The Brotherhood of Steel

 Ad Victoriam.

When we come to Fallout, is there any single faction more intrinsic to the game than 'The Brotherhood of Steel'? Surely not, given that it is their visage which adorns the cover of Fallout 1, 3, 4, 76: Wastelanders, and Brotherhood Tactics. The mean mugging face of those power armoured helmets get plastered over all the promotional material, all the game trailers and quickly become some of the most sought-out armour sets in the games. And why not? They're stylish, powerful, and give off that 'I'm a walking tank utterly untouchable by the wasteland' vibe that is just so desirable. And of course that attention naturally draws eyes to the faction who don it most, The Brotherhood themselves, making them a shoe in for favourite post apocalyptic group in most general polls. Which is interesting considering how diverse the Brotherhood themselves have been in who they are and what they represent throughout their many appearances in Fallout lore.

Whereas the high ranking of the US Military had their passage into the post-war world guaranteed through back-door antics, exclusive saftey protocols and a membership into the elusive 'Enclave'; the grunts of the United States Armed Forces had to suffer the apocalypse along with everyone else. Such was the case for those who served under Captain Roger Maxon as they served at the Mariposa Military Base, overseeing a group of West-Tek military researchers as they worked to create a virus that could counteract biological weapons that could be deployed from China. As tensions between China and America started to heat up and experiments being performed on military prisoners came to light, Captain Maxon became stuck in a conflict between his morality and his duties. Morals won out and Maxon ended up leading a rebellion to shut down the West-Tek operation and get to the bottom of who was behind it. His little coup d'état was shortlived, however; because hardly two weeks after the good Captain went rogue, the Great War ended the world on October 23, 2077.

Maxon was left in command of a disillusioned military force and their on-base families who had just lost their entire worlds, and so the responsibility fell to him to pick those soldiers up and rebuild their rigid militarism into a force dedicated to a new commanding structure; one which placed himself at the head. Perhaps taking inspiration off romantic tales of medieval chivalry and staunch adherence to strict moral values, he based his new military around the principals of medieval knighthood; an model formed less off how medieval knights would have appeared in real history, and more how they are glorified in old fantasy stories. American military ranks were abandoned in favour of medieval roles that honed on each individuals key skills that they could dedicate to his new Brotherhood. That meant scribes who studied technology and kept history, Knights who donned the salvaged military power armour and were deployed against credible threats, Paladin's who exemplified the virtues of  the Brotherhood and enforced them with the fist of order, and the Elders who would manage individual 'Chapters' stretched across America, so that the Brotherhood could operate independently on the otherside of the continent if it needed to.

But what were these principles that Maxon founded his new military under? Well he remembered well the insanity that had gripped the immoral scientists of West-Tek as they played god manipulating and re-writing the human genome; and everyone had a front-seat view to the consequences of the thoughtless, greed-driven, machinations of a ruling class with the maturity of children throwing stones, but the technology of intercontinental ballistic missiles at their fingertips. As such, Maxon formed his Brotherhood to be a bulwark over the survivors of humanity to stop another catastrophe like the Great War happening again, through whatever means necessary. In his eyes, the masters of the post-world were no better equipped than the elites who had ended the world, and thus could not be trusted with the various advanced technologies and weapons left from the Old world. Only his people, drilled as they were with military discipline and trained to study and utilise various pre-war tech weapons, deserved to inherent the power of technology. As such the Brotherhood have developed a reputation as technology-obsessed fanatics who will turn over a town to secure one errant laser pistol. 

Nearly a century later and the Brotherhood had established themselves as an enigmatic and powerful force within the Wasteland, one that rarely involved itself with the squabbles of the common people but not a passive and approachable people either. Some chapters of the Brotherhood adopt a outright xenophobic stance against the denizens of the wasteland, and often become outright hostile to those that demonstrate significant mutation such as Super Mutants and Ghouls. Concepts such as 'purity' and 'abomination' bring the Brotherhood closer in line with the fascistic government they split away from so long ago then they'd ever care to admit. Never so close, however, as the Enclave have always been; which is just one of the many reasons why when that secretive pro-American-elitism cabal resurfaced, the Brotherhood would be destined to clash with them.

On the East Coast around the date of 2277, The Brotherhood of Steel had a very different reputation. Operating in the heart of the Capital and amidst a sea of Super Mutants, the Brotherhood had adopted the role of protectors of the wastes, saving the battered locals with genuine public good works that turned them into something of a public defence force. They even worked to provide clean water to the residents there using a technological project called Project Purity; something the western Brotherhood would never have condoned. In general this really does highlight the weakness of the whole 'independently operating chapters anchored by an Elder', because all it takes is for an Elder to come along who holds a different set of values, despite his disciplined raising, and the integral values of your faction can just whittle away. Some small contingent broke off from that chapter and labelled themselves 'Outcasts', but the majority of their number assimilated to this new way of life completely.

That same branch of the Brotherhood did have a chance to make up for their transgressions in the face of their elders, in the time when they met out war against the resurfaced Enclave threat. Having battled them before and found their technological capabilities comparable, both factions had positioned themselves as sort of arch-nemesis to each other. All out warfare over the Capital Wasteland bought rise to powerful technologies the likes of which never even walked in the time of the Old world, such as the commie-smashing Liberty Prime and the Enclave's Bradley-Hercules Orbital Bombardment station. Once again, supposedly superior minds wielding doomsday weapons bought chaos and destruction to the world, betraying the cold hypocritical truth behind the Brotherhood's mantle of confiscation for preservations sake. They are just as unworthy of these weapons as those who burned the earth 200 years previously.

With their cool power armour and their slick laser weaponry, and especially with their friendly protagonistic role in Fallout 3, it's common for people to mistake the Brotherhood of Steel for the 'Goodguys of Fallout', forgetting how this is a world that's supposed to be devoid of such arbitrary positive and negatives. In truth they aren't all that different from the various factions they align themselves opposite too and context could just as easily frame them as the merciless subjugators without their number breaking a single code in their book of rules. Such is the danger of groups who err on extremes and purposely foster a perception of superiority justified on assumed universal truths. Today's saviors can so very easy be tomorrow's conquerors.

The Enclave

 The last, best hope

The political landscape of an openworld RPG is, ideally, a murky and muddy plane with no clear heroes or villains. These are games established on the core principal of feeding creativity and ingenuity, afterall, so it would only makes sense that the creators put effort into ensuring that players don't feel goaded into doing this certain path because these are the good guys and those are the bad guys, you want factions and circumstances that whittle down to nuance and context, where players agonize over each choice and decision with the weight of it's consequences leaning on every breath. Fallout has both flirted with this level of complexity and pulled back at least once or twice in every entry. And somehow despite itself, there's always been a clear bad guy, from the Master and his Supermutant army from Fallout 1 to the destructive wave of the deadly scorched in Fallout 76 to the Legion of Fallout New Vegas and the Institute in Fallout 4. But is there any one group that feels like the absolute apex of villainy? A single reoccurring foe who's presence hangs over much of the franchise like the long wings of a stalking hawk? (Apart from China) Well of course, and it would have to be The Enclave.

There are actually two major post apocalyptic factions in the Fallout wasteland that spawned from the remnants of the US military after the Great War, and both seem almost diametrically opposed to one another whenever they've met in the past. The Brotherhood of Steel came from grunts stationed at the Mariposa military base when the bombs went off; The Enclave were born from the top officials in the military and government who has spent the last few decades quietly turning America into a xenophobic military dictatorship prior to The End of the World. The Enclave were technically a pre-war cabal of agents ruling the heights of government from the shadows towards their own vision of doing whatever it takes to 'preserve America'. Make any parallels to real-world conspiracy theories here that you feel are appropriate, I have a feeling such conclusions are encouraged.

When the resource wars against China started to boil over to inevitable world wide devastation, The Enclave foresaw this end and put measures in place to preserve their personnel in both a custom order congressional Fallout bunker curtsey of connections in Vault-Tec, and a off-shore presidential oil rig. Of course, there are likely countless installations such as these scattered across America we've yet to learn about; for example Fallout 76 revealed that there was an entire test-Vault (51) which was under direct control of an Enclave AI, slowly whittling down all the residents through barbaric battle royale free-for-alls. When the ashes of Nuclear Winter started to clear, the Enclave uncoiled from their slumber in order to spread their talon-reach across the wasteland and 'restore America'. 

Before Fallout 4, The Enclave were acknowledged to be the most technologically superior post-war faction in the wastes. Boasting plasma weaponry, power armour and even functioning V-TOL Vertibirds to fly their troops in and out of the field in organised strikes. The Brotherhood also had their own reserve Power Armour which they lorded about in, but theirs was scavenged from Pre-War installations and thus carries the bulk and wear pre-war machinery. The Enclave invented their very own series of Advanced Power Amour after the war using their superior resources, and specifically designed their series of armours to provide superiority over anything that fledging tribes and scatterings of survived society could muster together to oppose them. And what did the Enclave do with this veneer of authority and dominance, along with their anonymity? Simply, they took to kidnapping folks.

President Dick Richardson and Vice President Daniel Bird, adopting meaningless titles from a dead office, led The Enclave to establish themselves in military bases across the West Coast. They hammered home the fact that 'America is back' by trying to cleanse the wasteland of the mutant threat which had infected it, a symptom of their despotic delusion that their standards needed to be enforced upon the wastes in order to save what was left of the world. Thus began the kidnapping and experimentation. Taking recovered samples of The Master's FEV virus and trying to understand it with human test subjects and a complete lack of basic scientific testing principals. Their goal was to create and release a culling virus in order to eliminate those susceptible to mutation, to ensure the purity of the unirradiated human genome. Real 'genocidal' energy coming from those guys, as you can tell.

