ramble ARG - Lore Side

[The Starver]

I decided to start a thread on the lore implications of the ARG, as well as general discussion of related lore topics.

It didn’t really seem right to discuss the lore in the other ARG thread that’s much more technically-focused, especially since we now have a whole forum section (yay).

I’ll go first. I think Wagstaff is actually a terrifying character, and was built up very well to be a villain. He’s clearly focused mainly on his research, regardless of the harm it may cause to others. Also, despite being an old man, I don’t think he’s a shriveled husk. He seems to be very athletic in DS and the DLCs, and clearly isn’t acting like he’s frail. One of the more terrifying things is how when he gets either mad or determined, his eyes disappear and only the glare on his goggles is left, making him look like the mad scientist he truly is.

As for the villain part, there’s a whole other topic I could write about the overarching story of the game (from an author’s perspective), but basically he’s a terrible option out of two terrible options (the other being Charlie). The game’s dark theme hinges on there being no real escape from the horrors (DS’s ending being a prime example), and the two opposing antagonists are an excellent way to do that. With that out of the way, I’ll move on to the Wagstaff part.

He’s the Cryptic Founder, which is kind of a dead giveaway. He has secrets, and he isn’t sharing them. He founded Voxola, and he’s not going to stop what he's doing until he has what he wants, which has changed over time. First, he was trying to harness the power of Nightmare Fuel, but then he turned to lunar energies as they must have seemed more powerful. I’m not convinced he’s unchanged by all this either. I’m personally wondering whether he’s kind of like those creepy bugs in Deepnest in Hollow Knight, where the moon is controlling him from the inside.

I don’t really have a conclusion for this. It’s late and I’m tired.

Sorry to ramble. Business card is below. Goodnight, forums!

[Garett Skott]

I'll try to put together the story we know so far, let me know what's missing:

In 1906, Wagstaff used to be hella broke and relied on petty theft to keep going. That's when he came across the projector that recorded Maxwell's final act and discovered the Constant. He could project himself in there, but not take anything back (or otherwise he wouldn't constantly complain about that DS). He goes on to work on a portal in the following years (supposedly using the projector itself as base). 

This is where things get a little foggy. In 1919, Wagstaff founded Voxola, which created the radios infused with nightmare fuel that Maxwell would exploit in the future. In the comic, we see that Wagstaff's portal was clearly not working and that he was pulled in only after the accident, so how did he get the nightmare fuel for the radios? We know he had already founded Voxola at this point because in the comic we can see the moment Winona tried to save him.
Also, is this the point in time where he's playable in DS? If he was pulled in physically, why does he become staticy at low health? Some people think he's already a projection (and therefore that he was still using the projector), but some of his quotes suggest otherwise (such as being pricked by a cactus: "Yeouch! Have they drawn blood?"). So if he's there physically, like the comic and the quotes would suggest, why the static? And why does he act so confident, shouldn't he be at least a little worried?
Note: in DS and DST, Wagstaff clearly uses two different means of projecting himself. In DS, the effect is gradual and looks like that of an old film feel, so it must be related to the projector. In DST, the effect is constant, makes him glow and looks more like a hologram, and we know that's done using advanced technology.

Whatever happened there, WX manages to bring him back after rebuilding the same technology and the two go back to the factory's remains to look for spare parts. There, they find dark flower petals likely left behind by Charlie when she briefly appeared. This is where the comic stops for now, but from WX's short we know that they kept on working on the portal, developed robot bodies, and eventually WX was sent to the Constant with a working portal. I don't think Wagstaff ever used that portal himself because he still doesn't have a way back by the start of DST.

After Wilson's disappearance in 1921, Wagstaff takes over his house (which was previously his own) and uses Maxwell's Door to project himself into the Constant like we see in DST. There, he started working on yet another portal from the inside with the help of some survivors, created a lunar-powered war machine (probably because of the pressure of the world wars) and got kidnapped. The glove and clipboard he leaves behind are both real, as pointed out by every survivor, meaning that Wagstaff was genuinely physically taken from the normal world to wherever he ended up in the Constant.

Edited March 26 by Garett Skott
Fixed typo

[Ridley]

Setting aside everything else, what is Wagstaff and co even trying to do in the ARG right now? Make a portal that goes to unwittingly leads to Charlie? Or maybe they meet Maxwell whose on the throne still?

The Diving Rod and Gramophone both lack an explanation on how they got in the Constant. The "builders" of Maxwell's robots are a mystery too, although Wagstaff remarks he hasn't seen them before.

[Dr. Safety]

I can give you a ramble. I love Wagstaff's character and lore.

