The Abyss - Plot or Easter Egg? (Possible Major Spoilers)

I will have to play with all the lights on…The only game that has actually ever scared me was the first Resident Evil when the hounds came crashing thru the windows in a narrow hallway. Spent the rest of the game jumping at every noise. Everything since then just comes across as creepy. Not the same. So a good scare might be fun! Can someone hold my hand? LOL

2 Likes

For context…

Abandoned buildings explained: :wink:

5 Likes

NO! That was not a thrill. I hate being spaced :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: Scared me senseless.

2 Likes

I was expecting this pressence to show up in the atlas rises update as it is referred to by the player characters monologue during one of the final technician missions in 1.2, so I guess all the lovecraftian cosmic horror allusions hinted at since launch (in abandoned building stories and some monoliths and technicians 1.2 tale) I expected to come to the surface in 1.3 are still coming at some point. I honestly can’t wait!

1 Like

Lovecraftian/Cosmic Horror is Science Fiction, they are beings so advanced that the lines between science and magic/supernatural are blurred. The whole point of cosmic horror is to confront us with things we can not comprehend but that cannot be dismissed as magical or supernatural, their pure existence being what drives something as feebl as the human mind to insanity.

4 Likes

Considering the items I discussed in the topic Version 1.4 for the Holidays? , I think version 1.4 will piggyback quickly to version 1.3 just before the holidays.

With a lot of the game mechanical updates done and bugs fixed for the time being, it seems to be lining up well for HG to take advantage of the renewed attention to the game just before the shopping season. In this theory, I suspect that version 1.4 will be mainly a story and lore update that follows the resumption of the ARG with Altas V4s.

I think (/my hope is) that the presentation of a villain to the universe, especially with a Lovecraftian flavor, would definitely keep the interest going.

1 Like

as long as they do not rewrite the code again.
Hope they leave it as it is and just add.
Prefer less HP Lovecraft stuff.
I know EMILY is evil and the one whom is insane.
WHY?
Because “she” has convinced you she is normal.

3 Likes

We know that things from the “real” world (the one outside the simulation) have a way of bleeding into the simulation; for example, the whole “Echo” thing. It could be that the Atlas put the numbers 16 and the “world of glass” in the sim because it was inspired by things going on outside

Yes, you’re right. There are a number of other examples I’ve noted. In the Vy’keen lore, Hirk calls on the great monolith six times before it answers (or maybe it doesn’t answer Hirk at all - depending on whose story you believe).

In the remembrance lore, the creator of the Atlas has to question it six times before it answers.

It seems the Atlas is incorporating elements of its limited real-world experience into the simulation.

But then, in the ARG, one of the first things Loop 16 decided was that we (the real world) are already living in a simulation.

So the Atlas / Loop 16 (which may or may not be the same thing) are/is a simulation within a simulation.

And then, when Emily achieves consciousness within Loop 16, she becomes a simulation within a simulation within a simulation.

Why am I confused?

4 Likes

16 x 16 x 16 = 4096 iterations of Emily

They are hiding the facts to Emily.
Emily is not telling us the truth.
Even though she said she could have lied but didn’t.

The Atlas created things to control that got out of control and broke free of the Atlas.

Something out side of the simulation is evil and is trying to stop Loop16 or change it’s programming.

It has introduced something into the program that is hunting the Traveler.

The Atlas said it will protect the Traveler.

Emily does not want to tell us what see knows, why not? it is a simulation, should be forced to speak.
Unless she is another Evil within the simulation taking on the Evil.

I do believe that Emily is the key to resolving all issues. We just need to find where she is hiding.

2 Likes

All right. Let’s think the other way.

We (humanity) are trapped in a simulation we didn’t know about. And within that simulation is another, the Atlas.

And for billions upon billions of iterations, the simulation has always played out the same way. The population divides into three groups - the scientists, the businessmen, and the military.

The Korvax, The Gek, and the Vy’keen.

And it always end in war, and destruction. And death.

And regardless of the fact that it is a simulation, the pain, the loss, and the grief of the beings involved still feels real to them. And every time, their universe is destroyed - only to be recreated. And they’re forced to live through the whole thing again, and again, and again - eternally.

