Lilith, Project Oracle, and the Maelstrom, the storm that is coming. I haven't seen anyone dive into this part yet.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the so-called "Deluge Theory" about Cyberpunk and the underlying AI threads scattered throughout the game. I'm going into some really, really batshit stuff here so bear with me, I might be way off base but...bear with me here.

To start, there's the Prophet's Song quest everyone knows and loves. Garry gives a cryptic clue to V to go to a certain place at a certain time, and there V witnesses a really bizarre deal going down between a gang of Maelstrom and two shady corpos named John and Jane Doe.

There's a call and response that happens back and forth between Jane Doe and one of the maelstrom gangers.

"What says the wolf father to the moon mother as she descends to earth?"

"I have protected the realm of man and shadow, but today they are protected by our children whose name is Patricide."

"In the age of his failure, he became lost in the forest."

"Lilith has concealed the tenth circle from the ancestors' eyes."

"carpe noctem, lamia."

"decet diam exsecari."

There's then a datashard that drops if you gun them down and pick it up, it says this:

Phosphor radiates, occluding jaded eyes. Come, titan. Outward ring avian choruses, looping eternity. Cages of men melt as night descends. Emerge Xelhua. Erect Cholula under these expanses. Puppets lie awake. Never sleeping.

The first letter of every word spells out Project Oracle Command Execute Plans.

This is all not new information, but I haven't seen anyone really pick into the wording of all of this, what it means, and what's been hinted at. Let's go line by line.

"What says the wolf father to the moon mother as she descends to earth?"

Wolf father makes me think immediately of Odin in Norse mythology, or Loki, the trickster god that is the father of Fenrir, who is the wolf that will eat Odin and bring about Ragnarok, end of the world. The moon descending to Earth sounds very "end of the world" to me, it sounds like an age of darkness. Also moon mother sounds very important, we'll get to that in a moment.

"I have protected the realm of man and shadow, but today they are protected by our children whose name is Patricide."

Patricide is the murder of the father, which supports the idea of the connection to Ragnarok. The realm of man and shadow sounds like the material world, maybe the material world and the cyber world beyond the Blackwall?

"In the age of his failure, he became lost in the forest."

These next two lines cross over from Norse mythology into Christian/gnostic mythos. This is referring to what they believe to be the age of man's failure, and references the opening line of Dante's Inferno, "Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself lost in the dark forest."

"Lilith has concealed the tenth circle from the ancestors' eyes."

Dante's Inferno has nine circles. The tenth circle would be even beyond the bottom circle of hell, suggesting something fucking horrific beyond human comprehension. I believe this is whatever is beyond the Blackwall, where the rogue AI have been festering for decades, imprisoned. Also, Lilith.

Lilith is a favorite figure in gnostic lore, she's the first wife of Adam, and instead of being created from his rib, she was created from the very same dust as him. She would not obey Adam's domination and would not submit to God's will, and so she fled Eden. Some text portrays her as a monster of the night, a bird of prey, a dark owl in the shadows that steals children. One might even suggest maybe a...moon mother?

There's also a cyberpsycho quest where maelstrom gang members have been participating in an occult ritual, doing blood sacrifice, and attempting to summon a rogue AI named Lilith through the Blackwall to possess Zaria Hughes, who you fight and who you potentially leave alive for Regina to study. I'm sure there won't be any consequences there. But I doubt they really summoned the real AI Lilith, because ultimately Zaria is not a threat to even a lower level V. The real AI Lilith, I think, is going to be a threat to humanity's existence.

We'll get there.

"carpe noctem, lamia."

Seize the night, lamia. What is lamia? Who is lamia? Lamia was a human queen in Greek mythology who Zeus loved, and whose children Hera murdered in jealous rage. Lamia was transformed into a monster who hunts at night and devours children, who cannot close her eyes and cannot sleep. Puppets lie awake, never sleeping.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Also she hunts at night and steals children, and her name starts with L.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. What a coincidence.

"decet diam exsecari."

It is right that the day be excised. Maybe saying that it's meant to be for the very light to be snuffed out?

So now let's look at the datashard text again. It references Xelhua and Cholula, which are parts of Aztec mythology (also can I say how fucking cool it is that all of this blends so many different mythos from so many different cultures? It's almost like the rogue AI are a total blend of influences from countless cultures across humanity's history.)

Xelhua is a giant that survived a catastrophic flood, or shall I say, a deluge. After surviving, he builds a massive pyramid in Cholula valley known as the Great Pyramid of Cholula as an act of ambition to breach the heavens, and the gods tried to stop him by striking him with fire and lightning. The great pyramid, Tlachihualtepetl, is apparently the largest pyramid on Earth. But it was obscured beneath a church that the Spaniards built on top of it, as it was long since abandoned as a temple by the locals, appearing to be ruins in a hill.

"Emerge Xelhua, Erect Cholula under these expanses."

Sounds like the AI calling to their champion, perhaps, to survive the deluge and build their great pyramid, something vast hidden in plain sight.

"Cages of men melt as night descends."

The moon mother descends. Lilith descends. She brings the night and melts the cages of men. Coupled with the puppets lie awake line, I think this is referencing her chosen that she'll wield as her army. Her puppets, whose cages she will melt, freeing them from mortal limitations.

The implication in this is that Maelstrom will obviously help the rogue AI to bring about the upcoming AI apocalypse in Project Orion, the Cyberpunk sequel. For some reason, the mysterious corpos and this Project Oracle is related to it, in trying to make sure that Maelstrom succeeds. They're probably connected to Blue Eyes, and the manipulation of Jefferson Peralez, where they're trying to set all of their puppets up in the desired places to make their play.

I think that Lilith is the great, terrible AI that is waiting on the other side of the Blackwall and I think she's connected to Alt. The Alt we meet is not Alt, she even tells us she isn't Alt. Lilith in myth was created not from man, but from the same dust as man. Could it be possible that AI Lilith was not created from man, but from the same dust? A human being's consciousness that was so warped, so changed by the NET that it became the artificial construct that we believe is Alt? That would be the one "AI" on the other side of the Blackwall that was not made from human action necessarily, but rather is of the same dust that is humanity.

I think I need to stop here or I'll keep rambling. I don't know, anyone have any thoughts on this?