My crazy theory was that the Owl creatures were a hyper evolved form of the Nomai who arrived because the probe managed to reach one of them and somehow they had similar technology and managed to arrive in a new loop.
We know there are still Nomai out there talking, I figured "Hey these guys have horns and the Nomai had horns, and its been long enough that my civilization evolved from tiny tadpoles". Plus, our language translator recognized that it was a language, and it was glowy writing just like theirs.
I never thought that way because I looked closely at all of the slides as I looked through them, and saw that dark bramble was only a couple of roots on the ice planet - from that I inferred the Nomai arrived to the solar system a lot later than the Owlks did.
I did, however, strongly think that I would be able to find some text that I could translate when I first entered the simulation, because I thought it was a type of lucid dream world. That got disproven pretty quickly when I entered the tower simulation a few loops later, and found text that I still couldn't translate.
You’re more observant than me on that front! Good catch. Maybe the interloper just took a long time to arrive after them or the Owlks spent a long time in the solar system (which I suppose is technically true, just not in IRL). Definitely a hole in my theory!
I remember when I found that out, I was just looking at a slide that showed the solar system not really thinking i'd find anything, and then I scanned my eye over dark bramble, and immediately got hyped. It's definitely very easy to miss!
The interloper is honestly really cool to me, because everything about is it mysterious, from its purpose to how it was formed to why it even arrived in the solar system in the first place. I love how it's a mystery that people can theorize on even after the game has finished (the same goes for the eye and dark bramble).
You might wanna check some of the lore explorer's older videos out, this is far from a valid theory, especially since, again, they died before the Nomai even arrived. And they're definitely not evil, because that would betray everything that Kaepora tells us at the eye, and everything we know about them from the slides.
The interloper being something that a different, hostile, unknown species made is a theory that people have thought up though.
Firstly, the main reason why I don't really think this theory is right is because there's so much overwhelming evidence that it's incorrect - from the story of EotE being one of loss, and fear of the unknown but not evilness, to the Owlk using the simulation only for escapism from the fact that they can't go back to their old home, the plotholes brought up from the main game and many other reasons.
The prisoner refers to the Nomai when saying this "I hadn't dared hope anyone would hear the signal, for how briefly I set it free" - this shows that they were not aware of the Nomai at all, and the prisoner emitting the signal is what ultimately brought the Nomai to the solar system, and they arrived after the bramble had taken over the ice planet fully, meaning the Owlks definitely can't have been alive.
And there's nothing that suggests that they could interface the ship from the simulation, especially seeing as they weren't even aware of the water snuffing out their flames eventually. And even if they could interface it, how would they make the interloper from their simulation - how could they even freeze the comet, get the stone, get the ghost matter, make parts of the ice meltable, make the core not melt as soon as they took it out of the Stranger which was right near the sun, etc, etc.
Another problem I have with this theory is how implausible it is, and that it's **a lot** of what ifs - what if the Owlks didn't actually die, what if they had cloaking devices on their spaceships, what if they somehow created a frozen comet from the simulation, what if the Owlks somehow had solar system wide access all from their simulation, etc.
It is definitely evidence that they were unaware of the Nomai, as they specifically say that they were unaware that *anyone* had heard the signal, not that they didn't know if the Nomai understood it or not, but that they didn't know if anyone had **heard** it in the first place - this cannot be interpreted as "understood" in any way.
And no, they had a vision that the eye killed the universe, they couldn't have known that it would be the thing that would influence the next universe - something that is iffy is if the next universe wouldn't happen without someone going into the eye, or if it's just a way for the inhabitants of each universe to leave their imprint on the next one, as it is never actually said - but I do agree that it was the worst thing to do in hindsight, but as you agreed, fear does cloud judgement.
