Headscratchers / Made in Abyss

• The Interference Unit working with Fapula at level 6 said that Interference Units like it cannot cross levels. But aren't levels a human construct created by the delvers of Orth? What are the chances that their creators have the exact same division of the Abyss's depth currently in use?
  • There's actually a decent chance of it, for at least 2 reasons:
    1. There are known effects on humans (and, presumably, other sentient, humanoid biological organisms if any exist that haven't been mutated by the Abyss) when ascending, which get more noticeable as you go further down. Considering the terrain of the Abyss, it's plausible that there are places where a discrete change in effect (typically a noticeable increase in severity and/or different symptom(s)) would be detectable, which by extension makes it possible to register discrete stages based on said changes. Assuming that their creators are biologically either human or similar to humans, it's thus likely that they'd have catalogued roughly analogous levels, which the IUs would be aware of. Generally speaking, any location where it's possible to make a significant change in elevation (such as, e.g., a stairway or ladder) would count here.
    • a) Furthermore, experimentation and testing could determine whether there are any specific elevation changes that cause notably different effects on the IUs or their creators, which the IUs would then recognise as distinct levels.
    1. If the IUs are aware of the different levels as measured by humans, they can correlate their own limits to said levels, and would likely do so when talking to humans. Thus, they would be able to describe their own limitations in terms of human levels, even if it had potentially led to weird constructs like, e.g., them not being able to cross level 2.5.
  • There's a couple of places where the modern definition of the levels breaks down. For instance, the lowest levels of Ido Front are actually in the 6th layer for purposes of the curse (which proves handy for Bondrewd's experiments). It's these boundaries that the Interference Unit is likely referring too, not the physical terrain.
• Where’s the military? The Abyss is a giant research area, that can supply artifacts with tremendous potential. The delvers, as small teams, are too vulnerable to last long. Considering we’ve seen ships which are at least steam powered, guns must exist. It seems to me, some country would want to organize a military presence to occupy at least the first four layers by force, and then scour it for any artifact that's not nailed down.
  • Most of the monsters of the abyss can only really be successfully avoided, an obvious military force would suffer immense casualties. Not to mention the difficulty in getting them back afterwards, getting large numbers of people back from even the fourth layer would be a death sentence for many. And ultimately Orth survives by trading artifacts with multiple separate countries, they would never allow any one military force to occupy the town. In fact Lyza became famous in part because she was particularly good at killing foreign delvers, indicating Orth has maintained it's neutrality by force in the past.
• Since the Abyss has a curse that would cause various symptoms ranging from mild sickness to disfigurement when people try to climb up from there, and robots do exist in this world, why don't the people simply build more (or even mass produce) robots like Reg to explore the Abyss instead?
  • Because they don't know how. Robots exist inside the Abyss and, as far as we know (confirmed by another robot from the Narehate Village), Reg is the only one who has ever reached the surface. If humans could build their own artifacts, they wouldn't be scavenging the Abyss for them.
  • Also, aside from Reg, all the robots reside at the 6th layer. In theory, nobody up top should know about robots at all.
• So we know that sending a human up from the Sixth Layer would turn them into a Narehate. Then what would happen if someone decided to send a Narehate up from the Sixth Layer? Also, how many times can a Narehate withstand the Curse if someone decided to send them down and up repeatedly?
  • I think even more severe mutations will occur or, if they are lucky, death.
  • It seems like Narehate who receive only the "blessing" of the Abyss can still suffer ill effects from it. Nanachi seems to be able to avoid it, but then they can see areas where it's less dangerous and plan around it. Bondrewd, on the other hand, suffers the Curse of the Abyss after already becoming a Narehate. Narehate who bear the full brunt of it don't appear to be capable of absorbing a second dose, at least not on a separate occasion. Bondrewd's cartridges seem to be single use only, whether because Narehate die from the Curse if exposed more than a handful of times, or because they're no longer human enough to be hit with it.
• When Maa-san got punished for harming Meinya, why was his value shared among anyone that happened to be around, rather than being all given to Riko?
