New World: Forged in Aeternum - The Enemy Families of Aeternum

What has been your impression of it as you've started writing stories in this world? I like that the Corruption basically takes away your mind. It's probably a lot like media in that respect. Like the media. That's awesome. Soul-sucking media. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Forged in Aeternum, the show where we talk about everything New World. Today we're going to talk about the enemy families and some of the lore of Aeternum. I'm joined by Aaron, our Lore Master and our awesome

writer, Divya. And indeed, like, I think we'll kick off Divya just like by talking here. You're, you know, of the three of us, you're the newest of the team. So curious, as you've come on board, what aspects of the lore have you been most intrigued by interested in and yeah, what are you most excited about? So there are two aspects which I'm most interested in. The first one is to do with an enemy family called Lost. And this is because Aeternum is such a desolate place and you keep dying only

to be reborn in the same pathetic misery of your life to the extent that you finally lose your soul. And it just seems so true to real life that I really enjoy interacting with the Lost because I'm like, If I'm not having fun every moment of my life, I could one day turn into you. So that's why I really like the Lost, its aspect of the lore that I really enjoy. And the second aspect is the fact that people from all over the world, they come on to this island and it's like they've interacted with

each other and they somehow magically know English. And the reason I like this is because it shows that no matter what your caste, your creed, your race, your gender, you can come together to survive impossible odds. And I think that's the need of the hour. So I really enjoy that the game shows this. Now I will you know, these movies it's amazing. Little depressing there. Well, you've you've added a bunch to it since you gotten here. And the Lost are a depressing subject. We have - I mean, the

dynamic between the enemy families - one of the things that interest me the most, and the Lost being the sort of group that's lost their souls. But then we have the Corrupted, we have Ancient Guardians, we have the Angry Earth. Aaron, what do you... what is your jam, man? Well, just a brief, brief little background here. So when I was brought into the project, I'd worked with Rob before and we had a great working relationship. When I found out he was working on New World, you know, we talked . H

e's like, man, I could use I can use you on this project. It's going to be lots of cool stuff. So I came in and started reading everything that I could about New World, about the lore, about the enemy families. And then together with Rob, we just sat down and created this immense lore bible of the history, how it all started, what happened. I mean, I'll I'll answer your question about Lost, but let me jump to Ancients, first of all. So more than anything, when that was presented to me, I was lik

e, okay, the Ancients. Who are they? What are they? Why have they created this island? What's their purpose? What are they doing? What happened to make them disappear? They've left all these ruins and all this mystery and all this magic. You know, what occurred? So we wrote this elaborate, long, long history stretching over thousands of years. And they basically became the victims of their own hubris. Their experiments and their dealings with humanity unleashed the Corruption. This entity from a

nother dimension that came in, started corrupting everything, destroying everything. And even some of the Ancients themselves became Corrupted. Well, there's some debate here, though, because, right, because we - and even we've gotten into it as a group - did the Corruption come when the Ancients started teaching humans how to use all these magics and powers on Aeternum? And then the humans were the ones who invited Corruption? Or was it the Ancients? Yeah. And I think that's something, you know

. No, And I love the ambiguity of it. I think the humans to some extent were - there were children who were given a box of matches, and once they started trying to do whatever they could do with this power, then yes, calamity ensued. But in many ways they were encouraged by the Ancients. The Ancients were directing them to do these things, teaching them how to do all this stuff. So there's a big conflict. The Ancients go to war with each other and essentially they disappeared. And there are some

mysteries there. We want the players to... we will eventually divulge who they are, where they came from, what they want, how they landed here, how they started interacting with humanity. Such great things that we want to explore there and for the players to discover. But Corruption, as Rob mentioned in another segment, an entity from another dimension. It came in and it's as close to a Lovecraftian entity as we have - this thing, this insidious evil. It's like a virus that gets into your syste

m, but it's sentient. It's aware. It wants something as well. And very clearly it wants to spread more and more and more and more. So far it's been contained to Aeternum, but it wants to get out. But of course, there's characters on Aeternum. And I think even within, as we've talked about the world and the metaphysics of the world, it can also be interpreted that Corruption is very much what happens when the human ego runs amuck, right? It's the evil that we allow it. And it's the evil inherent

