have had no windows at all, or even a whole glass dome to view the whole night sky, but instead, the Owlks built him a window that specifically only shows the ringed planet. He rejected the simulation, so having his only view being something that is a constant reminder of where he actually is, is "a dick move" whether the other Owlks saw it that way or not.
The prisoner is supposed to be under ground. Cut off from all of that. They shouldnt be able to see the ringed planet from down there at all. It HAS to be two separate entities. Anyway. I just dont get it bud. Personally. If I were in that situation. I think itd serve as comfort.
I've got a question: As grim as it is, we see skeletons of nomai children, indicating there were children when the nomai died. But if that's the case... *Why do we never see children on the stranger?*
Well , theoretically if you entered a sim and naturally aged until your body died then youd age to an adult. They werent exiting and reproducing or anything. Theyve all been in the sim for hundreds of thousands of years. We really shouldnt see any kids. And we do see children in the paintings and whatnot. Even one in a singlular reels slides. In short , I think they all grew up.
As a native Pittsburgher, i appreciate the accent! 😂 not sure if you are from pittsburgh, but if not, then know that you speak in the tongue of my people
Awesome questions! Regarding the Prisoner’s house and the codes in the dream, does this mean that the owlks have flamethrowers in the dream world that they used to destroy the dream versions of the Prisoner’s home and codes?
Thanks for the kind words! They may have just used regular fire. Or the fire from their artifacts. Because I dont remember seeing any flame throwers in the sim.
Also I seriously doubt the stranger “needs” solar power as you put it, but it would make sense to utilize it especially considering they weren’t moving anytime soon so to speak
i wish you asked them why the owls attack (and kill, if you dont have the lantern) a sentient being that's intelligent enough to solve their puzzle and enter the simulation
Based on everything we know about them, probably out of fear. The Nomai are the type of people who would be intrigued and want to learn more about this unknown creature; the Strangers just get rid of anything potentially dangerous so they can keep on living in their simulation. They'd rather feel safe than put themselves at risk to learn new things, that's a big theme for the entire DLC.
I also dont think they really have any way to tell how we entered the sim. They probably think they are just waking us up. But mostly yeah. They are scared someone will reach the forbidden archives. Which has information they are terrified of us learning.
@@TheLoreExplorer the Owlks were still alive when the Nomai arrived. The Prisoner turned off the signal blocker which enabled The Eye to release a couple signals (I think only 3 waves). These are detected by the Nomai Vessel where they get the coordinates and warp travel there immediately, without telling the other Nomai groups where they were headed because they were worried the signal would disappear. The Nomai were correct that the signal disappeared. They landed in Dark Bramble and escape podded out. During the time the Nomai were building shelter and Owlks were building the prison and hiding/moving/ destroying the slide reels. We don't know when the Owlks died but it was between when the 2 Nomai groups re-connecting and the completion of the sun station. The Owlks were definitely dead before the ghost matter as the devs confirmed that in pervious interviews.
i like to think that the mini planet was their attempt to make the prison more humane for the prisoner, giving them an opportunity to stargaze like they always liked to do. its kind of a dick move because, in the context of the prisoner's life, instead of being comforting, it's just a reminder of how sad the simulation is and what theyre sacrificing for the sake of this illusion. it'd be comforting _for the strangers,_ but they really just do not understand the prisoner's point of view at all
Perhaps the reason it's such a dick move is because it is a eternal reminder that he is in the simulation? The prisoner releasing the eye signal may show that he didn't agree with the idea of hiding themselves away in the simulation, and maybe he would even have preferred if they lived out their lives outside in the real world instead, despite the profound feeling of loss for their home world. So now they're stuck down there, with a permanent reminder that they are not in the real world. Imprisoned not only in a cage, but in a fake world, with a reminder of what will forever be out of reach. Never again to see the real world outside.
I think the little ringed planet is a dick move because the prisoner is a traveller, they enjoy adventure. The little planet (a) reminds the Prisoner that the place they’re in isn’t real, (b) reminds them of a place they can never go, and (c) reminds them that they’re stuck at home, the last place they actually want to be.
I have a question: in the timeline the prisoner frees the eye, but the nomai see the eye a lot later (after all the hawks are dead), is this because the signal travels at the speed of light and so the time required to travel from the solar system to the Nomai takes so long? (maybe the reason of the nomai finishing in dark bramble is beacause they only knew the old location of the eye and not the actual one)
The reason it takes so long is indeed supposed to be that the signal is travelling but I don’t think that’s why they ended up in dark bramble, what’s more likely is that dark bramble duplicated the signal and they went to that one instead of the eyes actual coordinates which is pretty sad because they would have been able to get to the eye right at the start but just got unlucky
Its basically summed up by their mural. They are metaphorically growing this potential future all by themselves. They needed to nurture that flower. But when we came along we told them something important. That their flower sprouted seeds. We show them we are chasing the eyes signal. And so they can finally peacefully release their duty to the flower.
@@TheLoreExplorer So he had the will to wait there for around 300,000 years for a sign of something? That's what I struggle to believe with that theory. I mean, there was no implications that he would ever know whether the signal reached anyone or not. So why stick around? Sure, we came but let's say we didn't.
The artists are using symbolism to tell us. This is like asking why grow a flower if it takes 300k years? Because whoever put it in the pot thought it was beautiful. Time isnt even meaningful at that point. Its just forever for the prisoner. And In a world constructed of ugliness towards them. Literally a reality designed to lock away and torture them. They still took the hard parts to try to ensure the beautiful parts happened. "Nurturing their flower". They did what the other couldnt and faced the hard part. Thats all
@@TheLoreExplorer I suppose. If it's more symbolic, then I can understand. Because in any logical aspect, I don't know how anyone would have the will to live in a prison forever.
In a very real sense. Reality is relative to the observer. Our logic doesnt work in the prisoners reality. After 100 or maybe even 1000 years the prisoner no longer has a way to keep track of time. It literally loses all meaning. And they are literally 2 layers buried in reality. This is the ending we get when we enter the sim with the atp inactive. "How long have we been in here. Who knows. But they dont even hunt you anymore. Your life has become a half-remembered dream". Forever means nothing. They may not even remember the artifact is how they are stuck in there anymore. Is that reality or a dream? Their entire reality is 2 rooms. And their artifact has always been a part of it. And when they finally get out. The first time they find something "In their new reality" that they knew should kill them. They immediately dove right in. (after leaving us a message of course) So idk what to say. They endured to try to ensure that beauty didnt remain in their reality alone. It didnt feel like forever to them and they were just trying to grow their metaphorical flower. And in a way sll of their hardship was worth it. They got to add beauty to the next universe through us.
In an interview with noclip/ spoilercast they said they called them either ghost birds or ghost owls. This is beacuse the original idea for them was that youll see them walking on the Stranger as ghosts and the big reveal would be that actually they are in a simulation and you can just see ghostly projections of them living in the simulation. Highly recommend you watch the interview documentary. As its hard to explain in a comment
One thing I couldn't help but notice is that the Quantum Moon doesn't seem to be in any of the slides the Owlks have. Has anyone actually seen records of it?
