Starbound Theory Thread [Spoilers]

Got any context for that quote? I mean Tonauac being transgender or Koichi being over a thousand years old would be a "revelation" but with how much is left open we really need a specific topic or even a question to answer in order to produce anything meaningful. If it's "just a random fun fact" we'll never realise that was what they meant even if we do find it (see the 2-Stop Teleshop lady missing an arm: okay, but does the Outpost lack the tech/funds to offer a prosthetic, or does she choose not to use one, and does any of this generalise to humanity as a whole? Or the "I'm sure they'll respawn somewhere safe" escort failure quip: sarcastic mockery of game mechanics? An actual in-universe confirmation of NPC respawns? If the latter why haven't those Protectorate scrubs respawned yet?)

 

Respawn is definitely just a gameplay feature and not a canon ability. At best, a person can beam away badly injured before being killed, like Asra did in all her encounters.

The context was our discussion about the 8th gate slot and Novakid origins - it was also preceded with "I don't think Starbound is a game about spelling things out entirely". Whatever revelation it is however, it surely is something relatively important. On a side note, I really don't want to address these awful scenarios for Tonauac or Koichi in any way.

 

But how did asra get into the Ruin in the first place? We where watching the closed gate!

 

When it comes to Asra and the Occasus, a lot is left unclear.

Did they have a hand in destroying Earth? Were they able to channel Ruin's power somehow? With the Ruin clearly capable of shifting across dimensions (as demonstrated by the Ruin destroying Earth, and summoning creatures to its heart), perhaps Occasus found some way to utilize this ability somehow.

 

So they may actually intend for us to identify the lost eighth race somehow? Is the older version with the Ruin's eye in that spot still canon or was that just a placeholder prop?

The Ruin can create portals to other planets during the boss fight so it had plenty of time to pull Asra in even after we opened the Ark. Since realistically at that point most Occasus forces should be rotting at the Baron's keep they couldn't muster an actual fighting force to escort her.

We can't know how much direct action Occasus took but I'd say it's fairly obvious they're responsible for the incident. At the very least they'd have to alert the Ruin to the graduation event and its strategic significance in defeating the Protectorate. They might have straight-up summoned the tentacles but there's no evidence for it.

Since the Ruin basically is a "Lovecraft lite" eldritch horror I think the tentacles that destroyed Earth weren't very "significant" to its existence. Meaning its will, consciousness and power were still sealed and despite physically destroying an entire planet that mass of flesh was ultimately just a very limited echo.

 

According to the quote from earlier, the eighth slot could've been the Ruin itself, with Novakid being analogous to the Cultivator. It was possibly removed to avoid confusion, as there wasn't going to be any 8th playable race. Keep in mind, it's a "probably" nonetheless - implying it's not entirely certain.

 

That still leaves the in-universe mystery though. Why would the Novakid be on there but not the Ancients? What about the Penguins, you have to count them as a "spacefaring" species too right?

 

I think the species pictures aren't meant to depict spacefaring species, but rather, the important species, the species involved in the events depicted on the Ark - and that includes the chosen six races, Cultivator's remnants, and whatever it is that's missing from the eighth slot. Could be Ruin, could be Ancients, could be something otherwise Ruin-related.

Penguins just weren't important.

 

I still stand by my claims from page two, and i think the ancients where in the eighth slot, since the ruin was behind gate.

 

i've always believed the penguins were just too trigger happy and violent for the Cultivator to give them an artifact. nobody asks mandalorians to babysit

 

Personally, I'd say they probably really weren't notable enough to be considered - just like Alpacas, Froggs or Fenerox.

Penguins are weird, in the sense that I doubt they could possibly be involved in the more serious parts of the lore in any way at all. You can't say for sure why there are sentient suspicious penguins in space, but then again, do you even want to know? Should we ever pretend at all that they're supposed to make a lick of sense?

