Game lore ideas

[Mortalbane]

Title changed to "game lore ideas"

While i like the game's lore, i have some unanswered questions, and i feel like some parts can be adjusted to make the story more coherent.


Questions
I've watched all the animated shorts, played all the solo games, saw all the DST content, yet i have a lot of questions.
- What was Maxwell's plan when he kidnapped the survivors?
- Do people need to come to the Constant willingly, or can be just dragged into, like Wes? If Wes was the wrong target, what stopped Maxwell from trying again?
- Why exactly did Charlie become a night monster, and Maxwell kept his personality intact?
- If Charlie and her Monster part became one sane strong and independent woman, why is she still hissing at us at night? With her grand schemes, does she have time to come and personally bite our butt the moment we turn off the light?
- How did Maxwell build all those clockworks, when he is a magician, not an engineer?
- Why did the Ancients (guys whose tech you find in Ruins and Archive) turn to the nightmare fuel? Usually when a civilization decides to use a powerful but dangerous power source, it's because it is strictly better than what they have now, or if they have no choice. But in the Archive we see pre-fuel immortal centipedes, which still work perfectly. Doesn't look like the Ancients needed some shady fuel.
- If Wagstaff isn't here and is just a hologram, why in Hamlet he could eat and die, and in DST we can interact with him? Or is he half-phased out of reality, like Tracer? Doesn't look like it.
- Why Wilson has black hands with pointy fingers, like Maxwell? Are those some weird gloves, result of some Shadow events, or simply an artist's choice?

If anyone knows the answers or has some good theories, please let me know.


I've been thinking about all this, and decided to structure things in my head, make a coherent story, putting together facts and theories.
Perhaps most parts of the text below is what the devs themselves had in mind.
Anyway

The Shadow and the Moon
So, in the ever-changing universe of Constant there are two ultimate entities, let's call them the Shadow and the Moon. Like all respectable super-entities, they are in eternal conflict, and tend to avoid the direct approach, instead preferring to play games with weird rules and use people as their tools. But if needed they can call upon their champions, like Fuelweaver and Celestial Champion.

The first contact
I believe that the first survivor who appeared in the Constant is Wanda. She could have met the Ancients, studied their technology, and eventually began to serve the Shadow as a Time Tracker for the eternal games of the two super-entities. She wanted to break free from the Shadow's grasp and escape the Constant. She traveled through time and space, tried to warn each survivor to not accept Maxwell's "invitation", tried to stop Maxwell from obtaining the Codex - but only learned that the fate cannot be changed. Now her life is a race against time and the Shadow, and her only option is to join the survivors and fight for her freedom.

The showman and the assistant
Once upon a time, a miserable and unimposing magician called William Carter stumbled upon an interesting book. We all know what happened next - he became Maxwell, achieved fame and success, became more than friends with his assistant Charlie. But the curious girl took a peek into the book while Maxwell was away, and it sucked her into the Constant, right into the claws of the Shadow. The nightmare entity decided that it needs a new toy and assistant, to replace Wanda. It infused the girl with immense power and caused her personality to split, creating the Monster.
Maxwell figured out what happened and jumped into the book to save Charlie. Even cowards have their hero moments. The Shadow was amused with such a rotten and egocentric individual, and kept him as entertainment. Though Charlie was very powerful and supposed to be in charge, she still was the same naive and obedient girl in love with her abusive boyfriend. In time, Maxwell provided entertainment for the Shadow, asking for more and more power and influence in return, and slowly worked his way to the title of the King of the Constant.
Even though i liked the scene which revealed that Maxwell was actually chained to the Nightmare Throne, i think that it makes little sense. It's kinda hard to teleport around, kidnap people, and feel like a king, when you are chained. But he was just a puppet of the Shadow, yes.

The game of chess and the inventor
Maxwell was quite a fan of chess, and once the Shadow heard from Maxwell about this game, it was very intrigued. Maxwell was given a task to set up a grand board for Shadow and Moon to play.
I don't think that Maxwell could design and build the clockworks himself, he is not an engineer. So he found one, a man by the name Wagstaff. The inventor immediately agreed to travel to Constant, because he wanted to study the world and its technology, bring it home and become the richest man in the world. Together Wagstaff and Maxwell built the giant chess pieces for the Shadow and the Moon to play.
Note: wouldn't it be cool to see a giant chess board in the Ruins? And some Pawn mobs maybe.

