Olde One/IF-59.869

Rumor / Community Lore
This article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community. It is just one of many Rumors that we've found in the Interdimensional Rumor Mill. You can find more Rumors about Olde One at their Rumor Registry.

Origins

The Mother Crab has been a part of Baltimore for longer than there has been a Baltimore. She has been built up as the city itself grew, and acted as a focal point for the immense power of the bay itself. She lived under the water of the bay and would occasionally communicate out with a massive tapping of her claws on the rocks beneath her. Her form would cause ripples in the water, but also the weather and storms in the area. It was paramount to keep an eye on her moods as it would affect everything in Baltimore if she was having a bad day.

Murder

Not much is recorded about the killing of the Olde One. It is considered extremely impolite to bring up around anyone who was involved, and even between one witness to another it is only referred to with a soured expression or a trailed off sentence. Insinuations that it may have been at the Olde One’s behest that the first god the city kill be their own has been met with troubled reactions such as "no, it wasn't like that..." while suggestions that it was a good thing to kill a god has seen Baltimoreans say "yes, but...it's hard to explain..." Emotions on record range from celebratory to grieving to indignant to harrowed to at peace to furious to revulsed, all from the same person in quick succession - the only Baltimorean to ever go on record about it. The only things that can be said in confidence about the event are:

The entire city participated in the act
The Baltimore Crabs were essential in the striking of the killing blow
It had to be done.

The Death of Mother Crab

She is absolutely dead. That’s not a question. We all saw her die, felt it, heard it. We saw the blood in the water, the scream in the air. But then, why is she still in our dreams? Why are we still carcinizing, why can we still instinctually point our way home no matter where in the world we end up? Why does she still grant us blessings? Her corpse makes up the infrastructure of the Crabitat, and it is silent. It doesn’t matter what she did. You don’t need to know, all that needs to be said is that there was a line and that she crossed it.

What Happens Next?

When that much power dies it does not go quietly. Some say that you can still feel her spirit in the water and the city. They are wrong - the only thing left of her is her empty shell. That power though, has been taken up by new owners. The people of Baltimore carry it in their hearts, and if they attribute a particularly good string of luck, or the rewards of their own hard work to the Crab Mother’s ghost then that is simply the way it is. Most of them realize that it’s different now, but are happy to blame her for the misfortune of unwelcome visitors, or the destruction of unwanted investment properties. And if sometimes there’s someone there to give it a little push? Well that’s her business not ours.