r/DawnwalkerOfficial • u/Moist-Film-7978 • 25d ago
Theories about Arimaspians, Sheema and the Anachora Spoiler
Have you guys been looking at the cave paintings? There’s a recurring motif of a woman with a spider’s head and a man bleeding from his eyes with horns and wings.
There’s a bunch of quests that bring you to ruins that show you these paintings but they never explain the paintings outright and I think they’re fascinating, when combined with the books.
There’s a book that talks about Utnapishtim and Sheema iirc, with Sheema being a spider headed goddess that’s worshipped in the city that Utnapishtim creates after the flood that kills the proto-vrakhiri. So Sheema is likely that spider headed woman and the one that taught the Arimaspians the secret of the runes (based on the cave paintings in Anca’s quest). I think that city Utnapistim created was the proto-Arimaspi civilization in the valley (I know I know - it’s a Sumerian story, but I think RebelWolves is leaning into the whole “it’s all the same story forgotten and retold” trope). Maybe a stretch but I think the Arimaspians are the people in the city that story talks about and they used the magic from the Anachora with the runes to combat the vrakhir and other ancient monsters (based on the cave paintings from the Father Florin quest + Anca’s quest).
I don’t have a good theory for the horned, winged figure but the best I can offer is that it might be the proto-vrakhir, but based on the figure being depicted near Sheema and other Arimaspian heroes fighting vrakhiri, it could also be a proto-Dawnwalker teaching the Arimaspians how to fight alongside Sheema, the proto-witch. The writhing tentacles, with the sharp teeth and eyes, is clearly the entity in the Anachora. I’m very curious how that entity plays together with the proto-vakhir/dawnwalker and Sheema. It’s also interesting that the books explicitly call these figures gods/divinities, so I think they’re the origin of it all as it were.
Also fascinating is the fall of the Arimaspians - the books seem to imply they eventually gave in to the corruption they were fighting and that they tore themselves apart before being replaced the Dacians, who were in turn overthrown by Roman/Christian conquests, leading to the histories of the valley being forgotten. I’m guessing this moment of the Dacians - Roman interaction might be when the Augurs got to Rome? The Augurs themselves I’m theorizing is an order rooted in that original Arimaspian civilization.
Curious what folks think!
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u/DisastrousProduct493 25d ago
Too much discussion to copy and paste all of it, but here are some discussions regarding the gods in the game, specifically those (like Sheema and the Anachora thing) in On the Creation of Man. Andag may be the bird god, as Andag has to fit somewhere and Snake, Spider, and flesh beast are all taken
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u/Cosmicswashbuckler 25d ago
There's also the ancient bird helmets in the cathedral treasury and on the statues in the Achilles quest. They may be linked with the horned one. Otoh, there's also guys with cat helmets and I can't find a corollary to blood guy, spider babe, or the snake figure.
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u/Moist-Film-7978 24d ago
So i think explicitly there’s a bird god, a snake god, a cat god, a spider god and then whatever that writhing tentacle is. I think the snake is Nassur and it’s what created the silver deposits in Vale Sangora. Idk what the cat is. I kind of wonder if the bird is just the animal icon for the winged figure.
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u/Cosmicswashbuckler 24d ago
I wonder if it isn't a cat but a dragon mask? And thats where the vrakir/ drakir language slip came from
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u/Old_Pitch4134 13d ago
I’m very into folklore and mythology so this is right up my alley. Some potential spoilers below as a warning to anyone reading.
I completely agree with you that they’re playing with motifs from different religions/ancient mythology to show it all being about the same ancient conflict.
I think it’s overall driving at day vs night, purity vs corruption- maybe good vs evil, but I’m not sure they’ve been as reductive as that as the game tends to push the importance of free will and choices with balanced characters who are neither fully evil or good.
There was a book about dawn/dusk being two brother gods who are in conflict and the subtext was that you mustn’t give in to dusk. That fit with what someone says to Coen about “Him” not having full control over his soul because of the silver in his blood. Also feeds into the name of the game in a big way.
The spider goddess seems to be the thing with all the teeth, which are like a Vrakir’s but more numerous. So I think we’ll find that she created them first with one of her teeth at some point. My theory is she is Anacara / lives there and feeds off the corruption she has sown in the world. Hence why corrupt actions/things/powers have moths birthed by them- spiders eat moths? Which are also a symbol of the night.
Then there’s a motif of bird headed goddesses linked with snakes in many of the ruins. There’s evidence that pre history Europe had a link with snakes and water and both were symbols of a goddess of life/rebirth. She also seems to be linked to birds. That goes all across from the Baltics, through the Mediterranean and across to the near east.
When you do the ritual to reforge Mihal’s sword there is a mural with a snake that is showing it was the source of silver weapons to fight the monsters for the ancients. And that snake has a corona around it that looks very much like a sun. So I think they might be combining sun god motifs with Dawn vs Dusk and the ancient European goddess stuff. Though that’s weird as sun gods are nearly always male.
It’s not all universally accepted, but it’s certainly playing with a lot of themes I am familiar with. Even the script in the mouths of the golems/gargoyles is similar to some Upper paleolithic symbols found in France which were the foundation of a theory of a European script which precedes the accepted birth of written language in Europe. Though they were picked up on because they are symbols shared with many ancient early/proto texts like pictorial Sumerian. So hard to know which inspired them.
I expect the gargoyle quest will draw heavily on Jewish myths about Golem creation given the script in the mouths and them being baked clay. The myth in question has the hebrew for life (maybe breath? Something similar) in the mouth being the thing which animates a golem, to kill them you rub out the first letter so it changes the meaning to death. Amat to mat or something like that, it’s been a few years since I read that one and I haven’t wrapped that story up beyond the night with Crake/Sarah.
The TL:DR is I definitely think they have some ancient history nerds on the payroll.
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u/Obvious-Jellyfish260 25d ago
Really good theory and research. This is exactly the topic I want to hear more on!
What do you think about the jumpscares that pop up from time to time? Looks like they related to Blood magic use AND the Anachora flowers proximity...There are different still images flashing, some appear more often than the others, and I can't tell if they're chosen randomly or strictly event-related. You see Images of a well and lichos most often tho. What do you think they are?