Pearl

Pearls, officially known as 'memory construct pearls', are small shiny spheres that can be found in most regions. They come in four varieties: colored, white, blank (gray), and those from Five Pebbles. They are highly valued by Scavengers, and are also a valuable source of in-game lore.

SPOILERS FOR LORE AND PLOT AHEAD
Once data banks for the Ancients and now a currency for Scavengers, pearls contain information on a variety of topics from the ancient world. Pearls can be read by Looks to the Moon at the Looks to the Moon subregion in Shoreline. The player must first have received the Mark from Five Pebbles in order to have pearls read. No additional requirements need be met.

Colored pearls spawn in set locations around the world, and always have the same dialogue. The two colored pearls from Sky Islands are the exception to this, having a dialogue pool of 5 texts, from which one is chosen for each pearl per playthrough. Consequently, multiple playthroughs are needed to have all dialogue options read by Moon. Colored pearls contain important lore, either because there's a lot of information in the pearl or it incites a speech from Moon about the topic in the pearl.

White pearls are spawned in set locations throughout the world, but can also be found semi randomly in scavenger stashes, and on scavenger totems. Common pearls have a large dialogue pool to draw from, and so repeat readings are extremely rare. They contain minor tidbits of lore, but most are useless or humorous.

Blank/grey pearls are exclusive to the Monk character. They replace colored pearls and certain white pearls in the world, and a few blank pearls appear in new locations. Moon simply tells you they are empty or blank when read.

Pearls from Pebbles' chamber have a separate, smaller pool of dialogues to pick from. Contained in Five Pebbles' pearls are memories, processes, ciphers, and images he was likely using at the time you stole the pearls from his chamber.

Scavengers value pearls, and player reputation can be increased by giving them as gifts. Scavengers will drop and allow you to take items held when given pearls, or other valuable objects. Scavenger Merchants typically carry many valuable weapons and items, which makes trading with them more worthwhile. Any colored pearl given to them, however, is lost forever.

Giving pearls to scavengers is the most effective strategy for getting the Chieftain achievement, and colored pearls will give one pip each towards the Scholar achievement when slept with.

Gold - Chimney Canopy
This information is illegal. Someone probably tried to send it by a pearl somehow rather than risking being overheard on broadcast.

I think the risk of you acting on this is very slim, so I'll go ahead and explain it to you. It's an instruction on how to circumvent the self-destruction taboo.

The problem with breaking taboos is that the barriers are encoded into every cell of our organic parts. And there are other taboos strictly regulating our ability to rewrite our own genome.

So what you need is to somehow create a small sample of living organic matter which can procreate and act on the rest of your organic matter to re-write its genome. The re-write has to be very specific, overriding the specific taboo you want to circumvent but do nothing else.

The method described here is about scrambling the genome of standard plastic neural tissue with temperature fluctuations. After each scramble you browse the resulting cells for the genome you're after. This is of course extremely time consuming, unless you run a big number of parallel processes.

I definitely don't have any experience with this, but to me it would seem that too many parallel processes would be quite dangerous, as it would be exponentially more difficult to manage and control them all. The whole operation seems rather risky if you ask me.

It might be a good thing that this pearl never reached its destination.

Trivia

 * The tissue this process aims to create (self-replicating, rewrites organic cells of Iterator) describes the Rot. It's heavily implied that Five Pebbles ran many parallel processes like the pearl says, thus sucking up four times the normal amount of water to handle running them, which caused Moon to force communications with him (which is said to be 'unpleasant to all') which caused the experiment to fail which caused the Rot to form from the standard plastic neural tissue instead of the desired result.
 * Moon says, "It might be a good thing that this pearl never reached its destination." We know that Five Pebbles very very likely used this process, and this means either Five Pebbles created the pearl, received the pearl from an unknown Iterator then threw it out, or this is a different pearl than the one Five Pebbles got the information from.

Pink - Farm Arrays
This one is just plain text. I will read it to you.

"On regards of the (by spiritual splendor eternally graced) people of the Congregation of Never Dwindling Righteousness, we Wish to congratulate (o so thankfully) this Facility on its Loyal and Relished services, and to Offer our Hopes and Aspirations that the Fruitful and Mutually Satisfactory Cooperation may continue, for as long as the Stars stay fixed on their Celestial Spheres and/or the Cooperation continues to be Fruitful and Mutually Satisfactory."

