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hwarang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,451
The lovecraft and cthulu mythos makes for some incredible lore.

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But if I were to pick a specific universe, it'd probably be the Warhammer Fantasy and 40K universe. That's a rabbit hole to jump into if anything. The designs of the characters, monsters and world are absolute top tier.

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Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,624
I honestly still have to go with Halo. It has it's ups and downs but I still love it.

I'd probably say FFXIV next.

And even if I don't play it much these days, Destiny still has some incredible lore. Just... not told in the best way.
 
Oct 29, 2017
13,478
Discworld. Because the lore is like gossip and not some ancient history of epic scale. With over 40 books, it's like remembering the wacky affairs of contemporary history that you saw happen.
 

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,485
Halo, and I blame my dad for it. He hates video games, but loves sci-fi. His favorite novel of all time? Dune. His favorite sci-fi franchise of all time? Still Dune. When he ran out of Dune books he borrowed my copy of The Fall of Reach, read it cover-to-cover in a few days, and by the end of the week had purchased every single Halo novel he could find (up to The Cole Protocol at the time).

I still have a first edition copy of The Fall of Reach. It's in terrible condition due to how many times we read it. It's so old, the ad for Halo 1 in the back still has the misprinted ESRB rating of T for Teen!

I even have a signed poster from Greg Bear, who wrote the Forerunner Trilogy. These novels range from "genuinely excellent sci-fi that could stand on its own independently of Halo" to "I can't believe I'm still reading this unpalatable trash", but I still love 'em. Half a shelf on my bookshelf is just Halo novels, stopping around 2011 when my dad and I started reading them as ebooks instead. I still bought a copy of Silent Storm in hardcover, though (I liked the art).

My dad could tell you more about the Halo canon than just about every single person on this forum, except for any event that happens in the games (except the first, since The Flood is an adaptation of Halo CE). For that, he defers to me when he lacks context while reading the books. Like I said, he hates video games. But he loves Halo. Funny how that works out.
 

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
40k has some amazingly extensive lore and litteral hundreds of books in its universe and expanding its variety and scope.

Ofcourse it refuses to fully engage with any of it and has not a single actual good story amongst it all but godammn is it fun inspiration for tabletop bad guy role playing shoot-em-ups.
 

Tigerfog

Member
Oct 28, 2017
766
Montreal
Full Throttle (PC Game)'s lore, or at least what little there is of it, makes me want to know more about it.
All we get is a view of this decaying world through the eyes of Ben, we need MORE. :D
 

Revali

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
1,394
Rito Village
I've spent countless hours reading up on the lore of ASOIAF and Star Trek. Star Trek is experiencing a renaissance as of late and I still have reasonable hope for The Winds of Winter and House of the Dragon, but not sure about A Dream of Spring or A Time for Wolves (I don't think the whole story is going to fit into seven books).
 

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,951
Star Wars or Mass Effect

40k has some amazingly extensive lore and litteral hundreds of books in its universe and expanding its variety and scope.

Ofcourse not a single good story amongst it all but godammn is it fun for tabletop bad guy role playing shoot-em-ups.

That's my problem with the 40k universe also the troubling politics. But damn if that lore ain't fascinating.
 

Brickhunt

Member
Feb 4, 2018
999
Brazil
I have become really fascinated by the lore of The Magnus Archives podcast.
There is a bunch of evil " gods" (for the lack of a better term without being too spoilerish) and their followers terrorizing common people and sabotaging each other while desperately trying to pull their own apocalypse before the others others.

A setting in which. at one point, the followers of a god of senseless killing and pure violence essentially saves the world and, in turn, has to be stopped by the followers from other evil gods, such as cruelty for the sake of cruelty. No good supernatural being, just different kinds of evil trying to sabotage each other.
 

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,969
Iain Banks' Culture novels basically dropped the mic as far as "crowded galaxy of diverse alien species" sci-fi is concerned. Every single idea that's come up in that subset of science fiction in the last eighty years is pushed to its logical extreme in order to examine their actual implications. Its hard to go back to other settings after "What if digitized consciousness + species that still believed in the concept of hell resulted in a network of virtual hells of barbaric depravity, and a digital war is taking place to determine if they will be abolished" is the subplot of one book
 

Forerunner

Resetufologist
The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
14,569
I think Halo is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills aleins and doesnt afraid of anything.
 

Sabretooth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,052
India
I love Dishonored's lore for how self-serving it is. There's no waste, everything is quite compact and works very well in building a mysterious and sleek gothic world. It's very subtle and very wild underneath its exterior, which makes it as alluring as it is believable. Whale oil solves everything!

I also like Pillars of Eternity for its take on high fantasy, though I've yet to play the sequel. The concept of gods in it is particularly attractive to me: it feels a lot like a high fantasy world based on Hindu concepts, and I appreciate that freshness in Western fantasy.

There's also the Fallen London universe (which includes Sunless Seas and Sunless Skies), but that's impossible not to like with its deliciously written gothic.
 

