This World Wants to Die

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The expansive beauty of Rainworld is plagued with a strange melancholy. Its story is obscure and hard to piece together... but we tried anyway.

▬▬▬▬ Tale Foundry Community▬▬▬▬

▬▬▬▬ Tale Foundry Team ▬▬▬▬
• Talebot — The Talent
• The Taleoids — The Talent's Helpers
• Benjamin Cook — Writer, Director, & Voice Actor
• Kathryn Healy — Researcher & Writer

[TheTaleFoundry]

The first 500 people to use our link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/talefoundry08241

[Kulin]

"The meaning of life is what you make of it, and also batflies"
-Slugcat (probably)

[miroslavzderic]

and then downpour happened. post gourmand survivor ending really feels like the one the game wants for you, somber as it is, completing the monk ending after really feels like life is worth it. specially with the mothernal instincts of taking care of baby slugcats yourself. having to put in more effort to get the ending that makes life more meaningful than death and having to play as two slugcats looking for eachother to achieve it is beautiful. and the game never forces you to take care of random scug babies you find, its meaning in your life you chose yourself....

and then came jesus

[Colointigo]

Hermoso análisis, este juego es mi favorito y analizaste una parte de la historia y como el fandom lo disfruta de una manera increíble. Exelente trabajo.

[ZillaZilla]

Rain world is my favorite game, so happy you made a video for it!!!

[michaelwilson]

I think the order of events is before they discovered the void fluid, they thought the only way to ascend was the early karma limitations, though theres no evidence of it actually working. Then they found void fluid, seeing its complete destruction of oneself, removing themselves from the cycle. Except the void fluid ascension would leave behind echoes if you were too tied to the earth, through the iterators, your love of the ecosystem, etc. We can understand this from artificer and saint's ascension ending. So they built the iterators to find a way to ascend without void fluid to stop the formation of the echoes. The iterators didnt succeed and the ancient went 'eh lets go' and yeetrd themselves into the void. So now the iterators are trying to survive and find a solution besides the self destruction taboo so they can also leave

!spoilers!
Then theres saint, who attains max karma and can literally ascend anything, including iterators and karma guardians. But then he tries to ascend and goes back to being in the cycle

[hab]

I think something becomes a "sin" if taken too far, done excessively, becoming an obsession and cause suffering in self and other.

Companionship: Being either desperate for companionship or harming others through companionship.
Self-preservation: Desparately clinging to existence or existing with complete disregard for the existence of others.

The ancients obsession to escape into the void could be considered a sin.
A pure slugcat would embrace the struggles of earthly existence while also welcoming death when it happens.

[VeriVeriBerriz]

Tale Foundry summoning Rain World fans :

[luminousparadox]

As a long time rainworld player i think the acients some how found the "code" that makes up nature, didnt know what they were looking at. A d broke it. Late in the story of the saint you are with the itterators as they pass on and one says something to the effect of
"we probably looked at what we were looking for but had no knowledge of it being the thing we sort so looked past it many times."

One.of the echos tells you he was proud to go but didnt know he would stay with how wrong he was.

I think in trying to accend the acients broke the code of life making everything immortal. So accention is the ultimate escape and punishment at the same time that makes one into a watcher.

[Antasma]

In conclusion, long life or short life, cherish it

[rm_gr]

the rainworld community has been summoned

[nameistanya]

scug game mentioned

the fandom has been summoned

[ironember]

I freaking love this game, and I hope more people will give it a shot! ❤

[kuromihmystrs]

The reason why the ancients all died off was a “mass ascension” where whether they liked it or not, everyone hopped into the fluid.

[toaster]

The world: A horrible purgatory, riddled with the remains of a civilization desperate to understand and escape their fate.
The fandom: Scugcat!!!

[AmmyWulf]

"Actively Hostile" yeah tell me about it, sometimes you die by simply existing in the same room as anything at all, or moving a little too fast at a Scav Toll. Absolutely BRUTAL.

[_fedmar_]

FINALLY YOU COVER RAINWORLD

WE GETTIN OUTTA THE RETENTION WALL WITH THIS ONE BOYS

[gruntonium]

One thing is that not every ancient had the unending desire to ascend. There is an echo that can be encountered during saint's timeline that says as much:
"Do you see the same as me?
Beauty continuing to bloom even in a place long forgotten.
I did not have the will to depart, nor the desire.
Why did they always search for an escape, as if we were imprisoned?

What offering from the void could usurp the gift of life already given?
This moment, right here! It is where we are meant to be."

The existence of this echo implies that it was forced upon every ancient to ascend, rather than a free decision.
But it's always up to the scug to choose if they wanna ascend!

[Crafterz]

[Rain World spoilers]

The way that the player’s experience parallels the slugcat’s is unique. The game is hard for the player, but so is the world for the slugcat, the countless deaths the player go through are also what the slugcat experiences. And the world is unknown and hard to understand, both for the slugcat in that world and the player who plays the game. And the knowledge the slugcat gains is the same as of the player.

The game’s philosophy is quite interesting, in some ways similar to that of the Buddhism.

There are many perspectives on the eternal cycle of rebirth. The one in the game shows the disturbing part of the eternity, being stuck in the cycle of reëxperiencing suffering over and over again, forever and ever.

One thing i want to note is that it’s not really "sins" but it’s the things that attach you to the world, they aren’t inherently bad but they will prevent the ascension.

The perspective of the enjoyment in the cycle is more explored in the DLC downpour, even though it isn’t made by the same developers, i think it does expand the philosophy of the game in interesting ways. Finding the joy in the eternal cycle is also possible perspective.

i think both of these perspectives are pretty valid, but it depends on each person which one is better.

For example, for another slugcat, the hunter, who is terminally ill, the ascension is a pretty desirable option.

But whether the slugcat, the survivor, the one the main game is about, wants to ascend is quite ambiguous. On one hand, the slugcat does want to find the family, but on another hand the slugcat does also accept that it will never happen, judging by dreams. The ascension is not the initial goal, but it’s unknown if it is the new goal for the slugcat after the enlightenment.

[gfdweeqwr]

It’s not necessarily just moral purity that determines what the ancients thought would make you an echo. For example, in Farm Arrays, the echo there talks about how much they enjoy the view of the fields, implying that any connection to the world, regardless of morality, can tether you between reality as an echo.