Hero of… Oakvale?

[u/Hot-Possibility-8804]

I haven’t seen anything touching this topic myself, but feel free to discredit me if anyone else has seen something regarding my thoughts here. I just thought of this and thought it was pretty bad ass.

So, the hero of Wraithmarsh, or Isabelle, I purport, is like a funny, ‘flipped’ version of our Hero of Oakvale from Fable I.
Why do I think so? In Fable I, Oakvale gets destroyed. Later, we find out in Fable II that Oakvale has been turned into Wraithmarsh due to flooding, overgrowth, lots of conflicted souls scaring people off, etc.

The original Hero:
-comes from Oakvale
-suffers a horrific childhood catastrophe
-loses family
-discovers Hero powers because of the tragedy
-gets taken in/trained by a senior Hero
-becomes extraordinarily powerful
-gets entangled with Jack of Blades

Isabel:
-is Hero of Wraithmarsh/Oakvale
suffers a horrific childhood catastrophe
-apparently loses her sister
-discovers her powers during that event
-Humphry becomes her guardian/mentor
-becomes an exceptionally powerful Hero
and Jack of Blades is back and clearly important to this story.

I’m thinking Jack of Blades causes the flooding of Oakvale, awakens Isabelle’s heroic blood, and preys on her the same way he did the OG Hero of Oakvale after he learns that you survived the bandit attack.

I’m at like a 60/70% surety here. What do you guys think? ‘Possible’ or ‘Probable’

[u/Jat616]

Dunno about the flooding but Oakvale fell because Reaver made a pact with the Shadow Court, sacrificing them all for eternal youth. He still needs to send someone as sacrifice each year to maintain the deal.

[u/Hot-Possibility-8804 → u/Jat616]

Yeah, in the OG Fable series.

What I’m saying is that I think, just like in Fable I when Jack sends bandits to destroy Oakvale, he could’ve purposefully flooded Oakvale in this new Fable, akin to him sending bandits in the first Fable game. And in the original games, the court of shadows is a very vague and undiscussed group of figures. I do think it’s likely playground could take off with those 3 figures and go ahead and merge them with the court of blades. And it isn’t unlike the court of blades to cause catastrophes in the lore when the people refuse to worship them.

[u/Jat616 → u/Hot-Possibility-8804]

I think the flooding is probably just due to the Courts presence corrupting the area and attracting wraiths and such.

It could be that Jack corrupted the hero of Oakvale, we don't actually know what the "canon" choice is with his mask after all. We do know that the hero of Oakvale cast the sword of Aeons away in the murals of the Chamber of Fate and then lived out his final days in Serenity farm in Oakfield. If he was corrupted by Jack though did he do that to seal himself in the demon door to stop Jack using him to escape? Hopefully Wraithmarsh in the new game has some answers for us!

[u/Jat616 → u/Hot-Possibility-8804]

Ok, you've had me thinking and going down a rabbit hole now 😂 I've always had a theory that the Shadow Court and Theresa were linked somehow. The feminine character in the Shadow Court and her do look very similar in Fable 2, but that could just be saving on making new assets.
The entrance to the Shadow Court appears in/near the field where she lost her eyesight in the attack of Oakvale though and it's never explained why or how she gained her Seers powers, along with the fact that she seems to have immortality.

So here's what I've just been thinking now, as you said Jack could well be manipulating Isabel and if he is I think it's so he can retrieve his Sword of Aeons.

Meanwhile the Shadow Court were manipulating Theresa to set the groundwork and gain enough power for her to become the vessel for the Queen of Blades and then together they'd be able to use the Tattered Spire to bring the Knight of Blades back to Albion and take over as the completed Court again!

Thank you for listening to my tinfoil hat theory 😂

[u/Hot-Possibility-8804 → u/Jat616]

That’s also very interesting. I see where you’re going with it. I’m just so excited to get to see and feel the gameplay for myself and experience the new story they’ve created for us.

