Chzo Mythos/WMG

The entire series is a Xanatos Gambit by Cabadath that went Horribly Wrong

 * Chzo had nothing to do with John DeFoe becoming the bridgekeeper. The entire plot was Cabadath's attempt to send Chzo to the scientific realm, either to accomplish what he was trying before he was captured (Bringing Chzo to our world to drive out the Romans) or, if we assume he knows Chzo can't survive without magic, to kill it in an attempt to free himself. When the portal is opened in 6 days, however, it's still to small for Chzo to slip through and the plan fails. Realizing Cabadath has betrayed it, Chzo decides to replace Cabadath as The Prince, grabbing the nearest suitable canditate (Theo).
 * Uh, that's not Wild Mass Guessing. If you read the Book of the New Prince in the special edition, you'd know that's true.

The Company from Art of Theft is a front for the Order of Blessed Agonies, who are trying to recruit Trilby before the events of 5 Days.
The Order seem to have the ability of precognition, so they knew Trilby was going to be the Guide prophecised by Frehorn. That's why they capture him and attempt brainwashing; to recruit him into the Order and fulfill the Prophecy by destroying the Body and Soul of the Bridge.
 * The Order had ; there isn't evidence that they were able to

Chzo's machinations weren't machinations at all.
It's been said several times that Chzo experiences time all at once, and past, present, and future don't mean anything to him except in reference to July 28th, when he can look down on the World of Technology, and the Tall Man, whose sense of linear time is something that Chzo presumably understands, but disdains. For him, all the circumstances leading up to his acquisition of the New Prince presented themselves quite conveniently (and instantly), and Chzo just helped himself to a New Prince.

Remember that John Defoe's involvement as the Bridgekeeper was entirely orchestrated by the Tall Man in an attempt to prevent Chzo from using him as the Bridge, and from choosing a New Prince. This also applies to the foundation of the Order of Blessed Agonies via Jack Frehorn. The Tall Man's plan, not Chzo's, caused Theo Da Cabe to experience the Three Blessed Agonies and become the perfect candidate. Theo really did only end up at the Optimology building through sheer dumb luck, it only looks like it was predestined because of Chzo's non-linear view of time. If it didn't happen that way, he wouldn't have bothered in the first place.

To "know the name of the King" isn't a euphemism for death.
Jack Frehorn, the De Foe Manor, and The Arrogant Man are all described as having known the name of the king, but they all lived past that description; to "know the name of the King" is to experience one's own personal ultimate suffering. For Frehorn, the ultimate pain was the unintentional murder of his lover, as even with his presumably very long and horribly painful life, he would keep coming back to Wilbur's death as the source of it all. The De Foe manor knew well the name of the King because of John De Foe's continuous torture, which meant his entire life was his ultimate suffering. Cabadath knows the name of the King first when he becomes the Prince and forced to abandon basically everything about his human life, and again, when he's forced out of his position by the New Prince and plunged into oblivion, when all he wanted was to remain Chzo's Prince. The fact that everyone else who died knowing the name of the King is just coincidence; their deaths were the finishing touches on some truly awful experiences.
 * Jossed in the special edition commentary of Trilby's Notes: Yahtzee says that to know the name of the king is to die.
 * No. He said to know the Name of the King is to experiance a Blessed Agony, usually that of the Soul, but any will do. Also, "the house of the Child and his father already knew well the name of the King."

Danny the Champion of The World is Trilby's origin story.
One, Danny is most likely set in its publication date, 1975 (the Baby Austin was built in 1933 and is "more than forty years old"). In the 6 Days Extras, Trilby's birthdate is revealed to be 1966. This would have made him the same age as Danny (nine).

Two, Art of Theft has Trilby mention that. Overconfidence and getting caught up in a brilliant plan without thinking things through properly are established as William's faults (seriously, it doesn't take five minutes to realize that aren't permanent).

Three, William coaches Danny to think of poaching/stealing as an art form, which Trilby does. Also, Danny's "Sleeping Beauty" plan that bypasses the greatest danger of poaching (dodging keepers) is a precursor of Trilby's problem-solving skills as an adult.

Four, Danny shows an aptitude as a mechanic at a young age, with William hoping for him to become a brilliant engineer. Trilby studied engineering in university (I don't recall if he dropped out or not) and is said to have a talent for it.

