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Travelers
People who have journeyed beyond Timber Hearth. The Protagonist
You, "Hatchling", "Time Buddy"
Species: Hearthian
The protagonist, a Hearthian that the player controls. While on their first solo flight, before which they accidentally and unknowingly pair with the Nomai statue in the Observatory, their Sun suddenly goes supernova and explodes, destroying their Solar System. Now trapped in a time loop of 22 minutes before the end, they must discover the source of the supernova.- Determinator: Big time. Unlike Gabbro, who's the only other Hearthian aware of the "Groundhog Day" Loop and is perfectly happy just waiting things out and going with the flow, the Hatchling is determined to find out what happened to the Nomai, what they were up to, why the Sun is going supernova and how to stop it. No matter how many times they die a horrible death in the depths of Space, as soon as they wake up next to the bonfire under the nightsky of Timber Hearth, they'll just go right back to their ship and keep going no matter what.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Every Hearthian NPC refers to them as "Hatchling".
- Groundhog Peggy Sue: The entire point of the game is that the protagonist pieces together the clues of what the Nomai were doing over multiple loops, hoping to find a way to save everyone.
- Heroic Mime: Zig-zagged. At first glance, the protagonist seems like another blank slate for the player to assume the role of, as they appear to have no direct dialogue with the other NPCs. But it turns out that the response options you choose when engaging with NPCs are their dialogue, and many of these options are filled with personality. Furthermore, if you set out for one of the Spacetime endings by jumping into the black hole inside Ash Twin's core at the end of the loop and then meeting your temporal duplicate in the same location, you'll find that the duplicate is perfectly capable of speech, turning the trope on its head.
- Uncertain Doom: The only Hearthian not consumed by the exploding sun, they might meet their end from the new big bang but the Eye of the Universe conforms so little to standard paths of logic that their fate is essentially a mystery.
Esker
Esker
Species: Hearthian
One of the first astronauts, currently residing on the Lunar Outpost on Timber Hearth's moon.- The Aloner: Improvements to rocket technology means nobody needs to use the Lunar Outpost anymore, leaving Esker alone on the moon.
- Family of Choice: The last thing Esker says is "I'm really happy we're all here" before the Universe resets.
- Signature Instrument: The only one of the Travelers to avert this (besides the player character); rather than an instrument, they just whistle when joining in on the song at the end while the other Travelers play theirs. Thus, Esker is the only Traveler* whom you don't have to seek out in the Ancient Glade by finding their instrument; they are sitting by the fire in the Glade from the beginning.
Riebeck
Riebeck
Species: Hearthian
An archeologist currently set up on Brittle Hollow.- Bizarre Alien Biology: Unusual for their own species that is, they have an extra finger for each hand compared to the rest of their species with their 3 fingered hands. Which helps them play their banjo better than most.
- Face Death with Dignity: Their final words provides An Aesop:Riebeck: The past is past, but that's... you know, that's okay! It's never really gone completely. The future is always built on the past, even if we never get to see it. Still, it's, um, time for something new, now.
- Geek: They are very interested in Nomai artifacts, locations and history, geeking out over the player's more impressive discoveries.
- Mr. Exposition: You can talk to them about most of the major discoveries in the game to get more information.
- Signature Instrument: The banjo, which is arguably this for the whole game as well thanks to Riebeck's status as an Ascended Extra. The Hatchling can hear it whenever they listen to the sounds coming from Brittle Hollow, and Riebeck plays it during the Travelers' song at the end.
Feldspar
Feldspar
Species: Hearthian
Known as the greatest pilot on Timber Hearth, Feldspar has been all over the solar system, but no one knows where they're holed up these days.- The Aloner: They have no desire to go back to Timber Hearth anytime soon, preferring alone time, whether that be for their fame or other reasons, and say not to rush if you mention telling people they're still alive.
- Captain Crash: Is well known for crashing their ship, even their helmet has a bad impact crack around the eyes.
- Fluffy Tamer: The last words they ever say are that they hope there are beasties in the next Universe.
- Signature Instrument: The harmonica, which the Hatchling can hear whenever they listen to the sounds coming from Dark Bramble (and can even use it to find and travel to Feldspar's ship), and which Feldspar plays during the Travelers' song at the end.
