SPOILER Wynncraft Theory: Pirate Exiles

A few months ago, I organised an event called the Great Lore Hunt. It was fairly successful, and I was happy with the outcome. Afterwards, however, I looked back on some of our findings and did a bit of investigation. Here is my theory. It’s long and there is no TL;DR. I put many hours into this so if you would give me just a while that would be great. Read it or don’t.

If you don’t like analysis, heavy amounts of text that aren’t colour-coded, this ain’t your thread.

Spoiler: The Theory

One of the areas I searched in the Great Lore Hunt, along with @Parkour_TNT, was the Ragni Peninsula. If you travel from Ragni to Katoa, and take a sharp left along the beach, you can’t miss it. On this giant spur of rock are pirates. Lots of them.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem too odd. However, what are pirates doing on what is basically the outskirts of Ragni? There is also a crucial detail: a shipwreck.

That shipwreck, found by @Parkour_TNT, shows that the pirates didn’t come here willingly. The ship is really damaged as well, rammed into the coast. Also, notice that the pirate camps here are nothing compared to the tunnels and caverns of Pirate Island – this indicates that the pirates aren’t here to set up a Pirate Island version 2. If they wanted to do that, they would have brought more resources and more people.

No, it is my belief that these pirates are exiles from Pirate Island. Why? For one simple reason – a stone circle located next to one of the camps. It seems almost ritualistic. I wondered what its purpose was. Pirates were probably superstitious, but why erect a stone circle on a random spit of land? Then I had a brainwave. In real life, I’m quite interested in mythology and the stone circles at Callanish and Stonehenge. And while they are very mysterious, the general consensus is that they were all used for astronomy. This is a real lead.

Pirates are seafaring folk and aren’t as “developed” as the villagers of Llevigar or even the humans of Troms. Therefore, they use the stars to navigate. A stone circle would be vital if you were stranded on a random piece of land. Line the stones up with the motion of Wynncraft’s “pole star (the whole theory relies on it having one)”, and boom, you find north. You can do this with the sun and moon as well, but bear in mind that these pirates have likely lived their whole life on Pirate Island, and ever needed to use the sun and moon. You might ask why they would need to use a stone circle, then.

This question was a thorn in my side for a while. Why go to the effort of building a circle when you can use the sun and moon? When I’m stuck like this, I often take a walk around important locations on the map. I was strolling through Pirate Island, and then I saw something – or rather an absence of something. Ships.

I went to the wiki and found this sentence:

“Despite being a pirate island, it remains devoid of any ships.”

This backed me up. And I had a lead at last. In the real world there’s something called “selective oral tradition”, which is when a culture learns about things, but only remembers some of them due to an event that wiped out the majority of some pieces of knowledge. The remaining knowledge wasn’t distributed, and people only remember one way of doing things.

I don’t think it’s unlikely that the pirates experienced this. Heck, they’re PIRATES. They definitely made a lot of enemies, right? It would only take one raid on the island, a few deaths, and a good chunk of knowledge would be gone – even if that knowledge was as simple as “the sun rises in the east”. Hence why they would not have known this, hence why they couldn’t navigate in daytime, hence why they are more fearful of travelling, hence the lack of ships.

Alright, we’ve cleared up that the stone circle was used for navigation of the seas, and that the pirates of the peninsula built one for this purpose. But, if a circle is used for navigation, where do they want to go? Well, in my opinion, they want to go where they came from.

Let’s hypothetically say I’m right – they aren’t here by their own choice. There are two reasons why they could be on the peninsula:

1) They got lost, their ship got wrecked, and they want to get back home.

2) They were kicked out of Pirate Island.

Now I believe that without a doubt, 100% certainly, it was option 2. Why? Because they are attacking the manor.

From the Old Man located in the manor, we learn that we must defend the manor from the pirates attacking it. But if the pirates are stranded here against their will, why would they attack the manor? Well I believe there are two reasons, and both of them may be true. First off is the food supply. We are given the ability to harvest the Old Man’s crops after we defend the manor. If you are shipwrecked, food won’t last forever. The pirates may be trying totake over the manor because they need food.

