Story timeline
Phigros' story in in-game time. The Tower's history comes from the official Limbo Wiki, and the story told by the Collection sits on the days the game gives it.
On this pagePlaces
The places, peoples, groups, whims and ideas of the Limbo Wiki, each with the events that mention it. Official entries come first; community entries appear when community lore is on.
Places34 entries
Pixel Tower像素塔
The ascent device built by the First People; from the Lunar Era on the name covers every node world from Glaciaxia up: the Hoodoo, Neon, Atlas and Haven, the four worlds around Haven (the Mid-Level, the Second Surface, Rhythm Star and the Ark Tower), the Lunar Surface and the hypothesised Vault. The category page calls it an inverted giant tower standing in the collective mind, with ten node worlds and thousands of subspaces; a year has 377 days, and trains and door-plates are the main transport. In a fan discussion one user reads the narrow Pixel Tower as the flying device people build inside the Tower world and the broad one as the whole subconscious world.
In 32 events
4 sources
Glaciaxia冰封
Floor 1, a permafrost plain: below 200 K all year, under 20 mm of rain a year, its residents mostly whims and its staple the first-level whim rice; its ecosystem is made of the demice tides, lesser whims and man-made decomposers, and entry needs a door-plate or a Bureau permit. In 740 its whims turned into a human type and the Bureau helped form new patrols. deathMark said that in the original setting the habitable area after humans left is small, about the size of the Three-River-Source region, and in interviews that the floor is modelled on the upper Yangtze (including Sanjiangyuan), contains only Jiangyuan Base, where the layered structure also is, and is not as big as Earth.
In 27 events
3 sources
Neon霓虹
Subspaces8 entries
BassAreUs极星卫
A subspace set in the interstellar city of Kemiliya, where the Driftstar faction implants steam engines into people to make living weapons. Subject Geopelia (You Suyin, Z) wrecks half a lab in the mech Bassareus and flees, while Gino, a communications expert from ten thousand years ago, possesses the researcher Youai to break the deadlock from inside. The cast also includes Nigra, the Magician, Driftstar, He Jing, Liandu and Jiazhutao.
In 12 events
1 source
Port Odysseus奥德修斯港
A floating island that fell in 743, a subspace attached to Atlas and one of its wall-mounted ports. Erapeter built it after promoting the historian Bernice Itaca's thesis, using mirrors and whims to make the sea appear right beneath it; local gangs control it with the authorities' tacit approval. It poses as a research base but takes in privateers and adventurers brought by smugglers each year, and ten times the protection money buys diving gear and a permit to Lotos; when it falls, Lotos returns to view.
In 5 events
4 sources
Tube Maze管道迷宫
Peoples8 entries
the Limbos林泊
Tower residents who know who they are outside, one of three kinds of Tower resident beside the long-lived First People and ordinary residents reborn in the last ten years; over 90% come from inside the residents and a few were autonomous AIs or whims. They call themselves awake souls with bodies in a parallel world, know many whims, lose strong feelings for them once they understand them and are comparatively harmless; how they awaken is unclear, and managing AIs count as Limbos. At the end of the Dragon Palace Era they built the Saturn system (their communication network) and the Mid-Level, which only Limbos or invited guests can enter, and the Thirteen Sacrifices are thirteen Limbos charged with curbing mythic whims.
In 19 events
7 sources
First People先民
The Tower's earliest residents, ageless and deathless, who built Ark One and Lotos; Class V whims match them in intellect. Broadly the term means the long-lived who have not been reborn since the retreat from the Endless Sea, strictly humans never reborn since the Tower was built, who know many burned-book whims and the truths lost to history.
In 10 events
5 sources
Human-type whims人类种
Native whims with human looks and minds, less dangerous as technology advances. Wars against them were once common, such as the Battle of Tripe Valley in the Dragon Palace Era, and around the Central Palace Era a way to fully control them was found.
Groups22 entries
Broken Data Research碎数研
A Limbo Wiki research group (the Broken Data Research Group) that salvages broken data from Mazarine. In the official pages it supplies the account of Cronos splitting into five, surveys the fall of Port Odysseus in 743, measures on Pearl of Truth fragments the same wavelength as Artemis's remains, fishes part of Xie Ming's data out of the Mazarine End, and receives the subspace copy '673: the Rhythm Star Operthief incident' through Clear. Fan pages call its members agents, base it at Arachne, trace it back to 301 A.P. and say the Ruling Bureau lists it as a criminal organisation (a running joke in its team room); on the wiki the name also labels the fan-writing sphere and category, which deathMark says marks 'dug-up data' that may not match the truth. deathMark said in an interview that one non-Limbo member saved a Collection item but cannot use it in reality and has not awakened separately.
In 19 events
9 sources
Ruling Bureau统治局
The body that runs the Tower after the Unified Government, which Peregrinus announced dissolved in 286; it rules from Clock Town, is also written Ruling Bureau in official text, and has one of the highest Limbo shares. Officials are reborn at random to stop power piling up; it has a legislature, services, intelligence, research institutes (including the Yike Institute) and a citizens' service centre, and governs the floors below Haven through floor guardians. Clear built its legal system and works as its intelligence agent; it commissioned the Neon signs as anti-whim monitors, holds Artemis's remains, has long mined cache matter at Atlas, and resolved to help form the new Glaciaxia patrols.