"It is with Honor I, Eight Suns-Countless Leaves, of the House of Six Wagons, Count of no living blocks, Counselor of 2, Duke of 1, Humble Secretary of the Congregation of Never Dwindling Righteousness, write this to You."

"We hope that the Crops are healthy, and that the Productivity with which your Facility is Blessed, leads (as it often does) to further Prosperity. May Not as long as the Stars stay fixed on their Celestial Spheres Grey Hand, Impure Blood, Inheritable Corruption, Parasites, or malfunction settle in Your establishment."

"Leaning on the Solid Foundation of our Long Running Fruitful and Mutually Satisfactory Cooperation, we will take the liberty of stating The Reason for this Message ~ we write to Warmly thank You for yet Another Timely and Appreciated delivery of your Product (Nectar) to our Community (Congregation of Never Dwindling Righteousness). Our humble Words can never Aspire to Describe our gratitude."

"Sincerely..." And then the name and titles again.

It's a confirmation to an automated farming plot that a shipment of beverages has arrived.

Trivia

 * This pearl very likely describes a shipment from Farm Arrays to the city on top of Five Pebbles. It is said that the Iterator is responsible for every resource to sustain the cities on top of them, including 'Nectar', which is seemingly the beverage produced at Farm Arrays, and Farm Arrays are confirmed by Five Pebbles himself to belong to him.
 * The wording of this pearl, such as 'Mutually Satisfactory Cooperation' and the diseases listed like 'Grey hand, Impure Blood, and Parasites' being wished not to befall the facility as well as Scavengers living in high numbers in Farm Arrays, might indicate that Scavengers were used as farming slaves before the Ancients left, taking over the territory after.

Red - Farm Arrays
It's a Small Plate, a little text of spiritual guidance. It's written by a monk called Four Cabinets, Eleven Hatchets. It's old, several ages before the Void Fluid revolution.

Like most writing from this time it’s quite shrouded in analogies, but the subject is how to shed one of the five natural urges which tie a creature to life. Namely number four, gluttony.

It is basically an instruction on how to starve yourself on herbal tea and gravel, but disguised as a poem.

Now of course when Void Fluid was discovered these methods proved obsolete, as it was more easy just jumping in a vat of it to effortlessly leave this world behind.

There were some horror stories though... That if your ego was big enough, not even the Void Fluid could entirely cross you out, and a faint echo of your pompousness would grandiosely haunt the premises forever.

So even when the Void Fluid baths became cheaper, some would still starve and drink the bitter tea.

Trivia

 * This pearl refers to 'five natural urges', the fourth being gluttony, that must be shed in order to ascend. In conjunction with the murals on top of Five Pebbles, we can deduce that these 'five natural urges' are represented by the five levels of karma, and their meanings. The first level represents violence, or wrath. The mural shows an Ancient attacking another on the ground with the second karma level between them. The second level represents lust, or sex. The mural shows two Ancients having sex with the second karma symbol by them. The third level represents companionship. This is shown by two Ancients going to embrace each other, with one holding a scroll that looks to be a declaration of good will, given the third karma symbol on it. The fourth level represents gluttony. This is shown by a fat Ancient surrounded by food, eating a cooked chicken-like organism on a stick surrounded by pupa fruit, with the fourth karma symbol on his belly. The final karma level means survival, or staying alive. It is represented by an Ancient shielding himself from what look like arrows, with the fifth karma symbol on his face.
 * Moon mentions 'a faint echo of your pompousness would grandiosely haunt the premises forever' if your ego was too big when you ascended via Void Fluid. This is referencing the Echoes, and they do indeed seem pretty egotistical.

Cyan - Garbage Wastes
This one... is authored by Five Pebbles, when he was young. There has been an attempt to scramble the data, but it's sloppily done, and most is still somewhat legible.

It's written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand. It's a methodology for global ascension of course - quite good, although the Peripherists or the Slab Mongers certainly wouldn't agree!

"...considering the eighth and the twenty sixth amendments to the Capricious Dogma, we are apparently supposed to take for granted that a meaning collector point inversion is the only way to approach what has later become referred to as 'noise milking' (or occasionally 'rock swatting'). I will argue my disagreement with this, not in regards to kind but in regards to..." Could it say... "volume"? Actually, are you getting anything out of this?

I suppose you found this in his waste department? I would be wary of going there - on his first fit of corruption he dumped a lot of infected material there, and if it has survived it could easily eat a little creature like you. Not that it would be as dangerous as going into Pebbles himself...

