The Islets of Revelations

[anonymous]

I know this title sounds like it's a fancy map concept of @The Meh, but I'm sorry to say we are here to talk map analyzing again: The floating islands as seen in Revelations, the layout of the whole map in general. When Revelations was released I was kinda stunned by the chaotic layout and abrupt ending. I felt like the looks of the map itself, as it merely consists of older familiar maps mangled into each other, didn't had any new story to tell. I guess that thought was pretty dumb, but that really is the reason I never really dived into Revelations: The simple lack of backstory.

 

Now with this quarantine time I find myself reviewing every map I bought, including the forgotten ones like Revelations, and suddenly, upon playing it again after that long, I felt like the layout of the map was screaming for attention. For it's unchartedness, it's untouchedness. I felt like most players focussed on the storyline of the characters rather than the map itself, and after discovering the main easter egg, I simply moved on, abandoning this map. Searching for tiny new clues in the other maps, while at Revelations there might be still crude intelligence laying around the corner. 

 

In this thread I would like to focus on the very base of the map: the floating islands. We can distinguish five of them: Four large ones resembling the House in Agartha, a blended Origins/Mob connected with a Buried tunnel, an overgrown and tropical version of Verrückt and a blended Kino/Der Eisendrache/Shangri-La one, respectively. In the center of these four islets lays a smaller island, resembling the bunker of Nacht der Untoten. The following sign visualizes this perfectly:

This sign alone is an oddity on itself, as Rad found out some time ago. First of all: Why is there a sign for this? The whole map with floating islands appears to have been created in the intro cutscene, moments before the actual game starts. How could the creator of this sign ever have foresaw this event, and the precise locations and layouts of the islands? Concerning that creator (it even gets weirder), notice the Group 935 insigma at the bottom right? What the fuck has 935 to do with this, how could they have known that this would be the eventual outcome and who crafted this odd device?

A similar mystery is that each floating island also houses a Corruption Engine. Initially, these devices seem to draw power from the Apothican Sun visualized in blue lines. By initializing this device, a crowd of Apothican creatures are spawned, obviously trying to halt you. When the machine is up and running, the fell creatures vanish and the Corruption Engine will colour red, with electricity being linked with four rune-like stones. 

Cal saw the similarity of this process and the Lighthouse step in Blood of the Dead, theorizing that the BotD Lighthouse is a homebrew Corruption Engine being used to punch a hole out of the Alcatraz pocket realm. This is essentially what a Corruption Engine does: ripping apart space-time and generating a Rift, which is in Revelations connected with the central Nacht der Untoten island. Looking at the BotD chalk saying "Leylines intersect..redirect?", it might be very well possible that the lines we saw being connected between the Apothican Sun and Corruption Engines were Leylines, invisible veins of the universe's energy running through everything but focussed at certain nexuses.

 

So the Corruption Engines are what vows space-time and generates Rifts between the peripheral islands and Nacht. Let's talk about the islands itself now. Why are exactly those maps chosen to melt into each other? Why not any other regular piece of the Earth?

 

• Reason #1: The plain 'because there is 115 at those locations' reason. The most silly reason, yes, but perhaps the local presence of the element is necessary for those chunks of Earth (those parts of older maps) to be transported to Agartha.
• Reason #2: Another requirement for this might be that all those locations are memories of either Ultimis or Primis (but it wouldn't matter as their souls are connected either way). We see the obvious absence of Tranzit and Die Rise, locations none of the crews ever witnessed, and we don't see Call of the Dead as Ultimis never got out of Richtofen's lab there. Alcatraz is present as, according to the Revelations Cycle, Primis have already been there. The only oddity would be the Buried tunnel between Origins and Mob. This could be explained by Ultimis Richtofen's visit to Africa in 1945, though in that case the rest of the Siberian Facility would also be known for Richtofen's memories.

