A Short-ish Summary of the Lore of Rain World Downpour 

TO CLARIFY THE MISTAKES THAT I MADE: - Challenge 70 isn't canon lmao whoops. - SoS was confirmed to have been died before Saint was ever born. Overall this entirely fucks my theory over, but also Saint is so weird that there are at least 3 other solid theories that I could think of to fit it better, maybe I'll make a video on 3 Saint theories or something in the future.

Sliver really just "Dont worry guys i have a plan" - "Sliver has left the game:"

How dare you not even talk about the super important official dating sim lore that is totally accurate and not made up at all.

Ironic, the ancient created the iterators to help them but aren't allowed to die, and then one iterator did the same to the saint. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Saint being echo makes so much sense, although he's not a normal one for sure I think his main distinction is in his earthly tether to the world is a sort of 6th secret urge. The urge to ascend/help others. One that is virtuous in nature, yet still binds him to the material world, as if a string that let him dip into the turbo acid and get pulled back over and over again, which is how Silver of Straw managed to create the triple affirmative. She created a being that CAN return from the point of no return, which was the most important step to solving the great problem Anyway floofy glock wielding scug is my favorite

The irony of sliver of straw creating saint as a way to solve their accession the same way the ancients made the iterators is very poetic. There are so many cycles in this game

I find it interesting that the iterators didn't adopt the naming strategies of the ancients. Moon named rivulet Ruffles instead of something obscure like idk pure waters illume or splintering streams.

23:29 This isn’t actually why there’s an absurd amount of rain during rivulet’s campaign, at least not from what I interpreted. The excessive rain is caused by Five Pebbles himself, in an attempt to slow down the rot’s progressive takeover of his can. This is said by 5P himself when he gives rivulet the task of retrieving his power cell to give to Moon, as he says that without it, he will lose the power to flush the rot out of his systems, and thus, he will slowly die, consumed by it. He will basically die of cancer faster than he would otherwise. It’s also why the rain returns to normal after the removal of the cell, since, as stated, Pebbles lost the power to pump out such enormous amounts of rain to try to slow his death.

The slugcats are sapient. They are quite aware of the environment they are in and can use it to their advantage. They can use a variety of tools with each one in versatile ways. And as we see in the advanced movements, they are very aware of what their body is capable of. They are capable of learning behaviors creatures, their strengths and weaknesses. They can trade, even learn the trade values. They can read the hologram picture/symbols the overseers use. They can even listen to complex commands the iterators give them. They can give moon neurons and pearls even though there's no practical benefit. They are capable of seeking vengeance. They are capable of being religious as we see with Saint.

A thing to add is something that Five Pebbles says is basically "your problem is the same as everyone's problem, from the microbes in the processing strata to me, who is godlike in comparison." When talking about ascending, implying it happens to everyone, not just semi intelligent creatures.

The scavengers are effected by the cycle, for instance if a scavenger dies when it wakes up again it will tell its raid party to go get you,

It's heavily implied that things can still die in the cycle, just from not their own perspective. basically, when you die you get put into a sort of alternate universe back in time where you didnt die yet, however, every creature in the old universe that you died in will still percieve you as dead. This was theorized even before downpour, but downpour does kind of confirm it since we see artificer's pups ACTUALLY dying, as well as other creatures dying forever.

Rain world lore is very RU-vid

Its so good to see 18 bowls make his return to the series!

