Holy crap. While Dark Soul's lore is very metaphysical and sometimes bombastic in nature with it's visual and ideological allegories, Kenshi is decidedly human, despite it's robot/mechanical main characters. Wish I dived into it more. Thank you for this.
Kenshi has always been a difficult game to dive into extensively on the lore wide of things. Thats one of the best parts of the game, how expansive but contextual the lore is. Which is my favorite part of these videos. They show just how much time and effort went into world building and its great
I mean i did not play the game for myself, but i can understand why its so obscure, in Kenshi nobody gives a damn about you, (and that is a euphémisme), not Everyone like that plus since now a day people judge a game by its graphic and the hype train, Kenshi would be like a puddle of water at first glance, simple graphic and basic gameplay, but the lore and detail when you pay close attention, makes you realise that this puddle is in fact the gate to a massive cave Network.
@@joelaroche8103 believe me the game does not even care about the players. It you do not heaviliy mod the game is really hard to engage with. But once you have 15 to 20 mods running, fixing the graphics and some broken mechanics, game is really enjoyable.
Just started playing Kenshi this year, and what I absolutely love about this game, aside from how rewarding it is to go from zero to "hero", is that nothing is force-fed to you, not even the lore. You have to go out there and discover the lost lore for yourself
The lore of kenshi is so unique in that you really have to piece together tiny bits of info to cover such long periods of time. So thank you for taking the time to make sense of all the pieces, making sense of the chaos, and of course, putting out this video on such a rich game. Awesome video and looking forward to more.
Catlon became the same as the rulers of the first empire who operated through fear and paranoia. it is a beautiful and tragic cycle of becoming an unknowing villain. "by fighting the enemy you become like him yourself"
Considering there is an unused very tall Skeleton model with a feminine/blood-red look, but headless from the jaw down... The Whistler/Narko could have been Cat-Lon's Biologist. Could explain where the Okranites got their misogyny (beyond pastoralist social pressures) and their hate of the Shek as being the product of Narko's (genetic) manipulations.
I actually wondered this myself but Chris Hunt actually said himself the whistler is non canon unfortunately during an AMA he did a while back. Said he just never bothered to take it out of the game files.
@@HeroInHisHead Hrrm. It does make sense though, to connect Cat-Lon's Empire to the Shek, to have either another dome general or a roaming boss to fill the 'Gengineer' niche, as it's pretty clearly described in the Okranite books.
Skeletons are what drove me into seeking out Kenshi in the first place, so imagine my surprise when they turn out to be a whole lot more into the lore than I ever had expected them to factor in.
When I first picked up kenshi I had a rally superficial feeling about the lore. Skeletons. The ruins. The characters. They all seemed to be just ideas cobbled together into a storyless game that played suuuuper well. Skeletons most of all seemed almost out of place in the world to me. But after making these videos and realizing that skeletons are infact essentially the progenitors of the entire lore indefinitely have a deeper love for them than I even did before. 10/10 Skeletons are the real Kenshi. And Beep. Love me some Beep
I think the Hivers are the most interesting race in Kenshi. They just appeared one day and are surprisingly adapt to the harshness of the world. There are rumors that they were the second new race created by Cat-Lon. And i like the idea, but without proof this is just another rumor.
I believe that the hivers along with skin spiders were created by the second empire. I think that when the famine took place and people started rebelling, Cat-lon attempted to continue his genetic manipulation that he had done to create the enforcers and applied that same idea to creating a more sustainable work force. A force built for labor. High intelligence. A collective hive mind for easy control. Able to eat rotten foods. And capable of mass reproduction. This would explain why the hivers are smart, organized, look like modified humans, reproduce using a mechanical womb attached to the queen, and why a Second empire Krimper is their king. It's hinted at that the reproduction process involved King somehow (likely through crushing generic material down which the queen feeds on and uses as biomass to make more hivers in her incubation unit). Skin spiders are likely failed experiments which is why they resemble hivers but all messed up and distorted. That would also lend credence to the Bugmaster wanted to kill Catlon. He wasn't raising an army of spiders to challenge him. He was raising an army of oppressed and tortured victims of Catlons experiments to revolt against their former emporer for the crimes he committed. It's likely the fued between the shek and bugmaster started as the genetically modified enforcers cleabing up yhe failed experiments during the famine and evolved through the millenia into a cultural tradition instead of a job.
I think a third video on the current state between the 3 kingdoms would be cool, how the united cities picked up alot of the pieces of the 2nd empire etc
I didn't knew Kenshi had this deep deep history! Made me think of Dune with that lore spacing thousands of thousands of years! I really liked how you wrote the text too, felt like watching an archeology/history video. Really awesome, thanks for sharing!
These videos are an anual rewatch for me. Your artstyle and music choice is so great as well as the effort in voice acting and editing. Man I hope Kenshi 2 will be as rich and mysterious as Kenshi lorewise. One of my most favourite post-apocalyptic premises. It feels very human.
I'm glad i finished this series for Kenshi. It drives me nuts now making my decisions in game almost feel real and have a weight to them. Whether I was a human warlord destroying all other races in the name of the holy one, or a martial anarchist using all races who sought to slay the "legends" to become a new god among the populous. This lore dump was a massive inspiration and really gave me much inspiration. Thanks for all your hard work @HeroInHisHead
Looking at the Mad Cat-lon dialogue it seems like he might have lost it simply because he over-used his own CPU for example, the daily going about of say an armor smith would require less active engagement. He was at the center of a large empire suffering from a multitude of disasters so by over-extending himself he burned out his CPU much faster than any ordinary skeleton would, which begs the question had the second empire have been headed by a council as a republic, or something akin to one, would it's life-span have been greater
and that is why i play kenshi as a skeleton, specifically Screamer MkI, on his quest to rid the world of kenshi of all that is unjust. So far with the help of Beep (renamed him to Cyber Beep after giving him full set of prosthetics) and Agnu, "The Dismantler" took down the holy nation. i really love this game for how it allows you to get so immersed and create your own story. ive been so incredibly immersed into this story im creating with how i want to shape the world of kenshi, i absolutely love this game
I have been using your Kenshi lore videos to end my days as I fall asleep but also use them to fill in the gaps of my first playthrough of the game. It's deeply entertaining, especially with the quotes and "multiple point of views" :D It's akin to what I experience when watching Luetin09's Warhammer 40k Lore videos. I wonder how much you will continue to produce content in this universe and others. In anycase, after wactching first Empire and this one, You earned my subscription twice over!
