WMG / Tribe Twelve

All spoilers are unmarked!

Tribe Twelve is what Alex Kralie's Marble Hornets would have looked like were it finished.

A man comes back to his hometown, witnesses how he's changed and how it's changed and how both have stayed the same. Poorly written, poorly acted, and Slender Man keeps appearing in the background.

• Ironically, this appears to have completely reversed, given that Marble Hornets is complete, and this series never will be...

The journal contains the key to bringing down the Collective

The Collective is deadset on getting it. Perhaps someone down the line found a way to kill them off or banish them to their native dimension? It explains why they never acted against Karl. They're afraid he might have read it and knows how to do them in, hence why they went after Mary, Milo, and Noah. They were vulnerable and didn't have anything to fear.

Milo isn't dead.

Instead, he faked his death and is the one who delivered the package to Noah's house in Night Recordings.

• Jossed by this picture:http://twitpic.com/7f7h35
  • Maybe not! In Interception, Firebrand made note during his interruption that Milo will send Noah his journal. Whether it means Milo is still alive or even undead is up in the air.
  • As of Obituary, there is strong evidence linking Milo as the identity of Mr. Scars.
  • Semi-confirmed in Milo's Tape. While Milo is indeed around, he's about as alive as he is human right now.

The same person has been hacking all of Noah's videos somehow.

• In Analysis, the final frame of the video has a hidden message: "Milo could see", referring to Milo's ability to see the Slenderman.
• In Milo's Funeral, the last few seconds are footage Noah thought he deleted before uploading, of him presumably running from Slenderman.
• In My Grandfather Karl, the end of the video has the hidden message "Not Safe"
• In The Unboxing, hidden messages appear in the video one frame at a time:
  • "He knows what I have done"
  • An image of the Slenderman
  • "I will wait for you" with a picture of the Slenderman waving his tentacles menacingly
• In Box Analysis, everything in the box has been delivered by this person, but the video in particular has "Do You Remember" hidden in it.
• These are all from the same person or unknown third party. This party may have also scrawled the messages onto the tower in Submission 2.
• At the end of 'Token Letter' there is the message "Observing You" next to the creepy eye symbol. Also of note, some of the letters in said letter have been darkened in—specifically M I L O. Which quite possibly supports the Milo isn't dead argument.
  • Confirmed when the Observer hacked Noah's formspring on 11/11

Noah's grampa Karl is being controlled by Slender Man

The facts:

• Karl somehow knew about Noah's videos, even though no one told him.
• Karl somehow knew that Noah was going to be nearby because of Milo's funeral.
• Karl has previous exposure to Slender Man (Großmann) and knowledge of the Großmann myth (German version of Slender Man).
• Karl somehow identified the man showing up in the videos as Großmann, even though he only saw Großmann once, at night, and man in the videos looks (so far) like a normal human.

Add it all up, and it seems likely that Slendy made Karl tell that story to Noah.

• According to the Observer, '[they] cannot touch him' because 'he has something of [theirs]'. So...
  • Actually, most of that could be attributed to him being part of the family (Families generally tend to gather for funerals and such.) and the fact that the Großmann terrified him makes it unlikely he'd forget it that easily. Plus, you know, maybe he was just poking around the internet and happened to find them one day. As for the 'can't touch him because he has something of thiers' part, however... well, this is a Slendy series. He probably is connected somehow if they say that.

• Technically jossed, as Karl is not being controlled by Slender Man, but still somewhat accurate, as Karl is being occasionally possessed by Persolus, his future self in the Collective. Unfortunately for Slendy, Persolus is also guarding the journal.

Milo is the Observer.

Either he faked his death, or Slendy pulled some necromancy. The Observer seems very close to Milo, not to mention how many times Milo showed up in HELLOTHERE and the newest one, COMECLOSER. Plus, the observer is clearly shown in silhouette with nearly the exact same hairstyle as Milo. It's pretty obvious that it's him.

• I don't think Milo needed glasses tho.

• Jossed, the Observer is Kevin, and Milo is Mr. Scars.

Slender Man is trying to make friends with Noah.

I'd heard the theory that he's just lonesome and trying to make friends (and accidentally cursing them/driving them crazy in the process, but it didn't seem plausible to me until I saw Tribe Twelve. Look at what he's done to Noah- he tries to visit him in his house, only for him to freak out every time he does so. So he gives him a cellphone and tries to call him. He also makes and sends him a lot of artistic video-letters, all of which are asking Noah to come visit him (maybe he's planning a party). He sends him another package of goodies, including a tissue for his nosebleeds (even with "Thought you could use this" written on it), and pills to help him calm down (Possibly Milo's psychiatric medication). In Nature Trail, he and Noah even play Hide and Seek! The portion where he starts filming even sums it up as such ("Hide and seek is fun [...] We enjoy playing.").

