The latter I believe. I can’t imagine him being particularly interested in making a species he would doom to death once he finally got out and ate that damn sun.
Same, I’m pretty sure V.D. most likely manipulated the Twins into doing what it wanted.
On the subject of the Other who almost certainly is Light-Eyes, it seems V.D. lends further credence to my speculations.
I also have a feeling that this “something changed” is gonna be about how V.D.’s essence wound up trapped in the pedestal.
I think VD was unintentionally letting go a little while being vaguely emotional about how he got shut up inside his enemies’ bodies, and you can see that he’s now doing the talking again in the last panel where he puts a lid on Erin getting freaked out.
I’m holding out hope that Erin is using the conversation to distract VD from his attempts to regain control. I can already see his thought process.
•Cannot move=problem
•VD can hear my thoughts. Corollary: I cannot plan in secret
•I am aware of these facts, ergo VD likes to talk. How arrogant.
•Query: Can VD hear my thoughts over their own voice?
•Hypothesis: I hope not.
According to the lore page “The three elder races”, an elemental magus like Erin has to be human (specifically, an unadapted human – not one of the ones that lives underwater or something). No one of any other race has ever controlled more than three elements. So if VD needs a SINGLE person to free him, it would have to be a human. If he could use a group of people, then any species that could be a mage would do (I’m not sure which species that includes, other than humans and elves).
But probably none of that has as much to do with Erin’s word choice right now as his own mental state. He’s panicky, self-centered and human – so he asks about humans.
I just really love the design of Erin taken over by the void dragon. Look at panel 4! There’s a little black smoke curl in the shape of a hand next to Erin’s hand. It looks amazing and it’s subtle enough that you only notice if you look carefully.
Attention. To. Detail.
Everything from the prologue makes so much sense now. The golden text in those first few pages was VD talking about the creation of humanity by the twins. With them being perfect and susceptible to the elements but not listening to him. It completely changes the perception of those pages.
This is such great storytelling. I absolutly love it.
What is this? The Twins can be controlled by V.D.? So this is the answer to all the questions on the last page. My thoughts are the following: (without further ado, my first time making a good theory)
V.D. is obviously captured in the adamant prison. The Twins know this, so why should he be a threat? Maybe V.D. can speak and be heard only by the ones who are more than mortals, so he subtly lay his plan in their minds (the twins), maybe adding a hint of what great benefits the creation of man would bring. Yet, they did this with not evil in their hearts, but goodness, so man has the will. And since mortal beings can harness the elements in special cases, they might also be able to hold the being of the V.D., but he lost all hope when he knew that men would never be his tool while they are still sane. But what is the change? What changed? Maybe the guy that was created by the Twins in the beginning is the change that probably gave him hope?
This “theory” of mine is probably can be easily destroyed, but still…
Any opinions?
This has elements that coincide with my theory on the previous page; my theorizing there might help you as far as feedback goes.
On first glance, I’m not seeing any particular weak points in your theory.
WAIT! I went back to the beginning! I understand it now! They were creating mortals under V.D’s direct supervision when they accidentally gave the guy a will. HE is the one speaking, and HE is the one demanding: “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” But… how did it get to that? Why were they doing this for him, already knowing who he was?!?! This is more confusing than ever! Can anybody please have mercy and explain?
Also, I would like to add to my hysteric shout out that I think that mortals were given a will under V.D.’s supervision because the V.D. voice would say “What’s happening to it? It won’t- Hey listen to me! STOP!” and so on. Also, everyone had their glowy eyes now and everyone started to run everywhere in apparent panic.
There are a number of ways the Prologue’s events can be interpreted. I’ll do my best to be concise.
Yes, the Twins created the Elder Races under V.D’s supervision. We don’t really know what made the Twins collaborate with V.D, but it depends on whether it was conscious and/or voluntary. V.D’s monologue here makes me believe the Twins’ cooperation was either conscious but involuntary, or voluntary but unaware of V.D’s identity and/or motive.
As for the mortals gaining sentience, there are two options: a fluke or a sabotage. I’m skeptical towards the idea of an accident, because how probable would it be for all the bodies developing sentience at the exact moment V.D. found the perfect host? Not very, in my opinion.
