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# The Web

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## The Web

Entity inspired Tarot by Grace Holsten

### Aliases

The Spider

The Great Spider
The Mother of Puppets
The Mother
The Spinner of Schemes
The Story Spinner
The Hidden Machination

### Fears

Arachnophobia

Fear of Being Controlled

### Manifestations

Webs

Web Patterns
Weaving
Marionettes
Spiders
Addiction
Tape Recorders

> "Spiders and control. Your will not being your own."
> "Yeah. Being manipulated or puppeted. The worry you're caught in a trap you can't see."
> - Jonathan Sims and Gerard Keay, MAG 111

The Web is one of The Entities. It is the fear of being controlled or trapped without knowing it, and your will not being your own, of being manipulated. It manifests as spiders, webs and web-like patterns, marionettes (puppets controlled by strings), and addictions.

ATTENTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!! This article contains information from later episodes of The Magnus Archives and may contain major spoilers for the setting and plot. Continue at your own risk.

## Episodes[]

As with The Eye, every episode indirectly involves The Web (via the tape recorder the episode is recorded on). This list is limited to when the contents of the statement itself concern The Web.

### Statements[]

- MAG 8: Burned Out (House on Hill Top Road)
- MAG 16: Arachnophobia (Spider)
- MAG 59: Recluse (Hill Top Road, Web table)
- MAG 69: Thought for the Day (Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 81: A Guest For Mr. Spider (Book)
- MAG 100: I Guess You Had To Be There (Partially, Brian Finlinson's statement)
- MAG 110: Creature Feature (Neil Lagorio)
- MAG 114: Cracked Foundations (Hill Top Road)
- MAG 123: Web Development (Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 136: The Puppeteer (Neil Lagorio, Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 147: Weaver (Annabelle Cane, Weaver)
- MAG 167: Curiosity (Partially, Emma Harvey)
- MAG 172: Strung Out (Domain)
- MAG 196: This Old House (Annabelle Cane, Hill Top Road)
- MAG 200: Last Words (Statement)

### Other Appearances[]

- MAG 3: Across the Street (Partially, Web table)
- MAG 19: Confession (Hill Top Road)
- MAG 32: Hive (Partially, Web mentions)
- MAG 35: Old Passages (Partially, Web lighter, Web table)
- MAG 37: Burnt Offering (Partially, Binding ritual)
- MAG 38: Lost and Found (Partially, Spider)
- MAG 51: High Pressure (Partially, Web table)
- MAG 56: Children of the Night (Partially, person filled with spiders)
- MAG 78: Distant Cousin (Partially, Web table)
- MAG 79: Hide and Seek (Web table)
- MAG 80: The Librarian (Possibly, Web lighter)
- MAG 121: Far Away (Partially, Web mentions)
- MAG 128: Heavy Goods (Web artefact, Web mentioned)
- MAG 163: In the Trenches (Partially, Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 166: The Worms (Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 180: Moving On (Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 181: Ignorance (Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 187: Checking Out (Spiders, Web mentioned)
- MAG 193: A Stern look (Spiders, Spiderwebs, Web mentioned)
- MAG 194: Parting (Annabelle Cane)
- MAG 197: Connected (Annabelle Cane, Hill Top Road)

## Characters[]

- Annabelle Cane: Avatar of The Web who was observing The Magnus Institute and subtly influencing events.
- Dexter Banks: Film director who became fixated on creating a spider film called "Widow's Weave," based on the book Kumo Ga Tabeteiru. Disappeared along with 100 cast members in 2012. Servant of The Web.
- Raymond Fielding: Servant of The Web and former owner of the house on Hill Top Road.
- Neil Lagorio: Special effects artist who specialized in advanced marionette puppetry. Servant of The Web.
- Emma Harvey: Assistant to Gertrude Robinson who became aligned with The Web.
- Geoffrey Neckam: Paranoid man who became a servant of The Web, past resident of Hill Top Road.[1]
- "Sculptor of Puppets": Past resident of Hill Top Road, made marionette strings from the tendons of people who "did not appreciate his art". Killed by a "crusading hunter of the Reformation." (possibly an avatar of The Hunt)[1]
- "Writer of Anonymous Letters": Past resident of Hill Top Road who did not know where the secrets they knew about others came from (possibly an avatar of The Eye), killed during a civil war by a "man whose teeth were always stained with mud." (possibly an avatar of The Buried)[1]

## Artefacts[]

- The Web Table: A table with a hypnotic pattern design with a small, removable box in the middle of it. Used by Adelard Dekker to bind the NotThem. Was often carried and delivered by Breekon & Hope.
- Web Lighter: An anchor of The Web’s power in the form of a Zippo lighter with a cobweb design. It was used to entice John into leaving to smoke a cigarette, allowing for events to happen in his absence.
- A Guest for Mr. Spider: A children's book that enthralls the reader and leads them to a door where they are taken by a large, spider-like creature.
- Tape Recorders: Tape recorders materialise and turn themselves on while around the staff of the Magnus Institute mainly Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood, recording statements and other important events. While the source and purpose of the tapes is originally unknown, it is later revealed that Annabelle Cane was using them to spy on the Magnus Institute, and that they played a crucial role in The Web's escape through the Gap in Reality.[2]
- "A thrumming silk-wrapped object:" An artefact of unknown abilities used by Breekon and Hope to torture an unspecified woman.[3]
- Original cuts of Neil Lagorio films: The specific effects of watching the cuts are unknown. Lagorio's care aid was trapped for five months after being made to watch them.[4]

