Who Is Wormwood? (Don't Starve Wormwood Theory)

[@ameslarii]

The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter. I always remember season 6 of Dexter when they talk about Wormwood, because of this passage from the book of the apocalypse that they quote lol

[@pixellover2795]

I actually think there might be a completely different story for wormwood. The green gem or green gem like object that fell from Alter did not seem to entirely be an intentional choice from Alter, and, in fact, I believe that in lore Alter is still dormant and sleeping until all 3 altars are assembled, with Their process of waking up causing their outer shell to slowly be shed, early on starting with a small gem or two, then getting some decent sized boulders, and finally a whole island and more. As I just stated, I believe the fall of wormwood's gem happened quite early on compared to most other events, and it just happened to land on the Hamlet plateaus in the tropical rainforest. We know a decent period of time passed with the gem sitting there, as the pigs constructed a stone monument for the gem that is ruined by the time wormwood awakes and his origin video shows multiple day and night cycles. Eventually, some vines finally start to grow around them gem, and the mutating power of the lunar magic fuses the gem and makes the vines into a sapient lifeform: wormwood. As for how he got with the other survivors on the mainland, I believe that lore-wise originally all the survivors were in slightly different timelines, universes, or islands (time and space are canonically inconsistent, with the only real singularities we know of being the nightmare throne), but once wilson and maxwell met up they made a machine to try to pull the other survivors into the same place, which worked, but charlie took it over and turned it into the florid postern, as shown by the cyclum puzzles. Some survivors were brought in with the bunch right away, while wormwood and warly did not for still unknown reasons, but eventually were brought through as well. We know that travel between the mainland and hamlet is possible, so wormwood was very much likely not abducted. Also speaking of gemstones, after reading all the survivors quotes, I think I have a pretty good gemstone and Them theory. Gemstones do not have inherent magic of their own, but rather can focus magical energy to their effect or be charged with magical energy. Red gems, although associated with heat, actually seem to focus life force, as shown by the life giving amulet, and fire, life force, and the color red definitely have a connection due to wortox soul colors, and, more importantly, willow's embers, where she can take life force and turn it into fire power. Similarly, blue gems, being opposite to red gems, seem to drain life force, with multiple characters examinations of the chilled amulet mentioning how it only works when placed near the heart and seems to be draining the energy of everything it touches. Purple gems are more straightforward, simply focusing shadow magic and powers. I have found little on orange gems, but their ability is also rather simple, being spatial distortion. Next is the yellow gem, which focuses light magic, again, rather simple. Finally is green gems, I first I thought these were merely construction focusers, but they are far more powerful than that, instead being able to manipulate time. Multiple characters mention that the deconstruction staff reverses time on an object to deconstruct it, and green gems are the only gem other than the purple gem that wanda seems inherently interested, which is fitting as she uses shadow magic and time magic, or purple and green gem magic. Iridescent gems are interesting, in that they are made up of all other gems and are very clearly connected to Alter, and given how Alter has connections to reflections (in the gestalts and pools and just being the moon) and how the iridescent gems are made of all other gems with high level transmutations, I would say that iridescent gems have the power to focus lunar energy to reflect the powers of other gems, so when a star staff is turned into a moon caller's staff, the iridescent gem is using lunar magic to mimic yellow gem magic, but, just as looking into a shining opal will distort the image slightly, so does the moon caller's staff, turning the heat from the light into cooling. Now onto my gem Them theory. Before I start out this theory, I would like to recall the "Them"s we currently know of: Altar, an entity that appears to be a moon, and a shadow entity that, given how shadow stuff seems to come from fissures in the Constant and how the word constant is an antonym of the word alter, the shadow entity is very likely the Constant, an entity that appears to be a planet. Interestingly, we have a gemstone that corresponds to each of Them, with purple for the Constant and iridescent of Alter. I find it quite likely that their is a "Them" tier entity appearing to be an ordinary feature for each type of gemstone, which is responsible for all the weird happenings in the universe the survivors are in. To start, the red and blue gems are unique, as even without transmutation they can be combined into the purple gem, meaning they must be connected to the shadow entity in some way. Fortunately, we already know of a fire and life force related thing that appears to be an ordinary feature but is actually a sapient being, the volcano from shipwrecked. The volcano fits all the points for a red gem entity, being correlated with fire and life force (dragoon hearts being a key part in volcano magic and snackrifices to the volcano), seeming to be an ordinary volcano but very much being sapient, and it is part of the Constant's landmass. Blue gems are a bit more interesting and I do not really have much of an idea on what they could be as I do not believe we ever see Them in game. Given how blue gems are also associated with lunar magic as well, my current main theory is that, just like Earth has a story of colliding with another planet to form its moon, something caused part of the Constant to break of into Alter, but some remaining chunks of rocks remained floating in space, which is associated with being cold and life draining. This would also cause It to be part shadow for purple gem crafting and part lunar for its relations to Alter. Now for the individual entities, purple gems are already explained to be the Constant, so orange gems are next. I find it likely that the orange gem entity is responsible for the spatial inconsistencies that were previously mentioned, and that the orange gem entity has some connection to wormholes (and potentially depth worms given the ancient great depths worm's resemblance) given the ability of wormholes to distort space and teleport you somewhere. A powerful entity that has high visual similarities to wormholes is the Gnaw, a lazy (fitting more with orange gem connections) being that sits around all day and constantly brings in more in more food (kinda like the lazy forager, only the players are the ones grabbing things). The Gnaw also has the power to warp creatures just like Alter and the Constant and can shake the whole island it is sitting over, so it is very likely either the orange gem entity itself or, just like a wormhole, its back end connects to the orange gem entity. Next, and probably a little obviously, if we got the planet and moon as entities, why not include the sun for the yellow gem. The sun provides light and warmth (and sanity kinda, albeit it only removes the natural sanity drain of being on the Constant), just like all yellow gem crafts. As for the green gem entity, I have absolutely no clue for whatever They might be, but They definitely are the reason why time is inconsistent. Now back to Alter, they are the iridescent gem entity, I would argue that their power is not inherently anti-shadow. Rather, just like our moon reflects the sun, Alter can alter itself to reflect the powers of another entity, which is primarily the "sun" of the survivor universe, and because the "sun" has light magic that inherently counters shadow magic, Alter's magic opposes the Constant. There is evidence of Alter being able to reflect other magic as well, with the only example I can name off the top of my head being the aporkalypse, where Alter reflects the magic of the Constant instead.