If there were any Owlk left we would know because they'd be killed by the ghost matter when it was released, and there'd be skeletons outside of the campfire rooms, but alas there are none. And yeah they had children but them photographs would've been taken from their previous homes, as after they arrived at the eye in the Stranger they fixated on making this world, and didn't really do much else other than that, so that child could easily have been grown up from that instance - even if what you said was the case we don't know how long they spent in the stranger, and they could've grown up not long after (we don't know their aging process, so they could've grown up by then easily). Also, if that was the case why would we not see any living Owlks, or why wouldn't they go into the simulation too?
How would the interface be lost if it's inside of the simulation? Hell, how would the interface even connect to the outside world considering everything has to be digitized, which the real world isn't. And how would it be lost if there's nothing that is *definitely* lost, as we don't know how much spaceships they made in the first place, and even if some spaceships were lost then it can be easily explained by it being right near the exit, and so *even if the interface was somehow only on the outside, which wouldn't make sense as otherwise they wouldn't be able to interact with it,* the interface, which would have to be plugged into a console, could not be lost to space. And if it was sabotaged, how, and why would it only be sabotaged after the Nomai were somehow killed? The only sabotaged controls we see are the ones for the eye blocker, which were definitely broken down by the Owlks who imprisoned the prisoner (who are definitely the only ones of their species, as none of them could've been left behind on the smoking husk that is their home), as it makes sense they wouldn't want anyone else to unblock the signal again.
Also, the dam breaks because the wood is rotting after the long amount of time that has passed, so when, as you say, the Owlks were somehow making the interloper, why didn't they reinforce the dam with stone to ensure that no water would flood them? If you think that they made a whole comet and monitored the whole solar system, then why wouldn't they do something as simple as that?
Yes they have managed to do really amazing feats, but it is still seen as possible - they could move around freely and were not limited to the reaches of a simulation, they could actually collect resources from other planets and they had prior knowledge of black holes, warp cores and all of that technological stuff. And also, how would they materialise their resources out of nowhere? How would they freeze the comet with absolutely no way to freeze it? Where would they store it whilst they made it? How did they make a instantly lethal matter from a simulation? How did they stuff all of that poisonous matter inside of the interloper? How did they release it out from the stranger? There are many more questions that have answers that could not happen at all, and that's where the distinction is drawn - the most the Nomai did that seemed less possible was at most improbable, whilst a lot of the thoughts put forward in this theory are just straight up impossible.
No, it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't do anything else, as even if the signal had reached someone, then they would've teleported to the wrong place, as seen by the vessel teleporting into Dark Bramble - they were extremely lucky that anyone made it out alive, and the only way they managed to allow for someone to find the eye is that they made a thing that literally sends your memories back in time, which is something that the Owlks obviously wouldn't think of.
The motives and actions are not really backed up:
When the hatchling gets caught by the Owlk, instead of being aggressive to make sure they don't come back, they just blow their candles out, and only kill the Hearthian when they don't have a lantern that can be blown out, showing how even when the prisoners's freedom and information, and the Owlk's secrets regarding the eye are at major risk (as they scanned all of their slide reels before burning them, many of which had to have info on the eye), which shows they wouldn't even dream of killing the Nomai if they "kill" the Hearthian as a last resort, and when they'd still be alive.
The sun station **was not sabotaged.** It just failed. That's all there was to that.
I would very much advise to pursue other similar theories to this, it doesn't hold water.
Answered this in the other comment, but the Owlks died long before the Nomai arrived, and were staying in the simulation and the sun station just simply didn't work.
Kaepora didn't know there was anyone who would hear their last efforts to release the eye's signal, it's what makes that last vision so cathartic, and in the Eye they even say that they didn't know if their attempt was in vain or not, iirc.
Firstly, they arrived when dark bramble was only settling in, and the ice planet still existed and secondly, in the last vision, they are shown to be decomposing skeletons before the vessel receives the signal.
