Lore Question regarding global backstory

[Woolfy]

Hello fellow survivors,

I‘m a huge fan of the mysterious and melancholic atmosphere in TLD and I wondered if there is any further information about the background story? 
 

Like.. is Great Bear Island only isolated from the rest of the world and I‘m a survivor on an island on an otherwise (somehow) intact planet or is there something like a global event which damaged civilization in general?

I somehow always imagined, that there is something bigger happening around the world (like an experiment that went horribly wrong) causing the geomagnetic storms and a new ice age, damaging electric infrastructure and eventually leading to the downfall of civilization around the whole globe.
 

Because I think it makes a big difference in how I experience the survival mode in terms of immersion - like, am I trying to survive with the hope that at some point someone could find me and bring me back to normal life or is the whole world going down so that I can only leave that normal life behind and become one with nature, going back to my animalistic roots in order to make my peace with that situation? 

 

Thanks for any information! 
 

 

[SpanishMoss]

The cause of the geomagnetic storms was a solar flare from the sun, which is in fact a real thing. In this game-world, the solar flare had 3 main effects: 

1. Destroying all unprotected electric equipment, in space and on earth.
2. Plunging the world into a pre-mature ice-age like winter 

3. The remaining particulates from the solar flare cause Auroras that animate electronics (and wildlife!) via science-fictional methods.

It is then assumed that the rest of the world is experiencing the same thing, and it wouldn't be much better to return to the "mainland" if you ever could. 

[Woolfy]

1 hour ago, SpanishMoss said:

 

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The cause of the geomagnetic storms was a solar flare from the sun, which is in fact a real thing. In this game-world, the solar flare had 3 main effects: 

1. Destroying all unprotected electric equipment, in space and on earth.
2. Plunging the world into a pre-mature ice-age like winter 

3. The remaining particulates from the solar flare cause Auroras that animate electronics (and wildlife!) via science-fictional methods.

It is then assumed that the rest of the world is experiencing the same thing, and it wouldn't be much better to return to the "mainland" if you ever could. 

 

Thanks so much, exactly what I wanted to hear. Can you tell me where this information is from? 

[Enigmaecho]

I’m not sure we know the answers directly to your questions.

we know from wintermute that Great Bear had been isolated from the global community and even the mainland Canadian government before the “event” this was due to widespread geopolitical and economic issues where China and crypto took over and Canada was an economic block that forced folks into cities and cut off the rural folk to conserve resources 

the island had been suffering quakes for some time prior to the “event” this furthered the collapse and isolation of its communities and the quake that occurred during the “event” caused the most damage sealing off million and collapsing large sections of costal highway 

it is unclear how much time has passed between wintermute and survival but there are some things that can be gleaned from survival as well

speculation time:

Methuselah said something along the lines of “I am here to witness the ending of an era” implying that it is a global phenomenon and there are also some working theory’s that may imply the “event” is occurring on great bear as a Bermuda Triangle type situation perhaps having to do with dr R’s experiment possible related to soviet time travel experiments or perhaps Tesla and free energy generation 

[SpanishMoss]

1 hour ago, Enigmaecho said:

I’m not sure we know the answers directly to your questions.

we know from wintermute that Great Bear had been isolated from the global community and even the mainland Canadian government before the “event” this was due to widespread geopolitical and economic issues where China and crypto took over and Canada was an economic block that forced folks into cities and cut off the rural folk to conserve resources 

the island had been suffering quakes for some time prior to the “event” this furthered the collapse and isolation of its communities and the quake that occurred during the “event” caused the most damage sealing off million and collapsing large sections of costal highway 

it is unclear how much time has passed between wintermute and survival but there are some things that can be gleaned from survival as well

speculation time:

Methuselah said something along the lines of “I am here to witness the ending of an era” implying that it is a global phenomenon and there are also some working theory’s that may imply the “event” is occurring on great bear as a Bermuda Triangle type situation perhaps having to do with dr R’s experiment possible related to soviet time travel experiments or perhaps Tesla and free energy generation 

I don't know where you got any of this information, but I don't think this is correct. 
I belive that methuselahs line is more in reference to nature undoing the actions of man. A sort of "natural reset".

Economic instability is mentioned, but to what magnitude or cause is not, and that appears to be outside the scope of the games lore.

[Enigmaecho]

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_The_Collapse
 

…it’s not though 

As for the speculations the events and descriptions that come from tales lend a lot of similarities to both of the mentioned theories 👍

[JohnLovesCoffee]

This is a very interesting question, @Woolfy. And I've wondered about it since I started playing because, like you, the answer affects how I approach being a survivor. I'm fascinated by the idea of being the last person alive, the dread and fatality that comes with it.

As our mates have pointed out, there are hints in both sandbox and Wintermute (more than hints here) that, in my opinion, suggest that this is actually the downfall of the whole civilization. I think we will get even more details with episode five, but the game does a very good job in keeping a mystery around the whole matter and I feel that not everything is going to be explained.

There is another "meta" hint supporting this, though. The introductory texts for both the Nomad and As the Dead Sleep challenges start with "The world  is changed...", "The world has changed..."

Ultimately, as this is a game and we are lucky creatures with a lot of imagination, you can take advantage of the ambiguities and build your own story. For sandbox I choose to be the last person alive. There is no hope, but I have to survive.

So become one with nature, my friend.