to mankind. It's the the damnation, if you will, that that is our lot in life because of the way we are. And certainly there's people who believe that, you know, I think that we think of it more complex and we think of like, it is a force unto itself. But, you know, I mean, what has been your impression of it as you've started writing stories in this world? I like that the Corruption basically takes away your mind. It's probably a lot like media in that respect. Like the media. That's awesome. S

oul-sucking media. But there are some really interesting characters like Isabella and Thorpe, and even in the trailer, when the person just explodes in red and like, kills, you know, like attacks the player, that's a brilliant moment. I would like to ask you guys, which enemy faction is your favorite and why? I'll go. I yeah, I would say. I mean, actually, I like the Lost a lot. I like them all. But the Angry Earth to me are like the, the coolest faction of all of groups. And part of it is becau

se of the nuance of their back story. Like where we talk about, okay, the Ancients came to the island and, you know, they were trying to give humans eternal life and all this stuff went awry. Corruption came in. Their experiments in trying to give humans eternal life is is part of what gave rise to the Lost. The Angry Earth, though, Aaron mentioned the Ancient civil war, when the Ancients fought amongst themselves, the Angry Earth were actually born when one group of the Ancients sacrificed them

selves to defeat another. And the Angry Earth sort of grew out of the bones of those dead Ancients. And that's, you know, to me, what I love about them is that sense that they something that was born out of this conflict as opposed to sort of this primal entity. Like we talk about Corruption coming from another place. And of course, I love that dualistic nature where, you know, we kind of want to be sympathetic to the Angry Earth because they're, you know, they're natural beings and they stand u

p for nature and and they support, you know, what the natural world is. But at the same time, they're brutal and they're vicious. And you know, what motivates the Angry Earth now is not the spirit of sacrifice. It's the spirit of vengeance for that sacrifice. And I think that's the cool thing. And can they be redeemed? I think there's parts of the game where it seems like maybe they can and, you know, maybe that's something we're going to explore as we go forward. Now, if the Corruption is the v

irus, the Angry Earth are the antibodies. That is the response of the island from the sacrifice to raise up this force, this army, to fight against Corruption, because the the Ancients were losing that war. And so, yeah, the Angry Earth show up. But now, like antibodies, they don't distinguish. If it's a foreign invader, they attack it, they don't care. They don't say, well, that foreign invader's okay, but that one we don't like. No, foreign invader: destroy it, foreign invader: destroy it. And

humans, unfortunately, are very much foreign invaders on their island. So a lot of times the Angry Earth have turned against humanity. So humans are the virus? Wouldn't you consider humans a virus? I certainly would. To the Angry Earth they are. The Angry Earth are there to defend this idea of the natural order that no longer even exists. So humans and you know, one of the things that Adiana talks about several times in the game is how, you know, Corruption comes back over and over again across

the centuries. And every time it's because humans, you know, start flirting with powers beyond their control. And so she really blames the human ego. It is the source of all Corruption. And that's how she seeks to defeat Corruption. Yeah. So, yeah. Humans are very susceptible, very susceptible to Corruption, and Corruption knows it. So Corruption is not... It promises you things, right? Corruption can be seductive. Do you want power, glory, fame, riches? Corruption whispers to you and says, I'l

l give you that. Is it your favorite enemy? The Corruption? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm a big Lovecraft fan. And so the fact that there is a Lovecraftian entity and we've only gotten a glimpse, right? We're seeing what Corruption looks like as manifested on Aeternum. Their dimension is hellish and horrific beyond comprehension. There's - where they come from is even worse. We're only seeing a tiny glimmer of what that is like. So imagine if that spread all over the world. And that's what the Anc

ients try to stop. The good Ancients, The Corrupted Ancients wanted to use the power of Corruption. They were being whispered the same things. They wanted power and Corruption promised power. So they said, okay. And other Ancients said, No, that's not so much okay. Well, they thought they were the good guys. Yes, they did. Because the... because the Ancients who embrace Corruption said, like, look, like we've been experimenting with trying to make this world a better place. We've been experiment

