[2020] Dauntless | Lore AMA

This isn't a lore question :)

With the Ramsgate rework opens the possibility of a rework to the islands of casual patrols which are lacking in love, have they weighed that possibility?

Sorry, we're only answering questions pertaining to lore in this one!

The island seen through the portal is the central island of the Umbral Deeps formation--where umbral escalation takes place. When it was discovered, Arkan Drew realized it was on a course that would carry it straight into Ramsgate.

Remember, thus far the escalation islands have all been hypercharged formations spit out by the heart of the Maelstrom. In this case, Ramsgate seems to have gotten unlucky, at least until Arkan figured out how to use the portal driver to get everyone out. So the meteors are chunks of the Umbral Deeps raining down.

I have noticed some specific loitering NPC Slayers that did not make it over from old Ramsgate, so yes, some are still awaiting their revive.

They didn't! The Umbral Deeps became unstable and were going to explode so we had to get out of dodge.

Ramsgate was in close proximity to the danger. The other islands were far enough away to survive.

We usually start with a code name during development that the team decides on. Then our writer, Cory, chooses the final name after much deliberation.

Is there any specific requirement for becoming a slayer? (besides training, obviously) Can anybody become one, or is some natural talent required?

Anyone can call themselves Slayers as long as you hunt Behemoths. There is a Slayer's Guild in Ramsgate that manages the business of Slaying. If you're recognized by them, you're pretty much a pro.

Behemoths are asexual, but when they dissolve upon death, their particles are scattered to the winds. Sometimes, one of those particles becomes a Behemoth.

No one alive seems to know what's all the way down there at the bottom of the Sky Below. I've always kind of pictured something like a cross between the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the sea floor "city" in Waterworld, but with, y'know, air. And shadow. And all kinds of horrifying mixes of aether and archonite and massive pressures that would probably crush the average human flat in moments.

And to answer in reverse--pretty much! Or rather, the aether and archonite extraction combined with rampant and uncontrolled Behemoths feeding on everything in sight (once we lost control of the Behemoths themselves) it all just imploded. The Shattered Isles now orbit the core of the world, essentially.

Would love a cartoon dauntless series.

Thanks for all of your insight into the game! I can focus specifically on the part about the cartoon series, we are experimenting with suitable styles for more 2D animation styles in the in-game journal collections!

Here's the thing about Granny Strega: the uncertainty surrounding her is something she both embraces and perpetuates. If it just so happens that people believe she has dubious connections and powers... well, that's good for business, right? But that also doesn't mean those things aren't true. She is very much an unreliable narrator, and getting at the truth of things is going to take a lot of different perspectives from other characters as the story progresses to get at where the truth ends, and the fabrication begins.

Having said that, Cory has pointed out that's she's actually up to 8 husbands that she has been through! A terrible fate / met by eight / Granny Strega? / you shouldn't date.

Well it's definitely not perfect for a child.

It's unclear who was here before the Ramsgaters arrived, but Kat, the Bosun, and Arkan are pretty sure the islands were uninhabited but not free of wreckage like harpoons.

Surprisingly, none of it! We have a lore guide and it's all still true to this day.

I read it over when I first started.

Well, you shouldn't consume it. That would be like eating plutonium or something. It's mostly just used for technology to harness it.

There have been tales of Slayers who tried to harness it personally, but things didn't go well.

Yes. Stay tuned.

We're all in a zoom call and bugging him for answers. His brain is an encyclopedia of Dauntless knowledge.

I've loved it since I first read it, and I can't wait to bring more of it to the gameplay experience!

We haven't explicitly said... Who knows. It's destroyed beyond recognition so it's hard to tell.

Well... That would be interesting...

There are a TON of every kind of Behemoth. Their "name" is actually the name of that breed.

I also want to pet Hector :(

3rd question: is it possible for a behemoth to multi elements or all elements.

I know this one! Neutral behemoths are a balance of all elements, so you could theoretically say Gnasher is the most OP behemoth.

We think he made it out safely but has yet to be seen!

Are behemoths naturally allied with each other like what we see in Escalation, or do they clash with one another just like our IRL animals?

Behemoths seem to ignore each other for the most part--whether that's because it's something built into their aDNA or just part of their normal behaviour is unclear. Since the Orrery knows they were once used as weapons it's likely the potential to fight each other is still within them and could even be teased out by some nefarious folks, but so far no one, not even the Orrery's scholars, are aware of such a thing.

