WMG / Stand Still, Stay Silent

This comic is going to feature Our Zombies Are Different soon.

The "trolls" are really humans and animals that have been horribly mutated by the rash disease.

• Probably jossed. What we've seen of trolls so far is much, much worse than zombies.
• They are much smarter than zombies. They go for their enemies' weapons first.
• Zig-zagged. Mutated humans and animals, all of them still alive and aware enough to plead for help.

Forget about mindless zombies! This comic will have an I Am Legend scenario.

Those vermin that the cleansers have been wiping out for years? They're intelligent and they have a civilization out in the Silent lands. They want to keep the territory they wrested from humanity ninety years ago. Their aggression isn't zombie bloodlust, it's warfare.

Bonus points if the Nordic Council knows all about this. They're planning for the research expedition to get eaten to shut them up.

• Why are they begging for help?

  • Troll intelligence might be something different from rash victim intelligence. After all, the Giant forced Miss Hearty to attack the humans until she got cut free.

Emil is doomed.

His farewell to the Västerström children is too poignant for him ever to come back alive.

• Jossed - He came back very much unharmed, and is a better person for it.

Tuuri is doomed.

She just had to pull out a Fatal Family Photo, didn't she? She's also one of only two main cast members who aren't immune.

• Confirmed.

Lalli is...

• somewhere on the autistic spectrum.
  Fans have pointed out his super-senses and his difficulty picking up cues from his teammates. On the other hand, maybe he behaves oddly because he's the only person who can see the rash-abominations.
  • Unlikely as he behaves a lot more neurotypically when in presence of people whom he knows and can actually understand him (Tuuri, Onni). His trouble picking up cues seems to be mostly related to the language barrier and culture clash. And being sleep-deprived most of the time.
    • Word of God says it's complicated: a disorder of some variety combined with a Dark and Troubled Past and No Social Skills from being isolated most of his life.
• A polymorphed cat.
  He likes to climb up on tall things and play with moving-people-walkways. He also has otherworldly-seeming cat eyes.
• Both fan theories about Lalli are true.

Braidy is related to The Captain.

They look pretty alike, and not just because of their shared hair color. Just look at those grins!

• Apparently jossed, Braidy speaks Icelandic while Sigrun (captain) is Norwegian.
• Certainly Jossed: he is Icelandic and not related to Sigrun in any way.

Outside the Known World, humanity has survived at X.

There are a number of places in the world that might be isolated enough not to get infected and big enough to support a hunting or a farming community. These candidates include Greenland, small towns in the Appalachians, Siberia, the island of Hokkaido, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, Guam, Easter Island, Madagascar, the Australian Outback, Newfoundland, Machu Piccu high in the Andes, the Isle of Man, the Falkland Islands, New Zealand, and rural Alaska. Or small bands of immune humans might survive within the infected lands. They'd live as hunter-gatherers and be constantly on the run.