• And if you take into the account that some speculate the Observer was once a human, then if could be that he and others in the collective are Slendy's 'successful' friendships.
• Jossed.

The Observer is a sort of vulture-like scavenger that follows Slendy.

When we get our first look at him, he's clearly eating something. This is just after Milo drops his camera and disappears. If we assume that the bit where Milo O Ds on his medication is just a trick by Slendy to cover his tracks (which has been heavily implied throughout the series), it seems likely enough that the Observer is eating Milo. It's possible that while Slendy drives his victims insane and eventually kills them, the Observer follows along to feed on the bodies.

• Jossed. The Observer states that he works directly for Slendy (and in fact, was created by him), and has no need to consume food to keep himself alive.

Noah is The Observer.

When the Observer took control of Noah's Formspring, he talked about how he used to be human, and how he doesn't perceive time "normally". Someone later brought up that, since the Observer does not perceive time linearly, the human version of him could currently be alive. But, more disturbingly, when the Observer was answering the questions, he comes across as a Deadpan Snarker. A lot like Noah. If the Observer ends up converting Noah to the Collective, this could establish a sort of paradox/stable time loop.

• Jossed; Kevin is the Observer, or at least his human host.
  • Double Jossed; Noah is Firebrand.

Slendy's one of those failed supersoldier experiments created by the Nazis.

First came to me while watching 'HAPPYBIRTHDAY' (For obvious reasons.) Okay, so Those Wacky Nazis were all about genetic perfection and shit, right? So who says they wouldn't have tried to make artificial genetically perfect soldier peoples? (It's not exactly uncommon speculation and may or may not have actually happened, but whatever. This troper's currently too hyped up on sugar to bother Googling anything.) So, as Artificial Human experiments that may or may not have Gone Horribly Wrong/Right have a habit of doing, Slendy eventually developed a mind of his own and/or the Nazis considered him a failure, and somehow he got unleashed upon the world, and so became the Eldritch Abomination most of us know and are scared shitless by today.

• Semi-confirmed. While he wasn't created by them, Slender Man was indeed experimented on by the Nazis when they "captured" him, not realizing that Slendy was actually pulling a Russian Reversal and was experimenting on them instead (albeit with a little help from Henka Visæ.

Noah's friend Kevin is the Observer.

Most of the evidence for this WMG comes from the latest entry, November 11th, which shows Noah's latest kidnapping from his point of view. Around five minutes in, the video distorts, and we are shown Kevin, who the description states is a friend of Noah's who helped translate Karl's german. Kevin has the Observer's frizzy hair, his square glasses, and holds up notecards written in the Observer's scribble style. Also, Noah's response to seeing the Observer's face (although we don't) indicates that the Observer is someone he knows.

• Actually, Noah sees Firebrand's face. Still, this WMG is all but canon.
• Confirmed. Kevin is the Observer, but he appears to be unaware of it since the Observer actually possesses Kevin as opposed to being Kevin

Milo is Firebrand

With the other members of the Collective coming to prominence, most notably Mr. Scars and Firebrand, it could be very possible that they are also people that Milo knows, going off of the above WMG. Then add in the November 11 footage, where Noah very clearly recognizes Firebrand...

• Jossed by the Observer on Noah's hijacked Formspring.
• And Jossed again in the 11-11-12 Livestream. Firebrand is actually Noah.

Milo, John Fletcher, Sarah and Kat are members of the Collective

All of them have been killed off during the course of the series, with at least 2 of them being ruled a suicide. However, it is specifically said that Milo, Kat, and Sarah didn't leave bodies behind for burial. After they were killed, their bodies were reanimated to serve as agents of the Collective in order to use Noah's attachments to them in order to hasten his membership. It has been previously theoried that Milo is Firebrand. John Fleischer could be Mr. Scars, given the animosity between him and Mary Asher (Milo theorizes that Mary killed John, and Mr. Scars is supposed to kill Mary). Sarah is Swain, the Lover, the White Knight. What better symbol for someone who willing opens their door to a person being hunted by Slendy? Kat is Cursor, who's eyes have been covered with tape. Kat was known rather well for her oversized steampunk goggles, to the point that Noah felt having them after her death was an incrimination. Weather they are acting of their own volition (having been convinced that membership in the Collective is Better than Sex) or because of brainwashing remains to be seen.

