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On its surface, there is not much lore inTerraria. Your goal is to survive, keep your NPCs alive, and defeat bosses that can be found throughout the world. The story is for you to decide, giving you the freedom to think of whatever lore you want. You may be wondering though, is there any official Terraria lore?
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The answer is yes! In 2019, a Community Manager from Re-Logicgifted us with several pages of lorefor the game. Here, we are going to go through this lore of Terraria, making sense of the 2D pixelated world. First, let’s look at the creation of the Terraria universe.
Creation Of The Universe
Each time you start a new game in Terraria, you appear on a brand-new map. These maps are planets within the Terraria universe. Each world was created by the Gods to “establish a balance,” witheach world being a sentient creature.
The balance in question is everything that inhabits the planet. All life was created on the planet to create an equilibrium, and in turn, the sentient planet can feel every other creature on it.
The exactworld that you begin onis said to haveunprecedented potential.
Hallow, Crimson, & Corruption
Since everything on a planet is meant to create a balance, this means thatHallow, Crimson, and Corruptionare part of this balance. These are described as “defense mechanisms” and can be quite dangerous.
Crimson
This is aHivemind that consumes anythingwhich disturbs the balance.
Many people have wrongfully worshipped the Crimson, but it consumes these individuals and places them in the Hivemind.
Corruption
This is a cancer, made up of sins of all worlds.
Corruption consumes everything, leaving behind horrors that punish those that have “unearned pleasure”. The Corruption’s goal is to turn the world into a void.
The Wall Of Flesh
The Wall of Flesh is the final boss in pre-Hardmode. Once defeated, your game will convert to Hardmode; this will create a Hallow biome, as well as cause the Corruption and Crimson biomes to spread faster.
This boss has a connection to the Hallow. The Wall of Flesh itself is aGuardianandMaster of the World. With it gone, the world itself works to find a new Guardian, with the Hallow fighting against controlling forces that are on the planet.
Order Of The Guide
This information is passed down over time by theOrder of the Guide, with your first NPC belonging to the group.The Guide’s purpose is to help you explore the world, but you also need to drop a Voodoo Doll of this NPC into the lava of the Underworld to summon the Wall of Flesh.
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What is the connection between the two?The Guide serves as a ‘protector’, but once dead, chaos is unleashed.
Cthulhu
Cthulhuis a massive and mysterious creature that lives to cause destruction and control the world, which happens to be the one that you are on.
Cthulhu never appears in full though, which is due to theDryads. This race fought against Cthulhu in order to protect the planet. Though they couldn’t kill the creature, they managed to rip out various parts, such as the eyes and brain.
Afterremoving these parts, what was left of Cthulhu was banished to the dark side of the moon, where he remains until summoned again.
When you play,there is only one Dryad known to exist. This NPC unlocks for you once you defeat the Eye of Cthulhu, Eater of Worlds, Brain of Cthulhu, or Skeletron.
These fragments of Cthulhu are what appear in the game. For example,the Demon Eye enemy is a minion of Cthulhu, while the Brain of Cthulhu boss is the creature’s actual brain.
The Lunatic Cult
The Lunatic Cultist is a Hardmode boss that spawns at the Dungeon entrance when you kill enough nearby Cultists.
This is the leader of theLunatic Cult, with the goal of reviving Cthulhu and ending the world. Unfortunately, this process is nearly completed, as the Cult kidnapped the Mechanic and forced her to complete the job for them.
When you find the Mechanic, all that’s left for her to do iscomplete the Mechanical brain of Cthulhu.
The Dungeon
The reviving of Cthulhu is done in the Dungeon, which is where you happen to find and unlock the Mechanic NPC as well. Here, anOld Manoriginally oversaw the Dungeon before being cursed by the Cult. Now, this Old Man can summonSkeletron, which is apart of Cthulhu.
The Old Man will say the following two lines.
These further prove thatthe Old Man is under a curse by Cthulhu. Freeing him can be done by defeating Cthulhu, and in turn, the man will become the Clothier NPC.
Defeating Cthulhu
Everything mentioned above encompasses the state of the world prior to your interference. Fortunately,you are the championand work towards restoring peace to the world, defeating Cthulhu and his minions once and for all.
Related:Terraria: Moon Lord Boss Guide
The final boss of Terraria is the Moon Lord, who is often thought to be Cthulhu. This is due to the similar appearance, as well as the fact that the Moon Lord is missing vital organs and a lower body. Additionally, Cthulhu was trapped on the moon, making him quite literally, the Lord of the moon.
Celestial Pillars
TheCelestial Pillarsare four pillars that appear once you defeat the Lunatic Cultist. Each pillar can be defeated andonce all four are destroyed, the Moon Lord will spawn. In the past, the Dryad race used these pillars to seal Cthulhu on the moon, which leads us to believe that by defeating the pillars, you are unsealing Cthulhu to defeat him once and for all.
