There are players who have the lore book, there are tavern tales aplenty, there has been a minor offering of lore in various 'books' laying around which don't also offer quests (And the ones that do).
But what we've been lacking is a solid injection of in game LORE to help fashion players minds toward understanding what the Sea of Thieves are all about.
Generally speaking and certain to miss various points since I haven't read the lore book (Sorry.. not wasting my money on that.. maybe if I was a cosplayer or something....) we have a total of four factions and ...US in the sea of thieves.
The s****s who are known as the Order of Souls and remark with the phrase: Omnes in servitium animarum (Translated: All in the service of souls) who apparently commune with the dead to uncover their secrets and portents of upcoming change use us to explore the mysteries of the SoT.
The Merchants and the hoarders alternatively seem engaged in establishing trade between the islands in support of a social economy and greater well being for all pirates, and the latter - simply hoarding gold for the sake of gold, essentially plundering what they can for personal gain before some other s*****k does.
The Bilge Rats are the newest inclusion to the SoT and functionally will be the directors of the weeklies and other varied small adventures, serving mostly as a guidepost encouraging group play and seem to have an interest in facing whatever threats may come while also exploring what dangers may lurk on the seas forming something of loose society of pirates assembled for any upcoming threats and also simply adventure.
We know that the SoT is a new domain apparently cut off from the rest of the world (for now) and thanks to teasers are aware that the borders will eventually expand.
There is more substantive lore in the earlier referenced book, and other sources but it need not be explained here. After all Rare didn't bother assuring players got access to the information in the game itself...........
So we've got weeklies now, yay! First we've got some lore additions remarking on the Megaladon and it's relationship with the Ancients and such... we summoned it and beat it up, yay us! Don't worry.. apparently Meg will be back in a week or so.
The Bilge Rats show up during this to secure their place as our 'adventure keepers', then there's poor Merrick... two peg-legs...unlucky buffoon... perhaps he should take up that job as a bard after all... it'd be much safer.
Then suddenly thrones start to appear.... now we don't really have much to go off here.. a few bits and pieces about pirate lords and such but not very substantive information. Or do we?
Thanks to the teaser trailer from E3 we know that some unnamed unlucky pirate sold a shining object he likely found washed up on the shores after they patched the objects back in to the Order of Souls. (And for a mere 10 coins.... I mean c'mon what a rip! Obviously the Order of Souls knows a mark when they see one)
The crazy s***k then foretells of the widening of the seas and the arrival of an ancient evil with crews of skeletons...
Which kinda explains the Thrones eh?
Pirate Lords. Obviously Pirate Lords have crafted these nasty bits and are preparing to leave their mark on the seas.
Now, we are all just busy running around like buffoons shooting ourselves out of cannons in defiance of boredom and having a cheery time. We land upon them... take selfies... act the fool... and so on. All without consideration of the meaning here... the arrival of the thrones implies someone came.. placed them in those areas... and left them.
Obviously in preparation for what's next.. the arrival of the lords.
And we've already been told they will come! We just.... don't seem to care heh, we'd rather take selfies (Social commentary much rare? lol)
Once the forsaken shores open, and shortly after, the cursed sails will descend upon us. Obviously precursor to the pirate lords don't you think? They will be coming to sit on those thrones they had their crews place - in those quaint little areas they're at... (the one I feel the most sympathy for is the lord who might claim Cannon Cove.. I mean.. he has like no view... must be a bit of a coward trying to hide his throne like that... likely preferring his crew do the dirty work while he mopes in a corner.)
Now this might all be obvious to us..
But here's the bottom line.
There is LORE in the game.. it's just nowhere near obvious enough yet! The skeleton thrones aren't a random offering.. they're a prelude of things to come (which have been announced since forever to the players). In game, we're oblivious to the signs... but the signs are there. It's not simply as random as it might seem.
What other upcoming influences of the soon to arrive skeleton ships and forsaken shores might we start seeing I wonder?
And what can be done to generate a deeper "RPG" experience on these seas? For me.... more "quests" even if they are simply the same functional voyages... but with deeper lore offerings and background would be enough.
Such as the chest of sorrows and grogs... I can imagine a simple hoarders voyage to gather one of them... paired with a story of a lost love and an answer as to why that specific chest cries. Sure most players will ignore the lore... but that doesn't mean it shouldn't exist!
There's much more "lore" if you dig for it, the book obviously accounts for some, various outlets exist elsewhere, old statements long forgotten as well, and there is also much this post skipped over.
On an aside... why are the skeleton crews potentially coming to fight us off... might it be because they are the original 'land lords' of the SoT and we've been running around digging up their chests... selling them off... sailing in their back yards... killing off their crews or satellite crews farming skulls... loitering around their thrones taking selfies...waking up megaladons.... and so on? Are WE the villains? The bad Room mates? The indecent squatters? Are they coming soon simply because ....we're the misbehaving guests?
