WMG / Welcome to Night Vale

As a WMG subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Cecil

Cecil's physical appearance is really frightening to normal humans.

In "A Memory of Europe", he describes walking into an alehouse in a country called Luftnarp during his travels in Europe and not receiving service because everyone was standing there grey-faced with their mouths hanging open in terror.

• Jossed by creator Joseph Fink, who said that the bizarre appearance of the people in Luftnarp is just the way they look and act, having nothing to do with Cecil.

However, Carlos, despite being an outsider, doesn't seem to be shocked or scared of Cecil at all, since he grins the first time they meet. His only concern upon coming to Cecil's radio station for the first time is the high levels of radio activity coming from the radio mic. He worriedly tells Cecil to get himself, and everyone else in the station, outside. Implying that he truly believes outside forces to be malevolent and not the actual people around him.

• Cecil is described loosely over the course of the series and is only, as yet, ever mentioned as having normal human attributes. Kevin describes him as being a man and makes mention of his hair, eyes, and nose. Carlos puts his hand on Cecil's knee in one episode and Cecil, in turn, rests his head on Carlos' shoulder. Later, on their first date, they are described as walking arm in arm with Cecil being dressed in a tunic and furry pants. Cecil is also described as wearing a tie and he talks about his shoes and gesturing with his hands. By all accounts, he seems to have all the limbs and features of a regular human.
  • In episode 25 Carlos does comment that "sometimes things seem so strange or malevolent and then you find that underneath it was something else altogether, something pure and innocent." This could be a reference to Cecil himself and how Carlos may have regarded him at first. Or just in reference to Night Vale itself, which he had previously been too busy trying to figure out to give Cecil the time of day.
    • Or perhaps the Carlos listened to the station, caught Cecil gushing about him a few times, and thought he was weird. Cecil mentions that Carlos used to always emphasize that he wasn't calling him for personal reasons.
• Alternately, Carlos is Admiring the Abomination. Cecil's appearance is creepy, but perhaps he's a handsome kind of creepy. Or he knew about Cecil's constant gushing and was flattered.
• Another possibility is that Cecil looks totally human, but his presence can create a disturbed feeling in people who can sense something is not right with him.

Cecil is half-human, half monster.

He is possibly the child of Azathoth.

Cecil is psychic.

• Even when he isn't being fed information by random sources, Cecil seems to simply "know" things that are going on, such as in A Story About You. If true, however, he doesn't seem to use it very often. Which is likely due to his crippling biases, his small attention span, and his fear of The City Council.
• Cecil is clairvoyant because all NVCR reporters are. The visions teen!Cecil experienced were due to his nascent powers.

As above, Cecil seems to know things he, logically, has no way of knowing. (This could be symbolized by the third eye fanon likes to give him.) What if it's to do with his job? It seems like an awfully big coincidence that teen!Cecil's visions started right when he took the first concrete steps towards a career in radio.

• Jossed in this interview, where J&J state that no, it's narrative convenience.

Cecil is proficient in astral projection.

Like it says in the above WMG, Cecil seems to know things that he probably shouldn't be able to know. Also, it's mentioned in one episode that astral projection is no longer allowed in school, so we know that it's possible. "A Story About You" was Cecil suddenly being interested in one particular person and following them for the duration of the episode.

Cecil has experienced too much mind control/brainwashing/etc. and is resistant

Too many Eldritch Abominations and authority figures in Night Vale have toyed with his mind over the years, giving him resistance to it. This explains why he isn't an upbeat puppet like Kevin and is capable of sounding dubious about City Council pronouncements, was able to talk about the Shape, and didn't change his behavior after being summoned to "re-education". (This suggests that he might actually be lying about such things as sharing the town's amnesia about the first appearance of the Glow Cloud or not remembering what the Man in the Tan Jacket looks like.)

Cecil is becoming self-aware.

He is constantly questioning his existence because he doesn't exist. He is a fictional character and may be somewhat aware of that fact.

Cecil is a Voluntary Shapeshifter.

He's entirely human otherwise. He likes to change his appearance in every episode, just for the fun of it and to keep listeners guessing. It also explains why Cecil keeps a photo to "remember what he looks like"; he shifts so much that he sometimes forgets to go back to his natural form (which looks just like Cecil Baldwin, BTW).

Cecil’s appearance depends on others’ perceptions.

• People perceive him as looking however they think he should look. Two people could look at him simultaneously, and see two different appearances.
  • Part of the reason he likes Carlos so much is that Carlos can see the real him.

Cecil is a gorgon.

Gorgon, as in the mythological creature, like Medusa. Snakes for hair, horribly ugly, turns people to stone when they look at his face.

• In episode 26, Cecil says: "Or better yet, destroy all of your mirrors. As my mother used to tell me, “Someone’s going to kill you one day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror. Mark my words, child!” And then she would stare absently through my eyes until I giggled. Ah, I miss her so much.” This seems like a silly Night Vale proverb or prognostication but in the context of both Cecil and his mother being gorgons it makes sense.
• In episode 16, Cecil says: "not taking off our gas masks for meals, even though it is considered polite." This implies that Night Vale residents are supposed to be wearing gas masks most of the time, meaning that his face would be covered the vast majority of the time so he'd be able to live a normal life — at least as normal as a citizen of Night Vale's life can be, anyway.
• Either way, as a gorgon, he would have a perfect face for radio.
• It might also explain his obsession with Carlos's perfect hair. He wouldn't have any.
• He mentions, when describing Kevin, that Kevin has "hair like mine". So he clearly DOES have hair. Then again, we've seen people grow completely new heads, so a Gorgon with hair wouldn't be out of place.

Cecil Gershwin Palmer, the kid in the cassette tapes, is dead, and the Cecil reporting to us is not him.

They may be inhabiting the same body and may have some of the same habits but they're not the same person. The current person we know as Cecil somehow "took over" the teenager Cecil Gershwin Palmer and became the radio station host.

• Current Cecil does not remember any of the events in the tapes, interning at Night Vale Community Radio, or even having a brother, and that's because he wasn't the one experiencing them at all.
• When listening to the cassette tapes, the radio host says, "Let's get back to these tapes of this younger person with whom I share a life." Regular Night Vale listeners have become jaded to these bizarre turns of phrase, but in this case it might be more literal.
• Cecil Gershwin Palmer was an intern at Night Vale Community Radio, and we all know what happens to interns. They tend to die.
• Some of his last words on the cassette are "I think, therefore I soon won’t be."''
• His mother said “Someone’s going to kill you one day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror. Mark my words, child!" She was telling this to Cecil Gershwin Palmer, and it's already happened. We heard it happen at the end of Cassette. His mother was trying to protect him by covering up all the mirrors but this ultimately proved futile.
  • Also, covering mirrors is a surprisingly common funerary preparation; many cultures including, for example, the Victorians and those who practice Judaism (while sitting Shiva) do so. A little added symbolism, perhaps?
    • After trying to look up reasons why people cover mirrors for mourning, there is some stuff about avoiding vanity during mourning but possibly a more apt superstition is that the spirit of the dead person can get trapped in a mirror. This is probably unrelated but there is a similar superstition about stopping clocks.
    • And there is only one real, working clock in Night Vale; the watch Cecil got from Carlos.

Now there's the question of who exactly the current Cecil is — he was the flickering at the corner of Cecil Gershwin Palmer's eye up until the last recorded point on the radio. He might be some kind of "spirit" of NVCR.

• Current Cecil was disturbed at the end of the tape because he knew exactly what happened.
• The reason why Current Cecil knows some things that Cecil Gershwin Palmer knows and has some of the same quirks is because The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body.
• Cecil Gershwin Palmer says that the reason why he's going to replace Leonard Burton is because the tablets at City Hall say so. All of these events were foreordained. This is why his mother and brother are gone by the end and someone has uncovered the mirror — his takeover has to happen.
• Cecil Gershwin Palmer describes Leonard with "Leonard lolls his tongue out of his thick, purple lips" Purple lips are not used to describe someone who is healthy. Leonard is either very sick or already dead and the thing that made him the voice of NVCR would then need a new host.
• Current Cecil being some kind of entity of the radio station explains how he can know things that he shouldn't be able to. It would also explain why he hasn't been fired for acting unprofessionally. The station needs him too much.
• The reason for the symmetry in Desert Bluffs then is not because it's some kind of "mirror world", it's because Desert Bluffs has the same kind of entity in its radio station in the form of Kevin.
• As of episode 44, Current Cecil apparently has a sister. A sister that Cecil Gershwin Palmer did not seem to have, or he would have mentioned her along with his mother and brother.

Cecil is a fetch.

• The Cecil recording the radio show. The recordings in "Cassette" are just before the original Cecil's abduction. The thing just outside his vision was the Fae that eventually took him. The reason the current Cecil doesn't remember what was on the tapes was the Fae covering its tracks but somehow missed the tapes.

The winner of Lot 37 was...

• Carlos.
  • And he did it because he was sick of Cecil risking his life to report things and doesn't want to see him get himself killed (or worse, knowing the Strex).
    • Jossed by the creators, who felt that reeked of a possessive relationship.
• A member of Strex Corp; not only would they own the radio show (along with apparently other businesses in town), but they would also own NVCR's host too. And after the last episode...
• Marcus Vansten. Perhaps to use the radio to further publicize his mayoral campaign?
  • To support this; Marcus is super rich, and he was mentioned prominently in this episode. Who else would have the money to stop the bidding after just one raise of the hand?
• The Man in the Tan Jacket. pretty much CONFIRMED as of episode 63
• Old Woman Josie. Partly because they're friends, and partly because she's been feeling kind of lonely since the disappearance of her Angels.
• The Faceless Old Woman. Really, anyone is fine, as long as it wasn't someone from Strex Corp.
• Kevin.
• Steve Carlsberg.
• The Smiling God. It would explain why no one else bid - the Smiling God is just so scary, even for Night Vale citizens, that no one wanted to bid against it and draw its attention. It might make Renovations and Old Oak Doors into one big, drawn-out Hope Spot by showing up to claim its property, maybe even forcibly taking over Cecil.
• Cecil's father. His identity is a mystery, but prime candidates include Garrison Keillor, Rod Serling, and Yog Sothoth.
• Episode 70B reveals that it was actually Hiram McDaniels' violet head.

The winner of Lot 37 was us, the listeners.

• Think about it. The creators have been working on this podcast for a long time, taking donations, selling merchandise and even making tour appearances that sell out of tickets as fast as they can make them. Us fans have been pouring money because we want more stories, more podcasts, and ultimately more CECIL. Not to mention the fan-created content that interprets the character how they wish.

We may not literally own Cecil Palmer, but the audience response to WTNV has not gone unnoticed.

Cecil was bidding for the rights to Cecil Gershwin Palmer (i.e. his lost memories of his childhood.)

In the episode Cecil expresses an intense desire to win the lot - disregarding the extreme cost to the point that his entire body is shaking.His lost memories of his family and childhood have been plaguing him for some time, and he wants the lot as hope that his memories will be restored along with the fate of his lost mother and brother.Also, he wants to affirm that he is indeed the Cecil Gershwin Palmer from the tapes. Earlier WMG's say that he had been replaced by the entity that is now Cecil here. Those memories may reveal what happened to that kid.

Cecil was bidding for his freedom as a fictional character to break the fourth wall and save Night Vale.

He knows Strex Corp is growing stronger and he wishes to take control of his own destiny instead of being controlled by corrupt governments, eldritch abominations, and ultimately the creators of Night Vale's universe.

Cecil has trouble understanding humans.