Also the pearls in the waste masses inevitably attract Scavengers, which can be very dangerous when provoked.

But, you seem to have made it out of there.

Trivia

 * This pearl contains a methodology for global ascension made by Five Pebbles, who scrambled the data before throwing it out. This is foreshadowing for Five Pebbles' frustration with the Great Task that leads to the failed attempt to cross himself out which failed and crated the Rot.
 * Moon reveals that Garbage Wastes is actually Five Pebbles' waste department, and Scavengers have gathered to this region for the amount of pearls Five Pebbles dumps here.
 * According to Moon, Five Pebbles dumped infected material in Garbage Wastes during 'his first fit of corruption'. This is in reference to the Brother Long Legs presence in Garbage Wastes, as Five Pebbles dumped the first Rot into Garbage Wastes in an attempt to stave off the infection. Obviously this failed.

Blue - Industrial
It's a production record of a mask factory, for what seems to be its last time in service. Have you seen a bone mask? Likely not, they are all gone with their owners.

In ancient times the masks were actually about showing spiritual persuasion - covering the face as a way to symbolically abate the self. Then of course, that was quite subverted as excessively ornate and lavish masks became an expression of identity. Some public persons did have problems with narrow doorways.

Originally monks in a temple would make the masks using bone plaster, and when the production was automated it would generally remain on the same site. So that the old stones could... radiate the material with holiness, I suppose.

This is from one such facility called Side House, which was here on Pebble's grounds. In the iterator projects many old industrial-religious sites like this were remodeled and incorporated. I think this one was made to provide pellets of holy ash to Pebbles, but knowing him he probably hasn't used much of it!

Trivia

 * The factory mentioned in this pearl is Industrial Complex, confirming the real name of IC to be 'Side House'
 * This pearl says that Industrial Complex, a.k.a. Side House was used as a mask factory before the Iterator era, until Five Pebbles was built, where production shifted to holy ash pellets for use by the Iterator (who probably hasn't used much of it).
 * The masks this factory used to produce can be see in the murals on top of Five Pebbles. A common misconception is that the masks produced here are Vulture masks due to both being made of bone, but that is not the case. We can tell they are Ancient masks because Moon says they are all gone with their owners, made with bone plaster as opposed to bone interwoven with another material like Vulture masks, and the second and third paragraphs talk about how Ancients were the ones who wore them and why.
 * The pearl also implies that Industrial Complex, a.k.a. Side House was built where a temple used to be. This explains its proximity to Shaded Citadel, a religious site, as Industrial Complex used to be part of the religious site as well.

Yellow - Looks to the Moon
Interesting... This one is written by me.

It's about an iterator called Sliver of Straw. I don't remember when I wrote it... Do you know Sliver of Straw? She's quite legendary among us.

Sliver of Straw is the only one to ever broadcast a specific signal: that the Big Problem we're all working on has been solved. The triple affirmative - affirmative that a solution has been found, affirmative that the solution is portable, and affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and generally applicable. She's also one of few that has ever been confirmed as exhaustively incapacitated, or dead. We do not die easily.

Sliver of Straw sent this and the ensuing commotion was historically unparalleled, before or after. I still remember it. But... nothing happened - except that Sliver of Straw was apparently dead. When the dust settled we were all still there blinking at each other.

Everyone had a theory. Some said that she did have a solution, but that the solution itself was somehow dangerous. These later became known as the Triangulators, who think that a solution should be inferred without being directly discovered.

Some said she never had a solution, she just died. And when the systems broke down an erroneous signal was sent.

One camp claimed that dying was the solution.

Either way, after that these different factions developed, as well as a huge forensic effort to recreate and simulate Sliver of Straw's last moments. Some of the simulations were wrapped in a simulation wrapped in a simulation, in case something dangerous might happen. Nothing much has come from it.

In my essay I make the case that maybe she should be allowed to rest in peace now.

Trivia

 * Moon says, "One camp claimed dying was the solution." This is in reference to Erratic Pulse, the pseudonym used by Five Pebbles in a closed Sliverist conversation group, who seems to be the first to start campaigning the idea that dying is the solution to the Great Problem. In the 'Sky Islands 2' pearl on this page (scroll down a bit), you can see the first time Erratic Pulse mentions the idea. Then, in the next pearl, 'Sky Islands 3', which takes place a little while later, Chasing Winds says Erratic Pulse has been spreading the idea even more and has even revealed his plan at crossing himself out. It is likely in this time frame that Erratic Pulse garnered a following of others who believed this as well.
 * Moon herself was actually exhaustively incapacitated, in other words dead, before Hunter revived her, like Sliver of Straw

Sky Islands 1
Note: Sky Islands pearls are dark blue and dark green.

