Kings Island Lore - Tumblr Posts
Shoutout to the fact that I once managed to twist a prompt for an English project in a way that allowed me to write an 11-page essay about how the different Easter eggs that you can find throughout the rides in Kings Island all connect into a relatively coherent in-universe story.
It begins...
All the way back in the tags of my second post on Tumblr (which, to be fair, wasn't really that long ago), I said that I'd eventually post about the Kings Island lore. Well, congratulations! If you're reading this, then you're reading the first in what will likely become a long series of posts that are exclusively dedicated to the in-universe lore/story of Kings Island in Mason, Ohio because that's what my brain has been hyperfixating on for the past two years now!
Everything involving my Kings Island lore rambles will be under the tag #kings island lore. I'll probably make a masterpost or something later on when I've written more, but for now, if you're looking for KI lore, that's where you'll find it! Also if you're confused about anything and want clarification, or just have a question in general, feel free to ask me, be it through the comments or through Asks!
I'll start rambling below the cut! I'm warning you now: this post will be LONG-
So why don't we start off with ✨what the heck I'm talking about & an introduction to the KI lore with an explanation of the Off-Base ATLAS Substation Overview Map!✨
My search for Kings Island lore started around November 2022 when I was researching for that year's Halloween Haunt. A good friend of mine invited me to go with them, and considering that I was already a fan of theme parks by then and had never been to Haunt before, I happily agreed. During my research, I stumbled upon Kings Island Central's posts about Easter eggs in Area 72 that branched out to references involving the whole park. It was then when my search expanded from Haunt info to park story info.
The image in question was one of the Outpost Substation Overview map in the old photo area at the end of Flight of Fear. I later took a picture of it myself on May 13, 2023 for future reference so that I wouldn't have to keep looking it up. That image is shown below.
This map right here is - in my opinion, the center of the entire story. It's here where you are directed exactly where to look if you want to uncover the story of Kings Island.
On this image, you can see 6 different specific locations pointed out by a colored patch of the map with circular symbol, a title, and a set of 4 numbers starting with "00xx". These, my friends, are canonically different paranormal hotspots which the people at Area 72 have placed substations at for further research. In real life, these are the locations of roller coasters.
I'll start from the bottom left & go clockwise:
Outpost 5 - 0000 - Red map section -> Son of Beast, opened 2000 & closed 2009. "Outpost 5" is a reference to the setting of Son of Beast. It's the in-universe place where the "Son of Beast" was being contained (and, during the events of the ride, where it breaks out of)
H. Hill Estate - 0014 - Pink map section -> Banshee, opened 2014. H. Hill estate is a reference to "Haunted Hill Estate," which is presumably the name of the in-universe equivalent of Banshee's station building. Were clued into this via the metal archway with the words "Haunted Hill" that stands over the start of the queue line. Next to this area, you can also see a photo of the Banshee herself with the numbers "0014" written in black on the bottom left corner.
Outpost 2 - 0091 - Yellow map section -> Adventure Express, opened in 1991. Gonna be honest, I don't think that "Outpost 2" has been referenced specifically as Adventure Express beyond the outpost stuff found in Flight of Fear, however with the area Adventure Express resides in being updated to Adventure Port in 2023 & Adventure Express getting a much-needed theming update alongside it, we learn about Outposts 1-5 on tracks 1-2, which are a collection of locations I'll ramble about in a different post dedicated to Adventure Express' outposts. Next to the symbol for Outpost 2 on the map, you can also see a photo of "Bubba", the figure at the top of Adventure Express' second lift hill with "0091 - We Will Pay" written in black on the bottom, which is a reference to Bubba's line, "You have disturbed the Forbidden Temple! Now you will pay!" which is spoken as we go up that second lift hill.
