Tyranny - Short Story

Obsidian and Paradox Entertainment are planning to release a series of short stories providing background information on the Tyranny game.

Obsidian and Paradox Publish Free Tyranny Short Stories

Discover Obsidian's Tyranny in New Monthly Series from the Game's Writers


IRVINE, Calif. and STOCKHOLM — May 6, 2016 — Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive today released the first installment in a series of short stories about Tyranny, the role-playing game (RPG) coming to Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs later this year. Tyranny, designed and developed by the acclaimed RPG studio behind award-winning titles such as Pillars of Eternity, takes place in an original fantasy world recently conquered by a draconian overlord, where the citizens must learn their place in the new order. In a new series of short stories, the first of which is written by Paul Kirsch, Narrative Designer on Tyranny, fans can discover the people of the Tiers and the brutal challenges of living under Kyros’ rule.

The first installment in the series is available to read now.

“With Tyranny, we are creating a world where evil has won and the player was complicit in that victory,” said Brian Heins, Game Director of Tyranny at Obsidian Entertainment. “In this series of short stories we want to give everyone a glimpse into daily life in Kyros’ Empire. This first story introduces everyone to the Scarlet Chorus, one of the Overlord's armies and a potential ally of the player, during a crisis of leadership.”

In Tyranny, the grand war between good and evil has already finished – and the forces of evil, led by Kyros the Overlord, have won. Players interact with the populace to inspire loyalty, disgust, or fear as they roam the world as an officer in Kyros’ forces, empowered to act as both judge and executioner. A nonlinear story offers players the chance to roam and alter the world as they see fit, and provides a highly replayable experience.

More information.

Mmm, well I'm not really seeing the point. If I want to read stories, I'll go to the library.

they're trying hard to be gritty, but it really reads like a 14 y.o.'s fan fiction.

That, and if they really want a primitive setting, get rid of the world-spanning empire and jump-in-the-air-raining-down-arrows stuff.

I'd like to see them experiment with machinima, assuming they can keep the development costs reasonable. Create some trailer-like short stories with more of a graphic novel feel.

The reason Obsidian is doing this is because its a new world. They don't want to dump lore at you in the game. With these short stories it looks like they are trying to build the lore of the world in an organic way and get people interested in it.

I guess the proof of that will be in the conversations you have in the game and how explicit or otherwise they are about explaining things. Hopefully they feel no need to explain things overly much and let world knowledge build organically.