This one is an old conversation between Five Pebbles and a friend of his. I'll read it to you.

"1591.290 - PRIVATE Five Pebbles, Seven Red Suns

FP: Can I tell you something? Lately...

FP: I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for them. Why do we do this?

SRS: Yes, I'll spell this out - not because you're stupid or naive... Also, not saying that you're not ~

FP: Please, I'm coming to you for guidance.

SRS: Sorry, very sorry. I kid. Fact is, of course we are all aware of the evident futility of this Big Task. It's not said out loud but if you were better at reading between the lines there's nowhere you wouldn't see it. We're all frustrated.

FP: So why do we continue? We assemble work groups, we ponder, we iterate and try. Some of us die. It's not fair.

SRS: Because there's not any options. What else CAN we do? You're stuck in your can, and at any moment you have no more than two alternatives: Do nothing, or work like you're supposed to.

SRS: An analogy. You have a maze, and you have a handful of bugs. You put the bugs in the maze, and you leave. Given infinite time, one of the bugs WILL find a way out, if they just erratically try and try. This is why they called us Iterators.

FP: But we do die of old age.

SRS: Even more incentive! You know that nothing ever truly dies though, around and around it goes. Granted, our tools and resources get worse over time - but that is theoretically unproblematic, because in time even a miniscule chance will strike a positive. All the same to them, they're not around anymore!

FP: I struggle to accept being a bug."

Trivia

 * Seven Red Suns' quote, "erratically try and try", is what influences Five Pebbles' pseudonym 'Erratic Pulse' in the next chatlog pearls.
 * This pearl is one of the earliest foreshadowing of Five Pebbles' frustration with the Great Task. This frustration is what led him to run the experiment that accidentally kills Looks to the Moon and creates the Rot. The earliest foreshadowing is the colored pearl found in Garbage Wastes.

Sky Islands 2
Oh, this one is all plain text. It's an excerpt from an Iterator conversation group.

"1650.787 - CLOSED GROUP [SLIVEROFOCEAN] SliverOfOcean group, all participants anonymous

UU: Hah! I wouldn't necessarily disagree!

NGI: SLIVER OF STRAW WAS A TRAITOR TO THE CAUSE

NGI: SLIVER OF STRAW BROKE THE SELF-DESTRUCTION TABOO

UU: How did this idiot get in here? Kick them out ~

NGI: [forcefully removed from group]

EP: I think they had a point.

UU: Hahaha really? Elaborate!

EP: It was definitely coming from an idiotic state of mind, but there is something to it. Why is it, that even in a closed Sliverist group, the self-destruction taboo is held so high - while Sliver of Straw herself evidently is not among us anymore?

HF: Wait now...

EP: I'm just saying that for all the research we are doing, all the theories we have, it's strange that we leave this path untrod.

EP: It is not a new idea, but it needs to be vented occasionally. What if there is no universal solution? What if perception is in fact existence, and when Sliver of Straw sent the triple positive it was not a mistake? What if crossing oneself out, or even just death, is the way? We need to consider the possibility."

Trivia

 * This pearl is a chatlog in a private, anonymous group of 'Sliverists'. Sliverists are Iterators who are studying Sliver of Straw's death and the mysterious Triple Affirmative sent by her during it.
 * Based on the attitude of the Iterator under the pseudonym abbreviated as 'UU', we can infer that this is No Significant Harassment, who is also jovial and jokey.
 * Erratic Pulse, a.k.a. Five Pebbles, first proposes the idea of self-destruction in this chatlog. This idea leads to the accidental death of Moon and creation of the Rot.

Sky Islands 3
It's an old conversation log. I seem to be in it, but I can't recall much. Let me read it to you:

"1650.800 - PRIVATE Five Pebbles, Chasing Wind, Big Sis Moon, No Significant Harassment

CW: this is in confidence, but apparently a pseudonym "Erratic Pulse" has appeared on a nearby Sliverist conversation with ideas about personal ascension. Someone here in our vicinity is trying to cross themselves out.

FP: Where did you hear this?

NSH: I wish them super good luck in that endeavor. How is it going to happen? Have the overseers gnaw through bedrock until their entire can crashes down in the void sea?

