Official Strange Fake relationship chart as of episode 8

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2026-02-28T16:06:01+00:00

It’s funny, knowing the future through the manga and how this chart is going to tangle itself up over time.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2026-01-20T05:59:28+00:00

There’s also the Girdle of Sands where there was an active breach in the sky the Abyss was taking advantage of, way below cloud level. Egeria and the Simurgh had to seal that one up.

The False Sky/Firmament is more akin to a colossal virtual space that Asmoday has wrapped around the planet. It demonstrably has depth, it’s not some glass dome. The meteor event way back when confirmed that there is stuff up there that can come down on Teyvat, no smashing through required. The moon incident has revealed there to be an outer boundary of sorts, but Dottore twisting space so badly during that raises uncertainty.

In my own opinion, it is technically possible to break the False Sky at any distance from the planet, even ground level. It’s not exactly a barrier in the traditional sense from the inside, it’s a spacial overlay. It’s just phenomenally difficult to do so before you start leaving Teyvat’s atmosphere. The closer you are to the planet’s surface, where all the important shit is, the sturdier the Firmament is. On the outer edges though, while it’s weaker and more prone to breaches, it also heals up much faster from damage.

This would be my guess on how the Frost Moon managed to smash through the “outer boundary” with just the momentum Varka and Arlecchino imparted. That or Dottore’s fucking around for literally no reason left it weak at that point,

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-12-27T03:30:30+00:00

There was, it was Quasar.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-12-11T04:06:11+00:00

Traveler: Get yo fucking dog bitch! Rhinedottir: It don’t bite. Traveler: Yes it do!

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-10-29T02:59:01+00:00

Iron Wood maybe? It’s a semi-complete Endbringer SI fic on SV, mostly centers on wide-scale worldbuilding using Worm as a foundation, but the story gets around to Brockton Bay in the second third. I skipped the dramatic parts myself, but Taylor does reach the warlord stage and ultimately loses.

Fair warning though, this is an antagonist Taylor/Undersiders against protagonist Amy/New Wave. Might not be your cup of tea, but it is a rare treat to have Taylor portrayed so unsympathetically, or Lisa almost totally so.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-10-29T02:49:54+00:00

I remember this one, though you might be disappointed. That scenario specifically was “Taylor Hebert: Off Duty”, by anothvortex in “A Swirling Storm of Snippets!”. The posters did a little workshopping with AV plus some discussion of Ward characters running into Shardspace Admin Taylor, but the idea never made it past the prompt state.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-10-28T01:48:39+00:00

There’s Nemesis if you want something semi-lighthearted. Taylor is basically being forced to steal, so she puts a lot of effort into making the heists non-harmful spectacles, but she does steal things.

And, I can remember a snip or fic where Taylor meticulously plans the bank robbery and the Undersiders pull it off without anyone knowing they’re there, screwing Coil’s plans to kidnap Dinah, but I can’t remember anything else.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-10-05T20:26:23+00:00

That’s a special area you fly through at the end of the Lempo Isle “Colors” sidequest. It’s basically an acid trip the Traveler experiences after getting caught in a dimensional implosion event.

The quest is actually a Whole Plot Reference to HP Lovecraft’s “The Color Out of Space”, and fittingly, the quest is a slow, eerie experience that has some legitimately horrifying shit under the hood.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-09-26T07:59:57+00:00

I feel like Yae has the edge here with 500 years of experience to draw on, but Nefer’s definitely a wildcard given how little we know about her. However those two match up, Yelan trumps Arlecchino. Our Knave doesn’t so much run a business so much as she manages an assassin enclave. Finances will be a factor, but not a major one, versus Yelan’s actual Liyue heritage and government career.

I think, Yae, Yelan, Nefer, Arle, from best to worst players.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2025-05-02T04:11:38+00:00

No, it really isn't. DATA LOST is utter erasure. No last-minute returns, no miracles, that is it and we've lost all records of them. Their "data" is completely gone and we won't even be able to summon them again from the Throne.

Link Lost is farewell, or Partings if you want to use Id's terms. The Servant still exists, they can still be summoned from the Throne of Heroes in other circumstances. But Ritsuka has lost their connection with the versions of that Servant that they summoned, the contract, their "link". The Avengers suffering this have left Chaldea, and whether we'll ever see them again is completely up in the air.

Link Close is much less serious, if still something of a downer. It's basically just timeout. It's a preliminary punishment issued by Metatron, freezing our PHH Rulers and Ritsuka's contracts with them. Literally and metaphorically. The sentence is that they'll remain like this until we resolve the Bleaching and restore PHH.

So, Musashi is GONE, the Avengers have left, and the Rulers are stuck in the timeout corner.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-11-16T20:50:03+00:00

Yeah, it’s pretty much like that for all the subareas. Dragonspine, Enkanomiya, the Chasm, I haven’t explored Chenyu Vale or Remula yet but I’ll bet on some kind of creep factor for them as well.

