Encyclopedia MOTHER: Desert Ruins

To Encyclopedia MOTHER contents

[1989: pp. 84–86]

[2003: pp. 88–90]

15. DESERT RUINS

• Total Area: 13,986 m² (about 8.7 mi²) (2 Basement Floors)
• Estimated Construction Era: Around AD 1000
• Animal Inhabitants: 15 Monkeys, 1 Penguin

[Photo: Monte Albán ruins in Oaxaca, Mexico. Caption below:]

▲Take those terraced walls (the kind that give off Mayan vibes) and make a few block-divisions out of them, and you have yourself a maze.

[Jump links coming soon.]

Desert Ruins

The Ruins: Underground

Desert Ruins Map

The Ruins: Underground (Exit)

Thoughts from Shuugorou Isaki

EVENT CHECK POINT

Desert Ruins

There is, of course, no need to worry about

a visitor admission fee at forgotten ruins

Not two years had passed after the discovery of the ruins by the Air Force pilots before some of them, fed up with nothing turning up they could loot, sold the existence of the ruins as top-secret information to the archeological research departments at famous universities around the world. Oxford, Yale, Moscow, Cairo: the results were that each school organized excavation teams and, one after another, set their sights on this land.

However, it's a strange thing, but there wasn't a single artifact to be dug out of the ruins, apart from the stone-built remnants that were already there. Because of this, the inquiry reports amounted to hazy, half-baked theories, the various countries conflicting each other. One theory said there had been a war between Mayan tribes, in which one tribe was defeated and escaped to the north, building up a kingdom in this land. Another theory stated that in AD 1000, there had been a faction of Christians who broke off as heretics and, believing that Christ's Second Coming was going to occur in this desert, migrated here and built up a sacred land for the kingdom that would be. The cherry on top was the sudden butting-in of an idea that the ruins were an Earth exploration base for aliens.

Disputes broke out over the jumble of theories, but not one landed a winning blow. Without a single explanation for the lack of artifacts — whether it was due to the pilots having ransacked the place, or due to ransackers who came before them, or an incident that occurred back when this civilization died out — the debates came to an unresolved end. 

Before long, the ruins were forgotten about, without even receiving a name. Of course, no record survives of any enormous reward the pilots may have received. But one thing does just barely survive in the records people made: the fact of a curious consistency. All of the report documents had claimed that the ruins were built around AD 1000.

The forgotten ruins only get a few tourists every year. Naturally, there's no visitor admission fee. But in recent years, reports have been presented in magazines, reports from UFO researchers who've heard rumors of mysterious, luminous objects being spotted around the ruins.

[Photo: A close-up on a wall in the Monte Albán ruins.¹]

▲The paintings and patterns divided by the outer wall have yet to be deciphered.

The Ruins: Underground

One step beneath the violent sandstorms,

it's still the year 1000

The ruins are enclosed by a mazelike outer wall about 60 meters [about 197 feet] in length on each of its four sides. Enduring the violent sand blizzards, and bearing the solemnity etched into it around the year 1000, the ruins will welcome you in. Follow the outer wall and go inside, and you'll be confronted with five block-divisions, separated by terraced stone walls. If you walk along the walls, which were left unrestored and half-buried in sand, you'll hit the north block, with its beautiful stone paving swept clean by the wind. In the dead center of this paving is a terraced altar, signifying the heart of the ruins. This is it — the entrance to the ruins' underground section.

Go down the decaying wooden ladder into the underground, and the first thing you'll probably do is gawk at the enormous space you've just entered. And, as if everything you'd known a few seconds earlier had been a lie, you get to have the experience, in the crystal-clear air that breathes comfortably on your clammy skin, of an instant time warp to another world.

And it hits you — these were enormous underground ruins. As if the crumbling outer walls back up on the surface have reverted in an instant to how they were in the year 1000, these picturesque stone walls go on forever. This is a giant maze. The size of the first basement floor is about equal to that of the ruins on the surface. And in the maze's furthest-in room is an altar leading down a passageway to the second basement floor. The size of that floor is nearly double that of the first.

