The Servants of the Cylinder: annihilating biomechanical creatures serving the “Eternal Cylinder”, a rolling machine destroyer of worlds [Bestiary]

The Eternal Cylinder is a really bizarre, peculiar, and unique game created by ACE Team, the same group behind Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages franchises. The game is set on a mysterious alien world, where tribes of small creatures able to mutate and evolve based on what they eat, the Trebhum, need to survive a hostile ecosystem to discover how to save their world. Because if gigantic predators all around are an integrated part of this ecosystem, a colossal metallic Cylinder that came from an alien world to relentlessly smash everything on the planet, clearly is an intrusive artifact. The Cylinder is not just an ordinary machine but exhibits a sort of alien intellect, and the ability to create Servants to help in its cryptic and catastrophic purpose.

The Cylinder is colossal and intimidating, destroying everything under its weight, and leaving only an empty burning wasteland after its passage. Only some ancient towers can temporarily stop the Cylinder’s advancing, but, sooner or later, it will continue to destroy the ecosystem. The Cylinder can somehow create biomechanical Servants, disturbing creatures comprising human traits and pieces of machinery from the human world, such as cars or TVs. How these creatures are generated and why they look assembled from scraps of our world is a huge mystery. Did the Cylinder destroy the human world before coming here? Was the Eternal Cylinder created by humans and sent to destroy other worlds? Are the Trebhum and the humans living in the same world at different times? The Eternal Cylinder’s plot is deeper and more interesting than you could imagine, so I will leave the answers to you and I will try to minimise spoilers.

The Servants of the Cylinder come in different shapes and sizes, disturbing monstrosities with a really twisted design. In the colorful world of the Eternal Cylinder, they are pale and rusty nightmares that look more fitting for a horror game. Because being chased by a giant wheel with an infant’s face, or by a headless torso dragging around with its own arms, is a really terrifying experience. The Servants are silent, cryptic, and mysterious beings, with the only apparent purpose of exterminating creatures or collecting resources.

Almost every Servant has elements connected with the human world, both in their organic and mechanical side. Human torsos or hands are often part of the design, which also includes old technologies such as cars or TV screens, creating peculiar creatures that clearly look like disturbing intruders in this colorful alien world. Other Servants, the most advanced ones, also wear masks reminding golden Greek statues, connecting these monstrosities with ancient Gods. And this of course only magnifies their mystery.

In the following article, I will analyse the Servants of the Cylinder and their unique design. The only comparable creatures to these amazing designs are the Brothers from Ice Pick Lodge’s The Void, which also showed twisted biomechanical forms. Sometimes, the images of the Servants are not enough to portray their nightmarish behaviour, so I truly suggest you play the game or watch more videos if interested. Moreover, this will be only the first article about the Bestiary of the Eternal Cylinder, with the following one focused instead on the endemic predators of this variegated ecosystem.

Witness

The smallest Servant of the Cylinder, the Witness is a chimeric creature part organic and part machine. Specifically, a joined pair of human hands are grabbing together a monitor or an old TV, with an eye on the screen. The peculiar abomination can slowly float around, acting as a scout for the other Servants, calling for backup if it spots an organic creature of interest for the Cylinder. They usually team up with more aggressive and dangerous Servants such as the Cleanser or Unifier, which then join the hunt once alerted. The Witness is also equipped with a searching light, which has also an antimutagenic effect, making weaker the organic creatures under it, and removing the mutation of the Trebhum. In this way, the chased creatures will get weaker and weaker during the hunt, losing their evolutive powers right on time when a deadly Cleanser will join to finish the job. Witnesses can be temporarily disabled with water, and this is their only weakness since, otherwise, they are extremely resistant to other forms of damage. Sometimes, Witnesses are contained in specific structures, such as the staff of the Mathematician or the head of a Unifier, acting as visual organs or security cameras. The name “Witness” highlights the non-aggressive nature of this biomechanical creature, which can only spot and follow other creatures, “witnessing” their presence and alerting the other Servants.

Cleanser

A half-organic and half-mechanical creature, the Cleanser is a deranged and extremely dangerous abomination wandering in different biomes. The creature has the mechanical part of a truck or a big car, an ancient model, with also spikes similar to elephant fangs coming out from the metal. The organic side is instead a humanoid torso, missing the head, full of muscles, and with powerful arms. While chasing its prey, the Cleanser will drag the truck around using the arms, trying to smash and crash the prey under it. Moreover, the lights coming from the spotlights of the truck have the innate power of making involve and remove mutations for the creatures that stand too long time in them, such as for the Witness. Basically, the creature will constantly weak its preys while chasing them. The monster has an insane physical strength and can destroy rocks and even small metal structures, so no hideout is safe from a Cleanser. However, strangely enough, water is the worst enemy of the Cleanser, since this is the only Servant of the Cylinder that will instantly short circuit and die if in contact with water. Sometimes, a Cleanser can be found in a sort of hibernated state, unreactive to everything around it. Only really noisy sounds will awake it from this state, activating the chasing monstrosity. As every servant of the Cylinder, the Cleanser doesn’t kill for food like other predators in the different biomes, but for some hidden evil purpose. As the name suggests, and including the power coming from its lights, the Cleanser is actually “cleaning” the organic population by making them weaker, less evolved, or by directly killing them. After all, they are mindless machines created only to track and kill other creatures.

