Die Rise -- The Floating City

[FatedTitan]

So we all know that Die Rise is located in China, but we don't exactly know where. I propose that Die Rise is not even located on the ground of China, but in the air. Yes, I am suggesting that Die Rise is a floating city, not on water, but in the air. In this post I will give my reasoning and background.

In-Game Analysis

First let's look at a few pictures.

There are pictures I found on a simple Google search, but going into a match and looking at the sky gives a shocking reality that while it is daytime out, the stars, moon, and asteroids can be seen cleary in the sky. And these things do not seem to be what I look up to in the night sky, and yes, I do live in an area where I can see stars. This is an extremely clear sky, but what is more startling are the asteroids that are shockingly close to where you are slaying the undead. The are floating right above our heads it seems.

Also, not shown in the above pictures but what can also be found in the map, there is no floor in Die Rise. Yes, if you jump off the buildings into the abyss, you will hit SOMETHING and die, but we never see ground. And by the time we hit whatever we hit, the buildings have disappeared into the clouds by then. Which leads me to my next point.

There are clouds under the buildings. This isn't just a smoke dust cloud. These are actual fog-like clouds that surround the area. Could this city be floating amongst the clouds? Well, shockingly enough, there is actually something supporting this outside the game as well.

Background in Reality

In China, there were rumors of a floating city that was seen by spectators near Huanshan City. Many claim this to be the result of Fata Morgana, which is basically a superior mirage. This mirage is seen miles away, sometimes hundreds of miles away. This is a reflection off the ocean and can be quite astounding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)

The problem with this is that Fata Morgana's are very blurry. They are recognizable, but blurry to the point that people can tell it is not real. But this city was shockingly clear. One could not only see a tree and its branches, but the tree behind it and its branches. Spectators could see the entire city in amazing clarity.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... China.html

http://www.unexplainable.net/simply-une ... owhere.php

Many people still claim that this is just a very strong Fata Morgana, but normally people can recognize the cityline that they are seeing. In this case, the city was not recognizable at all. In fact, the city seen does not match any known cities in the area.

Implications

So, could this be what the developers intended Die Rise to be stationed at? I believe so. A whole city lifted into the air. Just like in the video and articles and pictures, Die Rise is surrounded in a fog throughout its lower areas. But why does this matter?

I have argued against Tac's beliefs that Shangri-la is on Mars for as long as I can remember, and I still have my doubts, don't you worry about that. But I believe that if this is true. If Die Rise is floating in the air as a complete city, then it supports Shangri-la being on Mars. Why do I say this? The biggest problem that most of us have with Shangri-la being on Mars is the obvious question of how does an entire civilization go to Mars in tact. If we have a floating city that could end up landing in a new location, why couldn't Shangri-la do the same? Do we really believe that a rocket made a city float? I think not.

Now, this still doesnt' answer where the waterfall's water source is or anything like it, but it does answer how an entire civilization could go from one planet to another. It floated. Oh man something just came to me!

More Stuff

We all know what this is. This is the Moon loading screen. This has been looked at so much, but there is something that I think we may have been wrong about. Many have stated that the astronauts are Tank and the gang, but that can't be right. They teleported from Earth. They weren't there already. But this could be some others we've heard, such as Richtofen and his pals, such as Shusta and Groph. Perhaps they traveled back to Moon to find the temple that Richtofen had telelported to before. But look at the top image. The temple that is floating through space. For years we've assumed that this is just another floating temple, perhaps one from the Shangri-la loading screen. I propose that this isn't just another temple. This is, in fact, the temple from Shangri-la heading toward Mars.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Die Rise could be this floating city in China that has been seen many times before. That's why we never seen ground, but only a load of fog. This is why we feel that the sky is telling us we're in space and not on earth. We're high in the air. So thanks for reading and perhaps more of you have stuff to say. Let me know what you think or if you have more to add!

[InfestLithium]

Hm, I know we covered this particular perspective before, but it's great to see a deeper analysis of this phenomenon. Great work, friendo!

It may as well be floating to some extent. I wouldn't exactly count the sky as a visual reference, though. The chunks of rock that we see en masse may not be of relative proportion to what is given on Earth. That being said, the floating debris is just outside Earth's atmosphere and is of monolithic size. Keep in mind that ballistic missiles impacted the globe; with the amounts of mass destruction going on, large amounts of debris at abnormal sizes are very possible.

What interests me (obviously) is the video of this "mirage". To me, it looks like a distanced city covered by low fog or mist from the water. I say this because the video is being shot from a bridge, and that's what tends to happen when mist/fog occurs. But it looks awfully similar to Great Leap Forward.

In-game, we hit an invisible floor upon falling in which we do not see any ground but rather feel it. If we aren't floating, then we have some of the largest towers ever known to man right in that map. But could gravity itself have been altered due to the impact of the rockets, causing the entire area to be 'lifted' off the ground? Possibly.

[Naitrax]

I'd been thinking about Die Rise as a flying city for a while now, but never thought this deep into it. Great work on this thread. This really get's you thinking about the whole map in a new perspective.

Once again, great thread.

[DeathBringerZen]

The Huangshan Floating City Mirage was debunked as soon as it came to light.

There was an island in the middle of the river which housed an Amusement Park, Hotel, and 9 hole Golf Course, and it was the heavy rain fall that buried some of the island in water, exposing some of the tree's, and some the mist covered the lower part of the buildings, making it appear to be a floating city.

Residents from that area debunked it on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbMJwyJZL7k

Still... could have been the inspiration for them to do it.