ArkTheorist123

What IS element? From what we can tell, element is first formed in an ore or in molten rivers. The element is then mined and when combined with gems, charge, and gas balls, makes the refined material used in tek. Being strong isn't it's only function, though. As Helena says on Aberration when they reach the station's center: "The architecture here is similar to that of the control center I encountered before - a jagged cavern of metal, lit by an unearthly blue glow. There's a constant hum all around us, likely from the power being sent to all areas of the station." - Helena note #16 on Aberration. Now, maybe this a stretch, but what if the energy was passing through the element, like element was some kind of conductor for energy and maybe even overseer data, since that would kinda explain how our tek gear doesn't work in the Broodmother, Megapithicus, Dragon, and Manticore boss fights, and it would explain what Rockwell meant on Aberration when he became one with the ARK and said the ARK told him things, since he's part element, and the info would be passing through him. Sorry this is so short. I could be offline at least until the last extinction chronicles drops next week. On the bright side, when THAT happens, I should have all the info I need to do a 2 - part prediction post on EXTINCTION. ?

ARK Park, The Ultimate Lore Exposed? I've been waiting for the right time to post this theory, and since we finished covering the ARK stations, here it is! Since I first saw gameplay videos and trailers of ARK Park, it was always nagging me... "How The the heck does this thing exist?!" Then when I was gathering the Aberration explorer notes, I found it...Skye's note. Skye was one of the graduate students, a set of characters I chose to leave out of my Aberration lore post for one simple reason: they contributed absolutely nothing to the main lore of Aberration. Skye's one note, found at the coordinates 45.4 by 40.5, however is different, as it's basically one big Easter egg to ARK Park. "Far out! This place is kinda like that dream I had. So it went like this: I ride some tram thing to like, the biggest, weirdest zoo in the universe, right? Only instead of normal animals, there's dinosaurs! Totally cool...until they all escape just like in every horror movie ever made. Duh! Anyway, Dream-Me hops into a truck with some ripped, badass dudes, and we just start driving around, shooting dinosaurs and stuff. I felt like a legit action hero! So I guess this place isn't exactly the same. There's dinosaurs, but I don't have guns or a truck. Also I'm completely alone... But it's still just a dream, right? I mean, obviously! I don't even know why I'm writing this down, it's all in my head. All I need to do is walk off that cliff, and I'll wake up right before I hit the ground." And that's all I thought it was - a nod to ARK Park. Until I started drawing similarities and it eventually clicked in my brain - what if the entire ARK Park game WAS Skye's dream?! With that, I started looking for evidence, and I think I really did find some. Exhibit A: Remember the whole "Anyway, Dream-Me hops into a truck with some ripped, badass dudes, and we just start driving around, shooting dinosaurs and stuff." part? Well, we see just that at the 56 second mark of this trailer for ARK Park (0:56): Exhibit B: Between the 2:13 point and 5:45 point of the following video, we see the park from an external view (2:13 to 5:45): And let me just say...THIS LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE MAIN ARK GAME!!! The ARK itself looks different, there are TWO large planets outside the observation window. Earth, both out the window and in the hologram, looks more orange and has a large crack in it, and the moon ISN'T floating around in pieces. Exhibit C : Please compare this image of Skye's note... To this image from ARK Park... I mean, look at the similarities! Both show an identical looking tram on an identical looking rail system, with large rock formations overhanging the track, and both show the main island far off in the background. Exhibit D : And lastly... let's face it: why would this ONE ARK be decked out in zoo form compared to all the others? That doesn't mean the MAIN ARK game is dream, though. That's at least confirmed when we see Skye's corpse next to his note as a result of his stupid cliff - jumping. Thank you for reading - ArkTheorist123 :3