  • Punitive tax for damaging the community's first impression on an outsider and potential provider of valuable Human Resources? Or an overly steep transaction fee on Riko's end.
  • Maa-san broke the law and the village's hospitality rules.
  • It looked like they were exchanging coins for Maa-san's body parts. Maybe some members in the crowd valued his flesh more than he did so the balance found holding an auction to be more efficient for gathering value to match Meinya's injuries, whereas more sentimental objects (like the teddy bear) were directly turned into value?
• They could get past the abyss curse/ascension sickness by have people sent down to each layer. The people on layer 6 go up one layer and tell the people of Layer 5 what is down there and hands over any relics. Then the people on layer 5 do the same with Layer 4, and so on. Then people wouldn't have to rise from the lower layers. Sure the people down there would still be trapped but they expect to not be able to come back up anyway.
  • Several issues with this idea (the latter ones being less issue and more tangental):
    • I think you are misunderstanding something: it is not the transition between different layers that causes the symptoms, but any significant elevation increase while in the curse's presence. For example, climb 10 steps up a staircase on the fifth layer, instant curse. Assuming a generous 30-meters-per-relay would require 433.33 relay across a 13000 meter depth (approximately where the 5th layer ends and the point-of-no-return begins), which leads to the weakest-link dilemma in an unforgiving setting. Even if you ignore the layers 1-5, there is still 2000+ meters of mandatory relay by that regard. I highly doubt that there exists 66+ White Whistles. Yes, there exists no force field/curse zones, but you either need to be able to sense it, or find it via trial-and-error (which depending on the layer, not always forgiving).
    • Motivation of going down to the abyss and trust of other delvers needs to be accounted for. Wars have been fought with and for relics, that's not going into rival delvers feuds. It's also worth noting that if wealth is the main motivation, a relic relay is pointless, as a trapped delver has nothing to spend the wealth on.
    • To an extent, the outpost in the second layer can be used for such, as it has a dedicated elevator for fast travel to the surface, located in an area where the curse is fairly weak. Granted, it serves more of a pit stop/hub area than a relay. To setup similar outpost in lower areas is suicidal, particularly in the fourth layer with Mr. Territorial Porcupine "Orby" (though not impossible given Idofront). That said, it should be noted that the only two Abyss bases have White Whistles stationed there.
    • There is a different standard means of transporting small items: the balloon means. However, the success rate of reaching the surface is low, mostly relying on sheer luck, or volume of balloons (the former exemplified in the anime ending).
    • For what its worth, there is a informal relay among delvers: any delver who lost his/her humanity (ie: climbed from the 6th layer) is killed by others, with his/her personal effects taken back to the surface (according to Nanachi anyways).
    • However, for Bowdred to be able to take the children to the fifth level, there has to be a fairly reliable elevator down the central shaft all the way to the fifth level. Descent and transporting relics at the least should be done by this system. It's just safer, easier, and it allows people to descend to the depths and continue retrieving rare artifacts rather than just one backpack before climbing again.
    • As the abyss changes in size and volume, there's also no guarantee that a straight-forward elevator would work. They would need to dig straight down and even then it would likely be too time-consuming, especially due to the monsters roaming around. All and all such an elevator is unfeasible.
• It's shown to be possible to minimize the Curse by ascending from the uppermost reaches of the 6th level in very small stages. So why do so few actually do so? Wouldn't this have become standard procedure by now?
  • Or why didn't anyone drill tunnels into the wall of the sixth layer to get even further away from the center and then go up?
  • The logistics needed would be insane:
    • First you gotta get work crews and heavy equipment down there.
    • Some of it could be sent down in pieces, but they would still be fairly heavy.
    • Then you need security detail that can deal with things like Orby, the poison spike beast, which can pierced steel and anticipate delver actions.
    • Let’s keep in mind: all the white whistles are batsh*t insane. The scientist would probably take over as the chief contributor to “work-related accidents.” Ozen, while better than the scientist, would still be a nasty liability.
    • Once you hit the 5 / 6 threshold, at least half your work teams are going to quit right then and there. Those who remain, have to stay exactly at their current level.
