I've Noticed A Lot Of Games I Like Have Things To Say About Immortality So I Decided To Make A List

big family yep LTTM and FP seem to really like playing dominoes

It’s like . Shaky drag from my cigarette . Vallamir’s possession of Irving’s corpse is meant to be read as unhealthy coping, the idea that reclamation is always a surefire way of healing when all it does in this case is trap him in a part of the past that he needs to step away from if he wants to truly grow. Depoliticizing and desecrating Irving’s image by wearing it as a costume to suit his own survival doesn’t make him feel any better despite what he claims. Vallamir is actively dying in there, growing weaker the longer he stays put— to the point that he’s too malnourished to leave at all. Do you understand? He’s never once existed as himself in a state that is free of confinement, and yet confinement is something he seeks because it’s familiar. And that’s comforting. Irving is something that he knew. That’s comforting. He can use his hatred and frustration and anger towards the deceased admin to mask everything as a crude, distasteful form of revenge, but there’s no fruitful outcome in the long run. Do you understand? Do you get it? He’s used to being written off as something to hate, so the easiest route to take is to carry on in the flesh of something that also harbored hate. Do you see it? Whatever.

revisiting and updating the main OGs for the AU + some Iterator culture exploration

Made this cuz I found the original image funny

As someone with extreme Mental Health Fuckery, especially related to morals, and a sexual abuse victim: if you are saying "if you don't do XYZ related to social justice, you are going to become a sexual abuser", ESPECIALLY untagged, then I'm going to steal something out of your fucking house!!!!

Everyone should know about the existence of Grapecat, and the fact that he possibly inspired Spearmaster.

Mentioned by Andrew

I wonder, is Grapecat the Spearmaster we play as in the original MSC mod? or perhaps he was spear's secret twin brother all along? This is the hidden Spearmaster lore they didn't want to tell you. But I know for sure he is just a passionate, talented little guy

I have a headcanon that p03 was originally planned to be in Waste World, but after it flopped, he was repurposed. Sometimes Rebecha likes to remember the old times.

p03 will keep ranting about gameplay anyway

The Architecture of Rain World: Layers of History

A major theme in Rain World's world design that often goes overlooked is the theme of, as James Primate, the level designer, composer and writer calls it, "Layers of History." This is about how the places in the game feel lived-in, and as though they have been built over each other. Here's what he said on the matter as far back as 2014!

The best example of this is Subterranean, the final area of the base game and a climax of the theme. Subterranean is pretty cleanly slpit vertically, there's the modern subway built over the ancient ruins, which are themselves built over the primordial ruins of the depths. Piercing through these layers is Filtration System, a high tech intrusion that cuts through the ground and visibly drills through the ceiling of the depths.

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets, the friendly local ghost, tells the player of the "bones of forgotten civilisations, heaped like so many sticks," highlighting this theme of layering as one of the first impressions the player gets of Subterranean. Barely minutes later, the player enters the room SB_H02, where the modern train lines crumble away into a cavern filled with older ruins, which themselves are invaded by the head machines seen prior in outskirts and farm arrays, some of which appear to have been installed destructively into the ruins, some breaking through floors.

These layers flow into each other, highlighting each other's decrepit state.

The filtration system, most likely the latest "layer," is always set apart from the spaces around it. At its top, the train tunnels give way to a vast chasm, where filtration system stands as a tower over the trains, while at the bottom in depths, it penetrates the ceiling of the temple, a destructive presence. (it's also a parallel to the way the leg does something similar in memory crypts, subterranean is full of callbacks like that!)

Filtration system is an interesting kind of transition, in that it is much later and more advanced than both of the areas it cuts between. This is a really interesting choice from James! It would be more "natural" to transition smoothly from the caves of upper subterranean to the depths, but by putting filtration system in between, the two are clearly demarcated as separate. The difference in era becomes palpable, the player has truly found something different and strange.

Depths itself is, obviously, the oldest layer not only of subterranean but of the game itself. The architecture of Depths has little to do with the rest of the game around it, it's a clear sign of the forgotten civilisations that our friend Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets showed us, there's not actually that much to say about it itself, it's mostly about how it interacts with the other layers of subterranean.

That said, Subterranean is far from the only case of the theme of layers of history. It's present as soon as the player starts the game!

The very first room of the game, SU_C04, is seemingly a cave. It is below the surface, the shapes of it are distinctly amorphous rather than geometric. (well. kind of, it doesn't do a very good job of hiding the tile grid with its 45 degree angles.)

But let's take a closer look, shall we?

See that ground? it's made of bricks. The entire cave area of outskirts is characterised by this, the "chaotic stone" masonry asset is mixed with brickwork, unlike the surface ruins which are mostly stone. This, seemingly, is an inversion of common sense! The caves are bricks and the buildings are stone. This is not, however, a strange and unique aspect but a recurring motif.

This occurs enough in the game for it to be clearly intentional, but why would materials such as bricks be used in otherwise natural looking terrain?

The answer lies in the "Layers of History" theme. This is in fact, something that happens in real life, and it's called a tell

en.wikipedia.org

Tell (archaeology) - Wikipedia

To be specific, a tell is a kind of mound formed by settlements building over the ruins of previous iterations of themselves. Centuries of rubble and detritus form until a hill grows from the city. Cities such as Troy and Jericho are famous examples. The connections to the layers of history theme are pretty clear here, I think. Cities growing, then dying, then becoming the bedrock of the next city. The ground, then, is made of bricks, because the ground is the rubble of past buildings. The bones of forgotten civilisations, heaped like so many sticks!

Sasha talking in 3 languages