I love Kenshi and I love games where the lore isn’t just presented the whole game and by the end you know it all you really have to search and find it in Kenshi such a fantastic game can’t wait to see what they are cooking up for Kenshi 2
Information prevents Okranization my friend. Kenshi is such a great world and I loved the opportunity to share and explain its history to people. And the response on the Kenshi Lore series has been overwhelmingly positive which is awesome! In short, thank you and I appreciate the kind words.
@@HeroInHisHead Kenshi has such a great community. I love doing the "in game archology" for my videos. currently on a hold up digging up things for my next big video. but untill then working on a cities series of shorts
Some say the skelitons are the greatest threat to organic life in kenshi... Ironic... They only killed us because we feared them so much we attempted to slaughter them all. In the end it is also ironic that in the end they tried to save us... and like thier organic creators... ended up fearing them... and nearly wiped us out as well...
If you like it be sure to check out my other lore video on the clear information of the First Empire as well! I hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts!
Excellent video, you have really outdone yourself. The Holy Nation gets a bad rap as kind of generic bigots towards non-human races, but rather than continue to pile on them, you show a more understanding look at their culture and see that at the beginning at least, there was a very real reason for this fear.
It's easy to dump on them for who they are. It's much harder to look at who they were and how they ended up here. People are afraid or too caught up in what they became to acknowledge that they were not always evil but were instead pushed into their beliefs. We as people may not be able to understand or agree with their current views but to them their fears and biases are very real and very much based on real atrocities that they lived through in the world of kenshi. History doesn't care about biases and beliefs. Only the facts.
_I met a traveller from an antique land_ _Who said:-Two vast and trunkless legs of stone_ _Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,_ _Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown_ _And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command_ _Tell that its sculptor well those passions read_ _Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,_ _The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed._ _And on the pedestal these words appear:_ _"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:_ _Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"_ _Nothing beside remains: round the decay_ _Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,_ _The lone and level sands stretch far away._ -P.B. Shelley
I think the largest structures of the Ashlands are Old Empire remnants. Cat-Lon and his goons just inherited it but still built great structures like the domes.
Considering how the first empire fell, and what the skeletons might have done, the cannibal plains could have had a serious blight that was the root of the famine?
Maybe but the fact that the cannibals still are around 1000+ years later I feel it's more likely that there was some form of genetic degradation that resulted in their altered appearance and lowered intelligence. The land is clearly fertile in the game files. The acid rain is only present on the coastline. There isn't a reason that they should remain the way they are for over a 1000 years besides some kind of degenerative genetic condition either via natural factors or genetic tampering or even a similar parasite to the one that created rhe fogmen
@@HeroInHisHead What if, intentionally or not, for a few hundred years around the fall of the second empire something or someone caused genetic degredation or something of the like to the food/animals in the region... something like a mutagen, enough to like, possibly corrupt any northernmost hives or something, as well as the cannibals... If anything like that happened, maybe we'd learn about it i kenshi 2 ^.^ As for explaining how it isnt around in kenshi itself, or in the plains at that period, maybe it all sort of went away after the centuries, and the genetic degradation/culture of the cannibals still lingers... As for the fogmen... I'm not sure... all sorts of things to ponder while I play :P
The idea of a parasite would also explain it a good bit, when you think about prion diseases... that would explain a lot actually Yeah... what you said in video still stands at that point then, if a parasite, because it had to start with either scarcity of food or... a curiosity about human meat
Maybe a combination of biological weapons utilized during the first extinction lasted longer than expected, and resulted in cannibals, these kept killing plants and/or had severe effects on humans that came into contact. Otherwise, it may be a stretch for the cannibals to of existed.
The idea that the Phoenix titles generational denotation is a good indicator of time is a poor one. The Lord phoenix is a heavily militaristic title, as is the nation they command, and in the chaotic and war torn world of Kenshi could lead to many phoenixes dying very young. Maybe even in their infancy or as a young adult. It's an unreliable measurement at best.
This is especially interesting when one considers Rome went through 77 Emporers in about 503 years. This isn't a great comparison, but it's the best I could conjure on the spot
Initially I think they had a point. Infct initial sects of the cult that would become the holy nation were healers and pacifists who refused to stoop as low as those who had nearly destroyed humanity in the past. But their teachings were slowly twisted into blind hate and xenophobia. In the modern age skeletons are all but repentant for their crimes. Shek don't even remember their origins as humans and have evolved into their own people. The HN once had a point. But they are long since past being the good guys.
@@HeroInHisHead Nah man, Holy Nation may be a bit screwed up and backwards. But definitely is the best place to live if you are a human who just wants to get by.
@@HeroInHisHead well it makes sense the teachings were twisted, the skeletons tried genociding humanity once and with the oppression of the cult it appeared it could happen again, and the creations of the enforcers(shek) it would appear that the skeletons were outright replacing humanity, if I were a human in kenshi at this time I know I'd end up hating skeletons and shek. The risk of another genocide is too high and the skeletons have made a fighting force of genetically modified humans who were stronger than most humans
Its like a good meal thats been left out for a month. Amazing and pure at the beginning, but rotten and disfigured compared to the original. They simply wanted to be good people and live life simple, but then turned into a tyrannical war-religion thriving on the hate and fear for skeletons.
In my last skelly playthrough, the MC was a P4 unit whose objetctive was to finally stop the wheel, and right all wrongs the Skeletons had been trying for centuries now, once and for all. A third empire, of sorts. What did she do after finally killing Cat-Lon and uprooting every weed of evil? She learned from all their mistakes and said "Fuck you all, now it's your problem", disbanded the group and walked to the sea to sink and never return to Kenshi. Her job was finished
According to the clues the game gives us Tinfist and Catlon were friends during the second empire and Catlon likely had him seated in a position of authority. However when Catlon started to lose his mind and his empire began to crumble, Tinfist turned away from Catlon and left the empire and his friend
Yes. At first (back in Kenshi early access) they were supposed to be named after the city of Catan (later Catun, which is present in the game), but after the last part of the Kenshi map was added (featuring Cat-Lon and his place within the game's lore) it was retconned to have Cats named after him.
