Before this thread begins I'd like to say that what you're about to read is not written from a condescending 'I am better at making lore and design decisions than Klei'-point of view but rather; writted by a fan who wants to see this game be the best that it can be. In this case - about the Ancient's lore and potential future.
Alright, let's begin
So, it's been confirmed that we're getting Shadow Rifts in the caves, an opposite of sorts to the Lunar Rifts. And given the ending of the Taking Root trailer, it's safe to assume that Charlie upgrading the Ancient Gateway will be responsible for those rifts. And what is the ancient gateway related to? That's right, the Ancients! Which means that there's a good chance that we might be getting some new ancient lore, items, mobs etc.
And thus I feel like now is a good time to talk about things that bother me in Ancient's lore and Ruins, which I believe Klei should address.
1. Ancients' apperance:
Metheus murals and murals found in the atrium make it pretty clear that Ancients begun to change their appearance due to nightmare fuel exposure. This makes sense as we already know that NF can corrupt creatures: Ancient Guardian and Splumonkeys. Here, I've made my own interpretation of the ancients' design shown in the murals. Yes, I gave myself some artistic freedom. Excuse me, if the quality is not too great:
Now, as you see I've attached murals but also the atrium statue. The reason why I didn't attach the ruins statue is because I believe that it is simply outdated.
Why am I talking about this? Well, over a year ago we got the Forgotten Knowledge update, which added Ancient Archives and in that place we can find the lunarune statue, which...
...looks like the corrupt ancients' design. This... basically breaks the established lore. Murals show Ancients changing once there was too much fuel, in-game murals talk about them shedding their skins and looking different- this doesn't refer to the Ancients becoming Terrorbeaks as the next murals talks about the Ruins in their prime. And I doubt that Terrorbeaks would build the ruins. And this statue, depicting corrupted ancients, is found in the Archives - the only remaining area of the ancient-er ruins build before the civilization discovered NF.
Since Klei has yet to present us with an explanation, I'm choosing to view this as a mistake, as an artist using the atrium statue as a reference for Ancients' apperance while making the lunarune statue. And I see no reason why Klei would choose to retcon one of the more structurally-sound pieces of the ds/t lore, just so that they don't have to redesign this one statue.
2. Why leave the Lunar Ruins?:
Ever since the Forgotten Knowledge update I've been wondering 'Why would the ancients leave their already-build underground base, just to end up "hungry and scared", as the murals describe them?'. This feels like a real plot hole, an unexplained one at that. But I think that there's a neat, simple way to patch it up. Ahem, ahem:
The iridescent gem was Ancients' only way of brining lunar magic to the caves, since Alter cannot affect the underground. The gem basically acts as a magical battery, storing the magic/power of eldritch beings. Created when a regular gem is exposed to large amounts of said energy. But it also has its capacity and will be drained, with time. And so, as years passed and the lunar ruins were thriving the first out of many iridescent gems broke; shattered as the last of Alter's energy left it. While the gems were strong and working, lunar magic filled the ruins, basically creating an ambient shield, which prevented shadow magic from influencing that area. But as more and more gems broke, that ambient magic begun to fade and shadows begun to invade. Not in an intrusive shadow creatures, nightmare ramparts-way but simply by influencing the mind: whispering to the ancients, telling them that their homes are crumbling, that they need to leave. Soon enough the civilization left and the lunar ruins were left to crumble through the eons... except the archives where dust moths took care of things. Then it was smooth sailing for the shadow forces: wait for the ancients to discover NF, make them forget about the 'moon' and lunar ruins (which would explain their absence in the murals) and the rest we know.
3. What drove them underground:
This isn't necessary a big issue for me or in general but I'd be nice if Klei made it so that Gnaw was responsible for Ancients leaving the surface. It'd block them from Alter and start turning them into merms. Imo a great explanation and also some cohesive world building.
4. The future:
Form the get go I'll say that, personally, I'd like Klei to never show us a live Ancient. I don't know what future updates will bring, so this might not even be a justified concern. Still, I think that any apperances of the ancients/ruins in their prime, etc should be shown to us through murals, statues, etc. If we were to interact/talk with a member of the civilization, they should be a shadow being that looks nothing like the ancients, or a possesed object, same as Fuelweaver does it.
I strognly believe that the ruins and ancients should be something that is in the past and that we only see their remnants and are left to connect the dots ourselves.
Another thing is: if ruins/their lore are to be given a bit of the spotlight, it'd be cool if Klei were to redesign the mage and head statues. Let's be honest, they are a bit outdated, having been designed in, like, 2013. Imo the mage statue could be simply changed to look like the corrupted ancient (that is: get rid of the head and give its back the terror beak spines) and the head statue could be turned into the mask of the ancient king.
Well, that's it from me. Like I said, the next update will most likely be related to the Ancient Gateway and the cloak shown in the spoiler suggests that we might be able to craft items that might've been used by the civilization... but are more powerful than the pseudo science station ones. And so now was a good time to get these things off of my chest
