Lore & Worldbuilding: Spices & Building Block

Image taken from: BattleTech Kickstarter Backer Database

Lore, a reader’s paradise.
Worldbuilding, the world is your Lego.

Lore

Lore to any media are akin to additional spice to your dish. Lore would be the expansion of its plot; the worldbuilding, its history & culture, and the nuances of the universe (martial arts, fantasy, sci-fi, etc). Lore enriches the storyline and give context and even charm to the characters’ actions.  Today, I introduce lore as I see it, especially in games.

There are many different approaches to lore in games. Some games survive without heavy emphasis on their lore, relying on their outstanding mechanics and visuals as the key pieces. Others lean heavily onto lore and storyline, having the game be played almost akin to visual novels.  Nowadays, games are adding to its lore to improve its audience base and as a platform of advertisement.

Lore Expansion Outside of Games

You can see in recent years, DotA 2 and League of Legends had existed with minimal focus on their lore till recent developments. Riot (LoL) had started expanding their lore and expanding their world building and this started with the complete revamp of the entire lore of Runeterra. Part of their lore expansion are short stories available to read freely on Universe of LoL as well as comics centered around a few champions. Further, Riot has plans to release an animation on Netflix called Arcane, focusing on the past of characters like Jinx, Vi and Caitlyn. Valve (DotA 2) had also done similar expansions with an animated series (DOTA: Dragon Blood) and comic series.

(Author EDIT: Riot Games has released a new animated series on Netflix named Arcane, a story focused around two characters: the sisters Vi and Jinx against the backdrop of the vastly contrasting Piltover and Zaun.)

Games as an Expansion of Lore

 Since some games are adaptations of other media. some of the lores predates their games (Metro 2033, the Witcher, MechWarrior). Due to this, the games themselves are an expansion to the existing lore though some games exist in a vacuum outside the original lores or as alternate universes.

One of my favorite franchise exists in multiple forms of media, BattleTech. Starting off as a table-top wargame. The table-top is accompanied by Technical Readouts (TRO) and Sourcebooks which provides the lore of the game. TROs exist as the primary stats guide for the game while Sourcebooks provides scenarios and is the primary reference for lore. Aside from these books, novels also exists to expand or supplement the lore provided from sourcebooks. The video games (MechWarrior, MaechCommander) are based on scenarios from these sources and provide their own expansions. However, in BattleTech, not all the video game lores are accepted as canon.

Lore and Food

Now, I love food as much as I love lore and here’s my bad analogy.

Lore as a nacho:

1. Tortilla Chips - the base of any good nacho is the basic setting and plot (i.e medieval, fantasy, modern, sci-fi).

2. Queso - liquid cheese that adds more goodness to the chip. In lore, queso are addition to expansion of the setting to improve immersion of the game and improve the flavor of the plot. (i.e. architecture, character appearances and sound)

3. Meat - meat in nacho may not be necessary but they provide their own burst of flavor to rival the queso and chips. This is the heavy hitting addition to the lore (key figures that exist to assist the player while keeping or even improving immersion, key locations)

4. Fixings - salsa, guacamole, sour cream to give additional bites under and over the queso and meat. For lore, these are the additional NPCs or arts, books, even music that provide background info to the player. They may not be compulsory in nacho but it provides for a better experience. 

A Reader’s Paradise 

As a person who reads primarily as a form of entertainment, lore in written form is especially dear to my heart. Reading lore can be just as entertaining as the main media itself for me.

BattleTech lore accompanied for most of my time during my degree. In the breaks between classes or even during a slow lecture, I could be found reading either a BT novel or Sarna.net, the main BT wiki. Being able to explore the vast world of BT built by the many talented authors and talents of FASA and later Catalyst is an experience I cherish.

What next?

In my next article, I will begin to weave a tale of my favorite lores. Starting with BattleTech, a story that is basically a space opera with the back drop of large BattleMechs and wars.