Stick of Truth
- This article covers the artifact. For the game released in 2014, see South Park: The Stick of Truth.
The Stick of Truth is a legendary artifact and major plot item in South Park: The Stick of Truth. It was fought over by the Humans and the Drow Elves over half of the entire game.
Background
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Spoiler warning! Plot details follow. |
At the end of "Titties and Dragons", a wooden stick was picked up by Grand Wizard Cartman, who suggests that the boys rather play with it than a PlayStation or Xbox.
The Stick of Truth was once owned by the orc, Dandar. After he had loved the Elf Queen, Princess Kenny was born and became the true heir to the Stick of Truth. By unknown events, however, the Humans had obtained the Stick, the close relatives of Princess Kenny were murdered, and the Kingdom soon waged in a never-ending war, a war between the Humans and the Elves for the stick.
Soon after the New Kid had moved to South Park, the Stick was captured by the Drow Elves and the New Kid was forced to get it back from The Bard. The night after the Stick was re-captured by the Kingdom of Kupa Keep it mysteriously disappeared. Cartman had suspected that the High Jew Elf King had stolen it during the night. The Elves meanwhile thought that the Humans were hiding the Stick.
At the end of Attack the School, it was revealed that Clyde Donovan is the one who took the Stick, and is keeping it in his fortress. Over the course of the game, the New Kid works toward gaining new allies to help get the Stick back. During Beat Up Clyde, the New Kid finally begins climbing through Clyde's Fortress to get the Stick back, and in the end, is ultimately successful.
However, the government agents happen to break into the fortress to capture the New Kid, and it all ends up in their Leader taking the Stick and running away with it, having believed the kids' in-game lore that the Stick controls the universe. Afterwards, Kenny betrays the kids and Morgan Freeman explains her origins, in which she was the true heir to the Stick. After a long battle, the New Kid retrieves the Stick once more, but the boys ultimately decide that the Stick is too powerful for anyone to possess and throw it into the middle of Stark's Pond. The Stick is never again seen afterwards.
Abilities
In the game, the kids set the Stick as the key controlling the universe. Whoever wields it can use it to direct the course of the game, such as when Jimmy used it to allow him to hold the doorknob to keep the Humans from entering. Even though Cartman called it cheating, Jimmy justified it because as the holder of the Stick, he made the rules.
The Stick was used again when Clyde used it to become a dark lord after being banished from space and time by Cartman. He also used it to denounce the Human and Elf Kingdom, and stripped both Kings of their authority, which caused many players on both sides to flock to Clyde as their new leader.
The true limits of the Stick's in-game power is unknown. Even though it supposedly controls the universe, neither Humans nor Elves ever attempted to use it to destroy the other side, nor forbid the other side from taking the stick back.
In reality of course, the Stick is just an ordinary twig, as seen when the Leader foolishly believed the boys' story and tried to use it for himself.
Trivia
- The line "He who controls the stick, controls the universe" may be a reference to the line "He who controls the spice controls the universe" from Dune by Frank Herbert.
- The Stick of Truth can be seen in unused icon files in South Park: The Fractured But Whole, seemingly to make a return, but was scrapped.