I have a question that I'd be interested to hear opinions on. Are years in the game the same as our years? I ask because the game tells us that the Nomai died around 281000 years ago and the Strangers were around a considerable amount of time even before them but their stuff is surprisingly intact, especially the wooden buildings in the Stranger, which you would assume would have rotted or eroded away long ago. The Nomai or the Hearthians would have a different idea of what a year is compared to us or would have a different way to measure time entirely. Taking the Timber Hearth orbit as a year gives us only around 2 years and 3 months of Earth time since the Nomai died, which is too short I would say l, since the Nomai are all skeletons and the Hearthians would have had to evolve in that short amount of time. Another argument against is that the English text (or whatever language the game is set to) we see on the translator tool and written on a few things is there purely for gameplay reasons, since we see Hearthian text on paper notes which looks nothing like English. Could be safe to assume that the time the Hearthians and Nomai use is also translated to our earth time so we can understand. We know minutes are definitely the same as our minutes due to the time loop. Hearthian years seem too short but earth years seem too long for how intact everything is.
This is a good question. One even the devs have debated. The verdict I got back was "Time and scale are abstract". It reads what it does to allow us to understand. Nomai and hearthian time , indeed , should be different. But theyve made it so we , as a player , can sort of understand both sides of it. The nomai have been dead for 280k years = very long time. The time loop is 22 minutes = very short time. So , even if scale is all out of whack. We can basically take it all at face value. Im not sure where you got the 2 years and 3 months thing though. Timber hearth orbits and fully rotates about 5 times in the 22 minutes we see it. So , 22 minutes could be more like 5 years to them. Or it could be 5 days. Or 22 minutes. But even if it does equal 5 years to the hearthians. Its ok because the devs translated it for us. The player. As for the fact wood would rot by then.....yeah. probably. Keep in mind the space station is what wed call vacuum sealed. Its a pretty safe , controlled(compared to earths flora and fauna) and clean environment. But , yeah. After so long it would have crumbled. We have to just suspend our disbelief there or say "They can scan the creator of the universe with light and get back a vision. They can create a seemingly ever powered cloaking field and ship.....Perhaps they just have extraordinarily good wood" lol
7:05 this is kind of what happened with christianity in middle ages. They had ancient scrolls and books that they considered blasphemous, so they locked them away. But they weren't radical enough to completely destroy them. So all this culture and knowledge was obscured, waiting for its time.
@@TheLoreExplorer So, where's the solar panels if Stranger is solar powered? There's no other side of the Screens (that show the solar system) as the exterior is just Metallic. And the green sails pop up like 7-8 minutes into the loop.
The Strangers have inherently mastered light. I dont think they even need solar panels. They are beyond that. Im not sure if this is showing me the right video youre commenting on. But in an interview with the devs they say the stranger moved near the sun to harness its power. So thats kinda that.
one question I would’ve asked is… why does the Dam collapse right the same day we encounter the stranger? It has survived for thousands of years.. Is it just pure coincidence or is there a special reason as to why it happens when we are there to witness it
Metal creature? Anyway. Mostly the last one. But also kind of none of them. They are hiding a terrible secret inside the simulation. And they definitely don’t want anyone to find it. But it’s not just a secret from us. THEY aren’t allowed to visit the secret archives either. They are forbidden. And so when we turn the lights out. The owlks think another owlk is trying to access the archives and so they move to prevent them. Until the very moment the owlk see you. They think you’re another owlk. Only when they catch and see you face to face do they notice you’re an alien. So they aren’t rabid. They arent scared of us. And they aren’t even really scared about us being in the sim. A certain ending tells us that we can live peacefully and coexist with them. But since they caught ANYONE trying to enter the forbidden archives. (Or just happen to see anyone who doesn’t really belong.) They forcibly make them leave the sim to prevent them from learning anything important. In the event where we shut down the atp. But also die to enter the sim. We live in the sim for so long it becomes our reality. Reality feels like a “half remembered dream”. So ….it’s complicated. As with any humanoid species. It seems they did what they did due to personal beliefs(either losing or sharing this info is as bad as death) and situational reaction. Such as “Omg. Someone is trying to enter the forbidden archives? We must stop them!”
Solar panels don't require sunlight, they require light. Granted, sunlight is far more efficient, but you can use artificial light to power up solar panels. So no, the owlks aren't masters of solar power because you can use your flashlight on the green glass, they're masters of solar power because they have solar sails that lasted intergalactic travel
I still feel like I’m not sure why they recorded those hidden booby trapped reels to begin with. That’s what I’d love to ask the devs: Why did the Owlks record where the vault passwords were hidden? And why did they keep them in the real world rather than the sim?
In a noclip spoilercast podcast they interview the devs. The devs call them either ghost birds or ghost owls. This is beacuse an early idea of them was that they would appear ghost like. Its too difficult to explain why in a comment. I highly recommend listening to the podcast episode. It's on youtube
Dude no... the green glass in the solar sails aren't the exact same as the ones in the Stranger. The devs were only ever talking about the solar sails. It just means there's a wide range of uses for the glass. They can absorb light (airlocks, rafts, doors and elevators), reflect it (solar sails) or transmit it (the lenses in the vision tech). It's not solar pressure powering the rafts at all. You can even flash light at them when you're off them and they come towards you, not away.
How do you think the stranger parked in our solar system. Then moved toward the sun? Light was shining on it yet it moved towards the sun...not away. And we are shown it was a controlled flight with the sails open. Seems to me they had some directional control of the acceleration created by the radiation.
@@TheLoreExplorer You're just being ridiculous now. That's because the solar sails were facing the other direction. We're even shown how it undergoes deceleration in a slide reel, the solar sails were facing behind to propel it forward and then they turned around to have them face in front to slow down. Because that's solar sails work, light hits them and is reflected to gain momentum perpendicular to the sails.
Def agree. For one thing, if your flashlight is able to push the raft forward, or those spinny room things, then you would be pushed back with similar force. That does not happen, so it's likely a sensor for light that is then used to control the rafts or airlocks
Notice the devs didnt simply say "Yes. They are solar sails". They said repeatedly they are the Inhabitants spin on solar sails. In the sense they translate solar radiation into acceleration. That could potentially also describe the elevators. And rafts. And so on. But I even state that I made a mistake in the question and didnt clarify what I was talking about. But if they understood. Then that was the implication. But it seems you just want to be critical as always. So whatever you say bud.
@@TheLoreExplorer I'm critical of this because you're making up stuff that is bogus by ignoring the direct quotes from the devs. They were clearly talking about the solar sails themselves, they specifically say 'light from the Sun'. What light from the Sun is hitting the green glass mechanisms within the Stranger?
man it must be so cool to have grown enough to do multiple interviews directly with the devs. Congrats and thank you for using your influence to get us these answers and tidbits!
Thanks so much for the kind words! Its crazy. The devs are actually so kind I didnt even need a big following. My first interview was done when I had around 1.2k subs. Theyve done one with a guy with under 200 subscribers too but he "knew a guy". But either way. Yes. It is VERY cool and meaningful for me to be able to chat with them!
@@TheLoreExplorer seems to me that they recognise the adoration your videos show towards their creation, and see the same spark of exploration and wonder that they all share and wanted to bring forth from their game :)
The river doubled as a water cooler for their Virtual World. That’s just some unbelievable thought to world building and attention to detail right there.
True. Tho it doesn’t make a ton of sense
I JUST REALIZED the in universe artist for all of the stylized reels must be the prisoner, their own projection has the same style, and they even have the final shot of the eye vision with the dead owlk skull being covered by grass in their house, the only part that would be off is that it implies they painted their own version of them being captured and imprisoned, but since the projection and the incomplete reel are the same, they have to have seen it before anyways, so for them to be the one who painted it wouldn't be that much of a jump, also the slides always depicted the owlks as getting scary when they go rampage into willingful ignorance and hiding knowledge, or even when they cath the prisoner, it would be odd if not for the prisoner being the artist
Wow, didn't realize this! That makes sense, because why would the Owelks depict themselves as scary. So cool!
