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What IS the hand?   
Papriko
Peppery One

Papriko
Germany  


  7/28/2015

Okay, I know this topic has been discussed a few times, but I still don't quite get it: what's the deal with this ominous hand that represents you in pretty much all the creatures games? What is the hand? How? Why? I mean, what?

Is the hand a shee? After all it takes care of the norns n grendels n ettins, just like the shee. You decide their fate, can kill them or hatch new ones, just like the shee. You can modify their genetics, just like the shee. You can design completely new devices (i.e. download or write COBs/agents), just like the shee.
C1 would make sense then, but the shee bailed out of albia, so why are you still on the C2 albia? And where are the other shee on the ark? Are you the last survivor? If so, last survivor of what? Or the DS ship... are you the lone shee? I doubt, since he is referred to in third person most of the time, so who the heck are you then?

My next theory would be some kind of helper created by the shee, but that is just as spooky. Did the shee create some species of disembodied infertile immortal hands that float around, even through freaking solid walls and lava, happily teleport around instantaneously, can lift things of any weight and have a magic hammerspace (i.e. the inventory) they can deposit entire critter and plant populations inside? I knew they were talented with genes, but that talented? Really? Seems pretty weird to me...
At least it'd explain why you hang around in the weirdest spots, just taking care of the little fuzzballs... You are left behind to take care of the norns.
On the other hand, where are the shee again? C1 is pre-ark-launch, so they still should be around. C2 makes sense again, they all left the planet, but where are the (lone) shee in C3 and DS? Did they die to something? I can imagine that the lone shee died alone on his ship eventually, be it just of age, but the C3 shee? It is implied that most of them were on board, like, most of the species, I am sure they could have reproduced or cloned themselves somehow...

Or my last theory: maybe you are just some kind of weird poltergeist-kinda thing, some metaphysical being. It'd explain the powers and your shape somehow, but where do you come from? Who are you? Why albia or the ships? And where the heck are the shee?!

What are your thoughts on the topic?


Lets play plants! Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis...
 
lolitiabear

lolitiabear


 visit lolitiabear's website: Loli's Creature base
  7/28/2015

you know i thought of the same thing when it came to this. I came up with the theory that the hand isn't all what the creatures see. It's just part of it so it won't block our view. Really there's a whole body attached to the hand.

a cool sciency bear
 
Freylaverse
toxic biohazard

Freylaverse

Moderator



  7/28/2015  1

I always thought the Hand was a representation of yourself as a person, or however you choose to personify yourself in the game world. You can choose to be a human, acting on the creatures from another dimension (i.e., ours), or a Shee/Banshee/some other type of creator, etcetera. Generally speaking, I enjoy playing Creatures as a Banshee? I.e., I make the hand green, and I raise mostly grendels. xP

Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; We should not distort it.
 
xan

xan



  7/28/2015

I concur with Layla, both in personal preference in playstyle and headcanons about the Hand.

I also know that as far as canon goes, trying to place the Hand qualifies as 'thinking about it too hard', but that's never stopped me, and shouldn't stop anyone else.

 
ylukyun
Patient Pirate

ylukyun

Manager



  7/28/2015

I vote poltergeist. Maybe a dead Shee? [nlaugh]
 
Dienes

Dienes



  7/28/2015

lolitiabear wrote:
you know i thought of the same thing when it came to this. I came up with the theory that the hand isn't all what the creatures see. It's just part of it so it won't block our view. Really there's a whole body attached to the hand.



This was my impression, too. I'm sure it doesn't help that I was also playing Black & White around the time I was playing Creatures.

 
Allekha

Allekha


 visit Allekha's website: Hello, Robotto blog
  7/28/2015

There's an old fanfic where the head was invented by the Shee as a kind of portal for a sentient being to enter. I kind of like that theory!

Maybe the hands were originally invented as a kind of advanced AI to help the Shee take care of their pets and fetch stuff for them, and the player steps into the shoes of one? Some could have been packed as standard equipment on ships, and others left behind on Albia (the one from C1 would probably have gotten destroyed when the volcano went off, leaving another to get activated afterward. As for why a hand... hands are good for picking things up, but if it was too heavy, it wouldn't float well. And we know the Shee had the technology to make things teleport. (Still doesn't explain the inventory, though. Pocket dimension?)

I always thought that C1 takes place after most of the Shee left, but before the Lone Shee has noticed. Where is he, then? Deeper underground than we can see, I suppose, or under one of those landmasses you can see in the distance. Speaking of which, is Albia thicker at the edges than its description implies? (I wouldn't be surprised - the description also says it has no moon, and it clearly does in C1.) If not, then what's up with those mountains?

As for C3, I always imagined that the Shee left in more than one ship (granted, this contradicts the story, but it makes sense). The Ark is probably one that had problems and had to be abandoned or was struck with some disaster, or that the Banshee had gotten to first. Or maybe it was just meant to transport ecology and gadgets, and the engines died? There aren't any kind of quarters for the Shee, after all - no sleeping area or anything.

 
Doringo
Lodestar

Doringo


 visit Doringo's website: Abacus & Ettinus
  8/5/2015

I always believed that the hand was like a deity of some kind, which helps the norns in their time of need (which is the time when the shee arn't around to help them).
 
Rha

Rha



  8/5/2015  2

It's this guy




 


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