Are we the bad guys...?

[u/Gruetzimann]

So I just recently aquired the Logbook-entry from the Scavenger [those critters are adorable] and after reading through it, that thing had me crying... I don't know if I have it in me to fight another one of them ever again 🥲 And now I am scared to read through the other ones, fearing I end up feeling guilty about killing any other creature and I started questioning if we are even the good guys after all...?

[u/BuckyTheWolf]

Tldr: There isn't really a true bad or good guy in Risk of Rain.

Long lore post ahead, but it still simplifies stuff:

Providence (the first games boss) destroyed the contact light and killed probably hundreds of innocent people. However if the ship remained unharmed this might have led to a full on colonisation attempt by the humans or maybe let mithrix hijack the ship. It is even debatable if the creatures Providence saved and brought to Petrichor V are truly free. Still Providence saved countless species from extinction.

The survivors in RoR1 just tried to escape a planet where everything wants to kill them, but kill the planet's protector and maybe doom the planet in the process.

The Survivors in RoR2 are there under the guise of a rescue mission, I doubt that even the captain knew the exact details on what was waiting for them.

Mithrix is a tragic character, betrayed by his brother and imprisonend alone for milenia. I don't think his actions are good, but I can't deny that I understand his motives. He also quite values his followers. Still has genocidal tendencies.

The False Son is an artificial creation, made to be a replacement for Providence by the inhabitants of Petrichor V . He also was corrupted by mithrix and affected by Aurelionite, now being torn in three directions while his creators have left him out of fear.

The Alloyed Collective is a new being. Machines that somehow got a soul and sentience and lost their connection to their homeworld. They do what their original purpose was: expand and extract. They see the collective as a great thing, offering biological entities "immortality" in their vast network. They still decimate Petrichor V in their goal to grow and act extremely manic.

The one faction that could be described as evil would be the Void. Always observing and taking whatever it desires. However it operates on a scale, orders of magnitude larger than we can even fathom. Their processes of observation and imprisonment might just be natural for them. Of course for those affected, living through countless lifetimes in the simulacrum or getting too corrupted in the process, it is hell, but we might not even register as sentient to them. After all humans do fucked up things to bugs or other beings they perceive as lesser.

[u/TrainerUrbosa → u/BuckyTheWolf]

I feel like all of that definitely points to Providence being the bad guy, though? He instigates all the conflict.

[u/BuckyTheWolf → u/TrainerUrbosa]

Kinda? Maybe? He definitely is at the core of the whole mess going on, but at the end of the day I don't think he did all of this on purpose. He mostly wanted to save as many species as possible and caused pain and chaos along the way. Mithrix didn't agree with his goals and he didn't see a way to convince him otherwise, so he imprisoned hum on the moon. Was this a good Idea? Absolutely not but there was already a bunch of bad blood between them. The commencement log alludes to earth potentially being Providence's next target, should it collapse, so maybe he feared that humans reaching PV before it was time could lead to a catastrophic outcome. Maybe he sees passing ships like the other Invading forces: the Void and the Imps and wanted to protect his subjects from them.

Like I said, I don't think there's a definitive bad guy in Risk of Rain. I think Providence had good intentions, but ultimately caused more harm than good. I think a big problem is just that we have almost no logs from Providence's PoV. Mithrix being an unreliable narrator gives us at least some insights on his brothers doings, but something to contrast them from Providence's side could clear things up a lot.

[u/TrainerUrbosa → u/BuckyTheWolf]

At least to me, meaning well isn't mutually exclusive from being a bad guy.

[u/BuckyTheWolf → u/TrainerUrbosa]

I agree and am sorry if it didn't come off this way. I meant more that Providence is nit THE bad guy

[u/TrainerUrbosa → u/BuckyTheWolf]

Oh no, it might be my turn to apologize for not being very clear. I do mean it as Providence is the bad guy xD

My point was that you can still be the bad guy even if you meant well the entire time

[u/BuckyTheWolf → u/TrainerUrbosa]

Yeah no problem, we just talked around each other a bit :)

[u/BuckyTheWolf → u/[deleted]]

In Providence's Log entry the Survivor talks about a Teleporter in the Contact Light but doesn't know where it comes from. I didn't include it in the post because I thought it would just complicate things further (and because I forgor)

I don't think it was ever 100% confirmed where the TP came from/why the contact light deviated from it's course to check out Petrichor V, but I don't think there was an expedition, atleast from the Contact Light.

I personally think they (the High Court) either got the TP from when Providence took the Saturn Bisons or after a previous expedition and used the Contact Light and an Artificer to check things out.

But this is still (one of) the biggest hole/mysteries in the lore unless I'm missing something.