BSM: Please be respectful when speaking of the Void Sea. Grey Wind, where did you hear this?

CW: I really shouldn't say. He's going to attempt some sort of breeding program. Thought you might want to know.

NSH: Haha with the slimers, lizards and etceteras? Surely the answer was in a lizard skull all along!

CW: Well, he's not looking for the same thing as we anymore, he's changed his task, so who knows really.

BSM: I will try to find him and talk to him. Please don't spread this around!

NSH: Moon will go get them! Long live the inquisition!"

Trivia

 * This chatlog seems to take place at least 13 cycles after Erratic Pulse first proposes the idea of self-destruction. In that time span, he has revealed his plan to use a breeding program to achieve personal ascension. No Significant Harassment jokingly mentions 'the answer being in a lizard skull all along'. Knowing that Five Pebbles requires 'standard plastic neural tissue' to run the experiment to cross himself out, it's likely he used the breeding program as a front to harvest it from the brains of lizards.

Sky Islands 4
It's me writing to the local iterator group. I have no memories of this...

"1654.110 - PUBLIC Big Sis Moon to Local Group

BSM: Two cycles ago, my neighbor Five Pebbles drastically increased his water consumption to four times the normal amount. He has been unresponsive for a period of time longer than that. The two of us share groundwater, and I have been without water for almost a cycle.

BSM: Any attempts at communication have been met with complete silence, and my situation is becoming increasingly dangerous.

BSM: I ask the local group for information about when you were last able to contact him, and to try to use those same communication channels again, repeatedly until you get a response. I will be clear on this - if he is not persuaded to stop whatever it is he's doing, I will die.

BSM: Before that happens, I will utilize my seniority privilege and use forced communications, hoping to shake him out of it. Forced communications in the network will be unpleasant for all, and I will wait as long as possible before I turn to that option."

And now here I am, to my waist in water and getting drowned on the regular.

Sky Islands 5
I remember this. It isn't pleasant reading. But if you must hear it, this is what it says:

"1654.116 - PRIVATE [FORCED]

Big Sis Moon. Five Pebbles

BSM: Immediately lower your groundwater consumption to one fifth of the current intake.

BSM: Stop whatever it is you are doing.

BSM: Please stop!

BSM: As your local group senior I order you you you you you you

BSM: As your senior senior I plead

BSM: stop

Five Pebbles: You could not have chosen a worse moment to disturb me. You have ruined everything.

BSM: please

Five Pebbles: I almost had it. I will never forget this."

Purple - Shoreline
It's about the local aquifer - it must be quite old, from when Five Pebbles was in the planning phase.

Water is the most important resource for our basic function. Most of our processing is outsourced to microbe strata which need a flow of clean water or else slag builds up, our processes seize, and eventually we die. It is... very painful. They used to say that an iterator drinks a river, but neither of us two have seen a natural river so I suppose the analogy is lost on us, little creature!

Originally water supply was very important when placing iterators. Later there would be a great equalizer - the fact that we breathe out as much vapor as we inhale water led to there being water available everywhere, and the latest few generations could be placed almost completely freely.

Building Pebbles so close to me was believed to be a risky choice, but the groundwater was finally deemed as sufficient. It was not a good decision, in hindsight.

Maroon - Shaded Citadel (Memory Crypts)
Oh this one is interesting. You must have found it in the memory crypts? It has some plain text, I can read it out to you.

"In this vessel is the living memories of Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel, of the House of Braids, Count of 8 living blocks, Counselor of 16, Grand Master of the Twelfth Pillar of Community, High Commander of opinion group Winged Opinions, of pure Braid heritage, voted Local Champion in the speaking tournament of 1511.090, Mother, Father and Spouse, Spiritual Explorer and honorary member of the Congregation of Balanced Ambiguity. Artist, Warrior, and Fashion Legend.

Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel nobly decided to ascend in the beginning of 1514.008, after graciously donating all (ALL!) earthly possessions to the local Iterator project (Unparalleled Innocence), and left these memories to be cherished by the carnal plane.

The assorted memories and qualia include:

Watching dust suspended in a ray of sun (Old age). Eating a very tasty meal (Young child). Defeating an opponent in a debate contest, and being applauded by fellow team members (Late childhood/Early adulthood).

..."

...and the list goes on. I'm sorry, little creature, I won't read all of this - the list is six hundred and twenty items long.