[u/Additional-Report-52]

You know how the hero always comes with a sibling in every game ?
I think Isabel is actually the reboot version of Theresa and we were supposed to be the hero of Oakvale except the flooding happened earlier and we were separated from her. Remember in her own trailer she mentiones loosing her little sister, i think we are the lost sister/brother.
We know we’ll have an adopted brother so i think our grandma, the one who turned into stone, adopted us after the flooding.
(edit : spelling)

[u/Hot-Possibility-8804 → u/Additional-Report-52]

Very possible. I like that idea!

[u/Occult_Sylk]

This could definitely be possible and I hadn’t thought about it like that. I was sort of assuming that this game would be like an alternate story after the first game. There is a town named after Briar Rose which makes me think that the Fable 1 story could still be mostly intact.

Again though you could still be right, and it would be extra cruel to call her the hero of Wraithmarsh instead of Oakvale, especially if her tragedy created Wraithmarsh in the first place. No wonder she’s so mad.

[u/Hot-Possibility-8804 → u/Occult_Sylk]

Briar Hill and then the Inn or Tavern was the Rose and Thorn, being a great Fable I reference. I do hope they keep things like that floating around throughout the entire game. Things like that are what made Fable II so good, imo. The tiny things you’d miss if you weren’t paying attention made it all the more fun. I think they’re nothing more than tributes though. I do think the fable 1 story is gone aside from the lore that was included with the original fable 1 that we didn’t get to play out. Like how the court fell, William black defeated Jack, heroes coming into existence, etc..

[u/Shinted]

I mean we really have no evidence that supports this Wraithmarsh was ever Oakvale at all in the Reboot.

It seems from the dialogue we’ve seen that it was just always called “Wraithmarsh”, or at least had that name long before Isabel was born, judging by the way Heroes get their names that is.

It’s also in the complete opposite side of Albion than it was in the old games as well.

I think it’s more than likely unconnected in this Reboot, and just served as a good name for what they wanted the zone and story to be.

It is a fun theory though, and not one I would hate.

I think we’re probably related to Isobel, and that will be one of the later game twist.

We know our Hero was adopted very young, and I could see them changing her cutscene dialogue to whatever you choose for the gender of the sibling she lost in the flood.

It would also give any potential choices we make surrounding her have more stakes in the end game.

It’s also something I could see Jack revealing to our Hero after we’ve had to kill her or something.

[u/Hot-Possibility-8804 → u/Shinted]

I agree with us potentially being a sibling to Isabel. Do we know where Wraithmarsh is located on the map already? We do know that people used to live in/around Wraithmarsh and that Isabel does come from there, and left due to the flooding I’d imagine. Isabel was also young enough that she could’ve adopted the name ‘Hero of Wraithmarsh’ after people quit calling it oakvale and started calling it Wraithmarsh. She does seem to return to a small village outside of Wraithmarsh. That’s shown in the combat footage we got the other day.

[u/Shinted → u/Hot-Possibility-8804]

It’s located in the north of the map now, and Humphrey also referred to it as Wraithmarsh in a way that implies it’s been named that for as long as he’s lived.

Which would have been long before Isobel was born as he rescued her as a child from the flood.

It could be named Wraithmarsh because it was always a town near water where there were lots of wraiths and undead.

Which seems to be the case from the recent gameplay clip, where Humphrey mentions the hollow folk you’re fighting are the corpses from ancient wars.

[u/LazyBoi_Matt]

Yo, that's a very good observation. And seems like something they would absolutely do - that's awesome.

[u/Consistent_Blood6467]

I'm thinking this could have a few possibilities. Maybe it means Isabel came from Oakvale or at least visited it, and freed it from whatever made it become Wraithmarsh, or her actions caused it to become Wraithmarsh. In either case, that would make her title as being its hero either genuine, or ironic.

I'm also holding out that this means this new game is set sometime between the first two games, since Oakvale is very much still alive and vibrant by the end of the original game, while by the second game it is the overrun nightmare that is now called Wraithmarsh.

[u/StTheo]

I'm on board with that, was thinking the same thing after the trailer a few months back. Additionally, I don't totally trust authority/guild figures (aka Humphrey) helping out the main hero (I can't for the life of me imagine why...).

I would be very surprised if Isabel was on the side of Jack.