ok for the alchemy thing i think does count for magic to some people but not others, so like that's an opinion thing? I side with it being magic Tho for personal reasons. however, your theory about the teacher being it is actually really interesting! like you said it may not have much evidence, but pretty much any evidence can say towards it. like a while back before satyrs were added Hyao hinted at them with music, granted music in a forest would make sense for them it could have also been like fucking sirens or mermaids or anything else involving music. point is just hints can mean anything and something THIS massive is either going to be a major plot twist, major character reveal or introducing someone we have needed to meet since the beginning (cough cough 'the teacher' cough cough) also the teacher not knowing would make sense because of 2 things, 1. as you said he hasn't seen us in forever and prolly only has our history with him to go off and 2. who ever fucking mentions what we do outside of the people we saved? like no one knows about the lizard tribe unless we tell them, no one knows about Mythshore excluding Everett, no one knows about the entire fucking Werewolf pandemic that nearly started and no one knows about the fight between the MC and the leader of the red orcs aside from the chief and our homie in the orc village. the only thing I'm a little confused about is why he would say the MC is a shaman, MC was an apprentice when the teacher left weren't they? so wouldn't he say something more like student or well apprentice? other than that you actually kinda got me on board with thinking it's the teacher now XD
What he says is more along the lines that we were supposed to be something closer to a shaman, he doesn't outright call us a shaman he just compares what we do to the closest thing he knows so if the herbalist's master were the one that's messing with the orcs and he said that he has an apprentice then the orcs would simply associate the herbalist to a starting shaman or something similar to that, regarding 2 I would think that at least our reputation around the area the informant is from would influence the informant perception of us when giving information, but the information itself looks pretty unbiased in stark contrast to to opinion the leader has of the herbalist based on the tribe attitude towards them, hence why I mentioned the deeds. And Yeah alchemy is in such a grey area that's kinda confusing, since there's a lot of settings in which it is a form of magic but there's also a lot in which it is basically rudimentary chemistry, and there's no elaboration of what it is here like they drop it in the story and then move along, like Xeroth is a fricking alchemist but we never get a elaboration of what that entails, of course that's not at all story relevant and I would imagine it's common knowledge enough so that the herbalist wouldn't need someone explaining it to them (an inhabitant of that world).
Also here's something extra to add to trust issues have you ever toyed with the idea that the third party is actually Feliar? Like who knows what nefarious secrets he keeps locked behind that door? I certainly don't! What is it that he hides?!
YO NO FUCKING JOKE I WAS THINKING ABOUT FELIAR BEING THE TRAITOR THE NAMELESS WARNED US OF!!!!.. WAIT OML WHAT IF FELIAR IS INVOLVED IN THE ORC SITUATION AND ITS THE TEACHER BUT FELIAR, HE IS SOMEONE WE KNOW WHO WE ALSO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHOSE HISTORY IS HIDDEN AND HAPPENS TO BE CLOSE THE HERBALIST AND ALSO CLOSE TO THIS SITUATION WE INVOLVED HIM IN! AND HE WOULDNT KNOW ANYTHING WE DIDNT DIRECTLY TELL HIM AND SINCE WE MOSTLY ARE CHILL AND DONT DO MUCH FIGHTING HE WOULD ASSUME WE DO MORE HERBOLOGY AND SUCH INSTEAD! (also i thought about Feliar being the traitor from the nameless warning not this you just completely brought up a whole new idea that is plausible to an INCREDIBLY fun extent.) then the locked door thing, I'm betting its either coffee or secretly the real jester, also on this thing I just stated I have a weird suspicion that jester might not be the original jester, I don't even know why I feel that way I just do. no evidence so far either so like if that's true I'm saying all my feelings and seeing how many are correct at the end of this lol. but back on track, I feel like we now have like an absolute on 4 suspects involving this now because of you mentioning Feliar. First being the teacher, Second being The Witch, Third being Feliar and Fourth being the only option we know exactly zilch about, the possibility it's a completely new character and they will be introduced eventually. (Or fifth none of these and it's the fucking nameless or the weird rabbit demon from Ste's place.)