A tribe of Trebhum is chased by a ferocious Cleanser. You can see their terrified eyes when they try to escape the deadly abomination, while they body suffers and mutate under the effect of the chasing lights.

The Trebhum are curiously watching a hybernated Cleanser. The small creatures don’t know the danger of being so close with this deadly abomination.

Unifier

Bigger than a Cleanser, the Unifier has a very peculiar morphology and a completely different purpose. Again, the creature is a biomechanical abomination, where an armless humanoid torso is placed on top of a mechanical spider-like structure. The head is a metallic polygon that can perceive life by using echolocation. It is quite peculiar to know that the Unifier appearance resembles a bacteriophage, a small virus that infects bacteria, present in our human world. The Unifier is not a physical predator and relies on a more subtle way to protect the Cylinder. For this reason, the large biomechanical abomination will often position in a remote location, like on top of a structure. From there, the Unifier will eject small electronic parasites to take control of living creatures. Then, it will use the energy collected from the controlled creatures to collapse the towers containing the Cylinder, resuming the relentless destruction of the colossal structure. However, the parasites are easy to destroy by using water and, if all of them are short-circuited, the Unifier will also die, probably missing the energy collected from the parasitized species. On rare occasions, the Unifier can also frontally attack its targets. The lower body will be charged with an electric field, which will damage any creature coming in contact with it, while the Unifier can also use its energy beams to charge and transform crystals around into bombs. The peculiar head is often used to collect, store, and protect materials of interest for the Cylinder. As the name “Unifier” suggests, the main purpose of this Servant is to control and subjugate other creatures, making their consciousness part of the Cylinder.

A menacing Unifier is approaching the Trebhum in a cold biome. The disturbing bacteriophage shape can really be appreciated while walking.

Exonerator

This abomination is one of the most disturbing and relentless Servants of the Cylinder. Big, fast, and extremely dangerous, the Exonerator is a sort of cylindric vehicle projected to hunt fast preys. The creature is basically a giant and compact wheel, protected by a metal structure and with a lightbulb on the side. In this case, the organic component is truly nightmarish, since the Exonerator has a disturbing face of a baby on the front. And nothing is creepier than being chased in a desert by a living vehicle having the half-face of an infant. Like a sort of Tyrant from Resident Evil, the Exonerator will heavily fall from the sky, to then relentlessly chase its prey. The Exonerator is fast and extremely dangerous, able to destroy an entire tribe with a single charge. Moreover, the lightbulb on the side can produce powerful antimutagenic light, similarly to the one of the Cleanser, just even faster in making every mutation disappear from the Trebhum. Luckily, the Exonerators are not that well-trained in avoiding obstacles, so it is easy to trick them into getting stuck by using covers and other harsh terrains. Of course, this is true only for the obstacles that the creature is not able to destroy by simply running over them. Worth specifying that the Exonerator is so aggressive that will violently charge and attack every lifeform, including big predators. And if the Trebhum are lucky enough to kill an Exonerator, there is nothing to celebrate, because probably, a few minutes later, a new one will fall from the sky ready to hunt you down. The Exonerators are a more evolved version of the Cleansers, both for purpose and methods. However, as the name “Exonerator” suggests, they are probably activated only against specific cases, something that probably needs to be judged by the Cylinder.

The night is high, and a terrified Trebhum is hiding in the grass while a nightmarish Exonerator is scanning the surrounding with its deadly light. Will the Trebhum survive the terrifying machine?