Gabbro
Gabbro
Species: Hearthian
An explorer currently residing on Giant's Deep, and notably the only other Hearthian aware of the time loops.- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite their casual attitude about pretty much everything, they're still a genuinely skilled and knowledgeable astronaut.
- Groundhog Peggy Sue: They've been in the loop just as long as the protagonist, but they aren't interested in fixing it.
- Meditation Powerup: They developed the meditation technique that allows you to skip to the next loop.
- Signature Instrument: The flute, which the Hatchling can hear whenever they listen to the sounds coming from Giant's Deep, and which Gabbro plays during the Travelers' song at the end.
- Unfazed Everyman: Gabbro is laid-back to the point of vegetation. Their island being thrown out into space by a hurricane is at best a minor inconvenience, and even being trapped in an endlessly repeating time loop seems to barely perturb them. Their final words are full of relief and eagerness:Gabbro: I tell you what, this has been really fun. And I got to make something pretty cool, so I've got no complaints. I mean, not me, exactly, but pretty close. It's the kind of thing that makes you glad you stopped and smelled the pine trees along the way, you know?
Chert
Chert
Species: Hearthian
An astronomer residing on Ember Twin.- Actually a Good Idea: They initially scoff at the idea of them being in a time loop but when they see their time coming to an end they reconsider that maybe that idea isn't so bad.
- Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it by the final minute of the loop.Chert: Come, sit with me and watch the stars die. [...] How unfortunate, to be born at the end of the universe. Any minute now...
- Face Death with Dignity: Calms down from their previous manic state and embraces their impending death in the last minutes of the loop.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Their initial curiosity at the unusual number of supernovae occurring in the distant stars turns into outright horror as they realize that the universe is ending, and their own sun is about to meet the same fate.
- The Napoleon: Downplayed, as they are not very egocentric or aggressive, but they are snappy with the player and prefix all of their audio logs with, "Chert's Notes - Property of Chert!" They're also the shortest traveler you meet.
- Signature Instrument: The drums, which the Hatchling can hear whenever they listen to the sounds coming from the Twins, and which Chert plays during the Travelers' song at the end.
The 7th Traveler (Spoilers)
Solanum
Species: Nomai
The last Nomai in existence, she traveled to the Quantum Moon during her pilgrimage, but has been stuck there ever since thanks to the Interloper exploding ghost matter across the solar system. If found in any of the five locations the Quantum Moon orbits, she'll be long dead, but if found in the Sixth Location near the Eye of the Universe, she'll be alive, and you'll be able to converse with her.- The Faceless: Her face is hidden behind a Nomai mask that forms the headpiece of her space suit.
- It Has Been an Honor: Her last lines.Solanum: A conscious observer has entered the Eye. I wonder what happens now. It is time to find out? ... This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it.
- Last Of Her Kind: She is the last surviving Nomai of Escall's clan, thanks to the Interloper rupturing and releasing deadly Ghost Matter throughout the system in which the clan was stranded. There were other clans outside of the system who weren't affected by the Interloper, but the player is unable to contact them, and the impending heat-death of the universe means they're likely to be extinct shortly if they aren't already.
- Schrodinger's Nomai: Due to the Quantum Moon's unusual properties, Solanum exists in all six of its locations, but due to the ghost matter that irradiated the entire system 281,042 years ago, all but one of them are dead, her corpses lying in the moon's south pole. One version of her managed to reach the Sixth Location before it was too late, but due to the Moon's atmosphere becoming an impassable barrier, she's trapped there. She can't even die of old age as time doesn't work in the Moon.
- Signature Instrument: The piano. Unlike the Hearthians' instruments, you don't hear Solanum's until you find her Quantum version in the Ancient Glade at the end, since she resides on the Quantum Moon and is dead on all the iterations of it that you can directly detect and reach. She produces the piano music by playing it on her scepter-like device to join the rest of the Travelers in their song.
- The Smurfette Principle: Since Hearthians don't seem to have more than one gender, using "they/them" pronouns, while the Prisoner's gender isn't explained, Solanum is the only female traveler that the Protagonist can encounter. Also since the other travelers wear their space suits, it's unclear whether any of them have female characteristics like some of the Hearthians on Timber Hearth.
- Time Abyss: Due to the weirdness of the Quantum Moon, she's existed on the sixth iteration of the moon ever since the destruction of the Nomai race 281,042 years ago, both alive there and yet dead on the other five iterations at the same time- although it's implied that for her no time has passed at all.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Is unsure if she technically qualifies as being "alive" due to her nature as a quantum version of herself.
