Villainous theory
Hi everyone! I'm pretty sure I've figured out what the encoded text in the BHO handbook means, but if I'm right, then it's major spoilers, so it'll be under the cut.
EDIT: I made a part 2 to revise some of the things I say here, so that the conclusion can be as accurate as possible, but a lot of the overall points still stand.
First off, the handbook establishes that Black Hat was originally the Mr. Hyde of some human named Lord Hatfield, the duke of Wellington (name comes from vol. 2 of the completely harmless book series), but Black Hat has clearly gained control over the body since then. Now look at this diagram I’ve made here:
In the book itself, we first get the image associated with the encrypted text, and then the next two pages feature images of Black Hat and Hatfield respectively. My idea is that the positioning of these images relates to the first image: The figure on the right isn’t Black Hat, it’s Hatfield. Black Hat is the screaming mass on the left, being held in check. This is further evidenced by the fact that there are several elements of Hatfield’s picture that mirror the drawing of the figure to the right, such as the censored face, the spiky shoulder pads, and the “ribs” on the front. They additionally share a high collar, but I didn’t highlight it since it would make the diagram more crowded.
I’ve also pointed out the fact that the tentacle on top of the figure is notably spiky, like Rawred’s (you can read more about them on the in-universe blog https://creepycharly.blogspot.com July 11th 2021 entry, using the site's google translate feature. The tentacle image is from the February 14th 2022 entry), whereas Black Hat’s tentacles tend to be smoother. We also have the slightly reddish edge light coming from the halo in the background, furthering the connection with Rawred, and implying the halo is something akin to a red sun.
With that context, we can now understand the encrypted text.
@nightfurmoon’s decryption and translation (check out their blog if you haven't, it's very cool):
The master in question is Rawred, and they seem to have made a deal with Hatfield at some point, though what this involved is unclear. Either way, this resulted in Rawred taking a part of Hatfield and creating Black Hat out of it. Rawred leaves instructions (probably the notes that Kaleb mentions in vol. 2 of the harmless book) on how to bring Black Hat into a “denigrated presence”, aka make him lose control of the body, and use him to bring about the doomsday foretold in the prophecy from Flug’s logbook.
The second paragraph is more of the same: Black Hat is the profane being sacrificed. His very being was taken from Hatfield, who is described as both reason and inhibited judgement (fair enough if he’s going to help an eldritch entity destroy the multiverse). The last two lines are the most unclear to me, but I would assume the great lord is Rawred, and that their fury is going to wreak great havoc with Hatfield acting as their agent.
Overall, I think that by the next red eclipse (around November-December 2024 in Villainous time, based off of info from Charly's blog and vol. 2 of the harmless book series), the 7 heroes of prophecy (Goldheart & co.) are going to enact a ritual that will cause Hatfield to regain control of the body, and Hatfield is probably going to be helping Rawred with their “reunification" from the prophecy, and thus, subsequent destruction of the multiverse. Black Hat knows this is going to happen, and he’s powerless to stop it.
There’s more to the overall red eclipse theory, but this is the most important part of it. What do you think? Feel free to ask if you have questions or want me to elaborate on something, but I can't promise I'll be super quick to respond lol.