A new game
However well the clockwork chess were made, the Shadow eventually got bored. He ordered Maxwell to find living people to act as chess pieces, and add some violence to the game. Since you cannot truly die in the Constant, why not make the human chess fight each other to the death.
The King and Queen pieces were obviously Maxwell and Charlie. I think Klei had that in mind, that's why Charlie is more powerful, but Maxwell is more important - and it's very cool actually.
Maxwell was set on a quest to find people who would act as chess pieces, and do it willingly - those were the rules. That's why he acted as a devil, finding people with shady and vague moral standards, and offering to fulfill their wishes in exchange for "playing a little game of chess".
Maxwell needed 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 8 Pawns for the Shadow, and the Moon would take care of its pieces itself.
Though he failed to obtain the full "set", he collected quite a few "pieces". For example:
Rooks - Wolfgang, WX-78
Bishops - Willow, Wickerbottom
Knights - Wigfrid, Webber
Pawns - Wilson, Wendy, Warly, Walter, Walani, Woodlegs

Note: those who are not mentioned got into the Constant without Maxwell. But that is another story.
Also, i suppose that Klei originally designed the chess board with Maxwell as the king, Charlie the queen, clockwork rooks, bishops and knights, and 8 characters as pawns. That's why there are no pawn mobs. But the game expands, as well as the character pool. So, the lore can be adjusted, which i tried to do.

One reign ends...
Charlie loved Maxwell and served him loyally, but Maxwell only cares about himself. He was jealous of Charlie's power, and used the girl to establish his reign over the Constant. But the Monster part of Charlie saw Maxwell's true colors and tried to kill him several times, though Charlie managed to prevent that.
Maxwell's plan to deliver the living human chess was failing. Most of the "peices", once their role became clear, simply escaped and chose to fight Maxwell and his nightmare creatures, and look for a way home or a new beginning in the Constant. Surprisingly, Wilson proved to be the most cunning and resourceful of the bunch. Since he received some ancient knowledge and shadow powers from the deal with Maxwell (this explains Wilson's black hands with claws), he managed to get to Maxwell and challenge him to a duel in front of Charlie's eyes.
A sword duel? Of course not. I can't imaging any of the two being good fighters. That's why i disagree with Maxwell's ability to be good with the Dark Sword, and summon Shadow Duelists - but that is a topic for another post.
Wilson challenged Maxwell to a game of chess for the title of the King, and won. But Maxwell, being a bad person, refused to give up the throne and tried to kill Wilson. This finally opened Charlie's eyes, for the first time she saw the man that she loved for what he truly is - a miserable coward and a manipulator. The Monster raged inside her, took over and almost killed the two men, but Charlie managed to snap out and opened a portal, throwing them away into the Constant and stripping both of their shadow powers. So Wilson now has none, and Maxwell only relies on the Codex, but they both have black hands with claws.

...and a new reign begins
I disagree with the idea that Charlie and the Monster became one, because Charlie still hisses at us at night - this behavior doesn't match her new image. I think that Charlie indeed turned into the Shadow Queen, leaving behind her naivety and kind but submissive nature, but the Monster remains.
Pain is a good teacher, and the lesson that Charlie learned - never trust anyone again, never allow anyone to control and use her again. With Maxwell out of the way, she now wanted to get rid of the next "master" - the Shadow itself. She tricked and manipulated (yeah, learned that from her ex) the survivors into luring out and killing the Fuelweaver, and absorbed his power. But the Moon was not very pleased with their eternal game interrupted by some impudent chick. It turned its gaze towards Charlie, and a new chapter of the conflict began.

The Ancients
As i mentioned above, the technology shown in the Archive seems superior to the technology from the Ruins - immortal Sentrypedes, who are still in perfect condition, and can repair themselves indefinitely.
Also they are clearly moon-powered.
Does this look like the Ancients needed the nightmare fuel?
I think that their story is much more trivial and sad (for them) - the Moon simply lost them to the Shadow in one of their games.


Characters lore

Wickerbottom
(moved here from the comments)

I was thinking about her skills, which kinda make her a druid, or a nature mage. Even though she clearly made a deal with Maxwell, nothing of her skills tells you that she is a shadow mage.
So, since we kinda don't have a Nature Entity, and Wicker can also call down moon light, i've remade her lore a little bit. Well, not remade, but gave the animation short a continuation.
After Wicker received the knowledge promised by Maxwell (and of course that knowledge was far more than her own library, cuz only library is shown in the video), she understood that she was tricked to be a pawn in the eternal game. She used her new magic abilities to escape, but now shadow creatures were chasing her all the time, just like they chase Wanda. That's why Wicker can't sleep, not just because she is an old b*tch =) She is afraid that creatures will get her if she gives them a slightest chance.
So eventually she decided to seek the Moon's help. She knew that the Moon was not much better than the Shadow, but she didn't have much choice. It was a temporary solution, she thought, until she finds a way to escape Constant. Poor lady didn't know, that there is no way to escape - ask Wanda.
So she indeed received some lunar power and power over the nature. I will reflect that in her rework ideas, if i ever get to that.