To him, humans are the most fascinating and terrifying things in existence. On the one hand, he finds that Humans Are Special for persisting in a vast, uncaring universe and finding meaning in whatever they do. On the other hand, he finds that Humans Are Cthulhu for their baffling, often contradictory sense of morality - hence why he sees the Sheriff's Secret Police and Marcus Vansten as upstanding citizens. This also explains why he tolerates the City Council (which follows his Blue-and-Orange Morality), but is worried about Strex Corp, which does not seem to be supernatural in the slightest.

Cecil was normal before his encounter with Station Management.

At the end of episode 3, Station Management has been ticked off on an epic level due to Cecil fighting to keep his show. Station Management threatened to absorb Cecil into itself if they caught him. The end of the episode leaves things kind of ambiguous, but considering all the episodes between then and now, Cecil survived. But, did he really? Sure, Cecil has continued his show, but that doesn't mean he escaped Station Management unscathed. Station Management are the reason why Cecil doesn't remember his childhood, because this Cecil is a copy created by them.

In the mid-sixties, Cecil bought a gun, which he brought to a drug orgy. Things went downhill quickly.

The weirdly apathetic tone of Sister Ray seems to fit quite well with the general attitude of Night Vale, and a lot of his personality could be explained by past drug use, although this would make Cecil considerably older than he's generally thought to be.

Cecil has been replaced with clones several times during the course of the podcast

Similar to Rei of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sam and Dean of The Venture Bros., there is an army of replacement Cecils for whenever the current one dies (as he may have more often than he lets on) or becomes too uppity for Station Management or, now, Strex Corp. There are many situations where Cecil manages to get out alive where others haven't and for reasons that he can't explain, like in the episodes Station Management or Subway, so he may not have actually lived but a replacement Cecil was used. Also, in episodes like Yellow Helicopters and Missing, Cecil has fierce disagreements with how the station or town is run and then suddenly in the next episode he insists that everything is fine — almost as if he had been reset. There may be a Cecilquarium under the studio or something.

Cecil has become more and more isolated after becoming the radio host for NVCR

Whenever he talks about friends and acquaintances like Old Woman Josie and John Peters (you know, the farmer) he speaks like he doesn't actually interact with them much anymore. Carlos seems to be his main contact in town besides work contacts, and he's a newcomer. It could be that the station is mutating him into something awful making people want to stay away from him, or something as benign as that ever since he started being a radio host, he's been announcing all of his friends' personal lives over the air, driving them away.

Cecil comes from a family of Seers

Or oracles if you prefer. His mother did predict exactly how he was going to die and Cecil himself seems to know more than people would expect, making it possible that he too can see the future somehow (not necessarily with any "third eye" though). We can assume that his brother has the same ability, unless his aloofness was because he alone of his family lacked this ability.

Cecil shares a mind with and voices the thoughts of the town of Night Vale

The process that the young Cecil went through, beginning with his mother and brother's disappearance and ending with the mysterious attack at the end of the Cassette tapes was part of a ritual to grant the town a voice. This ritual may have been conducted by city council or by the town itself, but as prophesied, the ritual created a new 'Voice of Night Vale'. The Voice of Night Vale is not a title. It is a literal description of the NCVR Radio host, whose grooming connects them to the city until their prophesied replacement. The incidents involving the mirrors and the mysterious attack were necessary to groom Cecil to speak for Night Vale. What happened with Leonard's death represents the city deciding to change out its voice.

In episode 47, Cecil is safely hiding with Carlos

Pleaseletthisbetruepleaseletthisbetruepleaseletthisbetruepleaseletthisbetrue...

Cecil directly instigated Strexcorp's takeover of the town.

Cecil's opening to A Blinking Light up on the Mountain is "Our god is an awesome god. Much better than that ridiculous god that Desert Bluffs has."The very next episode is Yellow Helicopters, when Strexcorp begins their takeover of Night Vale. The takeover is Strex's direct reaction to Cecil's careless insult. It's all his fault!

Cecil is disabled in some way.

When Steve Carlsberg flips out and throws Kevin back through the door, he mentions specifically "you will not change my stepbrother". Two possibilities: either he's just concerned that his stepbrother has a creepy doppelganger who can just waltz into his studio and menace him or something like that, or else maybe Kevin's remarks about Janice made him get defensive of Cecil because Cecil is also disabled, and Steve is worried that StexCorp might feel like he needs fixing too.

• I think he actually said step DAUGHTER, as Cecil is his brother-in-law not his stepbrother.
  • Maybe, but the transcript here says he said step-brother. It's possible to be both brothers-in-law and stepbrothers.
  • Episode 70b clarifies this. Steve Carlsberg is married to Cecil's sister.

The third Story Arc will be about Cecil (possibly following up on Cassette).

• WTNV has had two distinct story arcs so far, each taking up roughly 25 episodes. The first was mainly about the tiny civilization under Lane 5 and Cecil and Carlos' relationship. The second was concerning StrexCorp's gradual takeover of Night Vale and its defeat. Since Cassette and The Auction are the two episodes that are leaving us obvious loose threads after both One Year Later and Old Oak Doors, the "season finales," I've got a feeling we'll get to know Cecil better in the coming 25, or perhaps the 25 after that if we're lucky enough to have more. At the time of writing, Episode 50 is yet to come, but that would really only have the possibility of resolving who bought Cecil, and not have time to fully touch on who (or what) Cecil might be.
  • as of episode 63 it seems to be shaping up to this.

Cecil is an omniscient, omnipotent Eldritch Abomination (or the son of one) that is somehow bound in Night Vale.

• But Cecil doesn't know this, or at least doesn't know why he can't leave Night Vale. His family and the entire town did, and his true potential started to surface at puberty, hence why he seems to know things he shouldn't; perhaps he's just omniscient and part of it emerged, perhaps the omnipotence is stemmed, which might have been something he was expressing frustration at when he thought Carlos had died. The flickering was a powerful something they'd employed, possibly a resident of Night Vale, to trap and keep Cecil in and not too powerful, lest he wind up inadvertently causing massive damage to this plane. We've seen the fact that Cecil has a nasty capacity for cruelty, and he may know that he's sealed in and secretly resent it at least a little. It'd be a stretch, but Carlos may possibly be a Morality Pet, to some extent. Furthermore, Station Management is a more powerful Eldritch Abomination that is is responsible for keeping Cecil contained, and not dangerous to the town. Despite the threats, they're unable to absorb him due to his nature, but they can scare the living shit out of him.

Cecil is actually just a kid recording an "imaginary" radio show through Diary Logs.

It's his way of dealing with the unimaginable horrors of Night Vale. Also the adult voice is imaginary. He also talks smoothly because being scared all the time makes him insane. His eye also has a mind of its own.

Cecil has chronic Lyme disease.

• All the way back in Episode 3 ("Station Management"), Cecil mentioned having Lyme disease. In The Thrilling Adventure Hour crossover, he mentioned that he has still got Lyme disease. That would mean he's had Lyme disease for about three real-world years, which is possibly a bit odd. Chronic Lyme disease is a disease which is considered not to exist by all reputable medical professionals, but considering the fact Night Vale is a Conspiracy Kitchen Sink, it would make sense that in Night Vale it totally exists.
  In any case, whatever he has, Lyme disease is not a walk in the park. Symptoms of regular ordinary Lyme disease, as well as those reported by people who claim to experience chronic Lyme disease, include pain, fatigue, and neurological issues. The symptoms of untreated Lyme disease can become really, really debilitating and unpleasant, with highlights including arthritis, difficulty walking, memory loss, and psychosis, so... poor Cecil.

Cecil's family, plus Steve Carlsburg being both Cecil's step-brother and brother-in-law.

In "Cassette" we learn Cecil lived with his mother and his brother. We never hear about his father, or his sister that later gets married to Steve. This is because his parents were either divorced or separated at the time; Cecil and his brother stayed with their mother while their sister went with their father. That's why they weren't around at the time of the recording.

As for Steve: something happened to his parents while he was in his teens and since he was still a bit too young to live on his own Cecil's father took him in. He says he never met Cecil before the wedding; that's because Cecil was isolated because of his job at the radio station and never visited them at the time, but he at least heard about Steve and accepted the idea of him being his unofficial step-brother of sorts. Later on when they were older he and Cecil's sister fell in love and got married—since the family had never "officially" adopted him it wasn't weird or incestuous. (Although this is Night Vale so they might have completely different rules/ideas about that, but whatever.) So he went from unofficial step-brother to official brother-in-law. Cecil probably calls him his step-brother more as a way of passive-aggressively objecting to Steve being married to his sister nowadays.

Cecil is related to the Pines family.

For all we know, he might be Grunkle Stan's twin brother.

The Palmer family has not yet brought forth a Pokémon Professor

Since Cecil is, via Carlos, sorta-a-scientist, he will become the first one.

Cecil is Tad Strange.

• Tad Strange, like Cecil, is perfectly happy and normal despite his horrifically strange surroundings.
• Cecil, as Tad, takes advantage of the fact that wheat and wheat by-products aren't forbidden in Gravity Falls.
• "A Memory Of Europe" shows that Cecil was able to visit Europe, meaning a brief summer vacation in Oregon isn't a stretch.
• Tad Strange was voiced by Cecil Baldwin. Though characters voiced by the same actor aren't necessarily connected, it does add anther layer.

Cecil is a Time Lord.

He's lived a very long time. He had access to radio before it was invented, perhaps he brought it back from a trip to the future. His appearance is ambiguous because it changes every now and again. The radio station is a TARDIS, and that's why Cecil made it through his internship without running out of regenerations. He could survive there because that's his home.

The Radio Show

The Weather is actually horrifying and alien to our ears.

We only hear music from little known bands because that is the form our mind can cope with.

• Jossed by Steve Carlsberg in episode 53. He mentions having listened to the weather on the day of his wedding, and that everyone had to sit around awkwardly until the music stopped.

The show is live, and Cecil prerecords the weather before each show.

Night Vale weather patterns are heavily classified and are being censored by the Vague Yet Menacing Government Agency. Since the show goes out live, they don't know how long they're going to have to censor Cecil's weather report, and the little known bands work for the VYMGA.

Episode 37 will be narrated by Kevin.

Since in episode 36 Strexcorp shut down Cecil's show.

• Jossed.
• It's likely Kevin will narrate the episode following Parade Day, though. Since Parade Day ends with Cecil being dragged off by Strex Operatives. More, a moment before he hints strongly that Kevin entered the studio... I fear for Night Vale. I fear for Cecil.
• That part was confirmed. He co-hosted with Lauren.

Kevin will host Episode 44

The sponsor ad in Episode 43 was narrated by Kevin, his second appearance. Kevin first appeared in Episodes 19a and 19b. Episode 25, One Year Later, takes place one year after the show starts. 25 + 19 = 44. Episode 44 will come out on April 1, 2014. What's a better April Fool's Joke than Kevin as the Voice of Night Vale?

• Jossed, although he and Lauren do host together a few episodes later.

Night Vale MUST have a Radio Show, and the Host MUST Host

Cecil and Kevin narrate everything that happens, even in times of great stress. Cecil and Kevin got away with so much from whoever was in charge, be it the Station Management, City Council or even Strex. Regardless of the body count, regardless of the vulnerability from it, Night Vale, and possibly Desert Bluffs, MUST HAVE A RADIO SHOW. ... Just not sure why.

We don't hear all of Cecil's show

• It starts around noon, and ends between 8 and 10 pm. We hear an edited version of the day, and/or a much shorter version of the weather, which lasts for varying amounts of time (ranging from minutes to hours). Cecil has mentioned coming in around midday, and has reported after sunset. It's also only on the first and fifteenth days of every month. There are other hosts on other days, with equally specific schedules.
  • It's pretty strongly implied that there are broadcasts we don't hear—in "Lost In The Mail", Cecil says he's been asking for stories "all week", and of course there's all those corrections segments. (Also, in "Lost in the Mail", Cecil signs off at midnight.)