Hence the idea of sabotage or some form of intervention. We know the Twins are all about creating new stuff and, as far as I can tell from their limited facial expressions, they seemed just as surprised as V.D. so they’re off the suspect list. That leaves one being that we know is aware of V.D’s existence and could potentially have been thwarting his escape since the Prologue – that being Light-Eyes, as The Lolest mentioned at the top of the comments on this page.
It’s the most surreal experience waking up at three in the morning and remembering there’s a new page but I’m still half asleep and can’t distinguish reality from my imagination and I’m not wearing my glasses and having to focus really hard on the letters and when I actually wake up a few hours later I barely remember it
The Void Dragon revealed he was somehow forcing The Twins to create the elder races. That leaves a few possible scenarios, which others have already stated:
-The Void Dragon was possessing The Twins (unlikely, as their eyes were normal and they didn’t seem to be puppeted)
-The Void Dragon manipulated The Twins’ natural curiosity and artistic flair to surreptitiously create his key, while hiding his true intentions from them (possible, but The Twins likely would know about him and the Primordials by then, and wouldn’t willingly aid in his escape)
-The Void Dragon used some kind of leverage or blackmail, or struck a deal with The Twins (also possible, in my mind the most likely scenario, but it remains to be seen how he did so, i.e. what blackmail he used / what deal he struck)
Also, I wouldn’t call myself the only official theorizer; off the top of my head, The Mocking Dragon, Logi, and Varda Alighieri all fit that job description (I apologize to any other avid theorists whose names I may have missed)
I know, I know, it’s just that usually you are the first one who pops up with a theory. (Also, may I humbly ask, do you guys think my theory a few comments upward is worth noticing? Any feedback besides Varda Alighieri’s?)
@TheUnknownGame I’m honored by your acknowledgement, it was rather unexpected after only one proper theory post. I’m glad you consider me a great theorizer.
If I’m correct, Red lives in the U.S. eastern time zone, meaning that she uploads at her 6am. Still early (at least by my standards, as ‘morning person’ is the antithesis of my being), but not ludicrously, oh-gods-are-you-sure-you’re-getting-enough-sleep early
I think that the actual uploading of new pages is a scripted thing and that Red is making these pages several months in advance of when we will see them, so if she loses sleep it ain’t ’cause she got up at five so we could see her brills work. It’ll be because she stayed up ’till one to complete it.
I love how everyone here keeps saying they get it uploaded at 5 or 11 or 3 AM, while I’m over here thinking, “Yep, for me it’s uploaded at 4 PM. Time zones! Aren’t they crazy!”
@Varda Alighieri you really deserve that, after all, your theory really seems to be what actually is, and it considers with what most of the thinkers suppose. That being said, I think I’ll just have to learn from you guys since I’m no good at analyzing plots. I think this is the last of my comments for a while. Nice speaking with you all! (But after some point I won’t be able to hold myself back and begin posting my wacky ideas again) 😉
It feels like the final boss war put at the beginning of the story instead of the end, but at the same time not due to us not knowing anything about the collector
Hey, so I know I’m very late to the conversation, so instead of ruining the conversation above, I’m just going to throw all of my barely cohesive ideas here.
So here we go
The “Paladins” could be a group Light-Eye’s like beings that serve a god or deity of Light and Creation. This deity that the Paladins serve could possibly be the creator of stars, a great source of light in the dark void of space. This would make for a fairly straight forward conflict between the V.D and Light-Eyes (if they are a Paladin.) The fight between the forces of light and darkness. Another possibility could be that the Paladins might be group of Ancients’ that survived the civil war and took a vow to never let the V.D harm their world again. Of course, this is assuming the V.D was the cause of the civil war. If he didn’t actually cause it then it probably isn’t a possibility.
@Pinewing your theory is pretty solid and really interesting, so I hope you won’t mind me adding a few things. Red did say in one of the info pages that The Twins were really creative and that their curiosity makes them sort of childish, so the V.D probably took advantage of that and gave them the idea for the human race knowing that it would inevitably lead to the key for his escape. “The Change” could be the creation of the first Elemental Magus. Erin did say that they only come around every 100 years or so. The V.D would just have to wait for an Elemental Magus to get confident and curious enough to try to find their way into the storm. Then he would just need to puppet the body down to the adamant prison and free himself. It could also be what Mat said at the top of the page, that the V.D’s essence got trapped in the pedestal.
