NO MAN’S SKY

Main Contributions

NO MAN’S SKY: PATHFINDER (2017) - TECHNICIAN STORY

“I demand a place on your throneworld, interloper! Acceptance will grant you the glory of an Exocraft and a Vy'keen Mech-Priest to administer its mass.”

A heretic priest, hunted by their warrior-species, abandons their family to flee to your world. Assisting them with their tasks and reaping the rewards of their technology, you face a terrible choice.

WAKING TITAN ARG (2017) - ARTEMIS PROLOGUE

The following ‘Atlas Rises’ prologue was released as part of the Waking Titan ARG - while I did not work on the ARG itself, I did write the following content.

1. Sequence : 0H7-AA59-QK38
   Transmission 1 of 8   
   A Sentinel screams in the sand. It is still alive, in spite of everything.
   Artemis stares at it.

2. Sequence : MBW-5651-P23K
   Transmission 2 of 8
   Glitches, Nada had called them. Aberrations, increasing in frequency the closer one moved toward the centre. But Artemis had no wish to go there. They were looking for something.

3. Sequence : L22-QY7Y-6014
   Transmission 3 of 8
   There was no story to be told in the silence of this universe. No race but the great triad, the Gek, the Vy'keen, the Korvax. Whatever Artemis was, they were alone.

4. Sequence : 43B-2G2K-2T16
   Transmission 4 of 8
   It started with a signal. A voice cried out across the cosmos, and the Traveller followed.

5. Sequence : 1C1-80R1-JX3B
   Transmission 5 of 8
   Artemis saw lights in the darkness, swarming about them as they tried to rest. But Artemis knew that the mind could deceive itself. The next morning, they found the source of the signal.

6. Sequence : 5YY-W349-L200
   Transmission 6 of 8
   They had found the path. They had found the answer, a price paid with their lives, their deaths.

7. Sequence : 99J-U844-131Z
   Transmission 7 of 8   
   When they first reached out to the heavens, they had no idea what to expect. The beauty. The mystery. The danger.

8. Sequence : AA2-327B-QG24
   Transmission 8 of 8
   Sequence complete   
   The Traveller stepped through the portal. And somewhere, beyond all worlds, beyond all living things, two digits screamed upon a terminal.

NO MAN’S SKY: ATLAS RISES (2017) - MAIN CAMPAIGN

“Whatever message was once here has been scrambled beyond recovery. All I extract is the pilot's name - Artemis…”

In a sci-fi universe governed by an unknowable, god-like entity known as the ATLAS, players awaken next to a crashed ship and take to the stars, discovering three fellow travellers with which to share their journey...

NO MAN’S SKY: ATLAS RISES (2017) - ADDITIONAL LORE

“Is it really you? Forgive me, I've been searching for such a long time.”

Alien entities cluster within your homeworld - a Gek Overseer with a hidden past; an old Vy’keen armourer seeking final glory; a Korvax scientist separated from their hive mind; a farmer who seeks culinary advancement above the profit that defines their people.

All across the stars, freighters fall upon desolate worlds, their captain’s logs speaking of a secret history.

And in the hidden places of the universe, boundary failures whisper of Telamon.

The universe seeks remembrance.

NO MAN’S SKY: NEXT (2018) - ADDITIONAL LORE

“The three of us journeyed to the centre: the Sentinel, the First Spawn, and the Traveller, all children of the ATLAS, all hoping for some answer in the void.”

Base archives tell the story of a Traveller and their companion - a damaged Sentinel named Laylaps - as they journey through a world of glass.

NO MAN’S SKY: LIVING SHIP (2020) - TEN NEW BOUNDARY FAILURE LOGS

TRAVELLER [HOST]: Speak.

TELAMON: ...

TRAVELLER [HOST]: Answer my question

The story of the first Traveller.

NO MAN’S SKY: DESOLATION (2020) - CAPTAIN’S LOGS

“We threw the Mech-Priest out of the airlock. It improved all our moods, just like we hoped… Twenty eight bodies now dance, frozen in the solar winds…'“

Desolate, haunted vessels lie stricken across the cosmos. Captain’s logs share the stories of their final days.

NO MAN’S SKY (JUNE - SEPTEMBER 2020) - WEEKLY MISSIONS

“I intend to face the cause of all these anomalies and disturbances myself, whatever the cost.”

