Explaining the Religion in Stardew Valley || Stardew Valley 1.6 Lore and Theory

FIRST COMMENTTT😍😍 im looking forward to the theory COS U NEVER MISS💥💥

You didn't mention Yoba being depicted in an early CA comics. There we can see that he's a knid of sun, in fact the same we see on Emily and Haley's house.

I've thought that the alter looks like the ark of the covenant.

This makes the shadow people make more sense, at least for me. Being pulled from their peaceful nothingness into the chaotic everything of the material realm, fled down into the caves' depths and being hostile against anyone disturbing what little peace they have. Yoba bless.

It makes sense that Yoba would be some form of deity representing the cycle of birth and death. Things die and return to the soil. To vitalise the soil for growth to happen. Like making a compost. The flipped over symbol in the Saloon game could be seen as interpretation of an "unholy" symbol as it turns the character in a non natural zombie state. Probably seen as sin against Yobas teaching. What is dead should stay dead and so on. Like in recent years a flipped over cross has been more used by satanism. similar idea.

As for Krobus and the Void. Depending on how things are read and interpreted Demons at times used to be fallen angels and so on. The ones that rebelled and got kicked out. Or picked to serve in hell. Maybe they are just serving a different aspect of Yoba. Less the life giving and more of the life ending aspect. That is why the shadow peoples traditions could differ. The Void could simply count as aspect of Yoba. Not evil. Just the cycle of death and rebirth. With humans interpreting things differently or maybe even wrong. Like if we compare it to the real world its not as uncommon for religious texts to get changed or interpreted differently for some form of gains. And there is a war the Republic is in at the moment.

The green rain could be a sort of cleansing Yoba does. Maybe thanks to the pollution of joja factories and the like to strengthen the plant life. Like moss is known to be rather tough. Can survive temperature changes. And is known to absorb toxins and cleanse the air. But maybe in the book of yoba there had been some "punishment" that involved that green rain and plants overgrowing some "evil" place or such. Or seen as "Yoba prepares to clean up".

Also interesting with the dwarf as its kinda implied they come from space. Did they already pray to Yoba or just pick it up after they landed on earth. Or maybe thats why they came to earth. They saw a fertile planet taken care of by a god. So decided to settle. And maybe while they prayed they may have gained Yobas wrath. Maybe their technology they had was polluting the place or they were seen as too dangerous. Causing ruin and their war with the shadow people.

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I love the mystic pagan vibe to all of this! Thanks for the cool video!

i haven't investigated the yoba lore myself, so it was cool to see it all put together like this. common sodor W

Remembering your idea that Caroline comes from somewhere else. Maybe in her home they do not believe in Yoba. Maybe some other being. She says she is not religious but maybe thats because she cant safely express her religion in town. Seeing as both countries are at war.

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LORE VID LORE VID hell yeah

That was pretty sweet, lovely to have all the info collated like this. I wonder if there would be enough material for a lore video on non-humans?

Also, my headcanon is that the church entrance goes through Pierre's shop because he redesigned it that way, because Pierre.

Ur very underrated

Great video

I love your ideas/theories and lore of Stardew! Also didn't know that Shane was an atheist!

I mean, if you think about it, Yoba made the void, didn't they? It wasn't there until the light parted to create it.

awesome discussion ♡ i love ur lore videos

Great analysis. But Yoba's symbol on the shield and graves is likely just a reference to people putting religious symbols on graves and the old European tradition of putting a Christian Cross on their shields for extra protection or simply for decoration.

The symbol of Yoba being inverted on the gravestone that gives the player a zombie power up could be because undeath is seen as unnatural and unholy in most religions. In many religions inverting a religious symbol is sacrilegious as it's seen as an insult or opposing force to who or what is being worshiped.

I agree that Yoba is probably a Deity of life and nature, decay does come with nature so there's that. Also, the void could be Stardew's version of hell. Just not the 'Hell' commonly portrayed in modern media. The old Jewish depiction of Hell is quite literally just the farthest point you can be from God, it's a place where souls who have strayed from God's Light go to rest. And by rest I mean quite literally, it's sleep. In some depictions it's also the place ALL souls go to until the Messiah opens the gates of heaven for the Jewish faithful, that being those of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. If CA is taking inspiration from this, the absence of light and Yoba making the void makes sense, the farthest thing from Yoba would be nothingness and darkness and the opposite of light is also darkness. We also see things twisted and corrupted by the void, things that have strayed from Yoba's light have been malformed by Yoba's absence. This'd make sense given if Yoba is a Deity of life the absence of Yoba would be death, but we clearly see things living in or being from the void so they are unnatural or supernatural entities.

