Top Ten Unsolved Spiral Mysteries

Part of any online game is the history itself. Because most games tend to drop you in the middle of some dire situation, there's always a question of "How did I get here?" and "What happened here beforehand?" Lore is a huge manipulator of game interest. Fill the libraries and you keep players guessing - one question answered is, after all, two questions asked.

However, there are many more pressing questions, especially for those who have kept up with the storyline.
              And in this expanded article and my 400th post, I've got something very special in mind for you.

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            I am going to be listing the top ten unsolved Spiral mysteries. This is a
                  combination of questions from both Wizard101 and Pirate101, and delve into
                       the histories and stories in each game, not so much the technicality and
                        inner-workings. I'll pose a question, provide the evidence we do have, and discuss
                         it from there. A fair warning - there are huge spoilers for both games all throughout
                        this post. Don't read it if you want to keep them a mystery.

10. What School is Merle Ambrose?

Ever since Sheldon from Adventures of the Spiral discovered a Merle Ambrose example trailer (LINK),
this question has been ever-present in the minds of wizards around the Spiral. Because the trailer is done by a studio with little knowledge of the game itself, I can't see it being a strong indicator.

Merle teleports once during the tutorial, and it is a colorful array of magic, not any specific school. We've never seen Ambrose duel, just stand in his age-old office that never gathers dust (magic!), giving out assignments so that the next student can save the Spiral. With the Morganthe finale around the corner, however, his power may soon be revealed. With how long KingsIsle has spent on this expansion, I can only imagine what they have planned, and I'd be really surprised and disappointed if the Council of Light stood idly by while we took on Morganthe. And I don't imagine that KingsIsle intends to do it that way. Perhaps, in time, we may know the answer.

9. Are and were flying ships engineered manually or by magic?

Pirates seem to scream for magic-free environments, and yet their ships are
floating around in clouds like it's completely normal. However, they're
notoriously crafty, and that raises the question - how do flying ships
work? Blind Mew has ominously stated that ships "eventually fall out
of the world and into the dark void between the spheres. I'm wondering
how that worked out to begin with.

You do have to wonder if wizards and pirates ever worked together. Even
before magic and whatever else, back when the Spiral was connected,
did everyone's ancestors know each other? And how old is Merle? Is he
really just everyone's grandfather? Uh... next!

8. How did Spiral doors and stormgates come about?

While the idea of opening a door to another world might seem silly on the surface,
the chambers in which they are contained create a very mysterious mood regarding
them. And Stormgates - our eyes into the outer Spiral - had to come from somewhere.

In areas where the wind moves specifically fast, wind currents end up forming a
whirlpool-equivalent, yes? A windstone permits a pirate to control the wind long
enough to get through. That seems only logical, anyway. But what of Spiral doors?
Assuming we don't magically let go of the key and it finds its way to another Spiral
door, there must be some in-between with worlds. Have I got you thinking yet?

                                                                           7. Where is the Eye of History?

                                                                                                   Bartleby has two eyes - the Eye of History and
                                                                                                         the Eye of the Future (can you clue us in on
                                                                                                              Morganthe's plans, my tree friend?). All
                                                                        we know about the Eye of History is that it has gone missing.
                                                                              That's as much as I can tell. I don't know for sure that Malistaire
                                                                                   took it as we never retrieved it after defeating him.

                                                                                   I have to wonder if Morganthe possesses the eye, or if it's
                                                                                    lost elsewhere in the Spiral, waiting to be located by
                                                                                    wizards in a future story. I'll talk more about these eyes as
                                                                                 the last few heat up.

6. What is "coming to the Spiral"?

Not long before the arrival of Celestia, Grandmasters were surprised with a new
challenge - the Briskbreeze Tower. Despite its name, it was nothing you could
run through quickly. The ending, though, was the kicker. As Orrick Nightglider
faded, he warned of what was to come.

The guard we rescued recounted his adventure, saying that Orrick described
"something terrible" that was "coming to the Spiral... and that Krokotopia was
the next step." However, he quickly dismissed such thoughts, glad to be alive.
But Orrick left us something - two keys. One "made of bone, and the other ...
covered with hieroglyphs." KingsIsle never followed up on that story, but even
foes like Morganthe can't "come to the Spiral." Now what could that mean?

                                                                   5. What happened to Malistaire?

                                                                                          This question is actually a good one no matter what
                                                                                          sense it's asked in. First, why'd he go rampaging
                                                                                            about, threatening to destroy the Spiral after his
                                                                                             wife's death? After that, why'd he seem to be at
                                                                                               peace and return to haunt us as Morganthe's
                                                                                               Dark Servant? And after he was sent flying
                                                                                            away into the Spiral in Azteca by some unknown
                                                                                          force?

