lore The life of Robert Wagstaff

[Garett Skott]

I haven't seen many people talk about Wagstaff from a story perspective, and yet he's such an important character! So I'll do it myself! This will be a timeline of events with a few theories that will get updated as more info comes out. If there's anything wrong or missing, let me know.

Timeline:
1910: Wagstaff is vibing at Exposition Universelle.

Before 1919: Wagstaff works with human WX-78 on his robot body and the portal to the Costant. When the two no longer get along, he burns WX's work and sends him to the Costant (Disconnected). Sometime during this period, Wagstaff also works with Webber's dad to study a spider specimen (Along Came a Spider).

1919: Wagstaff founds the Voxola Radio company, which creates radios and gramophones with magical qualities. Only days after, the portal malfunctions and pulls Wagstaff and Winona into the Costant. The factory burns down with only a few procucts sold (dirent info and Next of Kin).

Singleplayer: Wagstaff survives in the wilderness as a playable character (1). After an unknown amount of time, he manages to escape and go back to the "normal" world somehow (2).

In or after 1921: After Wilson's disappeance, Wagstaff returns to his old home (since he's legally dead) and find Maxwell's door. He modifies it to project himself into the Costant without actually being there. (Interference).

In-game events:

•  Wagstaff starts studing the moon and the survivors help him obtain lunar energy by defeating the Celestial Champion.
• The first experiment fails and creates the Unnatural Portal at the moon quay.  If given an enlightened shard, Wagstaff manages to open the lunar rifts too.
• Wilson finds Wagstaff and helps him build some kind of... portal towards home? We don't have enough info on this yet (3).
• Wagstaff studies the effects of the moon of the Costant's creatures.

 

 

 

Clarifications & theories:

(1) Is Wagstaff a projection in singleplayer?

• The "Projection theory" says that Wagstaff is still in the normal world, but somehow projects himself into the Costant like he does in DST. This would explain the disturbances seen when he loses health, but also creates a HUGE amount of plot holes. The main ones are the differences between DST-Wagstaff, who is certainly a projection, and DS-Wagstaff, what happened to Wagstaff after his portal malfunctioned and literally pulled him into the Costant and much more. You're welcome to discuss this in the comments!
• The "Fail-Safe theory" (by me) says that Wagstaff is actually in flesh and bones in the Costant, but had a device back home meant to save his life. This fail-safe would get ready to summon Wagstaff back home the closer he gets to death, hence the distortion. This would explain why he's so fearless and how he can find himself in Wilson's house during DST.

(2) How did Wagstaff escape?

I see 3 possible answers: Charlie, the throne and his own device.

• Charlie might have tried to banish the inventor to prevent him from exploiting with the forces of the Costant, but this theory would need more "official" evidence to back it up.
• Wagstaff says the throne can link worlds, could he have used that? Let's take a look at the succession: Maxwell was the first on the throne, Wilson was the second (Cyclum puzzles) and Charlie is the third and current queen (A New Reign). Looks like there is no space for poor Robert. 
• Check point 1, "Fail-Safe theory". When Wagstaff perished in a way or the other, he was led back home, even if empty-handed.

(3) What is Wagstaff's objective?

Many, many of his quotes in DS express that he wants to use the Costant's magic for scientific revolution in the normal world, but doesn't know how to bring it back home yet. He's particularly interested in nightmare fuel and anything deriving from it, but pays attention to pretty much anything. Throughout all his quotes, he never mentions financial or personal profit, which leads me to believe he truly wants to help humanity. What if the actually succeded? Will humans perish like ancients from the overuse of the fuel? Or will it be different using the lunar magic?

[Valase]

13 minutes ago, Garett Skott said:

(1) Is Wagstaff a projection in singleplayer?

This theory originated before Wagstaff arrived in DST and some still believe it, but it didn't make sense at the time either. Its main point is Wagstaff's glitchy appearance when damaged, but even so, Wagstaff is still able to eat, touch, be damaged and so on, which are all things that a hologram can't do. More importantly, DST showed us what a Wagstaff-projection would be like: it emits light, glitches costantly and phases in and out, all things that DS-Wagstaff can't do. Wagstaff in singleplayer can only be in flesh and bones (see point 2 for more info).

