WHAT IT IS: The House of Eternal Return is an immersive art installation in Santa Fe, created by the artist's cooperative Meow Wolf. But wait! Don't stop reading just because you can't get to Santa Fe! The bulk of the narrative can be pieced together from various multimedia sources available online.
Where do I start with explaining the story? Once upon a time in the 2010s, there was a family who had psychic gifts, a family that liked exploring and experimenting with the fabric of the space-time continuum. And then one day their experiments broke that continuum, ripping a hole in the multiverse. What became of them? We don't know. All that's left is their house and the documents they left behind.
Or should I start further back? Once upon a time, at the very beginning of the universe, all was One: a single note of perfect harmony. Then discord entered the picture, and beings that once existed as a unity discovered--and hated--individualism. They craved reunion, but couldn't achieve it. As a second-best alternative, they created order, and built a society in opposition to the Anomaly, the seething mass of chaos and creativity that had formed in their splintering. The two sides fought a hot war--then a cold one. And now Earth is a frontier in that cold war between the forces of the Charter and the Anomaly. The Anomaly has infused humans (the family above in particular) with gifts, powers, a drive for creation. The Charter is concerned that those gifts, and the chaos they engender, may spell the end of the multiverse.
The Charter may be your stereotypical bad guys, obsessed with order and control--but based on what's left of the Pastore/Selig home, the Charter may also be right.
(Oh, yeah, and there's a whole other storyline, set in the 2060s, that's just launched this year.)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: The bones of the narrative--the backstories of the characters, their abilities and interrelations--are fairly well established by the various faux documents (linked below), but the exact details of what happened on the evening of March 17, 2016, (and what its long-term consequences will be) are left open to interpretation. The House of Eternal Return is a puzzle with a thousand plausible answers--exactly the kind of thing fan fiction is great at exploring.
A BRIEF CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Emerson Selig: Grandfather. Sonic researcher. Once resurrected a hamster.
Jean Selig: Grandmother. Very recently deceased. Has prophetic dreams. May in fact be the Anomaly.
Piper Pastore (nee Selig): Daughter of Emerson and Jean. As a child, could see all multiverse alternate realities simultaneously. Processed this by painting. Lost her powers in an accident; still paints.
Lucius Selig: Piper's twin brother. Gained the ability to astrally project himself as part of the same accident that took away Piper's powers. Founded a cult, drew the attention of the Charter, and was stripped of his powers. Wants them back.
Nicolae Pastore: Piper's husband. Also a sonic researcher.
Christian: Lucius's boyfriend. Betrayed him to the Charter.
Morgan Pastore: Piper's daughter. Talks to plants, calls small animals like a Disney princess, has empathetic powers.
Lex Pastore: Morgan's twin brother. Super-genius. Extremely unhappy with the fact that, as he and Morgan grow up, they also naturally grow apart. Determined to find a way to defeat death. A little too open to his uncle's self-serving suggestions on methodology.
Nimsesku: The family hamster. Bionic, immortal, an agent of the Charter.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional):
Fair warning that many of these sites have been rendered deliberately difficult to navigate--after all, the multiverse is disintegrating. Don't be afraid to call any phone numbers you find on any of the sites, either--many of them have recorded messages that are worth hearing.
The Charter: Contains an enormous amount of information, but expect to get a lot of "errors" and requests to sign in over and over again. It's the Charter. They're not here to be helpful or friendly. (Most of the useful narrative information can be found by clicking on the two-column symbol in the left navigation menu and selecting the various character names.)
Various videos, including Selig-Pastore home movies, Emerson's video diary, and some rather odd PSAs from "local" television.
Charter Clock Room Audio: The spoken word piece that loops in a room at the center of the installation.
Material related to the new 2060s storyline: The Rift video series, Techstream.
If you're willing to shell out actual money, Meow Wolf sells a Narrative Bundle that includes Piper's diary and a couple of newspapers that contain useful information about the family's final days. If you're not willing to shell out money, it might still be looking at that link and at least reading the sample pages.
If you want a glimpse of the installation itself just to get a sense of the ambiance, try searching YouTube for Meow Wolf Walkthrough.
(n.b. Most people refer to the House of Eternal Return in shorthand as Meow Wolf, but as Meow Wolf plans to open installations in multiple other cities over the next few years featuring different narratives, I'm hoping to get a tag made for the specific name of the Santa Fe installation just to prevent any confusion in future years.)