Another theory I have that isn’t related to the other two at all, but I think might be interesting is that The Collector is an Ancient. This would explain her knifes that seem to use the same type of magic as the pedestal. Her control over the elements, despite not being an Elemental Magus, could be explained by the fact that the Ancients’ lived during the age when the elemental winds still still made Aurora pretty hostile. I don’t really have any ideas to explain why she is immortal, so if anyone has any feel free to share them.
So there is my theory dump. Sorry for making you read all that. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
(I like how you call the planet Aurora, it’s so simple and obvious; I might start calling it that until and unless a canon name is revealed)
This is really solid; the one point that I’ll dispute is The Collector being an ancient, as her appearance doesn’t quite match. She has the long, flowing hair absolutely nailed, but she’s too pale and short to be an ancient, as they were said to be tan and enormously tall
I’m pretty certain the planet is referred to as Aurora throughout a few of the lore pages, and if the prologue is anything to go by, all the ancients had the tan skin tone and pale, silver hair, barring dyes and tattoos if possible.
Ah,ok, thanks. The only thing I can really remember from the prologue is the end bit where V.D is having a temper tantrum. I probably should have rechecked the prologue and lore pages before writing the last theory down. I guess The Collectors backstory is still a mystery, though she definitely has some serious magical abilities, being able to create the chimera, completely cover up Vash (the city) and go into the Caves alone.
Soooo here’s my hypothetical take on what changed, and it ties directly to the ancients.
I think that the ancients did their thing of surviving the supposedly harsh upper surface while the other races stayed in the caves, and built their fancy civilisation with their super duper magical artifacts that powered stuff and all was thoroughly cool. But for whatever reason, the spoken of civil war occurred (two political groups that didn’t like each other, English civil war reasons, I don’t know naaaffink), and on at least one side (probs both, otherwise the war would have been short) they had mages who built magical artifacts that harnessed the power of the void dragon (I don’t know how exactly) to basically make what’s likely the ultimate death ray and wreck each other. Completely unexpectedly this caused the civilisation to lie in ruins and some of VD’s power to start leaking out (or he almost got out I’m not sure). So the survivors made the pedestal in the centre of the storm that Erin thought was broken, which projected the six elements around in a bid to seal away any black energy/dark dragons that could get out. And that’s how the storm was made and all that the humans and elves found of the ancients when they exited the caves (maybe it was the STORM that calmed the winds down allowing said races to exit!) was just sad remnants.
This is a really good theory and it ties in a lot of important things that have happened in the story so far. The only things that I’m going to offer a different cause for is the calming of the winds. Our planet has gone through many different eras, from life only existing in the ocean and the land being an inhospitable wasteland, to there being so much oxygen that the entire planet turned into a rainforest/swamp land filled with huge insects and explosive lightning storms. The winds on Aurora probably slowly disappeared as the years went by in a fashion similar to the one that our planet has gone though, until the surface was hospitable enough for the elves and humans to survive. Though, your theory of The Storm calming the winds could work as well. The Storm could work as a magic magnet of sort, slowly pulling in the most dangerous of the magic winds to surround the pedestal and create a stronger barrier trapping the V.D. Since this is a fantasy world there could be a lot more possibilities.
Other then that little nitpick, your theory pretty solid : )
Thanks!
The one thing I would say about the calming of the winds being slow process is that we have as yet little understanding of how long the planet has existed. One thing worth noting is that evolution does seem to be thing on this planet, but a lot of the starting creatures were just made by the twins (except the elder races and probably the younger races, which were probably just made and haven’t changed much since). I can garner so because dragons all evolved from one base dragon to create numerous species, as said in the Twins’ lore page. Assuming evolution happens at the same rate on Aurora as it does here, then the planet is definitely in the several million, probably at least a few billion years old category, which may allow enough time for the slow calming of the upper winds like you describe. But I find it somewhat unlikely, and I feel evolution may be slightly accelerated compared to us. Probably never know for sure until we get some more lore, but fun to think about either way.
OOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!! So much is making more and more sense!
I know this whole ‘Walter/V.D. takes control of Erin’ situation isn’t exactly good, but boy are we getting some answers!
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of humans being created to serve a purpose like this before, at most it’s usually just a country (Like FMA Mangahood) but never our whole species!
(Also, I just love it when i see humans knocked off their pedestal a bit! Something about humanity is just too arrogant for my liking. It’s not like dolphins are claiming we are the centre of the universe or anything.)
