Depends on what lore you believe.
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If you have managed to tear yourself away from Splatoon’s addictive multiplayer modes and funky fresh boutiques then you have no doubt tried out the wonderfully crafted single player campaign. If you own the game and you haven’t given it a chance you really need to do so.
I’ll just wait here until you’re done.
Done? Good. Though if you’re not, be warned that the information we are about to discuss deals with the hidden Sunken Scrolls from the single player adventure. Spoilers abound. If you want to discover them yourself and be amazed then stop reading this. GET OUT OF HERE.
If you’re still reading then you’ve found all of the Sunken Scrolls, or you just don’t care if you see them. Either way I’m proud of you. The scrolls are more of a backstory than anything else and you don’t even get anything for finding them all, which was a bit of a let down. They are terribly interesting though. Terribly terribly interesting.
That being said, there are quite a few scrolls that I’m not going to mention, because they really bring nothing to the table that we didn’t already know. Squids love fashion, squids love music, Squids have ink, and so on. We don’t need to discuss those. But I decided the pages that are noteworthy can be grouped into three different sections. Let’s start with the fact that...
Humans are (Probably) Extinct
You, me, your best friend. Dead. That guy with the lazy eye who works at the deli. Dead. Everyone! Not only because Splatoon takes place thousands of years in the future (and chances are you won’t live that long), but also because everyone else apparently has drown.
Though according to this scroll we didn’t necessarily drown, as there still seems to be some dry land that we could have survived atop. So maybe we starved or killed each other Mad Max style. It’s not clear. What is clear is that all land creatures are gone. The only reason I say that humans might not be completely extinct is that, unlike most other land creatures, we have the intelligence to travel into space. So maybe we’re not all dead! Maybe somewhere out in space the human race lives on.
Or maybe we’re all dead.
Now this page shows someone playing with a Wii U, which means our impending doom is likely not far off. It’s not like people don’t play games on old consoles, it’s just my theory. So let’s just take a stab at a year of extinction and say it’s... oh... 2020. If that’s the case then Splatoon probably takes place around the year 14020.
I guess we had a good run.
Inklings and Octarians Have a Sordid History
Despite being advanced sea creatures with some amazing future technology, squids and octopi aren’t exactly the smartest mollusks. It seems in the beginning, before the rising sea levels, they got along just fine.
Then the humans left/died out and the sea creatures started to squabble over the remaining land. I guess they’re no better than us. Who has the small brains now?!
The Octarians gained the upper hand from the get go, thanks to the Inklings poor choice to sleep in instead of battle. Tsk tsk. What a bunch of lazy hipsters. While the Inklings were sleeping, the Octarians decided to build motorless machines. Machines that worked none the less. Inconceivable!
Though it seems that even after creating impossibly brilliant technology they were still brought down by a simple lack of electricity...
Maybe THAT’S why they stole all the Zapfish from the Inklings this time around. So they wouldn’t have to worry about running out of power. The Octarians, after their great loss, were forced to flee underground. Though it seems that under the surface of the earth are now floating islands with a sky and everything. Maybe it’s all just a simulation.
It’s too bad we they couldn’t just get along and share the land. But then we wouldn’t have a single player mode... Hmm.
Remember when I said that all land creatures were dead? I lied. There is one left. Everyone’s favorite bow tie and suspender wearing (not really, it’s just his fur) cat, Judd, has been around for a long long time. How long? Oh, roughly 12,000 years. I’ve heard of cats outliving dogs, but this is ridiculous.
As you can see from his previous owners notes, the impending sea levels were a’comin’ and all the big wigs didn’t care. I mean who wants to listen to academic types? Buncha nerds.
And thus Judd’s owner had to make the hardest decision of his life. To put his cat in suspended animation for 10,000 years. At which time he would probably wake up and drown as well. He’s like some futuristic Schrödinger’s cat.
