Pop Guy

Legend: BM: Before Maxwell AM: After Maxwell Tending to ∞ BM: Dust, void, THEM. Aeons BM: Civilization of the ancients, civilization of the merms, worms of the depths, ancestral horrors (Eternal Gnaw). -Catastrophe with the power of shadows; implosion of the civilization of the ancients; the people of the arthropods sinking underground? -The civilization of the merms decays, they lose memory of their history and begin to live without a guide like tribal beasts in the swamps. -GNAW perhaps begins to spread its foul pandemic. A few (or many) years before BM: Did the Codex Umbra come to earth? Year 0: Maxwell's Reign: Much of the Surface Constant is rebuilt in the image and resemblance of an incapable and frail stage magician, William Carter aka Maxwell. A few (or many) years AM: THEM enslave Maxwell, aware of it and falls into depression. - Beginning of kidnappings, reason unknown. Years later still AM: Wilson reaches the throne and takes pity on Maxwell, freeing him. -Maxwell apparently dies, disintegrating into a pile of bones. -Wilson becomes the new puppet king of the Constant. -Just after, Charlie takes the throne from Wilson; becoming her the king puppet of THEM. A considerable amount of time after AM: the cycle continues; but now the survivors are reunited. Some creatures native to the Constant itself, the moon or other dimensions comes to their aid. -THEM return to the Constant, perhaps due to the impact of the Moon on earth. -Aeons AM: The civilization of the merms survives the last human, losing memory of humanity, ephemeral and transitory. Tending to ∞ AM: Dust, void, THEM.

Blue is very wrong instead, the most wrong could be done, really wrong.

I believe there is a difference between "evoking a concept", "giving an explanation" and "creating a realistic work of art." Let me explain: if you want to make a realism work of art (film, book, comic, video game, etc.) then your hands are tied: you have to put real and plausible things into the work. Fortunately, this is not our case :'D But assuming that a work is "magical" or "supernatural", this does not mean that you cannot give explanations. After all, it's usually not nice to look at something, ask a question, and be told "why yes!" In the end, the endothermic fire is blue ... why yes. Or rather, because, meta-narratively, the viewer has a generic idea of cold associated with blue. There is nothing wrong with that, Klei did well. But perhaps a more interesting explanation could be given. Not real; more complex, more complete. And I tried to reinterpret the concept of endothermic fire; starting from a consideration of real physics, of course, but without any pretense of realism. I was just inspired by a concept; Is a surrealist "real" because in his deformed and absurd painting he was inspired by real objects? I don't think. In short, I was just trying to find a more suggestive explanation than "why yes" :]

Since in my mind there was an image of a black micro-hole that acted as an "endothermic fire"; I thought a similar concept could be "evoked" by means of black flames. After all, blue flames have no meaning in themselves (other than to evoke a generic and superficial idea of "cold"). So, if Klei had put black flames instead; in my opinion there would also have been a more evocative and conceptually interesting context (however absurd; but I repeat, I never spoke of realism): instead of generic "cold" blue flames (a concept in my opinion a bit superficial, but they are opinions) of black flames, a sort of unnatural "black hole" that cools the environment because it absorbs light radiation. In short, it seemed very suggestive and "cool"; but then people started talking about "confusion", "demonic concept" or "it doesn't make sense physically so better blue"; things that in my opinion had little to do with my intentions, in fact I replied little :]

True, black absorbs light radiation. But in the next sentence I emphasized the "aesthetic" and "dramatic" meaning of the choice. You didn't mention that part, immediately after and reiterated later

I don't think so ... I've never talked about "wanting to make physical sense"; nor did I mention the claim to realism. It was others who pointed this out; since the second post I reiterated that, according for me, the "black" furniture (including fire) would be very nice to beautify the camp-base. I've never looked for anything in particular :'D

In the first post I talked about black flames, but in fact I had something more like a micro black hole in mind.

Magic sucks.

I still think that a completely black fire, perhaps with white sparks, would make your bases much more disturbing and "demonic"; corruption of nightmare fuel. Klei could do some skins about it, for "triumphant" furniture; I would be inclined to take such a skin pack.

In theory, blue flames are hotter than yellow flames. Instead, black flames could absorb the excess light radiation and, therefore, de facto lower the ambient temperature. I think completely black flames would also be very beautiful and dramatic.

@ArubaroBeefalo To satisfy your curiosity: I'm creating a mod where I wanted to give new usefulness to the gems, just to give a use to the tons of blue and red gems that tend to accumulate. So I put in some items that require a lot of gems, and I wanted to see if everything was balanced by building a Varg farm. They are just experiments. :]

Would any veteran be able to show me how to build the safest and most efficient gem farm possible? I know there are various ways to contain Varg: burnt trees; statues or walls (the latter often not recommended because they can be destroyed by hounds). What is actually the best fence? Does catching two or more Vargs increase the amount of gems obtained per hour? What is the most efficient killing method? I thought Houndius Shootius, but they are very expensive to obtain in large quantities; perhaps there are more economical and equally efficient methods.

But Winona has clearly been deceived by Charlie ... who therefore is as if he had "kidnapped" her. Are we sure that Winona would have launched herself into a demonic portal if she hadn't seen her missing sister, with sad eyes and like "pleading for help"? So the problem of why this trail of deceptions is continuing remains. Really suggestive hypothesis but, still, not very solid: Maxwell does not need a gate to project himself into our world. The same shadows (the servants par excellence of THEM) can safely use the Codex as a link apparently. So the gate built by Wilson still seems useless to me, unfortunately.

If THEY can teleport anyone, anytime, anywhere, why the need to use Maxwell as a puppet? Why is Maxwell's need to deceive the survivors? Why on earth did he have to offer them "a deal", instead of just capturing them? The point is that there are constant contradictions: to enter the Constant and move between the "plane" you need a gate (Wilson, Wagstaff, Winona, Forge, Gorge, Adventure mod) but also not (Wigfrid, Walter, Maxwell, Charlie). Maxwell was dominated by the shadows, but when we meet him on the throne he seems quite wise and self-aware; so much so that in one sentence he also says that he had tried to escape at some point. Maxwell needed someone to save him, but then actively thwarted those who attempted to do so. In theory Maxwell is even dead (adventure mode end) but then reappears in DST without any explanation. I could go on, but I think I would become pedantic. Ignorance is strength. That Wagstaff made a deal with THEM is very interesting, but how could he have come into contact with THEM from the beginning? It would mean that there are other Codexes, or at least other relics capable of putting "mortals" in contact with otherworldly realities. It is all very interesting, but it is also a huge stretch of the imagination, there is nothing that can confirm these theories, however beautiful. I too had my own canon some time ago; now I have abandoned it because I never found proof but only other doubts :'D Yes, it's true. But in Wilson's case he was instigated and instructed by Maxwell to build the portal, as well as to activate it ("PULL THE LEVER" Maxwell yells at him at the end, to make him overcome even the last doubt dictated by reason). Why have Wilson do all this if the gate wasn't necessary? To make fun of him? Maybe; but then why do we find a similar gate in the game?

Also! How come you kidnap a monkey ?! absurd :'D However, I have always thought that the skeletons we find around are other "kidnappings" of people who later died. Maxwell may have kidnapped hundreds of people, as far as we know. We obviously only play with the only "survivors". It has always fascinated me as a theory.