Thanks for all the support guys! After looking at the ARKs origins and facts, let's look at their purpose. After reviewing the facts, we can conclude that the ARKs are landmass stations built by futuristic humans, and serve as observation facilities where an advanced AI runs experiments on prehistoric creatures and genetically recreated humans using genetic mutation. Given that the planet is in ruins, I think it's safe to say that their end goal is to see which subjects would be best for saving the planet, humans AND creatures, since that would explain how we see them in the teaser images for extinction. And the evidence for this is from none other than One Who Waits. "All of you are part of a shared equation, the answer of which will determine whether this is an end or a beginning." - OWW note #3 This should confirm the ARKs purpose, and the humans involvement in it. So it's odd to me how the ARKs aren't doing that. "To fall from the sky, you'll go through many trials. You'll face many guardians. They'll feel like tests, because they are...except they aren't. Yes, they are challenges for you to overcome, but at their end, you'll find only more hurdles, stretching on into the horizon. No matter how many you clear, the System will never deem you strong enough, because you are playing by broken rules." - OWW Note #9 Basically this means two things. One, the boss fights from the very beginning were just another part of the experiment, including the overseer boss fight. The other is further mention of this "Evolutionary chain" the overseers command. When one ARK is ascended off of, the overseer transfers the subject to a harder ARK, and the cycle repeats until the overseers see the subject worthy of being transferred to the planet to save it. This would explain why there was a teleporter pad on the planet in the first place. For some reason, though, the cycle isn't ending like it's supposed to. Because we broke some heavenly rule or something like that (I have no idea what rule we broke, leave suggestions!), we aren't being sent to the planet per usual. we just keep going to harder ARKs. So if we don't go to aberration and teleport to the planet, it doesn't matter if we tame a Rex army or conquer all opposing tribes. It woulden't even matter if we beat the Broodmother, Megapithicus, Dragon, Overseer, and Manticore ON ALPHA.If we don't go to aberration, there IS no happy end. It just gets harder and harder. That's why we're REALLY lucky we did.

The ARK Stations, everything there is to know. Now that we have a possible explanation as to the ARK's origins, let's discuss the facts we know about the ARKs themselves. I got most of this info from Helena's notes and the captions of Diana's notes (By captions I mean the bits of text next to scans of the environment). Each ARK is a landmass station made up of three components, Organic, Mechanized, and Digitized. ORGANIC: Environment: Each ARK is built at an unknown altitude and, as Helena mentions in her 2nd Note on the Island, is built so that it has no axial tilt, and hence no seasons to interfere with the desert or tundras. "I’d been holding out for a change in weather before studying the wildlife of this island’s peculiar tundra region, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s not forthcoming. Clearly this planet has no axial tilt, and therefore, no seasons. That ice and snow isn’t melting anytime soon." - Helena note #2 on the Island Each ARK is seemingly different and I think it's safe to assume the overseer randomizes the environment for each ARK. (Side note: While Ragnarok and The Center technically aren't Story ARKs, they DO make a cameo outside the overseer arena, to the right of the Aberration ARK. So they DO exist in the ARK universe, we're just not supposed to visit them.) Each environment is contained using a "Holographic/Atmospheric Dome" that keeps stuff from going in or out of the ARK. It uses holographic horizons and energy barriers to accomplish this. And as Helena discovers in Scorched Earth, the ARK may use creatures as barriers, too. "As absurd as the Death Worms are, I see their purpose. They are a natural barrier. If this whole place is a space station posing as a real ecosystem, then it needs to keep the wildlife and humans inside it contained in a way that appears natural. The island accomplished that by simply being an island, and the desert does it via the Death Worms. Granted, a large population of predators with ludicrous kilocalorie needs would never last long in a place as devoid of prey, but as this is an artificial environment, the station can feed or, replace the Death Worms as needed. It's a little convoluted, but it makes sense." - Helena Note #6 on Scorched Earth. Creatures: Each ARK produces both Humans and animals. Helena's extensive research on the Island led her to discover that the animals themselves seem to be genetically altered so that they could survive in cold or hot climates. Other creatures never really existed at all, the biggest example of this being the Cnidaria, which, according to the dossier, is basically just an amalgamation of Large Egg-yolk jellies, box jellies, and deep-sea jellies. Helena's research also reveals that the animals seem to have been used to human contact for at least decades, hence the reason for the speedy taming. In addition to animals, each ARK also contains a small population of humans struggling to survive. These humans appear to be implanted with artificial memories. MECHANIZED: (The