This explanation does not disprove the theory, as in DS he looks like a projection, and the more damaged he is, the more weak the projection gets. All the things that you mentioned that would disprove the theory, are things that Wagstaff as an projection in DST does, in the shorts, he is able to touch the same things as Wilson, in the game, he has built a lot o things from the now-exploded monkey portal to the torture devices from the beta, as well as being able to touch and "pick up" the crown shard that you need to give him (once you give him the shard it doesn't just drop on the ground).

If he wasn't able to interact with things, things would not be able to interact with him, the same way he can hurt a monster, a monster can hurt him.

The explanation on why the current Wagstaff glows and glitches differently can be attributed to that in solo DS he tried to research the shadow materials (as you explained on the nightmarefuel), but every appearance of him in DST had him researching and harvesting lunar power. Also he only start to appear after you unleash the moonstorm where he is doing his research.

[Garett Skott]

@Valase I can see where you're going with that, and yes, I forgot to take out "touch", but I still believe he can't be a projection. There are still things that DST-Wagstaff can do, such as emit light, that DS-Wagstaff can't. Also, you're forgetting that Wagstaff still can't bring magic to the normal world, all the technology is his own making, therefore the fact he's researching lunar magic doesn't justify the changes. Why would a projection be damaged by raw food? Why does it need glasses? We can even see Wagstaff being taken into the Costant during Next of Kin! There's just too much stuff unexplained that is just brushed off for that theory to work. It just doesn't work.

[gamehun20]

3 minutes ago, Garett Skott said:

We can even see Wagstaff being taken into the Costant during Next of Kin! There's just too much stuff unexplained that is just brushed off for that theory to work. It just doesn't work.

but then how do you explain that he is made of static?

[Garett Skott]

@gamehun20 Read point 2 part 3

 

[lakhnish]

1 hour ago, Garett Skott said:

(1) Is Wagstaff a projection in singleplayer?

In the code for single-player, he has this tag in his file: "outofworldprojected." Don't get much clearer than that honestly.

[Valase]

22 minutes ago, Garett Skott said:

@Valase Also, you're forgetting that Wagstaff still can't bring magic to the normal world, all the technology is his own making, therefore the fact he's researching lunar magic doesn't justify the changes.

He does not need to bring the lunar magic to the normal world to work on it, he can work with that on the constant itself, again, the monkey update had shown that he worked on a secluded island for an experiment.

25 minutes ago, Garett Skott said:

@Valase Why would a projection be damaged by raw food? Why does it need glasses? We can even see Wagstaff being taken into the Costant during Next of Kin!

Regarding the food, we don't know how his projection actually works(Even on your recap it is not explained), so it may be explained that he needs food due the long time that he stays in the constant, but there is no explanation regarding why he takes damage from the raw food.

Regarding the glasses, I don't know how to approach that without sounding rude, he either would go to the constant wearing the glasses or he would have to put when he got there, I don't think that he can dodge astigmatism, like the inside shape of his eyes that are wrong.

And for the last point, he is not "grainy" in the short, therefore something happened between that short and his appearance in game, also if the events happened in direct succession, he would fall into the constant with the other yellow glove.

[Garett Skott]

@lakhnish That doesn't prove or disprove anything. It could mean "projected from out of the world" or "projected towards out of the world". Vague code has never helped with the lore of a game. Now, would you care to read my post?

@Valase The experiment on the moon quay was performed... in the moon quay, that's in the Costant! Wagstaff is using Maxwell's door to project himself, which is in the normal world. About the glasses, they would be part of the projection as well, therefore located in the normal world with Wagstaff, which means he wouldn't need to make new glasses in the Costant, just grab a spare from his house. As for the short, not being grainy just disproves the projection theory even more and the lack of the glove must be Klei's design choice because Wagstaff's hands would be asymmetric and characters only have 1 side sprite (no matter the direction you turn to, Wagstaff would have a bare hand or a glove both ways).

Either way, all these details are avoiding the biggest holes in the projection theory and not trying to disprove mine.

