What Is Ys?

[Mr. Graae]

i just got the rose ending and i basically just said that the librarian was going to sing Ys into existence. But why is that important? It has been mentioned in a lot of books but i have honestly no clue what it is execpt a werid place where some not so nice creatures live, ould anybody help me understand this ending more?

[zombiemickey]

some kind of occult Elysium that may or maynot exist，it firts shows up in cultist simulator，i thought it as a magical howaii

[TheEndsOfInvention]

Celtic Atlantis, a mythical island somewhere in the Channel between Cornwall and Brittany, swallowed by the sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys

[VNLover]

Ys is a mythical city, originating from our real world, but obviously weather factory have put their own twist on it.
Still, this article might be helpful to you together with the in-game books to compare with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys
I absolutely recommend taking note of the contents of books somewhere external for later reference, it's very handy for figuring stuff like this out.

[TheEndsOfInvention]

Also, Lyonesse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse

[kaymarciy]

From what I understand (there can never be certainty in AK's games), mortals used the legend of Ys as a foundation to weave the myth of City Unbuilt around it, after its existence has been forbidden by Chancel of Hours. And what you sing into reality is exactly City Unbuilt, while the actual Caer Ys is (was?) Kerisham.

[Mr. Graae]

Originally posted by kaymarciy:

From what I understand (there can never be certainty in AK's games), mortals used the legend of Ys as a foundation to weave the myth of City Unbuilt around it, after its existence has been forbidden by Chancel of Hours. And what you sing into reality is exactly City Unbuilt, while the actual Caer Ys is (was?) Kerisham.

And what is the city unbuilt? I don´t think i have seen it mentioned anywhere in the books i've read ingame

[kaymarciy]

Originally posted by Mr. Graae:

Originally posted by kaymarciy:

From what I understand (there can never be certainty in AK's games), mortals used the legend of Ys as a foundation to weave the myth of City Unbuilt around it, after its existence has been forbidden by Chancel of Hours. And what you sing into reality is exactly City Unbuilt, while the actual Caer Ys is (was?) Kerisham.

And what is the city unbuilt? I don´t think i have seen it mentioned anywhere in the books i've read ingame

It's mentioned in a couple of books and couple of Wisdoms. Basically a perfect place which is better than anything else and perfection is not allowed by Hours (at least in reality). However it can be cleverly "built" inside dreams in Mansus or inside memories in Nowhere. One is called City of Amber and Orichalcum, while the other one is City of Black Sapphire and Iron. One is around Caer Ys and the other is around Port Noon. Quoting one of Forge books: "The Herald may never arrive at the City Unbuilt. The City may never be built without the Herald's Message… The Herald is finally identified as the 'Twelfth Initiate of the House of Silence'. The foundation-stone will be taken from the House of Silence, Burzghash suggests, to become the foundation-stone of the City Unbuilt…"

[sdenton4]

Also a very good Joanna Newsom album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ1yFhjRnNc

[Rithrin]

Originally posted by sdenton4:

Also a very good Joanna Newsom album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ1yFhjRnNc

Newsom is amazing, never thought I'd see her linked on a Steam forum lol.

[yy]

Originally posted by kaymarciy:

Originally posted by Mr. Graae:

And what is the city unbuilt? I don´t think i have seen it mentioned anywhere in the books i've read ingame

It's mentioned in a couple of books and couple of Wisdoms. Basically a perfect place which is better than anything else and perfection is not allowed by Hours (at least in reality). However it can be cleverly "built" inside dreams in Mansus or inside memories in Nowhere. One is called City of Amber and Orichalcum, while the other one is City of Black Sapphire and Iron. One is around Caer Ys and the other is around Port Noon. Quoting one of Forge books: "The Herald may never arrive at the City Unbuilt. The City may never be built without the Herald's Message… The Herald is finally identified as the 'Twelfth Initiate of the House of Silence'. The foundation-stone will be taken from the House of Silence, Burzghash suggests, to become the foundation-stone of the City Unbuilt…"

It sounds like, "'Twelfth Initiate of the House of Silence'" is the Librarian? The 12th Librarian of the Hush House. And many choices about the City Unbuilt come from your choice which branch to put your skill.
I noticed that when you put 1 skill to Wisdom A or Wisdom B, the message changes from "City of Amber" to "City of Black Sapphire", and from house of Moon to Nowhere. Those are foundation stones after the Journey forms History.

