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A Rose Appraiser's attempt at compiling DS/T's lore


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A quick note before this Rose Appraiser begins: Large parts of this compilation are taken from the already established timeline, retrofitted and adjusted to match this Rose Appraiser's speculation. Please feel free to make corrections, inform this Rose Appraiser of issues and the necessary changes to this timeline, it is not meant to be set in stone. But, this Rose Appraiser requests you to please be civil about it.

Prelude: What the Wiki's Timeline has written up

  • 1873: The Old Mill Crossing, where Wolfgang would eventually save William Carter, is constructed
  • July 26, 1901: 120 years ago, William Carter sets sail for America
    • Arriving roughly July 31/ August 1 of the same year in New York
    • William Carter practices magic, to no success
  • November 11, 1903: Abigail Lillian Carter and Wendy Carter are born, daughters of Jack Carter, William Carter's brother and possible twin.

    • William is in debt to Witherstone, receiving a postcard from Jack, who has moved West.

  • William finds the Codex Umbra and begins to study it while travelling West by train to visit his brother and family. Train ticket reads August 15, 1904. 

    • Speculation: The Codex Umbra was in Ms. Wickerbottom's library, based in New York, hidden away and unknown to all but William

  • August 23, 1904: Old Mill Crossing Circus collision. Wolfgang has been training after his unfortunate exposure as a fraud. He saves William Carter from the burning wreckage and experiences the power of the shadows, though not for long.

    • A short while later, William intended to mail Jack and let him know he is safe and in possession of the tome, but likely never sent the card.

    • Speculation: Wilbur the Monkey is pulled into the Constant during/shortly after the chaos.

  • June 6, 1905: William Carter as "The Amazing Maxwell" or "Maxwell, The Great" and his assistant Charlie, now in San Francisco

    • Charlie keeps in contact with her sister Winona, citing how she'd like to visit her dear sister in Ohio. 

      • Speculation: Voxola's CEO, Robert Wagstaff is working on WX-78. Winona is working somewhere else.

  • April 17, 1906: Charlie finds Maxwell's study behind the fireplace while checking up on him. Here she finds crazy scrawling and concerning texts, running away. She encourages him to go with her to vacation in British Columbia.

    • The family cabin, likely becoming the cabin Walter was kidnapped in.

  • The Final Act: Maxwell and Charlie are kidnapped.

    • April 18th, 1906 5:12 AM; The Great San Francisco Earthquake, possibly spurred by Their power/Maxwell stealing many in the chaos

      • Maxwell and Charlie are placed upon the Nightmare Throne and become the Night Monster respectively

      • Speculation: This causes the Shadow Creature conspiracy and bring those shadows to the Real World.

  • Brief interlude to discuss what is happening in the Constant

    • Speculation based on Metheus puzzles and character quotes

      • Ancient Civilization is assumed to have existed before Maxwell arrived

  • Ancient Civilization exists across the Constant worshipping the Moon, Alter

    • Speculation: Due to overuse of Moon Stones, Alter slumbers to recharge. The Ancients don't know this. The civilization approaches ruin.

      • The Ancients knew how to harness the moon in opal gems but not other forces. Yet.

      • Alter's energy is similar to electricity, it powers the Archive Sentrypedes and the Ancient Civilization for a while,

  • The suffering Ancients discover/create the Ancient Gateway using the mysterious fuel and what remained of Alter's power.

    • Prosperity returned, heralded by Metheus (the torchbearer) and Cyclum (the staff-wielder) [tenative names].

      • Here, the Civilization spread once more. Now learning how to harness shadows, the volcano, and even control to moon to bring about a Shadow reign/count down to it.

      • Gems prove to be excellent catalysts for the fuel.

  • Equilibrium exists until almost all of Alter's fading energy is spent

  • Shadows attack, exploiting the weakness in the balance.

    • Metheus sacrifices themselves and Alter's last Light to stop the Shadows from further destroying their home.

      • Metheus would become the Night Monster

  • Cyclum sits atop his decaying throne as the Shadows take it to Their Realm

    • THEY, are going to be referring to both Alter and the Shadows, or rather the beings controlling these sides.

