Lore (SPOILERS)

[NEIN™]

I finally completed the game and i couldn't have done it without the community, thank you.
This lore does contain spoilers for dont escape, if you are still playing you have been warned.
This lore is really just made off the top of me head connecting the dont escape and deep sleep games. Enjoy



A long time ago, and advanced civilization discovered interdimensional travel, able to cross into the physical plane, and dream realm. Interdimensional travel has allowed them to go to there own world in different times and go to other worlds in different times. Then they have found Earth, a planet with a primitive species that has not yet discovered interdimensional travel, or light speed.
Realizing the opportunity, the alien species began conducting experiments on the humans, hoping for a way to improve their own or the human civilization. One of the first experiments was the werewolf. It killed people without the consent of you was the person. After the person found out he was a werewolf his first reaction was to make sure he never kills anyone again. He locked him self in a cabin hoping the werewolf doesn't escape. He was successful, no one died, but he was still a werewolf. Wanting to make sure he will never turn again, he killed himself. The aliens were furious with mankind after that, they now knew this will be harder than they expected. After many decades, a space exploration company called Sidereal Plexis came into contact with the alien species, which changed the company, and the world, forever. The alien species was able to take over Sidereal Plexis to do its bidding. Technology was shared, making Sidereal Plexis the most advanced space agency in the world. The alien species then used them to conduct more experiments, but this time on spiders and locust. They even began experiments on the moon covered up as a mining facility. The experiments led to a explosion destroying most equipment and making a crack in the moon. The alien species now realized that them and Sidereal was in danger. They quickly ordered Sidereal to cover up the explosion and the population to remain calm. At the same time they order Sidereal to evacuate all important personal, any one eles who tried to join should be executed. As time past, Sidereal built a base on the moon and on Earth to transport all important personal from Earth to the moon. As the moon was falling to Earth, the climate changed, experiments were released into the air making some parts of the world turn people into zombies. The aliens didn't want to use their interdimensional travel to Sidereal, but they had to, to preserve their experiments and knowledge of the new species they discovered. Sidereal officials were placed in sleeping pods to transport there minds back to another Earth, using interdimentsional travel. First they had to enter the dream realm to take over bodies of past self to get back to Earth. It only worked if the host was in a deep sleep, or lucid dreaming. It was a terrible experience for both, or in this case the same, person. The person who used interdimentsional travel to get back to a different time in Earth looked like a black figure with only two white eyes. This of course scared them in lucid dreaming which gave them a choice, stay in the dream realm never to return, or take over their old self and change them forever. In some cases, the pods didn't work, or a malfunction, would leave them to have to take over a random persons body. Those who chose to take over themselves, or another person, swiched, having them wake up on the new world, and the other person transported into the dream realm. The people who got transported into the dream realm either had to escape by taking over someones body, or were stuck there forever. The people who tried to escape got to see the true aliens form, although they only sense movement, they were still dangerous to people in the dream realm. Those who escaped into the new world got to experience Sidereal's new projects. Instead they did experiments on ships, that way they don't threaten the Earth. One of the ships, which was a UEFS class, began conducting their own experiments and ignoring the mission given to them. The aliens saw this threat and boarded the ship to exterminate them. There physical form is shown, a blue crystal that was able to blow up the ship. Then the UEFS Horizon was sent to investigate, the crystal was taken on board and experiments were conducted. The alien species fearing the loss of its kind, took over one of the crew members and used them to kill everyone on boarded the ship, then tried to get rid of him in the airlock. But the person woke up early and found out everything, and blew up the ship. These actions determined the future of whether Sidereal Plexis will continue to side with the aliens, or brake off.


Based on this lore, in deep sleep you play as a person who is in a deep sleep trying to fight off yourself, or another person from the pods in don't escape 4. The bottom feeders or worm things in deep sleep are the aliens in their interdimentsional form, and the blue crystal in don't escape 3 is their physical form. And you, the player in this game, are the black figure in deep sleep series, or at least on of them. This lore is just made up and was really for fun. I didn't unlock the True ending in this game, i hope it doesn't cause any complications. Hope you guys enjoyed this, tell me what you think.