 

Now as for the reasons why those locations are being molted with each other. As said before, we can distinguish five isles:

 

• The House: Obviously, this location already was there in Agartha. No further explanation required.
• Origins/Buried/Mob: The only link between Origins and Mob that I can find would be that they are both in Dimension 63. But what leaves that for Buried? Interesting enough, while we know Purgatory Point would end up in Dimension 1's Angola, it is never revealed if the frontier mining town actually originated from that dimension. The Timeline only says that Temporal Rifts drawed the town in, not saying where it came from. We know Richtofen had a book about 'disappeared towns in the Old West' at Eagle's Nest, but he could have bought this one after his men discovered Buried in Africa, purely out of interest in the hope he would find anything related to this town. So could Buried, along with Jebediah Brown and the origins of the Pack-a-Punch, originate from the same dimension as Origins and Mob? That would make this island the 'Dimension 63 Island'.
• Shangri-La/Der Eisendrache/Kino: That would make this the Dimension 1 Island. It has been previously theorized that the part with the Primis statues is actually not part of Eagle's Nest, but of Shangri-La. The striking similarity between the buildings must have been the reason for these two the melt into one another. Perhaps Shangri-La too possessed such a stone pyramid device like Eagle's Nest did. The fact Kino is molten in it as well (or more specifically, molten at Der Eisendrache) could be because it was another of Group 935's stations. This was where Maxis was active while Richtofen was stationed at Eagle's Nest.
• Overgrown Verrückt: The most curious case, in my opinion. The tropical plants, green test subject pods and general theme and atmosphere resemble the Island Facility but the thing is, I always presumed this facility only existed in the Proditione Fracture. So is this A. the island featuring Proditione things, B. was the Island Facility also in the original Dimension 1 or C. is there something else going on? Got some little headcanon here, see if you like it or not: The jungle theme isn't that of a Pacific island, it's the Amazone's. Yes, the testsubject pods resemble those of Zetsubou but look, they also kinda resemble those containing Richtofen's Super Soldat clones.
  We know Richtofen worked on this post-WW2, just like the Asylum facility was still in use after the war. Was Operation ODESSA reality and did they had contact with Germany's Chancellor in South America? That's the thing I like about this story, you can let your imagination run.
• Central Nacht: Why is Nacht the central bunker? Why is it connected with all other maps? Rad noted this striking map description of Nacht in BO3's map description: "Where it all began: an abandoned airfield suspended in space and plagued by infinite hordes of the undead".

 

What is Revelations exactly? Why do the rocks around the Corruption Engines and Jumppads have the same texture as the Apothican-infested areas in Blood of the Dead? What are the blue roots seen growing between maps and why are they also at Tag der Toten? Why are there tombstones built for Primis, and when were they built? What do the blue and red lines in the sky represent?

[RadZakpak]

I've been waiting a long time to speak on this topic, and I have a potential theory that connects a couple of things. It relates to my thread on Nacht and especially this picture: 

As you stated earlier, the corruption engines are connected to the Nacht center island, and more specifically to its Tesla Coils. As each corruption engine is connected, a Tesla Coil is ready to be activated, and there is a panel in Nacht to activate once all four are ready to stop the Apothicon Beast. Now, THAT sounds like some really specific function Group 935 would have no knowledge of, like the image above. But I believe these coils had a different purpose.

 

If we look at the locations of the four corruption engines, (Assuming Verruckt is still in Berlin. This jungle environment puts a bit of a wrinkle in this whole thing.) we can see locations in France, Austria, England, and Germany. It reminds me quite a bit of the signs appearing near the teleporters in Der Riese: ENG, FRA, and GER.

 

So all locations in Europe, and in whatever timeline this Group 935 operates in, they are probably still active during WW2. I theorized in my Nacht thread that Nacht der Untoten acted as a testing grounds for technology such as HAARP and the Tesla Coils. We also know Der Eisendrache was testing with Tesla Coils, which were incredibly powerful, able to shoot down a rocket from miles away. Perhaps you see where I'm going with this?

