[ChicletPrime]

okay, i'll be upfront about this. i think Xavier's story hit me a little harder emotionally than Rafayel's did. his was absolutely fucking delicious, no question, 12/10 from aesthetics to implications but Xavier's hit me in a romantic sore spot.

if i am reading this right (and i may not be), Philos is in some manner alive (and possibly sentient) or at the very least is a conduit for life energy that it requires to maintain itself. unclear at this point whether the immortality bestowed upon the people living there is intentional (ie, they take it from the planet, which in turns takes it from the 'sacrifices') or automatic (the planet eats life and by virtue of living on it and being uneaten, you benefit from living inside its influence).

and Xavier-of-the-past knew that. he knew that the girl who wanted to be his friend was going to die of it, marked as either unworthy (lets eat her) or too worthy (she'll be the tastiest). the girl herself seemed completely unaware of what was happening, implying that the nobility/upper caste/the insiders weren't spreading it around as a cultural doctrine; early death in comparison to the long-lived ones was just a thing that occassionally befell people and nothing could be done.

and Xavier said nothing. didn't try to save her, didn't try to escape with her, just - let it happen. maybe there was nothing he COULD do, but that he kept silent about it even when she really did become his friend really hurts my poor little heart.

if the main character failed Rafayel at some point, Xavier appears to have failed her so maybe it a karmic balance as to who's dragging who along in which lifetime. I don't have any insight in Zayne's specifics yet honestly, other than he appears to have had to make a terrible decision way back at the beginning that he's never forgiven himself for, but its really quite murky as to what took place and whether he did the wrong thing (with disastrous humanity spanning results) or the right thing (with disastrous personal results).

• Why did Soren want so much to help Xavier (and the crew presumably) travel through the Tunnel?
  
• Why did, whenever they were finally stranded in this reality, did the crew fracture into opposing teams? Or is it just Xavier against Everyone Else? Well, Xavier & Jeremiah.
  
• What choices did Soren make on arrival that Xavier is completely indifferent to his rage?
  
• Is the core of Ever completely made up of the crew of the time travelers?
  
• Did Ever intentionally create the Tunnel in a predeterministic timeline, that required the Tunnel to get them there in the first place?
  
• Are protocores and/or Ather Cores alive in some sense?
  
• Is the energy that infected Philos and made it alive just a really massive aether core?
  
• If protocores come from Wanderers, which may just be corrupted humans, is it just a distillation of life energy into a portable form?
  
• Is Ever collecting more cores than they are using for corruption, implying a stash or store of energy that gets larger over time? 
  
• Are they building what will be the heart of Philos?
  
• Alternatively, are there Wanderers that are NOT corrupted humans, implying a base creature first, then the modified ones?
  
• Since the new trailer specifically says "..minions of the protocore", are protocores some sort of actual alien life taking over humanity and using Ever to do so in this sort of nesting doll layers of hierarchical evil, where you defeat one layer only to expose the next?
  

Less important, but still curious things:

• What is the red collar around Xavier's neck? It triggers when he uses a lot of evol. is it an inhibitor or a warning system tied to the Traceback II?
  
• What is the red bond mark over Rafayel's heart? why did an avatar of a planetary god allow himself to be bound in the first place?
  
• What is the black dust/smoke infecting Zayne's ice? why does it seem present in all his lifetimes?
  

at the very least, my chapter-by-chapter lists have been pretty fun to go back to afterwards and read the highlights as things build or grow.

i have even more questions than this, but better stop here before i look even more crazed.

[Coldsaturn]

I 100% get you because main story Xav is everything and a little more. The way they're slowly revealing all his connections, ties, shady background deals, his branch where you find a forest that eats energy, Xav being terrified of it and implying that the forest got MC at one point, the subtle tragedy of time travel and its consequences. It's just so beautiful, and he's so so soft through it all. You'll love his myths.

Raf suffers from dev decisions that I don't know if they're intentional or not, but he ends up with many fans completely overlooking him because Raf in main story gives you close to nothing to work with. You see him 3 times at most, get more and more confused each time and that's it, everything else is blocked behind cards, limited cards and even paywalls (for example the latest Promise event where his card is lore-necessary but you literally have to pay to get it). I get a freight train to the face every time his lore is even remotely referenced because I know it, but without all those connections it's like eavesdropping on random conversations.

Zayne is another special case because it's like he has 2 separate story lines. The one in the present that we're getting with his career and the research he's following, and then the one of his myths. I will confess out of all the lores, his is the one I connect to the least because it's just my personal taste with narratives. It's nice and well done, I just haven't found an angle where I can properly connect emotionally to it. On the other hand, I love his present story line.

We'll definitely get back to all your theories and questions soon as you start hitting the anecdotes/world underneath and myths. 

The schedule is playing through Homecoming Wings, then I'll probably send you Caleb's standard myth cards which are literally the continuation of Homecoming Wings and will complete that story for you, then you'll finally finally start reading and watching the myths, thus connecting the dots.

[Coldsaturn]

You've now played all these parts so I can happily and finally share this picture!

[ChicletPrime]

/whistles.

nice.

[ChicletPrime]

i can't believe i also didn't notice this - was listening to another audio story that opened up for me and...  yeah. you seeing this? you saw this. i thought it was just the moon with a little star dangling from it, how cute. riiiiight.