So whats going on with coral?

[keat2]

I'm very confused as too what the goals of two thirds of the factions are. one wants to sell it, simple enough. One wants to coexist with it, what ever that means. And there's a whole faction dedicated to destroying the coral but i cant figure out why, it doesn't seem to do anything negative. at first i thought it was something with the fire if ibis but it turned out that it wasn't actually the coral that did that. and then there's this whole coral bugs thing that shows up for two minutes and then disappear from the story.

[Neverr]

Messaggio originale di keat2:

I'm very confused as too what the goals of two thirds of the factions are. one wants to sell it, simple enough. One wants to coexist with it, what ever that means. And there's a whole faction dedicated to destroying the coral but i cant figure out why, it doesn't seem to do anything negative. at first i thought it was something with the fire if ibis but it turned out that it wasn't actually the coral that did that. and then there's this whole coral bugs thing that shows up for two minutes and then disappear from the story.

So there's a lot of implications about Coral, and there might be some answers deep in the lore but from what I understand Coral is basically some kind of lifeform that is able to connect/adapt/bind with not only machines/AI but also combine with living lifeforms.

We don't get clarification on if this takes over the lifeform, if the process has to be mutual, if there are any downsides, etc. But based on the prologue of the game where they attempted to Wipe out Coral before it could spread across the galaxy, there's probably some kind of downside or negative thing Coral does to a living creature. At the very least it changes them to the point it scares other humans.

Also if you haven't beaten the True ending, once you get there you might feel like maybe this whole Coral Cautious vibe wasn't so wrong :P

[Pizzaman]

I’m still doing NG+ and I suspect there’ll be even more revealed in NG++, but from what I can gather, Coral is…

- an energy source
- addictive mind altering substance
- extremely deadly to humans when concentrated
- collective consciousness of those who die on Rubicon 3

(All in all, I think the concept is similar to the Permet from Witch from Mercury.)

I think The Observers wanted to burn off Coral when it got too much because high concentrations of it’s dangerous.

[Craigrr]

From my understanding after beating new game ++, Coral is basically a versatile super substance. You can move it, shape it, burn it as fuel, everything. one of those everythings is granting you immortality via becoming part of the coral flow. Coral is described as loving company, which is either a funny physics thing or a byproduct of the fact that it contains peoples' souls (people like being with other people usually). Firstly they used it as a weapon and fuel, making the C-weapons. As people, our first thing to do with something new is to try and make it kill us. Then at some point during, or after, or before I don't know, people use it as a new feature for human plus surgeries. many generations later its a lot more stable and less schizophrenic, like what happened to Iguazu (Iguazu is actually the same generation as us, which is known for being experimental, and every time his head hurts its actually his brain trying to perceive Ayre). I dont know the exact lore reason why people were putting coral inside others' brains, but the ability to do so implied that minds could mesh with coral, like what happened to Ayre. Also either Ayre is a single rubiconian helping you, or a hive mind of every single dead person put together. Baller concept, I prefer the latter. Coral bugs might have been like people experimenting with rats, making sure the damage done is intense psychological trauma rather than death. All of this would be fine and dandy, if not for the fact that coral rapidly reproduces. People like Walter were scared that if it grew to large we would hit a point where no one could control it, probably in part due to the fact that its heavily implied that you become part of it when you die and also due to the fact that if you were to do their plan to set it ablaze at the point it was last time it would set the entire damn cosmos on fire. Even if I wanted to get into spoilers with the new game ++ stuff, that entire playthrough was too Evangelion for me to understand. Tell me if I got anything wrong, I would hate to spread misinformation on the internet.

[Krieger]

It's a literal macguffin that the game could've done without, just plain bad writing. Which makes the first ending the best one, just get rid of that ♥♥♥♥, we don't owe Ayre anything.

[Sleepy]

I chose to look at it as some cosmic horror creature. It talks about absorbing the consciousness of people at one point, and the voices you hear from the two distinct ones that you run into effectively confirm that they're the ghosts of people who died in the fires.

The fires were caused by people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with the coral and causing some sort of event. Possibly from the last time the Observers tried to destroy the Coral. As nuking it sets off another event.

The namesake of Coral is relevant here too I think. Particularly it's life cycle, where it has individuals bodies, but can also form colonies. (EX: Coral in game being compelled to amass)

What I've cobbled together goes something like: The Institute was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with using Coral in ways the Observers considered blasphemous, and they tried to destroy it: causing the Fires of Ibis. Why they were so afraid of this is because Coral can interface directly with electrical systems: meaning the "ghosts" are the impressions the dead left into it. Like an alien species using the voices and minds of our dead to communicate. They sort of operate independently, subconsciously nudging things in a certain direction, while being called back to the hive.

