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I'm glad someone else realized that the map isn't of the whole Nowhere. Something I've been thinking about is that visitors manifest in parts of the Nowhere that are somehow personally significant to them, hence why both locations so far have made Noone remember the felling that something is still inside her that shouldn't be there.

My theory on the bathhouse is that it's a cover operation for the Maw, as in the Maw passes itself off as a "deluxe" equivalent to the fish boats that take the bathers to the bathhouse, one that offers fine dining as it's main allure. With so many people going, who would notice if the ones from one boat didn't come back. Hence why the Maw never visits the same place, the jig would be up.

I think the idea of feeding off the prisoners still works with my idea that the Workers are mold, actually, if the Workers are mold formed and fed from misery or fear, it could be argued Nomes are mushrooms formed and fed from innocence or kindness.

Also guys, about the locations of the podcasts: they are real places. 100%. They are real places somewhere in the Nowhere - most importantely, somewhen.

Prophetic dreams are very real in Little Nightmares and they are things that often happen: however, I do not believe this is yet the case for Noone. She describes feeling sensations and smells multiple times, something that can only happen if the plane of reality one is in is... well. Real. She also describes feeling Jester's presence as she does with Otto's, who is a real person in the real world alongside her. The fact that Noone isn't currently fully there yet doesn't necessarely mean the places aren't real.

Now, whether she's visiting the past versions of some already existing locations is up to debate (COUGH THE BATHHOUSE COUGH), and that locations and habitants of said locations can be parallels to some already existing ones, but the only certainty we have at this point is that these other places that are being described and witnessed by Noone are real places somewhere. After all, the Nowhere is an incredibly vast place of which we have explored incredibly little.

Would it be so surprising if the places Noone visits are separate from the, like, 3 ones we have visited?

(map is from LN II, the school, and is supposedly rappresenting a region of which we only see a single city.)

And another thing, actually: I have seen many compare the Lady to the Woman in Chains, but honestly, after reading through the transcript of the first episode of TSON made by @softichill... the two sound like the complete opposite of each other, appearence and behaviour wise.

The Woman in Chains is described as having a "stretched back face", therefore causing her to have wrinkles due to how her face is structured, which explains Noone talking about her as being "both old and young". There is no concealing, no mask, nothing to hide her face. She doesn't live in secrecy like the Lady does -- quite the contrary, infact.

And about features: in both her forms, the Lady's face looks the opposite of hers. Either completely relaxed, or... nearly like it's melting.

I have also seen some people try to claim that the "familiar outfit" as a reference to the Lady's kimono, but you must remember who the narrator is. The outfit is familiar to Noone. Not us. It is likely that the Woman is wearing either a nun's dress (Noone mentions seeing three laying on a bed in the Prisoner's bedroom) or something Noone might have seen from the institution she's kept in.

While the Lady does thrive in her occupation, she doesn't necessarely take joy in it like the Woman in Chains (Prison Ward, atp) does. For the Lady, it's much more a matter of survival. She is on the Maw because it's convenient, see as she's in a powerful position. The Woman in Chains is instead happily preparing torture devices to haunt the Prisoners with.

Some parallels are certainly there. Referring to them as being, even metaphorically, the same person... it would mean that the team wrote a very bad analogy. They are nothing alike in any other aspect BUT their occupation. Funnily enough, you could say the Thin Man and the Signal Tower operate in a near identical manner to both these places. He's also the living center/battery of his own mechanism.

Noone also mentions that the Workers seem to be made of shadows, similarly to the Shadow Children. However, it is also evident that these beings are different, as they work and can hold objects much like the nomes. Later, when she meets a living child, she notes that they have black goo in their hair that moves like shadows. If that's the same material the Workers are made of, then this would make them some sort of liquid entities.

Lastly, about the inhabitants themselves: no one else in this Prison is here because they want to be. The Prisoners are not like the Guests, who come on the Maw willingly. The Workers are mindless beings, unlike the Nomes who draw and the Shadow Kids who play just like children. The child and Noone want to leave... and that's understandable.

