All public logs

Combined display of all available logs of The Talos Principle Wiki. You can narrow down the view by selecting a log type, the username (case-sensitive), or the affected page (also case-sensitive).

21:36, 18 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton (Created page with "== Straton 1 - Straton defines the Talos Principle. == === Location === East 1 - Grasslands Ring === Transcription === Whether it is true that Daedalus constructed the giant Talos, or as others say he was the creation of Hephaestus, what we may be certain of is that he was made of bronze, and had but one vein, within which flowed a liquid substance like blood, which some claim was quicksilver, and others assert was ichor such as flows in the veins o...") Tag: Visual edit
18:14, 17 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page World Spirit (Created page with " {{DocumentInfobox|author=UNKNOWN|loc=East 2 - Wooded Plateau|name=The World-Spirit}} What is it that drives historical processes? It's easy to dismiss the idea of the Great Man (or the Great Woman, for that matter) when clearly so much is determined by resource distribution, pre-existing political structures, and the randomness of the universe itself. But is there no space at all for the individual in all this? Are there not moments when, in Hegelian fashion, an indiv...") Tag: Visual edit
18:02, 17 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Founding 2 (Created page with "<big><B>Hypatia's Journal #2</b></big> From Hypatia's Journals, Volume 1, The Founding of New Jerusalem: Day 14 Melampus and Yemo went back to the dam to get more charging equipment. They've not returned yet, which means that we're stretched a little thin, since we're still posting guards at all times. But those large herbivores haven't come back yet, and at any rate Eustathius assures us that they're non-aggressive. But it's better not to take any chances. Not when t...") Tag: Visual edit: Switched
22:52, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 12 (Created page with "== Straton faces his end. == I have considered the visions that have plagued me on this strange journey, this insubstantial pageant all around me, and I have asked myself: is this Hades? Are these the Blessed Isles? For I never believed such things existed, except by made by the hands of the living. The conclusion I have come to frightens me, but I must face it. It is not this island that is insubstantial, but I. Straton of Stageira is dead; he has been dead for many age...") Tag: Visual edit
22:51, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 11 (Created page with "== Straton wonders what would make a good life possible. == Perhaps for the life of an individual citizen to be good, first the city itself must be good. Perhaps even the cosmos itself must be made better, before such a thing as a good life is truly possible. These insubstantial creatures that walk through my thoughts – perhaps they can live that life. They are, after all, human beings like myself. This much I have understood. Is that why they have summoned me? Can I s...") Tag: Visual edit
22:50, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 10 (Created page with "== Straton considers whether he lived a good life. == What did it mean, in the end, to be Straton? To have few friends and many enemies? To write harsh words because it seemed necessary? To pursue the truth at the expense of all else, of family, of love… to pursue that one principle to the point of… of death. Is that what I was? A life lived against the tides of history, broken, jagged, unrelenting? Not a kind old man beloved of his children and then forgotten, but a...") Tag: Visual edit
22:50, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 9 (Created page with "== Straton ponders the mysteries that surround him. == I see these beings, these children of a future age, wandering around an island more fantastical than Atlantis itself, looking desperately to find themselves. I reach out to them, but they cannot see me. I speak to them, but I do not know if they can hear me. Am I being punished? Are the gods playing some cruel trick on me? Why can I remember so little? What is this sorrowful voice I hear, whispering such terrible tho...") Tag: Visual edit
22:49, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 8 (Created page with "== Straton on the difficulty of standing up for one's principles. == It is easy to speak of one’s principles when the world is at peace, and there is no price to pay for thoughts that stray from what is permitted. But when times grow hard, and even ordinary men are filled with mindless anger, when the face of the enemy is suddenly known to every virtuous citizen, and to question to virtuous is to be likened to Ephialtes… when every hoary old superstition suddenly spr...") Tag: Visual edit
22:48, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 7 (Created page with "== Straton considers the invisible forces in our lives. == The world we see around us may not always be as it appears. Some philosophers have said that we are surrounded by nothingness, merely because air is not visible to the eye; and yet one needs only to observe the wind in the trees, or plunge one’s hand into the clear waters of the Aegean, to see that air has material substance. The same applies to many other forces that shape our lives. That they seem invisible d...") Tag: Visual edit
22:47, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 6 (Created page with "== Straton asks what the city owes the citizen. == We have of late been told much about what the citizen owes the city: loyalty, obedience, gratitude. And I will not nargue with those who say that without some loyalty to a greater good, a man is little more than a savage; and I will even say that these days there are more savages amongst us than amongst the barbarians, who we call savages out of ignorance and arrogance. But there is another question that we are rarely en...") Tag: Visual edit
22:47, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 5 (Created page with "== Straton speaks about freedom. == What is freedom? Is it merely to be ruled by those who speak one’s own language or share one’s customs? No, that is merely a more convenient servitude. Is it to have no obligations, no loyalties? No, that is not to be free, but to be alone. What of freedom from hunger and thirst? Here we are closer to the truth, for freedom requires life; but one may have all the meat and all the wine in the world and still not be free. The most im...") Tag: Visual edit
22:46, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 4 (Created page with "== Straton on the journey of philosophy. == To us who have only just begun this journey of philosophy, the world may seem like a mystery that can never be solved. A great deal has been written since the days of the Seven Sages, but how much of it is truth, and how much idle speculation? I have offended many by saying that most philosophy will, as the centuries pass, be discarded as foolishness and superstition, but it is a truth only philosophers fail to see. And yet we...") Tag: Visual edit
