Rivers

"Wait!"

Managers should be reminded that this article contains major plot synopses, artwork, and/or game data that might spoil the story of Limbus Company.
This page contains spoilers for Canto VII: the dream ending.

“ There is an old River that has been flowing at the very bottom of the world for many an age. It is the source of everything, but has been forgotten by mankind. ”

—Angela

The River is a major location and overarching plot element in Lobotomy Corporation and Limbus Company, which is said to span the entirety of the City's underground.

Overview

This River is known to flow beneath the City, branching out into smaller Rivers, and reaching out even beyond the Outskirts into the Ruins. The River appears to have various tributaries, with waters that have special effects on the human mind both when drank from, and when gazed upon.

The River is described as a "primordial sea of possibility", containing all of human consciousness, as well as all possibilities of the past, present and future. It is implied that plants watered by the River and its tributaries acquire special properties, a likely example being the Golden Boughs.

The River is noted to resurface through small gaps in the world, such as the The Black Forest of the Outskirts, where Abnormalities may emerge from it. The manor of Wuthering Heights is heavily implied to be built upon this River, with its waters causing the spontaneous manifestation of reflections from other Mirror Worlds, appearing as afterimages resembling ghosts.

There are few who still carry the knowledge of the River's existence, as the phenomenon is stated to have been forgotten by humanity. However, before the events of Lobotomy Corporation, the River was discovered by Ayin, of which assisted in making L Corp. what it was.

Mirae-Mirae River

A tributary of the River referred to as the "Mirae-mirae", or "Future-future River", by Bari. Drinking from its waters will give the drinker a vision of the future, though at the same time, make them blinded to all but the prophesied future, leading them to inescapable madness. Alternatively, one may look into the Mirae-mirae River without drinking from it in order to glimpse a random point in their future. Still, drinking from the River is required for a clear picture of the vision.

River of Oblivion

The River of Oblivion, known as Lethe, is one of the tributaries of the River. Those who drink from the River are said to completely lose memory of their past. This River was visited by Sancho and Bari before the events of Limbus Company, which seemingly stripped Sancho of her memories entirely (and therefore her personality), including her life as a Bloodfiend. However, the River's effects are shown to be reversible and incomplete; even described by Sancho after regaining her self as "[serving] only to put to slumber to one's memories" as opposed to a perfect removal of memory.

"River of Immortality"

A mysterious tributary of the River mentioned by Jia Xichun, noted to grant immortality of the mind to those who drink from it. Jia Xichun searched for its waters to present as an offering to the Xianren, for the first round of the Hongyuan Family Hierarch Evaluations.

While the River of Immortality and the River of Oblivion are clarified to be separate streams in Canto VII: The Dream Ending, later content seems to refer to the stream Xichun searched for Lethe, conflating the two.

Trivia

• Lethe, the River of Oblivion, is based on the river of the same name from Greek myth. Also known as the river of unmindfulness, Lethe was one of the five rivers that flowed through the underworld, where the shades of the dead drank from it to forget their earthly lives.
  • The river Lethe is a recurring theme in literature, being present in Dante's Divine Comedy, where it flows at the top of the mount of Purgatory, and in Goethe's Faust, Part Two, where a remorseful Faust bathes himself in the river to forget the events of Faust, Part One.