Well, there is a man here.

When interacting behind the tree

The Forgotten Man, also known as the Man Behind the Tree, or simply just the Man, is a mysterious character who can be encountered in each chapter of Deltarune. He is always hidden from the player's view, making his appearance completely unknown.

The Man is able to travel through both the Light World and the Dark World, but whether that means he is a Lightner is unknown. Majority of his interactions describe him through the narration (with the exception of Chapter 3). The tree the Man hides behind is similar to the red-leaved trees that populate the Field and Forest in Chapter 1.

Profile

Personality

The narration only gives very brief and mundane description of the Man. He offers Eggs every chapter to Kris for unknown reasons. He does, however, seem friendly to them, as he is once described as "waving happily to [them]." Within Mancountry, the Man reveals himself as a eccentric yet knowledgeable figure, expressing awareness of the way the world used to be in the prehistoric age though admitting it sounds nonsensical. The Man appears to have a connection with Kris in particular claiming they have met each other in the past, but as his nature of being a Forgotten man they have both forgotten him repeatedly. Upon hearing that Kris wont forget him next time, the Man expresses joy and gives them his schedule availability (which are in actuality abstract hints at his past and future appearances within the Dark World's) before telling them "Whether 11 hours, or 11 years, Deltarune will be waiting".

Main Story

Chapter 1

Between the room with the Starwalker Bird and the darkening room, there is a very small chance (1/50 or 2%) of entering a hidden place between the two areas. This area consists of a small path leading to a tree. The music is replaced by a simple piano melody and Kris is the only one present upon entering it, regardless of who is in their party at the time.

When inspecting the tree, narration states that "he" is behind it. Inspecting behind the tree reveals that there is a man behind it and that he offers something. If the offer is accepted, it is revealed to be an Egg. After that, inspecting where the man was reveals that he is no longer there. The area cannot be re-entered.

Chapter 2

If the man was met during Chapter 1, he appears in Hometown at the beginning of Chapter 2. When leaving the School to go to the Library, inspecting any car in the traffic points out that there is a man in it who waves happily at Kris. Inspecting a car once more reveals nothing about the man.

Regardless of the party's actions in Chapter 1, the man can be found in Cyber City's tree room. If the Annoying Dog cutscene has already played and the game is not on the Weird Route, there is a 1/50, or 2% chance^[1] when attempting to enter the Dog Dumpster room that instead Kris alone ends up in the tree room, just as before.

The tree room contains a low tree, in the same design as the one in Chapter 1, and the music is replaced with the piano melody again. When examining the spot behind the tree, the man offers another Egg to Kris. Once taken or declined, the man ceases to exist there, and subsequent examinations reveal that "there was not a man here." Exiting the area returns the party to where they came from. The area cannot be re-entered.

Chapter 3

Finding the man in Chapter 3 is more involved than in all other chapters, requiring a series of specific actions and utilizing a number of cryptic hints from the B-rank room's Ball Machine fortunes. To access him, one must head down and to the right of the Frozen Green Room, then down again to an area containing a tiny Stealth section with a single, slow moving spotlight. Following the Ball Machine fortune, "Sometimes you should take the spotlight if it heads your way. Don't be a coward!" the player must get caught by the spotlight. A Zapper will appear and ask if the player is a cheater. If answered "cheater" then told they're going "Nowhere," the Zapper will take Kris to an empty corridor containing only a game screen.

That game screen is, in fact, located directly to the right of a puzzle solved earlier, indicated by the identical "O" symbol and arrangement of bushes also found in a puzzle area left of a quiz during the TV World section, and corroborated by the Ball Machine Fortune "Mumble... mumble... Two puzzles are connected...". The earlier room in question required solving a Lights Out type of puzzle using a Lancer controller obtained previously in a side room to obtain a push block. If the player returns to that puzzle and has it solved, they can use the Susie controller to pick up and toss the block over to the right side of a river, between two grass tiles. If the block was tossed over to the right spot, the puzzle in the empty corridor can then be solved by returning to that room via the spotlight and Zapper below the Frozen Green Room, and pushing that same block onto a plate. After this, a bridge will appear, allowing the 8-bit Kris to press a button, which will reveal a path outside of the game.