The old academic research teams never reported on anything past this point. What could the original purpose have been in making a giant maze like this one underground? The disputes between all the schools' excavation teams had started with such a basic question. And yet, by the layered structure, in one theory they couldn't help but imagine the ruins widening out to a third basement floor and a fourth, and then on forever, in the form of an underground pyramid. Another theory stated that a giant pyramid had been buried by the sand, and that the tip of the iceberg was all that was now exposed above the surface.

They continued excavating patiently toward a third and fourth basement floor, but immediately below the second was a giant stone made up of a large rock deformation, and they had no choice but to give up digging any further. Whatever the case may be, these forgotten ruins are shrouded in a colossal mystery.

By the way, the monkeys who live in the underground ruins are said to be the descendants of the beloved pet of Professor Tompkin and his wife, from Oxford's research team. As a way of getting back at people for leaving them in this basement, they apparently have a habit of lying when they see a human.

As for the lone penguin that got mixed up in this crowd, it seems to be the lost luggage of a penguinist from Asia², who came here on a whim.

[Photo: More of the Monte Albán ruins.³]

▲There is an entrance to the underground on the altar in the north block of the surface-level ruins.

DESERT RUINS MAP

B1

B2

[Photo: Possibly Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortuga's National Park.⁴]

▲The corridors of the underground maze just stand there, nice and neat, as if you've gone through a time warp to the year 1000.

The Ruins: Underground (Exit)

Come out of the giant underground maze,

and there's an unexplored exit

In the second basement floor's maze, in the furthest-in room, is, as you might guess, an altar just like the one on the first floor. To this day, there is no documented evidence of anyone coming back after they've set foot beyond this point. If you happen to discover a third level down below, you may go down in the history books as the discoverer of the century. Nah... the way you are now, a desire for fame means nothing to you. ...

- Maji Kanto

真面完人

My Betting-Tickets Often Win when I've Played MOTHER the Day Before

Shuugorou Isaki

井崎脩五郎

Author,

Horse Race Commentator

My betting-tickets often win when I've tackled MOTHER the day before. It's a kind of pattern I've discovered. I'm watchful and attentive when I consider getting a ticket, telling myself I won't fall for this anymore, but it seems to work like a charm. Privately I call this the "MOTHER Effect".

(N) C B (L) Rudolph (A) Tamami (T) Merry Nice (F) Carrots

EVENT CHECK POINT

Once inside the tank, head for the ruins entrance.

In the face-off with R-7037, the robot at the entrance, if you keep choosing FIGHT like it's going out of style, it'll end in a draw and you're good to gain entry.

When you enter the underground section of the ruins, gather information from the strange monkeys. Inside the ruins is a mysterious pink boulder just like the one in the cave northeast of Mother's Day, and if you try Telepathy on it, you can warp to Magicant.

[Screenshot: Fighting R-7037. Caption below:]

▲R-7037's attacks will bounce right off the tank. Just attack it.

 

[Screenshot dialogue box and caption:]

Something is speaking into

Ninten's mind.

▲It'll work if you use Telepathy. You don't need the Great-Grandfather's Diary.

Area's Main Enemy:

R-7037

❏ Did you defeat R-7037 and get inside the ruins?

❏ Did you warp to Magicant from the ruins?

¹ I had suspicions that this too was taken in Monte Albán. This was confirmed by Biozilla, although he couldn't pinpoint which building this is exactly.

² This "penguinist from Asia" is most likely Shigesato Itoi himself. In 1980 he released an album called Penguinism, and he calls himself a "penguinist".

³ Again my suspicions here were confirmed by Biozilla.

⁴ This was the result that came up from my reverse-image search, but it turns out there are other possibilities. As Biozilla writes:  I initially thought the photo for the underground was taken at Fort Jefferson, but it could be any of the numerous forts built after the War of 1812 to defend the southeast coast. Google Images suggest Forts Massachusetts, Sumter, and Zachary Taylor, just to name a few.

To Encyclopedia MOTHER contents