I tried making this post before, but for reasons unknown it didn't show up. So I'll try again. Three worlds and two mysterious places are mentioned in Old Cob's final dialogue:
'Fly free, my children! Marry and make war! Build fleeting empires and towers of cards and beautiful disasters! Fly through the Spiral, to Polaris, Empyrea, and Mirage, to the Hidden Lands and the Broken Shores.'
Now, we've already had Polaris; but 3 worlds and 3 objectives are mentioned for his 3 children. If that's a coincidence then I'm a banana. So, "Old Cob has 3 children?", I hear you ask. Yes, as mentioned in the Cave of Bad Seeds, they are described as:
'Here we have the Scorpion, a master Alchemist and ruthless Warlord, prophesied to rise from the desert sands and steal the sun! This, this is the Bat, a brilliant shapeshifting Vampire, a master of illusion and subterfuge, and with a heart as black as night. And last, the Rat, eldest of Spider's children, a mad creature of corrupting influence! He steals into men's minds and makes them his puppets!'
So at the end of Polaris it turns out Rasputin was 'the Rat'. And while 'the Rat' was in 'Polaris', would he have been building 'fleeting empires', 'towers of cards' or just 'beautiful disasters'? Personally, I think the second fits best, he made a political tower of cards that fell almost instantly to the revolution. And that leaves what?
Empyrea, a world rarely mentioned, we've yet to meet a character from here, and what we've been told from the game isn't exactly very helpful either. We know they have sky squids and connections with Wysteria; but that's about it. Cyrus Drake mentioned sending us to 'the skies of Empyrea', but then shrugged it off saying 'you haven't been there, yet. Pity'. If this can tell us anything about Empyrea, then its that its skies are prominent, having squids fly through them, and that Cyrus thinks that it's a pity we haven't been. This means it could be a place of beautiful skies. However, in the real world, the word 'empyrean' means 'of or relating to heaven' or 'the highest part of heaven, thought by the ancients to be the realm of pure fire'. Rather similar definitions, but the second clearly has more detail. The word even means in (em) fire (pyr), so Empyrea is 'the place in fire'.
Then we have Mirage, a world with more detail. A Middle-Eastern/Arabic world of anthropomorphic cats such as Nalia Dunestrider and Qismah Shasa. Qismah Shasa describes herself as 'Qismah Shasa, Emira of Parajj and Liwan of the Silent Sabers'. Given these words come from Arabic, the guess is even more valid. She describes the world Mirage (in context to the Desert Star):
'The Gemstone is from a bygone age, when Mirage was united in peace and purpose. Today, it is ruled by petty warlords who squabble over empty sands... was taken from Mirage many centuries ago by ancient Celestian researchers'.
From this, we learn Mirage is war-torn by warlords and has Celestian connections. I'm out of room.
I tried making this post before, but for reasons unknown it didn't show up. So I'll try again. Three worlds and two mysterious places are mentioned in Old Cob's final dialogue:
'Fly free, my children! Marry and make war! Build fleeting empires and towers of cards and beautiful disasters! Fly through the Spiral, to Polaris, Empyrea, and Mirage, to the Hidden Lands and the Broken Shores.'
Now, we've already had Polaris; but 3 worlds and 3 objectives are mentioned for his 3 children. If that's a coincidence then I'm a banana. So, "Old Cob has 3 children?", I hear you ask. Yes, as mentioned in the Cave of Bad Seeds, they are described as:
'Here we have the Scorpion, a master Alchemist and ruthless Warlord, prophesied to rise from the desert sands and steal the sun! This, this is the Bat, a brilliant shapeshifting Vampire, a master of illusion and subterfuge, and with a heart as black as night. And last, the Rat, eldest of Spider's children, a mad creature of corrupting influence! He steals into men's minds and makes them his puppets!'
So at the end of Polaris it turns out Rasputin was 'the Rat'. And while 'the Rat' was in 'Polaris', would he have been building 'fleeting empires', 'towers of cards' or just 'beautiful disasters'? Personally, I think the second fits best, he made a political tower of cards that fell almost instantly to the revolution. And that leaves what?
Empyrea, a world rarely mentioned, we've yet to meet a character from here, and what we've been told from the game isn't exactly very helpful either. We know they have sky squids and connections with Wysteria; but that's about it. Cyrus Drake mentioned sending us to 'the skies of Empyrea', but then shrugged it off saying 'you haven't been there, yet. Pity'. If this can tell us anything about Empyrea, then its that its skies are prominent, having squids fly through them, and that Cyrus thinks that it's a pity we haven't been. This means it could be a place of beautiful skies. However, in the real world, the word 'empyrean' means 'of or relating to heaven' or 'the highest part of heaven, thought by the ancients to be the realm of pure fire'. Rather similar definitions, but the second clearly has more detail. The word even means in (em) fire (pyr), so Empyrea is 'the place in fire'.