• The Faroes, the Shetlands and Greenland can probably be ruled out, for the simple reason that any settlements there would have been considered a part of the Known World if there were any. They're both geographically and culturally close enough for that. Hell, the Shetlands and the Faroes are literally on the way from Dalsnes to Reikyavik.
  • There is now Word of God. There were several settlements in the Shetlands, the Faroes, and northern Scotland in year 0, but they were all abandoned early on, and the inhabitants moved to and integrated in Iceland and Norway.
• There could also be a cluster of Japanese survivor settlements. The Denmark TV report from the prologue suggests Japan was the second nation to close itself off in response to the Rash. Isolation isn't something unfamiliar to Japanese history, so it may come down to how vigorously they defended their borders. The Nordic countries don't consider them part of the "known world" because they're just too far away to contact without modern things like internet, phones, or international airlines. (The crew failed to recognize Chinese culture as a thing that used to exist, after all.) Not sure how Madagascar would fair. Tropical locations would have plenty of sunlight, but not a lot of the cold that Trolls and Beasts can't tolerate...
• The problem with the above theory is that surely someone in the intervening two generations would have found the time to rig up a radio transceiver powerful enough to reach the opposite hemisphere, something that's difficult but possible even with hobbyist-grade equipment if the ionosphere is feeling cooperative that day. And it would have been quite a few years before the last communications satellite became non-functional, so any remnant of a pre-Plague government that managed to bunker up somewhere would have been able to stay in touch with their consulates in Iceland for a while. And yet from the tone of the in-universe discussion on this subject, it's clear that there has been no contact with anyone outside the current borders of the Nordic Union since not long after the end of the prologue.
  • Comsidering that the Iceland was the only remaining technological enclave in Known World and that the Icelanders were extremely isolationistic in the first years of Plague, they may have actually insituted a total radio silence, so the possible refugees would not rush onto them. And, one must point out, that the ionosphere isn't as good as it was before; the relatively short-range communications between the expedition and Mission Control were constantly affected by the background noise (actually, it looks pretty much like the ghosts may disrupt the communications nearby... several times the noises out of radio were pretty close to the Black Speech). So, the long-range radio communications might actually be impossible.
• Subtropical and Desert regions like the American Southwest and the Sahara might have holdouts for the opposite reasons that the Nordic areas do. While the hot, dry climate means freezing temperatures are rare, it also means nearly year-round sunny weather and puts a serious crimp in the damp conditions that trolls seem to thrive in. Even seeking shelter indoors would be a challenge for trolls: without air conditioning, many modern buildings become ovens when it's 110F in the shade. In the wetter prairie and savanna areas, meanwhile, wildfires are a frequent occurrence during the dry season, even without help from flamethrowers.
  • Deserts actually do go into the minus numbers for temperature quite regularly at night. Frost is common on a winter's morning, even if it disappears by about 10 am at the latest — just as the daily dew that condenses from what little water vapour the air holds every night is vital for most life to even survive the hottest, driest deserts you can think of. The thing with deserts is... most people who don't live in them aren't aware of the significance of the dewfall-turning-to-frost, since you won't often get standing snow to highlight how damned cold the nights can get — even in summer. Rainfall isn't common, after all. Heck, it's the clear skies that deserts are infamous for that allow any heat that is built up during the day to radiate away very quickly at night. So, a desert winter will still cook and UV a troll to death during the day, but they will have a very narrow window to escape being frozen solid at night, too. Unless they hug any still-warm rock formations, that is. Rock and sand retain heat for longer than air alone does, but by about 3 or 4 am, even they will not be of much help unless you've denned up and insulated wisely with many layers.
• North Korea would probably a canidate as well. Though it depends how quickly they closed their border to China. Speaking of wich, Tibet would be a good survival location as well. Both are rather isolated, though for different reasons. Can defend their borders well for different reasons. And both are more or less under the rule of a ruthless regime who would be willing to go even further then the Nordic countries did. Also basically every Pacific Island, besides maybe Hawai. Simply because of their sheer isolation and often general self reliance.
• Not all countries in Real Life actually have long range AM radio. For example, Russia discontinued its AM radio broadcasting in 2010s and only uses FM radio, which has a very short range. So Russia may be alive and kicking, its climate (which is infamously even colder than the Nordic countries) protecting it from the worst of the apocalypse, but they simply don't broadcast any long range radio because they don't have the equipment and don't feel the need to acquire it, the country being infamously at odds with a lot of Western countries.

Emil is the second mage.

Minna stated that there are two mages on the team, although only one know about it. The one who knows is, quite obviously, Lalli. People tend to suggest that the other mage is Braidy, but... Emil is something of Rich Jerk sometimes, and he (as most Swedes) does not believe in magic. Wouldn't it make a delicious, delicious irony then if he was the mage?

• Apparently jossed, as Braidy can be seen in the Dream World.

Braidy is inside one of the boxes that got loaded into the back of the Cat-Tank.

It's more or less been stated that the guy currently known as Braidy ends up tagging along with the rest of the group by accident and it's generally agreed that he's a stowaway. Emil panicking and throwning away the wingmirror resulted in it clocking someone on the head which in turn resulted in some crates being mislabled and sent to the main characters by accident, something which has to be of great significance to the plot. So, maybe Braidy ran away and stowed away on a ship from Iceland to Denmark (possibly to, as one commenter put it, escape an excess of sheep), hid inside a box that was going in what he thought was the right direction to get past the port security, only for a high velocity wingmirror to intervene and result in him ending up in the back of a truck headed out into the Silent World.

• Semi-confirmed. He wasn't in one of the crates that was in the Cat-Tank, but in a crate sent by the Icelandic ship crew to replace the ones filled with candles.

Sigrun is going to have a Heroic BSoD at some point.

The only reason Sigrun joined the expedition was because her uncle explicitly called it a "vacation mission," implying it would be easy after the absolute hell their troll-hunting season appeared to be. Anyone with any modicum of Genre Savvy will recognize that things are not going to be as easy as she assumes.

• If what she got when she found Reynir wasn't one, it's close enough for jazz.