 

Personally, I see the Penguins as an off-branch of the Avians that started out (mostly) the same but got separated from them long, long ago (possibly due to Cultivator/Ancient shenanigans). Seeing as how the Avians already have an artifact, the Penguins are too specific to be given their own, and so ownership is decided between the two races.

 

I'm not sure if I'm fully convinced on penguins being an offshoot of the Avians, but... Huh. Your take on this idea places them being separated in times far more ancient than other version I've heard, which I like! If penguins are truly descendant from Avians, that fact would be lost to time, with neither Avians nor the penguins knowing anything about it.

 

And even if they did know, neither race would care very much!
The Avians dislike the Penguins because they tarnish their "honor" and "pride" of being a humanoid with a beak.
The Penguins (at least in all interpretations we've seen) are either pirates, engineers, or mercenaries (Which would also explain why they're actually ahead in technology of the Avians, or at least more willing to branch out and play with different tech).
The closest thing they have to a leader is Dreadwing, and he's a pirate himself, so there's no official organized government to even lobby a complaint.

 

On a related note, Penguin "homeworld" (in this scenario, an ancient Avian outpost) should absolutely be an Arctic planet. Though I can't help but feel that even back then, the architectural style shouldn't resemble Avian structures too much.

 

So, about penguins, here's a particular idea. With this common theory of them being genetically related to Avians, a thought occurred to me.

Natural evolution/devolution certainly isn't possible without the passage of millions of years. In-game codexes do state that as well. Hylotl were extraordinary in how they managed to have subtle evolutionary changes in "just" thousands of years. However, we do know of one way to speed things up. So... Could it be possible that Miniknog used Avian test subjects while working on the VEP, or maybe subjected Avian test subjects to VEP, hoping it would help them with the De-Ape Project?

It's also a curious co-occurrence that Apex facilities and penguins are both most common on frozen planets. It's likely just me making a connection where there isn't one, and frankly, I don't believe that to be the case. But it's one way it could work.

 

The common theory might've come from the pre-1.0 lore book "The Children of Kluex", which is about the Penguin race supposedly being distant relatives and legend has it "... they are the children of Kluex himself, cast out due to their wicked ways; the first Flightless." I don't know of any new lore that can disprove of this but I am not an expert at the lore at all.

 

Penguins always struck me as silly and unnecessary; they always felt like they were supposed to be comedic, but they never really seemed funny? They're just a generic cold war race that happens to be a literal talking animal.
I thought it wod be more humorous if they couldn't speak, so when encountered the first reaction would be "who put a bunch of penguins on a space ship how did ordinary penguins get here" instead of "oh, hyperintelligent talking penguins, neat."
But I digress.

The only things missing with your proposal are that we have no indication the process was tested on avian, or that the process could make a normal-sized avian shrink into a penguin while apex stayed relatively the same.

 

I actually forgot that existed!
I just thought that the penguins would be related to the Avians, just barely though.
I wonder what humans think about all of the races? They clearly must realize that all of the races ingame just represent parts of their human culture, right?

 

With that, you have to account for several facts:

1) It has been millennia since what we consider "present day".
2) Most historical records were lost, to the point space travel without warp tech is considered a myth.
3) Starbound's humanity is most likely not entirely identical to real life.

There's probably some dispute about who really came up with that Wild West style between humans and Novakids. While none of them can tell for certain, personally I like imagine that the Novakid encountered an old western movie at some point, got inspired by it and stuck with it, and then forgot where it all came from.

Otherwise, I'd say that traditional Japanese style did not occur in humanity in Starbound universe, with the Hylotl culture being mostly unique. Some people would compare it some old Far East civilizations of Earth though, much to the dismay of the Hylotl.

When it comes to Avians or Glitch, with their civilizations resembling the native cultures of Europe and Americas, humanity probably forgot most details about those, existing only as vague legends of "old human civilizations". They're "generic" enough, and both races have notable differences, which leads humans to pay no mind to it and consider it a natural civilization stage.