Of course that was only the plan during their first appearance in the franchise. Everytime the Enclave's presence has wafted into the series is has preceded a megalomaniacal plan to commit some homicidal act 'for the good of America'. And whilst many of their goals might unintentionally align with that other band of power armoured weirdoes, the Brotherhood of Steel, they've gone to all out war against each other over those similarities. Whilst the Brotherhood want to covet technology in order to keep it out of the hands of wastelanders who would abuse it, the Enclave want that same tech in order to exert it's strength over those wastelanders. One sees themselves as scolding parents, the other as domineering parents. Different sides of the same coin, distinguished by both factions' respective perception of their own moral superiority.

At this current point in the series, the Enclave have had many of their key facilities shut down by the various heroes of the franchise, usually through explosive means. Despite the moral aligning of the player, we always end up blowing up Enclave bases, exemplifying and justifying this faction's de facto position as the one enemy of all to everyone in the series. The first Fallout game to truly let us side with the Enclave will also be the first game to have a drastically restructured main narrative dependent on the choices of the player. So we'll certainly have to be on the look out for the Fallout game with the ambition to go that route and push the 'actions have consequences' of the franchise to and beyond its current limits.

Aside from the Institute, the Enclave represents the pinnacle of technology in the wasteland, which makes them a suitably incomparable foe for any a Fallout narrative to weaponise. With Far Harbour's DLC for Fallout 4 making a slight reference to them, it's safe to say their time in the series hasn't ended just yet and we'll likely see a resurgence come Fallout 5 in the far future. My personal dream would be if we saw not just the Enclave return, but maybe hear tell of their counterpart across the world in the post-apocalyptic remains of China, because you know there just has to be one. And then we'd be able to see all the manners in which the Chinese illuminati is comparable but also fundamentally different to what the Enclave has put together, as always has been in the case in the Fallout lore for some reason. Until then, The Enclave will serve the franchise as the bogey-man in the closet always ready to pounce upon the unsuspecting wastes with their next hairbrained scheme of mutant-poisonous drinking water or weaponised Deathclaws.

The New California Republic

Two men shaking hands covered in blood.

In 2161 a wanderer from Vault 13 would leave the comfort of their home to search the wastes. In their journey they happened upon the small town of Shady Sands and ended up assisting when their leader, Aradesh, lost his daughter Tandi when she was captured by a gang called The Khans. (Not to be confused with the New Khans, nor the Great Khans) Through means of their own choosing, the Vault Dweller returned Tandi to her tiny settlement and carried on their way, never realising the immense effect that single act would have on the wastes in the years to come. Tandi and her Father would go on to become leaders in the local community, eventually proposing that surrounding growing settlements should go on to form a republic. Soon five of the surrounding 'states' would band together to be the founders of the New California Republic. 

Aradesh would be the first president of the Republic, but his rule would be overshadowed by his daughter Tandi who is to date the most popular president the faction has ever possessed. Boasting citizens in the hundreds of thousands, the NCR quickly came to establish laws and structure in the image of the old world that had passed, in hopes of recreating some semblance of order in the post world. NCR citizens could expect a play of democracy, doled out by a central government of democratically elected officials as elected by state representatives. A coherent and predictable journey of hierarchy and red tape leading up to the Vice President and President of the Republic who try their best to keep the people fed and the territories expanding. If any post-war faction could be considered a poster child for having 'Old World Blues', it's the government who based their entire lives on pretending they were still living in it.

In 2271 the NCR would strike a unification treaty with the Desert Rangers, incorporating their number into the NCR's own rangers. These Desert Rangers are the ones who's image adorns the iconic 'Fallout: New Vegas' cover art, making that game the only title in the mainline series to date not to feature a generation of Power Armor. Within the lore, the unification of the rangers represents a point at which the NCR adopts the role of warden in the west, putting them on a collision course against anyone with the strength and penchant to challenge a ruling authority. And in a meta sense, the unification could represent the incorporation of Black Isle Studio's 'Wasteland' world into it's the successor series: 'Fallout'. (Given that 'Wasteland' is literally about a band of ramshackle former army engineers who formed a post apocalyptic policing service called 'The Desert Rangers')  

The union wasn't made on a whim. It was done in response to the expanse of the tribal army known as Caesar's Legion which threated to swallow up all the west if left unchecked, with this new treatise the NCR were obliged to face off against them. Having discovered the potential of the still functioning pre-war installation known as Hoover Dam thanks to the efforts of one particularly archival Frumentarii, the Legion knew exactly where they would face off against the one faction with the force to actually stand against them. Thus on the 200th anniversary of the Great War, Caesar's Legion and the NCR clashed over the power-potential of the hydroponic Dam in a conflict that would lock up both nations in a four year long stalemate. (At least four years. It's really up to the player how much time passes before the next battle begins.)

Serving as the murky mirror of the old world, it's only fitting that the structure of the NCR should carry some of the baggage of that old system of governing too. The American government was absurdly corrupt in the years leading up to the Great War, to the point they spawned a splinter cabal of elitist who conspired to preserve themselves when the rest of the world fell to the war they were goading on. The NCR is similarly corrupt, with bureaucrats, lobbyists, water barons and Brahmin tycoons wielding unchecked powers over the basic pauper citizens. The return of paper money almost instantly ushered in an age of rampant capitalistic greed, resurrecting the mistakes and egos of the past and with the memory and evidence of what the last crazed money hungry republic did to it's citizens, there's a lot of independent settlements out there that just want nothing to do with the NCR's expansionism.

Which of course, is the other big problem. The NCR are an ungainly large faction within the wastes, playing ward over far more people than they can comfortable cater for. Seizing upon Hoover Dam was a desperate attempt to secure a renewable source of power for the citizens of a nation that was expanding too fast and thinning it's resources. They depended on their size and apparent security to win over any nation-state they happened across, and the second they hit a wall which wouldn't budge, Robert House's Vegas, they stalled and brought the entire train crashing to a halt. Vegas started to bleed the NCR dry, costing them resources, manpower and money as the NCR tried to hold control over a territory that plain didn't want them. Somewhat similar to the problem plaguing the long-term sustainability of the 'White Legs' of 'Zion National Park', the NCR had grown into a beast that needed to consume to sustain itself. Constant annexation, constant 'unification', everything it could to keep bodies and resources trailing back to the capital and the very second those supply lines ceased being constantly supplemented- the nation threatened to starve.  

Caesar, when pressed to justify his decision to face up against a entity as large and ungainly as the New California Republic, fell back on his belief of a philosophy known as Hegelian Dialectics. Now I'm not exactly a philosophical scholar nor a specialist, and many modern laymen have tried and utterly failed to grasp the sheer basics of what this concept even means. But if we take Caesar's own dumbed down explanation, this concept is about thesis meeting antithesis to create a greater synthesis... or something; I don't exactly get it myself. But by manning his viewpoint, we can see the way in which Caesar sees his Legion as the opposite to the NCR and that by colliding with this equal force the result will be something stronger, a belief correspondent to his core principals that struggle refines and betters man. And does this track? Well the NCR is over extended and wrapped in red tape, whilst the Legion is centralised and efficient. The NCR promotes democratic and personal freedoms, whilst the Legion relies on despotism and societal restrictions. The NCR balk from war and seek the annexation through a show of force rather than a use of it, whilst the Legion try to test their mettle against everyone they can in some twisted game to ascend to their highest form. Perhaps then the NCR was always destined to face the Legion as the Moon to their Sun.

Following the war at the Dam the NCR either annexes Vegas or is sent back to California with their tails between their legs, either way it seems doubtful that their reign is set to be eternal. Perhaps through their very nature the NCR has more years on it than the Legion would, (Afterall, having a system for selecting a presidential successor makes the future a lot more certain) but their own greed for land seems destined to catch up with them sooner or later. The resources of Hoover Dam would alleviate that, but only until they annexed the next giant landmass with millions of citizens and find themselves on the brink of collapse once again. Set yourself up as the old world did, and lead yourself into the all the resource shortage situations that sank their society and it seems like you're just setting yourself up for failure. And like a certain dreadlocked former Legion Spy loved to say: "Who are you, who do not know your history?"

Caesar's Legion

 Divide et Impera

Of the many factions of Fallout lore, the New Vegas introduced 'Caesar's Legion' stands out in particular as one of their number that I find perhaps the most fascinating. Born from the old post apocalyptic trope of a post-world society formed in the image of some pre-industrial civilisation like a Kingdom or Holy Church, Caesar's Legion brings a brutalised, twisted image of the Roman Empire to the harsh lands of the Fallout world under the 'necessary evil' clause. The belief that all which is broken in the world is too burnt up to be put together without an equal force of brute strength to match the cruelty of the new world. Only a bigger monster can tame a world of monsters. And though we've never gotten a chance to actually see what a non-warring Legion-created settlement looks like, there is a sort of Pyrrhic logic to that thesis which blossoms this overwise clearly evil-tipped antagonistic entity into a richer, whilst just as moral bankrupt, society.

To explain the history of the Legion we have to first bring up the concept of 'Tribes' as the Fallout universe understands them. In the West Coast games, (those made by 'Black Isle Studios' and 'Obsidian Games') Tribes are descendants from survivors of the Great War who typically didn't hail from Vaults or Military facilities. Those who weren't in populated cities at the time of the nukes, weren't in a part of an afflicted city which was hit so hard, or survived through some sort of other miraculous means. These are survivors who would have gone the rest of their lives dedicating each moment to making it to the next day in a world gone mad. As these people procreated, they would have lacked the facilities to pass on the wealth of knowledge they had the privilege to enjoy in the civilised world and when they were gone some part of the old world would be gone with them. Fast forward 200 years and some of these decedents have regressed entirely into tribalism, totally removed from the civilised folk who bore them a few generations prior. These tribes are actually quite plentiful up the Western coast and make up much of the human population outside of towns and Raider camps.