What is the full extent to the usage of our lanterns? Right now, we use it being used in combat, for reviving someone, and for mounting on a behemoth.

And also for receiving radio communications, drawing power out of charged archonite, and making sure you don't trip over your own feet while traipsing through the Deeps.

In the grand scheme of things, where is the new Ramsgate settlement right now? Are we nearer/farther to the Maelstrom than before? How far are we from settlements like Ostia and St. Avellaine? And how far are we relative to the old Ramsgate's location which should be the Umbral Esclation's new location?

Arkan has determined the new site of Ramsgate is still in the Ram Formation (the mega-archipelago that contains the city) but on the far opposite side. Distant enough to be safe from the Umbral Deeps but still in the same formation. Think of it as moving from the west coast of the US to the east coast.

Hector is OLD.

Also, Wils actually had a gambling habit in his old lore... So he is very bad with money.

We have tossed around some ideas for this, but nothing is confirmed. We'd love to visit the ruins...

Yes this, but I am down to add more turtles, new Ramsgate is pretty big : D

None of them are technically from this Umbral dimension, but being able to use Umbral aether gives them the ability to access these dimensions.

We may return to the ruins in the future, but this isn't confirmed or being worked on right now.

She's hiding... features under development! Good eyes Slayer!

We're just glad you did...

Honestly, it could be coming from one or the other or both. She's still unsure of how this works.

He's still kicking! A lot of NPCs were removed to stability reasons. They aren't dead, just staying at home or elsewhere.

They emerge as adults, but they do grow over time, getting larger and larger as they consume aether.

Nothing is off the table as far as combining elements. Neutral is a balance of all elements so it's not far off to assume that some behemoths may one day branch down two pathways!

Yes, in a future patch, you'll be able to interact with the portal driver in Ramsgate to play the cinematic again.

Sure, these are great questions! Let me tackle the last one first: since joining the team, one of my first priorities has been to get out ahead of the story as far as possible. The biggest reason for this is to be able to better marry story to game mechanics, to create an overall tighter experience. I'm already most of the way through defining what will happen in Season 12 - which means this is the point where I shamelessly tease things: Kienan has shown me some early concept art from a new key character and faction, and they look amazing.

We'll be spending more time with these characters, as we work to bring more of an emphasis to building out the living world and our relation to it, and the other folks that live within it. So... consider yourself teased!

Now, on the subject of development! I'd say the biggest difference in the live environment for storytelling is the human element, and room for things to happen organically. More on that in a moment, but first, the contrast:

When you're working in traditional waterfall development, those elements are often roughly defined at the beginning (creating some "guiding star" points to shape missions and content) and then refined and polished near to the end - usually after you find out that some element of the story you fell in love with just wasn't possible for mechanical reasons. This means your story is often a closed circuit - in many genres that makes sense (for example, JRPGs) but for games that go into live services after a static release, it can sometimes mean some jarring adjustments between your expectations and reality.

Conversely, when you're in a live environment, you have the ability to see what is / isn't resonating with folks. If the original plan was for The Bosun to actually be the Mastermind Behemoth, but hints of that plot weren't clicking - we'd have the ability to change before we got too far invested into it. (That is not a serious suggestion by the by, but do feel free to make a headcanon for it!)

This means we really can be more involved in collaboratively telling a story - we can hint at things, build towards them, and when it's all said and done - we've shared in this together. This does mean we need a certain degree of flexibility that we have to build into our plans - knowing the places that we want to go, so there's always a plan for where we need to go.

It is a very different skillset and mentality, but I'm personally enamored of the kind of community that it can bring about. Approximately 1,000 years ago when I was leading the Guild Wars live team, I was actively involved on the wiki engaging in lore conversation and speculation, and a lot of that really shaped the experience of Winds of Change. There are few things that are more rewarding than seeing the passion that people have for worlds and storytelling! At the end of the day, if we've built a stage that players want to perform on, then I think we've done our jobs.

Closed Beta Player and a Lore Fanatic her so i love these kind of threads !

First Question:

In the Relics und Ruin Lore Piece it was said that the Maelstrom we know is also known as Persistent Cyclonic Vortex 22 ! Does that mean there are at least 21 Other maelstroms in the world of dauntless that we maybe can explore in the future?

There have been at least 21 such events known to the Orrery, whether any are still active is unclear except to the Watchers themselves.

