Terraria 8th Anniversary Lore Event

I like it it's very vierd to read this after you have already got 200 h on terrarian and you have thinkt your own lore for terraria and then read this and you are like ah :red: here we go again. But i like it. Sorry for the speeling am bad
 
It's... hit and miss. I've only had Terraria for a month and some change so I can't say I have the full 8-year investment like some other people, but I'm pretty used to looking at game lore with all the League of Legends and World of Warcraft I used to play. And there's some real neat stuff in this lore, like how the Corruption/Crimson works, or the stories behind the mechanical bosses, cultists, and other dungeon-related stuff. But some stuff just doesn't seem right, which everyone's already touched plenty on so I'll save myself the time of digging into it all. My biggest thing is it doesn't explain the connection (if any) between the Wall of Flesh and the Guide. Or why the guardian of the world lives in hell, for that matter. Or really anything about hell. If not for the explanation of how the spirits work, the guardian could have been King Slime for all we know.
 
The only thing I can take away is that *possibly* we will have a mechanical brain of cthulhu counterpart in the next big patch, given that the crimson boss lacks the mechanical counterpart and the lore references the fact that the mechanic has only the brain left to complete. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if we got a fight with Cthulhu itself, or some sort of failed result of the attempted resurrection, as all the mechanical parts needed to bring back Cthulhu would now be present in the world
 
Krispion said:
Ever since I read this I've been wondering about the Moon Lord.... obviously he's not Cthulhu because he's got five eyes and Skeletron's got only 2...... I think the Moon Lord is actually LORDE from Calamity anybody else agree ?????? similar names i can't be the only one who noticed
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Didn't ReLogic say that Moon Lord is Cthulhu's brother?
 
InstaFiz said:
That was just Cenx trolling. She recently confirmed this was not the case.
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I fell for it!!!
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Guydude said:
Also what's this about a mechanical brain?
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TheDarknessSoldier said:
Uh, so is the Moon Lord a revived version of Cthulu then? Or is he Cthulu's brother, like, uh, one of the devs said?
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@Guydude Motherboard confirmed??? (fan-made mech BoC)

@TheDarknessSoldier I was wrong about that... Sorry.
InstaFiz said:
That was just Cenx trolling. She recently confirmed this was not the case.
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Diretooth said:
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.
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It's 1:30 am and I cant sleep, so ima make some lore.

In the world of Terraria the gods don't really interfere. In fact the only time they every actually did something after making the world was set a few precausion which some of would go haywire, but more on that later. In the time before Cthulhu the world had all the biomes already seen, but without the Hallows, Corruption, and Crimson. One time Cthulhu would see the Terraria planet thriving with life and happiness with order and peace. As a god of corruption and chaos this greatly angered Cthulu and so (to make the story easier I'm calling Cthulhu a he. Deal with it.) he vowed to claim the Terraria Planet as its own and destroy it under his will. Not wanting to venture to the unknown planet without backup, Cthulhu convinced his brother who begrudgingly agreed to go with him, but with the condition that he could rule the planets's moon. This is how Cthulhu's brother obtained the name 'Moon Lord'. Unlike Cthulhu and the Moon Lord, the gods of Terraria had no physical form so they could not stop the brothers from invading. However, having overhead there conversation, the Terrarian Gods warned the free peoples of Terraria (I'm a LoTR fan deal with it) Order of Guides, the Druids, and the Lizardmen of the incoming invasion. These three defenders formed the fist Allience to fend off Cthulhu. Despite their best preperations, nothing could of truley prepared them for what would come. Cthulhu first entered the world and fell into a deep cavern opening at the top of a mountain. Knowing he would have to prepare forces for an invasion Cthulhu corrupted this cavern and morphed all living creaters here into abominations that he would rule over. Cthulhu made thousands of these servants and when he was ready sent them out. It was a bloodbath. These creatures, far more powerful than the ones seen today, slaughtered tens of thousands of the people of the Allience who had never experienced true war before. The Allience was able to fight off the swarms of corruption and this would be Cthulhu's greatest mistake. Cthulhu had never expirience the wrath of the Druids before. Enraged, the druids rampaged toward the land of Corruption and slaughtered the monstrosities in the hundreds of thousands, but the druids were pushed back to. It continued like this for decades, but never ever reaching the deathtole of those first two battles. It was at this time that the Holy Guide was knighted. With this advancement the Alliance took up arms and in the greatest battle every seen on the the planet of Terraria took place. Both sides were sustaining heavy causalties but the Allience had the upper hand in the fight. But then, when the druids collapsed the mountain that Cthulhu was in and Cthulhu was forced out to fight. Most thought that Cthulhu was hiding because he was weak, but they couldn't of been farther from the truth. Cthulhu was hiding, becauss you save the strongest for last. Nearly all of the Allience was looking at Cthulhu when he rose and that was their fatal flaw. All besides the Holy Guide, High Druid, and King of Lizardmen who looked upon Cthulhu were driven insane and killed themselves then and there. Beyond the anger of which words can express the three charged Cthulhu for revenge of seeing nearly all of their brethren die around them. It was a great duel, but in the end Cthulhu was felled and all three participants from the Allience died. Many of Cthulhu's body parts were strewn across the lands as they faught. His intestines fell in the Corruption one of his eyes was stabbed and sliced out. Where Cthulhu fell The land became a living flesh biome with seemingly o e mind controlling all that fell into it's grasp. When Cthulhu fell two fighters actually still remained alive and in the mess of Cthulhu's corpse they found a tablet. When the Holy Guide picked it up he knew that if it were to fall into the wrong hands then Cthulhu would return and if it were broken then an equally awful terror would attack them. The Holy Guide told this to the Lazardman King and gave the tablet to him telling him to protect it. The moment the tablet left the Holy Guides hands he collapsed and died from bloodloss. The lizardman king walked the long length back to where the corruption was to see was remained of the Allience. Although a couple lizardfolk remained only one druid and two guides survived. The lizardking explained what he had been told to the remaining people and so after the recovered they would find a way to carefully protect the tablet. Little did they know that Cthulhu had cursed all who had fought in that battle to horrible fates with some worse than death. If these warriors had a good chance at good happy lives then the curse would activate and affect all the people around the origanally cursed person. Of the seven remaining guides, one The When walking down one of the pathways to the Lizardmen village the king grew ill. He fist stumbled but was caught by one of the Lizardmen and claimed to be fine. However, just outside the village he collapsed. After several weeks he recovered and grew well again. He was living a life of happiness when he set out again to meet with the remaining druid and guides. When they met up they made their plan. temple the The Lizardking developed an incurable disease that led to his death before he could reach his home. The druids found a place to quiet down and rest and the guides went back to their city which would later be renamed the dungeon.
(I'm to tired I'll continue later)
 