My friend @chorusofkhonshu smartly pointed this out, so I'm just gonna copy and paste what he said word for word.

"So I thought, if these creatures are made of liquid, it has to come from somewhere. So my mind wandered to the prisoners, their purpose. Perhaps like the Maw and Signal Tower need to absorb people. The Signal Towers thru TVs and the Maw thru the Lady. What if those prisoners are only alive to be bled dry so long as they live. Noone smells the prisoner rotting. All those prisoners have to share some purpose, they might be tortured. Some device that the lady there has. She uses straps and cranks. Masks with spikes in the mouth. It runs on tortured souls."

And just as Noone mentions later on:

Swelling.

If anything... rather than paralleling Six's journey, Noone seems to be living it backwards. Completely backwards.

... Mh.

Hello! I come from the theory post you made about ep 3 of the podcast, I really enjoyed it!

About the Ferryman: I must absolutely agree with you. He is horrifying. His voice not being able to be heard is something that had me scratch my head a bit, I will not lie. I have been thinking about some possibilities and ultimately I have decided that the reason why his voice is not heard is because his speech is too inhuman to be comprehended/replicated in the real world, but can be understood fine in the Nowhere.

Might also explain why, whenever he's properly referred to as "The Ferryman", the recordings and tapes glitch. He cannot cross over into the other timelines physically: he can't exist somewhere outside of the Nowhere. Which is why calling him by a pseudonym, the "Candleman", is easier for Noone, maybe.

What I know for sure is that the man is ancient.

I love the idea of the ferryman being to "foreign" to the human world, it adds to how ancient he feels, like he's and integral and innate part of the Nowhere, almost like the lure of an angler fish. (On a side note, Noone's description of his voice reminded me of a fic called "His Little Nightmares" which is about how Roger started working at the Maw, because Roger describes the Bellman as sounding "like he was trying to speak while drowning in tar".)

Another theory I have is that the naturally powered kids (Mono, Pretender) are regular visitors, just from a similar, but different world, with the "function" of producing a large crop of powerful entities for the Nowhere to choose to "relocate".

The title "Little Nightmares" finally makes sense!

If, as the ending of episode 3 of TSOI implies, the human world is supplemental to to the Nowhere, then the fact that it cherishes qualities associated with kids (curiosity, honesty, playfulness), which the Nowhere punishes at every turn would make the human world, other worlds like it and their inhabitants the Nowhere's "little nightmares".

I'd argue his encounter with Six actually does have the choice, just a crude version: Go with him or get torn apart.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Ferryman used his shapeshifting to convince one of Humpback's friends into going to the mirror house and then coming by to "clean up".

The brief thing with Low and Alone is interesting since my current theory is that only one will manage to escape the Nowhere, since all the promotional stuff is building up how close-knit the two are and tearing them apart would be classic LN fuckery.

I get the feeling the Ferryman's not strictly tied to the Maw, rather he just makes sure to get the kids that matter to the right places at the right ties to upkeep all the various operations needed to keep the various regions of Nowhere running. It could be argued he's a conduit for the will of the Nowhere itself.

So a post by @softichill made me realize that, by having Noone take off the pendant and escape the Mall, the Ferryman is essentially returning to his MO from the comics: He saves a kid from a (usually) non-humanoid resident before whisking them away for his own ends. Just something worth thinking about.

MASTERPOST (haven't linked it in a while :0)

Indeed! He is returning to his roots. Although I think Noone is different from all cases of him going into action before because of the nature of the other encounters. All of them are pretty different one way or another.

In the case of Six, he was chasing after someone who had already resided in the Nowhere for some time, with the specific purpose of taking her to the Maw. He did not come to her rescue, nor did he offer his hand to her: he instead pointed his finger at her chest in an accusatory way － or at least Six perceivs it that way.

It is worth noting that, unlike what happened with Noone and the pendant, the Ferryman did not wait for Six to take anything off her person.

