theoretical entroponetics: the post
okay. LONG post incoming. i have summarized all available information on the pale, separated into confirmed objective truth & in-canon speculation that may or may not be true, and then appended my own very detailed theory on the pale! this post is meant as a resource; please feel free to add things of your own in replies/reblogs (please tag me if you do!) or point out any errors i may have made. you’re welcome to use any of my personal theory in your own work but please credit me if you do!! (and tag me in that/send it to me, i really want to see what you do with it!)
Here’s what we *know* about the pale, according to in-game and concept art:
It erases data, at least the kind stored on radiocomputer filament and magnetic tapes.
It has no dimensions of its own- pale latitude compressors serve to force dimensions on raw pale and allow navigation.
The pale is referred to in the context of entropy
It arrived with mankind, but not immediately- there are 8000 years of written history, but the pale was first recorded 6000 years ago, implying that pale either didn’t start forming immediately or that it was so insignificant/distant that it went unnoticed for 2000 years.
There exists a group of people who are actively trying to expedite entroponetic collapse; the ideology is called entropolism
To this point, pale isn’t immediately visible. Pale has molecular structure, but manifests as a waveform, and only becomes visible at a certain distance from the origin, once wave frequency is sufficiently high.
During pale exposure, people experience “sense objects”: visual or auditory hallucinations and/or vivid physical recollections of memories. These hallucinations may originate from their own consciousness or someone else’s. c
People require physical and mental examinations before interisolary travel and are allotted a certain number of days per year as their pale exposure threshold.
Overexposure results in a pale “addiction”- these individuals crave pale exposure, and it’s unclear if this addiction can ever be broken. It’s also unclear whether there is a point at which pale exposure becomes lethal, but given that it dissolves matter, we can be fairly certain that a given length of continuous exposure will kill.
Radio signals, cold plasma torches and anodic sound are all used to manage the pale to permit travel through it. Plasma torches destabilize the molecular structure of the pale to create gaps, anodic sound widens and maintains these gaps, and radio signals rationalize the pale into recognizable dimensions.
Radio signals are, in return, susceptible to corruption by the pale, resulting in entroponetic crosstalk, where signals from the past or the future are transmitted to the present. CCP is one such phenomenon and is directly related to the formation of new pale through magpie interpretation.
There is a dedicated Union for people who work in and with the pale (the Pale Workers Union). They have two slogans; “The light purifies; The sound absolves; The pale no more” and “Son et Fureur” (sound and fury)
Here’s what we may choose to believe about the pale, based on the thoughts and beliefs of in-game characters:
In conversation with Soona, the pale is described as a “curdling milk” phenomenon: “repulsive, but natural”
In this same conversation you can theorize that the churches were meant to contain the pale origins; out of the seven churches, six were destroyed during the suzerain or the revolution
The phasmid and whatever other lifeforms it’s communicated with believe that entroponetic collapse is comparable to an oxygen holocaust (i.e. the great oxygenation event), implying mass extinction due to a toxic overabundance of sapient thought
Harry refers to it once by saying “The wolf is at the door. It’s going to eat the sun.” so take that as you will
It’s likely that Tiago’s “Mother” is some manifestation from the pale, if you choose to believe that the 2mm hole is in fact a pale origin point (the concept art does confirm it’s a pale origin, but the game offers other explanations, so I won’t say it’s the only answer)
Inframaterialists believe that revolutionary action (NOT thought) may create a counter-force that will prevent the spread of pale; it’s unclear if any reversal is possible.
The world will be fully consumed by the pale in 27 years (I put it here because you may or may not believe that shivers and harry are reliably sourcing this information)
And now my personal speculation about the pale:
A quick and easy point: it’s confirmed that the pale has a measurable EMF “exhalation” frequency that varies with proximity. Strong enough EMF pulses can actually tamper with magnetic storage- radiocomputer filaments! Electronics! Fortress Accident data loss! This gives us a tangible explanation for why pale can delete data :)
This may also explain its ability to cause radio interference- radio frequencies are just a subset of EMF frequencies, so it’s possible that pale exhalation on *just the right frequency* is what’s responsible for the entroponetic crosstalk we get on radios sometimes
The pale canonically has an atomic structure, but it also has wave properties, so it’s possible that the pale has wave-particle duality on its subatomic level, like photons do
Based on this, entroponetics is likely a very similar field to quantum mechanics, which might be an interesting source of ideas for anyone (like me) who wants to explore pale-related possibilities
The pale could be a manifestation of raw patterns. That’s why math “forces dimensions” on it- it rationalizes or “tames” the patterns, which allows it to be manipulated to a certain degree.
There are several references to the pale that refer to mathematical concepts and patterns, saying that the world dissolves into “a tangle of azimuths and cosines” as it blends into the interisolary pale- more on this later
Steban comments that the pale is commonly theorized to be nostalgia or “historical inertia”, but it’s largely agreed that it’s “the past” in a broad sense. Thinking about the idiom that history repeats itself, it could be that history/the past is part of the pattern that comprises the pale, and that it’s also the type of pattern most readily perceived by people (people don’t viscerally *perceive* math, for example, but we experience memories)
To first define entropy: Chemically speaking, “the measure of a system’s thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work. (per encyclopedia britannica).” Physically speaking, it’s a measure of randomness or disorder in a system. Less work/less order = more entropy; it’s a physicochemical “winding down” of a given system
It’s commonly thought that pale is the entropic force, but what if it’s the opposite? (Keep in mind the chemical definition: less ability to do work = more entropy) Consider: the pale as less entropic, a cleanup force, recycling the potential lost by death and destruction in the universe. This in part explains why a dead person’s memory is present in the pale- their potential has been recycled into the pale in the form of their memories (their life’s *pattern*)
Enthalpy is a related concept to entropy and is defined as the total energy contained within a system. Holding the system enthalpy constant- saying the universe will always have the same amount of total energy, no matter what, according to thermodynamics- results in an entropic tug-of-war between the pale and the world. The pale wins through sheer inertia (again, inertia is mentioned specifically in game)
Overall: think of the world as “cooling”, losing heat and energy through war and death and complacency. Think of the pale as steam and heat, melting down old materials to start it all over again. (Kim says, *through entroponetic interference*: “it’s been a long, cold winter.”)