@@antoniamakridakis1289 lmao, they've been using art made as criticism of them as propaganda for themselves, real smart owlks!
Ok i get they're scared of losing any knowledge but it's still funny
Also, all the reels that depict the imprisonment of the prisoner or after the event are not paintings. They're photographic pictures. It's almost as if they lost their painter right around the same time the whole imprisoning debacle occurred.
19:38
It's like a way of taunting the prisoner. Making sure a permanent reminder is in place reminding him of what he can't reach.
How is that different from the big version of the simulated ringed planet though? Like....no one wanted to reach it anyway. Idk. Youre probably right. Im just a dumb dumb
@@TheLoreExplorer The difference is from where he is, he's not able to see the big version. So they put it there specifically to remind him he's not free. It doesn't move, it's always there.
@@TheLoreExplorer I think there's some dramatic irony in the fact that what they did to the Prisoner is not really that far off from what they brought upon themselves. The ringed planet is the _only_ thing the Prisoner can look at through that telescope. The other inhabitants... well, they have some stars and "natural" landscapes to admire in addition to that, but it's largely the same deal - the world outside is beyond their reach at that point, and all they have left is a constant reminder of what they lost.
The difference to them, of course, is in the fact that the prison was built long before they actually started dying out. At the time, they must have thought of it as a taunt, a reminder that the Prisoner couldn't simply go out and explore instead of admiring from a distance, unlike everyone else. It all just seems so different when you have the option to get out, even if you don't intend to use it. Just another day in the dream...
@@TheLoreExplorer I believe its just a tool for self-delusion for the owlks, they probably put it there for the same reason they put stars in the sky. sure they cant reach these stars, but if the stars weren't there it would remind them "this isn't real" every time they looked up. but for the prisoner who wants to escape i think its more of a taunt, like alex said.
@@TheLoreExplorer Considering that the Prisoner is somewhat obsessed with the Eye (or at least enough to have its symbol in its house and disable the silencer), I see the simulated planet as kind of a harsh reminder of why the Prisoner is locked up. "You get to observe the ONLY thing that is real and important" or something similar. Full denial of the Eye's existence from the other inhabitants.
Alex beachum is like, top 5 human beings that has brought me the most Joy and happiness in my life
5:10 There's this dialogue in the story 17776 by Jon Bois(it can be read online, go try it it's really good) where the characters discuss how tragic it is to die before humanity reaches immortality. The fact that this shrine is for all inhabitants that died before the simulation makes it hit harder, because they're remembering people that might have lived forever if only the simulation was created sooner.
It also reminds me of this movie called "Mr. Nobody." The last mortal human among immortals is about to die and he refuses immortality because it makes life completely insignificant. Every choice, experience, and moment he has ever had is now null and void because he has forever to experience it, rather than having a time limit for it.
17:08 solar sails for an interstellar spaceship ARE actually a good idea!
In fact, they're the only realistic concept we currently have to make interstellar travel possible in real life!
But the little green glass things are definitely just light detectors, nothing else. We already have those IRL.
It made sense for the owlks and their level of technology.
The miniature planet is probably the ultimate: Go sit in the corner and think about what you have done. Its there to remind him what he went against. To be locked away with your guild in the room.
Indeed it is. I just needed more time to get some perspective. If they didnt add that for the prisoner their entire "prison" would just become reality. And they wouldnt even remember they were in prison after long enough. The telescope and planet serve as this reminder.
I think the reason why they said that the telescope is part of the prison is because it creates even more distance between the Prisoner and the home planet. The Owlks have created what we can assume is a one-to-one copy of their home planet (if not the closest thing to it), but the only part of the simulation the Prisoner is able to explore is a few rooms with a telescope and a staff. The only way the Prisoner gets to exerperience the home planet is by looking at it with a telescope, almost teasing the Prisoner in a way.
Basically it was a dick move in the way that they added it just to torment the prisoner
Just as a correction - their home planet isn't the ring world, it's the moon of it.
@@Cat-pw5qr oh yeah I forgot. Still, I think it does send a message of how isolated they were from the others
Not only. The idea of the simulation is about forgetting the 'real' world. They must have thought of the possibility that the prisoner forgets about the outside of the prison like the others do of the outside of the simulation. The ringed planet is for the prisoner to keep the memory of being inprisoned. To keep the prisoner from becoming adapted to the thought of the prison being 'the whole there is'.
Agreed, in one of the slide reels you can see the prisoner among the Owlks being comforted at the sight of their home, so they may have known he was especially distraught at just spying an image of what home used to be like.
To me the biggest reveal is that the Owlks knew about the heat death of the universe. This implies perhaps they interpreted the eye vision correctly, they knew the supernovas would happen, they just responded to this information in a hateful way. But they knew even more than the nomai and due to their efforts some of them will succeed to eke out a life for a while post heat-death
I thought something similar. If they knew about the heat death it also makes way more sense for them to have made the sim. They werent just so scared of reality they wanted to hide. They knew there would be nothing else relatively soon. And basically did the best they could with what they knew they could do. It makes things just a bit more nuanced and understandable.
@@TheLoreExplorer I thought the ability to "live after death" was an accidental discovery about the sim, though. They specifically show one of their elders dying coincidentally as they're ready to enter the sim by the fire. I get that the point of that reel is to teach the player about dying to bypass the alarm, but the inhabitants featured in it seemed to be surprised and affected by what happened. After all, they needed to set up test chambers to make sure the artifacts work while they're sleeping. How would they intentionally test if they work while they're dead?
Im not sure accidental is the right term. The elderly owlk was clearly dying and they rushed him to the sim on purpose. So maybe that was the plan all along. They could have just recorded it for the sake of saving the information. Or they may have planned to live generationally. Build the sim as a comfortable place to outlive the heat death and spend most of their time. But only wake up to procreate and care for the ship. Then they slowly lost track of reality. Either way. Thats a direct quote from the devs. The Whole point was to outlive the heatdeath.
edit*to be clear I know even the owlk seemed surprised to be alive. But that could be surprise that it actually worked
@@TheLoreExplorer Given the reel that lets us know that one can live in the simulation after dying in the real world is classified as a "glitch reel" I'd say it was definitely not the intended purpose- at first anyways. It might've began as a simple way to "go back" to their own world. Of course when they realized they could live Forever™ surely that changed, and they started making preparations for the Stranger being empty and as self-sustaining as possible. "It's a feature" is a real phenomenon!
Well. Technically a glitch report and glitch are different things. It couldve came in as a glitch report but the creators said "Oh. No thats not a glitch". And either way really. The whole point of the sim was to live past the heat death of the universe. And so we know they werent just so scared of reality they hopped in the sim to hide. Whether the extended life part was part of the plan or later implemented? I dont think it matters much. My only point was they didnt simply hide in their sim due to fear. It was actually a sensible plan of sorts.
I wonder if maybe the idea with the mini planet was something like, they allowed the prisoner to gaze at their home planet from afar in their prison. It's like teasing the prisoner by dangling their memories of home and freedom right in front of them. Hence, dick move.
