Five Nights at Freddy’s, which will be referred to as FNAF for the sake of saving space, was a series created by former indie game developer Scott Cawthon, which sets the player as a night-shift security guard in a themed pizzeria, much like Chuck E. Cheese’s. The player must avoid the animatronic characters during the night until 6 A.M., but that barely scrapes the surface of the games and their meanings. The series contains 8 games (FNAF 1-4, Sister Location, Pizzeria Simulator, Help Wanted, and Security Breach), plus an AR game for mobile devices and a customizable game that is not included in the lore. 

Most people interested in the FNAF games usually only know the surface level of knowledge required to understand the games and their place in the series, but there are much more in-depth understandings of the games. This is the entire FNAF lore broken down by in-game timeline. 

WARNING: Most of the FNAF lore is THEORIZED. People will have different beliefs on the series of events, and there may be holes in the plot or different timelines. A lot of these speculations have not been confirmed by Scott Cawthon. Be aware that this is a combination of different theories. The lore also contains mentions of FICTIONAL murder, suicide, and graphic content.

1. Fredbear’s Family Diner. 

The beginning of the lore takes place in Five Nights at Freddy’s 4. In 1983, a diner is started by William Afton and Henry Emily known as “Fredbear’s Family Diner.” The men worked together to create three animatronics: Fredbear, Spring Bonnie, and the puppet/Marionette, though the main focus will be Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. These animatronics could walk around the location and be used as robots or be worn by employees as costume. However, there was one thing about the suits: they were equipped with “spring locks.” These spring locks would activate when in contact with water/moisture and close as if they were attaching to the endoskeleton animatronic. In the game, the player takes the role of an unnamed boy, commonly known as the “Crying Child,” who was the youngest son of William Afton. The Crying Child (which will be referred to as CC) had an irrational fear of the animatronics (hence why he is referred to as the crying child, due to him always crying), and was constantly taunted by his older brother, Michael. One of the CC’s birthdays was held at Fredbear’s Family Diner, and Michael, along with his friends, decided to play a prank of the CC. They picked the boy up and held his head in the mouth of Fredbear; however, they forgot one important detail: the springlocks are activated by moisture. The CC’s tears activated the springlocks, and CHOMP. Crying Kid Cuisine. This would become the infamous “Bite of ‘83.” 

During this time, William Afton would also have his first target: the daughter of Henry Emily. William Afton’s first signs of insanity are his experimentations with life and death. He brings this up with Henry Emily and leads to a large argument. As William drives home from Henry’s house, he finds Henry’s daughter standing outside of the restaurant by herself. The rage from their conversation leads to the demise of Henry’s daughter. This would become the first of many murders by Afton. 

1. Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental

The next game in the timeline would be Sister Location. In the same year (1983), a sister location of Fredbear’s Family Diner was opened: “Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental.” The purpose of this location was to use other animatronics created by William Afton at birthday parties. These animatronics would become known as the “Funtimes”: Funtime Freddy and BonBon, Funtime Foxy, Circus Baby, Ballora and the Minirinas, and Bidybab. The player, who is later identified as an undercover Michael Afton (alias name: Mike Schmidt), navigates through the underground facility, guided by Circus Baby, to avoid getting killed by the other animatronics. In the beginning of the game, a conversation between William Afton and his daughter Elizabeth plays, and Elizabeth begs her father to go see Circus Baby and mentions that she is able to give children ice cream through her stomach hatch and claw. In a cutscene later in the game, Elizabeth gets into contact with Circus Baby, but she malfunctions and the claw reaches out, grabbing Elizabeth and killing her. This shows that these animatronics’ main function is to kill children. Another animatronic, Ennard, exists within the location. Ennard is a clown-like, amalgamation of parts from the other animatronics and is the main protagonist in “Sister Location.” From how he appears, he may have been an older animatronic that was put out of commission. He is a piece of all the other Funtime animatronics, therefore, he has a level of “control” over them. Because of this, Michael realizes that Circus Baby isn’t helping him, but rather leading him to his demise. 

Inside the sister location, there is a room called the “Scooping Room.” Within this room is a large crane-like machine and a floor scattered with animatronic parts. The room’s sole purpose is to rip the outer layer of the animatronic off of the endoskeleton to use those pieces for spare parts. However, Michael ends up becoming a victim of this machine and quite literally gets his insides scooped. During this process, Ennard manages to insert himself inside of Michael, and becomes “undead.” This is shown in the “You Won’t Die” cutscene after the last night. Michael’s skin becomes a deep shade of purple and regurgitates pieces of Ennard into the sewer as Circus Baby repeats “You won’t die” in the background. Ladies and gentlemen, this is “Purple Guy.” However, he is not the only one, nor the first. 

1. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza (The First One)

Backtracking a bit, William Afton has his first victim: Henry Emily’s daughter. After this is reported and Afton is interrogated and cleared, Fredbear’s Family Diner is closed for an unknown reason. Time skip to a year later, 1984, Fredbear’s is bought out by another company. Fazbear Entertainment takes over and they reopen the restaurant as “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza,” which correlates with the theme of FNAF 2. One of the old suits from Fredbear’s is kept (Spring Bonnie) and a new cast is built: the main 4 animatronics. This includes Foxy the Pirate, Freddy Fazbear, Chica, and Bonnie; however, these are scrapped and kept for parts due to them not being “child friendly,” and would become the withered animatronics. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica get a new design as Toy Animatronics in addition to Balloon Boy and the Puppet/Marionette. An old model of Funtime Foxy is reused as a “Toy Foxy,” though it was turned into a “take-apart, put-back-together” interactive attraction for little kids and it was renamed by guests “The Mangle.”

The Marionette plays a vital role in the FNAF universe and will become a heroic character in the lore. It is speculated that the puppet animatronic had existed in Fredbear’s as a prize counter vendor. In Pizzeria Simulator, the puppet is seen navigating outside the diner’s walls and finding the soul of Henry Emily’s daughter after her death. The soul is passed onto the Marionette and becomes a protector of children in these establishments. 

Back to FNAF 2, in this location, a total of 5 children end up going missing which is later titled the ‘Missing Children Incident’. This is later revealed to be Afton’s doing, in which he uses the Spring Bonnie suit to lure children individually to the back safe room and murders them. Later on in the game, a character featured in the first 2 games “Phone Guy” mentions an opening in the day shift. A cutscene in the third game suggests that William Afton had been haunted by the crying souls of his victims from the Missing Children Incident, and was cornered in the safe room by the ghosts before jumping into the Spring Bonnie suit on a stormy night. The room suffered severe water damage and had leaking through the ceiling, as it is shown that there is a puddle on the floor and water dripping from the roof. As Afton laughs at the children while wearing the suit, he quickly stops and drops to his knees. The springlocks activated from the rain leaking into the room and his sweating after being chased by one of the souls. Afton drops to the floor, signifying the end of his life. 

The player is in the shoes of Jeremy Fitzgerald, a night-time security guard. Unfortunately, Jeremy has a terrible accident on one of the days he is working, which would be the fifth night in-game. Based on the appearance of their jumpscare, it is safe to say Mangle is responsible for the incident of Jeremy losing his frontal lobe, also known as the “Bite of ‘87.” The extra nights are taken over by Mike Schmidt (Michael Afton) and is warned by Phone Guy that he shouldn’t be there due to an “incident.” The restaurant closed and reopened in a time period around 1992.

1. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza (The Second One)

At the re-reopening, which correlates with the first game published in the series (FNAF 1), the four scrapped animatronics from the first Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza set the scene for the most recognizable characters in the series. This is where the puppet’s scene from Pizzeria Simulator becomes important. A question most fans asked: how did the animatronics become possessed? At the end of Pizzeria Simulator, one of the endings plays a long monologue that is interpreted as Henry Emily, which covers the topic of his young daughter and how he knows it is in her nature to be protecting innocent people. This personality trait was passed onto the Marionette, hence why their role is to protect children from getting hurt by Afton. The lost souls of the kids from the Missing Children Incident were “gifted life,” as shown in the “Gift Gives, Gift Life” minigame from FNAF 2. However, there was another soul left: the Crying Child. Due to the Crying Child dying to the Fredbear animatronic in Fredbear’s Family Diner, he was gifted the Fredbear animatronic to possess, but the only problem was the physical animatronic was scrapped. This allowed the Crying Child to exist “in spirit,” which would be the origins of Golden Freddy, a rare animatronic that pops up randomly in FNAF 1. This game doesn’t consist much lore compared to the others, considering it’s the first game in the series, besides the fact that Phone Guy dies in this game on the fifth night which proves the theory that FNAF 2 is a prequel to the first game, since Phone Guy is still alive in the second installment. It has been theorized that the bodies of the children are located somewhere inside of the animatronics because of the newspaper clippings from the end of the game when it is beat, they describe the restaurant closing due to bad odors and liquids oozing from the animatronics. It closed sometime around 1993. 

At this point in the timeline, there isn’t much explanation on what happened over the next 30 or so years after the closing of the second restaurant. Personally, I have not read them, but as far as I know, they are not completely canon.

To be continued. 😀