I'm only providing the possibility because OIAL (Caribdis' past game) and this game share the same setting and it's revealed in one of the endings of that game that the BBEG, Astaroth, knows about Calypso's existence. Even if we don't take that as fact the hints in this game is strongly suggesting that Astaroth is a native of Eternum, and that fucker managed to find his way into the Physical/Material Plane. So if he could do it (and even sire a kid which turns out to be the player character of OIAL), then who's to say that Calypso couldn't in the future?
Again, it could be that Exit Portals only work for Player Avatars, not natives of Eternum. It's possible that it's designed that way to prevent, say, any sort of native from accidentally touching them and getting transported to the Physical/Material Plane. That, or natives couldn't use them because Exit Portals connect the Player Avatar to their respective bodies once they exit Eternum...and you can't use them if you don't have a corresponding body to go back to on the other side (which could be an explanation to the question of "why couldn't non-native NPCs/the Syndicate use them if they're actually former players/dead people" if, say, the theory about NPCs or the Syndicate is true).
Again, this could be explained with the Syndicate just trying to recruit Orion (that being us, as the player, remember we're seeing what Orion is seeing from his POV) into their cause. Possible explanations range from his perfect compatibility rating being the cause, or he's some sort of chosen one, or just random happenstance, take your pick.
"So it's hard to see the vision abd nightmares as related to them." Have you forgotten the revelation from those Space Station audio logs that Eternum could be accessed through dreams? I mean, if that's the case, then that just makes it easier for the Syndicate to communicate with Orion through dreams/nightmares, no?
As for how they managed to communicate using the phone...that's likely a mystery that's going to be explained later on (unless of course, the simple explanation is that the Syndicate is not just composed of the living dead, but live players who are sympathetic to their cause...that or a complicated explanation involving the internet, dead spirits touching exit portals, and said dead spirits being limited in contacting people through external means using said internet (i.e. headset with communicator, phone).
That, or one of my theories is true, that Eternum is bleeding through Kredon somehow, and this allows the people from the other side to be able to send their message without having to jump through hoops to send it).
There is another secret ending in OiaL where you wake up and found that all of that was a "bug" in Eternum and in some forums they said that there is a rumor about sharing memories and that's what happened to you.
So, Astaroth being in Eternum plane? He probably don't exist at all, because same setting but different history and non related. Stabby Mike is just an internal joke.
But yeah, maybe one day she will travel to our world. But the import point is: what is our "world"?
If we are in Matrix here and Eternum is just code, she can't travel.
If we are in the fake world and Eternum is the real one, she will probably be able.
If there are parallel worlds or planes or something like that... it's hard to say because it depends on the rules. If Eternum isn't a plane with matter it's hard to travel to one world that has.
The thing with NPCs it's that is hard to believe all of them are the same thing. Some look programmed but others look a lot more real. This point is why I believe some are npcs crafted by an AI and others are a form of life beings (maybe more complex AI).
If, as you said, this sign
it's to contact us... it looks too much. This changes a lot, and remember it was your first day and it's a lot of coincidence that someone knew you would pass through that place (this could be easy explained with the time loop theory). So if they are trying to contact others makes more sense (like other players).
This is why Im more inclined to think of them as hackers from our world with, maybe, some connections with AI in Eternum. But as I said, it all depends in what is Eternum and what are npcs.
It was revealed by someone in the Ulysses party that NPCs
have a neural implant that control their behavior (and could be acting as an inhibitor collar that prevents them from doing shit). It was also revealed by said someone that the neural implant could be hacked so that NPCs could do all sorts of behavior that they would not likely want to do (i.e. having sex with players).
Assuming that the "NPCs are the consciousness of dead people trapped in Eternum through excommunication" theory is true, then taking off the neural implant from an NPC would likely result to them going batshit crazy once they realize their status (
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). Another theory is that the ones who managed to have their implants removed (either by accident or by some YOLO player who does things for science) and have...well, accepted their status as deceased have formed the Syndicate, probably in the hopes of taking the fight to Ulysses since whatever the corporation has done to them is still keeping them bound to Eternum and not allowing them to pass over to the afterlife (which is likely where the issue of Acheron being sealed until the ten gems are found/gates are opened by Calypso comes into play).
They said that, but at the same time maybe they think all npcs are the same. Remember it was said that the Founder created all, and they think Eternum is just a game, so maybe they are referring to Praetorian, Idriel, and other npcs like maids there. But as I said before, some doesn't act like npcs, and that bug difference doesn't make a lot of sense.
But here I'll take with the theory of dead consciences.
It's rare. Because in the beginning you would need people entering in an empty game to be excommunicated just to have npcs at all later. So if that was because of experiments taking place secretly, then could be, but again why no one says "hey, I know that person".
But at the same time makes a lot of sense in 0.4 when we think of what Axel saw. If he saw his friend and that was the thing that tried to say makes a good and interesting theory.
I rerply with a list of points, in order to be more concise.
1) Eternum is a Caribdis' game and if there is a thing in which he is very good, that is make a mess with our expectations.
2) It was stated that Calypso wasn't ready to be free, so we can assume something went wrong with her programming; maybe she has a too strong and independent will.
3) In a server Orion, Annie and Luna have discussed about the fact the various Eternum's NPCs don't act like the other games' NPCs, but more like real human beings, so it is possible all the Eternum's NPCs aren't aware of the fact they are AI.
4) In truth we don't know nothing about the reality of Eternum, because Caribdis loves very much disguise the truth behind a lot of misleading hints.
5) "More real than the life itself" can be a simply commercial, used by the Ulysses Syndicate to promote Eternum.
My theory is Eternum is an actual RPG in which the NPCs are AIs so evolved to have gained the self-awareness and some of them want to be free from the constrains imposed by the Eternum's OS; do you remember the phone call that Orion has received in the train station and the various Orion's dreams?
But again we don't know anything about what Caribdis is actually plotting, if not a bunch of confused and misleading hint, so I may be wrong. The only thing I can say for sure is, all other theories I'm able to elaborate are more based on my speculations and less grounded on the facts we actually know.
When you are programing, there has no sense to give a false background. If Calypso is a weapon of Atlas why dont use a background with that at least?
Maybe Calypso is real and they were trying to erase her memory?
All the time they are giving hints about how Eternum is more than just a game so it's hard to forget that and think of it as just marketing.
About the Alien situation, I didn't see much of those movies so I don't know if it was some dreaming connection in them, but for the game I think that they are connected before the "game" itself existed (and he says it too so this breaks the possibility of Eternum being just a game) and when we dream we extract info from Eternum and use it as inspiration. So someone slept and saw flashes of Aliens and they made the movie in our world, but that was because que can take hints or flashes from there.[/spoiler]