Secondly, and more interestingly, is the position of the manor. Tha manor is located rightat the end of the peninsula. It looks over the ocean, and would be a fantastic watchtower. But what really supports my theory is that it points towards Pirate Island. Maybe the Pirates want it so that now they know where the island is (the stone circle, remember?), they can charter course there once they get a ship.

It was at this point I realised something that almost made me give up. The shipwreck, the hinge for all our discovery, was on the opposite side of the peninsula to Pirate Island. This had me stumped for the longest time, almost a month! One night, I stayed awake until 1.30 in the morning because of this stupid factoid. Why would the wreck be on the other side of the peninsula if they were kicked out from Pirate Island?

Remember what I said earlier on about pirates having made a lot of enemies due to being, well, pirates? Well this was where I found my way out of this quandary. Let’s say I’m right, and that the pirates on the peninsula were kicked out of pirate island, were sailed to this spit of rock, and were rammed into it. If that’s the case, the pirates from the island who were sailing them there wanted them to die. They wanted them to die for whatever it was that they were exiled for. In that case, it would make a ton more sense to put them on the other side of the peninsula – much, much closer to Corkus and Legendary Island. This would mean if the exiles could somehow rebuild a ship and set sail, they would land at the wrong island, and be executed because civilians hate pirates. A death trap.

Then, of course, came the question, what were they exiled for? Well, I think they tried to rebel. I don’t know why, but presumably they had a disagreement with the other pirates. And this is where I started to speculate really hard. If that was the reason for their exile, could it have something to do with the lack of ships at Pirate Island?

I had a hunch, that the exiles had commandeered the ships as part of the rebellion plan. I mean, why else would there be no ships at the island? Almost every other inhabited island has them, other than the Ice Islands, but that’s because the people there are isolationist. Selchar, Mage Island, even the Volcanic Islands have them. And it seems to me that Pirate Island would definitely be the place for ships – they’re pirates, for goodness’ sake!

I decided to go on a bit of a hunt around the peninsula, trying to see what I could find. While there, I found ANOTHER tidbit of information that factors in to this already complicated theory. Under the stone circle is a prison, and a room full of valuables. Now the valuables were an awkward problem for this theory. If the exiles were wrecked on the peninsula, they wouldn’t have been able to take riches with them. But I remembered that down the coast, right next to Katoa, is a cave, full of “Larkster Pirates”. I believe they are part of the exiled group, and have been stealing from Ragni, and Katoa, in order to acquire currency. Two questions arise here:

1) What is the evidence for the Larksters being exiles as well?

2) Why do they and their buddies at the manor need this currency?

The answer to the first question can be found in the Larkster Den itself – the maps and drawings. There are tons of them, strewn across tables, hung up on walls – exactly the thing you’d see in a rebel camp. Those plans are likely for the overthrow of Pirate Island – the rebellion plan.

The second question took me a while, but when I thought of something I slapped myself for not thinking of it sooner. A ship! That’s what they need to buy with this emerald/gold! Thy can’t ask for help with the pirates near Nemract – they’re probably in cahoots with the island, so they have to get one themselves.

Already, we’ve covered so much ground. This is a break in the theory. If you need the toilet, go now. Get something to eat, preferably a protein bar. Things are about to get crazy.


RECAP TIME

So I’ve figured out why the pirates are hoarding money for a ship. They want the ship so that they can get off the peninsula and continue rebelling against Pirate Island. They want to rebel because…. That’s what I need to find out next.

Why do pirates want to rebel against other pirates? Beats me. But think back to what I said a while back in this theory? I’ll quote myself here (that says some bad things about me):

Then, of course, came the question, what were they exiled for? Well, I think they tried to rebel. I don’t know why, but presumably they had a disagreement with the other pirates.

I stick by this. I doubt they thought “what they are doing is wrong let’s go”. Pirates don’t strike me as the kind of people to question morality – they’re murderers. So what did they disagree on? Well to answer this question I think we need to look at the peninsula itself. I mean – why the peninsula?

There are so many islands, so many places, and honestly the peninsula seems a bit lame. Its not the hardest place to survive. There’s water, fish, a manor to take over, and its near Katoa so as long as you can raid you have free food! My point is that if you want to maroon a group of people so that they die, the peninsula isn’t the place to do it. So why the peninsula? Why did the pirates think the exiles would die on this piece of land? I wondered about this for a bit, and then struck gold. Or should I say purple crystal.

