FAQ

compiling some frequently asked questions about 1000xRESIST here, for convenient discussion reference

⚠️ CAUTION! major spoilers ahead! ⚠️

Game development

What inspired 1000xRESIST?

• Some media that inspired 1000xRESIST:
  • From the New World (anime)
  • Sonny Boy (anime)
  • Adventure Time (Lemonhope part 1 + 2)
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica
  • The Leftovers
  • Heavenly Delusion
  • Summer Time Rendering
  • Pluto (anime)
  • Phoenix (manga)
  • Severance (TV show)
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (specifically the episodes: "Duet", "The Visitor", "Far Beyond The Stars")
    • other works by Ronald D. Moore, such as: "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Battlestar Galactica", "For All Mankind"

[WIP]

Implied answer in-text / Answered by devs

Is Jiao from Hong Kong or China?

• Jiao is from Hong Kong, but's implied that she kept trying to speak Mandarin to Iris (who only knows Cantonese) because the Cantonese language was suppressed in 2040's Hong Kong, so Jiao grew up defaulting to Mandarin.

How did Fixer interrupt the communion in Chapter 1?

• The "Fixer" we see in Chapter 1 was actually Principal manipulating the communion. In Chapter 7, Knower tells Watcher it was a set up; Watcher realizes that Fixer couldn't have entered, as Watcher was just communing with Principal the whole time.

• A point of foreshadowing is how Watcher only tells Principal that "Fixer" had interrupted the communion...

WATCHER: ... It’s Fixer. She tainted the communion. She used this bond to speak to me from the Other Side. (ch.1)

...yet at the start of Chapter 2, Principal accuses "Fixer" of slandering ALLMO, despite never being told that.

PRINCIPAL: Fixer, our dearest sister... Invaded the communion and sullied our most sacred act. Fixer betrayed us and slandered the ALLMOTHER. (ch.2)

Is there a recipe for Moodle?

• Not at the moment. This is all we know about the Moodle recipe.

  FATHER: I made you 雲吞麵 (wonton noodles), but then you say you don't eat meat anymore. So... Moodle! Cold spicy oatmilk noodles with bamboo shoots and tofu. It's vegan!" (ch. 2)

What is the area labeled "Scary" on the Orchard map?

• The area labeled "Scary" in the in-game map (or "Green Heaven" in the Achievements) is where Iris buried corpses of The 50.

What does "Hekki" mean?

• The "Hekki" greeting originated as a typo from Remy Siu (1 of the developers), who was trying to type "Hello" into a Slack message. It became a running meme among the dev team, and then got incorporated into the game's lexicon.

Why does Mauve get special white armour? What does "Capital Red" mean?

• Mauve is a special police officer in the Red Guard. While she has white armor when presented as Capital Red, she has painted the armor white and bits of red can be seen through the paint cover upon detailed inspection. [ADD QUOTE OF REMY'S QNA ANSWER FOR THIS + CITATION SCREENSHOT, FROM HERE]
• Remy suggests there might be others like her, but they are undercover..

What is the song that plays during the parent's dance? Why is it not on the OST?

Here is the audio file of the song:

The song is not on the 1000xRESIST OST because the devs didn't have time to properly loop the audio in the way the wanted to.

Is Knower Eldest (the Purple Ancient Sister)?

• Probably not. Knower and Eldest are seen as separate entities in the Mass Communion, and each "impossible conversation" in the Mass Communion is either between one dead entity and one living (Watcher, Fixer) or both dead (Iris, Clara). Knower converses with a dead Bartender, and Principal converses with a dead Eldest.

• If Knower were Eldest, there's a lot about her dynamic with Principal that would not make sense. For example:
  • Eldest tells Principal "You've barely aged” right after their initial greeting, indicating Eldest hadn't seen Principal recently.
  • Principal asks Eldest "...so, is it greener? [...] Where mother took you", however Knower has been in the Orchard the whole time.

Is the Not-Iris actor wearing an invisible mask during the play? Why does Blue wear a mask in Epitaphs Blue, when there is no more virus?

• Remy has answered,

"we can imagine any lore reasons of 'invisible mask' we like here?" yes! we definitely sided on the affect side here. You can imagine a special mask for "ART."

Our thought is that the sisters have come to see their masks as part of themselves and identity.

While Blue relishes taking off the mask at the end of the game, you see that she is wearing one again in the epilogue. Our belief is that the masks have become so ingrained in the culture and fashion for the sisters, they will continue to wear them, regardless of whether they "need" them."

