- There are a few quests that explicitly mention that the bandits do have means of generating income and acquiring equipment beyond robbing people. For example, one quest requires you to destroy one of their mining operations and another quest has you looking into who they are buying weapons from. Infighting is only required if they are competing over resources, but there is no indication they are really hard up for them.
It would be an absolute gorram nightmare to have the average citizen get ahold of most of these guns. No one, however, cares about Pandora except maybe the Crimson Lance, so companies like Jakobs, Dahl, Hyperion, and Atlas saw fit to move much of their manufacturing to Pandora where no-one would stick their noses where they don't belong and realize that the companies were putting artillery pieces in handheld form, thus making more money and having fun testing the limit of their utterly-insane-as-Tannis guns. As a result, Maliwan, Torgue, and other companies decided to get in on the action of Pandora and use it as a testing ground for their guns. I just realized that explains why there are all kinds of 'prototype' Maliwan guns lying around. As to how companies (Cough...Maliwan! Cough...) with heavy reliance on Elemental Tech get by, presumably they sell guns with weakened versions of the elemental effects.
Sometime after the Eridians died out, the virus mutated so it affected humans as well. If the virus keeps mutating so the humans have the same deadly abilities as the aforementioned guard creatures, the Borderlands government (mentioned in WMG above this) will have to declare Exterminatus. No, that does not mean that I think Warhammer 40k is in the same timeline as Borderlands.
- To start with, what the Borderlands universe knows as "Sirens" are actually some of the first human psykers to be verified to exist. All of them being women is either a coincidence or due to them being descended from the future Emperor of Man, whose (naturally fathered) female descendents were said to often be powerful psykers, in contrast with his more or less psychically blank male descendents.
- The lack of eldar, orks, or other familiar races from the 40k universe is due to the planet solely taking place on Pandora; pre-fall eldar territory is tens of thousands of light years away and back in those days the eldar stuck mostly to their core worlds, orks either haven't found there way out to Pandora yet or had their native Pandorian populations more or less wiped out by the early human forces, the necrons were still in hibernation at this point in time, the tyranids were off eating some other galaxy, the tau were still the equivalent of cave-men, and so on for all the minor 40k races.
- Eridians were either an ancient eldar offshoot or the old ones themselves, and the monsters sealed in the vaults were powerful warp entities. Eridium is merely warp-tainted metal, which is why it causes those who mess around with it to mutate and it empowers the abilities of psykers.
- Due to the fall of the eldar being about 10,000 years in the future, Chaos is down one major deity, and the slightly less malevolent eldar gods are still alive and kicking, so warp entities aren't nearly as widespread or destructive as they are in M41. Nevertheless, the influence of Chaos is still present on Pandora; bandits, particularly psychos, are tainted practically to a man by Khorne and/or Khaine, and are constantly getting new blood in their ranks to replace those butchered by in fighting, corporate forces, and random adventurers and vault hunters as people of Pandora continue to succumb to Khornate/Khainite corruption.
- For some Borderlands 2 stuff, Zer0 is actually the pre-fall equivalent of an eldar outcast, who eschews the use of the eldar's innate psychic abilities and their hideously advanced weaponry for the sake of the challenge. It's also quite likely he's a follower of Khaine.
- Confirmed for Lilith, still not so sure about the other three.
- Confirmed. In fact, everyone uses them - as long as they have enough money.
- We'll never know for sure, since what little backstory the game originally had for the characters was dropped early in preproduction and is briefly mentioned in the guidebook, probably so that the developers could sell sequels.
- This troper assumed that the whole reason the group was working together was that they were all childhood friends.
- Jossed by multiple sources, most notably the official game guide. They're created by torturing their pregnant mothers. And really, these guys sleep at night just fine. Except Brick. Brick doesn't need sleep.
- Confirmed in Borderlands 2: At least the loot behind it, and the fact that the Destroyer was not inherently a threat. It is most likely that the Destroyer was only the guardian of that Vault.
- Alternatively, another group of treasure hunters have already gotten past the Destroyer and raided the vault. The damn thing just respawned, and the previous group quietly sold off the collection of Eridian knick-knacks on the black market.
- Does this mean Bloodwing is a Siren too?
- Damn straight it does
- Even more obvious in Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, where Marcus really begins to phone it in.
