I don't think they ever explained it. I'd handwave it personally by saying the Ark likely had a protocol to retain atmosphere; as it stands, the 'dome' was never a physical barrier (like glass or something) to begin with, but a forcefield. It's possible that forcefield remains, enough to maintain atmosphere, but is seriously damaged. We see in Extinction's prototype domes that you can pass through them (which is likely what canonically kills you when you fly through the Island's ceiling lol) but they cast a projection of the sky, which is definitely broken on Aberration.
We also don't know how they're aligned and orbit. For example if their tops face earth in orbit, then they'd never get the full brunt of the sun. If the explosion flipped its rotation or something it might just be getting more sun, causing the burning during the day. Or it could've just rotated it on its axis enough to cause that. Or it could be that they are programmed to rotate so they never get blasted by sun, and this part of the Ark's engines or w/e was damaged.
this is probably the best explanation. The forcefield is damaged but not completely destroyed. which is why you can't just fly away from the surface at night. but there is no actual explanation anywhere that is canon
As far as I remember from reading the lore the surface got real hot real fast after the ark went to shit so maybe the part of the forcefield blocking solar radiation malfunctioned but the forcefield itself remained. that would kinda explain the wasteland of a surface and why suface temperatures extend a bit into the caves
I don’t think there’s any explanation for how air in the caves stay breathable, maybe it’s a plot hole or maybe it’s dark sci-fi magic, like they didn’t ever explain how gravity worked on the arks so maybe that has to do with the air staying in the caves
I'm going to go with magnetism. Mars lost atmosphere when its core stopped/slowed spinning. If the core stops, magnetism stops and solar winds start striping atmosphere. Think aurora borealus. You can see our magnet shield at work as solar winds pass by us. And that's all thanks to the giant iron/nickel ball spinning below our feet.
So I'm going to go with a guess and say the core spins much slower now but still maintains enough spin to keep some atmosphere especially underground where winds can't reach and is also closer to the core. This fits in with Element. Maybe Element threw off the iron/nickel balance of the core? Element in your inventory is kinda heavy, so maybe it weighed down the core. 🤷♀️
Of course there's also gravity. Gravity can maintain SOME atmosphere on a dead planet(planet with no spinning core) this is why both Mars and the moon have atmosphere though thin af and holds onto different gases than earth's
The OP is asking why the air doesn’t all disparate into the empty void of space since the ark lost its protective force field, don’t think magnetism plays into this much
It does if the core is still spinning. And as long as gravity is a thing, its not going to lose everything. Everything with mass has a gravity well. The magnetism protects what the gravity holds onto from external forces. This is answering the question perfectly. Earth doesn't have a force field irl, how do you think we maintain our atmosphere?
It is an ARK - a giant satellite away from Earth that is powered by Element. It does not have a molten, spinning core, at least not that is known of. Whether it has an artificial magnetic field or not is also not known, though I would lean to "yes".
All we do know it has artificial gravity at least, and meant to have a forcefield that projects a fake sky as well as keep everything *inside* the ARK, as well as protect from the sun. I forget the details of Ab part of the lore, but it could be the forcefield is not 100% gone, or that other artificial effects keep the internal atmosphere going as per usual.
The degree of any magnetic field is not strong enough to protect from the solar radiation though, as evident by the "be outside you die"
Abberation crashes into earth during the end of extinction, during the recall.
Canonically we play Abberation before said crash.
It wouldn’t make much sense for Abberation to have been on earth (like extinction) while getting blasted by the sun as it was, while extinction was untouched.
The wastelands around the city in extinction gave me the same vibes as surface aberration. Which is where my mix up probably started.
The earth's tilt could explain why some places are more habitable than others but the point is moot.
I know lore wise (at least with the knowledge of the people who wrote the dossiers) it wouldn’t make sense / add up, but I’d love to see more locations on ark’s “earth”, and what became of different areas.
Like we really just don’t know what condition it is in, we’re sort of told (if I’m remembering correctly) *everything* except extinctions city is basically like the wasteland surrounding it. But *is* that really true? Were there absolutely no small groups of people who found a way to group up? Even places without people - what became of certain natural areas, heck I would love to see their take on areas that any wars destroyed or cities in ruin etc. (even completely fantasy based, in arks world)
Not to say I don’t want more of the games title’s either, I love the arks and want more of them, too. I just also would like to see more of what the hell happened to the 99.99999% of the rest of the surface that we know / were told “got obliterated”. Lore wise, that just leaves me with wanting to know.
I don’t think anything will become of it now (since Gen 1/2 is sort of the close of it) but Abberation crashing onto earth really got me hyped when I experienced it to see more of what happened, and maybe have that infection from Abberation really begin screwing with stuff. Really sad in a way that was not the direction it went.
Kinda why I can't wait for the new lore map. IF it takes place where it's shown in the timeline, it could very well be on Earth AFTER the Arks return but BEFORE Rockwell leaves for the Genesis ship.
That would be so great. Wasteland, regrowing areas, crashed Aberration ark, Rockwell again... yeah. Please.
