Terraria 8th Anniversary Lore Event

Honestly, I find the lore extremely underwhelming in terms of writing quality and worldbuilding. It was clearly rushed and thrown together. I'd expand on that, but it would mostly be repeating the words of others. I feel somewhat like I did reading the Homestuck Epilogues -- a feeling of "this is it? really?" except the epilogues were at least connected to the main story and were extremely well-written, albeit cursed as all hell. It doesn't touch on eldritch themes all that much outside of token mentions, which is strange given Terraria's obvious Lovecraftian homages, doesn't explain souls beyond mentioning they exist, and moreover, it's a tightly constrained story in a game all about freedom and creativity. If Terraria were to get lore, I thought, it would explain things in a looser sense, give the world a sense of vastness, instead of constraining everything to the singular story of "world vs Cthulhu". I could accept the epilogues, even though reading them hurt my goddamn soul, because they stayed true to the identity of the work despite how bizarre they were. I can scarcely accept this.
 
I can respect the negativity from where it's coming from, at least.

-Some of the new story details don't merge very well with the current game and feel out of the blue to simply be WordOfGodded on paper when this hardly can be reflected from previous information
(like, no one would have told you the Mechanic was this important or powerful, Dungeon wasn't Cthulhu Chlub Headquarters until they started hanging out in the porch presumably without even paying the estate owner while playing their obscure metal band CDs you wouldn't know about but apparently even the Old Man and everything inside is their doing to begin with, Moon Lord being the real Cthulhu is sort of a retcon considering how much stuff about the real Cthulhu being denied earlier)


-This is going for adding a bigger and overarching story, yet there's still roughly 1.8 hecktons of areas and bosses without lore unless it relates to Cthulhu again
I could imagine that the lihzahrds are ancient druids and the dryads got their powers from them and plantera is the living remains of the dryads that died or is a jungle deity that gave both races these powers in the first place and the reason that it blocks the dungeon chests is because a dryad messed with the dungeon already with nature magic governed by it, and the golems are actually made to store the power that they operate by and freeing it into the world now became helpful for your cause for some reason but the lihzahrds aren't willing to part with them except the lihzahrd that's on your side, but that's just me making all this up, right now things just happen because they do unless it now has to do with Cthulhu's Disability Quest to Not Get Shredded By a Kleptomaniac With OCD and Mad Yoyo Skills

-The "pulled parts and replacements" thing is coming off as confusingly open-ended despite being so specific
Even the obvious parts don't connect very easily from previous information (is THIS its real blank? is it? is it?), and I'm thinking that Eater of Worlds is just a natural monster but I now realize that if my hypothetical cousin comes and tells me that it's actually Cthulhu's royal bladder and Destroyer is made after it, I actually have no factual information to prove or disprove either one. Also apparently that's the real brain of Cthulhu hanging out in the neutral-entity Crimson but heck if I know why


I'm wondering if/how much new stuff in the game will be added/changed about the story that isn't already said here, like if there's more cool stuff to see and these story bits shown here are kind of sadly-out-of-order details then. I mean, Undertale didn't go and spoil some three key details about its plot before it released, you see stuff gradually as you go. I imagine we'll see more about at least that "guardian" thing than just this mention and what we already saw of the game
 
Uhhh… If there's a moon lord... Why can't there be a sun lord bro. Its a pretty bright idea if I say so myself xD.


Very bright, yes. Illuminating, in fact. Could you shine some light on this new star the Sun Lord? I think this idea could be stellar. I mean the gravity of the implications, am I right? Maybe the boss/event could be FISSION related?

Ok I'm done.

Also thanks to this person, who has provided 90% of my entertainment for this thread. Which is a bummer if you think about why I probably came here in the first place.

Edit: Dang I forgot to incorporate a photon pun too. The response might have been binary though.
 
I like this. Yes, it's simple, compared to some things, yes there's gaps, like what's going on in the jungle with plantera and the lizahrd, but I like it. It addresses a bunch of stuff, and it's not something that's been directly added to the game.

And to all those who don't like it, ignore it. It's not like this is in game and set up to deny any kinds of fan lore. This is re-logic giving those who were curious an explanation for the overarching plot of Terraria, but if you want to keep your lore, there's nothing stopping you.
 

Happy 8th Terraria Anniversary everyone! Eight years is a long time indeed, and it has been a wild ride – one full of ups and downs, joy and challenges, and a whole lot of additions to the game we all love so much. What began as a game that ended with Skeletron has flourished into an expansive adventure that spans multiple diverse biomes, culminating in an epic battle against the dreaded Moon Lord!



We never could have made it this far without your amazing, unwavering support – and we promise we never have and never will take that lightly or for granted. Thank you!



As a way of celebrating the occasion, we figured it would be fun to give everyone a little peek behind the curtain into the “what”, “why”, and “how” of this great Terrarian adventure! Why are things in the world the way they are? What’s the deal with the Dryad? Read on to have your burning questions answered… and even deeper questions raised – because after all, its still your adventure as well!

