Rivals are robots. DRG are clones.

[Solitus]

Was thinking about how the rival company cares enough about their employees to send robots to die; but DRG sends actual dwarves. Seems strange. And that led to the thought of just HOW many dwarves are there in DRG? Are we all playing the same 4 dwarves, or are there hundreds, thousands that we just don't see? It seems that way, since the dwarves will comment on seeing one another around lately or in the bar if you join a team mid mission. But there are only 4 bedrooms in 1 space rig. Maybe we just don't see the other quarters on the space rig. Or maybe all dwarves are just physically cloned and sometimes the memories get lost.

Why do you wake up in medbay after a failed mission? You've just been recloned.

Why does Management prioritize successful missions over dwarven safety? Minerals are unique but a new dwarf can be hatched later.

Why do we say "For Karl!"? Karl isn't in the green barrel. Karl is the archetype from which all of DRG was created. We ARE Karl.

[Aachen]

MC doesn’t strike you as a dwarf?

[RaindropperinG]

The Rivals send robots to do the dirty work because they themselves are robots.

They're what remains of an organic faction which disappeared long ago, perhaps dispatched by their own robots' hands.

What artificial intelligence remains now is merely following old directives, prompting it to keep on expanding throughout the galaxy, while also self-sustaining with whatever resources they stumble upon.


Some rumors about dwarven employees actually being continuously created in cloning vats have been spreading around, over the years.

I for one believe the dwarves simply have enough alcohol in their system at all times, that they just forget who they've toasted a mug with at the bar, the other night.

[Solitus]

Originally posted by Aachen:

MC doesn’t strike you as a dwarf?

I was considering only the mining crew. I think Mission Control is a dwarf; but maybe Karl was the first to go down to Hoxxes to prospect but Management realized they would need more than 1 Karl so they made 4. Maybe the original died. Maybe MC IS the original!

[Tedmouse]

Originally posted by RaindropperinG:

The Rivals send robots to do the dirty work because they themselves are robots.

They're what remains of an organic faction which disappeared long ago, perhaps dispatched by their own robots' hands.

What artificial intelligence remains now is merely following old directives, prompting it to keep on expanding throughout the galaxy, while also self-sustaining with whatever resources they stumble upon.


Some rumors about dwarven employees actually being continuously created in cloning vats have been spreading around, over the years.

I for one believe the dwarves simply have enough alcohol in their system at all times, that they just forget who they've toasted a mug with at the bar, the other night.

Clones that all have memories of Karl.
Karl possibly being the one cloned from.

[Chibbity]

Yes lol!

This has been a long standing fanbase theory and personally I love it.

[Solitus]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Yes lol!

This has been a long standing fanbase theory and personally I love it.

It makes sense that if it took me 4 years to think of them being clones, that it would have come up before today. I am just sad I never saw one of those threads before.

Oh gods. What if that is what the Eggs are for? To inject with dwarf template material and spawn a new miner???

[Chibbity]

That's exactly what they are for!

Also, another connected but somewhat separate theory, that I came up with; is that Dwarven intergalactic society collapsed centuries ago. The Space Rig just quietly continues to churrn out clones on the galactic rim, sending its Dwarven clones to mine up minerals that get shipped back to no one.

[V0lcanF1re]

yes known and good lore in the game ;)

[Lord Of War]

I'd like to think there are actually more dwarfs, rather than those 4 clones.
(not facts supported, but a theory from me)

When Mission Control says "we're on a tight schedule here" => the same droppod is used for multiple teams: team A (who goes down), and Team B, who runs for it (finished their mission).

I know, I know, when we go down we don't meet any bleeding swearing beards rushing and pushing us away and the droppod leaves empty. Just something I want to believe in.

[Tedmouse]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

That's exactly what they are for!

Also, another connected but somewhat separate theory, that I came up with; is that Dwarven intergalactic society collapsed centuries ago. The Space Rig just quietly continues to churrn out clones on the galactic rim, sending its Dwarven clones to mine up minerals that get shipped back to no one.

