The 1910 Exposition Universelle (and why it might be important to the lore)

[WinterWondering]

(This is my first time on the forums, so, while I think this is allowed, if it isn't, please tell me.)

As said above, I've never posted here, but I have a bit of a theory that I'd like to share. I was looking into the lore behind the exposition universelle after someone mentioned it as a joke and I think it might be important to the story.

So, for those of you who aren't lore nerds, what is an exposition universelle? Also known as a world's fair, there have been many expositions over the years, starting in the 1800s. They are opportunities for people from around the world to share advancements and achievements. It was first mentioned in DST, to my knowledge, at least, in Winona's animated short, Next of Kin, on her conspiracy board. Here's a zoomed in screenshot of it.

 I've heard others say it was 1889 expo, but, while it's a bit weirdly cropped, I'm pretty sure it says 1910. Now, after a quick Google search on the 1910 expo, I learned that it was hosted in Brussels, Belgium, and that something quite notable happened there.

There was a fire.

Now, in case it isn't immediately obvious what I'm suggesting here, let me remind you of a scene from another animated short.

My personal theory is that Willow likely started the fire at the expo in 1910. And while this may seem a bit far-fetched, remember that there have been a lot of connections to the real world in the lore before. For example, Maxwell starting a real earthquake.

Now, why is this important? Well, a while back, before I even looked into this, I was scrolling through Reddit when I saw this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dontstarve/comments/15bmh34/holy_moly_finally_a_glimpse_of_spoiler_character/

This didn't really stand out to me at the time, but this person says that this is Wagstaff at the expo. Now, they say it was from 1889, although, at least, from my point of view, I can't find any proof that the expo mentioned in Winona's short would be in 1889, not 1910.

Looking at the structures in the background, I've found a few structures in Brussels that look similar, such as a ferris wheel, although that might not mean anything.

Wagstaff looks younger in this animated short, and his outfit makes me think this was back when he was a snake oil salesman (he was confirmed to have been a snake oil salesman in his snake oil quote). This means this was likely before he started Voxola.

I think that whatever happened at the expo may have been what started his career as an engineer. Maxwell learns magic from the Codex Umbra after the train crash, so knowledge from the Constant making it into the real world isn't out of the question. He's definitely got a lot of connections to the Constant through his radios and other machines. Maybe he didn't invent these himself, instead stealing the ideas from the Constant.

TL;DR: I think Willow started a fire at the 1910 expo and that said fire or some event at the expo somehow caused Wagstaff to be exposed to the power of the Constant for the first time.

Of course, this is just a theory. Other than the Reddit post, most of this is just my own thoughts. I don't know if someone else has thought of this before. Also, a lot of info here is from Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. Please tell me if there's anything here that doesn't make sense or any information that contradicts this. I just wanted to share this theory. Thanks!

[Baguettes]

Hi, and welcome to the forums, but hmm... there's one particular statement  I want to make, off-topic but may as well be recognizable to you (and only you):

When analyzing DST characters from a personality standpoint, it makes sense to start with Wil

[WinterWondering]

Thank you for the warm welcome, and I agree that when analyzing DST characters from a personality standpoint, it makes sense to start with Wil.

[The Starver]

16 hours ago, WinterWondering said:

(This is my first time on the forums, so, while I think this is allowed, if it isn't, please tell me.)

As said above, I've never posted here, but I have a bit of a theory that I'd like to share. I was looking into the lore behind the exposition universelle after someone mentioned it as a joke and I think it might be important to the story.

So, for those of you who aren't lore nerds, what is an exposition universelle? Also known as a world's fair, there have been many expositions over the years, starting in the 1800s. They are opportunities for people from around the world to share advancements and achievements. It was first mentioned in DST, to my knowledge, at least, in Winona's animated short, Next of Kin, on her conspiracy board. Here's a zoomed in screenshot of it.

 I've heard others say it was 1889 expo, but, while it's a bit weirdly cropped, I'm pretty sure it says 1910. Now, after a quick Google search on the 1910 expo, I learned that it was hosted in Brussels, Belgium, and that something quite notable happened there.

There was a fire.

Now, in case it isn't immediately obvious what I'm suggesting here, let me remind you of a scene from another animated short.

My personal theory is that Willow likely started the fire at the expo in 1910. And while this may seem a bit far-fetched, remember that there have been a lot of connections to the real world in the lore before. For example, Maxwell starting a real earthquake.

Now, why is this important? Well, a while back, before I even looked into this, I was scrolling through Reddit when I saw this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dontstarve/comments/15bmh34/holy_moly_finally_a_glimpse_of_spoiler_character/

This didn't really stand out to me at the time, but this person says that this is Wagstaff at the expo. Now, they say it was from 1889, although, at least, from my point of view, I can't find any proof that the expo mentioned in Winona's short would be in 1889, not 1910.

