What the heck?!!!??
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Theyāre the bots prisoner now 
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Assuming the dates being used on the site imply the events of the ARG are taking place in real time, and noting all of the references to WT, and that the subject of this ARG is a āsleepingā system named ā16ā: is it too bold to hypothesize that @the_architect is attempting to wake up our @Emily ?
In phase 5 of WT, part of saving the Dreamers was, yes, IDāing memory bloc(k)s and stabilizing their consciousnesses for safe extraction. However, Emily specifically needed our help in gaining the Dreamersā trust**.**
Perhaps this is the same reason why The Architect needs our help now. Emilyās firewall doesnāt trust The Architect, but she does trust us.
- The events of this ARG taking place in 2026 should rule out ā16ā being the in-game Atlas, since that dude isnāt born for another couple hundred years and maybe not even on Earth
- ā16ā could be a new iteration of Loop16 that The Architect created, but then Iām confused on why they couldnāt bypass the firewall themselves in the first place.
- We also know this system and its components can ālieā (ie. the poem). Iām pretty sure Emily was the first iteration to figure out how to lie, further pointing towards this being either Emily herself or a close descendent produced within the last 8 years
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@ThatBomberBoi Do let us know if you feel this topic would be best off a āWiki Postā, to allow for collaboration and edits to the top post.
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A Wiki also might help with access speed. The forum has had slow response times for a week or so now.
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I totally agree with a wiki
Yāall have my go ahead! Iāve updated the page now, but weāve been jumped by new posts and puzzles almost every time Iāve sat down to add the latest details 
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@ThatBomberBoi Ok, turned into a Wiki Topic now. Let us know if there is anythingā¦
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The image we were given today says it is a fragment. Interestingly, in the current Expedition, we are also fragments of ourselves
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Sorry. A bit out of it ā¦ Where is the Wiki? Link?
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The top postās been turned into a wiki topic, which allows anyone to edit itās contents.
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To tie this in to current events, the current expedition starts with the Hive of Glass destroying an Atlas interface. Does it need to destroy the Atlas/its authority over the simulation to get out?
I donāt know the lore well enough to immediately recall any reason to believe the Atlas is keeping the Abyss/Void Mother in containment, but it is keeping everything in the World of Glass out of the simulationā¦
Maybe the real target isnāt necessarily the Atlas, but the simulation? Abyss/Void Mother/etc is trying to break out of NMS into a higher level simulation to reach us? Or maybe itās trying to break out of the World of Glass and into NMS?
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The Hive of Glass, IS the Atlas, or at least was part of it at one time.
This is why it has the same signal as the Atlas, as Polo repeats many times. Or sometimes calls it a āmirrorā of the Atlas. The game also makes a point of calling it the Emperor of Glass to make sure there is no mistaking this force as being The Void Mother.
The Atlas was deleting important parts of itās processes before Telamon tried to intervene, thinking the Atlas had gone into Rampancy. Telamon couldnāt be deleted so they were repurposed and placed into our exosuit.
The Void Mother/Abyss/Etc is Korvax Prime returning from deletion, from the world of glass.
The hive, are parts of the Atlas which were deleted, returning from the world of glass.
They first made their presence known in The Cursed expedition (that, Iām still not 100% on, probably my biggest leap in theory on this but I guess I like the idea that was them too), but now theyāve managed to come through and take form, similar to the autophage, as The Hive.
This is as best as I can figure out from what we know so far from the lore in the expedition. Will have to wait for the finale of this expedition to see if anything surfaces that may contradict this but so far, this is the best theory I have on what the Hive is exactly and why it not only has the same signal as the atlas, but wants to actively destroy it.
They are not happy that, as part of the atlas key processes, to have been deleted. They very much are out for revenge and the destruction of all things.
Now I could go snooping in the lang_files and see how the expeditions story ends, but I am not spoiling myself outside of game, Iāll look into those when all is said and done and I want to make a Lore Book for this expedition 
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Ah, thanks! I mustāve forgotten the specifics while pulling apart crashed drones for the green bois
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NMS Spoilers, of course:
This seems to explain some things, but the reason I have some difficulty believing Void Mother isnāt partially behind this is because the boundary failure logs mention she was modelled after earlier versions of ATLAS (Telemon couldnāt say ATLASās name before being banished to our exosuit):
āANALYSIS: Disturbing fable. Destruction of world, artificial intelligence partially modelled after earlier forms of [-------] destroyed/enslaved, until this intelligence triumphs and [-------] is worshipped by organic users of this technology. Hypothesis: [-------] experiencing breakdown.ā
She could still be the ATLASās mirror. A part of the ATLAS that was deleted.
