In case I wasn't emphatic enough about it in the first post, I LOVE fan theories. They make books and movies come to life in a whole different way, and they get people thinking about subtext, which is amazing.
I follow the Super Carlin Brothers on YouTube whenever I get a chance, and my favorite of their posts are about the Pixar Theory, which, if you don't know about, you should look it up. It's mind-blowing.
But this blog is devoted to the creative works of Brandon Mull. I want to use it to explore the possibilities of a multiverse (or Mull-Tiverse, if you will) that connects the series that he is the sole author of. He has done this himself, through his Five Kingdoms series.
Most of the posts here will be speculative, but I wanted to supply the foundation for the Mull-Tiverse theory first.
Five Kingdoms is what makes this theory a possibility. Even if it weren't for the Easter eggs he drops in the series (and things that are much more obvious than Easter eggs... what would you call those? Easter Bunnies?), the very concept of the series makes it a possibility.
In the first book, "Sky Raiders," the main character, Cole finds himself in another realm when he goes to rescue his friends from kidnappers. The first person he meets there is a wayminder, who has the ability to open passages between the Outskirts (where they are) and other worlds.
Their first conversation contains this little snippet:
“You have crossed over to the Outskirts.”
“The outskirts of where?”
“A difficult question.
The outskirts of everywhere, perhaps.
Certainly the outskirts of the world you know. This is an in-between place.” (page 31)
The use of capitalization in what the wayminder says and the lack of capitalization that Cole uses when he asks for clarification shows a misunderstanding on Cole's part. The wayminder was telling him the name of the place, and Cole confused this with a description of the place they were in. The wayminder could have clarified that the he was referring to the name of the place, but he doesn't. Instead, he says, "The outskirts of everywhere." This phrase opens the door to so many possibilities! Too many, actually. So we are going to take on one possibility: that the Outskirts are connected to any reality that exists in a series that was solely authored by Brandon Mull: the Fablehaven Universe (to include both series--Fablehaven and Dragonwatch), Lyrian from Beyonders, and the world of Candy Shop Wars.
At this point, you may be thinking, but you said hard evidence. Saying "the outskirts of everywhere" isn't hard evidence.
You're right. But in fan theory, you have to have a foundation, or something that grants permission for you to think outside the box--or the series.
Also in Sky Raiders, Cole discovers that it's not just people that can go from his world to the Outskirts. When he arrives at Skyport and Mira is giving him a tour and helping him get the right gear to be a sky raider, he spots football gear and a T-Shirt from Earth:
“…we have a lot of this stuff. Like that T-shirt over there. It’s from a movie called Medal of Shame. It doesn’t belong here.” (page 80)
A movie called Medal of Shame... hmmm... have any of you seen that movie? I know I haven't. Because it doesn't exist in our reality. But do you know where it does exist? The the Fablehaven universe! Check out this excerpt form "Rise of the Evening Star," the second Fablehaven book:
"Case clapped his hands together. 'So what are we seeing?'
"They debated for a couple of minutes. Case wanted to see Medal of Shame, about a serial killer addicted to terrorizing veterans who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor." (page 12-13)
This little Easter egg tells us that Cole comes from the same universe as Seth and Kendra. This means Cole came from a version of Earth that has secret preserves for magical creatures!
If this isn't enough to convince you that the Mull-Tiverse exists, book two of Five Kingdoms, "Rogue Knight," introduces a new character named Trillian. Trillian doesn't come from the Outskirts, and he doesn't come from Earth. We don't know where he comes from, but we know what he is: a torivor.
You know where else we see torivors? In Lyrian! In the Beyonders series, Maldor has enslaved what many people in Lyrian call Lurkers. What they are actually called is torivors! In Beyonders, nobody knows where the torivors came from, just that they come from "the Beyond."
Not only does this Easter egg connect Five Kingdoms and Beyonders, but it leaves some possibility for another series down the road that features torivors more directly (Come on, Brandon Mull! Bring it to us!) It would be awesome to see a torivor show up in Fablehaven, but possibly even cooler to read a series about wherever it is they come from.
Trillian is certainly a stronger support of the Mull-Tiverse theory, but Brandon Mull grants us the biggest gift to allow us to connect the dots in book four of Five Kingdoms: "Death Weavers."
Some background on this Easter Bunny before I give the quote: Lyrian, the world from the Beyonders series, contains many wizard-created races. Two of the most featured races are the Amar Kabal and Displacers.
Here is a passage from "Death Weavers":
“'Let me introduce a pair of echoes who didn’t live in the Outskirts during mortality,' Harvan said. 'This is Drake, son of Hessit, of the Amar Kabal.' The man with long hair placed two fingers on his chest and gave a small bow. 'And Ferrin, son of Baldor, a displacer.' (246)
I am not joking, I audibly gasped when I reached this passage my first time reading the book, eliciting a chuckle from the woman sitting across from me in the church lobby.
Since reading that passage, I have toyed with the idea of exploring what other connections I can find in Brandon Mull's books. Years have passed, but with any luck, I'll find some more and be able to share them here.
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