The Weather is an Eldritch Abomination like Khoshekh and Station Management.

.The Weather has always existed in Night Vale. And every day/week everyone in Night Vale must listen to it and what it has to say, or else.

The Weather is read in sign language

The music is just used to avoid dead air. No one acknowledges the weather forecaster because they're kind of a jerk.

Might Vale is in-universe Fake News

• Welcome to Night Vale is Infowars and Cecil its Alex Jones. The events are somewhat accurate, but Cecil's narration exaggerates them and they are much more benign than he makes them out to be. The Strex arc happened as a result of an attempted buyout by another company but Cecil played it up for drama and spectacle.

Night Vale

Night Vale is just an ordinary desert town and Cecil is a guy with a radio show who makes everyday events bizarre and creepy because he's bored as hell.

All of the people he alludes to are actually real people, who he's lampooning (the City Council) or just actually fangirling over (Carlos.)

• He's actually really good friends with Steve Carlsberg, that's why Cecil almost cartoonishly hates him on air. The Apache Tracker however is exactly the same.
  • Expanding off this, the Apache Tracker actually used to be a co-writer for the show of sorts, but had to leave shortly after finishing up Episode 24. This is why he "dies" in the next episode, "One Year Later".
• This idea is referenced somewhat in "Big Sister", when Intern Kareem admits he thought Hiram McDaniels being a literal five-headed dragon was Cecil's metaphor for Hiram being a very dangerous person.

Night Vale has many sister cities.

• They include the towns of Peach Creek, Gravity Falls Oregon, Hawkins Indiana, King Falls, Twin Peaks, Druid Pines, Crayton Minnesota, Endsville, etc. Feel free to prove me wrong, I'm fun to talk to.
  • Let's throw in Beach City, Delmarva, while we're at it?

Night Vale is located somewhere near either Gravity Falls or Nowhere, Kansas.

• It'd explain all the weird things going on (provided they're actually going on at all). The talking pyramid in Episode 11 should also be a Hilarious in Hindsight for Gravity Falls fans.
  • Gravity Falls is in Oregon, and Nowhere is obviously in Kansas. Night Vale, set in a desert, could easily be between the two of them, in Nevada.
    • Night Vale is actually most likely in Southern California, since they have a Ralphs, which is the Kroger Food Co. Southern California brand. I would think they were probably also somewhere near the Mexico border since in one episode Cecil mentions Mexican Spinach, which isn't all that common that much far north of San Diego.
    • Also, in more than one newscast, Spanish is referred to as if the most common second language (usually when discussing the Russian-speaking formally two headed local football star), such as the television stations being in either English or Spanish, or said football star's inability to communicate with his teammates in either English or Spanish.

Night Vale is on a Hellmouth.

Night Vale is actually in a dimension in Power Rangers, specifically, something similar to Power Rangers Mystic Force's Rootcore.

Think about it. In both places, we find beings that shouldn't exist, including troblins, and people with abilities outside of the human norm. It would explain why Carlos has appeared seemingly out of nowhere-in Mystic Force, you can get into Rootcore via trees. The appearance of magical dimensions is nothing new within Power Rangers; Rita and Zedd both make rather liberal use of them throughout Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Alternate dimensions within the Power Rangers universe doesn't end with Mystic Force; [[Power Rangers RPM several]] [[Power Rangers Dino Charge different]] [[Power Rangers Beast Morphers seasons]] take place in alternate dimensions the entire season and Power Rangers Ninja Steel has an episode that takes place in a completely different dimension from the primary timeline. There's also Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. If Night Vale doesn't exist within the main Power Rangers universe, it's possible that it's in one of the aforementioned or otherwise unmentioned dimensions.

Night Vale is just Cecil's delusion.

Cecil is actually in a mental ward for severe hallucinations. The "radio broadcast" format is how Cecil copes with or processes the delusions. Carlos and the other citizens of Night Vale are based on other residents of the clinic. Kevin is Cecil's alternate personality, for whom he affects a voice, created in order to offset his own depressive self-loathing. The dog park is the outside world, meaning Dana is either a patient who's recovered or someone from Cecil's life before admission.

• Carlos is probably Cecil's doctor, but Old Woman Josie is clearly another patient. The wheat and wheat by-products ban is because Cecil has a gluten allergy.
• I'd probably guess the following: Carlos is Cecil's doctor and he's slowly succumbing to the Florence Nightingale Effect. Old Woman Josie's a patient who was admitted because she claims to see "Angels" everywhere. Dana is a friend of Cecil's who was the one who admitted him and still contacts him from time to time. Steve Carlsberg seems sane at first, but his wild conspiracy theories led to him being admitted and Cecil hates him for some reason. The Apache Tracker's, well, the Apache Tracker. The "Faceless Old Woman" is a patient with depression (hence why she calls herself "faceless") and Hiram MacDaniels has multiple personalities (hence the "five heads").

Night Vale is all for Cecil's benefit

Cecil is, in fact, the son of an Eldritch Abomination, who founded the town in an attempt to give its lonely spawn a more social life. It tries to give its spawn a normal human life, but it doesn't really get what that entails, and can't exactly curb its malign influence on the world around it and Cecil. Enter the local The Men in Black, who run the town and keep the crazy contained. Cecil is allowed to speak out against the local authorities because they wouldn't dare move against his creator. Carlos is allowed in because he has an unusually high tolerance for weirdness, and the powers that be realize that he's just Cecil's type, thus keeping everyone important happy and preventing Cecil from leaving and causing chaos elsewhere when he comes into more of his own power.

Night Vale is an Eldritch Location that people with paranormal attributes are subconsciously attracted to.

All of the citizens and visitors to the town have some kind of otherworldly feature or power, and the town itself wants them to stay in its borders. At the very least, the town has to attract a lot of new residents to keep any sort of population with the number of deaths and disappearances described in the show.

• Building off that point, it is a place where paranormal things are attracted and, for lack of a better word, tamed. Consider the Glow Cloud, which goes from ominous and terrifying to running for PTA and joining the band. This is also the reason for the town motto.

Night Vale exists in the same world as Look Around You.

And, in universe-it's an educational program run by Strex Corp.

Night Vale exists in the same world as Scarfolk Council.

Just not perpetually trapped in the 1970s.

Night Vale exists in the same world as the The World Of Darkness

• and Carlos is a Hunter of some kind.
• It would explain the fact that supernatural events that happen and everyone is apparently perfectly fine with it.

If The Doctor visited Night Vale, the TARDIS wouldn't let him.

Night Vale wouldn’t like the TARDIS or vice versa. There is too much temporal weirdness going on for the Doctor to even land her there. She may just well avoid the town completely.

Night Vale is actually a Domain of Ravenloft.

It was created for a Darklord that just wanted to be normal. Namely Steve Carlsburg.

Night Vale is built on a Rift In Space and Time- like Cardiff.

Carlos and his scientists are really Torchwood Four.

Night Vale and Twin Peaks are sister towns.

Night Vale is actually in Arcadia.

Following on from earlier theories about Night Vale being in the World of Darkness, and the Faceless Old Woman being one of the Gentry... well, the town being a Keeper's nightmare realm makes a whole lot of sense, doesn't it? All the weird stuff that goes on is just part of the madness of Faerie.

• The Keeper is, of course, the City Council. Its other aspects include the Glow Cloud and Station Management.
• Desert Bluffs is the domain of the City Council's Fae rival (the CEO of StrexCorp). Strex moving into Night Vale and buying the radio station? All part of the Legend.
• The Dog Park is actually the exit to the Hedge. Dana is currently walking back towards the mortal world.
• Cecil is a Wizened Oracle. Carlos is well on the way to becoming a Fairest (note his perfect and beautiful everything).
• The civilisation below the bowling alley is another Keeper's Realm.
• Big Rico's pizza helps hasten the process of becoming a changeling - why do you think it's mandatory?
• The Man in the Tan Jacket may be a rival Fae... or he could be a changeling trying to set the citizens of Night Vale free. Either way, it explains why the Council wants him captured so desperately.
• The Apache Tracker's transformation was just the work of the Keeper, shaping him (like all changelings) into a form that best fit his purpose.
  • The Faceless Old Woman is one of the True Fae.
• The Feral Dogs Plastic Bags are changelings, specifically, Beasts, who were trying to get the citizens of Night Vale to free themselves, but were driven back through the hedge to earth.

Night Vale is really the Q Continuum.

Remember the episode "Death Wish" where the Q Continuum was depicted as a town by the side of the road in the desert? "Welcome to Night Vale" is a radio show produced by some very bored Q (yeah, probably THAT Q.) And the news? It's all true. Who else would have the power to make giant snails?

Night Vale exists in the New World of Darkness God Machine Chronicle.

It is one of the strongest bastions of the God Machine on Earth — a place of vast, layered Infrastructure, of innumerable, layered Occult Matrices both large and small. Most of the town's bizarre municipal projects are for this purpose: the Dog Park; the teleporting, invisible clock tower; the municipal waterfront. It is a town populated mostly by Stigmatics, many of whom were unerringly drawn to the town from elsewhere, and is governed by Angels, and perhaps any other beings who've stumbled across the town and found themselves caught up in the God Machine's machinations.

Cecil is a regular old Stigmatic, but Night Vale Community Radio is almost certainly Infrastructure of some sort. Whatever its purpose is, it is quite probably fueled by the regular sacrifice of interns.

The Man In The Tan Jacket and the Apache Tracker are both demons. Tan Jacket makes extensive use of the Never Here embed to disguise his features and actions; the Apache Tracker's inexplicable Race Lift is the consequence of a Soul Pact. (He may even have been Native American originally, a long time and several Covers ago.) How they are operating so freely right under the nose of the God Machine — and what they're attempting to accomplish — remains to be seen.

Strexcorp, well, Strexcorp is something worse. A malevolent, cancerous growth on the God Machine, perhaps, or something else competing with it for control. Whatever it is, something is preventing the God Machine from just wiping Desert Bluffs off the map. Is Strexcorp too powerful? Is it fulfilling some part of the God Machine's plan? Or does it exist in some strange blind spot that prevents the God Machine from confronting it directly?

Or maybe it's just more Infrastructure; maybe there's a good reason why the Desert Bluffs radio studio is covered in blood. Maybe the conflict between it and Night Vale is just...friction, the grinding of gears that don't quite fit but still turn well enough. Who knows?

Night Vale is cursed.

Remember the town motto?

"We have nothing to fear except ourselves. We are unholy, awful people. Fear ourselves with silence. Look down, Night Vale. Look down and forget what you've done."

Perhaps the founders of the town had done something to really tick off someone/thing they really should have left alone, and he/she/it punished them by cursing the town. Things like Street Cleaning Day, Valentine's Day, the Mayor, Station Management, StrexCorp and the Apache Tracker are all part of the curse.

Night Vale is gradually "normalizing", and this will become a major plot point on the show.