- Possible alternate—Marcus Kincaid isn't telling the story to "his" kids, he's telling it to a group of kids...the same kids we see in the opening cutscene, i.e. the Roland, Brick, Mordecai and Lilith we know from the game. What follows are the fantasies of this "Vault Hunters' Club", as they imagine themselves all grown up and very very butt-kicking. The reason the only friendlies on the planet appear to be Dr. Zed, Kincaid, Tannis (arguable), Pierce, T.K. Baha, Scooter, Crazy Earl and a bunch of faceless types in New Haven is because they're based on people the kids know from real life—Kincaid is a gun nut, Tannis and Earl are probably based on two figures everybody in town believe are crazy, and so on. The enemies are all wild animals or faceless because they don't want to think about the idea of watching someone else die horribly. The Claptraps are there because...well, they're kids, one of them is gonna want something cute to break up the action.
- Another possible alternate— Marcus told the kid Vault Hunters about the vault, and the entire game is just their play-pretend as they go to find it. Roland threw in the idea of bandits as enemies, Mordecai the animal ones, and Lilith, being the girl, wanted Claptrap as the cute-offset. Brick? He's just happy to pretend to hurt things. Moreover, the guns effects are kids applying Rule of Cool to weapons fire.
- That would explain why the characters are introduced as though they are given a role. Ex. Roland "as" The Soldier instead of Roland The Soldier. They are acting as the main characters of the story.
- Another alternate— It is fairly obvious that Marcus is telling this as a story, but he does swear it is true. Furthermore, he appears to be telling this story on Pandora ("...and it happened 'right here', on Pandora"), so at least we know that exists. The main characters are essentially acting out his story, hence the captions in the intro, with the exception of Brick, introduced "as himself", possibly the only surviving member of the original group, or at least the only one available.
- This theory got a big shot in the arm by the Claptrap DLC, as Marcus once again narrates the intro (and is criticised for his crappy metaphor), as well as the (short) epilogue. However, during the course of events in-game, he gets shot in the back by INAC. And pulls off a comedic one-liner before dying. But then after you win, he wraps up the story.
- Marcus survived the attack. Claptrap wasn't using a Jakobs.
- In anyone other than the PCs uses a New-U station, it would be Marcus.
- Marcus survived the attack. Claptrap wasn't using a Jakobs.
Hyperion Satellite 4N631, orbiting Pandora, is all but said to be the home of the Guardian Angel, or equally possibly, it IS the Guardian Angel. Think about the implications — a satellite created and maintained by Hyperion knew a lot of suspiciously specific information about the Vault, particularly that the Destroyer was in the vault. I highly doubt that satellite got that information from taking photos — so more than likely Hyperion had that information on hand while producing or maintaining the satellite. Catch that? Hyperion KNEW the Destroyer was in the Vault the whole time. The entire plot is The Plan orchestrated by Hyperion Corporation and the GA was built just for the occasion. But how did they know about the destroyer, the vault keys and how to open the vault?
The answer is simple. Eridians themselves played a fundamental role in the foundation of Hyperion Corporation. They brought their technology and knowledge on board and warned about the dangers of the vault. Some mistranslations early on started the rumors, which spread outside the company and across the wastes. It's completely possible that a few Eridians are alive and well, hidden within the confines of a Hyperion corporate building or space station.
- Or Mr. Blake is an Eridian. He does seem to be made to resemble The G-man.
- I hate to poke holes, but in the second game, the Guardian Angel contacts the new characters to help them kill Handsome Jack after he betrays them. Whatever she is, she is not with Hyperion, or at least not currently.
- The sequel reveals that The Guardian Angel is actually a Siren named Angel and Jack's daughter, who he used to manipulate the Vault Hunters into killing The Destroyer.
- Well, the second game reveals that Moxxi has a natural redneck accent, which is 'kind of' similar to Brick's. (Okay, not really)
Same color eyes, hair. Both seem to enjoy killing. Side material mentions Brick came to Pandora looking for his sister...
Side note on that: If one also goes with the game being imagined by a bunch of children, Moxxi is Bricks Cool Big Sis, which Mordecai and/or Roland has a crush on, hence the over sized breasts.
- In that case, this makes Scooter Brick's nephew.
- Which kinda makes sense that he's not in the story more. He lives further away and can't come over to play as often.
- I always thought Moxxi was related to Tannis... somehow.
- Jossed in the Mad Moxxi's Underdome DLC. Moxxi will occasionally make a comment about how Brick fights like his mother. Now Moxxi is a bit crazy seeing as she lives on Pandora, is the owner/ringmistress of the Underdome, and asked you to kill Mr.Shank (Her Ex, but he's a psycho so I'll let that slide) in the third DLC. YMMV on this, but I don't think she'd let her own mother fight in the Underdome, and if she did, she's the type of person that would tell her brother that information.
