Typically around this time of year, fans of American Horror Story already know the general theme of the forthcoming season. They are treated to an onslaught of promos and teaser images to whet the palate for what depraved monstrosities await them. Not this year.

This year, FX decided to change things up. In lieu of transparency around the theme, the powers that be chose secrecy. We still have more teasers than we can keep up with, but the large majority of them are apparently fake to hide the one or two legit ones. The network even set up a contest for fans to motivate them to figure out the mystery.

Here’s what we actually know…

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Image via FX

Showrunner Ryan Murphy said, “we've been working on two ideas at once, which we've never done.” He added, “Both ideas we're working with have elements of children,” and that Season 6 “will have a different form than we've ever done.” In a separate interview with EW, he teased the possibility of two seasons in 2016, “a fall American Horror Story and a spring.” At the very least, the creative crew will have “two different groups of writers rooms” for something Murphy described as “more rogue and more dark.” He also claimed back in October that the theme is “an idea that we started talking about in Season 1. So, the clue for Season 6 is not just in the material we're doing now; it's from way back in Season 1.”

FX CEO John Landgraf told reporters during the TCA winter press tour at the beginning of the year that Season 6 will be “set in the present” with “echoes of the past.” Speaking with THR, Murphy then admitted he wants AHS to be like The Twilight Zone in that Season 6 will lay the groundwork for what will continue for Seasons 7, 8, and beyond.

With all that in mind, here are some theories for Season 6 to get the idea mill churning, and you can vote for which one you think is the most likely, and add your own ideas in the comments. As Joan Callamezzo would say…

speculate

1. The Lost Colony

In early August, TMZ published what they claimed to be the first set photos for AHS Season 6 in Santa Clarita, California. The photos featured pilgrim-inspired homes and gathering tables, but one shot of a tree proved to be the most revealing. Etched into its bark was the word “Croatoan.”

In the late 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I attempted to establish a permanent English settlement in America that would become the Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island in what is now Dare County, North Carolina. The community earned the name The Lost Colony because they vanished under mysterious circumstances with the only clue being the word Croatoan carved into a nearby tree. The word also refers to the Croatoan tribe, who were some of the local natives at the time.

The validity of these set photos are still in question, though TMZ posted photos of Murder House’s return in Hotel, which proved to be spot on. Furthermore, there are various references to Native Americans, including Tate’s speech about how the “Indians believed blood holds all the bad spirits” in Season 1.

2. Cults

During a 2013 interview with Deadline, Murphy said of Season 3, “There was a point last year in August where I was like, ‘I want to do an entire season about the [Charles] Manson case.’ But then we decided that wasn’t respectful to the victims, and it’s really hard to get life rights.” He said there was a possibility of returning to the theme at a later point, but that the tone would have to be right.

Even if Murphy isn’t able to pull off Manson, a Mason-esque theme centered around cults doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. It would also link back to what Murphy said about children, playing into their mental malleability when faced with a figure looking to warp minds.

Lending more fuel to this theory are the demon baby and spider promos. One Twitter user pointed out that the crib mobile seems to use the Season 6 logo to spell out “Pig,” a possible reference to Roman Polanski’s murdered wife Sharon Tate. The model and actress was killed in her home by members of The Manson Family cult when she was pregnant with a son, and her blood was used to paint the word pig onto her front door.

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/CreepyCatalog/status/759450774846013440[/EMBED_TWITTER]

As for the spiders, Manson made himself arachnid-inspired art pieces while incarcerated in Corcoran Prison. Among the teasers are a poster with a pale woman with spiders crawling out of her eyes, and a video of a tarantula emerging from her mouth.

3. The Anti-Christ

Ever since Connie Britton gave birth to the Anti-Christ at the end of Season 1, fans have been wondering whether the demonic infant would pop back up at a later time fully grown. During production on Hotel, Murphy even teased the possibility of its return, and now we know the seasons are all connected to warrant this plot point.

Going back to the demon baby promo for Season 6, the video shows a monstrous arm reaching up from the crib to grab a blade from the dangling mobile. This theorized theme would both play up the children aspect and the Season 1 clue. Perhaps Murder House’s return in Hotel was foreshadowing of what’s to come — or, perhaps, that too was a misdirect.

4. Radiation Fallout

Among the first batch of teasers for Season 6 was a video featuring a shadowed family walking towards the camera with glowing green eyes. It was soon followed with another promo similar in style and color palette that featured a Stranger Things-esque beast crawling along train tracks. This instantly brought to mind The Hills Have Eyes, but there’s support for the theme of radiation fallout elsewhere.

According to an intrepid Reddit user, radiation is mentioned throughout AHS, but specifically notes the names of the main characters in The Hills Have Eyes: Mars, Ethel, and Papa Jupiter. In Freak Show, Jessica Lange played Elsa Mars and even sang David Bowie’s “Life on Mars,” Kathy Bates played bearded lady Ethel Darling, and the circus was located in Jupiter, Florida. How’s that for coincidence?

5. Hollywood

Keeping with Murphy’s note of a Season 1 clue, Hollywood is constantly referenced in Murder House. Troy, Constance’s boy toy, was trying to make it as an actor, and Constance herself exclaimed during a heated conversation that she had the same dreams of being a star when she was younger. Then there was the ghost of Elizabeth Short, who wanted to become famous, and did -- when her murder made all the papers.

If this is the clue Murphy was talking about, perhaps the theme could be about Hollywood, acting, or fame. Working against that theory is Hotel, which was very similar to that concept in tone and style. Working for that theory are the teasers. Though they’ve all been seemingly disparate, maybe they are all secretly working together, each one channeling a classic movie from Creature From the Black Lagoon to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Rosemary’s Baby to paint a larger picture.

6. Roswell

AHS already tackled aliens in the Asylum season, but could they be making a return. Multiple promos for Season 6 have featured references to aliens, from the man abducted from a field to the crop circles, and maybe the green-eyed family are out of this world. Then again, the fact that aliens has become a pattern in the largely fake teasers might be a sign of their illegitimacy.

However, Murphy told EW in 2014 that he was considering filming Season 4 (which ended up being Freak Show) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is uncomfortably close to Roswell, the site of the UFO incident. Maybe — and this is a stretch — there was a reason Murphy mentioned the Twilight Zone, a series that features aliens on the reg.

American Horror Story Season 6 will premiere on FX September 14.