Overanalyzing Don't Starve's Universe (The Constant)

Have you ever wondered what the Constant ACTUALLY is within don't starve and don't starve togethers universe? well in todays video, we are going to talk about the things we know about the constant, as well as theorize about what the constant could actually be in the greater scheme of things!

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Something that I wanted to mention in the video but forgot is that the theories do NOT factor ghosts in them, I couldn't find any definitive answers on wether survivor ghosts were canon or not, so, yeah, if they are then the whole quantum immortality bit would be incorrect (as all death would simply result in ghostification)

0:00 (Intro)
0:30 (What We Know)
2:25 (Astrophysics)
3:54 (Fundamentals)
7:54 (Simulation Theory)
10:48 (Hell Theory)
16:38 (Multiverse Theory)

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[lovkarts]

As I said in Purplex08's video:

"The characters in Don't Starve are constantly compared to chess pieces. When you re-arrange the chess pieces after a match is over, you're technically reviving them, and the same logic is applied to the survivors, that could explain why them dying and being resurrected multiple times is canon."

[WickedDoom]

The constant is one of my favorite names for a fictional dimension to this day. It sounds like an unstable entity that does not stop generating, growing and will forever keep on existing.

[daviddavidsson]

You don’t need to apologize for sections being paced ”incorrectly”. This was a really interesting video!

[DrasticElevation-old]

i have a different idea for death in the constant, my theory is that when you die, your soul/ghost leaves your body, when you revive, you get a new body based off the one your first after entering the constant and your ghost enters that new one. the health penalty exists because all resurrection methods have shadow magic on them, never lunar magic or any other magic.

[aaaa-oljg]

I would like to add that in singleplayer DS, the survivors are first shown within coffins while they're locked, something that certainly gives strength to the hell theory. Even the way you unlock Webber in the first game is very suggestive. That considered, could it be that Charlie is another reinterpretation of Beatrice? You know... Don't Starve To-Get-Her... then Maxwell would actually be Dante... Honestly, it seems like a big stretch, but I do believe Klei Intentionally spread references like these on purpose, as a fun metanliguistic way of telling stories, same thing with how the game uses the duality of shadow and gestalt, both being terms of psychology, which doesn't necessarily mean the Constant is canonically a psychological universe (but it could be, considering the paper-like style DS has and the fact Maxwell and Charlie first get into the constant through a book).

As a final note, I believe one of the keys to understanding what is the constant probably lies within symbolic understanding and the comprehension of what They mean. Both the shadow part and the lunar part. I plan on taking some time to make a theory of my own regarding all of that. One last thing, the Constant's symbol is a spiral, the meaning is pretty intuitive.

[placeholderdoe]

I don’t think the constant is hell, but more of a hellish place. It isn’t ruled by satan as a punishment for sinners, but it is ran by mysterious gods or otherwise eldritch entities who toy with people based on grudges and mysteries reasons. Like how the saw movies are hell even though the traps and kidnapping are not divine

[Toadkillah]

I've always been intrigued why Klei chose the name *Constant* out of everything they could have called it. I don't think they chose it on a whim but I'm not sure how big a role the name plays. For all we know it could be what the survivors or *one* of them call it. I don't remember where I saw it but isn't it implied/mentioned that the names in game are given to things by the survivors and/or Maxwell/Charlie (whoever controls the Throne at the time)? Which is why some things have such basic/dumb names as Tallbird, Rocklobster and Science Machine. I'm pretty sure the last one is canonically invented by Wilson and Science Machine is just the kind of name he would call something like that.

"Everyone, look what I have created!"
"What is it?"
"A Science Machine!"
"What does it do?"
"It does *science* of course!"

C'mon that sounds exactly like how Wilson reasons, he is so smart but at the same time so dumb. I love him, for being the generic/default character he has quite a lot of character to him, even if we only go by in game quotes from the OG Don't Starve.

"That is a perfectly reasonable piece of clothing." - Wilson when examining a Log Suit.

[goiaba]

Another curious thing about the Hell theory, what about warly and winona? Warly hasn't done anything (probably) terrible and far from doing a Deal with Maxwell/Devil, he was just straight up kidnapped.

Winona, same thing, no deals were made and it's more of a kidnap scenario, plus she was trying to save someone, this is not the kind of act that would lead someone to hell (given how she was first going for Wagstaff being sucked into the portal and not Charlie since she only appeared after Winona failed to save him).

Wes? a pure saint and you can't even suggest the "going where you shouldn't, doing what you shouldn't" argument since he was just running away from some crows and stumbled upon the shadow hands guiltlessly.

