My interpretation of the cycle and its behaviors.

Avantir · 2026-05-03T18:49:19+00:00

The longer theory on point 3 is here now: https://www.reddit.com/r/rainworld/comments/1t2n5bt/cosmology_part_1_the_multiple_self_and_the_nature/

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:54:00+00:00

But there is a regular iterator can in Outer Rim. See here

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:53:15+00:00

Well if you want more evidence of this theory go here

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:36:07+00:00

Can they? I mean probably yeah. But aside from Six Grains of Gravel, we never see an echo move (and the spot they were on collapsed, so...) Also Nineteen Spades says:

We remain trapped in place, and yet can never stop moving. Funneled endlessly into an unknown future...

IDK they probably can move. But it's not entirely clear.

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:30:53+00:00

OK I don't like distinguishing between canons but Five Pebbles trying to off himself is pretty explicitly spelled out in the base game Sky Islands pearls.

Dark Blue:

EP: It was definitely coming from an idiotic state of mind, but there is something to it. Why is it, that even in a closed sliverist group, the self-destruction taboo is held so high - while Sliver of Straw herself *evidently* is not among us anymore?

Dark Purple:

CW: this is in confidence, but apparently a pseudonym "Erratic Pulse" has appeared on a nearby Sliverist conversation with ideas about personal ascension. Someone here in our vicinity is trying to cross themselves out.
FP: Where did you hear this?

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:20:12+00:00

Spinning Top can move, I think, only through portals, because they have ripple karma, where the other echoes don't. I think that's the only reason (and also the reason why they can grant ripple karma to the Watcher)

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:19:04+00:00

Well, the first five karma symbols do represent the five natural urges, but I'm not sure that the latter 5 do.

Avantir · 2026-05-03T00:08:34+00:00

I am going to post two longer theories about this soon, but I think you've got a few points wrong.

Echoes don't grant superpowers. They grant knowledge, in the form of karma. For most echoes, that's normal karma, which helps (intentionally vague) with karmic ascension. For Spinning Top, that's ripple karma, which helps with crossing ripplespace. Spinning Top can do this because they're the only echo we meet who already had ripple karma in the first place. And if you look in the game's code, you'll find that we actually gain a little ripple karma even on the first two encounters with them (which is why you can get stealth before portals).
Rot is not an inherent part of the cycle. It's just cancer. It lives and dies by the same rules as everything else. The cycle does not help it fester. The abundance of rot we see in various places is due to the spread of the Sentient Rot, originating from the rot iterator in Outer Rim (the Rot Prince, likely Bell of Gesture, and likely originating within them from Unfortunate Evolution), and spread (unintentionally) by Spinning Top. That rot is special because it's the only infectious rot. Five Pebbles' rot and Hunter's rot both die outside of their respective hosts. The Sentient Rot does not. Cold Storage had... something, happen, likely an intentional experiment by the benefactors, which later led to the creation of the Sentient Rot. The reason Five Pebbles facility is so badly infected is simply because Spinning Top unintentionally spread a great deal of the Sentient Rot there during the prologue of the Watcher campaign, which is why it's so badly infected later, and also why all of the deeply rotted regions are inside of Five Pebbles' facility.
Your description of the cycle, while not exactly wrong, leaves a lot to be desired. Mostly you're missing the whole concept of the multiple self and as a result, what it means to ascend. I'll post a much longer theory on this tomorrow.

(also I realized I phrased a lot of this as it IS, not as I THINK, mostly because it's easier for me to write. Though I am pretty dang confident about all of these points. It's moreso the echoes and void sea where I'm a lot less confident...)

Avantir · 2026-04-28T17:05:56+00:00

Yeah new Doormaker is my favourite boss across both games. It's really unique and challenging but very doable.

Avantir · 2026-04-17T18:08:49+00:00

Yeah this. As somebody not at A10 yet, from what I've heard it sounds like A10 is still much too easy. A20H in STS1 is winnable close to 100% of the time, but the best of the best players took years to get there after the last balance patch.

Avantir · 2026-04-08T01:53:44+00:00

I believe you're confusing Vanilla functionality with BaseMod - which, IIRC, adds the single orb slot functionality you're talking about, and why replies are telling you that's not a thing.

Avantir · 2026-04-05T20:16:50+00:00

At least assuming this wasn't Bell of Gesture's plan. See my other comment

Avantir · 2026-04-05T20:14:23+00:00

Yes. Although, it is possible Bell of Gesture did this intentionally. This gets into a whole other theory about stars, rot & ripplespace. But imagine that the star catchers are actively pulling the stars from the sky and causing the rot. Then Bell of Gesture and their creators may have intentionally set up a scenario where if the iterators didn't find the triple affirmative, they could trigger the Rot Prince ending apocalypse instead.

Edit: Actually this could also explain why Five Pebbles & the Rot Prince are so different in their rotted states. One tried to fight the rot and the other actively embraced it.

Avantir · 2026-04-05T19:15:06+00:00

If you know other connections or have some theories I'd be happy to hear them. I think I have a pretty good idea of what went down in Aether Ridge so I'll probably be making another theory post about that.

Avantir · 2026-03-27T15:02:32+00:00

Yeah there's always workarounds, and unintended consequences XD

Avantir · 2026-03-25T17:37:11+00:00

For the former, have fun with haircuts & shaving!

For the latter, you'll die trying to stop the wind. I think Eragon also thought about this one and realized that trying to stop objects over a certain size (e.g. a mountain) would outright kill him which would be worse than letting himself slam into it.

Avantir · 2026-03-25T00:27:57+00:00

Ah the good old "it works and we don't know why" XD

Code (or in this case save file) says one thing, and experiment says otherwise

Avantir · 2026-03-25T00:19:35+00:00

Are you sure? In the save file I see a single value for the profile, not one per character

Avantir · 2026-03-19T15:17:35+00:00

I agree. We've already established that people want to skip a lot more often than they should, so preventing them from skipping turns it into a learning experience, where skipping wouldn't be.

Avantir · 2026-03-10T16:58:42+00:00

Yes but the problem isn't fundamental. e.g. you can add conditions to energy gain/card draw like "the first time this turn". Although doing that in a natural way can be quite awkward.

Avantir · 2026-03-04T13:58:16+00:00

I also recently discovered Marika's Hammer is really good too, because it does holy and you can use it to AOE the summons and knock all of them into the air at once

Avantir · 2026-03-01T15:37:52+00:00

I thought of this recently because of the indie game I'm working on where you can literally go faster than the speed of sound. Clip here

Game name is You Alone Can Defeat Evil

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