By the time of the 2240's, many of these descendant tribes have lost the knowhow of basic technology and sometimes even communication, which is why they make such tempting targets for missionary drives from 'Good Sarmatian' organisations like the educated people of the Followers of the Apocalypse. In 2246 a group of Followers, Edward Swallow, Bill Calhoun, and a physician with no name were dispatched to the Grand Canyon on one such mission, to learn of the cultures there, the languages that they spoke and probably find some way to improve their quality of life knowing that organisation's ethics. Edward's group met up with a Mormon in the area, called Joshua Graham, who knew some of the dialectics and was to teach them, but they didn't go very far before a tribe called the Blackfoots captured and held them all for ransom.

The Blackfoots had guts but they were simple and didn't know how to fight so Edward stepped up to teach them. They and the other Tribes from the canyon would raid each other and pillage to the limited capacity they were custom to, Edward changed that. He taught them tactics, organised them and then led them to utter victory against their weakest rivals. That could have been the end of it, but Edward had another lesson to teach. He asked them to surrender and when they refused he ordered the entire Tribe be killed, woman and children too. He went to the next tribe and ordered they surrendered, when they refused he took one of their envoys to the ruins of the last tribe who denied him and they soon joined up. In the words of Edward himself; "They played at war, raiding each other, a little rape and pillage here, a little ransoming there. I showed them total warfare."

As you can likely surmise, Edward went on to rename himself Caesar, basing his image on the many pre-war books he had read on the Republic of Rome. Joshua Graham became his 'Malpais Legate' and Bill was sent back home with a message "Don't interfere with me." What followed was a war of assimilation as the Legion broke the backs of Tribes and then absorbed their number into their own, erasing their individuality and personal histories on the back of a single vision dedicated in their reverence to their god king, the son of Mars, Caesar. These tribes were re-educated, taught tactics and Latin, rearmed, given American Football gear and spears to emulate old Roman battle dress, and reorganised into Legionaries, Speculatores and Frumentarii.

Caesar believed that the only way to bring together the fractures of society was to obliterate the identity and individuality which has driven them apart for centuries and unite them under a hegemonic, totalitarian, homogenous culture which enforces order and obedience to a higher ideal. One point of praise which is always levelled to the Legion is that their wake establishes undeniable structure on an otherwise wild world; caravaners trust in totally safe trading routes with Legion customs backing society. (And Legion punishments threating those who would dare to break it. Up to and including crucifixion.) Of course, the Legion is also prohibitively backwards, punishing homosexuality with death and refusing to allow Women to serve, mostly enslaving and trading them whilst treating them as little more than breeding stock.

Technology was largely frowned upon by The Legion, to the point where many Legionaries would charge into battle wielding spears and short blades, and subsist themselves on homeopathic healing powder recipes in place of Stimpaks. They shunned performance enhancing chems, preferring instead to train and refine their physical bodies to their utmost peak, and beyond bolt-action rifles and brush guns, they mostly left advanced firearms out of their armoury altogether. Caesar saw the trappings of technology as a crutch for humanity, an artificial back-bone which made society complacent and dependent. His Legion were built on the ideals that suffering and hardship forge the sharpest minds and toughest resolves, and learning to stand on their own feet without RobCo holding them up was a important philosophical step in his vision.

The Legion's greatest strength, it's rigidly centralised command structure, is also it's greatest weakness; as without a clear line of succession the death of Caesar would likely lead to the utter break down of it's ranks. Caesar had no children, and as of the events of New Vegas he was already dying from a brain tumour, which all makes it very hard to rely on the stability of a Legion built wasteland. Although perhaps that too is something that Caesar was trying to overcome when he, after a successful conquest of 87 tribes, bought his armies to Hoover Dam in order to fight the NCR for it's bounty. By breaking the back of the New Californian Republic, maybe Caesar sought to create a legend powerful enough to persist past himself and keep the Legion in line even after his passing. Who could honestly seek to rebel against the largest power in the wastes, afterall? 

After the events of New Vegas, the Legion would go on to either solidify their rule in the west or retreat back to Arizona, but either way their fate is never definitively finalised. An optimist could see this an a potential inroad to future tales about the Legion, perhaps of new upstarts staking their own claims to the throne. It seems that Caesar has forever changed the role and dynamic of tribes within the wastes from tiny reservoirs of  typically disparate local isolationists into a powerforce capable of seizing all the wastes with the right power behind them. A conviction demanding that human strength and numbers can overpower technological superiority when channelled through the right focus, and how that same strength can be corrupt into a particular person's grim vision of a wasteland saved.  

The story of Vault-Tec

 Vault-Tec Calling!

Vault-Tec serves as one of the most recognisable and important symbols of the Fallout Mythos; not only creating the large metal vaults which serves as kicking off points for the majority of the Fallout adventures, but also coining the ever-present 'Vault-boy' marketing mascot who has appeared in every single main-series Fallout game to date and is now a recognisable symbol of the series as a whole. Through Steam his face is literally the default Icon for Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. But despite this important to the Fallout brand, even after 5 mainline entries there are still many mysteries surrounding the structure of this company, what the chief goals were and just who it was they were involved with. Although there are plenty of sources of lore, some of which border on contradictory, and enter destroyed research facilities' worth of speculation.

Vault-Tec famously has no founder yet revealed in the series, which is a huge roadblock when trying to deduce their founding principles, but we do know they've been an active company since at least the 2030's ('Fallout: 76'), decades before the Sino-American conflict which would lead to the disastrous 'Great War'. As such it seems that Vault-Tec was founded as a precautionary measure against the direction America was heading, with it's decades of consumption dragging down the super-power into an impending crisis of scarce resources. ('Fallout 4') We know that Vault-Tec boasted significant ties to the US Government, to the point where the US would eventually rely on Vault-Tec's services in order to construct a Vault specifically to house the unnamed 'Last President of the United States'. (Fallout 2) As such, we might make a solid assumption that the US government themselves might have at least bankrolled this institution into being as a Plan-B, if the desperate grasping measures of 'alternative fuel sources' and 'forced annexation', and eventually 'global war', did not turn out in their favour.

Whatever their origins, Vault-Tec was defined by the production of highly effective, and prohibitively expensive (Fallout 3), underground Fallout Vaults designed not only to resist impending nuclear Armageddon, but to serve as functioning living spaces for the inhabitants to persist within for generations until the radiation levels outside died down enough for those initial resident's descendants to re-enter the atmosphere(Fallout 3). Or at least, this was the supposed purpose that had been fed to public in order to get the rich and influential to sign up for placements in the Vault, the truth would end up being much more insidious and potentially reveal a whole new shade to the Vault-Tec company. Because yes; most all of these Vaults were designed in order to resist the bombs, but most wanted to do far more to their citizens than just keep them safe from the chaotic death of modern society.

Secretly, most of the Vaults actually served as petri-dishes for experiments to be run on their inhabitants, vast, covert, experiments that would play out over the span of decades, and nearly all of which breach the constraints of scientific ethics. Vault 11 featured a sacrificial altar on which Residents were expected to give up their loved ones year after year to study the effects it would have on them as a societal unit, and how long it would take for them to say no ('Fallout: New Vegas'). Vault 111 cryogenically froze their inhabitants without their knowledge in order to study the effects of long-term cryo-stasis (Fallout 4). Or how about when they pumped Vault 92 with constant white noise in order to induce aggression? (Fallout 3) Or dumped a whole mess of Vault-dwellers who were told they were the 'best' and 'brightest' in the country into a plot of the wasteland full to the prim of automatically restocking nuclear missile silos and just waited to see how soon they'd start blowing each other up. (Fallout 76)

This obvious lack of moral operating ethics makes it more than likely that Vault-Tec owned, or at least partially run, by the Enclave. Secretive branch of elitist within the US government who would try to 'take back America' after the bombs fell. This Enclave made use of Vault-Tec facilities in order preserve the upper echelons of government from nuclear fire, and their obsessions with experimentations on human test subjects (Fallout 3) neatly slides into the same sort of wheelhouse as what Vault-Tec themselves were up to. Actually there has never been an explicit canonical link drawn between the Enclave and the management of Vault-Tec, no matter how obvious the connection sounds; so until that changes we just have to except there are two government-tied secretive organisations that treat humanity like silly putty, just with slightly differing approaches. (Kidnapping and experimenting on test subjects is a tad more aggressive on The Enclave's part, I will agree.)

What I always found curious about the whole Vault-Tec concept is thus; if most of these experiments were designed to observe how humans reacted under specified conditions in the context of a nuclear shelter environment, how did the Vault-Tec management expect to collect and make use of this data? Is there some undiscovered observation Vault somewhere full of generational Vault-Tec scientists who have been watching the Vaults secret all these years? Perhaps, but I think the real solution is much more simple. The US government only allowed tensions to spark to the point of nuclear warfare because bad intel gave the brass the impression that a nuclear attack from China would only result in 40% of the country being destroyed, whilst an American retaliation would totally obliterate China. Considering Vault-Tec's ties to the government, and assuming the Enclave funding theory holds water, the Vaults may have been seen as a exploitation measure to conduct unethical experiments on a society of people who thought the world had ended, whilst the US recovers from their disaster on the surface. (Which might also go someway to explain many Vault's super stringent 'don't leave until a specified time frame' rules) Of course, then the world actually ended for real and those plans were sort of scuppered.

