Let's Talk About: The Doors

Across the mystical island of Jorvik, there are so many questions to be asked. So many oddities and mysteries to be unraveled. One such mystery is in the form of a white door.

Four of them.

Four white, square doors leading into the ground.

I'm sure you've seen them around - one in the Hollow Woods, one on Moorland Road, one in Golden Hills, and one in Greendale. They emit tall beams of yellow light at night, and their existence has not been acknowledged, let alone explained, in the game at all.

One facebook post on April 22, 2013, claims that "those are lights for when it's dark", but does that really make a lick of sense? We have signposts for directions, and half these doors are hidden in bushes.

In March 2015 I sent Star Stable a support ticket asking if the doors had any relevance, and was told that they "cannot reveal any information about the future updates and what is going to happen in the game", effectively dispelling any idea that these doors really are just decorations.

So, with no information on them from Star Stable Entertainment AB themselves (unsurprising, because spoilers), nor any in-game mentions, let's review the doors and perhaps elaborate on what they could be.

As I've already said, there's four doors. They're large, square, white, and have some odd symbols on them. They all share a window, a strange piece of lineart that resembles a letter mashup, and a star. In particular, they each have this star symbol, and on this star is a dot. This dot is on a different point of the star on every door.

This says to me that each door is at a particular location, in a star pattern on the map. But this star has five points - we're missing the fifth door, with the dot on the point facing the symbol. So if we map out where each door is, and overlay a star outline, can we find the fifth door?

The star outline fits perfectly with the locations of the doors, and we can see that the fifth door must be in the northern valley. In the original games, this place is called Pine Hill Valley. Fun fact! This valley has Pine Hill Mansion - Mr Sands' mansion!

Now to quickly dispel some doubts - no, the final point doesn't mark the Secret Stonering. Let me show you exactly where the Stonering currently is on the map:

That said, I've heard reports that the Stonering has changed locations on this map in the past. But if we review the original Season Riders games - in particular Winter Riders, the same game that features Pine Hill Valley - we can travel to the Stonering, and it's located in roughly the same original part of the map as it is shown here.

And unfortunately, this is where the similarities to the original games in this context ends. The doors were never present in the originals.

And so unfortunately, we can't speculate further on Pine Hill Valley or the fifth door's location without attempting to glitch into that area, but we won't be doing that.

So what can we speculate on?

The reason the doors exist! Let's take a quick look at what interesting features are inside this star, and what they might relate to.

I've marked four major locations of plot significance. North Link, the Oil Fields, Silverglade Village, and Steve's Farm.

Why are these locations important, you ask?

Silverglade Village is a major location where the Pandoric rifts appear. Although the rifts started above Jasper's pumpkin farm, it is Silverglade Village which faces the first Shadowseeker infestation. In other locations, the rifts appear in single instances, but it was in the village where we faced multiple rifts at once, putting an entire village in danger. A major plot point. Something about Silverglade made it a target for these rifts to appear in bulk. Why is Silverglade Village so fragile?

The Oil Fields are where we find Mr Kembell drilling for oil, but in the oddest manner. In a normal situation, we'd assume that he's drilling for oil in order to sell it - oil is a major commodity, after all. But in this field, the oil being pumped up is not being stored. It's being dumped back onto the grass, ignored. Instead of collecting oil, we find the area is filled with bags of cement, with no apparent purpose. What is the real purpose of this oil field?

North Link is where GED is tunneling North through the mountains. It's the worksite of one GED Trainee, a personal favourite character of mine. North Link isn't entirely odd, but its location and the quest line involving the GED Trainee is curious.

Steve's Farm is... well, it'll come later.

Now, I have an idea on what these doors could be, so let me link it all together for you.

This is the GED Trainee, Conny. Back in early days, we get a quest called This Isn't North Link, in which we first meet him and discover why he's in the Baroness' wine cellar.

"Let me tell you all about it. This is how it is. Today is my first day as a trainee at G.E.D. by North Link and the first thing they did was show me their new drilling machine. Here is your new job they said, just drive it straight. Then they said good luck and walked off to drink more coffee.
"So I figured I’d better do what they tell me to… But it seems like I drove the machine a little crooked. If the boss finds out I’ll get fired right away. I’m so unlucky."

- Conny, This Isn't North Link

North Link is set to drill directly North, directly towards the fifth door. What if there's tunnels linking the five doors?

The Oil Field is just draining oil from underground, and we find that the Oil Field is on a direct line from the middle of the star toward the Golden Hills door.

Silverglade Village was under attack from Pandoric rifts and Shadowseekers, and we can see that the village is on another direct line from the middle of the star to the Moorland door.

Even more interesting is that Steve's Farm is along this same line. In a quest called The Cat Substitute, we get a strange tidbit of information thrown haphazardly into the dialogue:

"Don’t understand where the mice are coming from. On the nights I can hear strange sounds from the underground… I wonder if G.E.D. is drilling out the island of Jorvik from the inside? Now we just need something to use as bait."

- Steve, The Cat Substitute

North Link is drilling up. Steve is hearing underground drilling. The oil fields are draining the underground, and collecting cement. I believe this is strong grounds to suggest that an underground tunnel system between the doors is being built by GED.

But for what purpose?

All we can do is wonder, but I have a theory.

"You fight for the same cause as I do. Lisa persuaded me. My roots reached her in her abominable prison, she needed help, and she promised to help me."

- The Sleeping Widow, A Promise Is A Promise

Given Silverglade's Pandoric invasion, are we seeing GED tunneling into Pandoria? The rifts, and the Sleeping Widow's ability to reach her roots down into Pandoria, do make it seem like Pandoria is just under our feet.

Given the star shape, is it possible that this is turning into a summoning circle?

I would like to believe, personally, that this ties into the Light Ceremony - in particular the reverse Light Ceremony to be conducted by Dark Core. With co-operation from GED, I believe the dig itself is for Mr Sands to get closer to Pandoria to either physically reach the pink hell itself or to use its energy to fuel his ceremony and, perhaps, to raise Garnok.

But still, the map begs the question.

What exactly is at the center?