Heading to the right, Kris will find yet another game screen, this time with a lone Bibliox connected to the game while mumbling to itself. Interacting with the Bibliox outside of the game won't do anything, but it can be interacted with inside the game. Exhausting its dialog and following its instructions allows the player to obtain the key item TripTicket. Alternatively if the player collects the Shadow Mantle all the consoles will become unusable, but the player can still interact with the Bibliox, who will tell the player to collect the ticket in the B-Room. Upon reaching the B-Room and interacting with the ball machine, they must have at least "1225" points to put into the machine. Doing so will transport Kris into a subspace where they can find a miniature ball machine. Interacting with it will give a cryptic text of Kris being unable to find their hand. Afterward Kris will be transported back into the B-Room where they can collect the TripTicket on the ground.

Inspecting the trip ticket reveals a hint for the next part. Pairing that hint with the Ball Machine Fortune, "You'll croak before you can find the X! Signed, the Mad Croaker.", the party must encounter any Ribbick, and hover over the CroakOnX ACT. The X will be colored red, and holding left will allow the player to escape the fight. Upon escaping, Kris alone in their Light World outfit will be transported to Mancountry.

Mancountry appears to be a Game Boy-style retro area not unlike the various game screens across Chapter 3. There are several rooms, containing various signs and 6 8-bit Rudinns of various colors, as well as a recolored Tree from chapter 1. The music playing in this area is a chiptune remix of the music that played in the tree rooms in Chapters 1 and 2. Interacting behind the tree allows Kris to talk to the man. Curiously, the man has dialogue,^[2] unlike in both previous chapters. To get all the dialog and obtain the Egg, the player must say "No" when the man asks if Kris will forget him, and "Yes" when he asks if you want to meet again. The other choices are inconsequential. After obtaining the Egg or answering incorrectly, examining the same spot again will reveal that there isn't a man there. The area cannot be re-entered.

Answering "Yes" to the man when he asks whether we want to meet again will prompt him to give us his "schedule". The schedule appears to give hints to the location of the Man in the other chapters:

• "ON THRUSDAY, I GO TO SELL THE DONUTS."
  • Chapter 1 takes place on a Thursday, and the tree room is found near the Bake Sale
• "ON FRIDAY, I TOSS THE LEFTOVERS, IN THE DUMPSTER."
  • Chapter 2 takes place on a Friday, and the tree room is found next to a dumpster
• "ON SATURDAY, I LET IT COOL ON THE WINDOWSILL."
  • Chapter 4 takes place on a Saturday, and the tree room is found in a hall with many windows
• "ON SUNDAY, I HARVEST THE WHEAT."
  • Chapter 5 will most likely take place on a Sunday, and it is reasonable to assume the tree room will be placed in an area with wheat.
• "HOLD YOUR BREATH, HEAD TO THE LEFT, AND COUNT BACKWARDS TO 100..."
  • This line refers to Chapter 4, particularly in the Second Sanctuary, where the player must travel to the room in the opposite direction to Susie’s prophecy chase, and enter through the 100th window.

Chapter 4

If the Man was found in Chapter 3, he will appear within a packed QC Diner during the rain spotting Kris outside. The Man will happily tap his takeout box before presumably disappearing. During the Second and Third Sanctuaries, Kris can find a long corridor containing 4 Philosophers and many windows. Among the windows, one of them has a slightly different design, and can be entered like a door. Most of the time, entering this window will lead to a room containing a lone Philosopher and a Prophecy glass pane, showing two trees, a house and the lone word "ROOTS." However, upon reentering the room a total of 8 times, Kris will instead enter the tree room immediately rather than relying on the usual 2% chance (1/50).

The tree room resembles a hospital different from the one in Hometown. The receptionist is an 8-bit Rudinn similar to the ones in Mancountry. Heading to the left leads to 3 doors. Two of them are locked, while the middle door has a tree scribbled on it. Entering it leads to a dark room where nothing can be seen, but several things can be interacted with:

