SPOILER SPOILERS FOR 2.0 FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Theory: What happened to Bob?

Bob has, for a long time, been a rather mysterious character. However, over the years, more has come out about him. Recently, we've learned about a couple new friends of his.

First, I'll quickly cover Farcor, since he hasn't got much to do with this theory but he is a new part of the Bob lore.

In the new secret discovery, "Above the clouds", Farcor thanks the player for sticking around after their acquisition of Wealth Or Knowledge and tells them of 1 other person who did stick around. When asked further, he tells of a man who came to ask questions and stayed around for a while to keep inquiring. He says that he was going to embark on a dangerous adventure. With the old camp on Farcor's cloud that contains the weapon of each of the original 4 classes, this is almost certainly referring to Bob. When Wealth or Knowledge is taken to the Llevigar's library secret discovery and used on the enchanting table, the archivist approaches you and tells you that the book has been missing for a long time. He also describes a man who came to do research and left eventually.

Next up is Fantastic Voyage, which leads into the main theory.
Relend now has a reason to be going on his great adventure across the sea, as it turns out Bob was his friend and they went to Gateway Island together. Relend wants to see Bob again and make sure he's okay. While you're both trying to survive, Relend also asks you to prepare things with which to search for Bob. You go to the portal inside the island as usual, and instead of being taken to the "Gateway realm", you are instead taken to an area that looks suspiciously similar to the Silent Expanse.



In the end, you and Relend are suddenly teleported into a vision of the Eye. It speaks in wynnic, rapidly damages you both, and then you find yourself alone in the Abandoned mines and the quest ends.

When the Wynnic is translated, here's what he has to say:


There's a key word in there

"Another"

This obviously implies that someone has attempted this before and was spotted. The only other person we know to have done this is Bob.

So that settles it right? Bob was simply detected by the Eye and killed doing this.
I don't think so.
Notice how you and relend both take rapid, near-fatal damage and are then separated. Most people assume that Relend is dead because he doesn't return to his ship after the quest, but this could simply be due to his inability to return.

At the end, the player emerges from (i believe) a void hole in the Abandoned Mines. This means that void holes may have been used to transport you both. Void holes are able to take you to the Void, and possibly other realms, so it may just be a stroke of luck that you ended up there and not elsewhere. Maybe you were put into the wrong void hole? I think Relend was actually sent to Dern for questioning. As for the rapid damage, this could be to weaken the intruder so that they can't fight back. I really hate talking about void hole lore since it's really confusing but I had to for this specific scenario.

So why did Bob do this?

If you notice the red dern spikes above the area, you'll realise that they look very similar to the ones in the Pathway to Darkness. An argument can be made that these ones have purple energy around them and there aren't any soul sand spikes nearby, but this seems a little overspecific and could also just be a build error.

My theory is that this is actually an area of the Silent Expanse beyond the Pathway to Darkness, and that Bob used it to access the Dern Portal without having to sacrifice anyone to the EO gate. On his way he was spotted by the Eye and teleported to Dern where he either dies, or lives on and is still alive now.

There are a few counter-arguments to this theory that I've seen so I'll cover them:

• Bob sealed the EO gate with his lifeforce and the weapon you sacrifice aledar with is his, so this doesn't work.

I honestly think this theory is wrong, and always have. Firstly, why would Bob even seal the EO gate and make it require a sacrifice? That just makes it inconvenient for anyone to go and directly deal with the Dern Beast. Secondly, Farcor said that the mission Bob described would "lead him into danger" and that Bob would return to him should he succeed. This means that Bob's quest wasn't a suicide mission or anything. Finally, just because the dagger outside EO looks like his doesn't mean it IS his. The dagger uses the "Dernic" weapon skin so it just makes sense in that context anyway.

• How could there be a reincarnation of Bob if he isn't dead?

