Mannequin Expanse
The Mannequin Expanse is a location inside the residence of The Great Runas that appears in Temptation Stairway.
Description
The first section is a small hall with a green floor, gray walls, rows of pillars, and a single window showcasing a design similar to The Great Runas's eyes with white birds flying outside. In the center of the hall is a rectangular hole filled with Holy code, a water-like substance that is similar to computer code. This hole is also mirrored on the hall's ceiling.
The second section is a large building consisting of grid-like green pathways with bowing Mannequins appearing at every instance where a path intersects. At the sides of the paths are pits with walls decorated with a black background and a blue eye-like pattern. The walls and interior of the building are gray.
Outside of the area are more winding green paths with large cat-shaped doorways. The sky is similar to a sunset, and pillars surround the green trails, while the exterior of the large building housing the Mannequins can also be seen. One of the cat-shaped doorways leads to the Desert.
Story
When Ena enters the first section through the Stairway Void, she investigates the hall before encountering Ulysses. While talking, Ena informs Ulysses that she is out to win a bet against Moony, to which Ulysses directs her to the Holy code behind her, eventually leading her to the Hourglass Meadow. However, they warn her that "desires are never fulfilled nor quenched" and she will fail her journey just like "the rest of them".
Ena enters the second section after going through a door located in the Holy code ocean in Hourglass Meadow. There, she encounters a large rotating banana before suddenly being approached by Mariya and Gabo, two characters who reside inside the Mannequin Expanse. Mariya asks for identification as they are given the Blood ID. Despite Mariya's anger, Ena tells the two they are living a lie, prompting the two to allow Ena to pass through a suddenly appearing doorway.
Gallery
Concepts of different areas including the Mannequin Expanse, Hourglass Meadow, the Desert, and the Dead God Graveyard.
Concept art of the Stairway Void and Ulysses's room originally exclusive to Joel's Patreon. Publicly revealed in a Twitch stream.
Ditto for Mariya and Gabo's room + the exterior.
A look down the pits in the second Mannequin Expanse section.
Below the second Mannequin Expanse section.
The alternate left path outside of the second Mannequin Expanse section.
Cover featuring a bowing Mannequin in the Mannequin Expanse. Used for the cover of "Mannequin Expanse" on Oliver Buckland's SoundCloud.
Trivia
- The pattern that appears before Ena enters the second Mannequin Expanse area is a Data Matrix code, encoding the phrase "FORGET YOUR PAST".
- This message is also the name of an Easter egg found on Joelgc.com. Additionally, the icon used for the Easter egg is the same Data Matrix pattern seen in the Mannequin Expanse.
Cultural references and inspirations
- The hall in which Ena meets Ulysses and the paths with blue eye-like patterns decorating them resemble the environment in Microsoft Office 95's "Hall of Tortured Souls" Easter egg. This Easter egg, unlocked through specific commands in Excel, opens a small window showing a traversable first-person 3D world. In it, the user can see scrolling text crediting the developers of Office 95, as well as a few photos of them. The area in which the user spawns is strikingly similar to Ulysses's hall, and, through the use of another command, a pathway opens that is very visually similar to the Mannequin Expanse's pathways. The wall texture used for both areas is also nearly identical to the texture of some of the walls used in the Easter egg.[1]
- The window inside the first Mannequin Expanse section has similarities to the TempleOS operating system logo screen. Both the logo and the window depict a light blue background with flying white birds. The yellow design of The Great Runas's eyes on the window also bears a similar yellow pixelated style used for the sword and scale on the TempleOS logo.
- The cat gates eventually leading to the Desert were inspired by a dream that Joel Guerra had.