• Jossed with Sarah and Kat. Noah admitted to killing Kat himself in Catharsis, while Sarah was taken by the Collective shortly after. John Fletcher is unknown, but it most likely seems to be jossed, since we haven't heard of him since his death.
• Confirmed with Milo, however. He's Mr. Scars.

Noah COULD become Firebrand...

...in the same way that the Observer's vessel ^note (I know, it's been heavily implied to be Kevin, but until it's explicitly stated, I'm running on the possibility that he actually isn't) could one day become the Observer himself. At one point in November 11, the Observer asks "REMEMBER OUR VISITS?" and at the end of the same video, a picture of Firebrand has "FIREBRAND REMEMBERS" as a caption.

Also note that Firebrand's title is "The Stubborn"

And Noah is resisting the Collective's influence. So either Firebrand was once Noah (or a version thereof^, there are as many worlds as there are potentialities) or his title is a coincidence and Noah's reaction is to something else entirely.

• Confirmed, kind of. Firebrand used to be Noah, and is now altering the timeline to try and prevent this version of Noah from having to become him.

Firebrand was once stalked by the Collective.

In relation to the previous theory, instead of Noah becoming Firebrand, Firebrand was once someone in a similar situation to him. Since Noah being Firebrand seems like it might lead to some non-linear time streams, it seems somewhat unlikely.

Instead, Firebrand was just a past "target" in the same situation Noah is now. It could explain much of things about him; being titled "The Stubborn", helping/warning Noah, and especially retaining some sort of separation from the rest of the Collective.

• Confirmed!

The Observer is more than one person.

I.e, he/she/it uses more than one vessel.

The hand that strokes Noah's face in November 11th is suspiciously feminine, especially compared to the hand we see later, writing on him. There's also the fact that s/he/it very rarely uses singular pronouns to refer to themselves. We already know that the Observer is a hivemind, so it's possible that this mind is stretched across multiple bodies (possibly related to the Slendy cult).

Noah isn't going to die.

And someone is going to make sure he doesn't.

Take a close look at these three pics that Observer sent to his Twitter. They have some hidden, unusually reassuring messages in different type. Clearly some third entity is against the Observer's goals, even if Noah says otherwise...

• Confirmed! Nice save, Firebrand.

Milo is Firebrand.

... and he's on Noah's side, working from the inside to take down the Collective.

• Sub-jossed in the 11-11-12 Livestream; while he is indeed helping Noah take down the Collective, Firebrand is actually revealed to be Noah himself, albeit a future incarnation of himself. It's also implied that Milo's Collective self Mr. Scars is also trying to assist Noah.

Noah's involvement with The Collective runs deeper than we think...

Rather than just being a part of The Collective's plans from birth, Noah's involvement extends long before that. As in, "Noah" had past lives for the sake of being a part of their plans over the course of several generations. The title of Firebrand and "The Stubborn" may be construed as mockery by The Collective; he resists at first, but it is pointless, as he fulfills his job for The Collective anyhow, whether Noah knows it or not. Resistance is futile for Noah, and it's a harsh lesson he has to relearn... forever.

• Given the current tie-in with Everyman HYBRID (and the theories surrounding the plot of that series), this sounds disturbingly plausible.
  • Somewhat confirmed by Future Noah in the 2017 Veterans Day livestream, where he states that past versions of himself have failed to maintain the loop by killing themselves, resulting in him becoming Firebrand, and the loop being reset for another version of Noah.

The Chess Motif is a foreshadowing of dissension in the Collective.

The Observer presents each member of the Collective as a chess piece, but he puts them on opposing sides.

• Black pieces: Administrator (King), Oberserver (Rook), and Deadhead (Knight).
• White pieces: Firebrand (King), Cursor (Queen), Persolus (Bishop), Swain (Knight), and Mr. Scars (Rook), along with Sarah (Pawn).
  • With the revelation that Firebrand is both Noah and freed from the Hive Mind this implies that the Collective is either split or going to be split (this series seems to be tossing around a Timey-Wimey Ball) in a way that will put the Black and White pieces on opposing sides. Firebrand is known as "The Stubborn," hinting that he will not go gently into that good night and will oppose reassimilation into the Hive Mind, leading to a split that will pit the two sides against each other with Firebrand leading the Whites against the Administrator and his Blacks.
  • Jossed, the Chess Motif has been scrapped by the TT creator, as it was a rough idea, and it didn't work out in the end.