Bureau of Paranormal Activity - 0096 - Purple map section -> Flight of Fear, opened 1996. This one's the most obvious. If you've ever ridden Flight of Fear & watched the queue video (which if you haven't, I'd highly recommend looking it up. It's a delight), then you'll see as clear as day that the government people are working for/in the Bureau of Paranormal Activity. That's not to mention the fact that the Bureau of Paranormal Activity logo (which you can see in the bottom right of the Substation Overview Map) appears right in front of you on the wall as soon as you step into the indoor section of Flight of Fear's queue. From what I've gathered, the Bureau of Paranormal Activity - and by proxy; Flight of Fear - is at the center of all of this. This is the center of paranormal research in Kings Island. You see the way the other substations are linked back to the Bureau? It all connects back to it. Honestly, the history of the Bureau of Paranormal Activity is incredibly interesting in my opinion. One of these days, I'll make a BoPA timeline post or something lol
(On this note, the grey section of map is Area 72)
Sycamore Mine - 0079 - Brown map section -> The Beast, opened 1979. Sycamore Mine is a reference to the mines that are the setting of The Beast. The company surrounding these mines have gone through a plethora of name changes over the years, starting as the "Little Miami Amalgamated Mining and Minerals Co." and presently going under the name "Kings Crossroads Mining Company" (as seen on the building at the front of The Beast's queue). The name "Sycamore Mines" has now been used twice: once here to refer to The Beast, and a second time with Adventure Express's first on-ride theming element as Track 2 - Outpost 1: Sycamore Gem Mine. Also, to the left of the map symbol, you can see a photo of The Beast's paw print with "Paw prints don't match known life form" written on the bottom of it in black.
Miami River Lumber Co. - 0017 - Green map section -> Mystic Timbers, opened 2017. You know how I said that Flight of Fear was the most obvious? I lied. THIS is the most obvious. I mean, it literally says "Miami River Lumber Company" on the sign above Mystic Timbers' queue entrance! And that's not to mention the fact that it's all over the queue & station posters alongside the whole "the Miami River Lumber Company is closed" announcement thing that plays periodically in and around the queue. There's some pretty interesting stuff going on between/with the Miami River Lumber Co. and the Bureau of Paranormal Activity that I'll detail in a later post for sure. There's also a photo upwards & to the right that appears to be of the inside of the shed, but you can't really tell what's on it since the photo's curled over.
These 6 coasters (or "substations") are where you need to go in order to find the story. This is confirmed by the fact that you can find each of the corresponding substation symbols at each of the specified rides:
Son of Beast -> on the side of the station building in black and yellow. It can be viewed from the exit path of The Bat. It's a little difficult to see in this photo, but this is the best angle of it I've been able to get considering that the ride's defunct lol
Banshee -> on the side of what I think is a warehouse(?) next to the break run. This is the only one I don't have a picture of. I'll try and get that for you guys the next time I'm at the park.
(UPDATE - 4/20/2024: My mission was successful! The photo of the Banshee symbol will be added below! It should be noted that you'll probably have to zoom in. It's located above the white door.)
Adventure Express -> Really just about everywhere in Adventure Port, mostly on crates. There's plenty of crates in the station that have the symbol on it, which I'll show below. It should be noted that while it was being refurbished during the construction of Adventure Port, the symbol could also be seen from the exit path of The Racer on the side of one of the buildings. This symbol in particular, which I'll show in the second picture, has since been removed.
Flight of Fear -> on the wall directly in front of you as soon as you get to the inside section of the queue. It's the one on the far left. The one in the middle is for the Bureau of Paranormal Activity and the one on the far right is for ATLAS.
The Beast -> on the building right next to the lift hill! I don't really have any other comments for this one lol
Mystic Timbers -> on the door to the shed! This was the first symbol I'd found on its corresponding ride. Safe to say, I was pretty excited when I found this. It was what lead me on a hunt to find the others.
And I think that's everything I wanted to say! There's gonna be more in the future, but those future posts are likely not gonna be anywhere NEAR as long as this one.
If you have any questions and/or want me to explain or elaborate on something, feel free to say something and let me know! I'm always happy to chat about this stuff lol
I love being a theme park lore hunter/in the theme park lore fandom, because the different tones of different parks are always so funny to me.
Like-
Alton Towers Lore: SECRET WEAPONS!!! MIND CONTROL!!! POWER OF THE TOWERS!!! ALIEN CREATURE FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION!!! THE VOID ITSELF!!! FOREST CULTS!!!
Kings Island Lore: YOU SEE THOSE ROLLER COASTERS OVER THERE??? THEY’RE ACTUALLY PARANORMAL HOTSPOTS!!! THERE’S MONSTERS LURKING IN THE WOODS OF RIVERTOWN!!! THERE’S AN EXTINCTION-LEVEL METEOR STORM COMING SOON!!! ALIEN ABDUCTIONS!!! THE GOVERNMENT IS LYING TO YOU!!!