The 8th Traveler (MASSIVE Unmarked DLC Spoilers)
The Prisoner
Species: Unknown
A member of the mysterious third race of owl-deer-like humanoids in the Solar System, they are the sole inhabitant of the Sealed Vault within The Stranger, and the ultimate goal of the DLC, Echoes of the Eye. They are a rebel who disapproved of their species' fear of the Eye of the Universe, and the cycle of rebirth, and were imprisoned for eternity in both body and mind for their simple defiance - releasing the Eye's signal for a few mere moments. However, it is their actions that ultimately led to the Nomai discovering the Eye, and therefore the main story to occur. Without them, you would not be here to discover these stories, and ultimately carry on the cycle.- Ambiguous Gender: The Prisoner's gender, if they have one, is never explicitly revealed by either them or the (untranslatable) text.
- The Atoner: They are ashamed of and apologizes for their entire race. The player will forgive them.The Prisoner: When my kind found the Eye and realized what it was capable of, they were terrified. It was too difficult a truth. Like a light too bright to look upon directly, it burned them. When they could not unlearn was hidden away in darkness — obfuscated, then lost. They did not want to see their story end. My kind weren't always like this. We weren't always so afraid. I did what I could to set things right, yet I am still of my kind, and you now know what they did. I cannot promise our fear won't stain your mind.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Prisoner (who can be distinguished from their kin by their missing antler) can be spotted in many of the early slide reels, long before their true importance is revealed.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Prisoner was placed in a purpose-built cell, which was buried underwater, sent into the simulation, then triple-locked and had the keys thrown away. When you arrive, they've been there for several hundreds of thousands of years, for the crime of allowing the Eye of the Universe to broadcast its signal for a few minutes.
- Distinguishing Mark: They are missing an antler, which allows them to be spotted amongst the many aliens shown in the Stranger's slide reels.
- Driven to Suicide: After you share your stories, the Prisoner leaves the Vault before you. By the time you can follow them to the lake's shore, they are already gone, a final Vision the only thing left behind, depicting the two of you sailing away into a beautiful sunset, disappearing into the light. The heavy implication of course being that the Prisoner chose to die peacefully, dousing their Artifact flame while knowing their sacrifice was not in vain.
- Emerging from the Shadows: At first the only thing visible in the Vault's bottom floor is a lit Artifact on a stool in front of a shadowed alcove. Approach, and the Prisoner reveals themselves, reaching a hand out to grab their Artifact before stepping fully out of the shadows.
- Fling a Light into the Future: The Stranger's inhabitants, horrified by what they had discovered about the Eye, had deliberately blocked its signal to prevent anyone else from finding it. However, the member who would become the Prisoner rebelled against their decision, sneaking out and managing to deactivate the signal blocker for mere moments before being caught and imprisoned. It is this split second of a signal that is detected by Escall's Nomai Vessel, attracting them to the Eye's Solar System and sparking the entire main story to occur. The fruits of this story grow long after the inhabitants', and their Prisoner's bodies have passed away, and it isn't until the player meets the Prisoner in the Stranger's simulation and shares their story that the Prisoner learns about the ultimate good their actions had led to, and their sacrifice wasn't in vain.
- Foil: To Solanum. Like her, they are one of the last surviving members of their species (at least after the dam breaks), they are the only member of their species the player can communicate with, and they are mostly dead, with only a small part of them being kept alive in a single location. They're also both the only non-Hearthians to be present at the finale, assuming the player finds them. However, that's pretty much where the similarities end.
- Solanum was born and raised within the Solar System, her writing can be found across multiple planets, and she seemed to be a connected member of her clan. She is notable in her youth for being one of the only Nomai to outright fear the Eye, though she clearly overcomes this fear by the time of her pilgrimage. Additionally, she went to the Quantum Moon willingly, which accidentally resulted in her outliving the rest of her species. Finally, while she and the player do communicate, it is almost entirely one way, as she has no way of understanding anything the player tries to tell her. She also joins in on the final song eagerly and, once found, by her own will.
