#worlbuilding

Isometric drawing of my lamb's temple! With a bonus variation to show off the interior.

Here are the cultural references I caught playing Touchstarved ANDDD my Eridia worldbuilding theory + observations. I’ll cut to the chase for you babygorl, Eridia is inspired by Middle East + Mediterranean. One could even argue, Turkey.

We will be looking at 3 things: Eridia’s physical structure(Architecture, geography), word origins, cultural references (like food, clothing, weapons)- with the current non-backer available knowledge we have right now.

I double-checked with internet but Im open for feedback correct me if I’m wrong OR you have any additional input🧍‍♀️

1) Eridia’s Structure:

Eridia’s architecture is confirmed to be somewhat inspired by Istanbul. This was confirmed in the livestream now posted in the RSS youtube. The houses we see in Lowtown are examples of the old turkish houses that were mentioned. We also come across mosque-like towers and domed structures. Also very prominent in maybe not specifically Istanbul architecture but def Middle East overall.

Evidence A: a1) Eridia Lowtown houses / a2 a3) traditional Turkish houses. A3 more picked to fit the vibe of Lowtown the source is Researchgate

Geographically, lowtown and Hightown are also VERY Istanbul given that the Lowtown seems poorer compared to Hightown, which is similar to the European side of Istanbul across theeeee drum roll pleaseeeee BRIDGES! CORRECT! Boom Istanbul land geography reflected in Eridian structures! Since we know Eridia is also separated by a bridge between Lowtown and Hightown, it feels not unique to Istanbul alone but at least resembling the European & Asian halves of Istanbul

Vere mentioned the weather being “Dreck”, idk what that really tells us geographically but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

THEORY: Location wise, Eridia is giving Mesopotamian locations. With river and all. We know Vere had said “this was more than a miserable (sth i dont recall before my laptop broke so I cannot replay the game rn someone reblog this w that Vere scene)” which leads me to believe that Eridia was once abundant-ish. Mhin also said its not that bad and the streets are now considered eroded (makes sense bc of water damage.)

The senobium is also a religious learning place and could serve as an institution more resembling of a historically islamic school: a Madrasah. Which also studied the sciences commonly during the Ottoman period. Madrasahs can be secular or religious. The Ottoman ones did study the sciences but outside of Ottoman Madrasahs I’d love to hear if they were secular or not (Even Ottoman Madrasahs were not entirely secular institutions.)

2)Word Origins:

Senobium written as Cenobium for us- is like a monastary that encourages community more than solitary. And the word itself has greek origins, coming from the word koinobion apparently). Leander is also probably greek bc of his name origins(Leandros- look up the myth of Oleander), but we can also see some other symbols/ references related to other greek myths like the pomegranate wine, the triple moons, the keys (HECATE AND OVERALL UNDERWORLD SYMBOLISM WAKE UP PEOPLE HE’S A- gets killed) waterways are also somewhat common in ancient sites (for any city close to a water source)

Eridia as a name can possibly originate from the name of the Greek goddess Eris- and it makes sense given the chaotic nature of the city. Mhin themselves said Eridia was never perfect which hints at some level of inevitable chaos.

3) Cultural references:

Mhin’s dagger- looks like an Italian stiletto dagger.

Evidence B: Mhin’s dagger vs an Italian stiletto dagger

Leander’s dagger- that’s a khanjar. These daggers are sometimes used to symbolize “manhood power and authority”. But take what I say with a grain of salt and feel free to correct me :)

Notes: Keep in mind that these dagger references are meant to show the blade not accurately determine where the blade is from-the argument is made for a region not a location. One could even argue this to be an Indian khanjar because of the handle.

Evidence C: c1)Leander khanjar / c2: Persian Khanjar / c3:Ottoman khanjar

Vere’s decorations feel Italian as well when paired with Mhin’s dagger. Kuras’s earrings are feel like they can be somewhere in Middle East (not super sure), Ais himself is an outsider to the city so no wonder nothing he has particularly matches what’s going on as Eridia’s vibe.

We look at Mhin’s blouse? Giving European bbg idk what to say especially those sleeves. And the overall silhouette.

