First thing's first. This essay contains my opinion. All artwork, including written artwork, is subject to individual interpretation. I may be reading things that Ludwig never intended, or I missed things that were intended to be obvious. If you think I missed something or have an alternative interpretation, speak up and I may add it to the guide (with your permission).

This is a guide to the Story and Lore surrounding the secret ending. I will attempt to analyze the instances of foreshadowing and how they connect to what occurs during the secret ending itself.

This is not a guide for how to reach the secret ending.

Rather, it is a guide for how to understand the secret ending.

I will not be masking any spoilers. You have been warned.

Before we reach the Dreaming Door and ending proper, I'm going to start by pointing out some instances of foreshadowing.

Thanks to Ronja the Fluffy on the discussion board for pointing this out:

Originally posted by Ronja the Fluffy:

The very first action you can take after hatching foreshadows the "layers of reality" nature of the Onesong.

The Chamber of your Creation seems so small now; moments ago, it was your entire reality. Perhaps there is another reality beyond this one you now see into which you will one day hatch.

Indeed, this is our first hint that "Reality exists in layers", which we will find to be a recurring theme. We do end up getting another "hatching animation" when we reach that next layer of reality, and the same goes for hatching into Ant Life.

Another instance can arrive during the first day of our Draak's life. It is struck by inspiration, and sings this little number if you elect for a lesser hymn to all elements.

Originally posted by The Spiritkeeper:

As leaves upon one branch, as branches upon one Tree, as Trees within one Green, as Green within the Land, as Land within Earth, as Earth within the Onesong, so are all things:

Many and one,

One and many,

All connected at the Center.

Talk about Wisdom beyond one's years! Reality exists in layers.

The narration continues:

Your song grows quieter towards the end, as you sense you are treading upon sacred ground. You leave it at that, but perhaps one day, you will have the Wisdom to make this song more than mere thoughts. Perhaps, one day, they will be a Truth which you can hold within.

I think it's a foreshadow of the Fourth Way, so early and so vague that it's impossible to make sense of on a first play, while we are still somewhat overwhelmed by the newness of Draak life.

Why is it sacred ground to praise all Elements equally? Because we are not ready. We do not have the 20 keys nor the proper mastery to accept that the Many are connected by the Onesong. Better to leave it be, lest we wind up like the Blackburns.

While we are on the topic, "Many and One, One and Many" is a recurring theme on many layers. Take example from our first interaction with the Clansingers:

Originally posted by Clansingers:

We are the People of the Far-telling Song,
Who sing with One Voice, which is Many Voices.

The Clansingers are like their own little Onesong, or Ant Colony.

Originally posted by Clansingers:

Praise be to the Great Green, shard of the Mother's Being

Reality exists in layers. The Great Green is shard of Earth. Earth is shard of Onesong.

Originally posted by Clansingers:

Praise be to Those Who Came Before,
Our ancestors, who learned to walk across Love and Violence,
Across being One and being Many,
And not be split in twain.
Praise be to Earth, Great Mother of us all,
For we Love Her, and are One in Her.

The Clansingers have the secret figured out. But for our Draak, it's a harder journey.

Our Birther-Creator was a staunch traditionalist. As Darktooth remarks, her hatred of No-Tails was "immoderate". While inside the egg, she rebukes you if asked for free Treasure or asked whether you can live without Destroying others. While the player is free to follow the "traditional dragon" route, the True Ending is reached by rejecting what came before, and instead discovering Love and Oneness.

We see it again when the Baretail steals our shiny things in Part 2:

Originally posted by Baretail Thief:

This Body, not mine;
To Baretail Tribe, it belongs.
(...)
Many in One, One in Many;
Against us, Force is toothless.

... and again with Bloom's entourage:

Originally posted by Bloom's Suncaller:

A challenge of the Mind?
All of us are one in thought!
What riddle will you pose
That one of the Many will not know?

There may be more examples, but I trust the point is made. For as many times you are told that Draak must remain solitary, your biggest benefits come from unity (recruiting the Shriekers and Clansingers), as do your biggest threats (battles against a unified Clansinger pack, Bloom, humans).

Then there is the Grand Moot itself, where Draak-Kin unite to a common purpose and nothing can stand in their way, not even the vacuum of outer space nor the whole of human civilization.

Thanks to Melia on the discussion board for pointing this out:

Originally posted by Melia:

The fireflies in chapter 1 also have very interesting text relating to the Secret Ending.

The song of the fireflies in Part 1 is a celebration of their own light-generating ability and its parallel to the Onesong's light standing against the dark Void of outer space.