I really love terraria and hope that cthuhlu will come back so we can smite him using cat swords
 
Speaking in a very personal manner, as a writer, it pains me to see lore written for one of my favorite games that doesn't thematically fit the source material, that is, presuming this was written recently. If this was written first and the game expanded beyond it, that would be an entirely different thing altogether. I may end up writing a detailed examination of this lore as I type this post out, so apologies in advance if I make any lore assumptions that may not actually mesh with the base game. I also apologize if it feels or reads as a disjointed mess. I am writing as the thoughts come.
I do fully intend this as constructive criticism, as well as an examination of the newly provided lore.

First and foremost, framing this as 'a legend of old' passed down through the 'Order of the Guide'. The Guide has always been an important and knowledgeable character, from the start of Terraria to its current incarnation, even if all they did was give us recipe information and story progression hints. That importance was jacked up through a very explicit connection to the Wall of Flesh via dumping his voodoo doll into the lava of the Underworld. Much is implied, nothing is really explicitly stated regarding this except the Cyborg referring to the WoF as the Wall of [Guide]. Granted, that may be a reference to fan speculation rather than any concrete confirmation. After all, it's only one NPC stating anything.
What this framing device does, from what I can tell, is give an interpretation of potential lore, a legend, perhaps one or more in-universe peoples' way to make sense of what's going on. That gods have created multiple worlds in an attempt to test the concept of fairness and/or balance.
However, the entire lore is depicted as the entirety of this being ancient knowledge, that everything you do in-game is part of this legend. At least, that is how it is implied from my perspective. A cut-and-dry this-is-as-is story written on old, fading parchment. This creates a thematic paradox of 'everything is valid, but everything is as this lore describes', and that each 'living world' behaves exactly the same because the Gods willed it.

I have a problem with this approach, as it tries to satisfy both the desire to have an open world left open to interpretation as well as cohesive lore to explain the game's mysteries, which is impossible to reconcile in five small pages of illustration and text. You cannot have both in this case.

Second, the idea of Gods having this as a sort of balance experiment fails when you think about the purported purpose of the Crimson, Corruption, and Hallow Vs. how they actually work. Now, the Hallow does make some sense in the regards of aggressive and forced establishment of balance, it is combating the aforementioned evils. However, the Hallow is themed around the concept of Order, while the Corruption and Crimson are themed around Chaos. Two diametrically opposing forces that are extremes of either side of the concept of balance, which should be a harmonious existence of either. All three of these opposing forces do not make sense when you take into account that they're meant to bring balance.

The Evils:
Corruption: The idea of the Corruption being a manifestation of the collective negativity and evil of mankind is a brilliant concept in theory. It creates a natural reason for it to exist to begin with, to give it a thematic foe for the Hallow. It is unambiguously evil, dark. It looks diseased, cursed. None of this screams balance or fairness. In the provided lore, it is described as a cancer, and do some degree, it would seem as such, but it's more akin to necrosis than cancer. Necrosis is, very simply, when living tissue decays due to disease or other harmful factors such as untreated wounds or extreme lack of hygiene. The corruption, thematically, is the death of the world.

Crimson: The idea of the Crimson being a single emergent hive mind being is an interesting concept, except it would better fit the bill of an all-consuming cancer rather than what the lore would imply. It is meat, it is bloody, it consumes and converts the very stone into its own flesh, twists living beings into twisted facsimiles of itself, and most importantly, it can produce ichor, which is stated to be the literal blood of the gods.
It has been theorized that the Crimson is a god-like being who was killed, and who is reconstituting itself using whatever it can get ahold of, essentially regenerating itself from a single cell, and considering the fact that the Brain of Cthulhu outright spawns in this location, it is not a large leap of logic to presume the Crimson is Cthulhu's literal corpse. Of course, this is a theory.

The Hallow: I do not have many issues with the lore regarding this biome, it is very clearly an example of light not always being good or soft. The major issue I have with it, however, is the notion that it further serves the enforcement of balance, when it is just as virulent as the aforementioned evils. It spreads rapidly, and while it does fight the Crimson and Corruption, it feels thematically more like the application of a knight templar doctrine on an extreme planetary scale. Just as dangerous as the literal death and cancer that came before it, only wrapped in a more aesthetically pleasant facade.

Third: Please correct me if I am wrong, and if I am, please skip ahead to the next point if there is such.
Cthulhu has always had an important role in Terraria, naturally. His Eye and Brain being very clear indications of his existence at least conceptually within the world(s) of Terraria has been known. Though, it was to my understanding that he was explicitly stated to not be added as an actual fightable boss, and that the Moon Lord was, himself, supposed to be Cthulhu's brother. Granted, this new lore, if 100% official, does kind of nix that, but it does, to me at least, make this new lore feel like it was made up whole cloth with no regard to previously established lore and thematic integrity.

