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Get a Clue #2- Arc Three

It’s been a long time since you’ve gotten a clue! In our first Get A Clue article, we described some of the real life inspirations for Wizard101’s Darkmoor side world. This time, we’ll be looking at the storyline of Arc Three as a whole, with a focus on potential worlds within the Grandfather Spider Arc. Please note that this article is going to be filled with a lot of theorycrafting, or educated guesses, at where the game may be going. As the entirety of Arc Three has yet to be released, there’s no telling how accurate our theories will be. Be warned, this article may be a bit longer or wordier than usual. Without further ado, let’s get a clue!

The Main Characters

It’s no secret that the Third Arc’s main cast include Grandfather Spider and Grandmother Raven, along with their three children: Bat, Rat and Scorpion. We’ve already met both Rat (Rasputin) and Scorpion (Xerxes). It’s likely that Bat will be the next villain of the next world. The first question that should be asked is ‘Why did KingsIsle specifically choose these animals?’ Raven was a default character as we had been introduced to her long before Arc Three ever existed. The other four animals may seem random at first, with a potential theme of ‘nasty’ or ‘evil’ animals. However, that’s not quite a complete answer. Where else might the answer lie? We’ve got a clue it might lay within Australian Aboriginal culture. 

Grandfather Spider

The easiest part to prove is the relevance of Grandfather Spider. Maybe you’ve played through the Khrysalis orb quest (our guide is here) or read a little bit of the story behind Grandfather Spider. However you came at the information, you’ll know that Grandfather Spider was one of the people that wove the Spiral together, bringing it to existence. This implies that Grandfather Spider is older than the Spiral universe itself and was probably something similar to an omnipotent spirit as opposed to a physical being. He claims to have woven the stars and spiral together. This is a direct reference to the creation story involving Grandmother Spider. Grandmother Spider brought the world into creation in the same way that Grandfather Spider describes. There’s almost no doubt that Grandfather Spider represents Grandmother Spider from Aboriginal creation lore.

For more information on Grandmother Spider, check here as a starting point.

The Children

Next to identify are the children: Bat, Rat and Scorpion. There is a creation story involving the Rainbow Serpent. This is a creation deity that was said to have made the rivers, streams, ravines and mountains themselves by slithering throughout the universe. However, it is also said that a bat and a scorpion were also involved in the creation story.  Some variations claim Rainbow Serpent took on these forms, others discuss Serpent being born alongside Bat and Scorpion, a kangaroo-rat sometimes playing varying roles in the story. This means that, theoretically, all of Grandfather Spider’s children have been accounted for. The Scorpion, Bat and Kangaroo-Rat (changed to just a rat in the Wizard101 universe) all fall into the Rainbow Serpent creation story.

Alright, but that’s basing a lot off of a story about a Serpent that probably doesn’t exist in the Spiral universe. And that’s where you would be mistaken. While it’s not likely that we’ve met a Serpent character in Wizard101, players of Pirate101 may remember a certain Serpent character in Cool Ranch. Sister Snake is a spiritual being located in Cool Ranch, and asks the Pirate player to enter the spirit world. This spiritual being could very well be the ‘serpent’ figure mentioned in the story above. That, and the fact that the snake itself is tri-colored may make it seem like it is a ‘Rainbow’ Serpent. This may be a stretch, but there’s no coincidence that the snake in Pirate101 was largely spiritual with spirit world capabilities expected of a powerful being.

For more information on Rainbow Serpent, check this as a starting point.

 

Further Supporting Evidence and Future World?

There’s also little doubt that wizards may one day visit the world of Wallaru, Jaki Whisperwind’s home world. Balance wizards who have taken her spell quests will have come to know her upbeat Australian voiceover. If we take into account this accent, along with the rest of the decor in her room, we get an even clearer idea of how the story might fight together and what Wallaru’s inspiration may stem from. In her room at the Arcanum, we find such items as a big canoe and a dreamcatcher, as well as a natural wooden theme, with totem poles ever-present. All of these items fall into the same Aboriginal culture. Therefore, we can say that Wallaru will draw from an Australian Aboriginal culture. This would match the origin of the Spider and Serpent creation stories above.

This could mean that Wallaru will be one of the next worlds for wizards to explore, though it’s hard to determine where it will fall. I can say with some certainty that it doesn’t seem like it will be a side world. After all, Wallaru draws from similar aspects and origins as the main plot of the Third Arc’s storyline. Aside from that justification, it’s tough to say where in the usual slotting of 5 worlds per arc it will fall.

Plot Moving Forward

What does this mean for the Third Arc’s story? We’re not able to say for sure. There are a couple of aspects that could be useful in pinpointing potential plot points moving forward. For example, there is a story in which Spider weaves a web to save [The Hopis] from a world being flooded in water. This source here also references four lower worlds in which the Hopis cause chaos and disorder. There are two important points to draw out from this story.