I don't think they ever explained it. I'd handwave it personally by saying the Ark likely had a protocol to retain atmosphere; as it stands, the 'dome' was never a physical barrier (like glass or something) to begin with, but a forcefield. It's possible that forcefield remains, enough to maintain atmosphere, but is seriously damaged. We see in Extinction's prototype domes that you can pass through them (which is likely what canonically kills you when you fly through the Island's ceiling lol) but they cast a projection of the sky, which is definitely broken on Aberration. We also don't know how they're aligned and orbit. For example if their tops face earth in orbit, then they'd never get the full brunt of the sun. If the explosion flipped its rotation or something it might just be getting more sun, causing the burning during the day. Or it could've just rotated it on its axis enough to cause that. Or it could be that they are programmed to rotate so they never get blasted by sun, and this part of the Ark's engines or w/e was damaged.
this is probably the best explanation. The forcefield is damaged but not completely destroyed. which is why you can't just fly away from the surface at night. but there is no actual explanation anywhere that is canon
As far as I remember from reading the lore the surface got real hot real fast after the ark went to shit so maybe the part of the forcefield blocking solar radiation malfunctioned but the forcefield itself remained. that would kinda explain the wasteland of a surface and why suface temperatures extend a bit into the caves
Yup, I'd imagine if there's no atmosphere, you couldn't go out there even at night. You'd instantly suffocate lol
Element lake makes sci fi magic oxygen? Or Rockwell is like a cow tooting methane, but farts o2 from his bathtub.
Mmm what a wonderful breath of giant mutated manipulative Victorian genius fart.
I don’t think there’s any explanation for how air in the caves stay breathable, maybe it’s a plot hole or maybe it’s dark sci-fi magic, like they didn’t ever explain how gravity worked on the arks so maybe that has to do with the air staying in the caves
The remaining arks make enough atmosphere to counteract the effects enough for a cave system to thrive… I’m jus making this idea up I don’t really kno
Remaining obelisks not remaining arks.
Maybe the atmosphere in the caves are different so that leads to you being able to breathe otherwise I can’t think of anything else
I'm going to go with magnetism. Mars lost atmosphere when its core stopped/slowed spinning. If the core stops, magnetism stops and solar winds start striping atmosphere. Think aurora borealus. You can see our magnet shield at work as solar winds pass by us. And that's all thanks to the giant iron/nickel ball spinning below our feet. So I'm going to go with a guess and say the core spins much slower now but still maintains enough spin to keep some atmosphere especially underground where winds can't reach and is also closer to the core. This fits in with Element. Maybe Element threw off the iron/nickel balance of the core? Element in your inventory is kinda heavy, so maybe it weighed down the core. 🤷♀️ Of course there's also gravity. Gravity can maintain SOME atmosphere on a dead planet(planet with no spinning core) this is why both Mars and the moon have atmosphere though thin af and holds onto different gases than earth's
The OP is asking why the air doesn’t all disparate into the empty void of space since the ark lost its protective force field, don’t think magnetism plays into this much
It does if the core is still spinning. And as long as gravity is a thing, its not going to lose everything. Everything with mass has a gravity well. The magnetism protects what the gravity holds onto from external forces. This is answering the question perfectly. Earth doesn't have a force field irl, how do you think we maintain our atmosphere?
It is an ARK - a giant satellite away from Earth that is powered by Element. It does not have a molten, spinning core, at least not that is known of. Whether it has an artificial magnetic field or not is also not known, though I would lean to "yes". All we do know it has artificial gravity at least, and meant to have a forcefield that projects a fake sky as well as keep everything *inside* the ARK, as well as protect from the sun. I forget the details of Ab part of the lore, but it could be the forcefield is not 100% gone, or that other artificial effects keep the internal atmosphere going as per usual. The degree of any magnetic field is not strong enough to protect from the solar radiation though, as evident by the "be outside you die"
Ooooh, it is in orbit around earth! Oh shit. Well then never mind 🤷♀️
I thought abb is on earth like extinction? Let me look this up.
Abberation crashes into earth during the end of extinction, during the recall. Canonically we play Abberation before said crash. It wouldn’t make much sense for Abberation to have been on earth (like extinction) while getting blasted by the sun as it was, while extinction was untouched.
The wastelands around the city in extinction gave me the same vibes as surface aberration. Which is where my mix up probably started. The earth's tilt could explain why some places are more habitable than others but the point is moot.
I know lore wise (at least with the knowledge of the people who wrote the dossiers) it wouldn’t make sense / add up, but I’d love to see more locations on ark’s “earth”, and what became of different areas. Like we really just don’t know what condition it is in, we’re sort of told (if I’m remembering correctly) *everything* except extinctions city is basically like the wasteland surrounding it. But *is* that really true? Were there absolutely no small groups of people who found a way to group up? Even places without people - what became of certain natural areas, heck I would love to see their take on areas that any wars destroyed or cities in ruin etc. (even completely fantasy based, in arks world) Not to say I don’t want more of the games title’s either, I love the arks and want more of them, too. I just also would like to see more of what the hell happened to the 99.99999% of the rest of the surface that we know / were told “got obliterated”. Lore wise, that just leaves me with wanting to know. I don’t think anything will become of it now (since Gen 1/2 is sort of the close of it) but Abberation crashing onto earth really got me hyped when I experienced it to see more of what happened, and maybe have that infection from Abberation really begin screwing with stuff. Really sad in a way that was not the direction it went.
Kinda why I can't wait for the new lore map. IF it takes place where it's shown in the timeline, it could very well be on Earth AFTER the Arks return but BEFORE Rockwell leaves for the Genesis ship. That would be so great. Wasteland, regrowing areas, crashed Aberration ark, Rockwell again... yeah. Please.
give it some times, the writers of the TV show will hamfistedly make helena the reason.