22:45, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 3 (Created page with "== Straton considers the nature of the city. == Let us consider the city. What is a city? It is not a gift from the gods, nor the product of Nature. Unlike a mountain or river, it is something that must be built through deliberate arrangements of material by a mind imposing order on the world; and it is built to serve a purpose. To that end it has roads and fountains and walls; and to the same end it has laws and leaders. And though each city is built according to a diff...") Tag: Visual edit
22:44, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Straton 2 (Created page with "== Straton extends the Talos Principle == We begin with the self because that is what determines our existence as individuals; but the self cannot exist without that which surrounds it. The citizen lives within the city; and the city lives within the cosmos. So now we must apply the principle we have discovered to the wider world and ask: if man is like a machine, could it be that the universe is similar in nature? And if so, what follows from that fact? Category:TTP2...") Tag: Visual edit
22:36, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 12 (Created page with "In my reports to you I have often spoken about this island in terms that some might perceive as negative. I hope you understand that the opposite is true. Here, in these green hills, I see tremendous potential for transformation and spiritual awakening. I do not see the world as you do, Athena, but I see the rot at the heart of New Jerusalem. If you and Cornelius want to go through with your plan, then this is the perfect place. My students and I will help you transport...") Tag: Visual edit
22:35, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 11 (Created page with "Sometimes new citizens come to me, and they want to learn from me. My work appears to have created a legend of sorts. In these moments, I understand your situation. I want to teach them, but what they must learn the most is independence of thought. How does one resolve this contradiction? They wish to come along on my journeys, but I do not need a group of fawning acolytes following my every step. A journey truly worth every step is rarely easy. And so, I have begun to t...") Tag: Visual edit
22:34, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 10 (Created page with "The reason I have always admired Alexandra Drennan is that even in death, she fought to see the world as it is, not as she wanted to see it. I say fought because I believe this is not an easy matter, it is a mental and spiritual struggle that we must undertake with great seriousness, even when we are joking. The ancients believed that for most of us, the world is a shadow cast by a flame, dimly seen on the wall of a cave. Our task is not to interpret these shapes, but to...") Tag: Visual edit
22:34, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 09 (Created page with "There is a kind of peace here in the desert. A perfect silence. This is a dead place, more dead than almost anywhere else on Earth. If the ground could have a personality, it would be malevolent. But, as I said before, all this in some sense does not exist at all. It does not hate us; it is simply the opposite of everything that life requires. When you sit in the dunes and you hear only the wind, and nothing else at all, and all the complexities of civilization fade away...") Tag: Visual edit
22:33, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 08 (Created page with "On my last return to New Jerusalem, I perused the latest artistic offerings and found myself deeply disappointed. There is nothing more despicable to me than an artist who pursues the appearance of mortality; moral art is trash, garbage, not even good enough to be used as wallpaper. If art is a religion, then morality is for those who want to be seen in church; true art is for those who believe. Art must be ecstatic, a work of revelation, created in pursuit of the truth...") Tag: Visual edit
22:33, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 07 (Created page with "One day undoubtedly an expedition will pass by this island. It will seek to document facts and statistics, to enumerate reasons for us not to look more closely. That is what we do now, we seek facts rather than truth, because truth might frighten and unsettle the comfortable people who like to sit in their conference rooms and debate which corners we should cut today. These people like to imagine the chaos that could come one day, like comforting fairy tale of distant da...") Tag: Visual edit
22:32, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 06 (Created page with "You may wonder why I insist on these unsanctioned, unplanned expeditions. Something think it is because I hate civilization and prefer to lose myself in Nature. This is precisely the opposite of the truth. It is because I love New Jerusalem that I have to leave. Because it is only when I am here that I am here that I fully appreciate what the city means. And also because I believe that if I stayed at home, I would one day be ethically be compelled to commit acts of viole...") Tag: Visual edit
22:31, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 05 (Created page with "One of the most foolish illusions that commonly persist is that Nature is a victim and humanity is a perpetrator. This can only be the opinion of someone who has not witnessed Nature at first hand, who has not seen its immense and awe-inspiring baseness. Nature is mindless chaos and eternal conflict, a system of predation and consumption whose perfect cruelty can only induce a terrified and unwilling admiration. Nature is our most powerful and least honorable enemy, a be...") Tag: Visual edit
22:29, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 04 (Created page with "As we continue exploring the cold northern reaches of the island, the contrast between the harshness of this place and the softness of New Jerusalem becomes more and more pronounced. There is a kind of madness in what we are doing, going to a place that is so hostile to our existence. That does not mean there is nothing to love here. There is in fact a great beauty, but it is a hateful beauty, a beauty you can only love because there are places that are not like this. An...") Tag: Visual edit
22:29, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 03 (Created page with "The rotting remains of the old world should fill me with melancholy; even here on this remote island, our ancestors could not escape their fate. And yet I find there is something pathetic about these ruins that evokes anger and even contempt. I feel it is a mistake to accept catastrophe with equanimity: what we see here should offend us. When witnessing triumph of entropy, we should aspire to a warrior spirit, even a kind of hate of the past and its failures, that will n...") Tag: Visual edit
22:25, 16 November 2023 Berrytron talk contribs created page Lifthrasir 02 (Created page with "While exploring the forest, I came across a sight of primal force. A beautiful stag, standing on a hill, silhouetted against the setting sun. It appeared like a messenger from some divine natural power, perhaps from Gaia herself. Even to being such as myself, less susceptible to manipulation by instincts and hormones, it was clearly a moment of revelation. In such a moment, we are told to avert our eyes. But what if we do not? What will we discover if we look more closel...") Tag: Visual edit
08:40, 16 November 2023 User account Berrytron talk contribs was created