User:RD/metasoc/Auldernet

6-29

"Auldernet"　-　a full AU of Deltarune which tries to imagine the Deltarune world as being the size of an actual small planet, and uses that as an interpretive lens to tie together everything already known about Undertale and Deltarune.
the key premise of the AU: Undertale as we know it operates almost exactly like a medieval fantasy story based on Deltarune's history books, and it comes across to players as an "unrealistic fantasy story" because "the real world" of Deltarune is currently embroiled in its Cold War period where half the world is Marxist states. the Near Side, containing Hometown, represses and attempts to ignore this reality, while the Far Side behind the Diamond Curtain is undergoing a hectic conflict between whether to stay safe inside its barrier or try to break through into the Near Side, as the heavy-handed Sunderkov and the reckless Piatya Holiday each seem poised to destroy the Far Side and take the world down with them. two young birds from opposite sides of the starkly-divided Far Side may hold the key to saving the world.

2025-11

[in some kind of London accent:]
Ellsror: They always put it out like it's some big "gotcha".
Ellsror: [singsong, dripping with sarcasm] "What about the Snowball Revolt?"

11-25

trotsky was a deer.　his name is fucking (pronounced censored). i don't know. Bonfire Holiday. [1]
... Fifth.　Pyaty, Pyataya.　Piatya (pronounced Piatya, with an I at the beginning). [2]

he wears a pentagram star patch on the shoulder of his coat. trotskyism is the Fifth International or fifth Socialism in this universe. the fourth is, like, Maoism, which split off from "Stalin's" Marxism earlier for reasons. the "Third Congress" lost the Yu Followers and then the Fifth Congress split off each of them and came together as its own bloc.
I am guessing this happened because there was no World War II. nazism does not exist in the Deltarune universe, so hilariously, there is more Communism and fine-grained conflicts among Communists.

I think the way things shook out is just, there is a bloc of linked Trotskyist countries. as well as a bloc of Maoist/DengXiaoping-following countries. and the not-United-States hates them all.
the internal history of the countries is different. the notion of humans and monsters being the two main demographics of the whole world will stay as it is, there won't really be religious or ethnic divisions as themes. which in a way is very funny because it makes Deltarune's setting very Marxist. there's only really workers and corporations and tiny businesses and the two major people groups of humans and monsters dividing or structuring the world, with this sense that it wouldn't take much to join them all together although the gap to reaching that never appears to get smaller.

I didn't want to go into the idea of there being multiple nation-states in Deltarune, but, you know, having just one other one to have a side story where things are totally different because it's Communist would actually be okay. you have Hometown, then you have the other weird country on the other side of the world — this very "Homestuck act 5" energy. only it's backwards; we started in the worse world and went to the better world.
hmm. yeah. it might really help for making that make sense to literally do the "Hivebent follows along the opening narration of Homestuck act 1" thing, with some other teenager grumpily waking out of bed or something, literally hinting we have a parallel storyline going on. if the thematic connections between the new country and Deltarune's themes are strong enough it would still read as familiar, and it would just be a hell of a trip where you're like, I didn't think of fanworks as being able to do that and be this surreal.

"Fifth International".
5th November.
fifth column.
what a cursed number

the stalin (pronounced Stalin) analogue is named Sunderkov. aka Koba. that's just an obscure word for November from the Erzya language [3]
the joke of Hometown being all about December and not-the-ussr (pronounced USSR) being about November is going strong

Sunderkov looks like. he is some kind of blond scruffy dude with square glasses that has just a bit of polish to him, clearly not living in a basement or a dumpster but clean as he is he still looks like he doesn't get out much and just looks off. he looks like a youtuber (pronounced YouTuber) who rendered himself as a cartoon. he looks like a Y Combinator user. like a 1900s techbro. we are deeply leaning into the metaphor that "Marxist theorists are just the ultimate Annoying Entrepreneurs, they build everything and they're brilliant but you kind of hate them because you wish you had more options and you don't like that only a few people in the Russia region are that smart"
the one other detail about him is he has some kind of very modern looking mage cloak and is often seen with a fireball floating above his hand. Sunderkov is one of the humans that learned to use magic. we're going by Ironblood rules here — Communists are people who learn to fully understand and control material reality, so some of them can manipulate matter and energy themselves and cast spells.

imagine these flashback panels where Sunderkov is just standing there arrogantly with shining glasses and Piatya and the monster peasants are posed like "I'll break your face". Sunderkov has exactly the design that perfectly communicates in one picture that he is very annoying to people and they want to take him down

Piatya by contrast is drawn like he's a cool guy, who looks pretty awesome standing against the flames in a flashback panel
history nerds would recognize that he actually looks like a distillation of Trotsky, not in any specific year but kind of an amalgam of particular features of him from different periods so he is like, the most offbeat and 'hip' version of Trotsky. although he's about as visually weird as Sunderkov in his own way, he's cast as actually wearing it well

Sunderkov and Piatya are just standing around in the Titan fountain with Yu, and they all just kinda live there like roommates
I'm imagining this situation kind of like the dragon and the human in book 15 of Wings of Fire but not quite the same. Piatya and Sunderkov trapped each other in the Titan fountain out of hatred but then after a while they just realized the problem they wanted to solve was way bigger than either of them, stopped hating each other, and became unlikely friends who actually care about each other.

they chose to stay down there forever, and because they made that sacrifice, the Roaring will never happen in the Second World.
if Dess had just tried a little harder he could have become an awesome Marxist theorist, but unfortunately he was having such a hard time with it compared to the others he quit before he could succeed

each of them has their own form of pain. Yu has had his body replaced with water. Piatya has a terrifying gash going through his neck as if made by some kind of blade but which just has a soft starry wind going through where the blade would be. Sunderkov has one arm missing that looks to be cut off a bit below the elbow but has been replaced with a metal gauntlet that looks pretty snazzy really. Sunderkov can't be stopped. even when you chop off his arm he still ends up looking like he could take anyone.

this has a story behind it. Sunderkov went into the Titan fountain first. Piatya found him. Piatya accused him of trying to destroy the world by opening up the Roaring, furiously wielding an axe forged of sharp eternal ice. Piatya with Ice Ax in hand, Sunderkov with crackling fire, Piatya tried to kill him but thanks to the latter's magic abilities he did not succeed, and, wildly missing a swing, only managed to cut off his arm. Sunderkov turned around, knee on him, and drove the axe onto his neck, taunting the deer about how wrong and useless and mistaken he was. he might have been about to deal the final blow when all of a sudden, a tiny phoenix monster just a bit bigger than the axe entered the area — one of his fans.