Two Key Factors

1. The mentioning of four lower worlds. Does this sound familiar to Wizard101’s storytelling? Yes, of course! It’s little secret that both the first two arcs of Wizard101 included five main worlds. Wizard City through Dragonspyre, then Celestia through Khrysalis, finally settling with Polaris and Mirage so far for the most recent arc. This is important because the story itself implies that there will be four worlds deemed as ‘lower’ sometime in our story. It doesn’t specifically mention a fifth world resolution. However, judging by Wizard101’s storytelling so far, it would be most likely that there is a fifth world culmination after these ‘four lower worlds’ have been visited and tampered with by the player. Admittedly, though, it seems as though wizards are fixing the worlds rather than tampering with them at this point in the game.
2. The Spider saving the people from a flood. The story references people (Hopis in the story, the wizard players in Wizard101 terms) being saved by Spider during a flood. Perhaps Spider himself will save our wizard after exploring another one of these last two ‘lower’ worlds? Grandfather Spider has been known to help us before, despite his nefarious purposes. In addition, it’s strange that Grandfather Spider has done a lot of threatening to the player, but has noticeably done the wizard player little direct harm. Perhaps saving the wizard isn’t so far fetched after all. In addition, the mechanic of ‘breaking’ a world was already explored in the previous arc. Azteca becomes in the process of being destroyed by the comet Xibalba. The only world that makes sense for a watery type of breaking to me, seems like ‘The Broken Shores’. Again, it still seems very oddly similar to the Grandmother Spider story to be a coincidence.

 

Theories on Next World

Admittedly, there’s not a lot to go off of for trying to figure out the next two worlds. Assuming this theory is correct to some degree, we know that there are at least four worlds with a probable culmination fifth. Polaris was the first, Mirage was the second… The only names that keep repeating themselves in the Third Arc are Wallaru, Broken Shores, and Empyrea. I would argue that Wallaru will be one of the last two worlds, due to its strong ties to Australian Aboriginal culture that we’ve already discussed. As such, it seems too strong a connection to place in slot three for example. That leaves Broken Shores and Empyrea. I would say that the Broken Shores has too much mystery behind it still. I’m doubtful that that’s going to be the world’s name itself, but rather a nickname. Therefore, I’d say Empyrea is next.

We really don’t know a lot about Empyrea. Notably, it seems to be related to the sky as there is a quest in Wysteria that specifically asks for ‘Sky Squid Ink’. The only other information that we can probably assume based off name itself is that the world will be modeled after some sort of Empire. If we go off this premise, we have to consider what empires have already been covered. A quick google search of the world’s biggest empires resulted in this nifty resource showing the British Empire, the Russian Empire and the Mongol Empire. Both Britain and Russia have very distinct game equivalents, Marleybone and Polaris respectively. I believe the most likely choice is the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire was most notable for the rising of Genghis Khan himself, a figure which doesn’t seem to have an exact equivalent in the Spiral as of yet. 

Mongols

There’s another reason why I believe the Mongol Empire may be what Empyrea is drawing inspiration from. A trio of characters in Mirage, Ricky, Tiki and Taffy are the only three characters of their species that we’ve met in the Spiral so far. They’re most obviously a mongoose-esque species, pointedly called ‘Mongus’ in the game (as their instance in which you fight them is called the ‘Mongu Reserve’). However, they look nothing like any of the snakes, djinnis, or anything else in Mirage. If we connect Empyrea with Empires, would it be beyond KingsIsle to use this pun and have mongoose characters called ‘Mongus’ represent the Mongolian Empire? I’m of the belief that KingsIsle would certainly do that. For further proof, take a look at some of the ‘traditional mongolian clothing‘. Don’t they seem very familiar and distinct from anything else we’ve seen in the Spiral?

 

Get a Clue Summary

In conclusion, there are a lot of theories bouncing around here, but many of them fall into the same general category of creation and Australian Aboriginal culture. There are just too many similarities within both the story and the worlds we’ve visited so far for it all to be a coincidence. This is a Get a Clue article because I don’t believe these are wild guesses, and that there’s a high chance that some of what was discussed was factored into KingsIsle’s writing. Moving forward, Get a Clue may in fact remain just like this. We don’t know exactly what KingsIsle draws from when writing their storylines and characters, so we can only take educated guesses. In the articles to come, we’ll do research like we’ve done here and attempt to explain potential inspirations for the game you love to play.

 

What do you think of the Third Arc so far? Do you think these theories are correct? What information have you seen that contradicts the arguments here? Leave a comment below!

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