A number of recent developments have reduced the number of supernatural phenomena that beset Night Vale... The disappearance of Old Woman Josie's angel friends, Meghan's corrective surgery turning her into a hand attached to a man, the absence of the Mysterious Hooded Figures since Strex's takeover, and the implication that Khoshekh has been forced to become a regular, non-floating cat since the events of Episode 43. Gradually, the show will become more and more about the excesses and social injustices that Strex Corp inflicts upon Night Vale, with the occasional use of a supernatural element when the story / mood calls for it. Perhaps we'll learn that Strex has been behind this, reducing the number of powerful other-worldly elements that could possibly stop them. Cecil eventually has the option to prevent this from continuing, but is conflicted whether or not he prefers "normal" existence to the oddball one he is so familiar with.Consequently, Night Vale is slowly, part by part, rejecting Cecil - this is why Carlos disappeared into the otherworldly desert dimension, he was the first part of Cecil's existence/influence to be rejected. Also, why Cecil was sold off in the auction.

Night Vale and its close neighbors are all weird because of their location/the desert.

Night Vale is stuck, and the earthquakes are reality's attempts to dislodge it and put it back where it belongs.

Nightvale is a recursion in The Strange.

The Strange being a monte cook games RPG about a network of dark energy that spans the universe. In the area around Earth are all of these alternate worlds created by fictional leakage from our reality. Nightvale is a recursion created by fictional leakage from paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories. In the novel it is revealed that roads out of Nightvale loop back on themselves and it is very difficult to leave the city and get to other parts of the United States. Jackie and Diane are only able to by hanging onto a cypher that lets them get to Earth.

The Night Vale master list

Recent revelations have clarified that Night Vale exists in many, many variations throughout the universe, all being slowly messed up by Huntokar's mistake. The following are versions of Night Vale from other words:

• Cecil's Night Vale
• Night Vale 1983
• Night Vale under Lane 5
• Desert Bluffs
• The Desert Otherworld (/new Desert Bluffs)
• Pine Cliff
• Red Mesa
• Twin Peaks
• Riverdale
• Stardew Valley
• Silent Hill
• South Park
• Bright Falls from Alan Wake
• Storybrooke from Once Upon a Time
• Hawkins (both of them) from Stranger Things
  • Stranger Things begins in Nov 1983. Coincidence? I think not.

Street Cleaners

The street cleaners are perfectly normal.

The weirdness of the situation comes from the entirety of the population of Night Vale reacting to them much like pets or small children sometimes react to vacuum cleaners.

The Street Cleaners are actually from Desert Bluffs.

And everyone is thus entirely correct in being terrified at their approach.

The Street Cleaners are Eldritch Abominations.

Ones even worse than Station Management.

Night Vale is the home of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

For those unfamiliar, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and its related businesses (Fredbear's Family Diner & Fazbear's Fright) are a franchise of Suck E. Cheese's with animatronic robot mascots that, by day, are friendly towards the children but, by night, attempt to murder the night security guards. This is allegedly due to faulty programming making them think the watchman's a metal endoskeleton outside of its suit and trying to correct the problem. The real reason, and why Night Vale is a likely location, is because the animatronics are possessed by the souls of children murdered by a serial murderer known only as "the Purple Man".

Other suspicious details are the fact that the franchise had animatronic robots as early as 1987 that, at one point, were linked to a criminal database, suggesting a link to the Museum of Forbidden Technologies. Prior to the robotic suits, the restaurants used suits that could be both robotic or worn by humans. The suit-mode versions, however, were spring-loaded death traps to such a degree that company policy dictated using specially designated saferoom to bleed to death should the animatronic suits' parts injure the wearer. We've seen more than a few businesses in Night Vale with such callous business practices.

Finally, decades later in the third game, the franchise was converted into a haunted house style attraction, Fazbear's Fright, which eventually burned down due to faulty wiring. We learn that the surviving items (which, it can be revealed, includes the last remaining animatronic, "Springtrap") were siezed and put up for auction, such as the very siezed goods auction where we saw one community radio host be sold.

• The cursed animatronics roaming the store at night are the only reason Big Rico hasn't burned down the only other pizzeria left in town.

Carlos

Welcome to Night Vale is a video game, in which Carlos is the main character.

Night Vale is a neighboring town to Silent Hill, which is a town with similar properties (trapping and calling people to the town, random weird stuff). Carlos, the player character, visits the town to investigate its strange...everything, fighting off monsters, strange townspeople, and the hilariously corrupt secret police. Along the way he meets Cecil who works as both a narrator, the comic relief, the love interest, and the exposition for the next objective. Supported by Episode 15's Traffic Report (which is probably the game's driving minigame), Episode 10 and 11 (which introduce new monsters), and Episode 15 (wherein a chronicle about another person trapped in the town is introduced). The Man in the Tan Jacket is either a secret boss, the place where you'd get power ups, or the game's Pyramid Head. Maybe even all three.

• More evidence, from episode 27 - the entire population of the town turns into buzzing shadow beings except Cecil and Carlos, despite walking among them all night (in the same way that a main character tends to be unaffected by events around them), and later Carlos apparently defeats the shadow thing.
• It's a weird Visual Novel with a Dating Sim aspect.

Carlos knew the cause of the flashing red light in the distance from the very start of the episode.

He just wanted the people of Night Vale to acknowledge the existence of mountains.

Carlos is the same person as Carlos from The Magic School Bus.

• Ms. Frizzle's class inspired a lifelong love of science that would lead to his future career... and gave him some experience with the sort of weirdness Night Vale would later throw at him.

Carlos is not as attractive as we've been led to believe.

Evidence: Cecil describes his voice as "oaken tones", but when we hear Carlos's voice in Ep. 16 it sounds fairly ordinary. Both actors who play Carlos have crisp tenor voices. Carlos is probably good-looking, but not to "Brazilian supermodel" levels, and Cecil has simply been exaggerating out of adoration.

In episode 47, Carlos is planning something to take Strexcorp down

Well, isn't it obvious?

Carlos is actually Warden of Night Vale.

• And the town itself is a prototype of Demonreach. Carlos is actually Warden Carlos Ramirez, and was assigned Night Vale using scientist as a cover story.

Carlos is actually an amnesiac Gilderoy Lockhart.

• He's got perfect hair, who else could he be?
  • But Carlos isn't British. And he's not useless.

Carlos (and possibly his fellow scientists and/or anyone from the outside world that comes into Night Vale) is immune to the local weirdness, to the point that it's almost a superpower.

He's not taken over by the "buzzing shadow creatures" or affected by the "lazy" day, and he hasn't been brainwashed or anything despite constantly poking around and investigating things in a town whose leaders hate being questioned and heavily restrict any form of learning or belief in "normal" scientific principles. We don't really hear about anyone on his team dying horribly on a regular basis, despite all the messing around they do. Plus the other significant character from the real/outside world, Steve Carlsberg, knows things about the secret government that he shouldn't, and yet he hasn't been shut down either. Something is protecting these people.

Related to the above: Carlos (et al, possibly) is from...

Eureka. It would explain why he's less fazed than one would expect by Night Vale's weirdness, knows some of what he does, and just what he might even be doing in Night Vale at all. Disclaimer: This WMG was found in a fanfic.

Carlos wasn't actually being oblivious at the end of their first date.

He knew perfectly well why Cecil was asking if he could go back to the lab with him to "help". He pretended not to know, because the real reason he didn't want to invite Cecil in is that he knew that if Cecil was there, he'd be too...distracted to be able to work on saving the town from the "buzzing shadow" thing.

Carlos has a bad habit of being serially AWOL from wherever he's supposed to be

You know those people from the University of What It Is who came looking for him? And how he's presently not "not trapped" but "doing work" in some desert dimension? This is actually a thing he does a lot. He often goes from one research project or teaching position to another without necessarily accounting for his whereabouts, and wherever he goes, people eventually realized he's not there any more and are trying to figure out where he wandered off to are trailing in his wake. It's a bad habit and he hasn't realized the error of his ways yet.

Carlos is a [[Franchise/Pokemon Pokémon Professor

. By extension, his last name must be some kind of tree.]]Or, alternatively, he marries into the Palmer family and assumes his husband Cecil's last name.

Carlos is from Desert Bluffs and will be allowed back through the doors once his Night Vale Equivalent arrives

Carlos doesn't seem to be from a normal place but was still scared when he first came, a town that mirrored your own would be off putting to be in. Kevin was able to use the doors and as far as we know he isn't a citizen of Night Vale, it could be that as long as you have an alternate handy the doors let you use them.

Carlos has no idea what science really is.

The world outside of Night Vale, or at least Carlos' part has forgotten or forbidden all science. Carlos and the University of What It Is are trying to reconstruct it. Unfortunately all they have to go on is old movies and media. They think it has something to do with lab coats, careful observation and bubbling beakers.

Carlos once had a bad encounter with a botanist.

That's why he refuses to consider botany or dendrology real scientific disciplines.

Carlos's hair is quasi-sentient.

It has an empathic link to him, and gives him styling tips by subtly tweaking his emotions, making him happier when he does something good with it. That's why it always looks so fabulous.

Dana

'Dana' isn't Dana's real name.

At the beginning of her voicemail message in 'The Voicemail' she says "It's Ma(y)-" before correcting herself to "It's Dana".What was she going to say?

• "Mayor?"
  • Maybe she was going to say Makalia, which would be concerning since Makalia is the name of the girl from sales who decided, after meeting Khoshekh, that she preferred cats and put her healthy dog down. And the name means "like god" which is troubling.
  • OR it's possible she just wanted to be more causal with her former employer and didn't feel the need to call herself "Mayor Cardinal" around him.

Dana the Intern is actually Dana from The Cabin in the Woods.

She survived the rise of the Ancient Ones and moved to Night Vale, getting a job at the radio station. Her previous experiences with ghastly, unimaginable things are what give her such a cool head in dealing with things like her doppelganger and her imprisonment in the dog park.

• This also explains why Night Vale is so damn weird; it takes place in a post-nightmare-apocalypse world, where countless random awful horrors have been released upon the Earth. Humanity, as it so often does, just got used to them.

Dana has arrived in our world.

In the events of Dana our intrepid intern wandered out of the Dog Park and into another plane of existence, unseen and unknowable by Night Vale citizens. When she did this, she crossed over into our reality, which inhabits the same space on a different plane than Night Vale proper. This is why Cecil is aware that Night Vale is an American town without having seen anywhere else in America, and why none of the European countries he visited are real. Carlos and the science team journeyed out into the desert to investigate paranormal occurrences and wandered through the same wormhole.

The surviving Intern Dana is the doppelganger.

Notice how, when she's on the phone with Cecil, she seems to be hearing something slightly different than what he's actually saying? It's nothing to do with the dog park; it's because she's the double rather than the original Dana.

The surviving Intern Dana...didn't.

Intern Dana died not long after being trapped in the Dog Park, and she's a restless spirit who'd unknowingly been calling Cecil from beyond the grave. Hence, all the supernatural weirdness when he tries to call her at the wrong times and her passing through the living like a cold wind.

The thing that seemingly attacked Young Cecil near the end of "Cassette" was Dana.

And she really didn't attack him at all. Since Dana is apparently either in a world between worlds or somewhere in the past, she would presumably have the ability to go to Cecil's childhood, even if by accident. She appeared first as a faint flickering when he first started using the tape recorder, because that's when she first noticed a person named Cecil who was involved with the radio, and tries to really contact him for the first time when he sings his High School fight song, hence the static. She then tried to contact him in various other ways, ranging from simply being with him more often (why he sees the flickering more) to even touching him. When she finally manages to contact him, the shock of it sent him into an asthmatic episode (two WMG's for the price of one- Cecil has/had asthma) and was completely unrelated to the mirrors.

Dana was saved by the angels from the underground caves in episode 42.

She was guided outside the cave system with the growing triangles on the wall by a beam of black light. The same kind of light that protected Old Woman Josie when Strex first showed up in Night Vale.

• Additionally, the settlement Dana found is related to StrexCorp, which has an S in a triangle as its symbol.