ing with trying to give humans more power and immortality. And we need to use every power at our disposal. This Corruption that's shown up like this might actually be a boon. We need to learn to master it. We need to learn to work with it. So I think they had at least.,.. they had a they had a fair motivation for embracing it. I would say their reasons, which is true of a lot of people, their motivations might have been good, but the steps that they took to get to their goal was not worth it. An

d so they fell as a result of it. But I love the Ancients, too. By the way, we're going to reveal a lot about the Ancients. And once players find out more about the Ancients, I think they're going to love it. They're a very complex set of beings. They have factions. They fight with each other. They agree with each other, allied with each other, all that kind of thing. Well, and I mean, we shouldn't discount the Lost. Because I think in our, you know, as we talk about the future of the game and l

ike the etaphysical conflicts of Aeternum, the Lost come up often because the Lost are immune to Corruption because they have no soul. Corruption needs a soul to feed on in order to claim someone. And so the Lost are in this strange place of immunity. They're also another group and in a sense, like the Angry Earth in that they sort of came about incidentally because of the Ancients' experiments. And we think about like, well, the Lost are you know, they've lost their soul, they've lost their pur

pose. They're kind of... a lot of them are, frankly, zombies. Some of them have more sense of purpose. But what would happen if they all looked up at the same time and started marching to the same beat and united? They would be a force perhaps greater than Corruption or anything else. And by the way, that is another a little tantalizing hint for our players. There are powers outside of all of this. There are factors and forces and powers that are acting behind-the-scenes that will eventually mak

e themselves known. And so yeah. So if I'm getting this correctly, then the Ancients are the masterminds, the Corruption, the Corrupted are viruses and the Angry Earth are a retaliation to the Corruption, which is the virus. Hmm. And the Lost are a side effect. And the Lost are a side effect. You can look at it that way. Yeah, that's simplifying it. But it's fair. The Ancients, when they created the Ancient Guardians, right? All the skeletons that are marching around, they were...they wanted a r

ace of immortal soldiers that would protect them and fight the Corruption. So again, they started out with high ideals. Well, we'll create a race of of pure warriors that will defend us and defend the island, fight Corruption. But things didn't go quite as they had planned. And so the result of it was, because their experiments were imperfect and because they pushed too much, they created the Lost essentially as a byproduct. So now humans can become these soulless husks. Yes, they're immune to C

orruption, but they're these soulless husks that haunt the island like ghosts and wraiths and things like that. Another important way to think about it, too, is that, you know, the Ancients were messing with the fundamental laws of nature. They're trying to give humans eternal life. And that's not the way that humans are designed. Like as we talk about a lot of times, the reason humans who've been on the island a long time go mad, suffer from madness is because, you know, the human brain is not

capable of remembering things for a thousand years and encoding that many experiences and processing them, you know, So, you know, they broke the laws of nature to some extent in what they did. And, you know, that's going to have consequences that are going to reverberate throughout the game. Like it's really, and we've talked about this since the beginning, like that is one of the fundamental questions of Aeternum is: what is the cost of eternal life? Is this eternal life? Is this eternal damna

tion? Is this heaven? Is this hell? You know, is this really a blessing or a curse? And for my opinion, Aeternum - it's a curse. Aeternum is a dark place, a nightmarish place that seems like heaven, But it's it's actually hell. Your ghost that's there forever. That's damnation. So. Yeah. Yeah. And do you see any crossovers happening between, like, let's say, the Corrupted and the Ancients? Oh, definitely. As you mentioned, like there's, you know, back in the times when Corruption first appeared,

there were Ancients who embraced it. They sought to harness it, they sought to use it. They became Corrupted. Now, they didn't become Corrupted exactly the way a human will become corrupted, but they certainly fell under Corruption's influence. And, you know, certainly there's going to come a time where you're going to see some of that, you know, come back to haunt us. I can't wait. We're going to explore all about. How do these enemies think of different genders. Mm hmm. Wow. That's a great qu

estion. Well, I think the Corruption doesn't care, right? The Corruption is an equal opportunity Corrupter. Men, women. It doesn't matter to them. They all must embrace Corruption. They all must push that agenda that the Corruption has to spread. So I think to them, to Corruption, it really doesn't matter. I don't even know that it really matter to the Ancients as well. And I think one of the beautiful things about our world is it's, you know, it's multicultural like we have, you know, if you if

