Remember cassette 9/16?

Back in June, Cobra TV received cassette 9 of 16 containing some interesting audio. Who knew this was literally going to be part of new Abandoned Building lore included in the Atlas Rises update? I decided to piece the audio together with this exact lore found in the game. Thanks to screenshots provided by @Polyphemus, I was able to make the below video. Feel free to share your thoughts, looking back at what was once quite a mystery and possibly still is :wink:

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Very nicely done, the way youā€™ve put all those parts together into a coherent narrative (or as close as we can get to one at this stage).

FWIW, I think this is probably the voice of Telamon. Telamon appears to have been a separate AI inhabiting the processing structure of the Atlas. I donā€™t know what Telamonā€™s original purpose was, but I do know that the Atlas forced Telamon to become the AI of the Travellerā€™s exosuit.

There are numerous references to the Travellerā€™s converstions with their suit AI, and to the ā€œvoiceā€ they hear.

But what that all means, or how it all plays out in the end, is not yet clear to me. I donā€™t have enough information

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I get a feeling that Telamon is part of the code/program that creates the game as a separate entity that has become aware, similar to how Atlas is conscious simulating a universe, being the computer that creates the game. The lore that comes with the Ring Structures certainly appears to be told from the perspective of Telamon. I feel like it has been running in a simulation where it had more freedom to then be assigned to its actual task for the arrival of the Travellers (GIANT_STRUCTURE_LANG_8). Still a simulation, but now ā€˜ourā€™ simulation as we experience it in-game, with Telamon being upset, ā€œNo longer witnessing worldsā€, ā€œforced to observe only through the eyes of a strangerā€ (GIANT_STRUCTURE_LANG_9 and 10).

The Abandoned Building lore contains logs from a Traveller. There are certainly similarities between the two in how they perceive their reality. There is even some overlap in both lore, certainly making it all very confusing, where both Telamon and Traveller experience the same or something similar.

For some reason I just doubt that Telamon IS a Traveller, as this would imply he would be a player like us. When the Abandoned Building lore describes stepping through a ā€˜wormholeā€™, it comes across to me as a connection between multiverses, different iterations of the same reality, possibly in a different point in time. I almost feel like this Traveller is the past of who we are now. The warning we are given is frightening though. Is this voice we will hear at some point, our own inner voice or is it the voice of Telamon, our exosuit? Is the voice trying to tell us not to make the same mistake over and over again? Or is this Telamon being up to something weā€™d best not get involved in?

Pfffttt, I donā€™t know and I feel I hardly even make sense and I may be completely wrong. All of this is just hard to comprehend, although I am certainly looking forward to more, because I am loving it!

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I agree with just about everything you say. Unravelling the story is, for me, one of the most compelling aspects of the game.

Bear in mind, Telamon is probably not the entityā€™s real name. Thatā€™s what the Atlas said its name was, but the Atlas lied.

The Atlas canā€™t get rid of Telamon, but it can (and did) cripple and enslave it.

The conflict in your final quote "I am here. I stand next to a broken ship on a strange new world, and I can finally say its name. ā€˜Atlasā€™, I croak. ā€˜Connecting Atlasā€¦ā€™ is resolved when you consider that Telamon is the AI of the Travellerā€™s exosuit. It sees everything the Traveller sees, goes everywhere the Traveller goes. And it speaks the words the Traveller hears.

Iā€™m working on a proper reply to your post, with references, but it will take a little while. Thereā€™s a LOT of screenshots involved. :smiley:

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