- The Prisoner was seemingly born on their species' home moon, their existence is primarily kept a secret until the player opens the vault, and they essentially became the Unperson among the inhabitants. They're notable as one of the only members of their species to (seemingly) not fear the Eye, at least by the time they were imprisoned. They were essentially forced into the Vault, forcing them to be stuck in a small place in the simulation long after their body had died. Then, when the player finds them, they give them the vision torch, allowing the player to communicate what happened after the prisoner was locked away. Finally, in the finale, even after the player finds them, they stand away from the rest of the travelers, only joining in once they are told they can.
- For Want Of A Nail: If the Prisoner had simply been like the rest of their kind and hadn’t turned off the signal blocker, the entire game would never have happened. The Nomai ship would never have detected the signal and travel to the solar system, killing many when they land on Dark Bramble while others are scattered on Brittle Hollow and Ember Twin. Many Nomai such as Solanum likely wouldn’t have been born, the Ash Twin Project wouldn’t have been developed and they wouldn’t have been present when the Interloper arrives and covered the solar system in ghost matter. The Hearthians would still have evolved, but without the technology the Nomai left behind which they used to develop their own space program to explore and find out what happened to them, with the Protagonist themselves being inspired according to the vision they showed the Prisoner. Regardless whether the Hearthians could develop as space program without the Nomai, the sun would still explode and without the Ash Twin Project the Protagonist couldn’t do anything about it. And finally, not turning off the blocker would mean nobody would have ever found the Eye, so the next universe would never come into existence. Additionally, if the Prisoner had been like the rest of their kind, they would have died when the Stranger attempted to move away from the exploding sun which is what causes the dam to break and flood the location that the Prisoner should have been to enter the simulation.
- No Name Given: The Prisoner is only ever known and referred to as that - The Prisoner.
- Sealed Good in a Can: The Prisoner is sealed in a locked Vault within The Stranger - in both body (the physical Vault submerged in the Reservoir) and mind (the Vault within the simulated reality "dream"). Breaking the three locks that bind the simulation Vault and meeting the Prisoner's mental projection is the ultimate goal of the DLC, where the player learns it was their actions and sacrifice that led the Nomai to originally find the Eye, and therefore kickstart the entire story of the game.
- Signature Instrument: The cello-like device that seems to be the main instrument of their whole species, found a few times throughout the Stranger. Like with Solanum, you don't hear the Prisoner's instrument until you meet their Quantum self in the Ancient Glade at the end of the game, at which point they play it while joining in on the song with the rest of the Travelers. (The sound of the instrument is actually that of a Theremin.)
- Skyward Scream: After you share your story and discoveries with the Prisoner, revealing their actions and sacrifice were not in vain, all the Prisoner can do is look up and let out a pure emotional cry, the only sound they make in your short meeting.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Prisoner physically appears once (twice if you include the version in the Ancient Glade), unknown about until the Hearthian breaks into their vault. However, their defiance allowed the Eye's signal to go out for a brief amount of time, starting the chain of events leading to the creation of a new universe.
- Time Abyss: While their physical body is long dead, their mental self has lived on still imprisoned within the Stranger's simulation for many thousands of years, predating even the Nomai's arrival and story.
- Together in Death: After releasing the Prisoner (whose real body is long since dead) in the simulation and sharing your stories, the Prisoner leaves the Vault with their Artifact, and by the time you follow them, they're both long gone. The only thing they leave behind is one last vision by the lake's water - you and the Prisoner setting off together in a raft, and sailing away into a beautiful sunset. The heavy implication being the Prisoner has already chosen to die peacefully, extinguishing their flame by walking into the lake, and they want you, the only one who truly understood them, to join them together in the afterlife. As your body must also be dead for you to open the Vault (unless you cheated), the least you could do is oblige.
- Walking Spoiler: Their entire existence is this. The player character doesn't even know what's in the Vault until the climax of the Echoes of the Eye DLC, at which point they manage to open the Vault, finding and meeting the Prisoner there and exchanging stories with them. Doing so shows the Hearthian that the Prisoner is the entire reason the Nomai came to this solar system (the Eye of the Universe's system) to begin with, and allows the Prisoner to learn that this happened and see that their supposed "crime" (which got them locked up for all eternity by their people) did have a positive outcome after all.
Others
Hearthians
In General
Hearthians
A race native to Timber Hearth, and the only sapient life still in the solar system.- Born Unlucky: At a species level; not only are they unfortunate enough to only achieve rudimentary spaceflight days, if not hours, before the literal heat death of the universe, but their homeworld has also been struck by a Planetary Parasite, dooming it.
