Geo-Spiritual Quantum Interference Train, Birth of a Chaotic Future
The world of Baroque was originally intended to have an area known as the “Geo-Spiritual Quantum Interference Train” - a futuristic transport (named “The Red Queen”) which derailed during the Great Heat Wave. Yonemitsu has said that the protagonist would have been able to board a kind of spectral echo of this train which endlessly circulated through its route, emitting ghostly wails. Once aboard, you could interact with distorting NPCs - further elaborating that many of the NPCs found in the outside world were initially planned to have been stranded civilian passengers from this train. The Baroque Report series clarifies that Neck Thing would have appeared (holding cultivation fluid), and that Sack Thing would have distorted inside this train. It was even proposed that the Red Queen passing through the epicenter of the Great Heat Wave as it occurred is what caused the cataclysm to grow to such enormous proportions. However, it is unknown if any of these details survived long enough to make it into the final draft of the scenario.
The concept of this train was revisited sometime in May of 2000, when Yonemitsu distributed envelopes containing ten cards which combined to form the modular, dynamic poem (found above). Despite its title, this poem is predominantly about the retroactively inserted concept of the Archangel’s sister from the PS1 port. The first card included in this set introduces the poem and specifies the rules governing how it should be read:
“This text is a collection of letters written for the purpose of being rearranged. The final card must be one with four sentences - this is the only thing resembling a rule. Rearrange the cards before turning them over, one by one. Recite the lines on each card with all your heart until you reach the final lines, then rearrange the cards again. Continue to take one card at a time and read the contents with feeling over and over, over and over again. I hope that nothing unexpected begins happening to your body before you reach the last four lines.”
This poem has been recreated on this website so that every time you refresh the page, the poem will rearrange itself in accordance with these rules.
Huge thanks to @pashiri_ for the photographs of this poem.
Another, earlier experiment in dynamic poetry appears on the old Baroque website. There is not much variance to its structure, but you will also get one of the two possible forms this poem can take each time you refresh this page.
Baroque 30000000 (ver 0.5)
Those who wear wings live in a labyrinth of optical illusions,
our imaginary flags were raised into the void, and thus the war began,
the world is like a bird, struggling to be free of its cage,
suddenly in front of the factory I find myself standing, though I don't know how I got here,
delusion gently envelops the world,
owaa, owaa, owaa,
then,
owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa owaa,
then,
the end comes.