    • If they fall or something, even at the very edge of the Abyss, you suddenly have a delimma: “Do you risk pulling them back up?” All you need is one guy to mutate, and you’ll lose at least half the remaining workforce when they decide they cant make use of the hazard pay as a twitching lump of body horror.
    • Lastly, the edges are ‘weaker’ but not devoid of danger. They would need to be treated similarly to a radioactive area: you can only be exposed for so long, before the damage starts to stack too high.
    • The obvious solution is to delve the tunnel or tunnels into the Abyss, rather that out from in. The obvious problem with this is doing so under increasing water pressure, a different kind of danger-increases-with-depth, but this can be dealt with by use of a spiral tunnel such as the one at Kicking Horse Pass in British Columbia, Canada, with its outer mouth above sea level.
    • Beolusk, the country that Orth is part of, clearly doesn't have the resources for a project of this scale. If they did, then they obviously would have done so already to get those insanely valuable relics which would make the country richer and more powerful.
    • Since it's already well established that the Abyss can warp the very laws of physics as we understand them, there's no guarantee you can even tunnel into it from the outside.
    • Then there's just the massive scale of the shaft you would have to dig. Canonically, the estimated maximum depth of the Abyss is 13,000-15,500 meters. The deepest mine that can accommodate people that's been dug in the real world only goes down 4,000 meters, while the deepest man made hole ever made was a borehole that drills down to 12,000 meters. And these were only achievable through modern technology and mining techniques. Orth's pre-industrial level of technology wouldn't come anywhere close.
• Why does the orphanage have a torture room with working equipment? Why do they not only let children access the room but they also made it the room of a known troublemaker?
  • The orphanage is not exactly swimming with funds. In fact, it seems that their chief source of income is renting their wards as helpers to various businesses and selling the various low-grade, high-volume artifacts found by the kids on training trips. So it's obvious that they just use the cheapest repurposed building they could obtain, which in all indication was a prison building before, and don't have much spare dough for a complete remodeling.
  • And about "letting children into the former torture room"… Well, we're talking about a nation where the same children are officially trained in the lethally dangerous trade that is guaranteed to claim their life some time in the future, all the while their (not entirely voluntary) sacrifice is glorified in their culture… and you ask about torture equipment.
• It is one thing for it to be a glamorised career but it is clear that the Abyss is not for the weak and/or faint of heart. I can buy the cultural indoctrination since young but actually sending them down at that very age is another matter altogether. Values Dissonance aside, it is clear that sending anyone that isn't properly prepared down there might as well be a glorified execution, especially from the 3rd layer onward. So why send children down there in the first place? More labour? Not enough adults? The compulsion of the Abyss? No money to even give the townspeople a decent childhood first? A jab(?) at child labour in Steampunk works? Even Tristram which plays host to the literal pits of Hell has the decency of adding an age entry limit of 18 and above.
  • But Values Dissonance is the answer. Most of the children that they send look poor and/or sickly, such as Naranchi, so they probably only grab orphans or from those parents who are willing to give their children away. Also, are we sure that only children are given that treatment? It's fairly possible that adults are given the same treatment that the children do, but because that's not the focus of the story, we don't get to see that side. (Also, this is a very minor nit-pick but it's not a jab at the child labour works in Steampunk if it uses that trope seriously)
  • The top two layers have been so thoroughly explored and are close enough to the surface that they are fairly safe to travel, and serve as perfect training grounds for delver trainees, as no amount of training on the surface can actually prepare them for the unique challenges of the Abyss without them experiencing them firsthand. Think of it as a rather extreme case of on the job training.
  • Not to mention, there is a strict age limit to advance from red to blue whistles. Normally, young children (like most of the cast) are only allowed to raid in the relatively safe first layer. It's training for finding relics, handling creatures of the abyss and powering through the curse. The exceptions we see in the show (Marulk, Bondrewd's orphans and his black whistles) are all exceptions made for white whistles. As far as I can tell, white whistles seem to be more or less above the law in this society.