“My Other had other ideas”? I think he means light-eyes who may have given the elder races souls in the prologue. Maybe even the same being that possessed that dragon gold lady was fighting? Are they and V.D. dual primordial beings of creation and destruction?
Back to the page these panels are amazing. Erin’s reaction to this new knowledge of just being V.D.’s tools is great, you can almost feel the realisation creep up in the first panel. That void hand in the fourth panel is a good touch showing V.D. is resuming his control over Erin after that outburst. Finally that image of V.D.’s body reaching out to the surface in the final panel, such malevolence and destruction creeping beneath their feet.
Okay, besides the whole shebang about VD controlling the twins in the prologue, which I get, I’m confused as to what commenters mean by “Light-eyes”. Because I’ve gone back several times to check the first 3 pages and I haven’t seen that character who’s supposedly opposing VD. All I see is the sentience spark erupting within the human then the elves, the Twins looking surprised, and VD yelling at them. Who the hell is Light-Eyes?
The color of the light that appears and color of their eyes when they gain sentience is the same color as the eyes that the dragon PML (punchy metal lady) was fighting in the wasteland glowed when it went weird and said “the dark avatar has risen, the paladins must be warned.” People have connected the 2 with this “Other” that Vidi mentions, thus we have called them Light Eyes, as before we new Vidi’s name or that it was a dragon from Erin’s tattoo a common nickname we called him was Gold/Golden Eyes, so we call them by a similar name. Of course if we eventually see L.E. posses a person and they have light floofy hair, the community will probably call him Light Floof, to match the other pre-name known nickname for Vidi, Dark Floof
TL;DR: Dark floof invented humans, delegated the production to the god bros, which they did. However, they added the new sapience feature, which Dark floof didn’t like. This turned off Dark floof’s admin privileges.
Moral of the story: if you invent it, patent it.
(Side note: re-reading from page 1.19.26 posted on November 25th, 2022. So the “Other” is likely the Dragon of Light, which we have yet to see direct interaction with the main cast. If true that the “other” was there since the dawn of humanity and possibly before, and since gods can only be formed by generations of believers, then it could be theorized that the Light Dragon could be as old as the world, maybe as old or older than VD as well. IIRC, Red posted something on the comic aurora Tumblr about an “Amalgam star” for which little to no information is available. Again, IIRC, the info we do have is that the amalgam star potentially spits out amalgams. I hypothesize that VD and LD are from the same parent, the amalgam star, potentially spawning them at the same time. But this may be wrong and never touched by the comic. Also, is it even relevant that VD and LD are possibly the same age? Probably not for us, but could be revolutionary for in-universe researchers.)
This page explains the prologue, although interpretations vary. Clearly, the theory that one or more of the Twins was actually Voidy is not disproven.
My interpretation: Voidy is issuing feedback and demands to the Twins in the prologue, then, at the moment the Twins get it right, the mortals’ free will awakens, due to the influence of Voidy’s “other,” and Voidy is thwarted.
My theory: The Pedestal is something the Ancients created to shut Voidy up, so it couldn’t keep manipulating the outside world. It’s even possible Voidy itself is still trapped in the world’s core, but it’s able to possess Erin now that he destroyed the mute button.
So, was he bored and just commanded the twins to do the other species or was that just the twins being the twins?
The latter I believe. I can’t imagine him being particularly interested in making a species he would doom to death once he finally got out and ate that damn sun.
V.D.: Everything was going as planned, if only flashing blue eyes didn’t ruin everything…
I’m still not sure V.D. really “controlled” the Twins TBH
Same, I’m pretty sure V.D. most likely manipulated the Twins into doing what it wanted.
On the subject of the Other who almost certainly is Light-Eyes, it seems V.D. lends further credence to my speculations.
I also have a feeling that this “something changed” is gonna be about how V.D.’s essence wound up trapped in the pedestal.
Probably the twins just heard him say, “I have this idea for a new species-“ and took his idea for inspiration.
I’m just loving how Erin is like slowly getting control of his body back, but is too freaked out to really notice.
I think VD was unintentionally letting go a little while being vaguely emotional about how he got shut up inside his enemies’ bodies, and you can see that he’s now doing the talking again in the last panel where he puts a lid on Erin getting freaked out.
I’m holding out hope that Erin is using the conversation to distract VD from his attempts to regain control. I can already see his thought process.