Yeah they really piled it on - its no wonder he went mad. Imagine the stress he was under as everything he strove for, the people he vowed to protect, and the empire he helped unite and build slowly unraveled around him. Granted he made it worse but that doesn't detract from the overwhelming influx of stress and negative emotions he must have felt. Especially since skeletons seem to have a certain proclivity for falling into depression and anxiety as a result of being a near immortal sentient being in a non-organic unfeeling body. Just a constant state of suspended consciousness with no real concept of living beyond their Sight. Auditory processing. And their own thoughts. Must be hell
And yet that depressing ending would give way to the stories we ourselves get to create. So in many ways it isn't the end. Simply the beginning....But yeah actually pretty depressing lol
The Holy Nation is almost certainly much older than the Second Empire. The Second Empire was (very)roughly 1000 years ago at the start of the game and the Holy Nation has had 62 Holy Phoenixes. That would mean that if the Holy Nation was born during the Second Empire that the average Holy Phoenix lived only 16 years, which is ridiculous. The Holy Nation is almost certainly much older then the Second Empire
Sort of. The second empire ENDED 1000 years ago. But we don't know how long they existed from start to finish or when exactly the revolt from the cult of stobe happened. It's very possible there were several pheonixes that existed during the final decades of the empire, if not longer. For example, if the revolt happened 250 years prior to the fall of the empire, that could mean the average pheonix lived to be 20. Which given that is the average, the fact fact the pheonix is selected as the first boy born after the previous, it doesn't account for the lack of reliable medical care due to both the state if kenshi and the HNs refusal to use technology so much like in real human, many children didn't live past infancy, and their growing proclivity to violence against other factions/races (although the current pheonix is much harsher than some of his more recent predecessors if ingame sources are to be believed), and the health situation on Kenshi as a whole. I wouldn't be shocked if MANY pheonixes died young while some made it to older age. Being hailed as their leader doesn't spare them from disease or sicknesses at birth or in infancy.
Check the description for the original reddit post by JustJoeying that I used to build this video and lore. Aside from that I also used my own ingame experiences
Have to wonder if, as the current Lord Phoenix get's older there wouldn't be an increase rate of pregnancy caused by men being desperate to be the father of the next Emperor thinking it would give them perks, possibly including powerful men maybe arranging an "accident" shortly before they expect their child to be born.
Okran = Narko backwards, saved by the skeletons, destroyed by the skeletons, who are the real monsters, in the end its all a cycle, and even the skeletons realize it.
Iyo appears to be hiding secrets from Finch and the Machinists as a whole. When questioning Iyo as a Skeleton PC, Iyo will say the following: "Look, you don't need to worry... no one will ever know the truth. As long as I am Finch's second-in-command, I will see to that myself."
I'm always surprised by how little people seem to know about Kenshi. Yeah, I know it's stupid hard at times, full of bugs, and has horrible graphics. Still, the lore is very rich, and the scope of game play is incredibly ambitious.
Because its not really in your face lore like alot of games with quest and main story. You have to look for the lore to really learn it and take the time to read it or pay attention to it. Most people just play the game
Currently we have no idea. I have my speculations but they are only that and have no substantial evidence to defend. Upside though is chris hunt has said in an ama on reddit we should get answers come kenshi 2 on the hivers origins
@@granolapancake I have a few. The most likely being that they are the native inhabitants of kenshi who were stuck underground until the water levels started to drop after the fall of the second empire. The 2nd is that they were the results of genetic experimentation by the Ancient humans of the 1st empire or even that they themselves are a genetic mutation of the ancients themselves. That would explain their proclivity for tech even though it's crap tier as they would effectively be devolved ancients who retained some of their former knowledge but not nearly to the extreme they once had. It would also explain why skin spiders seem to look like massive mutated hivers and why a race of beings that seemingly create low efficiency tech are in possession of both KING and Incubation tech that seems far outside their range of ability. It would be because they used to be the hyper intelligent ancients and have simply devolved over thousands if years.
@@HeroInHisHead Interesting. My conspiracy theory is that the first empire was at war with an organic space faring civilization, which the giant skeletons were created to combat, and that the hivers were the "inhabitants" of these vessels. With their skeletons being found around the wastelands as those large black tubular organic looking structures, or as the massive skeleton near the fallen robotic skeleton in the great desert.
Nark-oh and Oh-kran. The two figures are inverted in symbol and name, and so you wouldn't say Nark-ock you'd say Nark-oh. To say Okran is Ock-ran would negate the fact whole inverted figures concept Okran was named by Nat after the vegetable Okra. Which is pronounced with Oh sound not an Ock.
There is nothing, nothing explaining current state of kenshi "zones" and its inhibitants Via quotes of players or NPC dialogues, İ would kill for such a video , even it is like a slideshow Any of those small bar chit-chats etc are incredible tales, like making of hiver huts are stronger than steel , Like your video, which is the closest thing to what i search Everyone has those faction, or history investigation videos , no one talks about small, Town/ bar chit-chats grouped by zones
The shek are referred to by the skeletons as humans on several occasions and also often make comments about how their now spikey exterior is a reflection of their more aggressive attitudes back in the second empire as well as being shocked by the presence of the spikes and horns since they apparently didn't use to have them. Do remember that the skeletons of the Black Desert City have been there in exile since the second empire. So their comments are from the perspective of someone who has not seen the "enforcers" since then over a 1000 years ago. This gives way to the idea that the Shek once looked human but evolved differently. Other in game dialogue also indicates that the enforcers were created artificially and used to replenish numbers and infiltrate the cult of stobe/okran and they DO NOT appear in any dialogue or lore before the second empire suggesting they came into being then. The other thing too is that it's important to understand there really is no "Source" for a lot of this information as Kenshi was built to not tell us the lore but suggest it through context clues and dialogue. Asking for a source is basically asking for a citations on a book that doesn't exist....however my videos on the lore of kenshi are all based on in game evidence and context clue. While some of these details may not be correct to Chris's vision. Without him expressly stating what is and isn't cannon we have no way to know for sure. These videos are closer to being well researched and educated theories than pure fact. But that doesn't make them less viable and frankly paints the clearest and most likely telling of events for the history of Kenshi. Hope that helps!
