What does Hyperborea's golden tower have to do with the Spiral Abyss? (Has minor datamine from older patches)
Finale of the Deep Galleries deserved the hype Hymns of the Far North got. (It's true)
I remember when first reading it one of the things that stood out to me was this...
>Alone she walked through the ruins of the Spiral Abyss, intent on finding the trail of the voyager that the magical swordmaster had spoken of...
The very first mention of the Spiral Abyss since the release of the game.
Towers
The "Tower" seems to be something relevant across all of the Unified Civilization, and even made it past that era...
Dawning Frost
>The cities scattered across the land pursued their own paths of good and evil while the divine envoys stood by in silence, watching all unfold.
Until the kings of the lands dared test the eternal heavens.
And only then did the great towers fall in flame, burying the cries of the slaves.
Towers built during the cyclical era (see the four tiaras and dawning frost) of the Unified Civilization, the ones prior to the Golden City's creation.
Steeple of Ignorance
>In the ancient past, man-made towers that could touch the skies were built all across the land. Though human hearts flowed downward, their souls aspired toward the high heavens. These towers would always fall, or collapse under their own weight and plummet into the depths. However, if one were to look at things at a grander scale, the heavens and earth are as one — no direction is truly different from another.
Oddly similar to the Spiral Abyss description!
Spiral Abyss
>Rumor has it that people who've ascended to Celestia have also witnessed the same helix-shaped divine ladder that can be seen within Visions. Venturing out into the universe and down into the abyss are the same in that both are braving the dark unknown.
This is apparently a Khaenri'ah saying... and they also built towers?
Crimson Moon's Semblance
>Thus they yearned for transcendent individuals to build countless glorious towers, and prayed for the long-dead Crimson Moon to bring them salvation.
Transcendent individuals reminds me of Descenders, and also, the Tower of Ipsissimus.
Tower of Ipsissimus
>The Tower of Ipsissimus comes from an old concept from the ancient Fontainian kingdom of Remuria, and was used to describe a powerful will that could rule, sustain, and destroy the world.
Towers, according to Remurians, are indicative of ruling, sustenance, and the destruction of the world... clearly a reference to the will of a descender, formed by creation, destruction, protection and sustenance of a world...
I believe this means that the Towers are indicative of Descenders? or "Transcendent ones"? Could also be "Primordial Humans" if they're any different - as Ajax is related to the Narzissenkreuz text and Hyperborea.
Hyperborea's Golden Tower
This would in a way explain why Koitar and Seutervoinen decided to build an enormous golden tower in Hyperborea.
>"Come now, come... Let us recast these absurd laws with bone, and nourish the barren north with blood."
"Let us build a city and a tower that soars up to the clouds, that the people of the earth need weep bitter tears no longer."
But it doesn't explain the mention of the Spiral Abyss.
Every piece of Finale of the Deep Galleries contains some part that talks about Skirk's exploration of Hyperborea, where she finds specific things, in specific locations.
- before the withered husk of a silver tree
- among the Abyssal remnants
- before the golden tower
- through a tattered veil
- the ruins of the Spiral Abyss intent on finding the trail of the voyager that the magical swordmaster had spoken of...
Interesting stuff. Surtalogi sent Skirk to look for Voyager... in the Spiral Abyss? Which is also in Hyperborea? Which has a Golden Tower? The only logical explanation here and quite obvious one that people have made throughout the last year is that the Golden Tower is the Spiral Abyss. That makes sense. Additionally, the code name for Finale of the Deep Galleries internally is...
It could mean anything, not like file names are ever meant to be seen- but I do find it interesting. Could also just mean that the deep galleries are the spiral abyss, and not the tower.
The Golden Tower explanation works fine until you consider...
Pilos Peak
The merciless face of the world, it fills me with fear...
Pilos Peak was once an incredibly tall mountain, possibly the tallest, and its remains after Venti grabbed blender seem to be Musk Reef, where the Spiral Abyss currently is. Granted that it is a portal and not the tower, but it's still interesting, because that means it should've been in Mondstadt. So where was Pilos Peak?
The most logical explanation is the mountain Vindagnyr, now known as Dragonspine, as it is close to Musk Reef, and the current peak of Vindagnyr looks very unnatural and almost like if it was carved out. Very much like what Venti could've done to it. That would suggest that the Spiral Abyss was on the peak of Dragonspine...