    • Cyclum would become the Ancient Fuelweaver, ironically the role that once brought prosperity now a punishment.

      • Speculation: Cyclum wrote the Codex Umbra, in the Ancient's language hence needing to be deciphered by William Carter

  • The Nightmare Throne is created

    • They wait. 

      • Merms are brought in from the Gorge, where the Gnaw plagues the denizens.

      • Wormwood forms

      • Wortox is cursed

      • Wilba is born

      • Wibur becomes the Monkey King

      • Yaarctopus

      • Wurt

  • Postlude: Back to the Story

    • Maxwell, sitting atop the Nightmare Throne, gains Their enviable power.

      • The world is little more than a dusty wasteland in a void.

        Here he learns what the Shadows knew of the Ancients history. (The shadows only know the Ancients' history from when they were summoned and stopped at Metheus' sacrifice, stopping the invasion.)
      • This is why Maxwell views the Ancient Guardian as an old friend. Why the clockworks are the way they are: he, and by extension the shadows, only knew a snippet of the forgotten knowledge in the Archive

    • Pigs "flourish"

      • King of Pigs and Queen Malfalfa divorce

      • Pig King (DS/T and RoG) is different from King of Pigs

  • Maxwell seeks to kidnap people from the real world into the constant, starting with Witherstone.

    • Wes accidentally intervenes and is the first taken. 

    • Crows arrive in the Constant

    • Wigfrid is stolen with the offer of stardom. Circa 1906

  • Wagstaff, former snake oil salesman turned inventor, is doing business with Webber's father, an entomologist. (Pre-1919)

    • Webber fuses with the spider from the Constant and is stolen by Maxwell.

    • Wagstaff works on his automaton

  • 1910: Exposition Universelle et Internationale is held

    • August 14th: A fire burns multiple pavillions

      • Speculation: Wagstaff was involved and possibly WX-78 was stolen away

  • March 29, 1911: Ms. Wickerbottom's library burns down, during which she is stolen away.

  • Wanda makes a deal with the shadows for more time. Unknown when

    • Wanda runs from Them and eventually falls into the Constant.

      • Perhaps she has ties with Wagstaff

  • Abigail passes away 

    • Wendy seeks closure/contact after hearing that old song; she finds the radio instead

      • Estimated around late 1914 at most

  • Warly gives up France to care for his Maman Angelique

    • He is stolen by a gramophone, leaving her alone

  • Wolfgang, seeking the power from when he saved William Carter, is stolen away by Maxwell offering that very strength, likely around 1917 or so seeing as he witnessed or possibly partook the October (November) Revolution [Bolshevik Uprising]

  • Willow is stolen away some years after burning down the orphanage to escape a Terrorbeak

  • Woodlegs, Walani, and Martha Dorothea Wheeler all arrive in the Constant at some point

  • 1914-1918: WWI occurs 

    • Speculation: Pugna is stolen and arrives in the Forge. Later that Realm is served from the Hub

  • During this, Wagstaff creates WX-78, many inventions, and seeks the Throne.

    • He builds a portal to it

  • 1919: Many unfortunate events

    • Winona, working at Voxola and searching for Charlie, is stolen by Charlie

      • She failed to save Wagstaff

    • Wagstaff falls through his portal, projecting himself into the Constant

      • Speculation: He is in a Realm similar to the Hub, inaccessible without more power

    • PR-76 is mass produced, only for the factory to burn down a few days later

      • Speculation: Maxwell stole/infected some radios and planted them around the world.

    • Woodie is stolen by Maxwell alongside Lucy the Axe

      • Speculation: Woodie moved into the family cabin  of Winona and Charlie. He suffers from a similar situation to Webber, except more volatile.

  • 1921: Wilson is tricked by Maxwell and stolen after creating the door

  • Many years later:

    • Walter is stolen by the old radio in Woodie's cabin

  • Back to the Constant

    • Wilson and the other survivors live and die many times.