This time it felt much more like an "I found you" moment. Like he was looking for her. It was so imperative that he took her there that he (presumably) chased after her and immobilised her to get her on the submarine.

This is the only time when a child found by the Ferryman is not given a choice on whether to follow him or not.

Or. Well. The illusion of a choice.

Which brings us to the second child taken by the Ferryman, the Refugee Boy. Considering that he might be originary of the Nowhere, since his village gave out charms to protect them against the North Wind, implying that he has always been a threat to the village, this is yet another peculiar case because it indicates that the Ferryman also looks for live, Nowhere-born children to bring to the Maw. He doesn't seem to make distinctions.

In this particular occasion, he had actually made a bet with the monster who was interested in the Refugee Boy. I wonder if the deal was struck when North Wind killed the girl and the Ferryman was "not in time" to offer his help to her as well, but considering how he deviously smiles when transforming back... I have my doubts it comes from a good place.

And also, I think that the next story I'm about to touch on points to the Ferryman only pursuing single targets rather than groups.

The next time we see the Ferryman is when he arrives at the end of the Humpback Girl's tale, after she's already faced the Mirror Man and has been abandoned.

The only thing that perplexes me about this is that it doesn't seem to be happening in a dream, but the Ferryman is also stepping into the "real world". I doubt the Humpback Girl is like the Refugee Boy because the other children who were with her make fun of her for being afraid of monsters, with the underlying message that monsters do not exist.

The presence of the Mirror Man, however, would imply that the Ferryman is not the only monster who can cross the bridges between various realities. And with this in mind, I am also thinking of whether or not he can only manifest through a specific kind of mirror in the real world, which are the ones we see in the comics and would explain why they were sealed away.

Maybe the choice of not destroying them could stem from the belief that maybe someone could return through them... (thinking hard about Low and Alone.)

Anyway. Back to the man of the hour, who, rather cowardly, shows up when the action has already finished. And this time, he just... vanished with her holding his hand. Like a boogeyman, taking yet another victim away.

There was no build up to this, like for Noone, who instead sees him in her dreams becoming more and more vivivd and to whom he even speaks -- something he has never done before.

And remember: all these kid, he is not taking ALL of them to the Nowhere. His objective is to get them on the Maw. Which is where I am afraid Noone might end up in at the end of this podcast -- whichever version of it, at whichever point in time.

It has me wonder when in the timeline the podcast takes place. I have a feeling this podcast will be revealed to come first in the timeline, dating back to a time even before VLN, but we'll see.

I noticed the organic seeming parts in demo footage but couldn't quite shake the feeling that Baby's mostly doll, time will tell if I'm right. Now that I think about it, the Bullies also had fairly organic looking limbs... . If her head was transformed by her eye then maybe the cracks around her mouth come from her trying to eat before realizing she couldn't open her mouth, in which case, Christ that's sad :( .

The Pretender parallel is something I hadn't noticed before, I love the idea of a bratty girl that can disintegrate people having a ceramic kaiju as an adopted sibling.

The spiral thing is fascinating to me because the demo and trailers only shows Baby in ways that make it impossible to tell if her stomach glows like that in the game itself.

I think the video in this tweet:

shows better than any other the weird spinning light pattern on Baby's stomach. One might even say it's a spiral, maybe she contains the mirror that takes the kids to the second area and we have to get her to "open up", it would explain why they decided to make her a doll.

I have been wondering, though... is she entirely a doll? She does seem to have folds of skin on her arms. The only thing that appears to be doll like is her head, which as you can see has little holes where the hair would normally be.

Taking the Lady's dolls as reference, you can see there is a striking difference: Monster Baby's skin is flexible and soft. All of it except for her head, which is where we know the shining Stone Eye is implanted. I keep wondering if at some point she used to be a... semi normal baby? Entirely made of flesh? Hell, I'm even pondering the possibility that her head looks like that because of the Stone Eye. Like an unwanted side effect.