I guess the ringed planet is further away than when you see it in any other part of the simulation, so their home moon must be implied to be somewhere in the distance rather than where the Prisoner would be observing from. Also, this has been my favourite interpretation ever since watching this part of Joseph Anderson's playthrough: ua-cam.com/video/ultevcFIulk/v-deo.html
It's also a "you chose the eye over your home so now you'll sit here and look at home forever" situation, where they're forcing their own beliefs onto the prisoner instead of letting him have the eye like he had in his home
@@struanpeat5116 yeah, that’s a unique way to look at it. Frankly, it can be interpreted a number of ways, and I find that really interesting- to some, it’s an act of respect or kindness. To others, and I suppose to Mobius Digital, it’s a slap in the face.
@@MooseyVGM i always saw it as a habbit, they created a space in the simulation and so they must have a moon, even if it's a tini one. but it could also be a religious practice, that to be whole and to be an owlk was to view/worship the planet, and despite stripping him of identity and freedom they couldn't knowingly stip him of spiritual enligtenment
@@struanpeat5116 Yeah I thought it was just because they NEED to see the Ringed World so much. I mean think of how much they did just to feel like they were at home again. I imagined the idea that someone could go without being able to look at the Ringed World was impossible. So they gave the Prisoner a little window.
Thank you and the devs for doing this interview! It's great getting even small insight into the mysteries of the DLC.
As for why the devs see it as a dick move to have a mini version of the ringed planet in the prison, I think a tiny detail overlooked is the fact that in the prison, it's very heavily obscured by the barred window leading up to it, while in the rest of the simulation it can be clearly seen up in the sky no problem. Even the Prisoner's telescope in the prison looks extremely weathered, to the point that I dunno if it would serve him much use. Heck, maybe the others intentionally broke it? It's like giving him a breadcrumb while the rest feast, if that makes sense.
17:20 fun fact, the green glass is also on top of the little shuttle ships docked in the hangars. I assume they travel by pointing the glass towards the greatest light source nearby.
Nice job Explorer! You seem to have asked exactly the right questions to glean a little more info about the Strangers some of us have been dying to know.
The idea of the Owlks being afraid of losing information/life of any kind has long been my theory as to why they didn't permanently destroy the reels, as well as why they kept the prisoner alive, but the exception of them destroying the codes to unlock the prisoner always threw me off from fully accepting it, so it's nice to see that's what they were trying to put across.
It's also interesting to find out why those traps were put there. I have to admit I never really considered that they were looking for sympathizers.
It's interesting that the Owlks did plan to outlive the heat-death of the universe though; did they actually have some perpetual energy machine, or were they just planning to live as long as they could with what they had? Either way it's a shame they didn't foresee the breaking of the dam upon moving out of the supernova range... in hindsight they probably should have moved out of range *before* entering the simulation.
When it comes to the green glass light tech... well, it's obvious they aren't *realistic* solar sails, as you obviously can't push a raft with light created from an object standing on the raft being captured by the raft again... but hey, this is Outer Wilds, where the rules of the universe aren't quite the same in all instances and you have trees creating bubbles of oxygen.
And oh boy, that timeline answers so many questions and creates so many more. It's interesting to see how reactive the Owlks were, and how significantly the prisoner's betrayal affected them. They clearly never expected one of their own to betray them, and the steps they took to make sure it never happened again really emphasizes the Owlks' fear and paranoia.
Im so glad you appreciated it! I was worried people thought Id have asked dumb questions because theyd want to know big secrets. To try to touch on one of your questions though.
The devs mention that the stranger received power from the sun. Which imo is sort of dumb for an interstellar ship. And sort of speaks against the idea they even could live past the second phase of heat death if it needed the suns energy. So they probably were just going to power up and try to live as long as they could after all suns die. If they didnt permanently retreat into the sim they probably couldve found or created a more permanent energy source. From what I understand black holes live long beyond the phase where all suns die. The nomai used them to power cities and what not. So the owlks probably could too if the owlks wanted. We also see they can keep fires going for 280k years. Silly. But heat does = energy. And so does explosions. Which we see the green fire create. So maybe there is something there too.
We also see nomai tech which are completely separate from a power source for 280k years and are still lit and active. A lot of the vessel works. The orbital probe cannons tracking module. Cities on giants deep and so others. So its not too crazy to think theyd at least live thousands. If not hundreds of thousands of years past the loss of all suns. But really idk how they could live past the heat death. I think they were just doing the best with what they have.
Love this video! Helped me realize so much I hadn't noticed. Like the fact that the photos before one of the forbidden archives is a memorial and how that connects to the owlks fear of loss.
Personally I still would love to see an interview with Andrew Prahlow, and learn more about the music theory and why certain instruments or leitmotifs were used
It would've been interesting to see their response to questions about the owelks' lifespans. Were the ones that built the simulation the same ones that built the stranger? Was the prisoner around when the eye was first silenced? If so, how long was it silenced before the prisoner released it? Because either the Nomai weren't around/spacefaring before it was first silenced and so never recieved the signal until the prisoner released it (either meaning they were pretty new when the prisoner woke up, OR the Owelk's live thousands of years and it had been silenced for thousands of years as the Nomai explored the galaxy), or they had been spacefaring for a while, but their technology improved to be able to recieve the signal only after it had been silenced. Don't know if any of that makes sense, it's hard to explain/think about
The signal travels at the speed of light, which is ultimately finite. If the eye was 30 thousand light years away when the signal was released, then it would have been just flying through the universe for 30 thousand years (during which time owl elks go to sleep for a long time) before someone finally heard it. Quite literally an echo of the eye.
@@kepler6873 yeah I know that, but the eye was active for possibly billions of years before they heard and eventually silenced it. I'm just wondering why the Nomai never recieved the signal BEFORE the Owelks silenced it for the first time
You can actually see the prisoner in the reel where they found out about the dangers of the eye. So i’d say that the elks who reached the eye are the same who built the simulation. No clue about the elks who built the ship tho.
@@littlechickeyhudak Maybe the Nomai didn't have evolved enough (biologically or technologically) to read the signal before. Also only one Nomai ship managed to read the eye's signal
i think it could be due to a distance thing. because only one nomai vessel read the signal, that means the signal died out before it had reached any of the others. its possible that it didnt die out and it just hasnt reached them in the 280k+ years since the nomai heard it, but the universe doesn't appear to be that big in this game. the nomai have been out of reach of the eye's signal, then the prisoner released it again at just the right time
I love this, it’s so cool to see the creators perspectives on things and it’s so cool that Lore can actually get these answers!
Also my theory about the green glass: you know how the owlks will sometimes have their eyes glowing and sometimes not? We I think they use the glow in their eyes to operate the light activated stuff. (Maybe, it’s just a theory)
I like the inverted planets at the end, and the explanation, while simple, makes sense to me. After entering the Eye, and reuniting the travelers, Chet says that they enjoyed learning, but that the rules were about to change. I think that their claim was about more than just the universe would be re-created, but that the laws of physics and reality in general would be altered in some way.
The clarifications on the Owlks' fear of loss also deepens the meaning behind the reel burning devices. How scared must they have been of what they'd learned that they would go to such a length as to destroy their preservations themselves
Well, they just switched from physical to digital. But the lengths they went through to forget that fear is telling. Especially considering they built a ship to survive this event. So imagine being so scared of a bomb you want to forget it exists....after youve already made sure youd survive a direct hit.
Oh wow. I finally think I understand. Thanks to this comment. The Owlks werent scared that theyd die. Or that the eye would end the universe. They knew those would happen and planned to survive it. Though they wanted to be alone....they didnt want to KNOW they were alone in the universe. They wanted to forget everyone else died. Wow. Im almost in tears....I hope im not just making that up lol
edit* either way. Thanks for commenting
I watched your "Prisoner's Motives" videos right after watching this one, and I think I get what the devs meant by the telescope within the prison being a "dick move." The prisoner had a more outward- and forward-looking mindset than the other Owlks, represented by the telescope at his home. As part of his punishment for acting on that outlook, the other Owlks make it so that the only thing his telescope in the prison can gaze on is a memory, looking backward instead of forward. Punishing him by forcing him to comport to their worldview in the most literal-yet-symbolic way possible.