machine is the device behind the console and glass, where the hologram is.) After being designed by the overseer, each animal and human is stored in pods kept in the heart of the station, where they are kept until implemented into the environment. This is likely what we see happening in those rooms in that hallway before the overseer arena. The machine I'm talking about is the one that implements them into the environment. DIGITIZED: Overseer: The main control AI of an ARK station who's duties, according to the ARK wiki, are "Overseeing the experiments of an ARK Station and ultimately deciding who may continue to ascend higher in the evolutionary chain and who will be terminated." (I discovered that if you go to the same wiki page (https://ark.gamepedia.com/Overseer) and listen to the audio file for the overseer, you can hear it say "You are chosen, you are chosen.") The overseer isn't just a robotic AI guardian, though. It's a shape-shifting robotic guardian, capable of mimicking the shape and powers of the other 3 island bosses. It also has the power to summon defense units and attack drones to defend it. Obelisks: The obelisks are the most iconic features of the maps. At their base is a teleporter pad that, when given the right offerings, teleports the player to a boss arena. According to Diana's logs, the obelisks are "surveying devices". I think what that means is that the obelisks aren't just boss teleporters, they're machines implemented by the overseer to monitor the environment. This is further evidenced by the beginning of the overseer boss fight. When you walk into the arena, you can see a hologram with data bubbles next to the obelisks, shown below. This is likely data the obelisks collected for the overseer to review. Specimen Implants: One of the key defining features of the survivors, the implant, when hovered over, will display the survivor's serial number, Vernacular ID (Human name), and the words "Survivor Quotient", followed by the survivor's ascension status. My belief is that, similar to the obelisks, the implant runs diagnostics on each survivor and relays that info to the overseer. Another detail is mentioned when Mei-Yin wrote here: "The surviving villagers let me claim the lizard rider's armor and weapons, and gave me shelter for the night. To my surprise, I understood them. Their mouths moved strangely, but in my ears I heard the language of my home. They say it is the work of the metal object in my wrist. I do not understand, but they had no reason to lie." - Mei-Yin note #5 on the Island. So in addition, the implants also act as a sort of communication device that enables people of different languages to talk to each other. "Termination": I believe the "termination" the overseer does is what happened to the city of Nosti on Scorched Earth, and what nearly happened to the tek village on Aberration. I believe it does this because it doesn't want people to expose the ARK for what it really is. John Dahkeya and Raia, the only two survivors of the Nosti disaster, say that first, the obelisk's light started flashing for a few days. Then, the ground suddenly started trembling, and finally, the ground split open and swallowed the city whole. In other words, the obelisk triggers an earthquake that destroys the target. Ascension Code: This language can seen on the control panels in the overseer arena and some Rockwell notes on Aberration. It didn't take long for people to decipher it. Basically, it's a form of Quaternary Code, where each digit represents a set of 1's and 0's. There's a page on the ARK wiki all about it here: https://ark.gamepedia.com/Ascension#ARK_Code The codes on the Island, when translated, say this: Before transfer Location Translation ARK Transfer Panel (Gamma ascension on single player) Experiment Group 4 Trial 6174 Observation Facility Transfer Security Protocol: Gamma After transfer Location Translation First Room Holobanner Observation Deck Testing Facility @survietheark Dragon Panel Fire Lizard Status: Dormant @survivetheark Megapithecus Panel Giant Ape Status: Dormant @survivetheark Broodmother Panel Broodmother Status: Dormant @survivetheark Second Room Holo Banner Prehistorical Species Control Panel Extra Hominid Preservation Record: Extinct Third Room Holo Banner Ancestral Records Control Panel Homo Sapiens Preservation Record: Extinct Fourth Room Holo Banner Homo Deus ("Man-God") Control Panel Homo Deus Colonist Group 1327: Endangered CONCLUSION: Now, some of the few of you that actually took the time to read that might say, "Wait, humans are EXTINCT?! But we play as a human!" Well, DO we though? Our memories could very well be fake, so could our bodies be fake, too? What if our characters are actually the NOT extinct, but "Endangered", HOMO DEUS?! Aaaannnddd I think that's a good place to end it. I'll be off this site for the weekend and Columbus day, but I should start uploading again on Tuesday the 9th, so goodbye until then!

