| — Official Little Nightmare website |
The Maw is the main location in Little Nightmares where all its gameplay takes place. It is described as a kind of underwater resort that caters to the extremely wealthy and powerful elite. It is never explained how or when the Maw was built or who built it.
Description
The Maw functions just like a metal-plated ocean liner but is designed vertically like a skyscraper. Due to this design, it floats like an iceberg where only its funnel breaks the ocean surface while the greater bulk lies underwater. However, when passengers need to climb aboard, it can raise itself out of the water further to expose its shell-like entrance. That being said, the Maw is partially submersible, and it can also anchor itself. When the Maw is submerged, its appearance is a small rock formation with a door, and at the top is a chimney that bellows black smoke.
Like an actual ship, the Maw tends to heel gently in the waves, enough to cause some objects to roll across rooms. It also has watertight doors in the lower areas to prevent its compartments from flooding in the event of a breach. In the trailer, there are also portholes that allow that on-board to see outside. As seen in The Hideaway DLC, the Maw is steam-powered and has great engines that burn coal to provide power. It does not seem to propel itself with propellers but by the propulsion of black smoke as seen in its concept art. Any smoke not used for propulsion escapes the Maw through the single funnel located at its peak. Trailing behind the Maw are giant fishing nets used to catch the large aquatic creatures seen in the Kitchen. The Maw also has electric generators to power the various light sources and elevators found throughout the areas.
It is interesting to note that despite its primary inhabitants being giant compared to Six, there are many areas throughout the Maw that are built or easily accessible to small creatures. This includes padlocks installed on doors close to the floor and miniature ladders.
The first four areas are separated by vast chasms, giving the illusion that there is a large city within the Maw, and are connected by rails with traveling hooks that carry bags between areas. An elevator directly connects the Guest Area and the Lady's Quarters, the latter of which is directly above the other and is overlooked with a balcony.
Areas
The Maw is divided into seven main areas:
- The Prison
- The Lair
- The Kitchen
- The Guest Area
- The Lady's Quarters/The Residence (DLC)
- The Depths (DLC)
- The Hideaway (DLC)
Theories
- All the clocks seen throughout the Maw depict different times and run at different speeds. Some clocks have no time depicted, they are only shown with numbers and no hands to tell the time. It's speculated time within the Maw runs differently in order to maintain the large number of guests with only a small number of staff members.
- It is speculated that the Maw is not just an underwater resort, but a living entity of its own similar to the Signal Tower, this is supported by the fact that the Maw is described as a creature which is creeping, crawling and burying around the ocean waiting for the next group of Guests to arrive. It's also speculated that the Lady's power was never intended to be used in draining the lives of the Guests' to sustain her beauty but instead was always meant to feed and sustain the Maw as her power is only ever described as being used for the sole purpose of keeping the engine running and maintaining a hypnotic spell to keep the flow of Guests who are described as being an essential part of the Maw's life cycle.
Trivia
- The presence of a book with the cover of the Maw in Very Little Nightmares and posters of the Maw in Little Nightmares II, could suggest that in the Nowhere, the Maw is a fairly famous place since its name has managed to reach even in the Pale City and at the Nest.
- The Maw is the first place to appear in the entire Little Nightmares franchise.
- Old Maw concept art showed that it was once meant to have a more surreal structure similar to the Transmission in Little Nightmares II.
- Concept art additionally reveals a lighthouse with a giant eye embedded within it atop the Maw's large structure. While another showed Six being chased by the Janitor into a giant room full of stairs.
- The Maw portrays various paintings and drawings, some of which depict enemies encountered in other games within the Little Nightmares world.
- A poster advertising the Maw can be spotted throughout the Little Nightmares II game, in the Hunter's Attic near the end of The Nome's Attic DLC, on the wall of the first building seen after Mono and Six cross the trench upon completing the School level, in a train car just before the Thin Man's final chase, and in the apartment complex near the end of the Little Nightmares II secret ending, leaving suspicion that the Maw's existence is well known throughout various parts of the world.
- When asked who built structures like the signal tower, senior narrative designer Dave Mervik states, "The world of Little Nightmares doesn't work that way, creatures and places exist for a reason. In the first game, The Maw exists because the hunger exists." [1]