A Glimpse Into Grizzleheim

We know a lot about Grizzleheim from Wizard101, but what would happen if we see this Norse-based world appear in Pirate? And, more importantly, why would we have to visit it? It’s commonly thought that Valencia will be the next world due to the information we received at the end of Book XIV, but we may just see Grizzleheim before that.

Valencia Put On Hold

We hear that we need to go back to Valencia for special information as to how to defeat Kane. And, as of now, that’s our only lead – the two remaining map pieces, belong to Erika the Red and our mother, could literally be anywhere in the Spiral. So, logically, one of the only things that we could do is head to Valencia, find out Kane’s weakness, and escape. However, there could be a number of problems with getting access to Valencia… for instance, how are we supposed to get a Windstone?

In the case of Marleybone, we had to storm a highly secured fort in order to get a Yellow Windstone. With Valencia, however, the Armada is likely to keep their Windstones (likely Red ones) even more protected. So, perhaps the whole point of going to Grizzleheim would be to get a Red Windstone. The Bears are merchants, after all, so they’d have to have transportation to Valencia.

Since Grizzleheim remained neutral in the Polarian Wars, transportation there may have come to a halt long ago. Retrieving the only known Windstone and helping local residents along the way in return for information would make for a perfect storyline.

Erika the Red

Another theory is that we may need to search for Erika the Red. The problem with this, however, is that she’s probably more likely to not be in Grizzleheim. As a Viking, she’s likely to travel all around the Spiral… besides, if she has a piece of the map, why would she want to be easily found in her homeland? Thinking that it may be a trap, however, Avery may not be willing to send us off to Valencia just yet… instead, we could investigate other matters, such as collecting the rest of the map pieces. Our mother’s piece? Any attempt to find it would simply be a blind guess. As for Erika the Red’s, however, starting in Grizzleheim may not be such a bad idea.

Perhaps Erika IS in Grizzleheim… or at least her map piece is. But, then, we’d only have one piece left to find and then we can sneak back into Valencia and the main story will be over – spread across five remaining books. Two more non-back-to-back visits to Valencia are planned, too, and it wouldn’t seem like such a good idea to go there with only one piece remaining, get the information we need, find our mother’s piece, then travel back right away. Meeting with failure in terms of map pieces in Grizzleheim seems like the more likely route.

That being said, it’s hard to say what we would actually do there with Erika the Red missing. Just going around and helping all of the civilians there doesn’t really seem very piratey, and it wouldn’t make for such an interesting story. Perhaps the first chapter could be finding an old crewmate of Erika’s, under the assumption that she is still in Grizzleheim. For the second chapter, after we find out that she departed recently, we’d attempt to find out where she went and why. Maybe she got shipwrecked somewhere… Krokotopia certainly seems possible. It’s rather likely for us to go there in the El Dorado arc, and there wouldn’t really be any reason to do so otherwise… unless that’s where our parents ended up.

Additional chapters could really be anything. We already have all of the information that we need, so what’s the point of staying there any longer? There could be a “side story” in the middle of these two chapters – discovering that Erika the Red is gone and finding out where she is – to give the world a bit more length and to resonate more with the Norse mythology theme. Think Kurghas in Marleybone. Getting them worse food was inconsequential to our overarching goal, but we needed to do so in order to give the Marleybonean Navy a fighting chance against the Armada. Similarly, Grizzleheim could be having its own issues. What they could be is anyone’s guess, but it’s sure to make an interesting storyline!

Some Deeper Theorycrafting

We can’t forget about the Armada! Even with Deacon gone, they’re watching our every move… and it’s very likely that they know that they’re losing in the race for the map. They wouldn’t want to let any more pieces slip out of their grasp, and knowing the location of Erika the Red would be crucial to their game plan. So, could we see the Armada in Grizzleheim? It’s certainly possible. Kane himself is very busy, but we haven’t encountered that “Queen” yet – could she have been sent off to Grizzleheim, possibly as the Armada’s head of foreign affairs? We may be finally fighting that Armada elite, but possibly not completely defeating her yet. If there’s one thing to know about chess, it’s that the queen is the most powerful piece in the game.

Suppose that both we and the Armada find out about Erika the Red’s location… that would be the perfect opening to sneak into Valencia the following book. However, if we don’t get any map pieces then and the Armada already beats us to Erika the Red in Book XVII, then it’d be a tie at three. Or, to go even further, what if the Armada ambushes us – Phule, most likely – when we go to Valencia, stealing our three map pieces? That means we’d have none to the Armada’s six – if they beat us to the last piece, our mother’s, they’d be all ready to sail to El Dorado. That would practically force us to sneak back into Valencia for one final time before the Armada can make their move and get all seven map pieces back from them.

When you think about it, something like that would make sense. If the Armada has a couple pieces of the map and we have the rest, what could either of us do? Not very much. But, if the Armada has them all after Phule steals the ones that we’ve collected, that would make for a pretty epic conclusion of the El Dorado arc. It would also give us a pretty good reason to fight Phule… perhaps, after defeating him, Kane would appear for the first time, take the map pieces, and end our second trip to Valencia with failure. If only Avery didn’t have that idea to keep the pieces with us!

The Orange Windstone

As a final note, keep in mind that Windstones work in the order of ROY G BIV, but backwards – if we get a Red Windstone and go to Valencia next, what about the Orange one? Therefore, we may be seeing a world before Valencia based on that Windstone logic… Grizzleheim would be the perfect candidate.

We haven’t yet seen a “Stormgate to Grizzleheim (Requires Orange Windstone)” in the game, but that could be just to keep the surprise – Avernus does still have an empty Stormgate, as well as Marleybone and Aquila…

What do you think about Grizzleheim? Will it be the next world, or will we just be seeing a preview of it soon? Regardless, be sure to familiarize yourself with June’s Producer’s Letter… it has several hints towards Grizzleheim in it, as well as some other neat surprises that are in store for us soon…

Happy hunting!