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blog: endfield speculations
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src/blog/2026-02-19_endfield_speculations.md
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src/blog/2026-02-19_endfield_speculations.md
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---
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title: "Speculations Around Arknights: Endfield"
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description: "Random thoughts while sleuthing through Talosian lore"
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section: Notes
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tags:
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- post
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- game-review
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- endfield
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- arknights
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---
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I actually finished reading most of the optional lore pieces that's available
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in Endfield right now, and I find many of the implications quite interesting.
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While the main questline is obviously very limited as of the time of writing,
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there's still some things one can ponder upon, and maybe in a couple years
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we can all look back at this and be astonished at how much I got wrong :)
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(Or right. You never know.)
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I'm going to order this list somewhat in the order of *plausibility* — ranging
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from ideas that are almost definitely going to be expanded upon in further
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installments of the main story, to completely *out there* ideas that will
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probably never happen. Enough said, there goes:
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# The North Pole Expedition sought to reactivate the Cosmic Gate
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> On Terra, these structures were positioned at both the northern and
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> southern extremities of the planet's major continents. Talos-II,
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> by contrast, possesses only one confirmed Cosmic Gate, located at its
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> **northern polar region.**
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>
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> -- "Cosmic Gate", Nexus files
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Remember the North Pole Expedition that the Endmin went on 10 years before
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the game started? That, I think, was likely an attempt at trying to fix
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the Cosmic Gate that Terran used to colonize Talos-II, which was destroyed
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in the First Aggeloi War. It makes a lot of sense why the Endmin would
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personally go on this trip, as one of the first colonizers of Talos-II,
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and likely one of the people directly responsible for introducing Originium
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to the planet in the first place.
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Reconquering the North Pole was also of highly scientific and symbolic
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importance to the people now stuck on Talos-II — after all, the North Pole
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was home to the first human colony on the alien planet, and might have
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contained invaluable information about early human history on Talos-II
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that would otherwise be lost. We could actually get a glimpse of the
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research station in the North Pole during the flashback section in
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"Let Fire Consume the Ashen Past", when the Endmin's own subconscious
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memories manifest and hint at what possibly went wrong during the First
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Aggelos War. Reconquering the North Pole might be a way for the Endmin
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to recover what was lost in the conflict.
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# Nation-states existing outside the Band Accord
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The description of the Civilization Band in the Nexus files was
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particularly interesting to me, due to one small detail I'm not sure
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if most people even caught:
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> The Civilization Band comprises various sized factions, coalitions,
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> and organizations. Bound by Accord restrictions, **it does not accept
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> self-declared "nation-states" as members**.
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Now, why would the devs choose to put this line in there? Well, it's
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most likely because a) the colonists on Talos-II wanted to avoid the
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bloody international conflicts that plagued Terra by restructuring
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civilization around supranational groups working in mutual interests,
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and b) because this presents an excellent opportunity for the writers
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to insert a hostile, isolationist faction into the lore that hates
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the Civilization Band, and by extension, Endfield and its affiliates.
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Sort of like the Kazdel Military Commission of this setting.
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I *suspect* people will find Landbreakers and Aggeloi somewhat stale
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after a while in the plot, so I'm going to make an even firmer speculation
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that Chapter III of the plot would have the main cast travel in
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TGCC-affiliated Free Cities, while being confronted by attacks caused
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by a nation-state actor, who might be drawn to Blight and the Ætherside
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as the anathema of Originium-related technology. Such writing would
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certainly fit the existing tone and themes of the original *Arknights*,
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I think.
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# "Team α2 Scout" is still out there somewhere
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If you pay close attention to certain Findings in the Archive, you can
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find several correspondences concerning a certain "Team α2 Scout" that
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was part of the North Pole Expedition ten years ago, who was a UWST Recon
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Squad member and had considerable ties to Valley IV, even knowing the
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Collinses by name ("North District Intel and Supplies Application").
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Documents pertaining to them are *fascinating* because in very atypical
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UWST fashion, a large part of them are redacted, including the time and
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dates of each document. In fact, the document "Silent Directive" even
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commands the Valley IV director (who was most likely the colleague of
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Crowe's who had the other authorization keycard and was killed in the
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Power Plateau incident) to _fully erase this person from the database_:
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> Upon recipient of this Directive, you shall expunge all data and intel
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> (with the exception of basic backup copies) concerning North Exploration
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> Team α2 Scout ████ below Level █ within 30 days.
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Now, why is this? It should already be clear now that this person is
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very well-decorated within UWST ranks, and have definitely survived
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the North Pole Expedition relatively unscathed. Perhaps they have now
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risen up into a level of importance that required their identity be
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kept secret? Maybe they are now one of the leading figures behind the
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UWST...?
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Nobody can really tell, but as a matter of Chekhov's Gun, nobody writes
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intricate lore about a character that wasn't supposed to be brought up
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later, in the form of foreshadowing. Let's see if they get more disclosure
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in future installments of the story.
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# The Endmin is a Reconvener (of the Doctor)
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Amnesia? Check. Mysterious background that is never fully explained? Check.
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Outfit that conveniently conceals their appearance? Check. Supernatural
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mastery to Originium that is later explained by the fact that they *brought*
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it to their own planets? Double triple check.
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This would also somewhat explain why the Endmin can freely exchange physical
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forms by diving into and emerging out of the Stasis Core, which appears to be
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simply one big chunk of Protocol-Originium, and why they were able to issue
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the Zeroth Directive which resuscitated them in the first place.
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One interesting detail during the epilogue cutscene of Chapter I is that
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M3 and Perlica inadvertently mentioned that Endmin's amnesia was a symptom
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that has been worsening each time they "awaken" — could this be taken that
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the Endmin's "soul" that's been present within the Originium Woods, that all
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Reconveners originate from, is significantly damaged every time they go into
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stasis? (The Doctor's shown to project their own consciousness into
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information stored within the Assimilated Universe of Originium, too.)
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More evidence that point towards this is the fact that Nefarith straight up
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calls the Endmin "Child of Originium" — while one could definitely interpret
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this as a metaphorical epithet, I choose to read this more literally as the
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fact that the Endmin as we see them today is literally *made of* Originium.
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If this were true, then it's quite likely that the Endmin is some kind of
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Reconvened form of the Doctor, the other master of Originium that never
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seems to age a day despite being thousands of millennia old.