It would not be the first time we see a doll made out of a living being... the Pretender was quite fond of those, wasn't she.

((Completely unrelated I keep thinking about the Pretender and the Baby here making friends. They remind me of each other in many ways because of the Baby's given description. Monster Baby is starting to grow on me idk how to feel about it))

Going back to what you were saying though: the pattern does seem like it's a spiral because of the way it continously rotates, but I can't help but wonder if it was just a prop for the huge Baby. It might mean something more, but until we see more of her, we can't say for certain.

The Sounds of Nightmares episode 6 analysis: Going Nowhere

An interesting finale, one that leaves the door open to further expand from the ever-growing gnarled branches of this universe we've grown to love.

The Dressing Room:

The dream Noone, or rather Ruth, recounts at the beginning is quite interesting, the parallels to past episodes, especially episode 4 are interesting but lack enough focus for us to say anything for sure. The Mannequin woman's actions being noted to match that of the Nowhere itself is very fascinating. Perhaps she's more significant than we can currently know.

The Threshold:

The barrier to the nowhere being a semi-existent, pitch black mist is something that lines up well with the smoke pouring from the mirror in the LN3 banner, especially given it's the first game where the protags aim to leave Nowhere entirely.

Crossing Over:

The fact that the Ferryman knew Noone's real name contrasts with the Mall who only knew her as "No one", almost as if that was their to symbolize that even the eye structures (or at least some of them) are inferior to the Ferryman in terms of grasp on visitors and other worlds in general.

The fact Ruth's voice audibly distorted when the door closed tells me she was likely to become a resident very quickly, possibly due to all that she experienced before ending up in the CPI.

The Real Aim:

The final reveal of the Ferryman speaking to Otto all along makes some question more interesting to ponder, why is Otto the only adult we've seen the Nowhere take interest in, was taking Cici another way of "pushing" him to "plunge", was that alone meant to be enough and the kids at the CPI are now a back up plan? Is Otto being pursued becomes he would have a special power in the Nowhere, one that is crucial for one reason or another, or is it something we have no current hints about? Is Otto getting to Nowhere even possible or is he just being used to basically deliver kids to the Ferryman? We can only look to time with hopes of eventually answering some of these questions.

Closing Thoughts:

The Sounds of Nightmares was an incredible experience and I applaud everyone who contributed to any language version of it. I eagerly look forward to what other ways we'll see of exploring my favorite horror franchise, maybe even through another podcast at some point, again, time will tell.

Breaking down the new LN3 footage

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT this was really wild, we basically got a collage of everything to expect from the Necropolis and what do you mean "pre-alpha gameplay footage"? This already looks amazing! Now let's start the actual breakdown

The area on the other side of the mirror seems to be the place where we see Low and Alone get pulled into the mirror in the reveal trailer, so that'll probably the beginning of the beginning for the game.

It's interesting to note that the Necropolis seems to be completely walled off from the surrounding desert.

I might be reaching here but that fact that a crow, an animal that's only previously been associated with the North Wind, is the first living obstacle the kids encounter is very interesting.

I can't, for the life of me, tell what era or region clothes the Dwellers are supposed to be wearing so if anyone can tell me, that'd be a big help.

We've had numerous variations of the eye symbol with various meanings ascribed to each, so, again, if anyone can point out any previous instances of this particular version of the eye, please do so.

Quicksand will be a hazard in the Necropolis and more than anything I'm just astonished there wasn't a sand burrower.

The Hercules Beetles are way nastier than I thought, likely because of their disgustingly realistic buzzing, makes feel less bad that Baby already killed most of them.

The bundled bodies around the area are definitely concerning, maybe the Dwellers use to preserve corpses as "offerings" to Monster Baby.

BABY CAN TURN HER EYE BEAMS OFF! This took me completely by surprise, the implications of this are very fascinating to think about.

