[polytely]

Totally agree, discovering what the Pale was, had a real impact on me that I don't think any other piece of fiction has ever had on me, it's like a sinking feeling, like: ow, oh no, this is what the world is?!

It's very cool in a fiction sense, but also mechanically in the game, you start as someone who has lost all their memories, which sets the character on the same knowledge level as the player, and you slowly uncover how the world works through playing. It's close enough to earth that things slowly begin to make sense, and you get lulled into a false sense of familiarity. Just as you think you have a handle on reality, the rug gets pulled away from underneath you and you fall into the Pale, a total break with anything familiar. It recontextualizes everything.

There is a line where either Joyce or Soona tells you about inter-isolary travel where she explains you that you need to aim your path through the Pale really carefully because it's possible to miss your destination and just continue sailing through the Pale forever. Which is supremely horrifying to me.