In the middle of the manor is a huge purple crystal that juts out of the ground. It looks like something you’d see in Dern or the Silent Expanse. I wondered, just maybe…

Was this crystal the reason that the pirates exiled the rebels here? In Wynncraft, crystals normally mean magic, and often danger. But if the crystal is deadly enough for the pirates to think it would wipe out the exiles, why aren’t they dead yet?

This seems a bit far-fetched, but there’s a detail about the manor some people might not have noticed. The invisible barrier blocks around the back of it. Now you could say this is just the CT not wanting people to climb on top of the manor – but frnakly that’s a little silly. I doubt the CT were thinking “I’m gonna put some barriers here so that people can’t get on top of this building.” There aren’t any secrets on the roofs, round the back, nothing. You can still get past the manor, but not if you are inside it. Which makes me think this manor has magical protection that stops the crystal’s influence from spreading.

More evidence for this is in the fact that we know crystals warp the land around them when uncontained, and yet this one has done nothing of the sort. You might say “oh that’s just a certain colour of crystal which warps land”, and maybe you’d be right. But we know that at least the purple crystals do.


And it’s a purple crystal in the manor. Coincidence?


So there’s magical protection around it, MagmaMelon? What about the old man, how is he not affected? Well, let me say this. Someone who could be in close proximity to a crystal (like 5 blocks away), would have to be INSANELY powerful to survive and not go mad. So this old man may be more than he seems.

But then, you ask, why can’t he deal with pirates? That’s a good question. The only reasonable explanation would be that he is testing you, but… wait a second.


I am about to list a few things. Before you continue, try to link them up in your mind. This will be important.

1) Nilrem

2) Purple Crystal

3) Nesaak Armour Merchant

4) Pirates

5) Training Recruits

6) Sealed Letters

7) Tower of Ascencion

8) Nesaak Discovery

Ok. Those things seem so random and you’re probably having an existential crisis over the “Nesaak Armour Merchant”.


Let me explain.

Nilrem is powerful. Probably an immensely powerful mage judging that his name is “Merlin” backwards. Nilrem knew Bob. Bob was very old and therefore Nilrem probably is too. We know this because of the sealed letters from the discovery in Nesaak. Bob told Nilrem to train the recruits. He also gave Nilrem “an item of power”. The Sealed Letters discovery is in Nesaak, near the Tower of Ascencion. The tower has a purple crystal at the top, as evidenced by the telescope discovery and by eyesight alone. Nilrem’s job is to “test”. The Nesaak armour merchant sells a piece of armour called “Nilrem’s curse”.

Now compare the Nesaak situation with the manor situation: the Old Man is immensely powerful. He is certainly old. A crystal has sprouted in the centre of the manor. A purple crystal. It seems to be concealed from spreading a curse to the land. Hence magical barriers, perhaps brought about by an object of power. When faced with pirates, the man wants you to deal with them, almost like he is training and testing you.

That is not coincedence. All the similarities. You will never be able to convince me these are unconnected when there are, hmmm, 6, yes 6 connections!

So, what does this means. It means a lot, frankly.

1) The Old Man is Nilrem (goodbye Old Man Martyn theory ☹)

2) The crystal is very dangerous.

3) The pirates want to break into the manor, possibly because of the draw of the crystal.

4) Nilrem is doing his part in helping us.

5) He has the “object of power”.


This theory, to me, has reached new levels. Screw the pirates for a minute! We are talking big stuff here. This went from a cool, hypothesis on pirates to why this object of power is literally the MOST important thing right now!

If that object of power is lost and/or runs out of power, the crystal will spread. Then… goodbye, Ragni. Witherhead released. Katoa cut off. That means no food. Crystal influence spreads. Maybe hits Time Valley and does some weird stuff. Spreads to all of Wynn and we have Silent Expanse Version 2.

Could it be that this is the dark beast’s plan? Plant a crystal on a far off piece of land, not travelled but close enough to do damage quickly, and watch as it takes over Wynn? Imagine what a thorn in his side Nilrem must be. Nilrem can’t train us more because the crystal needs a guard. You saw what the other purple crystal did to the Ice Canyon. All the land, the creatures, twisted and warped.