Fourth: The Dungeon, Clothier, Mechanic, the Lunatic Cultists, the Jungle Temple, & Cthulhu. Nothing about this makes sense. I'll just lay it out right now, it does not make any sense. First, we'll start with the obvious. The Tablet that the Lunatic Cultists use to summon the Moon Lord is kept within the Lizahrd Temple. The entire reason they can even get to it in the first place is because you, the player, unlocked the door and killed the Temple's guardian. Why did the Lizahrds have it? What stake did they have in keeping it? Where do they fit in this new lore?
Second, the Mechanic. She says nothing that indicates she was the one who created the Twins, Destroyer, or Skeletron Prime. Granted, she's the only other person aside from potentially the Goblin Tinkerer, Steampunker, or the Cyborg who could make these mechanical simulacra... but then the Steampunker appears after the first Mech boss is defeated, which to me at least implies some sort of connection, more than the Mechanic has.
Third, the Clothier. The Clothier is outright cursed, implicitly by Skeletron, who is some sort of undead humanoid skull and humanoid hands, a far cry from the Moon Lord. There is no indication of the Lunatic Cultists having anything to do with him, or Skeletron, or the Dungeon Guardian.
Fourth, The Dungeon itself is simply a large building filled with the undead, which you will find in the purity, that is, anything not tainted by the three evils of the world. They seem indigenous to the world itself, rather than the evils that permeate it. Though, that is speculation on my part.
Fifth, the Lizahrd Temple, which interestingly enough is not included in the Lore, in spite of playing a very important role just by having the tablet the Cultists take out of the Temple. Their absence from the lore is striking and obvious. And what of Plantera? Where does it fit into the lore? Why does it serve both as the gatekeeper to the Temple itself, as well as the trigger for things getting busier at the Dungeon?

Overall, this shared lore seems to exist just to exist, to placate those who want lore to the story, and maybe potentially to test the waters as far as future ideas and updates come out. I like the idea of lore, personally, and having answers to my many questions would be excellent, provided they fit in with the content it's supposed to reflect.
Whomever wrote the lore, I thank you for your work, I appreciate the attempt, but I would most heartily suggest either redoing the lore, maybe with some player input since everyone is clearly invested in seeing Terraria as a game and story grow, or leaving this as one potential in-universe interpretation of what is happening out of countless others, and not making it be an end-all-be-all like it implicitly seems to be.

Now, it's past 4 AM and I really should have gone to bed an hour ago.
 
as a representative of the slime nation i am shocked and appalled that we, as a species were not mentioned. we have plenty of history from the creation of our race to the rise of the tyrannical slime king and how we slowly succumbed to the evils presence. we were the very first evolution in sentient life for globs sake!
 
Speaking in a very personal manner, as a writer, it pains me to see lore written for one of my favorite games that doesn't thematically fit the source material, that is, presuming this was written recently. If this was written first and the game expanded beyond it, that would be an entirely different thing altogether. I may end up writing a detailed examination of this lore as I type this post out, so apologies in advance if I make any lore assumptions that may not actually mesh with the base game. I also apologize if it feels or reads as a disjointed mess. I am writing as the thoughts come.
I do fully intend this as constructive criticism, as well as an examination of the newly provided lore.

WALL OF TEXT HAS AWOKEN


Now, it's past 4 AM and I really should have gone to bed an hour ago.
YES.
YESYESYESYES. You just summed up pretty much every single issue I and many others have with this lore in not only a detailed and well-written essay, but gave even more well-thought reasoning. There were reasons for all those theories with pretty explicit connections, there are reasons what they wrote doesn't make sense, and there are reasons this all seems rushed, and you absolutely NAILED it.
Thank you so much. I can only hope that someone in charge of writing at Re-Logic sees this and takes it to heart, and works to- if not outright remove, at least vastly improve the official lore to be at least consistent with what has already been established. The last thing I want is for them to alter the game to fit the haphazard lore, when it should be the other way around.
 
:golem::golem::golem:Cool but where did the mechanical bosses and plantera and golem come from reply if you agree
Uh, the lore literally says that the mechanical bosses were invented by the mechanic in an effort to revive Cthulhu.
We’re not sure about Plantera and Golem, though.
 
YES.
YESYESYESYES. You just summed up pretty much every single issue I and many others have with this lore in not only a detailed and well-written essay, but gave even more well-thought reasoning. There were reasons for all those theories with pretty explicit connections, there are reasons what they wrote doesn't make sense, and there are reasons this all seems rushed, and you absolutely NAILED it.
Thank you so much. I can only hope that someone in charge of writing at Re-Logic sees this and takes it to heart, and works to- if not outright remove, at least vastly improve the official lore to be at least consistent with what has already been established. The last thing I want is for them to alter the game to fit the haphazard lore, when it should be the other way around.
Now I wish I had actually written 'WALL OF TEXT HAS AWOKEN' in my post. XD
Thank you, I tried hard to address as many issues as I could in spite of writing it all at 3AM with no sleep.
 
Wait! The mechanic was forced to build the mechanical bosses to restore cuthulu! Reply if you agree
[doublepost=1558485815,1558485704][/doublepost]@Diretooth

What is this chat called
 
Back
Top Bottom