                                                                                          This big question now is whether or not he'll be
                                                                                        back for the big finale with Morganthe. My
                                                                                       theory involves two possibilities. The first is that
                                                                                     after Morganthe is defeated, he will return in or
                                                                                   at the end of the first world of a new arc. The
                                                                                second is that he'll now be a recurring villain in
                                                                          various worlds and arcs. Moral of the story:
                                                             Don't bother with "zombification" or entertain ideas of being "undead." Just die and be done with it. I do have to wonder what motive he has for becoming a villain again, though. Did Morganthe put some dark curse on him?

4. Who is the Queen of the Armada?

One of the largest ideas tossed around among players is that the Armada is a big chess game. Chief among these is D.S. Devereaux, who talks about it frequently on her blog HERE.

The discussion centers around the idea that each of the Armada is a chess piece. Kane is the King, so he's ultimately the one we've got to take down to win. But he must also not be the most powerful piece. That immediately poses a number of tough questions. Has it ever occurred to anyone that Kane is oddly skin-colored in many photos? Is he, perhaps, human? That would explain our need to target him directly to stop the clockworks, even if he's not the most powerful piece.

Of course, we also have to wonder how clockworks are capable of thinking for themselves as well. Executing programmed tasks, maybe. But reacting and recalculating tactically in a war is quite something. Whoever built these would certainly be interesting to meet.

The main curiosity here, is the queen. Blind Mew has mentioned that she's not been brought up for a reason. However, the Armada's correlation with chess would suggest that she's the most powerful piece of the Armada, which means the best is yet to come. I have to say, Pirate101 has always blown me away with their story. Now allow me to really blow your mind. If the Armada are the chess pieces, then who's playing the game?

3. What was the Spiral like in the time of the titans?

This ties back into what I talked about at the beginning - lore and history. This is what we know about the Spiral. Bartleby is the oldest being in existence. He is the Grandfather Tree. Grandmother Raven, also the Narrator, gave him two eyes, the Eye of History, and the Eye of the Future. Bartleby's children were the Storm, Fire, and Ice titans. These were giants, tritons, and dragons.

From here we are not clear, as the story is told from different perspectives. The Fire wizards believe that the giants and tritons were fighting and that the dragons stepped in and put the world into a dormancy that prevented its complete destruction. The Ice wizards are taught that it was the tritons and dragons who fought. The Storm wizards are told that it's the dragons and giants that were scheming, and they saved the day by putting all the titans to sleep.

However, whoever saved the day was too late to prevent mass destruction and breaking of the lands of the Spiral. Grandfather Bartleby and Grandmother Raven bound the broken pieces of the worlds together and formed the Spiral. Many worlds are lost to this day, but the various species that inhabited the lands can sometimes be seen in different worlds, indicating that the present-day factions may not have always existed.

The three elemental schools come from the power of the titans and the three spirit schools derive their power from those. Balance draws on all schools.

What really happened between the titans, and how was the collective Spiral when it existed as one land mass?

                                                      2. Who or what is Caligostro and who is "G"?

                                                                   At the end of Aquila in Pirate101, we headed over to Marleybone to talk
                                                                   with one of our (well, most of our) old rivals, Moewiarty. He decoded a
                                                                   letter that translated interestingly, with the label reading "The Toy
                                                                   Maker" - "I know how to defeat Kane. Find me in Valencia. Seek
                                                                   Caligostro. G."

                                                                   Destiny (D.S.D.) has a great theory about it being a spin off of Da
                                                                   Vinci, which makes complete sense if you have a look at her blog
                                                                    posts and his drawings. It would appear that he designed the
                                                                    machines, and so he knows how to take them apart.

                                                                    That suggests also that there's some internal source within the Machine or elsewhere that can shut everything down. Because let's face it, we'd never be able to stop the Armada in every world out there. I certainly hope there's a universal switch of some sort.

1. Where is Morganthe? 

Above all, this is currently the burning question is
everyone's minds. Where did Morganthe go? And
with those questions, there's talk of level 100 or level
101, the end of Wizard101, and a number of other
interesting topics. We know that Morganthe is running
around causing chaos as usual, but where is she going to
put her celestial song of creation into effect? Now that she
has that and her Deck of Shadows, she's more powerful than
ever. But we also have the Sword of Kings, which will be
necessary in some way to beat her.

As for the teaser image released by KingsIsle, it depicts a
smashed Spiral doors in an area with a very round design
and blues, grays, and golds. But where is it, precisely? I
have more than a few theories. Several of us on Twitter
proposed an interesting idea that you can read about on
Johnny's thread HERE.

With Wizard101's second arc, and the first arc we've had
to wait for one world at a time, winding down to a close,
I can't help but be excited. They've spent so much time on
this world, that I can't imagine it being anything but epic.
Forget where Morganthe is. Do I want to spoil the whole
thing in the Test Realm, or not? That's the real question, is
it not?

Extra Credit

That's it! Have any theories? Let me know below! Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Thanks to Chris Scarypants, Cedric Young, Destiny Devereaux, Alric Ravensinger, Jason Goldenshield, Legends, and Cody Sundreamer for contributing some of the ideas for mysteries to discuss.