Splatoon's lore, culture, the way their world works, theories, and myths discussion

[Enperry]

Let's face it. The world of Splatoon is confusing. This is why countless people have created countless theories for why things are the way they are - some of them having yet to be proven wrong, and some that just don't fit. This is a thread for discussing the things we mostly take for granted about the world of Splatoon, and certain story mode and other game mode lore, and anything the game doesn't tell us. There are, however, rules for this thread:

1. This is for lore and culture of Splatoon having nothing to do with meta or competitive.
2. Don't be a jerk when you prove someone's theory wrong.

Stay fresh.

 

[Cephalobro]

I always thought that the old generation Inklings and Octarians are the only ones that still make such a big deal about the Great Turf War, so it's very unfortunate that the newer generation of both species have to be thrown into a war in which neither even wanted to be part of in the first place. One theory I still remember someone else made is that the Salmonids are jealous of cephalopods being rulers of the world, so they low-key force both species into fighting, pretending to help both the Inklings (extremely low-key) with Sardinium and the Octarians with energy in order to reduce their numbers without an all out war. Basically, the theory says that the Salmonids are the cause for both cephalopods fighting each other.

 

[Sir Ngyes]

Has anybody else noticed that you never see Inkling/Octoling NPCs in Inkopolis in either of the games? I know it was hinted at in an interview posted on Squid Research Lab, but it cannot be denied as a possibility that Jellyfish greatly outnumber the rest of the population. The only exceptions I’ve seen are three of the shopkeepers, and apart from that, nearly everyone is a jellyfish.

 

[Metasepia]

What I find interesting is the fact that the Squid Sisters' leitmotif is apparently 'carved' into every Inkling's DNA. It's also interesting to note that it can significantly change the lives of those who here it. For example, when Marina came within audible hearing distance of the Squid Sisters' singing she said "This changes everything." And left Octo valley to go to Mount Nantai. This probably means that there is the same sequence of DNA in Octolings as there is in Inklings, which then raise the question. Did Inklings/Octolings have a common ancestor instead?

 

[Cephalobro]

What I find interesting is the fact that the Squid Sisters' leitmotif is apparently 'carved' into every Inkling's DNA. It's also interesting to note that it can significantly change the lives of those who here it. For example, when Marina came within audible hearing distance of the Squid Sisters' singing she said "This changes everything." And left Octo valley to go to Mount Nantai. This probably means that there is the same sequence of DNA in Octolings as there is in Inklings, which then raise the question. Did Inklings/Octolings have a common ancestor instead?

Considering Inklings and Octolings have evolved from squids and octopuses respectively and the squids themselves are related to octopuses through some kind of evolutionary path, it is very possible that Inklings and Octolings share a common ancestor.

 

[Enperry]

I always thought that the old generation Inklings and Octarians are the only ones that still make such a big deal about the Great Turf War, so it's very unfortunate that the newer generation of both species have to be thrown into a war in which neither even wanted to be part of in the first place.

Wait, was the Great Turf War I Inklings fighting against Octarians, or Octolings? The victory of the Great Turf War I is celebrated and remembered daily in Turf War - were the Inklings party and have a blast in the popular sport, so I don't see what you mean by "the newer generation of both species have to be thrown into a war in which neither even wanted to be part of in the first place" - are you talking about the Inklings vs Octolings Splatfest AKA the Great Turf War II and how Octolings fought against Inklings? 'Cause that leads back to my first question. Also, is there a less sophisticated species for the Inklings?

One theory I still remember someone else made is that the Salmonids are jealous of cephalopods being rulers of the world, so they low-key force both species into fighting, pretending to help both the Inklings (extremely low-key) with Sardinium and the Octarians with energy in order to reduce their numbers without an all out war. Basically, the theory says that the Salmonids are the cause for both cephalopods fighting each other.

This is interesting. However, not only do the Sardinium help only agent 4, but it probably was put there by Octarians implying that they were made for the Octarians, so maybe Salmonids are pro Octolings and maybe both species are teaming up so they can rule the world. How were Octarians given energy as you stated? I believe there was a Sunken Scroll stating that there was an energy crisis for them right now.

 

[Cephalobro]

Wait, was the Great Turf War I Inklings fighting against Octarians, or Octolings? The victory of the Great Turf War I is celebrated and remembered daily in Turf War - were the Inklings party and have a blast in the popular sport, so I don't see what you mean by "the newer generation of both species have to be thrown into a war in which neither even wanted to be part of in the first place" - are you talking about the Inklings vs Octolings Splatfest AKA the Great Turf War II and how Octolings fought against Inklings? 'Cause that leads back to my first question. Also, is there a less sophisticated species for the Inklings?