People33 entries
Gino
One of Phigros' two leads, listed in the overview as 'Gino/吉诺/莫比乌斯'; deathMark confirmed in an interview that he is indeed 21. In Chapter I he is a Team VII member of the Glaciaxia patrols who finds the amnesiac Geopelia on Mount Sierra; in II he tours the Hoodoo with her on a motorbike, in V he looks for traces of the Guru, and in VI he settles his doubts since Mazarine in the Mid-Level. The Sultan page calls him a Limbo Wiki administrator, and the BassAreUs subspace has its own Gino, a communications expert from ten thousand years ago who possesses the researcher Youai.
In 62 events
4 sources
Sultan苏丹
One of the First People, once a harbour accountant (called the Magician), who led the Neon Sign Management Society, took over the Witches' Council and Rainbow Church, and could appear in many places at once (Broken Data Research thinks he can make temporary doubles); an official page calls him the Church's former head. After the three societies united he became one of the Thirteen Sacrifices with the help of the Witches' Council's leader (the Witch Church page says the Council was led by Peregrinus); the Sultan page tells it as Peregrinus (the Guru) entering Neon's ruling circle as a spy and making him one, with countless doubles, after which Sultan, trusting him too much, was betrayed in the Rainbow War. In 242 he renamed HAVEN Neon and began the Rainbow War; after his defeat he was trapped in the Tube Maze thrown into Mazarine, suspected gone, with only a whim character left.
In 24 events
5 sources
Clear克劳尔
Whims and whim objects18 entries
whim object异想之物
Whim objects are things that take shape in the Pixel Tower through whim pollution, born of human imagination (humans here meaning any causal being): an animal that really existed, or a story people believe in. Human minds give them form and can end them; the first whims were born of the fear of the pit. How they are sorted is covered under whim classification and subspecies.
In 15 events
3 sources
the Guru尊师古卢
A Class V whim, Lord of Rainbow, pope of the Witch Church and the real master of Neon, in charge of its recycling. It is modelled on Peregrinus, victor of the Rainbow War; its main concept is 'authority', followed by 'victor', 'Guru' and 'sect head', with 'Master' (尊师) only a limiting word, which lets it rule Neon's 'prisoners' absolutely. It appears as a capricious white-haired figure whose true face is hidden in glazed light and vanishes for good in the Rainbow Reappearance; Neon's floor guardian uses its identity (true person yet to be disclosed), while a user's talk-page answer says the guardian is its prototype rather than the same being (community).
In 14 events
5 sources
Tiaoyin Tiangou调音天狗
The Tiaoyin Tiangou is an urban legend born of rumour on Rhythm Star. It appears only at midnight under a full moon and loves stealing melodies, which it returns after seven days with their noise gone. Around July 673 it stole Rhythm Star itself and gave it back on time seven days later, then vanished, remembered by few.
Tower technology12 entries
Rebirth重生
Residents who project their consciousness into the Tower are reborn anywhere after death, possibly with a new identity code and without memory; only Limbos keep the previous life's memory, and since the soul count is fixed the population grows slowly. The rebirth guide Igallta receives them; after Babel the mechanism ran only in Haven, and respawn points can be locked by others (to Haven in the Age of Chaos, then the Lunar Surface) or self-locked to the Vault after the New Birth Era. deathMark added in interviews and on talk pages that it is the user, not the Limbo, who is reborn, that First People lose their memories in the rebirth procedure, and that whims have no rebirth.
In 16 events
14 sources
PhigrOS
The Pixel Tower's universal personal terminal system: first a communication tool introduced in a special period for human residents only, later joined by Tower AIs and whims. It can host subsystems, the Saturn system that gates the Mid-Level runs on it, and the Administration Council is its built-in virtual government. In Limbo reality the PhigrOS plan uses nano-bio-machines in the brain and blood to carry brainwaves for real-time deep consciousness communication, and rumours that the Tower is not real first spread on its social network. deathMark said in an interview that PhigrOS is bound to each person with nothing to claim, that non-Limbos have it too (hence the Saturn system), and that it is the tool for logging into the Pixel Tower, like DNA rather than memory, so rebirth does not lose it.
In 11 events
7 sources
Melodization旋律化
Ideas and laws26 entries
The Mazarine End幽蓝边界
The sign of Mazarine meeting other spaces, shown as a line that eats data, so whatever it crosses disappears into darkness like the Tiangou eating the moon. Its full appearance is the black hole of Babel in Glaciaxia, which marks the start of the Age of Chaos; since then mass user disconnects match its passage 94% of the time, and even admins who can use it cannot explain its sudden autonomy. Managing AIs may use it to wipe out dangerous whims (an agent badge summons it only 3% of the time); deathMark said in an interview that the Tower's highest-level administrators can summon it and that it eats floors from the bottom up, and the Lanota page warns that carrying notalium back may speed it up.