@@HeroInHisHead i understand the lack of concrete sources for a lot of this, but what i mean when i ask for one is something that heavily implies it in game. Personally ive never heard of these "enforcers" in game so i just wanted to know what description or dialogue mentions them.
@@Holacalaca totally get it. Yeah the skeleton players will often refer to shek as Enforcers as well as all the skeletons of the BDC upon arrival into the city will exclusively refer to them as Enforcers and make comments on their physical appearance in comparison to how they looked human 1000 years ago. I'm shocked actually you have never seen it as I believe it is standard if you enter the city with a shek in your immediate party. Edit- Spelling and grammer due to auto correct
@@HeroInHisHead i probably never triggered it, i have only been there 2 or 3 times so far and never with a solo shek, plus i have a repeating dialogue mod so that might be the cause too. Dont get me wrong the video is awesome and its totally believable that theyre genetically modified by the Ancients, hell you could tell me the Hives are insects evolved by radioactive waste lol, I just was unsure on that detail is all.
I only state the facts as they present themselves. Check out my video on the sadness of the skeletons and I believe you'll feel I don't have bias. Infact I'm often called a "robot apologist" because of that video 😂
Dude i like your videos but your intro and outro are very generic and clash a lot with the content in the videos. Hope you get this as constructive criticism, it's just an observation after listening to a few of your videos.
I mean... I kinda dislike the remorse you put in Cat-Lon's voice. Cat-Lon is of the opinion that Cat-Lon did nothing wrong. So why the remorse? I also disagree that Cat-Lon is completely in the wrong. Look at how things turned out after all. Does Cat-Lon not have a point? A series of failures by Cat-Lon allowed for the conditions to arise that fall the 2nd Empire. If he had succeeded in stamping out the Holy Flame cult early on, many of his later mistakes would be nullified. I think everyone gets all "oh no! Oppression! Cat-Lon mean machine!" about the situation because of their real world views. "Bah!" says I.
The inflection wasn't remorse as much as madness and a refusal to admit he was the problem. Its not remorse. It's desperation for people to see thing "logically" like him. The exasperated tone was to show that even after 1000 years he is still trying to convince the world he was right to do what he did. Also taking away real world opinions catlon still was a monster in the end. Not at first. He was a great leader who fell to paranoia and greed. He oppressed his people both in the cult and out of it. He couldn't manage the famine. He was struggling to fight the cannibal threat to the north. He allow3d his generals and governing bodies to abuse his people such as rhinobot putting children in interment camps and then forgetting to feed them so they died. Accusing his own people of being pirates just to justify executions and further martial law. Stomping out the cult would have fixed 1 of MANY problems he had as he began to plummet into madness. As for his point he isn't totally wrong but it's based on an idea that Humans were the primary catalyst for the world's problems when I reality the skeletons both attempted to commit genocide and regressed kenshi from an advanced civilization to essentially a feudal iron age. Then to add to it catlon rebuilds and attempts to protect humanity and rectify the skeletons sins. Only to again abuse corrupt and destroy human lives in favor of his own views which were rapidly deteriorating under the weight of his own psychosis. Catlon started as a great leader. But to say he wasn't a monster in the end I can't agree with. He even went as far as to literally enslave and destroy the free will of his own subjects to keep his power and control. He stopped being a leader and became a tyrant only concerned with his own power.
Your voice acting needs work You emphasize weirdly and don’t seem to be able to make good character choices But as a historian type situation, goddamn excellent Oh, god. I just got to your second character. Fucking terrible. Historian, excellent, voice actor, super basic, stereotypical and awful
Lol was almost 2 years ago when I posted this and was my second ever lore video - check out my most recent kenshi lore video to get a better sense of where I am now.
If the water levels were higher, then a lot of the Second Empire was underwater. I'm talking mostly about the Leviathan coast area where the ancient labs are half underwater in current Kenshi.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
And in Kenshi 2 being in the past boats have been seen in art along with a lot more water.
Can't wait to be enslaved by the Scurvy Pirate Ninjas!
Robot Pirate Ninjas
River Ninjas
Even better make it possible to own people i want to make enemy leaders my personal butlers
I wish for custom base boats.
@@neroham93cant you just buy slaves in the slave market?
Holy crap. While Dark Soul's lore is very metaphysical and sometimes bombastic in nature with it's visual and ideological allegories, Kenshi is decidedly human, despite it's robot/mechanical main characters. Wish I dived into it more. Thank you for this.
The skeletons are just what happens when humans live forever.
@@EveryTimeV2 Skeletons: the true chads of kenshi especially with a crab squad at their back
@@EveryTimeV2 I think that's the necrons. Necrons are what happens when humans live forever.
It's cool to see an in depth lore video on Kenshi, it's surprising how few there are. It's a really good watch.
Kenshi has always been a difficult game to dive into extensively on the lore wide of things. Thats one of the best parts of the game, how expansive but contextual the lore is. Which is my favorite part of these videos. They show just how much time and effort went into world building and its great
@@HeroInHisHead more of these please :)
I mean i did not play the game for myself, but i can understand why its so obscure, in Kenshi nobody gives a damn about you, (and that is a euphémisme), not Everyone like that plus since now a day people judge a game by its graphic and the hype train, Kenshi would be like a puddle of water at first glance, simple graphic and basic gameplay, but the lore and detail when you pay close attention, makes you realise that this puddle is in fact the gate to a massive cave Network.
@@joelaroche8103 believe me the game does not even care about the players. It you do not heaviliy mod the game is really hard to engage with. But once you have 15 to 20 mods running, fixing the graphics and some broken mechanics, game is really enjoyable.
Just started playing Kenshi this year, and what I absolutely love about this game, aside from how rewarding it is to go from zero to "hero", is that nothing is force-fed to you, not even the lore. You have to go out there and discover the lost lore for yourself
The lore of kenshi is so unique in that you really have to piece together tiny bits of info to cover such long periods of time. So thank you for taking the time to make sense of all the pieces, making sense of the chaos, and of course, putting out this video on such a rich game. Awesome video and looking forward to more.
