The Cataclysm that created Ashfeld was supernatural in nature.
"There were no signs. It came without warning." Kinda Just for Fun, but I think it is probable that it was no normal occurrence. Horny Vikings will be a unlockable or DLC customization option.
While the default Warborn resemble historically-accurate vikings, there's bound to be players who really, really want to have the "traditional" helmets they're familiar with.- Possibly confirmed, with this trailer
showing one of the Warborn having horns attached to the sides of his helmet.- Confirmed in that they're not DLC, but just ornaments that some vikings even start with or can be obtained.
The Legions will be the Always Lawful Evil Big Bad faction of the single-player campaign.
So far, it looks like a straight-up Grey-and-Gray Morality setting; however, the description of the Legions seems like a much darker shade of grey. While the Chosen and Warborn seem to have legit reasons to fight the Legion, seeking a homeland and to reclaim their old lands respectively, the Legions have... um... keeping those lands for... honor? Yeah, might push things into Black-and-Gray Morality unless some sympathetic Legion members balance things out.- Looks to be jossed, with Apollyon playing the role of the warmonger keeping things bloody. As far as the Legions' reasons to fight, what more do they need than an invasion by Horny Vikings and Samurai of the lands they've settled?
- Keep in mind that the Legion is very divided and the land is split among an untold amount of lords and appear to regularly fight each other. Meaning they're probably only uniting to fight off the invaders because the lords don't have enough man power individually to take the Warborn and Chosen. Leaning back to the Grey and Gray again besides the Warborn retaking their homeland, only noticeable because totems are still standing in Legion territory, countless generations have passed since the first Forever War and as far as the current Legion is concerned they always had that territory and invaders are trying to steal their homes now.
Other warrior culture factions will appear as DLC
The most likely choices would be middle eastern mamluks and Mongolian steppe nomads. We would likely see mounted combat would be a really big aspect for the Mongols.- The Mamluks would be the first to arrive seemingly sweeping all over the land, claiming it and trying to impose their culture and faith on the original three factions. We only find out later that the Mamluks were infact desperate refugees, who like the other factions had suffered greatly from the earthquake but initially tried to rebuild their home but became victims of the Nomads who took the opportunity of the Cataclysm to lay waste to all the formerly insurmountable great nations. The Nomads introduction would have flashbacks of them destroying expies of China, Persia, Kievan Russia and Byzantium. The arrival of the Nomads would be seen as the End Times for the other factions
- There was an interview a little while back with one of the developers where he was asked if there were any plans to introduce factions based on other warrior cultures later on down the line, and he said that they were happy with the balance of the three factions they had, and the three types of warriors had been chosen, if anything, more for the philosophies the devs attached and associated them with than anything. Now, it could be that there are actually plans to introduce other factions later on down the line and the dev in question just didn't want to commit to that this far out in case those plans fell through. It's also possible that while there aren't any plans for it, currently, those plans could change later due to fan demand or simple developer whim. Could be that this particular developer doesn't like the idea of adding more factions but others on the dev team disagree and he doesn't have the final say.
- This one is confirmed; the Centurion is a Roman gladiator-themed soldier from a distant empire that was the predecessor to the knightly Legions.
- DEFINITELY CONFIRMED in the future. We're getting the Wu Lin, who are the Chinese faction...they even get a Guan Yu expy for their Heavy unit.
- FURTHER CONFIRMED with the addition of Outlanders faction which explicitly comprises of nomads from other civilizations affected by the Cataclysm. With one of the future additions would be the Afeera hero unit which was actually partially inspired by Mamluk-era Arabian warriors.
Just before the final battle against Apollyon, the three factions will unite (albeit grudgingly) against her:
It's revealed that Apollyon is trying to keep the Forever War between The Legions, The Warborn, and The Chosen going, with Apollyon putting the squeeze on factions if they start getting too powerful (such as starving the Warborn to the point they're forced to raid The Chosen's fortress in The Myre). Eventually, at the Darkest Hour, The Legions, Warborn and Chosen will fight alongside each other in an attempt to slay Apollyon, with the "winner" of the war being whatever faction deals Apollyon the killing blow.- Partly confirmed, partly jossed. The Chosen and Iron Legion temporarily join forces to crush the Blackstone Legion. After Apollyon is killed, the Warborn attack them both, and it devolves into a Mêlée à Trois, prolonging the Forever War for seven more years.
