
The role of the narrator is not something I see discussed that often, if at all.
It's quite interesting from a lore point of view, since its a bit debatable if the narrator is a character at all. Technically they don't exist in the game world.
I'd like to offer an alternative point of view, that might make some people see the narrator in a completely new way.
I just realized that it's probably best if I shed some light on how this whole topic came about.
Six kilometers off the coast of Antarctica, there's a colony of Adélie penguins. What makes this colony in particular special is that they've evolved the ability to fly.
A BBC film crew was lucky enough to capture them migrating in 2008. The footage was later broadcast on BBC1 as part of a new show called "Miracles of Evolution".
Really makes you think, doesn't it?
What was I talking about again?
The Reset level pack was quite lore heavy. I think its time we take a deeper dive into some overlooked aspects of that pack.
Which leads us directly into...
Three seconds ago a random person walked past me mumbling something about spaghetti trees. After a quick internet search, turns out those are real! There exist actual trees that produce actual strands of spaghetti.
They can only be found in the Ticino region of Switzerland. During harvest, the spaghetti is very carefully picked from the branches of the tree, after which it is laid flat and left to dry out in the sun.
BBC Panorama did a segment on the whole process. I suggest you check it out when you get a chance.
And now that we're both on the same page...
The green cat is quite different from the other non-player cats, as many people in the community have noticed.
People appear to be under the assumption that the character is a complete mystery. That there isn't much told about them in the games.
This seems to stem from one crucial detail being overlooked.
But before going deeper into that topic, we need to take a small side tangent.
Two is probably one of my favorite numbers. So many of my own personal favorite games have the number "2" in them: Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Portal 2: Peer Review, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal 2: Sixense MotionPack, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and of course: Team Fortress 2 which Reddit actually bought from Valve back in 2013.
Or at least that's what Reddit thought. It actually went the other way around, with Valve buying Reddit by sneakily changing the documents while they distracted Reddit's legal team by having one of their employees launch a squirrel with a t-shirt cannon directly onto the meeting room window from across the street. Wild stuff.
Lesson of the day: the business world can be quite cruel. Especially towards squirrels.
Now, where was I?
Lumi (that being the name of cat you play as in both games) has some additional bits of lore that, while written down in the official internal story documents, haven't yet been revealed to the public.
Fun fact: the name "Lumi" isn't actually mentioned in the games. That knowledge is exclusive to the world outside the games. It seems fitting to continue this tradition, and reveal something more about Lumi in the same manner.
Speaking of which...
Four decades ago (or maybe a bit more), in 1978, a millionaire by the name of Dick Smith towed an iceberg into Sydney Harbour all the way from Antarctica.
His intention was to solve Sydney's water crisis by simply selling chunks from the iceberg for 10c each, much less than the modern day three dollar average price of an ice cube.
That's some next level innovation right there! Truly inspiring. I wonder what happened to the iceberg afterwards...
Going back to the topic at hand...
The abilities themselves are quite interesting from a lore perspective.
Often times they reflect what's happening in the story at that particular moment. A Better Place also differs from A Light in the Shadows by only providing the player one ability at a time.
Let's take a quick look at how that affects the story, as vice versa.
This being a great segue into...
Ten days ago I got to experience a fascinating part of computer game history.
Illuminatus, a space game made by German developers Jürgen Sternreise and Erik Dorf for the Atari ST is a true "Elite killer" in every possible way.
A couple hundred pages long "Guide to the Universe" is all you need to read to get started on your journey. The goal? Become the emperor of at least a thousand different planets.
The space combat and ship customization systems are the best I've seen, even by today's standards. If you manage to get a copy, do give the game a shot!
Sorry, that was a bit of a weird tangent. Let's get back to the topic at hand.
Even though the Companion's role and backstory was expanded upon in the Companion level pack for A Light in the Shadows, the gray square still has some undiscovered secrets.
One thing I haven't seen people discuss at all, is the four-cornered shape of the character. It actually holds quite a bit of significance.
And that's time! The train is just now arriving at the station.
Hopefully these explanations shed some light onto the more obscure aspects of the story and answered at least some of the questions you might have had.
I think I did quite well with regards to staying on topic, if I do say so myself.
Keep in mind that the 10th anniversary celebrations will continue for the rest of the year. And there's plenty more stuff in store! Make sure to stay tuned on our socials and keep checking the 10th anniversary page for all the latest updates.
See ya!
- Dev

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