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Remnant: From the Ashesfinished its story with a nice and tidy bow, severing all ties the Root had on Earth, saving the world in the process. So whenRemnant 2was announced, we could only wonder what new dangers might be in store for us in this world-hopping adventure.
It turns out, we were still fighting the Root, but this time going after it at its source. Said source ended up being extremely confusing, adding more questions about the setting than it answered, and leaving us all wondering if it all really happened, or if the world of Remnant 2 is just a simulation.
Spoilers Ahead!
The Ending Of Remnant 2
While the entire game is fantastic, we are only going to focus on the ending section of Remnant 2,when you open the way to Root Earthandprepare to face Annihilation.The fact that you’re on a different Earth than your own is already troubling, but we’ll cover that later.
The first real evidence that something isn’t right with reality shows upduring the final fight of the game,particularly during phase 2. At that point,the world quite literally glitches out, as if something was wrong with your copy of the game, and the boss shifts in and out from phases 1 and 2.
That certainly makes for an interesting fight, butwhat does it really mean for the world of Remnant 2?Other UI elements like health bars and damage numbers aren’t really there, but the boss glitching like a piece of software is happening within the game world.
Annihilation (and the Root as a whole) seems tonever stay down once you kill itas ifit refuses to follow the rules of the game. This is why you can’t save the day, but Clementine can, someone who also has the ability to ignore rules during her lifespan.
Clementine And The World Reset
Clementine was introduced in the DLCfor Remnant: From the Ashes, Subject 2923.She’s the titular subject, a Dreamer who is connected to a Guardian on a deeper level than others before her, to the extent thatshe has gained the powers of a Guardian,including an ability to repel the Root.
It is likely that Clementine also acquired the long lifespan of Guardians as well, since in the 20 years that passed between both Remnant games, she doesn’t age a day.
During the events of Remnant 2,Clementine ends up in the Labyrinth and connects with the Keeper, earning part of its powers as well.This is why she’s able to solve the plot at the endof the game, where she uses the power of the Keeper and the Labyrinth to reset reality, putting everything back where it was but without the Root, essentially deleting it from existence.
The Real Earth
Root Earth seems to be the original Earth, one that was assimilated by the Root and, according to the Keeper,the original birthplace of it. To know how this came to be, we’ll have to wait for either more DLC or maybe Remnant 3, but for now, this is all we have to work with.
That means thatthe Earth of Remnant is a copy of the original Earth, sans the Root. It is a place considered a “core” by the Keeper,made in such a way that the Root could never make it in.
The Earth of Remnant was infected by the Root becauseDoctor Harsgaard invited it inside during the 1960s, otherwise it had no way to do so on its own.
If this is all true, it means thatClementine wasn’t the first to make a copy of the Earth, or maybe she was the first, but this is not the first time the events of Remnant 2 happened.The game already works in loops, with many characters making references to seeing the future or multiple possible realities.
The Behavior Of The Universe
The way the universe works in Remnant seems more likefiles in a computerthan the physics of outer space.The Root isvery similar toa computer virus, the Labyrinthseems an awful lot likethe internet, and each world has a Guardianas a sort ofantivirus software.
The Earth being immune to the Root could be tied to itlacking a connection to the other worlds, since if your computer isn’t connected to the internet, it can’t be infected with malware. What Doctor Harsgaard did with the Dreamers wasopen the floodgates for all sorts of thingsto come right in.
And let’s not forget thefinal boss glitching out, andClementine being able to store reality into a flashdrive, only to later pick and choose what she drops back into the universe. It’s hard to know if this change affected Root Earth as well, or ifit simply severed the connection of itto everywhere else.
Real Or Virtual?
So,we know that the Earth you start on is a different one from Root Earth, one being a copy of the other, and being infected by the Root at different points in time. Butis that copy entirely digital, or is there a physical component to how this all works?
The answer might be a combination of both, since, if the Earth in Remnant was a copy of the original Earth, there’s no reason to also make a copy of the original Root Earth; that place we visit in Remnant 2 is likely the real, physical place the Root started in.
On Remnant’s Earth,the only way (initially, at least) to see other worlds is through dreams, but those other worlds can access each other with ease.It could be that the Earth of Remnant is entirely digital, a safe haven for human history to reside in, but it’s through the labyrinth that those simulations can leave and be made physical.
That makes the Labyrinth the connection between the real and the digital, a place that blurs the line between the two so much that they become one and the same. As we said before,we’ll have to wait for new content to arrive if we want definitive answers, but for now, we know that the Earth is a simulated copy of Root Earth, making part of the game a simulation.