1. Ariadne sets out into space, determined to find the source of a cosmic corruption known as the Abyss. They do not return.

2. The Traveller, following in Ariadne’s footsteps, finds traces of other names - Asteria, the Hero-Traveller… Narcissus, ally of the Last Spawn… Lazarus… Artemis… Hildebrand…

3. Ariadne’s ship is located — duplicated and morphed into hundreds of identical copies across the universe. Before the vessel’s reality splinter, it came into contact with a strange, vast freighter in the darkness between suns. Ariadne managed to escape…

4. An appearance modification factory is overtaken by corruption. The workers within replace their heads with spheres of light.

5. The Traveller goes on a pilgrimage to commune with the ghost of their forebear, the Hero-Traveller Asteria who once led the Vy’keen into battle against emissaries of glass. They warn the Traveller that they will be betrayed, and will become a betrayer. They warn that the Abyss is not what it seems.

6. Ariadne returns. They have no recollection of their encounters with the Abyss, beyond a ship, vast and terrible, and a feeling of being hunted. The Traveller hunts down more corruption, coming across a fallen vessel of the Vy’keen inquisition.

7. Hesperus travels to Korvax space, working with the alien beings to simulate the Abyss. The experiment results in the obliteration of a thousand electronic entities.

8. The denizens of the Nexus begin to lose faith in Hesperus, who has not yet returned following their disastrous collaboration with the Korvax. After finding yet another abyssal anomaly, the Traveller hears a voice in their mind, demanding they assist this mysterious force.

9. Tethys wonders if they have more chance of survival if they leave the Nexus behind. The Traveller finds a fallen vessel whose pilot was betrayed by one they considered an ally. The pilot heard whispers from their own Exosuit, bargaining for survival from an unseen presence. The Traveller’s own Exosuit appears to be working fine.

10. Hesperus has purged their guilt over the death of the Korvax using Nanite Clusters. They share their belief that a denizen of the Nexus is a traitor, hijacking the knowledge stones to invite all Travellers to feed the abyssal anomalies. They wish to observe the Traveller’s dealings more closely.
    The Traveller discovers evidence of a Mind Arc harvesting a dead soul. They find a null value in place of the fallen’s name.

11. Ariadne discusses the notion that all Travellers might represent one entity, split over untold forms and bodies. They suggest that working together is merely like working with your own self.
    The Traveller encounters a crashed vessel belonging to devotees of the Atlas. They believed the Atlas made all things, even loss, even hate. The devotees were destroyed by an anomaly.

12. Gemini wonders who made the Exosuits and the voice within. They call the knowledge stone and portals any Traveller’s birthright.
    The Traveller discovers a dead artificial intelligence, and sees the final fifteen minutes of its life, how it predicted the Traveller might try to save it. Worlds upon worlds seethe in the void. The Abyss spreads.

13. Mercury talks of grim times. Hesperus has, apparently, grown paranoid, refusing to attend meetings at the Nexus. Mercury hopes the Traveller do not meet the same fate.
    As the Traveller purges corruption from yet another world, they feel its feelings — malice, hatred, despair, all directed only against its own self. They see memories of water.

14. An associate of Tethys never returned from Korvax space. Upon arrival, the Traveller discovers traces of battle. The associate had tried to analyse Abyssal signals, only to be slain in the attempt. The Traveller is given a vision. They see a face that is not a face. An arm raised to fire a weapon. They see the murderer. They see Ariadne…

15. Hesperus confirms that Ariadne crashed their ship some weeks ago. They never returned. The entity that now leads the Nexus Travellers is an imposter. They believe the real Ariadne is still out there, and that these missions have all been a great deception. At a site of Abyssal corruption, the Traveller has a vision. The structure sings with exotic energies. It sees me. It knows my mind. In the song I hear names, distant, faded... I hear the number at the end of all things. I see its whisperer. I see a nameless form banish Ariadne... And I see a duplicate arising from the crash, returning to claim its shape. If this vision is to be believed, then Hesperus is right. Ariadne is an imposter.

NO MAN’S SKY: ORIGINS (2020) - ARCHIVES

The epilogue to my time working on No Man’s Sky. History, philosophy, literature, and more from three ancient species…