Ash Twin Project

Lore & Background

The Ash Twin Project was the Nomai's solution to finding the Eye of the Universe. They built a probe cannon in orbit around Giant's Deep to fire a probe in a random direction, and the Sun Station in a close orbit around the sun, which would artificially induce a supernova. The supernova would generate enough power to send the probe's data back in time 22 minutes. Together, this would allow the probe to be fired in as many times and directions as necessary to find the Eye, at which point the Nomai would shut down the Sun Station, ending the time loop. However, the Sun Station failed to induce a supernova. Before an alternate power source could be found, the Interloper entered the solar system. The Nomai investigating found that the Interloper contained an extremely pressurized source of "ghost matter", a highly lethal and invisible substance. They were killed instantly when the source ruptured, and a powerful wave of ghost matter spread throughout the system, killing all of the Nomai. A warning message was later discovered by other Nomai. A long time later, after the animals of Timber Hearth evolved into the Hearthians, the sun goes supernova naturally (the death of the sun, not the end of the universe), triggering the time loop repeatedly until the probe cannon finds the Eye at the beginning of the game and through the statue inducts the Hatchling into the loop.

In Their Own Story

The Nomai built a civilization throughout the system while trying to find the source of a signal older than the universe, dubbed the "Eye of the Universe". They eventually discovered that, with enough power, they could send objects or information backwards in time using a linked pair of black and white holes. This inspired them to build a probe cannon in orbit around Giant's Deep to fire a probe in a random direction to locate the Eye, and a station in orbit around the star, the Sun Station, that would artificially induce a supernova, generating enough power to send the probe's data back in time 22 minutes. Together, this would allow the probe to be fired in as many times and directions as necessary to find the Eye, at which point the Nomai would shut down the Sun Station, ending the time loop. However, the Sun Station failed to induce a supernova. Before an alternate power source could be found, the Interloper entered the solar system. The Nomai investigating found that the Interloper contained an extremely pressurized source of "ghost matter", a highly lethal and invisible substance. Before they could inform the others, the source ruptured and a powerful wave of ghost matter spread throughout the system, killing all of the Nomai. A long time later, after the animals of Timber Hearth evolved into the Hearthians, the sun goes supernova as part of the natural end of the universe, triggering the time loop repeatedly until the probe cannon finds the Eye at the beginning of the game and through the statue inducts the Hatchling into the loop.

Reader's Guide

The Ash Twin Project is central to understanding the time loop. The player discovers, through repeated time loops, that the Nomai built a probe cannon in orbit around Giant's Deep to fire a probe in a random direction to locate the Eye of the Universe, and a station in orbit around the star, the Sun Station, that would artificially induce a supernova, generating enough power to send the probe's data back in time 22 minutes. The player learns that the Sun Station failed to induce a supernova, and that the Nomai were killed by ghost matter from the Interloper. The player also discovers that the sun goes supernova naturally, triggering the time loop repeatedly until the probe cannon finds the Eye. Armed with this knowledge, the Hatchling is able to repower the Vessel and warp to the Eye.

Did You Know?

• The Ash Twin Project was designed to send probe data back in time 22 minutes using the power of a supernova.
• The Sun Station, part of the Ash Twin Project, was in a close orbit around the sun and failed to induce a supernova, so the Nomai never completed the project.
• The Nomai investigating the Interloper were killed instantly when the ghost matter ruptured; a warning message was later found by other Nomai.
• The sun goes supernova naturally (the death of the sun, not the end of the universe), which triggers the time loop the player experiences.
• The probe cannon fires a probe in a random direction each loop, and the loop repeats until the probe finds the Eye of the Universe.