- Extra Eyes: They have four eyes compared to the usual two- the museum notes that to them, the Nomai "only" have three eyes.
- Fish People: Though they have fish-like characteristics, the Hearthians have evolved beyond that and cannot breathe underwater.
- Little People: Compared to the other sapient species in the game, Hearthians are child-sized. When exploring alien ruins, chairs are hip-high and tables are chin-high to you.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: Hearthians don't seem to have more than one gender, as none of them are referred to with gendered pronouns.
- Rock Theme Naming: All of them are named after minerals.
Slate
Slate
Species: Hearthian
A Hearthian engineer, one of the founding members of Outer Wilds Ventures, and the first person the player is likely to speak to. They built the player's spaceship as well as their Little Scout. Considered a bit reckless by the others.- Campfire Character Exploration: All conversations you have with them are around a campfire, and many of them quickly make apparent Slate's reckless personality.
- Cassandra Truth: Is blissfully ignorant to the player's attempts to make them aware of the time loop or the sun exploding.
- Characterization Marches On: Originally known as the "Rocket Scientist" in the alpha, without much of a personality at all, but would later become the character they are now.
Other Species
Nomai
Nomai
An extra-galactic race that colonized the solar system after detecting the signal of the Eye of the Universe. Now extinct.- Bait-and-Switch: Most of their notes on the Ash Twin Project discuss the possibility of accidentally destroying the entire solar system, pinning them as the number one suspect behind the sun's sudden supernova. Once you get to the Sun Station their project notes reveal the project was a dud and abandoned - the Nomai are completely innocent.
- Beast Man: They're humanoid goats.
- Benevolent Precursors: Though they didn't directly create the Hearthians, their technology is scattered throughout the system and inspired the latter's zeal for space exploration. They showed a great deal of respect towards other life forms; when they discovered that life had evolved on Timber Hearth, they make sure to leave behind some metal deposits so the newborn species (all but stated to be the ancestors of the Hearthians) could eventually develop technology of their own. One of their arguments against the construction of the Sun Station was that any mishap could cause the destruction of all life in the system, including the Hearthians.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: Their structures and vessels have a smooth sandstone-and-gold motif giving them an ancient look, and they're depicted in murals wearing robes and elaborately-carved masks. The appearance of Solanum indicates that not only are the murals accurate, but they depict what is essentially a Nomai space suit.Escall's Vessel shows their tech was even more advanced when they first arrived in the system, and had to rebuild from the ground up when they were stranded.
- Extra Eyes: They have three eyes, with the third above the other two. The third eye is apparently more sensitive than the others, but it's not specified by how much.
- The Faceless: We never actually get a good look at one in the flesh, although the Nomai statues give us the best look at their features. The only one you meet in the flesh is Solanum, who wears an all-covering space suit.
- Floral Theme Naming: Most of the named Nomai in the game are named after plants.
- Higher-Tech Species: Their technology has a strong Crystal Spires and Togas aesthetic, and it utterly blows Hearthian tech out of the water with inventions like FTL travel, artificial black holes, and spacetime manipulation.
- Legend Fades to Myth: As seen on the transmissions caught by Escall's Vessel, his clan has faded into legend, with only a few Nomai remembering that they really existed.
- Mind over Matter: They seem to have had a limited form of telekinesis; it's unknown if this is a natural trait of their species, or a result of their advanced technology.
- Not Quite Dead: The Nomai race is still alive elsewhere, as other clans continued to travel the universe long after the Vessel's disappearance. Unfortunately, as the universe is on the verge of death, their days are numbered. By the time the player reaches Escall's vessel, the last remaining Nomai clans are gathering to face the end together.
- Proud Scholar Race: The Nomai were a peaceful race who took great pride in their scientific knowledge and penchant for space exploration. Prominently displayed in the conversation with Solanum: if you choose "Identify/Explain", she notes that these two concepts are the core of Nomai philosophy, and if you choose "Explain/Me", she tells you that she'd ordinarily have countless questions for you, were it not for the language barrier.
- Space Nomads: They were apparently organized into wandering "clans" that met every ten years to share their discoveries. The ship that brought them to the Hearthian system was the vessel of Escall's clan.