Originally posted by Fireflies:

We are the messengers of the Great Above
Come to remind you of your True Self:

You are the Light, a Spark passed on by those who came before,
That Nothingness should be made a lie,

Encountered so early, it lacks the deeper context. At face value, it seems that the fireflies are merely fixated on light in general. After we learn the secret of the Dreaming Door, we come to know that all Life is the Onesong, and the Onesong is the light against the dark Void of space.

Originally posted by Fireflies:

That the Truth be forever translated
Into new and wondrous languages of flesh

That is to say, they wish for the Onesong to express itself in endless new species of Life.

If you promise to seek the hidden light of which they sing, the event concludes with the earliest straight reference to the Dreaming Door:

Your promise to seek the Light Within must remain a secret one, shared only with yourself. Time, and your actions, will determine whether that momentary oath to one day discover your True Self will be kept...

...whether you will become the One to discover and open the Door.

As appropriate for such an early event, it's all phrased so vaguely that there is no way to recognize its importance until you have asked the Spirit about the Fourth Way. But that's foreshadowing for you!

When you visit the Spirit of the Green in Part 3, it offers to increase your Elemental Mastery in accordance with your ending of choice: Survival, Wisdom, and Compassion, and give some advice as to what will be required of you on each path.

If you instead insist on choosing the Fourth Way, the requirements of the secret ending are revealed.

Originally posted by Spirit of the Green:

Only one who has walked all of the myriad pathways and gathered the twenty keys may challenge the Dreaming Door.

No one Draak may tread all of the roads, gain all of the keys...

So far so good. Get the first 20 tarot cards. Most of them can be gotten with one life, but you'll need to live at least four lives in order to get Death, Judgement, The Wheel of Fate, and The Star, as they are mutually exclusive.

Originally posted by Spirit of the Green:

But this is not your first life as a Draak, nor your last.

What an odd thing to say! Taken at face value, this can only be true if we have restarted the game at least once and intend to start again after this one is over. But this is not a statement of face value -- it is foreshadowing.

Originally posted by Spirit of the Green:

Many times have you been Created, and many times Destroyed.

Okay, now this is getting creepy. Do you have spyware installed on my computer, Spirit of the Green?

Originally posted by Spirit of the Green:

Many are the realities which have been etched with your claw-prints.

I don't remember this at all. I think the Spirit is practicing its Barnum Statements[en.wikipedia.org].

Originally posted by Spirit of the Green:

Go then, and know that if you dare to transgress the Dreaming Door...

You shall, at last, lose everything.

Yes, go on. We gain something too, right?

... Right???

At the beginning of Allmother's trial, Writhing Question recites a story about how Allmother got its philosophy, beginning with a Longear who begged Allmother for sanctuary from a Blazetail hunting it.

Originally posted by Writhing Question:

(Said the Longear,) "I am afraid! Do not let the Silence overtake me! I love life! I love life!"

And in that moment, the great Kin awakened to a new Truth, for it too loved life, and feared Destruction. It smelled the same Essence, the same Spark, within the Longear as it had within itself.

And once it found the Longear and itself to be one and the same, it felt compelled to act.

"Fear not, gentle Longear," sang the Kin to the trembling Goodbeast.

"You shall not be Destroyed this Sun, for now I know that I am you, and you are I."

This segues into the perspective of an Ant, which expresses the exact same sentiment that Allmother just did. A story is nice, but experiencing it is better. Why tell when you can show?

The Ant narration repeats this notion to the point of obsession:

Originally posted by Ant:

"Many selves. All I. Love all, as I."

"Other-selves. I-am-Them, They-are-I."

"Many Bodies; one Essence. Beautiful. Powerful. Right."

This includes the Ant Queen:

Originally posted by Ant Queen:

"Little-self. Love. I am you. You are I. Always. Forever."

Note the parallel between Allmother and the Ant Queen. Allmother is the "Ant Queen" of the Heartwood -- and of Earth, to a degree. Reality exists in layers.

As players who exist outside of this world, we know about Ants and eusocial insects in general. We may not know exactly what goes on in an Ant's brain, but we know that they have little notion of individual self-preservation. Honeybees will use their stingers, even though it kills them. Termites can make themselves explode with a burst of toxic acid. If pressed, they will put the hive above the individual.

For eusocial insects, this behavior is ordinary. It's just as ordinary as Draak-Kin stealing treasure, burning down trees, and eating random animals whenever they feel like it. Parts 1 and 2 got us comfortable with these non-human notions of normalcy. Now we're being shown why. All creatures will do anything to protect themselves. The Ants see each other Ant as their selves.

This is opposite of what we have learned about Draak life so far. As Draak-Kin, we have been instructed in the realities of living in the Green. We had to win the contest with Twist. We had to drive away Flare, Bloom, and Whisper. We had to treat our neighbors with respect, or else risk their wrath. Most opportunities for compassion put your life at risk or give poor rewards. Yeah, save that child. You'll only need to fight a Lion.