Five, the only really rich person Danny knows is Victor Hazell, who his father takes extra pleasure in poaching from due to Hazell's jerkishness. In Art of Theft, Trilby prefers to steal from people that deserve it in some way (i.e. uncovering Dominic Perota's peccadilloes), and cites breaking into random houses as "so... impersonal."

Six, they're both from England. This is not a very good point, I just wanted to have six points. (Oh, and Danny/Daniel could easily be his middle name that everyone who knows him uses. The only person with cause to use his proper name (Captain Lancaster) just says "boy" or "you there." His first name could still easily be.

The hand that comes out of the coffin at the end of 7 Days is the Tall Man's
Think about it: the hand did look awfully pale, but more importantly, he turns up every time someone damages the wood that is his soul. Now, tell me: what's more damaging than getting chucked into a ship's engine?
 * Jossed. It's ... Somehow. See the part near the end of this page for the relevant screenshots.
 * Jossing subverted. The screenshot says . I'm pretty sure the next line is something along the lines of   or   It seems that the scene was supposed to show

A.J. had experience with the Tall Man prior to the events of 5 Days a Stranger
At the very beginning of the game, you run into A.J., would freaks out at the sight of you. When you later see the Welder, you find that Trilby look nothing like him... but in the scene with A.J., Trilby was a tall, thin man with a white mask.

Chzo eating pain is like how Black Mage's Hadoken syphons love from the universe.
Even though Chzo inflicts pain on his victims, since Chzo eats all the pain back up, the people won't actually feel any pain.

Malcolm Somerset is a Trilby Clone
Going to be honest, there isn't a whole lot of evidence for this save for the similar hairstyle and the fact that both of their first names are apparently "Malcolm", but there was one remaining clone in stasis (Chamber D) who could have... somehow... survived the explosion and awoken later with only the memory of his first name. Considering we already know Malcolm has a reputation for identity theft and we don't know much about his past except for the fact that he killed his father because himself from the future told him to, and that he flunked out of Space Psychology School. Also, read that last sentence, and tell me that a theory like this isn't totally plausible in this series.

Trilby is also supposed to be "the guide" but doesn't really guide much, he mainly just randomly stumbles into pan-dimensional serial killers and quips, whereas Malcolm is super floaty wise space prophet man, and arguably goes through all of the blessed agonies as well. Also, we actually see Malcolm stab and kill the Trilby Clone with Frehorn's blade, THEN receive "magical energy", THEN realize he has godlike powers. In that order. We never actually see him kill himself himself, he just opens a door, walks down some stairs gradually becoming bathed in blood and going bald, and then this whole business is implied to be a hallucination taking place while he is actually... you know... killing himself. We do however see the body. This theory could go either way.


 * The "confirmation" of him killing himself comes when we go back to Theo's timeline. A slip of paper shows up which talks about Frehorn's blade, and states that theoretically one could exploit the "forever in the service of the one who wields it" loophole to become like the Caretaker. The line "none, however, have attempted this" makes sense when you consider that from the author's point of view it was true.

That aside, it's a reasonable theory, particularly when you consider what Trilby's actual name is.

Most if not the entire crew of the Mephistopheles are not who they say they are.
In the entirety of 7 Days, you are first introduced to what the entire crew are in charge of and proceed to toss all that info out the window as you become the only one who is capable of doing everything everyone else was specifically hired to do instead. This is why you have an engineer that insists the psychiatrist on board checks out any bugs in the ship, a logical advisor who has as much logic as a forum troll, and nearly everyone else only remembering ship protocol if only to nag at you when you disregard it, among other things.

Possibly the only one who could be who they say they are is Barry (or not), and the reason why he can't seem to tell the difference between the real crew around his age group and experience (whom he would likely have served with at one point) over the handful of young newbs who wanted to go to space for lulz was either because they were all convincing enough to reassure him that they are who they are and leave it at that, or because this kind of thing happens so many countless of times that he simply said "screw it!" and just let the ball roll where they may.
 * Barry does seem rather inclined to be "screw the rules" guy at times, or at least bend the rules - he doesn't seem to buy into usual protocal (wanting to be known by his first name) and ignores a suggestion from High Command. He also says that he suspects Captains are retired because they realise the rules could use a little updating. All that considered, there's every chance that he'd turn a blind eye to imposters being on board. Although it's also worth mentioning that Serena and William are both known to be relatively new and the higher-ups consider the mission unimportant enough that it warrants a vastly outdated ship. Even they probably wouldn't have cared if the ship was full of imposters, were it not for the fact that