[Hawyee]

A little bit far fetched. I think Cate said there weren't any aliens involved, just versions of Sidereal. But the sleeping pods and shadow people are 100% connected

[NEIN™]

Originally posted by Hawyee:

A little bit far fetched. I think Cate said there weren't any aliens involved, just versions of Sidereal. But the sleeping pods and shadow people are 100% connected

Well the story is just manly made up, and i couldnt find a better way of connecting the thing in deepest sleep, and the blue crystal in dont escape 3. But there is the possibility that Cate only thinks aliens are not involved. The way i see it in the lore is that only the top 1% of the people that work at Sidereal know aliens are helping them.

[Ligma peanuts]

Here's how I see it:

The Scriptwelder multiverse consists of an infinite number of universes. In most of them, Sidereal Plexus was established in the 20th century and achieved the status of a mega-corporation. There are some exceptions tho. The Sidereal Plexus website contains a list of "off-limit" universes. Although most of them are universes where the Earth was destroyed in a lunar incident, there are cases in which a universe is radically different from the others, such as:

- A universe where humanity is stuck in the middle ages (DE1 most likely takes place there, assuming magic exists in that universe)
- A universe where humanity is wiped out by a zombie virus (DE2 most likely takes place there)
- A universe where Sidereal Plexus is never founded (most likely the universe you and I live in)
- A universe we don't know anything about, because all data about it is redacted (in my headcanon it's ruled by eldritch abominations)

One of the "normal" universes is a bit further ahead in time than most. In this universe, humans develop interstellar travel by themselves. A mining ship crash lands on an unknown planet. The events of Primal Sands take place there. The ship is lost to the crystals and another ship is sent there to investigate. The events of DE3 take place there.

-Quick side note. The protagonists in DE1 and DE3 look pretty similar. In my headcanon, they are the same person coming from different universes. Although we never see the DE2 protagonist, I personally believe this applies to him as well.

The canon ending to DE3 is the "Hull Breach" ending, in which the UEFS Warsaw crew survives and the destroyed ship is moved to a Sidereal Plexus facility. Sidereal Plexus employees discover some undestroyed crystals on board and find out that they can be used as a power source, a nearly unlimited one at that. This results in a technological golden age during which most of the Sidereal Plexus products are invented. During this period Sidereal Plexus finds out about the other universes, as well as the Dream Realm, a metaphysical plane of existence connecting the consciousnesses of every single person across the multiverse. They eventually discover the means to send a consciousness through the Dream Realm into another universe. At first inter-dimensional travelers are forced to merge with their alternate universe selves, but as Sidereal Plexus begins colonizing more and more universes, artificial bodies begin being created to serve as destinations for consciousnesses crossing the Dream Realm. As inter-dimensional travel becomes more common, accidents begin to happen and some people remain stuck in the Dream Realm, becoming Shadow people.

Eventually, the now inter-dimensional mega corporation begins researching something called "Synthesis." Although it's never revealed what Synthesis actually is, it's known that researching it holds the risk of tearing the fabric of space, resulting in the release of enough energy to split the Moon in half. In order to ensure that their employees won't stop working on the project, Sidereal Plexus higher ups allow Synthesis research in only one universe at a time. They use the risk of a Shadow People attack as an excuse to forbid dream hopping in non-emergency situations, keeping the people working on Synthesis stuck in the Synthesis universe until the Moon finally splits and everyone is evacuated. The Sidereal Plexus Moon stations' dream navigation systems are rigged to fail, forcing those who use them to merge with their alternate selves and forget the Lunar incident in their previous universe as a result. Meanwhile, the higher-ups continue to gather data from each destroyed world, increasing the Synthesis success chance with each of its iterations.

DE4 iterations take place in those Lunar Incident universes. Even without using any floppy discs, the consciousness merge David and Cate experience with each "escape" doesn't completely wipe their memories, allowing them to experience "prophet dreams" in order to prepare for upcoming disasters. When David restarts the cycle using ONE floppy disc, he retains enough of his memory to let his guilt over failing to save Cody/Barry manifest in his third dream and save him as a result. When David resets the cycle using TWO floppy discs, everyone evacuated through the Dream Realm retains all their memories of the previous Lunar Incident universe, resigning from Sidereal Plexus as a result. With no one willing to research Synthesis, Sidereal is forced to cancel the project in this universe, and the Moon never splits.

