IGLOO9'S PROFILE

author=Sidewinder
I wrote up an in-depth theory about what's in the package. Definitely wouldn't recommend reading it before playing the game (it'll spoil a lot of major plot points and also won't make any sense).

Can't say for sure if it's right or not, but I figured some folks here might still care about ABL, and might find it interesting to read. It's pretty long though. Sorry about that.

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What’s in the package?

To begin with, I think the best starting off point is to look at the Catch Colony, since there’s seemingly a connection between Package and the Colony.

The Agency wanted it when the Catch Colony was initially constructed, but later decided that it was too dangerous for them to possess and the (at the time) Director was willing to sanction the creation of Paradise (a nation that the Agency wasn’t ever allowed to enter) in order to keep the Package from ever falling into government hands. Likewise, during the ‘present day’ of A Blurred Line, the Agency’s plan seemed to involve (at least, partially) increasing the output from the Catch Colony, and reclaiming the Package is important to their end goal.

But, what is the Catch Colony?

We’re told that it’s a space station that supplies most of the planet’s energy, though it requires the use of facilities on the surface to convert this energy into a form that’s actually usable; during his meeting with the Director, Talan is told that most of what the public knows about the construction of the Colony is a lie. The exact extent of the conspiracy is still unrevealed after all these years, but it involved launching nuclear missiles at Lashe and Prima City in order to provoke a war against the Kingdom of Surl, and the use of a facility disguised as an oil refinery.

Likewise, it’s unclear if the Catch Colony is harvesting solar energy, microwave energy, or something else entirely. The Delcentric facility created toxic waste that mutated local rats, which points to it being ‘something else’, though this could simply be artistic license on Lysander’s part, but for the sake of the theory we’ll assume it’s something exotic.

Being sent to the Catch Colony is considered prestigious. The Mayor of Yun Town was ‘promoted’ to a position there, which characters in Yun Town and Sorbe Village both express surprise at. In particular, one NPC found in Sorbe comments that the Yun Town mayor was far less loyal to the agency, and less qualified than the Sorbe Village mayor was, and speculates that Doctor Vago might be sent to the Catch Colony soon.

What’s interesting to note is that Doctor is not loyal to the agency – he says as much himself when Talan first meets him. A later scene in the game shows him being taken away by agents. I think this raises a very interesting possibility. Was this actually foreshadowing, and was the Agency deliberately sending disloyal citizens to the Catch Colony?

In the intro, Talan does claim that the Agency doesn’t care about the colonists, though given his mental state at the time, this might mean nothing at all.

Regardless of who you side with in the Lashe City arc, the Agency always captures the Neon Vipers and the Lazer Teeth (technically the scene where it’s revealed the Neon Vipers were taken by the Agency doesn’t play, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that this happens no matter what). Later on, in the dream sequence, Talan can have a ‘conversation’ with either Arden, or Saldra. Both claim that they’re with their respective gangs now, but that their are less of them, and that the Agency keeps leading them from their cells, one by one.

If the Agency was sending disloyal people to the Catch Colony, is it possible that, in preparation for the increased output, they began rounding up gang members and criminals?

This raises the question, if I’m right and the Catch Colony isn’t using some kind of conventional power source like solar or microwave power... could it be powered by people? To the best of my knowledge, there is no reference to anyone sent to the Catch Colony returning from it.

Earlier on I mentioned that the rats in Lashe city were being mutated by toxic waste from the factory. It’s possible that, much later on in the game we encounter something similar. The Devolving Humanoid, fought in the sloping tunnels dungeon. The tunnels themselves are stated to have been built by a now extinct civilization that once inhabited this part of the kingdom of Surl, and are presumably the same people who originally built Paradise.

We know that the Agency had an interest in the Kingdom of Surl before the nuclear attack – the fake oil refinery had a tram that led directly to Prima City. It’s likely that the refinery originally had some kind of scientific function, before being used by the military. When Talan goes through a security door, the Package starts glowing, the base declares it’s a ‘foreign object’, and tries to destroy it with laser, before activating containment doors.