## Locations[]

- 105 Hill Top Road: A stronghold of The Web. Formerly owned by Raymond Fielding, the house has a tree in the backyard and at one point served as a teenage half way house. It was unknowingly built on top of a "crack" in the universe, which had continually widened over countless centuries before finally becoming a true Gap in Reality. The house was later destroyed by Agnes Montague and the land seemingly touched by the Desolation.
- Domain in the post-Change world: A large theatre with many stages, in which victims are forced on stage and have their bodies manipulated by hooks and pulleys controlled by a large spider lurking above. Victims are forced to relive events that spurred on or aggravated substance use that they had since recovered from, then made to consume tiny spiders in the form of the previously-used substance. This process repeats indefinitely.
- Upton House: Though it was a mostly neutral location due to the inability for the entities to effect it, it was noted that Annabelle Cane resided there, "spinning her webs."

## Ritual[]

There is no record of a ritual for The Web. Peter Lukas speculates that it prefers the world as it is, where it can manipulate people against each other. It appears to actively dislike the post-Change world.

In MAG 197, it is revealed that The Web knows a successful ritual would ultimately lead to the Entities' deaths by starvation, because no new humans would be born in the post-Change world and the End would ultimately claim all life. In MAG 200, John explains that The Web purposefully orchestrated the Mass Ritual over centuries so it could spread into multiple new dimensions and realities.[5][6]

## Connection to other Entities[]

- The Web claims It is the only fully self-aware Entity, able to think and plan. Over millennia, people's fears of plots and unintended consequences that fed The Web became metaphysical nerves, creating a vast intelligence that it used to hatch a grand plan to escape into countless new realities. Since The Web is (allegedly) the only intelligent entity, many of the actions it takes against agents of other entities end up being part of a larger plan rather than a sign of animosity.[6] It should be noted that The Web is heavily associated with opportunistic lying and this information was delivered while It still had something to gain from manipulating Its audience.
- Throughout the series, The Web has continually interfered with the plans of The Eye and its agents, including revealing Jane Prentiss,[7] compelling Oliver Banks to wake John from his coma,[8] directing John to the statement that lead his encounter with Jared Hopworth,[9] and John's first encounter with The Web through A Guest for Mr. Spider.[10]
  - After a lighter with a web design was delivered to John,[11][12] there have been multiple scenes where he feels a compulsion to smoke a cigarettes, despite having quit smoking. This is seen both when John steps out for a cigarette after his encounter with Jurgen Leitner, allowing Elias to kill Leitner,[8] and when he later shares a cigarette with Georgie Barker after sharing his intentions to quit again, which ultimately allows Annabelle's plan to succeed.[5][13][6]
    - Addiction and relapse is a tool that has been employed by The Web on multiple occasions.[4]
- The Desolation and The Web have been shown to have an antagonistic relationship, possibly based on the fact that The Web uses personal attachments and motivations to manipulate people, where The Desolation destroys those same attachments with the intent to cause harm.
  - When Gertrude Robinson discovered and attempted to counter the Desolation's ritual, The Web metaphysically bound her to Agnes Montague, thus stalling the counter-ritual.[14]
  - Agnes's presence in a man's home burnt a cobweb.
  - During a vague ceremony just before Agnes's death, another agent of The Desolation held a box filled with spiders.[15]
  - Daisy brings magnesium flares when searching Hill Top Road after John mentions that The Web is averse to fire.[16]
  - While 105 Hill Top Road is strongly connected to The Web, The Desolation seems to have also left its mark on the place.[17][18]
    - This may be why a young Agnes was placed under the care of Raymond Fielding at Hill Top Road.[19] While there, she thwarts Raymond's attempt to trap Ronald Sinclair and eventually burns the house down.
  - Despite their antagonistic relationship, The Web's plan to escape through the Gap in Reality ended up involving The Desolation, as The Gap was only wide enough to be useful after Agnes Montague burnt down the house on Hill Top Road.[5]
- The Web seems to have a limited, neutral relationship with The Corruption. In her statement, Jane Prentiss mentioned having seen spiders and cobwebs near the attic that contained the "wasp nest" she was drawn to and noted the distinction between the spiders and the hive. Also, in probably the least devious and complex of its actions, spiders aligned with the web really love to eat worms from Jane Prentiss’ Flesh Hive.[20]

## References[]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 MAG 196: This Old House
2. ↑ MAG 196: This Old House
3. ↑ MAG 128: Heavy Goods
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 MAG 136: The Puppeteer
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 MAG 197: Connected
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 MAG 200: Last Words
7. ↑ MAG 39: Infestation
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 MAG 121: Far Away
9. ↑ MAG 130: Meat
10. ↑ MAG 81: A Guest For Mr. Spider
11. ↑ MAG 35: Old Passages
12. ↑ MAG 36: Taken Ill
13. ↑ MAG 199: Seeing it Through
14. ↑ MAG 145: Infectious Doubts
15. ↑ MAG 67: Burning Desire
16. ↑ MAG 147: Weaver
17. ↑ MAG 8: Burned Out
18. ↑ MAG 19: Confession
19. ↑ MAG 59: Recluse
20. ↑ MAG 32: Hive

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