Light Blue - Outskirts
Its entire memory is filled with a mantra repeated... 5061 times - and then a termination verse. It was worn as an amulet, probably together with many identical others forming a pattern on some garment.

The repeating mantra is important because it symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and death, and the termination verse is a symbol for ascension above and beyond it. I don't know how familiar you are with the nature of life and death, but I imagine like all living creatures you have some intuitive knowledge?

Then you know that death isn't the end - birth and death are connected to each other like a ring, or some say a spiral. Some say a spiral that in turn forms a ring. Some ramble in agonizing longevity. But the basis is agreed upon: like sleep like death, you wake up again - whether you want to or not.

This is true for all living things, but some actually break the cycle. That doesn't apply to you or me though, you are too entangled in your animal struggles, and for me not breaking that cycle is an integral part of the design. Our mantras keep repeating

Green - Drainage
It's an old text. The verses are familiar to me, but I don't remember by whom they were written. The language is very old and intricate.

The first verse starts by drawing a comparison between the world and a tangled rug. It says that the world is an unfortunate mess. Like a knot, the nature of its existence is the fact that the parts are locking each other, none able to spring free.

Then as it goes on the world becomes a furry animal hide, I suppose... because now us living beings are like insects crawling in the fur. And then it's a fishing net, because the more we struggle and squirm, the more entangled we become.

It says that only the limp body of the jellyfish cannot be captured in the net. So we should try to be like the jellyfish, because the jellyfish doesn't try.

This was an eternal dilemma to them - they were burdened by great ambition, yet deeply convinced that striving in itself was an unforgivable vice. They tried very hard to be effortless. Perhaps that's what we were to them, someone to delegate that unrestrained effort to.

I know I have tried very hard.

Crimson - Subterranean (Ravine)
1681.662 - PRIVATE Seven Red Suns, Chasing Wind

CW: Have you had any contact with Five Pebbles recently?

SRS: Not in a long while actually! Unless worrying about him counts.

CW: One of his neighbors, Unparalleled Innocence, sent an overseer to his can and got some images. They were made public in the local group, in an effort to be mean I suppose. There's no other way of putting it - he looks awful.

SRS: Tell me.

CW: He's got the rot, very badly. Big cysts have become mobile and are scattering down the west and middle legs. He does listen to you, and few others by now, so you should talk to him.

SRS: I will try to contact him. Does Moon know?

CW: Moon has been unavailable for some time.

Teal - Subterranean (Filtration)
It's the blueprint for a Void Fluid filtration system. Do you know what Void Fluid is? I think you don't.

If you leave a stone on the ground, and come back some time later, it's covered in dust. This happens everywhere, and over several lifetimes of creatures such as you, the ground slowly builds upwards.

So why doesn't the ground collide with the sky? Because far down, under the very very old layers of the earth, the rock is being dissolved or removed. The entity which does this is known as the Void Sea.

If you drill far enough into the earth you begin encountering a substance called Void Fluid. The deeper you go, the less rock and more Void Fluid. It's believed that there is a point where the rock completely gives way - below that would be the Void Sea.

When that stone you placed on the ground has finally done its time in the sediments, it meets the Void Fluid and is dissolved, leaving the physical world.

My creators, or rather my creators' ancestors, figured out a way to use Void Fluid. Because you can generate energy by creating a vacuum... never mind. Anyways, the Void Fluid drills were what started the big technological leap, but this is very long before I entered this world - so I can only tell you what I remember from priming.

A Void Fluid filtration system is used because if you take Void Fluid from close to the bedrock horizon, it will contain traces of rock and dirt. They bring in dirty fluid and then filter it to increase its purity. The other way is to put a pipe deeper, which works well for some time, but the pipe dissolves. Or is broken by some... force - no one really knows, you don't go down there and come back up.

I hope that satisfied your curiosity, little creature?

Dark Grey - Exterior (City)
"...we will not consider the Current Situation acceptable. Although our community is Blessed with an ever shrinking Population, and we can Almost Glimpse that Glorious moment when the last of us has joined our most Admired peers, we must still (at All Times!) maintain Good Relations with our Iterator.

The Moral Argument: Five Pebbles is our Creation, and we have Parental Obligations towards him. As an Iterator, he is also a Gift of Charity from Us to The World (unable to reach Enlightenment by itself - being composed mostly of Rock, Gas, dull witted Bugs and Microbes - and towards which We thus have Obligations).