My theory is that what was in the Package is some kind of biological entity that the Agency found in the sloping tunnels before the shortage hit (and was responsible for wiping out the Paradise-Builders). It was studied in the Refinery, and the scientists discovered that it could create a nearly unlimited energy (provided it was given a sufficient supply of victims). The Agency decided to use it to save human civilization from the Shortage, but realizing it was just too dangerous to leave on Earth (they were very worried about containment in the refinery after all), they chose to build the Catch Colony – Surl, which would have likely been cooperating with the Agency up to this point denounced the plan (Eisen says as much during his story), so the Agency launched a false flag nuclear attack against themselves in order to give them a reason to destroy the Kingdom (and keep the truth from getting out).

The Package was a part of this biological entity, and Pierson’s group stole it before it could be sent to the Catch Colony.

But assuming all of this is true, how does the Package convert humans into energy? I think the answer lies with Talan and his ability to absorb auras.

During his rooftop encounter with the Agency Captain, the Captain touches Talan, and there’s some kind of reaction – something that deeply terrifies the captain. Given the Agency Guards’ reputation as being the ‘best of the best’ I think it’s safe to say that Talan wasn’t just some random telepath, his abilities were something altogether different. Something that the Agency had fought in the past, and found to be extremely dangerous.

This could potentially explain the Director’s ability to survive dying, or how the Agency Captain hasn’t aged – they’ve been mutated somehow.

During his meeting with the Director, the Director does two things before the bullet hits him. He pats Talan on the shoulder, and then locks the door to the office. His reasons for locking the door are obviously to prevent the Agency Guards from immediately rushing into the room, but, him touching Talan’s shoulder is seemingly innocuous.

Except we later learn that Talan has a rash on his shoulder. Both Wick’s doctors, and Doctor Vago mention this, later on during the dream sequence in Paradise, Talan hallucinates that he’s talking to himself, and Dream Talan claims that he’s dying, before asking about his shoulder.

I think the Director injected Talan with... something. It was dormant in him at first, until his contact with the Agency Captain activated it somehow.

Obviously this is very speculative, but I do think it explains the Agency Captain’s behaviour on the rooftop (if some random assassin turned out to be injected with the G-Virus, wouldn’t YOU book it?), and potentially explains why the Agency Captain has no aura when you encounter him near Mnemosyne's home – he either knew exactly what you were, and had taken precautions, or had lost it years ago, in battle with the Entity.

But if this Entity exists, why haven’t we seen it before now? The game is (I think) roughly 2/3rds done, right?

Well... I think we have. Open up the A Blurred Line pictures folder, and go to a file named ‘Gtest.png’ created on July 22nd, 2002, as far as I can tell it’s derived from an HR Giger painting. I think it’s our Entity.

It’s shown (heavily distorted by a sine wave effect) in the Agency Captain’s dreams:

APPARITION
Anash'na go'rel amno Kersh!

And later, more clearly when the Agency Captain picks up the Package.

It seems to be trying to communicate with him – even as far back as when the Agency Captain first becomes the Keeper of Memories he seems to be struggling to say “Kersh” (Emily later assumes that’s his name, though in the intro he just calls “Kersh” an alias so I think it’s safe to say it’s just a random word in an alien language).

The Captain’s memories seem to recover somewhat just a few days afterwards, unlike Mnemosyne’s which never did, and are completely restored after touching the Package. It’s possible that memories can be restored if someone touches something very important to them in the past, though incredibly unlikely. Data-mining shows that Mnemosyne was Emily’s mother, and her original memories weren’t restored from seeing her daughter.

I guess my ultimate theory is that the Package contains the head of the Entity. The Agency has its body, and can feed it Auras, but if it would be considerably more powerful if its head were returned.