It's spooky month again, and those of us obsessed with this game know what that means. There's spooky dealings in the Haunted Cave, and perhaps more importantly the Teat Realm for Lemuria is on the near horizon. There's a lot to think about going into this, so I'd like to make a discussion thread before we go refreshing our browsers every ten minutes on Wednesdays.
To start with, I'd like to raise a few points that will probably be important going into this world.
1: Lemuria is secret and very well hidden. This is a world whose existence has been concealed even better than Azteca and Empyrea were. Even Bartleby paid no notice until it was pointed out to him. The people who know about it, aside from ourselves, are Bartleby, the Old One, the Nothing, and Stallion Quartermane. What we've been told about it in the pre-quests is pretty much everything anyone in the entire Spiral knows about it. What we will find there will be, in two words, unknown and mysterious.
2: The Old One and the Nothing are now one. As the Nothing said itself, the Old One was the only thing left in the Cavity when we left. So, in an effort to learn more about the world, it "Gleaned, sifted, learned, and became." There may be something about this that should give us worry; the pre-quests clearly paint the Old One as malevolent, or at least uncaring. This 'union' between the two is something that will likely play a big part in Lemuria.
3: Everything is new to Nothing. This statement makes sense in context, believe me. The pre-quests were the Nothing's first forays into the Spiral. While the repository of knowledge the Old One possessed may assist the Nothing in trying to understand what 'everything' is, the nature of its being means that there is still much for it to know and learn about. I suspect this will be a notable part of our interactions with Nothing; it may ask us simple or seemingly silly questions or make mistakes based on what it doesn't know. It honestly reminds me of a curious child, the way the Nothing has interacted with us thus far. Which beings me to my next point:
4: We are the Nothing's closest connection. We were the only ones able to hear the noise in the Cavities in Karamelle and defeat the Aberrations inside them. It was our ascension to the Divine Paradox that showed the Nothing 'other things' in the first place. And as a paradoxical being ourselves, we are the only ones able to see, hear and interact with the paradoxical Nothing's manifestations. As such, we are its only relationship, its only real interaction with the world beyond whatever it was before. No matter how mysterious it is, though, the Nothing seems to be benign. Perhaps curious is the more accurate word here, but it certainly doesn't have any malicious intent. However...
5: The Nothing is worth fearing. Sybil the Knowledge Tree specifically states that "We have Nothing to fear." Immediately after that, Ione Virga says that we may have accidentally let in something "Much, much worse" than even Raven and Spider. And when we speak to Bartleby, he describes "Currents of time thrown off as if by a massive beast jutting through the sea. And all those waves crash upon you... when I look past the crashing waves to see the creature that made them, I see... Nothing."
No matter how friendly the Nothing is to us, or how caring it seems to be for Lemuria, it needs to be feared. Something about its nature is so dangerous to the Spiral that it risks undoing everything we have done for it.
And this is the part that is worth theorizing about. We don't know what about the Nothing makes it worth fearing. Perhaps it is the nature of its interaction with the Spiral, the way that "The Everything Rejects the Nothing." Or maybe its the way that the Cavities it made in Karamelle seemed to warp reality. There's really no way of knowing until Test Realm comes out.
If you've read this far, I'd like to invite you to share your own thoughts and theories on the matter. If there's something that's worth mentioning, It's be lovely to see your opinion on things.
The pre-quests were the Nothing's first forays into the Spiral. While the repository of knowledge the Old One possessed may assist the Nothing in trying to understand what 'everything' is, the nature of its being means that there is still much for it to know and learn about. I suspect this will be a notable part of our interactions with Nothing; it may ask us simple or seemingly silly questions or make mistakes based on what it doesn't know. It honestly reminds me of a curious child, the way the Nothing has interacted with us thus far. Which beings me to my next point: