Starbound Theory Thread [Spoilers]

So, I've been sharing theories with other people for a while now, but I've realized it would also be neat to discuss some of them on a public forum.

Here are some of theories that I believe to hold true in the Starbound universe. Translated names of the six artifacts will be crucial here.

1. Apex artifact, the Genesis Coil was extensively researched by the Miniknog and their discoveries used in the Vestigo-Evo Process.
   
2. Avian artifact, the Wheel of Kluex was used as the original catalyst for creating Avolite crystals. These crystals required blood to make, which led to the ritualistic sacrifices and the creation of the Kluex faith. It's also the reason why the crystals are only known to occur on Avos and why access to their source is heavily restricted.
   
3. Glitch were initially created by the Ancient race, and since Ancients described themselves as builders and created the Ancient Vaults in order to preserve life, I believe simulating a civilization in order to expand their understanding of sapient beings would also be within their interests.
   
4. Glitch artifact, the Regal Medallion was given to one of the robotic civilizations created by the Ancients. Their artifact led them to remain in the medieval stage, resulting in the Glitch we know today. All other robotic civilizations proceeded to develop, but eventually the project imploded on itself and they all ended up destroying themselves, resulting in the toxic and decayed planets found across the universe.

That would be all I can remember so far from the top off my head. What do you think of those theories? What's more, do you have any theories of your own that you'd like to share?

 

On the previous theory that Ancients were the envoys who delivered the artifacts to the six chosen races, I believe the Unidentified fossil somewhat supports it, as there are several reason to believe it's a member of the Ancient race. The fossil's appearance greatly resembles some of the motifs used by the Ancients, as seen on objects such as the Essence Chest.



It's also holding an object of some importance - an orb that's very similar to the racial artifacts.



In addition to the Ancient Essence Chest, their single eye appears to also be the eighth race head on the Ancient Gate, as seen in an early screenshot of the Ark. Admittedly, the eye symbol could also simply be based on the Ruin, but somehow it seems weird that the Ruin would be depicted on the gate among the other races.
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Since the Caretaker has two eyes, the fossil in question might not actually be an Ancient. I'm also somewhat leaning more towards the idea that it's a specimen of some kind of a Ruin-related race.

 

I like your theory-crafting, Slig, good stuff! I agree with much of it. Well-backed-up by these hotlinks, I applaud the citations.

Although your "without violating their initial directives" links to music.
Good music, though.

No theories about the Floran? I haven't read all the codices, yet to see much about the Floran artifact, but could that have been an influence on the development of greenfingers - the Floran with abilities to control and interface with plantlife?

 

It's actually a poke at how Inviolate plays on toxic and decayed planets, and funnily enough, the theme tends to be associated with the Glitch.

That's actually a pretty interesting idea! It is very much possible that the Bone Trophy played a part in some Florans developing the ability to mentally connect with other plants, resulting in Greenfingers as we know them today. I'm just wondering if there could be some additional evidence for this...

While I could draw the connection between "the Genesis Coil" and the Apex altering their DNA, "the Regal Medallion" and the Glitch getting stuck in medieval times, and "the Wheel of Kluex" being considered a gift from the Avian god, just like the Avolite crystals... I wonder, how could "the Bony Trophy" influence the Floran to control plantlife...?

 

I can believe that the "Doomed Glitch" would create the toxic worlds, in fact, I thought about this when I visited one and looted it clean of all of its radiation themed trea...sure... stuff. The scorched worlds, on the other hand, I do not think are a result of Doomed Glitch because "Deadbeats" can be found on scorched worlds in the ruins like nuclear apocalypse survivors. I believe Toxic Ocean equals Doomed Glitch and Scorched equals whatever Deadbeats were before the end of their Stylish times. Comparing the Stylish furniture found on scorched worlds with normal glitch furniture will also support this as Stylish furniture is cushioned and rounded but normal glitch furniture is wooden and hard, and straight. You could say that this is just a... stylistic choice, but no furniture can be found on toxic worlds that isn't industrial and/or toxic.

 

Deadbeats are interesting in their own way. They seem to be something akin to blue-skinned cow folk? Something happened to them, but we don't many hints, because every random encounter is hostile and about as informative about their past as a bunch of random bandit encounters! Though judging by their personally, including their love for explosive traps, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out they just blew it all up themselves.

But you've got the point, toxic worlds really do seem somehow more fitting for the Glitch than the scorched ones.
(Even though I believe Doomed Glitch would no doubt slowly phase out wooden furniture as they advanced technologically)

 

1. Kluex was a Avian Politician who was mysteriously killed. He became an Avian god after his death due to being a "sunborn". The Original Avian gods were the seven sunborn. There is a lot more information about the unknown alien race that manipulated avians here

2. from starbounder: ...powered by Avolite crystals. These enigmatic power sources are mined solely by the Stargazer priests on their homeworld, and power everything from simple lights to spaceships capable of interstellar travel...
the power crystals onlyappear on Avos, the homeworld of the avians. I remember reading this in a codex.

Not every deadbeat encounter is hostile, there are some you can talk to. these just have the standard human dialogues.

 

This is lore from the beta version and as of the full 1.0 release, it no longer applies.

I should have made this point clearer - I believe the reason why the crystals are so sacred and powerful while being unique to Avos is because they were were created using the artifact.

 

The abridged avian history is no longer canon and in fact wasn't even canon immediately prior to 1.0.

 

I mean, I'd think "Subject to change - revision 34." on a PDF file from 2013 would've given it away.

