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0s What has been your impression of it as you've started writing stories in this world?
4s I like that the Corruption basically takes away your mind.
8s It's probably a lot like media in that respect.
11s Like the media.
12s That's awesome.
13s Soul-sucking media.
22s Hello, everybody.
22s Welcome to another episode of Forged in Aeternum, the show where we talk about everything New World.
28s Today we're going to talk about the enemy families and some of the lore of Aeternum.
32s I'm joined by Aaron, our Lore Master and our awesome writer, Divya.
36s And indeed, like, I think we'll kick off Divya just like by talking here.
40s You're, you know, of the three of us, you're the newest of the team.
42s So curious, as you've come on board, what aspects of the lore have you been most intrigued by interested in and yeah, what are you most excited about?
51s So there are two aspects which I'm most interested in.
56s The first one is to do with an enemy family called Lost.
62s And this is because Aeternum is such a desolate place and you keep dying only to be reborn in the same pathetic misery of your life to the extent that you finally lose your soul.
79s And it just seems so true to real life that I really enjoy interacting with the Lost because I'm like, If I'm not having fun every moment of my life, I could one day turn into you.
94s So that's why I really like the Lost, its aspect of the lore that I really enjoy.
101s And the second aspect is the fact that people from all over the world, they come on to this island and it's like they've interacted with each other and they somehow magically know English.
114s And the reason I like this is because it shows that no matter what your caste, your creed, your race, your gender, you can come together to survive impossible odds.
130s And I think that's the need of the hour.
132s So I really enjoy that the game shows this.
136s Now I will you know, these movies it's amazing.
142s Little depressing there.
143s Well, you've you've added a bunch to it since you gotten here.
145s And the Lost are a depressing subject.
147s We have - I mean, the dynamic between the enemy families - one of the things that interest me the most, and the Lost being the sort of group that's lost their souls.
155s But then we have the Corrupted, we have Ancient Guardians, we have the Angry Earth.
159s Aaron, what do you...
160s what is your jam, man?
162s Well, just a brief, brief little background here.
165s So when I was brought into the project, I'd worked with Rob before and we had a great working relationship.
171s When I found out he was working on New World, you know, we talked .
174s He's like, man, I could use I can use you on this project.
176s It's going to be lots of cool stuff.
178s So I came in and started reading everything that I could about New World, about the lore, about the enemy families.
183s And then together with Rob, we just sat down and created this immense lore bible of the history, how it all started, what happened.
192s I mean, I'll I'll answer your question about Lost, but let me jump to Ancients, first of all.
196s So more than anything, when that was presented to me, I was like, okay, the Ancients.
201s Who are they?
202s What are they?
203s Why have they created this island?
204s What's their purpose?
205s What are they doing?
207s What happened to make them disappear?
209s They've left all these ruins and all this mystery and all this magic.
212s You know, what occurred?
213s So we wrote this elaborate, long, long history stretching over thousands of years.
219s And they basically became the victims of their own hubris.
224s Their experiments and their dealings with humanity unleashed the Corruption.
228s This entity from another dimension that came in, started corrupting everything, destroying everything.
234s And even some of the Ancients themselves became Corrupted.
236s Well, there's some debate here, though, because, right, because we - and even we've gotten into it as a group - did the Corruption come when the Ancients started teaching humans how to use all these magics and powers on Aeternum?
250s And then the humans were the ones who invited Corruption?
252s Or was it the Ancients?
253s Yeah.
254s And I think that's something, you know.
256s No, And I love the ambiguity of it.
259s I think the humans to some extent were - there were children who were given a box of matches, and once they started trying to do whatever they could do with this power, then yes, calamity ensued.
272s But in many ways they were encouraged by the Ancients.
275s The Ancients were directing them to do these things, teaching them how to do all this stuff.
279s So there's a big conflict.
282s The Ancients go to war with each other and essentially they disappeared.
286s And there are some mysteries there.
287s We want the players to...
288s we will eventually divulge who they are, where they came from, what they want, how they landed here, how they started interacting with humanity.
297s Such great things that we want to explore there and for the players to discover.
302s But Corruption, as Rob mentioned in another segment, an entity from another dimension.
308s It came in and it's as close to a Lovecraftian entity as we have - this thing, this insidious evil.
315s It's like a virus that gets into your system, but it's sentient.
318s It's aware.
319s It wants something as well.
321s And very clearly it wants to spread more and more and more and more.
324s So far it's been contained to Aeternum, but it wants to get out.
327s But of course, there's characters on Aeternum.
330s And I think even within, as we've talked about the world and the metaphysics of the world, it can also be interpreted that Corruption is very much what happens when the human ego runs amuck, right?
342s It's the evil that we allow it.
344s And it's the evil inherent to mankind.
346s It's the the damnation, if you will, that that is our lot in life because of the way we are.
