Everyone's favourite grumpy assassin is back in the Jade Shadows story update for Warframe, and he's more tragic than ever. But who is this enigmatic figure, and why is he at the centre of the latest mystery in War??frame's epic narrative?

Take care Tenno! This article con??tains spoilers for Warframe's story, inclu?ding Jade Shadows.

A shadowed enemy

The player character first encounters the Stalker when he sends an ominous message after they have killed a high-profile assassination target. You are marked for death, and with a dramatic entrance of red flickering lights and coiling black s?moke, the eerie figure of the Stalker emerges into t??he middle of a mission, ready to carry out his assassination. Early on, he is a daunting challenge, with unearthly speed and a range of cruel weapons named very normal things like Despair, Dread and Hate.

The Stalker wears Tenno armor but the true nature of his connection to the Tenno is still occluded. At first, the Stalker seems to be a lone assassin s??eeking revenge on the Tenno for their destruction of the Orokin Empire, but over time it becomes clear that he has made a powerful alliance.

An ancient master

When Tyl Regor seeks to excavate the Sentient To?mbs on Uranus, he accidentally releases a powerful Sentient called Hunhow, who offers an alliance to the Stalker in a plan to destroy the Tenno. He bestows the greatsword War upon the Stalker and dispatches him as his agent, newly transformed through Sentient technology into the Shadow Stalker. The Stalker learns that the source of the Tenno's power is the Reservoir on Lua, hidden away in the Void by the Lotus, and plans to collapse the Void around Lua to destroy it. With the help of the manipulative Corpus Alad V, the player character drags Lua out of the Void into material space to frustrate the Stalker's efforts. The Stalker learns of the true nature of Tenno, controlled by an Operator, and questions the nature of his own existence.

The Stalker sends out his Acolytes, Angst, Malice, Mania, Misery, Torment, and Violence to hunt Alad V for his involvement and, inevitably, Alad V calls in his favor so the pl?aye??r character is compelled to intervene. How does he recruit these followers and why would they join him? Are they Tenno, or do they simply wear armor taken from the Warframes they have slain? More mysteries to unravel.

An unlikely alliance

When Narmer takes over the system, the Stalker is hunted as ferociously as he once hunted the Tenno. To his dismay, Hunhow agrees to work with the Tenno, and the Stalker and the Tenno finally end up on the same side, albeit briefly. Nevertheless, the Stalker's wounds go too deep for a true allian??ce and when Hunhow tries to persuade him to make peace with the Tenno and stop hunting them, the Stalker refuses.

Hope from despair

The Stalker's past is a mystery even to him. All he knows is that the Warframe Jade, the Orokin executioner, spared h??im. He has cared for her as her health has deteriorated, even asking for the player character's help to bring her medical supplies, but he cannot save her. Before she dies, he has glimpses of memory: his name was once Sorren and he and Jade served the Orokin. Their relationship was forbidden so when Jade became pregnant they were both turned into Warframes as p?unishment. Jade's child survives her and the Stalker swears to protect the baby, his only family.

Stalking onward

What's next for the Stalker? He has abandoned his previous base, shunned his uneasy alliance with Hunhow and learned that the Orokin are not worthy of his vengeance in their name. He still seems wary of working with the Tenno but in his new role as the Protector of his young child, he will undoubtedly find that he needs to rely on his former target once more. Digital Extremes may have expertly played with our emotions in Jade Shad??ows, but this story quest poses far more questions than it answ?ers. It seems that even after a decade of Warframe, the Stalker still has more mysteries to reveal.

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In the upcoming sequel to Supergiant’s roguelite, Hades, the previous protagonist of Zagreus is replaced by a new one known as Melinoë in Hades 2.?? Like Zagreus before her, she’s not the most well-known of the Greek Pantheon, but exactly who is she?

Melinoë is another child of Hades and Persephone, only maybe not. She's often depicted as the daughter of Zeus and Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. However, she was conceived after Zeus tricked Persephone into believing he was her husba?nd Hades. Hades and Zeus are sometimes considered to be the same God in certain versions of Orphism. 

So, truly, Hades 2 could go either way with it, though the games seem to consider Zeus to be separate from Hades. However, Melinoë has ?a distinctive feature similar feature to Zagreus, which is the red and green heterochromia, which is supposedly a color combination derived from their two parents. That suggests that Supergiant are going by the Hades/Persephone parentage. During the technical test stream, it was mentioned that she is "believed to be connected to Hades as potentially his daughter," so it might be getting left ambiguous on purpose. At the very leas?t, Melinoë would look to Hades as her adoptive father.