 

If the mystery skeleton is an ancient, that would mean the Caretaker is not; the Caretaker clearly has two eyes. Why then, do they speak lime they have some relation to the vaults, and how do they get so many keys?
Are they some cosmic con-artist?

 

Well, that is a major issue. I've completely neglected to account for the Caretaker, since I actually came up with the theory prior to the 1.2 release. If the Caretaker is an Ancient, then the entire theory concerning the mysterious fossil falls apart. Which causes another problem, since it leaves us once again clueless about that fossil's significance.

I... have to admit, I'm not sure what to make of this.

 

Maybe the skeleton (which would need to be 10k years old to be a fossil, technically, which seems unlikely) is related to the Ruin? I mean, the size of the eyes that make up the Ruin seem to more-or-less match up.

 

Hm, you mean like a sentient race born from the Ruin, similar to its minions from the final mission? Now that you mention, it would fit with the "single eye" theme particularly well.



Maybe there's a chance we'll learn more about this race in the future, or maybe even encounter it.

 

i'm not positive on this. there's also the fact that chucklefish doesn't have the best writers (the sealed ruin destroying earth somehow for example) and in my opinion its much more possible that the skeleton is in fact an ancient and the caretaker is just a rando uhh what was the phrase someone used? ancient con man or something? he's clearly profiting off the character continuing to run vaults as opposed to some cosmic do gooder sheparding the last remnants of Ancient stuff.

the single eye motif appearing EVERWHERE on ancient stuff is pretty indicative that the ancients were cyclopean- and it's further supported by the fact that this stuff existed -before- the mysterious trader did. not to mention he looksan awful lot like the penguin bay dude, and the treasured trophies dude is dressed similarly as well which is just a weird stylistic decision for me. making the last ancient thematically similar to a shady dude who works with penguins and some bum on a weird lizard? if the caretaker WAS an ancient, why would these two shady characters dress so similarly?

the fact that he calls you young one in dialogue is a little problematic, but it just doesn't make sense to me that they'd toss out all that compelling evidence.

of course there's also the well-storied tradition in comics and games and such of making somebody look totally different underneath their robes, so he might still be cyclopean and horned, and then there's also the option that chucklefish just doesn't care/forgot, because no one there seems to care about fossils

 

Someone I talked to on Discord proposed the idea that Ancients came to be from Cultivator's fight against the Ruin. While Novakids were seemingly created from Cultivator's fragments that scattered across the universe after it depleted its energies, the Ancients would be formed much earlier, while the struggle was still ongoing. With both the Ruin and the Cultivator greatly hurt on many occasions, the remnants would fuse together, resulting in Ancients, creatures characterized by both Ruin's flesh and Cultivator's life energy.

It's really more of a wild guess, sadly. Here is said person's original post:

 

I was actually figuring it was the other way around; the Ruin being a being borne from the compacted bodies of an entire civilization of such creatures, which would also provide several possible plausible explanations for the Ruin's hatred of other life.

As for the ancients, the phrase "we advanced as we were designed" all but confirms that the ancients are some of the other simulated civilizations like the glitch.

 

I have to admit the thought did cross my mind, especially when I caught myself using similar phrase when talking about Doomed Glitch.

That being said, I'm not sure if I like the idea. The existence of Ancients, a race of self-described builders, capable of replicating ecosystems and civilizations has way too much potential. It feels wrong to just waste it all and settle with them being just another simulated civilization instead.

 

that could also very easily refer to the cultivator creating them to build, since isn't it implied that the ancients WERE the ones who created the simulated civilizations? it seems weird that the cultivator would just do it once and then leave it to a weirdly self-replicating simulation people

 

i cannot stop lurking in this thread lol

i think there's actually pretty strong evidence for the non-glitched races (i don't like the name doomed glitch, i feel it doesn't apply to them because they functioned exactly as intended) being the architects of the scorched planets as well, especially in that very codex linked above: "remains of a robotic race, similar to the Glitch but amongst far more technologically advanced ruins than the familiar castles and citadels!"

your argument against the theory is that the furniture is different, which, unfortunately, isn't evidence against it because as both the codex itself says and Slig mentions below, these robots are MUCH more advanced than the glitch- to the point where their causality ran out and their civilizations collapsed upon themselves. frankly, it would make -no- sense for the aesthetics of these guys to be anything like the glitch. it's like comparing a hut to a mobile home, you know? same basic concept but hugely different

also, i'm pretty sure the deadbeats aren't native to those worlds. it's kind of implied in the name. deadbeat, vagrant, drifter, i.e., people who don't have homes. it would make much more sense for those planets to be settled after earth's destruction by mad max style humans, since all friendly encounters with them offer nothing more than standard human dialogue- and they seem to not even LIVE in the ruins, instead just trapping the shit out of them with explosives and then camping out to collect the loot

EDIT: my theory here is actually further supported by the human codex "Human: Census Report", which reads as follows: "This recent census has established two facts: that the level of human inter-system colonisation is even lower than previously estimated, and that the average size of a settlement is minute.

The largest single settlement is now confirmed to be on Arin Borealis VII, numbering just nineteen individuals, composing five families."

scorched planets are the clear evidence of settlements and cities far larger than a mere five family compound- which is the largest official human settlement off-Earth ever. if the Deadbeats actually are human, as they appear to be, they can't possibly be survivors of a horrific solar flare or whatever, because humans never made settlements that size. that lends even further credence to the theory that they (scorched planets) were in fact once upon a time the simulated civilizations that destroyed themselves

though again, as i've said, some of the shit i say can easily be handwaved by chucklefish just not caring to give them unique dialogue