This whole cycle repeats an infinite amount of times across infinite universes. An infinite amount of Davids die in the wasteland. An infinite amount of the Davids become stuck in an infinite cycle. An infinite amount of Davids eventually escape to another universe with two floppy discs and live happily ever after. With so many Dream Hops, accidents happen sometimes and a David becomes stuck in the Dream Realm. This is where the DS trilogy takes place. The protagonist in the first game is a David trying to escape from the Dream Realm. The Shadow Person that chases him in the hallway is another David. The Shadow person that captures you at the end of DS2 is also a David. The protagonist in the second and third game is a David that becomes stuck in the Dream Realm for a SECOND time, with the whole backstory about his obsession with his first visit to the Dream Realm being nothing more than an illusion. A David stuck in the Dream Realm for the second time is capable of freeing a Cody stuck in the dream realm. I also believe that the Traveler you meet in DS2 is a Barry who just gave up on life after finding out he won't reunite with his wife.

[Hawyee]

Originally posted by Ligma peanuts:

Here's how I see it:

The Scriptwelder multiverse consists of an infinite number of universes. In most of them, Sidereal Plexus was established in the 20th century and achieved the status of a mega-corporation. There are some exceptions tho. The Sidereal Plexus website contains a list of "off-limit" universes. Although most of them are universes where the Earth was destroyed in a lunar incident, there are cases in which a universe is radically different from the others, such as:

- A universe where humanity is stuck in the middle ages (DE1 most likely takes place there, assuming magic exists in that universe)
- A universe where humanity is wiped out by a zombie virus (DE2 most likely takes place there)
- A universe where Sidereal Plexus is never founded (most likely the universe you and I live in)
- A universe we don't know anything about, because all data about it is redacted (in my headcanon it's ruled by eldritch abominations)

One of the "normal" universes is a bit further ahead in time than most. In this universe, humans develop interstellar travel by themselves. A mining ship crash lands on an unknown planet. The events of Primal Sands take place there. The ship is lost to the crystals and another ship is sent there to investigate. The events of DE3 take place there.

-Quick side note. The protagonists in DE1 and DE3 look pretty similar. In my headcanon, they are the same person coming from different universes. Although we never see the DE2 protagonist, I personally believe this applies to him as well.

The canon ending to DE3 is the "Hull Breach" ending, in which the UEFS Warsaw crew survives and the destroyed ship is moved to a Sidereal Plexus facility. Sidereal Plexus employees discover some undestroyed crystals on board and find out that they can be used as a power source, a nearly unlimited one at that. This results in a technological golden age during which most of the Sidereal Plexus products are invented. During this period Sidereal Plexus finds out about the other universes, as well as the Dream Realm, a metaphysical plane of existence connecting the consciousnesses of every single person across the multiverse. They eventually discover the means to send a consciousness through the Dream Realm into another universe. At first inter-dimensional travelers are forced to merge with their alternate universe selves, but as Sidereal Plexus begins colonizing more and more universes, artificial bodies begin being created to serve as destinations for consciousnesses crossing the Dream Realm. As inter-dimensional travel becomes more common, accidents begin to happen and some people remain stuck in the Dream Realm, becoming Shadow people.

Eventually, the now inter-dimensional mega corporation begins researching something called "Synthesis." Although it's never revealed what Synthesis actually is, it's known that researching it holds the risk of tearing the fabric of space, resulting in the release of enough energy to split the Moon in half. In order to ensure that their employees won't stop working on the project, Sidereal Plexus higher ups allow Synthesis research in only one universe at a time. They use the risk of a Shadow People attack as an excuse to forbid dream hopping in non-emergency situations, keeping the people working on Synthesis stuck in the Synthesis universe until the Moon finally splits and everyone is evacuated. The Sidereal Plexus Moon stations' dream navigation systems are rigged to fail, forcing those who use them to merge with their alternate selves and forget the Lunar incident in their previous universe as a result. Meanwhile, the higher-ups continue to gather data from each destroyed world, increasing the Synthesis success chance with each of its iterations.