"Magic" was an experimental weapon which got out of control

In chapter five Emil finds a book titled "Antigravity Propulsion", which suggests that the Rash Illness happened 20 Minutes into the Future. Magic seems to have been proven to be real. What if it was some kind of, let's say, nanobots-based weapon or technology intended to be controlled with one's mind? It could've broken out of the lab due to decay and societal collapse caused by the Rash Illness and some people could've learned, if subconsciously, how to control it. The "mages", then, would be the people who control nanobots with their minds, "dressing it up" in runes and vocal commands.

• Maybe the Rash Illness is the same thing.
  • If it's nanobots, it will be disappointing. Second, there's been a lot of magic which is a bit too big in effect to be explainable as "nanobots", for example long distance communication, and weather manipulation. The Rash Illness being rogue nanobots, I can easily buy, though. Also, if one looks at the picture, Emil is reading off the back of the book, not the title.

Mikkel is a timelord.

Come on, someone was bound to say it. It would certainly explain his reluctance to give clear answers to questions about himself.

• Or it might just be a case of You Do NOT Want To Know

Mikkel is a secret agent.

He was planted in the group by the government or some shady secret agency to study the Rash Illness.

• He's the only character whose backstory has yet to be revealed - it's never even explained how he came to join the team beyond an acquaintance with Trond, and Trond is a high-ranking official in the Norwegian military.
• When the topic of what he was doing before the mission is brought up, he doesn't attempt to assert himself; he just goes along with what Sigrun says even though she's clearly making fun of him. He even looks happy about the outcome of that conversation... almost as if he's glad he didn't actually have to answer the question...
• He explains that he wasn't present at the Battle of Kastrup due to having been "relocated," and even though it's interpreted as a euphemism for having been fired, he never says as much outright.
• He shows a great deal of interest in a book that seems to contain notes on the Rash Illness, practically wrestling it away from Tuuri in spite of the fact that studying the books is her job.
• He seems to be an expert on the Rash Illness, strictly enforcing decontamination protocol and stating with certainty whether or not someone is at risk of infection... yet, when it comes to non-Rash-related ailments, in spite of the fact that he was hired on as The Medic, he has trouble with something as basic as stitching a wound.
• He recognizes written Chinese for what it is, when even their official academic couldn't get the name quite right.
• Minna has Jossed him being a secret agent from "the future or the past" specifically.

There are Swedish and Danish mages.

They just all end up in the mental ward. When he found a strange man sleeping in his yard, Torbjorn came to the conclusion that he was an escaped patient, so mental hospitals do exist in this universe. It was also Torbjorn's default assumption in spite of the fact that Onni, though disoriented and unresponsive, clearly wasn't a danger to himself or others. So, in a culture where people don't believe in magic, if someone starts seeing spirits that no one else can, the assumption wouldn't be that they have magical abilities—it would be that they're crazy. Of course, there could be some people who try to hide it, and end up actually going mad from the stress.

• Jossed by Word of Minna - Norse mages' power comes from their gods, who won't give their blessing to nonbelievers.
  • Pastor A throws a potential curveball into things: she is in a very unusual situation, but if she is any indication, then it is possible to be a mage as a Christian (rather than follower of the Norse or Finnish gods), but the rules are different to either known mage tradition. It is also possible that one of those rules is that you have to be dead to be able to use Christian magic.

The Ghosts are Eldritch Abominations that are actively hostile to everything.

Think about it. The Ghosts are less like well...ghosts and more like Anthropomorphic Personifications of the concept of Death. They lurk around areas of tragedy, horror, and death and have the ability to drain the life from everything they touch, which they use on poor Leaftroll as well as nearly Emil. Reynir's dream was warning him about the true nature of these monstrosities and basically telling him to spread the news that these things have no good-natured interest at heart for anyone.

• Jossed. They are Vengeful Ghosts created by an imperfect cure for the Rash Illness developed in Year 0, which cured the disease's physical symptoms but didn't stop it degrading the soul. They've been abandoned, tired and suffering for 90 years now, and want to destroy any living humans they see because of it.

Sigrun is going to lose her arm.

There've been plenty of signs that that bite she got saving Reynir is going to become much more serious than it initially looked.