You have very detailed breakdowns, you really are a thinking person, thanks for the theories ❤

The Void could be similar to tartarus/the underworld (which is NOT hell, all spirits good and bad go there, with sections for each if I recall correctly).
It was said spirits passed into the physical world.
Considering magic is very real, maybe the life Yoba seeded were spirits taking various forms, and all return to the void someday

i like thinking about the void as nothingness better than simplifying it as hell, but if you go a little bit deeper, wouldn't it be hell to “not exist” (?) or “being in the darkness” if the god itself is based on creating life and bringing light?
also, i could be missing something in this video or another one, but i don't understand why krobus don't harm us and can even become our roommate, while the other shadow people are literally mobs (i mean enemies). i don't remember krobus saying they, he and his people as a whole, worship yoba. he states that HE believes in yoba, right? or am i forgetting something?
anyway, if i'm right about it, then, another theory comes up: what if krobus isn't like his people? well, he already isn't, because, again, he is friends with us, unlike the other shadow people we see. what if worshiping yoba was something from the dwarves, but now it's lost because of their annihilation, and krobus, as an individual, chooses to believe in yoba because of some reason?

To me, it looks like the statue standing over Rio de Janeiro, and YOBA just a different spelling of YHWh.

the name Yoba may come from the word YHWH which is the name of god in the hebrew bible, in more modern days changed to Yahweh

While it is very clearly inspired by the Anglo Saxon ear rune, I hadn’t previously known what that was, and had previously interpreted it as someone shrugging. As for why, I imagined that they could’ve had something floating above their hands, like the apple or the world.

I really love this analysis, but I will point out the dwarvish carving is more likely in reference to the concept of the dwarfs being from outer space and crash landing their spacecraft deep underground, which is backed up by a book in the library by M. Jasper. Also there is another dwarf on ginger island and I don't remember hearing that all the dwarfs were wiped out, but that's just a nitpick. Good video!

If the void represents hell it makes sense for krobus to be devoted. If you read the Bible you will see demons still believed in God and were even afraid of him, demons were angels at a moment so they're much more devoted than people but they betrayed God, that's why they are 'fallen angels'. I believe the story of Yoba is a combination of multiple religions and informations but Krobus could really be a sort of demon

It’s weird because in the note it says the void was golden light but throughout the game everything void related is black? How does that make sense I need answers concerned ape!

Nice break down. I didn’t take Yoba serious but always felt it was positive energy for the town.

😅

I find it interesting that Caroline doesn’t seem to believe in Yoba, with your theory of her being from the gotoro empire makes sense

Considering all the magic in Stardew valley I’m pretty sure yoba is probably real in that world

I would definitely believe Yoba symbol is used on gravestones just like the cross is used here, that symbol symbolises your belief in Yoba

Love this video, great job!

What if humans and non-human creatures interpreted the Book of Yoba differently like people do with the Bible? It would make sense that Krobus would see the void as, like you theorized, a peaceful nothingness, and humans interpreted it as more of a “hell.” It would clarify why Pam seems to be scared of Yoba at times and the whole line where Void is used as a replacement for Hell.

hang on, how do we know for sure its related to the "ear", if i had to make up a religious symbol, i would either make one up on the spot or try to tie it into something specific in my world history. the symbol of yoba is very basic, and its very possible it was just made up on the spot by an artist who wanted to make a fantasy religious symbol. considering the worldbuilding of the universe is supposed to be fairly unique to it, it would be a bit strange for them to lift wholesale on purpose. i think that connection needs to be confirmed in another way to serve as a basis of yoba being associated with death specifically rather than as an aspect of being what seems to be a monotheistic god.

the evidence presented seems to point to yoba being a nature or life deity in particular

On a green rain day, Pam says that the green rain is a warning and next thing you know it might be a red (blood) rain coming. That is a religious punishment, would be really cool to add it somehow to the video.

If junimos and magic is real in sdv then yoba definitely existed at some point in time in their history

I feel like the gotorians worship moon lord

I still wonder what is the origin of Yoba's name? Since in Russian, and I'm not kidding. Ёба (Yoba) is an exclamation meaning something like "Oh, f*ck"

I theorize that the Void is less like hell as in a place where sinners go to suffer and more as in just where souls go once they die. Krobus and his people could also either be natives of that realm while human souls are immigrants – OR that human souls become shadow spirits once they die and go to the void.