352s And certainly there's people who believe that, you know, I think that we think of it more complex and we think of like, it is a force unto itself.
359s But, you know, I mean, what has been your impression of it as you've started writing stories in this world?
364s I like that the Corruption basically takes away your mind.
368s It's probably a lot like media in that respect.
371s Like the media.
372s That's awesome.
373s Soul-sucking media.
376s But there are some really interesting characters like Isabella and Thorpe, and even in the trailer, when the person just explodes in red and like, kills, you know, like attacks the player, that's a brilliant moment.
391s I would like to ask you guys, which enemy faction is your favorite and why?
399s I'll go.
400s I yeah, I would say.
401s I mean, actually, I like the Lost a lot.
403s I like them all.
405s But the Angry Earth to me are like the, the coolest faction of all of groups.
408s And part of it is because of the nuance of their back story.
412s Like where we talk about, okay, the Ancients came to the island and, you know, they were trying to give humans eternal life and all this stuff went awry.
418s Corruption came in.
420s Their experiments in trying to give humans eternal life is is part of what gave rise to the Lost.
427s The Angry Earth, though, Aaron mentioned the Ancient civil war, when the Ancients fought amongst themselves, the Angry Earth were actually born when one group of the Ancients sacrificed themselves to defeat another.
438s And the Angry Earth sort of grew out of the bones of those dead Ancients.
443s And that's, you know, to me, what I love about them is that sense that they something that was born out of this conflict as opposed to sort of this primal entity.
451s Like we talk about Corruption coming from another place.
454s And of course, I love that dualistic nature where, you know, we kind of want to be sympathetic to the Angry Earth because they're, you know, they're natural beings and they stand up for nature and and they support, you know, what the natural world is.
469s But at the same time, they're brutal and they're vicious.
472s And you know, what motivates the Angry Earth now is not the spirit of sacrifice.
477s It's the spirit of vengeance for that sacrifice.
479s And I think that's the cool thing.
481s And can they be redeemed?
483s I think there's parts of the game where it seems like maybe they can and, you know, maybe that's something we're going to explore as we go forward.
488s Now, if the Corruption is the virus, the Angry Earth are the antibodies.
493s That is the response of the island from the sacrifice to raise up this force, this army, to fight against Corruption, because the the Ancients were losing that war.
504s And so, yeah, the Angry Earth show up.
505s But now, like antibodies, they don't distinguish.
508s If it's a foreign invader, they attack it, they don't care.
512s They don't say, well, that foreign invader's okay, but that one we don't like.
515s No, foreign invader: destroy it, foreign invader: destroy it.
517s And humans, unfortunately, are very much foreign invaders on their island.
522s So a lot of times the Angry Earth have turned against humanity.
525s So humans are the virus?
527s Wouldn't you consider humans a virus?
529s I certainly would.
530s To the Angry Earth they are.
532s The Angry Earth are there to defend this idea of the natural order that no longer even exists.
538s So humans and you know, one of the things that Adiana talks about several times in the game is how, you know, Corruption comes back over and over again across the centuries.
547s And every time it's because humans, you know, start flirting with powers beyond their control.
553s And so she really blames the human ego.
555s It is the source of all Corruption.
557s And that's how she seeks to defeat Corruption.
559s Yeah.
559s So, yeah.
560s Humans are very susceptible, very susceptible to Corruption, and Corruption knows it.
564s So Corruption is not...
566s It promises you things, right?
567s Corruption can be seductive.
569s Do you want power, glory, fame, riches?
572s Corruption whispers to you and says, I'll give you that.
575s Is it your favorite enemy?
577s The Corruption?
577s Absolutely.
578s Absolutely.
579s I'm a big Lovecraft fan.
580s And so the fact that there is a Lovecraftian entity and we've only gotten a glimpse, right?
585s We're seeing what Corruption looks like as manifested on Aeternum.
590s Their dimension is hellish and horrific beyond comprehension.
594s There's - where they come from is even worse.
597s We're only seeing a tiny glimmer of what that is like.
600s So imagine if that spread all over the world.
603s And that's what the Ancients try to stop.
605s The good Ancients, The Corrupted Ancients wanted to use the power of Corruption.
610s They were being whispered the same things.
612s They wanted power and Corruption promised power.
614s So they said, okay.
616s And other Ancients said, No, that's not so much okay.
618s Well, they thought they were the good guys.
619s Yes, they did.
621s Because the...
621s because the Ancients who embrace Corruption said, like, look, like we've been experimenting with trying to make this world a better place.
627s We've been experimenting with trying to give humans more power and immortality.
631s And we need to use every power at our disposal.
634s This Corruption that's shown up like this might actually be a boon.
637s We need to learn to master it.
638s We need to learn to work with it.
639s So I think they had at least.,..