HABIT wants Noah to read the book so that HE can learn what's inside it.

If the Observer can't touch it and Slendy can't touch it, it stands to reason that HABIT's host bodies can't either. But Noah can read it. The book contains forbidden knowledge, most likely including how to kill or even control Slendy. Now, it's likely that Noah will read it cover to cover. We also know that HABIT can exist as a disembodied, invisible, spirit. Thus, it's a simple matter of reading Noah's shoulder while he looks it over. Now knowing all of the 'forbidden knowledge' HABIT can work on either tearing apart the Collective or even take it over using a host body of either Firebrand, Ethan, or both since he can posses multiple people, leading to a team up of Noah, the remaining HYBRID guys, Doctor Corenthal and an uneasy alliance with The Collective to stop the bigger threat, possibly ending with HABIT possessing SLENDY!

No time travel is actually involved, the Collective members come from an alternate universe

In this alternate universe, Noah becomes Firebrand and Milo doesn't die and becomes Mr. Scars. The other universe's Milo then comes over to the main universe and kills this universe's Mary Asher.

This universe's Slender Man is the world's first and only time traveler.

More specifically, he's from the alternate future where Germany wins World War II, hence the connections to Nazi Germany. The man who would become Slender Man was appalled and disgusted by what Nazism has done to the world. He wanted to to fix this awful world and make it better. Thankfully, he's alive at the time when time travel is possible, but he can't afford a time machine. So he steals one, while fleeing from Gestapos in an epic chase scene, and travels back in time to World War II, 1945, and somehow created the future we live in now. One problem, however: he changed to future in a way that he would never be born. This causes the Grandfather Paradox to kick in, until he reaches a state where he both exists and doesn't exist. This is why the Observer defines the Administrator as "onedevidedbyzero" and claims that his Combat Tentacles are cracks in space and time: he's a victim of a temporal paradox, forced to never fully exist in reality. He can show up in this universe for brief periods of time, but he can only truly exist inside his pocket dimension. Where he is God, and Firebrand is the fallen angel.

• Jossed. In the leaked PD Fs of Sebastian's journal, Slender Man is established as having existed before the Nazis came to be, and only gets seriously involved with them after they take a part of his suit.

Eons ago, HABIT had once been part of the Collective

His abilities/trait are very similar of the collective (several eon old entity with the power to posses people and commit violent/psychopathic acts. However, he was able to break off much earlier on by himself. However, he was much weakened (as he fought for freedom by himself) and could no longer exist without a physical vessel. He hates Slender of all the trouble he has caused him but still carries tendencies as the once former collective member (note that Firebrand had escaped with assistance of HABIT so he can still maintain a physical form, abeit distorted sort of).

• Jossed. Word of God has confirmed that HABIT has never been a part of the Collective.

Karl is/was Persolus

Other than the fact it is an old man, the fact Persolus's title is "the hermit" might be seen how Karl shoos away others (like Noah). Karl had encountered Slender man which is when Persolus took over him. His session would have been getting the journal but ended before he could give it to the Collective/Slender man. It may be that after one's session ends, memories are general wiped/ stored somewhere (and Persolous could have left him due to Karl knowing the contents about the journal and how to protect). His memories/mind might have signaled Karl when Noah's involvement in Milo's case became apparent without directly asking anyone. He was able to sense that Noah will eventually become Firebrand which is why he shooed him away.

• Confirmed in this photo of the Collective. It's painfully obvious that the old man next to Slendy is Karl.
• Observer confirms it as well in DEATHTRAPEXODUS, calling Karl "the hermit'', which is Persolus's title.

Robert is Swain

Adding on to the above WMG, while Noah said to discount the earlier alignment of chess pieces, Robert is possibly Swain since:-he and Noah are in the same colour alignment in the cheese pieces-Firebrand told Noah he would need to see Robert- Swain's name is "The Lover" and Robert was Milo's real father so he would could be possibly be "The Lover" to Cursor (could also refer to how Mary said that Robert also betrayed her to by being one of Slender Man's henchmen.

• Jossed. Events in Milo's journal have confirmed that Swain is actually Sebastian Kraus, the author of the journal the Collective wants.

Firebrand is the creator of the Vine account, and is under the Administrator's control again, as of 2014.

In Fortunes, Firebrand is shown to be more cryptic to Noah, and doesn't even bother signing his signature "~F" next to his vines. Not only that, but Slender Man and the Observer also appear in the video. It's also mentioned that he can possess Noah while he sleeps as well. Firebrand is now going to be in a stage of Fighting from the Inside, trying to aid Noah, but can't be trusted, as the Administrator is half-controlling him.