Sunderkov: You miserable beast. You're nothing. You see that?
Phoenix: [innocent] Koba?
[Axe still firmly on Piatya, Sunderkov looks over his shoulder.]
Phoenix: There you are! I was worried something might have happened to you.
[Sunderkov gives the phoenix a canyon-deep look of "oh really? yeah??", laughs a bunch sadly, and then drops the axe to the ground, releasing Piatya from near-death. He stands up, looking confident as ever if a little weary. Piatya struggles to sit up.]
Sunderkov: I'm fine. ...Well, minus the arm. But you know.
Phoenix: [sigh of relief] I'm so glad. [glances at arm] Let me help.
[The phoenix tosses a green healing flame over onto Sunderkov's truncated arm, and it stops bleeding, although it still looks pretty bad.]
Phoenix: [glances at deer man kneeled on floor] Who is that?
Sunderkov: [serious, drained of vigor] A traitor.
Phoenix: [looking afraid they said something wrong] ...Oh.
Sunderkov: It's okay, he won't be able to hurt anyone. ...Other than my arm. You know.
Phoenix: Uh... forgive me... I'm sorry if this is the wrong question... But...
Sunderkov: [composed, like nothing happened at all] There are no stupid questions.
Phoenix: Uh. [shifting nervously] Why... why do Communists kill each other?
Phoenix: It's... it doesn't seem in line with our goals... [quickly losing confidence] of. bringing the people of the world together. Uh.
[Sunderkov crouches down and offers his wrist to the small bird calmly and gently. The phoenix flutters onto it, and he gently sets her onto his shoulder.]
Sunderkov: Calm down. You didn't do anything wrong.
Sunderkov: It's okay to ask questions.
Sunderkov: [reaches over and strokes phoenix with finger along its angular jaw] Questions are how we learn. The only way a party can improve—
[Behind them, Piatya attempts to say something but doesn't get anything out and ends up coughing out a bit of blood.]
[Sunderkov whirls around and glares at him with rage that is mostly in irony.]
Sunderkov: Hey, don't try to speak, you idiot.
[Piatya, shaky but still holding on, extends out one fist, and gives him a clear thumbs-down. The other hand is pressed against his throat trying to brace the wound together but covered in blood.]
Phoenix: Can I...?
Sunderkov: [with a very begrudging expression] Yes. Go ahead.
[The phoenix flutters down off Sunderkov's shoulder over to Piatya, and tosses a green healing flame into Piatya's throat. Instantly, it appears to dry up into a state that looks nastily cut through like some kind of carved turkey but no longer like his whole neck is undoing itself. He lets go of it. It looks a bit uncanny to see somebody just stand up and survive something that probably should have been lethal.]
Phoenix: Hey, uh... guy. Can you tell me what happened? [realizing; ashamed] ...Uh. I guess you can't.
[Piatya squints in disappointment, though he doesn't look heavily upset.]
Phoenix: Um. You had an issue with the central party. Yes or no?
[Piatya, bracing his neck but sitting up with energy, holds up a "thumbs up".]
Phoenix: You don't like the way they handled the Roaring. Yes or no?
[Piatya gives a very solid "thumbs down".]
Sunderkov: [advancing forward, irritated] No, no, he doesn't understand anything.
[Piatya glares at Sunderkov, points at him, and gives another emphatic thumbs-down directly at him, with a snort.]
[The phoenix glances from Sunderkov to Piatya, confused and concerned.]
Phoenix: Guy. Guy with the virtue star.
[Piatya takes his palm and thumps it to his chest, shaking his head to the sky in mock sadness.]
Phoenix: Uh. Hart?
Sunderkov: [oddly more understanding now; flooded with memories of "the guy's" biography] Pent. It's Pent.
Phoenix: Oh, like pentagram. I get it.
[Piatya softly nods.]
Phoenix: Pent. Koba has hurt you. ...I mean, before this. Yes or no.
[Piatya gives a small thumbs-up, vaguely sad, vaguely tired.]
Sunderkov: [indignant] I did not do anything to him.
Sunderkov: If he'd only understood the way things are done around here... all the suffering he's been going through, he could have avoided all of that.
Sunderkov: Pent. Have you been listening to a single thing I said? Or the others in the party said? Or is it all about you?
[Piatya looks at him emptily, and makes no real response.]
Phoenix: Koba. I don't understand what's been going on, but you seem to be being awfully cruel to him.
Phoenix: He can't even talk back to you.
[Sunderkov pauses. Everything is silent for a moment. He gazes at Piatya, and the fact he slashed this man's throat. The silence of not actively shouting at "that guy" as he's still on the ground is deafening.]
Phoenix: What has he even done to you, Koba?
[Sunderkov is at a loss for words. He can't be angry now. He doesn't feel anything in particular. It's just awkward.]
Sunderkov: I. [casually] He did cut off my arm.
Sunderkov: But, in actuality, that can be fixed.
[Sunderkov thrusts the remaining part of his arm out into the surrounding void and concentrates. Either through his own powers or the magic of the Titan fountain, a bunch of metallic parts spiral in out of the ether and assemble a new skeletal robotic forearm, encasing it with a steel knight gauntlet. He walks over to Piatya, crouches down, and gently extends his new arm. Piatya, a little hesitant, takes his hand with confusion. He stands up. He looks a little dazed about the whole thing, like "what am I even doing here?".]
Sunderkov: [gently takes his wrist again, right as it's slipped away] We can build you a voice box later. How does that sound?
Piatya: [hoarse] You don't—.
Piatya: [smiles confidently] I—. Fine. [he points to himself, touching a finger to his chest, then gives a thumbs-up.]
Sunderkov: [surprised, intrigued] Huh. Well, if you need any help, let us know, okay?
[Piatya gives a little affirmative grunt and nods.]