Second:

How much Time did pass before the new Ramsgate was finished? and more importantly: where is it located now? wich the old beta map layout we kknew roughly where ramsgate was located in comparison to the maelstrom.

In an earlier post I mentioned it's on the far side of the Ram Formation from where it was before, about like moving from L.A. to New York.

It took about six months to rebuild Ramsgate, with the help of aethertech.

But now Ramsgate´s Citizens were teleported away and rebuild somewhere new. through the device on the market place i assume it is a new kind of portal driver to reach the "old" places again. can you elaborate further on this?

That is the new Hunt Map, which uses aethertech holography to show Slayers and their pilots where to go. It's a big advance over the old Hunt Board system, but it's still essentially a place that tells you what needs to be hunted and where before you choose a target and set sail.

It's just a lot prettier IMHO.

Note that the Portal Driver itself is in the city, but is currently almost completely powered down from the journey. As it absorbs ambient aether over time it may become something that can be used again.

Third:

With the Story Missions on the Roadmap will we be able to explore old ramsgate and other Hubs in the future for example ostia and enviroment? or the realms of the farslayers? more about the unseen cult maybe?

would love to hear more infos about that ^^

Clear Skies Slayers

Those are excellent ideas!

YES! And thank you for helping us achieve the dream

In this case (not to shine too much light behind the curtain) it was something I hoped we might be able to try but it was way outside the scope of the current release--but I left it in there for flavour. The idea, then, is that there are data and logs on these being read and interpreted by Priyani, Drew, and other Orrery types to glean what they can.

Audio might remain unlikely for a while, but I do hope to use the lore nodes (discoverable lore items that unlock a nugget of lore for your Journal) to explore more of the idea of found logs and relic-derived information for the Slayers.

Eight known husbands.

I have a list.

The "Deeps" are meant to be the interiors of the islands, more or less--the chain itself was moving more or less laterally and by the time it arrived it filled the sky.

I guess I should elaborate The sword, the old ostian pike thingy, the cavef in cave all clue in that there was someone, I dare to say recently before everyone else moved in

While I won't say we might not explore that later, right now the intention was simply that the Shattered Isles have been inhabited for a long time, and so the detritus of humanity could be found there in places.

Well, except the Sword. No one knows WTF is up with the Sword or why it seems so difficult to extract. That thing's weird.

How much of the old lore of the game would you say is retconned?

I'd be lying if I said there weren't some biographical details, especially with a lot of our NPCs, that have been tweaked or altered to better fit something we were adding or removing. I recently had a chance to tweak Xelya's original backstory for the Journal, for example, since I knew we would be wanting to know more about her past soon and the original story was pretty basic.

But the lore of the game and its story has remained consistent I'd say around 95% of the time. I have a mental timeline (that I should probably write down) for everything from just before the Upheaval, for example, that I haven't changed but have just been adding to over time. But I have been a little fudge-y on time, I must admit. OG Ramsgate was originally more than a century old, for example, but when we altered the tutorial so that you are playing as young Kat in the ruins of the very first attempt at settling that old site, it made her and the Bosun part of the city's founding and made it ~25 years old.

ㅋЭЭΠ YΩUㄹ ЭYЭΣ ΩΠЭ𑀦, ΣΛㅏYЭㄹ

Who decides on behemoth names? Is there a council, a vote, or just whoever finds it first?

Believe it or not I have given a lot of thought to this. Many Behemoth names, especially the ones that are compound words (in English, at least) were likely given to their quarry by more recent Slayers. Names that are more "made up" (for lack of a better term) like Shrowd, Malkarion, or Torgadoro were either inspired by myths and legends, actual archaeological data (in the case of the Thrax), or simply from other languages. (While English (or your local language, as it were) is generally understood in the cities and skyports of the world thanks to frequent airship contact, local dialects and languages exist on many islands.)

So there are pretty much as many ways to name Behemoths as there are ways to name animals, plants, rocks, all that stuff.

Oh these are such a good questions!!

I can't answer the first one (Cory can), but for the last one: it varies! Sometimes, especially more recently, we start months ahead with a story we want to tell. Then, we build the world and the gameplay around that. Other times, another team will have a great gameplay idea that needs to be wrapped into the story of the world before it gets to you. Occasionally, those great ideas come at us really quick.

It sure would make sense to see if we can recover any turtles artifacts or items that might have been left behind. Or, if you're so inclined, to see if we can get a little old-fashioned payback.