Melinoë is often described in the Orphic religion as being the goddess of nightmares, and often, this is extrapolated to cover fear, madness, ghosts, and even wit?chcraft.

The woman training Melinoë in the beginning of the trailer is Hecate, who is often associ??ated with the duality of light and darkness or crossroads. In later interpretations, Hecate is also associated with witchcraft.

In Hades 2, Melinoë is on a journey to kill the titan Chronos. In Greek mythology, Chronos wasn't actually a titan, but rather the personification of time. The simi??larly named Cronus was a titan who often isn't depicted as having much to do with time, normally just associated with the harvest. Sometimes, Chronos and Cronus are confused, but other times, they are intentionally combined. Either way, Supergiant appears to be presenting them as an amalgamation.

According to th?e mythology, Cronus was imprisoned in Tartarus after the gods overthrew the titans. That may be Melinoë's d??estination.

A lot is still left in the air, and that may be entirely for narrative reasons. While it's clear she fights for Hades, who her biological father truly is might be used as a plot point in the story told by Supergiant. We'll have to wait and see when Hades 2 is released into early access later this year.

The post Who is Hades 2 Protagonist, Melinoe? appeared first on Destructoid.

Get a taste of the lore in store for Dragon Age 4

The team behind Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is giving fans a taste of the lore awaiting them in the new RPG. The writing team has shared a handful of codex entries from Dreadwolf, as part of a community update on the next Dragon Age.

In a BioWare blog post, the team behind Dreadwolf runs down the basics. As it says, stories and characters are at the core of BioWare games. E?ach person has their own motivations, and each entry has its own hero, molded by player decisions.

Creating a world that's interesting to role-play in, then, is pretty important. And that's what today's codex entries tease out. Dreadwolf will set out for the Tevinter Imperium, an old and powerful r?egion ruled by a host of mages.

This codex entry discusses the Grand Necropolis, a massive mausoleum in Nevarra City that is mentioned in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Citing Brother Genitivi, a scholar you can meet in Origins, it talks about the differences in handling the dead and "misconceptions" from others. Other entries shown in the new blog discuss ??dragons and even has a quarterly issue to review.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7x685DxMcw

Forging the codex

It's a really interesting blog that goes on to chat with two members of the writing staff, discussing their work on Dreadwolf. For anyone who's wondered what writing work on a massive RPG like this looks like, it's some fascinating insight. In one section I really dug, narrative editor Ryan Cormier discusses how the team goes about deciding what should, and shouldn't, be a codex entry in Dreadwolf.

"Before any writing, the narrative team discusses which entries are required and which aren’t. It’s crucial to properly time codex unlocks with player progression. No one wants a dozen entries only ten minutes into the game, but interested players shouldn’t have to wait long to learn more about the people, places, and concepts introduced. Does a codex unlock when something’s first mentioned? When a related character appears? Is the entry only required if they actually interact with said thing???????????????????????????"

Senior writier Sylvia Feketekuty elaborates on this. The team chose to highlig??ht the Necropolis entry because it was fun to wri?te.

"I wanted the in-game author to be frustrated with Brother Genitivi’s portrayal of the Necropolis while also trying to deny the depth of his irritation with said world-famous scholar," said Feketekuty. "It’s a diary, yet we see the a??uthor still feels obligated to exercise a measure of decorum in his private writing. And the micro-revelation at the end is that it’s someone he knows in real life, not far-off Genitivi, who is needling the poor guy about Nevarra’s death rituals."

A new role to play

It's a nice bit of insight to see from developers. Many devs recently took to Twitter to share behind-the-scenes look at their work following the massive GTA leak. And the Dead Space and Skate tea?ms, also under the EA banner, have been sharing ea??rly looks throughout their process.

Hopefully this is a slow-but-steady sea change in how we look at games. Seeing the gaming sausage be made can be eye-opening, and in cases like this Dreadwolf codex blog, give some really cool insight into how big ?worlds and games are built. I'd like to think it encourages someone out there rig??ht now, who wants to get into writing themselves.

The post Dragon Age: Dreadwolf devs share ?some c?odex entries from the upcoming RPG appeared first on Destructoid.

Bungie lays the groundwork for those who want to jump right in

A bunch of Destiny 2 news dropped yesterday, as part of the Destiny 2 showcase that revealed its new season and the coming Lightfall expansion. If you were interested by what you saw, Bungie has a new Destiny 2 lore video to help fill you in on the basics.

This video, dubbed "Destiny 2: The Light and Darkness Saga - Destiny?? Calls," is short and sweet. It essentially covers all the bases, from the origins of the Traveler to different enemy factions that Guardians fi??ght against.