Catlon became the same as the rulers of the first empire who operated through fear and paranoia. it is a beautiful and tragic cycle of becoming an unknowing villain. "by fighting the enemy you become like him yourself"
Considering there is an unused very tall Skeleton model with a feminine/blood-red look, but headless from the jaw down... The Whistler/Narko could have been Cat-Lon's Biologist.
Could explain where the Okranites got their misogyny (beyond pastoralist social pressures) and their hate of the Shek as being the product of Narko's (genetic) manipulations.
I actually wondered this myself but Chris Hunt actually said himself the whistler is non canon unfortunately during an AMA he did a while back. Said he just never bothered to take it out of the game files.
@@HeroInHisHead Hrrm. It does make sense though, to connect Cat-Lon's Empire to the Shek, to have either another dome general or a roaming boss to fill the 'Gengineer' niche, as it's pretty clearly described in the Okranite books.
oh that model
Skeletons are what drove me into seeking out Kenshi in the first place, so imagine my surprise when they turn out to be a whole lot more into the lore than I ever had expected them to factor in.
When I first picked up kenshi I had a rally superficial feeling about the lore. Skeletons. The ruins. The characters. They all seemed to be just ideas cobbled together into a storyless game that played suuuuper well. Skeletons most of all seemed almost out of place in the world to me. But after making these videos and realizing that skeletons are infact essentially the progenitors of the entire lore indefinitely have a deeper love for them than I even did before. 10/10 Skeletons are the real Kenshi. And Beep. Love me some Beep
I think the Hivers are the most interesting race in Kenshi. They just appeared one day and are surprisingly adapt to the harshness of the world. There are rumors that they were the second new race created by Cat-Lon. And i like the idea, but without proof this is just another rumor.
I believe that the hivers along with skin spiders were created by the second empire. I think that when the famine took place and people started rebelling, Cat-lon attempted to continue his genetic manipulation that he had done to create the enforcers and applied that same idea to creating a more sustainable work force. A force built for labor. High intelligence. A collective hive mind for easy control. Able to eat rotten foods. And capable of mass reproduction. This would explain why the hivers are smart, organized, look like modified humans, reproduce using a mechanical womb attached to the queen, and why a Second empire Krimper is their king. It's hinted at that the reproduction process involved King somehow (likely through crushing generic material down which the queen feeds on and uses as biomass to make more hivers in her incubation unit). Skin spiders are likely failed experiments which is why they resemble hivers but all messed up and distorted. That would also lend credence to the Bugmaster wanted to kill Catlon. He wasn't raising an army of spiders to challenge him. He was raising an army of oppressed and tortured victims of Catlons experiments to revolt against their former emporer for the crimes he committed. It's likely the fued between the shek and bugmaster started as the genetically modified enforcers cleabing up yhe failed experiments during the famine and evolved through the millenia into a cultural tradition instead of a job.
@@HeroInHisHead that's wild. Likely close to the truth too
I think a third video on the current state between the 3 kingdoms would be cool, how the united cities picked up alot of the pieces of the 2nd empire etc
I didn't knew Kenshi had this deep deep history! Made me think of Dune with that lore spacing thousands of thousands of years! I really liked how you wrote the text too, felt like watching an archeology/history video. Really awesome, thanks for sharing!
i got kenshi in 2019 and there were no lore videos, getting back into it now and im so glad there are lore videos to enjoy
These videos are an anual rewatch for me. Your artstyle and music choice is so great as well as the effort in voice acting and editing. Man I hope Kenshi 2 will be as rich and mysterious as Kenshi lorewise.
One of my most favourite post-apocalyptic premises. It feels very human.
I'm glad i finished this series for Kenshi. It drives me nuts now making my decisions in game almost feel real and have a weight to them. Whether I was a human warlord destroying all other races in the name of the holy one, or a martial anarchist using all races who sought to slay the "legends" to become a new god among the populous. This lore dump was a massive inspiration and really gave me much inspiration.
Thanks for all your hard work @HeroInHisHead
Man, I’m so freakin jacked for Kenshi2 that I am exploring the Kenshi lore again.
I’m glad videos like this exist because I’m going to fail my exams if I keep playing this game the way I am
Looking at the Mad Cat-lon dialogue it seems like he might have lost it simply because he over-used his own CPU for example, the daily going about of say an armor smith would require less active engagement. He was at the center of a large empire suffering from a multitude of disasters so by over-extending himself he burned out his CPU much faster than any ordinary skeleton would, which begs the question had the second empire have been headed by a council as a republic, or something akin to one, would it's life-span have been greater
and that is why i play kenshi as a skeleton, specifically Screamer MkI, on his quest to rid the world of kenshi of all that is unjust. So far with the help of Beep (renamed him to Cyber Beep after giving him full set of prosthetics) and Agnu, "The Dismantler" took down the holy nation. i really love this game for how it allows you to get so immersed and create your own story. ive been so incredibly immersed into this story im creating with how i want to shape the world of kenshi, i absolutely love this game
I have been using your Kenshi lore videos to end my days as I fall asleep but also use them to fill in the gaps of my first playthrough of the game.
It's deeply entertaining, especially with the quotes and "multiple point of views" :D
It's akin to what I experience when watching Luetin09's Warhammer 40k Lore videos. I wonder how much you will continue to produce content in this universe and others. In anycase, after wactching first Empire and this one, You earned my subscription twice over!
This video is awesome, really appreciate the work it took to gather all the info you could find in the game.
I love Kenshi and I love games where the lore isn’t just presented the whole game and by the end you know it all you really have to search and find it in Kenshi such a fantastic game can’t wait to see what they are cooking up for Kenshi 2
Been watching a bunch of memey kenshi gameplay, and this was recommended, genuinly interesting lore and solid narration ! Keep it up !
What music do you use for this video?
edit: God, your interpretation of Cat-lon's voice here 25:46 is breathtaking! 👍
Kenshi is just good, man.
Good job glad some other folks are making good kenshi videos.
Information prevents Okranization my friend. Kenshi is such a great world and I loved the opportunity to share and explain its history to people. And the response on the Kenshi Lore series has been overwhelmingly positive which is awesome! In short, thank you and I appreciate the kind words.