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This lore was and remains an abyssal disappointment if it is truly intended to represent an official lore given that it just does not work. while attempting to pull out probably the most cliche elements of cut and paste storytelling without any substance. As someone that has spent a lot of time doing constructive criticism This is at best an early first draft in serious need of review I plead to the devs to please reconsider this "lore" in the current form until it has gone through serious review. Thankfully a few insightful Terrarians with an eye for quality have already ripped through this lore so I can skip most of the points needed to focus on a few.

The first point worth elaborating on is the nature of the spreading biomes the Corruption Crimson and Hallow and the supposed role in "balance" being inherently contradictory. The way these biomes spread is quite analogous to invasive species where an alien ecosystem is introduced somewhere else and is inherently a sign of ecological disequilibrium. This is probably the strongest flaw with this lore since it serves as a non explanation out of touch with the game play. It also fails to explain the nature of the crimson ichor being "the blood of the gods" or how the various events tie in. The Corruption while dark to me has only seemed alien rather than anti life since it still encapsulates the same runaway growth as its counterparts the Hallow and Crimson. Decay is inherently critical for life with some of the harshest environments being ones that inhibit decay as nutrients are scarce. When describing their behavior lore wise these behavioral properties need to be accounted for and in the current form this hasn't happened.

The concept of a Guardian of Balance at the worlds core was problematic for a few reasons since the wall of flesh was only partially up for the task in principal it could work due to the wall of flesh's "cleaner" like form but it ignores how the WOF's summoning is tied to the Guide Voodoo doll and really anything about the environment of Hell why are their ruined houses? what role do demons play in anything? Its sort of like how the Lihzahrd Martians and Goblins all have absolutely no connection to the world outside existing as things to kill.


The idea of the mechanical bosses was clever in principal but thinking it through it contradicts the form and condition of the Moon Lord s described and does not account for the celestials in any way nor the Martians or really anything. I do like the nod to why there is no mech boss for the brain but things as mentioned don't add up unless the Moonlord was itself able to regenerate fully negating the need in the process. Perhaps the activation of Hardmode could have been used as a rationale for how the Moonlord was revived perhaps even require some or all of the progression mandatory Bosses as playing a role in the revival. The Wall of Flesh Plantera and to a lesser extent the Golem all could serve a far better role as some story wise binding agent having restricted the Moonlord's Resurrection to capture the spirit of the player initiating chaos on the world.

