#seriously theres like almost 2k words under cut lmao

A Grumpus History Timeline Headcanon Thing

The whole history of grumpuses on Snakooth is real interesting to me, so this is something I’ve been workin’ on for a few days! Above shows a simple timeline of Ancient Grumps on Snaktooth/Broken Tooth as well as a another shorter timeline of Modern Grumps who’ve been rediscovering Snaktooth.

And below lot of more info about the time periods, there’s also some extra art!

Ancient Grumpus Timeline

Year 0-300: Stone Grumps

Grumpuses have existed on Snaktooth Island long before this, but I’ll just start the timeline here as if to say “Grumpus Civilization is an actual thing now”.

Stone Grumpuses were the first grumps who were able to properly live and survive on the island. They were usually found in various areas around the island, living in small groups of around 10-15 members that either consisted of family members or any random grump they happened to team up with. Groups were led by one grumpus who’s devoted enough to protect and take care of their fellow members.

They lived alongside bugsnax and worshiped them. Like current Snaktooth, bugsnax were the primary food source for Stone Grumps (there were also the sauce plants, but the snax were a lot more nutritious). Even though they ate them, they still respected them and dedicated a lot of statues, architecture, paintings, writings, etc to them. They viewed them as magical beings that could grant any grump who eats them eternal life (which is… not true in the slightest). They came up with the phrase: “Tu Quid Edas, Omne Vivum Ex Bugsnax.” (You are what you eat, all life comes from Bugsnax) as a way for them to go “By the way without the snax you’d all be dead so you better respect them.”
it sounded a lotless ominous for them back then….

Year 300-500: The First Queen of Bugsnax

Related to their bugsnak worship, Stone Grumps used to sacrifice grumpuses (which includes anyone except the group leaders) to the “Undersnax”. The Undersnax is the collective name for many of the strange underground caverns found across the island that were filled with snax. Grumps are sent there for one reason, to appease the bugsnax. Even though they’ve been doing this for many years, nobody actually knew what happened to a grumpus once they entered the Undersnax… Until the first Snakqueen showed up.

The first queen; Stone Queen, was an unwilling sacrifice to the Undersnax. In there, she managed to still hold onto herself with all her anger and hatred towards the grumps who basically threw her life away for some weird looking fungi. And with all that intense emotion and the whole I-Don’t-Want-To-Actually-Die-Here mindset, she took control of her snakifications transformed herself into the Queen of Bugsnax.

She was in the Undersnax for a few days, but when she finally crawled out, her first action was to get revenge on her group of grumps who left her to die. She was going to stop there, but then realized how many other groups of grumps have been doing this for decades, other grumps who threw their loved ones into that terrifying cavern just to make their prey happy. So, now her mission was to make life on Snaktooth Island a living hell, which caused a large amount of grumps to escape to different islands and far away lands (few of them were truly successful in that). She also used her control of the snax to make them super aggressive and (even more) dangerous to all grumpuses they could sense.

Despite all this, grumpuses were still able to survive on Snaktooth; just as long as they don’t get spotted by any snax, the queen, or any of the queen’s loyal subjects (a select group of grumpuses who used to heavily worship snax who now chose to also worship the Stone Queen). Needless to say, life was difficult on Snaktooth during the queen’s reign, but it wasn’t impossible.

After around 200 years of ruling, the Stone Queen was a shell of her former self. Her total control over the snax was obviously slipping and she was physically rotting away. It didn’t take long for her to just fall apart, finally ending her reign over Snaktooth. Many grumps were ecstatic about her passing, others were furious, but the overall feeling they seemed to all had was fear of what’ll happen next.

Year 500-2500: The Desert Empire

A few years went by where the grumpuses lived their lives once again queenless. But instead of just going back to their old ways before the Stone Queen appeared, they instead had to live their lives in constant fear and anxiety. With no one ruling them and their previous experiences with grumps, snax have grown ravenous and aggressive towards all grumpuskind; either outright attacking any grump they sense or tricking the grumps into eating them so they could have some new hosts.

This era ended when one grump willingly sacrificed herself to the Undersnax, using her previous knowledge about how the Stone Queen came to be. She hoped that once she had control over the snax, she could pacify them.

So yeah, it worked and now she; the Desert Queen, began the era of the Desert Grump Empire. This was a time of true peace between grumpuses and snax, and allowed the empire to last for 2,000 years! Despite its name, the Desert Empire grew to cover most of the island, compared to the Stone Grumps only occupying a few areas on the map. It was honestly a utopia for the grumpuses, no more grumps falling apart into bugs, or having to run away at the mere sound of the distant sound of a snak, true peace. 

But near those final years, the snax grew restless, and as the queen weakened, they realized that her control over them was slipping. So, like before, the snax started going against her original wishes and started finally giving into their parasitic instincts and wreaked havoc across the island. The Desert Queen eventually dies, and the grumpuses now realize the island was fully unlivable.