auldernet — the main story — is supposed to take place after the workers' state exists and is falling apart, but you get to try to save it

revolution side story.
in the Time Before, when the seventeen nations of the Other Side lived under The Empire,
things were weird. things were awful. it wasn't anything like life on the Near Side of the world.
everyone constantly lived in darkness, in fake narratives among distorted phantoms. the Dark World was the real world.

at thirteen years of age, everyone receives a "virtue spike". these are dark, glassy shards that must be ritually jammed through your body. typically, people will be inside a Dark World and enter an area which is able to magically suspend their pain in order to be able to put in the virtue spike easier. after it goes in, there will generally be moments where it hurts. but everyone is told to believe this is necessary for them to grow into adults and learn to become a good person.
every teenager goes through a quest to learn to overcome adversity and challenges and learn to live with this new spiking background pain and embrace it into them. they are told this is an exciting journey to be proud of which will grow them by the end of it. and that isn't not true. but by the time they get through the journey they will have lost themself. they will have learned to tune out the virtue spike and the darkness that surrounds them, and yet they will have forgotten how to feel anything or be authentic. their obligation to darkness and pain will overtake parts of their personality and cause them to build a new fake personality they have to act out every day.
the only good thing is that around the virtue spike each person will build their own set of powers, abilities, and "virtue". some are relatively unique. some are shared or repeated.

this went on for quite a while. the high-ranking members of The Empire were allowed to live in the surface Dark Worlds. the majority of people were stuck in the lower Titan world, which due to its sheer population and size bled continuously into the surface Dark Worlds with both cute fantasy elements and horrifying nightmare elements. there was no Roaring between the Titan world and the regular Dark Worlds and the earth, because everything had stabilized into a certain twisted, horrifying balance. people outside the Empire were conquered and put into the darkness in fear they would try to destroy what the Empire had built. at least until the day the Empire reached seventeen nations, when the structure began to suffer from bloated inefficiency and could barely maintain itself, forcing it to stop expanding knowing that if it went any further the Near Side would probably defeat it in a war. the Empire was content, and turned to subtly trying to send capitalists to the Near Side to buy arrangements of people there and win the rest of the world that way. it wasn't doing very well at that. the Near Side was too productive and busy trying to buy arrangements of workers on the Other Side.

then one day, it came crashing down. people started realizing that they could take the virtue spikes out, or didn't have to put them in, and that pain and suffering weren't inherently good. they started thinking of ways to create a society with people working together instead of merely taking dictates from the kings and believing that pain would bring peace.
the Empire freaked out, and fearmongered. the rulers tried to tell people that surely if everyone wasn't suffering people would turn against each other and kill each other. only periodic pain could cause people to realize their limits and back down from harmful behaviors. only shared suffering and the recognition of universal, inevitable pain could bring kindness and empathy. what kind of terrible abominations would people become if they were set free? they would become dragon-slayers. they would become human-destroying monsters.
but people were increasingly not buying it. with time, a lot of theorists had emerged who were figuring out all the inner workings of different pieces of a society, and were all conspiring together to represent the people. theorists and activists joined together into a great constellation of networks of networks, like one big root system. about a century later, this would become known as the "Auldernet". and with all their will and their wits, the Auldernet soon produced a wonderful but dangerous power known as The Spark. they used this power to learn about recent history and reset time, and to ultimately destroy the Empire and the kings.
several heroes of the revolutionary period emerged. Sunderkov, the burning mage of integrity. Piatya, the fickle north wind of freedom. Ellwing, the even hand of totality.
most people were generally on board with at least one of the three. for decades, and even into about three generations, everyone was relatively unified, ready to make the Far Side a better place. everyone came to terms with the ideas that only by accepting each other and working together people had the power to change their own fate, that knowledge and understanding were good, and that it was best to live in reality. people were honest. they didn't run from their lives. they didn't run from each other.

but eventually, there started to be problems. fractures were forming. the Auldernet was coming apart. various groups of monsters and humans started to fight each other, try to kill each other, try to take things from each other. as various natural crises happened, it only seemed to spiral downward and get worse and worse.
it almost seemed like the "warnings" given by the kings were coming true.
but although many were losing hope, there were still some who had not. some were aligned with Sunderkov, some with Piatya, some with their own local fighting subdivisions. but all of them from each corner wanted to repair the Auldernet and prevent the world from returning to darkness.

unfortunately for everyone, The Spark has gone awry, and instead of helping hold the Far Side together it is capriciously picking various groups of monsters and humans and siding with one of them to kill the other. (if you haven't guessed by now, that's you. the star-shaped object acts like a cursor, and lets you make various terrible choices, or good ones if you care to learn what's right and stand beside Ezra.) the new heroes must follow The Spark across the land and keep it from making the wrong choices. if they succeed, they can repair the Auldernet, keep The Roaring from coming, and maybe bring everyone's combined strength together to banish The Spark so it will leave them all alone.

Sunderkov has no direct control over the above world,
but he takes control in the Titan world deciding these are the correct things you can do here, nothing else is correct
Piatya tries to leave the Titan world and go to the Near Side, where he would basically become a roaring knight.
　in his mind the november knight will be a voice of rationality where if people would only see it they would quickly come to their senses, break out of 'reality', and join the Auldernet. (only a few representatives are needed to go to the Titan world, otherwise the Auldernet forms above ground.)
　his tactics in the Prior Century are a bit different from December's in the Modern Century.
Sunderkov shuts that down, insisting that the Far Side has been safe as long as it kept to itself but the whole project will risk falling apart if it overextends into the Near Side.
Piatya calls Sunderkov a coward for not piercing the Near Side, saying they risk the Far Side by standing there and it will crumble. Sunderkov calls Piatya a coward for stepping away from what they have and risking the Far Side by leaving the "barrier"*. the fight ensues.
Piatya is defeated, the phoenixes come in and the last second and save him. Sunderkov admits what he did was counter-productive, because Undertale logic. but Piatya is wounded on multiple levels. within the days after he doesn't trust Sunderkov at all. he's like the early Trotskyites just before the conspiracy / Great Purge where they're all on edge, although for good reason.
　in a sense, Piatya got weird-routed by Sunderkov. Sunderkov restored their relationship but only in a very damaging way where he took control.