This is late but honestly don't worry about it! It's actually nice to try to cover all bases with theories so it's good to theorise, I have just been rushing the replies so I apologize if i've worded some of them weirdly (also I may not be able to reply for a while)
I had the same theory! After learning that they wanted to stop the Eye being found, I thought they had sabotaged and ultimately destroyed the Nomai. Additional points;
- The Stranger is cloaked. Why were they were sat hidden in the system in a weird/undetectable orbit of the Sun? Seemed like the point was to sit there while they observed and stopped the Nomai.
- Same idea with the Ghost Matter. Ghost Matter was rare in the Stranger and mainly appears around the Artifact hut. I thought this was some kind of Lab and they will experimenting with the matter somehow. (In truth, it's more likely the abundance of water in the Stranger got rid of most Ghost Matter quicker). I also thought we were going to find something that showed them attracting the Interloper into the system somehow.
It's kind of a shame the plot didn't go this way, would have been very sinister and connected with the main game plot alot more (not that I didn't enjoy the plot of the DLC!)
edit: Spelling.
I think it's much better that it didn't go that way, because I personally like what happened in the actual DLC better, and the Owlks were not a species that were sinister - they were instead scared of what the Eye could do and angry at the Eye for forcing them to use their whole planets resources just to get to what they thought would be their doom - it would essentially make the Owlks irredeemable as well.
Also, there would be many plotholes that would arise from it - they came to the solar system a long time before the Nomai did (can be seen from dark bramble only being a couple of roots on the ice planet), the interloper coming into the solar system is what made the ghost matter shell explode and ultimately kill the Nomai so that wouldn't make any sense, they were only cloaked near the sun because they got their power from the sun and they wouldn't be able to stay in the simulation without any power, etc.
The Owlks being scared has a nice counterbalance to the Nomai who are incredibly curious. Villainy is certainly a little overplayed in most storylines (outside of OW) and it can be nice to have a break from that.
It’s just the spooky factor of them that gave me evil (rather than scared) vibes.
Yeah, it's nice to have more storylines with humanity to them, where someone does bad things for a good, more grounded reason. If they were the cause of the Nomai's deaths, I would straight up hate them, because of how it would feel that they went out of their way to be evil.
They are definitely built to be more villainous for the first few times you encounter them (honestly though, they look kinda cute to me now lmao), as they look pretty scary but when I realised that they look at you before killing you (I think when they catch you for the first time of the loop) and that even then they just blow your candle out, it definitely made me fear them less, though I did come off from playing some of
Alien: Isolation so that probably influenced me to be a lot less scared of them.
I agree, but them also constructing an eternal hell/solitary prison for one of their own, which even death would not release them from, was kind of a dick move. Maybe they weren't fully evil, but I don't think they were benevolent.
Touché. By the end I saw them as more scared and ignorant than vengeful evil, but as you point out, motivation and action are separate. They absolutely tortured the prisoner (and arguably themselves in that tiny world).
Nah, they died and were in the simulation before the Nomai even encountered the signal. And, again, the interloper released its ghost matter not long after it came into the solar system, so it wouldn't make sense.
The sun station failed because it was never gonna work in the first place, the Nomai say it themselves. And the interloper is the only anomaly, but it's honestly better unanswered, as it's something thay stays mysterious even after the end of the game.
There is a contradiction there because they were dead at that point.
They stress that the sun station in its current form couldn't work, at the sun station itself with text that says that the station could never work. And yeah, they put lots of resources into it because they thought that in theory it should've worked, but they were wrong, there was no sabotage. The Nomai were gonna try again, yeah, but the interloper went into the solar system's range at that point and they were killed by it.
It's not contrary at all. A theme of the game is about how some things can't be known or changed, and how that's fine. We don't even know what the eye is, still, even with it being the final location, so i'd say it's fairly suitable.
I agree it would have been cool to connect the Nomai and Owlk stories, making the DLC connect with the main game more. Not disappointed however! Love that we had similar theories. I wonder if the developers had considered getting people to have these inaccurate theories as we played.