This matches a little bit with Aubade of Morningstar and Moon...
>Thus, the peoples of the earth offered their greatest devotion to the Lady Mothers of the Moonlit Night.
Some would ascend the heights of Vindagnyr, presenting laurel-crowned verses to the bright moons;
Where they would go to the peak of Vindangyr to pray to the moons. You may remember that the Spiral Abyss has a portion called the "Abyssal Moon Spire", has the "Moment of New Moon", and also has Floor 11 where you can visibly see a moon (Very unexplained)
It could work but this doesn't exactly tell you how Hyperborea has anything to do with this, Vindagnyr and Hyperborea are very far from eachother.... or maybe it doesn't matter.
Hyperborea to Sal Vindagnyr
While in my eyes Finale was better than Hymns it is still very useful of course.
In Naberius' prayer there is something very interesting said by the Frostmoon Scions:
>Hear me, O noble Maadteraahka, mother of gods and mortals,
From Hyperborea to Sal Vindagnyr, your compassion is revered by all.
Sure girl
To be clear I imagine this means something like "throughout the whole world", but I do find it really interesting because there are definitely areas further away from Hyperborea during that time, like Delphi Pytho, or the Pre-Thunderbird Civilization in present day Tsurumi... why SPECIFICALLY Sal Vindagnyr?
and there IS something kind of unexplained about Sal Vindagnyr and it is the ORIGIN of its people!
Sal Vindagnyr people are said to come from a land of snow and strife. As far as I understand, there are no other snowy areas during the Unified Civilization other than Hyperborea? I may be wrong, I've heard this could be referring to Arcadia, but I can't find a reason to why this would be true?
I don't exactly know when or why Hyperboreans could've moved to Sal Vindagnyr if they even did but it is something worth looking into
Conclusion
There's not really any I can make, hence why I used the question tag, I more so wanna hear people's thoughts as this is a part of Hyperborea lore that I find really interesting alongside the possible Khaenri'ah connections
Some of my thoughts... (Not very serious, random ideas)
Golden Tower and the Elysium Project
The Spiral Abyss portal may have lead to Hyperborea or the Golden Tower to be specific, when the clans of the Unified Civilization united under Koitar's rebellion (Elysium Project), with Sal Vindagnyr being a part of it. I believe Seutervoinen encouraged space exploration so this would be interesting, as the spiral abyss leads to it.
>Unlike our ancestors, who wallowed in superstition and barbarism, prostrating at the feet of the Heavenly Emissaries, ours is an era of great progress. All the clans have united as one to shape the world into an Elysium for humankind alone. Guided by Dawn's Navigator and the Exalted Saint, we draw closer to this goal with each passing day...
...
Are the sky-faring ships constructed with Mekhaneikos able to freely soar among the stars, exploring the true cosmos? Perhaps you're now able to journey to the home planet of the Exalted Saint...
The reunited united civilization. wonderful. Unfortunately nothing in Sal Vindagnyr lore suggests this, but also, Sal Vindagnyr has 0 mentions of the funerary year, 0 mentions of the moon, yet it is placed in the timeline at that time, and the devs have confirmed Sal Vindagnyr worshipped the moon sisters. A very sad tale of early writing, I think.
^(It was once said by the developers of Dragonspine that its story was largely hidden so players could find their own explanation, but we don't really know how much this differs from your average area, as this was also the first ever expansion.)
Pohjola
This does not explain the relation between Dragonspine and Hyperborea but it is interesting if you allow yourself some creativity (6.3 area being Pohjola kinda ruins this)
We opened the spiral abyss, and we are a Descender. Pakkaisukko needed a Descender (Saarelainen) to open the gates of Pohjola. Pohjola might be the Spiral Abyss in Hyperborea.
I don't know how well it matches with wings of the silent moon or Belyi Tsar lore in general.
Multiple Golden Towers
As we saw earlier, the Unified Civilization built many towers. what is there to say that they're not all their own spiral abyss? Kind of weird though considering that these are the only two cases.
- Meropis did have a tower but I'm pretty sure it was only built when Remus arrived.
- Lang-Gan (or chasm civ) has an upside down tower with an upside down fountain that has funny effects, I guess.
- Delphi Pytho didn't as far as we know, only when it became Enkanomiya.
If any comments have any thoughts I'll update the post (if given permission, and with credit)