Puppet Master (Prodigy) (2024)

The Puppet Master is the main antagonist of Prodigy. He debuts in the game's tutorial by attempting to destroy the Warden Keystones, which are the stone embodiments of elemental magic that are reserved for the Wardens and those that can be trusted with the primordial six elements. He fails to destroy them and instead scatters them across the Prodigy world, cutting off most non-flying individuals from having access the Academy. He has a puppet-like assistant, Pippet, who follows him and does whatever the Puppet Master requests, often to the point of exhaustion or utter, laughable failure. After the Puppet Master failed in trying to destroy all five Warden Keystones, he fled to an unknown location, reappearing to summon new enemies and commit more terrorism.

Personality[]

Not much is known about his true intentions, however the Ancient, which is arguably the most powerful and benevolent individual in Prodigy, addressed the wizard via their Lore Tablets to tell them that the Order of Influence (and consequently, the Puppet Master) seek power. While the reason that they seek power is uncertain, how well the Puppet Master fits the lich archetype is enough reason to assume that he wishes to have power.

He seems to think highly of himself and the Order of Influence, an the opposite is true when he fails to commit a planned crime. He is haughty, thinking lowly of people that wish to teach or remain pupils in the Academy; this led to the wizard and Pippet concluding that he disliked when other characters obtain knowledge. He also prefers the more damaging methods of "resolving conflict", which usually involves violence by combat, starting informal battles between mind-controlled monsters or constructs and innocent civilians.

Because the Puppet Master cannot bother to do anything significantly damaging on his own besides creating sentient constructs he often finds a way to blame Pippet or the both of them for his inability to carry out their malicious plans. Not realizing that Pippet is capable of performing his requests despite great efforts, he continues to use the poor secondary antagonist to aid in committing crime.

Powers and Abilities[]

Throughout the Tutorial and other cutscenes where he is present, the Puppet Master displays various types of magic unique to him and other members of the Order of Influence.

Creation of Sentient Constructs[]

The most prevalent of the powers of the Puppet Master is his ability to summon sentient constructs out of what looks like "thin air." Oftentimes, these constructs cannot speak for themselves, leaving most unable to semantically communicate. However, they will most often engage in battle with wizards, as seen with Titans, the Stubborn Shadow, Crystal Monsters and any enemies with crystals as part of their composition, and many more constructs. While most of these creatures closely match the power and health of the wizard that they battle, Titans are nearly unstoppable and can only "fall" once wizards either use their personal team or a group of two or three wizards to reduce their health barriers an estimated 0.5 to 10 million times per Titan.

Creation of Solid Shadows[]

Objects that appear to be transparent and purple in color, similar to the Puppet Master himself, can take a solid form and prevent players from passing through locations. When the wizard's player plays at school, the wizard cannot enter their in-game house, Lamplight Town, and other locations "due to the Puppet Master." In most cases, however, players are locked out of a part of the map or part of an area due to not completing enough quests. Since the game's main plot is incomplete, the player cannot enter the Storm, Fire, Water, or Astral towers of the Academy without having to face one of the Puppet Master's giant, shadowy, chained padlocks.

Shadow Combat Magic[]

Without needing to make gestures or speak to cast spells, the Puppet Master can remain perfectly still while casting spells of the Shadow element. He has the capability of fighting against other enemies in wizard battles, using a Shadow Blast to disrupt the presumably heavy Warden Keystones and distribute them kilometers away in different directions. This spell did not appear to cost him any mana, energy, or health. Normal wizards, even of the Astral element, are poweless against the Puppet Master.

Mind Control[]

The Puppet Master can corrupt organic beings of free will into his direct influence. An estimated 100 percent of wild monsters on Prodigy Island that have the capability of fighting in wizard battles have had at least some of their free will extracted from them. Players that rescue a monster to make it become their pet observe a light indigo, wooden marionette handle (formally called a manipulator) break from above their pet, disappearing after a fissure breaks its two halves in half. This may be a symbol of the monsters' control, but the manipulators may also be physical objects used to control the monsters' placement about a map; monsters are somewhat sessile, only moving to the player to fight and inevitably lose.

Other Abilities[]

• Petrification: The Puppet Master also has the ability to turn beings into stone, as shown when he petrified the original nine Epics (Florafox, Arctursus, Big Hex, Magmischief, Diveodile, Chill & Char, Tidus, Luma, and Eclipse) and reduced them into mere tablets, effectively putting their life on hold.
• Mass-Amnesia: He can allow players to give their wizards new in-game wizard names every few years, by allowing the wizard to forget their old wizard name and obtain a new one.
• Summoning Portals: He can open and close portals to different places if they are too far away, and he may be able to set the outgoing portal to another part of the map without needing to be close to it. He can close portals behind him if he walks through them.
• Levitation: The Puppet Master can float above solid and liquid surfaces, and fly without wind resistance affecting his shroud's movements.
• Obscuring His Shadow: The Puppet Master has no shadow, even in the brightest of available light.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• The Puppet Master has a large Titan-Shard-type of gemstone lodged in his staff. It is proven to glow a brighter magenta instead of darker purple when large uses of Shadow spells occur, which suggests that either his presence or a curse upon the staff may affect its luminance.
• The Puppet Master's overworld sprite emanates a faint purple glow, often residually found on members of the Order of Influence and magical creations. While fading out through disappearance, his violet emanation lingers a second after his texture fades.
• He uses spells with dark purple animations, but his sprite himself does not have a pose when using magic (unlike all other game sprites); this suggests that the use of Shadow magic does not require somatic gestures.
• Whatever the Puppet Master's "eyes" are, they somewhat overlap the fabric of his cloak. This therefore springs speculations about what species of organism he actually is, if organic.
• There is not much difference between his new and old talk sprites, but the eyes are now more yellow.
• He Used To Be A Student Wizard
• Many Players Defeated Him