Bare me with people, after much researching into the very dark hearts of conspiracies, I think I've found the plot/conspiracy of the Snipes! They may look like cute little creatures without a care in the world, but that just has to be a disguise!

Knights always buy valuable Crystal Energy from kind Strangers (Excluding the Energy shortcut), however...ever notice how these Strangers ALL seem to have a Snipe on their body? This seems a bit weird...also, that Stranger "Warnel" in Haven asks us not to step on the Snipes and highly compliments them and calls the modest, sure they may be all of that...or not...

This brings me into the plot of the Snipes:

1. The Snipes could be a greedy race of birds who only care about themselves and their own wealth...therefore...

2. They have used some sort of Mind Control technique/device/other thing to take control of the minds of the Strangers, I assume they did this around the time the knights came and the Snipes figured out that energy was vital to the knights...

3. Then they make the Strangers sell the Crystal Energy to the knights that need it at high prices (Not secretly implying anything about the current CE prices) and since the Crystal Energy is in such high demand because the knights need to conquer Cradle and get the Skylark up and running, the prices only get higher and higher

(Number 3 is where we are right now, and from here on is what I think while happen after all my research and discovery, but am describing it to you as if it already happened)

4. That's not the end of it, somehow someway the Snipes have been making counterfeit Crystal Energy, I assume from somehow recoloring Minerals to look like Crystal Energy, then selling the fake energy to unsuspecting knights

5. While selling the counterfeit Crystal Energy to the unsuspecting knights the Snipes hoard the real Crystal Energy, making more and more and more, and remember how many knights there are on Cradle, and how high demand Crystal Energy is, there making a lot of Crystal Energy

6. But when the Crystal Energy doesn't activate the Elevators or work for Alchemy, they are researched into by the researchers of the Spiral Order to find out that it wasn't really Crystal Energy

7. So now since the knights think that the Snipes are harmless cute little birds, they only suspect that the STRANGERS are the corrupt ones to blame, thus forcing the Strangers to leave to someplace far away (They can do this because of the their strength and numbers) from there homes and so on

8. The Snipes still look like harmless little cute birds, so they just disappear as if to be 'saddened' or 'following' the Strangers, when they really have gone into hiding with their giant amount of Crystal Energy, to bask in their wealth and live in luxury

9. Seeing as how the knights themselves don't completely know how to get/mine Crystal Energy and they Strangers were the only ones who knew (As it seems), the Crystal Energy output while be severely reduced for who knows how long

10. The knights won't be able to use the Crystal Energy as much anymore thus reducing their exploration of Cradle thus increasing their time on Cradle significantly, while the Snipes live in luxury with truly no care in the world

So what do you guys think of my theory? Seems legit to me...if it is...we better get rid of those Snipes lest we remain on Cradle for a long, long time