Then we have Mirage, a world with more detail. A Middle-Eastern/Arabic world of anthropomorphic cats such as Nalia Dunestrider and Qismah Shasa. Qismah Shasa describes herself as 'Qismah Shasa, Emira of Parajj and Liwan of the Silent Sabers'. Given these words come from Arabic, the guess is even more valid. She describes the world Mirage (in context to the Desert Star):
'The Gemstone is from a bygone age, when Mirage was united in peace and purpose. Today, it is ruled by petty warlords who squabble over empty sands... was taken from Mirage many centuries ago by ancient Celestian researchers'.
From this, we learn Mirage is war-torn by warlords and has Celestian connections. I'm out of room.
Everything old cob said was Awesome in terms of information. I honestly can't wait to see what mirage is going to be like, it sounds so epic from what we know. Who knows I feel like we might find out were the kroks came from after all... ;)
I tried making this post before, but for reasons unknown it didn't show up. So I'll try again. Three worlds and two mysterious places are mentioned in Old Cob's final dialogue:
'Fly free, my children! Marry and make war! Build fleeting empires and towers of cards and beautiful disasters! Fly through the Spiral, to Polaris, Empyrea, and Mirage, to the Hidden Lands and the Broken Shores.'
Now, we've already had Polaris; but 3 worlds and 3 objectives are mentioned for his 3 children. If that's a coincidence then I'm a banana. So, "Old Cob has 3 children?", I hear you ask. Yes, as mentioned in the Cave of Bad Seeds, they are described as:
'Here we have the Scorpion, a master Alchemist and ruthless Warlord, prophesied to rise from the desert sands and steal the sun! This, this is the Bat, a brilliant shapeshifting Vampire, a master of illusion and subterfuge, and with a heart as black as night. And last, the Rat, eldest of Spider's children, a mad creature of corrupting influence! He steals into men's minds and makes them his puppets!'
So at the end of Polaris it turns out Rasputin was 'the Rat'. And while 'the Rat' was in 'Polaris', would he have been building 'fleeting empires', 'towers of cards' or just 'beautiful disasters'? Personally, I think the second fits best, he made a political tower of cards that fell almost instantly to the revolution. And that leaves what?
Empyrea, a world rarely mentioned, we've yet to meet a character from here, and what we've been told from the game isn't exactly very helpful either. We know they have sky squids and connections with Wysteria; but that's about it. Cyrus Drake mentioned sending us to 'the skies of Empyrea', but then shrugged it off saying 'you haven't been there, yet. Pity'. If this can tell us anything about Empyrea, then its that its skies are prominent, having squids fly through them, and that Cyrus thinks that it's a pity we haven't been. This means it could be a place of beautiful skies. However, in the real world, the word 'empyrean' means 'of or relating to heaven' or 'the highest part of heaven, thought by the ancients to be the realm of pure fire'. Rather similar definitions, but the second clearly has more detail. The word even means in (em) fire (pyr), so Empyrea is 'the place in fire'.
Then we have Mirage, a world with more detail. A Middle-Eastern/Arabic world of anthropomorphic cats such as Nalia Dunestrider and Qismah Shasa. Qismah Shasa describes herself as 'Qismah Shasa, Emira of Parajj and Liwan of the Silent Sabers'. Given these words come from Arabic, the guess is even more valid. She describes the world Mirage (in context to the Desert Star):
'The Gemstone is from a bygone age, when Mirage was united in peace and purpose. Today, it is ruled by petty warlords who squabble over empty sands... was taken from Mirage many centuries ago by ancient Celestian researchers'.
From this, we learn Mirage is war-torn by warlords and has Celestian connections. I'm out of room.
Almost all that I said in my first post was just fact (in-game lore) or slight deviation (interpretation of lore); now it's time for some thorough conspiracy. Starting with the world we know most about: Mirage.
So, an Arabian desert of 'petty warlords who squabble over empty sands' and cat-people; where to start with this glorious setting? I think Old Cob's personal mentions will work, so the Scorpion or the Bat? I'd have to say Scorpion because (obviously) scorpions live in deserts, (more subtle) he's 'prophesied to rise from the desert sands' & (I love this hint) he's a 'ruthless Warlord'. A title like that in a world of 'petty warlords' would fit so perfectly. So is the Scorpion making 'fleeting empires' or 'beautiful disasters' in Mirage? To be perfectly honest, either would work very well so we can't make a judgement on that quite yet. However if it is rumoured that they will 'steal the sun' then this would most certainly imply a disaster.
So with that half-sorted, let's talk a little more about the Desert Star. Its origins are very vague, the earliest known is told by Ignus Ferric saying it was 'once the Crown Jewel to the first Sand Sultans, but lost long ago'. But this isn't very helpful at all. It leaves one of two options: 1) The jewel was always on Mirage, or 2) It was put there at the start of civilisation. So the first one seems like the easiest choice, but I never look at the easy option.
'taken from Mirage many centuries ago by Celestian researchers'
I'm suggesting even before they took it back from Mirage, the Celestians gifted the first Sand Sultans with the gemstone. To keep relations peaceful. As we all know; Celestians were heavily pacifistic. And although their neighbours might have been less than peaceful among themselves, Celestia wanted inter-planetary peace. What's that you say? Neighbours? Well, if I had more space to type, I'd enlighten you. Sorry, I'll add to this soon.