What did Iris reveal about Jiao?

The game doesn't say what specifically Iris shared with the other students to embarrass Jiao. The most common theories include sharing parts of her diary, or outing Jiao (as one student mentions hearing that Jiao is in love with Iris). There is a common misinterpreation that Iris might have shared explicit photos/nudes of Jiao (most likely due to Jiao saying "Iris...that was only for you to see." when she finds out, after the dance) however the majority of dialogue during the school scenes make it clear that the fallout is because of something Iris said. Jiao, upon finding out, reacts by telling Iris "Tell them everything about me".

The barks, or snippets of conversation, that Watcher can overhear refer to the rumour as "crazy shit", "TMI" (too much information), and "highly inappropriate". Some gossipping students react to the rumour and say Jiao is "fucked up" and "nasty". One student is sympathetic to Jiao, saying she is "done for", and several students will turn against Iris because of what she did. The students blocking the path to the cafeteria say to Watcher/Iris:

SLACKER STUDENT: I heard what you said about Jiao.

LAZY STUDENT: Yeah, you're a bitch.

SLACKER STUDENT: Yeah, when did you become such an asshole? (ch.1)

If Watcher refuses to sign the Dogged Student's yearbook (in the library), he will respond by saying: "Maybe it's for the best. I heard what you said about Jiao. You really went too far this time."

Iris's poem in Ch3's communion confirms that Jiao wrote about her "weird desires". It seems most probably that Jiao showed Iris some parts of her diary/journal, which Iris then divulged to the other students.

The exact details are left unanswered. From a thematic perspective, it is possible that the memory is repressed by Iris and so inaccessible to Secretary and Watcher. What is most significant is the hurt it caused Jiao, and the impact of the betrayal on Iris and Jiao's relationship.

Partially answered in-text

How does the Occupant disease work?

Existing canon information:

• Symptoms mentioned in Chapter 4 include: burning and redness of the eyes; blurred vision; difficulty swallowing; burning and irritation in the mouth nose; coughing and wheezing; the rapid expulsion of bodily fluids through the eyes.
  • The symptoms of the Occupant disease is reminiscent of the symptoms of tear gas exposure.

• The disease has to enter the victim's lungs to take effect.

• The disease was produced as a response to "discordance"

SOURCE: I manifested their body… and for a moment, they responded. I saw vivid transmissions of myself reflected back to me. I saw myself for the first time. Yet, when I attempted to return the transmission, they still could not understand. Instead, they tried means unknown to me.

SECRETARY: The piano... It was an ugly, rigid instrument.

SOURCE: The machine that produced unnatural vibrations...

SECRETARY: (singing)

SOURCE: Yes. Each tone unstable. They seemed to enjoy this... Discordance.

SOURCE: The more we perceived this world, the more the discordance. Discordance at the peak of cogency. So, we repeated as they did. Gave them discordance in kind. One by one, signals of such clarity. So many of them… joined together.

SECRETARY: A heightened state of awareness.

SOURCE: We were spilling. It was too much for any single one of us to hold. So we manifested an us to cumulate this world. To keep all we could not. We did not want to waste. Where there was once nothing, there was now… plenty.

[...]

SOURCE: The transfer was lossless. And I remain.

Fan-theories and interpretation:

1. Given that Iris buried The 50 (who succumbed to Source) in the Orchard, the Occupant disease possibly seeped into the ground, and persisted through being carried by the plants in the Orchard, or entering in the water supply.
2. Occupant disease and the subsequent "lossless transfer" functions similarly to how "human instrumentality" does in Neon Genesis Evangelion – an abstract convergence of people's souls and memories, living out things that did and didn't happen.

What happened to the Ancient Sisters?

Existing canon information:

• The Ancient Sisters are alive at train station with Iris in the Chapter 7 flashback.
• While Chapter 3 presents the story as the Ancient Sisters having their immunity taken away by Iris, we are later informed that Principal had likely modified those communions to suit her purpose of manipulating Watcher.

Fan-theories and interpretation:

1. The Ancient Sisters left to the Other Side alongside Iris, where they presumably eventually succumbed to Source.

In the Epitaphs endings, is everyone aside from Blue/Principal dead?

Existing canon information:
Fan-theories and interpretation:

Unanswered in-text

What's the deal with Pigeon Prime?

