The Key to the Dark World: Gerson Boom

Hello all,I would like to preface by saying that a lot of this theory is going to come from speculation as I will be expanding off of conceptual topics so take it as you will, however I believe a few of you will find this quite intriguing.

Many of us were crestfallen upon seeing the gravestone of the titular historian and lore keeper, Gerson. For what seemed like a somber moment and a possible Toby Fox's attempt to expand upon the world, I thought there might be something more to it. When looking farther into it, I've found that he might be the key to unlocking the secrets to the Dark World.

For this theory, I will be expanding upon another theory about how the Dark World works based on a couple of key concepts. This first theory is that the Dark World in Deltarune is an abandoned Dungeons and Dragons game. The evidence of this becomes clearer as facts are put together. Lightners used to come to the Dark World, but left. This is much like turning off a game, the screen turning black, and expecting it to all be there next time you open it up. However, this world created from a D&D game never stopped when the game was 'turned off' so too speak.

This would explain why characters like Lancer weren't allowed to pick up the dark candy, because he was an NPC.

As a side note, another piece of evidence for this D&D theory comes from the balled up piece of paper in Kris's inventory. That could be something of a character sheet used during the game and what not.

So now that we've established the Dark World as a D&D game, lets move on to Gerson and his connection. Why are the Dark World and Gerson inexplicitly linked? Well, I believe he was the dungeon master of this game. A couple piece of evidence lead me to this conclusion.

The first thing that peaked my interest was the gravestone which reads, "Gerson, renowned historian, author, and teacher." I don't know why I skipped over this so much whenever playing, but Gerson used to be a teacher. Not only that, but if you speak to the Mayor's aid in the Town Hall, she brings up how Kris might be in there to complain about how Alphys is their teacher saying, "If you don't like her, please blame your mother for getting her hired..." This could be interpreted in many ways, however I see it as a sudden hiring. A teacher passes away, Gerson, and they have to find a new teacher, so Toriel picks Alphys.

With Gerson as a teacher in the school, he would be the perfect candidate to host a D&D game after school, no? Well if you doubt his creative side, maybe read the entry from his book in the Librarby titled Lord of the Hammer which reads, "First in the award-winning fiction series by lauded historian Gerson Boom." So now, we've established he was a teacher, and a fiction writer.

But this still doesn't connect him to the Dark World yet, so how about we see his last mentioning in the story, his memorial bench. It reads, "Throughout my career, some of my best ideas came from dreams." Dreams, its something that Susie mentioned right when her and Kris got back from the dark world. She couldn't tell if the world they were in was a dream.

From what we've gone through so far, Gerson was a teacher, he was a fiction writer, and he could have been the dungeon master of a game at the school. As a closer connection, I believe one of the original players in this game was Asriel, which could also explain the time difference and how young Ralsei looks compared to what a college aged Asriel should look like. This could also imply the Knight to be someone from the original D&D game as well, but we just don't have enough evidence for that.

So why is Gerson the key? It's because he passed away. Their game could have ended abruptly from his sudden death, leaving the NPC's in the dark since no one came back to the game. They felt abandoned and lost, expecting something to happen, but the Dark World never came back on, it stayed dark. The players created so that the NPC's could worship had to find new purposes, leading to their internal struggle as there was no guidance from a proud and strong historian like Gerson.

If you read all the way through, thank you! I had a lot of fun looking around the town and finding as much evidence as possible. I'm open to suggestions and interpretations, so have at it in the comments!

Edit: thank you for bringing the ball of junk to my attention in the comments. I no longer see it as a character sheet but just the culmination of stuff that Kris gained along his journey.