[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

[Alardem]

Nice first post, Ghorgul! I actually agree with you that at least part of the Machine's goal was to create a Victorian-age nuke that would 'purify the world'. That explosion, however, would only be the harbinger of something much worse: a god born from death and destruction.

Also, if Mandus is drowned in 'Compound X', that would explain your nigh-invincibility and also justify why the Pigs would be a credible threat. After all, it allows life to linger on even after dismemberment. That could mean whoever was inside the 'Iron Lung' also owns the beating heart in the Tesla tower.

I'm not even sure Machine could bring the demolition of such scale. I think it was rather some kind of target, a threat that would concentrate the whole world on it and thus all the big events of 1900 won't happen.

Aside from it possessing a nuclear reactor whose 'atomic pile will run critical', do remember that the British Empire considered themselves the center of the world. Devastating London would crush England, and spark a world that, if not worse than our past, is at least drastically different. We don't know how much damage the Man-Pig attack was, but Mandus' self-sacrifice sure didn't reverse anything he'd already destroyed. Hell, the meaning of his name may not apply merely to himself (a once-great figure reduced to obscurity) but to the fate of England itself.

That's also not taking into consideration the interpretation that all this slaughter would only be the precursor to the chaos brought about by the summoning of whatever was inside that 'Stone Egg'.