I've heard a lot about the planet and the "Asteroid" orbiting it. Well here's the thing... Since Wildcard repeatedly refers to the planet as Earth, then it would make more sense if that hunk of rock is actually the MOON. It becomes particularly obvious from the window of the overseer arena or better yet, an extinction mode server. Here's an image from one of those said servers: Now, I don't know about you, but that large piece off to the left looks awfully similar to a rounded side of the moon, right down to the color and shape. And the rest of it looks like it could have fit together to form a sphere at one point. I have some ideas as to how it cracked that I'll share in future posts. Furthermore, if you go into ghost mode and fly to the dark side of planet Earth (the side you can't see from aberration), you'll see a large crater. Watch the first 1 minute and 23 seconds of the following video (Until 1:23): In case you're wondering, I am NOT Anthomnia, the maker of this video. I'm just using this video for reference because I couldn't find any images of the crater anywhere else. Despite what he says, I DO believe this is a meteor we're talking about here, so my synopsis of the ARK universe therefore is this: In the future, Earth realized a large asteroid would hit the planet and kill almost everything. To keep the human race alive, HUMANS CONSTRUCTED THE ARKS with the intent of seeing if they could repopulate the Earth through repeated experiments with genetic mutation. Shout out to Glerian for liking my theories, every little bit helps!

ARK: Aberration lore explained. So lets start where the ARK lore seems to be the most confused-Aberration. Here I'll show how Rockwell didn't destroy the ARK and more. The first explorer to arrive on aberration was Diana and her squad mates from the United Republics of Earth (URE) a futuristic organization from an undisclosed future date. After setting up a camp on the surface (this was before it was destroyed) they're able to create some working tek armor and jet pack, which they give to Diana to fly off and find help. However, Diana collides with the barrier surrounding the ARK. After that she returns to camp and heads to the obelisk with her new friend, a teenage computer expert and hacker with a love for pop idols by the name of Santiago. Santiago hacks into the obelisk terminal and deduces that the energy barrier made with "unknown shielding technology" can be taken down if they destroy a certain platform-the overseer arena. After months of training, they finally complete a tek bomb that can destroy the entire arena. Santiago manages to get them there by hijacking the teleporter pad at the base of the obelisk and teleporting them to the arena. Even with their training, they were no match for the overseer and barely had any time to set off the bomb.However, something happened and rather than just destroy the arena the bomb destroyed the entire column it was sitting on. Even though Diana and Santiago survived, the blast failed to fully take down the shield, only weakening it. Furthermore the shield, according to Diana, allowed excessive amounts of sunlight to enter the ARK and mix with radiation to create roasting sunlight that reaches up to 236 degrees Fahrenheit! The group of URE people end up retreating into a cave. It's here that we learn 2 things about aberration: one, it was Diana, not Rockwell, that broke the ARK.Second, the cave system we see in the playable game was always a planned part of the ARK and it existed even before the ARK was broken. After setting up a Second base -the one we see on the Northern shore of Fertile Lake- Santiago makes nighttime trips to the obelisk to run tests.He deduces that an existing teleporter pad signal on the planet below could be reached, but not through the obelisks since it was on a different frequency. The group decides to build a massive portal to reach it, called the gateway project.And it's here that Diana meets Mei-Yin.The same Mei-Yin from the island, who befriended Helena and killed Nerva. The one who lost her left eye fighting that same Nerva to the death. And somehow managed to become the only person in ARK ever to tame a fully-mature Rock Drake. Diana decides to take her back to her camp, where Mei-Yin is in awe of the technology used. However, the doesn't get the hang of the gadgets and almost leaves. But Diana convinces her to try on some tek armor. That was enough for Mei-Yin to not only stay as a permanent resident, but become a trusted friend of Diana, even giving her the nickname "Juzi" (Which literally translates to "Tangerine", a type of orange. She likely chose this because of Diana's distinctive reddish hair). A URE scouting party locates some ruins that contain crystallized element that the group needs to complete a "focusing lens" which I believe is the Orange ring at the end of the portal. The group goes missing and Mei-Yin - who'd stayed behind- went after them. She managed to rescue Diana and the element. However, she had to leave her Rock Drake behind as a distraction while they ran back to the village. Mei-Yin swears to protect the village from now on. Then Helena and Rockwell arrive from Scorched Earth and are attacked by seekers. Suddenly Mei-Yin in full tek armor saves them. After a joyful reunion, Mei-Yin takes them to the village. When Helena learns of the gateway project, she remembers that