 

The idea behind this sign, and those coils at Nacht, is to create a massive protective sphere around Europe's skies. With a system like this, Germany would have massive influence over the war, by eliminating any opposing aircraft, similar to how it is used in Revelations to stop the beast. This would also explain why these locations in particular may be so important. All four locations have some direct connection to the Aether, and its power could be used either for these Tesla Coils, or perhaps even as GPDs in Richtofen's plan. DE has the stone pyramid and Keeper statues, the Dig Site is where the gateway is opened in Origins, plus Pernell marks it as a potential gateway in Alpha Omega, scientists at Verruckt can hear the talking within the House (Temporal Rifts begin to affect the Asylum facility. An Orderly reports increasing problems with test subjects. Many in the facility have begun hearing voices coming from the walls, including the sobbing of a boy and a girl, screaming, and “a man shouting for children to close the windows.) and the House is... the House. Der Eisendrache and Verruckt are Group 935 facilities, the France Dig Site seems to at least be known about in most universes, and the House... well, it exists in the real world in some capacity:

Perhaps this creation is a more advanced, far-reaching version of The Shield? I personally believe The Shield in the original universe is a protection system for Der Riese in the case of a major catastrophe, like an outbreak or an attack, where members of Group 935 are ordered to enter bunkers. Perhaps The Shield involves Tesla Coils around Der Riese, protecting them from foreign attackers. 

 

Like I said, the major wrinkle in this theory is Verruckt's jungle theme, which I cannot discount since the trees are even drawn in on the board. They didn't even retcon Chronicles Verruckt to have a jungle or waterfall, so no idea what to make of this. I quite like the South America idea, myself. Even if it is not a separate asylum, maybe Verruckt was displaced into the jungle at some point, due to its heavy connections with the Aether.

 

[anonymous]

45 minutes ago, RadZakpak said:

If we look at the locations of the four corruption engines, (Assuming Verruckt is still in Berlin. This jungle environment puts a bit of a wrinkle in this whole thing.) we can see locations in France, Austria, England, and Germany. It reminds me quite a bit of the signs appearing near the teleporters in Der Riese: ENG, FRA, and GER.

Revelations seems like a chaotic mashup but perhaps, indeed, the locations of the Corruption Engines are what matter! I really like this theory about the Shield, I really do. It is, for all I know, the best explanation for this all. 

 

Some things about the Nazi's/Group 935 in this other universe:

• They had discovered the Dig Site in France
• They had either conquered England and set up a Coil at the House, or Monty or whoever lived in the House assisted Group 935 with the Shield.

 

Even that Verrückt/Zetsubou thing makes sense, as we can find this cipher on a screen at the Island Facility: 

Quote

We have been having power fluctuations for the past couple of days. Consequently, we have had to rely more and more on the backup generators. It's strange, ever since we have been having issues with the power, people are reporting hearing voices coming from the walls. They say they can hear quiet sobbing from a boy and a girl, as well as, a man shouting for children to close the windows. I have not heard the voices, but I admit something feels different about this place."

Seems like they had the same issues as at Verrückt. Perhaps for in the real world, Berlin and Pohnpei might lay far from each other, for in the Aether, the space between spaces, those locations might be connected or even overlap each other. I don't know if you've ever seen episodes from the series Stranger Things but that story is about two seperate, coexisting realms of Earth kinda overlapping each other. When there is a person in a certain house in one realm, he can mutedly hear people in the same house from the other realm, through walls and also via electronic devices. Like another version of yourself lives in your house in another version of our universe, and has contact with you when you are at the same location. Perhaps this might also apply with the locations in Revelations. Take Verrückt for example, maybe it isn't the literal same building as the original Verrückt, but some kind of copy of it. The moment Primis walks through Verrückt in Revelations, scientists might be performing gruesome experiments at the original Verrückt. Perhaps, if we listen carefully, we can even hear echoes of that original realm, because the location is the same. Maybe, Aetherically spoken (or however you say that), Verrückt and the Island Facility lay around the same location, at the same proximity of the House. That could be why at those locations scientists hear echoes from the House, while Primis, from the other side, sees a twisted version of both maps blended into each other. Same would go for all the other maps: They are real, but they are not the same as the original.

 

I still really wonder what the essence of Nacht would be. One thing would be certain: This bunker has more importance than solely being the location of an accidental plane crash. That plane didn't crashed for no reason (and yes those coils might be the answer).