- Starfish Language: Their language is written in spirals of characters, with different dialogues or trains of thought branching off from each other, resulting in a structure of nested conversations diverging from a common root.
Anglerfish
Anglerfish
Found within Dark Bramble, they are a race of large, hostile creatures that vaguely resembles the anglerfish of Earth.- The Dreaded: Everyone either hates or fears these freaks, including the Eye of the Universe itself.
- Handicapped Badass: Completely blind, which is something you can either learn in another location or discover on your own. While they have eyes, they are milky-white and cannot see you. Their hearing more than makes up for that deficiency, so bypassing them is a matter of slowly drifting past them, sometimes passing within feet of them as they breathe menacingly.
- Hell Is That Noise: They make a terrifying screeching roar when you make enough noise for them to fully charge at your location.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: They're invincible, faster than your ship's ideal maneuvering speed in such closed quarters, and won't forget about you if you get their attention. It is possible to survive them if you happen to be close enough to a Dark Bramble seed to transition to a new area, but you have to be pretty close to pull this off and you better hope it's the one you're looking for.
- Luring in Prey: As the name suggests, the lure on their heads is meant to mimic the light of Dark Bramble seeds, so you accidentally fly into their mouths instead of elsewhere in the Bramble. The heavy fog helps disguise them until it's too late to turn back.
- Monster Is a Mommy: The three in the red seed are protecting an egg clutch, possibly explaining why they're so aggressive. Unfortunately, they're also guarding the only gateway to the Vessel.
Eye of the Universe (MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR BASE GAME AND DLC)
The Eye
Beyond the end of the solar system, an extremely old planetary object, older than the universe itself, distantly orbits the Sun, a highly quantum object that absorbs all of the Quantum energy to prepare for the next iteration of the universe. Finding this is the key to getting the Golden Ending of the game. Also has a satellite in the form of the Quantum Moon.- Alien Geometry: Appears as a black sphere, with the Quantum gas especially bizarre, though only if no one touches it.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: When in the Ancient Glade, it will create Quantum objects and areas familiar to the player, as well as the planets you travelled to in order to round up the Travelers's instruments and prepare for the next Big Bang.
- Ambiguously Evil: As a child, Solanum believed that the Eye was a malicious entity that led people to their doom. Once she grew older, she moved on from those ideas. The Echoes of the Eye DLC grants credence to this, as it reveals the reason the Eye's signal suddenly became impossible to track down wasn't a conscious act of malevolence on the Eye's part but the result of the inhabitants of the Stranger intentionally blocking it out of fear. The Nomai only managed to very briefly locate it because the Prisoner temporarily turned off the signal blocker.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown just if or how sentient it really is, though there is evidence that It Can Think, given it uses the protagonist's memories to recreate Quantum versions of both the Observatory and the other Travelers. As well as its own disdain for the anglerfish species, while also showing awareness of the DLC which the player can skip which means it's not simply reflecting what the Protagonist already knows.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Breaking Spacetime and Self endings (which are arguably gag endings and should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt) involve the player destroying the entire fabric of space and time via a Reality-Breaking Paradox, implicitly killing the Eye of the Universe in the process.
- Eldritch Location: Its physical appearance is unlike that of any other planet in the game. A barren grey world covered with stripes of black, basalt-like rock, devoid of life except for a few trees in its southern hemisphere, which sits on top of a wormhole several times bigger than it is. The wormhole itself is also weird, resembling a bright purple whirlpool with the angular pattern the Nomai used to represent it extending throughout its accretion disk. The wormhole causes a permanent lightning storm in the southern hemisphere of the Eye, constantly triggering the quantum states of its trees and the loose rocks. Right in the Eye's south pole, there's an iris-like crater where gravity inverts and drags whoever stands there into the event horizon. The interior of the wormhole is an infinite corridor of pillars made out of the same gaseous substance.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even a Quantum object older than the universe itself hates the anglerfish species, and it breaks the Mind Screw just to apparently note that's it will be the race missed the least, as shown with the young one dead and a skeleton in the tank.Of all the lifeforms who will perish in the oncoming death of the universe, we will miss the anglerfish the least.