in the time of Auldernet the Far Side is crumbling. it's about to shear back in two, and after a big fight become part of the Near Side
Sunderkov realizes that everything is wrong but he doesn't know what to do. he panics, he is crunching a bunch of observations, he is overanalyzing all the people in the Titan world thinking about whether he can take it out on anybody. he's not the type to do it quickly but he does it sometimes if he has good reason to believe his accusation is true.
Ezra or Graf eventually arrives with observations that the Far Side is crumbling because it's divided in two. Sunderkov is like, well duh! there are these things we're supposed to do and nobody will do them, so how do we get people to go along with the program. then after a while it actually hits him and he's like, wait, did I do this. hang on. I keep trying to get people to get with the program but every time that happens we keep splitting. wait. what if the program is wrong, and they just have a different program.
and Piatya realizes that every time he tries to escape Sunderkov's program that it's causing a split in the programs and actually Sunderkov tries to stop him from 'restoring the correct program' because they have totally different programs.
they have this moment of realization that they've doomed the Far Side because they won't work together. and ultimately they come to an agreement that Piatya will be allowed to enter the Far Side as long as he only appears as a shadow and attempts to call attention to people's subconscious knowledge. if the Near Side refuses to change, all his allies must stand strong where they are and defend the Far Side. if the Near Side awakens, then the diamond curtain around the Far Side will fall, people will be able to move freely, and the theorists within the Titan world will fade away, passing into legend and leaving the world to future generations. as things ought to be.
they send Ezra and Graf back to the Far Side to bring back their message of standing together to achieve each other's goals.
the two soon meet with a visitor who has appeared as a shadow. it's Berdly at like 20 years old. a silly little charade of trying to figure out exactly what he is trying to accomplish and communicate without words ensues. he seems to want to help put the Far Side back together despite being a bit disorganized and confused about things? it seems like things are looking up, and the Near Side and Far Side are on track to be unified.

[*] god the more I think about this the more the accidental Communist subtext already in Undertale comes out, it's so funny.

the player is asked to move the star cursor over Ezra or Graf. if you move it over Graf, Piatya ends up turning on Sunderkov. he uses Titan World powers to cast Snowgrave and then flat out punches the ice to diamond dust leaving nothing. so Sunderkov is deader than dead. this shouldn't be that bad an outcome but for complex reasons, it shortly leads to the Roaring and the Fifth International never getting to save the world.

after the two birds free Piatya and Sunderkov has lost his ability to appear within the Far Side as a november knight, Piatya actually takes up the offer for a text-to-speech voice. he starts speaking and signing at the same time because of the important thematic conceit from RedactedTale that anybody who gains increasing Materialist knowledge about the world starts resembling W.D. Gaster.

Piatya: So, how is it having no mouth?
Sunderkov: I half want to scream.
Sunderkov: But, if it means you'll be able to save the Far Side...
phoenix: You can always still help out down here.

Auldernet

A long time ago, humans and monsters lived together uneasily.

[human king barking orders at Loox]
[monster king with vaguely wolf or wolverine features chomping up ham as frightened human servants bring more food]
At times humans ruled monsters. At times monsters ruled humans.

[human and monster standing with joined hands, one with hammer, one with sickle, big star between them]
Then one day, monsters and humans came together to end the madness.

[phoenix flying over like jet, looking down on land]
Scouring near and far across the land,

[group of monsters and group of humans standing to each side of big, glowing symbolic five-pointed star]
They brought together their brightest minds to forge a great secret...

[pretentious artificer looking human with glasses and mage cloak carrying glowing star down into great fault line in the earth]
And sealed it away at the ends of the earth.

[phoenix monster on one side with flames behind, Lightning Crow on the other with snowflakes behind]
For four generations the land has lived in harmony.

Until...

[mysterious blade shape striking into abstract stretch of ground, thunderously lighting up sky]
A swift blow broke the calm —

[earth symbolically breaking apart into floating islands on a dark sea with a different monster or human on each one suggesting different elements]
And the world became undone.

[divided screen:]
[phoenix blazing in field of dead grass]
[Lightning Crow in heap against dark night]
It was the height of anger. It was the bottom of sadness.

But...

[a symbolic glowing star appears on each bird]
In the midst of darkness... In the heat of ruin...
[the symbolic star on each side rises into the sky to form one glowing star in the sky the two birds look up at]
A spark still shines.

[the star glows on the horizon.]
As the Time Before was brighter than its yesterday,
[kicking off an island into sky over the dark sea, the phoenix and the Lightning Crow in shadow chase after the the distant star]
Our tomorrow will be brighter than our yesterday.

guy fawkes - 1605
benedict arnold - $17.41 [4]
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg - that is certainly a name.
　god. the name is more interesting than the history. but I do like how that gives one name that defected _to_ nazis and one name that defected _from_ them. [reddit.com/r/earthbound/comments/105v5rh/the_disturbing_novel_series_that_inspired_mother_3/]
　I also can't deny that this name is perfect for a split name trope where Claas, Schenk, and Graf are all separate characters

EZRA ☜︎☪︎☼︎✌︎ ESRA ☜︎💧︎☼︎✌︎
CLAAS 👍︎☹︎✌︎✌︎💧︎ SCHENK 💧︎👍︎☟︎☜︎☠︎😐︎ GRAF ☝︎☼︎✌︎☞︎

the main character is a cute phoenix named Ezra. nominally a girl.
this name makes me think of "Erzya" (the group of people loosely referenced in the name Sunderkov - who are apparently seceding from Russia to desert them in the Ukraine war. nice.) and "Ezra Pound", a poet who turned on the United States.

