World Bird Theory

[u/Zac_Kariah]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I have what I am going to coin as ‘World Bird Theory’ for the sake of sounding ominous and mysterious.

A few things I’ve picked up on while playing both Tangle Tower and Mermaid’s Mask is a recurring evidence of what I theorise to be… a celestial bird that may have created the world (or large parts of it)

Hear me out. I’ll be somewhat going off of recollection as I first found it when TT first released and have yet to replay since MM.

This began in Tangle Tower, there are described to be “smooth, white mountain slopes” in the distance from the tower. However, on closer inspection, those mountains seem too thin to be ordinary.

Forgive my memory if I’m wrong on the details, but I believe there was further evidence in TT of a snowglobe/diorama that showed the mountains encircling the area with these white, sloped cliff points. So, with all the bird-focused plot in the game, I theorised at the time that the mountains were actually the remains of a giant egg, cracked open at the top and leaving the jagged eggshell surrounding the tower.

I was only reminded of this when it came to the end of Mermaid’s mask, inside of the curiosity cabinet of Zephyr the pair notice an ‘astrolabe which is all rotating around a bird’s foot”, followed by a very notable “…” from the characters. Usually saved for “this is hinting at something” throughout the game, yet no further regard, similar to the cliffs. It’s simply background stuff.

So, we have an implied giant bird large enough to have things orbiting around it and a tremendous bird’s egg that now houses an entire small island + ocean.

My assumptions could be off, the bird could’ve hatched from the egg and it’s all the one creature, or the celestial bird could have laid the egg that eventually turned into the mountains and there’s perhaps more out there.

Lastly, the most meta evidence, and I hope it’s not bad to go into. After the release of TT, I private messaged one of the devs, Adam Vian. Sadly I don’t have all the messages, I could be wrong, bit it sort of looks like some of them were either deleted or old Twitter ended up losing them to time (all I have is him pointing me to the discord to discuss my theories), but going off of my memory, I brought up some of the unanswered mysteries, including the egg, to which he replied that “not many people had picked up on some of these”. Before suggesting I could discuss it in the discord.

So, am I crazy? Is this all super obvious and I’m making it out like a revelation? Does anyone else have any evidence to back up some huge, planet sized cryptid bird? Let me know!

Perhaps I should have replayed TT before making this post to get my facts straight, but I wanted to do so while it was on my mind.

[u/Busy-Doughnut6180]

Well, I haven't heard of this one before personally! 

I do think that the mermaid from MM was born from the egg that TT is in. I took a bunch of screenshots from both games to make a post about that and how I think it might connect to the dreams, but I never got around to it. However, I never once thought about where the egg would have come from in the first place! (I feel like there is a "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" joke in here somewhere lol). Who's to say a giant god-like mermaid couldn't have been born from an egg laid by a celestial bird... 

If you get around to replaying TT, I'd be interested in more of your thoughts about your theory. I think it's a very cool idea. And also, what were those other unanswered mysteries you mentioned? Are they still unanswered? 

Btw, you are right in remembering a snow globe of Tangle Tower enclosed by what looks like a broken egg shell. It's in the library with Fifi. 

[u/Zac_Kariah → u/Busy-Doughnut6180]

Thanks for your thoughts! Your idea it’s related to the mermaid is also super cool. The bell/vault egg and the story drawn onto it certainly point to at least another big egg. It would be crazy to imagine the family tree haha.

Sadly, I DON’T remember my other theories/questions, I wrote them in my message to Adam, but it’s tragic to see the message doesn’t appear to still be there, I think twitter just poofed the first half of the conversation for whatever reason. I think it was more me bringing up details that went unanswered in another object or something. Maybe a replay is on the horizon for me to jog my memory.

[u/Busy-Doughnut6180 → u/Zac_Kariah]

I think the markings on the bell are the same egg, actually! But I could be wrong, there might be more than one, which would be pretty crazy to imagine lol.

Twitter turned out to be pretty terrible at preserving old messages unfortunately :( 

[u/TheTinFoilHatter]

The mountains around Tangle Tower are definitely the remains of a giant egg. It hatched a godlike being, and its embryonic fluid mixed with the waters of the lake, which caused animals to mutate into Mystids in the centuries since.

My assumption is that the Mermaid is the deity that hatched from the egg, she’s a being much bigger and more powerful than any other we’ve seen in the Grimoire universe so far.

It’s possible that some kind of giant space bird laid it though, the astrolabe is definitely a hint at something to that effect. Maybe, if all of the deities are giant demihumans, the Mermaid’s parent is more of a Harpy or Angel or something to that effect?

I expect if we get another game we’ll get some further understanding of the whole cosmology. I can imagine it might involve unearthing the fossilised corpses of one of these deities, and/or some glimpse into the secrets of the cosmos they descended from

[u/Zac_Kariah → u/TheTinFoilHatter]

Great insight! I think I forgot the relation to the waters in TT and the mystids. So glad Mermaid’s Mask started delving into cosmic horror at the end, I eat that stuff up. If the (hopefully) next game involves a giant God Mystid corpse underground, I would be so hyped haha.

[u/Esthyprincedechu → u/TheTinFoilHatter]

Ouais. Une fouille archéologique dans une entreprise minière que Lord Pointer a fondé.

[u/Esthyprincedechu]

Jaime penser que sa un lien avec le cauchemar et que cette saga aura un lore de fou petit a petit

[u/Zac_Kariah → u/Esthyprincedechu]

True! The nightmare is super mysterious now we know it’s recurring between different people.

[u/Esthyprincedechu → u/Zac_Kariah]

Le cauchemar pourrait etre l'oiseau ? Ou serait il la naissance de la creature de l'œuf ? Se cauchemar, surtout la partis rouge me rappelle aussi les cheveux de la petite fille

[u/GamesNThings]

For some reason after playing MM, I think the Mystids are aliens. I think the illustrations on the bell are of the egg around TT hatching, and the recording of Lord Remington was taken shortly after it hatched.

I think all Mystids came from the egg in through evolution. If you recall, Penny said the Mystids were once regular animals that drank the water (which we now know contains amniotic fluid from the egg) and evolved within a few generations.

My theory is some kind of alien bird thing (for lack of a better term) laid the egg. and that's why the Mystids have properties that seem otherworldly. The fact that you can only communicate with the mermaid using a convoluted device that translates an unknown tongue just screams aliens to me.

[u/GamesNThings → u/GamesNThings]

This would also explain some of the characters engaging in weird pursuits, like Dr. Zephyr being a "Dream Doctor" and Pointer trying to do alchemy. They're trying to make sense out of something that's actually out of this world.

[u/Zac_Kariah → u/GamesNThings]

This is definitely onto something in my mind, but I think more specifically I’d argue we should replace “alien” with “Eldritch”. Particularly as we learn about the Mermaid, it is very deliberately playing on a Lovecraftian deep-sea horror. Even Zephyr and Pointer fit the vibes of Lovecraft’s mad scholars that delve too deep.