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Light: Where Does It Come From?


by aerita

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There has been much speculation on the topic of “the other side of Neopia”. Comics have been drawn, articles have been written, and the concept of another world has given users all across Neopia (or at least, this side) considerable food for thought.

Neopia, when looked at geographically, is very strange. It has a moon, all right, but little aliens live on it and have mining corporations. It pays no attention whatsoever to climate zones and was a huge, snowy mountain jammed next to a prehistoric plain/jungle where the inhabitants speak “ugga ugg”. It has a massive cloud floating, apparently unsupported, above the surface of Neopia…

All right, all right, I’ll get to the point. Lots of the oddities of Neopia have been explored, but a simple thing we appear to take for granted has been left untouched. I’m talking, of course, about light. Without light we would never be able to see – except for those species of pet with night-vision, of course. Yet a quick trip to the “Explore” page confirms this fact; Neopia has no sun. Yes, it may have a moon, but the light we see by has no apparent source.

Now, being the wonderful reporter that I am, I have worked out several solutions to this puzzle – well, fifteen, actually; it would have been nine but that didn’t sound as impressive as ten so I made up an extra one and then I thought of more and more and I just had to write them down and… well, you get the idea. (Don’t you?) You can decide for yourself whether they are actually likely.

1) Lamps. What with table lamps, tall lamps, themed lamps and rare lamps, it’s not surprising that many users have a lamp in every room in their Neohome – which can be up to 75 rooms. Not to mention the thousands of lamps sold in shops every day. If all of these were turned on, wouldn’t Neopia fairly glow with all the light? Not forgetting fires – these give off light too.

2) There is a Glowing Paint Brush available for those who can afford it, with a Petpet Paint Brush to match. With these pets floating around, they must give off some sort of light. And while we’re on the subject of glowing things, there are 10 “glowing” items that come up in a search and Edna’s Tower (you know, the home of the witch that steals all your NP?) glows as well. Not a lot, I’ll admit, but hey! I’m getting desperate here.

3) Faerieland. In case you hadn’t noticed, light faeries often appear to glow and a bottled faerie in your Inventory often displays “Glowing”. In addition to these facts, Faerieland is always hovering above Neopia, but there is never a shadow on Neopia’s surface…

4) Terror Mountain. The highest point in Neopia, not to mention at the top; where better to secret a light-giving device? It's obviously small, since it doesn’t show up on the World map, but a couple of clicks (Terror Mountain; Terror Mountain) and you’ll find yourself at the top of the mountain… or so it tells you. However, I am sceptical about the dark shapes behind the peaks… especially the one that’s cut off. You may tell me that they’re shadows as they match exactly the peaks in front of them, but shadows falling on air? Perhaps these shadows hold lights at their summits…

5) Seen from Kreludor, Neopia seems to glow with its own light. However, a return to the “Explore” page poses a question, and one that can be applied to many of these theories: if Neopia produces its own light, why are there shadows everywhere? All right, not everywhere, but where they are suggests that the light source is away to the left.

6) Okay, so Kreludor is on the left of Neopia, but if it itself is the source of Neopia’s light, why has it got shadows?

7) Virtupets Space Station (VSS) flashes every now and again, as no doubt many of you have noticed. But there is a problem with this theory… the light source of Neopia is, as we have already noticed, away to the left, and VSS is on the right. *everyone gasps in amazement*

8) Stars. Could the stars be the answer? Maybe the stars on the left side of Neopia shine more brightly than those on the right side. But unless the World map is very inaccurate, the stars all seem to be just as bright as each other. Hmmm… a giant super-star so far away it’s off the World map? I doubt it.

9) There are, from time to time, little space ships that zoom across the map. Maybe… just maybe… there is a colossal group of them off to the left waiting to invade, giving off light and occasionally sending out a spy to scout out the land.

10) Maybe it’s a ginormous army of Evil Fuzzles, waiting to destroy Neopia and sending out light beams from their enormous eyes, plotting and scheming-

11) Wait, if we’re getting on to enormous eyes, maybe it’s a horde of giant Faerie/Mutant/Robot-mixed Meepits, created by Sloth and hovering in space with their hideous wings, communicating by using their eye-lights in a sort of code…

12) Did someone mention Sloth? Well, if we’re going in that direction… he’s built a giant light-generating machine and is going to use it to fry us all to death, and when he’s finished he’s going to take over Neopia because nobody will be alive to stop him and and and…

13) Okay everybody, stay very calm, don’t panic and…

14) *crowds of screaming people run past her, shouting about Sloth and Mutant Faerie Robot Meepits and Evil Fuzzles taking over the world*

15) Was it something I said?

Disclaimer: The author of this article does not believe any of the above theories to be true. She is as puzzled as the rest of you by this lack of a sun and does NOT think armies of Faerie Mutant Robot Meepits sending messages by code cause our light. After all, if they did, wouldn’t the light be flickering all the time?… Wouldn’t it?!?

 
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