The kids, or specifically, Low, wake up in a room with padded walls, implying their either in the sewing room of the Seamstress from the Lonely Way (not good), or the Counties Psychiatric Institute (really not good) and on top of that, darkness closes in around them. While we're on it, Lowe wakes up in the same way the protags of previous games do when you respawn and in the same situation that they (and Noone) do too, as their caught by a resident.

One last thing, the blue to grey pulse on the logo screen feels eerily like a heartbeat, and given the top of the "main" mirror almost looks like a heart...

It's important to note that when asked in an interview "How did the world of LN get this way?" Dave Mervik responded: "It's what you get when you spend hunders/thousands [can't remember which he said] of years ignoring that question."

I think the Nowhere is a more "primal" realm, one that is majorly effected by the minds and perceptions of those in it. This is why the residents are all named after what they are and/or what they do.

The Nowhere is a sentient, parasitic, almost colonial organism-like dimension that needs to force itself into being perceived to sustain itself, yet in doing so, it only becomes more and more horrific. It's horrors being accepted as a status quo only further warps it, that's why it wants children, they have yet to learn a status quo, it wants them to change it, but it's own corruption sabotages that.

I was thinking about the old LN1 character bios and remembered the line about the Twins being "born to be chefs". Assuming their not native to Nowhere, this would mean they had some violent tendencies before becoming residents, like it was their destiny.

This then made think about the end of tson ep 3 where Otto says the something like "Our world isn't the only world, let alone the predominant one".

All this made me realize that the worlds other than Nowhere may have been created by it (The Nowhere is implied to be sentient in it's own right) specifically to create concepts and injustices that could be used to warp and traumatize children, turning them into visitors and then into residents.

Thoughts?

Alright so this is a great question that I think leads to a much larger discussion about how the Nowhere operates. I would like to hear what other peeps think as well.

So, starting from the Chefs. Personally I always assumed that they are part of that group of characters who are from the Nowhere because of the way their description is worded (and also their baby pictures... this one is so cute lowkey...)

--- But following your train of thought: considering what we know of the Nowhere, it seems to amplify certain characteristics of a person, usually the bad ones. Two kids who are a bit propense to get into fights in the waking world may very well become blood thirsty maniacs in the Nowhere.

Interestingly, the modification of traits does not only apply to personality but also the body -- and usually, the physical changes are in relation back to said traits. For example, the Teacher - someone who is known to be controlling - can extend her neck infinitely to look everywhere and have the ability to blink removed to make sure she's always watching. The Doctor, a perfectionist with tons of authority, is always looking down on people while also growing enormous to match his ego. So on and so forth, you can follow this reasoning for a large number of the Residents we meet.

I think other timelines derivating from the Nowhere is definitely a possibility, as we don't know much of how the universes work there.

The general theory of a multiverse irl is that no timeline has any specific weight or importance over others; they are all parallel no matter how different, with no timeline being "the real one". This is if we view the Nowhere under the lens of it being a separate dimension. In TSON, the Nowhere is kind of implied to be sucking the people most vulnerable to it right in, so perhaps the idea Otto has of it the predominant world stems from the fact that he can't explain his fascination with it... or from a real, genuine desire to somehow "return" to the original land, if that's where the other timelines originated from.

HOWEVER, I would like to offer an alternative perspective on this --- based on what I found out during my research on the Ladies. Yup we're going there again

Rather than the characters themselves, this time I'm going to refer to a symbolism that is very prominent in their lore: Buddhism. More specifically the references to the six planes of existance, and how those can be tied back to Little Nights in a loose way. As stated in this site:

" The six realms of rebirth are a schema in which beings are reborn according to the kind of life they lived. [...] The animal realm, in which inhabitants are driven by basic needs, is one of the three “lower” realms. The other two are the hell realm, a place of constant suffering and torment, and the realm of the hungry ghosts, grasping beings who are never satisfied. The three “higher” realms are the human realm [...] the demigod realm [...] and the god realm, where beings enjoy a life of pleasure. It’s important to note that some Buddhists view the realms as literally real, while others interpret them psychologically as metaphors for the emotional states of the human condition. "

(Click on the link to read the whole thing; I only highlighted the parts I think are relevant to this conversation :] )

What I believe specifically relates back to the Nowhere are the three lower realms, from which the place itself may be loosely inspired by because of how its inhabitants are described.

