skin line universes
are odyssey skins part of the cosmic and dark star line universe? and what's the main theme of odyssey that separates from the other space skins?
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Event Horizon is a separate universe than Odyssey, but the two are connected at a single point: the Ora Gate. Who built the Ora Gate and why they did so remains a mystery, but presumably Rhaast fell through at some point in history and has been waiting for a chance to open it back up for the other corruptants ever since.
tl;dr they are two separate universes within the League multiverse, but they are canonically connected by some sort of alien artifact. Rhaast is very excited about that last part, and Dark Cosmic Jhin seems eerily familiar with the Odyssey universe as well...
As for differentiation, let me break it down for you.
Steel Valkyries is a war-torn universe based on rogue galaxy anime like Bubblegum Crisis, Cowboy Bebop, and Space Runaway Ideon. In it, a thousand-year galactic civil war has recently ended, and in the power vacuum a bunch of cutthroats, bounty hunters, and mercenaries have set up shop. The story revolves around the use and proliferation of Exosuits, which are banned one-man superweapons capable of untold destruction, which presumably ended the war in the first place.
Event Horizon is a universe that is, for all intents and purposes, our cosmic horror setting. It is an ancient place where inscrutable entities larger than entire galaxies both create and destroy life, one represented as Cosmic and the other as Dark Star. The cosmic creatures are what we might understand as creation gods, who sort of watch over the aspects of the cosmos and fulfill specific duties to keep it going. The Dark Star is a dread singularity that has become sentient, and erases matter, time, thought, and even reality as it moves through the universe. When it destroys an inhabited pocket of space, the emotional energies of that region are twisted into a being known as a corruptant, which is as close to an eldritch space horror as we've gotten in the canon to date. The corruptants then begin destroying the wider universe at will, hoping to erase every last mote of existence before leaping into the Dark Star and being destroyed themselves, leaving nothing but eternal oblivion.
Odyssey is a light-hearted space opera more reminiscent of a comedy-action-adventure. There's huge, multi-galaxy-spanning civilization(s) that are all obsessed with a universal power source known as Ora, and the plot follows a bunch of heroic idiots as they accidentally save the universe from an insane Machiavellian tyrant, an omnicidal hive-mind assassin, and a star-eating horror from an alternate reality that lives in a magic scythe and sometimes sings K/DA songs in dive bars.
That should cover everything! I also want to take the time to say while Stellari was right in noting that most skinlines are just skinlines with a story, that's really from a product perspective. From a narrative perspective, they're all part of a fairly vibrant (but mostly unconnected!) multiverse. It's a small, but important distinction!
Hope that helps!
Almost all of the space themed skins take place in the same Universe. Cool thing about space is its' so big that with enough space between them all these unique flavors (Star Wars, Hitchhikers, WH40k) can coexist
ahh ok, so is odyssey similar to Hitchhikers then?
It's unclear what "Universe" in this case even means, we actually discussed that a lot. By Riot's definition (just look at your collection tab) they're not the same. Cosmic, Dark Cosmic and Dark Star share the "Event Horizon" Universe, and Odyssey is in the Odyssey Universe. Also Stellari said that only Odyssey, KDA and Star Guardians are considered full universes, while the others are basically "skin lines with some lore".
But let's start with the theme of Odyssey: Basically, the difference from the other space line (Steel Valkyries) is Ora vs Exosuits. Odyssey has this interesting substance with strange, almost magical properties, and Steel Valkyries use technology. An interesting theory is that they were actually the same, but somehow Ora appeared, making Odyssey an alternate timeline of Steel Valkyries. It's lacking evidence though, and I don't see any similarities except "they're in space".
The addition of Ora makes it a more magical universe (compared to Project or whatever) and light-hearted, where Steel Valkyries is a lot more dark and brutal; Their skin descriptions note several wars in the past.
Now, there is clearly a connection between the Event Horizon and Odyssey Universes (evidenced by multiple interactions from both Zed and Kayn), but if Riot does not them consider them in the same skin universe (as a set of skinlines, not as a fully-fledged universe by Stellaris definition) they need to share a multiverse. Similar to Pulsefire Ezreal, who can visit every other universe, the Dark Star entities are capable of switching universes. This is how Dark Star Rhaast ended up with Ordinal Shieda Kayn. There are also mentions of an "Ora Gate" which Sona can open. Rhaast needs her alive, but Kayn doesn't. Presumably, he needs the Ora Gate to go back or get the other Dark Star Corruptants in this universe.
Theory time: My theory is that Cosmic and Dark Star are the afterlife of the Odyssey Universe. Ora is the pure form of all life, we know it can become sentient like Zed (although he is corrupted). "Dying" means passing the Ora Gate into the other dimension, and you become a cosmic entity. If you didn't do much in your life, you'll be a regular star. Depending on how good or evil you were you can become a Cosmic thing or a Dark Star too. This means Dark Star Jarvan is actually the Emperor Jarvan from the Odyssey story in the future, his skin biography notes he was mortal once. I also don't have that much evidence for this theory, so it's possible that Odyssey is just one random dimension that the DS can go into. Maybe there are corruptants in other universes too?