[Delichon]

Originally posted by yy:

Originally posted by kaymarciy:

It's mentioned in a couple of books and couple of Wisdoms. Basically a perfect place which is better than anything else and perfection is not allowed by Hours (at least in reality). However it can be cleverly "built" inside dreams in Mansus or inside memories in Nowhere. One is called City of Amber and Orichalcum, while the other one is City of Black Sapphire and Iron. One is around Caer Ys and the other is around Port Noon. Quoting one of Forge books: "The Herald may never arrive at the City Unbuilt. The City may never be built without the Herald's Message… The Herald is finally identified as the 'Twelfth Initiate of the House of Silence'. The foundation-stone will be taken from the House of Silence, Burzghash suggests, to become the foundation-stone of the City Unbuilt…"

It sounds like, "'Twelfth Initiate of the House of Silence'" is the Librarian? The 12th Librarian of the Hush House. And many choices about the City Unbuilt come from your choice which branch to put your skill.
I noticed that when you put 1 skill to Wisdom A or Wisdom B, the message changes from "City of Amber" to "City of Black Sapphire", and from house of Moon to Nowhere. Those are foundation stones after the Journey forms History.

Not the choice of putting skill into a branch of the Wisdom tree - the choice of major ending. Basically - there is one Numen that wishes the City Unbuilt into existence - and one of three possible Aspects that you can pump into your journal with that specific Numen determines where it is built.

As a general idea - skills being put into the Wisdom tree do not influence anything at all. Wisdom tree is surprisingly but completely irrelevant to the game's story: it just gives you extra souls cards and that's it - nothing else.
You can reach Level 9 skill in any branch of the Tree - or not. It does nothing.
You can slot specific skills into specific branches - it does nothing.
One person reached a minor victory by literally never using the Tree at all - not slotting a single skill in it the whole game - It does nothing and is not recognized by the game as anything special.

[kaymarciy]

Originally posted by Delichon:

As a general idea - skills being put into the Wisdom tree do not influence anything at all. Wisdom tree is surprisingly but completely irrelevant to the game's story: it just gives you extra souls cards and that's it - nothing else.
You can reach Level 9 skill in any branch of the Tree - or not. It does nothing.
You can slot specific skills into specific branches - it does nothing.

I think the purpose of the Tree is to give you as a player the determination to write a History into your journal. Not the gameplay-mechanic Determination, but the will to do so instead of going for the minor victory as I did. Like... you get your backstory of going to Hush House to atone for your past sins, get wisdoms of how poor and miserable the first Sun is from the Preservation tree (recommended by the journal) and end up deciding to write a history helping it. Or you start as a Revolutionary, go for another tree branch, learn how bad the Sun is and become determined to thwart is plans.
Then again, the implementation is kinda... dubious and arguable.

Also, if the original poster desires so, I may compile here all snippets related to City Unbuilt.

[HappyIguana]

Originally posted by kaymarciy:

Originally posted by Delichon:

As a general idea - skills being put into the Wisdom tree do not influence anything at all. Wisdom tree is surprisingly but completely irrelevant to the game's story: it just gives you extra souls cards and that's it - nothing else.
You can reach Level 9 skill in any branch of the Tree - or not. It does nothing.
You can slot specific skills into specific branches - it does nothing.

I think the purpose of the Tree is to give you as a player the determination to write a History into your journal. Not the gameplay-mechanic Determination, but the will to do so instead of going for the minor victory as I did. Like... you get your backstory of going to Hush House to atone for your past sins, get wisdoms of how poor and miserable the first Sun is from the Preservation tree (recommended by the journal) and end up deciding to write a history helping it. Or you start as a Revolutionary, go for another tree branch, learn how bad the Sun is and become determined to thwart is plans.
Then again, the implementation is kinda... dubious and arguable.

Also, if the original poster desires so, I may compile here all snippets related to City Unbuilt.

I have to agree when it comes to implementation. The non-character-specific endings just seem to be based on the numen and 25th level aspect you use to write the new history, often in highly non-obvious ways. I've gotten several endings now and the three lines of epilogue text always come out of left field for me and tell me nothing of what I actually did/what the world looks like now/what my character actually became.