Looking at the structures in the background, I've found a few structures in Brussels that look similar, such as a ferris wheel, although that might not mean anything.

Wagstaff looks younger in this animated short, and his outfit makes me think this was back when he was a snake oil salesman (he was confirmed to have been a snake oil salesman in his snake oil quote). This means this was likely before he started Voxola.

I think that whatever happened at the expo may have been what started his career as an engineer. Maxwell learns magic from the Codex Umbra after the train crash, so knowledge from the Constant making it into the real world isn't out of the question. He's definitely got a lot of connections to the Constant through his radios and other machines. Maybe he didn't invent these himself, instead stealing the ideas from the Constant.

TL;DR: I think Willow started a fire at the 1910 expo and that said fire or some event at the expo somehow caused Wagstaff to be exposed to the power of the Constant for the first time.

Of course, this is just a theory. Other than the Reddit post, most of this is just my own thoughts. I don't know if someone else has thought of this before. Also, a lot of info here is from Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. Please tell me if there's anything here that doesn't make sense or any information that contradicts this. I just wanted to share this theory. Thanks!

Very, very good. I wouldn't have thought of this myself, but yes... it makes sense. 

So, yeah, I kinda gathered that Wagstaff was at the Exposition, but not that Willow started the fire there... 

One thing that's not exactly related, but is an inconsistency, is that Maxwell has the Codex Umbra before he enters the desert, but most people assume that he found it in the desert.

[WinterWondering]

6 hours ago, The Starver said:

Very, very good. I wouldn't have thought of this myself, but yes... it makes sense. 

So, yeah, I kinda gathered that Wagstaff was at the Exposition, but not that Willow started the fire there... 

One thing that's not exactly related, but is an inconsistency, is that Maxwell has the Codex Umbra before he enters the desert, but most people assume that he found it in the desert.

Thank you! 

That's an interesting point, actually! I'm not exactly sure, but I think you might be right. Rewatching Wolfgang's animated short, in the past, I've always kind of assumed he found it in the crash as opposed to having it before then. But it's sort of framed as though he already had it? I don't know. I don't think it's super relevant, personally, but I think it's very interesting. I doubt they'll revisit it, since whether he found it off-screen or in that crash isn't super important (at least, in my opinion), what's important is that he did find it and it did save him. I don't know, I might be missing something, too. Good point though, I think you might be right.

[The Starver]

57 minutes ago, WinterWondering said:

That's an interesting point, actually! I'm not exactly sure, but I think you might be right. Rewatching Wolfgang's animated short, in the past, I've always kind of assumed he found it in the crash as opposed to having it before then. But it's sort of framed as though he already had it? I don't know. I don't think it's super relevant, personally, but I think it's very interesting. I doubt they'll revisit it, since whether he found it off-screen or in that crash isn't super important (at least, in my opinion), what's important is that he did find it and it did save him. I don't know, I might be missing something, too. Good point though, I think you might be right.

Yeah, I doubt there's much significance there, but just food for thought, I guess...

Keep looking at the lore. You're doing great!

[WinterWondering]

41 minutes ago, The Starver said:

Yeah, I doubt there's much significance there, but just food for thought, I guess...

Keep looking at the lore. You're doing great!

Thank you so much!

[Uedo]

11 hours ago, WinterWondering said:

Thank you! 

That's an interesting point, actually! I'm not exactly sure, but I think you might be right. Rewatching Wolfgang's animated short, in the past, I've always kind of assumed he found it in the crash as opposed to having it before then. But it's sort of framed as though he already had it? I don't know. I don't think it's super relevant, personally, but I think it's very interesting. I doubt they'll revisit it, since whether he found it off-screen or in that crash isn't super important (at least, in my opinion), what's important is that he did find it and it did save him. I don't know, I might be missing something, too. Good point though, I think you might be right.

They've retconned that element. There's little point in looking at the specifics, things have been/will change to keep the story consistent. I'd suggest checking out OrangE on youtube for his mini-lore breakdowns. 

[WinterWondering]

5 minutes ago, Uedo said:

They've retconned that element. There's little point in looking at the specifics, things have been/will change to keep the story consistent. I'd suggest checking out OrangE on youtube for his mini-lore breakdowns. 

Oh, I didn't know that, thanks! And I have watched some of his lore videos, thank you for the suggestion though!

[Uedo]

1 minute ago, WinterWondering said:

Oh, I didn't know that, thanks! And I have watched some of his lore videos, thank you for the suggestion though!

I loved your post about The 1910 Exposition Universelle! I like the linking to Willow too, it helps tie-up the loose ends they left at the end of Wickers short.
I'm 90% sure that at some point, most likely after we reach some form of conclusion of the charlie/wag storyline, they'll try and tighten up the loose ends.