One avenue of Vault-Tec, or Vault technology in general, that the series has even flirted with addressing is whether or not China has an equivalent. In the lore there are plenty of examples of China and America trying to ape the other's technology, and they can never perfectly reverse engineer the other's accomplishments. But if China had it's own Vaults, or more likely a different alternative to surviving the nuclear holocaust (like giant rad-free bubble cities or something) then there could be whole societies of Fallout survivors just across the sea which we haven't even begun to explore yet. But whilst the series remains sternly married to Americana, I suppose we never will get to explore this most interesting segment of the Fallout universe.

Vault-Tec is a company of secrets and scandal, buried under wrought-iron, concrete rivers and atomic ash. After 5 Fallout games prominently featuring them, we still don't even have a clear idea of their origins, and so many blank spaces in their motives makes them a curious subject of speculation to this day. I think there's a real space of exploration to be done from this angle of Fallout lore, and I'd love a TV show or webcomic that really fleshed out their role from that fundamental angle we're still missing, to help us frame the bigger picture. Although in that same breath, I acknowledge sometimes the mystery is everything, and never quite knowing why the powers that be decided to clone a guy called Garry 99 times in their Vault (Fallout 3) is better than finding out.

Umbra: The Sword of Souls

 Ready for a fictional history lesson?

One of my favourite parts of The Elder Scrolls and the way it tells its lore, is the fact way a lot of the very special magical items aren't just imbued with special effects, but also with a living history which evolves and changes from game to game. It's something that I can really appreciate in the wake of all the CRPGs I've played recently, wherein you'll find plenty of named magical items with mostly forgettable effects and paragraphs of meaningless 'lore' attached to them; with stark exception given to the items of lore from Tyranny, because no game nailed 'living legend history' like Tyranny did. Perhaps the epitome of these magically enchanted weapons of legend in the Elder Scrolls universe are the Daedric Artefacts: Items of power tied to, and sometimes created by, one of the powerful Daedric Princes who influence much of the world of Nirn. These are all very unique items, tied with heavy lore, that are famous, no least of all for being collected by perhaps every player character in history; making the legend of their exploits the legend of your own as well.

Everyone has their Daedric artefact which they love the most, the one which speaks to them and their tastes, whether that be for its effect, general aesthetic, or the story written across its surface. For me that weapon is the ever-changing Sword of warfare and shadow, capable of such legendary carnage that most who came to wield it throughout history found their own names overshadowed and lost to its glory. I speak of the weapon of legend: Umbra. A dark purple blade, sometimes a long sword, at others a two handed sword, imbued with the ability to cleave away the very souls of those it fells and, perhaps consequential, always a weapon held in the hands of some nameless slaughterer very willing and confidant to challenge any who think they can claim the weapon for themselves. It's almost like the Elder Wand from Harry Potter, a weapon most feel invincible with, until they encounter that one person who is more deserving of the sword than they. (Spoilers: that person is always you.)

Some may be aware of the weapon but not even know that it is a Daedric Artefact or what significance that fact even has. Indeed, I do believe that in the game it was introduced, Morrowind, there's absolutely no indication whatsoever this is such a tool, and the relevant Daedric Prince who would eventually have it tied to his name didn't even have a questline in that game. (Even though three of his artefacts appeared in the game.) Of course I speak of the Child-god of the Morningstar, Clavicus Vile, the trickster Prince who's entire MO is trying to set people up with deals that ultimately don't go their way. Seems a strange fit, does it not? A Prince who prides themselves with their cerebral tricks and backhanded deals handing out a sword of ultimate destruction? Seems like something you'd expect more out of Molag Bal or Mehrunes Dagon. But look a bit deeper into the history of such a device, and you'll see the signature trademark of the child-god clear as day.

The Sword was created by one Naenra Waerr, (try saying that 5 times fast) a witch who took up the commission to make a sword specifically for Soul Harvesting, because apparently Clavicus Vile is too lazy to just use Soul Trap, one of the most basic conjuration spells. The Witch succeeded, but only barely for the sword she made was unstable and required some form of significant power to bring it under control. (Or at least, that's how one of the stories, the one which makes the most sense to me, goes) The Witch had Clavicus imbue some of his own power into it, only to reveal that she had tricked the great trickster himself! The Sword would siphon off a great deal of Clavicus' power and develop a sort of sentience of it's own, becoming the entity known as Umbra. Thus the reason that everyone who wields this blade becomes a war obsessed psychopath who loses their very identify to the weapon, is because they're becoming quietly possessed by the being inside of it. (There's the trickery I'd expect of ol' Mr Vile.)

In 'The Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion', the latest canonical appearance of Umbra, the Blade can be retrieved for Clavicus Vile as part of his quest line in return for his Masque. (a terrible trade-off by-the-by) Typically Daedric quests are fuelled with this unknowable mystery to them so that it feels as though you're just running around in circles for the amusement of your Daedric benefactors, but this is one of those rare example where we have context. Clavicus is trying to reclaim that part of his power which ran away, and upon returning the sword, Vile tries to keep it within his realm until he can learn how to undo the trick the Witch placed on him. The only reason we know this, and the subsequent events, is through the two quite good extended universe Elder Scrolls Books 'The Infernal City' and 'Lord of Souls'. Two stories I would certainly recommend and some of the only extended universe Elder Scrolls books for some reason. Bethesda should really get to commissioning more.

After the Oblivion Crisis, the spirit within Umbra managed to solidify itself into a body and escape the confines of the Sword in which it was trapped, becoming a sort of shadow off the godling Clavicus Vile. This entity couldn't just leave the realm of his master however, because Vile had personally put safeguards up to tie the thing to his realm a while back. Instead, Umbra ended up siphoning Clavicus Vile's power and running away to claim a city from Vile's realm as his own; dubbing it 'Umbriel'. But that is far from the end of this story. You see, after the events of Morrowind and the destruction of the godly Tribunal, (Either by the Nerevarine destroying their power source or directly slaying the gods ontop of that) the many magical feats of the Tribunal began to fade from the world. One such feat would be the Ministry of Truth; the floating meteor hanging over Vvardenfell's Vicec City which the Tribunal god Vivec had halted on it's route to crushing the place. You can sort of see what problems might arise when he suddenly lost all his powers/ was brutally murdered.

One scientist devised a way to keep the Meteor in the air, through a powerful soul powered machine which required souls and also was a soul eating machine. (Why did anyone think that was a good idea? Why not just relocate?) So grisly connotations aside, the device didn't work and exploded, sending the asteroid careening through Oblivion and eventually into Clavicus Vile's realm. Umbra saw this happening and chucked his sword through the hole in Vile's realm that the ministry created before it could seal up again. This sword, through way of possession, managed to summon up some less-than-willing acolytes to build another soul machine, this one tied to the city of Umbriel and powered by Umbra's stolen fragment of Clavicus Vile's power. (Are you still following me? I feel like I'm barely following myself) The result? Freedom of a sorts, for Umbra and his city. Umbriel would be propelled across the realms of Oblivion as a floating city powered by souls until it eventually wound up in Nirn and almost caused a soul-zombie apocalypse.

Wow. That's a lot of flavour lore around what was originally just a sword with, in all honesty, a rather lacklustre enchantment effect tied to it. Who'd have thought a simple weapon that I had locked in a display case in my Oblivion castle would contain the sentient fragment of a god? Or go on to struggle against said god for supremacy, it just goes to show the real smattering of history some of these fragments of the Elder Scrolls world has. Whilst Umbra's journey may be up for the time being, with the sword being understandably absent from Skyrim, there's plenty of other tools with stories going even further back, if not with two extended universe books dedicated purely to fleshing them out. I'll see which of those is worth a summary blog too.

The Elder Scrolls: Dwarves

 Where did they come from, where did they go?

The Elder Scrolls online was a perfect opportunity to expand the world and lore of Elder Scrolls further than it has done ever before, and in many ways that's exactly what they achieved with that game. By the very virtue of being an MMO set earlier than any other piece of media in the franchise, ESO has served as a perfect breeding ground for all sorts of lore snippets forever injected into it's healthy ecosystem. (as it is a rather good MMO nowadays as well.) There's only ever been a few little slip-ups here and there such as how 'The Lusty Argonian Maid' exists within the games files despite the fact you literally meet the author of that play in Morrowind. And he's a normal human, so there's no "Maybe he was alive for hundreds of years" to fall back on. Maybe he totally ripped off the play from some ancient unknown source, but the protagonist is still an obvious crude self-insert of him trying to bone his maid, so I think that's a weak argument. (I guess we'll chalk that up to temporal displacement, I don't know.) But there's one aspect of lore that, as was recent discussed, ESO will never get a chance to touch on, and that's because they've been forbidden. No, it's not the ever interesting eastern land of Akavir, which I would love Elder Scrolls 6 to be secretly based in, but instead the 'mystery' surrounding The Elder Scrolls' Dwarves, and it got me thinking about them myself.

Of course, Dwarves are a fantasy staple present in just about any fantasy setting you can imagine. (I'd joke about how that's a prevailing symptom of systemic ableism, but knowing this industry there's bound to be someone who'll take that too seriously.) Dragon Age, The Witcher, The Forgotten Realms, insert any fantasy franchise you want and no matter how grounded they are there's a good chance the game has dwarves. They all tend to be the same in concept as well, subterranean isolationists who specialise in all things related to minerals and the earth: mining, smithing, general metallurgy; that's always their thing. And yet despite the Elder Scrolls sharing that cliché, I must admit that their take on it is actually one of the most original I've seen across the various quite distinct franchises that I've mentioned. It's surprising to me because as much as I love the Elder Scrolls it does tend to be very clearly influence driven in a lot of manners; but not in the Dwarves.