The multiplayer gameplay is set after the single player campaign.
The multiplayer allows for any class to be used, even if the rest of the team is from another faction. You could have knights fighting alongside vikings and samurai, leading samurai mooks against knight mooks and, face-concealing helmets aside, nobody would apparently bat an eye. Perhaps it's just Gameplay and Story Segregation, or perhaps Apollyon's defeat doesn't truly end the Forever War... that the overall faction grudges remain, but there's enough cultural acceptance to accept help from another faction's warrior.- Confirmed at least as far as the multiplayer taking place after the single player. The exact details have yet to be verified.
Apollyon is the leader of a tiny city-state threatened by the three factions.
She's playing the three factions into fighting each other in a gambit for them to ignore her nation.- Jossed. She's the leader of the Blackstone Legion, and is a pure Social Darwinist, creating a Forever War among the three factions.
Apollyon discovered a Piece of Eden.
After some time as a Warden, Apollyon somehow came in contact with a Piece of Eden. This piece granted her knowledge of the societies that predate their modern descendants. This knowledge is why she is so well versed in the Observations, and the vision showed her the kind of world she wanted to create. Mandatory Warhammer 40k crossover theory.
- For Honor takes place on a world that was left in medieval stasis during the Age of Strife. Heroes are all the descendants of genetically enhanced super soldiers from the Dark Age of Technology, and Apollyon herself is one of the missing Primarchs.
For Honor is the ground view of a Civilization game.
The intro depicts world generation, as civilizations from history are randomly scrambled together and left to rebuild from a single city. Soldiers fight endless wars for hundreds of years without a change in technology. The Centurion isn't actually a Centurion.
There have been accounts where gladiators where given freedom in exchange military service if they prove loyal enough to the emperor. Which explains why he lacks the standardized red horse plume that most Centurions have but also explains why his fighting style and executions mirror a Roman gladiator.- Actually, that might not be the case. It's stated that the Centurion is an actual military commander, as opposed to the Gladiator, who started out an entertainer. But it's true that they have a similar kind of fighting style, because they both seek to do the same thing; impress and inspire. The Galdiator does so because it's what he does best - showboating for the crowd, attracting attention, and many of his executions mirror that. The Centurion does it because he seeks to emulate the same thing, and cultivate the image of a confident, fearless warrior - in other words, a hero, for his soldiers to look up to, and aspire to become. You'll also notice that it's only in their execution "Glorious Execution", that they blatantly show off. In all their other executions, the Centurion mainly just kills off the enemy in a quick, flashy, but also effective fashion.
The Warden was actually better than Apollyon
By the time (s)he fights the Orochi anyway. Neither fighter is visibly wounded in the cutscene following the boss fight, and The Warden collapses breathing hard. The fight came down to who got too tired to fight first. This leads to The Orochi counting The Warden as a Worthy Opponent and sparing their life. The Orochi, however, is in fact able to mortally wound Apollyon, who had better armor than the Warden. This without taking any visible wounds themself. The Orochi's narration claims Apollyon was more skilled than him/her, but this troper feels that was just the effect of her Blood Knight persona and borderline Ax-Crazy behavior making her feel more skilled than she was, until she wore herself out against the first opponent capable of withstanding the onslaught. The Wu Lin and the Chosen are arch enemies
The relationship between these two factions could be similar to their real life counterparts from the 16th Century to the present day. The Chosen may have conducted pirate raids on Wu Lin’s ships and coastal settlements, launch invasions on the Wu Lin homeland and committed various war crimes and crimes against humanity against Wu Lin civilians a long time ago. The Wu Lin are invading not just to leave their ravaged homeland, but also to seek retribution towards the samurai for the evil they have committed.- Tragic alternative: they were HISTORICAL enemies and while the Wu Lin remember and are all too happy at first to wipe out the remaining Chosen, it soon becomes clear the Chosen have lost all records of their interactions in the past. To make it more painful, the myths that do allude to their interactions actually acknowledge what the Chosen (or their mythical analogues in these stories) as wrong and part of what led to their current state. So by the end of a Wu Lin campaign, they came all this way to seek revenge on people who are effectively unrelated to their crimes, and trapped themselves in the war with three factions with no way to return home again.