Mwahahahaha

You're not misinterpreting. The pre-Upheaval world could do things with aether that are likely lost (though the extent of the Orrery's archives are closely guarded--the Orrery thinks of itself as something like those monks in A Canticle for Liebowitz, protecting as much of the old world's knowledge as possible but also trying to keep the most dangerous knowledge in the "right" hands (i.e., theirs).

All of which is to say, it sure *seems* like the pre-Upheaval people (P-UPs?) were able to access the Umbral Void somehow, whether through portals like we saw Arkan create with the Driver, or by building someting like Stargates or that interdimensional window thing Walter built on Fringe.

Not a never-ending threat if a way to find and wipe out these particles, or guard against them, could be discovered. But definitely an ongoing threat for the foreseeable future that can be contained as long as there are Slayers setting sail.

They reproduce this way because they were never meant to be set loose in the wild at all. Behemoths were originally created by other means (not yet entirely understood, though many Orrery scholars would love to get a look inside the Island of Trials to research the subject--if only Lady Luck's crew would let them) and sexual reproduction was simply not included. It's like if the folks behind Jurassic Park didn't try to control the sexual distribution of the dinosaurs by taking away their soy beans, but by simply removing all their reproductive systems. Wild Behemoths couldn't get busy if they wanted to (and "wanting to" was also never part of their design).

Do they resemble animals, and in some cases, plants and fungi? Definitely. The living aether/archonite (both terms are used with Behemoths, since they represent a fairly unique form of the stuff that's hard to truly define) contains pieces of many different kinds of ordinary DNA mixed in with their aetheric DNA (or aDNA). But just because their bodies resemble or contain these borrowed elements doesn't mean they are truly animals. They're Behemoths, a type of life that may never have existed before, but has now broken loose. And they do evolve, in a way, but not through normal reproduction but through good ol' random genetic mutations that happen over time. In the case of Behemoths, that evolution is surprisingly rapid--on a scale of decades or centuries rather than eons or epochs.

One would have to assume that Hector is not too old to reproduce, and since the story of Lonesome George makes me incredibly sad, Hector is probably not the last of his kind.

The two largest cultural influences are still Ostia and Avellainia, both of which grew up around large intact chunks of the old world. Simply put, those island states exist simply because they got a head start on rebuilding by virtue of still having buildings among other things. Ostia had a lot of surviving industrial facilities, for example, while Avellainia happened to be on a large, somewhat unstable island (at first--see The Artisan and The Savant for more on that) but retained most of what must have been a massive library or university. The Orrery takes its name from an actual surviving aetheric Orrery from the pre-Upheaval days that sits in a sacred hall in St. Avellaine.

Other cultures are all still around, but aren't generally as big. Andar is still up there in the higher, hotter bands of the atmosphere, training ninjas assassins and exploring some of the more exotic ways to manipulate aether. Krolach, which serves as a sort of breadbasket for a lot of the Shattered Isles but also has a reputation for violence and conflict similar to the Deadwood TV version of the US Old West, is still drifting through the Helic Risers. And other cultures we may not even know of yet could await discover as we explore the new area in which Ramsgate finds itself.

Open conflict and even war in the Shattered Isles is not very common, at least not previously. As the Maelstrom continues to expand and (possibly) eject more charged archonite island chains into the skies, this could change. But for the most part the human population compared to the size of the Shattered Isles means there just isn't a lot of fighting over available resources or territory. A robust system of cooperation and trade sprung up after the Upheaval, and it's become an intrinsic part of every known culture.

Even Krolach.

You guys really got my hopes up when I saw I could press x on hector only for it to be a lore note.

OTOH, there's a lore note because he didn't yet have any other interaction so that made him available. I would love to move that node onto some of his food or something else close by so that, for example, he could push his head up into your hand like my cat Macho does whenever I scratch him between his ears.

First, as a player of Blizzard games and The Elder Scrolls saga, I couldn't be more excited about the new focus on Lore, and what's to come based on that and that I can't express myself, nor ask all the questions I want:

1- First of all the HP: Relics and Ruins, to my taste is the best pass to date and the Uesca, reminded me a lot to Netherstorm (from WoW), for the purple, the ruins, the energies of the Void and the mysticism, however once inside the bioluminescent vegetation I remember certain dungeons in Northrend, like The Nexus. During Rogue Elements, we had the introduction to the following R&R pass, in which the majority of the events related to Uesca took place and Clear Skies were glimpsed, assuming that now they will prepare us for the events of the following pass and Tesca, based on the above, Is Tesca more similar to a place in the Outland like Zargarmash or is it more
like the place in Northrend because it is the anteroom to Fresca?