Dana is The Smiling God

In Episode 44, we learn that Dana has the ability to travel through space and/or time and/or dimensions. During the course of the episode, she mentions meeting her older self, who is described as important-looking, glowing, and "smiling." People obeyed and clearly respected her, and Dana was suspiciously warped back to the desert before she had the chance to ask her future self what it was that she did for a living. It's not inconceivable that she gained additional powers during the seven year skip, or simply became omniscient by virtue of her ability to travel practically anywhere and anytime, and as a result became StrexCorp's oft cited Smiling God.

• Sort of Jossed in episode 45. Cecil describes Dana as fleeing from the malicious encroaching light, and refers to this light as a "smiling god of terrible power and ceaseless appetite".
  • She's also revealed to become the mayor of Night Vale, which may be why she looks important.

Dana will lead the huge masked army to Night Vale

And she will lead them against Strex Corp.

• Additionally, the tiny people under Lane Five will also join the war against Strex perhaps because Strex Corp has been stealing their buildings?
• And Carlos will let them inside Night Vale since it seems the doors randomly appearing in Night Vale in episode 46 and the House That Does Not Exist are somehow linked, and Carlos is investigating those.

Dana becomes the Faceless Old Woman who Secretly Lives in Your Home

She never fully got out of the alternate dimension. The "unstuck in time" nature of that reality allowed her to grow into the ageless woman.Her ability to flicker in and out of our reality combined with time travel is how she manages to be in everyone's home at the same time, and also why nobody ever actually sees her. Her run for the Mayor's office is an attempt to alter the timeline by cutting off the Smiling God before things get even worse than they already are.

Dana died in her eponymous episode after crossing dimensional planes.

She was killed in the Dog Park around the time she saw the Old Oak Door. The one in the show now is a projection. Some sort of ghost, if you will. She can be anywhere and everywhere at once and see all things.

Other Night Vale Residents

The people of Night Vale know that Khoshekh is not really a cat

On the main page, there's a point implying that Khoshekh's weirdness is the way cats are in Night Vale, but given the fact that cute internet cat videos are present in the series, this seems unlikely. Basically, Cecil (and everyone else) knows that Khoshekh is by no means a cat, they just call him one because they don't know what he really is and "cat" was the only thing they could call him. Perhaps a cat is the type of animal he most resembles.

• Originally that entry said that we don't know how Cecil can identify cute cat videos if Khoshekh is a cat for him and the kind of abomination described. Also there is the weird thing (so for Cecil: not a cat or anything he could identify) that he reported on once, which wasn't described in detail, but the way it acted sounded suspiciously catlike for some listeners.
  • Come to think of it: Cecil knows how cats look like (thanks to internet cat videos). There is a being that looks catlike but doesn't act or sound like one (Khoshekh), and a different one that acts like a cat but looks completely different (weird even by Night Vale standards)? Did an Eldritch Abomination do unspeakable things to a poor cat and switch bodies with him?!

Josie

Old Woman Josie's warnings about killing your double were meant for Cecil because Kevin will somehow be involved with Cecil's death.

"Someone's going to kill you one day and it's going to involve a mirror." Who's to say that mirror isn't his double.

• As of "Cassette," we find out that the young Cecil—Cecil Gershwin Palmer—was apparently attacked by unseen forced while looking in a mirror.

Apart from Barrier Maiden powers, the Angels gave Old Woman Josie another parting gift.

She now has the power of anonymity. To elaborate: Thanks to the Angels, StrexCorp can't cause any harm to Josie. Why? Because they don't know she exists. The Angels managed to either erase Josie from Strex's records or convince them that Josie had passed away. The people of Night Vale still know Josie is alive/exists, but StrexCorp doesn't, and as a result, Josie is safe from them.

The Angels decided to put Josie in charge of Strex Corp

.And her first order of business was to demote Lauren all the way down to janitor for daring to hurt Cecil.

Steve Carlsberg

Steve isn't actually Cecil's brother-in-law.

We've never had any indication that Cecil had a sister, and never called Janice's mother his sister either. Maybe she was married to Cecil's brother from Cassettes (you know, the one he doesn't remember, but we at least know he was around at some point). Janice's mother is actually his sister-in-law, and Steve is her second husband, after Cecil's brother and mother left for whatever reason. It would just be another great reason to hate Steve. Cecil just doesn't question why he has a niece.

• Obviously the answer is Steve Carlsberg must be married to Cecil's brother and Janice is their daughter through a previous marriage. The mother he was referring to in Cookies is the ex-wife who is still involved with Janice's life. Whether Cecil's brother is actually in the picture and Cecil continues forgetting he exists, is dead, or whatever, Cecil is still aware of how he is really related to Janice and Steve Carlsberg.
  • Jossed; in Episode 53 he talks about his wedding and very clearly mentions a wife who is Cecil's sister.

One of the reasons Cecil hates Steve Carlsberg.

Is because his last name sounds like his beloved Carlos. Just grrrr, he knows it's neither of their faults but the fact that he can't hear Carlos's beautiful and perfect name without thinking of Steve Carlsberg just pisses him off.

Cecil's hatred of Steve Carlsberg.

• They were in a relationship once. It ended badly.

Steve Carlsberg is from Desert Bluffs

• Cecil despises two things, Desert Bluffs and Steve Carlsberg, without any given reason. He despises Telly the barber and despised the Apache Tracker too, but he was always quick to point out exactly why that was (Carlos' haircut and being a racist embarrassment respectively). Perhaps an intuitive feeling of wrongness about both?
• It was Steve Carlsberg of Night Vale that sent in the e-mail to the Desert Bluffs radio show, not his local double. And unlike Cecil, Kevin doesn't have an animosity toward him, nor a nemesis in general.
• If he is a former Desert Bluffs citizen, he is either a refugee or a scout.
  • If he is a scout, then the e-mail he sent to Desert Bluffs Community radio was a secret communiqué.

Steve Carlsberg is going to be the next casualty in Night Vale.

• During the last anniversary show, the Apache Tracker, who Cecil was always talking trash about on air, died to save Carlos. History repeats itself - during the two year show, Steve Carlsberg will somehow sacrifice himself (possibly to save Cecil, despite their rivalry), forcing Cecil to admit he may have been wrong about him.
  • Jossed, though Cecil does (somewhat begrudgingly) gain a new perspective on Steve during the second half of the episode.

Steve is the NVCR's astrologist

During the episode "Cookies", Cecil criticizes Steve about his gambling. In "The Drawbridge", the horoscope references gambling twice; one sign was even instructed to gamble their life savings on a street game. In "Old Oak Doors", Steve tells Kevin that he got more work done at the company picnic than he ever had in his life; it's possible that he was forced to spend every hour of the night for two weeks interpreting the stars, which is probably why the horoscopes in "Rumbling" are better put together than the ones in "The Drawbridge". Him being the astrologist also helps explain why the horoscope is rarely broadcasted, even though in "The Drawbridge" it was called a weekly horoscope; Cecil doesn't approve of a lot of what Steve believes in (said in "Old Oak Doors"); astrology could be both one of those beliefs and something he can reasonably not give airtime to.

• In "The September Monologues", he does talk about being able to see patterns in the stars.

The Man in the Tan Jacket

The Man In The Tan Jacket is Matthew Swift.

It's canon that Matthew can make himself totally unnoticeable by enchanting his coat. With a few more enchantments—the kind of sensible precautions a not-so-sensible sorcerer would take in a place like Night Vale—he could presumably make his face forgettable. The briefcase is some kind of mega-mystical thing that makes sense to him.

Additionally, The Man in the Tan Jacket is Randall Flagg.

Under the Alias of Walter o'Dim, he was able to "Dim" himself, making others unaware of his presence, explaining how nobody can recall what he looks like. The suitcase full of trained flies is just for shits and giggles.

The Man in the Tan Jacket is Cecil's brother.

He can't seen to recall either of them.

Carlos is the Man in the Tan Jacket

Or rather, a version of him from some kind of future. This is a convoluted theory, so try to follow along:

• While wandering the otherworldly desert, Carlos gets exposed to the Light of the Smiling God that makes things immaterial. It stripped him down to the point that he technically still exists, but only barely. Hence why people only remember him when he's standing right in front of them.
• The Subway system from Episode 29 is said to have "washed out" the DNA of people who rode on it, completely "draining" it of its contents. This could be referring in a different way to the effect caused by the Smiling God's light. The Subway also passed through some unknown extra dimension and caused the only non-government-created earthquake felt in Night Vale until "The Rumble."
• The Man in the Tan Jacket advocated the re-opening of the Subway, because it would "bring him home."
• Ergo, the The Man in the Tan Jacket — as a future version of Carlos— has, ever since he landed in his own past timeline, been working to establish a Stable Time Loop that will allow him to pass through the Subway system, reverse whatever the Smiling God did to him, and make him completely exist again, so that he can come home.
• Bonus: the one thing Carlos is always depicted as wearing is a white lab coat. As anyone who's ever grown up in a desert knows, white things exposed to desert sands and heat for even short periods of time begin to brown. The "tan jacket" is really just a worn-down, sand-stained old lab coat.

The Man in the Tan Jacket is a Totem Pole Trench.

There are all sorts of hints about him being connected to the underground civilization beneath the bowling alley, so maybe he's just a bunch of the tiny people in a suit. The reason people can't remember his face is because he doesn't actually have one big enough for us to discern, just a hat pulled low over a collar.

The Man in the Tan Jacket is a Silent who would like to be remembered but can't.

He's constantly trying to get people to do something, but the moment they look away, no one can remember him. His clothing and briefcase are made of some super memorable substance (maybe memory foam?) that allows people to remember his clothes but not himself.

The Man in the Tan Jacket is Castiel.

And instead of flies, his briefcase is full of bees.

Them

The man who is not tall and the man who is not short are both of exactly the same, exceedingly average height.

Why? Why not?

Maureen

Maureen has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

In "The Retirement of Pamela Winchell" Cecil said she was "waving to me frantically from the control room – well, more frantically than she does at all times about the general terrifying nature of life." At first the constant waving seems like something common to do in Night Vale, but the body language of the citizens have been reported on many times before and nobody else has been said to also do that. Cecil's assurance that the orange juice was safe for her may have been a extremely painful betrayal, which is part of the reason he was called a monster.

Maureen is Earl's daughter

He is doing the cooking segments at the station in order to spend time with her.

• Jossed in "Voicemail"; Earl is shown to have an eleven year old named Rodger.

Other

The Glow Cloud is Azathoth.

Cactus June/Judy/Jane was originally called June, but...

The Time Traveler changed it. That's why he came back. Before the Traveler announced he changed the future, Cecil called her Cactus June. While the Traveler lived in Night Vale (so, after he made his changes) Cecil called her Cactus Judy. And after the Traveler met his untimely end in the loving arms of the Hooded Figures, Cecil called her Cactus Jane, because the changes the Traveler made were changed again after his disappearance! Probably by the Hooded Figures themselves. Or not. Who knows?

Cecil's explanation following John Peters' name...

• ... Is not actually a Running Gag. One would expect his introduction to vary; for example, "Local farmer, John Peters etc." He really is John Peters You-Know-The-Farmer.
  • He is even referred to in exactly that manner (word for word) by other people; Larry Leroy, the spokeswoman for the cereal company, and Carlos, for example.
• The same could be said about Old Woman Josie Out-By-The-Car-Lot (who apparently doesn't seem to have a last name otherwise) and Larry Leroy Out-On-The-Edge-Of-Town.
  • Or maybe that there is a man named John Peters, and that he is a farmer, is knowledge everyone acquires once they enter Night Vale, and Cecil is trying to endear himself to the newcomers.
• As of the 3rd bonus episode John Peters is most likely in a witness protection program for royals so it's most likely the media adding a fake occupation to the end of a probably fake name is part of that program.

