Pandora: the story?

[Thomas Eichhorst]

So, while I find this game to be quite fun and amazing, I can't help but wonder: what is the actual setting of this game? Why is the world of Pandora so phcuked up? Why are there ships in the desert, piles of junk integrated into mountains, why the characters are so hysterical and insane?

Initially, I thought (because of how death and respawn looks like) that the "world" of Pandora is a form of matrix-like illusion, and players are playing a "game inside a game" while in reality they are connected to some devices (much like Assassins creed), but now I am having some doubts. Can someone explain this crazy setting, or better yet, can someone reveal Pandora lore to us here?

[ShinkuTear]

Okay, so, just tossing out what I can think of:

First of all, the New You/Respawn stations are a gameplay mechanic, and do not exist within the story.

BL2 takes place about 5 years after BL1, which also had the world messed up like this.

Years before BL1, the world actually had oceans and other bodies of water, that pretty much completely dried up for some unknown(?) reason. Various areas with boats and such were built before the mass drying, like T-Bone Junction, and the main areas of the Scarlett DLC

BL1 had the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, where you go to T-Bone Junction(mentioned lightly in BL2) and the surrounding area. It has aquatic mines laying in the sand and dirt, mines placed by the Atlas corporation, who is still running strong in the DLC. The mines suggest that the oceans only relatively recently vanished, but no one could figure out *why* they dried up.

BL2, in a quest to push a mine cart in the Caustic Caverns, Tannis mentions that she and various Bandits were all workers for the Dahl corporation, who, along with Sanctuary, came to Pandora in the hopes of finding alien tech, like how Atlas did on Promethea. Then the Atlas company came to Pandora, "flexxed their various muscles" and Dahl fled like cowards, leaving the workers behind. Ordinary people, family men, scientists, most became the Bandits you see in various areas "we're all broken because of them" as Tannis put it.

Tannis, as of BL1, has only been on Pandora for... a few years? And, again, when she was there, Pandora would have had lots of water, as she showed up before Atlas, and water was still abundant in most areas when Atlas was around and setting up their bases. Now, BL2, water mostly only exists in more fridged areas, like the Highlands, Three Horns, and Southern Shelf, or underground.

BL2, various areas like Fyrestone and the Eridium Blight are total wrecks because of what Hyperion has been doing under orders of Handsom Jack, mass mining with no concern for nature preservation, letting Eridium leak and form puddles of slag, and even creating a bloody Volcano or two!

[Squidvasion]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

Okay, so, just tossing out what I can think of:

First of all, the New You/Respawn stations are a gameplay mechanic, and do not exist within the story.

BL2 takes place about 5 years before BL1, which also had the world messed up like this.

Years before BL1, the world actually had oceans and other bodies of water, that pretty much completely dried up for some unknown(?) reason. Various areas with boats and such were built before the mass drying, like T-Bone Junction, and the main areas of the Scarlett DLC

BL1 had the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, where you go to T-Bone Junction(mentioned lightly in BL2) and the surrounding area. It has aquatic mines laying in the sand and dirt, mines placed by the Atlas corporation, who is still running strong in the DLC. The mines suggest that the oceans only relatively recently vanished, but no one could figure out *why* they dried up.

BL2, in a quest to push a mine cart in the Caustic Caverns, Tannis mentions that she and various Bandits were all workers for the Dahl corporation, who, along with Sanctuary, came to Pandora in the hopes of finding alien tech, like how Atlas did on Promethea. Then the Atlas company came to Pandora, "flexxed their various muscles" and Dahl fled like cowards, leaving the workers behind. Ordinary people, family men, scientists, most became the Bandits you see in various areas "we're all broken because of them" as Tannis put it.

Tannis, as of BL1, has only been on Pandora for... a few years? And, again, when she was there, Pandora would have had lots of water, as she showed up before Atlas, and water was still abundant in most areas when Atlas was around. Now, BL2, water mostly only exists in more fridged areas, like the Highlands, Three Horns, and Southern Shelf, or underground.

BL2, various areas like Fyrestone and the Eridium Blight are total wrecks because of what Hyperion has been doing under orders of Handsom Jack, mass mining with no concern for nature preservation, letting Eridium leak and form puddles of slag, and even creating a bloody Volcano or two!

You lost me at the start of this. Isn't BL2 a sequel to BL1? Roland/Lilith/Brick/Mordecai are the characters you play as in BL1, and now they are NPC's in BL2 which would put the setting of BL2 -after- the events of BL1.

[ShinkuTear]

Oh, jeez, I see my error. I meant to say that Borderlands 2 takes place about 5 years AFTER Borderlands 1. I'll fix that, sorry x.x

[Squidvasion]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

Oh, jeez, I see my error. I meant to say that Borderlands 2 takes place about 5 years AFTER Borderlands 1. I'll fix that, sorry x.x

ok haha, this makes much more sense now! =p.

And to add to this, the reason most of the bandit characters are insane and hysterical is mostly due to the presence of Eridium.

The less insane characters such as Handsome Jack for example, realized it's potential and sacrificed others to retrieve and refine it while keeping exposure to the substance themselves at a minimum.

Sirens seem to be the exception when it comes to Eridium, and I cannot answer why that is, perhaps there is an answer to that somewhere i overlooked.

[Murgen]

Also, the Dahl corporation used convict labor to operate their mining business on Pandora. When Atlas showed up they simply let the convicts free, and they immediately turned to banditry.

The characters are insane because of either alien or eridium influence. Perhaps the most noticeable example of this is the pyschos, who paint the alien Vault symbol on their mask, though Tanis gets an honorable mention and her descent into insanity is described in some detail in BL 1. The midgets and some other characters were likewise mutated by alien/eridium influence.

I don't think it's explicitly stated anywhere, but the ecological destruction was likely caused by the Vaults opening and/or eridium mining, as these changes started happening in about that time frame.

[H3X]

When it comes to the bandits, Hyperion also contributed to the mindset by experimenting on people in secret. Krieg was an escaped lab test subject for example. Can't help any having people selling each other out for cash or the occasional escapee running around the place, crazed o.O

[Captain Lasers]

Borderlands 2 is just a ridiculous, over-the-top game that don't need no explainin'.

Jesus. Why does everything need to be analyzed? Some things just shine the most when you don't overthink them.

EDIT: I realize I sound like an arse-hole. My apologies, I'm sending myself to the time out corner.

[Thomas Eichhorst]

Originally posted by =pG=™ Waif:

Borderlands 2 is just a ridiculous, over-the-top game that don't need no explainin'.

Jesus. Why does everything need to be analyzed? Some things just shine the most when you don't overthink them.

Well, because. It is just hillarious to the point of me needing to know why, and the comments above were actually helpful to me to grasp the madness that is Borderlands. I wanted to know why is ships everywhere and if this is similar to Assassins creed in the Matrix kind of way or not, and i just NEEDED to know the story :) So call me a nerd.

But such is the human race. Were asking questions. And after the explanations, things are finally starting to look understandable to me.