DE4 iterations take place in those Lunar Incident universes. Even without using any floppy discs, the consciousness merge David and Cate experience with each "escape" doesn't completely wipe their memories, allowing them to experience "prophet dreams" in order to prepare for upcoming disasters. When David restarts the cycle using ONE floppy disc, he retains enough of his memory to let his guilt over failing to save Cody/Barry manifest in his third dream and save him as a result. When David resets the cycle using TWO floppy discs, everyone evacuated through the Dream Realm retains all their memories of the previous Lunar Incident universe, resigning from Sidereal Plexus as a result. With no one willing to research Synthesis, Sidereal is forced to cancel the project in this universe, and the Moon never splits.

This whole cycle repeats an infinite amount of times across infinite universes. An infinite amount of Davids die in the wasteland. An infinite amount of the Davids become stuck in an infinite cycle. An infinite amount of Davids eventually escape to another universe with two floppy discs and live happily ever after. With so many Dream Hops, accidents happen sometimes and a David becomes stuck in the Dream Realm. This is where the DS trilogy takes place. The protagonist in the first game is a David trying to escape from the Dream Realm. The Shadow Person that chases him in the hallway is another David. The Shadow person that captures you at the end of DS2 is also a David. The protagonist in the second and third game is a David that becomes stuck in the Dream Realm for a SECOND time, with the whole backstory about his obsession with his first visit to the Dream Realm being nothing more than an illusion. A David stuck in the Dream Realm for the second time is capable of freeing a Cody stuck in the dream realm. I also believe that the Traveler you meet in DS2 is a Barry who just gave up on life after finding out he won't reunite with his wife.

Most accurate explanation in my eyes. Also I replayed the game again after beating awakening mode and on the Day 3 dream David sees both Maggie and the Tiger because in the previous life he managed to save both. Instead of preventing him of getting one of them killed they tell David to focus on remebering his past lives and that David knows who the Shadow People are before seeing them in the dream, farther solidifying what you said.

[GutTyChaos]

Hey! Where did you find out the connection of DE1 of the werewolf experiment? That sounds very interesting!

If you read all the Email in the abandoned Sidereal Plexis office, you will see one of the email that involve the doc file that's corrupted, in that email there's the name of the Sidereal Plexis website, seeing that in-game internet explorer won't work doesn't mean you can't check in out in YOUR own internet. Going there and you will see fancy old-styled internet website just like in the early 20'. There you will see a lot of good readings. However there's a log-in page, and you might know what's your Username AND the password is by looking at the sticky note next to the in-game computer. Using that username you will find some good reads on the inbox and some logs involving a lot of Sidereal Plexis works and dream-world traveling.

Some shocking finds also involves that Sidereal Plexis are already way ahead with their experiment on dream realm stuff and in fact there are many "worlds" they been using back and forth. While in-game you might find some mentions of "SP-4" in some papers there are more SPs already listed and up to millions. So basically Sidereal Plexis are naming these worlds "SP" which obviously stands for "Sidereal Plexis" each worlds can be completely different while some suffers the same scenarios like the Moon collapsing into the earth. In the in-box of the username you logged into the website you can find some "Worlds" that are marked off-limit due of their uselessness such as Medieval era world, countless lunar disaster event worlds and some world where Sidereal Plexis doesn't exist.

When we finally reached to the Moon base and talking with Cate, she will mentions that "Sidereal Plexis likes to borrow things from other places". In which is a good guess that they borrows technology from another SPs that have more advanced tech then their own world.

Speaking of which, SP-4 is mentioned quite a lot in the game and most of times stating that SP-4 is the best and most advanced world of all.
However. On the website inbox, SP-1 is mentioned including the name of the spaceship that took place in Don't Escape 3.

What we know is that Sidereal Plexis wanted to mine the moon for Crystal and use them as some sort of fuel in which I couldn't find out what is it about, meanwhile the only theory of night folks from Deeper/Deepest Sleep I got is that some people who is sleeping in the Moon Base inside the pod couldn't connect themselves into new world is thus stuck in a completely different world without their original body due of error, this is also mentioned by Cate in some conversation when we approach the Sleeping pod room in Moon Base. But these, I am not so sure.

[NEIN™]

Originally posted by GutTyChaos:

Hey! Where did you find out the connection of DE1 of the werewolf experiment? That sounds very interesting!

