What is this?
Inkle's 2019 video game
Heaven's Vault has a section in the game file that's not linked from anywhere. I (just someone on the internet, not related to Inkle) have pulled out the section and reconstructed the scene.
There are a few interesting points:
* Aliya is called Aqila. This is a great name because
Aqila means "wise", and even better because
Aquila means "eagle". It's literally both the eagle and the sun combined into one. It's possible that the eagle and the sun motif was started from this name.
*
Aqila spelled backwards is
Aliqa. Perhaps that's where
Aliya came from.
* The name switches between Aliya and Aqila. This seems to have been written right around when the name changed.
* Lexi Myari is called Lex. Both
Lexi and
Lex are a diminutive of
Alexander or
Alexandra, which means
"defender of men". I don't think it's a fitting name because Lexi very explicitly doesn't care about anyone outside of Iox. Perhaps a name related to a snake would have been more fitting? I couldn't find any meanings on the name
Myari.
* Lex has travelled around with Aqila. Lexi (in-game) never travels.
* Lex used to not be a Looper. It's unknown whether Lexi has always been a Looper, but in this scene Lex used to be a non-Looper until recently.
* Lex is already in power, enough to give and take away robots, but the tone of the dialogue suggests a more casual relationship than Aliya-Lexi. Perhaps Lexi was made a professor and an adopted mother to intensify the power dynamics.
* Lex is worried about an
ancient super-powerful technology. Given that they also talk about
the energy bridge between asteroids, it seems that the game started off with a world where the ancient technologies are accepted as more advanced. The game's final (current) version is so much more nuanced and layered - I'm very happy to see that the original premises didn't stick.
* Talliin is called Tallin (with just one i).
Tallinn (with one i and two n's) is the capital city of Estonia. Maybe someone with more knowledge about Tallinn could comment on how this relates to the robot.
* Aqila
circumvented Tallin's Ethical Core. This is impossible in the game, nor would Aliya be the person to know how. Perhaps this is how Renba's character was developed.
* Robots are upgradable. It seems that the robots started off as just an expensive computer.
* There's an inconsistency where Aqila says that Iox doesn't smell as bad as Iox. Perhaps she meant Elboreth?
Have more thoughts? Please comment in the
Reddit post.