Painting art: the Greed in New Lands.
Motives[]
The motives of the Greed are unknown and they seem to attack the Monarch without reason. While they might just want to steal from the Kingdom it could be that they are trying to maintain control of the land the Kingdom is growing on, and the Monarch is leading a rebellion/war or finishing the rebellion/war their ancestors or the previous Monarch started.
If this is true it means whenever the Kingdom is destroyed by the Greed and the Monarch lose the Crown all hope is lost for the subjects and the Greed maintain their complete control until another Monarch tries to resist the Greed.
Are abducted townspeople killed?[]
This is one of the more disturbing theories on this list so if you are easily upset this wiki advises you don't view this theory for your own good. This theory for what happens to abducted townspeople is sadly the most likely thing that happens to them. Reasons to support this theory are 1. What use would the Greed have for the townspeople alive? 2. Some of the greedlings have skull masks. It might be that the abducted townspeople are killed and their skeletons (or at least their skulls) are used to make things like the skull masks.
On the other hand: 1. Why would the greedlings first kidnap people to later kill them and not just kill them in the first place? 2. The Greed prefers coins over people, as when they've got the opportunity to grab a coin, they turn around, instead of carrying on the attack to the walls and the townspeople. So it's possession, they value higher than abducting people.
It is possible that the greed use humans in some way to produce more goo, almost as a form of biomass, though this brings into question why Hermits can be rescued, and why only villagers (not vagrants, animals, or the Monarch/s) are taken and only by floaters.
It is also possible that the abducted are turned into greedlings hence their humanoid appearance. Greed-citizens in the Plague Island would confirm this theory if they weren't far more powerful than regular greedlings (decimating the strongest bulwarks in seconds).
Where do the portals go?[]
The portals are where the Greed come from cannot be accessed by the Monarch to go where the Greed go (except for Two Crowns). The portal likely leads to alternate universe (AU) or just another part of the Kingdom world. If it is an AU then we can expect it to be dark, rocky and have portals there that link up with the ones where your Kingdom is. This raises multiple questions.
- If you destroy a portal will a portal in the AU be destroyed or just be disabled?
- If a portal is destroyed or disabled is it unusable, can it be linked with a new or already existing portal, how many portals can link up to one portal and can portals be recycled by the Greed?
- Who controls/rules the Greed?
- How many Greed are there in total?
- How did the Greed get into the world the first time?
- Do the Greed possess magic?
In Two Crowns, it is likely that the portals go to the cave where the Greed are made and sent to attack the Monarch. If you manage to destroy the cave, no portal will spawn any greedlings any longer.
Who is the good one?[]
The normal psychological way of approaching things is, to regard yourself (playing as king or queen) as the "good" person, and the others as "bad". Turning this around, leads to a quite unconventional theory: The King/Queen is the bad person, ordering their subjects to cut down all the beautiful trees, kill all the wildlife, destroying all that natural environment. The Greed just tries to keep this at bay, by stealing the tools of townspeople, their money and demoting them to vagrants, which live in peace with the nature. You may notice the greedlings' peaceful attitude, as they run by the vagrants without doing them any harm, and abduct townspeople instead of killing them. So "greedlings" is the wrong term for them, they are just "wood spirits" protecting nature.
What are the crown stealers?[]
Greed go after wealth, but the crown stealer goes for the crown and nothing else. The question is, why? Maybe it's because they don't actually have hands to carry anything, as the crown stealer does resemble a greed-like dog, but could there be anything more to it? With the theory that there might be a leader to the greed, the crown stealers could be the leader's pets, and that he orders them to go retrieve the crown.
The Greed's view of value[]
The Greed is said to only care about wealth, and it's true to an extent. They steal coins, gems, tools, and the crown, leaving behind vagrants, wildlife, lone mounts and the fallen Monarch. They never capture or kill them. They don't find life worthy to steal (literally and figuratively), despite the fact that wildlife is the source of the Kingdom's income.
Yet greedlings will capture the Hermits and the dog if they've been called/freed by the Monarch. Moreover, floaters specifically target villagers, leaving their tools behind. So the Greed must see them as valuable too. If the Greed is vanquished on an island, the hermits and the dog can all be rescued. They are purposefully keeping them alive (or in some dormant state). The common villagers, on the other hand, are lost forever.
Why would they steal coins and not animals? Why would they capture villagers and the Hermits but not vagrants? Here's the answer: the Greed takes what the Monarch sees as valuable assets to the Kingdom.
Vagrants and mounts aren't worth anything to the Monarch. The wildlife is only worth something after the archers hunt them for food. Coins, gems and tools are all very important for the Kingdom. The villagers taken by floaters still hold their coins, and are therefore valuable. (Maybe they are left as free vagrants after the greed gets their coin?)
The Hermits (and the dog) possess wisdom (the Hermits know how to build special structures; the dog can detect incoming attacks) the Monarch doesn't have and wouldn't have without them. The Monarch can use their wisdom, which makes it valuable, even to the Greed. This wisdom would be lost if they were to die, therefore the Greed has to keep them alive to possess their wisdom.
If the Monarch loses their crown, their Heir will find the Hermits (and dog) back where they were before. Assuming these are still the same persons (and dog), the Greed must've freed them after the Monarch's defeat, because the Hermits (and dog) become worthless then: nobody besides the Monarch would value their wisdom.