Known in the lore as Dwemer (Deep Elves), leading off of the naming convention for Elfin races wherein they are some sort of descriptor followed by their species of 'mer', the Dwarves are still subterranean masters of their craft, only these guys fill the role of the mandatory long-missing civilisation for this universe. Every series has their own, the Engwithans, Aen Elle, those of the Elvhenan; traditionally this spot is held by the native-American allegory race, telling of a long lost culture of nature lovers who would live forever, be more moral, and just all round be better than all the scrub cultures who live nowadays. The Dwemer go a different direction, with the Dwarves being merely technologically superior, (and also not actually short in any fashion) but conceptually just as corrupt and backstabby as their modern day counterparts, with the added bonus that their tended to be a civilisations most predisposed towards blatant sacrilege. (They literally made artificial life to be their slave protectors, these guys were hardcore 'playing at god'.)

Where the mystery comes into it, is in the way that the Dwemer actually disappeared from the world, because this isn't your stereotypical story about a society that slowly collapsed after generations of withering fortunes, no the Dwemer's disappearance is much more abrupt than that. It was a disappearance in every sense of the word, in that one day they were there and the next they were not, with no clue left as to how an entire species vanished, where they went or if they can ever return. These are the sorts of mysteries hanging over the Elder Scrolls world ever since after Arena where the team decided that the mentioned-but-not-implemented Dwarves should be more interesting. Diving into this would be unravelling one of the great mysteries of the Elder Scrolls universe, but as Todd Howard himself apparently decreed; such is not the duty of the ESO team to cover.

Except, we do actually know how the Dwarves disappeared. Is this- am I being stupid here? This was covered pretty extensively in Morrowind, but we've just sort of continued like we didn't get a pretty open and shut story told to us. For the sake of those who missed it, the story goes like this. Indoril Nerevar, the Chimer (Dunmer Predecessors) war hero who's life and times are of central importance to the story of Morrowind, really had an issue with Dwarves. Their people were traditionally enemies, but he'd managed to secure a truce through his friendship with their leader King Dumac Dwarf-Orc. The two of them were the best of friends with a relationship so tight it bought warring nations to peace. That was, of course, until the world's bigger Narc, Dagoth Ur, ran to his master Nerevar to report about how his spies had watched the Dwarves chief scientist, Kagrenac, experimenting on the heart of Lorkhan.

Woah, back up a second; okay, so Lorkhan was an Aedric god who created the mortal plane and, in true promethean fashion, was punished for his transgression by having his heart thrown to Nirn. (The impact of which would form the volcano known as 'Red Mountain'.) So this was a sacred and holy artefact that some Dwarf dude, in all the hubris of mortals, had dug up and now was experimenting on. Something about creating a big artificial god with the heart of the Dragon of time or some such nonsense, it's a whole thing. (basically he's responsible for the events of Elder Scrolls 2 indirectly) Messing with such a holy relic tied to creationism is sacrilege, and Nerevar turns to Dumac to have this forcibly stopped. Dumac doesn't believe Nerevar, and the two nations end up at war again. Nerevar and Dagoth Ur manage to storm Red Mountain and Kagrenac's lair, but he has other ideas and tries to tap directly into the Heart of Lorkhan with his tools for some unknown cause. (Perhaps he hoped to be imbued with the power of a god to wipe out their Chimer foes.) In that moment something inexplicable happened, the entire Dwarven race was wiped from the face of existence in the blink of an eye. Where they went, nobody knows, and touching on that mystery is the only real direction this story could go on.

Although, and I loathe to try and interpret Mr Howard's own intentions here, but perhaps the idea is not to delve any deeper into the Dwarves at all, ever. Maybe, just maybe, the plan over at Bethesda is to keep the location of the Dwemer a secret for now and forever, only ever hinted at or teased upon, but never fully explored. I say this because of the commonly held theory that a mystery is often best left unanswered, because the conclusions of the mind will always trump anything the creators could come up with. It's a simple and inelegant solution to one of Elder Scrolls' largest running mysteries, but as this point what other choice does the team have? The Dwemer, in their absence, has been built up to being an entire race of genius-level intellects capable of creating fully autonomous robots that function perfectly generations without maintenance. The only reason to bring them back into the lore at this point would be if The Elder Scrolls were seriously considering a hard jump into the industrial age with factories, powered automobiles and firearms. And whilst that would be cool, I don't know if that would make the best fit for a fantasy world like Nirn.

Ultimately, however, the final decision falls to the creative team for how they want to handle this one. Personally I think it's a tale worth exploring, and there's certainly a way to 'bring back' the Dwemer people as a new race for players to toy around without defying the mystique and grandeur of the disappearance. What about a small colony of exiles getting discovered on some remote realm outside of the traditional purview of the Daedric princes, letting the species join the roster as some super rare special race? (I just want there to be more official Elder Scrolls races, it's pretty dry in that regard so far.) Let me know what your ideas are for the future of the Dwemer in The Elder Scrolls down in the comments: let's self-therapy in a group.

The coming of the Dark- Soul.

And then there was fire.

Recently I finally got around to definitively completing Dark Souls 3, which means that I have successfully completed the entire franchise and now feel a void in my life knowing that the tale of the First Flame has come to an end. As part of my natural coping mechanisms, this means that I have to now go over my thoughts about the queries and questions that the game intentionally leave and delve into that final riddle which Dark Souls 3 leaves us with. (And who knows, it might be fun!) Of course, given the nature of such a discussion I must remind you all that this means mega spoilers will come out for the main story arc, so if you've any interest in the Dark Souls story then turn away. Unless you similarly have completed every bit of Dark Souls lore, in which case: Welcome friend, let's chat. (FYI, I'm still learning and theorising myself about chunks of Lore so bear in mind if I make a wrong supposition here or there.)

So the events of Dark Souls are preceded, and coloured by, the end of the Age of Ancients; an unformed world characterised by Great trees and Everlasting Dragons. After the Advent of Fire, creatures known as 'Hollows' were born unto the world and they sought out Souls near the light of the First Flame. With the power that these souls conveyed, these Hollows, now lords, fought and overthrew the Everlasting Dragons, thus ushering in The Age of Fire. What's important to note, is that of the four Lord souls which were taken, the furtive pygmy was the creature who came away with The Dark Soul. With this came the element of Dark into the world, which birthed nearly all forms of lesser creature, most notably among them being humans. That's right 'Dark Souls' essentially works as an off-hand to refer to humans, as we are merely Hollows imbued with that little bit of Darkness called 'Humanity'.

Now in the Age of Fire, those who claimed the Souls of Lords now assume their positions as Gods and invoke an age of prosperity for themselves. They now live in huge sprawling kingdoms with impractically tall ceilings and the like, seen to by droves of lesser beings who worship their ever move. It must have been quite the sight to see, but we'll never know as every single Dark Souls game takes place at the tail-end of the Age of Fire, wherein the First Flame which conferred all these brilliant powerful souls to the gods, thus fuelling our innovation, has begun to fade. Everything that happens in the Dark Souls series is coloured by this event, the First Flame flutters and the world begins to crumble and decay in it's wake. The leader of the Lord Souls stealers, Lord Gwyn, thus curses humanity with the Dark Sign, the curse of undeath. Under this new degree, those who die are reborn as undead, cursed to slowly lose themselves and their humanity by dying over and over again until they revert back to their base Hollow forms. The only way to prevent this, to die for seemingly good, is to seek out the First Flame and sacrifice themselves to it, thus kindling the flame. (At least that's my supposition for why Gwyn cursed humanity, it makes sense, no?)

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. You see, Gwyn noticed the fading of the light a good time ago and he knew that he had to do something about it in order to preserve all he has built, to ensure his legacy. Thus Gwyn, who's soul had ballooned to perhaps the most brilliant in existence at that time, choose to sacrifice himself at the Kiln of the First Flame in an act that has come to be known as 'The Linking of the Fire'. He burns up his soul in order to feed the first flame and make it burn brightly once more, and if you put yourself in his shoes you can see why. Everything that was made in the world of Dark Souls was done with the power imbued by the First Flame, so it's fading doesn't just mean that magic will drift from the world or something arbitrary like that, instead everything will converge and disappear along with the light. No cities, nor castles nor any monument of old will stand. Be that as it may, Gwyn's sacrifice was still seen by some as 'The First Sin', because of the way he artificially prolonged the life of the flame instead of allowing nature to take it's course and the Age of Dark to come.

You following so far? Good, because finally we've come to beginnings of the first game and can start to talk about relevant events. Dark Souls 1 takes place as the flame is fading once again after Lord Gwyn's sacrifice. You assume the shoes of the Chosen Undead, who's tasked with gathering the brilliant souls of the Gods who fought alongside Lord Gywn and using them as tinder to reignite the fire once more. It is a harrowing journey, leading the player to explore the depths of each branch of fire, and resulting in a battle against the haggard, hollow body of Gwyn, who mindlessly guards the Kiln of the First Flame. At the end of the game the player is given a choice, either to light the Kiln (resulting in an explosion of fire as the cycle begins again) or walk away. (Thus allowing the flame to fade and becoming a Dark Lord.) Though in the end your choice is fruitless, because as Aldis, Scholar of the First Sin, explains in Dark Souls 2; there will always be one more who will choose to relight the flame at the last second. Thus spells out the severity of Gwyn's sin, there will never be a time when nature is allowed to take her course unimpeded. In a sense, Gwyn has locked the world in a cycle of endless entropy and decay.