• A sink, near the top right.
• An easel, near the bottom right
• An unknown NPC, painting on said easel. The NPC remarks that Kris is here for an "Art Club" and that this is "where we draw pictures, and don't kill each other!"
• The tree, near the left. Inspecting it reveals "he is behind the tree"
• The man, above the tree. Interacting with him shows that he is "pointing at something and nodding". The man can be interacted with multiple times, unlike his other appearances.
• A canvas, near the bottom. Interacting with it allows the player to choose whether to draw something or not. Choosing "No" will make the both the canvas and man disappear, making the egg impossible to obtain. Choosing "Yes" makes the screen go black. The dialog box then describes Kris attempting several times to draw what "they saw behind the tree". After failing to do so multiple times, the canvas is covered with "a monochrome smear". Kris then paints a tree over everything. After this, the Egg will be obtained, and the man will disappear.
• After interacting with the canvas, you can approach the sink again to prompt Kris to wash their hands. They succeed in cleaning their hands, but note that there are some things that "can't be washed away".

Alternatively, if the room is missed the first time, interacting with a Philosopher in the 3rd Sanctuary, will prompt him to create a door leading back to Egg Room. The music playing in the area is a remix of the music playing in the first two egg rooms. The area cannot be re-entered.

Trivia

• The track playing in the background of the hidden rooms is not present in the official Deltarune OST. It is known in the game files simply as "man.ogg."
  • The track was originally created as a fan song titled "waltz of seccom masada" for the game Yume Nikki. It was part of a collection of songs called "made up yume nikkis" that was posted to Toby Fox's Tumblr.^[3]
• The Man appears to take inspiration from the Forgotten Man from Earthbound Beginnings because of his dialogue options, name, being described as both not being there and being there, his redacted posture which Kris is described to have drawn-- matching the Redacted Sprite from Undertale which is also believed to be the unused character, "Grandpa Semi," due to him bearing the identity of "redacted", as seen in Papyrus’ concept art. Additionally, Toby Fox has gone into great depth about this character’s meaning across the Japanese and English translated versions of Earthbound Beginnings in a prior interview.^[4]
• On deltarune.com/man/ there is an image of the tree that the Man stands behind. The heading for the page reads: *(behind the tree.).^[5]

Speculation

• The Man may be related to Grandpa Semi or the "Mystery Man," a secret character in Undertale found in a similar fashion.
  • The areas the Man resides being "[rooms] in between" are similar to the fake hallway leading to Mystery Man's room that may appear if Undertale's Fun Value is set to 66.
• In Undertale's True Lab, there is a room filled with refrigerators. Before turning on the lab ventilation, fog in the area changes the protagonist's interactions with the refrigerators to vague assumptions. One of these interactions describes "Something in the shape of a man," which may be an allusion to The Man.
  • Another interaction describes something that "feels like a tree, ripe with delicious fruit," which could possibly allude to the tree The Man hides behind.
• At the Fangamer FAQ with Spamton during the Spamton Sweepstakes event, Spamton will tell you that the white Egg is the Man's treasure^[6]. The quote "A WHITE ONE, THAT'S SURELY [another man's treasure].". This may also refer to The Man. Since completing a chapter with the egg doesn’t give you any achievements for doing so on PlayStation edition of the game, this could strongly apply this egg was meant for another man instead, like the mystery man.
• Within the Winter 2024 Deltarune Newsletter a series of digital valentines cards were emailed to fans. One of the cards, #39^[7] is speculated to be from the Man due to the way the writer talks about forgetting being similar to the Man's dialogue in Chapter 3. Shortly after this was discovered, the letter was replaced with a blank one^[8], keeping in line with the Man disappearing after you talk to him.
  • While the URL for each of the other 45 letters indicate which character the letter was from, this one labeled the writer as 'unknown'.
• The man and "him" (files of Gaster's theme in Undertale) share the same abbreviation for a male. While not likely, it's not entirely impossible for the man to be a candidate for W. D. Gaster, as they seem to both be forgotten.
• On the PlayStation edition of the game, you will not receive the Chapter ending achievement only if you have obtained the Egg, described as "Completing Chapter [x] without issue". This may imply that the Mysterious Voice is opposed or finds a problem in the Forgotten Man. This could hint that the Forgotten Man might NOT be Gaster, or at least isn't the same character as the Mysterious Voice.
• The Man Behind the Tree, is where you get the Egg. The reference the Knight being the Man Behind the Tree is potentially a nod to how putting the word "EGG" Into a Wingdings font Gives you: "☜︎☝︎☝︎" Which is how a knight moves in chess. This could potentially mean that Gaster is the Knight.

References