back on Scorched Earth, the city of Nosti was destroyed by the obelisk after it became too large. After talking to Diana the Gateway project is postponed. After Helena is trained in tek armor the group heads with Santiago to get readings from the obelisk. Helena's hunch turns out to be correct, with the ground around the obelisk getting regular tremors and the obelisk only days from reacting. Just when Helena had lost hope, Santiago came up with a plan. He believed that there was a teleporter signal that could lead them to a control center where they could shut down the obelisk, The pad turning out to be in the heart of the station itself. Using his hacking skills, Santiago is again able to get himself, Helena, and Mei-Yin to the center with the obelisk's pad.They decide to leave Rockwell behind with Diana in the village. Rockwell feels that he's being treated like an ignoramus and fights to be treated better, eventually getting put with Diana's team of scientists. This gives him access to molten, unrefined element. He claims that it speaks to him, which could very well mean he was suffering from Schizophrenia. Helena and friends explore the center and first find a room full of creature eggs and embryos in pods lining the walls. Then further down they find something shocking-HUMANS in pods lining the walls. Helena writes in her 18th note that this could mean that the characters -playable characters included- were not just put on the ARK by the overseer, they were DESIGNED by the overseer, which could mean that the characters memories are fake, too.This leaves everyone in shock, Mei-Yin specifically.She becomes a sort of zombie until the group finds the console their looking for. Back at the village, Rockwell runs some tests with the element, or "Edmundium" as he calls it and injects a sample into a glowtail, mutating it into a savage beast. But Diana overhears and kills it before taking all of Rockwell's test subjects and element. Not to be outdone, Rockwell begins smelting down the whole village's supply of element into molten form. Santiago manages to finally shut down the obelisk. But in retaliation the station releases creatures into the center. The group runs all the way back the pad to safety. On the way back to the village, Santiago radios to Diana, while Helena and Mei-Yin finally come to terms with the truth. In the midst of the village's celebration, however, Rockwell, deprived of test subjects, injects a large dose of molten element into his bloodstream, mutating him slowly. Then Santiago's radio went from cheering to panicked screams.By the time they arrived at the village, nearly everyone was dead, and Diana was too badly injured, dying in Mei-Yin's arms. But not before telling them who had done this. A furious Mei-Yin grabs every gun she can find and goes right after Rockwell. Helena decides to follow her. When she finds her, she's already fighting Rockwell. With Helena's help, however, they're able to divide his attention. In his anger, Rockwell creates a hole, which Mei-Yin forces him down into. The battle was over. Rockwell didn't die, though. He became the Rockwell boss.His last 3 notes are written in Ascension code.The last one is a picture of himself and the ARK, but his 28th and 29th say this when translated: Record 28: "Primitive! Savage! How dare you? You are nothing! I am a god! How dare you? Hate you! HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! Where have you banished me? What is this place? What is this feeling? Everything. Yes, everything. The earth and the sky. Every stone and every crevasse. I feel it all. What is this place? What am I?" Record 29: "I am beginning to understand. It was hard to comprehend, for my eyes are still newly opened. I did not used to see as I see now, nor did I speak as I speak now. When I speak, it is not to a man. They are lesser beings. When I speak, I speak to this place, speak to the ARK, and it speaks back to me. It tells me secrets, things that I never could have understood as I was before. It whispers to me of something greater, a plane ever higher than the one I walk now. We can reach it, the two of us. The ARK and I. Together." As for Helena and Mei-Yin, they manage to find survivors of Rockwell's attack who can complete the portal. After 2 weeks it's completed at long last. Helena at first doesn't believe that the group will let her go with them, since she brought Rockwell to the ARK in the first place. When Mei-Yin finds out, however, she breaks down in tears and convinces Helena to come with her. And the next day they activate the portal and touch down on the planet below. THE END?

Over the past year, I've been slowly gathering the explorer notes.In case you don't know, explorer notes are little collectibles you find across all three story ARKs. Recently, I completed finding all of them. That's over 500 explorer notes! Almost half of which are dossiers. If you want the coordinates so you can find them yourself, or if you want to read them, here's a link to their page on the ARK wiki. https://ark.gamepedia.com/Explorer_Notes

This is something I'll just be doing as a side project in the weeks leading up to Extinction covering lore elements of ARK. Specifically, the ARKs themselves, who -or what- made them, and what the future may hold for the survivors. I'll be referring to the Explorer Notes and analyzing them in-depth for info.