The closing segment of Act 8: “To Shore’s End” has left a lot of people stumped. What was this core replacement that Shorekeeper was talking about? How in the world did it come to be? Why does it work like this in the first place? And what do you mean this might tie into the greater mythos of the world?
Shorekeeper describes the new situation with Tethys at the end of Act 8 as follows:
Shorekeeper: “The core computational unit has now been replaced by a special frequency that shares similar properties as the Lament. But this one is… more harmonious and mild.
However, this doesn’t really answer much. If anything, it appears rather Deus Ex Machina. Yet, I believe that it isn’t, and can expand into the greater story of Solaris-3 and Rover’s Past.
It begins with the End of Wandering.
The locale is described as the deepest part of the Tethys system by the Shorekeeper. The in-game loading screen further describes it as such:
On the virtual shores, deep within the Tethys System, lies the ultimate destination of the Black Shores in a distant future. The tides of fate bring the lost traveler to this place, where their journey finds their end.
Yet the guardian of this final destination, like yourself, is but a remnant of that very future.
The only survivors are the fateful duo of Black Shores: the Shorekeeper and Rover.
On your first visit here, Rover and Shorekeeper had just finished modulating the Guixu Lament frequencies, freeing the trapped souls within. However, the Tethys System requires a core computing unit capable of processing emotions to function. It must be replaced immediately.
The next acceptable target for a core: Rover. However, the Shorekeeper intervenes, sacrificing herself in place of them. Both are consumed by an explosion in the simulated data. Yet… when they come to, they find themselves in this ethereal place.
The way the description frames this space is as a sort of immutable truth — a foundation on which many other predictions are built upon. The Rover no longer roves, and the Lament has reached its theoretical end — or, more likely, there’s nothing left to ravage. The only survivors are the fateful Shorekeeper and Rover.
A melancholic yet sacred space. Just for the both of them at the end of the world.
While the origins of this data is unknown for now, this is something that was established in the system well in the past. This is actual Lament data, essentially. If it’s buried this deep in Tethys, then it’s important; something Tethys doesn’t touch regularly, if at all. Shorekeeper likely has not visited this shore in ages either, as she spends inordinate amounts of time helping Tethys manage and process incoming frequencies, and she probably doesn’t want to visit without knowing Rover is around.
At the start of v2.0, we find out that Shorekeeper is still connected to the Tethys in some way (to be fair, you could very reasonably argue that it was known since the end of Act 8: To Shore’s End). In fact, we can see how she can influence Tethys’ power to send Rover on their way to Ragunna, almost crashing it in the process (after all that work towards fixing it!!!). However, she is no longer bound to the Tethys and is able to move about freely.
Get yourself someone willing to crash the supercomputer capable of predicting apocalyptic cataclysms for you, like the Shorekeeper.
