If there's creatures and magic on the Island, what's the rest of the earth like?

If people on Earth can construct an army of robot soldiers and robots that are capable to act like real human beings, what if there are other humanoid creatures down there besides Mimiga? They could just be limited to the Island while there are other things down there. Santa and Chaco came down to the lab with the others and only them specifically (idk they may have knew the others through some means or were picked like names out of a hat). Plus Kazuma knew that there were hatch-able dragon eggs on the Island with proper incubators, so even the Island probably has some sort of rich mechanical history. Perhaps the Island is unique only in that it brings strange things out of the life there and it could be as a result of Ballos' magic. Who knows?

 

Hmm, I will need to edit this post later on to elaborate this, cuz I just came across an epiphany regarding this thread during my lunch break at work.

But what if the world of Cave Story is just like the world in Final Fantasy (in this case we'll have to go with a world like FFXIV) as there's beings with magic, beings without magic, a diversity in species with a mind like a human's, and, this could be very far fetched, but what if the robots, including Quote and Curly, are built off of magitek technology?

 

This thread has also gotten me to think about some things that I never really thought about. It's possible that the island has a rich history of other creatures or humans inhabiting it. For example, there's the professor (not Booster, but the other one) in Egg Corridor who worked with Igor. It's well within the realm of possibility that he began his work before the war on the island, possibly even decades before it. It's quite possible that there were numerous expeditions made by nations of the surface to explore or possibly even colonize on the island. And it may even be possible that the war they talk about was the culmination of many years of rising political tensions. Curly talks about how humans who tried to protect the Mimigas were slaughtered as well, so there was probably a lot of conflict building up among humans leading up to the massacre, possibly not just on the surface, but on the island as well.

what if the robots, including Quote and Curly, are built off of magitek technology?

There's not a whole lot of evidence in-game of technology blending together with magic. Cave Story seems to take more of an approach of keeping technology and magic separate from each other, unlike other games/franchises like Undertale that intertwines them, or the Marvel Universe which regards magic as "just science we don't understand yet".

 

i think it's canon that there were at least some humans on the island before the war - given areas like grasstown, egg corridor, and jenka mentioning some humans died during the war protecting the mimiga. personally i figure there would've been at least some permanent research stations (maybe that's what grasstown was, or the structure around the core given the computers and stuff in CS3D), who probably interacted with the mimiga at least (explaining the tech in arthur's house) as well as general expeditions, legally or not, because who wouldn't wanna run around a floating island?
as for the status of magic and stuff, the doctor's ranting about the flowers bringing out 'latent abilities' (and subsequently those affected by the crystal/flowers demonstrating magic) makes me wonder if most species in cave story have at least some latent ability for magic, they just can't consciously use it except for witches like misery/jenka or the gaudi being able to shoot those projectiles at you, etc etc etc i realise this doesn't really answer the question in the title i just like rambling

 

There's not a whole lot of evidence in-game of technology blending together with magic.

Yeah, that's the biggest stretch in the whole idea. The most I can think up as evidence is Quote and Curly's seeming ability to match and surpass magic users like Misery and Ballos. And given red flowers and the Demon Crown are a form of magic, the robots have to have some sort of counterpart to balance out the odds, and I'm not entirely convinced it's all science, but you do have a point on magic possibly being a form of science in itself. Damn, writing this up now makes me think Seasons' fanmade lore about EXP crystals being the possible solution.

 

I've always just assumed places like Egg Corridor and Grasstown were made by humans. Unlike Mimiga Village and everything in the Labyrinth (with the exception of the Core room), which seem like they were just slapped together with whatever happened to be lying around, Egg Corridor was looks like it was designed with time and money behind it for a specific purpose, so it's not too hard to imagine it was constructed by human colonizers. It's also pretty unlikely the Demon Crown was just sitting undetected for years in the Island's most noticeable landmark, and if Minecraft has taught me anything, it's that you tend to dig up a lot of valuable stuff when trying to industrialize beneath the surface, so it's quite possible that Egg Corridor isn't the only pre-war manmade area.
As for Grasstown, yes Santa's and Chaco's homes are built similarly to those found in Mimiga Village, but I think it's possible the place was built during the war as a kind of military encampment. Considering its flora, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say it's located near an opening in the side of the Island, which would make it easier to get people/robots in and out of. Its abundance of death traps would kinda be like more lethal punji sticks (one pit even has leaves thrown over it!), and it's also got a shed filled with robots that only know how to make bombs. Besides, all those possessed graves had to have come from somewhere, and I don't see any better reason for the weird hoverbike thing to be there.

 

Damn, writing this up now makes me think Seasons' fanmade lore about EXP crystals being the possible solution.

I don't think I've heard that theory/unofficial lore before. Honestly I've never really thought much about the XP crystals, all I really thought was that it was a strange material dropped by certain creatures that certain weapons are compatible with and increase their power or something
Can you tell me about his lore on them? I'm interested on how it connects to this thread

 

It's a part of his Modcon 2017 entry, "Shipwrecked", the mod can get a bit difficult, as with most of his mods, but it has an interesting perspective about Mimigas, how EXP crystals were made,

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and on how there is a prototype version of EXP called EXO,

it's a pretty decent attempt at building the world outside of the island in Cave Story, even if it's entirely fanon.

 

Cave Story seems to take more of an approach of keeping technology and magic separate from each other, unlike other games/franchises like Undertale that intertwines them, or the Marvel Universe which regards magic as "just science we don't understand yet"

This just got me thinking of the Gwain Saga on YouTube. Guy has no magic but works with people who's magic is based on materials (basically fairy tail but there's zero filler). Main guy uses a mechanical sword and has no magic, and hair colour is supposed to represent how much magic a user has, and the main guy has none, which is represented by white hair.

[EDIT]
What about that transmogrification in Jenka's Nightmare? Completely fan canon, but it does make a point that magic and robots don't mix well since Misery says that it is harder to transmogrify robots.