Valkerion

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,229
Resident Evil and Gundam (Universal Century)

I love love LOVE! long running stories and lore that build off previous moments. Resident Evil does it less so but there are some amazing call backs to events, characters, and random lore drops throughout the franchise. Stuff like RE5 being set in Africa, went back to a file way back in the first game are little nuggets that just make me squirm with joy.

Gundam loves its lore and backstory and II enjoy the ever growing nature of it. Characters returning to the franchise in subsequent works or at least getting mentioned. Seeing the designs of the machines being clearly based off previous models. They even try to go back to add more lore retroactively which sometimes works (The Origin) and is sometimes ... meh (NT.) Ever present universe building is the best part of it imo.
 

Luap

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,830
Warhammer 40k is probably the king. I feel like most sci fi video games have ripped it off in one way or another.

I've also gone on some deep World of Warcraft wiki lore binges.

I don't know if this counts, but I recently read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and those books had some of the coolest world building I have ever read.
 

Wood Man

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,449
My Little Pony

But seriously probably Marvel. I've invested so much time and money into comics, movies, TV and Video Games. I eat all that stuff up.
 

Hark

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,161
I love Fantasy Flight's Arkham Files universe, from what I've experienced from the LCG.

Looking to push into it more with the big hardcover Investigators book soon.
 

Deleted member 18407

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,607
Star Control. It was the first time I remember really appreciating the mystery surrounding things and learning about it was its own reward. Even the villains became sympathetic once you learned their backstories, despite them being profoundly evil beings otherwise. It made what they did understandable but not "right." It was the first time I encountered something like that as a kid or at least the first time I understood it. It's stayed with me ever since. Great game and great series as long as you stick with the Toys For Bob games.
 

gforguava

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,695
Qwewq.

The Neh-Buh-Loh is in fact the adult version of a sentient universe called Qwewq. He first appeared as the Nebula Man in Justice League of America #100, described as a cosmic being "whose touch has the power of 20 atomic bombs." He was supposedly created by a villain known as The Hand to defeat the original Seven Soldiers of Victory. He battled the Soldiers in Tibet. His actions scattered the Soldiers through time, a fate from which they were later saved by the Justice League and Justice Society. The Nebula Man was defeated when the sidekick of the Crimson Avenger, Wing, sacrificed himself to deliver the final blow with a cosmic device, he was buried in Tibet by Monks who witnessed his death.

During the JLA storyline "Rock of Ages", the Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern are sent by Metron through time and space and they land on Wonderworld. During a brief tour of Wonderworld's Omnitropolis and its museum district by that world's Atom analogue Mote, a few peculiar items are mentioned. Amongst them are an evil 5 dimensional imp trapped in a 6 dimensional bottle, a speedster Glimmer's treadmill, and a larval universe they call Qwewq. They say that they are feeding it and hope to allow it to grow to its full potential.

The Nebula Man appeared once more in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., before reappearing in JLA: Classified #1–3, working with Gorilla Grodd and announcing the end of the world. At the same time, the Justice League were in the Infant Universe of Qwewq, unaware that this was Neh-Buh-Loh's larval form.

In the Seven Soldiers series, Neh-Buh-Loh was revealed to be allied with (or perhaps created by) the Sheeda, time travelling predators from the end of time. He served as the personal huntsman of the Sheeda Queen Gloriana Tenebrae. In the past, Neh-Buh-Loh had been sent to slay the queen's innocent stepdaughter Rhiannon (a.k.a. Misty Kilgore). However, moved by her beauty and symmetry, he could not bear to do it and allowed the girl to escape. This was Neh-Buh-Loh's secret shame for many years.

It was further explained that in the 1940s, Neh-Buh-Loh had been summoned (rather than created) by The Hand using a sonic horn. The creature was seeking "seven soldiers" who were prophesied to one day defeat his mistress, Gloriana. The Hand was all too eager to point him in the right direction, thus leading to the original Seven Soldiers becoming lost in time.

This same sonic horn was used by The Hand's nephew Boy Blue to once again summon Neh-Buh-Loh and the Sheeda in the present, leading to the destruction of an ad hoc Seven Soldiers team created by the original Vigilante. This set the stage for the Harrowing of Earth which the heroes of the Seven Soldiers series attempted to prevent.

Neh-Buh-Loh was finally defeated by Frankenstein, who capitalized on a flaw placed in him as an infant by the Ultramarine Corps, a team of heroes who had entered Qwewq seeking redemption.

In All-Star Superman #10, Superman uses the infant universe of Qwewq to create an Earth without a Superman that he dubs Earth Q, our Earth.

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Ultimate lore: Superman made us and the universe will end not from a supposed 'heat death' but rather the grim fury of Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
 
Oct 27, 2017
45,031
Seattle
Every time I see any WH40k meme, it's been about extermination of an entire planet or species. Is that how the lore is in general? Or do some just cling to that?
 

Bradford

terminus est
Member
Aug 12, 2018
5,423
Soulsborne.
New Sun.
Control/Alan Wake
Twin Peaks

I also really like extended universe fiction and franchised universes in general. I get a lot out of continuity, even if it isn't as nuanced or deep as say, New Sun.
 

