My theory regarding the location of "NOWHERE", the connection between Ariane and the Grand Empress, and Ariane's powers.

[Vladyslav]

WARNING! I am Ukrainian, and my English level is between B1 and B2, so I wrote most of the text using Google Translate.

I didn't find anything similar to what I want to write here (Maybe I didn't search well).
My whole theory is based on the information I got from the following sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myCk9dVSqNw (Video from YouTube, timecode is important: 49:40-01:02:06 and partially 01: 07:12 - end of video), https://signalis.fandom.com/wiki/Ariane_Yeong and https://signalis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Grand_Empress (Fandom game pages).

The main point I want to make is that Ariana and the Great Empress have some sort of mutual connection. Maybe family, or maybe Ariana has a part of the empress in her, or DNA or something similar. Because of this, Ariane has her ability to control Bioresonance and some shared visual features with the Empress (at least white hair).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had this opinion due to the following facts:
1. Each level in the game has its own name in the game, which begins with three capital letters, the name of the level "NOWHERE" is written like this - LAB_Chi_3. Now the important question that arose in my mind: "What kind of LAB? Laboratory?".

Was there a strange laboratory under the S-23 Serpinskyi complex, which the workers of this mining complex dug into?
And how could this happen, why didn't they know about her earlier?
And what did they do there until the moment it was abandoned, and how was it abandoned?

As I understand it, this complex was located there even before the beginning of the Glorious Revolution and they could study Bioresonance forces there. After the beginning of the revolution, perhaps even earlier, this complex was abandoned, and after the forces of the revolution took control of the planet Leng, where the laboratory is located, the Government of the Eusan Nation completely erased all information about it.
Now the important point is why they did that. The authorities of the Eusan Nation are very skeptical about Bioresonance, which is understandable due to the fact that any information about this phenomenon is: silenced, forbidden to distribute and simply secret (At the level of "Rot-front" you can find a classified document about this phenomenon). Meanwhile, in the Empire, Bioresonance is a very important phenomenon, information about which is not forbidden.
Also, it is important to mention the altar to the Empress herself, which is in the location. The altar has a slightly damaged, but largely preserved image of the Empress herself, who is all in white, which already gives some similarities to Ariane.
Now the most important thing is to understand what was done in this laboratory?

2. The next strange thing. which can be found in this "laboratory \ Nowhere" is a memorial altar with the names of people on which it is difficult to make out someone's name, and what is even more interesting is that the names are written there in hieroglyphs (Chinese or Japanese, I can't say for sure). Fortunately, you can find this table in the game files, and if you brighten the picture a lot, we will be able to make out people's names. An important detail that is there is the first character in the name of each person, which is translated as "Yeong"!

3. The full name of our favorite white-haired girl is Ariane Yeong. This already makes you think about whether Ariane has some connection with those people from the commemorative table who have the same last name. And what is it doing in that "laboratory" anyway?
It is also worth taking into account that Ariana's birthplace is precisely on the same planet where this abandoned laboratory and complex C-23 is located - LENG.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now let's return to the end of the 1st fact of my story - "Now the most important thing is to understand what was done in this laboratory?".
There are 3 endings in the game, but there is also a secret 4th ending. The name of this secret ending is "Artifact". We can see this strange artifact while watching the 4th final.
Obviously, this artifact was the result of the work of that laboratory, because it can be a strong bioresonance device through which Ariana was able to influence what was happening in the laboratory itself and the S-23 complex.
Ariane could know about this artifact and influence it and the environment through it, since she herself could have been in that laboratory at some point, either as a guest, or even as a "guinea pig" or even a "product" of the laboratory's work.

It was there that she received her bioresonance abilities and visual resemblance to the Empress, when she was at a very young age in this laboratory until her mother took her to the planet Rotfront.
Another common feature between Ariana and the Empress is, strange as it may sound, fate. Let me remind you what was written in the note in the hands of the Empress on that altar:
"On the first day she was crowned,
On the longest day, nothing was done
The next day she got married,
On the last day, she took her own life."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"On the first day she was crowned" - Ariane receives permission to work in the "Penrose" program
"On the longest day, nothing was done" - Ariana begins to get very bored on the ship "in which nothing changes", and every day is like the same.
"She got married the next day" - YES YES, lesbian games and all that.
"She took her own life on the last day." - after 3000 cycles, Ariana and Elster realize the tragic nature of their life on this ship, with life on it impossible due to the radiation leak.
Elster (Original - 512) failed to kill her beloved and thereby failed to fulfill her promise, and she herself later died due to a system failure caused by radiation and other factors.
At the same time, Ariana is slowly dying in the cryogenic chamber. Radiation begins to "Eat" her due to cancer and she died. Not coming to terms with such an end, she was reborn due to her bioresonance powers, her physical shell dies, but her "spiritual" one continues to live. Because of the same artifact, it began to act on the nearest areas of the earth (the same laboratory and the S-23 complex). Over time, the staff of the complex found out about the laboratory, and Falke was the first to fall under its influence. Over time, the action of the game, which we are going through, began.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An important detail: we can find a document about Elster during the game, it says that all replicas of this class got their personality from the same original (512) after losing the "base" model, which is a bit strange because how the Nation's authorities were able to download her data, if it's physically very far in space, maybe it's some amazing future technology, I don't know. And it had an effect, because all those Elsters got the memory of Ariana and they are trying to achieve the same promise. Although, as I already wrote, Ariane died and physically she is very far away in space. Here I can say that the real ending is the 4th when one of the Elsters, who understood the essence of the whole tragedy, was able to conduct a ritual that satisfied and calmed Ariana's "spiritual" essence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading all of this, I'd love to hear your thoughts. For a better understanding of the course of my thoughts, you can watch the video from YouTube that I referred to at the beginning

[Vladyslav]

https://youtu.be/x1Gv8yjEXw8?si=VKqwWYjz2nP8IQVB
This video is very good, interesting information and explanation of events in the game

[Original Cast Recording]

I found this interesting. Learning about the Artifact ending definitely altered my perspective on the game. I'm not as certain as you are about the object's origin, or Ariane's conscious awareness of it. But I think it is remarkable that players had to utilize implements outside of the game in order to achieve it. And I think this is reflective of the actions the player's LSTR must take within the story. Is it "canon"? Possibly. I can imagine ways in which everything in the game could have "actually happened," but I'm not certain that's how it's meant to be understood.