Now we are everything that Draak are not: Tiny, completely dependent on each other, and completely altruistic to each other.

The parallel between Ant philosophy and Allmother philosophy is plain. What's less obvious is the parallel between Ant philosophy and what is revealed by the Dreaming Door.

But I think it's the exact same thing, just on different scales. If Allmother wants us to know how Ants regard their Colony, then the Dreaming Door wants us to know how all Life should regard the Onesong. Reality exists in layers.

After completing two objectives, Writhing Question resumes its story. The Blazetail objects to Allmother's apparent hypocrisy. By protecting a prey animal, the predator is left to starve.

Originally posted by Writhing Question:

The noble Draak-Kin pondered this in its heart. The Blazetail was not wrong. To save some means the certain death of others who depend upon their flesh for survival.

And it saw itself in the Blazetail as much as it saw itself in the Longear. More, perhaps, because it was a Hunter and had already destroyed countless beings to survive.

"O Blazetail," sang the Draak-Kin. "I will not be your Destruction. You are as true and as beautiful as the Longear. In your swiftness, your sharpness, I see myself. I am you, and you are I."

It almost seems as though Allmother is making a logical fallacy. Of the Longear, "We both fear Destruction, therefore we are exactly the same." And of the Blazetail, "We are both hunters, therefore we are the exactly the same."

But I think the actual intention is that Allmother knows the secret behind the Dreaming Door. Maybe it opened the Door, and maybe it just figured out the secret independently. The story seems to imply that Allmother just had a sudden epiphany from nowhere. In any case, it has made the decision to keep a certain level of individuality to spread the message of Compassion and Love. As we later see at the Grand Moot, Allmother has a powerful and specific love for Earth, not for the whole Onesong as such.

After completing the third Ant objective and defeating the Titan, Writhing Question concludes its story:

Originally posted by Writhing Question:

(Allmother says,) "I have chosen a third way, and though my form is diminished, my innermost Self, Essence of Essence, sings with joy and health."

"For I am you, and you are I, and we are one forever."

So ends my tale.

The Draak-Kin had dispelled the Great Illusion of Separation. It had seen that all things which appear separate are in fact part of a greater whole, a collective eternal and immortal.

That is the exact same message as given by the Dreaming Door; the only thing changing is the scale.

Ant Colony --> Heartwood (Allmother's territory) --> Earth --> Onesong.

Ants follow the philosophy naturally. Allmother has applied it in practice to the Heartwood. Allmother would like for this philosophy to be applied to Earth (the long-term goal of the Compassion ending). The Dreaming Door is just taking the same idea one step further. Reality exists in layers.

So far, we've learned a lot from Writhing Question and Ant Life. Now we get to hear from Allmother directly.

First, if you have at least 6 Compassion points during the transition between Part 2 to Part 3, Allmother will speak to you in a dream.

Originally posted by Allmother:

When the time comes, remember me, and remember the beauty of rare compassion and its guiding truth: that all beings are one. This is the secret which shall be our salvation.

"All beings are one" because the Dreaming Door says that all beings are the Onesong, or at least its shards. The Dreaming Door is like "Allmother v2.0".

After Ant Life is done with, you meet Allmother in person:

Originally posted by Allmother:

Beneath the scars, beyond the illusions which cover you like scales...

Allmother is pretty consistent about its belief that form and body are unimportant, so it's saying that even Draak-scale is an illusion, phrased in the form of a simile.

Originally posted by Allmother:

I smell it. Your true self. Naked, crystalline, perfect.

We have two choices as to what Allmother is referencing here. Either it is referring to Essence (soul), which is consistent with what it says about Draak souls during the Moot, or it is describing us as the Onesong here.

From a certain point of view, the Onesong is naked (your stars are showing!), it is crystalline (or glittering at least), and perfect. And of course Allmother is able to smell it, because it knows the secret. (Keep in mind that Draak commonly substitute the word "smell" for "see" in a metaphorical sense, so "smell" is not meant to be taken literally.)

Originally posted by Allmother:

Your dreams of power and greatness...

They are but a reaching for the light, a yearning to become one with the unbounded Onesong.

This statement is difficult for me, because Allmother does not help you "become one with the unbounded Onesong". I think it fits with the notion that she knows the secret behind the Dreaming Door, but it doesn't fit with its solution at the Moot. As we see later, though, Allmother restricts its scope to Earth alone, not the whole Onesong.

Originally posted by Allmother:

For you are I, and I am you forever. Our separation is the last illusion.

Again consistent with Writhing Question's story and what we experienced in Ant Life. It's also the exact same sentiment stated behind the Dreaming Door.

