The Jackal - good or bad? [Here be spoilers]

[Tyrant Zomal]

Most theories I see online assume that the jackal fellow is helping you. It's possible he's showing you a vision of the corrupted Square Doohickey that is causing him trouble and he's all, look, you can solve both our problems, so let's co-operate. Its halo could mean that the corrupted 'immortal cell' is getting on its nerves.

Or it could be trying to trick you. Come inside! Oh, you got ganked. And you follow it trying to get answers or revenge from it, but it's always a step ahead of you. Its halo could mean that it and the corrupted cell are ine and the same, hence why it lights up just prior to the explosion. Though it is there after you get rid of the bad guy, so it's unclear.

[Tyrant Zomal]

Another possibility is that the jackal was leading you to the life source to heal you, and then you infected it. And in search of the cure you need to undo the mistake you made.

I don't really understand why there's three infected 'drifters' and only three.

[Kaiser^]

I really think he's just trying to fix things and the Drifters are the way to go. From some of the cutscenes, you see a little mural of the Jackal and the four races around him in a square, then he powers the square up with the pink stuff. That went real south, and the Cell(big square) that caused all the problems(Titans, degeneration of all civilization) is still alive under the town. The Jackal(AI or maybe a god, but probably an advanced AI from days long gone) is just leading the drifter in the right direction to stop it all.

Sorry for spoilers but you had long enough to play the game!

[Javerlin]

First of all be careful, any sort of lore thread brings trolls. So if you see them ignore them.

You seem to have already checked out some of the lore so I'll assume you know most of the conventional terms for things.

In fact my original theory was that the jackal was kind of apathetic to you and was simply using you to make its ends meet. And to some extent I believe this to be true. The jackal doesn't really care about you at all and he's not "good" he's just taking the best course of action to achieve his goals.

Coincidentally when you destroy the immortal cell you didn't survive. This means that by destroying the cell you weren't instantly cured. Now the question is, would getting to the cell earlier mean that you would have survived? If yes then the jackal was I fact helping you (whether he wanted to be or even cared about it or not). If you were instead going to die from the moment you got infected or if there was no chance that destroying the cell would cure you, then the jackal is apathetic or perhaps even "evil" though that depends on your moral viewpoint.

Now as to whether or not the jackal is just a lure for the immortal cell is not something I've thought about before. I would have thought the developers would have put some clues in the game if this were the case but this doesn't disprove it. In fact it does seem quite plausible. The only question one would have to answer with this theory is why are people getting sick then? And how are they getting sick?

Originally posted by Tyrant Zomal:

Another possibility is that the jackal was leading you to the life source to heal you, and then you infected it. And in search of the cure you need to undo the mistake you made.

I don't really understand why there's three infected 'drifters' and only three.

If you were the one who infected the immortal cell, why is it that there are other experiencing the same symptoms as you when you've never met them before? It's also apparent that the sickness is not contagious.

There are in fact more people who are infected by the sickness, and not all of them are drifters. I'll put more information in spoilers.

There is a bison/Minotaur in the arena under the town that also experiences the visions and the sickness. This is what proves the sickness is not related just to the drifters (drifting is an occupation) and is not linked to a specific race.

It's also worth noting that the ALT drifter is not sick. Interesting that.

[Tyrant Zomal]

Yeah, it's not contagious. I meant, perhaps he was already sick. And it got passed to the cell. That one was a throwaway.

I also had a thought that the illness is sort of... well, back to front. Perhaps he the minotaur and the pink guy were of the original generation that got infected with the immortal cell, which got corrupted. As a result it's up to them to fix it, since it's their fault & additionally, they ARE immortal.

Possibly the immortality is the sickness. A body falling apart from age and injury, but refusing to die. it would be hellish, really. If he kills the cell 'festering' away, he'll remove the source of immortality.

That's why when he dies, he bleeds red. He's not... well, sorta zombified I guess, any more. He can just go ahead and die naturally.

That seems to conflict with the writer writing this about his heart disease though. But there are some themes about incarceration, and prolonging life rather than living it, and that sort of thing. Perhaps it makes some sense after all.

It's also worth noting that a lot of the blue-skinned folk fought against the Raccoons. It seems unlikely that a progenitor race able to create robots to fight for them would go into battle, so they may well be engineered soldiers. Possibly he's partially electronic in nature, which would explain why, when his sickness acts up, things start glitching.

There's a common theory that the hologram by the monoliths is an ancient lost species. Frankly I find that ridiculous. He looks a lot like a bird and he's probably a fellow Drifter who went here previously. How'd an ancient dead species write monoliths about the recent past?

[Javerlin]

Ah I see what you mean now, so by that theory the Pink drifter would not be dead but instead is just sort of passed out waiting to be rivied again, sort of like hollows in Dark souls, eventually they just give up. And he left his family becuase he couldn't watch them live die repeat in agony. I could get behind that.

Indeed maybe it's similar to the idea of euthanasia being illegal, and people being unable to die and being revived by paramedics and hospitals. (not saying preston actually mean this or wants euthanasia).

I'm not sure about the glitching thing as I personaly beleive him to be completely biological, just syntheticaly made. Like trying to create a person in Full Metal Alcamist.

:( I made that theory about the lost species :'( - I'm only joking. That was my best guess regarding the Titans and using all the clues I had. In my theory I also state how some of this old race could have survived and may wander the earth just like drifters. Maybe having forgotten their own past, or maybe keeping themselfs secret from everyone else (becuase look... everyone else is crazy, I mean they made a giant immortality device! Who'd want to hang out with thos guys).

