SPOILER [theory/hypothesis] The Olm And The Nether Portal

Hi! I'm back with another theory (or hypothesis) of mine. Now, as you might've guessed from the title, this thread is a little different from my other ones. That is because:

What I'm about to explain is, sadly, not a fully-fledged theory, due to the lack of evidence and information this subject has. Therefore, some may interpret it as a hypothesis. Whatever the case, I decided to make this thread despite the lack of evidence because this is an entertaining thing to think about, and may possibly be true.

If anyone has any additional evidence, feel free to share it.

With that out of the way, I'd like to set up this theory (or rather, two theories) by establishing the following point:

The Nether Portal was not created naturally

For this, let's have a look at the Portal itself.


At first glance, it should be obvious that the Nether Portal isn't something that just came by, or that already existed since Wynn's creation, because:

1. The structure of the portal is very peculiar: an arched gate with strange energy circles wrapping around it. We have never seen anything like this anywhere else in our realm, unless created intelligently.

2. A big point of the Corruption is that it is not natural and came from somewhere else. Wouldn't make sense for the source of all Corruption to be something that's existed since the beginning, no? I've also heard that the Nether Portal may just be a product of the Corruption "seeping in" from wherever it came from (either the Realm of War or the Nether), but this is also wrong. The Corruption is a force of influence, just like Light and Dark and twilight (jk). Forces of influence can't just seep in, they need a catalyst for their manifestation to occur in our realm. For the Light, the portal to the RoL in Gavel allowed it to spread through the province, and for Darkness, it was the same thing, except it was the portal to Dern in the SE that allowed it to appear. So, why would the Corruption be different? Especially since it was not created in our realm, as I said, but came from somewhere else.

3. Remember that before the miners uncovered the Nether Portal, it was completely underground. Why would an arch made out of obsidian just randomly appear (or already be there) underground, let alone be a portal to another dimension as I said?

So, now we've established that the Nether Portal didn't simply "manifest" out of thin air, nor was it there as a natural part of the world since the beginning.

Now, what does this have to do with the Olm? Well, this is where the thread gets a bit more "hypothetical", but I'll try to be as coherent as possible. For this, we'll have to look at the ruins located around the Nether Portal and the Roots of Corruption. Let's start with the Nether Bridge, that connects to the portal in the first place.

Spoiler: Nether Bridge

Now, obviously, this bridge was built before the Corruption came into Wynn, because if anyone tried to build a bridge to the Portal after it was already activated, they'd surely be corrupted or killed beforehand (plus, what kind of idiot would even try to do something like that?). However, I strongly doubt that this bridge was built by the miners who unearthed the Portal, as if it was them, I'd expect something more of a crude log bridge or something of the sort, which would easily crumble as the years passed, not a fully-fledged arched bridge (with decorations, too!). Some may say, "This bridge only exists for gameplay reasons to let us reach the Portal, it doesn't have anything to do with lore", but I disagree, as I'm working with the things the game gives us, and plus, they could just remove the lava river underneath if they felt like it. But if the miners didn't build this bridge, then who did?

This brings me to my second point. If I had to guess, before the Corruption came, this bridge was likely made out of stone bricks (as shown by the reliefs on the sides of the bridge and on the slabs at the top). Know who else likes to build things solely out of stone, and nothing else?

The Olm.

In fact, this wouldn't even be a first for them! Two other bridges I can think of that are suspected of having Olmic origins, the Lost Sanctuary bridge and the Great Bridge (the latter of which is almost certainly Olmic), look very similar to this bridge, even having the Olmic-style stone reliefs, which may remind of the sculptures etched into the Eldritch Outlook.

See why I think the Olm were most likely the ones who built this bridge? We already know that nobody else besides the miners could be valuable candidates, and I've already disproven (or made less probable) the possibility that the miners built it.

This isn't the only Olmic ruin that exists in a suspiciously close proximity to the Portal, though. I'll roll over a few, with the same criteria of: "ancient, made only out of stone, mostly ruined".

Spoiler: Olmic Builds near the Portal

https://imgur.com/a/dNvdyCv

The screenshots of that underground Olmic city are from the Beneath the Roots SD. Notice how there are scaffolds and crates placed by the miners around the old buildings? It, along with the contrast between the miners' wood and the Olmic stone, implies that those buildings were left behind by someone who came before the miners. The architecture also suggests an Olmic origin.

Furthermore, here are two different watchtowers in extremely close proximity, showing the contrast between human architecture and possible Olmic architecture:

Spoiler: Watchtowers

https://imgur.com/a/HKsgL11

Notice how the first picture, the supposedly-Olmic watch tower, is completely overrun by corruption and made out of stone, while the second picture, the human watch tower (which is still in use by the way, there's a passive mob inside) is only partially damaged and made out of wood? This contrast is interesting, to say the least, and it implies that the stone watch tower came before, or WAY before, the wooden one.

