un: Mithrun1 | Re: Digital Conference

[tablescraps]

There's a digital conference on September 23rd. We'll be able to ask CC Corp questions about the game and its anomalies.

How clearly they'll answer, I don't know. But it may be worthwhile to pool together everyone's observations, speculations, and complaints here. Different people have seen different things in Fragment, and not a lot of that information is consolidated.

If you've commented on the forums with your observations before, or seen a worthwhile comment, then you can re-link it.

For example, on the topic of the level cap armor:
• UTA's post (in-game NPCs' warning against using it)
• Zelkova's response (indicating the armor was not an intended feature, nor are titles)
• UTA's comment (in-game NPCs claiming only two individuals can "create things")

If you want to talk about something offline for whatever reason, DM me. I don't really mind sharing my number or email.

Edit:

Comments

[tablescraps]

1) The official stance (per Hien) is that the special Areas are meant to exist, but the adverse effects contained within are not; this might be why special Areas are not harmful when visited a second time around - the obnoxious effects have been cleared out. The special Areas are linked to the in-game "lore," apparently, hence the Area descriptors in the Chaos Gate.

The negative effects associated with special Areas appear to be glitches, or injected code. The intent of the adverse code may not be to directly cause headaches or cause someone to go comatose - it may be that these are side effects of malicious code being executed. IE, if their end goal is X, users interacting with the code intended to accomplish X results in unintended consequence Y, where Y is migraines, inescapable cold, coma, etc.

2) The symbols appear to indicate what server the Area is associated with. So:

Δ - Delta server; Mac Anu, Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, Hidden Forbidden Bulwark, Hidden Forbidden Dead Wood, Hideous Someone's Giant, Hidden Forbidden Radiation, Haggard Traveler’s Reprieve, Confused Fool’s Hideout, Thirsting Prostrated Epistemophile, Throbbing Pulsating Sportsman, Edgy Youthful Hangout

Θ - Theta server; Nameless Root Town, Hidden Forbidden Virgin Peaks, Hidden Forbidden Dragonbein, Natural Wooden Sunrise, Frozen Running Partier, Bright Fluffy Expedition

Ω - Omega Server; Lumina Cloth, Naval Monte, Quiet Winter’s Wanderlust

3) The official stance appears to be that poems are intended part of the in-game "lore." It may be a puzzle we're supposed to decipher to understand the lore a little better.

In my perspective, the poems seem to tell of a coming apocalyptic event. This was a speculation I suggested to another user, though I can't say I'm very good with fiction:

But I guess my understanding is that the "Cursed Wave/Wave" is a malevolent entity, and, like the four horsemen, it's heralded by those who would aid its coming (the Shadow of Death, the Mirage of Deceit, and the third whose "power" allows it to infect - if "heavens" is taken as the sky, or, more generally, the world - everything; it's possible the last line in the four-line verse is also an individual - a prophet of some kind?).

I'm not sure about the "Twlight dragon." If the shadowed man came to the church looking for it, where there was supposedly a statue of a goddess, it may be a good thing. Maybe he wanted to use it to defeat the Wave entity.

[insinning]

Maybe we need to decipher the puzzle and link it to the special areas we've visited first, so we can work out what the connection is between the negative events. If we put the poem back together properly:

Unknown where the Cursed Wave was born…
After the stars doth cross the heavens,
The sky in the East doth darken and air doth fill with mourning.
From the chosen land beyond the forest, a sign of the wave comes.

Riding the wake is ██████, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands.
Mirage of Deceit, █████, Betray all with the flawed image, and did aid the Wave.
And by the Power of █████, a drop from the Wave doth reach the heavens, and creates a new Wave.
With the Wave, ████████, the power to tell the dark future, hope darkens, sadness and despair rule.

█████ schemes when swallowed by the Cursed Wave.
█████ seduces with the sweet trap.
Wave reaches the Pinnacle, and escape none can. ██████ still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy.
And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave. Only a void remains. From deep within the void arrives ████████.
Perhaps then the Wave is just a beginning as well.

The shadowed man may be connected to the riddle or he may be connected to that woman, who was searching for the one with the key.

Are we meant to be encountering characters within the lore yet? If so, which NPC fits it? The woman 'infected' everyone but...she could be the sign...it doesn't seem right though.

[time to start throwing things at the wall to make it stick]

[tablescraps]

I'll need a moment to think over this, to suggest something more concrete - however: if we accept that the censored word in the Cathedral description is "Cursed Wave" based off the number of characters present, could we possibly match up the names of NPCs or locations we know to the number of characters censored in the poem?

For example:

Riding the wake is ██████, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands.

If we accept this theory as a potential Rosetta stone, then ██████ must be a name/term/location comprised of six characters; "Mirage of Deceit, █████," must be a term of five characters, and so on.

I say a "potential" Rosetta Stone because there's nothing confirming my suggestion about the Cathedral is correct, and it may simply be coincidental the character lengths matched. However, if true - this may help us identify relevant terms in the future, as we learn more lore.

I wonder if the NPCs in Naval Monte, or the remaining Sprites in the nameless Root Town, may be able to identify any of these terms. Naval Monte is "cursed," right? And this poem concerns a "Cursed Wave." The connection is tenuous, but maybe not completely irrelevant. Lore of other locations may teach us indirectly about the lore related to this poem.