Tabula Smaragdina - warns you about turning mountains into gold, doesn't transform into gold and instead into monsters. Makes you wish you had eternal life to not die there, huh?

E/W world: I think there's a weak theme of parallel universes instead of time loops or w/e. Every time you start a new game you're just Noita in a different world, but that doesn't entirely explain why the orbs in other worlds are corrupted and kill you...? Also the duplicate Vault, the sky Work(s) and the hell Work(s) are suspicious too

The moon: No clue how the heck this works lol. There seem to be planetoids that generate near the spawn point, unsure if related? Also now apparently if you go to the center with all 4 essences something triggers that gives you the Destruction spell, which is probably relevant. Possibly related to completing the real Work? Unsure if also being a spot for McGuffin is bug or relevant.

All of the names for the McGuffin at the end are the *prima materia* in alchemy used to complete The Work. The problem is we seem to be stuck at (according to the real life Tabula Smaragdina) phase 3 (citrinitas, "yellowing", "descending to the earth" or transmutation of everything into gold.) Phases 1 and 2 are debatable what they are or if they've even been done (seperating the earth from the fire, ascending from the earth to the heaven) but the last boss somehow has the *prima materia* so that's something. When putting the McGuffin on the altar we do see red sigils fly out from it but this might not be phase 4 (rubedo, "recieving the force of all things superior and inferior"), so maybe getting all the orbs or essences is the real method to accomplishing this. Coincidentally there are a number of orbs which change the name of the McGuffin and certain alchemical texts claim there are around that many steps to accomplishing The Work, though it's hard to say if each orb (or its spell) corresponds cleanly to each step, if at all.

Religion! Oh boy. So we have the the black-throated loon of midsummer (maybe just call it kuikka) laying 3 eggs and creating 3 more gods, Nature, Magic, and Technology. The aftereffects of these eggs also created parts of the land and substances in it, specifically Nature's egg creating cold biomes to the left and warm to the right. Whether or not these eggs still exist is unclear (the dragon egg in the caves for example?)
And then we have the loud runic texts who says "god" and "god of gods" a lot. It's all very cryptic but the message to the left of (after the final boss) The Work is maybe the most damning: it claims there are multiple dimensions and free wills. "We stole your time and your money and your sanity." sounds almost like the devs addressing you, the player for trying so hard to find "the real secret," "answers," etc... And yet it also claims "we both serve the same god, the god of many gods, the god we've created." And on the topic of "revealing the real secret... it is possible but even we don't know how." I think if anything this god of gods that we ALL serve is just "mystery." In a way, you can't destroy mystery. Unveiling it like this only "helps us [the devs]" maintain the mystery. But at the same time they don't know how to keep it going forever, and more specifically they might not have an idea for the "secret true ending" yet. You could also take the "helping us" part as "you're beta testing the game, and showing us just how deep players will go for a secret."