you look at the outfits in our game, like we don't play to sort of these very strong gender identities. We try to, you know, make sure that all characters of cultures, genders, ethnicities, whatever, they all have equal footing on Aeternum. And that's kind of the way the world works now. Yeah, I do think - one thing which I like a lot, though - is that the Lost get represented as in different costumes. So some of them have long hair, some of them have like dresses compared to like others who ha

ve like, you know, fans. I do enjoy that, you know, seeing that variety in the Lost, which show, I'd like to see more of that in the Ancients as well. Because Corrupted just makes everything read. But the Ancient Guardians, there's so much, you know, space over there. What it sounds like you're picking up on: the Corrupted, you know, they often have crew cuts because they're all very, you know, often our most straitlaced characters who are humans before they became Corrupted, fall to Corruption.

Like, I mean, like Isabella. She was very devout. Right? A lot of characters who have very rigid belief systems are actually more prone to Corruption. Why? Man? I think it's because I think it's because once they go over, they can be.. they can commit, right? They can stick to something like they they're whereas people who have an open mind consider a lot of options like they probably don't get pinned down as easily. Whereas Corrupt, you know, Corruption grabs you. And then once it has you, you

know, can you wrestle away from that grip or not? Is Corruption like a cult? Certainly for some people it is. And I think some people have even joined it like that. I think not everybody has been sort of tainted by Corruption. Some of them have willingly accepted it as a as a path to power and even gone in search of it. But the reason you see more of, I guess, what you would consider traditionally masculine is because the Corrupted wants soldiers, Corruption wants warriors. And so when there ar

e forces that are that are preparing for war and it sweeps in and takes over, it wants the biggest, strongest, meanest individuals to add to its army. So that's why there are Corrupted that are not like that. But for the most part, the Corrupted is targeting things like, oh, there's a big army over there, I'm going to Corrupt them. Oh, look, there's some big guys over there. I'm going to Corrupt them. Does Corruption .. is it intellectual ? Oh, yeah. I mean, certainly I mean, you know, we're - t

he effect of becoming Lost is something that happens as a force of nature. But Corruption is, you know, it's seeking things. It's got an agenda that it's pushing. And yeah, I just wanted to call out, you know, even though it may lean towards that sort of masculine energy and these strong warrior types, note that it chooses Isabella as its avatar during our time period, you know. Isabella is very strong. So the strong-willed also attract Corruption. If you want something very desperately and it d

rives you, that sparks Corruption's interest. It wants you because it wants that will, that drive, and that not necessarily is not defined by any kind of physical appearance. It's inner strength. It's the strength of your spirit. So emotional strength is also.. Emotional potency. Like, I mean, when we first were there was a point we were talking about how, you know, some people on the island, as you said, if you are despairing and you die on the island, you often come back as Lost. If you're fur

ious, angry, vengeful, and you die, you come back as a Corrupted. You know, sometimes it's because you're in the vicinity of Corruption, like it's a - you know, it's not a hard and fast rule exactly how it works. Yeah, but like, emotion is very much a part of it. And when players, you know, like, die and respawn, is there a chance sometime in the future they may be able to turn into enemies. Maybe. The chance that they're losing their soul, little tiny pieces of their soul every time they die an

d reset? It has not escaped discussion that hmm, could players manifest some elements of Lost or some elements of Corruption? I have heard something like that. It seems like the players might want to know more about the enemy families and then maybe even to get involved in themselves. So I guess that's our Community Question for today. What enemy family would you like to know more about? We'd be happy to to to elaborate here if we haven't said enough already. Yeah. If there was an enemy family t

hat players could ally themselves to or have... manifest elements of, who would it be? What enemy family would you like to associate yourself with? The Angry Earth, the Corruption, or the Lost? I mean, it might need to be a poll. Let's do it. I feel very different doing that. Just do it. Let's do it. Yeah. And so, yeah. Everybody, thanks for watching. And if you'd like to see more of this, subscribe, let us know in the comments. We would always love to come back and talk more about Lore and stor

y. We're here. Thanks. See you in Aeternum. Another real hot topic in game development that New World isn't immune to is, when is it good enough? At some point, you know, you really have to push things out by certain deadlines, otherwise you're never really going to get something out.