    • Adventure Mode: Wilson is the canon survivor to free Maxwell and Wes

    • Maxwell is released from the throne

    • Wilson is bound to the throne

    • Charlie takes control

    • Charlie has an identity crisis and become Queen

  • Cyclum

    • Maxwell finds himself in the Constant alongside Wilson

    • The two truce

    • The Jury-Rigged Portal is constructed, allowing survivors to band together

  • A New Reign: Starting with a remodeling of the Portal

    • Old secrets resurface, ones that should be best left forgotten

    • Wilson, Wendy, Wickerbottom, and Webber resurrect the Fuelweaver, defeating it and reigniting the Gateway

  • Their Return

    • Alter stirs in its sleep

    • The Lunar Island crashes into the sea

    • Sailing

    • Lunar Altar promises knowledge of the Moon

    • Forgotten knowledge is rediscovered

    • The Shadow War has begun

    • Charlie, using the tragic torch and gestalt energy, seeks to reawaken Alter

    • The Crab King is corrupted by the Tribute

    • The Sanctum is uncovered and reassembled

    • Alter wakes up.

    • Moonstorms, Wagstaff, and the Lunar Siphonator

    • Alter's defense mechanism is activated

    • Wagstaff takes the electricity for himself

    • Charlie intends to activate the Sealed Portal in the Archive

  • At some point the survivors travel to the Forge and Gorge

    • When this happened and the consequences are disregarded due to lack of information.

    • Information about the Realms will be recorded:

      • Forge: has a lot of fighting in it, as always

      • Gorge: Gnaw has replaced the Sun and Moon in its Realm, and it hungers still

    • The Curio Collector exists, so does his Nox

TL;DR: Stuff happened, lore is speculated, this is the result.

As mentioned in the opening note: please feel free to edit this to make better sense. This Rose Appraiser is more than willing to edit this to better match to information.

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1 minute ago, RoseAppraiser said:

April 17, 1906: Charlie finds Maxwell's study behind the fireplace while checking up on him. Here she finds crazy scrawling and concerning texts, running away. She encourages him to go with her to vacation in British Columbia.

  • The family cabin, likely becoming the cabin Walter was kidnapped in.

So Woodie was between those two?

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10 minutes ago, RoseAppraiser said:

The Final Act: Maxwell and Charlie are kidnapped.

  • April 18th, 1906 5:12 AM; The Great San Francisco Earthquake, possibly spurred by Their power

    • Maxwell and Charlie are placed upon the Nightmare Throne and become the Night Monster respectively

vlcsnap-2021-12-16-15h58m13s736.thumb.png.368650f8c06cb780a06f5615a7d80e77.png

How close was this? A few months?

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8 minutes ago, RoseAppraiser said:

Pig King and Queen Malfalfa divorce

I don't understand how Pig King is Wilba's father. Wilba's curse comes from his father but Pig King doesn't turn into a werepig on full moon and Wilba doesn't recognise him as his father calling him just a "trader king".

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5 minutes ago, Just-guy said:

I don't understand how Pig King is Wilba's father. Wilba's curse comes from his father but Pig King doesn't turn into a werepig on full moon and Wilba doesn't recognise him as his father calling him just a "trader king".

yeah, Pig King definitely ain't her father. I've thought about who it could be in the past, but the only suspect that's more than a regular pig is the Swamp Pig Elder. And boy would that be one heckuva love story. 

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3 minutes ago, Just-guy said:

I don't understand how Pig King is Wilba's father. Wilba's curse comes from his father but Pig King doesn't turn into a werepig on full moon and Wilba doesn't recognise him as his father calling him just a "trader king".

We see paintings and topiary of the king but I think Klei should do a Wilba short to explain this hole.

308649207_Wilbasbirthdaygift-Copy.thumb.png.67d7cc1b389e916e4ba39ed8119e06ac.png

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5 minutes ago, Just-guy said:

I don't understand how Pig King is Wilba's father. Wilba's curse comes from his father but Pig King doesn't turn into a werepig on full moon and Wilba doesn't recognise him as his father calling him just a "trader king".

Then it shall be assumed the trader king is a) too fat for the curse to properly manifest/when he sleeps the curse can't affect him and b) Wilba's father is suffering from off-screen/absent-father syndrome.