The Wu Lin's country is relatively unscathed, but still battered
From the Marching Fire DLC trailer, Wu Lin seems to be more well-dressed and well-equipped, not to mention being a recent arrival compared to The Chosen. The lore stated that the characters themselves are written as seekers for "vengeance from war, betrayal, and personal tragedies" rather than a part of refugee groups; they are simply adventurers seeking rich rewards, scouts to seek out the situation beyond their homeland, or outcasts banished as part of their crimes. This meant that Wu Lin's homeland simply being too stable to have Invading Refugees scenario but still has problems to cause a few exiles. Not to mention the Civil War within their nations meant that the political situation is too unstable to organize a military campaign along with providing causes of the Wu Lin characters to escape despite their relatively better positions. The Cataclysm accelerated continental drift
And as a result, the present land is, or is close to forming Pangaea Ultima (or Pangaea Proxima). As it stands the lands certainly show the wild and unpredictable weather patterns characteristic of super continents such as an arid desert area (such as the knight faction Breach map) being able to be covered in snow, heavy rainfall apparently regardless of region, and so on. The Year of Reckoning will turn the Faction War into two sides instead of a free-for-all.
The article revealing year 4 made a point of mentioning that the warriors would have to ask themselves what they were "really fighting for", and that Apollyon's War was quieting down. Additionally, the reveal image used the analogy of a chessboard. Chess has only two sides, and the white pieces are all characters with more heroic designs, while the black pieces are the "heroes" introduced in year 3, though curiously instead of a Jormundgandr there are two Black Priors.More importantly, the white pieces are controlled by a hand that is clearly a Lawbringer's (some have theorized it's specifically Holden Cross) while the black pieces are controlled by a hand from what appears to be a new character. Both sides have heroes from multiple factions on the same team. The white pieces are in the light and are surrounded by greenery, while the black pieces lie in the darkness and are surrounded by a barren wasteland.
Possibly, the events of the Year of Reckoning will see the war turn into people desiring peace versus those who want to continue the war. the Black Priors, the Hitokiri, the Jormundgandr, and the Zhanhu and anyone willing to follow them against the heroes who actually deserve that title, and, based on the white pieces also having a Black Prior, defectors from the aforementioned Antiheroes.
- This has been all but confirmed as of the newest season at the time of this writing. A group called The Order of Horkos is being lead by the newest hero class The Warmonger, literally killing the peace of the Season of Hope by slaughtering patrons of the Honor Games celebration. But specifically, in Tyrant's Test, a new version of Test Your Metal event mode, who should appear at this new enemy's side than the named versions of all the new heroes of Year 3?
Centurion used to use a shield
No, I don't just mean in development, I mean in-universe it's likely Centurions originally carried their shields back when they fought in the Southern Empire. As noted by some people, Centurions even present their unarmed hands forward, which is likely a holdover from their old style, but Roman infantry was based around tight formations and the scutum was designed around this. However, Centurions found the wars of Ashfield suffering from severe Hollywood Tactics and just couldn't get his cohorts to even pick up a shield, much less get into a formation and it just wasn't helped the opponents Centurions faced had more than a few tricks that didn't give a damn about that shield (or armor for that matter). So they ditched the shield in favor of mobility and with without shields and strict formations holding them back, they're able to leap several feet into and across the air, plunging their swords into the hearts of their foes who inexplicably survive and relieve their frustration by repeatedly punching, pommel bashing, and kicking their foes while screaming at the top of their lungs.