From this point on, Allmother speaks more to the point about compassion, cooperation, and its plan to save Earth from the Grey Future:

Originally posted by Allmother:

I believe that "they" can become "we". That our two peoples, our ways, can at the last become one, and together, inherit this sphere which dances in the void.

(...)

We can transcend ourselves, and become truly Kin, not only to each other, but to all life.

If we only believe. If we only love.

Allmother again applies the concept to Earth and no further. That's why I think a lot of what Allmother says is meant to be foreshadowing -- because the idea is there, but the narrative keeps getting yanked back to Draak-Kin, humans, and Earth.

Originally posted by Allmother:

How I yearn for you, my beloved. How I long for you.

Becoming one in Body would not be enough.

May we become one in Essence, like streams which lose themselves in the distant sea, and become it.

Always and forever...

Okay, but I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's date a few times first.

After that, Writhing Question returns with a final thought:

Originally posted by Writhing Question:

Is the Onesong in the process of folding inward, making all one in time?

Or is it expanding outward, hoping that new expressions of itself in Flesh and Mind will reveal at last what it has been seeking?

And most of all: is it better to lose oneself in Unity, or better to remain an individual?

Which expresses the Truth better? Which expresses Compassion better?

Do you remember?

Do you remember the way home?

Now it's like Writhing Question knows what's behind the Dreaming Door. What a tease.

Also, "the way home" in this case probably has a double meaning of "the way to your Lair" and "the way to reunite with the Onesong".

Thanks to ilya0smirnov0 in the comments for pointing this out.

Speaking of Ant Life, the Returner (earthworm) you can meet has something interesting to say.

Originally posted by Returner:

All beings: You shall return. You must return.

Fear not the end of the self. It is only a returning.

Decay... her love takes the form of decay.

When the pride and falsehood called "I am" is torn from you at last.

When your twitching, fearing mind is gone, and you are but peaceful, silent.

We shall return you, deeper than sleep, to the beginning. This is your destiny.

Praise great Mother Earth, for though you labor and suffer, at last you shall be lost in her.

We shall meet again in Earth's body.

She draws all things to herself. There is no escape.

Although the Returner is referring to Earth, you could almost just as easily replace all instances of "Earth" with the word "Onesong" and these would still be valid statements.

Reality exists in layers. Whereas the earthworm helps creatures return to Earth, it's the Dreaming Door that leads to returning to the Onesong.

As a species

Blackburns do not appear often in this story. The Encyclopedia has this to say about them:

It is sung that they once seized Sun Himself in their talons, and in doing so brought light back into the world during the Great Darkness.

Their heroism came with a price, however; they were burned, even to their very Essence, by the Beyond-Flame of which Sun's Body is made. Their feathers turned black, their once-beautiful voices turned to croaks, and truths were revealed for which they were not prepared. This made them wise beyond wisdom, wise to the point of foolishness.

Still, they are respected by all for their sacrifice, and some say that one who is patient and who understands their nature can still draw cold, clear truths from the fire of their songs.

I think this is meant to indicate that they learned what is hidden behind the Dreaming Door. We have to be prepared for it by having 20 tarot cards and full mastery of the Great Four. If it takes a lot of effort for a Draak-Kin, just imagine how unready the Blackburns were.

During Ant Life

While living Ant Life, you can find a Blackburn who says some rather interesting things. They are so loaded down with metaphors that it's difficult to make perfect sense of it all:

Originally posted by Blackburn:

Help me sing to the uncharred, to the raw, to help them splay themselves across the divide.

I'm guessing it refers to the "divide" between individuality, and recognizing that all beings are fragments of the Onesong.

Originally posted by Blackburn:

I see them, whole and content, unbroken, and I cry out in despair at the living falsehood.

In the Blackburn's view, not knowing the secret means being "whole and unbroken". Knowing the truth involves "breaking".

Originally posted by Blackburn:

Where is the one who will choose the fourth way? Where is the one who will face the Spirit and reject its deceptive blessing?

Hey, we did that, didn't we?

Originally posted by Blackburn:

I wish to rub myself against her feathers, her scales, hanging burning in the nothing.

It's referring to the Onesong. "And the stars are her scales."

Originally posted by Blackburn:

Those who know the truth... that the Father on high is but a mote of tail-skin.

... and the Sun, which seems so mighty to life on Earth, is a single scale of the Onesong.

Originally posted by Blackburn:

Those who discover the four numbers and open the Door...

May they be forever broken, and never unite again.

Again, those who open the door are "broken". The only way I can make sense of this is as reference to the rejection of the Ego (the player-Draak), breaking from the Body and individuality of a single life. The player-character ends up becoming something else -- a nature spirit, never reunited with a singular Body.