@@HeroInHisHead Kenshi has such a great community. I love doing the "in game archology" for my videos. currently on a hold up digging up things for my next big video. but untill then working on a cities series of shorts
Some say the skelitons are the greatest threat to organic life in kenshi... Ironic... They only killed us because we feared them so much we attempted to slaughter them all. In the end it is also ironic that in the end they tried to save us... and like thier organic creators... ended up fearing them... and nearly wiped us out as well...
Oh? A kenshi lore video? Interesting i'll take a look!
If you like it be sure to check out my other lore video on the clear information of the First Empire as well! I hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts!
Great narration. The history behind the current world is awesome.
The skeleton production would have been a high priority target in a war, so was likely taken out early if possible.
Excellent video, you have really outdone yourself. The Holy Nation gets a bad rap as kind of generic bigots towards non-human races, but rather than continue to pile on them, you show a more understanding look at their culture and see that at the beginning at least, there was a very real reason for this fear.
It's easy to dump on them for who they are. It's much harder to look at who they were and how they ended up here. People are afraid or too caught up in what they became to acknowledge that they were not always evil but were instead pushed into their beliefs. We as people may not be able to understand or agree with their current views but to them their fears and biases are very real and very much based on real atrocities that they lived through in the world of kenshi. History doesn't care about biases and beliefs. Only the facts.
Great stuff! I know nothing about Kenshi lore. This explanation was really well done
_I met a traveller from an antique land_
_Who said:-Two vast and trunkless legs of stone_
_Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,_
_Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown_
_And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command_
_Tell that its sculptor well those passions read_
_Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,_
_The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed._
_And on the pedestal these words appear:_
_"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:_
_Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"_
_Nothing beside remains: round the decay_
_Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,_
_The lone and level sands stretch far away._
-P.B. Shelley
Awesome lore vid, hope you keep up with the good work
I think the largest structures of the Ashlands are Old Empire remnants. Cat-Lon and his goons just inherited it but still built great structures like the domes.
Thanks for the video, great compilation of scarce data 🔥🔥🔥
Considering how the first empire fell, and what the skeletons might have done, the cannibal plains could have had a serious blight that was the root of the famine?
Maybe but the fact that the cannibals still are around 1000+ years later I feel it's more likely that there was some form of genetic degradation that resulted in their altered appearance and lowered intelligence. The land is clearly fertile in the game files. The acid rain is only present on the coastline. There isn't a reason that they should remain the way they are for over a 1000 years besides some kind of degenerative genetic condition either via natural factors or genetic tampering or even a similar parasite to the one that created rhe fogmen
@@HeroInHisHead What if, intentionally or not, for a few hundred years around the fall of the second empire something or someone caused genetic degredation or something of the like to the food/animals in the region... something like a mutagen, enough to like, possibly corrupt any northernmost hives or something, as well as the cannibals...
If anything like that happened, maybe we'd learn about it i kenshi 2 ^.^
As for explaining how it isnt around in kenshi itself, or in the plains at that period, maybe it all sort of went away after the centuries, and the genetic degradation/culture of the cannibals still lingers...
As for the fogmen... I'm not sure... all sorts of things to ponder while I play :P
The idea of a parasite would also explain it a good bit, when you think about prion diseases... that would explain a lot actually
Yeah... what you said in video still stands at that point then, if a parasite, because it had to start with either scarcity of food or... a curiosity about human meat
I really love this, really good video!
Amazing video!
Subbed, loved it do more!!
Im glad you Iiked the content!
Amazing video man! New subscriber 😎
Maybe a combination of biological weapons utilized during the first extinction lasted longer than expected, and resulted in cannibals, these kept killing plants and/or had severe effects on humans that came into contact. Otherwise, it may be a stretch for the cannibals to of existed.
The idea that the Phoenix titles generational denotation is a good indicator of time is a poor one. The Lord phoenix is a heavily militaristic title, as is the nation they command, and in the chaotic and war torn world of Kenshi could lead to many phoenixes dying very young. Maybe even in their infancy or as a young adult. It's an unreliable measurement at best.
This is especially interesting when one considers Rome went through 77 Emporers in about 503 years. This isn't a great comparison, but it's the best I could conjure on the spot
please make more
FYI, before the empires kenshi was just a factory moon, exporting robots via space elevator, the life surrounding it was indigenous and insignificant.
Kenshi's lore > Dark Souls lore.
dude, thank you!
You do some pretty good voices, dude.
Like your narration style
The more you hear of the lore, the more that the Holy Nation actually seem like the good guys
Initially I think they had a point. Infct initial sects of the cult that would become the holy nation were healers and pacifists who refused to stoop as low as those who had nearly destroyed humanity in the past. But their teachings were slowly twisted into blind hate and xenophobia. In the modern age skeletons are all but repentant for their crimes. Shek don't even remember their origins as humans and have evolved into their own people. The HN once had a point. But they are long since past being the good guys.
If only they knew the God Okran they hail is a skeleton himself. Phoenix would probably shit a brick
@@HeroInHisHead Nah man, Holy Nation may be a bit screwed up and backwards. But definitely is the best place to live if you are a human who just wants to get by.
@@HeroInHisHead well it makes sense the teachings were twisted, the skeletons tried genociding humanity once and with the oppression of the cult it appeared it could happen again, and the creations of the enforcers(shek) it would appear that the skeletons were outright replacing humanity, if I were a human in kenshi at this time I know I'd end up hating skeletons and shek. The risk of another genocide is too high and the skeletons have made a fighting force of genetically modified humans who were stronger than most humans
Its like a good meal thats been left out for a month. Amazing and pure at the beginning, but rotten and disfigured compared to the original.
They simply wanted to be good people and live life simple, but then turned into a tyrannical war-religion thriving on the hate and fear for skeletons.
In my last skelly playthrough, the MC was a P4 unit whose objetctive was to finally stop the wheel, and right all wrongs the Skeletons had been trying for centuries now, once and for all. A third empire, of sorts.
What did she do after finally killing Cat-Lon and uprooting every weed of evil? She learned from all their mistakes and said "Fuck you all, now it's your problem", disbanded the group and walked to the sea to sink and never return to Kenshi. Her job was finished
Ok so catlon and tinfish are together back then??