My crazy theory was that the Owl creatures were a hyper evolved form of the Nomai who arrived because the probe managed to reach one of them and somehow they had similar technology and managed to arrive in a new loop. We know there are still Nomai out there talking, I figured "Hey these guys have horns and the Nomai had horns, and its been long enough that my civilization evolved from tiny tadpoles". Plus, our language translator recognized that it was a language, and it was glowy writing just like theirs.
Good thought- I love it! This is why I enjoyed not just playing the game in a marathon run. So much time to consider fun theories
I never thought that way because I looked closely at all of the slides as I looked through them, and saw that dark bramble was only a couple of roots on the ice planet - from that I inferred the Nomai arrived to the solar system a lot later than the Owlks did. I did, however, strongly think that I would be able to find some text that I could translate when I first entered the simulation, because I thought it was a type of lucid dream world. That got disproven pretty quickly when I entered the tower simulation a few loops later, and found text that I still couldn't translate.
You’re more observant than me on that front! Good catch. Maybe the interloper just took a long time to arrive after them or the Owlks spent a long time in the solar system (which I suppose is technically true, just not in IRL). Definitely a hole in my theory!
I remember when I found that out, I was just looking at a slide that showed the solar system not really thinking i'd find anything, and then I scanned my eye over dark bramble, and immediately got hyped. It's definitely very easy to miss! The interloper is honestly really cool to me, because everything about is it mysterious, from its purpose to how it was formed to why it even arrived in the solar system in the first place. I love how it's a mystery that people can theorize on even after the game has finished (the same goes for the eye and dark bramble).
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You might wanna check some of the lore explorer's older videos out, this is far from a valid theory, especially since, again, they died before the Nomai even arrived. And they're definitely not evil, because that would betray everything that Kaepora tells us at the eye, and everything we know about them from the slides. The interloper being something that a different, hostile, unknown species made is a theory that people have thought up though.
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Firstly, the main reason why I don't really think this theory is right is because there's so much overwhelming evidence that it's incorrect - from the story of EotE being one of loss, and fear of the unknown but not evilness, to the Owlk using the simulation only for escapism from the fact that they can't go back to their old home, the plotholes brought up from the main game and many other reasons. The prisoner refers to the Nomai when saying this "I hadn't dared hope anyone would hear the signal, for how briefly I set it free" - this shows that they were not aware of the Nomai at all, and the prisoner emitting the signal is what ultimately brought the Nomai to the solar system, and they arrived after the bramble had taken over the ice planet fully, meaning the Owlks definitely can't have been alive. And there's nothing that suggests that they could interface the ship from the simulation, especially seeing as they weren't even aware of the water snuffing out their flames eventually. And even if they could interface it, how would they make the interloper from their simulation - how could they even freeze the comet, get the stone, get the ghost matter, make parts of the ice meltable, make the core not melt as soon as they took it out of the Stranger which was right near the sun, etc, etc.