The Artist

I don't think it's a mistake that the Artist has a Blackburn companion. Ludwig put it there for a reason. In writing, we call this "conservation of detail". The fact that the Blackburn exists here means that we are meant to take something from it.

This Blackburn does not speak due to its old age and infirmity, but the Artist indicates the Blackburn is an old friend. As we have surmised that Blackburns know the secret of the Dreaming Door, we can also surmise that the Artist (being the open-minded gentleman that he is) was able to learn this from the Blackburn, hence his desire to be "friends".

As players, we know exactly what friendship is, but this is a foreign concept to Draak. The narration (which we read as our Draak-mind interpretation of things) makes the connection that friendship is just another form of Love and Compassion. The Artist, in his own way, loves all.

When the Artist is murdered, we find that the Blackburn has died alongside him. I think we can interpret this in two ways:

• The secret of the Dreaming Door died with him, putting humankind a big step back in learning it.
  
• The humans who killed him were also symbolically killing the notion of friendship, love, and/or compassion.

Of course, the response lies with the player. It would be natural to consider the humans irredeemable for this crime, and side with the righteous Rage of Many-Times-Burned. But the way of Compassion and the Dreaming Door requires that aggression be answered with love. The Third Way is the most difficult way. And the Fourth Way is more difficult than that.

At the Grand Moot, the Elders suddenly get a large amount of face time. Once again, Allmother is the most interesting here. Allmother criticizes Darktooth's plan to abandon Earth:

Originally posted by Allmother:

"Such an action is a desertion of loving Mother Earth, and our many relations which feed from her.

There are those of us who love Earth and Sun such that none of their infinite siblings would bring peace to our souls.

To look up into the Great Above and see a blazing glory that is not He who has watched over us for all time...

Can such a thing be endured? Are not our very essences bound to the Green, the Blue, the Above and the Below of this world?"

It becomes clearer than ever that Allmother is far more concerned with protecting Earth. Whatever secrets it knows about the Onesong, there is no interest in applying them to a universal scale, at least not while Earth is imperiled by the Grey Future.

Originally posted by Allmother:

"Judge as you wish. I shall soon be gone. This body shall perish and I shall voluntarily cast my spirit away and ahead.

But if there are any of you who have discovered the greatest secret of the Onesong...

That all beings, even the Tailless, are one, and share the same ultimate destiny..."

Allmother rebounds right back to exactly what the Dreaming Door says, but it is so far out of context that we can't act on it. Why did we have to hunt down those numbers when Allmother just tells us the secret right here? :P

Originally posted by Allmother:

"Fear not. Only believe. All things end...

Save only the Oneness. Become its sign, its symbol.

Yet another Onesong reference by Allmother.

Originally posted by Allmother:

"And know.

Know that as much as any beast, [the Tailless] are part of the Onesong.

They are, as all beings, stardust made flesh."

Again, the exact secret of the Dreaming Door. But you're getting actively torn to shreds by a horde of vicious dragons as Allmother is saying this. You're a little late sharing this, Allmother!

The Survival ending concludes with this interesting phrasing:

Rest now, and when you feel ready, return again...

For you have lived many lives as one of the Draak-Kin, and not all of them ended this way, and yet all of those endings were important and true.

I still remember when I completed the Survival ending for the first time. The phrasing caught my attention back then, too.

I had already seen the Wisdom and Compassion endings first, so I thought it could be looking at my global save and was referring to the fact that this was not the first time I had started a New Life. But then, how does that make sense? You are always taking the role of the Spiritkeeper, and the Spiritkeeper's many possible lives cannot all be true.

Of course, I now know that the text is always the same and the state of your global save has no impact. And yet it still makes sense. Why?

Because it's speaking to you as though you already know the secret revealed by the Dreaming Door.

You have lived many lives as one of the Draak-Kin, and not all of them ended this way, and yet all of those endings were important and true, because you are the Onesong and all creatures are shards of the Onesong.

Remember what we learned during Ant Life? "Other-selves. I-am-Them, They-are-I."

As with the Survival ending, this ends with an odd phrasing:

This story, the story of your childhood in the Great Green, is over.

Perhaps you lived other childhoods, other lives as a Draak long ago.

Perhaps, one day, you shall discover other truths, other endings to your beginning.

If you read this very fast, it seems to suggest that you may like to start a New Life (as Spiritkeeper) and see one of the other endings. Indeed, you could start a New Life (as a Draak) experience another childhood (as Spiritkeeper), and discover other endings (Survival, Compassion, Secret).

It could also refer to the planned modding capability, which I think they wanted to do since the beginning (even though it has taken much longer than expected). Mods could allow us to live other lives as a Draak (not necessarily the Spiritkeeper). It could even refer to future sequels.