You have to remember that almost everything regarding Bob's tomb in Nesaak is a fake created by Nilrem to hide what Bob really did. It makes sense for Bob's Reincarnation to not actually be a reincarnation of Bob, but rather a magical replica of him to test anyone who could succeed him should he fail.

• The Gateway "Realm" is Dern.

The only evidence I've seen for this is that there are dark-themed "antipollen" mobs in the area that are mirrored in the Realm of Light. This doesn't really prove anything though, as the Realm of Light also has "Thigh Thresher" mobs that mirror the Silent Expanse's "Leg Eater" mobs. Also, I don't think the Eye would be able to communicate with the player and Relend if they were in Dern. There are also lots of eye-themed mobs in the area, which I believe to not actually be related to dern but more related to the Eyeball Forest which was a result of the Lutho Miners presence anyway. Finally, although this has since been removed, there used to be Olm skulls in the area, providing evidence that this is in the Silent Expanse.

• The Eye was placed in the tower after Bob's mission

No, it was not.
The Eye was placed in the Eldritch Outlook after Bak'al fought Bob and failed, which was likely MANY years before Bob attempted to travel to Dern.

This is honestly one of my favourite theories I've made, and I really would like it to be true. Bob is one of the most interesting characters in the whole game so seeing him actually turn out to be alive would be really cool.

If you have any disagreements with this theory then comment them.

 

I think a CT member said that Relend was still alive and we can find him somewhere. idk if they were trollin tho. I think the olm tried to seal the EO gate. They were strong with magic and it would make sense with them constantly fearing it and would want a hero to kill it. I think bob is dead since he may be strong but even lari was having trouble with whatever is in dern and I doubt they want to keep them alive. It is kinda weird how we are kept alive but I think its just our plot armor lol

 

If they wanted a hero to kill it, why did they seal the gate? That's just counterproductive.

 

try to stop it from getting out. I think the gate is really old and was made to block off dern portal when it first appeared in an attempt to slow down the dern beast take over while the olm tried to find stronger weapons which were the crystals but they ended up just going insane before they could try to fight the eye. This gate wasn't very effective tho as the ground and area just became corrupted by dern creatures and gregs, bakals portals made it easy to go around. This is just a theory tho a GAM-

 

nigel

 

Dern leak??!? No way?!?!?!

 

I’m surprised after all these years, this quest has remained essentially untouched. Which is a bit unfortunate because not only is it not the best gameplay wise (besides the boss fight), but it’s also confusing and contradictory while being an extremely important lore wise.

Like did Bob actually die? Is it really Bob you fight? Do we fight Bob in heaven or the afterlife? Hopefully one day these questions can be made clearer.

 

My man. i think bob is still alive, hes prolly just chilling in dern, maybe in like 2.1 we could actually see him survive and hang out with lari after curbstomping bak'al or smth

 

I was nigel for 3 minutes.

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I saw a theory that Gateway Island and the Gateway Passage are actually separate dimensions from the main Wynncraft world, and the Gateway Passage is actually a dimension that got taken over by Dern. However, it being a part of the SE without being able to access it through the SE does make some sense.

 

WAIT YOU CAN TALK TO FACOR MORE THAN ONCE FOR MORE DIALOGUE??

 

This was a theory based on the old gateway passage, it has been changed completely now so the lore can change too.

If you talk to him again there are additional responses

 

Man, it is so refreshing to see a theory that isn't a shitpost. I like it, too.

 

it was said bob did use his life force to seal off a creature of darkness in a faraway land, one could be the eye, the other could be the dern beast itself

damn i love talking about this lore

 

when

 

Nilrem's Sealed Letters

 

right, i forgot about those
they are really outdated but they were also given a new obtain method in 1.19

 

maybe Relend was teleported to the nameless anomaly? There is a text on the floor of one arena (in wynnic) that implies that another person was there as well

 

why would relend write a message in wynnic

 

ok good point

he would write it in high gavellian
my bad

 

If Bob really is in Dern... and Lari is also in Dern....