Ngl, I'd love a dev AMA around the lore at somepoint

[WinterWondering]

1 minute ago, Uedo said:

I loved your post about The 1910 Exposition Universelle! I like the linking to Willow too, it helps tie-up the loose ends they left at the end of Wickers short.
I'm 90% sure that at some point, most likely after we reach some form of conclusion of the charlie/wag storyline, they'll try and tighten up the loose ends.

Ngl, I'd love a dev AMA around the lore at somepoint

Thank you! And yeah, I wonder if we'll get answers about characters like Willow at some point.

[Cassielu]

I'm kinda hard to believe that Willow would cross the Pacific to another country just because shadow creatures asked her to burn down a library six months later... doesn't sound like something Willow would do. But that's not big deal.

ML-77 appeared in the theater where Maxwell and Charlie performed in 1906, which means Wagstaff was an inventor before that (if ML-77 was his, of course)

Edited March 16 by Cassielu

[Garett Skott]

It's an interesting theory, but I'm afraid you missed a detail...

Willow burned the library in 1911, which means that the note wasn't referred the the expo of 1910 :/

Spoiler

I had thought it might've been the incident at Voxola, but after rewatching the video, it seems that it was actually caused by a sudden explosion and the portal looks untouched by the surrounding fire. There's also no sign of Willow and she doesn't recognize the grainy transmission in-game.

 

To aid in theorizing, I leave you with a 10-year-old post about Voxola which is hopefully still canonical: 

According to this, the radios must've all been made in 1919, but since the gramaphones appear much earlier, they might've been an early experiment made by Wagstaff on his own.

Edited March 17 by Garett Skott

[WinterWondering]

10 hours ago, Cassielu said:

I'm kinda hard to believe that Willow would cross the Pacific to another country just because shadow creatures asked her to burn down a library six months later... doesn't sound like something Willow would do. But that's not big deal.

ML-77 appeared in the theater where Maxwell and Charlie performed in 1906, which means Wagstaff was an inventor before that (if ML-77 was his, of course)

 

4 hours ago, Garett Skott said:

It's an interesting theory, but I'm afraid you missed a detail...

Willow burned the library in 1911, which means that the note wasn't referred the the expo of 1910 :/

  Hide contents

I had thought it might've been the incident at Voxola, but after rewatching the video, it seems that it was actually caused by a sudden explosion and the portal looks untouched by the surrounding fire. There's also no sign of Willow and she doesn't recognize the grainy transmission in-game.

 

To aid in theorizing, I leave you with a 10-year-old post about Voxola which is hopefully still canonical: 

According to this, the radios must've all been made in 1919, but since the gramaphone appears much earlier, they might've been an early experiment made by Wagstaff on his own.

Thank you both for the feedback! I definitely should've looked through the other things in the same short, LOL. These are all good points! I missed some of the dates. I'm not sure if Wagstaff having made the gramophone in 1919 has been retconned or not, given that, as you've shown, gramophones are shown before then. That might not be a Voxola gramophone? But they might be, IDK. If Wagstaff hadn't made them yet, Maxwell probably couldn't have gotten his hands on one. It's also possible Willow set the expo on fire before the library fire. My original theory is at least partially wrong. I don't know though; I could be completely wrong. I mostly just presumed that the mention of the 1910 expo was probably important and if there's a fire, it usually happens for a reason, that reason often being Willow. I don't know anything for sure. I'm just speculating. Thanks so much, though! Appreciate the help!

[comonavi]

When I saw it I just thought it was a joke about how much of a lore dump it is, "exposition" in a narrative. Given how much the devs love puns I don't doubt that's a part of it but it's interesting to learn the Exposition Universelle was an actual historical event. The game's timeline has always been one of the most fascinating parts of the story to me, ever since the reference to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in the William Carter puzzles. I only wish the story progressed more, it feels like its been on pause since Return of Them.

[The Starver]

One thing that kind of seems to go under the radar is that Maxwell knows exactly what happened throughout the entire history of the Constant, so if anyone knows what the heck all the Ancient lore stuff means, it would be him...

And he's not talking.

[WinterWondering]

Very late, but alternate explanation as to why this is important: this could've been where he met human WX for the first time and began working on robotics together. They must've been working together before the opening of Voxola. We see WX-78 schematics in Winona's animated short, so they must have been built by then. Voxola opens and closes within a few days of its opening in 1919; unless WX and Wagstaff made a robot in, like, a week, they must have been working on the project before. It's also possible the portal he sends WX through is the one that pulls him into the Constant, so that could be his first exposure to the Constant instead. The portal shown in WX's short looks the same as the one in Winona's. I don't know. Not saying this is correct, just noting another possibility.