All of these are things we see in Little Nights from various Residents, depending on the social class and place. It is important to note that while these realms are placed in different hierarchies due to quality of life, they all cohexist together without necessarily being more important than each other as they all have the same purpose in the end.

If the worlds of Little Nights operate in a similar way, then what we're looking at is not really a case of dimension hopping, but rather a passage from a plane of existance to the next. A forced one at that, at least in the case of Noone.

Now, considering Otto's assumption, the idea of the Nowhere being a predominant realm only popped up because he was trying to wrap his head around it and how Noone felt, but to tell you the truth, it is a rather baseless assumption considering he's never been there and is only experiencing it in a very limited way. However... considering how many children from different places in time and space have experienced the Nowhere, sometimes even simultaneously, I wouldn't say that it's completely wrong to assume that the place might be the "original plane of existance".

Now. Reflecting on what you said at the very end, I would like to ask a question back: do you think the Nowhere is, hypothetically, only capable of bringing out the worst in people inherently? Or is it only acting this way because humanity itself is more easily conditioned to fall victim to their bad traits?

I've been recently thinking about it because of the Maw. The writer of Little Nightmares, Mr. Mervik, has stated multiple times over the years that the place has not always been the way that it is; at the same time, he also said that it was not man made, but rather created by collective hunger/desire to be fed. These two things don't make sense together unless you assume the Maw was not originally born for the Guests and the whole cannibal business, but rather from a desire of shelter. A need to be fed. Which is not inherently a bad thing -- and it would explain why the structure itself is so largely built to house so many people, and why children still feel relatively safe in it to this day.

So I find myself thinking that perhaps, the Maw degenerated overtime because the people inside of it (cough its leaders cough) did. And if this is the case for the Maw, who's to say it's not the same for other places? The Nest, for example? The School, the Hospital... etc. But. It is also true that the creatures who inhabit the Nowhere (the Ferryman, the North Wind, the Flesh...) all seem to have their own interests and destructive amusement more at heart than anything. If these creatures are what move the large of the Nowhere (which I guess they are considering the eye symbol is all over the goddman place), then the human will can't really do much.

That being said, I am wondering currently if it could be possible for the Nowhere to bring out something good from a person in the right situation. At the same time, the hopes are incredibly slim. Nonexistent, actually, but it's nice to think about hypothetics.

Dissecting the LN3 Friendship Trailer

I'm so hyped to finally have news on this game, you guys have no idea!!! That being said, let's turn the new trailer inside out to see what we can figure out.

To me this looks like the very end of the Necropolis as Low and Alone move into the second chapter which...

Judging by the greenish hue of where they end up, would be the Factory.

It also seems that the later parts of the Necropolis are going to be more of a stormy grey, which actually looks quit nice.

We see two separate furnace shots, one with a nome. If I had to guess these would be in the Factory or another area, which we'll get to later.

Here's all the confirmed Factory footage, including a better glimpse at the many-armed monster in the area, we can see a rolled up blue sleeve. The last image comes from the official LN3 website, and it seems it's either making candy statues/creatures, or grinding it's staff into the candy. I'm honestly not sure which would be wilder.

We get some good looks at the Carnival, and our first potential glimpse of the Ventriloquist. The thing of his desk looks like a walky-talky, which makes me think the Dummy also has one and will use it to

I'm putting these together because they don't seem to fir into any other area. I think this is from the same chapter as the one some people suspect will be set in The Maw, but at this point it looks more like some... bunker/clocktower/planetarium, I'm not sure.

Either way it's very interesting.

This last shot looks like it could take place at the very start of the Carnival chapter, but I'm not positive.

@queen0fm0nsterz, thoughts on some of these ideas? I'd really appreciate any feedback from my preferred LN expert.