This is interesting. However, not only do the Sardinium help only agent 4, but it probably was put there by Octarians implying that they were made for the Octarians, so maybe Salmonids are pro Octolings and maybe both species are teaming up so they can rule the world. How were Octarians given energy as you stated? I believe there was a Sunken Scroll stating that there was an energy crisis for them right now.

The new generation of Inklings treat Turf War as a sport rather than a real war. What I mean by "war that neither wanted to be part in the first place" is the fact that an Inkling is forced to go underground to fight Octarians to get the Great Zapfish back to Inkopolis. It is said on the Splatoon 2 Artbook that Salmonids trade with the Octarians, the Salmonids receive Octarian tech while Octarians receive Power Eggs.

About the Octarians, they are brainwashed by DJ Octavio's music in order to do his bidding, the tentacle-based subspecies get brainwashed easily because they aren't as intelligent as Octolings, so eye-wear isn't required for them to do DJ Octavio's bidding, but Octolings are different, they can't be brainwashed so easily, so some kind of eye-wear is needed for the Octolings to be brainwashed. This can actually explain why Agent 3 and Agent 4 weren't brainwashed by DJ Octavio's music but as soon as Callie put on the Hypnoshades, she started helping DJ Octavio with no consent of her own.

 

[DJ Particle]

Inklings fought against Octarians of all types (including octolings) in the GTW. There are 2 photos from the past that establishes DJ Octavio himself is an octoling.

Though, both species' life expectancies have got to be insane...the GTW was over a century prior to the game's events, and both Craig and Octavio were already adults BACK THEN!

 

[Cephalobro]

Inklings fought against Octarians of all types (including octolings) in the GTW. There are 2 photos from the past that establishes DJ Octavio himself is an octoling.

Though, both species' life expectancies have got to be insane...the GTW was over a century prior to the game's events, and both Craig and Octavio were already adults BACK THEN!

This is true, it's been confirmed that Cap'n Cuttlefish is 127 in Splatoon and 130 in Splatoon 2. There's also the fact that Inklings sun-dry their bodies in order to preserve them, so I can see Octolings doing the same.

 

[Metasepia]

It's funny because current cephalopods live from anywhere from a year to 5 years depending on the species due to a massive metabolism and the fact that most species are food items for larger organisms. (Sometimes even themselves!)

 

[Enperry]

Inklings vs. Octarians and Octolings doesn't make sense. There must be a less superior or primitive Inkling species.

 

[Cephalobro]

I figured that Splatoon and Splatoon 2 (hopefully) take place at the long awaited end of the Inkling and Octarian conflict. While Inklings and Octarians start having good relations during Splatoon 2 thanks to Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish having the same goal to leave the underground, with Off the Hook and Agent 3 lending a helping hand to said escape, the Salmonids could be the new antagonistic species since Octolings are going after their Golden Eggs too, so that may have brought some bad relations between Octarians and Salmonids.

 

[Enperry]

I had an idea for this thread: from now on, we will discuss a weekly topic that changes every Saturday.

Topic 1: Superjumping

Superjumping is strange. It allows you to jump very far to a teammate in battle, but the Beacon suggests that inklings have the ability to superjump anywhere, as do certain dialogues that the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook mentioning superjumping to places. So, then, is it just a rule that you can only jump to teammates and Beacons, or just a bodily restriction? Discuss

 

[Dewnose]

It seems like the Squid Beakons emit a signal. Maybe it mimics a biological one that all Inklings (and Octolings) emit and are able to pinpoint?

 

[Cephalobro]

Don't forget about being able to Super Jump to spawn points, they seem to have something that allows Inklings and Octolings use something similar to echolocation, basically a type of wave that we cannot see but Inklings and Octolings can. Seems like it makes the decision on where to Super Jump to be easier rather than being the only spots that can be Super Jumped to, as Agent 3, Agent 4 and Agent 8 were able to Super Jump to checkpoints that were not activated. And even in a cut scene from Octo Expansion, Agent 8 can be seen Super Jumping to a spot that's otherwise a little too far away from Off The Hook, Agent 3 and Cap'n Cuttlefish, meaning Super Jumping to a non-marked spot with no one else around is possible, just hard to pinpoint the exact location which can be dangerous if miscalculated.

 

[Cephalobro]

I'm sorry in for double-posting in advance, but I feel like I have to get this off my chest as it was something that was really nagging at me for quite some time now, but I held off since I was afraid there was going to be some mean jerk saying I'm objectively wrong and bullying me because of it, but now I think it is finally time to clear up the confusion on how Octolings reproduce, and off course, both in-game and out-of-game evidence to support my claim. This is probably going to be me explaining the birds and the bees of Octolings as clean as possible, I will try my hardest at least. So here we go!