• Almost definitely jossed, given that Firebrand has put out a lot of tweets and a new video, with none of them mentioning or even implying that the Administrator could have regained control of Firebrand.

Slender Man is the Observer's proxy all along. The events of Marble Hornets, Everyman HYBRID, and all the other series are just the Observer letting Slenderman mess with people for shits and giggles

It always seemed like the observer was too smart to be controlled. And it make a hell of a lot more sense than Slendy just popping up everywhere and messing with people's lives for no reason. Here, we have a reason: it's all just pure For the Evulz. Plus, it allows the Observer to go about fulfilling his plans without beings like HABIT messing things up.

• Jossed. Leaked PD Fs reveal that the Observer would eventually stop being a threat, but that Slendy still would be. No Russian Reversal here.

The entity currently fiddling around with Noah via the Vine account isn't Firebrand.

It's Zalgo. Notice that in one of the Vines posted on Twitter (the one that says "Go to sleep", which might open up its own can of worms) the accompanying Tweet reads:

why are you still a̵̡̮̝̞͉̙̜̺̰̩͓̘͈̐̍ͪ̓̔͂̈͂͟ͅͅw̢͇̘̺̜̞̩̰ͮͧ̉̋͐̋ͮ̅̌͂͛̈́͐͋̈́ͣa̷̴̡͎̠͖̺ͤͮͯ̓͑̂̀ķ̶̸̨̥̹̻̳̳̅̀̊̎̊ͤ̒̒͛̈̓͒͢...

What other entity in creepypasta uses that weird font aside from Zalgo, who is sometimes portrayed to be the Greater-Scope Villain behind Slenderman?

Mary Asher is partially responsible for Noah's transformation into Firebrand.

Mr. Scars claims that he knows what Mary did to Noah in Milo's Tape...even though we don't. Perhaps there's an entry in Milo's journal that details Milo's discovery of this fact?

• Both jossed and confirmed; Milo's journal confirms that Mary nearly killed Noah twice in fire-related incidents (the house fire and the boat explosion), with Firebrand intervening to protect Noah both times. But Mary had nothing to do with Firebrand being made; the only ones to blame for that are the Administrator, and somewhat the Observer. Adam's confirmed on his blog that Firebrand never had burn scars, and he has no idea why the fandom's taken that headcanon as a fact.

The man Firebrand is seen rescuing from the house fire in DEUS EX MACHINA is Robert Asher, Milo's biological father.

It's been confirmed that Robert is indeed alive, but it's unclear how he's come back to life considering he isn't a Collective member. And perhaps he never did come back to life: as Firebrand rescuing him from the house fire Mary set to kill him prevented him from dying in the first place.

• Could also have been Noah, given that he nearly died in a house fire too once, with Firebrand being heavily implied to have intervened.
• Confirmed. Firebrand does indeed save Robert.

Adding on to the above theory: Robert is Scriniarii.

There's a few ideas that might add onto the idea that Robert is the archivist that Firebrand made friends with. In particular:

- Robert might be helping Firebrand in exchange for rescuing him from that house fire.

- Scriniarii is shown helping Milo in the entry "safe" for no good reason other than to help him.

- Scriniarii mentions that Henka Visæ brought a lot of pain to him and his family.

• Confirmed. After being saved by Firebrand, he became a Collective member of sorts that assisted Firebrand.

Sisyphus!Noah's "roommate" in the Collective's realm is Michael/Patrick Andersen.

• It's been years since Shaun's death at the hands of HABIT, and there has been little to no update from Michael since that moment. Perhaps Slendy got to him and trapped him in his realm with Sisyphus!Noah somehow. Adding onto this, Noah said that his roommate had been "through a very similar situation he had". Both Noah and Michael have dealt with Slender Man taking those they love, and dying.
  • Adding onto this, Patrick mentions in Box 7's "TOWER ON THE LAKE" that there's "someone else" who's doing similar shit to what Vinny is doing in regards to the Iteration Theory. We know that the loop Scriniarii refers to on the Discord is different from the iterations that the EMH boys and Michael/Patrick go through, but it does have some similarities to it. Perhaps Patrick learned about the loop from Sisyphus!Noah, and understands what he's going through because he's lived through the same time periods over and over again.
• Jossed. Although it's still ambiguous who the roommate actually is, we know for certain that he definitely isn't Michael/Patrick.