Why were WE taken?

[Chessrook44]

Maybe SLIGHT spoilers here but there shouldn't be much...

It's said earlier that everyone who was taken had their lives saved from something. But... what were WE being saved from? There was no imminent danger, no life-threatening disaster... a thunderstorm, sure, but that's it. So why were WE chosen to be taken?

[Floydman]

Like Myst and Riven, you are meant to put yourself into the game, not assume the identity of another person. I think the "being save from danger theme" allows people who want to escape their real lives imagine that they have been saved from them. For those of us who are happy with our lives, we can imagine that something terrible would have happened soon. Not everyone who was abducted was in immediate danger.

[BrettM]

Thunderstorms can be life threatening in the outdoors. (Especially if they happen to spawn a tornado. )

People were being taken from a wide range of times and places. Whatever was behind the abductions had some control of time and likely knew in advance which people in the past were doomed, including the newcomer. People die in wars and natural disasters and while camping in the wilderness, and sometimes the bodies are never found. Abducting a few people just before something like that happens can be done without any risk of changing history, which strikes me as a pretty clever way to go about it. Either way the person gets listed as missing and presumed dead, especially if they were caught in the middle of a firebombing or landslide or volcanic eruption or in a situation where a bear might have eaten the corpse.

I don't think it's a big stretch to imagine that something like that was in store for a protagonist who was alone in the wilderness at night during a violent thunderstorm.

[Robin]

This reminds me strongly of "Millennium" by John Varley. A book and movie.

Passengers on aircraft that are about to crash are abducted by time travelers from the future, replacing them with non-living duplicates. If you haven't seen it or read the book, I'll leave it to you to find it for yourself to find out why.

[BeigeAlert]

I'm just gonna spoiler tag my whole post just to be safe...

[Reveal] Spoiler:

Forest was about to get nuked by North Korea.

That... or it was just the decaying condition of the Earth, and whatever causes those massive sandstorms at the end. I just assumed THAT's what we're being saved from.

[Erik]

Perhaps we were the exception, perhaps the seed did not take us to be saved, but to save others.

[Reveal] Spoiler: Spoilers about game ending!

The tree had a purpose, but C.W. was hindering that with his battery plan. If C.W. had carried out his plan, then everyone would have been taken in vain, then they would have died anyway. So perhaps the seed took us to get involved so that, in the end, the natural way of things would have its course.

PS: I don't think this thread belongs in the no-spoilers section.

[Chessrook44]

PS: I don't think this thread belongs in the no-spoilers section.

Well yes, but it's also not "Hints and tips" nor is it "Technical discussion". Didn't really have many options for it...

[Hannah]

Moved the topic to the "Hints, Tips, & Spoilers" section.

[markV]

Because Cyan could not afford the digital marshmallows to make a camping simulator! I mean, sure, the Kickstarter payed for the graham crackers and the chocolate, but it just couldn't reach that last stretch goal!

[Susa'n]

We were abducted to tweak C.W.'s plan.