But under deepest scrutiny, the narration is again talking to you as though you already know that you are the Onesong, and that all Draak and all creatures are also the Onesong. I assume it's not a mistake that "endings" is plural, but "beginning" is not. The Onesong's many fragments trapped within flesh may have their stories end. But the Onesong had one beginning and has not ended yet.

At this point, we have collected the first 20 tarot cards. Some of them have interesting descriptions.

Originally posted by Death:

Death is not a failure, but only an ending, and all endings are beginnings in disguise.

Along with that, the narration during the death sequence itself is quick to point out that "you have not lost", and that "all life moves toward death". There are multiple takeaways to this:

• Failure is a better teacher than success. You were never wrong to take risks and explore.
  
• Life among feral nature is sometimes brutal and short, even for a Draak. Drawing the short straw is nothing to be ashamed of.
  
• The Onesong is eternal and infinite. By having lived at all, your Draak's life added Light and meaning. The Onesong has no concept of "success" or "failure". There is only living.

Originally posted by The Magician:

Only by deeply entering into the Many may we discover the One.

This is attached to the Artist, who befriended many Goodbeasts and researched many things -- and in so doing, probably learned the secret of the Onesong (from his Blackburn companion) and was able to invent things far, far ahead of his time (such as the miniature ballista in his hut). Most Draak-Kin and humans are far more concerned with dominating lesser Goodbeasts and killing each other.

It's also yet another repetition of "Many and One", which I discussed in a previous section.

Originally posted by The Star:

We all have been for all time, and we shall be for all time, we all, forever and ever.

This can be applied equally to:

• Draak-Kin -- In the form of otherkin, which is the effect of the Compassion ending and how you earn The Star.
  
• The Onesong -- In the form of "stardust made flesh", and that stardust cannot be destroyed.

When the Dreaming Door appears, it shares a few sentiments with us:

Originally posted by The Dreaming Door:

O lost shard of Infinity, trapped in flesh...

As Writhing Question and Allmother mentioned, the flesh-trap is the "Great Illusion of Separation" or the "Last Illusion".

Originally posted by The Dreaming Door:

Knower of the Great Four...

While this references the requirement to achieve 10th level in all Elemental masteries, it also recalls back to when we sung a lesser hymn to the stars of all four elements. Back then, we wanted to pay respect to the Great Four without knowing them, and stopped because we were treading on sacred ground.

Originally posted by The Dreaming Door:

Reality exists in layers.

Layers such as:

• (From Hatching) Within the egg --> Life on Earth --> Onesong
  
• (From Allmother's trial) Ant Colony --> Heartwood --> Earth --> Onesong
  
• (From the stargazing scene) "As leaves upon one branch, as branches upon one Tree, as Trees within one Green, as Green within the Land, as Land within Earth, as Earth within the Onesong".
  
• The Illusion of Separation --> The Onesong

Originally posted by The Dreaming Door:

In Dreams lies the Door which leads Between.

Entering the Dreaming Door means elevating to the next layer of Reality. All layers exist simultaneously, but we cannot be part of multiple layers simultaneously.

Originally posted by The Dreaming Door:

Therein lies the Greatest Treasure.

... The Onesong tarot card? :3

I'll take some guesses at this in a moment.

After providing the three numbers, we are offered blessings by three Spirits, but accepting a blessing means to stop pursuing the Dreaming Door.

This section is a little odd in terms of pure gameplay. Assuming a blind play, it takes a substantial effort to ask the Spirit about the Fourth Way, collect 20 tarot cards, get our masteries to 10th level, and locate the three sacred numbers. We have already seen the three main endings, and with maxed stats, could see them again at any time we please. Their blessings are largely useless.

But while their blessings are materialistic, their arguments are philosophical. The narrative needs us to do two things here:

• Reject philosophies that sound plausible, but offer no benefit.
  
• Recognize and affirm what we have learned from the bittersweet main endings.

The Spirit of Desire

Desire is an echo of the Lesser Law of Draak-Kin -- to gather Treasure. Its core argument is that we have reached this point because of Desire. We Desired to become a great Draak, to collect much treasure, to collect 20 tarot cards, and to reach complete mastery of the elements. And we achieved these things. That's why we're here.

The Spirit of Desire is correct about us and the hoarding nature of Draak-Kin. But then it goes astray in its final paragraph:

Originally posted by The Spirit of Desire:

Submit to me, as all do, and as you have ever done. Bow your head and worship me, and you shall have more, and more, and more forever.

That's not why we are here. We don't want "more, and more, and more forever". Our only Desire is to open the Dreaming Door. By rejecting the Spirit of Desire, we are reaffirming our singular goal, and we will not be swayed.

The Spirit of Rage

Rage's argument is an echo of Many-Times-Burned, and neither of them are wrong. On a certain layer of reality, Draak-Kin are being killed, Goodbeasts are being enslaved, and Earth is being tortured.