here’s my take at the potential timeline of the Saint triple affirmative great problem solution process: •Saint goes to an iterator area •Saint ascends •saints’ greatest wish (and purpose) is to go back and help other’s ascend •the void “brings him back” •Saint is now once again some sort of semi echo •in this semi echo state, he becomes a sort of soul delivery container, which is why his karma goes up when he meets (and then absorbs?) the other echoes •once all echoes in the local iterator area are saved, he achieves max karma and gets cool mind powers (somehow) •he is now able to manually ascend the souls of pretty much whoever he wants, but stronger/higher beings take more attempts •(by what means? I have no clue. maybe he sends their souls directly to the void with his brain? Maybe he absorbs them into his own soul and brings them with him when he ascends?) •once he’s gotten all the souls of everyone, he goes down to where the void SHOULD be •the fact it’s gone maybe being proof he never completely left the void? his return to the surface was partly an illusion? As most of him was still within the void? •Maybe echoes see themselves as normal, while everything else sees them as weird dark squid things •the illusion breaks down and he falls out and past the void sea, to like a weird back rooms esque version of the real world •he climbs upwards to reach the void sea, (I guess since he escaped it it sort of resets?) •while he does not want to ascend, he can give those echoes within him to Another chance at ascension •he swims upwards, and then pisses off the void worms, so they refuse his ascension, and remove all the karma from his soul as he is “clearly not ready” to ascend • what these pissed off eldritch beings do not realize however, is that was NEVER the SAINT’S karma, but the karma of the trapped echoes he absorbed into his being. •when they take away his karma and essentially reset him, they’re just accepting those echoes into ascension. (who are probably more than quailed to ascend by this point) •the worms are mad at him( maybe meaning that the void fluid refuses to take his physical form?), and he doesn’t want to ascend, since both his physical and spiritual parts are intact, he’s back in the proper cycle and is no longer in that half echo limbo •because he’s back in the cycle proper, and can’t/doesn’t want to ascend, he’s spit out into the REAL real world. And goes to another iterator compound • he repeats this general pattern till EVERYONE is ascended

A lore summary truly worthy of a standing ovation. A game truly worthy of the title, "Game Of The Year." Das, thanks for everything. It's been an awesome journey discovering Rain World with you. I look forward to your future content and wish you great success. Also if it wasn't already official, you deserve the title of 'Offical Lore Master'.

A larger theory i have: The rainworld events of an ancient type race eventually getting ascension have happened hundrets of times. This means there is a larger cycle over the shorter hibernation cycles. This also explains why Karma 6-9 are just circles being more an more crossed out, progressed and why Karma 10 is a crossed circle, a circle that has been xed, a circle that has been broken.(also they reason why saint needs karma 10)

29:58 There is cute detail about his ending If you bring 1 or 2 slugpups they will show up in it And Monk ending assumes that you did bringed 2 slugpups with you

This video seems like a good place to put my thoughts at: So the Ancients had a calendar just like any advanced civilization would. A date in that calendar looks like this: "1591.290" or "1650.787". So it's obvious that the bigger the number the more time has passed, but what do these numbers mean exactly? Here's my theory: The second part (like "290" or "787") counts cycles. We do not see this number going above 1000, so I suppose when the count reaches 1000 cycles it adds one number to the first part ("1591" or "1650") and starts counting cycles over again. For instance, Five Pebbles increased his water consumption on 1654.108 and 8 cycles later on 1654.116 Moon used forced communications to contact him. I don't know how good this theory is, so tell me.

I feel as though one very important slugcat was missed out...

28:10 This has probably been already said in the comments, but the devs said that challenge 70 is not canon, and the whole thing is just a touhou reference, with the attack patterns taken directly from one of the games.

The iterator ad absolutely killed me (well, it failed to kill me, but you get what I mean), well done with that I hope you do actually make an echos dialogue video, would love to hear you read them out as dramatically as possible.

I want to point out for the little drawn slugcat timeline that I'm pretty sure there is implied to be a decent amount of time between survivor and monk's story, as the rot has taken over FP a significant amount since survivor in the monk story, and the Pearls have gone blank. But maybe I've missed this being made not the case by the story.

