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
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!
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A couple of cute/funny things that happened while qroier, qcelbit and qrichas were out exploring together (mostly for me because all I can think about is Them and this was so funny I had tears in my eyes as I watched them interact) -
Qcellbit said he wasn't laughing at qroier's (lack of) hair from the haircut he got from qmike, he was just smiling a lot from how beautiful qroier looked
Later on qcellbit laughed again and when qroier complained, qcellbit said he looks cute, beautiful guapissimo, and assured him he wasn't laughing (he 100% was)
They got lost and qroier said he could never be lost because he found qcellbit/now he had qcellbit
Qroier asked for food and qcellbit said something that in portuguese would sound like "you want me to give you food" but also "you want me to fuck you?" and didn't explain to qtoier, but richarlyson hit him and tried to explain it to qroier.
They sang. A Lot. Roier rapped for a while.
Qcellbit walked into a room and heard qroier calling him names, so he yelled "I can hear you, idiot". Qroier said "idiot??? You kiss me with that mouth?? Rude!!" (But he said "grosseirinho" with inho in portuguese which means tiny/cute... like in gatinho lol)
Also cellbit was saying sometimes the english translator translates his name to celibacy, and he tells roier it means when someone doesn't have sex. Roier says "ohhh that's why you're called cellbit, then now I get it"
Also. Roier tells cellbit to go to the next velada (the event in spain roier was). And then they start talking about fighting each other, but then qroier says "oh we should do a besada" LOL (beso as in kiss, so he's saying instead of fighting they should do a kissing event)
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We still need more clone rights narratives for Kon. We absolutely need to take Kon out of being Superboy and he needs to strike up his own identity. We also could benefit from going back to SB94 and addressing his persistent grooming and exploitation which may have led to issues with addressing consent and paved the way for him sort of stagnating for years or just "going with it". But I doubt we'll see that.
We need to end entirely the issues with Identity Crisis for sure but there's a lot more issues that could be explored in a dynamic and interesting relevant way.
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Octavia E. Butler's lost works
"There's much more to her career than the dozen or so books we know; out of the spirit of brutal perfectionism that drove her, she held a lot of interesting and worthy work back. I've talked a lot about the treasures of the Huntington in these pages: the unpublished Blindsight, "Evening" [1] and Paraclete; the many Tricksters; the alternative Xenogenesis, the lost short stories and essays and sequels and interviews and plays. This material should not be left only to the small number of scholars who are able to make their way to the Huntington; much of it can see, and deserves to see, publication. These are not discarded scraps or abandonded, embarrassing mistakes; it's just more.
Butler's incredible productivity, coupled with her intense self-criticism, self-censorship, and perfectionism, has conspired to create a vast intertextual hidden archive of alternative versions and lost tales that will, I hope, reinvigorate the study of her work as more scholars are able to get to the Huntington and as more of it trickles out in published form."
From Gerry Canavan's biography of Octavia E. Butler in the Modern Masters of Science Fiction series
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welcome to Babylon 5!
we have:
the last, best hope for peace (ten years after the Earth-Minbari War)
The Wise One (who’s often feral)
a dream given form
The Feral One (who’s often wise)
a port of call
The Chad (who’s honorable)
home away from home (for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers)
The Honorable (who’s a chad)
2 500 000 tons of spinning metal (all alone in the night)
Green vs Purple, Purple vs Green
women who not just can kill you, but will kill you (including god)
boomshakalaka, woohoo, and six
exploitation of classes who falsely believe themselves to be bourgeois, repeatedly
babygirls, blorbos, himbos, and poor little meow meows
home for a quarter of a million humans and aliens
one-sided enemies-to-lovers
girlbosses and their malewives
destruction of fascist states
warring souls
an insecure security cheif
a deity named “Jeff” (who fastens then zips)
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Don’t talk to me about romantic relationships. Don’t talk to me about enemies to lovers. Don’t talk to me about some romantic slow burn. Don’t talk to me about star-crossed lovers. Don’t talk to me about some characters finally sleeping together. I don’t care.
Enemies to family? Yes. Slow burn father-daughter relationship where they slowly grow into the much needed role in the others life? Absolutely. Star-crossed found family cringy fluffy stuff? Sign me up. A platonic relationship where two people who very clearly care about each other but would never really acknowledge it finally having a moment to hug or share vulnerability with each other? I’m there. Found family where these people who would’ve passed each other on the street make a little team and risk their lives for each other constantly? Signed, paid, sent. Platonic physical touch? Hugs? Dinners together as a group? Moments of laughter together? Hospital scenes? Visiting the other just to visit and check up? An incredibly deep and profound love that can be never be looked into or analyzed enough because it is so strong and incredible it’s breathtaking? Saying I love you? Platonic soulmates? Best friends? yup, that’s me. I’m there, middle of the street. eating hot asphalt.
GIMME IT ALL
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