In Dark Souls 3, events fast forward to countless linkings later. Many have gone the path of collecting powerful Souls in order to feed them back to the flame that created them, thus becoming a Lord of Cinder. The latest proposed lord, Prince Lothric, chose to shirk their duty which led to the resurrection of some previous Lords of Cinders to do his job for him. (See, even after sacrificing oneself, no one breaks free from undeath.) Once they too turn their back on the First Flame, the rejects are recalled. Those who failed their journeys to Link the Flame, resulting in the player, The Ashen One, coming back to unlife. The curious difference here comes from the fact that the very world seems much worse than it ever was in Dark Souls. In the original, everything had sunk into decay, but here it's almost as though reality itself has begun to unravel. The Lords, for example, have fled to their homes from all over the world, but converging reality moves these locations a trek's distance from Lothric. It's clear that there's something different with this loop.

What exactly that is cannot be made abundantly clear until the player manages to wrangle the Souls of the absent Lords of Cinder and travelled back to the Kiln of the First Flame. This time the flame is defended by a deific manifestation of all those who have linked the flames before (which actually informs a good chunk of his moveset) called The Soul of Cinder. After felling it and attending the fire (should the Ashen One choose to) they'll be met with a mirror scene of the first game's Linking with a rather notable difference; Instead of the roaring blaze from the first relinking, all we see is a gentle flame, not so much different to that of a bonfire. It makes sense, doesn't it? For countless cycles the Flame has been fed the same souls it regurgitated, they would get weaker and weaker with each cycle. So now there is barely anything left, and it's safe to say that this is the last cycle. The fire cannot be linked again and the Age of Dark is inevitable. The series then ends on that ominous note. (Provided you decided to link the flame, that is.)

It's a curious, yet fittingly dour, ending for the franchise and like any good ending it leaves us with one unanswerable question; what does the future hold? The Age of Dark is inevitable, sure, but what exactly is 'The Age of Dark' and what will it mean? A decidedly unreliable source, Darkseeker Kaathe, seems to imply that it will be an 'Age of Man', where no longer will nature suffer at the whims of Gods. But does that also mean an age where we get stripped of innovation, of magic, of all the grandeur of the Age of Fire? Almost certainly given the way the world literally warps and amasses in Dark Souls 3's Kiln of the First Flame. So will 'The Age of Dark' be a literal Dark Ages for the world? Or maybe something more ominous awaits, like the 'Sea of Deep' which that cannibalistic nutcase Aldrich foresaw, or maybe the rise of The Chaos which The Ivory King sacrificed himself to delay in Dark Souls 2. Or maybe just the return of the Abyss and Manus. (Though I'll admit that last one is excessively unlikely. We killed all his fragments in Dark Souls 2, right...)

So I guess the question that Dark Souls leaves us with is one of whether we choose to prolong the fire, even knowing that it's a futile act, or abandon it, welcoming in an unknowable age of Dark which may or may not spell the end of all life. It's a query that challenges concepts like legacy and the fallacy of immortality, which Lord Gwyn fought so desperately for, as well as raising more traditional questions like freedom of destiny, is a futile choice still a valuable one? There's so many layers and angles to the finale of Dark Souls that I'm just beginning to broach, and I'm sure those invested will debate over it for years to come. Whether they support the Fire or the Darkness, whether Aldis was right and a new Age of Fire will erupt sometime in the future, whether the entire plot of the game is really just about human's being exploited by Gods to preserve a world which ultimately wasn't even designed for them. I'm just scraping the surface and there's so many questions to think on. I just wanted to summarise, in words, how I think the story of Dark Souls played out and maybe if you're in a similar position this may have been a little cathartic for you too; here's hoping that From Software's Elden Ring remains even a glimmer as narratively rich and memorable.

Umbrella and the mismangement of their BOWs

Please stop laughing. I worked so hard. I worked night and day.

With all the attention that is being directed towards the Resident Evil franchise of late, from the announcement of Resident Evil 3, to the addition of a new RE3 Easter egg in Resident Evil 2, to the re-release of the RE2 demo complete with a 'Nemesis-themed' Easter egg. I've got to thinking about all of the lore of the Resident Evil universe as I understand it. I find these games to be a fascinating series chock full of secrets and questions that have never been officially answered, and that is perfect fodder for the active imagination. Seeing as how I'm intending to start playing the Resident Evil games and analyzing them in minute detail, I feel that it's high time that I get one particular Lore-related issue of my chest in regards to this franchise. (Cue the Jerry Seinfeld voice) What's the deal with Umbrella's BOWs? (Warning: Major spoilers for the first 3 Resident Evil games.)

Before I get into anything, I should preface this blog by saying that this is quiet unlike anything I've done before on this blog. Rather than focus on hard cold mechanics, I'm delving into narrative and lore in order to point out a funny little thing that I've noticed regarding the way that the first 3 Resident Evil games play out. Therefore I will do my best to explain things for those who aren't as familiar with the lore as I am, whilst simultaneously pointing out that I'm not exactly an expert of everything Resident Evil myself, so there may be some factual inaccuracies here.  (In my defence, I've fact checked everything that I can.)

Let's start at the beginning; The Umbrella corporation, formerly known as 'Umbrella Pharmaceuticals', is the fictional company that is at the heart of most, if not all, of the paranormal going-ons in the Resident Evil franchise. After being founded in 1967 by a trio of 'experimental' doctors, Umbrella quickly rose to become a prominent player on the national field of pharmaceuticals, earning them the title of, In the words of a 19 yr old, "the area's biggest taxpayer". (That is literally the only thing that Rebecca tells you about Umbrella in Resident Evil 1. She doesn't even mention that they're a company. For all you know it could just be some oddly named rich Samaritan with a penchant for developing gauze.)

Unfortunately, widespread market domination and, presumably, considerable profits weren't enough to satisfy the big wigs at Umbrella, and soon they started putting funds behind the research of, easily the most insane of their founders, Oswell E Spencer. Spencey Boy was quite the sucker for agriculture in his youth, you see, and whilst on a flower picking trip in deep Africa, Ozzy came across an incredibly special flower which... You know I can't exactly remember. (This is why I need to play through these games again.) Look, long story short they could inflict serious change to an individual's cellular structure and, naturally, this led to the Umbrella team immediately seeking a way to monetize on it.

To this end, Umbrella founded their 'BOW' program (Bio Organic Weapon) in order to grow super soldiers that would then be sold illegally on the black market, or to the US government. (Management never could quite nail down that part.) There were a few problems with their 'super soldier formula' however, most pressingly how it was a parasitic virus that only seemed able to work it's magic on dead flesh. That, mixed with the fact that the resulting 'Zombies' were lacking the mental acuity to respond to orders, made the marketability of these 'Zombies' rather lame. Luckily the team got to working around the clock to rectify this and they ended up coming to an ingenious solution, they'll create artificial hosts for the virus to take over. Thus the BOW program kicked off in earnest as the team got together to make a deadly organic weapon that would be the envy of any black market weapons deal.

To this end, Umbrella created hundred of useless cannon fodder and a scant few truly marketable super soldiers through with which they could terrorize the world. This prototype was assigned the codename 'Tyrant' and grown underneath the mansion of their founders, in the hills of the Arklay mountains. (A location picked for having the perfect conditions for regrowing the necessary plant. Or being the only place that grew said plants in the first place. The lore tends to conflict with itself on that point.) Umbrella were right on track to create their super soldier and make, in the words of the TMNT movie, "Stupid money" which, let's not misremember things, is their ultimate goal. Umbrella originally had no goals of world domination or to 'cure the world of death' (Okay, that might have been Spencer's goal but no one liked him anyway. He was ousted from the company is a very 'definitive' fashion. Let's say he was 'pushed' to leave his position.) Umbrella only cared about money to begin with, and therefore it only makes sense that every single one of their early decisions should be in aid of that vague goal.

Cue a terrible disaster that isn't worth going into in this blog, and Umbrella's laboratory in the Spencer mansion goes dark. Somehow the virus leaked and infected most of the staff in and around that facility, resulting in incalculable losses for Umbrella R&D, whilst also locking the team out of direct access to their finished prototype: Tyrant. This would be a situation that would require incredible levels of tact and planning on the company's part to ensure that they could contain the situation and retrieve their assets without authorities becoming aware of anything bad, or if that cannot be accomplished, than at least without knowledge of the company's direct involvement. There's only one nagging issue...

The nearby populace of Raccoon City boasts a specialized division of their police force called S.T.A.R.S.; Special Tactics and Rescue Service. (Sigh. You're not supposed to include the 'and' in your acronym, guys.) These guys end up sending their B-team to investigate a distress call nearby which ended up leading directly to the Spencer Mansion. (Whoops.) Luckily that B-Team promptly went dark, (Probably because the team was comprised of several people with no guns and a 19 year old.) unfortunately, there is an A-Team ready to pick up that trail. Cue panic mode for Umbrella, their secret is about to leak out to the Authorities! What can they do? Good thing then, that their captain, Albert Wesker, is actually an Umbrella scientist working as a plant! All he needs to do is call off the investigation, bribe a few folk, and the anonymity of Umbrella is secured. Or he could lead that A-team in a mission to investigate the Spencer mansion... that's proactive, I guess.

Once S.T.A.R.S. land in Spencer Mansion, Albert's goal should be frighteningly obvious, he needs to get his entire team killed off as quickly as possible. And yet the first thing he does is save Chris Redfield's life from Zombie dogs and lead everyone to safety inside of the relative safety of the Spencer Mansion. (Not too clear on your plan here, Al.) Wesker then allows the team to go their separate ways whilst he disappears to... I dunno... destroy evidence hopefully. Somewhere along the way, however, he realizes that he cannot pull this off alone and thus enlists the help of resident S.T.A.R.S. moron, Barry Burton, to help him betray the team. I'd imagine the conversation went a little bit like this:

Albert: Barry, I need your help to betray S.T.A.R.S.

