Mares #

The Mares were not mere hallucinations but shared visions that exploited the cognitive architecture of their victims,- -inducing paralysing fear.

Mares are nightmarish shared hallucinations, often compared to sleep paralysis demons. We seem to occasionally see these mares in the ARG, with several characters being confirmed to suffer from them.

Visions of mares were also discovered in Ikaro Lauren, who would draw the mares. He was not exposed to the cult in the same way, suggesting that he may have inherited them or that the ability was cultivated somehow. Dr. Elias Mortem speculates that the mares may have an epigenetic factor.

Background #

Skys’ Mares #

Skys went through a lot of trauma as a kid, which stemmed from his unique pink hair, a consequence of nuclear fallout from World War 3.0. He was born in Novosovia, a religious country with strong government control. People feared the pink-haired boy, and he was kicked out by his parents at 8 years old. He fled to Ingleterra, where he met a group practicing the law of Velama (based on real-life Thelema), with mysterious powers. After the group leader Alby did terrible things to Skys, he eventually took revenge and fled again.

This time Skys ended up in an abandoned asylum, as we learn from Unbeleevable Episode 2. The events around this time are in the music video for Teardrops, which also shows Skys dyeing his hair black with leech blood. He ends up taking a lot of drugs, which gave him chronic sleep paralysis and visions of the mares.

At some point, Skys picked up a guitar and found success with his band “Skys & the Starjammers”. He started appearing in interviews, at which point he caught the attention of scientist Karl Strassman, the founder of neospiritualism.

Cult of Mantra #

Strassman decided to meet up with Skys at the Skys & the Starjammers soirée at the October Palace. This was in 2004, after Skys had decided to return to their home country of Novosovia. He brought along his partner Dallus Lauren and their assistant Ro. That night, Skys demonstrated some of his mystical powers, which impressed the scientists enough to stay with the cult.

In the year of 2015, Skys started Project Kingslayer. He believed others could gain access to the powers of the mares (and possibly enlightenment) through pain. He started torturing his patient zero, Alfgram, who boasted that the experiment had given him access to other dimensions and the power to harness dark matter. Skys looked for more willing subjects through an encrypted message he sent out to the youth of Novosovia. Victor Carmine, prominent mob boss and company owner in the powerful DTC got access to the message, who was very interested in the applications of their research as a bioweapon.

In 2020, the Novosovian government tried to intervene in the cult at October Palace, in an event named the October Massacre. Notably, the cult members were able to fend off hundreds of troops by using psychological warfare: they managed to cause visions of the mares that would bring grown men to their knees.

D.U.S.T. & P.S.Y. #

The first document released speaking about the mares was the Project D.U.S.T. Proposal. The document tells us Dallus is still very much suffering from mares, as well as his son Ren. The proposal is written in 2021, when Lyra was just a newborn. Ren has visions of the mares and drew them, which suggests that mares somehow affected him too. Dallus’ diary, written shortly after the project proposal, reveals that Skys is now in a coma.

Project D.U.S.T. focuses on transcendence through pain. Dr. Elias Mortem proposes a “phase 2 Altilium Chordata” tank. Sof describes this in their journal as tanks that keep people breathing, while putting them through hell. His goal was to reach the hidden dimensions Skys and Alfgram spoke about.

It seems like many cult members gained the ability to manipulate mares through psychological/physical trauma as well as P.S.Y., or Psychoactive Structured Yttrium. The cult members were largely wiped out during the Fall of October Palace, an event depicted in the official music video for Mantra.

The “Special Six”, a set of children also managed to fight off their attackers using abilities similar to that of P.S.Y. (speculated to be in the Kool-Aid music video. Dr. Elias Mortem remarks that these abilities are either cultivated (which means they would have been experimented on) or innate (they were born with them). These children were recovered during Operation Trinity and are brought to ARC/HIVE. It seems likely that they were used as test subjects for Arc/Hive’s projects, as the project proposal states that the subjects they are experimenting on are too dangerous to release.

Since children are now also displaying the abilities that the cult members gained through Mantra’s sadistic drug-fueled activities, Elias speculates that there may be an epigenetic component to the mares. This implies that mares, once present in a parent, can be passed onto their children.

VSPR-37 #

The VSPR-37 pandemic seems to be caused by physical manifestations of mares in the real world, also referred to as voidlings. They look similar to sleep paralysis demons.

During the pandemic Selene is a young woman living in New Elysium, with the same pink hair observed in Skys and later Sof. She is referred to as NYX-01 by Nex Gen’s FANTOM team in the Kingslayer Codec. Nex Gen attempts to retrieve Selene and her friend Scott, who is referred to as NYX-02, but Scott has transformed into a voidling and attacks Selene. The FANTOM team brings her back to Nex Gen’s facilities, where they discover that she is immune to the virus.

Post Pandemic #

Selene’s unique pineal gland still produces DMT and turns out to be the source of her immunity, and allows her to enter Youtopia in 2038. Before entering the dimension, she must cleanse herself of “mare attachments” through performing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP). E.V.E. sees great potential in helping humanity escape to Youtopia, after the world was ruined by the war, the pandemic and the resulting voidlings and starts Project Dreamseeker.

The LBR Sites letterproposes Nex Gen builds several facilities to perform this ritual, to help more people access Youtopia. The letter stresses the importance of the sites after the disasterous “Cradle Crash”. This was an event in 2037 in the final days of Arc/Hive, before the Nex Gen re-brand. The incident was caused by bi-directional energies colliding, with one of those energy sources being Dallus Lauren’s consciousness. Dallus Lauren himself is mentioned to have died around the same time in the D8 log and the re-cap at the end of Sof’s journal.

Nex Gen’s own Karl Strassman also manages to synthesise Selene’s unique indole alkaloid structure into a drug named P.U.S.S-E, which could help humanity access Youtopia. The initial results of drug trials worry Strassman, who contacts E.V.E. in the Strassman Codec. Strassman also questions her motives, but E.V.E. stresses that this is the only way forward and that she will continue the project.

Chapel Incident #

In 2040, Dr. Elias Mortem and his team are slaughtered by voidlings in the Chapel Incident. Some footage was left behind in a video for Sof. The incident also happens around the time Sof themselves is born. They speculate that the deaths are the direct result of Project D.U.S.T. and the dark side of Youtopia.

Sof’s Youth #

Or maybe she’s the voidling that lingers by the east wing viewport, gray and night, chanting in tongues. Some rancid, sour hymn from a place where the sun never shone.

Sof’s journal (introduction)

In some parts of Sof’s journal, they mention that they are 8-years old, dating at least part of the writing back to 2048. Several voidlings are still active and endangering people at this time, and one particular voidling seemingly keeps watching Sof.