If you read all the Email in the abandoned Sidereal Plexis office, you will see one of the email that involve the doc file that's corrupted, in that email there's the name of the Sidereal Plexis website, seeing that in-game internet explorer won't work doesn't mean you can't check in out in YOUR own internet. Going there and you will see fancy old-styled internet website just like in the early 20'. There you will see a lot of good readings. However there's a log-in page, and you might know what's your Username AND the password is by looking at the sticky note next to the in-game computer. Using that username you will find some good reads on the inbox and some logs involving a lot of Sidereal Plexis works and dream-world traveling.

Some shocking finds also involves that Sidereal Plexis are already way ahead with their experiment on dream realm stuff and in fact there are many "worlds" they been using back and forth. While in-game you might find some mentions of "SP-4" in some papers there are more SPs already listed and up to millions. So basically Sidereal Plexis are naming these worlds "SP" which obviously stands for "Sidereal Plexis" each worlds can be completely different while some suffers the same scenarios like the Moon collapsing into the earth. In the in-box of the username you logged into the website you can find some "Worlds" that are marked off-limit due of their uselessness such as Medieval era world, countless lunar disaster event worlds and some world where Sidereal Plexis doesn't exist.

When we finally reached to the Moon base and talking with Cate, she will mentions that "Sidereal Plexis likes to borrow things from other places". In which is a good guess that they borrows technology from another SPs that have more advanced tech then their own world.

Speaking of which, SP-4 is mentioned quite a lot in the game and most of times stating that SP-4 is the best and most advanced world of all.
However. On the website inbox, SP-1 is mentioned including the name of the spaceship that took place in Don't Escape 3.

What we know is that Sidereal Plexis wanted to mine the moon for Crystal and use them as some sort of fuel in which I couldn't find out what is it about, meanwhile the only theory of night folks from Deeper/Deepest Sleep I got is that some people who is sleeping in the Moon Base inside the pod couldn't connect themselves into new world is thus stuck in a completely different world without their original body due of error, this is also mentioned by Cate in some conversation when we approach the Sleeping pod room in Moon Base. But these, I am not so sure.

I made up the connection of DE1. The only connection of the game and DE1 that i have found is the picture in the main house, but the rest from that website sounds interesting. Scripwelder put a lot of easter eggs in this game (and most likely the others as well). Maybe i will uncover more secrets with my second playthrough trying to get the true ending.

[NEIN™]

Originally posted by GutTyChaos:

Hey! Where did you find out the connection of DE1 of the werewolf experiment? That sounds very interesting!

If you read all the Email in the abandoned Sidereal Plexis office, you will see one of the email that involve the doc file that's corrupted, in that email there's the name of the Sidereal Plexis website, seeing that in-game internet explorer won't work doesn't mean you can't check in out in YOUR own internet. Going there and you will see fancy old-styled internet website just like in the early 20'. There you will see a lot of good readings. However there's a log-in page, and you might know what's your Username AND the password is by looking at the sticky note next to the in-game computer. Using that username you will find some good reads on the inbox and some logs involving a lot of Sidereal Plexis works and dream-world traveling.

Some shocking finds also involves that Sidereal Plexis are already way ahead with their experiment on dream realm stuff and in fact there are many "worlds" they been using back and forth. While in-game you might find some mentions of "SP-4" in some papers there are more SPs already listed and up to millions. So basically Sidereal Plexis are naming these worlds "SP" which obviously stands for "Sidereal Plexis" each worlds can be completely different while some suffers the same scenarios like the Moon collapsing into the earth. In the in-box of the username you logged into the website you can find some "Worlds" that are marked off-limit due of their uselessness such as Medieval era world, countless lunar disaster event worlds and some world where Sidereal Plexis doesn't exist.

When we finally reached to the Moon base and talking with Cate, she will mentions that "Sidereal Plexis likes to borrow things from other places". In which is a good guess that they borrows technology from another SPs that have more advanced tech then their own world.

Speaking of which, SP-4 is mentioned quite a lot in the game and most of times stating that SP-4 is the best and most advanced world of all.
However. On the website inbox, SP-1 is mentioned including the name of the spaceship that took place in Don't Escape 3.

What we know is that Sidereal Plexis wanted to mine the moon for Crystal and use them as some sort of fuel in which I couldn't find out what is it about, meanwhile the only theory of night folks from Deeper/Deepest Sleep I got is that some people who is sleeping in the Moon Base inside the pod couldn't connect themselves into new world is thus stuck in a completely different world without their original body due of error, this is also mentioned by Cate in some conversation when we approach the Sleeping pod room in Moon Base. But these, I am not so sure.