Oh and btw. The lamps are Turkish/Moroccan lamps. And we have a silly little cup of what might be a funny Turkish coffee cup in MC’s room :)

(More evidence will be in reblogs)

But now that we are at the end of it all, if u actually came this far allow me to now get a bit more sentimental with my words: Dear @redspringstudio I don’t know if you will read this or see this post. I’m also sure we cannot get a confirmation(for now) if any of these are true or not. Either way, I have so far never seen Middle Eastern references in a horror game before. Neither have I seen it done well-made too many times. I have followed the old work of some of the developers on the team and had came across a similar, heartwarming world building with again, Middle Eastern tones to it. Everything I have said today might be a speculation, perhaps I am really reaching with some things I say. But at the end of the day it really really warmed my heart to play this demo and not only freak out about the characters, but the world as well. To look around, frantically take notes and double check my current knowledge to make sure I was not delusional when making this post is really something not a lot of games can make me do. This is yet another reminder that representation matters, and that small hints in a good world building can really touch someone. I remember giggling with my friends and going insane over collecting the evidence for this post, and it will forever be one of the sweet memories I have had when playing visual novels for me.

(pst if you like my headcanons and want to read my work it can be found here)

Diavolo is touch starved and those he is close to or wishes to be close to he can be touchy with. Think headpats and gentle reassuring shoulder holds, or if he especially is close hugs.

Luke is left handed.

Barbatos cant have excesses of mind altering substances because it can cause him to lose control of the space time continuum.

Pact marks with demons or other magical creatures are visible on flesh. Other kinds of mutual agreements will also leave a brand like mark.

Higher ranking demons have multiple demon forms. (for an example Satan's in game demon form is the first less powerful one while his true form is that of half man half goat with six sets of horns and his ribs rest above his flesh, his steps scorch the ground he walks on)

Barbatos is a cosmic horror, not a demon (i have a post going into more detail on this here)

Having pacts or contracts with multiple entities from all of the realms does interesting things to the human body...

If you catch Levi off guard you can call him to attentiom before he gets flustered and angry when he remembers that hes literally the grand admiral, he's the one that barls the orders. (he only gets flustered if its the mc that does it, anyone else gets Lotan called on them)

Satan has a secret self indulgent collection of romance novels (im talking like everything sherlyn kenyon has ever written that vein of romance lol) if asked about it he adamantly denies its existence.

On low bad self loathing days Asmo has a low key disguise he wears to simply relax and not have to worry about being seen as perfect when hes out as obviously Asmodeus.

Kaltxí ma @nattikay, I could use some help on a random linguistic idea that I’d thought up and I don’t really know where else to go 

So this is the naming convention for Na’vi:

(Given Name) te (Family name) (Parent of the same gender)‘ite or ‘itan

I’ve seen variations for gender neutral Na’vi as well, but regardless. 

I have two characters in a story I’m writing who are human avatar drivers that are very close with a clan. One of them isn’t in the story, but I was wondering how his name would translate into lí’fya leNa’vi if he was. 

You see, the character’s name is Ilan Vetrimaran and his sister is Shivika Vetrimaran. I was fine working with Shiv because her name was pretty easy to make ‘more Na’vi’, so to speak, and I made it into Sìvika te Vetrimaaran Antseyli’ite (that “family name’ needs changing but its a work in progress, her mum’s name was Anjali and this was the ‘translation’ into Na’vi phonetics that I thought suited it best, but feel free to correct me)

But then when I looked into Ilan’s name, I got into bit of a confusion? Because both these characters are Tamil and Tamilians don’t have names in the same way western names work. This is because Tamilians don’t have surnames, instead taking their fathers first name as an ‘initial’ or as a first name

So technically Ilan’s actual name is V. Ilan not Ilan Vetrimaran (he only uses it because the RDA is influenced primarily by American culture, especially the aspects of it that I’ve seen so far) with Vetrimaran being his dad’s first name. So, if we were to go by his western name, in Na’vi he’d be Ilan te Vetrimaran Vetrimaran’itan, which just, seems wrong? I feel like it would sound weird to a Na’vi? Or would it be Ilan te Vetrimaran, or Ilan Vetrimaran’itan? Would this affect Shivika’s name since Vetrimaran isn’t her surname at all, because her culture just doesn’t have such a thing?

🜂 The Grand Duke of Mercury was once a ritual title, granted only to one who had survived the Trial of the Dual Horizons, emerging with both hearts intact. ✶

Would you be interested in mini, lore-focused companion artbooks for the Book of Ergo Cosmos? I’ve gathered a lot of material about the world—details that aren’t essential to enjoy the main tales, but that form the cultural and metaphysical backdrop of the setting.

A series of small PDFs that dive deep into these elements.

For example:

– the Dragon-Mills network of Mercury

– the concept of Dream-Weight

- ...