Ultimately the largest flaws emerge from not completely thinking through the implications implied like if there is only one dryad left how does another one show up if she gets killed? I want to like this but I can't support such a poor quality story especially for my favorite game. You guys are better than this. :)
 
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I guess the mechanical brain was never finished but it was an unfinished ocram...

would be great to bring back the ocram summoner, although unusable intill you craft it together another post-moonlord item to make a mechanical brain.
 
So if someone recorded themselves reading this in a character voice, would you consider using it in the game as a video preceding new world creation? Skippable for obvious reasons, but I suppose they could always just come to the forums to read it. Haha
 
Hakaibutsu said:
So if someone recorded themselves reading this in a character voice, would you consider using it in the game as a video preceding new world creation? Skippable for obvious reasons, but I suppose they could always just come to the forums to read it. Haha
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Y'know, that actually sounds neat, but I can't help but feel like new players may try to play the game differently...
 
Hakaibutsu said:
So if someone recorded themselves reading this in a character voice, would you consider using it in the game as a video preceding new world creation? Skippable for obvious reasons, but I suppose they could always just come to the forums to read it. Haha
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I think this sounds like an excellent idea - maybe even just the text displayed or scrolled through before the main menu and if the player idles in the menu? Maybe when specific bosses are defeated (like WoF) a voice or text explaining the lore behind or up to the event could be played/displayed - always skipabble of course!
 
Terraria didn’t need it but this is so cool. If I had a YouTube channel I’d make a full version with my character now.
But Alas, I don’t

Edit: Never mind, this is Crap
 
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You know what? Let's settle with what worked for 8 years: Terraria has no official lore.
I'm truly disappointed, this "lore" has so many plotholes it's bleeding out the moment you start reading it. ReLogic does everything in their power to disappoint the playerbase - SDMG and Celebration are the prime examples there -, but they truly outdid themselves this time.

This is so shockingly bad it took me half a month to gather my thoughts about this. This is basicly the worst fanfiction I've read about Terraria so far, including the one time I have ran into some written mature content about Terraria.

I'm not calling this "canon", no way it's gonna happen. You can't pay me enough.

#1 News flash, we are not the good guys!
This lore calls us the champion, really original. However the lore fails to have any connection with whatever happens in the game:
  • Sacrificing a benevolent character alive.
  • Grinding living creatures.
  • Strip mining.
  • Actively destroying entire ecosystems by removing their biomes.
  • Releasing every single malevolent force upon the unfortunate planet we can.
We are basicly hitler and stalin incarnate in the world of Terraria.
We are so evil, Santa has a separate list for terrarians.
Plot twist, Santa-NK1 is the true hero of the story.

#2 The Dryad is also evil, I guess
The Dryad is supposed to be an ancient defender of Terraria, but she's hellbent on a crusade against the Crimson and Corruption, trying to spread the Hallow. The world tries to maintain balance, the Dryad is actively going against the will of this sentient world.
She is actively trying to kill the planet. If that doesn't put you on Santa's worst girl list, nothing does.

#3 Plothole for the sake of plotholes and other weird shenanigans
If the worlds of Terraria can sense everything upon them and the more agressive biomes are its tools for self defense. Why do these biome enemies kill rabbits and critters? Are critters inherently evil? Are critters possessing some sort of hidden power that could ruin the world?
Unicorns are bloodthirsty homocidal maniacs. I like that, that's the only original idea in this whole mess.
The Moonlord can't invade Terraria as long as the cultists live, which means the last guardians of Terraria are basicly the cultists themselves.
The mechanic is mentioned to be building cybernetic parts for Cthulhu, but she doesn't have a clue about cybernetics. The only NPCs who have any understanding of advanced machinery are the Steampunker and the Cyborg. The Mechanic doesn't have a single line that relates to this, quite the opposite, she was dying down there. Not forced to work and kept alive. Dying.
Nothing makes sense. Nothing connects to the game.
Almost everyone could write better than this. Even a random analphabet hobo from the streets can beat this level.

TLDR;
Terraria has an official non-canon joke lore now.

Edit:
Hakaibutsu said:
So if someone recorded themselves reading this in a character voice, would you consider using it in the game as a video preceding new world creation? Skippable for obvious reasons, but I suppose they could always just come to the forums to read it. Haha
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Please, don't ask for that. This text is really stupid, anyone who cares about the story behind the game wants to stay away from this mess. We don't want to see or hear this ingame.
 
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Sniper AxL said:
So what's the lore behind the Devourer of Worlds and the Destroyer? the vertical column of Cuthulu?
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Yes, I believe so. When Cthulhu's spine was ripped out, it flew into the corruption (which is why it looks weird,it got corrupted.) It ended up getting a mind of its own. The corrupted creatures made it their king. Destroyer of worlds is a robotic spine. Look closely and you'll see.
 
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