After a while. Here’s my thoughts on this. The telescope and moon are sick moves for this reason. During a certain ending we get told that reality is like a half remembered dream. But what if we had a few reminders that reality was indeed real. And we were trapped. We’d never be able to truly forget. At first. I thought this reminder was a blessing. A reminder of home. Something of comfort. But when contemplating on the type of existence the prisoner has. It probably doesn’t serve as that.
The mini version of the planet in the prison is a dick move because the prisoner has to be constantly reminded of the home they can never return to. Since they don’t even get to really experience the simulation they never forget about reality or the fact that they destroyed their home planet. Serves no but but to make an eternal punishment even worse.
Right. I just dont see how thats any different from the actual ringed planet
@@TheLoreExplorer The inhabitants in the simulation can see the ringed planet in all its glory. It is bright and beautiful in the sky. In the prison, it's tiny and obscured between multiple layers of bars. It's almost frustrating to try to look at (although maybe this point is refuted if the telescope can see through those bars). In either case, I think it's more a matter of "you can never leave this prison to see it in its full glory" rather than "you can never go back home."
I think the mini planet is a dick move because he’s imprisoned. The Owlk didn’t just miss their planet, they also missed all the people left behind or that died in their believed fruitless journey to the Eye of the Universe. The recreated version of their homeworld serves to fool them but it also serves to keep them together, so they never have to lose anyone again. For the Prisoner, they allow him to see the planet in the sky, but without that sense of community, it makes that prison all the more stifling and torturous. “You get to see what we all wanted, but you do not get to be there with us. You will remember how alone you are every time you look up at the world we lost.” That kind of vibe
I feel silly for thinking that the burnt building in the sim was a reflection of the burnt church now. It makes way more sense for it to be the prisoner's house, especially since his IRL body is missing from that area.
Also imo the reason why they gave the prisoner a view of the planet was just as a reminder of the outside & their old home. The others get to live freely in the full simulation of their home world with all the movies they want while the prisoner only gets that tiny window in his little box.
Man, the dam cooling the radiators is a way cool detail. Great questions!
16:48 I disagree that the orb itself on the raft is the propulsion- you can see on the underside of the raft there's loops which are the real propulsion sources
I had always really wished I could find the server room for the simulation, I'm glad the devs at least wanted to put it physically in. I just wish in the interview they pointed out where it would exist
I wish this was instead a verbal interview to elaborate and explain some things.
Something I’ve always wondered, is why does the planet near the eye of the universe have a giant hole torn out of it facing the eye?
Ive always assumed thats where the quantum moon broke off from, even though the sizes dont really fit. But maybe quantum stuff, who knows. Also is that a ”planet”, or part of the eye as a whole? Idk honestly
In the beginning of a journey exists 3 fractions of Owlks:
1) mainlanders, who lived on Lowlands and Reservoir, they control all exits and controls, they are rulers, engineers and may be coders.
2) islanders - most religion Owlks, they create church of the Eye and they have most significant Green Temple. Majority blame islanders on flying mission to the Eye. They were punished: in the Dream World it is hard to find islanders style buildings.
3) mountaineer - most mystics and science ones. They have a lantern laboratory.
But they also have ... second church of the Eye. And this church was not destroyed, but renamed to "Green fire + slide reels". And it looks like it means "Knowledge to everyone". This small group of believers or followers of Discoverer/future Prisoner.
While majority decided to hide signal of the Eye and hide themselves, go into Dream World, "green sliders" start to produce own slider reels. Not professional cartoon-like, but raw memory 1st person visions. They add "how to open door in the temple", lantern-helper to show secret tunnel to the island temple, slider reels and memory sticks in lantern-laboratory.
Another small group of mountaineers - "secret police" (evil-looking persons on reels), they wish to find all members of "green sliders" and they punished Discoverer by cutting 1 horn (on Eye discovery he has 2 horns), but with no result.
Discoverer woke up and his "green sliders" told everyone to continue the journey, but he was punished to be in individual prison.
To the ground Dreamworld was added Underground one. So, falling glitch is a final one of 3. Prison was in Underground level. It consisted 1 black room with 1 chair with no candles or windows and with impossibility to switch off the lantern. Yes, that why Prisoner wait so long and drown at the end.
"Secret police" added Forbidden archive on Underground level. And it created 3 hidden places (the are in mountain style), where they hide and digitalizing all slide reels. They also add lock to controls of blocking module.
Prisoner followers/"Green sliders" fount how all passes created, where passes were hidden in real world and Dream World. They wrote on reels and memory sticks. They also add lantern-helpers to find secret places, and put reels here.
They even a bit open prison and added room looks like church-hall with candles, window, telescope and "small Saturn".
But before "escaping operation" of the Prisoner was done, "Secret police" prevent it maybe by burning a house with telescope in the Dream World.
They destroyed all controls (controls of signal module, controls pulling out the water a Prison and others). "Secret police" found helpers in mountain church, locked it, turn reels in the secret places into deathly traps and fired rest of reels. Also destroy all passes to unlocks the Prison.
wow, you solved one of my doubts, like why would they abandon real life, and is that they were disappointed with this universe and gone virtual.
Well not entirely. They said the whole goal if the sim was to survive beyond the heat death of the universe.
The mini ringed planet might be there because it looks convincing at first glance, looking through the telescope reveals it's clearly a fake, lesser version, even moreso than the one over the rest of the simulation. It teases at the idea of home, but is ultimately cruel prank and reminder that the Prisoner can't have even a dream of home.
Awesome video Lore! I do have question that's been on my mind for a while, so lemme know if you know the answer.
When we meet the Prisoner, it's clear they've been in there for quite some time. And once we free them, they supposedly walk into the water, waking them up and therefore killing them. So my question is: why didn't they just blow out their own fire? As depressing as it sounds, the Prisoner wouldn't have anything to live for in there, so why just sit there and wait for nothing?
Maybe I've missed something obvious, but I'd love to hear if you or anyone else has any exlpanations/theories!
He killed himself because he knew his actions weren't in vein. Maybe he waited because he was hoping he would learn that sometime
@@floris8392 That’s true, I’m guessing he never lost hope that someone would continue what he started.
Correct. And the vision we bring to the prisoner proves this to them. We show a symbol of the eye on old Nomai ruins. And not only that. But we are inspired by this very symbol to take to the stars. So the prisoner feels safe in passing their dream onto us.
@@TheLoreExplorer thanks for the answer, makes more sense now!
@@TheLoreExplorer that feeling of showing the prisoner that it was worth it almost made me tear up
For the new universe, I interpreted the spheres as Dyson sphere like structures around a star, not a planet with a melted core. To be clear: I don’t mean that they’re artificial.
I don’t think it’s as simple as gravity is inverted, because that obviously wouldn’t work. It seems that many laws of physics are different in this new universe. Probably entirely new laws, etc.
They are brittle hollow with a molten core instead of a black hole. Or even protostars or whatever youd want to call em. The black hole forms later on because the crust of those planets have inherent gravitational properties. Which is why the gravity can be inverted. You also have to keep in mind physics can be entirely different in this new universe.