Regarding Jester, I also think he's a shape-shifter but to me the original Jester is, the Jester we got, like he's some kind of hybrid and the secret organisation on Northcrest wants him back for research purposes or just so they can integrate him in their society, for me the most likely person to not be the original would be Ruben with what evidence do I think that, you ask? Well feelings... So none at all. The demon rabbit to me seems like a off-shoot from the nameless like a little branch from him since I think what gift you choose from the nameless changes the rabbit dialogue, not sure, I'm one of those people who chooses a path and sticks with it all subsequent play throughs, so like the rabbit is not the nameless but it's somehow connected to him, like with the witches being opposite reflections of each other, they're the same being in essence but also different facets of one another, I think the rabbit is something like that but with less interrelation with the nameless.
Also the list of suspects is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, also I totally agree with it.
actually Rueben is a good suspect for finding out about some stuff in Northcrest as he is an apothecary making him pretty important to the war efforts, maybe your idea about Jester being the original along with something else has something too it... like maybe Rueben was tasked with created the perfect being to escape any scenario and ended up using the Blakemore son and got in trouble for it? plus a secret organization, maybe it was that cult that fucked up the entirety of Mythshore they created the booster and fucked up everyone by mass afflicting people with super Wraith Fever. if any secret organization would be involved, I'd assume it was them especially considering the fact that they were also people involved in Herbology as there is no other explanation for how they came up with the idea for Booster to increase the severity of Wraith Fever, so it takes a lot less time to kill and make zombies... wait what if Rueben is involved in that entire fiasco? like what if he was the one who made the booster but didn't know the purpose and thought it was supposed to be used on Orcs/he did know and didn't give a shit cause it was a fun experiment or more knowledge? also the rabbit being an extension of the nameless is a clever idea! I didn't even notice the dialog changed cause... I also stick to one choice usually lol. Which gift from the nameless did you take? Maybe we chose different ones and can share what we saw from our gifts!
At first I had chosen the collar because it gave the best best benefits, but I found out about the lucky charm that's just infinitely better since it does what the collar does better than the collar and gives a little extra, but at that point I didn't get the rabbit scene because I have shitty luck with RNG it's actually kinda amazing, but when you pick the collar the nameless says that cowering from him is a natural human response and bla bla bla so I think the rabbit dialogue would fit to you being a coward or something, but after a computer reboot and lost game data I choose the cock ring and the nameless says how he knows my deepest darkest desires and then fast forward to the farm and I finally get the scene and the rabbit than calls me a slut when I haven't even done anything slutty at the farm or even close to it so... My brain pretty much filled the gaps, so that is kind of an assumption, since then, I've been sticking to the cock ring.
Also not giving a fuck about how things are being used would fit Ruben, a lot, especially since he thinks he's the smartest person ever and any intellectual challenge is a welcomed one
alright screw it I'm cheating more I'm going to see all the dialog options cause we chose literally the exact same thing for different problems. also he jump scared my ass so hard because I didn't know the rabbit event had audio, and i had it maxed out because I didn't care to mute it without any audio to mute which caused me to shit myself when I heard it at 3 AM. also does he bite your neck off if you chose the cock ring cause I think I chose that my first time due to not entirely remembering the dialog and the fact that I have the collar now but don't remember if he did or didn't bite the neck off. plus I don't think he said anything about being a coward, but i did get the event like 4 times and each one scared until the last one because i was trying to get it again so I'll go check to see if I'm wrong.
now on the Rueben thing, i completely forgot about his massive superiority complex so yeah things would sense if he was involved in that and more. maybe he was originally planning on using Mythshore as a test to see if he could create a cure to something without one while making it worse at the same time so he could gain more fame? or just brag about it.