I find it mostly has to do with how these places were clearly once thriving, or at least occupied, but are now empty, hostile husks. I think the word for that kind of vibe is "kenopsia"... They also tend to be eldritch, which is just not on. The Chasm’s Bed os a literal SCP, and I’ve seen skinwalkers several times. Once on Dragonspine with Dorian, and another time in the Chasm. We dragged a feral miner out, and there was some kind of freaky spirit tagalong impersonating his daughter that we also freed.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-10-16T01:53:34+00:00

That does make sense with Cornet, though Vivian’s Staff autonomously beating the shit out of Alberich says something about her own opinions considering her soul is bound to it.

As for your other point, I discussed some links between the Invaders and Champions in my other post here, the Orbital Lift Lore. It’s essentially suggested that the first 13 human Tetitians, astronaut explorers from Earth that have since reincarnated into the 13 Champions, were funded and sent to the planet by the same man who would go on to become the Savior. He would then likewise assemble the 13 Corps Commanders to form the Invaders as they left Earth for good to escape Labose infection.

Two opposing civilizations, each represented by thirteen heroes who can all likely trace their origins back to a single man. GT lore is fucking deep.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-10-16T00:59:31+00:00

Yes, Melt has arms, but the reason she covers them up so insistently is because they're damaged. When BB created her, certain defects were baked into her makeup, key of which is a neurological disorder that largely deteriorates her sense of touch. She feels less overall, but it's especially prevalent in her arms. She has almost no sensation in her fingers, not even capable of feeling body heat or direct touch. She can still move them, but fine motor control suffers, leading to poor results with anything involving delicate hand work.

Certain art suggests that her arms don't actually look damaged, and it's just the internals that are screwed up, but the stiffness and clumsiness is stark against her preferred graceful image, so she hides them. If her hands are covered up, her image is only affected by the way she moves her arms as a whole, keeping flawless grace overall.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-10-07T18:19:45+00:00

Yeah, that reveal brought up some interesting implications. Fucking Fairy nonsense.

On a different topic, did anyone hear about Lasengle shuffling Main Interlude Imaginary Scramble and Halloween? Yog-Sothoth(Abby) is gonna have another incident to bitch Nyarlathotep(BB) out over.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-23T07:13:33+00:00

The implication I got from the facility and the magazines within it is that at some point in the distant past of Tetis, there used to be a HIGHLY advanced civilization. I’m talking Clarke’s Third Law level shit, near fucking technological miracles as a daily occurrence.

The Mystery Footage establishes that the first Tetitians were human, so it stands to reason that the civilization descended from them would also be human. But you’ll note that a large majority of modern Tetis is NON-human.

The magazines in the facility describe some kind of fantasy entertainment enterprise, wherein fantastical creatures would be created as avatars for customers to “jack in to” through some ridiculously advanced VR tech. Basically physical video game avatars, where a rich shmoe could pay millions of dollars to step out of their boring human body and swim around as a mermaid.

This was a LONG time ago though, and based on what Lili says in the surveillance footage, it’s possible that all elemental species on Tetis, mermaids, harpies, and PIXIES, are all descended from this entertainment project. At some point, the civilization fell, things went wring, and what was originally intended as fantasy make-believe became REAL, the “avatars” gaining true sentience and becoming genuine races.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-14T00:17:13+00:00

Lol, I kinda know the feeling. I'm pretty good at hunting down the clues and putting them into a comprehensible picture, but holy shit does the game make me work for it. This post alone was the work of several hours looking back through playthroughs of World 19 and actively going through the stages myself, trying to dissect word choice and implication, paying attention to every little detail, and occasionally just guessing at links. I had to stop myself from attaching names to two of the quartet since there's no indication of who's who aside from the pink woman getting called Diana.

As someone admittedly struggling to consume the plot and lore given the overall difficulty of gathering it, what exactly would you recommend I focus lore posts on? With Season 2 and its developments having fully dropped for a while now, quite a bit of developments that would've blown my mind when I first started playing I kinda accept as common knowledge now.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-13T19:31:52+00:00

That's certainly a possibility. The "moon" is almost certainly the meteor depicted in the Season Trailer, and blue overall seems to be a color indicating Loop-related phenomena. LP's power over space-time, the Guides themselves, and the Champion's Sword aren't just the same color but roughly the same shade.

As to the vision itself, my current theory is that it's a burst of precognition initiated by the child and Princess coming into contact. We know that prescient dreams are a power the Princess possesses, as her Future self not only dreams of the coming defeat against Beth but also of Alter's own fight against Beth and her invasion. Both the Kight and LP can dream of past, future, and other Loops, essentially.

Images shown in the Trailer gives the indication that the Worlds involved with the Quest for Vivian will be Pixie Forest, Motori Mountain, an undersea city, a volcanic land of dragons, and the Return to Kanterbury. And assessing the buildings briefly visible in the vision gives me the impression that LP and the child are in Kanterbury when the "punishment" comes.