@@TheLoreExplorer that’s my point. I don’t think you can use anything from the previous universe to explain this new one. Anything and everything could have changed. There’s no need for the crust to have inherent gravitational properties if the new universe doesn’t even work that way.
I just dont understand how you could say "because that obviously wouldnt work". But we sort of know it could. Thats what happened on brittle. The eye uses our memories to help form the next universe. They could be exactly the same as the laws from ours. Or slightly different. Or not at all. But theres no rules saying you have to throw out everything old. It makes sense and would work. Also...its kind of what we see as well.
@@TheLoreExplorer of course. Anything could carry over. But my point is that you can’t rely on anything carrying over. It’s a potential hypothesis, but definitely not a proof. It’s just like the real world, there’s many ways to get to the same answer, and as you dig deeper you may discover that the route you took doesn’t quite align with your continued observations, so you have to re-visit your earlier assumptions.
Im not relying on anything carrying over. I just remember hearing stories that very early on the concept for brittle was a molten core which would boil water and send the pieces flying into space. And that seems to be what we see to me. But tbh I dont know what a natural dyson sphere is. And with the river and trees and whatnot I dont see how it would collect energy. It seems much more likely to me its what we know since it shaped by our memories.
So cool you were able to get this interview!
Really hoping for a sequel. Was so much fun learning the games secrets and solving the mysteries. I very much would love to see more
I didn't put it together before this video that the reason the vision from the prison shows you the way to the symbol room was because that's what tells you how to get into the eye satellite control center.
At 1:26 what mod is being used to view the stranger ship without the simulated sunlight? I've been looking for it everywhere and can't seem to find it
From my understanding, there is a 100 million project utilizing solar sails where it is hypothesized that it would be able to travel (maximum velocity ) 20 percent the speed of light. So, it isn't too far-fetched to say that solar sails can be utilized effectively. Also, on another note ( sorry off topic ), I don't know if this has already been discussed but I think the color of the robes that the owlks wear symbolizes age.
yeah i guess the Owlks saw the Eye kill everyone and everything because in a way it does because it ends the universe and even though the universe is ending when we reach it it wisent when the Owlks reached it if that makes any sense
This is amazing thank you so much!
you should have asked about why the prisoners horn is broken.
From a design perspective I think it's simply to make the prisoners stand out. So when you look at the reels you can spot them out and when you meet them you notice that they are different.
As for lore/story reasons it could have broken for so many reasons, I think was an accident in building the dam or the artifacts
Great questions LE!!
Has anyone asked them about the Owlks connection with ghost matter? That's the one big question I still have, notably why is it _in_ the stranger? It was environmentally sealed beyond the docking bays and that one blown test chamber, so why do we find it in the artifact construction shack and one of the slide burning temples, was it a substance familiar to them that somehow powered their ghost fire and/or green glass tech? Furthermore, considering the Nomai appeared to have no knowledge of this matter, despite being a well travelled and well researched people who mastered warp travel, one would have to assume it's something incredibly rare (possibly even non-naturally occuring), so is it possibly something unique to the Owlks home system or even something of their own construction? Possibly even a waste product that they had "disposed" of some time long ago by launching into the depths of space that just happened to find it's way to _this_ system some time after they arrived as the interloper? Or was it the waste of some other civilization (or very rare naturally occuring object) that also happened upon the Owlks system some time before but didn't "pop" the same way, allowing them to research and utilize it as a resource, and another one just happened upon the system they were chilling in later? Orrrr, is the ghost matter in the stranger just an oversight, or somehow explainable as from the interloper like the rest of it?
The nature and origin of ghost matter was always mysterious, and it's existence on the stranger introduces so much many more interesting questions, but I never see anyone else asking them when it's like, all I can think about 😅
Ghost matter is named after its property to just kinda go through other matter. And as the stranger was parked by the time the interloper came and exploded the ghost matter spread there as well. Thats the only connection as far as anyone knows :: )
Darn. I figured the Heat Sinks was also to help simulate a humid swamp environment in the first area.
I would not think that the hollow planets we see in the ending have 'reverse gravity' but rather have gravity from the centrifugal force as they rotate their molten cores. The same kind of gravity (from centrifugal force) that The Stranger creates with its spin.
I mean the devs say they are inverted spaces. I dont think I say reverse gravity but sorry if I do. Interestingly the devs have stated that the crust of brittle hollow has inherent gravitational properties. So reverse gravity isnt the best way to say it. But that explanation works. Centrifugal force would only really work on the equator of a planet.
I know it’s too late but i just remembered someone from the campfire said the rules are about to change. So logic in our current universe doesn’t apply to the new one in game
Just speechless anyway, I have been watching you since around 2 or 3k subs in 2019!
Thanks for sharing this with us!
I'm guessing that the server room is still on the Stranger, but was blocked off, probably by boulders or dirt or something, so the simulations could never be destroyed. Think about it: The owlks destroyed the signal blocker interface so no one could mess with it again, why wouldn't they extend that fear to make sure the simulations were always maintained?
I dont think thats the case. The inhabitants were deathly afraid to lose info. A church. A switch to shut off the eye probe. None of this was info. But that sim housed literally all info. Not even the prisoner would have destroyed that. And I dont think they ever imagined being found by another intelligent species.
Fair points. I did only finish the DLC yesterday so I'm still a bit new to this species' habits (aside from performing chiropractic neck adjustments). My headcanon is that there's just a _really_ hard to find button somewhere that opens a secret room and leads to it.
Interesting -- I've always interpreted the visible planet from the prisoner's room as a sort of coda to the story of what the owelks did to them. Despite the prisoner defying the owelks' utterly staunch hatred of the Eye and potentially realizing their absolute worst fears and bringing about the death of the owelks and the end of the universe, compelling the owelks to lock the prisoner up for eternity, there was this decision of quiet compassion to give the prisoner a peaceful view of the sky to remind them of home and provide a place to stargaze from
Thats how I saw it. Multiple times I mentioned how touching it was they gave them a little reminder of home.
It could have been kindness in their minds maybe, but the whole point of the Prisoner was that it was tired of the simulation, so having the only thing they can see be a constant artificial reminder of home would be painful.
The fact that the Prisoner is sitting in the dark instead of looking up at the planet, even though they are the only one that was shown to still be interested in space, is telling.
I suppose what is so confusing about it to me is the stuff being said about the mini ringed planet can also be said about the big one. I just dont see the difference. They are both reminders that they arent home. Both places they cant get to.
@@TheLoreExplorer I don't think the mini version is supposed to be its own thing, the devs just added it in because the big one didn't line up right with the window.
Hence, why they didn't understand your question about it having lore implications, because they aren't supposed to be 2 different entities. The only way you would know that they are actually 2 different entities is by going out of bounds (aka, not their intent).
Regardless, what the devs were saying is that the Prisoner's cell could have had no windows at all, or even a whole glass dome to view the whole night sky, but instead, the Owlks built him a window that specifically only shows the ringed planet.
He rejected the simulation, so having his only view being something that is a constant reminder of where he actually is, is "a dick move" whether the other Owlks saw it that way or not.
The prisoner is supposed to be under ground. Cut off from all of that. They shouldnt be able to see the ringed planet from down there at all. It HAS to be two separate entities. Anyway. I just dont get it bud. Personally. If I were in that situation. I think itd serve as comfort.
Congrats
I've got a question: As grim as it is, we see skeletons of nomai children, indicating there were children when the nomai died. But if that's the case...