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
Every time I see any WH40k meme, it's been about extermination of an entire planet or species. Is that how the lore is in general? Or do some just cling to that?

They actually very rarely exterminate planets. Only when the chance of ever taking that planet back within thousands of years is absolute zero. Like litteraly the surface would have to be covered in infinite portals to hell and back.

Otherwise they will happily be sending soldiers to fight forever and ever if retrieving the planet is a possibility.
 

Joe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,591
In All-Star Superman #10, Superman uses the infant universe of Qwewq to create an Earth without a Superman that he dubs Earth Q, our Earth..

Wait. If our Earth is just "Earth without Superman", doesn't that mean we should still have Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern and shit?
 

JohnnyToonami

Member
Dec 16, 2018
5,467
Earth
Resident Evil and Gundam (Universal Century)

I love love LOVE! long running stories and lore that build off previous moments. Resident Evil does it less so but there are some amazing call backs to events, characters, and random lore drops throughout the franchise. Stuff like RE5 being set in Africa, went back to a file way back in the first game are little nuggets that just make me squirm with joy.

Gundam loves its lore and backstory and II enjoy the ever growing nature of it. Characters returning to the franchise in subsequent works or at least getting mentioned. Seeing the designs of the machines being clearly based off previous models. They even try to go back to add more lore retroactively which sometimes works (The Origin) and is sometimes ... meh (NT.) Ever present universe building is the best part of it imo.
Are you me??

Theses were also my answers.
 
Every time I see any WH40k meme, it's been about extermination of an entire planet or species. Is that how the lore is in general? Or do some just cling to that?
My experience with 40K isn't terribly deep (mainly just watching lore videos on youtube) but the Imperium of Man seems to be a case where you're obviously not supposed to find a faction ideal or even admirable, but the imagery managed to attract a bunch of jerks who get off to the facist/authoritarian undertones.

It's a shame, because the underlying lore is legitimately intriguing but you have to be very careful when interacting with its fanbase.
 

defaltoption

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
11,483
Austin
Even though it has so many issues Dragon Ball, favorite ever might be Mass Effect, and while I really enjoy Fallout, recently almost entirely due to Bethesda needing to suck the life out of the franchise for marketing and dlc, it's really started to falter in my ranks.

I'm not against lore changes I just hate when things are changed with no benefit other then to sell me something or is just because someone forgot, or is changed but never explained.
 

Dalek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,901
The Stephen King Multiverse/Dark Tower
The DC Multiverse
The Marvel Multiverse
 

Zaied

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,552
If I had to pick one, it'd have to be DC. It's comprised of dozens of my favorite fictional characters and stories, and offers a bit of everything. And it's no coincidence that a lot of my favorite non-comic media that I consume is DC related and always has been. I'm also into Marvel, Assassin's Creed, Dragon Ball, Fallout, Crysis, Metal Gear, Tomb Raider (primarily Top Cow and the current universe), Mortal Kombat, and Power Rangers.
 

TheXbox

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,551
LotR/Tolkien, but the "lore" is practically the main event. It honestly feels like a betrayal of The Silmarillion to mention it in the same breath as merchandise fiction and tie-in media. ASOIAF is the runner-up, held back only by some of Martin's lazy Orientalist crap in Essos.
Halo, and I blame my dad for it. He hates video games, but loves sci-fi. His favorite novel of all time? Dune. His favorite sci-fi franchise of all time? Still Dune. When he ran out of Dune books he borrowed my copy of The Fall of Reach, read it cover-to-cover in a few days, and by the end of the week had purchased every single Halo novel he could find (up to The Cole Protocol at the time).

I still have a first edition copy of The Fall of Reach. It's in terrible condition due to how many times we read it. It's so old, the ad for Halo 1 in the back still has the misprinted ESRB rating of T for Teen!

I even have a signed poster from Greg Bear, who wrote the Forerunner Trilogy. These novels range from "genuinely excellent sci-fi that could stand on its own independently of Halo" to "I can't believe I'm still reading this unpalatable trash", but I still love 'em. Half a shelf on my bookshelf is just Halo novels, stopping around 2011 when my dad and I started reading them as ebooks instead. I still bought a copy of Silent Storm in hardcover, though (I liked the art).

My dad could tell you more about the Halo canon than just about every single person on this forum, except for any event that happens in the games (except the first, since The Flood is an adaptation of Halo CE). For that, he defers to me when he lacks context while reading the books. Like I said, he hates video games. But he loves Halo. Funny how that works out.
This is awesome. Some of the early Halo books are really solid, especially Nylund's work. Haven't read anything since Halo 4, though. Anything worth a look post-2010? I've heard mixed things about the Bear trilogy but it's obviously essential to the current universe.
 

gforguava

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,695
Wait. If our Earth is just "Earth without Superman", doesn't that mean we should still have Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern and shit?
Oh you literal silly goose. Superman is making a universe devoid of superheroes, which is shown to be our universe, he is just using himself as the ur-superhero for effect. He is slowly dying and is transcribing his final thoughts, he is allowed to be a little conceited.