This seems as good a place as any to add to the new Downpour theories. WARNING! lotsa reading if you wanna check it out! From what I've gathered, I think the Saint campaign starts at the end of _everything._ More specifically, the end of the _true_ cycle. Moon had mentioned something especially interesting during her dialogue in Rubicon. She says that the Saint's cycle "edges and twists over themselves, like circles within circles, your cycle consumes itself" which really stood out to me. Circles within circles, you say? That sounds an awful lot like each creature having it's own cycle, while a larger, more global cycle occurs. This is why I think the Saint starts at the end of the global cycle, or all-encompassing cycle. A cycle in Rain World seems to entail a specific life-span of whatever creature you observe. If you visit Moon as Saint, she mentions there being other slugcats coming to visit her but by then they have "Long since passed" implying that the other slugcats ARE able to die. I think that in order to end a creature's cycle said creature has to reach a specific goal, similar to the passages you have access to. I mean, look at the Survivor. You can hibernate as many times as you want, spend however much time you want exploring the world, but until you dive into the Void, or journey to the Outer Expanse, the game won't "end". This is where the Survivor's cycle _ends,_ until it's re-born once more when the global cycle loops. This is further supported by Pebble's dialogue, where he mentions seeing his own lifespan over and over again, but nothing outside of it. This would explain why creatures you kill don't just send you back to the beginning of your last save. The creatures you kill don't HAVE an end goal, or maybe, they've already reached it. And what's Saint's main gimmick asides from the tongue? _The inability to kill creatures without ascending them._ When Saint ascends a creature, they don't appear once more after a hibernation, they're _gone._ I even tested this, I spawned myself the usable spears for Saint and killed a bunch of spitter spiders. The next hibernation, they were still there. Saint is at the _END_ of everything. Saint, in their part of the timeline, prevents anything they ascend from coming back. The last big question then is what qualifies as the end of the global cycle? What goal has to be met? Personally, however, I think what Saint is trying to accomplish is the destruction of the global cycle. When Saint ascends a creature, you won't see it again, no matter what you do. What better way to end the global cycle than by leaving nothing left TO loop? Nothing left, except the Saint itself, hunting down every last creature so that when the global cycle resets, it will be broken, no living beings to progress it. That's what I think Moon and Five Pebbles mean when they speak about the Saint's cycle, they say that unlike others, the Saint's cycle has cycles within cycles, going in an infinite spiral with no defined ending. Because unlike every other creature, the Saint _CHANGES_ the global cycle. It starts again, but things have _CHANGED._ It's no longer quite a complete loop, even the echoes can feel it. One of the first echoes you meet says they swear they've seen you before, that a massive change has occurred. This could of course be a reference to the passage of time, but it doesn't feel entirely accurate. The Saint IS the Triple Affirmative. It's why the opening cutscene is of the Saint waking up and _remembering._ Because unlike what we've seen of other slugcats, when the Saint completes a cycle, THEIR cycle, the changes _last._ Their progress isn't entirely reset, their actions _mattered._ The Saint doesn't reach the goal they're assigned to, no, they REJECT the void, they RETURN and swim upwards. The Saint rejects their given goal, and forces the cycle to reset instead, permanently changing it to their whims. The 'cycle" is no longer just a perfect circle anymore, to me, it looks a little more like a _spiral._ Hell, compared to the other slugcat's void adventures, the Void Worms, the one constant, _changed._ Their name is far more accurate than we gave it credit for. The Saint will ascend everything but itself, assuming the true role of a true matyr. _The End Of Everything, even the Void._ Or, at least, that's my theory.

I'm skeptical of how far in the future saint REALLY is. the ice age probably happens because the iterators create so much heat (the water is coolant) and without them, the world is just as cold as it used to be.