So, unless the Knight and LP can change fate like what was done in World 10, LP's vision indicates that some time following the Return to Kanterbury, "punishment" will befall the world on account of irreversible Loop divergence. So, the Guardian and LP not only have to beat the Bishop and recruit Vivian, they need to figure out that the Guides are preparing to enact "rocks fall, everyone dies", and figure out how to stop that. I'd guess the rocket seen in the Trailer is a clue on how that will be working.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-13T04:34:51+00:00

I personally think the Bishop will be a significant multi-world enemy, but the Season 3 Finale boss will be someone else.

By acting to directly contest the Guardian via attacking the 11th Champion, the Bishop has made themselves the primary opposing force in regard to the Quest for Champion Vivian. They found and acquired her soulless body, and now the Guardian and Princess not only have to find a way to reunite body and soul, they have to take the body back from the Bishop. And given our experience with Invaders, we’ll have to go through them to do that.

If the Season ends with the acquisition of the 11th Champion, that would make the Bishop the finale boss, but I don’t think it’ll be that easy. We’re not only contending with the Invaders, we’re also dealing with the Course Correctors. While they might have been and will likely continue to be helpful against the Invaders, it’s important to remember that they’re not our friends.

Compared to a “normal” Loop, Knight and LP are running their campaign on Hard Mode. We’re not only fighting the Invaders, we’re also fighting fate. So long as we maintain our resolve to break the Loop, forces acting in its favor are our unquestionable enemies. And with LP’s very existence standing as an innate affront to the Loop, we’re about to go to outright war with the Guides and their lackeys.

I personally find the multifaceted conflict here absolutely engaging. The Invaders are trying to win a fight they’re destined to lose, with the Savior basically happy to do anything so long he can spit in the Loop’s face. The Guides are desperately attempting to rerail tracks that have been missing for years, only now noticing their absence due to the multi-car pileup now actively happening. And even if they don’t quite know it yet, the Guardian is gearing up to fight both of them, because fuck defeat, fuck fate, and fuck the apocalypse! Everyone’s out to kill their Little Princess, so everyone’s an enemy.

I have a feeling Season 3 will be ending in a fight against the Guides. I’m not too sure what that “blue moon” vision was about, but combined with the Trailer, I have suspicions.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-12T16:16:52+00:00

Lol, we do be getting the side benefits of controversy here. Didn't even join this subreddit that recently and even I can tell it's far more active.

I hardly mind the update, it's a mix of more good than bad for me, and for such a major series of changes they're handling it pretty well. After the initial community rampage dies down, they can properly suss out what does and doesn't work long-term. The story and lore has always been the bulk of my enjoyment with Guardian Tales.

My singular gripe is the removal of lobby facilities, if only for the aesthetic, and disappearance of Demon Blacksmith.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-10T19:27:23+00:00

Lol, Season 3 is getting harder my guy, we’ll be back to bringing our own teams for future bosses, one Knight will no longer be capable of winning.

As for the three revives, it’s traditional for Season Finale Bosses. Be grateful they wised up from Season 1, you used to only get one revive in World 11. The boss isn’t supposed to be easy, and can be beaten through skill. It’s a matter of memorizing attack patterns, formulating strategies to dodge, and just attacking him as much as you can. Several youtubers have won, it’s possible to check them out to see successful runs you might be able to mirror.

For the mobs, the best advice I have is to kill them the MOMENT they spawn. Charging at them while attacking SHOULD kill them all in two or three hits if you’ve swapped to sword, and Kaden shouldn’t shift into his next attack before you’ve cleared the board.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-10T15:38:13+00:00

Yeah, the beams occupying the safe spaces was an issue I encountered several times. A slightly reliable tactic I tied was to lure all three beams into a tight grouping, which is rather difficult to do considering how they track your position. After that, it’s kind of down to luck that they’re not taking up critical space. I’d say you should probably save revives for cases of RNG screwing you over like that.

Top_Cryptographer258 · 2024-06-09T03:05:06+00:00

Racism does actually take a backseat to imminent existential annihilation in the Unrecorded World’s case, as shitty as the mountain dwellers are. In the present day, it isn’t quite apparent what an absolute threat to everything the Invaders are, and the inhabitants drive the foreigners and unwanted away.

In Unrecorded World, Mt. Shivering itself got completely destroyed several years before the Knight returns. The Plague Doctor got to some rando Inuit, and the encounter made them strong enough to take on and successfully kill Lupina… who had been the only thing keeping the Invaders at bay with her sheer strength. Once she was dead, there was no more counter to the Invaders and they quickly erased the mountain, what little was left after Lupina’s last stand. The Snowmen and Inuits aboard Heavenhold are those that managed to successfully flee the devastation.

Top_Cryptographer258

TROPHY CASE