640s they had a they had a fair motivation for embracing it.
643s I would say their reasons, which is true of a lot of people, their motivations might have been good, but the steps that they took to get to their goal was not worth it.
654s And so they fell as a result of it.
656s But I love the Ancients, too.
658s By the way, we're going to reveal a lot about the Ancients.
661s And once players find out more about the Ancients, I think they're going to love it.
666s They're a very complex set of beings.
669s They have factions.
669s They fight with each other.
670s They agree with each other, allied with each other, all that kind of thing.
673s Well, and I mean, we shouldn't discount the Lost.
676s Because I think in our, you know, as we talk about the future of the game and like the etaphysical conflicts of Aeternum, the Lost come up often because the Lost are immune to Corruption because they have no soul.
688s Corruption needs a soul to feed on in order to claim someone.
692s And so the Lost are in this strange place of immunity.
695s They're also another group and in a sense, like the Angry Earth in that they sort of came about incidentally because of the Ancients' experiments.
702s And we think about like, well, the Lost are you know, they've lost their soul, they've lost their purpose.
707s They're kind of...
707s a lot of them are, frankly, zombies.
709s Some of them have more sense of purpose.
710s But what would happen if they all looked up at the same time and started marching to the same beat and united?
716s They would be a force perhaps greater than Corruption or anything else.
721s And by the way, that is another a little tantalizing hint for our players.
725s There are powers outside of all of this.
728s There are factors and forces and powers that are acting behind-the-scenes that will eventually make themselves known.
735s And so yeah.
736s So if I'm getting this correctly, then the Ancients are the masterminds, the Corruption, the Corrupted are viruses and the Angry Earth are a retaliation to the Corruption, which is the virus.
752s Hmm.
752s And the Lost are a side effect.
754s And the Lost are a side effect.
756s You can look at it that way.
757s Yeah, that's simplifying it.
759s But it's fair.
761s The Ancients, when they created the Ancient Guardians, right?
763s All the skeletons that are marching around, they were...they wanted a race of immortal soldiers that would protect them and fight the Corruption.
770s So again, they started out with high ideals.
773s Well, we'll create a race of of pure warriors that will defend us and defend the island, fight Corruption.
778s But things didn't go quite as they had planned.
781s And so the result of it was, because their experiments were imperfect and because they pushed too much, they created the Lost essentially as a byproduct.
790s So now humans can become these soulless husks.
793s Yes, they're immune to Corruption, but they're these soulless husks that haunt the island like ghosts and wraiths and things like that.
801s Another important way to think about it, too, is that, you know, the Ancients were messing with the fundamental laws of nature.
808s They're trying to give humans eternal life.
811s And that's not the way that humans are designed.
813s Like as we talk about a lot of times, the reason humans who've been on the island a long time go mad, suffer from madness is because, you know, the human brain is not capable of remembering things for a thousand years and encoding that many experiences and processing them, you know, So, you know, they broke the laws of nature to some extent in what they did.
833s And, you know, that's going to have consequences that are going to reverberate throughout the game.
837s Like it's really, and we've talked about this since the beginning, like that is one of the fundamental questions of Aeternum is: what is the cost of eternal life?
845s Is this eternal life?
846s Is this eternal damnation?
848s Is this heaven?
848s Is this hell?
850s You know, is this really a blessing or a curse?
853s And for my opinion, Aeternum - it's a curse.
855s Aeternum is a dark place, a nightmarish place that seems like heaven, But it's it's actually hell.
862s Your ghost that's there forever.
864s That's damnation.
865s So.
866s Yeah.
866s Yeah.
866s And do you see any crossovers happening between, like, let's say, the Corrupted and the Ancients?
875s Oh, definitely.
875s As you mentioned, like there's, you know, back in the times when Corruption first appeared, there were Ancients who embraced it.
881s They sought to harness it, they sought to use it.
883s They became Corrupted.
884s Now, they didn't become Corrupted exactly the way a human will become corrupted, but they certainly fell under Corruption's influence.
889s And, you know, certainly there's going to come a time where you're going to see some of that, you know, come back to haunt us.
894s I can't wait.
895s We're going to explore all about.
897s How do these enemies think of different genders.
901s Mm hmm.
902s Wow.
902s That's a great question.
903s Well, I think the Corruption doesn't care, right?
905s The Corruption is an equal opportunity Corrupter.
908s Men, women.
909s It doesn't matter to them.
911s They all must embrace Corruption.
913s They all must push that agenda that the Corruption has to spread.
917s So I think to them, to Corruption, it really doesn't matter.
920s I don't even know that it really matter to the Ancients as well.
925s And I think one of the beautiful things about our world is it's, you know, it's multicultural like we have, you know, if you if you look at the outfits in our game, like we don't play to sort of these very strong gender identities.