Woodie
(copied here from my Woodie rework ideas)
Well, is it a rework, if i don't know his lore? Does he even have lore? Did the devs agree on whether Lucy is alive, or Woodie is just crazy?
Anyway, here's my vision.

Lucy was once a woman. She was nice, but had neurotic and hysterical tendencies. She hated trees and was always afraid of being abandoned. That's why she married a loyal and patient lumberjack, who happened to be a bit crazy too.
Once upon a time, during a full moon, Lucy stumbled upon a strange glowing rock, or a piece of glass. It had a perfect, sharp, triangular shape, and had a weird symbol resembling an eye. As she touched the glass, she was sucked into it.
Woodie found the glass (it was screaming his name) and took it home.

Time passed by, Lucy's neurotic tendencies were getting stronger - being stuck inside the glass affected her. Whatever Woodie tried, whoever he asked for help - everything failed, and eventually he gave up on freeing her from the glass, and made an axe out of her. She insisted.
So, now Lucy looked like a regular lumberjack axe, but of a slightly odd color, and had a strange symbol on the blade, resembling an eye.
Until one day, during another full moon, Lucy suddenly transformed into a big and awesome-looking Lunar Axe. As Woodie raised her above his head to take a closer look, he thought for a second, that the moon in the sky is actually a giant eyeball looking at him. And before he knew it, he was standing on the forest turf of the Constant.

As he tried to figure out this new weird place and struggled to survive, he felt that Lucy's strange transformation powers started to affect him as well...
 

[Dr.Webber]

Yeah they really should make a web series to line out the lore  instead of just these little lore bite they vine giving us

On 7/21/2023 at 6:08 AM, Mortalbane said:

Why exactly did Charlie become a night monster, and Maxwell kept his personality intact? Charlie is much stronger, yet Maxwell was the King of the Constant.

There are a lot of chess parallels and king tend to be weak and queens are the strongest peace on the bored  

[Mortalbane]

On 7/22/2023 at 4:24 PM, Dr.Webber said:

There are a lot of chess parallels and king tend to be weak and queens are the strongest peace on the bored  

Yeah, that is if the chess game was the original intention of the shadows. As if they already knew that Maxwell and Charlie will be their playthings as the king and queen.
But the official lore shows that Charlie got into Constant by accident.
And since the times of the original 8 characters, who were "pawns", a lot has changed, but the lore wasn't adjusted.

I just would like to see some Pawn mobs and a big chess board in the ruins =)
That's why i reimagined this part of the lore a little.

[iMester_GG]

On 7/25/2023 at 2:00 AM, Mortalbane said:

And since the times of the original 8 characters, who were "pawns", a lot has changed, but the lore wasn't adjusted.

quick question ? 

what about the other side of the chessboard? 

who are we playing against? 

is it the lunar monsters (because our "king and queen" are heavily effected by the shadows ) or is there another threat that we are being manipulated to fight against? 

or maybe i'm just thinking to hard about this.

[Mortalbane]

On 7/26/2023 at 3:30 AM, iMester_GG said:

quick question ? 

what about the other side of the chessboard? 

who are we playing against? 

is it the lunar monsters (because our "king and queen" are heavily effected by the shadows ) or is there another threat that we are being manipulated to fight against? 

or maybe i'm just thinking to hard about this.

I'd like of course to have the matching opposing lunar board, but for that we lack lunar characters.
So i explained it to myself this way - the Shadow tasked a cunning human, Maxwell, with arranging the shadow board, that's why it was almost complete. But the Moon is a kinda slowpoke entity. How many years did it take for Them to Return? =)
The Moon also gathered at least 3 characters - Woodie, Wormwood and Wickerbottom. But it is obvious that the "chess piece gathering rules", that Moon follows, are different - no "deal with the devil" thing.

[here were Wickerbottom lore ideas, which i moved into the post]

So, yeah, the Moon was also gathering board. Until Wilson ruined everything, and we ended up with Charlie trying to kick both Shadow and Moon's butts.
Also, i would like to know the official lore of the Moon, and to know wtf is Charlie actually doing. Hope we will find that out.

[Dr.Webber]

why is woody collected by the moon I know he turns in to were forms  but he views it as a curse

[Mortalbane]

3 hours ago, Dr.Webber said:

why is woody collected by the moon I know he turns in to were forms  but he views it as a curse

Well, the Moon kinda "owns" him, forcing him to transform under its light. When you are forced to do something against your will, it is pretty much a curse.

[Mortalbane]

Title changed to "Game lore ideas" to avoid any confusion
Added Woodie's and Wickerbottom's lore ideas