the void ?

I think we're all overlooking the fact that the Void is clearly on the moon. Hence the light source is the regular sun, and unlike Earth's moon the Arcanum world moon is large enough to sustain an oxygenated atmosphere - maintained by the wildlife in the Void which is more plantlike in nature and which has extensive cellular processes for fixing carbon dioxide. It orbits Arcanum world because Arcanum world is the size of about 5 Jupiters. The ancient relics - magick moon aliens. The Elven Council thought they were doing something pretty amazing when they "banished" people but all they were really doing was teleporting them to the moon. Ergo, the Elven Council are pretty much NASA or Chell in Portal 2.

Really people - alternate realities - lets not get silly.

 

I dont think the moon is , even in arcanum broken into all these land masses.

 

Moon, asteroid belt - what's the difference really?

 

How can an asteroid be shaped like that? Im still sticking to my familiar theory. what do you think?

 

What if the banishment spell actually shrinks the victim to such subatomic sizes that the rules of time no longer apply and the cracked islands of the Void are actually folded dimensional strings?

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I don't think it is stated in the game, so it's pure speculation one way or another.

That is actually quite an interesting observation!

Don't think it says anything about the Void, though. If he transformed himself into a human-familiar hybrid, being the powerful mage he is, it is quite likely he was able to simply summon a familiar. Also, were the Void intended to be the familiars' native plane, you'd think the player would stumble upon at least one of those there.

Not that familiars necessarily need to have a native plane in the first place. An alternate theory is that they are formed from a mage's essence.

 

I think you might. What if the void is a type of singularity, or simply a fold in space-time?

Now, I know that sentient inhabitants can reckon time while inside, though it doesn't actually mean anything in there like it does anywhere outside of it. Any land masses inside (which could be the result of a large area banishment spell, or the result of a spontaneous collapse into a zeroth dimensional pocket {which itself could indicate the void is at least as old as Arcanum}) would then be free floating bodies, and the source of whatever gravity holds the inhabitants to the surface. As for the light, perhaps that is related to the nature of how time "passes" within the void.

The "sun" of The Void could possibly be the entrance to this pocket dimension. It would be the exact point where the wormhole containing the void loops around and pinches itself off, normally preventing escape - the only way would be to break the forces holding one in there by stepping up to a higher dimension. The way this would work would be with some sort of technological phase shifting device that would make one's mass immune to the effects of gravity, allowing speeds far beyond what a being of mass can normally achieve. This might be how magicks are used to throw someone in there, simply by doing the same thing via force of will. Since the mind isn't necessarily made to comprehend or even register events occurring in four dimensions, the trip would be disorienting and quite difficult to remember - and that a mental command to banish someone to the void might simply be to send that being "away," the sheer vagueness allows the caster to know nothing of the end result.

So, if this makes any sense, perhaps the void doesn't exist separate from the world of Arcanum, but in a vibrational state parallel to it so that the two might occupy the same point in space without directly interacting. This could be why inhabitants of the void experience time, but not its ravages - as if The Void is a parallel or "ghost" dimension.

 

What about the spirit snake there ? the thing is said to be from other world !

 

And that's about all we know about its origin. Too vague to connect it with any place or anything at all really.

 

Going against the grain, there's nothing to say the Void isn't somewhere physical and it's appearance is due to a high level permanent Phatasm spell - I'm still in favour of it being somewhere physical and people just being teleported somewhere.

We're also assuming that Nasrudin is a reliable source of information when he says he doesn't know what the Void is and it's really hard to get someone there. Maybe he knows exactly what it is, how it was made and takes weekend breaks there; he's just denied the Living One this knowledge for his own reasons.

 

Well, you have to remember that this game takes place in a universe where magick exists, and people are known to converse with folk who have died via ripping their souls out of the netherworld. It's possible that the snake was ripped there by a magick user, or ended up there by accident of its own accord. Or, it could've been created that way by a powerful magick practitioner. It might be that the void is actually more like purgatory than anything else, which might make sense considering the allusions to Dante's Inferno.

 

But dont forget the desert place,that desolate land that kerghan saw in his vision. I think this is the purgatory of the arcanum world.

 

Ah, I had forgotten about that. Then perhaps the void represents hell itself? Though I don't think that works, as the only demon there is Gorgoth.

 

Apart from the vicious lizards and araya?

 

No, it cant be because the place that is supposed to be like hell, was also seen in kerghan's vision as a lake where souls rot.

 

I thought on his travels he first went to the desolate land, and then went to the lake of souls (a separate place/plane) where he found "peace". They're two separate astral planes as far as I could tell.

 

I always thought these two as;
Desolate land: limbo where souls stay still before they completely depart. When we use Necromancy 2nd spell to speak with the dead or resurrect them, we call them from that place.
Endless sea (lake of souls): Heaven, or the final resting place of souls

Anyone remembers details of Virgil's explanations of what was beyond death? Whether he have been to desolate land or endless sea?

 

It was the endless sea, which is why he is all zen-like and states he found it difficult to be resurrected again.

 

there is a lake in between the desolate lands and the mirrored sea , designed for tormented souls where they will remember their sins until they can move to the glassed sea. ( thats what I remember , if memory serves).

 

No, there is nowhere designed for tormented souls. The pain is of their own making.

I thought the sea is the natural end point of souls who die, the desolate lands is the crossing and the torment is only a matter of perception.

Kerghan's specialty was two-way travel between life and death, so perhaps he managed an escape route to the afterlife from the void using dark necromancy. Then back to the void from the sea because he couldn't handle the peace.

 

Kerghan says that he traveled to Where souls rot in torment . yes the pain is of their own making but that place doesnt seem to be the same as the dead sea.