How did you log into the website, the sticky note wont work, or im reading it wrong

[WindFly]

Originally posted by NEIN:

Originally posted by GutTyChaos:

Hey! Where did you find out the connection of DE1 of the werewolf experiment? That sounds very interesting!

If you read all the Email in the abandoned Sidereal Plexis office, you will see one of the email that involve the doc file that's corrupted, in that email there's the name of the Sidereal Plexis website, seeing that in-game internet explorer won't work doesn't mean you can't check in out in YOUR own internet. Going there and you will see fancy old-styled internet website just like in the early 20'. There you will see a lot of good readings. However there's a log-in page, and you might know what's your Username AND the password is by looking at the sticky note next to the in-game computer. Using that username you will find some good reads on the inbox and some logs involving a lot of Sidereal Plexis works and dream-world traveling.

Some shocking finds also involves that Sidereal Plexis are already way ahead with their experiment on dream realm stuff and in fact there are many "worlds" they been using back and forth. While in-game you might find some mentions of "SP-4" in some papers there are more SPs already listed and up to millions. So basically Sidereal Plexis are naming these worlds "SP" which obviously stands for "Sidereal Plexis" each worlds can be completely different while some suffers the same scenarios like the Moon collapsing into the earth. In the in-box of the username you logged into the website you can find some "Worlds" that are marked off-limit due of their uselessness such as Medieval era world, countless lunar disaster event worlds and some world where Sidereal Plexis doesn't exist.

When we finally reached to the Moon base and talking with Cate, she will mentions that "Sidereal Plexis likes to borrow things from other places". In which is a good guess that they borrows technology from another SPs that have more advanced tech then their own world.

Speaking of which, SP-4 is mentioned quite a lot in the game and most of times stating that SP-4 is the best and most advanced world of all.
However. On the website inbox, SP-1 is mentioned including the name of the spaceship that took place in Don't Escape 3.

What we know is that Sidereal Plexis wanted to mine the moon for Crystal and use them as some sort of fuel in which I couldn't find out what is it about, meanwhile the only theory of night folks from Deeper/Deepest Sleep I got is that some people who is sleeping in the Moon Base inside the pod couldn't connect themselves into new world is thus stuck in a completely different world without their original body due of error, this is also mentioned by Cate in some conversation when we approach the Sleeping pod room in Moon Base. But these, I am not so sure.

How did you log into the website, the sticky note wont work, or im reading it wrong

It's "qwert" and "admin1"

[Hawyee]

Originally posted by Ligma peanuts:

Here's how I see it:

The Scriptwelder multiverse consists of an infinite number of universes. In most of them, Sidereal Plexus was established in the 20th century and achieved the status of a mega-corporation. There are some exceptions tho. The Sidereal Plexus website contains a list of "off-limit" universes. Although most of them are universes where the Earth was destroyed in a lunar incident, there are cases in which a universe is radically different from the others, such as:

- A universe where humanity is stuck in the middle ages (DE1 most likely takes place there, assuming magic exists in that universe)
- A universe where humanity is wiped out by a zombie virus (DE2 most likely takes place there)
- A universe where Sidereal Plexus is never founded (most likely the universe you and I live in)
- A universe we don't know anything about, because all data about it is redacted (in my headcanon it's ruled by eldritch abominations)

One of the "normal" universes is a bit further ahead in time than most. In this universe, humans develop interstellar travel by themselves. A mining ship crash lands on an unknown planet. The events of Primal Sands take place there. The ship is lost to the crystals and another ship is sent there to investigate. The events of DE3 take place there.

-Quick side note. The protagonists in DE1 and DE3 look pretty similar. In my headcanon, they are the same person coming from different universes. Although we never see the DE2 protagonist, I personally believe this applies to him as well.