We haven't reached the DS Wagstaff part of the story yet in the ARG (since we are presumably working with human WX right now, and Wagstaff recognizes the robot version in singleplayer? Although it would make more sense if this wasn't WX as this causes some plot holes) There is a lot of unknowns in between Wagstaff finding the projector and whatever definite event comes next, whether that event is this ARG, or the brief cameo in the Webber animated short, or any other short we've seen. In that time, a few things need to happen:

• Wagstaff need to become a genius inventor instead of a nobody thief with mild interest in tinkering.
• Wagstaff needs to establish Voxola, and have a motive for doing so
• Wagstaff's technology needs to somehow make it into the Constant, all the way to the throne since the divining rod and gramophone are present 

I have a LONG theory that could explain all of this. I've mentioned it before on the forums but this seems like a good place to bring it up again. My theory is that Wagstaff is the first person that Maxwell attempted to make a deal with, but after receiving 'forbidden knowledge' Wagstaff has no interest in actually helping, and just leaves. With Wagstaff projecting himself into the Constant, Maxwell can actually communicate with someone, and realizes that Wagstaff could help free him. Maxwell gives Wagstaff the forbidden knowledge, and with this new knowledge, Wagstaff begins making a portal (Maxwell's door in singleplayer). This plays out just like Wilson with one difference, when Maxwell tells him to throw the switch, Wagstaff doesn't. He just turns off the projector, which enrages Maxwell and allows Wagstaff to use his new knowledge in the real world.

Wagstaff quickly realizes that his knowledge is incomplete, and he needs to study the Constant more in order to fill in the gaps. However, every time he uses the projector to go back, Maxwell knows and hunts him down. This is Wagstaff's motivation to create gramophones (and eventually Voxola radios). By making gramophones that connect to the Constant in the same way that the projector does, it would become harder for Maxwell to track down Wagstaff as there would be several connections being made to the Constant from the real world. Wagstaff gets to work making gramophones and showcases/sells them here:

This is where stuff gets a little fuzzy, but Maxwell gets a hold of a gramophone somehow (maybe Wagstaff made a prototype in the constant to make sure he was safe to do so in the real world?) This gives Maxwell a breakthrough, because now he is able to use it communicate to the real world (leading to him taking Warly, Wes, Wigfrid, Wickerbottom and any other character who had a gramophone in their short). Again, this keeps Maxwell busy with them so Wagstaff can continue his research. This is where we start reaching the part where Wagstaff hires Webber's dad, and WX to begin making portals. Wagstaff has seen the power held in the Constant and wants to find a way to bring it to the real world. Wagstaff's goals in the real world are to create a safe way to bring stuff to the real world, and his goals in the Constant are to find the most powerful stuff to bring back.

Once all the people who obtained gramophones were taken, Wagstaff needed to make something new since making a gramophone would establish a connection to Maxwell and cause Wagstaff to be taken, but Maxwell was no longer distracted with pulling people in. This leads to the creation of the radios, which is essentially wave 2 of exposing the public to Maxwell so that he will be preoccupied with them instead of Wagstaff.

This is also where things get fuzzy, as somehow the radio in the real world functions just like the gramophones, but in the Constant, they have mysterious properties (tracking down pieces for portals that Wagstaff made but Maxwell corrupted, and even freeing Maxwell from the throne). The prototype gramophone becomes useless to Maxwell, and so it just plays the same song over and over again.

After the factory burns down, Wagstaff focuses on his goals in the real world, which is perfecting a portal and making a safe way to explore. This leads to the creation of the WX robot and eventually making a working portal to banish them into the Constant. He finds a way to bring a spider to the real world, and whatever stuff we have yet to see in this ARG.

Finally, Wagstaff realizes that in order to complete his work, Maxwell needs to be off the throne. Wagstaff sells his home to a young scientist, and sets up a trail of breadcrumbs so that the scientist would eventually find their way to the Constant. Wagstaff would then be able to equip them with his newest invention, the divining rod, and manipulate them into freeing Maxwell.

With Charlie on the throne, Wagstaff is free to explore to his hearts content, as she does not care about him and instead wants to summon the ancient ones.

TL:DR Wagstaff was given the same deal Wilson was, but never "threw the switch" which is why he is so smart and dangerous. This leads to him basically orchestrating every single lore event that happens in the real world.

Edited March 26 by Dr. Safety

[The Starver]

THE GUY IN THE COMIC MIGHT BE WEBBER’S DAD.

I’m not positive. I’ll grab some images to check.

These posts are awesome, by the way. I love digging into the lore.

EDIT: Never mind, I’m just blind.

Sorry!!

Edited March 27 by The Starver
Blindness

[Dr. Safety]

41 minutes ago, The Starver said:

 

Edited March 27 by Dr. Safety

[reddocc]

omg it's them

[Dr.Webber]

6 hours ago, Dr. Safety said:

 

WX 

[Garett Skott]

9 hours ago, Dr. Safety said:

Wagstaff was given the same deal Wilson was, but didn't go through with it all the way.

