The world whithin the rift [spoilers, obviously]

[Rad]

So... we've seen it.
and we can't understand...
But we can try :smalltongue:

A couple of crazy theories:

It is world 1.0 The old world is not lost but merely got incorporated in the snarl. Maybe Soon's wife, the Dark One cleric and the chicken are all together with Lirian's lost bears and living happy in the old world?
Not world 1.0 but close: maybe the gods of the East are inside the snarl's prison and managed to untangle the threads of reality that it is made of and made a new world? Only now this world is trapped in world 2.0
it is just a second world! Why do you think this was world 2.0? The gods just created two (or more) planets, one "within" the other, as an extra safety measure. This is also why they have not acted to seal the rifts yet.

I have a lot of observations on my own hypotheses so far... and have arguments against all of them, but maybe they can inspire somebody with coming up with something better...
Discuss!

PS: Ah, the thrill of groundless speculation!

[Rad]

Let's keep all discussions together. I reposted these comments here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6676542&posted=1#post6676542

Close this thread?

[Ancalagon]

I like the idea it's recursion: You see THE world 2.0 through The Snarl. Lots of complications, as The Snarl would then also be outside of the real world, as it is inside of him, that way, the gods and everything would also be inside the snarl, as they are outside.

What happens if you open the rifts in that case is a VERY interesting question.

All in all, I think that here (the other-than-expected-nature of the Snarl) basically kills the plans of "The Dark One".

[Eleshar]

There is no Snarl, it is all just divine propaganda of some sort to hamper the efforts of mortals to make contact with the World 1.0 (perhaps a world where the mortals learned they can live without any sort of divine intervention and past the limitations of nine prefabricated behavioral templates). The purple tentacles do not belong to any "Snarl", they are just some sort of an elaborate security mechanism that can kill just anyone to discourage any sort of contact attempts.

[thubby]

the world beyond the rift is our world, the snarl is simply the intrusion of our consciousnesses/stories/etc.

[The Pink Ninja]

Earth is maybe a bit too obvious but not, you know, impossible.

The first OOTS world seems more likely.

[Eleshar]

Well, at least it does not look like Earth...

[Bibliomancer]

Well, at least it does not look like Earth...

True. The ice-caps are too large and the continents are wrong.

Perhaps it is...another campaign setting where Redcloak's alternate version keeps the magical trains (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0543.html) running on time?

Unfortunately, the continents for that are wrong as well. Does anyone know of a campaign setting with large ice caps? [Not that Rich would be so unoriginal, but the forums run on speculation.]

[David Argall]

There is no Snarl, it is all just divine propaganda of some sort to hamper the efforts of mortals to make contact with the World 1.0 (perhaps a world where the mortals learned they can live without any sort of divine intervention and past the limitations of nine prefabricated behavioral templates). The purple tentacles do not belong to any "Snarl", they are just some sort of an elaborate security mechanism that can kill just anyone to discourage any sort of contact attempts.

As far as we know, the gods have no reason to lie, and the reason suggested here seems quite unlikely. Nor do the tentacles seem to fit as security mechanisms. They seem to pull stuff into the rift instead of force it out. And we still have no idea why they are not present at Azure City. The gods, and the tentacles, would be helping the Scribble.

[Rotipher]

Well, the idea that this inner world is where the Snarl's victims wind up does have one major piece of evidence supporting it, namely the fact that anyone who falls into the rifts can't be brought back via True Resurrection. If the victims are, in fact, still alive on this other world, then naturally the spell would fail, without the Snarl's attacks having to destroy to their souls. Ditto for attempts to communicate with such victims in the afterlife.