[@polarlotus]

Funny enough I have been working on a gem theory video that somewhat aligns with what you said but has a few different points and ideas (and should be out sometime in the future), really cool theory though!

[@pixellover2795]

@@polarlotus Thanks! Can't wait to see it

[@AZ-bc7wd]

I ain't reading allat💀(jk)

[@stevietvgaming6411]

we are being fed fr fr with this 15 minute video

[@ShatteredHue]

So... Fun fact... Wormwood could have had a bomb. There's unused quotes for it, (WX approves), but not a lot of people know about it. Frankly I'm not surprised klei didn't include it. For one it might have just been too much stuff or they couldn't work it in. Or... They might not have wanted to invoke some real-world correlations that his namesake has. (The wikipedia page for the biblical story of the Wormwood Star has a section that... Might make that clear)

[@polarlotus]

Interesting.. thank you WX-78 in a skirt

[@mitch-el7688]

Awesome video, I never thought much about aporkalypse as Wormwoods main goal to stop shadows of corrupting moon and bringing shadow forces to the world of hamlet, but it makes sense. I also think that after Charlie fused all characters timelines into one shared Alter moved Wormwood to the main land since in hamlet there was already Wilba or Wheeler to take care of the clock, and after survivors reactivated the portal and dealt with fuelweaver Alter sensed that shadows planning something big, so that it send Wormwood to prevent them from doing so. Also it seems like Wagstaff involvement in messing with alter starts after we collect all 3 lunar altars, like that was Alters main goal to achieve, since wormwood is the only survivor that knows what to do with the knowledge puzzles in archives, it looks like Alter wanted to be awakened but didn't wanted to have its power stolen by Wagstaff when its started attacking survivors as well, with the champion and rift content.

[@Yourlocalbacterium]

Wormwood is my favorite character in DST, and he is very cute too. I main him in the game

[@jeso0135]

I know what they are, my favorite scruncle

[@angrytrapperyoqbuqtiysqaro]

to me wormwood is just An amalgam of vines given sentience by lunar magic, Wormwood searches for friends so he can finally belong.

[@AZ-bc7wd]

And he will never find friends just like you :)

[@not_umbre]

When wormwood activates, the constant deconstructs into nightmare fuel, three carrots and maxwell's frontal lobe.

[@ludicrousbiscuit2111]

I think it could be all of them: Charlie made a move that was a major threat, now that the threat was apparent there was a need for intervention. The first step was establishing a forward operating base to allow the threat to be neutralized and the throne deconstructed. However, wormwood was kidnapped, an escalation. Once the connection with wormwood was weakened, it became a high alert situation and wormwood becomes an activated spy (wormwood may not be aware he is sleeper agent that can be seen through thus keeping him innocent). The threats visible were more numerous and now for the first time visible. By threats I mean the other survivors, Charlie, and the campaign mode being deactivated. There is now no other choice for the moon but to wage war and turn the tides since the throne can’t be deconstructed and there are only volatile human threats with technology using stones all around. Since wormwood is a lunar creature directly evolving wormwood is a logical and maybe even instinctual choice. But because wormwood is a sentient deconstructor that hasn’t deconstructed anything, the other survivors and even Charlie view him as neutralized. He’s an ever advancing weapon in enemy territory, being developed to tear it all down and no one is the wiser. I think this ties it all together well since it doesn’t require outwitting Charlie, instead, it is a series of escalations brought on by new threats.