What's going on with Allmind in the third ending, I think, has to do with the Coral interfacing with it. I read a lot of the events as being related to this unknowable horror trying to release itself and spread across the stars as part of it's life cycle.

[keat2]

Messaggio originale di Craigrr:

All of this would be fine and dandy, if not for the fact that coral rapidly reproduces.

Wouldn't a substance that can seemingly do anything rapidly reproducing be a good thing? if its a problem just increase consumption. and by coral bugs i mean those alien worms that show up in one hallway for a single mission, i don't know if i was clear on that,

[D. Flame]

Coral did nothing wrong, but if you take it into space, it will start reproducing endlessly in zero gravity. If you leave it on the planet, it just chills.

[Tazkar]

Messaggio originale di keat2:

Messaggio originale di Craigrr:

All of this would be fine and dandy, if not for the fact that coral rapidly reproduces.

Wouldn't a substance that can seemingly do anything rapidly reproducing be a good thing? if its a problem just increase consumption. and by coral bugs i mean those alien worms that show up in one hallway for a single mission, i don't know if i was clear on that,

It would be a good thing if Coral didn't also become rather volatile when concentrated. Like having the Gas Vapors constantly reproducing and growing. Amazing for power use, but if it grows to far and too fast it could be ignited unintentionally by something else and burn everything to cinders.

[John Titor]

Messaggio originale di keat2:

... And there's a whole faction dedicated to destroying the coral but i cant figure out why, it doesn't seem to do anything negative...

Tell that to a coral addict, you apethic bastard.

[BKo]

Just a really common trope amongst japanese games to have half magical half scientific concepts like this. Reminds me a lot of Death Stranding too where everything was "Chiral this," and "Chiral that," and it doesn't have much substance at the end of the day. It's basically magic science.

[keat2]

Messaggio originale di Nirahsa:

It would be a good thing if Coral didn't also become rather volatile when concentrated. Like having the Gas Vapors constantly reproducing and growing. Amazing for power use, but if it grows to far and too fast it could be ignited unintentionally by something else and burn everything to cinders.

...So if im following you, the solution to stop it from unintentionally burning everything to cinders was to intentionally burn everything to cinders?

[thorin.hannahs]

Coral can be used as data storage/conduit, energy, drug, weaponry.

Coral can be lethal (contamination often mentioned with Coral Surges and Coral Ignition)

Coral Surge and Coral Ignition are likely not the same. Surge is just a sudden spread of Coral while Ignition consumes Coral in a violent reaction.

Coral is likely a gas?

Method of reproduction: unknown but likely infinite.

Reproduction rate dependent on environment. Vacuum aka space is the optimal environment for reproduction.

Coral gathers into Colonies. Colonies likely gather to form larger colonies.

Coral wants to spread itself.

The greater the amount of Coral the higher the reproduction rate. A large amount of Coral in vacuum can lead to a singularity or an infinite Coral Surge.

Coral can be imprinted with the memories of those that die within Coral Ignition/Coral Surges. Ayre and Seria are examples.

Coral Imprints can communicate with those augmented by Coral tech to varying degrees. 621 can fully hear Ayre with no negative side effects. Iguazu can hear Ayre with painful side effects. They can also communicate with those using Coral as a drug, Dolmyan and Seria.

Independent Coral can mutate. Whether or not Coral colonies would adopt the mutation of an assimilated independent Coral is unclear but is possible given the Coral Release implications.

Imprinted Coral can act with higher purpose. It can manipulate technological systems. This can be comms, surveillance, MTs, ACs and large weapons platforms such as Orbital lasers.

Sophisticated AI and Imprinted Coral can communicate.

I probably missed some stuff.

Plenty of reasons to destroy it.

[thorin.hannahs]

Messaggio originale di keat2:

Messaggio originale di Nirahsa:

It would be a good thing if Coral didn't also become rather volatile when concentrated. Like having the Gas Vapors constantly reproducing and growing. Amazing for power use, but if it grows to far and too fast it could be ignited unintentionally by something else and burn everything to cinders.

...So if im following you, the solution to stop it from unintentionally burning everything to cinders was to intentionally burn everything to cinders?

It is a matter of scale. I guess like a wildfire some times they burn small areas ahead of the fire to prevent the spread. You burn the Rubicon solar system and spare the universe.

[hakabata]

Some rich but concious life energy stuffs flourish in a planet where corpos invade to monopolize while natives die to fight for it... Hippies woud love it.

[REIVENTH]

My take on coral, they're being similar to Alien from Gundam 00 movie, and at the end co exist with pilot 621, orewaaaa Armored Coreee daa!!! 🤣

And it seems only smallnpercentage of augmented human / piloy can communicate with coral.

Coral can be good or bad. AYNE actually want to co exist and believe in the chance.