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Lore theory I don't fully understand...

Discussion in 'Starbound Discussion' started by NPete28, Mar 29, 2019.

  1. NPete28

    NPete28 Poptop Tamer

    Can someone explain to me why people think that the Ruin is not the villain, and that Esther is. In the "Esther's Journal" codex, it clearly says "She [Asra Nox] believed the Ruin to be a 'cleansing force' that would eradicate all 'inferior life' from the universe, leaving only the 'worthy' [humans] intact." That sounds pretty evil to me. Also, the Ruin did destroy the player's home planet, so they have a reason to side with Esther against the Ruin.
     
  2. Jonesy

    Jonesy Sarif's Attack Kangaroo Forum Moderator

    I've noticed more than one piece of fanon that depict the Protectorate as a villainous organization, and the xenophobic, militaristic, shoot-the-player-on-sight USCM as the 'true' good guys. I suspect it might come down to the Protectorate being rather idealistic - comparable to the Federation from Star Trek - which I don't imagine appeals to everyone. While I feel like Starbound's lore could use a little more grit (particularly regarding the emotional and cultural impact of losing Earth, the galaxy's beacon of free and equal society), some people just want to take it to the extreme.

    At the end of the day, I wouldn't read too much into those sorts of overly-edgy theories. The Ruin is a eldritch abomination set on destroying all sentient life, and Asra Nox is a mentally-scarred woman traumatized to the point of wanting to side with the omnicidal being that has destroyed her own species' homeworld. They're not the good guys.
     
    Robo-Plushy and STCW262 like this.
  3. NPete28

    NPete28 Poptop Tamer

    That's exactly what I thought when I first saw the theory
     
  4. Daikon Ocelot

    Daikon Ocelot Spaceman Spiff

    Who would ever think that the Ruin is not evil. The Ruin has destroys Earth, a planet where millions of innocent people live. The Ruin is also built for destruction and chaos. It is its purpose. So, who would ever think the Ruin is not evil, maybe they are just the member of the Occasus, or people that are pro of the Occasus.
     
  5. Jonesy

    Jonesy Sarif's Attack Kangaroo Forum Moderator

    Billions, more like. And although there's millions more living away from Earth, they're largely in very small colonies and nomadic lifestyles.

    https://starbounder.org/Off-Earth_Human_Census

    https://starbounder.org/Human_Census:_Report

    Although I don't really consider this realistic - I think we'd be seeing many larger colonies at the absolute least - it does still highlight that the Ruin has killed off the majority of the human population. The survivors are so scattered that rebuilding and repopulating doesn't look viable for the foreseeable future.
     
    STCW262 likes this.
  6. LilyV3

    LilyV3 Master Astronaut

    because the currently lore was badly written, the old had that tentacle stuff being own planets and such.

    Now we have that, creator created world thin, and the ruin just destroyed them. but he did not by given lore create the ruin and instead banished it somewhere else.

    So now imagine you are that giant ruin thingy just living somewhere ins pace and a random dude comes across you home building whatever he feels like. Sounds fairly nice doesn't it?. And when Yous rat defending against that, he puts you in a prison.

    So yes from the human point of view we are creations of that creator, but it does not necessarily make the ruin evil. So it is mostlikely the nature of the ruin to act like this. and when it destroyed earth, someone must have unleashed it temporarily. Mostly Asra Nox and their weird cult of thinking that ruin is some holy whatever.

    But ask yourself, if I would invade your home and set up some at and hamster farms taking all your space more and more, if you would enjoy that.

    In the end what we got is a cheap quick slapped on lore, "here is a bad thing thats evil destroying stuff for the sake of being destructive and evil" and thats cheap and bad story writing. Where did it came from? "It was always there"
     
  7. Daikon Ocelot

    Daikon Ocelot Spaceman Spiff

    Yes, the real evil is the Occasus themselves. If they don't mess with the Ruin, Earth will not be destroyed, and the Ruin will stayed there, sealed by the Cultivator's power.

    It's all about vengeance. Nox couldn't over come it. Her hate to the other races has brought destruction to many races, even the Human themselves. If she just forget the past, and accept it, none of these will happen. Vengeance is an evil thing you know.
     
    Pangaea likes this.
  8. NPete28

    NPete28 Poptop Tamer

    That's something I can agree on, and that should be featured more prominently in the lore.
     
  9. Cptn_Stuart

    Cptn_Stuart Orbital Explorer

    I agree with this. Very deep thoughts.
     
  10. Armok

    Armok Cosmic Narwhal

    It's a bit of a tired joke from some elements of the community, some people love to hate on esther for no good reason. It's pretty cut and dry who's good and who's not in SB's story, so just stick with what the game presents to you
     
  11. Cptn_Stuart

    Cptn_Stuart Orbital Explorer

    But what about when the ruin destroyed earth and a bunch of humans on it too? Wont the cultists see that it is evil after that??
     
  12. Armok

    Armok Cosmic Narwhal

    the thing with cults is that if you're not part of them, you're against them in some way, the loss of the humans on earth was of no real consequence to them, as they no doubt were brainwashed to believe that Earth and it's inhabitants had been irreversibly corrupted by aliens and was beyond "saving".
     
  13. That1Rand0mChannel

    That1Rand0mChannel Industrial Terraformer

    Gotta admit, I do kinda hate Esther, but that is mainly due to the annoying scan quests.
     
  14. Armok

    Armok Cosmic Narwhal

    it's not her fault though lol
    just get a mod that trivializes the quests somehow if you really don't like them that much, MPI can really reduce the amount of time finding necessary structures with, or you could get a mod that basically reduces the scanning down, or have them all go on at the same time for expediency. Plenty of options.
     
  15. That1Rand0mChannel

    That1Rand0mChannel Industrial Terraformer

    haha yes
     
  16. Cptn_Stuart

    Cptn_Stuart Orbital Explorer

    Wow, I never thought about it that way.

    I'm doing the peacekeeper route at the moment, and I'm taking down and apprehending occuasus people now...
    Soon I'll be able to fight swansong! But some of the dialogue that the purple pansies are spouting sounds a little odd to me. Like, is the 'Apocalyptic Occasus Cult' another branch of the cult? Or another thing entirely? I mean, they do have the same outfit and stuff, but I have only ever heard them referred to as just 'The Occusus'.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 28, 2021
    Armok likes this.
  17. Armok

    Armok Cosmic Narwhal

    could be a sub-group tied to criminal activity
     
  18. That1Rand0mChannel

    That1Rand0mChannel Industrial Terraformer

    You know, I have been wondering why there are only occusus cults in the whole entire game. It would be realistic to have different non-occusus cults since there are so many solar systems out there that I doubt they haven't created their own type of cults.
     
  19. Armok

    Armok Cosmic Narwhal

    well, shadow cultists are a thing, they only show up as tenants though in vanilla, but some mods give them more of a galactic presence like more NPC ships
     
    That1Rand0mChannel likes this.
  20. Pangaea

    Pangaea Forum Moderator

    @Cptn_Stuart Please don't stack posts. Use the edit function or wait for someone else to reply first. I've merged your posts.
     

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