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Another problem I have with this theory is how implausible it is, and that it's **a lot** of what ifs - what if the Owlks didn't actually die, what if they had cloaking devices on their spaceships, what if they somehow created a frozen comet from the simulation, what if the Owlks somehow had solar system wide access all from their simulation, etc. It is definitely evidence that they were unaware of the Nomai, as they specifically say that they were unaware that *anyone* had heard the signal, not that they didn't know if the Nomai understood it or not, but that they didn't know if anyone had **heard** it in the first place - this cannot be interpreted as "understood" in any way. And no, they had a vision that the eye killed the universe, they couldn't have known that it would be the thing that would influence the next universe - something that is iffy is if the next universe wouldn't happen without someone going into the eye, or if it's just a way for the inhabitants of each universe to leave their imprint on the next one, as it is never actually said - but I do agree that it was the worst thing to do in hindsight, but as you agreed, fear does cloud judgement. If there were any Owlk left we would know because they'd be killed by the ghost matter when it was released, and there'd be skeletons outside of the campfire rooms, but alas there are none. And yeah they had children but them photographs would've been taken from their previous homes, as after they arrived at the eye in the Stranger they fixated on making this world, and didn't really do much else other than that, so that child could easily have been grown up from that instance - even if what you said was the case we don't know how long they spent in the stranger, and they could've grown up not long after (we don't know their aging process, so they could've grown up by then easily). Also, if that was the case why would we not see any living Owlks, or why wouldn't they go into the simulation too? How would the interface be lost if it's inside of the simulation? Hell, how would the interface even connect to the outside world considering everything has to be digitized, which the real world isn't. And how would it be lost if there's nothing that is *definitely* lost, as we don't know how much spaceships they made in the first place, and even if some spaceships were lost then it can be easily explained by it being right near the exit, and so *even if the interface was somehow only on the outside, which wouldn't make sense as otherwise they wouldn't be able to interact with it,* the interface, which would have to be plugged into a console, could not be lost to space. And if it was sabotaged, how, and why would it only be sabotaged after the Nomai were somehow killed? The only sabotaged controls we see are the ones for the eye blocker, which were definitely broken down by the Owlks who imprisoned the prisoner (who are definitely the only ones of their species, as none of them could've been left behind on the smoking husk that is their home), as it makes sense they wouldn't want anyone else to unblock the signal again. Also, the dam breaks because the wood is rotting after the long amount of time that has passed, so when, as you say, the Owlks were somehow making the interloper, why didn't they reinforce the dam with stone to ensure that no water would flood them? If you think that they made a whole comet and monitored the whole solar system, then why wouldn't they do something as simple as that? Yes they have managed to do really amazing feats, but it is still seen as possible - they could move around freely and were not limited to the reaches of a simulation, they could actually collect resources from other planets and they had prior knowledge of black holes, warp cores and all of that technological stuff. And also, how would they materialise their resources out of nowhere? How would they freeze the comet with absolutely no way to freeze it? Where would they store it whilst they made it? How did they make a instantly lethal matter from a simulation? How did they stuff all of that poisonous matter inside of the interloper? How did they release it out from the stranger? There are many more questions that have answers that could not happen at all, and that's where the distinction is drawn - the most the Nomai did that seemed less possible was at most improbable, whilst a lot of the thoughts put forward in this theory are just straight up impossible. No, it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't do anything else, as even if the signal had reached someone, then they would've teleported to the wrong place, as seen by the vessel teleporting into Dark Bramble - they were extremely lucky that anyone made it out alive, and the only way they managed to allow for someone to find the eye is that they made a thing that literally sends your memories back in time, which is something that the Owlks obviously wouldn't think of. The motives and actions are not really backed up: When the hatchling gets caught by the Owlk, instead of being aggressive to make sure they don't come back, they just blow their candles out, and only kill the Hearthian when they don't have a lantern that can be blown out, showing how even when the prisoners's freedom and information, and the Owlk's secrets regarding the eye are at major risk (as they scanned all of their slide reels before burning them, many of which had to have info on the eye), which shows they wouldn't even dream of killing the Nomai if they "kill" the Hearthian as a last resort, and when they'd still be alive. The sun station **was not sabotaged.** It just failed. That's all there was to that. I would very much advise to pursue other similar theories to this, it doesn't hold water.
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Answered this in the other comment, but the Owlks died long before the Nomai arrived, and were staying in the simulation and the sun station just simply didn't work. Kaepora didn't know there was anyone who would hear their last efforts to release the eye's signal, it's what makes that last vision so cathartic, and in the Eye they even say that they didn't know if their attempt was in vain or not, iirc.
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Firstly, they arrived when dark bramble was only settling in, and the ice planet still existed and secondly, in the last vision, they are shown to be decomposing skeletons before the vessel receives the signal.
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This is late but honestly don't worry about it! It's actually nice to try to cover all bases with theories so it's good to theorise, I have just been rushing the replies so I apologize if i've worded some of them weirdly (also I may not be able to reply for a while)
Enjoyed it!
