Yes, we see it in all architecture from the Ancient Age. A white and black material, apparently prone to any sort of decay or vegetative take over. It can also be seen as protective armor on Ancient Age monsters and were used as engines for great ships. However, what is this material? Is it man-made, or natural to this seemingly made up planet? Well, I believe that it is in fact natural. It is quite possible that it was formed from substances unknown to us. Some more proof? The Ancients built the Cradle out of this material, but crudely tethered it to the ground, showing they did not know how to control it. And what do I mean by control? What if the material, which I have dubbed ?Float Stone? naturally floated uncontrollably? The bigger it was, the higher it went. The Ancients just found out how to make it raise higher or lower, or make it stay grounded all together. It makes sense for a couple of reasons. First, the float stone made Cradle could have been an early project. The Ancients, not knowing how to keep it grounded had to tether it to the ground, lest it float away. The engines could have been rigged to some sort of machine to raise or lower the amount of flotation. And then there are the monsters. The material seems to grow naturally on them as an exoskelloten and a type of armor. Maybe this was achieved by the Ancients? power, and made an inorganic material grow out of the monsters. There is some more proof of the natural floating ability. The monsters seem to stay aloft even without wings. So, it can be concluded that the monsters are kept in the air by the float stones. It?s even possible that the mutated monsters, though devoid of this type of exo-skeleton, could have some in their blood, a link with their ancestors. This is, of course, based largely on theory, but that?s what I believe.
what makes you so sure it was the ancients who bound the cradle to the ground? might as well have been the empire because THEY could not control it. the same way the old impreial ships are connected to the levistones by cables.
I don’t think we can assume it’s natural since we have yet to see any of it that is not part of a bio-engineered monster or machinery of the Ancients. The cradle couldn’t have been an early project that they had to keep chained to the ground (I also think the Empire did that) because then what was the point of attaching it to float engines at all? I do agree that certain monsters are able to fly because of these ‘engines’ but I don’t think this hints in any way that it is in fact a natural material.
I think sometimes you just have to leave things to artistic liscence.
There doesn’t have to be a big novel worthy explenation for EVERYTHING in Panzer.
;p
But why would the Ancients make the Cradle float in the first place? If they knew how to control it, I’m sure they wouldn’t have it floating for no reason. And the Empire must know how to control it. They fly with great agility. And in Orta, they have the engines underneath and within, so they seem pretty into this stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started building there buildings out of this stuff. So I doubt that they’d have to tether it to the ground. Besides, if they really wanted to control it and keep it from moving, they’d try to winch it down to the ground. True, the fact that it is natural is basically based on what I think, except for the Cradle. But, in the beginning of Saga, don’t we see these stones sticking from the ground? Perhas they weren’t floating because they were stuck in the ground. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll find out that that second moon is actually float stone.
Powered by motion?
Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree-top,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
from what abadd and the rest of the team said is that the ancients were an advanced human people, like atlantis or something. there were other more primitive human tribes (maybe connected to the rebels?) with whom they were at war. if I had the technology of levitation I would simply build my whole architecture to be able to fly and out of reach of primitives. and btw, look at the craddle and then take a look at Zalem from the Battle Angel Alita Manga…
The Cradle floats now that the Empire is using it and is unable to control it since it could be damaged or they could simply not have the knowledge required (they found it as is, they didn’t develop it themselves like the flying structures in Orta or their other ships). In the Ancient age maybe it wasn’t just floating but instead flying more or less like a larger bulkier Shellcoof.
As for why those engines stick out of the ground at the start of Saga, it’s because that’s an excavation site. Ie, Ancient ruins buried in time that the Empire wished to unearth. Azel was found in the same place in that “bed”, remember?
But what I’m saying is that they needed to thether it. If they wanted it out of reach, they could have easily just kept it levitated without any rope.
I don’t remember Orta’s story well enough but I think the Empire found it deactivated so it wouldn’t be floating. Then they activated it but couldn’t control it or even get it fully functional (for their purposes) without Abadd’s help. Feel free to enlighten me if I remember wrong…
No, from the beginning it was in the air. At lest, that’s what state it’s in when we first see it. What happened before that is anyone’s guess.
It says in the background text that the empire dug it up and then activated it. We just weren’t shown it being dug up in the main game.
[quote=“gearguy”]I think sometimes you just have to leave things to artistic liscence.
There doesn’t have to be a big novel worthy explenation for EVERYTHING in Panzer.
;p[/quote]
I agree, it’s just a key part of the art style. The most obvious influence of Moebius’s art.
Are you sure? True, I haven’t played in a while, but I’m pretty sure it just says that they discovered it.
[quote=“Chupacabra”]
Are you sure? True, I haven’t played in a while, but I’m pretty sure it just says that they discovered it.[/quote]
It’s ben a while since I’ve played as well but I’m sure i recall the text about it saying something like ‘was excavated from the ruins’.
Quoted directly from the dialogue page of pd.net:
“Utilizing the power of artificially
engineered humanoids, called Drones,
created by the Ancients,
the Empire was able to resurrect
the primeval armament production
facility: the ‘Cradle’.”
As you can see, it says nothing about it being excavated.
It does say that it was inactive though which supports the rest things we’ve said about the engines so far.
[quote=“Chupacabra”]Quoted directly from the dialogue page of pd.net:
“Utilizing the power of artificially
engineered humanoids, called Drones,
created by the Ancients,
the Empire was able to resurrect
the primeval armament production
facility: the ‘Cradle’.”
As you can see, it says nothing about it being excavated.[/quote]
Well then please check in Orta -> Pandora’s Box -> Encylopedia -> World -> Empire -> ‘bio reactor’
In there there is a rather large entry on the cradle. (It’s labeled 'bio-reactor but if you read the description it’s quite obviously talking about the cradle. (Used to make dragonmares, currently floats over the landscape via huge float engines, etc) I guess bio reactor was a working name and they never updated in in Pandora’s box- atleast there is no entry in there that mentions ‘the cradle’ at all unless I’ve missed something)
The second paragraph states on the ‘bio reactor’ states; “It was excavated from deep within an ancient ruin…”
I see…
Well, then, in that case I was mistaken about the Cradle. Nice detective work. 
It seems relatively obvious to me that the float engines are purely representative of ancient technology, there’s several references to them needing power or activation to be found throughout the series. Also Paet seems to be trying to get his ship to fly not to stay on the ground, for that matter all the airships (and their pieces) fall to the ground when they’re disabled.
As for the Cradle, since the empire could control the float engines already the question of why they felt the need to tether it to the earth still remains regardless of the details. I’ll just assume that since they only wanted to raise it and not move it around then this was easier than adding more engines or using more power to stabilize it actively.
On the subject of the monsters’ float engines, I’ve always kind of wondered why the dragons even need wings? They clearly don’t need them to stay airborne… [/mischievous]