Lore question

[Steel]

Hi there.

This is something that's been bothering me ever since I first played this as a kid. I wasn't able to find any answers or even discussions regarding this anywhere online so I figured I might as well ask here.

I understand the story itself (it isn't too complex after all), but what I don't understand are the environments. I always believed that Caleb travelled through normal places that just happened to have cultists and their helpers. It doesn't make much sense though. Why is everything so twisted and scary? Did the cultists take over the world and twisted everything to look the way it is? Just look at the carnival. That definitely isn't your regular funpark.

Who is bombing the city in the third episode? Is it the government fighting the cultists? Are the cultists bombing the city? If so, why isn't the government fighting back? Is there an actual war going on?

Now, I'm not dumb and I understand that there has to be some level variety to make the game interesting and rich, but I'm one of the people who believe that a good chunk of story is told not by cutscenes or dialogs, but by the environment and the events happening in the background. Not just here - in any game.

There probably isn't any official answer to this. And even if there was, very few of us would be able to get their hands on it. Either way, I'd love to hear some opinions and other points of view.

[Thermal Lance]

I don't think there is any "Lore" behind all of the carnage. The developers probably just went nuts with the build engine and tried to make each levels as exciting as possible.

A lot of old school shooter makes no sense when it comes to lore. You can probably ask the same questions for nearly all boomer shooter out there.

I respect the curiosity but I doubt there is any answer at all.

[Ivan Draco 830]

There must not be such in-lore answer since these must be mostly just wacky design desicions.

Then again, you can think yourself about the dark reasons behind all that, you know, like headcannons. To me it seems that the Blood's universe is a really twisted and dark one. After all, the one god they have is the main villain of the story. I guess that most of the places Caleb goes are indeed Cabal owned, or invaded like the places in the third episode.
Why there's no military forces fighting against the Cabal? Probably because the government allow their actions, perhaps the Cabal is even inside the government, controlling countries from inside. Have you played Blood 2? These days the cultists left behind the rudimentary clothes to become cold hearted business men.

[V I D A L]

aliens

[Crestfa11en]

Caleb is a psychopath so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the twisted stuff seen in the game (like in the dark carnival) is just his warped perception.
As for the bombings in Episode 3, I heard that the city levels take place in France so maybe WW2 is taking place and Axis planes are dropping the bombs.
Also I always assumed that in urban levels, the cops would show up immediately after Caleb goes through. The Cabal usually takes hostages (the various Innocents running around) so maybe they're holding off because of that.

[ming84]

I think the levels are just to suit to horror theme, there's no lore behind it. The bombing in episode three is to give a WW1 feel. The episode is titled "a farewell to arms" which is the title of a book about WW1.

[Yzal]

what little lore could have been was murdered by Blood 2

[Steel]

Thanks for your replies.

It's really interesting to read what other people think about this. Of course, It's a fun game where your main goal is going around shooting cultists, drowning hounds from hell and kicking severed zombie heads, so I don't assume there's really much depth when it comes to level lore. Still, fun to share thoughts!

Also, I've never played Blood 2 so pretty much all lore in that game is unknown to me. And to be honest, after Civvie's review, I don't think I'm giving it a chance anytime soon.

[Dodgeson]

Originally posted by firewa1ker:

Caleb is a psychopath so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the twisted stuff seen in the game (like in the dark carnival) is just his warped perception.

I dig this approach. I feel that would account for the carnival or hospital levels with a twisted sense of humour, but then I'd expect that level of twistedness to be maintained throughout the game.

Did the original game not have any sort of flavor text or introduction to get into the setting at all?

[shadowarchetype]

Originally posted by Steel:

Who is bombing the city in the third episode? Is it the government fighting the cultists? Are the cultists bombing the city? If so, why isn't the government fighting back? Is there an actual war going on?

From what I remember, when Caleb raised from the dead, the world was already controlled by Cabal, hence, cultists everywhere.

There wasn’t much story outside of what levels and cut scenes and short txt file offer. Even they year the action is set in, 1928, is not confirmed until “Blood II: The Chosen.” In this sense, the narrative is build with levels and their progression. (This can be very powerful tool.)