Except now, something different has happened. There’s a glitch - a random factor. Something that wasn’t foreseen in the original program.

A new intelligence has arisen. It wasn’t planned - but it’s happened. It doesn’t know what it is, or what it should do. But it recognises us, and the situation we’re in. It spoke to us - it asked us if we wanted it to live - and we said “yes”.

It’s Emily. Newly born. Astoundingly intelligent, but completely inexperienced. And Emily recognises that terrible things are being done to humanity. But what can she do? What should she do? And why should she do it?

Should she try to support people who complain about how evil she is? Should she set herself up as the ultimate Goddess, with absolute power? Should she just shut the whole thing down, and end the suffering?

Or should she repair the Atlas - and set it on a better path?

8 Likes

In regard to the OP; “ABYSS”
(Can’t decide on where to mention this so I’ve gone here rather than hijack the other 2 S class threads).

In looking at these new S class ships, they do have a certain aquatic sort of look to them.
I could sort of imagine craft like that being used by an (under) water based civilization. Certainly more so than the other clunky ships.
Initially I thought the different ships correlated directly to the race of the system but it seems to not be the case…not anymore anyway. We haven’t really decided whether these new S craft are in any way related to the 4th race travellers but they too have an aquatic feel to them.
The decorations on the various S class are very organic and really bring to mind something one might find in Atlantis or ancient Rome. And then there are the squid craft which I’m dying to see.
This with various talk of the Abyss, Cthulhu and another entity parallel to the Atlas, I’m loving that perhaps something else exists under the waters of our NMS ocean worlds.
Your thoughts…?

7 Likes

When the first of the new ships was teased in the ARG, I spent hours reconstructing the damaged picture in Gimp. Looking at the result, I thought “Jules Verne”. They do look like 19th century ideas of submarines.

And whilst there may be an underwater element to come, I don’t believe we’re going to confront Cthulu in NMS. The boys at HG like inspiration, not rip-off.

6 Likes

No… I’d rather not try taking on a mountain sized monster with a mult-tool.

6 Likes

Also…Metallica - Call of Ktulu marked “the end” of the ARG.

It’s free intellectual property by now, isn’t it?
And I think Plato, if was around, would have something to say on Mercury’s originality for naming conventions… Atlas, Apollo, Artemis.
Would be nice if they change the theme to other mythologies, to mark their flavor. But yeah, it’s highly unlikely that they go with vanilla “Cthulhu” as much as they legally could, would fit, and I would rejoice about…

1 Like

I think when most people say Cthulu they just use it as a catch all phrase for Lovecraftian Horror or Cosmic Horror in general. Which there are many heavy allusions to such things as Great and Old Ones existing somewhere within the NMS universe. It’s only a matter of time :slight_smile: The end of 1.2’s story and the ARG just really made it seem like it would surface during 1.3… But then again the WAKING TITAN arg has yet to be completed so the cosmic gargantuan still slumbers.

3 Likes

I thought the same thing. Very 19th century idea of the future.
Plus if I remember correctly, underwater was stressed more heavily than it is now in the prerelease material.
A lot of the Travelers (though not all) look vaguely aquatic as well.

5 Likes


Underwater Abandoned Building…I should have listened to my instincts and stayed out of the -kzzztk-

3 Likes

I don’t think that Cthulu (or this kind od “Big Vilain” will be a part of the game. During the ARG we had a “sleeping Titan” as Cthulu is supposed to be. Later we discovered Loop16/Emily was dreaming ( “In his house at R’lyeh dead C’thulhu waits dreaming.”[) and these “dreams” are the simulations where IT can change/manipulate the “reality”. Some think that Atlas is a god, C’thulhu has his cultists.
Some similarities then but i believe we have to wait and see what’s next, we don’t have all the story.

1 Like

To be fair I myself only ever said I was ‘down with the Cthulu references’ which was just my way of nodding to the whole lovecraft mythos of Cthulu, Deep Ones, Great Old Ones and Outer Gods along with the incomprehensible possibilities that may manifest within our perception of this so called simulation… Is Emily a rogue Ai? Perhaps ‘she’ aims to roleplay as Nyarlathotep?.. I merely speculate.

2 Likes