*Why do we never see children on the stranger?*
Well , theoretically if you entered a sim and naturally aged until your body died then youd age to an adult. They werent exiting and reproducing or anything. Theyve all been in the sim for hundreds of thousands of years. We really shouldnt see any kids. And we do see children in the paintings and whatnot. Even one in a singlular reels slides. In short , I think they all grew up.
As a native Pittsburgher, i appreciate the accent! 😂 not sure if you are from pittsburgh, but if not, then know that you speak in the tongue of my people
Awesome questions!
Regarding the Prisoner’s house and the codes in the dream, does this mean that the owlks have flamethrowers in the dream world that they used to destroy the dream versions of the Prisoner’s home and codes?
Thanks for the kind words! They may have just used regular fire. Or the fire from their artifacts. Because I dont remember seeing any flame throwers in the sim.
I thought the lights blinked on and off because an alarm was tripped when it got old and fragile
Also I seriously doubt the stranger “needs” solar power as you put it, but it would make sense to utilize it especially considering they weren’t moving anytime soon so to speak
i wish you asked them why the owls attack (and kill, if you dont have the lantern) a sentient being that's intelligent enough to solve their puzzle and enter the simulation
Based on everything we know about them, probably out of fear. The Nomai are the type of people who would be intrigued and want to learn more about this unknown creature; the Strangers just get rid of anything potentially dangerous so they can keep on living in their simulation. They'd rather feel safe than put themselves at risk to learn new things, that's a big theme for the entire DLC.
I also dont think they really have any way to tell how we entered the sim. They probably think they are just waking us up. But mostly yeah. They are scared someone will reach the forbidden archives. Which has information they are terrified of us learning.
I always thought the interloper killed the Elk people too, which is why the stranger was full of ghost matter 🤔
Nope. They die of old age before the nomai even arrive.
@@TheLoreExplorer I reject your reality and substitute my own. You said yourself that the devs statements were only one possible interpretation 😛
But the reels show us first hand lol
@@TheLoreExplorer propaganda!
@@TheLoreExplorer the Owlks were still alive when the Nomai arrived.
The Prisoner turned off the signal blocker which enabled The Eye to release a couple signals (I think only 3 waves). These are detected by the Nomai Vessel where they get the coordinates and warp travel there immediately, without telling the other Nomai groups where they were headed because they were worried the signal would disappear.
The Nomai were correct that the signal disappeared. They landed in Dark Bramble and escape podded out. During the time the Nomai were building shelter and Owlks were building the prison and hiding/moving/ destroying the slide reels. We don't know when the Owlks died but it was between when the 2 Nomai groups re-connecting and the completion of the sun station. The Owlks were definitely dead before the ghost matter as the devs confirmed that in pervious interviews.
Thank you Lore Explorer I love you.
i like to think that the mini planet was their attempt to make the prison more humane for the prisoner, giving them an opportunity to stargaze like they always liked to do. its kind of a dick move because, in the context of the prisoner's life, instead of being comforting, it's just a reminder of how sad the simulation is and what theyre sacrificing for the sake of this illusion. it'd be comforting _for the strangers,_ but they really just do not understand the prisoner's point of view at all
For the mini planet I think it's more of a tease.
Perhaps the reason it's such a dick move is because it is a eternal reminder that he is in the simulation?
The prisoner releasing the eye signal may show that he didn't agree with the idea of hiding themselves away in the simulation, and maybe he would even have preferred if they lived out their lives outside in the real world instead, despite the profound feeling of loss for their home world. So now they're stuck down there, with a permanent reminder that they are not in the real world.
Imprisoned not only in a cage, but in a fake world, with a reminder of what will forever be out of reach. Never again to see the real world outside.
I think the little ringed planet is a dick move because the prisoner is a traveller, they enjoy adventure. The little planet (a) reminds the Prisoner that the place they’re in isn’t real, (b) reminds them of a place they can never go, and (c) reminds them that they’re stuck at home, the last place they actually want to be.
I have a question: in the timeline the prisoner frees the eye, but the nomai see the eye a lot later (after all the hawks are dead), is this because the signal travels at the speed of light and so the time required to travel from the solar system to the Nomai takes so long? (maybe the reason of the nomai finishing in dark bramble is beacause they only knew the old location of the eye and not the actual one)
The reason it takes so long is indeed supposed to be that the signal is travelling but I don’t think that’s why they ended up in dark bramble, what’s more likely is that dark bramble duplicated the signal and they went to that one instead of the eyes actual coordinates which is pretty sad because they would have been able to get to the eye right at the start but just got unlucky
Lore Explorer, I have a question. I've been wondering, what's your take on why the prisoner never blew out his artifact flame?
Its basically summed up by their mural. They are metaphorically growing this potential future all by themselves. They needed to nurture that flower. But when we came along we told them something important. That their flower sprouted seeds. We show them we are chasing the eyes signal. And so they can finally peacefully release their duty to the flower.
@@TheLoreExplorer So he had the will to wait there for around 300,000 years for a sign of something? That's what I struggle to believe with that theory. I mean, there was no implications that he would ever know whether the signal reached anyone or not. So why stick around? Sure, we came but let's say we didn't.
The artists are using symbolism to tell us. This is like asking why grow a flower if it takes 300k years? Because whoever put it in the pot thought it was beautiful. Time isnt even meaningful at that point. Its just forever for the prisoner. And In a world constructed of ugliness towards them. Literally a reality designed to lock away and torture them. They still took the hard parts to try to ensure the beautiful parts happened. "Nurturing their flower". They did what the other couldnt and faced the hard part. Thats all
@@TheLoreExplorer I suppose. If it's more symbolic, then I can understand. Because in any logical aspect, I don't know how anyone would have the will to live in a prison forever.
In a very real sense. Reality is relative to the observer. Our logic doesnt work in the prisoners reality. After 100 or maybe even 1000 years the prisoner no longer has a way to keep track of time. It literally loses all meaning. And they are literally 2 layers buried in reality. This is the ending we get when we enter the sim with the atp inactive. "How long have we been in here. Who knows. But they dont even hunt you anymore. Your life has become a half-remembered dream".
Forever means nothing. They may not even remember the artifact is how they are stuck in there anymore. Is that reality or a dream? Their entire reality is 2 rooms. And their artifact has always been a part of it. And when they finally get out. The first time they find something "In their new reality" that they knew should kill them. They immediately dove right in. (after leaving us a message of course)
So idk what to say. They endured to try to ensure that beauty didnt remain in their reality alone. It didnt feel like forever to them and they were just trying to grow their metaphorical flower. And in a way sll of their hardship was worth it. They got to add beauty to the next universe through us.
I kinda wish you'd asked if the devs ever had an official name for the strangers
I did. Sadly they dont. My best try at naming them fell to "Solitari". But Ive never tried to make the public push to change it from owlk or stranger.
In an interview with noclip/ spoilercast they said they called them either ghost birds or ghost owls. This is beacuse the original idea for them was that youll see them walking on the Stranger as ghosts and the big reveal would be that actually they are in a simulation and you can just see ghostly projections of them living in the simulation.
Highly recommend you watch the interview documentary. As its hard to explain in a comment
One thing I couldn't help but notice is that the Quantum Moon doesn't seem to be in any of the slides the Owlks have.
Has anyone actually seen records of it?
I have a question that I'd be interested to hear opinions on.
Are years in the game the same as our years? I ask because the game tells us that the Nomai died around 281000 years ago and the Strangers were around a considerable amount of time even before them but their stuff is surprisingly intact, especially the wooden buildings in the Stranger, which you would assume would have rotted or eroded away long ago.
