Modoc the Wise was a Native American shaman who lived in the valley of Gravity Falls, thousands of years before the events of the series. Modoc was the first human Bill attempted to coerce. The wisest of his tribe, he leapt at the demon's offer to construct "a gateway to the secrets of the universe": the first portal, described in The Book of Bill as a "redwood portal". Said portal went on to create a bottomless pit (possibly the Bottomless Pit), turn a man's face to stone (possibly the Rock-That-Looks-a-Face Rock at the Mystery Shack), release two lake monsters (possibly the Gobblewonker and the Island Head Beast), and briefly turn the sky red.
During or after the activation of the portal, Modoc reportedly had a vision of the consequences of Weirdmageddon and burnt the portal down, sabotaging Bill's plans. He locked Bill out of the valley with "a mix of ancient sorcery and spite", created a warning on a cave wall with instructions to prevent anyone in the future from making the same mistake, and prophesied a zodiac of ten symbols that would bear witness to Bill's defeat. After being banned, Bill would turn his attention to other humans around the world and throughout history in search of the perfect pawn for his plans, while Modoc's zodiac and warning would be discovered by Ford Pines many years later, during his investigations of the town of Gravity Falls.
Sightings[]
- Gravity Falls: Journal 3 (first appearance)
- The Book of Bill
Trivia[]
- According to a cryptogram in The Book of Bill, Bill believes one of his Henchmaniacs ratted out his plans to Modoc.
- In the "Bill's Secret History" blacklight pages in the Special Edition of Journal 3, Modoc is said by Ford to have "met a gruesome end when he ran afoul of Bill". In The Book of Bill, his fate is more ambiguous.
- Modoc's name is likely a reference to the Modoc people, an indigenous group historically inhabiting what is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon.
- Curiously, Modoc's name is mentioned nowhere in his description in The Book of Bill.