- I disagree. Moxxi is EXACTLY the type of person that would let her mother fight in the Underdome, especially considering it has New-U machines.
- then why didn't Moxxi say "our mother?"
- It's a sibling gag as well as camouflage. It's like one twin telling the other she's ugly; it makes you go "ha ha, not that funny...oh wait."
- I disagree. Moxxi is EXACTLY the type of person that would let her mother fight in the Underdome, especially considering it has New-U machines.
Hypothetically, let's say that the sequel to Avatar features an all-out war between the humans and the Na'Vi, rather than a small merc company. The Na'vi lose, reduced to a small number of laborers. Humans take over the planet Pandora and strip mine it, creating awesome technology, and not caring that the Planet itself has cut them off from the rest of humanity. The Na'Vi, (now Eridians) steal the awesometech and attempt to fight back again, the planet creating the Destroyer to help them. The humans barely manage to seal the Destroyer away before they are destroyed utterly.
200 years pass, and Borderlands takes place. And later on, a reluctant Alphonso Knoxx returns to the planet that defeated his ancestor, Miles Quaritch, despite his wishes and soon devolves into suicidal depression.
- There are problems with that theory, it is expressly said multiple times in-game that the Eridians sealed away The Destroyer, and the Guardian Angel says it isn't from the same dimension the player is in, so they could not have created it. Let alone the facts that the Na'vi couldn't evolve into Eridians in 200 years, the Na'vi learned English, were building out of anything BUT stone- which is what the Eridians ruins were built with- and the animals look nothing alike. Even animals that evolved from other animals have some similar traits. Prehistoric raptors and birds both have hollow bones, for example.
It takes place during the Dark Age of Technology. Eridians are not extinct. They are eldar and are just not on the planet anymore.Furthermore
- Lilith is a psyker.
- Brick is a really intelligent orgyn.
- The Destroyer is a daemon.
- Guardians are wraithguards without a warlock.
- The bandits are mutated orks that look more human and they have lost their gestalt psychic field and can only produce mutated orks (no oddboyz) and mutated gretchin (midgets).
- Devastator armor is later recovered and made into Mark IV Astartes armor.
- Claptraps became the Iron Men.
- Digistruction is a lot like how this troper imagines Standard Template Constructors would work.
- One of the diaries you collect explains that the planet has a daytime rotation of 90 hours, yet in game play it's night time much quicker than that, which isn't a mistake, it's real time game play. The moon orbits the planet very quickly, causing regular solar eclipses, causing the illusion of night time. This also makes sense in that most people can beat the storyline in less than 90 game play hours.
- It's mentioned in Tannis's first journal entry that the side of the planet you're on is permanently night-time, and the day-time is caused by the moon's high albedo reflecting the sun's light onto the planet. On the other side of the planet, your WMG still stands.
- This also fits into the Avatar universe as the military is already present on the moon Pandora. They've been making under-the-table dealings to create better weapons on the planet to wipe out the Na'vi, turning it into a planet of advanced military weapons testing.
- If that's true, the Na'vi are gonna get their asses kicked so damn hard. Just ask Vera here.
- ...except that Avatar's Pandora actually orbits a gas giant known as Polyphemus. Clearly visible in several scenes in the movie.
- Think about it. It was a story being passed down, there was kind of a movie plot going on, and since the New U machines can bring people back from the dead, all of it could have all been an elaborate attempt to film a movie.
- Additionally, with Borderlands 2's Vladof weaponry, they gain a significantly more Soviet aesthetic - and indeed, the receiver of most Vladof rifles bares a heavy resemblance to the AK-100 series and to the more recent AK-12.
- Basically combining the theories of it being a bedtime story and Zombie Island being a movie, along with the fact that Pandora as a whole loops at least twice. Consider:
- New-U stations can bring people back to life. All those bandits and everything that get killed are actually dieing, but they come back just fine. This also allows for less people to be used, as one bandit can play the part of many instances of seeing a bandit.
- The guardian angel knows what is supposed to happen for most of the game(that part where she says it wasn't supposed to happen is drama). It's easy to tell the future when you wrote the script.
- Ideally, the Vault Hunters don't ever die throughout the story, which can be accomplished easily enough once one knows the game. This is because they are the heroes, and heroes never die(even if there's an arbitrary not-dieing-machine pre-built into the story).
- Whoever is putting on this show has a lot of resources, as they are controlling a large portion of a planet(if not all of it, at least enough to ensure isolation from normal).
- Jossed, though there is a Mega Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap, which is just a really big war vehicle that the Claptrap commandeers.