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WHAT IT IS: The House of Eternal Return is an immersive art installation in Santa Fe, created by the artist's cooperative Meow Wolf. But wait! Don't stop reading just because you can't get to Santa Fe! The bulk of the narrative can be pieced together from various multimedia sources available online.
Where do I start with explaining the story? Once upon a time in the 2010s, there was a family who had psychic gifts, a family that liked exploring and experimenting with the fabric of the space-time continuum. And then one day their experiments broke that continuum, ripping a hole in the multiverse. What became of them? We don't know. All that's left is their house and the documents they left behind.
Or should I start further back? Once upon a time, at the very beginning of the universe, all was One: a single note of perfect harmony. Then discord entered the picture, and beings that once existed as a unity discovered--and hated--individualism. They craved reunion, but couldn't achieve it. As a second-best alternative, they created order, and built a society in opposition to the Anomaly, the seething mass of chaos and creativity that had formed in their splintering. The two sides fought a hot war--then a cold one. And now Earth is a frontier in that cold war between the forces of the Charter and the Anomaly. The Anomaly has infused humans (the family above in particular) with gifts, powers, a drive for creation. The Charter is concerned that those gifts, and the chaos they engender, may spell the end of the multiverse.
The Charter may be your stereotypical bad guys, obsessed with order and control--but based on what's left of the Pastore/Selig home, the Charter may also be right.
(Oh, yeah, and there's a whole other storyline, set in the 2060s, that's just launched this year.)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: The bones of the narrative--the backstories of the characters, their abilities and interrelations--are fairly well established by the various faux documents (linked below), but the exact details of what happened on the evening of March 17, 2016, (and what its long-term consequences will be) are left open to interpretation. The House of Eternal Return is a puzzle with a thousand plausible answers--exactly the kind of thing fan fiction is great at exploring.
A BRIEF CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Emerson Selig: Grandfather. Sonic researcher. Once resurrected a hamster.
Jean Selig: Grandmother. Very recently deceased. Has prophetic dreams. May in fact be the Anomaly.
Piper Pastore (nee Selig): Daughter of Emerson and Jean. As a child, could see all multiverse alternate realities simultaneously. Processed this by painting. Lost her powers in an accident; still paints.
Lucius Selig: Piper's twin brother. Gained the ability to astrally project himself as part of the same accident that took away Piper's powers. Founded a cult, drew the attention of the Charter, and was stripped of his powers. Wants them back.
Nicolae Pastore: Piper's husband. Also a sonic researcher.
Christian: Lucius's boyfriend. Betrayed him to the Charter.
Morgan Pastore: Piper's daughter. Talks to plants, calls small animals like a Disney princess, has empathetic powers.
Lex Pastore: Morgan's twin brother. Super-genius. Extremely unhappy with the fact that, as he and Morgan grow up, they also naturally grow apart. Determined to find a way to defeat death. A little too open to his uncle's self-serving suggestions on methodology.
Nimsesku: The family hamster. Bionic, immortal, an agent of the Charter.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional):
Fair warning that many of these sites have been rendered deliberately difficult to navigate--after all, the multiverse is disintegrating. Don't be afraid to call any phone numbers you find on any of the sites, either--many of them have recorded messages that are worth hearing.
The Charter: Contains an enormous amount of information, but expect to get a lot of "errors" and requests to sign in over and over again. It's the Charter. They're not here to be helpful or friendly. (Most of the useful narrative information can be found by clicking on the two-column symbol in the left navigation menu and selecting the various character names.)
I Hear Music from Outer Space: Nicolae Pastore's blog
The Power of Positive Mechanics: Lucius's cult's homepage (just wait a while, it will eventually load)
Various videos, including Selig-Pastore home movies, Emerson's video diary, and some rather odd PSAs from "local" television.
Charter Clock Room Audio: The spoken word piece that loops in a room at the center of the installation.
Material related to the new 2060s storyline: The Rift video series, Techstream.
If you're willing to shell out actual money, Meow Wolf sells a Narrative Bundle that includes Piper's diary and a couple of newspapers that contain useful information about the family's final days. If you're not willing to shell out money, it might still be looking at that link and at least reading the sample pages.
If you want a glimpse of the installation itself just to get a sense of the ambiance, try searching YouTube for Meow Wolf Walkthrough.
(n.b. Most people refer to the House of Eternal Return in shorthand as Meow Wolf, but as Meow Wolf plans to open installations in multiple other cities over the next few years featuring different narratives, I'm hoping to get a tag made for the specific name of the Santa Fe installation just to prevent any confusion in future years.)