Please feel free to speculate.

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1 minute ago, RoseAppraiser said:

Wilba's father is suffering from off-screen/absent-father syndrome.

well now the Swamp Pig Elder theory is even better. Like all dads, he left for milk! But he didn't wanna invade the trader king's land so he settled for the other goat milk

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12 minutes ago, minespatch said:

vlcsnap-2021-12-16-15h58m13s736.thumb.png.368650f8c06cb780a06f5615a7d80e77.png

How close was this? A few months?

 

9 minutes ago, RoseAppraiser said:

This Rose Appraiser shall estimate a few weeks at the absolute most. The necessary change shall be made to the timeline, thank you.

@minespatch! Thank you for bringing this info to this Rose Appraiser's attention! You just killed 2 birds with 1 stone!

The missing people are the failed survivors! Missing because Maxwell stole them during the 1906 Earthquake!

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2 minutes ago, minespatch said:

HE seems to be losing his sight too. So similar to Angeline, he might be having dementia.

yap. And while they don't transform to werepigs, that could be explained by the absence of a moon. Plus they do already look kinda werepig-ish with the sharp facial fur and stuff

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Just now, minespatch said:

So... Love triangle between swamp elder, malfalfa, and Mumsy? :wilson_ecstatic:

no triangle, they're divorced, remember? He just moved on, while Malfalfa stayed with the girl. Who lost her crown. Guess who got the long end of the stick

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This is amazing! I've been meaning to compile a timeline for a while, and it looks like you've done most of the work for me, haha (although I might make a graphic for this, because that sounds like a really fun thing to do). 

There are a few things in your timeline I would like to point out, though:

  

7 hours ago, RoseAppraiser said:

A short while later, William lets Jack know he is safe and in possession of the tome.

Funnily enough, OrangE actually just released a "Don't Starve's Lore Explained" video 8 hours ago. I just watched it, and I find it a funny coincidence that you also have this here (wait a minute... did you watch his video and get inspired by it? :wilson_laugh:). Anyway...

7 hours ago, RoseAppraiser said:

A short while later, William lets Jack know he is safe and in possession of the tome.

OrangE pointed this out in his video, but it's a good point. I don't believe Jack ever received that postcard.

image.thumb.png.6c2a03f7c294cfe2e36a99e95656cb5f.png

The address is crossed out and obscured, so he probably never actually sent it. 

~~

7 hours ago, RoseAppraiser said:

Warly gives up France to care for his Maman Angelique

  • He is stolen by the radio, leaving her alone

Warly was actually taken by a gramaphone, heh.

~~

But yeah, I love what you've done so far! Expect to see a diagram of this timeline sometime soon with some of my own speculations added onto it, yeah? :wilson_ecstatic:

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https://web.archive.org/web/20170507185348/http://ecfor.tumblr.com:80/post/138589147719

I feel bad @Tamir's deviantart and tumblr pages about the timeline are practically gone but thankfully archive had the tumblr page saved:

Quote

How long have Maxwell and Charlie been stuck in the world of Don’t Starve? Here are the maths.

Maxwell (William Carter) and Charlie ended up in the Don’t Starve world on April 17th 1906 during the The Final Act. This is our starting indicator. Wilson’s appearance in the Don’t Starve world in 1921 will be used as our ending indicator. The date of Wilson’s disappearance is unclear but I chose October 1st because his property looks rather dull and Autumn'ish in the Forbidden Knowledge Trailer.

  • The amount of time between April 17th 1906 and October 1st 1921 is 15 years, 3 months and 13 days = 5582 days (leap years included).
  • 1 in-game day = 8 real life minutes
  • One real life day equals 1440 minutes (24 x 60 = 1440)
  • 1440 minutes x 5582 days= 8038080 minutes
  • 8038080 / 1004760 = 8 in-game minutes
  • 1004760 days ≈ 2751 years.
  • Maxwell and Charlie have been living there for 2751 years. To somebody in the real world this would be experienced as approximately 15 years, 3 months and 13 days - the time span between April 17th 1906 and October 1st 1921.