•Cannot move=problem
•VD can hear my thoughts. Corollary: I cannot plan in secret
•I am aware of these facts, ergo VD likes to talk. How arrogant.
•Query: Can VD hear my thoughts over their own voice?
•Hypothesis: I hope not.
He says humans, so humans are special in this regard, or is the term ‘human’ like DBZ’s use of the term ‘mortal’?
According to the lore page “The three elder races”, an elemental magus like Erin has to be human (specifically, an unadapted human – not one of the ones that lives underwater or something). No one of any other race has ever controlled more than three elements. So if VD needs a SINGLE person to free him, it would have to be a human. If he could use a group of people, then any species that could be a mage would do (I’m not sure which species that includes, other than humans and elves).
But probably none of that has as much to do with Erin’s word choice right now as his own mental state. He’s panicky, self-centered and human – so he asks about humans.
I just really love the design of Erin taken over by the void dragon. Look at panel 4! There’s a little black smoke curl in the shape of a hand next to Erin’s hand. It looks amazing and it’s subtle enough that you only notice if you look carefully.
Attention. To. Detail.
Everything from the prologue makes so much sense now. The golden text in those first few pages was VD talking about the creation of humanity by the twins. With them being perfect and susceptible to the elements but not listening to him. It completely changes the perception of those pages.
This is such great storytelling. I absolutly love it.
What is this? The Twins can be controlled by V.D.? So this is the answer to all the questions on the last page. My thoughts are the following: (without further ado, my first time making a good theory)
V.D. is obviously captured in the adamant prison. The Twins know this, so why should he be a threat? Maybe V.D. can speak and be heard only by the ones who are more than mortals, so he subtly lay his plan in their minds (the twins), maybe adding a hint of what great benefits the creation of man would bring. Yet, they did this with not evil in their hearts, but goodness, so man has the will. And since mortal beings can harness the elements in special cases, they might also be able to hold the being of the V.D., but he lost all hope when he knew that men would never be his tool while they are still sane. But what is the change? What changed? Maybe the guy that was created by the Twins in the beginning is the change that probably gave him hope?
This “theory” of mine is probably can be easily destroyed, but still…
Any opinions?
This has elements that coincide with my theory on the previous page; my theorizing there might help you as far as feedback goes.
On first glance, I’m not seeing any particular weak points in your theory.
WAIT! I went back to the beginning! I understand it now! They were creating mortals under V.D’s direct supervision when they accidentally gave the guy a will. HE is the one speaking, and HE is the one demanding: “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” But… how did it get to that? Why were they doing this for him, already knowing who he was?!?! This is more confusing than ever! Can anybody please have mercy and explain?
If you look at the beginning, the humans all have eyes like V.D. until blue glowy eyes appears.
Also, I would like to add to my hysteric shout out that I think that mortals were given a will under V.D.’s supervision because the V.D. voice would say “What’s happening to it? It won’t- Hey listen to me! STOP!” and so on. Also, everyone had their glowy eyes now and everyone started to run everywhere in apparent panic.
There are a number of ways the Prologue’s events can be interpreted. I’ll do my best to be concise.
Yes, the Twins created the Elder Races under V.D’s supervision. We don’t really know what made the Twins collaborate with V.D, but it depends on whether it was conscious and/or voluntary. V.D’s monologue here makes me believe the Twins’ cooperation was either conscious but involuntary, or voluntary but unaware of V.D’s identity and/or motive.
As for the mortals gaining sentience, there are two options: a fluke or a sabotage. I’m skeptical towards the idea of an accident, because how probable would it be for all the bodies developing sentience at the exact moment V.D. found the perfect host? Not very, in my opinion.
Hence the idea of sabotage or some form of intervention. We know the Twins are all about creating new stuff and, as far as I can tell from their limited facial expressions, they seemed just as surprised as V.D. so they’re off the suspect list. That leaves one being that we know is aware of V.D’s existence and could potentially have been thwarting his escape since the Prologue – that being Light-Eyes, as The Lolest mentioned at the top of the comments on this page.
Oh wait yeah “the Paladins must be warned” thing
It’s the most surreal experience waking up at three in the morning and remembering there’s a new page but I’m still half asleep and can’t distinguish reality from my imagination and I’m not wearing my glasses and having to focus really hard on the letters and when I actually wake up a few hours later I barely remember it
I relate, especially after trying to figure this out.