Alright, so now we have two big pieces of evidence under our belt: the fitting timeline (the Olm being the only ones who could've built some of the things around the Nether Portal and the only ones who might have a clue as to where it came from), and the suspiciously high amount of Olmic ruins sitting clustered around the Nether Portal (take in mind that the only other major Olmic ruins in the Wynn Plains are the Time Valley and possibly Lost Sanctuary).

I can now draw two hypotheses from these findings:

1. The Olm knew about the Nether Portal's existence.

It could be that they, too, uncovered the Nether Portal or knew about it through other means (possibly with their magic), and built the Nether Bridge, the ruined watch tower and the massive city around it as a means to watch it or protect it.

Yet, this hypothesis on its own barely holds water, as why would the Nether Portal not open as soon as the Olm discovered it? This leads me to my second hypothesis, the one that I personally find WAY more interesting:

2. The Olm MADE the Nether Portal.

Maybe, instead of knowing about the Portal but keeping its existence a secret, they were the ones who created the Portal in the first place? This would tie almost everything together; such as:

1. The Nether Portal not being made naturally, if the Olm made it, it would explain why it looks artificial and intelligently built;
2. The Nether Bridge looking the way it is, the Olm may have built it to get away from the area immediately surrounding the Roots of Corruption or for other reasons;
3. The ruined watchtower in the Roots, maybe built to keep an eye on the Nether Portal after they came out and buried it away;
4. The ruined settlement near the Roots, maybe built as the Olm's first real settlement in Wynn or as a way to again keep an eye on the Portal if anything were to happen;
5. The fact that the dying Olm in the "Timeless Ruin" Secret Discovery calls the Silent Expanse "the Expanse", possibly implying that instead of it being their homeland, they refer to it as an "expansion" of Wynn.

According to this hypothesis, the Olm would've created the Nether Portal to leave the Nether (possibly escaping the Corruption), which since they know runes I wouldn't put past them, built a bridge, then buried the Nether Portal, spreading out to Wynn and the Silent Expanse. This would also somewhat explain why the Olm look so alien and advanced to not just the humans but the rest of the world, were they to come from "somewhere else".

Now that we're at the end of the thread, I'd like to remind you that these two hypotheses are just hypotheses, and while I do hope that we will get some more evidence to either prove or disprove them, I still hold my ground that these two hypotheses (especially the last one) sound EXTREMELY cool.

TL;DR: Considering the timeline and the archeological evidence around the Nether Portal, it can be hypothetically assumed that the Olm either knew of, or made, the Portal.

Thanks for reading!

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

yes.

 

This actually sounds plausible, and even if it isn't real, its really cool regardless

 

What if someone just used flint and steel

 

Pretty sure ''Expanse'' is also used as a word to describe a large area and not an expansion of an area

I think it's more likely that they discovered the nether portal after escaping the Silent Expanse (their home?) and built buildings around it to research it. They discovered that it was unsafe and left it alone. Later, the miners found it and handled it with less caution than the Olm, resulting in the horrible destruction across Wynn that we see today.

I also want to point this out:

The Olm are almost certainly not alien and are likely closely related to Humans and Villagers, evident from Bob likely being a hybrid between a human and an olm. This heavily implies that they are from our realm, though how they would have ended up in the Silent expanse is a mystery

 

Makes sense, but why? Why would they make a portal to basically hell? Was the Nether really better than being in Dern?

 

e

 

I said that they looked "alien" in regards to their strange skin color and how their civilization functions, from their technology to their architecture to their society, and the fact that they can master all four classes (sorry Shaman), with Bob as an example. Iirc no other (intelligent) species in Wynn or Gavel has grey skin. I didn't say they ARE alien, but since the definition of alien is something along the lines of: "person who comes from a foreign land/country", then perhaps they could be, but that is a hypothesis.

I mean, there's also Human-Villager hybrids, which before 900 AP didn't interact at all, didn't know of one another's existence, and the two species don't even share a common ancestor. So, I think anything could happen when it comes to interspecies reproduction. In that case it's not a shocker.

 

Hence ''related to Humans and Villagers''
Just because they live far apart doesn't mean they're not closely related, humans IRL walked to other continents via glaciers

 

That may be the case in real life, but for all we know in the lore the Ocean's existed since the very beginning (or at least, as long as people can remember), because if it ever froze over or just didn't exist at one point, then the lore would be drastically different, with people moving around the provinces far more freely

 

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