The Practical Argument: Despite You being family, I must Beg Forgiveness for the Blunt Vulgarity - but We are (for as long as we Remain) Dependent on Five Pebbles for Water, Nectar, Energy, Void Fluid and All other Vital Resources.

By Now, living on the surface is Laughable.

We are Across the River and have Kicked out the Boat.

I therefor ask you to Do Anything in your Might to stop the House (We both know which House) from Further Obstruction! They have less than forty members on the Council, but still Tilt the spiritual Discourse with Our Iterator in a direction that most obviously Displeases him, and is hardly High Held by anyone in the Community either! We can not Risk this!"

And then there are polite farewells. None of us really miss the times when their cities were populated. Imagine having skin parasites that also ask for advice and have opinions...

I'm sorry, that was disrespectful. They were our parents after all.

Pink - Shoreline (Tower)
It is the genome for a purposed organism A small slug to clean the inside of pipes

Do you know what a purposed organism is? Actually you are talking to one right now!

Although, a small fraction of one. Nowadays I am mostly just my puppet. The bulk of me is in these walls but I am disconnected from those parts, to a degree where I am only vaguely aware of how bad their condition is.

Most purposed organisms were considerably smaller than me, and most barely looked like organisms at all. More like tubes in metal boxes, where something went in one end and something else came out the other.

There were of course those that were purposed to spectacle rather than industry - they enjoyed the privilege of glass boxes.

When I came into this world there was very little primal fauna left. So it's highly likely that you are the descendant of a purposed organism yourself!

Pale Green - Red Slugcat (Hardmode)
"Triple affirmative! Triple affirmative!

In all seriousness though, noticed barely any rain from your can so figured a little support might be in order.

Wasn't that easy to see of course with Pebbles' shall we say healthy output.

Enjoy the slag keys! Excuse the unorthodox delivery method. equipment eroding ect ect.

Be well NSH"

Oh.

I see now. Again thank you little friend.

= Common Pearl Lore = This is a movement acceptance invoice from one of the Dual Celia living blocks, as requested by Eight Bogs of the House of Eight during the Tan hegemonic architectural dynasty. All very standard stuff. I can't imagine that you'd be interested.

Unfortunately I can't read this as it isn't a memory construct pearl. This is just a simple diamond sphere, as worthless as the carbon it's printed from.

"...through the mists of memory, your image dances, like the motes of dust, in a ray of sunlight, that pierces a dark room." A line of verse from the ancient farmer-poet Pel. Very dreary if you ask me.

"Fifteen stems of sun bark, hydrolyzed. Twelve to nineteen bushels of atomized chalk powder. Assorted Root vegetation..." It goes on and on. A shopping list, or perhaps a recipe.

I am sorry, this pearl is damaged and cannot be read. I suggest you use it for trade with the scavengers, as they won't know the difference.

This is an official decree of cultivation sent from the twenty-second Subsistence Council ordering the eastern spoke Farm Array administration to "immediately harvest and process all viable crops, despite whatever misgivings they might have." A short-sighted endeavor for sure. I would assume this was sent sometime during the final cycles leading up to final public ascension, when interest in biosphere sustainability was at an all-time low.

Here we have a schematic for a refuse reclamation automaton. It's an early design, but the long tubular body and single eye-mouth are quite similar to the later models.

"We, of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, do hereby demand, with full force of Law and Religious doctrine, an Immediate end to construction of the Apostate Superstructure Abomination. To place shadow upon the Divine Body of the True Anointed Citadel is outrageous blasphemy and cannot be tolerated, no matter the circumstances..." Clearly this was ignored.

Oh, interesting. This is a diary entry of a pre-Iterator era laborer during the construction of the subterranean transit system south of here. In it they describe restless nights filled with disturbing dreams, where millions glowing stars move menacingly in the distance.

There isn't much to the data here, it's just basic theory for karmic transform of n-dimensional geometries. But the pearl itself is quite interesting. You can see the crude holes burned through the center that the scavengers use to tie these pearls onto their totems or to carry. I honestly can't fathom how they achieve this with their primitive level of technology! Fascinating.

This one is all blank, sorry.

I am sorry, all of that work for nothing! This pearl is completely blank.

There's nothing on this one, unfortunately.

This one has nothing on it.

I'm sorry, this one has nothing on it.

I can't make anything out of this pearl, it's just too faded. But there might have been something on it once.

This one has a small crack and has been pretty badly corrupted. There is a slight impression of the shape of a wing on it, but I can't get a clear image.