The ones who escaped the island traveled to the mainland continents, relieved that none of them had a single trace of bugsnax. This was the official start of the era of “Modern Grumps”.

Year 300-1875: Broken Tooth

During the beginning of the Stone Queen’s wrathful reign, Stone Grumps who lived near the southern area of the island were able to escape to the lesser island of Broken Tooth. The island has been a temporary source for different snax for years; since it frequently used to come out of the ocean for a few days before going back down. Grumps there believed that this was caused by a mystical being named Mother Naturae. They claimed that she was leading them to this safe haven.

Life on Broken Tooth differed slightly from that on Snaktooth. Instead of being a part of small groups, all the Broken Tooth grumps lived as one collective community. They still did many of the things they’ve done back on Snaktooth; making a bunch of impressive sculptures, buildings, and also very complex puzzles (just to show off). One lead grump was in charge of keeping everything together as well as holding ceremonies dedicated to the snax and Mother Naturae. There were a total of four different leaders over the time. The first two were well respected grumps; the first being one of the original Stone Grumps to lead grumps to Broken Tooth, and the second being a strong, wise grump who led the community for the longest time. But after the second leader’s sudden passing, a new grump was forced into the leadership position, which was most likely the cause for the island’s downfall.

The third leader was incredibly incompetent, not being able to properly lead the grumpus or actually give them the support they needed (which is ‌understandable when you’re suddenly forced into a position you neither wanted nor know anything about). Eventually, after a few years of utter failure, they’d banished her to Snaktooth Island; which was originally thought to be a straight up death sentence because none of the Broken Tooth grumps knew whether or not the Stone Queen was still alive. Her daughter; the fourth leader, was then forced to take her place.

The fourth leader was not a successful ruler. After seeing what happened to her mother and how strict the laws for leaders were, she’d grown distrustful of basically everything related to the island, the grumps, and especially Mother Naturae. So the Broken Tooth grumps once again are stuck with an unsuccessful leader, and all that stress and uncertainty among the grumps caused the snax on the island to act more restless (bugsnax are weird and absolutely lovenegative grumpus energy). 

During their Snak-Eye Ceremony; whenever an annular solar eclipse happens, instead of the usual act of grumpuses heading towards the pond to have one completely relaxing night, the island becomes incredibly unstable. There are countless earthquakes that caused their temples and structures to break apart, and many grumpuses were trapped inside the collapsing areas, having no way out. Outside, there was a scene very similar to the one back on Snaktooth all the centuries ago. Bugsnax were emerging out of the ground, wrecking havoc all around the island. Some grumps called it “The Wrath of the Mother”, since Broken Tooth so suddenly became an absolute hellscape. And if things couldn’t have gotten worse, the island was starting to sink back into the ocean again; something it hasn’t done in centuries.

So the grumpuses were clearly panicked, not knowing whether they’ll be able to survive this event or not. But thanks to their many watercrafts, some grumpuses were able to escape the island before it got deadly. Survivors of Broken Tooth were able to find their way back to Snaktooth Island, now that it’s ruled by a new, much generous queen, or could travel far off to different Snak-less continents. Many of them still worshiped Mother Naturae in Modern Grumpus times (see Shelda, for example), even though there’s not as many followers as there used to be.

Modern Grumpus Timeline

Year 5000+: Modern Grumps and Rediscovering Snaktooth Island

So the events on Snaktooth Island have happened many, many centuries ago, and practically everything about it has been forgotten by the Modern Grumps. Even though most of its history is unknown, the island itself is still there, and that has sparked the interest in many explorers. 

There’s been many grumps who decide to go off and travel to the island, but none of them have even come back. Because of how frequently this happens, any grump who dares to travel to the island is just asking for their own demise.

Despite this, a lot of explorers still thought they’d be able to go to the island and come back home, ready to tell their adventurous tales to the public. 

This includes Grumpbeard and his crew, probably the first actual team of grumps who set sail to the island. He was known for his many voyages across the world, and his final destination was Snaktooth Island. Like all the explorers before him, he believed that he’d be the one to survive the island. And this belief was only supported by the fact he was accompanied by a crew of around 50 other grumpuses. Unfortunately, he was wrong, with him and most of his crew succumbing to the ravenous snax.

However, the few remaining survivors of his crew formed the Snakolytes; a secret society whose goal is to study and keep the secrets of Snaktooth unknown to the outside world until there’ll be a way to finally have them under their control. 

There was also Bronica Lottablog; a relatively well-known explorer and archaeologist, and her team. Her team faced a similar outcome to Grumpbeard’s crew. Either dying or joining the Snakolytes. However, nobody knows exactly what happened to Bronica herself.

And lastly, there’s Lizbert Megafig.

Lizbert’s Expedition 

Lizbert’s team was the fifth major group of grumps to travel to the island, and (depending on how things play out) the first and only group to actually make it back to mainland.

You’ve played the game, you know what happens lol