Now to begin, there's a page of the original Splatoon Artbook that states that Octarians are created by cutting off a tentacle from the host and cannot reproduce on their own. Now while this statement does explain why most Octarians appear to be severed tentacles or a mass of tentacles, it doesn't list examples of high-class Octarians, which are Octarians with more tentacles like Octobomber and Octohurler. What does this have to do with the Octoling, you might ask. Well, I believe that the "cut tentacles" are actually the other Octarians and not referring to Octolings at all. But I do believe that the Octoling is the host in which the rest of the Octarians come from. While that statement might have been true for Octolings in Splatoon 1 since all the enemy Octolings from that game look exactly the same aside from tentacle color, but it stopped being true since they indirectly confirmed that Octolings can have different skin tones when they have shown Marina.

So here is where I can draw conclusions, things that are gender, skin tone and eye color are genetics and thus, set in stone. I do believe that things that can only (keyword only) be changed in the separate options menu from clothes entirely (out of battle only) aren't part of lore and is just simply there for players' convenience, especially now that you're able to choose which species to play as, which I just can't see an Inkling just suddenly becoming an Octoling out of nowhere. My point is that Octolings can reproduce both sexually and asexually, now I won't go into detail of what they would have to do to reproduce sexually for obvious reasons. When Octolings reproduce sexually, only new Octolings are born (unless an Octoling and an Inkling reproduce instead, but we don't know if that's a possibility within canon yet), but when they reproduce asexually, only those tentacled Octarians are formed and none of them develop into Octolings (I know there's the Octo Samurai, but I'll get to him later in the theory). To sum it up with evidence, the Squid Research Lab use real world biology when it comes to the species in Splatoon i.e. Jellyfish reproduce by splitting (look up their page about Jelfonzo and you'll know what I mean) just like their real life counterparts, Salmonids prey on Inklings just like how salmon prey on squids in the real world.

Asexual reproductions that Octolings perform is based off how if you cut an octopus's tentacle, the tentacle will keep moving on its own for sometime (not a long time). This specific type of asexual reproduction is called Fragmentation (which can easily be confused with Budding if a difference is not drawn). However, real octopus reproduce sexually. Another piece of evidence is SashiMori's Octoling member, he already has all 8 tentacles and resembles a developing Inkling (as an Octoling instead), now while this could be evidence for both sides, one crucial part that no one seems to pay attention to is the Octarian lips, the Octo Samurai is actually a highly advanced tentacle that managed to have the capability of respawning, a rarity among the tentacled Octarian subspecies. So what does the Octarian lips have to do with this, you might ask. Well if we look at SashiMori's Octoling again, he is 10 years old, however when we look at something called Apoptosis, we would see that he would still have the Octarian lips if Octolings would've started as tentacles, just look at how a frog who has just come out of the tadpole stage still have the tail which is then absorbed into the body through Apoptosis, eventually losing it completely. Also, there is just no way Octolings start as tentacles if they have differing skin tones and eye colors from each other, as they would have the same exact genetic material as their hosts. To conclude, Octolings can only be born when a male and female Octoling mate, where as the other Octarians come from their severed tentacles, which the tentacles themselves cannot grow into Octolings.

Phew! That was quite a long explanation, if there are more interesting lore in the future, I hope I don't have to type as much as I did.

 

[Enperry]

*Stands up and claps* So, if this is the case, do you suppose there is a less dominant species for inklings?

I remember looking through the Grizzco Field Guide and something really caught my eye talking about Goldie Rush:

"It is claimed that the Salmonids' increased aggression is tied somehow to gravitational shifts due to the planet's celestial course, but there is still much that is unclear."

Is anyone here an astronomer? What does this mean, and is it tied to why it's mostly daytime in the Cephalopod world?

 

[BakuLinkstheSquid.I.]

Im a bit too confused to say anything, but i will do research on that

 

[BakuLinkstheSquid.I.]

*Stands up and claps* So, if this is the case, do you suppose there is a less dominant species for inklings?

I remember looking through the Grizzco Field Guide and something really caught my eye talking about Goldie Rush:

"It is claimed that the Salmonids' increased aggression is tied somehow to gravitational shifts due to the planet's celestial course, but there is still much that is unclear."

Is anyone here an astronomer? What does this mean, and is it tied to why it's mostly daytime in the Cephalopod world?

Turns out it's gravity the one that affects a planet's celestial course, not the other way around. What that text implies is that the salmonids' aggression is related to how gravity is affected by the planet's movement around the sun, and NO, it has no relation to why is it mostly daytime in that world

 

[Cephalobro]

Hmm, could be how it seems that it's always hot even in the winter, like it has never snowed in-game. Also, regarding primitive version of Inklings, Marie did mention that salted squids are considered delicacies in some places. So this either mean that there's an Inkling species that's raised on a farm to be eaten (unlikely considering the ethical concerns being even worse than hunting Salmonids for their eggs or taking power sources from the Octarians) or there are still ocean-dwelling squids living among the wildlife.