Will that be the fate of Wynn?

Wow. We’ve covered a lot. Almost two theories, rather than one!

So as I said there will be no TL;DR. I don’t approve of those things in theory threads. This theory isn’t exactly the best, but I always feel that way when I write one. Remember, this is a theory. This is not me saying that I am definitely right. I am happy to debate with you, but please keep the comments civil.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I don’t know if I’ll do another theory by the end of the holidays. I have some ideas stirring in the back of my mind.

In case you missed the anouncement, the GLI has been put on hold. It hasn’t been cancelled, but you probably won’t see it for a couple of months.

 

Damn, this theory went from 1 to 100 slowly.
From "Pirate shipwreck" and "Pirate stone circles" to "The Dern Beast is trying to damage Wynn with a far-away purple crystal".
And I didn't notice any of those details through 6 years of playing. GG
Overall, it was very interesting to read, and I'll be waiting and looking for more theories!

 

nice theory about old man is nilrem, wow...

 

Do you have an image of that circle, it may just be something else, because if you look around the ocean there are many other pirate ships/areas, just south of corkus there's some avos camps

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Also, on the same wiki page it is said that there is a form of travel, airships,

So this probs means pirates kinda just moved on from using ships. Also, in many quests it is seen that pirates do have ships, they're probably just out on the ocean doing whatever pirates do, remember, having your ship docked is essentially a target, so it makes sense to just be on the move

I'll add some more tidbits later, but yeah I have pretty big doubts there's a meteor by katoa ranch, because we would also see the same terrain as around ToA, but it looks mostly natural. Plus it's quite common to see places barriered off for no reason, it's pretty much a meme at this point

 

That was the evidence for why it had been blocked off.
That piece of evidence is strong, even if the barrier block thing isn't.

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Thank you!

 

brilliant, really liked it, don't know what else i can say to show how good that it is! BUT, I think you need to give up making theories aaaannnnndddd just sort of - you know..... write all the lore for wynncraft, cause that was good but I have a little doubt that content team but this much thought into such small details, especially when you have a look at the state the lore is all in now. Brilliant work!

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The terrain around the ToA is relatively natural, just big ICE SPIKES and SNOW piled up on the ground. As far as I'm aware, we don't know when the ToA was built or when that crystal was placed there, could it be Theorick, like Nilrem, acted as a defender and froze the canyon, too, though to stop the darkness not the corruption? However I do not know whether ice magic has the same effect on the darkness as it does on corruption....

 

These are two different discoveries

Otherwise great theory! (even though I didn't read it whole)

 

Dude, thank you so much for this nice reply. It's very unlikely that the CT thought about all this, of course - but its just so fun to think about all the "pointless" details. Again, thanks for being so supportive. It takes a ton of time to make these, as i'm sure you can imagine, and so its really nice when someone appreciates it.

 

Very nice theory. However, I want to raise another theory regarding the Pirates, notably the lack of ships in the Pirate's Cove. I think the lack of ships is due to a raid, not by a rebellion, but by a foreign power. Think about it, we found pirates in all strange corners of the ocean: Gateway Island was afaik discovered by a pirate, Jofash Dock had a pirate undead which dropped the map to Gateway Island, Llevigar had a pirate's treasure hid within one of its monuments, Nemract had a whole group of pirates including Honip, and what about the other islands which don't seem to have any pirate influence? Let's run them through.
- Zhight Island: Honestly, Zhight is probably rich enough to afford a private army of his own to fend off the pirates.
- Volcanic Island: These islands had nothing of value (that the pirates knew of, emphasis on that) to loot. Also, WynnExcavation would stomp them.
- Selchar: Same as Zhight Island, they can probably muster a strong enough army to fend them off if they wanted to.
- Skien's Island: Just suicide.
- Maro Peaks: Again, nothing of value on these islands, also too hard to climb and filled with weird mobs.
- Dead Island: Nothing of value, once again.
- Mage Island: Probably could be fended off by the mages living on the island, since they were strong enough to sink an entire village under the water.
- Durum Isles: The only "wealth" these islands have is in wheat, not gold or any other kind of riches.
- Half-Moon Island: Too dangerous.
(Not including the Ice Nations as they WERE plundered by undead pirates, which still counts.)
There is also another island that has never felt any pirate influence, despite its proximity to the Pirate's Cove: Corkus. And that's what I was trying to reach here. At first, Corkus seems like a haven for pirates: it's gigantic, very wealthy, torn apart by a mech rebellion, the two main species that live in it aren't on good terms, and Corkian civilians aren't exactly the best at fighting (the player was able to ravage the entire Corkus Dock while drunk). But there are no pirates here. Why? Well, I have two theories as to why:
1. Corkus was stronger than they thought. The pirates could've tried to raid Corkus with their fleet, but found far more resistance than they wanted, and thus got annihilated, hence the lack of ships in the cove itself.
2. Dr. Legendary intervened. See, here's the thing about Dr. Legendary. He might be weird, he may be crazy, and he may be dumb. But the mechs that he creates are STRONG. Very strong. Also, he's loyal to the Corkian government. He could've deployed his mechs to screw the pirates over, either on sea or at their cove, which would also explain the lack of ships.