Not only did Judd survive being more or less frozen for 10,000 years, that mother fluffer went on to live another 2,000 years on sure will power. The scroll below is 2,000 years old and it very promptly shows an Egyptian style Judd tipping the scales at an early Turf War.
It can’t be his ancestor, because Judd is the only cat left in the world, remember? And with his immortal body and knowledge of flag waving Judd went on to assist the squids in every major battle for the next 2,000 years.
I think it’s pretty much a given that Judd is a god at this point. All hail Judd - the cat who lived.
For anyone who would like to see all of the Sunken Scrolls with their research notes, I’ve created an album that you can scroll through. Also, feel free to try and decipher the written squid language. I’ve been trying for weeks with no luck. Enjoy!
Additionally:
During the 2040s, human scientists began to realise that the sea levels were rising at an alarming rate. Whether by global warming or a natural solar maxim, the planet had become considerably hotter over the last few decades. The ice caps had been melting rapidly, but an unrelated increase in seismic activity pushed the sea bed up even more, and eventually the problem became too big to ignore. While the intense flooding caused problems for people and governments, scientists across the world began working on a number of ways to fix the problem. Some focused on a way to adapt to the new conditions, while others tried instead to combat the flood waters. Japanese scientists had discovered a way to genetically modify certain vegetables so that they could grow in water-logged ground, while the Americans had invented a new type of nuclear energy system. However, the problem was growing too rapidly. People began to turn on their governments because they weren't doing enough to help, and governments turned on each other to fight for what little resources remained after the floods. The world descended into chaos, and by the 2080s, the human race was almost extinct. Food shortages, disease, war, and increased seismic activity had been the cause of a breakdown in society almost everywhere, and what few humans remained were unable to sustain settlements for long periods of time. At one point, the sea levels had risen by over 800 metres. It didn't take long before machinery began to falter in the ruins of cities long abandoned, and the worst of this was the nuclear power plants. Flooding and lack of maintenance lead to the Japanese plants spilling radiation into the pacific, and an unmonitored system in the central United States had caused a chain of nuclear faults that turned most of the country into a radioactive wasteland. Small pockets of humanity survived for decades more, but as the planet fell into a nuclear summer, eventually they all died out. By 2150, there were no humans left.
However, this was not the end of life on Earth.
Very quickly after the extinction of most land animals, the sea animals began to adapt. A huge rise in sea levels meant that there was considerably more room to grow, both in population and in physical size. Many prey animals, such as small fish, became larger, and as such the predators did as well. The radioactive waters of the pacific also prompted strange and unusual genetic mutations - many were detrimental, but a lot of the beneficial abnormalities became staples of genetic code. Over the next 50,000 years, many unrelated types of sea-life grew, spread onto the land, and gained a primitive level of intelligence. Amongst the best survivors were the well-adapted sapient squids and octopi who would eventually come to be known as Inklings and Octolings, but many different species formed early tribal groups and cultures. The harsh conditions claimed many of these species, and only the most adaptable could survive. Though there was a high concentration of sapients, they weren't the only animals to come out of the oceans; an uncountable number of species, including seals, seahorses, gulls, sharks, and sea slugs all adapted to life on land, filling the holes left behind by the land animals of the previous era.
By 10,000 BU (before unity), the surviving species had claimed the ecological niche left behind by humans, and had developed the beginnings of their own cultures, languages, and behaviours. Agriculture began in many societies and many species were cooperative, including the Inklings and Octolings of east Asia, and the Eelings and Anemolings of north America. The distinction between these races is complex, however. For example, 'Inkling' refers to any sapient descendant of any member of the squid family, but this may mean that two species of Inkling have not been biologically related for hundreds of thousands of years - their last common ancestor was some kind of ancient squid, rather than anything much closer. In total, the number of established novosapient species around this time were 3 inklings, 7 octolings, 19 eelings, 6 anemolings, 3 urchlings, 25 fishlings, and 5 assorted other species.