The Woman From Italy is actually Perfectly Normal

She's a normal Italian lady who is visiting the States, probably to give her friends and family a break from the really mean demon that haunts her and spreads the most terrible rumours about her.

Chad is the Mighty Glow Cloud's child

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY GLOW CHAD

Maliq Herrera is the baby named "Champ" that was born in "The Traveler"

The town possibly imagined a new name and age for Maliq between then and "Homecoming". They might have done the same to his mother (Night Vale's third most beautiful woman) since her name changes throughout the episode she was introduced in.

Sarah Sultan the smooth fist sized river rock and President of NVCC is Cecil's sister

She is unkind to Cecil in a way that you would expect from a sibling (drawing insulting pictures of him). She also seems to have visions in "Minutes" which may mean they share some hereditary magic.

• Jossed, Cecil's sister is revealed to be named Abby in "Voicemail".

Janice is a mermaid.

Admittedly I got this idea from some fanart. I'll also take some sort of snake hybrid.

• Jossed, she has Spina Bifida.

Intern Jesús, who had an unfortunate run-in with the scorpions in the break room, is Soos.

We know that he took on a lot of jobs, and, well, the name is the same.

The Hypnotoad is the child of the Glow Cloud.

It was one of the toads that managed to — ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY GLOW CLOUD AND ITS CHILD, THE HYPNOTOAD.

The Mayor, City Council & Vague, yet Menacing Government Agency

Pamela Winchell used to be sane.

She was a normal person (or closest equivalent anyone who lives in Night Vale can get) who had political ambitions. To her surprise and delight, she discovered that she won the mayoral election! To her surprise and horror, she then discovered what exactly it means to be The Mayor. The woman with an easy smile, passionate ideas about street improvement and school lunches, and who had no extra-dimensional powers what-so-ever? She's gone now. The Mayor is what IS. No one is allowed to recall what Pamela was before she became The Mayor, by edict of the City Council. Trish Hidge does sometimes remember, but she's so good at denying almost everything that she doesn't weep any more. All she can do is serve The Mayor, until it is time...and The Mayor leaves. Trish used to think that there'd be a small chance that Pamela would come back to civilian life. But she's denied herself any hope of that.

• We really are going to miss such great public servants, may they enjoy their retirement! They earned it.

City Council

The City Council are actually adult versions of The Delightful Children From Down the Lane.

They go everywhere together, speak in unison, and are never even indicated to be individuals. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Also, the Delightful Children were already on their way to becoming particularly bureaucratic Eldritch Abominations anyway.

The City Council suppresses the possibility of angels existing to protect them from Strex Corp.

• Because who knows what Strex Corp would do with them?

Vague, yet Menacing Government Agency

The vague, yet menacing government agency is actually SHIELD...

... while Night Vale is secretly under lockdown due to high levels of Gamma radiation that came from Radon Canyon due to an accident several years ago. The locals don't notice any of the strange happenings since they've all developed adaptations and mutations to deal with radiation. Enter S.H.I.E.L.D. with their black helicopters to monitor the town and keep the townsfolk from leaving or discovering the quarantine zone. Carlos is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scientists charged with running experiments and tests.

The vague, yet menacing government agency is the SCP Foundation

Sandstorm

The Sandstorm had two-fold symmetry

There was an eerie, pre-existing parallelism between the people of Night Vale and Desert Bluffs, but both towns encountered their own, distinct sets of doppelgangers that they reacted to differently (and that acted differently). However, these doppelgangers were linked between towns by that eerie parallelism, so that when Intern Dana killed her doppelganger, Intern Vanessa's doppelganger died quite accidentally. Hence, all the doppelgangers vanished from Desert Bluffs because the people of Night Vale killed all of their doppelgangers.

Except, perhaps, Cecil's...

Desert Bluffs and Kevin are a Bad Future Night Vale and Cecil.

StrexCorp has already began taking over Night Vale, starting with Cecil's station. Time is canonically stated to work very strangely in Night Vale when it works at all, so it's not a stretch that the 'next town over' is actually a (very grim) possible future, in which our unflappable narrator has been completely broken and re-made in Strex's image.

• Possibly supported by Old Oak Doors Part B. Kevin mentions that Desert Bluffs actually resisted the Smiling God's takeover, including the radio host, just like Night Vale did.
• Somewhat Jossed, at least in part, but "Tryptich". Cecil is able to communicate with Kevin before the Strex takeover, and his personality was completely different. It's also not entirely the future because the second part of the Triptych is set pre-invasion of Night Vale. Of Course, Desert Bluffs could just be set so far in the future its timeline is irrelevant, and any projections will be to Night Vale in the distant past.

Cecil / Kevin Connections

Kevin is Cecil's Brother

• Towards the end of episode 34 Cecil says his brother has dark hollow eyes. The picture in Kevin's office (assuming that the photo is of Kevin) is described to have eyes as dark as obsisidan. Later in the episode he says that his family has left him. Cecil, upon sparking interest in becoming the new voice of Night Vale, forgets all about his family. Kevin may have been destined to become the voice of Desert Bluffs and forgot about his life in Night Vale.

The photos mentioned in The Sandstorm are not quite Cecil and Kevin...

In The Sandstorm, Cecil and Kevin both claim the photo on their counterpart's desk looks like them. However, who keeps a photo of themselves on their own desk? The answer is simple: Cecil has a photo of Carlos on his desk. Kevin has a photo of Bluffs!Carlos on his desk. Cecil looks like Carlos' Desert Bluffs doppelganger, and Kevin looks like Carlos.

• But then wouldn't Cecil recognize Kevin as Carlos when they briefly meet, and not as his own double?
  • Maybe Kevin and Cecil didn't actually meet each other. Kevin met Carlos, his real doppelganger, and Cecil met his own real doppelganger. Therefore, Cecil and Kevin's different accounts of their meeting are both accurate. Kevin and Carlos hugged, and Cecil and Bluffs!Carlos fought.
• I think that the photos did not actually picture Kevin and Cecil, but instead a mysterious entity that resembles them.
• Cecil (and Kevin, I suppose) may have the pictures of themselves as a reminder of their existence.
• There is one thing that could explain why they would have pictures of themselves. Cecil's mother did tell him that someday he will die and it will involve a mirror. Maybe the reason why Cecil has a picture of himself in the station is to remind himself what he looks like, because he can't look at mirrors. Kevin, being Cecil's doppleganger, could have had a similar experience in his life, or maybe he's just really vain.

Cecil and Kevin aren't doubles, but they do share a link of some kind. (Compatible with the "Bad Future" theory above.)

• We know they look (somewhat) alike, since each man comments, unprompted, that the other looks like him. So why do they have different names? All the other doubles that we know about claim to have the same name: both Pamela Winchells claim to be Pamela Winchell.
• Even characters who are clearly cross-city analogues have sandstorm doubles. Intern Vanessa and Intern Dana are analogues, but they each have their own doubles. So do the mayors, Old Woman Josie, and Larry Leroy.
• So why are Cecil and Kevin the only exceptions?
• Theory: they're each the personification of their town—a sort of avatar—and the towns are each other's dark mirror, located in mutually unreachable planes of existence. They can't be doubled because they were already each other's double.
• Other theory: Intern Dana is now in the Desert Bluffs plane of existence.
• Third theory: Steve Carlsberg, interestingly, doesn't have a Desert Bluffs analogue: the letter Kevin receives is from Night Vale Steve. He must be involved in the Night Vale/ Desert Bluffs duplication.
• Fourth Theory: Kevin is Cecil's brother who vanished along with their mother appearing at some point in Desert Bluffs with both of them forgetting each other.

Kevin is the original Cecil

Desert Bluffs is sort of the mirror image of Night Vale. When young Cecil looked into the mirror in "Cassette", his Desert Bluffs counterpart came out and switched places with him. The Cecil we know vaguely remembers being in Desert Bluffs and hated it. Kevin, née Cecil, continued with his admiration of Leonard, adopting his bright, cheery radio persona, and incredibly forgiving attitude towards familial abandonment.

Cecil and Kevin are the same person. The vortex was a time vortex, and Night Vale and Desert Bluffs' symmetry is because they are the same place.

• Cecil hosts his show in the evening (Good night, Night Vale, good night), and Kevin's show is in the morning (good Morning). Cecil might become Kevin during the day, and become Cecil in the night. They look just like each other, but the difference is that Kevin's eyes are obsidian, and the smile is not right and the voice changes, and Cecil and Kevin are both unaware. The vortex in episode 19 is a time vortex, so Cecil went into his daytime "Kevin"'s studio. Maybe alongside this, Night Vale sometimes turns into Desert Bluffs based on times of day, but because of the weirdness, people don't seem to notice. The vortex and the doubles were people from Night Vale wandering time-wise into Desert Bluffs- because they change too based on time. Perhaps.

Either Cecil or Kevin is a clone created for the purposes of organ and blood donation

• If Cecil is Kevin's clone: The mother in "Cassette" opted out of housing Cecil in Desert Bluffs (where the other clones live) and raised him with her natural born son for whatever reason. After Cecil was starting the process of becoming the next voice of Night Vale, the family sans Cecil moved to Desert Bluffs where prophesies wouldn't interfere with their lives anymore. One of the parents then moved back and married into Steve's family but kept in contact, which explains how Steve knows Kevin's email address in "Sandstorm". Kevin is desensitized to gore because the Desert Bluffs clones are killed and operated on out in the open; the organ harvesters probably use mirror shards when operating on them (tying into Cecil being warned about his death involving a mirror), since Desert Bluffs' citizens might overpower the harvesters if they knew what knives were. Lastly, the portal in the radio station may have been activated to get the client and donor closer to each other in case of an emergency, Kevin probably moves in and out of needing medical attention due to the smiling god's influence.

  • In "The Visitor", Lauren claims it was Cecil's birthday that day, which he disagrees with. Lauren may have access to records he doesn't know about.

• If the reverse is true: Most of Night Vale are not aware of Desert Bluffs' cloning program, or are denying it because they know how inhumane it is (plus the salesmen can be really annoying). Possibly the angels invented the vortexes, which is why they don't exist, while most other strange non humans do. The Palmer family decided to opt into the program for whatever reason. Cecil literally has Kevin's eyes, which is why in "Debate" Kevin said that the eyes are where their resemblance was the strongest.

  • In "Station Management" Cecil says that he is battling Lyme disease, which in rare cases can cause eye damage.

Night Vale / Desert Bluffs Connections

The town of Desert Bluffs is a nightmarish near-exact copy of Night Vale created by a non-human force.

They all act cartoonishly happy and cheerful, but are constantly hinted to be more horrifying than they appear, such as Kevin's radio station being caked with blood and entrails, and being there is enough to disturb even Cecil. They would have been created in the image of what the force who created them thought would blend in with other humans, hence the niceness, but occasionally, either by accident or on purpose, the masquerade fails and they commit atrocious acts.

Night Vale and Desert Bluffs are twin government experiment towns

Carlos and his team of scientists have been sent in to investigate Night Vale to see how the experiment has turned out, and a team of scientists have also been sent to Desert Bluffs to investigate them. Night Vale however is the control and the only difference between the two is the drugs in Desert Bluffs' water/air/soil/whatever.

Night Vale and Desert Bluffs is the same place but exist in alternate universes, but because Night Vale/Desert Bluffs is in such a weird place, the alternate universes actually meet.

• This has to do with the symmetry.

