Amazon Games’ MMO New World has proved immensely popular with genre stalwarts and newcomers alike. From washing up against the shore in your first moments, to battling for the honour of your faction, the story of New World is intertwined with every action.
Rather than being handed tomes of lore to sift through, you are instead encouraged to explore this land for yourself, asking questions and getting to know the varied (and usually unreliable) characters found along the way.
Compelling inhabitants aside, by far the most complex and intriguing character in the game is the Eternal Isle itself – Aeternum. Shifting and changing for thousands of years, Aeternum has eluded any simple attempt to document its ever-deepening history. As a character tasked with exploring this new frontier, you’ll come across countless friendly faces who will share with you their stories and memories of this once great land. The problem is how to sift fact from innocently embellished fiction – a task which will consume the minds of the most curious newcomers to Aeternum.
The basics
Discovered some time in the Age of Exploration, Aeternum was named The Eternal Isle by The Ancients. Despite its size, the island houses a wide range of biomes, natural diversity, and resources that prove useful to any newcomers, but have proved impossible to tame.
In fact, Aeternum’s flora and fauna (not to mention magical minerals) make it a place of great scientific intrigue. As you explore the island, you will traverse thick forests, sparse mountains, and beaches that stretch beyond the horizon, beset with Settlements where resources have been gathered and researched. In theory it’s a rich land of opportunity, were it not for the raging corruptions that have compromised the health of the island.
It seems, from the discarded and chaotic writings of former residents, that many generations of settlers have found Aeternum and attempted to make it their home, but ultimately failed to control the spreading Corruption.
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The struggle for power
One of Aeternum’s most valuable assets is the rich vein of Azoth that can be mined from rocks across the island. This precious mineral shines blue, and is often found in glass bottles, thanks to generations of refinement by island explorers. As such, it is now used loosely as a currency, fast-travel aid, and crafting tool, and serves as the backbone of Aeternum’s human society.
Despite its occasionally mundane uses, Azoth is one of the main sources of supernatural intrigue on the island, with scholars claiming that once harnessed, it could grant eternal life and great power. Unfortunately, the rarity and volatility of this blazing blue substance means that its corrosive counterpart often impacts human settlers before they can decipher its mysteries.
This counterpart has come to be known as The Corruption, a seeping ancient evil that infects anything it touches, twisting the promise of an eternal life into an eternity of undead misery. Those who have been touched by its otherworldly tendrils are known as The Corrupted, and are driven by the desire to spread misery and evil by tearing holes in the ground and filling an area with as many Corrupted lifeforms as possible.
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The Ancients
The first settlers to arrive on Aeternum are remembered only as The Ancients. With many details lost to time, all that can be known for sure is that they landed on the western shore, established the first port, and began to try and tame the island. Although the origins of Azoth remain shrouded in mystery, it is believed that the arrival of The Ancients coincided with the creation of The Corruption. It seems that in their vain attempts to harness the power that Azoth held, they created The Corruption by accident. Many of their group became infected and succumbed to the depths, leaving a small number behind to try and fight against the oncoming storm of evil.
From here, the remaining Ancients crafted the Guardians – powerful sentinels immune to the effects of Corruption – from the life-giving properties of Azoth. Motivated to protect the island and their settlements at any cost, The Ancients began to dabble in increasingly risky methods of creation, culminating in extremely formidable Guardians, but contributing to the rising levels of Corruption below Aeternum.
As the last Ancient fell in the battle of Last Gasp, the Guardians passed into a dormant state that came to last for thousands of years.
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A New World awaits
Following that first great battle, Aeternum lay quiet for thousands of years. Eventually, the island was found again by a mysterious woman and her crew. This is where fact blends with legend, and legend falls to myth – just who was this woman, and why did the Corruption grow so strong upon their arrival?
Despite a growing presence of unnamed evil, at this point nothing more than whispered threats, more and more settlers attempted to calm Aeternum’s fates. Starting trading routes, colonies, and even armies, the new arrivals remained unaware of the bubbling tensions below the surface, as the Corrupted war machine began to turn.
As regular attacks from The Corrupted became a reality, the new settlers were forced to accept that a war was coming. Tensions rose as fortune favoured the side of evil, allowing men, resources, and land to fall from the human settlers’ grasp. The only hope a curious island chronicler has of answering why this happened, and how the human attempts at a unified government failed so spectacularly in favour of an endless civil war, is to collect the scattered writings of those who were there at the start.
Generations of settlers have left all they can behind, but it is up to you to piece together the true story of Aeternum and prevent history from repeating itself once again. Ready to uncover the mysteries for yourself? New World is available now on Steam or directly from Amazon – jump in today and begin your own journey of discovery.