Gourmand actually seems to solve a mystery about rain world that we never even thought to ask about in the first place, being how survivor got past the retaining wall in the first place. Not only that, but accidentally too. At that point, it just must mean that the survivor campaign before you finish Gourmand's is just not canon, given the retaining wall is closed. Which seems obvious in hind sight, I know, but it essentially means videocult retconned the original survivor and monk campaigns from canon even though you still have to play them

I have a theory that the entire saint campaign takes place in the void. Basically the saint has already ascended and there biggest wish is to help others to ascend so the void shows them doing that, but when you try to ascend your self you dont find the void sea because you are already in it, but doing that breaks the illusion. In this theory the Rubicon is you trying to escape the void and you are about to when a void worm stops you putting you back into the illusion. My theory is pretty dark lol

Take these, for easier navigation. 0:00 - Intro 1:20 - The Cycle 4:50 - The Ancients 10:20 - The Iterators 17:04 - The Game Events 24:30 - The Void 26:22 - The Saint 33:00 - Outro

I think the cycles work a little different from how you described them. Nothing is exempt from them and everything wants a way out, even the “microbes in my processing strata” as FP says. Also I think dying creates a “parallel timeline”, where you are reborn in your point of view, but are dead for good in other creatures’ perspective.

I've always been under the impression that it's eventually possible for a creature's physical body to eventually become uninhabitable, if you somehow pretty much softlock yourself by age or falling into a hole or something idk. I assume that Hunter is an exception because his body never fully degrades but is basically sustained on auto-pilot and keeping him trapped. But if that happens you eventually just reincarnate as another creature. It would explain why every the ancients were able to all die out despite not all of them wanting to ascend and why the world isnt horribly overpopulated by slugcats stuck in perpectual resurrection. Alternatively, it's a multiverse and from our own perspective everyone else dies perminently but they reincarnate in a new timeline. (this might be more likely based on the More Slugcats stuff?)

I don't know if this idea is original, but i believe the 5 urges could have multiple different meanings. 1 - violence, maybe anger/aggression too 2 - reproduction, love (for other people, for a beautiful landscape, etc) 3 - greed, materialism, friendship (urge 3 is implied to be tied to trade, and you only trade with those you trust; friends) 4 - probably just gluttony, maybe any other kind of excess vice too (think drinking, smoking, etc) 5 - self-preservation, survival, possibly perseverance/determination as well does anyone else think this is true?

I bet the ancients aren’t gone, there’s just way less of them, and they probably gathered to a different location. Hell with how advanced the ancients were it would not surprise me if they have colonised other planets

I think Saint might be a dalai lama sequence figure, one who has escaped the cycle but chooses to remain in it to help others escape it too

i have been waiting for this video for days. i absolutely adore your explanations of rain world.

3:50 in samsara concept every creature can be reborn as another creature in the next life. like an animal can be reborn as different specie of animal. I think this concept is what happens with lineage system

Aicent:"i also gave him depresion but he doesnt know it yet!" Iterator:"wait you gave me what?" That part had me rolling

Congrats on 20k das, here's to 50 or even 100k or perhaps even further!

23:00 You can return with slugpups to that ending to see them with you. Also, you can find the exact place where survivor slipped and take same route to outskirts via a mini cutscene

Regarding the cycle. The way I understand it (and the way that makes the most logical sense) it that when a creature dies, they are reincarnated as a new, different being. They don’t go back in time or wake up in the same body, but instead are born into a new one. This new body then eventually regains some or all memories of their previous iterations - after all, it they didn’t no one would even know the cycle was a thing. This would account for arti’s slugpups dying and then disappearing, as they actually did die - but via the cycle were reborn as different slugpups elsewhere. This may also explain why the ancients had such long names, how animals evolved over time, and why seven red suns was worried about spearmaster dying. This theory assumes that when the slugcat you’re playing at dies and you reach the game over screen that it is a non-canon death.

I always figured that the Cycle was more than just the gameplay loop of die, try again when you wake up in the same place as before you died. I see it as a reincarnation. Sure, the previous is true as well, but once you get to a certain age, that body dies for good, and you are reborn a baby, knowing who you once were. Everyone knowing who you are. I dunno about you, but being haunted by the memories and consequences of my past actions, ALL my past actions from every life I have lived ad nauseam, would be enough to make me want to take a void bath too.

