The Guiding Story of Star Atlas
From an interview with the LORE team and Hologram’s Founder Krigs
Family is central to every culture or faction we come across. After the signing of the peace treaty it seems as if the galactic family has grown even more and many of the past mysteries have begun to be uncovered. But while general peace was achieved, the majority had a long history of leaving their homes behind, each faction and individual holding a very different story. These experiences help us in understanding the complex workings of this futuristic civilization. Krigs recently interviewed the Head Writer of Star Atlas Lore Matthew Medney and Content Writer Jose, to give us a deeper insight into the formation of such stories.
During the interview, Matthew shared a vital truth explaining the importance of ancestry in every story being told:
“If you don’t understand a character’s parents, grandparents, and great grandparents and the way [their] actions help motivate decisions today, then you just won’t connect to them [the same]…” — Matthew Medney, Head of Star Atlas Lore
This is something we all can relate to. Family is often the purpose of our being. It’s where we came from, why we’re here, and who we hopefully want to be with in the future. Who we are is at the core of any good story, Star Atlas included.
Jose also chimed in throughout the interview. He further explained:
“When I started looking at Star Atlas, my feeling was that it was the shared tale of all different civilizations throughout the stars…We are creating an entire different species, each one of them will have their own background…this background is about building their story. One thing we do, that we like to do as an exercise when building up the lore, is setting the guiding principles of everything that we are doing. And then we can start deducting all the things that will play out in the civilization.”
In other words, as one begins to delve into the lore, there will be core elements strung together across space, connecting the world with common threads. While the main storyline is still being developed, we can see some of these habitual themes unfolding within the comics. For example, as was implicated in CORE — Episode #1, we discovered that Ustur might do things a little different than the other factions. We might discover that the Oni have particular quirks the other two factions don’t. And the more we learn about these races, the more we might realize that some individuals in the cosmos follow no factional norm at all.
Regarding the individuals we will come to know, Matthew also divulged more of his process in compiling data as a story.
“I think storytelling is the oldest profession…Everything that has been brought forth historically is a story being told to help us understand the past. We think of the lore and story at Star Atlas similarly, where we design the history before anything else. We design the past. We understand where characters have come from. We understand why decisions might have to be made based on experiences they’ve had. That’s why one of the first things that Jose and I started architecting was a timeline that goes back 600–700 years… That timeline is still internal because we’re fine tuning it and because it’s something that we’re going to be sharing pretty soon. To me that’s how you can create really compelling stories.”
The conversation between the Krigs and the team creating the storyline is quite fascinating. I’d invite you to go watch the full length interview in order to delve fully into the details of how creating the guiding story of Star Atlas will touch all aspects of the game. More than that, it also gives a feeling of the importance of our own ancestry as we seek to understand where we fit into the world around us.
About the Author
Oni Merchant is a writer on The Hologram News Network, an independent blockchain gaming meta-news organization devoted to the coverage of Star Atlas. Follow him on Twitter @OniMerchant.
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The Hologram is Star Atlas’ first and only independent news network. Our vision is to become the most trusted source of information about Star Atlas and a voice for the whole community. Readers can expect a high standard from our reporting and staff. Our promise to you: we will not publish anything that hasn’t been thoroughly researched and based on the best facts available.
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