Holiday World Lore: The magic storm bird helped the nice colonists to America! The Halloween section might canonically be Sleepy Hallow! Grandma Gracy ran out of her award-winning thanksgiving gravy & you have to help her make more! Good Gravy might be a company apparently??? And they sell crayons??? We really like birds! Did we mention that we like birds?
IN HONOR OF KINGS ISLAND NOW BEING OPEN, I've decided to do another ✨Kings Island lore post✨, this time moving over to Area 72 in order to talk about the Project X Initiative!
Feel free to speak up and ask me anything if you want further elaboration or have anything in particular you want me to talk about! This can be in the comments or through an ask, whatever you feel more comfortable with!
Now with all of that out of the way, sit back, relax, and mentally prepare yourself. The ramble shall begin after the cut!
The first time we are introduced to the Project X initiative is on July 2, 2020 when Orion first opened. It's mentioned by name in the description of the video "Orion: New for 2020 at Kings Island" on Kings Island's YouTube channel (which can be found here -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNV6lnyv2s0) It says:
"Themed to the park's new Area 72, the ride features the latest prototype vehicle developed by the Project X Initiative. Scientists are in a race against time to develop technology capable of weaving transport vehicles through a coming meteor storm and traveling to a new planet within the Orion constellation. For the program to be successful, it needs volunteers to help with testing."
So if Orion is the latest prototype vehicle developed by the Project X Initiative, then there had to be more from before that, right? CORRECT!
Orion is actually Sequence X of the Project X Initiative! The full 10 sequences are as follows:
Sequence I - Shooting Star-47, Study of Astrology & Rapid Directional Changes
Sequence II - The Rotor-72, Study of Centrifugal Forces & Gravity Centrifugal Effects
Sequence III - Bayern Kurve-73, Study of Interstellar Travel & Acceleration
Sequence IV - Zodiac-75, Study of Symmetry & Radial Forces
Sequence V - SkyLab-86, Study of Gravitational Pull
Sequence VI - Vortex-87, Study of Inversions & Inversion Effects
Sequence VII - Flight of Fear-96, Study of Acceleration & Sensory Deprivation
Sequence VIII - Invertigo-99, Study of Balance & Motion Pull
Sequence IX - Firehawk-07, Study of Maneuvering/Evasive Maneuvers
Sequence X - Orion-20, Study of Time Space
Are any of these names sounding familiar? They should! They're the names of Kings Island attractions, both past and present! And the numbers after them are references to the years that those rides opened!
All of these different "Sequences" can be found throughout Orion's queue, particularly on the fake pin board on the Fast Lane side of the queue where you'll find posters for each of them & on the wall next to the front row line for the ride itself in the station. For the station one, I'll put an image below:
The first time we were clued in on any of this "Project X Initiative" stuff was on the construction fence for Orion back when it was being built. Every once in a while, the park would put up a poster with one of it's rides (past or present) on it (which ended up being Sequences I-IX) with a faint letter in the background. Eventually, with a hashtag made up of QR codes in the front of it, it spelled out "#TETOWAWKI," which for those of you who were following Orion's teaser developments, ended up standing for "The End Of The World As We Know It." The QR code hashtag led you to a petition on Change.org by "Concerned Citizen" who talks about how Kings Island needs to reveal what's behind the wall for the safety of the public. Concerned Citizen even got a signature from a Mr. Christopher...fans of Flight of Fear will know that name...
(Here's a link to the Change.org petition in case you want to check that out for yourself: https://www.change.org/p/kings-island-kings-island-what-s-behind-that-fence-85f62e10-4170-437b-9cc3-ae87d9973b45?recruiter=987799620&recruited_by_id=fd9dc1d0-b26b-11e9-87b8-9b832214eee5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_content=bandit-starter_cl_share_content_en-us%3Av4)
Honestly, the #TEOTWAWKI/Orion teaser campaign is so interesting and lore heavy that I'll probably end up making a post on it in the future at some point XD
And that's it for this KI lore post! Again, feel free to let me know if there's anything in particular you want me to touch upon! And if you're ever looking for any of my other KI lore posts, they can be found under the tag #kings island lore. I hope you have a wonderful day!
Can we take a moment to talk about how The Beast is potentially implied to hibernate through the winter?
