The Sage is not The Fount
But rather he’s an outcome of The Fount. Thanks to the newest episode in crk; Timeline of fate episode 2; the wheel of fate, we learn that The Sage of Truth is more just a one time costume that you drains all your hard earned rainbows cubes on but rather the only version of The Fount to never corrupt.
Now way back before this episode had dropped many people had theorized that The Sage was an ‘awakened’ version of Shadow Milk in an alternative universe. But now we can see that The Sage was more of an awakened version of The Fount. In The Sages current timeline he never becomes Shadow Milk.
We now know that there multiple versions of The Fount of Knowledge across different timelines. Meaning The Fount that becomes the Shadow Milk we follow in the main time line is not the same Fount that The Sage once was. The difference between the Shadow Milk we follow and The Sage we met is that he never became Shadow Milk. Instead he found a way out of his corrupt before he could become Shadow Milk.
This begs the question; what happened to the other virtues? One of the biggest things in the original timeline that contributed to the Virtues fall was their lack of support. Each Virtue was essentially dragging each other down never knowing exactly where it started.
There is a possibility that in The Sages current timeline that none of the Virtues corrupted. But instead each of them finding a way to break that cycle just like The Sage did.
How did The Sage stop his fall?
During The Sages and Timekeepers conversation we are told that he was in process or at least beginning to have his fall from grace like every other version of The Fount had as well.
Just like all the others he began to doubt himself, his worth and if this was all he was meant to be. This is likely something every other version of The Fount suffered from (which was something that contributed to his corruption).
Expect The Sage found a way out.
While it’s never explicitly stated what exactly it was that he did to stop his corruption there was one key difference presented to us in the episode, one difference that the other versions of The Fount never made; he was honest.
Not as he was honest and never lied (though based on his name sask being the “Sage of Truth” we can also come to the conclusion that he didn’t start lying) .But rather he was honest to himself and how he was feeling. He knew the role he was given was a massive one and he could recognize his struggles and the burden that he had.
The one the biggest things with Shadow Milk is that he’s hiding behind a facade. He puts on a character an ‘act’ because he would rather pretend to be something else than to confront himself and his insecurities.
Main line Shadow Milk treats things like a joke, he’s smart and cunning and uses his knowledge to his advantage but he’s always doing under a mask, under a persona one that continuously tries to shove down those insecurities and loneliness. That Pure Vanilla tries to directly call out in an attempt to understand him.
With how far Shadow Milks insecurities go and how desperately lonely he is yet never wanting to break that mask he’s made for himself, to be seen as ‘lesser’ especially given that he was made to be a god of sorts. He always lashes out because for him it was easier to deflect the situation rather than to confront it.
This is where I believe The Sage went different. Instead of adopting all these personas and hiding behind a well crafted mask to disguise how he was really feeling, The Sage was open about it. Maybe not exactly to the cookies following him but at least to someone or even to himself.
In this episode we see The Sage opening up to Timekeeper about his struggles as The Fount. Something that main line Shadow Milk would have never done. That’s what stopped his fall, his willingness to open up.
One of The Sages dialogues from his costume is the line “Do I really need to spell out everything? Come on, think!” Now I already made an entire post surrounding this one line. However I think it’s best to re-go over said line now with this new information.
I still think this line is The Sage playing homage to his time as The Fount (expect there was never a Shadow Milks in between) but instead of being pushed around and treated like tool he’s directly calling out cookies for their laziness. He’s telling them to think for themselves and this could also be another factor into stopping his corruption.
The Fount grew bitter, angry towards the cookies he was made to serve. Each passing year made it grow more resentful towards the role he was given.
In that original timeline he continued to grow resentful hating the role he was forced into seeing it more as a prison. He became Shadow Milk turning to lies and deceit as an outlet but this is where The Sage went different.
Since The Sage of Truth is now technically canon (and not just a cool cosmetic) what The Sage likely did during his time when he was struggling as The Fount was learning to say no. To put up boundaries and refuse service to cookies that wouldn’t treat him with respect.
When looking at this kingdom dialogue The Sage has had lines directly calling cookies out for preferring lies over the truth.
“Why does everyone try so hard to hide their ignorance? Tsk!”
“Ahh, ignorance! Ha ha...”
One thing that I find very interesting when looking at The Sages kingdom dialogue is how he acts. He has that level of mischievousness that Shadow Milk has. Expect it’s not malicious anymore.
The Fount would have never dared to speak to cookies like The Sage does, having a “walk on eggshells around everyone because saying the wrong thing could make then all angry” mentality. But The Sage is different, he’s willing to argue his case rather than folding and giving an answer that cookies want to hear (even if that answer isn’t the correct answer) he’s being direct. Or he’s challenging them on it.
Several of his dialogues mention him being open to debating. From these debates from cookies that disagree with him can give him different perspectives and different truths. “The Truth is born in dispute”. The Sage being open to debating other cookies comes off as him recognizing that some cookies truth are different to other cookies truths.
One major thing about The Sage is his endless curiosity for knowledge but unlike Shadow Milk The Sage wants to teach that knowledge to others in it’s purest form; rare unfiltered truth “Truth, thou art a cruel one...”
The Sage like all the other Founts recognized that the truth isn’t always pretty, that will hurt and cookies aren’t always going to accept that answer but instead of turning to deceit as way to satisfy the cookies around him, instead The Sage stood his ground he stuck to his morals.
The Sage has this whimsy to him, though he’s extremely smart he’s not cold and calculated seen by more of his kingdom dialogue “Ahh, magic! Is there anything as exciting?” “Playwright, poet, actor, and sage! All is MOI!” Unlike the other version of The Fount who became resentful and angry towards the role they were given The Sage found a way to re-spark that cursorily and love for knowledge and to spread that to the cookie world “Who's hungry for knowledge? Come 'ere!”
What I believe to be that The Sage came to the understanding that he was treated badly by the cookies he was made to serve as The Fount but instead of falling into deceit to satisfy said cookies needs he instead calls out cookies for their behavior, their refusal to do any real thinking for themselves.
Compared to Shadow Milk The Sage is far more open and honest about his struggles and insecurities especially as The Fount and this honesty (possibly along with having an actual support system where they weren’t just feeding into each others corruption) is what saved him from his fall.
