Last year, I finally read Athenas Fortune after owning it since release day, I loved it and loved being reminded of the humble beginnings of the seas. I was inspired in wanting to continue to experience the Lore in order. Ive played since launch and had a lot of fun enjoying the expanding world but I gotta admit I often forget big chunks of it. Is there a way to experience the lore in order, not using third party sites and the like? Im thinking tall tales, comics, heck even mermaid journal entries are a big part.
How to experience the Lore chronologically
WARNING: Long-winded and pointlessly annoyed rant incoming (lol):
The downside to lore in this game is that so much of it is communicated to the players during time-sensitive events over the past seven years and for newer players it's simply impossible to experience it chronologically without having been here since the start of the game. FOMO is a fine way to temporarily drive-up player activity but it's the world's lousiest and stupidest way to tell an on-going story to players over the course of three to ten years.
Many, many moons ago in ye olde times back before the concept of seasons was introduced (and ruined) by Rare, the monthly and semi-monthly updates were added to the game either permanently or temporarily through communication with Duke, the representative of the Bilge Rats in every tavern before Larinna. He'd give you time-sensitive voyages and rewards for whatever activity was active for a few weeks or months before anywhere from 20-100% of the framework content was removed from the game, leaving only a few comms, titles and journals scattered about.
You want to experience the story about how Stitcher Jim and the Mysterious Stranger turned a previously uncharted island into The Reaper's Hideout and introduced the Reaper's faction into the Sea of Thieves? You can't. Or how and why Old Boot Fort became the Fort of the Damned? You can't. Or how Golden Sands evolved into Port Merrick. Or where the Ghost Fleet came from and went with Flameheart's disembodied glowing head shouting at you about your lack of supplies. Or where gifts, rag & bone crates, and skeleton thrones came from, or the rise and fall of the Sea Dogs faction, or how Merrick died and got trapped in the Sea of the Damned and then rescued and then refused to return to life to keep his family safe, or HOW Flameheart returned to his body in-game, and thousands of other random dangling plot threads that have some kind of presence still in-game but have LONG since stopped having the framework of the story to explain to newcomers where and how and why they were once significant.
Don't even get me started on how many plots points they began and attempted to half-assedly continue during the time sensitive seasonal monthly Adventures a few years back that were each only active for a few weeks at a time. Hell, anyone who plays the Monkey Island tall tales today for the first time might wonder just HOW LeChuck got hold of the Blade of Souls to begin with. Answer? We, the players, literally handed it to him. But you wouldn't know why or when or how unless you played the Adventure that was only available to players for a few weeks in June/July of 2023 and never again.
Have you ever accidentally stumbled onto Wanda's secret lab under Wanderer's Refuge and wondered just what the Hell it even exists for? Or even WHO Wanda is when you find her three journals there's still somehow a commendation to earn when you read them?? Once upon a time it was a crucial location to visit to learn how Salty became a cursed skeletal parrot and where and when cursed cannonballs were added to the Sea of Thieves and how the skeleton fleets came to be present in SoT during their invasions of the outposts.
Does anyone who wasn't playing this game back in 2018 know about ANY of this without extensive time spent on the SoT Wiki? I certainly didn't. For those of us who play games for the storyline, this one in particular is an endlessly frustrating mix of fascinating story bits spread across all manner of media, but it's also the equivalent of a 1,000-piece puzzle you got from a rummage sale with only about 660 pieces in the box.
I guess this is the downside of constantly adding Tall Tale/lore stuff to a live service open-world game. You can't keep adding new things indefinitely without removing something.
Maybe if they moved everything Tall Tale and lore related to Safer Seas, they would be able to keep it all separated from the High Seas for optimization reasons? I've got no idea.
They should get Disney to make "Sea of Thieves the Movie" to get a conclusion or further development to all the current ongoing lore and then announce Sea of Thieves 2 at the end of it đ
Few ways to look at it
Major lore. Sea of thieves is sorta cut off from the rest of the world and only a select rare few make it pass the waves. That being the player first journey.
Arriving. You either as you arrived, donât worry about the stories or hear about them from passing sailors or over campfire. Legendary stories that sound made up or true
As a new player. Youâre basically a new character introduced into a on going story. Or a new student in school. You donât know who the top dog is, what the rules are or past history why things are as they are.
You hear about it. Whispers. Sail and discover.(Or you can find YouTube videos)
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