When starting the game:
Initializing firmware: firmware functional.
Loading child progtam parameters: v99.7.0001 loaded.
System check: passed.
Starting child process: ready.
EL0HIM’s voice-overs:
Behold, child. You are risen from the dust and and you walk in my garden. Hear now my voice, and know that I am your maker, and I am called EL0HIM. Seek me in my temple if you are worthy.
All across this land, I have created trials for you to overcome, and within each I have hidden a sigil. It is your purpose to seek these sigils, for thus you will serve the generations to come, and attain eternal life.
Note 1. EL0HIM is a reference to the Hebrew word elohim (‘God’), one of the primary names given to the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible. It is also an acronym for the Holistic Integration Manager (HIM), a A.I. running on server 0 (0) of the Extended Lifespan project (EL), hence EL-0-HIM or EL0HIM.
Note 2. EL0HIM’s speech contains references to Genesis 1 through 3: ‘dust’, ‘garden’, ‘voice’, and ‘maker’. The word ‘temple’ is not present in Genesis, or in any of the five books of the Pentateuch, but is – in this context – a reference to the one in Jerusalem.
The on-screen scripts:
Initiating child program logic check.
Subject-object interaction: ok.
Complex task management: ok.
Child program basic calibration succesfull.
Spatial awareness: ok.
Predictive capacity: ok.
Child program logic check succesful.
Checking sigils: done.
Removing child restrictions: done.
Recording data.
Have a nice day.
The player’s avatar
The robotic hand blocking the sun’s rays is one of the few visual indication that the player’s avatar could be a robot or A.I. for a far amount of the duration of the game itself.
Another clue is given when the player want to ‘reset’ the current puzzle by pressing ‘x’. Again, robotic hands are shown, that feel awkwardly out of place in the surroundings made out of Greek ruins.
The same is seen when the avatar is typing commands on one of the terminals found throughout the world.
And when ‘H’ is pressed, a third person perspective is given, revealing the whole robotic body of the player’s avatar.
In Star World A, a big mirror can be found showing the avatar’s full body.
The player’s avatar does not make shadows on surfaces nor is any bodypart visible when the avatar is looking downwards to the ground. In some games, this is a ludological decision, but in this case – I argue – it is a narratological one.
Death narrative
When your avatar dies, you will automatically be brought to the beginning of the level. The first time, EL0HIM provides a narratological embeddings for this ludological design choice.
EL0HIM: The guardians of this land may harm you, but do not resent them for they are my servants and they challenge you only so that your faith might be strengthened.
Note. EL0HIM invokes a classical form of theodicy (excusing God for the existence of evil in the world), that of the strengthened of the faith of the believer. God allows evil to exist because it is somehow beneficial for the individual human suffering from it. See also: osiris7.txt.
Projections
Sometimes projections of other versions of the child program can be encountered, although interaction is impossible.
The Talos Principle 