Consider: the pale as a sinusoidal function, eternally repeating. The pale recycling the universe to start a new cycle, “spending” itself, resulting in pale not being present in the beginning. Then, as the new things begin to settle- with the advent of the human mind, specifically- the pale reforming, slowly reclaiming potential, eventually ending the cycle to start again.
In comes CCP and magpies. Consider: CCP as a backwards transmission from the next “cycle” (after all, pale has no sense of time). Magpies as *pattern-sensitive* people who are able to decode CCP into something useful called novelty. They reach into the potential of the next cycle to build the potential in their current one- this paradox could be what creates more pale, because (and this is where it gets weird, I apologize) doing this retroactively increases the total amount of energy/work/potential in the current cycle to have been reclaimed by the pale for the next one.
Think of the pale as the compost bin for every single thought in the universe. The pale is the exact right size to compost every little atom and thought in the universe, and can hold nothing extra. But magpies reach into the future, the next cycle, and bring in extra. This paradox forces the pale to grow to accommodate the additional material, which also increases the starting potential of the next cycle. This process allows each cycle to accumulate minor changes from the previous one, which can snowball over many cycles.
Furthermore, to the inframaterialists’ point: revolutionary action would be such a radical shift in inertia that it would increase the potential in the world, forcing the pale to pause/shrink to “balance the equation” in terms of pale-vs-world thermodynamics. So maybe they’re right after all :)
And some diagramming, to explain the utter bullshit I’ve just dropped:
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some thoughts about Steddie and blowing kisses
It started as all things do with them, as a joke. He doesn't know when it started but it did, as part of his routine when he leaves Robin he blows her a kiss. Just a touch of his fingers to his mouth and a wave of his hand. Nothing elaborate. And Robin's response is equally routine, pretends to grab it and stick it in her shirt pocket.
Everyone is used to it, nothing new, just part of their relationship. Eddie is hanging out at family video with them both when Steve goes to take his break outside, desperate for some fresh air after being stuck in the stuffy store. As he is heading out the door, he sends Robin a kiss, she puts up her hand to catch it and that's when the routine changes. Eddie vaults over a display table of tapes and mimes grabbing the kiss and eating it. He’s like a wild animal, snorting and snuffling crouched on the ground, looking up at Steve when he's finished with a deranged smile
'Thanks for that Stevie, I was starving.'
Both Robin and Steve are trying so desperately not to laugh but they can't help it, Steve stumbles out the front door with a 'what the fuck' coming out between the gasps for air and Robin is applauding Eddie from inside the store. Eddie obviously gives a dramatic and over the top bow.
Eddie is involved in the kiss routine from then on and the response is always a surprise. Steve has witnessed his air kisses being hit by an imaginary bat achieving a home run with Eddie doing a victory lap around the parking lot, being clutched out of the air and stuffed in Eddie's back pocket 'for later', caught in Eddie's hands and let out the window like an unwanted insect, inhaled in like a hoover, cowered against and fought like it was a life threatening dragon 'Sir Steve, Lady Buckley stay close! I will slay the beast!'
They escalate and escalate until one day Eddie is standing next to Steve when he blows the kiss. Steve anticipates his response, he'd be lying if he said he's now only really blowing these kisses to see what Eddie will do, see the smile it brings to the other boy's face and tries to push down the butterflies in his own stomach when Eddie sends a wink to Steve at the end of the performance. This time though? Eddie pretends to grab the kiss out of the air, places it to his cheek, with a blush creeping up from his neck and leans forward. He leans and lets his lips brush Steve's cheek in return. Steve is frozen solid, trying desperately not to let his legs buckle in surprise and feels Eddie smile as he whispers 'figured I better start returning these. think I've got a lot to make up for.'
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Dc x idea 124
Sam and Danny do a student exchange program. Danny was Volvontold to do it by mr.lancer who got his parents to agree. Sam’s parents were more then happy to force her to do it. The school she was being sent to had a Wayne.
Tucker would be staying back in amity to help Valarie with the ghosts.
The two amity Parker’s quickly caught attention at the transfer school. The two kept to themselves and wanted nothing to do with it. At one point they were caught bad mouthing the justice league. That caught attention especially from Damian Wayne.
Danny: it’s not that we don’t like hero’s
Sam: it’s that they claim to give a shit but don’t! That hotline is bs. Nothing comes from it.
Damian: they deal with world ending crisis not small time crime from a town in Illinois.
Danny: duh. Dude we don’t call when box ghost is stealing all the shoe boxes. Or when spectra did her hospital gig yet again. Then the time lunch lady decided it was mandatory meatloaf Monday and-
Sam: *elbowing Danny* we’ve only called with potential world ending threats. Like when the ghost king yoinked our town into the ghost zone and threatened to destroy earth without the return of his ring. Then the time undergrowth was going to feed our entire town to his plants then move on to the world.
Danny: don’t forget technus. Know how last month how phones, tvs and most electronics only were displaying a green face screaming of taking over the world. It only lasted like what 2 mins for you guys. But man that was a rough week for us.
Sam: Tucker got a hold of someone just for them to laugh In his face despite offering proof and video footage.
Sam/Danny: we’ll keep bad mouthing the justice league. Deal with it.
Sam: besides we have a much better heros then the justice league. Two of them who actually care.
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