Makes me think of lord of the rings and the mountain full of gold and jewels.

But no good outcome for a planet full of jewels and gold.
Imagine the head dwarf on coms we see is just an AI that maintains the station and its clones.

Get on or be left behind, more clones to take the place of others.

A self sustainable station in the middle of nowhere.

[fastforward]

I'd say the clone idea is flawed, first of all if we are playing clones of karl, why would we be shouting for karl, that's like shouting "for me", and dwarves are too altruisitc for that hence the no dwarf is left behind slogan.
then there are the salvage operations, those are the remnants of failed missions and there are no remains of the fallen dwarves, the bugs would have to eat the dwarves as a whole without leaving behind any remains, especially considering that the dwarves are wearing metal armours, and the bugs are have a chitin structure which isnt hard enough to bite trough plate armour. considering that we are playing far in the future, medical facilities have progressed so far that the med bay robot can regrow a dwarf back even if only having recovered a tooth or a nail from him.
so imo we are all unique dwarves, not clones, and there is no conspiracy from mission controll

[Solitus]

Originally posted by fastforward:

I'd say the clone idea is flawed, first of all if we are playing clones of karl, why would we be shouting for karl, that's like shouting "for me", and dwarves are too altruisitc for that hence the no dwarf is left behind slogan.
then there are the salvage operations, those are the remnants of failed missions and there are no remains of the fallen dwarves, the bugs would have to eat the dwarves as a whole without leaving behind any remains, especially considering that the dwarves are wearing metal armours, and the bugs are have a chitin structure which isnt hard enough to bite trough plate armour. considering that we are playing far in the future, medical facilities have progressed so far that the med bay robot can regrow a dwarf back even if only having recovered a tooth or a nail from him.
so imo we are all unique dwarves, not clones, and there is no conspiracy from mission controll

Of course. The gameplay reasons and the lore reasons don't fully agree with each other. The dwarf you leave behind falls down defeated in the victory screen, for example.

Still, fun to speculate. And cloning the dwarves (either of Karl without the memories or the 4 dwarves who sign up keep getting recloned) explains some of the discrepancies.

Either way, fun to speculate :)

[Nosteru]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Yes lol!

This has been a long standing fanbase theory and personally I love it.

Yeah I read it from you first and I loved this theory.

[KristopherVector]

The cloning idea is too flawed.

It's made very clear that a dwarf CAN die. The voicelines, the "Leave no dwarf behind" motto, the entire Memorial Hall for god's sake. If DRG could just clone an exact replica, why would they care if you left a dwarf behind? Why would they build a memorial if nobody actually died?

If the dwarves are cloned in the medbay, DRG would have to have some voodoo magic that can pull every single memory from the dwarf's corpse on Hoxxes to the medbay. The dwarves are perfectly aware of what happened to them. They're even still sore from the mission.

Management prioritizes a successful mission because a successful mission means big bucks for them. A dead dwarf is disposable because they have hundreds upon thousands of other dwarves signing up. That said, management DOES care a bit about losing a dwarf. Why would their motto be "Leave no dwarf behind"? Obviously, letting all their dwarves die isn't helping them, no matter how expendable they might be.

If all the dwarves are Karl, why do they speak of him in the 3rd person? Why do they act like they personally knew him? Let's say the cloning theory is real for a second. When the dwarves are recloned, it's very obvious they keep their memories. If Karl was cloned, why would he not keep all his memories? Or at the very least, remember who he is?

Mission Control isn't the original Karl. The dwarves loved Karl. They hate Mission Control. Karl is dead. If the quotes don't convince you, there's a song in the OST called "Karl's End".

[erconn]

It's mentioned that drg sent robots to first scope out the planet. Thats why there are all the BETC's lying around. But they found dwarfs to be more effective once they established a foothold.