Hello, I’m Fable Finder. Have you ever wondered if Sylvia Drake actually died of a cold? Why did the Coven want to unleash the Everwinter on Grizzleheim? Does being the Scion of Bartleby actually mean anything, or is it just a replay of the Chosen One trope?
All stories each have their own unexplained mysteries. Something I have always enjoyed on YouTube is the theorizing genre, where people try to explain these mysteries with theories. Theories have been made for a vast array of movies, TV shows, and video games, but the theorizing genre has barely been touched in Wizard101. It’s time to change that.
I introduce to you Wizard101 Theory. The goal of this series is to come up with theories that explain the mysteries of Wizard101. It will maintain a reasonable standard of evidence, and where evidence lacks, logic will be used. There are already posts in the making on all the questions I brought up in the first paragraph. But first, I must explain a theory that builds the foundation of all the other theories to be made: Who created the Wizard101 universe?
We could reasonably assume, using Occam’s Razor (1), that Grandmother Raven created the Wizard101 universe. The problem is that Bartleby said it was another entity. In a Wizard City side quest called “Old Men”, Boris Tallstaff asks you to interview Gamma, Ambrose, and Bartleby. When you go to talk to Bartleby, the first thing he says is this:
Did you catch that? Bartleby mentioned an entity called “The Creator”, independent of both himself and Grandmother Raven. What if the Creator is Grandfather Spider, though? After all, he wasn’t mentioned in that sentence. There are a few problems with this, however. First, I don’t think KingsIsle had even created Grandfather Spider’s character yet. Second, Grandfather Spider clearly has equal power to Grandmother Raven, which wouldn’t be the case if he had created both her and Bartleby. Finally, Bartleby clearly states that both him and Grandmother Raven were created. Since Grandfather Spider didn’t create them, he must have been created too. So someone must have created them all.
That still leaves one question unanswered, however. How did the Creator come into existence? Well, an entity that exists outside of time and space would not need an explanation for their existence. After all, things can only begin within time and space. We can assume the Creator would be outside of time and space using Occam’s Razor (1). If the Creator was not outside of time and space, we would have an Infinite Regress problem (2). If things within time and space need an explanation for their existence, then Grandmother Raven, Grandfather Spider, and Bartleby need an explanation for their existence. All three of them clearly exist within time, based on how they act throughout the story. Combining that with the fact that Bartleby told us that a separate Creator exists, we can conclude it was this Creator that created the Wizard101 universe, as well as Grandmother Raven, Grandfather Spider, and Bartleby.
So, there you have it. From this foundation we can begin to answer all the unexplained mysteries of Wizard101. The topic of the next installment will address what it means to be the Scion of Bartleby.
(1) Occam’s Razor is a problem-solving tool used in logic that says the explanation with the least assumptions is more likely to be true.
(2) An Infinite Regress is when someone tries to explain an event with another event that would also need a cause, then tries to explain that event the same way, and so on. For example, if you ask me where I got my robot, an Infinite Regress would be me saying that the robot was created by another robot, and that robot was created by a robot, and so on.
Guest Author Fable Finder
I actually liked that it was so…. Amazing!!
Could the Creator be the one that created the First World? Grandmother Raven, Grandfather Spider, and Bartleby lived around the First World, until its destruction, and when they created the Spiral. Perhaps the Creator disappeared during the fall of the First World… or it was probably an idea forgotten by KI storywriters.
Bartleby said that the Creator made the First World in the quote. An uncaused Creator couldn’t disappear, so it is more likely that the Creator is a deistic one who does not interfere with their creation. And even if KingsIsle forgot the idea, I would argue the older writers have more authority in this area. The newer writers are building off the world built by the older writers, thus, they cannot contradict previously established facts. Furthermore, an uncaused Creator is a logical necessity for this to be a consistent story, and none of the primordial beings we have met match this description.
A bit of stardust and dark matter combined to create Grandfather Spider and he hung in the vastness by his silken thread all alone for aeons until he created Grandmother Raven to keep him company. She was jealous of his silken thread (so tired of the constant flying around) so she snipped it and he fell. He lost his superior powers when his thread was cut, similar to Sampson’s problem, but had enough left to create Bartleby as a roost to stop Raven’s constant flight and his unending free fall. The creator is Molecular Dynamic.
That goes against what Bartleby said, and I doubt that is what the writers had in mind. Even if so, the stardust and dark matter would have to be created.
Later in the game we find that Grandfather Spider/ Old Cob is the third primordial being, he was probably not part of the game lore back at the very inception of wizard101.