That's an interesting theory, but I don't see much explicitly pointing to it. In Wagstaff's quotes, he doesn't seem to recognize Maxwell or Maxwell's Door and I think his house simply went up for auction when he disappeared. WX must've taken quite some time to remake everything from the ground up, which would explain the decayed state of the house compared to the picture on the advertisement. Also, if Wagstaff really had tricked Maxwell, I feel like the latter would be more resentful towards him, but he simply considers him a "fool" (because he's attempting to control the lunar magic like he did with shadows) or an "interloper". 

[Dr. Safety]

3 hours ago, Garett Skott said:

That's an interesting theory, but I don't see much explicitly pointing to it. In Wagstaff's quotes, he doesn't seem to recognize Maxwell or Maxwell's Door and I think his house simply went up for auction when he disappeared. WX must've taken quite some time to remake everything from the ground up, which would explain the decayed state of the house compared to the picture on the advertisement. Also, if Wagstaff really had tricked Maxwell, I feel like the latter would be more resentful towards him, but he simply considers him a "fool" (because he's attempting to control the lunar magic like he did with shadows) or an "interloper". 

Upon closer inspection of Wagstaff's quotes, I think you may be right. His inspection for Maxwell's door indicates that it is a new design to him and he wants to meet the designer (Maxwell). Wagstaff's quote for the teleportato portal is that it's his own design, but with runes added to it. 

This overlap between Maxwell and Wagstaff's designs is really odd for characters that haven't interacted directly... how did Wagstaff's inventions play such a big role in freeing Maxwell? This is also assuming the quotes from singleplayer are reliable, even though they were written 7 and a half years ago. Definitely something to think about.

Anyone else have any theories?

Edited March 27 by Dr. Safety

[Garett Skott]

3 hours ago, Dr. Safety said:

Anyone else have any theories?

I don't know how the gramophone ended up near Maxwell's throne and it also strikes me as weird that any survivor in DS can craft the divining rod, which has the infamous radio on it. But I do have a theory about the teleportato:

My first guess was that it was part of Wagstaff's first attempt to get into the Constant since they lead you deeper into it, towards the throne. That's something Maxwell's Door does too, meaning that the technology that can lead into the Constant can only lead deeper into it, not the other way around. Looking at Wagstaff's quotes though, it seems he doesn't really know what it does or how, while Maxwell is able to explain the function of each piece. He is the real designer behind this machine, if that wasn't obvious by the fact it's modelled after his face. Wagstaff's materials were simply repurposed, he must've left them all over the place like he does in DST.

But why would Maxwell build a machine that leads straight to him if he doesn't want us to reach him? That's because that's not the teleportato's original function. Outside adventure mode, it can still be used and it will generate a new world. That was its real purpose, to create new but similar islands for every survivor. In adventure mode, all the materials look darker, more shadowy, as if they've been tampered with. I think Charlie was the one to mess with the machine to allow Wilson to continue, so that she could follow him to Maxwell, like the stage play shows. 

Edited March 27 by Garett Skott

[Ridley]

1 hour ago, Garett Skott said:

Looking at Wagstaff's quotes though, it seems he doesn't really know what it does or how, while Maxwell is able to explain the function of each piece. He is the real designer behind this machine, if that wasn't obvious by the fact it's modelled after his face. Wagstaff's materials were simply repurposed, he must've left them all over the place like he does in DST.

Wagstaff probably invented the Wooden Thing due to his quote, "My design is quite similar to this, although without the runes...":

Though it does seem that rest of the parts are Maxwell additions, or maybe altercations. Either way, if Wagstaff designed the original, the nightmare lock may not have existed until Wagstaff enters the scene.

 

Maybe one explanation for this stuff could be magic knowledge sharing. Maxwell has been seen granting vast amounts of instant knowledge to people, but maybe he can also receive that knowledge from someone like Wagstaff. I've heard it theorized that the science machines are like a collective knowledge bank that allows Wilson's creations to be made by the likes of Wolfgang, so maybe Maxwell copied Wagstaff's homework in a similar way.

 

Edited March 27 by Ridley

[Dr. Safety]

On 3/27/2026 at 12:03 PM, Garett Skott said:

I think Charlie was the one to mess with the machine to allow Wilson to continue, so that she could follow him to Maxwell, like the stage play shows. 

This is definitely the most likely reason. It would also explain how the radio can be used to free Maxwell. Charlie has shown us that she knows how to, since she freed Wilson.

This all still begs the question, how did Wagstaff go from a tinkering scammer living in squalor to a successful inventor? We know that Wagstaff only acts to benefit himself, so what benefit does he gain by creating a channel for Maxwell to communicate with the outside world?

[Bumber64]

11 hours ago, Dr. Safety said:

This all still begs the question, how did Wagstaff go from a tinkering scammer living in squalor to a successful inventor? We know that Wagstaff only acts to benefit himself, so what benefit does he gain by creating a channel for Maxwell to communicate with the outside world?

His fortune changed when he got the projector, so presumably he impressed investors using stuff he gained from the Constant. Wagstaff doesn't need to know what Maxwell's doing with the radios, he's too focused on building a portal so he can sell spiders and such.