So even if there are arguments to the Winona and Wes situation, Warly just seems off nonetheless.

[mustard]

The multiverse theory is just outright correct. We see it in the Gorge and the Forge, and we see portals opened from the Constant to the "real world". The Constant isn't Hell - Wagstaff's able to go in and out of it with ease, They aren't divine or infernal (demons like Wortox are another thing entirely), and the seven levels of Adventure Mode being a parallel to Dante's Inferno's nine circles is kind of a reach. Also, Wanda's dialogue constantly implies branching timelines.

[polarlotus]

Leave it to me to forget to mention one of the most popular theories, the constant is a time loop. However I don't think this theory is correct, here's why.

A temporal loop would not explain why time seems to advance within the constant, we know that time goes forward in the constant because of the events of don't starve and dont starve together, if it were a temporal loop then everything would stay the mostly the same because survivor death is canon within the don't starve universe

It also opens a lot of paradoxical issues with don't starve together, shared temporal loops cant really exist as if one person were to die then their time would be different than everyone elses, it could go hand in hand with the multiverse theory, but on its own its unfeasible.

And yes, I know its called the "constant" which would suggest that time is constant, however time has proven to be anything but constant in the constant, so its very likely a play on words which is something klei loves to do (don't starve is a game where food is the least of your problems)

[two]

Has everyone been ver noticed there’s an alchemy engine at 10:07 on the right hand side behind Webber? Meaning alchemy engines were also brought back from the constant, or are from the real world, idk how this helps any theories but it’s interesting

[jameskowanko]

An important thing to note about the Constant is that it seems that, in Shipwrecked anyway, there are actual native people. The pirates mostly encountered through ghosts have two surviving members, Walani and Woodlegs.
While the skeletons of the main Constant can be explained by the corpses of previous times the survivors had died, or even just something Maxwell put in to make things spookier, the pirates seem to just be the remnants of an ancient group of people who lived in the seas of Shipwrecked.

This may imply that the Constant is moreso another dimension rather than an afterlife. Which would also explain the lack of morality applied in the constant

[palindromeblues]

The Forge event has some neat insight into the multiverse theory: Battlemaster Pugna has dialogue calling the survivors "Gatekeepers" and talks about how the Forge is a different realm from where "the Throne" is. Assuming this is talking about the nightmare throne, this seems to suggest that the Constant is connected to other realms or universes, like the Forge and the Gorge, and that the Constant is specifically the nightmare throne's domain.
Pugna also mentions going to a "hub" to destroy "the Throne"- which can only be the Constant, as that's where the nightmare throne is located, but that would suggest that the Constant is something central to this little multiverse, rather than some place Maxwell cobbled together out of shadows. Which is very odd- I'd be inclined to assume that the "real world", where most of the survivors are from, would be the most important place. But I guess the "real world" is lame and doesn't have two superpowerful entities in a power struggle, so that might explain it.
Though admittedly, I'm not really sure if the events are canon.

[johnthespeeder]

For the hell theory, there's a flaw (kind of) you didn't mention; not all the survivors were bad people, some theoretically would've gone to heaven.
Take Wolfgang for example, he wanted to be strong so that he could save people. The reason why I added kind of in brackets is that when people were about to die from the train in the cutscene, Wolfgang made a deal with the devil, which you could interpret as the reason why he entered hell.

[tecnochilemapper]

The constant could be a personal hell, like in single player, but thanks to the florid postern every character get's to the same hell, the only exception would be willson falling into maxwell's constant, but it could be explained by Willson being trown into maxwell's hell by charlie

[jameskowanko]

6:50 From Wendy's voice lines in DST, I think it's when she examines a ghost Winona, she has apparently taken her own life before and found it not to work

[PolymerUa]

I think that constant might actually be something like a backrooms, pocket reality for shadows. You i think it makes sense why Bob Staffwag is trying to use lunar magic instead of shadow. It think that everything that contacts with the shadows in real world makes a portal tо the constant, losing it's original powers, and instead combining itself with the item in real world. Like the Wagstaff projector, or the codex umbra which is probably just a normal book, but infused with shadows.

[FIreWolf]

Enjoyed the vid a lot, enjoyed this style of video should do more like it

[aimarmelchormartinez]

The constant is the friends we made along the way

[RaisinHook]

I think it’s kinda like a simulation but not entirely, since Maxwell can only control shadows and it said only that he made the Constant and not how, I think it’s entirely possible that Maxwell somehow made the world entirely out of Shadows and made them think they where something specific, like making a shadow fully believe that it is a Spider, Science Machine, or Hambat