Glad to see you are continuing with the robot mascot thingie. it looks awesome :D

HOLY SHIT IT'S HERE I've been waiting for this ever since the Saint video omg it feels like it's been ages!

A wonderful summary indeed. I feel bad for poor Saint and the Iterators in general.

I just realised the Iterator salesman dude has the karma symbol for commerce on their head. That's a very nice touch!

We would love the Echo reading. Your voice is really good at it

You forgot what Pebbles tells you as survivor (and monk i think). He says that every living thing shares the same frustration (that being the cycle), from the microbes of his processing strata to him who is, if you excuse, godlike in comparison. So yeah it is stated that every living thing is trapped in the cycle and not just conscious beings. Also challenge mode is not canon, as stated by the devs so we dont actually know if sliver created sait or not. Also also one interesting thing is if saint did ascend other iterators, others would for sure notice and i feel like we'd know about it by the time our campaigns happen. Or maybe its not as obvious who knows.

my favorite interpretation of the Great Cycle is that when you die, instead of waking up where you last slept, you are reincarnated with memories of your last lives. the waking up where you last slept in-game is simply a game mechanic. this is supported by moon telling hunter "...you will wake right back up again." or smth. we can see that hunter very much doesn't wake up again if you die, so it more likely means hunter reincarnates.

I don't think the 3rd karma symbol represents materialism, but rather "companionship". We can see it in the glyphs for The Friend, The Mother, and The Chieftan as well as the achievements A New Friend and An Old Friend. The mural does depict barter, so it might be more along the lines of "cooperation" with other living things. But overall, it's other people tying you down to this world.

Love your community-driven biomes vids that show what new kinds of animals would live in different biomes. Edit: grammar corrections and "yes" to the echoes video.

Each campaign explains/shows some of the game's most important factors Spearmaster - The Looks to the Moon facility Artificer - A Natural urge being put to practice Hunter - How Moon came back Gourmand - Where are the other slugcats Rivulet - Five Pebbles collapse Saint - How Sliver of Straw ascended

Am i the only one who shed a tear for hunter's ending?

23:37 You said the rot mimics the functionality of 5 Pebbles, I thought it was just 5 Pebbles desperately trying to keep the rot at bay by flushing his systems with water as often as possible.

Saint: '' blows up pancakes with mind''

You may have killed the man (removing the Nekopara poster) but you'll never kill the idea 18:36

I’ve been waiting for this for a while now and I must say it was worth the wait

the story behind artificer hit me so hard, i nearly cried, i still want to, and in my runs, everyone gets to ascend but the youtube scavengers

"Do you want me dramatically read the eco dia-" YES!!! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

I was just binging your videos when this dropped, great timing lol

Fantastic video essay quality combined with an interesting topic! Love seeing these videos and I hope you enjoy making them :)

Just watched your lore video last night and was looking for an updated lore video but here you are again

Is it a coincidence that max karma also looks like a no entry symbol

das taking challenge 70 as canon took about a decade off of my life

Awesome video, Das!! Nicely summarized and very well edited. Great work, thanks!

i am FEASTING on this lore, thank you for compiling this into a summarized and entertaining video and helping better contextualize these concepts! I can't wait to see future uploads like this. :")

I just came from watching the morbidly obese pole plant video, wondering when the downpour lore was coming out and here it is

Congrats on 20k gamer Also hyped for that Echo video

Congratulations for the milestone! You deserve it! I’ve been following your Chanel for a long time now and is great to see how big your Chanel is growing! As a long time fan, you deserve the 20K

Dude, I love all your content, but this was insanely well put together, keep up the great work my guy.

to my understanding assension is finding true happyness and being willing to sarcafice everything for it (this is true for survivor arti monk and hunter)

If you don't know, you can give pearls to pebbles as artificer. Also when you first increase your karma with an echo, the sixth starts out as the same symbol as the monk achievement. But when you increase your karma again it changes. Can you make video decoding the ancient language including the extra karma symbols?

hell yeah, i really enjoy your content! you’ve got a good voice and i like how you pace everything, genuinely 11/10

Absolutely phenomenal stuff. You unwrap this incredible story of this game so well

I absolutely adore the idea of a dramatic echo reading

I think the voidsea allows beings to not only interact with other timelines ( how theres multiple of the slugcats swimming when they ascened) but also become one with them. Fivepebbles talks about saint's cycle intertwining with his so maybe that's a property being carried over from the void?