who was he siding with again? I don't even remember. I think that in itself says a lot. the United States makes such a big deal out of not celebrating the United States and acting like it's the best ever just because you live there and it doesn't actually care what people believe to not support it.
so... Pound was supporting fascist Italy apparently. that's no good. hmm.
it could still work as this idea of people never skewering traitors for the correct reasons and always bashing them for completely the wrong reasons, like people celebrate the death of Guy Fawkes and don't even know what side he stood for at the time, and on the other side, people celebrate Trotsky attacking the Soviet Union for things totally other than what he actually believed and wanted. this general idea of 'if you don't fit some narrow criteria of being part of a country and hating other countries correctly you can agree to be put in a mental institution but you can't be a real person'. this idea that what gets you locked up in the mental institution isn't actually the act of being a fascist but violating people's narrow ideas of what A Good Person is and what A Human is such that in a few cases a Communist could be locked up there too.
so yeah it's kind of in irony, it's like, we hate you, you're so bad for turning on us, you lunatic, you must be as bad as Ezra Pound, but it's all just an accusation

equally... Graf could be in irony as somebody who would be awesome enough to turn on the nazis, but is not actually the hero he seems to be

wait wait. Claas Struggle [5]
taking the name Claas and making the most unexpected groaner puns on it as techniques
Claas Divide
Claas Frequency / Interval - this seems genius if you know about swatch analysis and baffling if you don't
Claas Break - a security exploit that leads to more of them
Claas Driver - class is pretty common inside programming terms isn't it
Claas Invariant - this is typically a validation section which checks that objects fulfil particular criteria. actually makes sense as some kind of 'check for traps' tech
Claas Subgiant - subgiants are class IV stars

I... Piatya is supposed to be the Fifth International but I keep bringing up the number four because it's inherently funny to me. so I need some reason that four still applies to _some_ Trotskyists but not all of them

the fourth international is Rosa Luxemburg and also all the failed Communist parties in Europe, just because Trotskyists keep talking about those and talking about those over and over as the best example people could find in 1930 of a region that "should have" gone through Trotskyist transition
"Luxemburg" died. the rule is that if a Communist _party_ died in real life, the character that represents them in Auldernet died. so "Gramsci" died, "Cannon" died, "Mao" didn't die, "Ho Chi Minh" didn't die, this amusingly implies Che didn't die despite getting into these epic battles but gosh I don't want to extend the Auldernet universe that far.
[... seven] is too many characters. even if they don't show up very long. the less close we are to asking questions like "does George Orwell exist?" the better.

the Fourth International contains five theorists, the Fifth International contains two theorists. Piatya and "Lux" are part of the Fifth International.
　Lev - actually the Hebrew word for "heart", not "lion".
the Fourth International contained "Gramsci"/"Fisher", "Bordiga", "Cliff"/"Hayashi", "Che", and "Cannon"/"Rorty". ironically containing five people.
　Amadeus Berdiga - he looks vaguely like a hawk or horned owl but like he has his arms crossed in his portrait with this superior upward expression. refused to share his wonderful insights with anyone not part of Berdigism, made no real mark.
　Fitzherald - actual son of a newspaper mogul that broke away and became convinced that Communism is the people taking back The Media and when we rewrite The Media we rewrite "the prophecy"/"the narrative". didn't succeed.
　Shojima - "japan" representation. believed that only the clumps of people who were neutral to large empires could possibly unite the world. much like Berdiga, doomed to remain a 'tiny island' ruled and led around by the local empires that create the bigger empires.
　Mateo Cruz - the meme of the IMT trying to claim Che has gone on too long to not comment on. cruz = "cruise" / "Motos Cruz".
　"Rorty" - due to Richard Rorty being this weird postmodern philosopher that was always picking at the concepts of God and truth values and stuff he feels weirdly thematic for Deltarune even though he was not very prominent or well-known in real-world history. like if the odd wishy-washy world of Deltarune that generates people like Gerson as 'historians' had a section of the Fourth International I swear the one carrying it would be him, not Cannon. Cannon was... similar to the way Trotsky was but like only the good parts of Trotsky. Rorty was like this barely deconverted Christian stuck in a Kantian-rationalist prison and always phrasing things in weirdly Christian terms with only the surface mentions of God tossed out, deconstructing all the wrong things because they're only the things that you're 'allowed' to question, very like all of the writing of Deltarune feels. Cruz, Berdiga, and Lev are so upset at his way of viewing things.
the Third International contains Sunderkov, Yu, "North Korea" (qilin; ahistorical inclusion but very logical), and "Hoxha" (human). ironically being composed of four people, and hinting the Fourth International is more correct.
　Yu Faming - represents China, Vietnam, and Cuba
the Second International contained three people, the First International contained two people. but both of those went back to the Light World and liquidated themselves.
　if you ask me: one of the members of the First International is a black cat that eats dirt, a lot like Paul in RedactedTale / 'DR season 2'. the second one is a dragon, like Susie.
　the Second International is composed of "Bernstein" (he keeps coming up as a definition of Idealist economics so he has been super on my mind), "Yaroshenko" (the story about the letters is way too funny), and I don't know who else. something tells me two of them are humans instead of monsters, because you just know that under Undertale logic humans are the ones accidentally supporting First World empire.
so like, that amusingly suggests that the day the Fifth International saves the Auldernet universe it will contain five people, hinting that it's actually the correct one.
　if Sunderkov joins the Fifth International instead of them flat-out killing him to be free, that's three people. they may just be left searching for the other two when the story ends.
　but, you know, Berdly is trying his best to become one of the two. it is... unbelievably funny in context because all the existing theorists are implied by their historical inspirations to be _really_ bright people who are some of the most elite at their craft but Berdly is just... there, trying to look smart.

this is so much information. I feel like if it was in a game that most of it would be casually dropped in background objects, rather than being something that's necessary to follow. that would strike a nice balance between adding just enough detail to the world that it functions through internal interactions, but allowing you to pass by it and focus on only a few characters and events if you prefer.

Sunderkov: all you do is divide people. you divided the Third International, and then you divided the Fourth International.
Sunderkov: if you had what you desired, would you shatter the whole world like a pane of glass?

