Following the occasions of Borderlands 3, Pandora’s moon, Elpis, smashed right into a beforehand veiled planet known as Kairos. There, the inhabitants exists beneath the oppressive rule of a dictator often known as the Timekeeper, who assumes the function 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 occasionally, 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 crew.
Because the 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 – desires to have an inexpensive imitation of Good-looking Jack because the protagonist in a Borderlands sport, so the crew took a unique method 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 pleased with all of the tales and the entire antagonists that we have had earlier than,” senior undertaking producer Anthony Nicholson says. “We attempt to enhance and diversify the way in which that they’re, so once we go maniacal loopy, possibly we do not try this for the following one, as a result of there are plenty of tales that we are able to inform.”
Nonetheless, 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 crew at Gearbox arrived on the Timekeeper as the primary antagonist very early within the growth of Borderlands 4, as they wished 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 crew as they started work on Borderlands 4. “We knew very early on that we wished 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 form of a logical endpoint of, ‘While you take order too far, what sort of individual does that create? What sort of individual has to thrive in that area? After which, how does that individual react when the system begins to break down and the chaos begins to be injected?’ And plenty of the railroad tracks simply form of fell into place at that time by way of the dialogue.”
Constructing off that preliminary thought, the narrative crew set to work on a villain that would exemplify a kind of excessive edge instances. The consequence was a dictator who craved management and order a lot that he would cease at nothing to protect it. “For those who take both of them to their excessive, it might probably get bizarre and darkish,” Gearbox president and co-founder Randy Pitchford says. “For those who 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 type of inflexible, virtually totalitarian, form of fascist, like, ‘That is the way in which,’ measured to the micron. All the things’s exact, and there is not any room for creativity or deviation. You are taking the opposite facet to the intense, and it is anarchy and chaos, and plenty 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 crew labored to make sure the Timekeeper’s mission had a level of believability and understanding for why he would need the purpose he is hoping to attain. Nonetheless, on the finish of the day, gamers ought to simply conclude that his method is way too excessive. “He is a management freak,” Winkler says. “He’s actually and metaphorically getting his fingers soiled on the planet of Kairos in a manner 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 plenty of conversations with ‘I will be watching,’ and folks world wide are trying over their shoulder. I wished this character to be somebody who is aware of the impact that he has on individuals. However he is additionally, on the similar time, a bit sufferer to his personal system. The bounds on him are very inflexible, as a result of he desires it that manner; he desires every part to be inflexible. And as we begin chipping away at these boundaries, I actually appreciated displaying 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 method to attaining order, he is removed from the form 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 instances, and he remained true to how Nicholson describes him: cool, calm, and calculated. “Borderlands has positively grow to be recognized for the character that calls you up and tells you you are an assh—, and we wished to strive a personality that was a bit of bit extra reactive and a bit of bit extra ominous,” Winkler says. “He is very current, however plenty of his presence is comfortable contact. And he reaches out and screws with you very instantly. We wished to make it possible for he wasn’t simply speaking the speak, he was strolling the stroll, so the participant is pissed off 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 wished to have somebody actually be a foul man and embrace the vibe of a foul man otherwise,” inventive director Graeme Timmins says. “Whereas Good-looking Jack was a little bit of a smartass and he had a humorousness, we wished to method this man with a bit of extra like, ‘No, he is only a badass.’ He is actually about management. He would not have that form of heat character that you can form of buddy as much as. He is only a unhealthy man. And it feels good to kill unhealthy guys, in order that was an enormous deal. So, we simply wished to verify it was like, proper to the purpose, it is a unhealthy man. While you begin the sport, you will see why he is a foul man, and you will be on the experience 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 area occupied by Kairos whereas the Timekeeper cloaked it. This resulted within the cloak being destroyed and Psycho masks raining down, giving start 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 form 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 eager about, ‘Who’s he proper now for the participant?’ but additionally 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 among 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 certain to happen with the Timekeeper’s different followers and, finally, the Timekeeper himself. I’m already trying ahead to smashing by way of the Timekeeper’s order and injecting greater than a bit of chaos when Borderlands 4 arrives on September 12.
