I had the pleasure of enjoying the latest story, Chapter 2, Act 9: “By Moon’s Fated Light”. At first glance the story presented might seem disjointed from the rest — instead functioning more as a character/companion quest.
I can see the argument.
However, I think this an excellent checkpoint to see Rover’s current viewpoints based on what they’ve experienced in Rinascita so far. Not to mention confronting their past (and possibly current) self as Iuno’s actions share incredibly striking similarities to Rover’s past actions. It’s also brought up another concept that I think is worth talking about in more detail because of what we’ve already seen in the story so far.
The concept of “anchors” and “manifesting.”
The more common examples we’ll hear about are related to either boats or mountaineering, but Wuthering Waves has been using this term in the more general sense — ”something that serves to hold an object firmly; a reliable or principal support” (as defined by Merriam-Webster).
The term only officially appears (in EN at least) during the events of Chapter 1, Act 8: “To Shore’s End.” We’ve actually seen anchors quite a few times in the game, however. Not to mention a few other instances we’ve seen that might fit the bill.
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You can read more Black Shores’ anchors here!
— Anchor
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Black Shores has several pillar structures strewn about its surface and underground. Their main purpose is to stabilize information and frequencies throughout the Black Shores.
The Anchors are independently developed and designed by the Black Shores, drawing inspiration from the reactor control rods used in pre-Lament reactor engineering. They are considered exemplary models of the Black Shores' minimalist engineering design.
To briefly explain how this works scientifically, we need to talk a bit about nuclear fission.
Basically, it involves bombarding an atomic nucleus with a neutron to have the atom absorb it. Afterwards, it then splits into two separate halves. This process generates a tonne of energy and daughter neutrons. Exceedingly useful and serves as the basis of nuclear energy generation.
However, if left uncontrolled, we end up with an atomic bomb — widespread discharge of energy, resulting in extreme heats, crushing forces, and debilitating radiation.
To stifle the reaction, control rods are used — they’re essentially dampeners made of elements that do not decay easily when neutrons are absorbed.
You could think of them like a buffer or a levee; something that prevents overflow. The Black Shores anchors then should function similarly, preventing the Tethys System from overflowing and corrupting the world around them by dampening energy output.
By Nic Ransby - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Controlrods.jpg,
… Well, under normal circumstances at least. We’ve seen what happens to Black Shores if something causes everything to go haywire.
Unrestricted data flow and a manifestation of higher-dimensional data as hostile, physical entities.