This video is great! Thank you for content!

Gods damn it I love your content so much … please keep up the amazing work •w•

Wow a new video! You are one of the people who i found out about rain world from!

I still love you're Girl's last Tour videos ・⁠▽⁠・

Thanks for making this! I’m very interested in iterator lore but I can’t bother to put the pieces together myself. You’re also very pleasant to listen to ^^

Echos read through??? Incredible voice work and audio design? Totally totally will be here for that when you get to it!!

Sliver of Straw carrying Saint around the room: THE SOLUTION IS PORTABLE!!!

I really would not like to ascend. I would honestly lock my brain in a giant superstructure, which expands its memory and repairs it. That is how paranoid I am. So basically if I get my way I will become a war fortress iterator. The ancients had a great gift and they didn’t use it. With the technology they had, you could live every possible life you could ever want

Love your vids man!

18 BOWLS MY BELOVED !!! The frontier cameo was worth it very very worth it

Daszombes when he has to explain void fluid for the 30th time

as someone who just watched your year old video on rainworld lore, it is. SO IMMENSELY FUNNY to begin watching this one for the dlcs lore and immediately being told that the video i JUST WATCHED is bad. subscribed for that experience alone. i just goddamn transcended.

great video love to see it

Wow, Saint BEING the Triple Affirmative, as well as it being a true echo is insane to me…Rubicon is so crazy lore-wise too. Wonderful work on the summery, talked thoroughly on a lotta stuff and it’s all very useful ^^💖💕!! Astounding work well done yet again, looking forward to seeing the iterator model more + what the next project could possibly be 👀💫✨!!

The Saint still raises many questions. Why does he start with a maximum of only 2 karma? Why does Sliver of Straw fight back against the Saint if he created the Saint to be the solution and kill him?

help Five Pebbles complete his shopping list and finish the oversized errand.

NICE keep up the good work!!

This was awesome. Subbed!

I find it interesting that this is just "The short version" of it. There's literally a huge amount of information glossed over that I can't wait a for deep dive video sooner or later :D

I previously had no idea how much gravity the Saint had in the lore. Awesome!!!

You did amazing man keep going!!

CONGRATS ON THE SUBS

I think a cycle only works kinda lime this (my own theory I want to share) When a creature survives they move forward a cycle but if you died your age wouldn't go forward or something explaining how red lizards and King vultures died out because they were apex they rarely died aging so fast they died quickly and the fact they couldn't reproduce was also a factor there extinction anyway what I'm saying is if you don't die you grow and anything that did happen but if you do die then it doesn't grow because for it that cycle didn't happen for that creature and you keep growing till you start dying form age and then your stuck in dying everyday from old age making people really want to die

My first encounter with Void Worm was kinda hilarious, as they kept bumping into me, sending me flying back up and away from them, so the normally 2-3 minute swim to get their attention took nearly twice as long because they kept bumping into me and sending me way off course. It was mildly annoying, but overall just funny to me, because it felt like I was so insignificant to it that it failed to notice me getting flung away when it'd zip by. It almost seemed like by the end it was like "oh shit, sorry about that, here lemme help you traverse the void acid."

Yooo u doing the funke badger animation kind thats great

I got to the part where Das said “Now it’s time to talk about that fuzzy green elephant in the room” before immediately getting an ad for Zaxby’s Asian Zensation Salad