~ The Shadow Compendium ~

 ~ With the Test Realm for Wizard101's Fall Update on the horizon KingsIsle has been delivering teasers to their community. Based on what we've seen makes it sort of hard to speculate as to what is to come. So far we've seen concept art for what looks like a Shaolin "Temple", a Mooshu (Or Grizzlehiem) "Boar Boss", a "Royal Hall" of Marleybone, and a collection of pieces of what we all assume to be Darkmoor. And this post will be dedicated to deducing these teasers and hopefully gathering speculations from others. ~

~ "Heard It Through The Grapevine" ~

 ~ As some may know. KingsIsle has released three Vines. Each of them revealing something significantly different yet the same. In this first Vine there was, what we like to call, the "Raven Dance", and then in the second Vine we see yet another dance emote. However, the location that the emote was filmed is one of mystery. 

This emote, as you can see below, is the "OppaWizardStyle". ~

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 ~ As for the location; It's apparent that there is  a building. But what's hard to see is at the building's entrance is a sigil, a sigil for a dungeon. But what kind of dungeon? 

Our first clue is the music played during the Vine. It's from the Marleybonian Dance Game which provides a decent hint that the set location is Marleybone. The second clue is the starry night sky which backs up the idea that this IS Marleybone. And our last and final clue is that the whole building-dungeon itself looks like Buckingham Palace, a real place in Britain. But wait, there's more! This next Vine as well as the concept art after it will reveal a whole lot more as to what we may see. ~

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 ~ The Cat, her attire, and even her stature screams Marleybone. Not to mention she is surrounded by a plethora of Marleybonian themed items. So therefore we must be going back to Marleybone. But if so, precisely why are we going back and will we only be going back to deal with whatever is happening in Barkingham Palace or is there more? Plus what is this Cat's purpose and what will become of her in the game?

At the moment since we're not sure as to what her purpose is we can make sense as to what may be going on here. From the appearance of the background it seems that she's inside, right? 

Well if you listen closely you can hear a cricket, what sounds like that familiar crash of glass, and wind, plus a few Dogs barking. Now these sounds seem rather odd to be heard when or if you're inside. So does that mean that maybe someone or something has broken into the Barkingham Palace? If so, what are they up to? And what does that blimp from the vine prior have to do with the events going on inside Barkingham? ~

~ "Give a Dog a Bone" ~

 ~ On the 30th of October KingsIsle released this piece of art on Facebook and Twitter asking "Who could sit on the throne in this Royal Hall??" And almost immediately this backed up everyone's theories that we'd be visiting the Barkingham Palace. I for one don't really care if it is or isn't Barkingham Palace. I'm just looking forward to exploring whatever is connected to this Royal Hall. The only thing I hope is that if this is apart of the dungeon we saw earlier that it complies with these three things:

1) This Dungeon isn't over priced like Mount Olympus, Atlantea, and Tarturus was or that it's free to all who have Reagent's Square (That is if it is Barkingham Palace).

2) The drop ratings are decent or at least the attire or whatever is dropped inside is more improved then what we saw in Tartarus. Hopefully, if there is attire, that it can be compared to that of the attire from Waterworks which had a well balanced set of stats.

3) The Dungeon isn't extremely long but also challenging like the Moo Manchu Tower of Pirate101.

 

~ Oh Boar! More Teasers! ~

 ~ Alongside the reveal of the "Royal Hall" concept art KingsIsle also gave every official Wizard101 fansite two pieces of concept art featuring two irrelevant things compared to the Marleybone stuff that we've seen. These "things" are the "Boar Boss" and the "Temple". Below we see the Boar Boss in all his glory. 

In the past we've seen Boars, they were in Grizzlehiem. But as we look at this Boar he has some Mooshu-like features. The one thing that is clear is that this "Boar Boss" is apart of a clan or cult based on the hoof emblem seen around his waist.  

This next piece labeled "Temple" is also rather odd. Based on observation we can see that it looks rather Mooshu as well and that's it's in a cavern of some sort. But how did it get there and what is its purpose?

Some have speculated that it's the house from the elusive Evergreen Bundle but I beg to differ. Mostly because it doesn't exactly have that greenhouse look that is faintly visible on the card. Either way, whatever it is I'm excited for it. ~

 ~ Into Darkness; and Moonlight ~

 ~ Just a day after, on October 31st (and Halloween) KingsIsle released yet another set of concept art. This set of concept art is in my opinion the most special for it reveals far moor than the stuff we've seen so far. 

Here we see what I like to call "The Shadow Knight" mostly because he looks like something of a Shadow Spell. Now without much knowledge of its purpose we can only assume that it will be an NPC, a Spell, or an Enemy of some sort. ~

 

 ~ This next piece is one of the more interesting of them all. As you an see it has a very dark, Transylvanian, Gothic vibe to it. 

If you look closer you can see that bottom half of the Gargoyle is stone, then as you look at the upper half its more living. Its almost like it was animated by magic to guard this upcoming piece that we see. ~

 ~ This final piece is the supporting base of all of our theories that Darkmoor is upcoming. It has the familiar sky that we saw both in Dimwood Vale (Which had frames of locations on Darkmor and the house itself had the same materials that the houses in the Darkmoor photos did.) and in the piece(s) of concept art that we saw of the Darkmoor skyway. Plus, the very building is twisted, and dark. The very thing we expect from a world  with the word "dark" in it. The question is, what is this place? And what's going on in it? ~

How Would Old Cob Fit in with Darkmoor?

 ~ He wouldn't. I know this goes against my previous post but I think it's way to early for them to release a new Main World for Wizards. They've focused to much on elevating our level cap and getting us to the final confrontation with Morganthe that I think it's time they look back on some of the lower level Wizards and gave them something to stray away from their main quests. Specifically I hope Darkmoor is for level 50-60 Wizards since their past two Side Worlds have been for Wizards 20+. However, just because I think (and hope) Darkmoor will be a Side World I still think there will be content for level 100 Wizards. Specifically the new Dungeon we saw above and maybe some new Shadow Spells to aid us in the Third Arc. ~

Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to reading any theories of your own. Until next time. . . .

((P.S) I recently asked Gary something on Twitter regarding if we may see anymore Fish and here is what his response was. So to all of you Fish-fanatics get ready for Spring!)

@Jace_ADaniels There are a few more fish in the Fall Update. It seems that lots and lots of fish are swimming toward the Spring Update.
— Gary Smith (@GaryScottSmith2) November 1, 2014

((P.S.S) For more information on what is to come check out this post here.)