TIMELINE POSTED AT THE KLEI FORUMS 26.9.2014 ↓

  • 1890s - 1906: William Carter origin story
  • 1906: William and Charlie enter the DS world.
  • 1906 - 1910ish: Some crazy stuff happens that has yet to be revealed.
  • 1910ish - 1921: The various playable characters get pulled into the DS world.
  • 1921: Wilson gets pulled in (Forbidden Knowlege trailer).
  • * THE ORIGINAL GAME + Reign of Giants STARTS HERE *
  • ?: Wilson lives in the DS world for a while. Dies a lot, eventually finds Maxwell’s door and confronts Maxwell.
  • ?: Wilson replaces Maxwell on the Nightmare Throne, Maxwell becomes Waxwell.
  • ?: Some other crazy stuff happens that Klei haven’t told you about yet.
  • ?: The Don’t Starve Together plotline begins!

I appreciate the calculation in gameplay exploring Maxwell's age in comparison to how younger Wilson is in comparison.

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10 hours ago, Just-guy said:

I don't understand how Pig King is Wilba's father. Wilba's curse comes from his father but Pig King doesn't turn into a werepig on full moon and Wilba doesn't recognise him as his father calling him just a "trader king".

 

10 hours ago, DaZoul said:

yeah, Pig King definitely ain't her father.

 

10 hours ago, RoseAppraiser said:

Then it shall be assumed the trader king is a) too fat for the curse to properly manifest/when he sleeps the curse can't affect him and b) Wilba's father is suffering from off-screen/absent-father syndrome.

It was mentioned directly PK was her father here if that helps.
image.thumb.png.f421c78f7e305ddfc9f7d34ff47a9c48.png

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9 hours ago, fierysage1 said:

This is amazing! I've been meaning to compile a timeline for a while, and it looks like you've done most of the work for me, haha (although I might make a graphic for this, because that sounds like a really fun thing to do). 

There are a few things in your timeline I would like to point out, though:

  

Funnily enough, OrangE actually just released a "Don't Starve's Lore Explained" video 8 hours ago. I just watched it, and I find it a funny coincidence that you also have this here (wait a minute... did you watch his video and get inspired by it? :wilson_laugh:). Anyway...

OrangE pointed this out in his video, but it's a good point. I don't believe Jack ever received that postcard.

image.thumb.png.6c2a03f7c294cfe2e36a99e95656cb5f.png

The address is crossed out and obscured, so he probably never actually sent it. 

~~

Warly was actually taken by a gramaphone, heh.

~~

But yeah, I love what you've done so far! Expect to see a diagram of this timeline sometime soon with some of my own speculations added onto it, yeah? :wilson_ecstatic:

By all means, please feel free to make a more cohesive graphic! This Rose Appraiser would be more than happy to see it! And just to clarify, this Rose Appraiser was not aware of OrangE's video, in fact: this timeline was posted an hour before that video.

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8 hours ago, -Variant said:

 

 

It was mentioned directly PK was her father here if that helps.
image.thumb.png.f421c78f7e305ddfc9f7d34ff47a9c48.png

that doesn't outright say that he's her dad. Wilba sure as hell doesn't recognize him as the father. In the description of a vignette it says that "the pig king and his followers left their home long ago to rule freely in the Constant". Seems like PK was just a regular dude who wanted to be a king. If he was THE King why would he have left.

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I have a theory that Wilbur got into the Constant from the train wreck as well. It says in the description of the train wreck that a bunch of circus monkeys escaped captivity. I think that somewhere within the chaos Wilbur somehow got sucked into the Constant. I don't feel like there would be any other reason for them to include the monkey part in the description without the implication that it was related to Wilbur somehow.

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1 hour ago, thegreatJash said:

I have a theory that Wilbur got into the Constant from the train wreck as well. It says in the description of the train wreck that a bunch of circus monkeys escaped captivity. I think that somewhere within the chaos Wilbur somehow got sucked into the Constant. I don't feel like there would be any other reason for them to include the monkey part in the description without the implication that it was related to Wilbur somehow.

This Rose Appraiser has noted the speculation and written it into the timeline, thank you.

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