At just about five minutes and change, this video lays out the foundation of Destiny 2 lore.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=om28A9hTST0

While it doesn't go into too many specifics with regards to campaign stories, it's a nice summation of Destiny 2 lore for f?olks looking to hop in and play right away. There's the Light, the Darkness, a bunch of angry enemy armies, and a whole lot of loot to pick up.

The battle for the Light

It's extra helpful, seeing as Destiny 2 is making all of its campaigns fre?e to play this week, as part of the showcase festivities. If you were waiting to see what all the fuss is about, this is a good start to catching up.

Bungie revealed Destiny 2: Lightfall yesterday, confirming that the Guardians are indeed heading to Neptune. The neon city of Neomuna looks very cyberpunk, and while there, Guardians will pick up the ability to swing around using Strand powers. I think that makes it a strand?? game?

Alongside some quality-of-life features that should make life easier, Bungie also confirmed a big plus for Destiny 2 newcomers. The studio says it won't sunset future Destiny 2 expansions like it did with the Forsaken campaign. This should hopefully make it even easier to hop on and catch up with the most recent Destiny 2 lore yourself.

Destiny 2: Lightfall goes live on February 28, 2023.

The post Bungie’s new animated Destiny 2 lore video sums up the basics for newcomers appeared first on Destructoid.

Put down the controller and break out the reading glasses

Odds are if you're talking to someone who loves storytelling in video games, there's lore from at least one game that they can recite by heart. Especially when it comes to games that really focus on the gameplay first, like League of Legends or Bloodborne, lore is a great, indirect way to get play??ers engaged in the story of your world if there isn't much time in the game itself to tell that story.

It can be a case of "come for the game, stay for the story," or sometimes players get into a game because they learned about all the lore first, bu?t either way, loving a game for the world it creates for us is a beautiful thing. But I have to be honest. For someone who loves story in games like, a lot, I just can't bring myself to get into video game lore. I know, I know, bring out the torches and pitchforks.

I think a lot of the problem for me is that learning about lore requires a lot of reading. Now I do consider myself an avid reader, so usually that's not a problem for me, but when it comes to reading anything longer than a paragraph in a game, well, I just can't do it. It's because when I turn on a game, I want to play the game.

Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain

In his video "Naughty Dog's Game Design is Outdated," YouTuber NakeyJakey explains a phenomenon he affectionately calls Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain, which means you have "little to no patience for anything that isn't fun or engaging second-to-second gameplay." When I first started getting back into games, it was because I was watching cutscene compilations on YouTube. I thought for sure I cared about story and story alone, but as I started branching out and playing more and more games, I caught Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. I think it was Hades that did me in.

//youtu.be/QCYMH-lp4oM?t=193

When I play a game, something in my brain switches, and I have Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. I still love to sit down and read a book, but I know when I do so, that's all I can expect to be doing. Now if I'm presented with more than a hundred w?ords at a time, it doesn't matter how compelling the lore is, I'm just no?t gonna read it.

Of course, this doesn't mean I don't like story in game??s at all anymore. I just prefer when the narrative design is really baked into the moment-to-moment gameplay. I've found that not only when it comes to games, but all kinds of storytelling, I like character-focused narratives over world- or lore-focused stories every time. Give me someone to root for, and then I'll care.

I'm not saying that video game lore can't be awesome or doesn't have its merits, I just think it's not for me. I'd love to be proven wrong here, but I'm hard-pressed to find a game that makes reading codexes or reading up on the game while I'm not even pl??aying it compelling to me in absolutely any form. I don't want to have to interrupt my playthrough to feel like I'm doing research for a school essay, you know what I mean?

Lore done right: Disco Elysium

I think a great example of a happy medium for me is Disco Elysium. That game is a masterpiece of interactive storytelling on so many levels, but one thing that blows me away about that game is that they actually do tell you a ton about that game's world �its geography, its politics, its ??s??ocioeconomic status, and so on.

The thing is though, it's not hidden away in journal entries or codex entries, but instead, it'??s woven into how you interact with the world itself. You get introduced to the ideologies, religions, politics, etc. of the world because you're always hearing about them through the lens of what other characters think.

You hear about the?? war through René's melancholy, patriotic recollections, and you learn about Humanism through Kim's reserved stance on the religion. It's so elegantly done that I walk away from each playthrough amazed at how much I learned, and care, about Revachol, its history, and its inhabitants.

If every game presented me with lore like that, I think I'd be a whole lot more interested in backs??tories and events that happened before I showed up. So, how do you feel about lore? Which game do you think has the best lore out there? Let's discuss in the comments.

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

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