Ambrosia Software Web Board: Cipher Manuscript - Ambrosia Software Web Board

BreadWorldMercy453, on 08 February 2011 - 10:44 AM, said:

I had been under the impression that the Therans originally found their way to Cythera when fleeing the (wikilink, sorry) Minoan Eruption, which occurred about 1600 BC and had its epicenter at the island of Thera. If we assume that the character is from the present day of the same timeline, that means a time-compression ratio of about 4:1. I'm more inclined to believe a different rate of time flow than that they were summoned directly from different time periods.

This seems relevant now:

"Cast ashore on an unknown land, we soon discovered that we were somewhere else (for a lack of a better term). None of the stars we knew appeared in the night sky, and even the Moon had changed, smaller, and was joined by a second, even smaller body in the sky. (As it would turn out, even the length of a year was changed, though how much shorter we have never been able to work out exactly).

- Master Anisa

From the hintbook.

I find all the talk about the Minoan Eruption and fleeing Cythera extremely interesting. I read Pallas' post last night just a few minutes after I read these old posts by Gandreas:

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Original post here

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Original post here

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Original post here

Quite a coincidence to read all that just as Pallas' was making his point

In conjunction with what Pallas said, I think Gandreas' words leave no doubt that the Cytherans in the game are humans who lived on Thera, fled from the Minoan eruption, and were pulled by someone or something through the void to the island in the game en route to Cythera. Under the impression that they were on Earth's Cythera, they began calling it Cythera, but they soon realized they were in a different place entirely, as Seldane points out the hintbook says.

Regarding the time in Cythera vs. Earth, I too always thought that time flowed at a different rate. However, I'm not so sure it's linear. It may be like Narnia-time. No time may pass in a thousand years, or a thousand years may have passed in no time; some such thing.

One last thing I found interesting, although I think we've actually discussed it before, but I just can't pass up the opportunity to link to Wikipedia since BW loves it so much In Greek mythology, Bellerophon's greatest feat was defeating the Chimera. Either Gandreas just used the names because he liked the sounds of them, or he specifically picked them. For that matter, most of the names in Cythera have interesting mythological references; I wonder to what extent Gandreas meant his "real" names have "real" world connections.

EDIT: I just noticed one thing in the quote above that I hadn't realized before. When Gandreas' said "The culture is (more or less) based on Minoan society with 500 years of isolation" I think he was actually telling us how long they've been on Cythera

We know from the hintbook that Cytheran years are shorter than Earth years, but there is no specified amount. However, if roughly 920 years have passed in Cythera since they first arrived, and they have been isolated for 500 Earth years, it stands to reason that Cythera years are a little over half the length of one of our years.

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 09 February 2011 - 10:47 PM

Referring to 453's early question: I'm inclined to suspect the Manuscript was charred because someone had tried to destroy it. Possibly, someone who read the full Manuscript considered its knowledge simply too dangerous or someone who had an agenda that was threatened by the Manuscript's existence tried to eliminate that threat.



I find the discussion of the Minoan eruption fascinating; I had not previously heard of it, although somewhat ironically I did hear it mentioned in a Nova documentary a day or two after Pallas mentioned it here. Given all the other quotes and bits of information, I agree there is little doubt that Cytherans are descended from Theran refugees fleeing the eruption. (This should probably be added as conjectural history to the timeline.)



I had not really thought about time functioning differently between Earth and Cythera. Although the notion makes sense, I had always associated such an idea with Narnia rather than Cythera. That said, the given dates due tend to indicate a form of time compression, although it may be that Alaric is summoning Bellerophon across dimensions and across time.

I just wanted to note that in regards to BW's earlier discussion about Magpie being the one to summon mankind: when you talk to Ignae about the destruction of the balance, he says he still does not understand how the humans first arrived on Cythera. To me, this implies that whatever had the power to summon that many people across the void was beyond the power of any of the elementals.

Another item of interest is that the introduction to Cythera specifically mentions your character staring at the Aurora Borealis before your transported through the void. Maybe in Gandreas' story the Aurora Borealis connects Earth to the void...

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 28 February 2011 - 12:36 AM

The Wizard, on 28 February 2011 - 12:35 AM, said:

Ignae seems to "not understand" a lot of stuff, and IIRC both Magpie and UrSylph refer to him as a trickster, so I’m not sure if everything he says is entirely trustworthy. That said, you’re probably right, seeing as I’d imagine the undine would have summoned a number of creatures from who knows where if they had the ability to do so.

The Wizard, on 28 February 2011 - 12:35 AM, said:

Im pretty sure te dude was just somewhere near the north pole and on some serious peyote.

Two Jacks, on 28 February 2011 - 02:45 AM, said:

the entire game was just a really bad trip??

This post has been edited by Buzzzzy: 28 February 2011 - 03:00 AM

I believe Magpie & Alaric are the only elementals who know how to void-summon, and possibly the only ones able to. I think Magpie is special, being the only mixed elemental. Perhaps Seldane are gifted in physical traveling (using earth-based magic), and Undine are gifted in time traveling (using sea-based magic, see the Timeflux book), and it is by combining these forms of travel that one can void-travel? Just an idea. In any case, I think Magpie has special abilities that neither the Seldane nor the Undine have. & maybe it was because he was outcast from both Seldane and Undine societies, that he sought companionship with the Chimera ^_^

BreadWorldMercy453, on 28 February 2011 - 11:08 AM, said:

Hmm…chimeras are usually amalgamations of other creatures, perhaps this is relevant?

The Wizard, on 28 February 2011 - 12:35 AM, said:

I find no mention of this so called "Aurora Borealis"

Jehezekel, on 28 February 2011 - 08:39 PM, said:

It describes a green glow in the sky, which seems to be an Aurora. It should be noted, though, that the glow is green, and Cythera happens to have a very important artifact that emits green glows…

Whoa, yeah. Maybe the fifth element or some combination of the elementals are what produce chimera? It is interesting that the different races of Cythera can interbreed like that though.

If you think that's the Aurora Borealis, you need to read the opening again. It's a green glow in the sky, and it's to the west. Not north.

This might be an interesting discussion though: Was that bit about the sky just foreshadowing, or were the Realities already affecting each other?

My original thought was that the Aurora Borealis caused some sort of time/reality distortion (like in the movie Frequency) that allowed Alaric to summon your character across the void. I hadn't realized that the character is facing west at the time, so that does rather crush my theory.

Whatever it's supposed to be, I think it's probably related to the story somehow, since Gandreas seems to have planned all this stuff out. I did re-read the opening, and it says that the greenish glow is coming from the clouds in an approaching storm. Does anybody have any other theories on what this is supposed to signify?

I think it’s definitely something to do with the crolna, since it’s green, except that makes no sense since Alaric and Magpie have no access to any shard of the crolna. It might be worthy of note, though, that the original group of humans arrived at Cythera after a storm as well iirc.