Auldernet opens with a simple visual menu which is only captioned:
Choose　Boy　Or　Girl
on one side is the young phoenix monster, Ezra
on one side is the young Lightning Crow, Graf
and when you press the arrow keys, the star cursor jumps between them, putting the one under the star in various animations, and showing a colored symbol indicating what pronouns they use

this screen overall looks pretty normal, it looks like any character selection screen in any normal multiplayer game even despite the fact this is a single-player game.
but this being a parallel to Deltarune, of course the starting screen can't be normal, and of course there is a twist.
when you "choose boy or girl", you're actually choosing one of them to eventually kill the other at the end. that's what the star cursor always does: it jumps to the scene of a conflict and then picks somebody to win it, indifferent to how much violence is required.
Auldernet might have about three routes through it: Ezra's route, Graf's route, and the true route where you gain the ability to play both characters and avert catastrophe. like Undertale you'd only have to play it twice, as that would allow you to see both of the characters anyway.

I love the weird little subtext here that having to "choose boy or girl" is basically a kind of violence. you at first think it's getting away from the Undertale trend of characters straining against a gender binary, it's actually not.

the secret third option is Berdly as the Knight.
you wouldn't have to play Deltarune to get this option, the game is self-contained, but how Deltarune connects to this would be recapped briefly in the game somewhere. Noelle and Berdly secretly form Communist party, Berdly 'nobly' volunteers to go to Far Side, nobody really opposes him despite everybody's doubts he can do it properly because honestly they're kind of happy to be rid of him though they don't hate him enough that they want to admit that.
when you select Berdly you can actually go avert the catastrophe.
I guess you can also move the cursor off Berdly to play as either Ezra or Graf? I don't want there to be more than two playthroughs needed for this thing....

yeah, Carol moving to the Far Side is canon to this game and she becomes some sort of weird framing device for what happened in Deltarune and who Noelle and Berdly are. the overall story of 'big brother' is not continuous with this but for some reason there are like a couple of alternate noncanon events that lead to Noelle and Berdly creating the secret Communist party. I am not sure if the star cursor is involved or not. the star cursor being there would definitely be one way to do it, although that would require shenanigans of actually recreating small parts of Deltarune so you can mess with "Deltarune" using the star cursor and solve the puzzle

> the "Hivebent follows along the opening narration of Homestuck act 1" thing, with some other teenager grumpily waking out of bed or something

Ezra wakes up. 'Ezra, my girl...'
Graf wakes up. 'Graf, my boy...'
for strange reasons the two birds have weirdly comparable parents that feel like neat opposites of each other and both of them are wearing, perched carefully at the start of their beaks, these half-moon transition lenses
it's very funny when you see both of them. after that things stop being the same but there may be very loose parallels or ironies across what they're each doing

Ezra starts in the town of Sterling. — this is a subtle pun on the name "Pound".

• [statue of weird starling ranger] It's a statue of the folktale hero Koba Sterling.

Graf starts in the city of Stauffenberg, a historic castle town. [this is what the name literally means. it's exactly as 'bad' a name as Hometown]
it looks vaguely like Prague or something, it's basically a European-style city with a castle in the middle of it.

• It's Mike Sunderkov, the hero who brought the Far Side integrity.
  • It's Piatya Holiday, the traitor who cleaved the earth in two.
• It's Piatya Holiday, the hero who brought the Far Side freedom.
  • It's Mike Sunderkov, the traitor who turned hearts to ash.
• It's a statue of a grand-looking phoenix monster. It seems to be broken in two.

so I had been going on a silly little quest to review every version of Animal Farm
at least, all the actually distinct ones. not including tiny little edition differences
and it occurred to me. _oh no_
_this reminds me of the plot point in Deltarune where the prophecy keeps getting adapted from adaptations of itself_

I was struck with this terrible realization that if Piatya Holiday exists and he's a Trotsky counterpart whose life is semi retelling the story of the Russian Revolution, then, odds are that a version of Animal Farm is going to exist in the 'Deltarune'/Auldernet cosmos. and there are going to be adaptations of it. the universe of Deltarune is going to have like, an Animal Farm RPG. where if Auldernet was an actual game it would appear as a hidden Creepy Arcade Game and you would be like, moving around a little chicken character or something in this totally eerie atmosphere
and the content of both the book and the RPG are going to be different from the real-world Animal Farm because of how in the Auldernet universe the creation of the Far Side was somewhat more successful than the Russian revolution. can you imagine Animal Farm just being totally different

I want to say that in the sword route Piatya's fucking (pronounced censored) Ice Ax is hovering there so you enter the room and are like, oh no, I know how this is going to end. but mostly because it would be boring if things are exactly what you expect it doesn't end the way you think it's going to. there is some really specific prophecy that happens, a lot like how the prophecy that happens in Deltarune that we somehow haven't been told all of is oddly specific.
I think Piatya's prophecy is something like that on the surface a fight will break out between two rivals that don't want to be part of the same society and then a great rift will open in the ground, the Titan fountain will rip open, all the theorists inside will die for real and be torn into nothing, and the Auldernet will be torn to shreds, all beginning with the emergence of the accursed star cursor over the two rivals that enables them to fight to the death.
the prophecy is the main story of Auldernet, just like you might expect it to be. I'm not perfectly sure why the star cursor first appears over Ezra or Graf. I guess the way it works is something like, when the Auldernet splits the star cursor appears at the point of the split. the star cursor is used to form glowing yellowish links between Souls or something. it has this metaphysical existence in the narrative layer where if Souls exist or simply if magic can exist it is this vivid metaphorical representation of the links that bind people together. so the links can emerge from anyone but when they break or fail to form the star shows up and a fight begins
I suppose in that case the appearance of the star cursor in the Light World at all is really ominous. you'd see the star appear above the chicken sprite in the hidden game and you'd go, oh no, who am I going to have to kill. then you'd encounter the floating Ice Ax and you'd go, oh no, oh god. but then the sprite game would actually just end with the chicken meeting another chicken, throwing down the Ice Ax between them and creating a dark nightmare rift and this creepy animation of the pixel world being torn apart.
yeah, I can see that. I can see the 'repeated Animal Farm prophecy' being something like that but a bit different each time around.