Even without glasses, I don’t want to read this first thing in the morning. It takes a LONG time for me to fully wake up
Without needing glasses, to specify
Hey official theorizer what do you think of all this? *holds the microphone up*
“Official theorizer”, eh?
The Void Dragon revealed he was somehow forcing The Twins to create the elder races. That leaves a few possible scenarios, which others have already stated:
-The Void Dragon was possessing The Twins (unlikely, as their eyes were normal and they didn’t seem to be puppeted)
-The Void Dragon manipulated The Twins’ natural curiosity and artistic flair to surreptitiously create his key, while hiding his true intentions from them (possible, but The Twins likely would know about him and the Primordials by then, and wouldn’t willingly aid in his escape)
-The Void Dragon used some kind of leverage or blackmail, or struck a deal with The Twins (also possible, in my mind the most likely scenario, but it remains to be seen how he did so, i.e. what blackmail he used / what deal he struck)
Also, I wouldn’t call myself the only official theorizer; off the top of my head, The Mocking Dragon, Logi, and Varda Alighieri all fit that job description (I apologize to any other avid theorists whose names I may have missed)
I know, I know, it’s just that usually you are the first one who pops up with a theory. (Also, may I humbly ask, do you guys think my theory a few comments upward is worth noticing? Any feedback besides Varda Alighieri’s?)
@TheUnknownGame I’m honored by your acknowledgement, it was rather unexpected after only one proper theory post. I’m glad you consider me a great theorizer.
Out of curiosity, when does the new page get added for you folks? I get it at 11:00.
I get it at 5am
My mistake, just checked the upload time again, I get it at 3am (see, it gets uploaded so early in the morning that I forgot when it gets uploaded)
3 AM
I usually get it at 5 am , and to be honest it makes me worried about Red’s sleep schedule.
If I’m correct, Red lives in the U.S. eastern time zone, meaning that she uploads at her 6am. Still early (at least by my standards, as ‘morning person’ is the antithesis of my being), but not ludicrously, oh-gods-are-you-sure-you’re-getting-enough-sleep early
I think that the actual uploading of new pages is a scripted thing and that Red is making these pages several months in advance of when we will see them, so if she loses sleep it ain’t ’cause she got up at five so we could see her brills work. It’ll be because she stayed up ’till one to complete it.
12:00 CET. Also I’m pretty sure the publishing is automated
Ah, ok thanks. That makes more sense.
I love how everyone here keeps saying they get it uploaded at 5 or 11 or 3 AM, while I’m over here thinking, “Yep, for me it’s uploaded at 4 PM. Time zones! Aren’t they crazy!”
I must have missed this chapter in On the Origin of Species. =P
@Varda Alighieri you really deserve that, after all, your theory really seems to be what actually is, and it considers with what most of the thinkers suppose. That being said, I think I’ll just have to learn from you guys since I’m no good at analyzing plots. I think this is the last of my comments for a while. Nice speaking with you all! (But after some point I won’t be able to hold myself back and begin posting my wacky ideas again) 😉
It feels like the final boss war put at the beginning of the story instead of the end, but at the same time not due to us not knowing anything about the collector
Hey, so I know I’m very late to the conversation, so instead of ruining the conversation above, I’m just going to throw all of my barely cohesive ideas here.
So here we go
The “Paladins” could be a group Light-Eye’s like beings that serve a god or deity of Light and Creation. This deity that the Paladins serve could possibly be the creator of stars, a great source of light in the dark void of space. This would make for a fairly straight forward conflict between the V.D and Light-Eyes (if they are a Paladin.) The fight between the forces of light and darkness. Another possibility could be that the Paladins might be group of Ancients’ that survived the civil war and took a vow to never let the V.D harm their world again. Of course, this is assuming the V.D was the cause of the civil war. If he didn’t actually cause it then it probably isn’t a possibility.
@Pinewing your theory is pretty solid and really interesting, so I hope you won’t mind me adding a few things. Red did say in one of the info pages that The Twins were really creative and that their curiosity makes them sort of childish, so the V.D probably took advantage of that and gave them the idea for the human race knowing that it would inevitably lead to the key for his escape. “The Change” could be the creation of the first Elemental Magus. Erin did say that they only come around every 100 years or so. The V.D would just have to wait for an Elemental Magus to get confident and curious enough to try to find their way into the storm. Then he would just need to puppet the body down to the adamant prison and free himself. It could also be what Mat said at the top of the page, that the V.D’s essence got trapped in the pedestal.