In 24 events
8 sources
Subspace亚空间
Worlds people build to their own taste and hang on a floor; together with the ten node worlds they make up the Tower. They sit outside the node worlds' official history though their course can affect the floors; common kinds are social simulations, adapted fiction, private homes, replays of big events, private warehouses and memory palaces, most made with Möbius Studio's Genesis disc, and whims that cannot be destroyed are often confined in them, while the Ruling Bureau has banned expanding land and creating subspaces on the Lunar Surface. deathMark said in interviews that subspaces are built on PhigrOS, that a non-Limbo with the right items can build one, and that independent subspaces vanish easily, even a fully closed one being erased by the Mazarine End unless its program is changed.
In 14 events
7 sources
Objects9 entries
Ark One方舟一号
The ship of hope built by the First People; its entry is locked under the prewhimify principle. Built in 673 and abandoned in 742.
In 5 events
2 sources
Botticelli action camera波提切利运动相机
An action camera designed by Mobolisi, produced by Clear and later improved by Samuelle; after Clear went bankrupt the third-generation blueprint could not be built and Samuelle sold it to a small group. deathMark said in an interview that it iterated quickly and sloppily, the first generation was never released and sales began with the second, and as a Collection item it holds many memories of Sappho and Ida and can even be used to build a subspace; Sappho commissioned Broken Data Research to salvage it, which also brought up everything from that period. A community reader notes that the camera Sappho gets in 730 appears to be the Botticelli III, yet Samuelle was only born in 741/742, a timeline clash.
In 5 events
2 sources
Pearl of Truth真理之珠
The Pearl of Truth is a clue to Lotos held by Pallas, separate from the external memory; under its influence he can tell Cronos's five souls apart without knowing which is which, and the soul that was the clue to finding Lotos was itself made into external memory and split between the promise and the passion. An interview page records answers deathMark got from Guan Ruowen (关若文), the lead writer of the Lotos story: the pearl and the Box of Delusion are two entities split off from Cronos which together are the key letting protected people through Lotos's protective layer, and before his capture Mentus mailed the pearl out and Ida and Bernice received it on a hint.
Books, games and songs12 entries
Awake Journal清醒者日报
The Limbos' electronic paper, founded in the Dragon Palace Era for exchanging 'towerology'. Its Limbo-reality edition is a fortnightly digest from 2094/06/20, with past guests including Samuelle, Clear, Geopelia, Kuzumi, Fuli, Yoso, Dr. Naberius, Gino, Sutan, Wandou and Snow Pear Cream. deathMark welcomes submissions, which run as excerpts and linked access; fan pages add that issues are numbered consecutively, there is an urban-legend section, and rejected pieces come back with dm's annotations.
In 7 events
3 sources
Phigros
The music mining game by Pigeon Games about the two most representative Limbos in the Age of Chaos retreat, Geopelia and Gino, and the Pixel Tower's step-by-step ruin. The wiki's floor-to-chapter table: Glaciaxia is Chapter I, the Hoodoo Chapters II and III, Neon IV and V, Atlas has Lotos and BassAreUs, Haven has Ark Mirage and Animitta-Sabha, the Mid-Level has Chronnection, Rhythm Star has Operthief, the Ark has Eschaton, the Moon has Transit Tide and the Vault has the lone-boat chapter.
In 6 events
3 sources
Solivault孤舟
Solivault is a Puzzle Depository page holding the answers and archive links for the five-stage puzzle 'Outside the birdcage'. A note dated 2098/10/04 says the editorial office received letters from residents who reached the Vault after the Tower closed, saying the universe they saw differed from the setters' sample, so more easter eggs were added.
Undated events7 entries
The Great Flood大洪水
The flood into which the panicked evacuation of the Great Lavabo Retreat (271) turned; the official pages link 'the Great Flood' straight to that retreat. Atlas's undersea cities and sea arks were destroyed in it, Cronos shut Lotos's energy factory after it, and the Miracle Forest may come from the survival wish of people shut out of the city during it. deathMark said in an interview that it happened in the Endless Sea (Atlas) before the end of the Dragon Palace Era (286), that Haven is the home after it and that Neon is one of the refuges.
In 5 events
6 sources
Demice Tide魇魉大潮
From the mid Central Palace Era, demice and other whims gather in the pit and invade Glaciaxia each year from late spring to early autumn, replaying the first phase of the Whim War, First People included. Five legions strike, the decisive battle is at patrol 25's ground, and after the Lunar Era the Fallen Moon (the moon staying on the horizon for three nights) signals the start.
In 4 events
1 source
Eclipse Festival日蚀节
A newer festival marking the Tiangou's return of Rhythm Star. On 7/32 the four node satellites celebrate, and the next day Rhythm Star replays 'the Tengu eats the moon': welcoming (a firework array), eating the moon (weather satellites shut down and restart) and seeing off (a temple fair). It was renamed from Moon Eclipse Festival to avoid clashing with the Lunar Surface name, and is held by day.