Liberator

A creature hidden under the ground, slumbering, waiting to be awakened by the Mathematician to fight its enemies. The Liberator can camouflage itself as metallic structures from the human world, specifically an abandoned playground. The Liberator has a humanoid body, missing the legs, moving around using two gigantic metal wheels. The creature is half-fused with mechanical parts of unknown function, especially the lower half of its body, while the gigantic wheels have the clear function of making it move around on every terrain. The creature wears a sort of golden Greek mask, a similar style as the colossal Mathematician (see below), which also works as a “visual organ,” while the disturbing grinning head lies down below on the neck. The Liberator will often generate a gravitational energy beam in front of it, attracting to its mouth every prey or object that finishes in the middle of it, which will be hopelessly dragged to the negative field in its mouth. Organic creatures will be damaged by the Liberator’s predatory field, but the gravitational beam is also its only weak point and can be exploited by clever Trebhum to defeat the large abomination. Because the Liberator is a fast and relentless predator, leaving to the Trebhum only the option to fight in order to survive. This Servant is always associated with giant rings hidden under the ground, which only the Mathematician can lift to awake the Liberators. Sometimes, Liberators are also summoned in the wasteland behind the Cylinder, if any lifeform is detected there. The Liberator is the Servant of the Cylinder with the strongest connection with the human world, especially since it is created from the metallic materials of a children’s playground, complete with slides and swings. The Greek-like mask is also a strong connection with the ancient human culture, another important sign that whatever is happening with the Eternal Cylinder has a connection with humanity. The name “Liberator” is one of the most pacific for the Servants, not a simple tool of subjugation or annihilation such as the Cleanser or the Unifier, but a more peculiar and unique being used as a last resort.

A close-up of a Liberator while activating its deadly gravitational beam. The giant wheels are well visible, and whoever will fall in the beam, will become a victim of the disturbing Servant.

The Hand of Fate

The biggest Servant of the Cylinder after the Mathematician, this gigantic abomination is also an exception since it is completely organic. The creature reminds of a human hand, but of gigantic proportions and with additional fingers all around, including an elongated tentacle-like mouth extending from the cavity in the middle. And if this is not creepy enough, this grotesque tongue shows also eyes and mouths full of teeth. The purpose of the creature is to protect the Cylinder by hunting, guarding, and destroying old artifacts that could endanger the existence and the path of the Cylinder. For example, the grotesque creature lies under the sand in the desert, protecting some ancient gigantic lenses in case they try to fly away. The Hand will grab the crystal with all its fingers, blocking it under a deadly grasp… including the Trebhum unlucky enough to be on top of the lens. The fingers and the tentacle-mouth can also overheat, generating deadly radiation not only on their skin but also on the surfaces that the hand is grabbing, such for example the gigantic lenses, causing even more problems to the Trebhum on it. Since the creature is based on human genetic material, it also follows the same rules, meaning that the fingers are extremely sensible if smashed, and this will be the key to defeat such gigantic Servant of the Cylinder.

The gigantic hand in all its disturbing size, captured while jumping out from the sands to grab the escaping lens.

Hopeless Trebhum trapped on top of the lens, while the Hand is grabbing it. The grotesque tongue-like appendix is visible below the glass.

The Mathematician

The biggest creature in the game after the Great Gaaahr (which we will see in a future article), the Mathematician is the most loyal Servant of the Cylinder, the leader and strategist of the other Servants. The colossus is the most complete humanoid creature between the Servants, with a pale body standing on two legs. Well, the right leg is not that humanoid since it is split in two, looking more like the entire body of another creature used as a leg. The face is probably the most peculiar detail about the Mathematician, a gigantic golden Greek-like mask divided into two separated halves, reminding the statue of an old philosopher or a God. Maybe Janus itself, since it almost has two faces like the God, or maybe just a mathematician from Ancient Greece, as the name could suggest. In the middle of the mask lies a portal, connecting directly with the mind inside the Giant Cylinder, used to collect information and materials that are of high importance for the Cylinder’s mission. The Mathematician is the closest thing to a God in the world of the Eternal Cylinder, and the mask is just a sign of it. A very mysterious detail about the Mathematician’s appearance lies in a sort of wound on its body. By looking closer to the wound, it is possible to see the face and the hand of a black statue-like woman trying to come out from Mathematician’s body. The Mathematician is the most important Servant of the Cylinder, fulfilling many purposes. For example, the gigantic creature can also directly push the Cylinder, or can destroy the columns which are retaining it. Sometimes, it will just climb and sit on top of the Cylinder, sending its Servants all around while peacefully watching the scenes. Other times, the Mathematician just jumps over from behind the Cylinder to scan and collect important materials, ignoring the creatures around. In general, the Mathematician is not directly harmful to the Trebhum, since they are probably just ants for this colossal being, but the more the Trebhum will advance in their journey, the more aggressive the Mathematician will become against them. At some points, it will also wield a spear, which the creature can throw with deadly precision. The name “Mathematician” is probably important to highlight the multiple critical functions that the creature must perform for the Cylinder, an agent studying and governing many of this alien’s laws.

The gigantic Mathematician standing in all its disturbing size while wielding the deadly spear. The terrified Trebhum are close to the camera, not knowing what to do to escape such a colossal enemy.

A hopeless tribe of Trebhum dragged like puppets inside the portal between the Mathematician mask. What mysteries will be hidden there? By closely looking at the Mathematician’s body in this picture, it is possible to see the statue-like woman coming out of its body.