Existing canon information:

• When asked if Pigeon Prime is "just be funny or does it symbolize something", Remy has replied "I've withheld from commenting on Pigeon Prime, but I can say -- it can be both 🙂"
• In Chapter 4, the Occupants quote Pigeon Student, when talking about their journey to earth. Quotes of note include:

PIGEON STUDENT: Pigeons are homing. They always want to go back home.

PIGEON STUDENT: And so they make a home on a strange land. Students, pigeons... We are all visitors here.

Fan-theories and interpretation:

1. Pigeons represent diaspora/immigrants.
   • Pigeons were brought to North America by European colonizers, for use as a cheap food source, for entertainment, and as messengers. They were abandoned and treated as pests when they were considered no longer of value. Immigrants (specifically immigrants of color) are only valued by society when they are subservient workers, and treated as "pests" otherwise.

What happened to sisters that board the Train to the Other Side?

Existing canon information:

• When Watcher arrives at the Other Side in Chapter 5, there are no corpses around, but also no sign of anyone else around aside from Iris.

• The Ancient Sisters are likely dead, as their "ghosts" are seen reuniting with Iris at the end of Chapter X.

• In Chapter 5, Iris was disoriented and confused when her prayer was disrupted by Watcher stabbing her. She did not realize 1000 years had passed since she last saw Youngest.

• Principal has never been to the Other Side before Chapter 5.

• In Chapter 6, Blue can ask an old shell, "Seventeen", about the Other Side:

BLUE: You ever been to the Other Side?

SEVENTEEN: Sure. Wouldn't believe how messy those Jiaos are.

BLUE: I mean...before...

SEVENTEEN: As far as I know...all those old sisters who had...the chosen ones... They're long gone. Or ghosts.

• In Chapter 6, Blue talks to a disoriented new shell, Evelyn, who claims to have memories that aren't her own. It is unknown if her "memories" are comprised of actual memories from the past, of others' dreams, both, or neither.

EVELYN: I WAS THERE. The night the stalker drenched the tiles with Mother’s blood! [...] We were a machine. Five of each kind. The best of the best. [...] I’ve seen sisters sent to the surface… Their dead eyes when they return… [...] On expeditions. Some of them disappeared. Some of them returned but...maybe they shouldn’t have. […] I was ready. I would have done my service!

Fan-theories and interpretation:

1. Clones that make it to the Other Side are stuck there, and eventually get absorbed by Source – that's why we don't see any corpses around
2. Clones that make it to the Other Side were sent on expeditions to the surface, like what Evelyn claims to have seen

Was the Occupant Attack in Chapter 4 real? Or did Principal stage it?

Existing canon information:

• BBF states that

Fan-theories and interpretation:

1. The "Occupant Attacks" such as those seen in Chapter 4 are not caused by the Occupants, but instead earthquakes felt by the ship's presence in the Pacific Ocean.

What's with the barrier the Occupants put up around Earth?

Existing canon information:

• The Occupants want to keep all the "data" of Earth "intact" forever, protecting all the memories on it with a barrier.

  SOURCE: Say what you will. But long after this local star erupts...This planet will remain and its memories will remain. And that is thanks to us.

Fan-theories and interpretation:

1. The barrier the Occupants put up keeps memories (real and dreams) trapped inside and "bouncing" or "floating" around. Those "bouncing" memories sometimes end up colliding into and entering people.
   
   This did not occur often while Iris was still alive, as she was still communing with the Occupants, so the "memory data" had a destination. After Iris is killed however, there is no more "lighting rod" to collect those memories anymore. Given most memories 1000 years in the future would consist of shells mainly living their daily lives in the Orchard, most "memories" received would seem relatively normal, or could be easily brushed off as a dream. Memories (real or dreams) from much further in the past however, could seem more shocking, like with Evelyn.
   
   This theory could explain several memory-based mysteries, such as:
   1. why Blue experienced deja vu for things Watcher had experienced
   2. Bartender's spooky gossip in Chapter 3
   3. how Knower knew Iris sleepwalked (could also be from what the previous Watcher told her, or Watcher telling Knower this information while not fully conscious)
   4. how Evelyn had received memories that didn't belong to her
   5. the "BEAWRE OF BIRD" graffiti in Old Town
   6. how Watcher could see interactions between Iris' mother and father in Chapter 7, which took place after Iris had left
      • Perhaps given Watcher's experience with communions, she is more adept at being a "conduit" to memories