[lakhnish]

2 hours ago, Garett Skott said:

That doesn't prove or disprove anything. It could mean "projected from out of the world" or "projected towards out of the world". Vague code has never helped with the lore of a game. Now, would you care to read my post?

I did read your post.

Yes, there are many discrepancies that don't make sense in the game, but this is not the first nor will it be the last. 

I understand your point that Wagstaff disappears in 1919 during the Voxola Factory fire via Winona's short and his real, physical self shows up several years later in Wilson's home with the fully repaired Maxwell portal, leading to the plausible belief that Wagstaff is flesh and bone in SP who's escaped the constant (especially since he needs food and takes damage). The only answer I can give for the food/taking damage portion (which is a good question btw) is because it's a gameplay mechanic since he is a playable character in SP DS.

However, despite these weird interactions, Klei went through the effort of making Wagstaff become more like a projection the lower his HP is in SP DS. My point with the tag was to just further solidify this point that Wagstaff isn't actually physically in the constant either. 

Does it make sense that a projection is able to interact with the constant? No, which is something a projection as we know it shouldn't be able to do. BUT even in DST, where it's even more clear that he's a projection in the constant based on how he looks and character's quotes for him, he is still able to interact with the constant. If a projection is somehow able to interact with the world, then maybe it also needs to eat food or whatnot.

There are of course more unexplained stuff as well (like how is Wagstaff in the real world in Wilson's house despite being sucked in the portal) but I'd say this is something Klei needs to provide more information on as otherwise, it's a guessing game where no one can be proven right as the information isn't there atm.

Maybe in the future we will get answers, like with the World Fair with Wagstaff that we saw in the skill tree short.

But for now, what I'm sticking with is that the Wagstaff in the constant is a projection in SP DS and in DST, and for some unexplained reason, he's also physically in the real world as shown Wilson's short where he's in Wilson's home while at the same time has a projection in the constant working on a portal, even though he got sucked in the portal via Winona's short. (I know, super weird).

[lenship2]

4 hours ago, Garett Skott said:

When completing adventure mode with Wagstaff, he is no longer on the throne once another character reaches it, but I suspect this is Klei's way of telling us things would be much different if it actually happened and is therefore not canon.

this was recognized as a bug and was patched recently

[Garett Skott]

@lenship2 Thanks! I'll remove that from the post

[Cassielu]

I just finished a video about Wagstaff last month and thought a lot about it, but a lot of it couldn't be included in the video. Now I'd love to have someone to talk to about it!

My timeline looks mainly this:

1910: Exposition Universelle
Single-player: He projects himself into the constant
Before 1919: Wagstaff works with WX on the portal and delivers the spider to Webber's father
1919: Voxola factory accident
After 1919: Wagstaff experiences unknown events in the The Constant
After 1921: Returns to his home, projects himself into the constant again and has the story of DST.

 

Technically speaking. When the in-game string and lua code refer to Wagstaff as a "projection" or "hologram", it is not an optical projection, but something dimensionally related, like Hypercube. As for its essence, I think it is "partly in one plane and partly in another plane", referring to Wortox's words.

"not all there" means he's at least partially there. This means he is flesh and bones, but also a projection, so he can eat and interact with things around him.

Quote

WAGSTAFF_NPC = "Hyuyuyu!  He's not all there!" ,

 

We also have this, in both of these speeches, Wagstaff claims that he has the ability to bring things into the constant, he just forgets, which means that he is on a planned expedition. Not the accident at the voxola factory (he was clinging to the door frame, apparently not wanting to enter the portal).

Quote

ANNOUNCE_QUAKE = "Seismic activity! And I left my instruments at home.",

BUGNET = "An adequate replacement for the insect collecting tools I left at home.",

 

 

[Retepeter]

5 hours ago, Garett Skott said:

Is Wagstaff a projection in singleplayer?

Yes he is. There may be some counter evidence but 

1 nobody has ever escaped the constant

2 he is still a hologram and the signal gets weak as he's low hp

3 he may not be able to phase in and out of vision but thats likely because of gameplay reasons

[Garett Skott]

I'm still convinced the projection theory is too flawed to be true, but this research is a collective effort after all, so I'll include it as a possibility.
 

@Cassielu I'd love to see that video! Could you send a link?