Following the occasions of Borderlands 3, Pandora’s moon, Elpis, smashed right into a beforehand veiled planet referred to as Kairos. There, the inhabitants exists beneath the oppressive rule of a dictator generally known as the Timekeeper, who assumes the position of the first antagonist in Borderlands 4. Throughout my time at Gearbox’s Frisco, Texas headquarters for our Borderlands 4 cowl story, my time interacting with the Timekeeper was extraordinarily restricted, solely listening to his voice now and again, however his menacing demeanor and obsession with preserving order in any respect prices led me to hunt extra data from a number of members of the Borderlands 4 growth group.
For the reason that launch of Borderlands 2 in 2012, Good-looking Jack has been the high-water mark for villains within the Borderlands franchise. Within the eyes of many, the franchise has struggled to discover a villain as charismatic and hateable as Jack. No one – gamers nor builders – needs to have an inexpensive imitation of Good-looking Jack because the protagonist in a Borderlands recreation, so the group took a distinct strategy with the likes of the Calypso Twins in Borderlands 3.
When Elpis crashed into Kairos, it shattered the order the Timekeeper craves and set the occasions of Borderlands 4 in movement
“We’re very happy with all of the tales and the entire antagonists that we have had earlier than,” senior challenge producer Anthony Nicholson says. “We attempt to enhance and diversify the way in which that they’re, so after we go maniacal loopy, perhaps we do not do this for the subsequent one, as a result of there are a number of tales that we are able to inform.”
Nevertheless, whereas Borderlands 3 featured twin cult leaders bent on the destruction of Pandora, Borderlands 4 appears to be revisiting the dictator antagonist idea with the Timekeeper, a person who has been on Kairos, the brand new planet on which Borderlands 4 takes place, for 1000’s of years. The group at Gearbox arrived on the Timekeeper as the principle antagonist very early within the growth of Borderlands 4, as they needed to discover themes surrounding a personality like him.
Enjoying with themes of order and chaos as opposing concepts, and discovering what occurs when you go too far in a single path or the opposite, served as a tenet for the group as they started work on Borderlands 4. “We knew very early on that we needed this to be a narrative about order and chaos and the spots in between the place the gamers would function,” narrative director Sam Winkler says. “It began as type of a logical endpoint of, ‘While you take order too far, what sort of particular person does that create? What sort of particular person has to thrive in that house? After which, how does that particular person react when the system begins to break down and the chaos begins to be injected?’ And a number of the railroad tracks simply sort of fell into place at that time when it comes to the dialogue.”
Constructing off that preliminary concept, the narrative group started working on a villain that would exemplify a type of excessive edge circumstances. The end result was a dictator who craved management and order a lot that he would cease at nothing to protect it. “When you take both of them to their excessive, it may well get bizarre and darkish,” Gearbox president and co-founder Randy Pitchford says. “When you take the organized, skilled, mature facet of issues… the buttoned-up facet of issues, and take that to its excessive, you find yourself with this sort of inflexible, virtually totalitarian, sort of fascist, like, ‘That is the way in which,’ measured to the micron. All the things’s exact, and there is no room for creativity or deviation. You’re taking the opposite facet to the intense, and it is anarchy and chaos, and a number of unhealthy s— occurs as a result of we’re not taking care of issues. That is an attention-grabbing spectrum.”
The Timekeeper’s stronghold metropolis, Dominion
In his efforts to protect his good imaginative and prescient of order, the Timekeeper cloaked the planet to forestall the skin universe from discovering them and put in Command Bolts to manage the inhabitants. “His demeanor could be very calm,” Nicholson says. “He likes issues very neat, he likes issues very orderly. He is unrattled. You will not get him flying off the deal with as a result of he is very assured in why he is doing what he is doing. As Vault Hunters, we have to uncover what that’s and, finally, push again towards it as a result of we are able to see the chaos that this order is bringing in each area on the planet.”
