Headcanon

[Tyro]

So, I like to write headcanon for games I play. It helps with immersion. In Terraria, I figure it's like the Cardiff Rift in Doctor Who / Torchwood: you're dimension hopping in a region where the wall between dimensions is very thin, so it's easy to shift from one dimension to another. This explains the weird mix of tech levels, the ability to go to any world with any character, the underground cabins and pots full of cash & potions, etc. Any thoughts?

 

[Lord Garak]

I've always been a fan of the classic theory that the Guide placed you on the island, and that defeating him brings the attention of more powerful beings.

 

[MegaSDMGShark]

I've had an idea where the land of Terraria is a sort of trial for you, so you can be accepted among the Terra Gods. The guide is just the Moon Lord in disguise.

 

[hamstar]

You're just an immigrant with his/her trusty informational associate and/or hired local (Guide), now visiting this strange land where a vacant cultist hideout (dungeon) resides. The dungeon was originally a storage area for all the bosses you fight, where the cultists would acquire (or sacrifice?) people to have their skeletons for necromancy and their souls to create bosses. One day someone (accidentally?) let all its occupants escape, causing their respective terror rampages throughout the land, and the cultists to abandon the dungeon.

Meanwhile, in the underworld, an ancient, primordial being exists that devours fallen souls to keep the balance of power in check in the world above. This concentration of spiritual essence causes this being to manifest as a large mass of flesh (which arises for supper when offered up fresh, lightly-roasted souls as bait). You then destroyed it to unleash all its entrapped spirits upon the world above, which then prompt the dungeon coven to return to to resume their plan of accruing spirits anew, for reasons unknown.

However, because you're you, you try to kill the cult in the midst of their spirit gathering process, which then beckons powerful eldritch beings from the moon to try to devour all the accumulated spirit essence (and probably all other life as well). This of course culminates in a fight with the undead remains of an eldritch deity (Moon Lord).

For all this, you gain the Moon Lord's source of power: A sword that launches psychedelic kitty cats.

 

[ol' drippy]

Terraria dosen't have a story but I've always seen it as your character's pursuit to grow stronger and stronger to surpass enemies they concieved as strong.