Confused about the story..? (spoilers all)

[acbart]

Hello, I just beat the game, and I'm kind of confused. First of all, what was going on in the flashbacks to the human lab? Who was the human scientist and young girl that was with him? Are they the creators of Kamali? Did that precede the use of the soothing sacrifice ritual? And who created the masks and elementals? Were they the work of Mairaia?

And also, there was a weird boat in the water area, Tialocan. What was the deal with that boat? Was it just a Windwaker reference? I had assumed it would be some kind of end-game thing, but I never tried returning.

It was a fun game, I'm just confused on some of these things!

[ArtificialRaven]

I just finished the game myself a few minutes ago. From what I gather the flashback to the human scientist is the oldest of the flashbacks and gives a brief origin story of Kamali and it does precede the Xibalba ritual. Kimali was created to be benevolent to help humans purge their bad and dark memories. But I guess the dark memories of humans was far too great and it morphed into a malevolent entity (good intentions with technology gone horribly wrong) instead that needed to be appeased with more echoes (souls). My best guess about the girl with the scientist..most likely Mairaia. As far as the masks and elementals go, I have no idea other than it just seems to fit a narrative of an ancient culture & connection to nature Vs. modern man & technology? That's just my interpretation of the theme and I could go into the philosophy more but storywise I don't know. Maybe someone else can explain that part.

The boat in Tialocan is a windwaker reference, yeah. Once it takes you to the island, do a jumping downward attack or whatever right in the middle where the palm trees cross and a hidden treasure chest with a ton of gems in it pops up. There's nothing else to do there.

I hope what I said clears some things up for ya!