- God:
- While it's not known if it's sentient or simply a force of nature, it is older than the cosmos, has no regard for the laws of physics or reality as anyone knows it, and is connected to (if not outright responsible for) the universe's cycle of death and rebirth. The Nomai's scientific fascination with it is borderline religious in nature, with "shrines" (more akin to greek philosophical auditoriums) dedicated to it and the general populace fully believing it to not only be sentient but benevolent, although the Nomai's disastrous arrival to our solar system in search of its signal lead a few to start thinking it may be evil or mindless.
- The inhabitants of the Stranger from the Echoes of the Eye DLC were even more extreme with their perception of the Eye than the Nomai. While the Nomai's views were strongly founded in scientific discovery, theirs seemed to be blatantly religious in nature. Initially believing it to be benevolent, they traveled to this solar system after picking up on its signal, but upon analyzing it in detail and learning of its ties to the heat death of the universe and use of a race entering it to define a new universe and the life on it, decided to burn down their houses of worship, burn all slide reels that recorded its existence and burning down the churches of worship to it and build a device that would block out the Eye's signal throughout the universe, severely punishing any would who dare turn the signal blocker off and "unpersoning" them from all records and paintings.
- Mind Screw: A whole bunch of weird things happens once you fly into the black hole that condenses the Quantum gas, and it's really hard to explain. The best one could make up would be that its attempting to communicate with you and using both the Ancient Glade and other Quantum objects, that the universe is ending and you must Restart the World.
- Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: Quantum shenanigans ensues once you touch the pit of Quantum gas, such as meeting yourself, which turns into a tree and then a campfire, and other events, when ever you look away or turn off your flashlight.
- Restart the World: More like universe, but that what its purpose seems like. Gathering all of the Quantum gas, it will eventually compress into a singularity and create a new universe with a Big Bang, destroying the dead old one in the process. While that may sound villainous, it's apparently only for the natural end of the universe and without it the universe remains an empty huskless void.
- Weird Moon: Its satellite, the Quantum Moon also shares the planet's quantum properties and due to this, it exists in orbit of every planet in the system. It can also alter its appearance and take on the properties of those planets when it's observed. When it orbits the Eye, its atmosphere becomes impossible to penetrate except for the whirlpool in its south pole, which will randomly teleport the Hearthian to another of the Moon's locations (if you kept an image of the moon, back to where you jumped into it from)
The Inhabitants of The Stranger (MASSIVE Unmarked DLC Spoilers)
The Strangers
Another extra-galactic race lured to the solar system by the Eye of the Universe signal. Now extinct, with their consciousness uploaded to a virtual simulation of their home world onboard the Stranger.- Despair Event Horizon: They crossed it hard once they figured out the nature of the Eye of the Universe. They crossed it so hard they destroyed all evidence of the existence of the Eye and uploaded their brains to a simulation to forget about the Eye.
- Foil: As a species, they act as one to the Nomai. Both came to the Solar System following the signal from the Eye, both (at one point) seemingly worshipped the Eye, and both seem to have had advanced curiosity and scientific knowledge. However, the Nomai were driven almost entirely by curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge, seeking out the Eye right up until their clan's death, while the Inhabitants turn their back on the Eye after analyzing its purpose, and they destroy and lock away as much of their knowledge as they can. The Nomai were overwhelmingly Benevolent Precursors , going out of their way to avoid hurting the newly born Hearthians and leaving ample resources for life in the system to prosper. The Inhabitants, however, deliberately hid as much information as they could and, when they find the player in their simulation, do everything they can to kick them out. The clan of Nomai in the Solar System are self-evidently not all of the species, as more Nomai can be detected communicating elsewhere in the universe; the inhabitants of the Stranger meanwhile seem to represent the entirety of the species (or at least, enough that there weren't any to resist the destruction of their home moon). And of course, the Nomai are learned about primarily through their writings, and their actual physical appearance is only seen through a few odd recreations, while the Inhabitants' story is learned through images and slide reels, and the player sees their full bodies on multiple occasions.
- Game Face: They look like sort of cute owl people until they catch you and open their mouths. While it's probably just their feathers actually covering their mouths it gives the appearance of More Teeth than the Osmond Family.
- No Name Given: Their race is never given a name by you, and their language is never translated to possibly give you a name.
- Ominous Owl: They look like humanoid owls with antlers. While the Prisoner at least seems nice, your first encounter with the rest will probably be them screaming and chasing you.
- You Can't Go Home Again: They destroyed their home planet to build the Stranger to reach the Eye.