The fact that someone is bombing the city where obviously cultists run things—otherwise, Caleb wouldn’t be there—suggest some sort of resistance. Perhaps, not the entire world was taken by Tchernobog.

Originally posted by firewa1ker:

Caleb is a psychopath so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the twisted stuff seen in the game (like in the dark carnival) is just his warped perception.

That is not how psychopathy works though. What you describe sounds more like a psychosis or another type of delusion. A psychopath would have very realistic view of events, just indifferent morally.

[Hellbishop]

I always figured since playing the game back when it first came out in the 1990's that the Cabal had taken over the world and Caleb was traveling through time at the end of each chapter perhaps through ritual portals to seek revenge.

As for the bombings i thought it was just the Cabal bringing about the ultimate dooms day end of the world bombing all life out of existence.

[Steel]

I'm pleasantly surprised people still post their opinions and views here.
Please, do carry on - it's interesting to see what you guys think about the world of Blood.

[magazine permafrost]

i like to assume the story is a bit like shadow warrior's, such as how zilla rules most of the eastern world in thta game it seems like the cultists have completely consumed the western world in blood. and that would explain why everything is in tatters, the few 'normal' people left alive are living in rags, looking starved, and are acting manic when they see caleb (but that might be because of his scary appearance, idk.) also in E3M1 the first thing you notice about the city is its totally blood red like the world is on fire or something.

Originally posted by ming84:

The bombing in episode three is to give a WW1 feel. The episode is titled "a farewell to arms" which is the title of a book about WW1.

this makes me wonder why blood 2 set the storyline of blood 1 to be in 1928 because that year is like exactly the halfway point between ww1 and ww2, why would there be bombing in france at this time? unless the cultists extended the war for another decade or so? with that title though you are probably correct.

i dont think the story team was really thinking too hard when making this game. at least its a lot of fun either way.

[ming84]

Originally posted by Sal:

i like to assume the story is a bit like shadow warrior's, such as how zilla rules most of the eastern world in thta game it seems like the cultists have completely consumed the western world in blood. and that would explain why everything is in tatters, the few 'normal' people left alive are living in rags, looking starved, and are acting manic when they see caleb (but that might be because of his scary appearance, idk.) also in E3M1 the first thing you notice about the city is its totally blood red like the world is on fire or something.

Originally posted by ming84:

The bombing in episode three is to give a WW1 feel. The episode is titled "a farewell to arms" which is the title of a book about WW1.

this makes me wonder why blood 2 set the storyline of blood 1 to be in 1928 because that year is like exactly the halfway point between ww1 and ww2, why would there be bombing in france at this time? unless the cultists extended the war for another decade or so? with that title though you are probably correct.

i dont think the story team was really thinking too hard when making this game. at least its a lot of fun either way.

I think year was purposely left ambiguous in Blood 1, but they kinda retconned that in Blood 2.

[shadowarchetype]

That could mean as well that there is completely alternative history, not fitting neither WW2 nor WW1. Which makes sense if the cultists took over years earlier (this sort of operation would simply took time, logistically looking).

[Ghosttown]

So fascinating there are ppl out there caring for the story of this good old game. I am one of these guys as well who spoiled time on thinking what all of this behing Bllood might have been. Well, I guess it's a lot of just horror themed levels plus a little bit of an own as well horror themed world on it's own.

Take the second (third?) episode. It's beginning with Calebs quotation "Let's make a paper town red". I'm not even sure if I got it correctly, but it should be the city under attack by the airforce.
I once cheated and I reached the area where the jets are which are being used for the bombing scene, it's so f**n scary seeing them just floating in the air. The whole situation is so moody with the slaughtering while the air raids, the Cabal, the zombies, etc.

Then there is this cool level with the big house, where you find the garden with the Jack Torrance reference at the very end. Or just take the hospital level, which is more a reference to WW1. Not forgetting to mention the unholy cathedral.

As you can see, there is not a strong canonical connection in between the levels and episodes, so it seems, the world of Blood is some sort of a strange version of Earth, but in an own dimension where the cult of the Cabal is trying to take over control. However, graves are still being adorned by a cross, so the influence of the Christian religion is still there.

I am very sure, the programmers did never ever think so much about the background of Blood. They just created some levels which fitted the typical horros topics of their time and that was the trick.

Cool thread btw ^^