Locations

Harvester’s Field

Classification(s): Harvester’s Field is classified as hostile unless the player gains Achievement: “Mariposa Nocturna,” in which case the Field’s classification changes to neutral.

General Experience(s): The player can easily enter Harvester’s Field early in the game and farm artifacts and experience by battling hostile but minor mobs including diseased plantlife and locusts.

Visual Description(s) & Meaning(s): Harvester’s Field is a rotting wasteland under the domain of Shade Ni-Cuerpo, abundant with the ex-presence of life. After the player’s first successful encounter in Harvester’s Field (Achievement: “Other Small Thundering”), the Ni-Cuerpo shares a story about the location, providing explanation for its dark and reddened appearance:

“The snow-dim prairies are garlanded with children– / my people fancy dance circles around pures but do not / celebrate the bodies, small, open, red as hollyhocks. / Some crawled until they came undone– / petal by petal, / striping the while crimson” (Diaz 32).

While never experienced by the player themselves, Ni-Cuerpo implies that the field was once white and untouched, the crimson-color a result of violent events that stripped the field of its purity. However, if the player achieves a 50% full Understanding Scale with Ni-Cuerpo, the reddened state diminishes (Achievement: “Mariposa Nocturna”), and the field assumes a more traditional look, although still prone to destruction:

“Thaïs kisses like an ember, you whisper, / already hard, with thoughts of what you will love / into blaze tonight—que amas— / already ash. Come morning the fields too will go / to smoke” (Diaz 61).

In this quote, Ni-Cuerpo establishes her acceptance of love into her life. Although she has found a lover, she remains hesitant to submit herself entirely to the relationship. While the fields have restored a smidge of their former glory, Ni-Cuerpo emphasizes that regions of abundance, like fertile fields, are often the first target for ruination. This irony begs the question to the player, is it worth it to love if your love is vulnerable to attack? Is it worth it to love if that might make the future more painful?

Special Event(s): If the player successfully passes the Amaranth Gates without ensuing war between Ni-Cuerpo herself and the plantlife in Harvester’s Field, Ni-Cuerpo’s last mention oof Harvester’s Field is in one of the final scenes of the game (Achievement: “I Lean Out the Window and She Nods Off in Bed: the Needle Gently Rocking on the Bedside Table”), where Ni-Cuerpo is at peace with the pain that comes with a fruitful field, stating:

“So much is empty in this hour— / … / and night, open as autumn’s unfilled basket / as the locusts feast the field” (Diaz 82).

“Autumn’s unfilled basket” refers to Ni-Cuerpo’s recognition, but not mourning, of what could have been harvested. Ni-Cuerpo allows the field to be overtaken by an outside force, the locusts, once again, but without the fear of pain or loss. While Harvester’s Field is a productive region for the player to gain quick experience and artifacts, the area is ultimately unnecessary to complete the endgame and can easily distract the player from the final goals of the game. The region embodies Ni-Cuerpo’s fears surrounding familial and romantic relationships, and her frustration with the futile harvests that can come from caring for others.

Interview Quote(s): From Stevens during an interview with herself in October 2025:

“When I was originally designing the two fields for Swell, I was thinking about my personal interactions with fields; I thought about a video tape of a tiny me, barely walking, giddily making my way through a corn maze as my dad begs for me to not leave him behind; I thought about a long walk with my kind-of-friend during the COVID lockdown in High School, hangout spots limited to fields and creaks, (often littered with White Claws and other unidentifiable cans), and how I learned so much about what she was too scared to tell her definitely-friends; I thought about the rugby field at Hamilton College and what a privilege it is to have a dedicated rugby sanctuary so protected that certain Greek Life organization was reprimanded by higher authorities after they played sloshball on our field. For me, the field has been a location that allows what cannot happen elsewhere. For Ni-Cuerpo, the Harvester’s Field allows her to release all of her frustrations and fears, and it even proves that there is a benefit to doing that; it gives the player, and Ni-Cuerpo, a space to grow and change.” (See also: Still-there Field)