The world has become so weird because, as parallel universes, Night Vale and Desert Bluffs were never meant to meet.

Their now-shared universe has become incredibly unstable and there are no longer any limits as to what is and isn't possible.

Desert Bluffs used to be something a lot like Night Vale.

Then Strexcorp took over, started drugging/brainwashing everyone into being more productive, but the essential weirdness of the town outed itself in a creepy love for blood and gore.

• Strex is doing something to its employees, anyway. Episode 36 the Night Vale resistance took down a Strexcorp helicopter and gave this statement: Your pilot is fine. She is ours now. She will return when she is ready, but she will return better.
• Night Vale is annoying Strexcorp a lot. Between Tamika Flynn and her Resistance]] and the crazy things that keep happening in the town... Their advert in episode 36 was actually pretty funny. Strexcorp Synernists, Inc. Working hard so you can work harder. Work harder. Seriously. Work. Harder. Strexcorp. Get to work!
• Kevin does say that Desert Bluffs resisted its own takeover.

Kevin (and the rest of Desert Bluffs) had a life before Strexcorp.

• In "Sandstorm", Kevin mentions Strexcorp just buying his studio. This is one of the first steps they took when taking over Night Vale.
• In "The Debate", Kevin mentions how his intern Vanessa died. There was an incident that happened where "some people never came back to work again." He seems to be very uncomfortable talking about it.
  • Given the "contributions" of the Seans in Episode 47, it's not hard to imagine why people never returned to work again.
• In "Company Picnic" also, Night Vale was renamed to the Greater Desert Bluffs Metro Area. This suggests that the town "Desert Bluffs" might have been under a different name before Strexcorp came along.
• Confirmed as of episode 73. Though it seems Desert Bluffs has always had that name.

Night Vale and Desert Bluffs used to be similar, and Night Vale didn't know why they changed.

Desert Bluffs was originally just another town within the desert's/whatever makes Night Vale weird's sphere of influence, so a "normal" town according to Night Vale standards, and the two had a friendly rivalry between their sports teams and such. But then something happened over the course of a few months/years that completely changed Desert Bluffs, and they all started acting "weird" and no one in Night Vale had any idea why. They could tell there was something "off" about them, but given Cecil's surprised reaction to the Desert Bluff's radio station when he ended up there, no one knew just how bad the situation actually was.Of course, now we/they know what happened: Strexcorp took over. Whether they were an outside force or something that originated in Desert Bluffs remains to be seen.

Night Vale and Desert Bluffs are Todash versions of each other, existing on opposite sides of the same Thinny.

There's a reason we first "saw" Desert Bluffs in episode 19. That reason being that Strexcorp finally managed to work out a way to traverse the Thinny without ending up in Todash Darkness.

Desert Bluffs is future Night Vale.

• The Strexcorp takeover is only one part of it, this, along with the fact that the eponymous traveler in episode 18, "The Traveler" wears a Desert Bluffs uniform, as well as making a big deal out of being a time traveler. In the Night Vale end of the episode right after that, "Sandstorm", when Kevin from Desert Bluffs enters Night Vale radio via a portal, he asks if he has gone back in time. And this ultimately ties into what seem to be the Arc Words - "Past performance does not guarantee future results."

The Rebellion

Tamika Flynn's militia was formed to fight Strexcorp.

Tamika's comment to the press regarding the army she's building: "We do not look around. We do not look inside. We do not sleep. Our God is not a smiling God. And we are ready for this war." Compare with this piece of Strexcorp propaganda: "Look around you. Strex. Look inside you. Strex. Go to sleep. Strex. Believe in a smiling God. Strex. Strexcorp. It is everything." We have no idea what Cecil is or isn't telling us about Strexcorp's invasion of Night Vale, and it makes sense that there would be factions within the town responding to this encroachment. Perhaps Tamika—surely among the least complacent of the town's citizens—would be involved. So not only is she reading above her grade level, she's civically minded and demonstrating excellent leadership skills!

• Confirmed as of episode 36.

The Summer Reading Program was a plot by the Librarians to try and stop Strexcorp

They knew that they were coming, and they knew that they would be unable to defy them as they can defy the City Council and the Sheriff's Secret Police. Also, to them, life under Strexcorp would be unbearable. Censorship, mandatory sponsorship, and other library horrors. They knew they couldn't stand up to them, and that the adults would be no match, but they could train up the youth. Thus, the restarted the Summer Reading Program. The idea was to weed out the weak children, and get the rest under their firm control. However, things went differently in the form of Tamika Flynn. They didn't count on the devastation, and decapitations, that she would inflict. Much less the idea that their child army would be led by a child. Still, she's getting her forces ready to face Strexcorp, so everything is still Just as Planned.

Megan Wallaby will be instrumental in Tamika Flynn's plans.

The submarine visit from Nulogorsk was organized by Tamika, who wishes for Megan to join her child army against Strexcorp. Now that Megan has a (very strong) adult man's body, Tamika will take her away to wherever the army is hiding out after Megan completes the therapy she needs to control her new body. And on that note, Tamika may want to resurrect Megan's computer friend to help them out as well....

Janice isn't Cecil's niece, it's just some sort of anti-Strex plot.

It doesn't really make sense for Cecil to have a niece all of a sudden in "Cookies". In "Cassette", he discovered he used to have a brother, but he doesn't remember him. And you'd think if he had any other siblings, it would have come up in "Cassette". So it seems a bit fishy that he has a niece all of a sudden. So what I think is that she's just posing as his niece to carry out a plot against Strex Corp. There was probably something dangerous in the cookie boxes, which Cecil was trying to give to station management to cause them harm in some way. That's why he got specifically annoyed at them for not buying any cookies. And the reason he claimed Janice is his niece is just to give a plausible reason why he'd be selling cookies. Or, anyway, even if she is really his niece, the purpose of the cookies was still to sabotage station management. The Tamika Flynn vs Strex Corp plotline did come up a lot in "Cookies", after all.

• Well, one of the boxes sounded suspiciously like Human Mail, or possibly creature mail. (Big wooden crate with air-holes and a breathing sound).

Desert Bluffs, StrexCorp & Kevin

StrexCorp

StrexCorp is run by a bloody sun god

In the Sandstorm episodes, which were ostensibly simultaneous, it was daytime in Desert Bluffs and nighttime in Night Vale. As Strex started to move in to Night Vale, the sun started to rise with more regularity, and the months before even seemed to herald this with loud sunrises. They brought their yellow helicopters, counterpointing the Sheriff's Secret Police's blue ones. The Angels, to hide Old Woman Josie from them, cast darkness and shadow, they even took Intern Vythia with a dark glow.

The bloody, viscera-laden studio in Desert Bluffs recalls the sacrifices of ancient sun worshipers. Even the slogans, "Imagine a Smiling God", and "Look Around You. Strex." "Imagine Meadows. Meadows Are Important." It's likely they follow a terrifying sun god named Strex.

• And in this, to gain supporters, Strexcorp has begun suppression of Night Vale religions - by suppressing bloodstone sales and the like.

• As an extension of this, the Dark Planet Lit By No Sun is one of the few places truly safe from the StrexGod

The Strex Corporation is another version of the City Council

It's a major-sounding corporation that involves itself in every aspect of Desert Bluffs life, but it's an entirely fictional company on a show that cheerfully name-drops real companies. It's also a company not mentioned at all before we get a look at Desert Bluffs life - it clearly has no presence in the next small town over from the one it appears to completely own.

This is all because it's not a national or multinational corporation, but instead just a small company ran by another power-seeking cabal attracted to the weirdness of the region. It has a much more modern and upbeat style, but those who run it are would-be immortals who'd love to evolve into whatever "true form" the City Council will achieve (or already has achieved). Strex Corp clearly isn't old or powerful enough to challenge the City Council and thus stays well out of Night Vale.

• That last past is presumably Jossed now that Strex Corp has started moving in on Night Vale.

StrexCorp and Kevin will be reoccurring villains

Since it looks like Cecil and the Night Vale radio station has been taken over by Strex, it wouldn't be hard to believe that a Myth Arc might be starting, with Kevin as Cecil's Evil Counterpart/the face of StrexCorp (the leaders of whom will remain as vague and menacing as the Night Vale City Council).

• Confirmed.

Strex Corp runs the world.

It's subtle, but it's there. In the pilot, Cecil mentions that the "black helicopters" that hover over the town are "probably world government". And in The Sandstorm, Kevin syays that without Strex Corp, they wouldn't have "trade schools, or regulated behaviours, or insurance, or helpful pandemics, or black helicopters." Draw your own conclusions.

As of episode 38, StrexCorp is winning.

Just think about it. Old Woman Josie and her angels: gone. Station Management? Taken over by Strex. John Peters, you know, the Farmer? Stuck somewhere in the house that doesn't exist and replaced by John Peters, you know, the Impostor. The City Council: announced they would leave in episode 38. The Sheriff's Secret Police even listens to Strex! It's a bad time for Night Vale.

• According to episode 39, Strex owns almost all the businesses in Night Vale. An ice-cream shop is a lone holdout but, by the end of the episode, they've been merged with Strex and it isn't pretty.
• In Episode 40 they even threatened Carlos!
• Episode 45... "They pass by City Hall, which is covered in a yellow tarp, stamped with an orange triangle."
• Episode 46. WHY!?
• Update: As of episodes 48 and 49, it appears that Night Vale is slowly fighting back...and they're getting close to winning! So far we have Cecil returning and getting the station back from Lauren and Kevin, the revelation that Dana and Old Woman Josie have an entire army at their disposal now and OWJ has her Angel friends who may or may not exist back, Tamika Flynn is alive and kicking, etc.

As of episode 43, everyone from Desert Bluffs is a biomachine.

The little creature was absolutely this, but recall that Daniel seemed to literally break down as a robot would in "Orange Grove". This could account for their overall behavior and obsession with perfection.

• Further WMG, Desert Bluffs is a biomachine project being done by Strex Corp.
• Remember the little sponsor message Kevin did in episode 43? About their perfect and imperfect self (bleeding so much). The "bio" half is obviously their imperfect self, non-productive, easily injured... bleeding so much.

Strexcorp is the Light in the Desert

Specifically, the light mentioned in episode 44, as "a smiling god of terrible power and ceaseless appetite," the light that manifests in some universes as not a light at all, the light that wants nothing more than to assimilate and destroy. Um, that light.

The Smiling God and Bill Cipher are the same entity.

StrexCorp is the Crimson.

Everything in Desert Bluffs is covered in blood and gore, and not all of it is human. Additionally, Night Vale is Corrupted, which is why Night Vale was able to resist StrexCorp: the Crimson cannot infect the Corruption. There is no Hallow as the world is not in Hardmode yet.

Kevin

Kevin is Kevin from The Cabin in the Woods.

When the controllers are taking bets on the monsters written on the white board, one of them is called Kevin. This is our very own Kevin of Desert Bluffs. The item to summon him would be a radio, which when turned on would tune into Desert Bluffs Community Radio (they might try to search for music, but any other station only comes in as static). The kids would listen to it, and things would seem normal at first (other than the fact that none of them have heard of Desert Bluffs, and they are nowhere near a desert, so where is this radio show coming from?). But then Kevin would mention something creepy or supernatural (perhaps something about five friends vacationing in a cabin), and someone would fearfully request that the radio be turned off. However, even when turned off and unplugged, Kevin's voice will not stop. Suddenly the room is covered in blood and viscera. Kevin appears, a horrible smile on his face. He continues to narrate his show. He hunts them all down and kills them, one by one, smiling and narrating all the while.

Kevin will be the host in episode 47.