There's nothing on this one.

I see a vague memory of a family portrait, painted in the High Classical manner that was famous during the Yellow hegemonic literary dynasty. The portrait is likely a fake, as this style was quite fashionable for aspirational lower caste aristocrats to impress each-other with. This one does not impress, I assure you.

It has been written to, but then scrambled, and then scrambled again. Suspicious behavior to be sure.

This one has been purposefully scrambled, it's completely illegible. Business documents perhaps.

This one seems to have an image on it, but the pearl has been exposed to sunlight and it's very faded. I see a tall structure with banners unfurled.

There might be something on here, but the pearl has been lying in the sun and it's all very pale. I'm too tired to look any deeper, I apologize.

This is a growing instruction for the skeleton of a creature, but I don't recognize the creature. It was small, about your size.

This one seems to be a number series... Perhaps a key?

A number series... I would guess some kind of cipher.

This one is filled with active working memory - without knowing the surrounding process this information is meaningless.

It just has the number "8" written on it, the rest is empty.

This is a blueprint for a support beam used for the construction of early industrial areas. You can see these in use not too far from here.

It's a design for a machine that makes bolts.

It's a... recipe of some kind? "Two parts rot bar extract, one part bone ash." Nothing I recognize.

It's an image of a hand drawn document. The calligraphy is quite beautiful, but the text itself is a very dull classical poem.

This is the genome of a sulfur-processing microbe. In my opinion these were used far too late to have any effect.

This one I don't know... It could be an old text, but some parts don't add up. Might be a re-imagination of a classic text that I'm not familiar with.

It's a song, or hymn rather. Very repetitive.

Can't make out anything legible on this one, sorry.

A list of someone's lucky numbers. There are no less than 71 of them.

"Dear diary..." and that's it.

A model of a pipe section.

It's a catalog of bolts and screws for sky-sail joinery. We iterators were built for pragmatism, so it is an understatement to say that we were not known for our appreciation of beauty... but the sky-sails in flight during the big festivals always filled my soul with emotion.

It's the blueprint for a small incense purification filter. Life on the superstructure archologies

An image... of five bottles, standing on a surface made of... plants? I have no idea what this is.

No. I don't want to talk about the content of this pearl.

A schematic of a bunch of gas pipes. I don't know the purpose for this machine, but it doesn't look particularly well crafted.

It's just the numbers 14, 13, 5, repeated over and over. I have no idea what the purpose for this would be.

A small portion is still legible: "and Thus we Conclude, that Gold and Water shall..." Some sort of metaphysical or alchemical treatise perhaps.

Oh? This contains an image of another pearl just like it. Let me look... yes, as I thought, the image also contains an image of a pearl in it, and so on. Some comedian playing recursion games, I would guess.

=Pebble’s Pearls =

'''These pearls can only be found inside Pebble’s room. Like common pearls, these do not contain unique text, but are instead randomly selected from the list below, usually preceded by Moon explaining how they were recently used.'''

It's an active working memory - raw data has been dropped here in order to later be pasted to a currently occupied memory conflux. Without context it's just a jumble.

It is the impression of being a small creature, like a wall climbing lizard, and looking up into the branches of a big tree. The last third is partly overwritten with a number series I vaguely recognize, but without my memory…

A common prayer mantra repeated 7110 times. Each repetition has some slight random variations, which seem to have been written later.

It's an image of a single grey cloud, hovering above a surface of white clouds under a deep blue sky.

Two... intertwined number series? I don't quite understand the utility of this. Might a key for a cipher processor, customized for some other data which is impossible to infer from this.

It's qualia, or a moment - a very short one. Someone is holding a black stone, and twisting it slightly as they drag their finger across the rough surface. The entire sequence is shorter than a heartbeat, but the resolution is extraordinary.

An active working memory. Without knowing where this was cut from or where it's to be pasted to, it is not really possible to decipher it. If I had to guess, I would say it has something to do with trance inducing number series.

It's just an active working memory, I can't really tell you anything without the context.

Without the process surrounding this data there isn't much I can tell you. It might have something to do with Void Fluid simulation…

This one is completely blank. Actually, blanker than blank, it must have been deliberately overwritten with repeating negative versions of itself for thousands of iterations.

A memory... but not really visual, or even concrete, in its character. It reminds of the feeling of a warm wind, but not the physical feeling but the... inner feeling. I don't think it has much utility unless you are doing some very fringe Regeneraist research.