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•      "That place... began from the resonance of intersecting points..."
  
  Lord Emon's frail, aged voice captures the player's attention in the game's opening moments. The music that has been playing in the background is dampened slightly as smoke fills the screen; through the fog, the voice pauses, presumably to take a breath. When it resumes, a slight sense of purpose can be heard among the low, sorrowful tones. It has realized that the player is listening.
  
  "They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone. Blood, young sprouts, sky - and the one with the ability to control beings created from light... In that world, it is said that if one should wish it, one can bring back the souls of the dead..."
  
  Hesitation is now apparent, as though the voice is having second thoughts about telling the player this bit of information. After a moment's pause, it adds, with a dim sort of finality,
  
  "... But to trespass upon that land is strictly forbidden..."
  
  Hundreds upon thousands of analyses could be drawn from the voice's tone alone, but the purpose of this thread lies elsewhere. Very few things in this monologue "make sense" by our standards; as such, it is to be understood, if not expected, that the rigidly dedicated would pick the text apart, piece by piece.
  
  The Seekers have done just that. While our interpretation is by no means complete, we have singled out two immensely important lines spoken in the first few seconds of the monologue. They are,
  
  "That place... began from the resonance of intersecting points..." and, "They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone".
  
  Speaking from a logical standpoint, Emon seems to be saying that the Forbidden Lands began from the resonance (that is, area of effect) of intersecting points. It is unclear whether he means "The Lands were created from" the intersecting points, or "The Lands became forbidden as a result of the intersecting points".
  
  Both routes lead to the same place; the player (or seeker) involved must find a set of something that, when viewed from a certain perspective, would line up to form a multi-rayed figure. Unfortunately, this 'set' could be anything. It could be a formation of rocks somewhere in the desert; a pair of trees in the forest; or, it could even be the colossi themselves.
  
  The answer, oddly enough, is right under the player's nose, so to speak, and has been since the beginning of the game. Every time the player slays a colossus, he or she is returned to the Shrine of Worship. It could be argued that it is the most important structure in the game, owing to the player's quest both beginning and ending in its halls.
  
  We think otherwise.
  
  Fumito Ueda is infamous for his attention to the most minute, intricate detail. Such appears to be the case with most of the Forbidden Lands; ruins lay toppled in the most likely angle, coastlines bear signs of erosion - even the dress on Mono's lifeless body is gently pushed back and forth by the wind. It is this same attention to detail, however, that would be the inattentive gamer's downfall.
  
  The Shrine of Worship is highly decorated, there is no doubt... however, one set of "decorations" appears to be more than that. The four-piece set of glyph blocks, found here, is actually a bird's-eye view of four very important locations within the Forbidden Lands. They are, in no particular order,
  
  Argus (Colossus #15)'s City, Hydrus (Colossus #07)'s Lake, The Shrine of Worship, and the Entrance to the Forbidden Lands. When these areas are viewed from the map screen, they form a perfect cross. The center of this cross, or the Point of Intersection, happens to lie exactly over Celosia (Colossus #11)'s Temple.
  
  In the back of this temple lies a doorway that appears to have been bricked (or more accurately, 'stoned') over. There are steps leading up to the door, where they come to an abrupt halt. The door is set back into the wall, and is haloed by a round, Medallion-esque embellishment. The entire temple is quasi-underground, and thus has no sunlight; consequently, the Sacred Sword will not reflect light; nor will the Queen's Sword.
  
  The Search has taken us this far. We are trying our hardest to figure out how to open (or alternatively, break down) this door. The medallion embellishment is of particular interest owing to the fact that the same design can be found in Barba (Colossus #06)'s prison. It also bears mentioning that the same prison is decorated with depictions of an arched doorway... haloed with a circle.

                  This is known as the theory of Intersecting Points.

•      In the folktales that followed the game's release, a sunken castle is mentioned. In-game, when Dormin is telling Wander about Hydrus, he says: "A ruin lies hidden in the lake." This is interesting because Dormin always gives subtle hints about how to slay the current colossus. Always hints; this is one of two times he has said something irrelevant to the colossus. The current theory is that doing something (currently not sure what) in the forbidden lands will act as a trigger and raise the ruins from Hydrus' lake. It may be a long shot, but there's a lot of evidence pointing to this. For example: In the bible, in Job 41, a creature called the 'Leviathan' is described. Some translations say 'whale', although the text clearly calls it a 'sea serpent'. So, whale, leviathan, and [sea] serpent are all used interchangably. This is relevant because defeating a certain number of colossi on HTA (Hard Time Attack) unlocks the 'Harpoon of Thunder'. This is important because when Dormin is describing Hydrus, he also says, "...a ripple of thunder lurks underwater." The HoT's namesake could very well be a direct reference to Hydrus. It is also apparent that Hydrus is meant to resemble a Sea Serpent. As stated above, the Bible uses 'Sea Serpent' and 'Whale' interchangably. Unless we're much mistaken, Whales are generally hunted with Harpoons. It has also been confirmed that the harpoons, when thrown from a great enough height, will penetrate fairly deep into water. ...There also seems to be a climable spire sitting toward the back of Hydrus' lake.

In mid-update: 5-17-08