According to the clues the game gives us Tinfist and Catlon were friends during the second empire and Catlon likely had him seated in a position of authority. However when Catlon started to lose his mind and his empire began to crumble, Tinfist turned away from Catlon and left the empire and his friend
The cannibals being aussies explains everything
Wait... are cats named after cat-lon?
Yes. At first (back in Kenshi early access) they were supposed to be named after the city of Catan (later Catun, which is present in the game), but after the last part of the Kenshi map was added (featuring Cat-Lon and his place within the game's lore) it was retconned to have Cats named after him.
I always thought they were Catun Credits.
that poor guy really need a *REST*
Yeah they really piled it on - its no wonder he went mad. Imagine the stress he was under as everything he strove for, the people he vowed to protect, and the empire he helped unite and build slowly unraveled around him. Granted he made it worse but that doesn't detract from the overwhelming influx of stress and negative emotions he must have felt. Especially since skeletons seem to have a certain proclivity for falling into depression and anxiety as a result of being a near immortal sentient being in a non-organic unfeeling body. Just a constant state of suspended consciousness with no real concept of living beyond their Sight. Auditory processing. And their own thoughts. Must be hell
What's the song on the background of this? It's so pretty.
It was some royalty free mood music from a site I subscribe too.
Real nice video, probably best to just read out the dialogue in your normal voice though, not to be mean
what background music did you use?
+1
Damn the ending was depressing
And yet that depressing ending would give way to the stories we ourselves get to create. So in many ways it isn't the end. Simply the beginning....But yeah actually pretty depressing lol
The Holy Nation is almost certainly much older than the Second Empire. The Second Empire was (very)roughly 1000 years ago at the start of the game and the Holy Nation has had 62 Holy Phoenixes. That would mean that if the Holy Nation was born during the Second Empire that the average Holy Phoenix lived only 16 years, which is ridiculous.
The Holy Nation is almost certainly much older then the Second Empire
Sort of. The second empire ENDED 1000 years ago. But we don't know how long they existed from start to finish or when exactly the revolt from the cult of stobe happened. It's very possible there were several pheonixes that existed during the final decades of the empire, if not longer. For example, if the revolt happened 250 years prior to the fall of the empire, that could mean the average pheonix lived to be 20. Which given that is the average, the fact fact the pheonix is selected as the first boy born after the previous, it doesn't account for the lack of reliable medical care due to both the state if kenshi and the HNs refusal to use technology so much like in real human, many children didn't live past infancy, and their growing proclivity to violence against other factions/races (although the current pheonix is much harsher than some of his more recent predecessors if ingame sources are to be believed), and the health situation on Kenshi as a whole. I wouldn't be shocked if MANY pheonixes died young while some made it to older age. Being hailed as their leader doesn't spare them from disease or sicknesses at birth or in infancy.
Where are you getting those "skeleton player" quotes from? The wiki doesnt have any comprehensive dialogue list
Check the description for the original reddit post by JustJoeying that I used to build this video and lore. Aside from that I also used my own ingame experiences
Could anyone please tell me the song at 20:56?
Have to wonder if, as the current Lord Phoenix get's older there wouldn't be an increase rate of pregnancy caused by men being desperate to be the father of the next Emperor thinking it would give them perks, possibly including powerful men maybe arranging an "accident" shortly before they expect their child to be born.
Hello
Oi my guy
you should be so much bigger
Comments like this are my favorite cause it really validates the time put into the work..thank you!
Good job Mang. I love the content
Remember Obedience
Trust in the Legion
Glory to General Jang
Long live Cat-Lon
8:40 the fertility probably gradually came back after thousands of years...
Okran = Narko backwards, saved by the skeletons, destroyed by the skeletons, who are the real monsters, in the end its all a cycle, and even the skeletons realize it.
Iyo appears to be hiding secrets from Finch and the Machinists as a whole. When questioning Iyo as a Skeleton PC, Iyo will say the following: "Look, you don't need to worry... no one will ever know the truth. As long as I am Finch's second-in-command, I will see to that myself."
I'm always surprised by how little people seem to know about Kenshi. Yeah, I know it's stupid hard at times, full of bugs, and has horrible graphics. Still, the lore is very rich, and the scope of game play is incredibly ambitious.
Because its not really in your face lore like alot of games with quest and main story. You have to look for the lore to really learn it and take the time to read it or pay attention to it. Most people just play the game
How did the hivers were created?
Currently we have no idea. I have my speculations but they are only that and have no substantial evidence to defend. Upside though is chris hunt has said in an ama on reddit we should get answers come kenshi 2 on the hivers origins
@@HeroInHisHead What are your personal speculations?
@@granolapancake I have a few. The most likely being that they are the native inhabitants of kenshi who were stuck underground until the water levels started to drop after the fall of the second empire.
The 2nd is that they were the results of genetic experimentation by the Ancient humans of the 1st empire or even that they themselves are a genetic mutation of the ancients themselves. That would explain their proclivity for tech even though it's crap tier as they would effectively be devolved ancients who retained some of their former knowledge but not nearly to the extreme they once had. It would also explain why skin spiders seem to look like massive mutated hivers and why a race of beings that seemingly create low efficiency tech are in possession of both KING and Incubation tech that seems far outside their range of ability. It would be because they used to be the hyper intelligent ancients and have simply devolved over thousands if years.
@@HeroInHisHead Interesting. My conspiracy theory is that the first empire was at war with an organic space faring civilization, which the giant skeletons were created to combat, and that the hivers were the "inhabitants" of these vessels. With their skeletons being found around the wastelands as those large black tubular organic looking structures, or as the massive skeleton near the fallen robotic skeleton in the great desert.
Ock-ran like male chicken, not Oak-ran like tree.
Nark-oh and Oh-kran. The two figures are inverted in symbol and name, and so you wouldn't say Nark-ock you'd say Nark-oh. To say Okran is Ock-ran would negate the fact whole inverted figures concept
Okran was named by Nat after the vegetable Okra. Which is pronounced with Oh sound not an Ock.
