One of the things I've wondered about with the idea of the Mull-Tiverse is, how many "Earths" are there in it? In other words, to Seth and Kendra, Jason and Rachel, Cole, and Nate, Summer, Pigeon and Trevor all live in the same reality?
In both Beyonders and Five Kingdoms, they reference the fact that nobody knows just how many realities there are. That means there could be at least for worlds that are like Earth. While I am open to this idea, though, it also feels like kind of a copout method of fitting everything into the Mull-Tiverse.
So I started to wonder: is it possible that they all live on the same Earth?
We know that some of them do. The movie "Medal of Shame" tells us that at least the Sorensons and Cole are from the same Earth. The job then becomes, how do the Earth as represented in Candy Shop Wars and the Earth as represented in Beyonders fit into this reality?
One of the first things I looked at with this was where each of them are from. All of the main characters are from the USA:
Seth and Kendra are the most traveled on Earth, but they are originally from Rochester, New York.
Cole is from Mesa, Arizona. Both of these are actual locations, so even if it weren't for the "Medal of Shame" Easter Egg, we could easily say they're from the same version of Earth.
Rachel is from Olympia, Washington. Another actual city, but Jason is from Vista, Colorado--a fictional city. So the Earth they live on isn't necessarily the same.
Nate, Summer, Pigeon and Trevor are from Colson, California--another fictional city. So again, a different variation of Earth.
Even before picking apart these details, it was clearly just going to be a starting point. It would take more than just "fictional town" vs "real town" to figure out how many Earths there were. However, it didn't do much good, even as a starting point because the two that are harder to fit into the same reality are also the two that use fictional towns.
I have to admit, I was stumped on this one for a while until Parley Eubanks made a comment on a Facebook page for Brandon Mull fans that helped me connect at least some of the dots in this puzzle. So, if you read this, Parley, thank you again! He pointed out a conversation between Kendra and Agad in "Secrets of the Dragon Santuary." Here's what Agad tells Kendra on page 312:
"Very few true wizards survive. Oh, you can find pretenders, magicians and witches and the like, but my kind have become an extremely rare breed. You see, all true wizards were once dragons."
I was SO excited to get this reminder for multiple reasons:
1: Candy Shop Wars is the biggest stumper (for me) in terms of the Mull-Tiverse
2: This can be used to show that Fablehaven and Candy Shop Wars happen on the same version of Earth!
Agad points out that there are others who practice magic. He calls them "pretenders," which makes me think that he has had contact with some of them. Also, (and this is the point that Parley made) he uses the term magicians.
Magicians are the main source of magic in Candy Shop Wars! So Wizards (true wizards, as in ex-dragons) and magicians both exist in the Earth of Fablehaven. It may not seem like much, but it is definitely noteable enough for fans to take notice.
That means that only the Earth of Beyonders is left to make a connection. This means there needs to be a way to connect Beyonders to either Candy Shop Wars or Fablehaven. Or both.
Let's start with Candy Shop Wars: One of the rules of magicians in Candy Shop Wars is that they must stay in their lair. Ms. White sends Nate, Summer, Pigeon and Trevor on all her dangerous errands because she needs to stay in her candy shop.
A lair can be pretty much anything: a house, a candy sop, an arcade, a baseball cap! But usually it's a place.
They also seem to enjoy luring people into their lairs and preying on weak minds! The white fudge makes pretty much the entire town of Colson into mindless zombies, and the games in Arcadeland seem to draw kids in and make them drones, too.
This also brings up another interesting point about lairs: others don't seem to have to know that they are magician's lairs and magicians tend to enjoy public places that people want to go to.
Now let's look at the Fablehaven side of things: Agad doesn't seem to have a very favorable opinion of magicians. He calls them "pretenders," as I mentioned before. But this implies that he knows enough about them to be able to say that. SO... magicians and at least one true wizard have interacted. The magicians probably wouldn't be too pleased with being thought of as "pretenders." There is likely a rivalry between magicians and wizards.
While Agad is not bound by magic to his preserve, he is bound by duty. Dragon Sanctuaries must have wizards at them to protect the world from dragons just like the other preserves must have caretakers to protect the world form the magical creatures.
It's funny, but early on in the releases of the Fablehaven series, I thought "how awesome would it be to be a caretaker to a preserve for mythical creatures!" It would be amazing. My only issue is, if I came in contact with any mythical creatures, I would be too excited to keep them secret! I would want everyone to "drink the milk" and see the cool animals I'd found.
As I thought about the potential rivalry between magicians and wizards, I thought they might feel the same way. Wizards want to protect the world from the dangers of these mythical beings, but magicians don't seem too concerned with that. If a magician got a hold of any mythical creatures, they'd probably just hide them in a lair in kind of a mythical creature zoo...
I'll just let this thought sit here and find out what others think...
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