[Tyrant Zomal]

Heh, sorry to word it to harshly then. I guess. I just don't think there's much indication that a progenitor race did it, you know? The titans might be otherwordly. I just really don't think the hologram person is an unknown species.

[Javerlin]

Originally posted by Tyrant Zomal:

Heh, sorry to word it to harshly then. I guess. I just don't think there's much indication that a progenitor race did it, you know? The titans might be otherwordly. I just really don't think the hologram person is an unknown species.

perhaps not unkown then. The only real evidence I have for saying that they are the progentitor race is that they only appear in hologram, a technology not seen elsewhere in the game (I know this is only a tiny clue but I kind of over analysed everything). And that fact that makes me think they are rare or secretive is that we never see one in the flesh ingame.

[Tyrant Zomal]

I think it's a mask, you know? I'm inclined to think it's a Drifter, probably one not infected and just studying the history while exploring. They probably all have different priorities, you know? Either it's a mask or it's one of the bird people.

One reason I think he might be a touch mechanical is that he kicks up sparks when he walks through water if injured, that's all.

The term 'rift' is pretty ambiguous, but given the Evangelion riffs in it, possibly the titans are from a temporal rift of some kind.

Anubis/Anpu, who the jackal is blatantly meant to be reminiscent of, is god not only of death but of passage to the afterlife, and god of Judgement of the dead (he holds the scales). That said, he was also responsible, if memory serves me, for bringing Osiris back to 'life' by wrapping up his separate pieces. It kinda leans me on the whole 'undoing the disease' thing. So he can pass on, or enter a new life.

Also this guy walks on water. The hell?

[Javerlin]

Originally posted by Tyrant Zomal:

I think it's a mask, you know? I'm inclined to think it's a Drifter, probably one not infected and just studying the history while exploring. They probably all have different priorities, you know? Either it's a mask or it's one of the bird people.

One reason I think he might be a touch mechanical is that he kicks up sparks when he walks through water if injured, that's all.

Who the hologram? I've never seen him move?

[Tyrant Zomal]

NAh, nah. The Drifter.

[Javerlin]

Originally posted by Tyrant Zomal:

NAh, nah. The Drifter.

Oh right I havn't seen that I'll check it out.

[ChIll Brother]

TLDR: The drifters are imbued with the essence of the cell and they, on the one hand, suffer from the corruption of Judgement, and on the other, are guided by the essence of the cell, which manifests itself as the Black Dog (why Jackal?).


I have my own version of things, which is not too unlike yours, but has variations.

The intro is basicaly a dream the protagonist drifter has, in which half is a recount of sorts of the events that were caused by the creation of the immortal cell.

It is my belief that those who created the immortal cell didn't do so properly, and instead of making it so that it was imbued within everyone, they actually sacrificed lots of people so that the cell would be a fountain of infinite power, and thus they create great weapons and wage war against the others (I don't believe it's really important who is who at this point). They 'transmogrified' the purpose of the immortal cell.

For this reason, Judgement was born, it was the accumulated greed and evil and corruption of the people responsible for everything, and it's the one that powers the madness and chaos in the world above.

The whole giants-business is there to show that the people who created the immortal cell waged war and tried to excert dominion against the others. Eventually everyone fights with everyone and the world as it was known is destroyed and only ruins remain, which is the present in the game.

Now, not all of the immortal cell is corrupted, and its essence did in fact become imbued into some, amogst them the Drifters. First of all they have pink blood. But the two most important facts are that:

a) They share the accumulated memory of the cell (which is why they know of the past history, something we see during the dream in the intro, and also the reason why they can manipulate old technology), and this is done through the guidance of the pure part of the cell which manifestation would be the Black Dog.

b)They are not sick so much as they suffer from the corruption that the cell suffers, in other words, Judgement (this explains why he appears to them occationaly). This is why they suffer as the cell suffers.

So they are drifters because in a way they drift through past and present connecting them in historical context by the visions that the cell gives them.

The cell itself (the pure part) wants to end the corruption and bring peace to the world, and thus guides the Drifters to itself so that they can put an end to Judgment. However, the cell has festered for so long, and it's been corrupted so deep, that finishing with Judgement would mean finishing with the cell itself. Since the drifters are imbued with the essence of the cell, they will die as well when this feat is done.

[Javerlin]

First I'd like to say thanks for sharing! This theory is indeed a very good and plauseable one and I only have a few technical gripes and questions so that I can understand better and flesh out the theory to give it more weight.

They do not all have pink blood, they only cough up pink blood. The rest of the time they bleed red, during combat for example.

Do you have an explanation as to why they all see judgement manifested as different creatures?

Are all drifters affected? As drifting is a job, or lifestyle as opposed to a race.

Could you give your interpritation on what the floating purple matrix is that we see hanging abouve the city in the intro and outro?

Could you also explain why the alternative drifter is not sick, and does not have visions but still sees the jackal?

[Tyrant Zomal]

I like the idea of having an 'ancestral memory' of a kind due to the cell's influence. I just resist these theories that the Jackal is some 'good half' of the cell. It seems too simple.

[Javerlin]

Originally posted by Tyrant Zomal:

I like the idea of having an 'ancestral memory' of a kind due to the cell's influence. I just resist these theories that the Jackal is some 'good half' of the cell. It seems too simple.

I agree, it's the main reason I don't really like that theory.