I am so glad I read this over a few times until I understood what you meant by "Uesca" and "Tesca" but that designation is awfully handy. Might have to steal it.

I can't really say much about the next escalation yet, but keep your eyes on the Chronicles this season. The last one might be of interest to you.

Unfortunately, I haven't played WoW regularly since around the Burning Crusade, and even then since I didn't play the old RTS Warcraft games I never really learned all the deepest WoW lore and I was also really bad at grouping. Which is just to say that I'm not really qualified to put this in terms of WoW.

2- When I saw the Void Runners for the first time, because of what I mentioned before (ruins, technology, etc) the first thing I thought about was the Titans and Guardians from the WoW, but as I advanced I changed my opinion to something much more similar to them. The "Dwemer" from The Elder Scrolls, a super high tech civilization that disappeared, and the only thing it left was a trace of mystery, they even discovered and manipulated a material called Aetherium, very similar to Aether. Now the Void Runners are going to be with us for a long time (like WoW), or will they stay behind Tesca, or never comeback (Like TES)? are they the only ones or are there some "Light walkers"?

Now I *did* (and do) play the hell out of TES games (though I admit I stalled out on TESO around level 20--I'm just more of a solo player in that setting) and the comparison to the Dwemer were on my mind a little while we were creating the Void Runners. For now they'll primarily be a focus just of the Umbral Deeps, but we have also discussed how some of their relics have been found on more far-flung islands--and obviously they could open stargates portals--so it's not impossible we might see the actual Void Runners someday.

But probably not.

Very interesting question about whether there are/were radiant counterparts to the Void Runners. Not saying it's for sure definite, but I am saying it's something that was on my mind when working on the VR's lore.

3- After the events of the previous pass, I thought I wouldn't see them, but Granny Strega, The Journal, certain objects and elements, make me believe that they will come back with something big, is that true? and is it going to be like last year or is it going to leave that ARG aspect aside and now it will be all more Ingame missions?

Do you mean the Unseen? I don't think we've (ahem) seen the last of them. Or even the first of them, technically. As for Granny, it's as yet unclear if she's a card-carrying member of the cult or just really clever at marketing.

As a note for the future, I would like to know more about the other cities that are mentioned, and that this new approach of Lore is not abandoned, is something that I appreciate and is very much appreciated. Keep it up! :D

Thank you, your questions are even more appreciated! We are definitely planning to keep the Lore pressure on--expect new story-based Journal entries and illustrated chronicles to be a regular thing (inasmuch as anything in a live game can be considered "regular"). I also have a pipe dream (that may not be as pipe-y as it used to be) that we will eventually see Ostigaard and St. Avellaine, to name just two. But we are also looking at different ways of using unique islands in the narrative--islands that you only play through once to complete an important part of the season's story, for instance--so we might be more likely to see smaller locations like ruins or settlements before we send someone off to pick up Admiral Zai's mail. (Seriously, it's been piling up for years now but they can't legally dispose of it until he's signed off on it. The Ostian Navy can be a real stickler for such things.)

Zebko is riddle cheese wrapped inside an enigma tortilla; slathered with mystery meat and top-secret sauce. Xelya's been trying to figure him out for years. Or not. Don't be weird. Jeez.

So yeah, I should probably go get lunch before I answer any more of these...

John, I told you the thing about the Bosun in confidence. WTF man.

Is Markus Boehr a mistake or is it on purpose?

Mr. and Mrs. Boehr waited until they were financially stable before they decided it was time finally begin a family. They were fully expecting young Markus' arrival, although he was born almost two weeks after his original due date. At birth he weighed an impressive five-and-a-half kilograms.

Yep! Arguably there may be a big one (or many big ones) in the heart of the Maelstrom.

Great answer!

Fun fact: originally I meant "Farslayer" to be sort of like "mountain man" in the sense that it was just a Slayer who lived in the wild and didn't feel attached to civilization. They evolved over time.

I think that P-UP should be the official term

u/SpookyAesthetic-PHX I think we need to give the people what they want.

So behemoths are essentially a highly evolved, highly superior form of aether/archonite in a sense

That's a really interesting take!

It takes all kinds, I guess, but don't let Doc Priyani find out you're soft on B's. She'll pull you from the rotation like that.