At the end of episode 46, after Tamika has been captured and the rebellion has been stopped, program director Lauren and a man enter Cecil's studio. They are very unhappy but seem to be smiling, and Cecil describes their expressions, but when he sees the man, he says "Wait... I have seen this man before... Where have I seen YOU before?" What if this is Kevin? After Cecil tries to help Tamika Flynn stage an uprising, Strex must realise that they must replace him with someone who would listen to them completely; who better than Kevin? Plus, it would explain why Cecil reacted so violently to him, as he seems disgusted by what he sees.

• Confirmed.

Kevin is Cecil's missing brother.

There were guesses about this under the "Sandstorm" section - Kevin is Cecil's missing brother. He was taken by some unknown force to Desert Bluffs to become its "Voice", much like Cecil became Night Vale's voice. Also, the force wasn't Strexcorp because they didn't show up and take over until after Kevin became Desert Bluffs' radio host.The reason he and Cecil encountered each other in "Sandstorm" instead of a doppelganger exact copy of themselves is because they were identical twins and/or they were both their town's "voices"; something like that that led to the force behind the sandstorm to count them as "doubles" despite being different people.

Before Strexcorp, Kevin used to be blind.

That's why he tells Steve that Strexcorp can "fix" Janice's disability - he had a disability himself until they did something to his eyes that "fixed" him. Maybe they gave him some kind of clairvoyance?

The Wider World and the SCP Foundation

Hummingbird symbolism...

• In one news cast, Cecil tells us about the different meaning of birds. A hummingbird means that the physical constancy of the universe is slowly degrading and may shift, invalidating the laws of physics. With all the general weirdness that happens there, Night Vale is or has experienced this shift.

All of the world in Night Vale is weird.

Not just Night Vale and Desert Bluffs are strange and horrible to listeners, but the entire world. Svitz, Luftnarp, and Franchia are all well-known places and Cecil's experiences were common. The reason nobody leaves Night Vale despite all of the disasters is because they know moving elsewhere won't help a damn thing.

Carlos and his team of scientists go to Night Vale because it's unusual among the unusual — not that it's particularly weirder, but just weird in a different way. Notice how even early on, we hear Carlos interested in and afraid of things that immediately seem harmless, like the fact that people aren't experiencing earthquakes that are apparently there, or that time in Night Vale seems to be going slower, rather than any of the many, many things in Night Vale that actually get people killed. Cecil also notes that Night Vale is the first city in the US to legalize time travel, implying that everywhere else actually had reason to ban it, rather than simply be unaware of it.

The America that encompasses Night Vale will eventually become Ascia.

• As Night Vale's resident Eldritch Abominations grow more powerful, they will begin to dominate the entire country. By the time a million years pass, the whole nation will consist of a Hive Mind cult that can only speak in quotations.

One of the mysterious lights over the Arby's is a 1964 Chevy Malibu with New Mexico plates.

Dr. Parnell was trying to leave Night Vale, but whatever was in the trunk of the car wanted to go back...

SCP Foundation

Carlos actually works for the SCP Foundation.

Although he must be a relatively new employee, since you'd expect a veteran researcher not to bat an eye at some of the goings-on in Night Vale, relative to other SCP situations.

• If so, he will probably not be allowed to continue his relationship with Cecil, since if Cecil is anything like in Fanon, he would likely qualify as an SCP.

Going from the above, Night Vale itself is an SCP.

Due to the amount of odd goings-on, such as the Whispering Forest, the Dog Park, and Station Management, most of which is highly detrimental to human existence, the town is likely Keter Class.

• A few tales for the SCP Foundation indicate that the town is classified as a nexus, meaning all of the phenomena only exist within the town.

Alternatively, The Man in the Tan Jacket works for the SCP Foundation.

In episode 16, Carlos was visited by the Man in the Tan Jacket, but he doesn't remember it well. Carlos is just a regular scientist studying the town and he was too close to discovering something dangerous that the world couldn't know about. The Man in the Tan Jacket was deployed to administer amnesiacs.

Something’s Coming

Something is under Night Vale.

But what is it? It's probably related to the small people under the Desert Flower bowling alley. It was once said that it's possible that the citizens of the city under the bowling alley worship a god - this massive being is probably the god they worship. It's also the cause of all of the weirdness in Night Vale. The center of Night Vale is also subject to earthquakes - the god could be this as well. The subways that opened in Night Vale have their lair as the center.

• Support: When Dana is stuck outside of reality or whatever is currently going on with her, she tells Cecil that something is coming, and that it's big...

The Blinking Red Light At the Top of the Mountain and the blinking red light at the top of the radio tower mentioned in A Story of You are one and the same. Somehow.

Because Law of Conservation of Detail.

Something is horribly, terribly wrong.

Cecil should not be talking in Light Is Good and Dark Is Evil terms. Ever. Is he being slowly taken over by the Smiling God?

Other

The huge masked army was originally going to invade Night Vale, but called off the invasion when they realized what Night Vale is.

Every citizen is armed to the teeth (even the children in the Night Vale schools), there are bloodstone ritual circles everywhere, the town has at least one eighteen foot tall five headed fire breathing dragon, the Sheriff's Secret Police and the City Council are absurdly powerful, the obsidian walls of the Dog Park are probably good for defensive purposes, angels regularly hang out at Old Woman Josie's house, and even the librarians, if the situation got bad enough, could be cut loose and could probably do a great deal of damage to an invading army. After their advance scouts told them this, the army just decided to pretend that they were only passing through and invade Desert Bluffs instead.

The Shadowlurker is related to the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home.

Specifically, he's her kid brother. She doesn't talk about him much.

The 'Dark Planet, Lit by No Sun' is Earth in the future, possibly if Strex wins

This may be related to the 'something big' Dana mentioned.

Fey is somehow River Tam.

Her voice sounds disturbingly like Summer Glau's, and her statements sound very much like River-isms. Perhaps she was programmed with River Tam in mind, or perhaps an iteration of River was detached by the Alliance and somehow found its way to Night Vale.

Librarians in Night Vale are actually sentient Bears

When Night Vale opened the public library, the Bears were originally used as guardians, but they ate the regular librarians. Since it's a desert community, no one sees Bears anywhere except the library, and they eventually just started calling the Bears librarians.

Jossed, in episode 48 Cecil mentions bears. They are different from the Librarians.

The giant masked army and the tiny army under the bowling alley are related somehow.

The glow cloud is the one who told the weather in episode 2.

It was the one who was waiting for the bus. Midway through the song, the singer said that he got on the wrong bus and was waiting for another bus to pick him up. The wrong stop it ended up at was Night Vale. When the song ends, the "bus" arrives and he returns to the proper planet, leaving the residents with no memory of what happened while it boarded the bus.

Fallen London exists in the same Verse as Night Vale.

London has just the Big City version of all the weirdness; Night Vale has the Small-Town weirdness.The angels conspicuously absent in London exist in Night Vale.Of course, I'm not saying that Night Vale will become the next fallen city or anything like that — London and Karakorum are massive, expansionistic, legalistic, commercialistic centres of culture, trade, and progress; Night Vale is a small town, and couldn't hold the Bazaar. But, Night Vale is on the surface in America, whereas London is underground.

The Faceless Old Woman is Really 700 Years Old.

By "old" the title acknowledges abnormally so. This is backed by her Oak Doors comment disregarding Dana for not being ancient. She probably looks like Mara Wilson, just without a face.

The Dark Planet Lit By No Sun is Alternia.

Going by no other logic than physical appearance◊ here. I know Alternia has a sun, but the night side could be sufficiently dark to fool you if it's so close.

The Faceless Old Woman is a Noppera-Bo.

Faceless? Check. Not human? Check. Mischievous and creepy but relatively harmless? Check. Likes to scare people for no apparent reason? Check.

Lot 37 was purchased by the Man in the Tan Jacket.

The sale itself is suspicious, as Cecil forgot to bid and everyone else also did except the buyer. This implies strong memory altering powers. While there are many residents of Night Vale capable of this, there are other occurrences of this happening every time Cecil is sent out to defend Mayor Dana against his will. Cecil always forgets who sent him there and why, and the reason for these hijackings of his free will is always to defend Mayor Dana and the city. The Man in the Tan Jacket has many times before stepped forward to stop threats against the city, many from the same origin as those attacking the mayor, namely Hiram McDaniels and the Faceless Old Woman.

• Jossed. It was Violet, Hiram's purple head to protest against the other four because it has so little control over its own life.

The Man in the Tan Jacket is from the tiny underground city.

An angel claims that he comes from beneath the earth, and uses the phrase "a flower in the desert," referring to the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex. Somehow, the Man in the Tan Jacket traveled up through the earth and increased in size to that of a normal person to investigate Night Vale. However, before he could complete his studies and determine whether Night Vale was a threat, Carlos entered the city and caused them to attack. From then on, the Man in the Tan Jacket could not return to the city because his fellows assumed he had joined the people of Night Vale. Now he protects Night Vale's people in whatever way he can.

• Jossed. Thanks to the novel, we now know he's the mayor of King City.

The Blood Space War is set in Post-Heresy Warhammer 40K

The Blood Space War is a terrible conflict, set in the far future and in outer space, begun and waged for reasons difficult to explain, and possibly fought at the behest of powerful extra-dimensional entities. It apparently entails massive casualties, has little hope of ending (or of anything else), and soldiers for it are recruited from across time; time-travel being fully possible with the right application of the Warp. The closest thing we see to a non-human combatant is a mass of utter darkness housed in armour resembling a cosmonaut suit, sent to gather more recruits from areas like Night Vale (and perhaps also a Warp entity). The parallels make the one sound suspiciously like the other, and, like most things, would make the campaign to stop it from happening completely pointless.

The podcast avoids legal trouble because big companies have a sense of humour.

Think about it: nearly every episode has an insane, Nightvale-style ad for a real product or business, often making the product sound ridculously unappealing to normal humans. There are far too many such ads for the producers to have made some kind of deal with all of the "sponsors." The show is too popular for it to be possible that all of the companies just haven't noticed. The alternative? The "sponsors" think that the ads are Actually Pretty Funny.

Possible explanations of Cecil's sibling gender swap

Cecil currently has a sister; yet as a kid talks about his brother as if that is the only sibling he has (and probably ever will get, considering he never mentions his father and his Mum is out of the picture). Since then he never mentions he has any other siblings, and in the episode said he could not remember having a brother. How is that so? Two possible explanations:

• Abby is transgender, and therefore despite appearances, was never a brother in the first place.
• The tapes were one of the first things that fell through from one of the alternative Night Vales.

Repo Man is an unofficial Night Vale film.

Unofficial because it doesn't take place in Night Vale proper, but there's some interesting details. Otto's fired from his job at the Ralph's. One of the parties after the car is comprised of agents from a Vague yet Menacing Government Agency. Something in the trunk of the car is killing people. This troper even vaguely remembers a radio announcer talking about "small pieces of ice falling from the sky". So maybe one of those mysterious lights over the Arby's is a 1964 Chevy Malibu with New Mexico plates... Can even imagine, between the fade to black and the credit roll, a melodious voice saying "And now, the weather."

The Firesign Theatre's Everything You Know Is Wrong takes place in towns that are close to Night Vale.

Heater, Hooker and Hellmouth, on the Southern California/Arizona border, and Curio, Arizona, on the other side of the Chili Colorado River, are very close to Night Vale, or are in the area where Night Vale will eventually be founded. That's the source of all the alien weirdness and conspiracy theories. The giant hole out back of the Ralph's grocery is the same one everyone jumped into in search of the golden staircase leading to a beautiful underground civilization.

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