The narrative group labored to make sure the Timekeeper’s mission had a level of believability and understanding for why he would need the aim he is hoping to realize. Nonetheless, on the finish of the day, gamers ought to simply conclude that his strategy is much too excessive. “He is a management freak,” Winkler says. “He’s actually and metaphorically getting his palms soiled on the planet of Kairos in a means that has made everybody unsettled and is stopping all of them from having peace. And I believe he is aware of it. He is aware of that he has this impact. He indicators off a number of conversations with ‘I will be watching,’ and folks world wide are trying over their shoulder. I needed this character to be somebody who is aware of the impact that he has on individuals. However he is additionally, on the identical time, a bit sufferer to his personal system. The bounds on him are very inflexible, as a result of he needs it that means; he needs the whole lot to be inflexible. And as we begin chipping away at these boundaries, I actually appreciated exhibiting off how he responds to that and the way it turns into a really private factor for him.”
Although he is clearly unhinged in his strategy to attaining order, he is removed from the sort of over-the-top character that previous villains within the sequence have offered. Throughout my hands-on expertise, I had the chance to listen to him a number of occasions, and he remained true to how Nicholson describes him: cool, calm, and calculated. “Borderlands has positively develop into identified for the character that calls you up and tells you you are an assh—, and we needed to attempt a personality that was somewhat bit extra reactive and somewhat bit extra ominous,” Winkler says. “He is very current, however a number of his presence is smooth contact. And he reaches out and screws with you very immediately. We needed to be sure that he wasn’t simply speaking the speak, he was strolling the stroll, so the participant is annoyed at this man and desires to kick his ass.”
And although Good-looking Jack evoked comparable emotions, he did so in a very totally different method. “We actually needed to have somebody actually be a foul man and embrace the vibe of a foul man another way,” inventive director Graeme Timmins says. “Whereas Good-looking Jack was a little bit of a smartass and he had a humorousness, we needed to strategy this man with somewhat extra like, ‘No, he is only a badass.’ He is actually about management. He would not have that sort of heat character that you possibly can sort of buddy as much as. He is only a unhealthy man. And it feels good to kill unhealthy guys, in order that was a giant deal. So, we simply needed to ensure it was like, proper to the purpose, this can be a unhealthy man. While you begin the sport, you will see why he is a foul man, and you will be on the trip for the remainder of the sport.”
Although the Timekeeper has stored his thumb on Kairos and its inhabitants for an prolonged stretch, the phantasm began to fade following the occasions of Borderlands 3 when Lilith teleported Pandora’s moon, Elpis, into the house occupied by Kairos whereas the Timekeeper cloaked it. This resulted within the cloak being destroyed and Psycho masks raining down, giving beginning to a brand new faction of Kairos denizens who ripped out their Command Bolts to regain their free will at the price of mutilating their our bodies and minds.
Although the Timekeeper has clearly misplaced any sort of ethical standing with the individuals of Kairos, we’ll be taught extra about his backstory by way of gameplay. “We’re coming into in media res for the Timekeeper’s story,” managing director of narrative Lin Joyce says. “He is been round on this place, so interested by, ‘Who’s he proper now for the participant?’ but in addition for us, ‘How did he get there? What was his journey as much as that time? Why is he this fashion? Why does he maintain onto order so tightly?’ Then, solely in answering these questions can we problem and assist crack this good façade that he is constructed. However that is all spoilers, so I am not going to inform you!”
I did not have too many interactions with the Timekeeper, however I did tackle one in every of his followers, whom Winkler calls the Timekeeper’s “number-one fanboy” in Idolator Sol. That battle was extended and frantic, and it set a excessive bar for the escalation that’s positive to happen with the Timekeeper’s different followers and, ultimately, the Timekeeper himself. I’m already trying ahead to smashing by way of the Timekeeper’s order and injecting greater than somewhat chaos when Borderlands 4 arrives on September 12.