Mad Moxxi is actually Scooter's stepmother. He just thinks Mad Moxxi is his mom due to seeing her around his father occasionally, or alternatively, because she is his father's current wife. In reality, unbeknownst to himself, Scooter might possibly be the same age or older than Mad Moxxi.
- Mad Moxxi isn't currently married.
- Scooter doesn't look old if you actually look at him, he's just dirty. Due to the art style, the dirt slightly over emphasizes the lines on his face.
- Mad Moxxi explicitly calls Scooter her son.
The Crimson Lance eventually settled on the Death World of Pandora, made it their own, caused the planet to become even more toxic, and became the Helghast.
The fast-food grifters and other crazy people became the main space colonists. The Kerberos unit grew to become the Atlas corporation, taking their Greek mythology theme-naming to the next level.
Sure he doesn't have a medic to accompany him, nor was Marcus bald, but Marcus is a weapons affacianado, as is the Heavy. Also, when you get to the vending machines, it may sound like Marcus was saying "boolits".
- Relatedly, Dr. Zed could also be the Medic. He did lose his medical license after all...
The Guardian Angel has secretly been the game's main antagonist all along. She's actually trapped inside of the Vault, and has been giving you visions and such to help goad you into opening the Vault and releasing her. She's trapped inside because she caused a massive apocalypse on Pandora, mutating the sentient beings into Rakks and Skags and such. The only reason she singled out the protagonist was because they were on Pandora to open the Vault in the first place.
- Pandora was always a desolate, nearly uninhabitable wasteland. That's the whole reason the Vault was located there in the first place. They wanted a planet that was less likely to be disturbed. If the rumors of the Vault hadn't gotten around, Pandora would probably be uninhabited.
- Note, the person who gave you that quest to fight him says he was totally making it up. Krawmerax is really some kind of mental Eldritch Abomination that simply took the form that the mission giver was thinking of.
- It's able to constantly regenerate even instantly after leaving it's lair because all the New U stations are weakening the spiritual barriers.
- Jossed, sort of. Scooter's father is Papa Hodunk, an NPC and possible enemy from the second game.
- They can't really be children then because there is only a couple year time lapse between Borderlands and Borderlands 2. They would have to be at least 15 or so when the events of Borderlands was taking place.
- Except Gearbox has explicitly said the original characters are NPCs and will not be unlockable, secret, or DLC characters. The reason they aren't available is because they wanted to overhaul the characters, but they didn't want to do so by changing the capabilities of the original characters. For example, Gunzerker was designed to perform the same role as Berserker, without the flaws that made Brick generally considered to be the worst character in the game.
- Brick, worst character? Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
Seriously, does anyone have a better one? It's not that it isn't sort of accurate, it's just that entire areas have been flipped.
Or the other way around. Strict discipline, control over martial forces, name suggestive of metal/steel affinity, a suggested softer side if she wasn't out to kill you...
- Jossed. She's Handsome Jack's daughter and a Siren.
- In the first set of recording you have found Angel needed to know how much Tannis knew about the Vault to know how to manipulate the first wave of Vault hunters, and where better to get that information than the source. The only reason Angel was not on the ECHO recordings was because she edited herself off the them.
- Given that Tannis is confirmed to have Aspergers Syndrome, it is entirely possible that she simply didn't quite directly connect her ECHO recorder talking to her as a person on the other end hacking into it.
- When Tannis has her second major crazy period, it's talking with someone you don't see to get the ECHO network back online. Angel could have been using the loudspeaker to speak, and besides Angel was the other person with the technical know-how and motivation to get the ECHO network back online. Tannis' instructions on how to turn the ECHO network back on are described as "an argument with either an invisible cell mate or a rat" and it would make sense that the argument with Angel who couldn't hear Tannis, but could look at Tannis' notes through the security cameras in the base where Tannis is being kept.
- Also, Angel probably wanted to talk to someone who is definitely outside of Handsome Jack's control, and by making people think that Tannis is crazy, she was able to make sure that Handsome Jack didn't both to spy on her
- This also explains at least part of the "Ceiling Chairs" ECHO logs from Tannis: Angel talking to via a speaker in one of the chairs when Tannis' torturers weren't around, and Tannis, because of her disorder (confirmed to be Aspergers) thought that it was the chair itself talking to her.
- Think about how they act: even the nice characters tend to have a psycho side and be prone to violence, whereas the evil character are sadistic psychopathic assholes who love to torture and kill people and then brag about it, and some character, like Torgue,seem to follow Blue-and-Orange Morality. As for what happened to the real humans, maybe they all died out (but probably really did make the colonies, perhaps to contain the dangerous Fair Folk.)