I mean-
So there's "Beast Day," which is a play on Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is entirely centered around the fact that groundhogs hibernate. So...what I want to know is does The Beast hibernate through the winter, or - from an in-universe perspective - is there just a random guy/group of people who go out one day in February every year and watch this giant, terrifying, man-eating monster that DOESN'T hibernate wake up to see if it sees its shadow or not? What's going on there? XD
I'm cooking up a new KI lore post at the moment! This time about Mystic Timbers' timeline! Stay tuned!
Welcome to the newest edition of the ✨KINGS ISLAND LORE!!!✨ Mystic Timbers edition!!!
It's been a while since I've done one of these, huh?
As always, my posts about the Kings Island lore will be under the tag #kings island lore. If there's anything you want to know or any questions you have, feel free to let me know! I'm always happy to talk!
Now buckle up, because we're going through the entire timeline of Mystic Timbers!!!
The story of Mystic Timbers - much of which can be heard via the radio of the truck at the ride's entrance (high-quality videos exist on YouTube if you want to give it a listen of your own!) - starts in the year 1982 when the Miami River Lumber Co. purchases forest land just northeast of Rivertown, taking note of the railroad (K.I. and Miami Valley Railroad) in order to transport timber. They get straight to work clearing out the area to build the mill when they come across the foundations of an old wooden shed that once stood on the grounds. Thinking that they've gotten lucky (that's one less foundation they have to put in!), they build a new shed overtop of the foundation of the old one.
A year passes - we're now in 1983 - and construction has finished. Everyone's ready to start working proper when the superintendent of the company disappears, leaving no trace behind beyond a scribbled note next to the coke machine in the workshop that reads "DON'T GO IN THE SHED". Regardless, the mill opens the next day. It was around 2:00 pm when 13 workers who were loading a haul into the shed had an encounter something of paranormal nature (likely with the Mystic Timbers tree, but it's never expressly stated what they encountered) and subsequently ran for their lives, some of them hopping in a truck and accidentally smashing it against a tree by the front gate (we all know what truck that is!). Only 4 out of the 13 people definitively made it out, with the whereabouts or fates of the other 9 unknown to this day.
From here, the lumber company & the surrounding area became overrun by a medusa-like growth of vines as the forest seemingly came to life and nature moved in to reclaimed its land. There was a total of 66 men and women who entered the lumber company and were never seen again during this time. Not long after it opened, the Miami River Lumber Company was shut down, condemned by the authority of Department 47, a fact which we learned via a sign posted on the entrance to the "Abandoned" scare zone in 2023.
The Bureau of Paranormal Activity naturally took an interest in the plant-based paranormal activity of the area and converted the now-abandoned lumber company into an off-base substation (designated "0017") in order to do research the strange goings-on of the lumber mill.
Being a spooky abandoned place with ghost stories now, the Miami River Lumber Co. became a hotbed for urban explorers and dumb teenagers who wanted to check the place out for themselves. While many are eventually deterred by the security guard who's on duty there for the sole purpose of keeping these people out of this highly dangerous paranormal hotspot (which begs the question for many of these explorers: Why would an abandoned lumber company need a security guard?), those who make their way in soon find themselves drawn to the shed, encountering the monster(s) that lie within. Presumably, as the riders, we too are among the unfortunate who were drawn to the shed. It's unknown what our fate is - if we survive the creature at the end or not - but what is known is that there's 3 different stories as to what's in the shed: a bat, a snake, and a tree. Whatever the real answer to the age-old question of "What's in the shed?" is, though, is up to your own interpretation (I'm impartial to the tree myself).
Then in October 2023, something new happened. Those 66 missing people returned, albeit forever changed into monsters themselves. Outsiders would step into Rivertown only to find themselves in a small abandoned lumber village that's haunted by something mysterious which has seemingly come from the forest themselves. It's believed that the human-shaped, chainsaw wielding, flannel-wearing monsters chasing you around are what's left of the old lumber yard workers from the past, but there's no way to truly know for sure. All that is known is that they seem to be evil in nature, and you should probably run for your life.
And that's everything on the story of Mystic Timbers that I've gathered so far! I hope y'all have enjoyed this stupidly long ramble about a really cool wooden roller coaster! Again, if you have any questions/things you'd like me to clarify, feel free to let me know!
UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!
KINGS ISLAND LORE MASTERPOST!!!
(Post last updated 9/29/2024)
KI lore intro & ATLAS Substation Overview Map
Project X Initiative
"Beast Day" Implications (more of a short ramble than a full lore post, but I thought it'd be good to put in anyway)
Mystic Timbers Timeline