The canon ending to DE3 is the "Hull Breach" ending, in which the UEFS Warsaw crew survives and the destroyed ship is moved to a Sidereal Plexus facility. Sidereal Plexus employees discover some undestroyed crystals on board and find out that they can be used as a power source, a nearly unlimited one at that. This results in a technological golden age during which most of the Sidereal Plexus products are invented. During this period Sidereal Plexus finds out about the other universes, as well as the Dream Realm, a metaphysical plane of existence connecting the consciousnesses of every single person across the multiverse. They eventually discover the means to send a consciousness through the Dream Realm into another universe. At first inter-dimensional travelers are forced to merge with their alternate universe selves, but as Sidereal Plexus begins colonizing more and more universes, artificial bodies begin being created to serve as destinations for consciousnesses crossing the Dream Realm. As inter-dimensional travel becomes more common, accidents begin to happen and some people remain stuck in the Dream Realm, becoming Shadow people.

Eventually, the now inter-dimensional mega corporation begins researching something called "Synthesis." Although it's never revealed what Synthesis actually is, it's known that researching it holds the risk of tearing the fabric of space, resulting in the release of enough energy to split the Moon in half. In order to ensure that their employees won't stop working on the project, Sidereal Plexus higher ups allow Synthesis research in only one universe at a time. They use the risk of a Shadow People attack as an excuse to forbid dream hopping in non-emergency situations, keeping the people working on Synthesis stuck in the Synthesis universe until the Moon finally splits and everyone is evacuated. The Sidereal Plexus Moon stations' dream navigation systems are rigged to fail, forcing those who use them to merge with their alternate selves and forget the Lunar incident in their previous universe as a result. Meanwhile, the higher-ups continue to gather data from each destroyed world, increasing the Synthesis success chance with each of its iterations.

DE4 iterations take place in those Lunar Incident universes. Even without using any floppy discs, the consciousness merge David and Cate experience with each "escape" doesn't completely wipe their memories, allowing them to experience "prophet dreams" in order to prepare for upcoming disasters. When David restarts the cycle using ONE floppy disc, he retains enough of his memory to let his guilt over failing to save Cody/Barry manifest in his third dream and save him as a result. When David resets the cycle using TWO floppy discs, everyone evacuated through the Dream Realm retains all their memories of the previous Lunar Incident universe, resigning from Sidereal Plexus as a result. With no one willing to research Synthesis, Sidereal is forced to cancel the project in this universe, and the Moon never splits.

This whole cycle repeats an infinite amount of times across infinite universes. An infinite amount of Davids die in the wasteland. An infinite amount of the Davids become stuck in an infinite cycle. An infinite amount of Davids eventually escape to another universe with two floppy discs and live happily ever after. With so many Dream Hops, accidents happen sometimes and a David becomes stuck in the Dream Realm. This is where the DS trilogy takes place. The protagonist in the first game is a David trying to escape from the Dream Realm. The Shadow Person that chases him in the hallway is another David. The Shadow person that captures you at the end of DS2 is also a David. The protagonist in the second and third game is a David that becomes stuck in the Dream Realm for a SECOND time, with the whole backstory about his obsession with his first visit to the Dream Realm being nothing more than an illusion. A David stuck in the Dream Realm for the second time is capable of freeing a Cody stuck in the dream realm. I also believe that the Traveler you meet in DS2 is a Barry who just gave up on life after finding out he won't reunite with his wife.

I also just remembered that, when duct taping the sprinkler system, David says "That's enough tape to last until the end of time... Or at least Thursday" before Cate tells him when the moon will crash on Earth. Meaning that he had a very slight memory from an even previous life.

[vandujr]

oh btw i just played primitive sands also made by script-builder, and the blue crystals are actually things growing inside wild aliens on the planet which are used as upgrade currency, when you escape it shows the ending of don't escape 3 when you realize your the monster, when your coughing blood and your arm opens showing the crystal, so that's were the crystals are from and that's confirmed, also the bottoms feeders... oh i have no idea what they are, but the people in the pods being the Siderul plexus employees makes sense, also (SPOILERS) when you get the true ending is when you wake up Cody from his lucid dream in deepest sleep, in that game you are likely David, so when you finish the game with everyone it shows what everyone's new lives are on the new earth, Cate is an office worker with David's face on her computer, Barry is living happily with his wife and presumably about to adopt Cody, and Davis is just a random guy looking at a news paper showing that the lunar mining is disabled, also the zombie outbreak is the dream that Cody talks about on the morning of day 3. NOTE i did not read any of the comments and only the main discussion theorized timeline