Barry: What? No way. Why would I do that?

Albert: I dunno. Name something that you really care about.

Barry: My Family?

Albert: Yeah, them. I've got them hostage so you better do as I say.

Barry: Oh god. You've lied about everything else I thought I knew about you, but I instantly believe you on this and will do absolutely nothing to fact-check that incredibly bold statement.

At this point Albert practically disappears from the story whilst the rest of the team slowly begin to pick apart the truth behind the mansion. Only in the final act do we find out that he has spent his entire time down in his personal labs with his Tyrant test tube. God knows what he spent all his time doing there, but I'll guess it was mostly trying to figure out the logistics of escorting a 9 foot pale monstrosity out the building and to Umbrella (Who's nearest facility would be the NEST underneath Raccoon City) without being spotted. (You should've bought a van along or something.) Cue the confrontation scene which either ends with Barry learning that Albert didn't kidnap his family (Meaning that Barry murdered on S.T.A.R.S member and tried to murder another for literally no reason) and shooting Wesker or the Tyrant merely waking up from inside it's test tube and choosing to skewer his creator. Either way things end badly for Wesker and, incidentally, the Tyrant, as in the canonical ending the monster is blown to pieces with a rocket launcher. And then again when the entire mansion explodes.

This leaves Umbrella with a huge potential breach of information, as there is an entire squadron of living S.T.A.R.S. who now know their secret, and a lot of money lost in damages. Luckily for them, another convenient tragedy should strike less than 1 week later as the town of Raccoon city is felled by a zombie virus outbreak. (Unfortunately, this virus outbreak also signalled the destruction of Umbrella's substantial NEST facility, providing another potential leak of information.) It is from this point on that I seriously wonder what the heck Umbrella were doing in the aftermath of this mess and just who was in charge the whole time. Let me explain why.

At this point, Umbrella has 3 key problems that they need to solve: They need to ensure that the S.T.A.R.S. members are silenced. (The zombie virus outbreak isn't enough, they need to make sure.) Secondly, their data drives from the NEST need to be erased/retrieved. (Unless the team wants to risk potential exposure from rescue services after the fact) And Thirdly, they need to erase all evidence of their involvement with the 'Spencer Mansion Incident' and 'The Raccoon city incident'. (And, if it's possible, prevent widespread knowledge of zombies hitting the main stream news broadcasts. Remember, this game takes place in 1998 and Raccoon City is relatively secluded so that was still possible.)

The scientists currently in the NEST, likely desperately trying to keep the whole place running as the virus tears through it all, makes the first dumb move to try and control the situation. Word comes to them that the bulk of survivors are hiding out at the police station, so they decide to play dress up with their own Tyrant prototype, Mr.X. (presumably the only other one in existence) and set this expensive piece of proprietary organic-technology loose on the Police station to ensure there are no survivors left to tell tales about the zombies. Somehow this team thinks that their 9 foot pale skinned monster wouldn't attract suspicion if they just stuck it in a trenchcoat and put a top hat on it, and they didn't spare a thought about how they might retrieve their Tyrant after the face. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" they likely said as they reveled in the fact that their quick thinking might have saved them their jobs.

Unfortunately, an outside division of Umbrella has a similar idea with a different end goal in mind. Knowing that the biggest potential info leak comes from the S.T.A.R.S. operatives, seeing as how they are in possession of documents that can tie Umbrella to illegal experimentation, this team decided that they should be the chief target. Therefore, this team decides to deploy their very own prototype BOW; Nemesis, with sole orders to wipe out S.T.A.R.S. Now, you know this was a big screw up, as Nemesis is probably more valuable than Mr.X, (Seeing as how he can follow orders, utter rudimentary phrases and operate large weaponry) so sticking him in the line of fire is exceedingly reckless. (I can only imagine that it was after deploying him that the external Umbrella team called the NEST in order to tell them that they had everything covered. That must have been an awkward conversation...)

So we currently have two incredibly expensive assets active in the same area with mildly conflicting goals, already a gigantic recipe for disaster but hey, at least the job in question will get done. Except there is another variable in this equation as Umbrella's head office preempted the potential issues of S.T.A.R.S and worked a way to  clean it up days ago. You see, Chris Redfield, Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton were immediately reassigned upon coming back from their adventure and sent all over the world. This is because Umbrella happened to have the Chief of police in their pocket and so could ensure that none of the S.T.A.R.S. members had the chance to spread their story. (Especially as the 'reassignments' in question resulted in the members becoming trapped or incarcerated) Only Jill Valentine was exempt from this treatment, and they were likely cooking something up for her when the second outbreak hit Raccoon city.

This means that Nemesis has had the majority of his potential usefulness invalidated as most of the crew are already around the world, making his deployment a waste of time and money. Umbrella high brass also sent 2 (3 if we accept the story of the now non-canonical 'Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City') separate agents to collect information/samples from the NEST so that the entire site doesn't become a completely write-off for corporate. Which further shows how confused everyone was when running this mess as no one took the time to communicate their plans.

Do you want to know the cherry on top of all of this? Atop of the millions of dollars worth of asset that are already invested in covering up this colossal screw-up, the top guys over at Umbrella were already hard at work on a solution to all this that would render all over efforts entirely moot. You see, Umbrella had the kind of contacts under their belt that could mobilize the military if they pull the right strings. Now, this could be used to set up a perimeter around the city or any number of boring solutions, but the guys had a better idea in mind; if they wanted everything gone why not just blow the whole city up in hellfire. This plan was put into place likely under the impression that they were doing the best thing possible for the situation and with no idea that there were 2 high level BOWs, one mercenary and one hometrained agent active in the city at the time. (Since when did Shepherd ever care about danger close?)

As far as Snafus go, that's a big one. I wouldn't want to be the poor lackey who ends up drawing the short straw and thus has to go before Mr Spencer to explain why it is that their past 40 odd years of innovation has to be flushed down the drain. Without the hard work of their mercenary, this screw up alone might have been enough to bankrupt the entire company. (Which means we have a certain seductress to blame for the future Resident Evil games. Surely, that makes her the ultimate bad guy.) Still, at least this whole affair will have likely led to the adoption of 'conference calls' into the Umbrella corporate culture. (Ever improving!)

What Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 presents us with is a perfect cluster of a situation that is hilarious to look at in hindsight. Just like with any real organization, Umbrella ended up costing itself millions (maybe billions) in resources and lost research time all because there was no vertical or lateral communication going on between teams. At the first scent of trouble, everyone rushed to put out the fire not realizing that their various methods ended up making things worse. I love how this messy story convention is the unintended side effect of Capcom setting so many of their games within the same 2 week scenario, and really enjoyed pointing it out today. Perhaps this style of blog isn't quite like what I usually put out, but I hope to settle into more 'Lore discussion' topics like this in the future.

In Defense of: In-game lore books

Read all about it.

This subject is a weird one. It's one of those 'Blogs I'd didn't think I'd ever have to write' kind of situations. Let me explain. I like lore. A consequence of being such an ardent fan of high fantasy role playing games, I suppose. (I became use to reading hours worth of text in order to flesh out the story behind the peculiar shape of that pond over there.) Lore gives me the opportunity to immerse myself in the fictional world's I play in and come to believe in the people who live there. I've likely said this before but immersion is the make-or-break for fantasy, if I'm going to invest one iota of caring into your narrative you better be sure to immerse me first. This is achieved by establishing a solid main story and expanded through the use of expository lore books scattered about the place to answer those questions that you never thought to ask.

So maybe someone can explain to me why it is that people seem intent on abolishing the practise of in-game lore books altogether. Every now and then, I come across another one these baffling articles where critics tear into in-universe written works. 'It's lazy' some say 'It takes too much time to read' conclude others. For some reason there are people who seem to think the act of reading should be relegated only to the medium of books and nothing else. These are the same kinds of people who gawk at the fact that cut scenes still exist, claiming that they are the product of indolent storytellers. (I'll touch more on that subject at a later date. Can't get too worked up now.)

Let me start by making one thing abundantly clear; there is nothing wrong with the basic concept of in-game lore books. I'm not going to claim that they are all high-art or the pinnacle of story telling, but I will say that some lore books fit perfectly into their world. As for the complaint that taking the time to sit back and read some lore, 'detracts from the action', I would have to refute that maybe RPG's just aren't your game. If you are so bloodthirsty that you cannot stomach a peaceful moment of reading, perhaps DOOM might be more your cup of tea. Although 2016's DOOM does have lore entries in it as well, Egads!

I'm being a little bit unfair. I realise that some people object to being forced to sit down and read, and to be honest, I do to. I would prefer to read when I want to and stick my sword in someone's guts when I'm more in the mood for that. But the important thing to remember when it comes to lore books, (Or at least for those that are implemented properly) is that they are entirely supplementary to the core narrative. Rarely do game developers seriously expect their audience to sit down with a pen and paper and study their texts. Lore books are meant to be flavour material for the world just like world clutter and artwork. That's why these large RPG makers employ studios dedicated to managing all of this lore work, because it doesn't need to be handle by the core Dev team. So unless they've encountered a game that has literally held them hostage on the page, I find their arguments a little bit silly.