> is the twist going to be, like... the Prophecy is a totally made up thing that didn't exist before this iteration of the story, there was a normal version of Deltarune, but Dess got tired of there being a narrative, so then she screwed up the world wildly, inventing The Roaring, but the result of that was that it retroactively became part of the story??? ... none of this Roaring stuff existed on the previous version. but now absolutely everything about the world revolves around The Roaring and The Prophecy

Ellwing, Piatya, and Sunderkov are more aware of this problem, and like,
Ellwing or Sunderkov does one of these Lenin-style denunciations of how some on the Near Side think they can get rid of the Prophecy but that's not how history works, history will always happen in some way and there's always going to be a narrative. people make history out of the circumstances they're given and not the circumstances they choose, basically

alleged versions of Animal Farm:

garden of eden story (date unknown)
　in the beginning, all the animals and mythical creatures on earth lived in harmony. but they were not allowed to have knowledge of how anything worked. so nobody blamed anyone for anything, and there was no morality, but there was no death, and everyone was happy.
　one day a brave lion cub noticed some shapes moving below the river of shadows. everyone told him the river couldn't exist and that there was definitely nothing in it. but he had to know what was in it, so he dove into the river. below the river were the gods and the game board of clay figures that controlled creation. the gods were not happy. they told the lion that he must leave the garden and never come back, because if anyone but them had this knowledge, the garden would crumble into violence; if he enters the garden again, and this is not an edict but a warning, his knowledge has cursed him and he will surely die.
　the lion did not obey, and instead went back into the garden to assemble an army. many living things rejected his message but a handful came along and followed him back into the river to conquer the gods. the gods were aghast. in a last-ditch effort they called all the magical creatures they could think of into the river to fight against the traitors to try to salvage their perfect project. but the traitors believed in themselves and stood strong. in the midst of the chaos the lion searched across the bottom of the great river, and came back with a snail shell containing a deep darkness somewhat like tar. he swallowed the dark glob, and with its power, he summoned a dark sword perfectly fitted to the mouth of a lion. he discovered the ability for created beings to purposefully wield the power of creation — alchemy. and with that power, the rebel army turned the tables in their favor, and destroyed the army of monsters. the gods had vanished, as if killed in the battle themselves, and all that remained were the armies and a river of blood. animals and monsters returned to the surface, sure they had created a better world. but one day, the garden divided again into two armies, one led by the lion that wanted to leave the boundaries of the garden and one that wanted to stay to protect the garden's inhabitants from any potential monsters or demons on the outside. the army of the lion and the army led by a fire-breathing dragon clashed against each other, and ultimately the lion's forces were destroyed. cruelty and violence reigned on earth, and the army of the dragon burst out of the boundaries of the garden not to make friends and unify the world but instead to conquer and destroy. the animals and monsters lamented their choices, but, you know, "whenever you go against gods and kings it always ends this way".

tower of babel story (date unknown)
　various fantasy races try to build a tower to heaven and it goes badly because heaven drives them apart. then they develop different languages.
　oh man, in context this would be a figurative origin story for The Spark. because that's exactly what's happening here, 'god' is The Spark coming down and pitting them against each other.
　various separate populations exist after the breaking down of paradise. then they get the bright idea they will all come together and build a tower to heaven so they will all unify again and be able to rebuild paradise. a glowing star descends from the distant night into the light of day and starts pulling the factions apart and making them fight each other. the tower falls and they do not rebuild paradise. they all just end up with wildly different cultures, philosophies, and religions.

Animal Farm (1945 / 2026)
　title: The day it snowed
　at one time animals lived on a farm. but the farm was going through a terrible time and the farmer was out drinking. then one day, while he's gone, the animals venture into the farmhouse, and discover forbidden knowledge. they figure out that they're all just the farmer's creations in a way and their entire reality and society has been constructed like a board game so they can exist for no reason but for humans to eat them. the animals hatch a scheme that they will figure out how to build farms. when the farmer comes back the animals overrun him and paint a new set of rules on the silo. they work hard. they bring their produce to market. in town, they overhear humans casually talking about how animals only know brutality and dominance and could never run the world — The Prophecy.
　back at the farm, a goat named Snowdrift is congregating the animals to discuss bringing everyone together to build a big windmill reaching toward the skies, and how they might be able to ultimately unite every animal in the world to make sure humans never farm animals again; there are a couple deer from the edge of the farm in attendance and a bunch of pigeons at the ready. but when the winter comes, everyone is suffering. nobody from the animals to the farmer that had been there before was prepared for this. humans from other farms are looming over the edges thinking about the best way to destroy the farm. the pigs take center stage and argue that no matter what they have to protect the farm and they can't rely on the faint _possibility_ that other groups of animals will be ready. Snowdrift secretly assembles an army of animals to get rid of the pigs and ensure the original mission of the farm will be protected. but the pigs find out before the plot can go down, and the story ends with Snowdrift meeting his end at the end of a whirling axe. the animals are horrified but ultimately, they give up on resisting the pigs, and the pigs take over the farm. they become indistinguishable from the farmer, blend into the surrounding human society, and nobody ever tries to break "the barrier" again.

Kimba the White Lion (1950-1954 / 1965-1967 / 1966)
　title: Leo the Bright
　the date on this one is really funny because the end of the manga is right after Stalin and crimson Marxism died so it's shockingly possible to imagine a universe where Trotskyists over in Japan did in fact write this comic to silently gloat about the defeat of Stalin
　Leo's parents were killed by poachers. he realizes that animals must work together to defend themselves from humans. (so, we've got a "Stalinist distortion" in the story where Trotsky turned into Stalin / Deng.) Leo unites all the animals to create a farm, to create a kingdom, to create these superficial aspects of town life and modernity. he gathers all the various animal tribes. but he has too much respect for humans. he never wants to disturb what any of the human countries are doing, even as some of them blatantly dominate others, and there are a lot of worrying developments toward humans conquering and poaching the savanna land's animals again. it's clear the animals will have to make a decision on whether to enforce their ways of peace onto the other side of the world or stay behind "the barrier".
　Leo follows humans to a mountain to gather a rare mineral that can help human medical technology. as they go into the mountain it becomes a cold, adverse winter and it seems they won't make it. the lion gives his life and allows the human to take his meat and pelt. the human survives the mountain and emerges back out the other side intact, but having taken the life of a friend. (which sounds a lot like Undertale. I didn't think about it before but Kimba really is kind of like Asgore honestly.) the human, shedding a tear, locks away his axe.