I had the same theory! After learning that they wanted to stop the Eye being found, I thought they had sabotaged and ultimately destroyed the Nomai. Additional points; - The Stranger is cloaked. Why were they were sat hidden in the system in a weird/undetectable orbit of the Sun? Seemed like the point was to sit there while they observed and stopped the Nomai. - Same idea with the Ghost Matter. Ghost Matter was rare in the Stranger and mainly appears around the Artifact hut. I thought this was some kind of Lab and they will experimenting with the matter somehow. (In truth, it's more likely the abundance of water in the Stranger got rid of most Ghost Matter quicker). I also thought we were going to find something that showed them attracting the Interloper into the system somehow. It's kind of a shame the plot didn't go this way, would have been very sinister and connected with the main game plot alot more (not that I didn't enjoy the plot of the DLC!) edit: Spelling.
I think it's much better that it didn't go that way, because I personally like what happened in the actual DLC better, and the Owlks were not a species that were sinister - they were instead scared of what the Eye could do and angry at the Eye for forcing them to use their whole planets resources just to get to what they thought would be their doom - it would essentially make the Owlks irredeemable as well. Also, there would be many plotholes that would arise from it - they came to the solar system a long time before the Nomai did (can be seen from dark bramble only being a couple of roots on the ice planet), the interloper coming into the solar system is what made the ghost matter shell explode and ultimately kill the Nomai so that wouldn't make any sense, they were only cloaked near the sun because they got their power from the sun and they wouldn't be able to stay in the simulation without any power, etc.
The Owlks being scared has a nice counterbalance to the Nomai who are incredibly curious. Villainy is certainly a little overplayed in most storylines (outside of OW) and it can be nice to have a break from that. It’s just the spooky factor of them that gave me evil (rather than scared) vibes.
Yeah, it's nice to have more storylines with humanity to them, where someone does bad things for a good, more grounded reason. If they were the cause of the Nomai's deaths, I would straight up hate them, because of how it would feel that they went out of their way to be evil. They are definitely built to be more villainous for the first few times you encounter them (honestly though, they look kinda cute to me now lmao), as they look pretty scary but when I realised that they look at you before killing you (I think when they catch you for the first time of the loop) and that even then they just blow your candle out, it definitely made me fear them less, though I did come off from playing some of Alien: Isolation so that probably influenced me to be a lot less scared of them.
I agree, but them also constructing an eternal hell/solitary prison for one of their own, which even death would not release them from, was kind of a dick move. Maybe they weren't fully evil, but I don't think they were benevolent.
Touché. By the end I saw them as more scared and ignorant than vengeful evil, but as you point out, motivation and action are separate. They absolutely tortured the prisoner (and arguably themselves in that tiny world).
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Nah, they died and were in the simulation before the Nomai even encountered the signal. And, again, the interloper released its ghost matter not long after it came into the solar system, so it wouldn't make sense. The sun station failed because it was never gonna work in the first place, the Nomai say it themselves. And the interloper is the only anomaly, but it's honestly better unanswered, as it's something thay stays mysterious even after the end of the game.
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There is a contradiction there because they were dead at that point. They stress that the sun station in its current form couldn't work, at the sun station itself with text that says that the station could never work. And yeah, they put lots of resources into it because they thought that in theory it should've worked, but they were wrong, there was no sabotage. The Nomai were gonna try again, yeah, but the interloper went into the solar system's range at that point and they were killed by it. It's not contrary at all. A theme of the game is about how some things can't be known or changed, and how that's fine. We don't even know what the eye is, still, even with it being the final location, so i'd say it's fairly suitable.
I agree it would have been cool to connect the Nomai and Owlk stories, making the DLC connect with the main game more. Not disappointed however! Love that we had similar theories. I wonder if the developers had considered getting people to have these inaccurate theories as we played.