• Her quizzing Mikkel regarding his amputation abilities right before getting bitten was a definite moment of foreshadowing.
• Her arm is still bothering her even after having had upwards of two weeks to heal.
• She seemed exhausted after attempting to assist Mikkel in prying open a door (Mikkel was fine), and the effort left her sweating profusely, which might be indicative of her developing a fever.
• Not to mention that bath she took with the Watcher only a day after being wounded, straining her already-injured arm in unclean water where she could have picked up all sorts of nasty bugs...
• When those bandages finally come off and we see what's underneath, it looks like she does indeed have a nasty infection.
• Several weeks later, she's frequently shown to be flushed and feverish.
• On the march to the pickup spot she quickly reaches the point where she's too sick to walk. At this point, it'll be nothing short of a miracle if she survives, much less keeps the arm.

Reynir is (or will become) immune.

In most of the concept art that features all six members of the main cast, Tuuri is wearing a mask but Reynir isn't, leading many fans to speculate that it may be deliberate foreshadowing:

• They've spent some of their mission looking for a cure; even though what they've found so far hasn't been viable, if Reynir gets infected, they might have to take their chances on whatever they can cobble together, lest the civilian they're supposed to be protecting suffer a Fate Worse than Death.
• Reynir was actually immune all along; his parents just lied to him about it in order to keep him at home, which is not exactly unprecedented.
• Alternately, the events of Chapter 13 may motivate him to get his magical shielding act together and it may have the side effect of learning something that he can use for protection instead of his mask.
• Another possibilty is that being an Icelandic/Norwegian mage grants automatic immunity regardless of genetic makeup, but that there is currently a complete lack of overlap between people who know this and people knowing of Reynir's powers (or at least taking them seriously).
• Unlikely. This◊ concept art for 2nd Adventure shows that Reynir is still wearing a face mask.

Sleipnope and "It" are similar phenomena.

In Chapter 14, Sleipnope exposes an intent to follow Lalli and Reynir and kill everyone surrounding them. The two things known for sure of "It" is that it's looking for Hotakainens and they really don't want to be found. "It" is also implied to exist because of a mistake made by Ensi (their grandmother). If Sleinope's intent is transposed to "It", with Ensi as the intended "target" of the purge, it may have already gotten its hand on her sons and daughters-in-law, but still be looking for her grandchildren.

• "It" is Ukko-Pekka. Corrupted by the disease, he wants to wipe out and/or infect his entire bloodline, and Ensi's "mistake" was her feelings getting in the way of killing him when she had the chance.

Immunity is granted by a recessive mutant and based on one gene in most of the world, but there is a second immunity-granting mutant gene found only in Finns.

Ukko-Pekka's job makes him very likely to have been immune, which makes the Hotakainen family immunity distribution reported by Tuuri (only Ensi and Lalli immune, Ukko-Pekka not considered part of the family) incompatible with a single-gene system. The distribution however makes sense in regards to a two-gene system where Ensi and her one-night stand were granted immunity by the mutant version of different genes. Meanwhile, the Icelandic Dagrenning program poster advertizes that two immune parents guarantee an immune child (compatible with immunity granted by a single recessive gene mutant), has donors from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and claims "technical and communication difficulties" with getting Finnish donors. Depending on how much knowledge about genetics remains, those difficulties could be explained by Finnish families having immunity distribution that is baffling to the Icelanders, including the possibility of two immune parents not having an immune child (Ensi's sons being a concrete case of this if Ukko-Pekka was immune), which pretty much breaks the mechanics the Dagrenning program is relying on to function.

• The disease could be parasitic in nature and have something in common with Toxoplasma Gondii, a very common parasite that can only reproduce in cats (but does not affect them negatively) - and the antibodies to toxoplasma gave some sort of immunity to cats and humans alike - toxoplasma is a very commonly found in humans as well. Somehow this immunity could have either become a genetic trait or still be carried and spread around by cats.
• Hilja, Illmari and Tapsa were all shown to do jobs similar to Ensi's while not being immune, which opens up the possibility for Ukko-Pekka as well.

Reynir was on the receiving end of Screening the Call up until he left his home

He was seen walking around in the dreamspace before he was aware of his powers, and his parents are known to be quite protective of him, so it would fit.

Torbjörn and Torolf (Emil's father) were adopted

That could explain why simple math would put Torbjörn's birth in Mia's late fifties.

Tuuri will remain as an active participant from beyond the grave

She's one of the main characters, and with how spirits and ghosts and souls in the story work, just being dead wouldn't need to be enough for her to stop being involved.

• Confirmed, though she's more active in the physical world than initially speculated.

The crew will eventually encounter a troll that's even bigger than the giants

And it will be aptly baptized as "Jormungandr" due to the sheer size of it as they notice how a mysterious mountain that shouldn't be there slowly starts moving, akin of a giant snail, from its spot.

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