To demonstrate what I mean, let's focus on game series that is just dripping in excess lore; The Elder Scrolls. Ever since 'The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind', Bethesda have been dedicated to making the land of Tamriel seem as real as possible by fleshing out the world with lore books. These lore books have increased in number in every entry to the point where there is enough reading material in these games to fill a library. (That library would be full of 6 page long books but it would still be full.) Bethesda even had to form a lore department to make sense of it all and, crucially, to be capable of pronouncing the names of Dwarven ruins.

The Elder Scrolls' lore is undeniably expansive, but do you know what else it is? Entirely optional. The Elder Scrolls games are all open world RPG's that are developed with the core idea of player freedom. You are allowed to go practically anywhere and forge whatever story you so choose. Because of this, it is impossible to localise your lore writing efforts into crafting exposition that is relevant to the player and their situation, because they could be doing literally anything. As such, the lore team just try to flesh out as much as they can about the world around you through a variety of different lore books. You have history books, play scripts, nature books, written notes, journals, theology books and, my favourite, story books. This approach also allows the lore writers to focus in on the specific region in which that game is set, helping to establish cultural themes in the works. 'The people of Skyrim are considered brutish dullards so lets make some books that riff on that idea'. 'Dark Elves are considered irritable so lets try to capture that in this letter'. It's just another way the team at Bethesda make their world feel unique, diverse and lived in.

On the other end of the spectrum to that 'write about everything' approach is much more targeted and specific use of lore books in games like Deus Ex. The world of Deus Ex is a very complicated one, despite very much resembling our own. The transhumanist dystopia that we see presented in 2000's Deus Ex did not spring out of our world overnight, there is a lot of history explaining every step of the way. Not all of this history would make sense to include in the main character's dialogue. Imagine how clunky it would be if Joseph Manderly just said "Hey Denton, did I ever tell about the history of augmentations?" (Sheev would have to file a lawsuit.) Instead Eidos utilises little datapads that offer snippets of insight into the wider the world.

This is different from Bethesda's approach because Eidos takes advantage of their relatively linear narrative progression. As the player gets further into Deus Ex, they might start to notice the clever way in which datapads they find will elucidate matters that are about to become very relevant in the main story. Like the introductory pamphlet on UNATCO you receive briefly before you go to speak with UNATCO's director, a.k.a your boss. Or that strange datapad that brings up the topic of 'Grey Goo' before you are tasked with deciding the technological path of humanity's future, for which it would be prudent to take the 'Grey Goo' theory into account. By hooking the expository lore into the wider narrative, Eidos provides the player with the opportunity to dive into the complex issues around them with some understanding about the matters at hand. That goes a long way to making that player care about the stakes of the story.

Those were examples of games that utilised lore to great effect. But that doesn't automatically mean that all properties know exactly how to use it, just look at Destiny. Whenever anyone has a complaint about lore entries in gaming it feel inevitable for Destiny to come up. And for good reason. Destiny is set in a science-fantasy future wherein resurrected human beings known as Guardians protect the remnants of humanity from hoards of alien pirates, space wizards, and a dark entity so abstract that the writers dropped it for the sequel. Destiny is a game with narrative problems. Huge, gaping, narrative problems. Despite being originally marketed as a high-concept Halo successor, Destiny ended up as a shallow, feature light, time waster that has consequently negatively tainted the moniker of 'Looter shooter'. And the way Bungie handled the lore is a big reason for this.

The main purpose of lore in gaming is to create the illusion of substance in your fictional world, thus aiding the act of immersion. As such, the method the player uses to acquire and read that lore is a little detail that is incredibly important for the final effect. The Elder Scrolls gives you lore in the form of books and parchment, like one would expect from a medieval fantasy world. Deus Ex uses holographic datalogs, just like I expect we'll all be using in our sci-fi transhumanist future. Destiny used an app. On your real life smartphone. That means in order to take a look at the lore that you unlocked, lore that we just established exists to immerse the player, Bungie expected players to stop playing the game and bring up their smartphone app. That is literally genius levels of misguided. I'm not even mad.

Unfortunately, that isn't even the worst of it. I know that this particular part of the blog will piss-off hardcore Destiny fans but I have to be honest, the actual content of the lore is pretty weak too. Now I've already bought up how I appreciate it when exposition is conferred onto the player in way that doesn't feel clunky or ham-fisted. I like it when we learn about the world through in-game stories, history books and datalogs. But one thing that all lore needs to be, despite the format on which it is presented, is coherent. (And ideally not pretentious.) I want to have some idea about what you're telling me without feeling the need to pull out a pen and paper and start analyzing the text. Yet that's exactly how I felt whenever I looked at the lore logs on the Destiny companion app. Aimless digressions, obscure fables and stories that seem to exist for the sole purpose of playing the pronoun game. Lore like this doesn't make me care about the world anymore. Lore like this makes me want to stop playing video games.

All of this culminates up to Destiny's biggest issue. Bungie seems adamant to smother the game in lore to avoid maintaining a story. All the cleverly placed, targeted datalogs in the world isn't going help if your world isn't interesting to start with, and Destiny's world is dull. The problem isn't that the concept itself is weak, I actually think there is huge potential in an epic science-fantasy series. Star Wars managed to turn their epic science-fantasy into a ludicrously successful franchise. But they didn't do that by bringing out the extended universe books before they established a solid story with likeable characters. Destiny has no likeable characters. And if you're about to say 'What about Cayde-6?', I'll remind you that I said 'characters' not 'sarcasm recepticles'. (We've got enough of those in Britain already.) What remains is a hollow world without a heart that no one really cares about beyond 'How can I improve my DPS.' And that does not make a solid foundation for a series. Unless your 'Borderlands', in which case it absolutely does.

Lore isn't a concept that is either butchered or mastered, by-the-by, there are some games who pull it off to a merely satisfactory degree. Just look at Bioware darlings; Mass Effect and Dragon Age. I know right, "Are you about to diss the narrative prowess of one of video gaming's premier storytellers?" Yes I am, but only when it comes to lore. The original 3 Mass Effect's and the Dragon Age series are both exemplary examples of their respective thematic genres. Both boast gripping narratives and complex characters that develop in surprising and meaningful ways. The level of comradeship and rapport that you establish with your team in both franchises is the closet some us will ever get to having actual friends. And yet both games have problems when it comes to lore.

First is their presentation. Neither series makes the error of relegating lore to a companion app, (Still can't believe they did that.) but they do shuffle away lore pages into the game menus, requiring players to pause the action in order to read about the world. It is a little bit immersion shattering for the casual player. Heck, I love the games and even I sigh everytime I have to scrolls through menus and tabs to read that book I just picked up. Then comes the content. Again, not pretentious drivel like Destiny, but just bad enough. Mass Effect's lore is the better of the two, full of the technical details that lend some credibility to the technological foundations of their sci-fi world. But just read what I wrote again; The lore features 'Technical details'. This means that there are those times when you'll find yourself struggling to keep your eyes open as you read the opening sentence to the 'Biotic barrier' entry for the eighth time, somehow understanding it less with each re-read.

Then there is Dragon Age's lore logs, >Sigh<. I love Dragon Age, I really do. And there is a lot of really good, interesting lore pieces in these games. The entries about the fundamental laws of magic are essential for anyone interested in that part of the Dragon Age universe. (Even when the games themselves do proceed to break those laws. Especially the one about teleportation.) My problem isn't with these interesting entries. My problem is with the lore entries that are poetry. You read that right. Poetry. And song lyrics. Arguably the same thing, definitely as bad as each other. It is such a shame for a game that features so many exciting storytelling elements, diverse characters and believable world building, to include this kind of lore too. It's as though Tolkien came back to write a brand new epic fantasy but he insisted on inferring the worst parts of Lord of the Rings in there as well, for posterities sake.

I shouldn't have to explain why 'poetry' and 'song lyrics' make for bad addendums onto your lore, but here we are. Firstly, songs are fine for lore. Actually, songs are great, They are a fantastic way to confer the culture of the world to your audience whilst telling them a story. You learn so much from songs. How do these people sing? What kind of instruments do they use? What would these people sing about? It add a layer of mystery whilst simultaneously unfurling that enigma for you to hear. It's effect on world building is... indescribable. That is just the magic of music, I guess. Song lyrics are just words. Fancy rhyming words, but words all the same. I have no idea how the tune goes, what the rhythm is or what the tempo should be. When the player is given song lyrics they've basic just been given a confusingly parsed story, and as I've said, cohesion is important. Poems are much the same, only the morale is usually even more obscure. I'll admit I'm saying this as someone with a very muted love for poetry but I still doubt I'd like this practice even if I was a poetry aficionado. Actually, I might like it even less if I was also judging the quality of those poems. Ultimately, the lore suffers due to an inherent lack of cohesion, like I keep writing. All that said: 'Sera was never' is still a jam.

At the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with the core concept of in-game lore books. In fact, I would argue that it is one of strengths of the gaming medium that we can dive into and explore non-essential aspects of the surrounding world without derailing the plot. You couldn't go into the history surrounding the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D in the middle of 'Captain America: Winter Soilder', even if that could be helpful for understanding some of the finer details of the story. But you can take the time to read about the swordsmanship of Serkonos in Dishonored 2, because Video Games can be as long as you need them to be.

Accepting the wider fictional world of you story doesn't exactly delineate the plot, but it does go a long way to help enrich it. Immersion is a game of give and take; the audience give their trust into the world that the writers have envisioned and in return those writers give little reasons why that trust is well placed. That is all plot is, the creators side of the transaction. If lore books are a useful tool for conducting that transaction then I think that they should be championed not ridiculed. So if you're one of those people who scoff at the idea of reading in games, I would urge you to take a look at the material again and see if the narrative value those words contain outweigh the time cost of a couple minutes. You may just change your tune.