Revelations from Patch 7.3: The Promise of Tomorrow

[mallleable]

Food for my brain worms

Confirmation that The Key is indeed the twisted white crystal in the chalice-like device. Also, apparently They Key caused an explosion when opening a portal that killed several scientists during one of Preservation's experiments on it from one of the data records.

"General Daily Report

Nothing of note. The mystery of the key's activation condition remains unsolved.

The key triggered an explosion today. Temporary interdimensional portal verified. Continue attempts to stabilize the core's energy reactions.

Thirteen researchers sustained fatal injuries in the explosion. Memory faculties of four personnel sufficiently intact for Endless conversion. Remaining nine designated for aether reclamation processing.

Nothing of note. Rejected resignations of two Milalla researchers.

Major incident. Details in full report."

Why is the portal opening process so violent? I think there is still the possibility that The Key could have been intended as a weapon, and not a simple tool. How were the Millala able to open their portal safely (unless they didn't)? Auracite is said to grant miracles for those with well intentions. Azem's symbol appearing on it is still a mystery.

[Cilia]

My current theory is the "Winterers" are an organization of individuals forced to "winter" in the Source for various reasons, who ultimately want to go home. Some might be from reflections that have been rejoined and somehow managed to escape the fate of their worlds. In the case of the Ninth, the rest of the reflection may now be uninhabitable, overwhelmed by lightning aether.

I'm more inclined to believe that...

"Winterers" is the name they finally came up with to denote the "sundered" Ascians from the Paragon unsundered three. It's worth remembering that until the Dimensional Fusion kicking off Dawntrail's second act Calyx was (presumably) stuck on the Ninth, given he's a data-based projection stored in the Meso Terminal until 7.3's denouement. The term "winterer" here, I think, is more intended to convey "someone who migrates," as their primary purpose seems to have been visiting other reflections to kickstart Rejoinings through long plays. This is what happened in the First (Loghrif and Mitron, until Ardbert & co. threw a wrench into things) and the Thirteenth (Igeyorhm). I'm not going to say decisively, but trends are trends...

Food for my brain worms

Why is the portal opening process so violent? I think there is still the possibility that The Key could have been intended as a weapon, and not a simple tool. How were the Millala able to open their portal safely (unless they didn't)? Auracite is said to grant miracles for those with well intentions. Azem's symbol appearing on it is still a mystery.

I'm inclined to believe that...

Considering the "key" is the crystal in the chalice, and not the chalice itself, the explosion was an unfortunate accident that resulted from a test. The chalice appears to be an effort not to just use the Key at will, but control which reflection (or the Source) they land on. The Milalla (neé Lalafell) probably did not know what they were doing with the Key during the Calamity of Ice; they just used it to summon a portal that would take them somewhere more hospitable, with no care to how it worked or concern for where exactly they were going. But if you could control it and expand the effects...

The only thing I can say about Azem's symbol showing up in resonance when we fought the Queen Eternal is that it tells us the Key is somehow connected to the Ancients / Ascians.

[Teverino]

I have some thoughts, but I've recently come back to the game so there are some things I can't remember. But what about...

Can all Ascians freely move from shard to shard? If so, maybe the one we see is a messenger (like others have said) and the Winterers are a group spread out on the remaining shards and the Ascian keeps them in contact.

They are all up to different shenanigans on their shards and we have to go and stop them. I think that because we got the key, which lets us go to different shards, so we may end up using it to stop the group.

Another thing is that Calyx knew about the shards, maybe because the Ascian told him when recruiting him. "Hey, come be on our team made up of evil superstars from across the shards." or something like that.

[Cleretic]

Food for my brain worms

Confirmation that The Key is indeed the twisted white crystal in the chalice-like device. Also, apparently They Key caused an explosion when opening a portal that killed several scientists during one of Preservation's experiments on it from one of the data records.

"General Daily Report

Nothing of note. The mystery of the key's activation condition remains unsolved.

The key triggered an explosion today. Temporary interdimensional portal verified. Continue attempts to stabilize the core's energy reactions.

Thirteen researchers sustained fatal injuries in the explosion. Memory faculties of four personnel sufficiently intact for Endless conversion. Remaining nine designated for aether reclamation processing.

Nothing of note. Rejected resignations of two Milalla researchers.

Major incident. Details in full report."

Why is the portal opening process so violent? I think there is still the possibility that The Key could have been intended as a weapon, and not a simple tool. How were the Millala able to open their portal safely (unless they didn't)? Auracite is said to grant miracles for those with well intentions. Azem's symbol appearing on it is still a mystery.

I'm personally not surprised about this element.

When you think about it, portals ARE inherently violent, that's ripping a hole in reality itself. You do that while you're not prepared for the impact, or possibly the size of the thing? Yeah, there's gonna be some nasty collateral damage. And that's presuming you've successfully made a portal that goes from point A to a largely safe point B; they might've just ripped a hole into the rift itself and basically got hit by the interdimensional equivalent of 'getting sucked out of the hole in the spaceship'.

Frankly, now that I think about it, I'm surprised this is the first time we've heard about a portal-induced fatality!

[mallleable]

I'm personally not surprised about this element.

When you think about it, portals ARE inherently violent, that's ripping a hole in reality itself. You do that while you're not prepared for the impact, or possibly the size of the thing? Yeah, there's gonna be some nasty collateral damage. And that's presuming you've successfully made a portal that goes from point A to a largely safe point B; they might've just ripped a hole into the rift itself and basically got hit by the interdimensional equivalent of 'getting sucked out of the hole in the spaceship'.

Frankly, now that I think about it, I'm surprised this is the first time we've heard about a portal-induced fatality!

Some thoughts on this.

I feel like there is a big difference between the philosophical violence of tearing a hole in reality versus kills 13 people, 9 of which were so gruesomely annihilated they could not be made into Endless violent.

To me, tt seeds even more doubt that Azem made The Key, especially for us. To me, it would seem out of character for them to add a contingency to a personal tool, one they intend to pass on to a future self that if the 'wrong' person or someone lacking the knowledge on how to use it, it turns into a bomb capable of killing 13 people. I think they would want it to be easy to use, and just not work if it fell into the wrong hands. It's implied that Azem was a bit of a trickster, but I think something like this goes beyond a 'joke.'

[EdwinLi]

I'm personally not surprised about this element.

When you think about it, portals ARE inherently violent, that's ripping a hole in reality itself. You do that while you're not prepared for the impact, or possibly the size of the thing? Yeah, there's gonna be some nasty collateral damage. And that's presuming you've successfully made a portal that goes from point A to a largely safe point B; they might've just ripped a hole into the rift itself and basically got hit by the interdimensional equivalent of 'getting sucked out of the hole in the spaceship'.

Frankly, now that I think about it, I'm surprised this is the first time we've heard about a portal-induced fatality!

considering how strong the wind was when Krile's parents open the portal to the the Source during the flashback where they had to leave Krile in 7.0....

it seem like a normal aspect about the portals having some kind of strong blowback and this is when a gate opens a stable portal.

I will not be surprised if opening portals between worlds have a common reaction for being violent when they are created.