During this time, the Earth had entered another hot period, and a sort of reverse ice-age caused large swathes of land to become uninhabitable, pushing societies closer together and causing more conflict. This period of strong heat managed to kill off a few species who had been adapting instead to cooler weather, but also caused some more tropical species to thrive. The global heatwave cooled again by about 2,000 BU, but that didn't mean the planet was safe. Natural shift in position had meant that the Earth was now at a slightly more significant tilt than it had been in human times, and seasonal variation was stronger than before. At one point, the peak of the Inkasian summer was temperatures of almost 70c, while the depths of winter could go as low as -50c. The changing of the seasons became an important part of most primitive cultures, as the differences were so drastic, and peoples that were not adaptable enough would, again, die out.
As the environment gradually became more stable, the novosapients began to settle in and expand outwards. Though a few civilisations already had the beginnings of towns and villages, most did not, and so grew into the practise of larger, permanent settlements around the 2,000s BU. Pottery and carvings flourished, clothing became more advanced, and non-livestock animals were tamed in many civilisations. In Inkasia, large sections of the country were divided into feudal territories as Octoling rulers rose up. The Asian Octolings and Eastern Inklings begin a symbiotic relationship; the Octolings are smarter and the Inklings are stronger, so the Inklings provide physical labour in exchange for a better quality of life. Wasabi plants used as experiments in the human times had been modified to grow in waterlogged ground, and wasabi became a staple of the Inkasian diet.
Wars break out constantly between the Daggertooth Eelings of N. America and Reef Octolings of S. America, both heat-loving species, as they move gradually towards central America, and fight over space and resources. Archaeological evidence suggests the Daggertooths who raided Reef Octoling settlements would steal their young and eat them.
In western Europe, many small tribal societies arise, as the area has the highest concentration of novosapient species comparative to it's size. The many types of temperate Fishling species that inhabit the area spend the next few hundred years in a constant swing, back and forth between conflict and alliance. The brutish Moray Eelings successfully fend off any invasions from mainland Fishling species for centuries.
The Seawolf Fishlings of Greenland and Iceland live an isolated existence as the only novosapients for miles. Their society grows slowly as the conditions are so harsh that it's hard to become established, but this only pressures them to become some of the most resilient people in the new world.
Many other cultures grow, especially Anemoling cultures in North America and Europe, and the last remaining Urchling culture in Paras, an area covering what was once Turkey and it's surrounding nations. In southeast Africa, tropical Fishlings and Eelings struggle to survive in the hot deserts inland, leading to a huge number of coastal settlements. Lingering radiation from the humans, hundreds of years before, still taints a large swathe of central N. America, preventing anyone from settling there.
During the final few years of BU, from 3 BU to 1 BU, the star VY Canis Majoris explodes into a hypernova. The neon glow and glittering light is visible from Earth, though it has no physical effect on the planet, and peoples across the world acknowledge it, sparking a new age of religion and an interest in astronomy. This 'second sun', visible at night from almost anywhere on the planet, became recognised later as a global event, and the basis of the new AU calendar (after unity). The 1st of January on the first year after the glow died away is considered to be 1 AU, the start of a new era in novosapient history. In 61 AU, Shoumi Fukai of Inkasia, Octoling leader of the Shoumi clan, conquered the other 43 clans of Inkasia and founded the Octarian Empire, becoming the first emperor.
Gradually over the next thousand years, societies across the planet continued to grow. Cultures introduced social hierarchies, detailed laws and punishments, diversified languages and dialects. Clothes, weapons, architecture, religion, and diets all became more complex. Settlements swelled to town or even city sizes, and the peoples of the world became more unified. There were plenty of wars, either internal or inter-country, but gradually, societies grew to become more reminiscent of what humans had before the Great Flood. Natural events and societal collapses would sometimes slow, stop, or even push back invention, but that was simply an unavoidable consequence of this new, more volatile Earth.
The current modern day is the year 2634 AU, 119 years after the legendary Great Turf War of Inkasia.