It is an injustice. And, in this layer of reality, injustice can only be corrected with righteous Rage.

The problem is, the Spirit of Rage is a bit late to the party. We already walked that path alongside Many-Times-Burned and witnessed its aftermath.

Whenever limited beings find discord in the Onesong, and believe that Reality should be broken and remade in the image of their own Minds...

Then Rage is there, and though it carries an image of Justice in its mouth, Horror and Violence are its only results.

Earth, restored to peace, the Grey Future averted, but only with the infliction of enormous suffering. A necessary action by the Draak-Kin, perhaps. But a stain on their honor, that they failed to find a better way.

Rage does not come from the Void. It comes from the infinite broken bodies and dreams scattered by Time.

It emerges from the lost pieces of that which, in its pain, has forgotten that it was once whole, was once One.

Rage is the Onesong fighting itself, without reason nor purpose. We must make our rejection of Rage and Fear absolute before entering the Dreaming Door.

Opening your Soul, you allow the True Song of Healing to flow from you. You show Rage how All is One, and One is All.

You find the sharp and disparate shards of the lost and suffering and weave them all into a cool, clear pane. When their edges touch and are unmade, they finally remember their true desire.

It was Peace. It was Peace all along.

In other words, "Many and one, one and many." We've heard that before, haven't we?

The Spirit of Truth

Just as Rage was an echo of Many-Times-Burned, Truth is an echo of Darktooth.

Darktooth's stoic personality has been a stabilizing force in our life as a Draak. It has shared with us an enormous wealth of this world's history and lore. He has not threatened to kill us as MTB has, and his ideas are not contrary to Draak nature as Allmother's are. He seeks only to learn, and then put that knowledge to use in benefiting Draak-Kin and Earth.

If you have come to respect Darktooth at this point, you know that he would reject this false Spirit of Truth. It is not that we are not allowed to be correct. We were, indeed, correct to reject Desire and Rage just now. There are many possible wise choices throughout the story.

The Onesong is not static, fixed and knowable, nor does Time move in a line. No, Reality is an Ever-Transforming Beast, never the same as it was, nor is any one perspective, any one Truth, the correct one.

You will not take this Crown and declare your journey of discovery over. To accept it would be to die to all possibilities outside your knowledge.

Recall that we were only able to enter the Great Lesson by admitting that we are not Wise, and that one can only learn by admitting ignorance. By accepting this Crown, we would become always correct about all things. Without admitting ignorance, we could not accept what is behind the Dreaming Door.

If Rage echoed MTB, and Truth echoed Darktooth, then the Ego is the opposite of Allmother. The Spiritkeeper itself now addresses us. Because we have accumulated 20 tarot cards, it is able to accurately recount some of our deeds.



We have heard a lot from Writhing Question and Allmother in favor of tearing away the Last Illusion. Now the Spiritkeeper makes a plaintive plea for keeping it, despite its limitations.

Originally posted by The Spiritkeeper:

I am the keeper of the Heart of the Great Green. I am the owner of many Treasures.

I have survived countless challenges, and you were beside me as I surpassed each one.

If I discover... if we discover... what lies beyond [the Dreaming Door], then we can never again see ourselves as special.

We cannot continue to gather Treasures, nor can we influence the destiny of our people if we cross over.

Our story will end, and there will be nothing left to discover in the Great Green, for how can there be discovery when one has no separation from all things?

You need me to define you. You need my experiences, my body, even the color of my scales to give you a place in this Reality.

We have worked hard to reach the Dreaming Door, especially if it was done without looking up guides or spoilers. The first time I arrived here, I was sorely tempted to select the first option. I could sense that the three Spirits were deceptive and disingenuous. But the Spiritkeeper speaks only truth.

I knew that its truth would steer me away from the Dreaming Door and the true ending. But I did not want to stop being Draak-Kin.

But we have come this far. If we want to cross beyond the Dreaming Door -- even if it must be done with gritted teeth -- we must accept what all the foreshadowing has been trying to tell us.

Spiritkeeper: Wait! You would truly destroy me? Destroy yourself?

Player: You are not I.

At first, it seems contradictory, because Allmother has been trying to tell us that we are all one. I don't think it's a mistake, but rather an ambiguous phrasing. We are not rejecting the actual Spiritkeeper. We are rejecting Ego. We are rejecting the very notion of individuality.

Spiritkeeper: Did you not hatch in Heartbone Valley? Did you not Destroy, and Create, and discover? Did those things not occur?

Player: No. The past is gone, and never was. Clinging to it only brings pain. Now is the only Reality.

Again, this seems to be toying with an ambiguous phrasing. Those things did happen within a certain layer of Reality, but only as part of of the Great Illusion of Separation. We are rejecting everything that occurred within the Illusion.

