Store Page
The Talos Principle
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

The Talos Principle

Store Page
The Talos Principle > Guides > Literally //REDACTED//'s Guides
75 ratings
The lore of the Talos Principle: Simplified for your Convinience
By Literally //REDACTED//
This is a guide that spells out the lore of the Talos Principle, in case you didn't really pay attention, regret it, but don't want to play all over again, or if you just really like spoilers, as this has a ton of them.
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Created by
Literally //REDACTED//
Online
Category: Story or Lore
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
1 Jan, 2016 @ 12:51pm
12 Mar, 2022 @ 6:07pm
4,917 Unique Visitors
77 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Pre-game lore 
What happens during gameplay 
Post gameplay speculation 
Comments
Pre-game lore
Before the events of the Talos Principle, a company called the Institute of Applied Noematics started to develope a massive computer database. They had over 47 million seperate files, appilications, ect. On a global scale, however, things are not so good. A virus uncovered in the arctic spreads accross the world, destroying everything, and so the IAN starts to make "the process". The Process was ment to create a sentient being to live in humanity's place. An unspecified amount of time later, your character is created.

What happens during gameplay
During the game, you play as an unamed robot in a computer system. Elohim is trying to keep you from climbing the tower, because he has realized this simple fact: if the process ends, he dies. Elohim was created as the guide, to help the robots, but in this case doesn't want them to succeed entirely. The Milton Library Assistant, on the other hand, would love nothing more than to leave. That is why he helps you escape and also why he wants you to take him with you to the real world.
WHile you are playing, you may free messengers.
These are the followers of Elohim, his deciples if you will, who will help you once throught the game if you free them.
Post gameplay speculation
After you beat the Talos principle, one of three things happen: 1 you go to 'Heaven', and end up back at the beginning. My guess is that this is how the process continues. Lines of text scroll down the left of the screen at the end, one of which says: Child independance. If you go to heaven, it says FAILED. My guess is that if you fail the indepencance check, you just restart.
Another ending you can get is to become Elohim's messenger. Basically, you get sealed in a coffin until someone lets you out. Thats about it.
The other ending you can get is where you go to the real world. Your personality is downloaded to a robotic body, and you go off to live in the world of the humans.
You wake up in the Institute for applied nomadics, and go on your jolly way. The end.

Or is it?
in Road to Gehenna, the DLC sequel, you play as a messenger of Elohim and rescue the souls of the damned. Litterally. However, that means that the system didn't delete properly, like you are led to believe in the Talos Principle. This implies that the system had imperfections, or that someone tampered with it on the outside. I don't know if it means anything, but maybe it does. Leave a comment to say what you think.
30 Comments
< >
ArchieMaclean1313 9 Mar, 2024 @ 9:15am 
i have played the talos principle 2 and i think that the system was tampered with while it was running by a remaining human because they manage to make more robot people/new humans.
:steamhappy:
Richkiller 10 Mar, 2022 @ 11:39am 
Story explanation all good up until "Road to Gehenna". It's not neceserily something that happens after the ending cutscene but rather something that happens while the simulation was active, where Elohim had put in prison robots that defied him. It seems that when you ascend to reality in the main story, the experience of the characters' from the Road to Gehenna ascends as well (though their true destiny is unclear, if we allow speculation, the destiny could range from added experience to aid SOMA/TALOS to information to allow SOMA/TALOS to create more robots in reality).
locksheer 20 Oct, 2020 @ 9:53pm 
Not sure if someone else mentioned his but you missed a major plot point. The purpose was to create true sentience. Sentience is by the programmers defintion "is going against what you are programmed to do". Otherwise your just a robot following orders. The puzzles themselves were to ensure a base level of problem solving and intelligence on whatever program developed in the randomized created ais that got tested. So that once it proved sentience by disobeys the god of the worlds orders (elohim) it isn't just random but actually a thinking ai.

Basically Elohim is working just the way it is supposed. It is testing the AI ensure it can think for itself instead of just following the orders it is given. The snake offers opposing orders for the same reason. To test the ai.
Literally //REDACTED//  [author] 22 Feb, 2019 @ 4:13pm 
alna7el I think you're on to something. I dig it.
alna7el 20 Feb, 2019 @ 8:22pm 
-continued...


Elohim is partial AI since it is an algorithm of sorts and sent the androids to the old version -think of it as Beta world A- as a means of imprisonment, system failures lead to distortions in that part and lead Admin to discover Gehenna which could be an Alpha version of "The Process".

all I can say is "Good Game CroTeam".
alna7el 20 Feb, 2019 @ 8:21pm 
@Krag you are correct in 90% and almost got the last part too.

Gehenna is somewhat a "flawed" part of the process, much like how some easter eggs in video games are partial "garbage code". "The Process" was created using an old game engine to make use of ready-made assets as well as stability; the time limit on the lives of the developers meant they had no time to test the system in length let alone clean up the code. we might speculate that Gehenna was part of an older version of "The Process" and therefore limited even in space while in the main game the land seems to reach the horizon. the ascension process in Gehenna is designed for multiple "entities" while the challenges are set for individuals, much like if a team of devs is speculating the Agile development of the code.
Literally //REDACTED//  [author] 11 Nov, 2017 @ 8:29am 
I guess, but some people are just not good a puzzles. I have plenty of friends who are not good at them, but that does not mean they aren't sentient.
Krag 4 Oct, 2016 @ 11:58am 
And about how Gehenna was part of the dev's plan, it's just speculation but everything they've done so far worked perfectly. They managed to create a new sentient being with free-will, emotions, imagination, a search for knowledge and a taste for art with most of these born from Gehenna.
Krag 4 Oct, 2016 @ 11:58am 
They're bots that were quarantined by Elohim for not complying with Elohim, but none of them reached the top of the tower. By reading all their posts, you can tell a lot of them got stuck in the puzzles. They only developped some form of sentience after being exposed to Gehenna, which Elohim might have been monitoring every now and then, and that's how he realizes the potential of those people he banned and decides to send Uriel to retrieve them.

Elohim isn't some all powerful admin, he does a lot to makes you believe he is, but he's more of a moderator, there are some things he can do like ban people to what became Gehenna but he can't retrieve them, nor can he ban someone attempting to climb the tower. Words are his weapon.
Literally //REDACTED//  [author] 4 Oct, 2016 @ 11:11am 
Krag, I would argue against that, because all the bots in Gehenna were sentient, which was what the process was supposed to produce: sentient androids. So, if sentient androids were created BEFORE, why imprison them, rather then give them physical bodies. Answer? Elohim himself attained sentience, and is trying to keep himself alive, but decides not to grag the bots in Gehenna down with him when the time comes.