Fetid Is Not Actually A "Future" Or "Alternate Universe" Salination

Fetid is not actually a "Future" or "Alternate Universe" Salination

they actually have very different styles between each other!

F05 Comparisons. Actually, in Fetid, the Ripples show Salination. This does not happen the other way around

Here's a side by side

You notice how Fetid's F05 doesn't have a top on it, and almost looks as if it was BUILT that way?

Here you can see the ripple showing salination, despite it being entirely different in Fetid

This entire area resembles Salination, yet the style of Fetid everywhere is completely different! Fetid has karma glyph terrain, bridges, large mushrooms, big fans- and Salination doesn't have any of these

There's even other some differences too!

These two rooms are connected, when previously they were seperated

The pipe in F10 is flipped

F12 is missing connections to F11

And some other very very minor differences in rendering and decor of course, but thats not as meaningful

The moment you leave this area and into E05, the tiling goes right back to the Fetid style- the fucking karma glyph flooring.

ALSO!

This area has the gilded wind of Shattered Terrace. Which is not seen anywhere else through the game, meaning that the connection to Fetid into Terrace is a lot more noticeable or prevalent

And you may also notice that Fetid is the only place with naturally spawning Rot Lizards and Sentient Rot, as well as a hidden lobetree

So what do I think happened instead?

I believe that Watcher takes place within the imagined realms mentioned in the Karma Flower dialogue. Each warp region is a bubble reality formed from memory patterns within the strands

So possibly, the bubble realm that contained Salination may have "crashed" or leaked into Fetid, possibly BECAUSE of Shattered Terrace (which is basically Spinning Top's little home, and they may have been the one to cause this)

And because Salination crashed so hard into Fetid, it created a false memory, and also caused Sentient Rot to possibly leak into the region as it begins to unfold and show its true cerebral nature