Spiritkeeper: Are you not of the Emerald Clan? Are you not one of the few True Children of Heaven and Earth?

Player: The Clans are not real; they are but lines drawn in the sand. And there is no Being, whether Tailless or Kin or Tiny Being, which is not a True Child of the Onesong.

Now we are back on track. "I am you, and you are I." All are True Children of the Onesong. Any further distinction is Illusion.

Spiritkeeper: Are you not Draak-Kin?

Player: Why do you wish to embody only that reality, throwing away all others?

At last, the narration offers a benefit to all this. Obviously, we like being Draak-Kin. We had to click New Life at least four times, and probably more than that. Nobody reaches this point if they don't like this game. We are being reassured, now, that we will still be Draak-Kin -- and infinitely more.

You explain that all Beings are tiny and powerless to the Onesong, and infinitely huge and bright and powerful compared to the small, empty Void before the beginning.

This recalls what the Fireflies were saying about Light.

The story you created with your Life is completely unique and simultaneously identical to that of all other Beings. There is no cause for pride nor shame.

Just as there is no shame in experiencing Death, which we needed to do for a Tarot Card.

Not only is every Tiny Being as true and worthy and good as we are... in truth, all of the labels which separate the pieces of the Onesong are false barriers.

There are no Draak-Kin, and no Tailless, and no Earth and no Sun...

...and no Beginning, and no End. We are all One, and always shall be.

And with that, you open up your Self and Sing out the True Song of Destruction, and your Ego, the self which you have always known and worshiped in secret as every being worships itself, is utterly unmade.

At last, we are told what Allmother has been trying to tell us all along.

We "hatch" into the next layer of Reality (foreshadowed by examining our egg waaaaay back in the beginning) and next see something that greatly resembles the Spirit of the Green, except it is a Draak.



After we cross through the Door at last:

What happens then cannot be told. What lies beyond the Dreaming Door cannot be contained by any artifice; if any Word or even Song were made to carry it, both would die.

But it is sung by the Kin that one of the long line of the Keepers of the Spiritwood (...) became one with all things (...) its true spirit was now in another world, a greater world.

In time, the old Spirit of that land passed into the beyond, and a new Spirit, free from judgment and fear and desire, rose over the Great Green.

We did reject those things, after all, if Judgment is equivalent to Exclusive Truth here.

Every Being born in the Green was an echo of that Great Spirit's Music, and It welcomed each one back into Itself upon Destruction, seasoned by having Been.

Life goes on, as it must, and as it should. What we have done here has not changed the destiny of all Life, but only that of the Spiritkeeper. It became something greater than even Draak-Kin. The next layer of Reality. The Great Green, itself. All forest and wild nature upon Earth.

It knew not Time. It knew not Place. Instead it knew the Last Truth.

Countless centuries later, when all the Children of Earth and Sun... the Goodbeasts, and even the Orphans whom the Others left behind... would look up at the sky...

They would see the shadow of the Spirit of the Green, and through it, a vision of a reality beyond themselves.

The next layer of Reality again. The Onesong.

So, hold on. How is it that the Spiritkeeper becomes the new Spirit of the Green, and its shadow is in the sky? I admit I don't completely understand what it's trying to say, but it may have something to do with this:

This is the story of how one young Kin found the strength to conquer all challenges, and then bested Desire, Rage, Truth, and even its own sense of itself...

And found, at last, the Greatest Treasure.

To my knowledge, it is not said verbatim what the Greatest Treasure is. Some guesses:

• Life - Throughout the story, Life is said to be the greatest or most precious of Treasures. The narration says so, MTB says so, Never-Ever says so. Even Ludwig says so at the end of the credits. But it raises the question as to why we had to traverse the Dreaming Door to "find Life". I'm not sold on this.
  
• Nirvana - Reunification with the Onesong; no longer being a "lost shard of infinity", but reunited with the whole of infinity itself. In other words, the rejection of Greed, Fear, exclusive Truth, Ego, and the Illusion of Separation. Can we call this "Appreciation of Life" or "Appreciation of the Universe", perhaps?
  
• Love - If Ludwig objects to this, then I can turn it into an argument of "What do you have against Love?"
  
• Deliberately ambiguous - We are supposed to make the decision for ourselves. Any answer we say is correct because it is our answer. Say, didn't Planescape: Torment do that? I'm onto you, Ludwig. "What can change the Nature of a Draak-Kin?"

It was your story, of many lifetimes ago...

And so shall it be again, for all are bound to the same Destiny.

We are all the Onesong. Shards of infinity. "Many and one, one and many, all connected at the Center."

Even if you don't agree with that notion, there remains one Truth:

We all came from the same place.

Be kind to one another.