Radguel's Initial 5005 Notes

TOWN
Lamplight is way beyond where stuff should exist
Three groups: Artists, ’Neon London’ survivors, and 3838


LAMP
is raised far above 5005 by a stem, and is Dim
is super powerful and good at stopping decay
Is actually an anglerfish lure

DARKNESS
Guy found a giant eye in darkness (anglerfish’s)
Kills you

DIRT
Possibly Sriskan holochrome
Called Mahi Loam
     Loam is dirt, [Mahi Mahi?]
Actually Fishskin

SRISKA



FOUNDATION PRESENCE
Led by Dr Franklin
Centered on J!Researcher Sofia Ramirez
Several agents have gone mad

JEAN-ANTOINE DELACROIX:
-Poet from Orchard world
-“Dragoman” from Kiev
-Broke up with Emily Woolf - Virginia Woolf counterpart for Orchard?
-Name - Jean-Antoine Watteau + Eugene Delacroix?




TIMELINE:
<2000: Harkhret Pioneers die in space, Anglerfish is floatin’
~2100: Jean-Antoine Delacroix finds area by accident
2107: JAD founds lamplight as bohemian paradise
2109: Osmanoglu arrives in Lamplight. Ages slowly
2110: JAD disappears
~2300: Man finds giant eye in darkness
2524: Sofia arrives in Lamplight
2525: Sofia dies



Theories:
Darkness represents the emptiness of art
Darkness represents the mystery of the universe (and lack of easy answers)
Anglerfish represents “you can be happy or right, but not both” – lust for knowledge/power sort of thing?
Town represents the joy and love that can blossom through art even in a cold and dark world
Sofia represents new readers of the wiki [what’s the anglerfish???]


The Poem:

Cold entrance cuts the mountain
Where I buried you. Salt and brine,
Whisper down the waterways of ash
Where you ran, laughing,
That mouth-made twist turned bitter.

"They" died, and Delacroix buried them in some sort of ice cave in the base of a mountain. He reminisces about when they were alive, talking about how saltwater(?) flows down the dry riverbeds where "they" used to run


Here on the edge of human eyes,
I stare into the mirror of the dark;

Lamplight is on the edge of existance, and Delacroix is staring into the non-matter and seeing his own "reflection"— not in a literal sense, but an internal sense. He sees some part of his internal conflict in the desolation of the shadows.


That mirror that sears my ravages of bone
And brings such images of the world's dismay,

Represents how Delacroix's poetry is based on the darkness (metaphorically) and strife of the human condition, and no matter how 'searing' experiencing it may be it is the despair that brings his poetry to life.


Its broken, luminous char,
Its dreams of all the starving artists
Beavering away in opium
Or simmering soft in pain.
Casting off the trappings of the world
Which leaves just silence, soft and cold disdain.

The dark represents the quiet death of artists, ODing on drugs or dying from mental health issues.

Cold disdain = snow???


The hearths and songs that bleed with frail light
Have drawn to fires those who huddle tight,

People gather to the fires of Chrizmata for warmth and companionship

Their raptured peasant fear
Cast before the tongs in cheer.


They don't care about what may happen and the great meaning of life; they're content being together and living in the Now.


I walk,
A figure in the fog of old laments
Away from these twin tales

Delacroix chooses to cast off his human connections, walking into the "fog of old laments" (non-matter) and refuse the kinship of the other artists.

twin tale = non-matter in stanza 2? Dead person in Stanza 1? the multiple stories told by the Lamplightians? idk



And into the snow, into the earth,
With no narratives of foes
Or platitudes of friends.

The snow gives rot, complexity, ennui,


Delacroix goes into the non-matter knowing he'll die; 'into the earth' is a clear reference to the grave. His last two lines are about once again casting off human contact

Death = snow


The night does not give such easy answers.

Snow = death
Death = rot, complexity, ennui


Death gives a way out, a path to stop the trials and tribulations of life.


Okay so my main thing is that I don’t get if the last line is a contrast or a restatement. Is it:

“The snow gives rot, complexity, ennui, but the night does not give such easy answers.”
Or
“The snow gives rot, complexity, ennui; the night does not give such easy answers.”

Basically, does the snow also represent death and loneliness? Also, am I reading wayyyyy too far into this?