Everyone knows that each Stranger in haven has a snipe on their person. There are two Exception, that being Hailoh and Basil, the stranger near the entrance and the traveling merchant respectively. Hailoh is being watched by many snipes in the local vicinity of him. And well, Basil is the only Stranger who really moves about (In theory, or he could just be occupying the same space forever). These two could also be hiding snipes on them (E.g. under their hat), but I reckon this is unlikely. *
On top of this notice how each of the major things in Haven are being controlled by Snipes? both the Auction house and the Training hall are controlled by these creatures. The symbol haven is the town on top of a giant snipe. As well as this, the busiest area of haven (Often in front of the auction house) has the most snipes there.
Why am I bringing these up? after having a discussion with the guild members we came up with a theory. Well, could it be that the Snipes are the ones in charge? The first alien creature you see when you arrive on the cradle is a snipe.
If the snipes are in charge, it could suggest that they are controlling the strangers, and suggesting what you should do. I mean, the strangers seemed to be willing to allow you to crash in their city rather easily. Especially since they are alien, and would imaginably have some kind of difficult communication differences?
Further evidence for the Snipes controlling the Strangers:
“While no knight has ever found a hint of mercy in those beady black eyes, one Stranger tells that snipes are, among other things, actually incredibly modest beings”
Notice how the Knights view is almost conflicting with the strangers view? Perhaps the strangers are trying to feed propaganda due to being controlled by the snipes.
If the snipes were the ones who caused the crash of the Skylark, then they would know where the crash site of pods are - this could just be coincidence of meeting up with abundant snipes at the crash site. However if you look at it from a different perspective, could they not be viewing how competent you are as a new species.
Now lets link this in with a quote from the Shadow lair echo stone:
“Twisting his creation into a game of death, it now devours all who enter its iron embrace”
if this is indeed referencing snipes as the creator, then, does this mean that the knights are part of their game? and as the newest contestant for these games, they are looking at us closely and observing our actions? (Furthermore suggested by the fact that there are few snipes down deep in the clockworks, only ones down there are actually looking at Knights who are researching stuff).
And here’s another one:
“Hold dearly this fire in you, for darkness will consume all the night if its stars begin to fade.”
Lets add in this quote:
“beady black eyes”
While looking at the eyes of a snipe, they are pitch black with a star in them (I know its supposed to be light glinting off them but it kind of looks like a star. Could the one who created the echo stone be using this as a metaphor for the snipes?
If in the extreme case that this is true, what does this mean for us? Well who knows, it could be that the snipes are in fact controlling the entire situation, and using whatever species it deems the most competent. The Alpha squad could have been taken in for dissection by them when they realised that the knights are actually quite competent as a species, meaning that they could potentially be used for assimilation. They are doing this because the strangers the numbers of strangers are quite low, especially in comparison to the numbers of knights (There are 11 left, and 3 of them have “Died” off, showing a death rate of 3 over 1 and ½ years). If the knights can prove themselves worthy of the snipes for it to be beneficial for them assimilate to the knights, then the sprites are infact parasites. It would also mean that the sprites, although they look quite small and weak, are actually really intelligent, much like the mice from Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. What does this bode for the Snipe’d stranger hat? Perhaps a production model to see if they can begin to control the knights.
- Additional theory: Perhaps the traveling merchants, of whom sell the crafting recipes (the only non-knights who do so) also have no snipes. Maybe they are proactively trying to get you away from supplying energy/crowns directly to the snipes for the 0-3* items they supply. Viewing this in mind, they also only hide in the clockworks now. Quincy used to hide in the rescue camp, but who knows, maybe he was picked off quickly by the snipe army, explaining his removal? Basil could be one of the few strangers who have yet to be affected by the snipes as he lurks in the clockworks to avoid the snipes who may not be able to defend themselves on their own down their... Unless they are able to begin to control the knights...
TL;DR: Conspiracy theory that Snipes are the big bad of the game and are actually trying to take control of us because they are parasitic beings.
If you would like to comment on this theory you can do so here.
Written by Shaarmallama
Developed by Shaarmallama, Skruzo and Aki