[@IcedWaterOfficial]

I think I know, Wormwood… is a plant!

[@o0DreamCream0o]

Wormwood and the constant custody battle

[@dashalinda5724]

11:30 Maybe Wormwood should have fallen down to the GOG world, but the flying islands got in the way. 🙂

[@abyss8354]

Maybe Wormwood is just a plant creature like the carrats that grew around the gem instead of nearby it, and it was supposed to take over an area of the constant before Wormwood ruined it

[@Toadkillah]

"As Wormwood is a playable character." Well so is Wagstaff in single player DS and Maxwell in DS after adventure mode and always in DST. So it seems being playable doesn't neccesarily negate a character from having a big impact on the plot. I mean it's canon that Wilson dethroned Maxwell before getting yeeted back into the Constant so even mr Generic Starter Man has a big impact on the story. On a completely different note, in their Triumphant skins everyone looks well triumphant *except* Wormwood who looks absolutely miserable and like he's in pain. And with the Moonbound skins having being released pretty recently we can see Wormwood looking content and his quote is "Ahhh. Home." I just think these are a neat bit of visual storytelling.

[@AZ-bc7wd]

What is that intro bru is blud shakespeare????

[@AZ-bc7wd]

The real question is who is the hollow knight?

[@FIreWolf3004]

Another good vid, The sponser is going to good use I see

[@ULTIMUS7105]

It’s my wormy Boi!

[@babafisi8135]

Wormwood gives off MASSIVE Guilmon energy.

[@LasagneAlForno8297]

wom word my boy, you must enact the will of your parent (the moon) and destroy the concept of darkness

[@NickFury-i4b]

Ok so remember don't starve shipwrecked? So basically I was trying to unlock woodlegs and I tried to make the world and edit it to make it easier to unlock him and pretty much what happened is I was around 13/14 days in and I kill quacken on day 7 and then put the key in a chest and then on day 13 I found the volcano and then entered it to look for woodlegs and for some reason upon entering it ALL MY STUFF I HAD IN MY INVENTORY DISAPPEARED INCLUDING MY 99% OF MY QUACKEN LOOT (the one percent was the key because I put in the chest at my base) AND ALSO ALL THE CRAFTING RECIPES I DO NOT ALREADY KNOW BY DEFAULT BUT PROTOTYPED (like armoured boat, cloth sail, stuff like that) HAS BEEN TREATED AS IF I NEVER PROTOTYPED THEM! My guess on why this happened is because I modified the world to be easier and the game when I entered a new world probably pooped itself but still (sidenote I think wickerbottem is good for shipwrecked because she saves the hassel of trying to get an alchemy engine and you have science machine recipes on day one).

[@polarlotus]

interesting, was this on console by chance? that version is still riddled with bugs as far as I know

[@NickFury-i4b]

​@@polarlotusYea this was on the Nintendo switch.

[@Starsoidier-c6u]

If you need tips for wormwood I’ll be there on tomorrow’s stream

[@biancatorres5528]

These theories are really interesting, but I kinda hope that Wormwood is not an intelligent spy just playing dumb. It wouldn't feel natural since there's no indication of it. You could argue that he's just doing a great job at being a spy but idk Plot twist "villains" can feel really forced when they appear out of nothing. Or at least that's what I think.

[@polarlotus]

Luckily I don’t think he is, I was just exploring another possible angle I do think wormwood is far more intelligent than he comes off as though!

[@liam10boy39]

what if hes supposed to take the throne then wither away and die because hes a plant

[@thepsychopath5442]

Huh... that last theory seems a bit random. I wonder who came up with it.

[@polarlotus]

OKAY BUT YOU CANT DISPROVE IT THOUGH!!!

[@Nucleer76]

wormwood is living tree bro

[@buglium]

Freakwood 💔

[@Grayson-tk5hn]

isnt worm wood jesus

[@DSTRWX]

Hi are there people playing dst on Xbox? I ask because I am going to buy Xbox but Xbox has few players unlike PlayStation and dst already has few players on PlayStation so how about on Xbox?

[@Xandrvick]

dang so close 😔

[@diska_1218]

ermsies first

[@RaisinHook]

it's a worm made of wood, i thought that would be obvious

[@dont-cv7ms]

1 view from 2 minutes ago. fell off.

[@o0DreamCream0o]

Wormwood and the constant custody battle