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Alright, first off, I'm just gonna point out, there's obviously gonna be spoilers for Spelunky 2 in here. Nobody plays Spelunky for the plot, of course, but this is still a new game, and a fair amount of effort went into the lore this time.
Anyway, I'm not 100% knowledgeable on the lore, but I haven't seen anyone else talk about it, so I'm just gonna put what I've seen here.
This google doc made by the Spelunky community contains every journal entry in the game.
EDIT: Whoa look at that, it embeds? That's neat
So, let's get the big stuff out of the way first. There are ground for upgrades to tier 4, possibly even tier 3 or 2.
Hou Yi's Bow: "With this simple but refined bow, Hou Yi shot down the nine suns that scorched the Earth."
This being a (somewhat secret) weapon that you can wield, but not at its full power, not until you get the
Arrow of Light: "A ray of sun reflecting off the Moon's tears."
It's not a 100% sure connection, but I believe the Moon would be Tiamat, the regular final boss of the game, and ruler of the Moon (which is what the game takes place on). Considering you get both the bow and the arrow in challenges made by Tun, a girl who's a loyal follower of Tiamat, that's not too much of a stretch.
But, that's not the only feat. If you shoot Hundun, the true final boss of the game, in the eye with the Arrow of Light, from Hou Yi's Bow, his eye will create a portal and take you to the world's most secret area, the Cosmic Ocean.
EDIT: Wow, this one embeds too? Cooool
(As you can see, there are stars in the background. Plenty of them)
Cosmic Ocean: "The roiling waters of creation that flow from Hundun's childish weeping. Here one may find the beginning and the end."
One could argue this is just a dream universe, since Hundun is called the "muddled dreamer". However, while I do agree that it is born from his mind in some way, I still think it qualifies as a parallel world, as when you kill Hundun, you unlock a character whose description states "A version of Guy Spelunky from a parallel universe made of large, flat blocks of colors.". The new enemy here is also said to warp space and time, and is impossible to defeat. More interestingly, you're turned into a constellation if you (somehow) manage to beat 7-99.
The vortex that absorbs you into the Cosmic Ocean is also the same as the one you use to leave the Duat, which is basically the afterlife (it also has stars in the background, but I'm unsure if it would scale as its ruler, Osiris, might or might not actually have created it).
Yeah, that's basically it. It's a lot to take in, and I'm unsure what exactly to take from this, but it's definitely something. Personally, I don't think there's enough for tier 2/3, but we have a lot of tier 4 stuff here. I'm also not sure whether it would scale to the spelunkers themselves, or just the weaponry they wield. They do take hits from Tiamat and Hundun, and can hurt them with other weapons, even mundane ones such as bombs or a shotgun, but I've seen stuff like this treated as an outlier.
Olmec would probably be retroactively made tier 4 as well, however that wouldn't extend to other Spelunky 1 profiles, as you're unable to directly harm him in that game, and he one-shots you. Vlad is also in both games, however he seems to have gotten a power boost between the games.
There's more minor stuff too, but I wanna get this out of the way first, as it's already a lot.
Anyway, I'm not 100% knowledgeable on the lore, but I haven't seen anyone else talk about it, so I'm just gonna put what I've seen here.
This google doc made by the Spelunky community contains every journal entry in the game.
EDIT: Whoa look at that, it embeds? That's neat
So, let's get the big stuff out of the way first. There are ground for upgrades to tier 4, possibly even tier 3 or 2.
Hou Yi's Bow: "With this simple but refined bow, Hou Yi shot down the nine suns that scorched the Earth."
This being a (somewhat secret) weapon that you can wield, but not at its full power, not until you get the
Arrow of Light: "A ray of sun reflecting off the Moon's tears."
It's not a 100% sure connection, but I believe the Moon would be Tiamat, the regular final boss of the game, and ruler of the Moon (which is what the game takes place on). Considering you get both the bow and the arrow in challenges made by Tun, a girl who's a loyal follower of Tiamat, that's not too much of a stretch.
But, that's not the only feat. If you shoot Hundun, the true final boss of the game, in the eye with the Arrow of Light, from Hou Yi's Bow, his eye will create a portal and take you to the world's most secret area, the Cosmic Ocean.
EDIT: Wow, this one embeds too? Cooool
(As you can see, there are stars in the background. Plenty of them)
Cosmic Ocean: "The roiling waters of creation that flow from Hundun's childish weeping. Here one may find the beginning and the end."
One could argue this is just a dream universe, since Hundun is called the "muddled dreamer". However, while I do agree that it is born from his mind in some way, I still think it qualifies as a parallel world, as when you kill Hundun, you unlock a character whose description states "A version of Guy Spelunky from a parallel universe made of large, flat blocks of colors.". The new enemy here is also said to warp space and time, and is impossible to defeat. More interestingly, you're turned into a constellation if you (somehow) manage to beat 7-99.
The vortex that absorbs you into the Cosmic Ocean is also the same as the one you use to leave the Duat, which is basically the afterlife (it also has stars in the background, but I'm unsure if it would scale as its ruler, Osiris, might or might not actually have created it).
Yeah, that's basically it. It's a lot to take in, and I'm unsure what exactly to take from this, but it's definitely something. Personally, I don't think there's enough for tier 2/3, but we have a lot of tier 4 stuff here. I'm also not sure whether it would scale to the spelunkers themselves, or just the weaponry they wield. They do take hits from Tiamat and Hundun, and can hurt them with other weapons, even mundane ones such as bombs or a shotgun, but I've seen stuff like this treated as an outlier.
Olmec would probably be retroactively made tier 4 as well, however that wouldn't extend to other Spelunky 1 profiles, as you're unable to directly harm him in that game, and he one-shots you. Vlad is also in both games, however he seems to have gotten a power boost between the games.
There's more minor stuff too, but I wanna get this out of the way first, as it's already a lot.
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