Another theory I have that isn’t related to the other two at all, but I think might be interesting is that The Collector is an Ancient. This would explain her knifes that seem to use the same type of magic as the pedestal. Her control over the elements, despite not being an Elemental Magus, could be explained by the fact that the Ancients’ lived during the age when the elemental winds still still made Aurora pretty hostile. I don’t really have any ideas to explain why she is immortal, so if anyone has any feel free to share them.
So there is my theory dump. Sorry for making you read all that. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
(I like how you call the planet Aurora, it’s so simple and obvious; I might start calling it that until and unless a canon name is revealed)
This is really solid; the one point that I’ll dispute is The Collector being an ancient, as her appearance doesn’t quite match. She has the long, flowing hair absolutely nailed, but she’s too pale and short to be an ancient, as they were said to be tan and enormously tall
I’m pretty certain the planet is referred to as Aurora throughout a few of the lore pages, and if the prologue is anything to go by, all the ancients had the tan skin tone and pale, silver hair, barring dyes and tattoos if possible.
Seconded; I’m pretty sure according to the lore pages and the Void Dragon (‘another failure’) the Ancients were closed to the elements.
Ah,ok, thanks. The only thing I can really remember from the prologue is the end bit where V.D is having a temper tantrum. I probably should have rechecked the prologue and lore pages before writing the last theory down. I guess The Collectors backstory is still a mystery, though she definitely has some serious magical abilities, being able to create the chimera, completely cover up Vash (the city) and go into the Caves alone.
Soooo here’s my hypothetical take on what changed, and it ties directly to the ancients.
I think that the ancients did their thing of surviving the supposedly harsh upper surface while the other races stayed in the caves, and built their fancy civilisation with their super duper magical artifacts that powered stuff and all was thoroughly cool. But for whatever reason, the spoken of civil war occurred (two political groups that didn’t like each other, English civil war reasons, I don’t know naaaffink), and on at least one side (probs both, otherwise the war would have been short) they had mages who built magical artifacts that harnessed the power of the void dragon (I don’t know how exactly) to basically make what’s likely the ultimate death ray and wreck each other. Completely unexpectedly this caused the civilisation to lie in ruins and some of VD’s power to start leaking out (or he almost got out I’m not sure). So the survivors made the pedestal in the centre of the storm that Erin thought was broken, which projected the six elements around in a bid to seal away any black energy/dark dragons that could get out. And that’s how the storm was made and all that the humans and elves found of the ancients when they exited the caves (maybe it was the STORM that calmed the winds down allowing said races to exit!) was just sad remnants.
Thoughts good folk of the comment section?
This is a really good theory and it ties in a lot of important things that have happened in the story so far. The only things that I’m going to offer a different cause for is the calming of the winds. Our planet has gone through many different eras, from life only existing in the ocean and the land being an inhospitable wasteland, to there being so much oxygen that the entire planet turned into a rainforest/swamp land filled with huge insects and explosive lightning storms. The winds on Aurora probably slowly disappeared as the years went by in a fashion similar to the one that our planet has gone though, until the surface was hospitable enough for the elves and humans to survive. Though, your theory of The Storm calming the winds could work as well. The Storm could work as a magic magnet of sort, slowly pulling in the most dangerous of the magic winds to surround the pedestal and create a stronger barrier trapping the V.D. Since this is a fantasy world there could be a lot more possibilities.
Other then that little nitpick, your theory pretty solid : )
Thanks!
The one thing I would say about the calming of the winds being slow process is that we have as yet little understanding of how long the planet has existed. One thing worth noting is that evolution does seem to be thing on this planet, but a lot of the starting creatures were just made by the twins (except the elder races and probably the younger races, which were probably just made and haven’t changed much since). I can garner so because dragons all evolved from one base dragon to create numerous species, as said in the Twins’ lore page. Assuming evolution happens at the same rate on Aurora as it does here, then the planet is definitely in the several million, probably at least a few billion years old category, which may allow enough time for the slow calming of the upper winds like you describe. But I find it somewhat unlikely, and I feel evolution may be slightly accelerated compared to us. Probably never know for sure until we get some more lore, but fun to think about either way.
OOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!! So much is making more and more sense!
I know this whole ‘Walter/V.D. takes control of Erin’ situation isn’t exactly good, but boy are we getting some answers!
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of humans being created to serve a purpose like this before, at most it’s usually just a country (Like FMA Mangahood) but never our whole species!
(Also, I just love it when i see humans knocked off their pedestal a bit! Something about humanity is just too arrogant for my liking. It’s not like dolphins are claiming we are the centre of the universe or anything.)
I would say, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
“My Other had other ideas”? I think he means light-eyes who may have given the elder races souls in the prologue. Maybe even the same being that possessed that dragon gold lady was fighting? Are they and V.D. dual primordial beings of creation and destruction?
Back to the page these panels are amazing. Erin’s reaction to this new knowledge of just being V.D.’s tools is great, you can almost feel the realisation creep up in the first panel. That void hand in the fourth panel is a good touch showing V.D. is resuming his control over Erin after that outburst. Finally that image of V.D.’s body reaching out to the surface in the final panel, such malevolence and destruction creeping beneath their feet.
Red? Are you a Brandon Sanderson fan? Because the concept of the Void Dragon is reminding me a lot of the worldbuilding in Mistborn . . .
Okay, besides the whole shebang about VD controlling the twins in the prologue, which I get, I’m confused as to what commenters mean by “Light-eyes”. Because I’ve gone back several times to check the first 3 pages and I haven’t seen that character who’s supposedly opposing VD. All I see is the sentience spark erupting within the human then the elves, the Twins looking surprised, and VD yelling at them. Who the hell is Light-Eyes?
The color of the light that appears and color of their eyes when they gain sentience is the same color as the eyes that the dragon PML (punchy metal lady) was fighting in the wasteland glowed when it went weird and said “the dark avatar has risen, the paladins must be warned.” People have connected the 2 with this “Other” that Vidi mentions, thus we have called them Light Eyes, as before we new Vidi’s name or that it was a dragon from Erin’s tattoo a common nickname we called him was Gold/Golden Eyes, so we call them by a similar name. Of course if we eventually see L.E. posses a person and they have light floofy hair, the community will probably call him Light Floof, to match the other pre-name known nickname for Vidi, Dark Floof
When you realize your entire world and existence is just one eleborate scheme to set free a giant , evil dragon bent on destroying the universe
TL;DR: Dark floof invented humans, delegated the production to the god bros, which they did. However, they added the new sapience feature, which Dark floof didn’t like. This turned off Dark floof’s admin privileges.
Moral of the story: if you invent it, patent it.
How did he command the TWINS of all things, and also OOOOOHHHH i understand why the voice on page 1 is the same as the the Dragon’s voice.
alt text: so THAT’S what was happening in the first three pages! quick everyone take notes there might be a quiz later
God this is really interesting. The “Other” is almost certainly the Paladins’ Lady. I’m so curious what her deal is
Image source: tools
(Side note: re-reading from page 1.19.26 posted on November 25th, 2022. So the “Other” is likely the Dragon of Light, which we have yet to see direct interaction with the main cast. If true that the “other” was there since the dawn of humanity and possibly before, and since gods can only be formed by generations of believers, then it could be theorized that the Light Dragon could be as old as the world, maybe as old or older than VD as well. IIRC, Red posted something on the comic aurora Tumblr about an “Amalgam star” for which little to no information is available. Again, IIRC, the info we do have is that the amalgam star potentially spits out amalgams. I hypothesize that VD and LD are from the same parent, the amalgam star, potentially spawning them at the same time. But this may be wrong and never touched by the comic. Also, is it even relevant that VD and LD are possibly the same age? Probably not for us, but could be revolutionary for in-universe researchers.)
People are made by him, this gives Erin chills
The problem was said people’s strangely free wills
This page explains the prologue, although interpretations vary. Clearly, the theory that one or more of the Twins was actually Voidy is not disproven.
My interpretation: Voidy is issuing feedback and demands to the Twins in the prologue, then, at the moment the Twins get it right, the mortals’ free will awakens, due to the influence of Voidy’s “other,” and Voidy is thwarted.
My theory: The Pedestal is something the Ancients created to shut Voidy up, so it couldn’t keep manipulating the outside world. It’s even possible Voidy itself is still trapped in the world’s core, but it’s able to possess Erin now that he destroyed the mute button.