The comparision between Iterators and Void Worms can be inferred in so many ways:
Artificial godlike entitities and Natural godlike entities
Halos surrounding them
Constellation projections inside their superstructure and the fact Void Worms are compared to stars in one pearl dialogue
One is at the top of the world and the other is at the very bottom of it
One trying to solve the big problem while other might be the very cause of it
Both help you in your journey
"Stargazer" and "Big Open" sharing a leitmotif
But everything boils down to one thing...
Eyeliner :3
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Void Worms as the Demiurge and Iterator Inverses (And also clearing up some things about the Qualia post)
So, I'm going to be going a bit more in depth on the Yaldaboath-Void Worm comparison I brought up in my previous post. Here's the post for anyone who didn't see it already:
I also just wanted to expand upon some things and maybe clear up some confusing parts that I didn't cover in the original post.
But first I'll give a quick explanation on what Yaldaboath (who I'll just be calling the Demiurge from now on) is before drawing the comparisons. The Demiurge is a being in Gnostic belief that created the material world. He is often identified as the god of the Old Testament, and is malicious and inferior to the True God called the Monad, who is above all else.
Of course this is very simplified and I'm leaving a lot out, but what you should take out of this is that he created the material world.
So back to void worms, they heavily resemble the Demiurge in a few ways. Visually, they both share a long, serpent-like body, and glowing "halos".
But beyond that, they indirectly share a few celestial motifs. The Demiurge gave birth to Archons who ruled over different, "celestial spheres." Celestial spheres are a concept in Rain World cosmology, as it's mentioned in the Deep Pink pearl.
"On regards of the (by spiritual splendor eternally graced) people of the Congregation of Never Dwindling Righteousness, we Wish to congratulate (o so thankfully) this Facility on its Loyal and Relished services, and to Offer our Hopes and Aspirations that the Fruitful and Mutually Satisfactory Cooperation may continue, for as long as the Stars stay fixed on their Celestial Spheres and/or the Cooperation continues to be Fruitful and Mutually Satisfactory."
But, even beyond that, they straight up appear visually in the depths through Guardian Halos.
And then Gnostic celestial spheres for comparison.
Void Worms are also described as "stars" within ancient dreams and our own.
Now, this is only a tangential relation to the Guardians who also reside in the Depths, but there is one more thing that I believe cement the Void Worm Demiurge theory that is much, much bigger in the context of Rain Worlds narrative.
Void Worms have a lot of iterator parallels, which lead me and others to believe that they act as a direct inverse to Iterators. Iterators usher beings to ascend past their mortal confines, and Void Worms trap beings in the material world like the Demiurge.
The first of which are just some design similarities between the two. They both have round heads with bug-like eyes, and they both have halos.
Next, the scenes in which we see iterators and the void sea are very reminiscent of each other. There are thousands of iterators above, and thousands of void worms below.
Void worms have 8 arms/tentacles, iterators cans have 8 legs.
But probably the most striking piece of evidence for this parallel is the music that plays atop the Wall and in the Void Sea. They share the same musical motif.
And, as a quick fun side note:
It's pretty common knowledge at this point that Void Worm skin is corn, but whats less common knowledge is that it's also made of fractal patterns and neurons.
Basically I think all this points to Void Worms being iterator inverses and working like the Demiurge, manifesting the material world and trapping beings within it.
Now, just to clear up some things about my previous post. I don't think the rot itself is made from the ancients' mutated brain matter, but rather the method in which both cabinet beasts and the rot are made are similar. They're both made by taking neural matter, (Five Pebbles's brain in the case of the rot and the Ancients' in the case of cabinet beasts) and mutating it into something else. Its more just a conceptual comparison than evidence the two are related.
Second is more about personal interpretation, but I don't really think that each Void Worm we see is manifesting it's own world. All together they act as the concept of the Demiurge, manifesting one universe. Perhaps they're not even conscious about it, and experience a divine realm similar to us while they swim around aimlessly in the Void Sea.
And finally, adding onto my last point, that's why I don't think the parallels give a lot of insight into how the cycles work, other than that by entrapping creatures in the physical world those creatures are also subjected to the cycle. I have my own cycle theory that I believe works a bit better that I might post later. But yeah I just wanted to clear that stuff up.
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