Now, onto your next point: the Pirates near the mansion are exiled rebels. If my first point is true, that Corkus destroyed the pirate fleet one way or another, then your point is incorrect, as your rebellion theory is based on the fact that there are no ships in the cove (you mentioned the rebellion taking all the ships for themselves). In fact, I like your "shipwrecked pirates" idea better. There are many ways this could've happened:
1. The pirates were trying to escape Corkus/Dr. Legendary's onslaught of pirate ships and got shipwrecked near the island.
2. The pirates were looking for somewhere to plunder and got shipwrecked on accident.
3. The pirates took a look at the mansion, thought it was gonna be full of riches, tried to dock close to the mansion and had a botched docking, therefore shipwrecking them.
4. The crystal's influence managed to either mess with the pirates' minds or with the ship, therefore forcing them to shipwreck.
That the pirates aren't rebels, would also explain why the ship had treasure on it, and why the pirates who are attacking the mansion even have weapons and artillery on them (ever thought of that? Why would they arm exiled pirates with swords and bombs?)

Now, onto the next point:

First off, I still believe that the "objects of power" Bob was talking about in the Sealed Letters to Nilrem were the pieces of Relic Armor that sometimes dropped alongside the sealed letters, back when Relics still existed, but I might be wrong on that, and I will not grasp onto this theory as much as possible.
Also, you mentioned the fact that the mansion was surrounded by barriers for no apparent reason, and said that this might've been because the "object of power" made a shield around the mansion which contained the crystal. I actually visited the mansion because of this thread, and noticed that the crystal didn't expand beyond a round fence that was built around it. Why doesn't the fence have barriers instead of the outside of the mansion? Why isn't the crystal expanding beyond the fence, if it's not containing it? I honestly think the barriers were just something the CT did, without minding the lore or stuff like that. After all, if there were no barriers, you could just get into the mansion without fending off the pirates first, which I'm pretty sure was why the barriers are there in the first place.

Next point:

Hmm, it's almost as if you're describing... the Tower of Ascension! The Ice Canyon is a far off piece of land, protected from the rest of the Nesaak Tundra by corrupted sentinels and a gate. Furthermore, if you even wanted to climb the tower, you'd run into resistance by the extremely powerful mobs that "Death" and Ankou placed there. Now, I don't have a solid theory on why and how the ToA was built since we don't have much evidence for it (maybe it was built to contain the crystal? maybe "Death" or Ankou built the tower to protect the crystal from anyone who wanted to destroy it, therefore making it impossible to destroy, which will just lead it to successfully corrupt the Canyon and beyond). It's possible that the Dernic Beast sent "Death" and Ankou as envoys to protect the crystal, OR that the crystal caused "Death" to go on an insane rampage (this is mentioned somewhere, I don't remember where) before cooping up at the top floor of the Tower.