The Lion King (1994)
　title: Leo, prince of Densmark
　characters in Auldernet world make jokes about how obviously this was plagiarizing Leo the Bright, pointing out that both characters are even named Leo.

The Amazing Digital Circus (2023-10, 2026-6) / I have no mouth and I must scream (1967) / The Matrix (1999)
　title: You have no mouth
　this show is not supposed to have existed yet in the year Deltarune / Auldernet takes place, but it's based on two things that blatantly did exist much earlier, so for that reason I'm going to say its position on the timeline is "1999" and give it a pass. the show is either 2D Flash animation and carefully stylized or has crunchy Jimmy Neutron graphics - which is so conceptually funny I might just go for it, imagine it being 'underappreciated because of the baffling choice of visuals'.
　a girl enters a weird digital simulation as a circus clown. she immediately starts trying to escape, but the central computer "Mozart" has decided that anyone who tries to escape this place will be punished. if the characters in the simulation would obey the central computer and not look for forbidden knowledge, they would all be happy. but they're not happy.
　there's a clown, a hen-weathervane witch called "West", a lion, a monkey (think Sun Wukong breaking out of Māyā / the cycle), an antelope girl, and a weird person in a black jacket who carries dice and claims to be the god of dreams. (it's never said out loud but the dice symbolize dreams being seemingly random and yet narratives made of material parts being ultimately predictable.) the black jacket person is a repressed trans woman who presents as an oh-so-mysterious shadow with no gender to hide that he both cannot become a woman and yet doesn't fully want to go back to being a man. the black jacket person created the simulation but due to drama between the characters they have trouble getting any useful information out of him. at the end of the story the black jacket person throws off their jacket and reveals nothing and ceases to exist.
　but, there's also a Trotsky / Wizard of Oz B-plot. the lion discovers that there are actually two master computers and comes up with the idea that if he can get the computers to fight each other and destroy each other they can all get out. the antelope girl is on his side. West doesn't like the idea and says it's too dangerous. the monkey is on her side (because bad puns, he journeyed to the West); early-book or Vegeta-style, he thinks they can control the simulation if they only became strong enough. the clown is on the fence and the black jacket is secretly afraid of making a decision. so the black jacket somehow offers the clown a choice between red and blue: red, they pit the computers against each other, blue, they simply try to save themselves and run away from the simulation if there's any ordinary way out. the clown wavers and considers that maybe West's way is the right way, 'in life you will be happy if you can accept just anything'. but the lion flies off the handle and forges out to carry out his plan himself dragging the antelope with him. West and the monkey turn against him and start controlling the simulation in their favor, putting the lion in a cage so he can't go anywhere. the clown discovers the lion in the cage and is horrified, but he shushes her like, you can't let them find out. West and the monkey have become king and queen of the simulation and imprisoned the AIs so they can't possibly torture the players, but now they have become just like the AIs (there's a silly animation of morphing between the AIs and the king and queen just like in two of the versions of Animal Farm). the clown asks the black jacket if he has any secret powers that could help, the jacket falls away into nothing. the clown stands before the monarchs and says they could still all get out of this if they would only get rid of the AIs like the lion said. the king and queen delete her mouth and turn her into a slug for the rest of her existence. and that's the ending.

Five Nights at Freddy's (2014)
　title: Seven days at Dumpty's
　okay, I'm kind of trolling on this one. this is very distant from Animal Farm or Kimba and pretty much unrelated. but superficially it has like, animal characters that should be happy characters living in harmony and a nasty leader figure who tries to take control of them, and you try to defeat him but he just keeps coming back and keeping anyone from being happy. it shouldn't work and yet the themes are surprisingly there. I also like how it ties into Deltarune's themes of creepypastas and horror.
　there is a pizza restaurant called Dumpty's Pieces which on the outside has a rooster mascot holding up a pizza pie clearly divided into pieces with one piece offset from the pie. the other characters are Jackie Moonshine (jackal), Mikey the crocodile, and Lux the white lion. the conceit of the game is that the evil business overlord appears as Dumpty but is an actual burning dumpster fire and has turned into a twisted phoenix. (he's a 'twisted Easter' like Afton, he controls fire like Sunderkov.) there is at least one game where the ending is actually an escape room where burning Dumpty is trying to set the building on fire and you have to escape before you get cooked.
　there is the potential for such a messed-up backstory on this one, like, Lux was a staff member that tried to go against the company and perhaps form a union with some wider group of people but then she got killed and put in a lion robot. Jackie is a kid that died. Mikey is a terrible union member that tried to walk away with a negotiation and ultimately died when "Dumpty" showed no mercy. so only one of them is a child, who is taken in by Lux.
　the secrets within the game would be like the ghosts slowly realizing they betrayed each other and not just having to move on but specifically having to forgive each other before they can move on.
　the best part of this though is like, "Dumpty" trying to revive his daughter, saying "I will put her back together", and trying to take the mountain of robots and put the pieces together. I have a feeling this whole Humpty Dumpty and putting the pieces together concept is very important to Deltarune, so it is just that final punch that there is an actual oblique connection to Dess in this one. my thoughts on what this means _here_: in RedactedTale/Auldernet, Dess escaping reality is actually interpreted as a good thing, because Communist theorists can use the 'Materialism powers' of the Titan world to understand the world and make positive changes, so "Dumpty" trying to force his child back into his reality that he controls is then a bad thing, because the good thing is the old system breaking open and only coming back together when there's a new system. I think this is basically what the Shadow Crystal quest in Deltarune is saying: that finding Dess is a bad and perilous thing unless it's done for the right reasons and also in the right way.

auldernet is happening in like... is it happening today? I think it's happening 4 years after Deltarune. just, 'now', although it's yesterday's now as portrayed in Deltarune. so, almost none of the media that adapts Piatya and Sunderkov would be around in their time, but all of these media exist in Ezra and Graf's time.

Links

• "The forgotten man" - RedactedTale AU, deltarune interpretation (not quite finished)
  • pointed-tail-1 - RedactedTale brainstorm
• plaintext source file for this page