The Nomai or the Hearthians would have a different idea of what a year is compared to us or would have a different way to measure time entirely. Taking the Timber Hearth orbit as a year gives us only around 2 years and 3 months of Earth time since the Nomai died, which is too short I would say l, since the Nomai are all skeletons and the Hearthians would have had to evolve in that short amount of time.
Another argument against is that the English text (or whatever language the game is set to) we see on the translator tool and written on a few things is there purely for gameplay reasons, since we see Hearthian text on paper notes which looks nothing like English. Could be safe to assume that the time the Hearthians and Nomai use is also translated to our earth time so we can understand. We know minutes are definitely the same as our minutes due to the time loop.
Hearthian years seem too short but earth years seem too long for how intact everything is.
This is a good question. One even the devs have debated. The verdict I got back was "Time and scale are abstract". It reads what it does to allow us to understand. Nomai and hearthian time , indeed , should be different. But theyve made it so we , as a player , can sort of understand both sides of it. The nomai have been dead for 280k years = very long time. The time loop is 22 minutes = very short time. So , even if scale is all out of whack. We can basically take it all at face value. Im not sure where you got the 2 years and 3 months thing though. Timber hearth orbits and fully rotates about 5 times in the 22 minutes we see it. So , 22 minutes could be more like 5 years to them. Or it could be 5 days. Or 22 minutes. But even if it does equal 5 years to the hearthians. Its ok because the devs translated it for us. The player.
As for the fact wood would rot by then.....yeah. probably. Keep in mind the space station is what wed call vacuum sealed. Its a pretty safe , controlled(compared to earths flora and fauna) and clean environment. But , yeah. After so long it would have crumbled. We have to just suspend our disbelief there or say "They can scan the creator of the universe with light and get back a vision. They can create a seemingly ever powered cloaking field and ship.....Perhaps they just have extraordinarily good wood" lol
7:05 this is kind of what happened with christianity in middle ages. They had ancient scrolls and books that they considered blasphemous, so they locked them away. But they weren't radical enough to completely destroy them. So all this culture and knowledge was obscured, waiting for its time.
Wow.
So awesome!
Hey man! What do you think the dam's function is? Just a heat sink, or does it power some of the electricity too?
I think its just part of the heat sync. Heat syncs need reservoirs to cool down the water.
@@TheLoreExplorer So, where's the solar panels if Stranger is solar powered?
There's no other side of the Screens (that show the solar system) as the exterior is just Metallic. And the green sails pop up like 7-8 minutes into the loop.
The Strangers have inherently mastered light. I dont think they even need solar panels. They are beyond that. Im not sure if this is showing me the right video youre commenting on. But in an interview with the devs they say the stranger moved near the sun to harness its power. So thats kinda that.
Is it possible for the player to access the controls of the ey signal blocker and deactivate it to release the eye signal once more ?
the controls are burned out
one question I would’ve asked is… why does the Dam collapse right the same day we encounter the stranger? It has survived for thousands of years.. Is it just pure coincidence or is there a special reason as to why it happens when we are there to witness it
Its the first time the stranger has moved in 280k+ years. The extra strain of the momentum along with the neglect led to its collapse.
Awesome!!! 👍👍👏👏
Why do the Owlks attack on sight? Are they rabid, or just scared of a strange metal creature entering their secret simulation??
Metal creature? Anyway. Mostly the last one. But also kind of none of them. They are hiding a terrible secret inside the simulation. And they definitely don’t want anyone to find it. But it’s not just a secret from us. THEY aren’t allowed to visit the secret archives either. They are forbidden. And so when we turn the lights out. The owlks think another owlk is trying to access the archives and so they move to prevent them. Until the very moment the owlk see you. They think you’re another owlk. Only when they catch and see you face to face do they notice you’re an alien. So they aren’t rabid. They arent scared of us. And they aren’t even really scared about us being in the sim. A certain ending tells us that we can live peacefully and coexist with them. But since they caught ANYONE trying to enter the forbidden archives. (Or just happen to see anyone who doesn’t really belong.) They forcibly make them leave the sim to prevent them from learning anything important. In the event where we shut down the atp. But also die to enter the sim. We live in the sim for so long it becomes our reality. Reality feels like a “half remembered dream”. So ….it’s complicated. As with any humanoid species. It seems they did what they did due to personal beliefs(either losing or sharing this info is as bad as death) and situational reaction. Such as “Omg. Someone is trying to enter the forbidden archives? We must stop them!”
@@TheLoreExplorer
Sometimes I forget that the main character isn’t actually a sentient spacesuit.
Solar panels don't require sunlight, they require light. Granted, sunlight is far more efficient, but you can use artificial light to power up solar panels. So no, the owlks aren't masters of solar power because you can use your flashlight on the green glass, they're masters of solar power because they have solar sails that lasted intergalactic travel
I still feel like I’m not sure why they recorded those hidden booby trapped reels to begin with. That’s what I’d love to ask the devs: Why did the Owlks record where the vault passwords were hidden? And why did they keep them in the real world rather than the sim?
I think its a failsafe of sorts. When you lock yourself away to forget things you may find yourself forgetting things you dont want to or need,
Where’s your previous Q&A?
ua-cam.com/video/Q2CeYsLjBEA/v-deo.html
I wish you would’ve asked if we could have a species name for the inhabitants. Calling them Owlks just has always felt off
I have before. There isnt an official name. The "most official" name we have are "the inhabitants"
In a noclip spoilercast podcast they interview the devs. The devs call them either ghost birds or ghost owls. This is beacuse an early idea of them was that they would appear ghost like. Its too difficult to explain why in a comment. I highly recommend listening to the podcast episode. It's on youtube
Why do owlks twitch like that
Dude no... the green glass in the solar sails aren't the exact same as the ones in the Stranger. The devs were only ever talking about the solar sails. It just means there's a wide range of uses for the glass. They can absorb light (airlocks, rafts, doors and elevators), reflect it (solar sails) or transmit it (the lenses in the vision tech). It's not solar pressure powering the rafts at all. You can even flash light at them when you're off them and they come towards you, not away.
How do you think the stranger parked in our solar system. Then moved toward the sun? Light was shining on it yet it moved towards the sun...not away. And we are shown it was a controlled flight with the sails open. Seems to me they had some directional control of the acceleration created by the radiation.
@@TheLoreExplorer You're just being ridiculous now. That's because the solar sails were facing the other direction. We're even shown how it undergoes deceleration in a slide reel, the solar sails were facing behind to propel it forward and then they turned around to have them face in front to slow down. Because that's solar sails work, light hits them and is reflected to gain momentum perpendicular to the sails.
Def agree. For one thing, if your flashlight is able to push the raft forward, or those spinny room things, then you would be pushed back with similar force. That does not happen, so it's likely a sensor for light that is then used to control the rafts or airlocks
Notice the devs didnt simply say "Yes. They are solar sails". They said repeatedly they are the Inhabitants spin on solar sails. In the sense they translate solar radiation into acceleration. That could potentially also describe the elevators. And rafts. And so on. But I even state that I made a mistake in the question and didnt clarify what I was talking about. But if they understood. Then that was the implication. But it seems you just want to be critical as always. So whatever you say bud.
@@TheLoreExplorer I'm critical of this because you're making up stuff that is bogus by ignoring the direct quotes from the devs. They were clearly talking about the solar sails themselves, they specifically say 'light from the Sun'. What light from the Sun is hitting the green glass mechanisms within the Stranger?
1st
cant wait to watch this 😁