Also, the Crystal located in the mansion could be a wide array of things, such as:
- An extraterrestrial crystal, like the ones in Lake Gylia all the way over in Gavel
- A stripped corruption spike (it has the same shape)
- A fragment of the Purple Crystal Shard from WynnExcavation Site B (dunno why it would be this lol, just brainstorming, maybe the old man yanked it from the twain mansion)

Also, is there any evidence that purple crystals corrupt the land around them? I'm not contesting your claim, my memory is a bit, eh, so maybe I missed something. The only purple crystals I remember are the ones from Purple and Blue and the one from Site B, neither of which have any corrupting properties.

 

Wow! thank you for this reply.

It's true that we do find pirates all over the place, and so I think your first point is plausible at least.
I don't agree with your point on relic armour, because it's not longer canon, as you said.
As for the ToA... I wonder why it was built. That might be a theory in and of itself for another day.

 

I just wanna thank you foryour work :). Really nice theory, will check the old man and the pirates rn. I coudnt participate on the Great Lore Hunt because of timezones, but if you ever need someone to search some areas you can ask me. Also, pls be hired by the CT to improve wynns lore and make new updates be faster and with greater lore cohesion.

 

Thank you so much.
I don't think I'm old enough for the CT yet. In fact I'm only 12 (that's not even old enough for an account here pls don't ban me).

 

If you are such a great theorist now, I want to see your theories after 5 or 10 years

 

Thank you, although I don't think I'm that good compared to some of the theorists like Spyrohawk and stuff.
Yeah, I'm improving all the time, and I'm excited for the years ahead.

Also, you were one of the best people on the Great Lore Hunt team. You found some pretty interesting stuff.

Have a good day :)

 

What about the Purple Crystal in the Void?

It's confirmed to have something to do with the Sky Islands floating, and the Void people use it as an energy source.

I think that all of the Purple Crystals are separate. The House of Twain one is a part of the four elemental WynnEx crystals, the ToA crystal is connected to cosmic magic, as looking at it makes you sick, and it's the Tower of Ascension, related to the sky, and as I said the Void crystal is about the Sky Islands and such.

And as for the barriers blocking the house off until you finish the pirate battle... it's just too far-fetched to say that the crystal would have a shield to contain its power in my opinion. Like, the Wynn team just wanted to make a secret defense battle. What would be the point if you could enter the mansion before you defeated the pirates?

 

I agree with your first point, but only to an extent. I think that even though all the purple crystals are unique, they do have one thing in common - obviously their colour. In the whole crystal lore idea, colour is stressed as being important. I think that the purple ties them together, even if their effects are slightly different.

That being said, I think that all the crystals you mentioned have another common trait - they all (with the possible exception of the WynnEx crystal, though it could too) alter the surroundings. And my point is that the only thing that could really stop the manor crystal for doing this trait.

Frankly, there is one thing I really don't understand about your reasoning. First you said that you think "all the crystals are separate", and then you went on to say how some of them are linked to the sky, hence contradicting your earlier point.

Also, yes, the theory is fairly far-fetched as theories go (or at least that part of it). But even if the CT weren't thinking about it like that (which in all fairness I don't think they were), it's still a cool THEORY as to why something is the way it is in the Wynn universe.

Have a good day :)

 

They were separate. The ToA crystal may have cosmic magic, related to the space and sky (or mostly just space tbh, I shouldn't have even put the word "sky" there), and the Void crystal is linked to how the Sky Islands are floating, not the sky itself. The Sky Islands are actually at ground level or a bit higher (not in the sky), it's only that the Void islands have fallen below. Sorry if I didn’t present the points clearly enough.

But yes, they do alter their surroundings in every case and that's surely correct. Still, I wouldn't straight up think that the peninsula crystal is a Dernic one, and that the old man is Nilrem. The "item of power" is possibly the Corrupted Treasure, as Nilrem was suppoded to fake Bob's death and create a "test" as you said. This "test" could and might be Bob's Reincarnation.

Still, theories are theories, we can't know things for certain, and overrall this is a really good one you've constructed.

 

Oh I see. That makes a ton more sense and your argument was actually valid.
Yeah, nothing's for certain, but in my opinion there's a fair bit of evidence (outlined in the theory), as to why its possible.
Thanks.

 

I wouldn't say best, but thanks.

Have a nice day too!

 

I said "one of the best". Everyone played their part very well.
No problem :)