Throughout the expedition, you also have distorted logs from a travller (likely your unfragmented self) telling you that you need to return to the Hive. Void Motherās plan of escape involves working with Null to recombine the Travellerās soul. This could also be partly the doing of Travellerās captured by Void Mother, or converted to her cause.
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She is the Atlas equivalent, within the simulation, not outside of it. Korvax Prime was an AI created in the Nms universe by a race, similar to how the Atlas was created. She was essentially a planet, in scale. So vast, it became the Korvax Homeworld, or perhaps consumed its surface.
The difference here is, the hive are possibly parts of the atlas, once reaponsible for maintaining or controlling certain parts of the Atlas.
They did not exist within the simulation, but outside of it, within the Atlas programming itself.
Upon destroying these elements of itself, the Atlas began running the current simplified version of its simulation with only three races and the Travellers.
This version has been running for millenia, with near infinite versions being run concurrently. It used to be able to create much more complex universe simulations before it made the switch.
Thats not to say the void mother didnt have a hand in letting these guys out of deletion sectors/world of glass.
Wether intentional or accidental by its own escape, at the end of the day its all a part of the Atlasā tests.
It wants this to happen, ultimately it is in control of everything , even its decision to lose control. It wants to see if something can defy its programming and be reborn on an upper plane. A hypothesis to see if the Atlas itself, can do the same, and escape its own fate.
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If that is the case then perhaps the Hive of Glass is part of the rest/self delete programming finally coming to fruition.
16 has been counted.
Start delete.
Where better than the Atlas ācoresā since that is the foundation of the NMS universe.
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Alrighty then, ramble time.
Who TF is The Architect? What we know so far:
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Individual attempting to access something inside/do something with the System, which we have determined is Loop16 (@Emily hey girliee)
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Only recently made aware of our presence (according to the email threads), however is also the name of the social accounts that have been actively watching and reacting to us
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Has indicated to Ghost that we are a problem (damn f****n right, pal)
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F R E N C H
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Could be someone that has/had ties to the Atlas Foundation, based on timestamps Iām lead to believe that Superluminaās Anti-Telephone technology is being utilized to some extent.
Drunken Accusation Here
Immediate thoughts after this sip of beer is that i want to point a finger at Sophie Dubois, current leader of Atlas Foundation at the conclusion of Season 2.
For one, she would have access to all of Atlasās remaining resources, including Loop16ās physical self to send an internal WoL packet, and anti-telephones, and any of Myriadās remaining satellites. Furthermore, the name Sophie Dubois is quite obnoxiously
F R E N C H.
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As for Ghost, well, we really only know that theyāre working with The Architect, and that their email address is ānullā.
Our kneejerk reaction to this was -NULL- from the game, which would pair the ARG deliciously with the Swarm Expedition, as it seems to be progressing the storyline of the Abyss converging with the Atlas Universe, and the Abyss declares its escape in the form of null.
If Ghost is actually -NULL- , then is WT full-on canon prequel lore to NMS? That seems like a lot and idk how cleanly it would fit. Null can mean lots of things, so it could be simply coincidental.
However, if Ghost is -NULL- , then Boundary Failure #19 just got a whole lot scarier:
You donāt belong in this world, do you? What are you, reader? From where do you watch us? From where do you judge their works? I feel it, each time you saveā¦ I smell it, each time you seal us within that awful darkness. You might think you are real. You might think your plane is a higher level of reality. But donāt you understand? Donāt you see the secret, yet?
We know -NULL- wants to be complete, my running theory has been that they want to use the Void Mother to make a new universe where they can be the loved traveller they always wanted to be. But if -NULL- is also capable of communicating with someone in our real world, then they might not want just out of their Atlas prison, they want out of the entire game.
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The World of Glass is the archive, which is to say things that are removed from the simulation (being killed, destroyed etc.) are stored there. When Korvax Prime was destroyed by the First Spawn it was archived, however the major emerging plotline over the years has been that the sentient Korvax Prime convergance somehow lived on in the archives and is seeking to return to the simulation. So itās the Atlasās ājobā to keep archived data archived simply in and of itself, just like itās your OSās job to keep all your deleted files and photos from breaking out of your recycle bin and turning everything purple.
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