History Characters / OuterWilds

* EldritchLocation: 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.

** 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 fascination with it is borderline religious in nature, with "shrines" 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 [[GodIsEvil evil]] or [[AlmightyIdiot 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. 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 decided to [[CrisisOfFaith burn down their houses of worship]], [[BookBurning burn all slide reels that recorded its existence]] 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.

* RestartTheWorld: 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 old one in the process. While that may sound villainous, it's apparently only for the natural end of the universe.
* WeirdMoon: 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.

* HopelessBossFight: They're invincible, faster than your ship, 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.

* CaptainCrash: Is well known for crashing their ship.

* BizarreAlienBiology: 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.

* HandicappedBadass: 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.

* TheFaceless: We never actually get a good look at one in the flesh; all that's left of them are murals and skeletons [[spoiler:and Solanum, who wears an all-covering space suit]].

A race native to Timber Hearth, and the only sentient life still in the solar system.

* BenevolentPrecursors: Though they didn't directly create the Hearthians, their technology is scattered throughout the system and may have inspired the latter's penchant 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. [[spoiler: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.]]

* LegendFadesToMyth: [[spoiler: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. Given he and his clan's Vessel disappeared over 280,000 years ago, it's understandable.]]

* AlluringAnglerfish: 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.

!!!Other Species

[[folder:Hearthians]]

!!!Gneiss
A Hearthian musician who created the instruments used by the Hearthian travelers.

!!!Hal
A Hearthian engineer and close friend of the Hatchling, who built the Nomai translator.

!!!Slate

* AmbiguouslyEvil: 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.
* AmbiguousSituation: It's unknown just if or ''how'' sentient it really is, though there is evidence that ItCanThink, 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.

** 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. 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 decided to [[CrisisOfFaith burn down their houses of worship]], [[BookBurning burn all slide reels that recorded its existence]] 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.

!!Hearthians in General

!!Gneiss

!!Hal

!!Slate

[[folder:Eye of the Universe '''(MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS)''']]

** 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 {{Un-person}} 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, [[AndIMustScream 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.