936s We try to, you know, make sure that all characters of cultures, genders, ethnicities, whatever, they all have equal footing on Aeternum.
944s And that's kind of the way the world works now.
946s Yeah, I do think - one thing which I like a lot, though - is that the Lost get represented as in different costumes.
953s So some of them have long hair, some of them have like dresses compared to like others who have like, you know, fans.
960s I do enjoy that, you know, seeing that variety in the Lost, which show, I'd like to see more of that in the Ancients as well. Because Corrupted just makes everything read.
973s But the Ancient Guardians, there's so much, you know, space over there.
977s What it sounds like you're picking up on: the Corrupted, you know, they often have crew cuts because they're all very, you know, often our most straitlaced characters who are humans before they became Corrupted, fall to Corruption.
987s Like, I mean, like Isabella.
988s She was very devout.
989s Right?
990s A lot of characters who have very rigid belief systems are actually more prone to Corruption.
994s Why?
995s Man?
996s I think it's because I think it's because once they go over, they can be..
999s they can commit, right?
1001s They can stick to something like they they're whereas people who have an open mind consider a lot of options like they probably don't get pinned down as easily.
1010s Whereas Corrupt, you know, Corruption grabs you.
1012s And then once it has you, you know, can you wrestle away from that grip or not?
1017s Is Corruption like a cult?
1019s Certainly for some people it is.
1021s And I think some people have even joined it like that.
1022s I think not everybody has been sort of tainted by Corruption.
1025s Some of them have willingly accepted it as a as a path to power and even gone in search of it.
1031s But the reason you see more of, I guess, what you would consider traditionally masculine is because the Corrupted wants soldiers, Corruption wants warriors.
1039s And so when there are forces that are that are preparing for war and it sweeps in and takes over, it wants the biggest, strongest, meanest individuals to add to its army.
1050s So that's why there are Corrupted that are not like that.
1053s But for the most part, the Corrupted is targeting things like, oh, there's a big army over there, I'm going to Corrupt them.
1058s Oh, look, there's some big guys over there.
1060s I'm going to Corrupt them.
1062s Does Corruption ..
1063s is it intellectual ?
1067s Oh, yeah.
1067s I mean, certainly I mean, you know, we're - the effect of becoming Lost is something that happens as a force of nature.
1073s But Corruption is, you know, it's seeking things.
1076s It's got an agenda that it's pushing.
1078s And yeah, I just wanted to call out, you know, even though it may lean towards that sort of masculine energy and these strong warrior types, note that it chooses Isabella as its avatar during our time period, you know.
1088s Isabella is very strong.
1089s So the strong-willed also attract Corruption.
1093s If you want something very desperately and it drives you, that sparks Corruption's interest.
1098s It wants you because it wants that will, that drive, and that not necessarily is not defined by any kind of physical appearance.
1106s It's inner strength.
1108s It's the strength of your spirit.
1109s So emotional strength is also..
1114s Emotional potency.
1115s Like, I mean, when we first were there was a point we were talking about how, you know, some people on the island, as you said, if you are despairing and you die on the island, you often come back as Lost.
1126s If you're furious, angry, vengeful, and you die, you come back as a Corrupted.
1131s You know, sometimes it's because you're in the vicinity of Corruption, like it's a - you know, it's not a hard and fast rule exactly how it works.
1137s Yeah, but like, emotion is very much a part of it.
1140s And when players, you know, like, die and respawn, is there a chance sometime in the future they may be able to turn into enemies.
1149s Maybe.
1150s The chance that they're losing their soul, little tiny pieces of their soul every time they die and reset?
1156s It has not escaped discussion that hmm, could players manifest some elements of Lost or some elements of Corruption?
1164s I have heard something like that.
1166s It seems like the players might want to know more about the enemy families and then maybe even to get involved in themselves.
1173s So I guess that's our Community Question for today.
1176s What enemy family would you like to know more about?
1178s We'd be happy to to to elaborate here if we haven't said enough already.
1183s Yeah.
1183s If there was an enemy family that players could ally themselves to or have...
1187s manifest elements of, who would it be?
1189s What enemy family would you like to associate yourself with?
1193s The Angry Earth, the Corruption, or the Lost?
1195s I mean, it might need to be a poll.
1197s Let's do it.
1198s I feel very different doing that.
1200s Just do it.
1200s Let's do it.
1201s Yeah.
1202s And so, yeah.
1203s Everybody, thanks for watching.
1204s And if you'd like to see more of this, subscribe, let us know in the comments.
1209s We would always love to come back and talk more about Lore and story.
1212s We're here.
1213s Thanks.
1214s See you in Aeternum.
1218s Another real hot topic in game development that New World isn't immune to is, when is it good enough?
1225s At some point, you know, you really have to push things out by certain deadlines, otherwise you're never really going to get something out.