There is nothing, nothing explaining current state of kenshi "zones" and its inhibitants Via quotes of players or NPC dialogues, İ would kill for such a video , even it is like a slideshow
Any of those small bar chit-chats etc are incredible tales,
like making of hiver huts are stronger than steel ,
Like your video, which is the closest thing to what i search
Everyone has those faction, or history investigation videos , no one talks about small, Town/ bar chit-chats grouped by zones
Kenshi is not a world of factions, its word of little basic Man
İ want to share what i see on those small stories in that world with my friends
words to boast video
"at some point the second empire dabbled in genetic modification" Source?
The shek are referred to by the skeletons as humans on several occasions and also often make comments about how their now spikey exterior is a reflection of their more aggressive attitudes back in the second empire as well as being shocked by the presence of the spikes and horns since they apparently didn't use to have them. Do remember that the skeletons of the Black Desert City have been there in exile since the second empire. So their comments are from the perspective of someone who has not seen the "enforcers" since then over a 1000 years ago. This gives way to the idea that the Shek once looked human but evolved differently. Other in game dialogue also indicates that the enforcers were created artificially and used to replenish numbers and infiltrate the cult of stobe/okran and they DO NOT appear in any dialogue or lore before the second empire suggesting they came into being then. The other thing too is that it's important to understand there really is no "Source" for a lot of this information as Kenshi was built to not tell us the lore but suggest it through context clues and dialogue. Asking for a source is basically asking for a citations on a book that doesn't exist....however my videos on the lore of kenshi are all based on in game evidence and context clue. While some of these details may not be correct to Chris's vision. Without him expressly stating what is and isn't cannon we have no way to know for sure. These videos are closer to being well researched and educated theories than pure fact. But that doesn't make them less viable and frankly paints the clearest and most likely telling of events for the history of Kenshi. Hope that helps!
@@HeroInHisHead i understand the lack of concrete sources for a lot of this, but what i mean when i ask for one is something that heavily implies it in game. Personally ive never heard of these "enforcers" in game so i just wanted to know what description or dialogue mentions them.
@@Holacalaca totally get it. Yeah the skeleton players will often refer to shek as Enforcers as well as all the skeletons of the BDC upon arrival into the city will exclusively refer to them as Enforcers and make comments on their physical appearance in comparison to how they looked human 1000 years ago. I'm shocked actually you have never seen it as I believe it is standard if you enter the city with a shek in your immediate party.
Edit- Spelling and grammer due to auto correct
@@HeroInHisHead i probably never triggered it, i have only been there 2 or 3 times so far and never with a solo shek, plus i have a repeating dialogue mod so that might be the cause too.
Dont get me wrong the video is awesome and its totally believable that theyre genetically modified by the Ancients, hell you could tell me the Hives are insects evolved by radioactive waste lol, I just was unsure on that detail is all.
@@Holacalaca lol for sure. Actually I have video on the Hivers too and it's way grosser than radioactive waste if you're ever interested
Good video, A little too biased towards humans. Your should talk about obedience.
I only state the facts as they present themselves. Check out my video on the sadness of the skeletons and I believe you'll feel I don't have bias. Infact I'm often called a "robot apologist" because of that video 😂
Dude i like your videos but your intro and outro are very generic and clash a lot with the content in the videos. Hope you get this as constructive criticism, it's just an observation after listening to a few of your videos.
I mean... I kinda dislike the remorse you put in Cat-Lon's voice. Cat-Lon is of the opinion that Cat-Lon did nothing wrong. So why the remorse? I also disagree that Cat-Lon is completely in the wrong. Look at how things turned out after all. Does Cat-Lon not have a point? A series of failures by Cat-Lon allowed for the conditions to arise that fall the 2nd Empire. If he had succeeded in stamping out the Holy Flame cult early on, many of his later mistakes would be nullified. I think everyone gets all "oh no! Oppression! Cat-Lon mean machine!" about the situation because of their real world views. "Bah!" says I.
The inflection wasn't remorse as much as madness and a refusal to admit he was the problem. Its not remorse. It's desperation for people to see thing "logically" like him. The exasperated tone was to show that even after 1000 years he is still trying to convince the world he was right to do what he did. Also taking away real world opinions catlon still was a monster in the end. Not at first. He was a great leader who fell to paranoia and greed. He oppressed his people both in the cult and out of it. He couldn't manage the famine. He was struggling to fight the cannibal threat to the north. He allow3d his generals and governing bodies to abuse his people such as rhinobot putting children in interment camps and then forgetting to feed them so they died. Accusing his own people of being pirates just to justify executions and further martial law. Stomping out the cult would have fixed 1 of MANY problems he had as he began to plummet into madness. As for his point he isn't totally wrong but it's based on an idea that Humans were the primary catalyst for the world's problems when I reality the skeletons both attempted to commit genocide and regressed kenshi from an advanced civilization to essentially a feudal iron age. Then to add to it catlon rebuilds and attempts to protect humanity and rectify the skeletons sins. Only to again abuse corrupt and destroy human lives in favor of his own views which were rapidly deteriorating under the weight of his own psychosis. Catlon started as a great leader. But to say he wasn't a monster in the end I can't agree with. He even went as far as to literally enslave and destroy the free will of his own subjects to keep his power and control. He stopped being a leader and became a tyrant only concerned with his own power.
@@HeroInHisHead great response. Subscribed good sir.
Great video. Please stop ruining your videos with those voices. Good storyteller, but voice actor you are not.
Your voice acting needs work
You emphasize weirdly and don’t seem to be able to make good character choices
But as a historian type situation, goddamn excellent
Oh, god. I just got to your second character.
Fucking terrible.
Historian, excellent, voice actor, super basic, stereotypical and awful
Lol was almost 2 years ago when I posted this and was my second ever lore video - check out my most recent kenshi lore video to get a better sense of where I am now.
@@HeroInHisHead oh don’t even worry I will
Super interesting choice of history to explore
Could make an awesome new game of thrones honestly haha
@@HeroInHisHead Fully disagree with dudes comment I was very happy with the voices and voice acting
If the water levels were higher, then a lot of the Second Empire was underwater. I'm talking mostly about the Leviathan coast area where the ancient labs are half underwater in current Kenshi.
Ruins and Water Levels in Kenshi #kenshi #gaming #kenshi2 #lore #shorts