Welcome to A LINE THROUGH T⌛ME, where I take the time to look through your favourite
franchises and work out how it all lines up.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a weirdly under-utilised concept in the realm of video
games. You'd think they'd be ideally suited for the role of either four player co-op protagonists,
or world-ending antagonists. Darksiders is one of the very few franchises to actually
take advantage of this concept and it's got some really cool ideas. But its timeline is...
weird. You'll see how soon enough.
The series began with Vigil Games' Darksiders in 2010, telling the story of War, who is
blamed for starting the apocalypse early. He is imprisoned for a century and then sent
back to Earth to find the true culprit. These two events need to be separate on the timeline
for reasons I'll get to in a moment. At the end, the other three Horsemen arrive to assist
War in the coming battle with the true threat, though they don't properly appear onscreen.
There was also a prequel comic known as Darksiders: The Graphic Adventure. While partially set
at the start of the game, the comic also depicts two other events from unspecified points in
the past. One is the Horsemen going after a rogue War with Death taking War's arm, which
I think is supposed to be why War has that massive gauntlet. The other is right before
the game, where the four deliver a warning to Samael and Lilith from their bosses, the
Charred Council. Both of these scenes show off the other three horsemen's designs that
are still subject to change by they time they debut in a game.
In the lead-up to the sequel, a novel titled Darksiders: The Abomination Vault released
in July 2012. It takes place "ages" before the games, presumably after War briefly going
rogue, given that Death suggests War is as loyal to the Council as Fury is in the book,
which would make a later rebellion seem a little out-of-character. Plus, I think he
has the gauntlet in the book, but I don't quite recall. Death, the last of the Firstborn
Nephilim, has to deal with the return of the Firstborn's most powerful weapons, the Grand
Abominations, which were sealed away due to their uncontrollable power. War joins him
on his quest, while Fury and Strife only make a small appearance, presumably to not lock
down their abilities until they got their own games. It really highlights just how fun
these characters are to watch as a group, and how much of a shame it is that it took
until 2018 for us to see more than one Horseman in a single game.
Darksiders II then released in August. The game follows Death, seeking to revive humanity
to absolve War of his alleged crime, shortly after War is imprisoned. We also learn the
backstory of the Horsemen's race, the Nephilim, and how the Horsemen wiped them all out for
the sake of creation, an act that continues to haunt Death to this day. The game had three
DLC stories that are all set during the game, which I think was a shame. These could have
been standalone adventures that flesh out the backstory and relationships of the Horseman,
or a deeper exploration of the war with the Nephilim instead. As is, they're just an indicator
of the fact that Death got sidetracked three times while trying to aid his brother, which
I guess shows how much he cares about him.
Darksiders II: Death's Door is a five issue comic by Dark Horse (appropriate), that began
release in December 2010. It's mostly set in 1722, following Death hunting down a corrupted
angel that ties into the game, and also a flashback of the horsemen getting their horses
prior to the final battle with the Nephilim. And that scene is another great showcase of
the Horsemen's personalities.
The series fell into limbo in February 2013 with the closure of publisher THQ. The franchise
was purchased by Nordic Games, who later bought the THQ name and became THQ Nordic. Vigil
Games also folded, with a number of team members forming current series developer, Gunfire
Games. The next two releases would be remasters of the previous games, Darksiders Warmastered
and Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition, which are awesome names and I won't hear any different.
The next entry would finally be announced in 2017 and released later this month: Darksiders
III. This entry follows Fury as she embarks on a mission to hunt down the Seven Deadly
Sins shortly after the apocalypse. I asked the devs on Twitter when the game is set in
relation to II and they confirmed that it's at the exact same time. Like, Death leaves
on his quest immediately before Fury is given her task.
MatPat: "GG, GG. GG." Also, GG for removing Fury's irises and pupils
during development because she looks way better without. And GG for naming yourselves GG,
when your series is about people who ride gee-gees. Yeah, nobody's gonna get that one...
And that's where the series currently stands with everything leading up to the first game
in preparation for Darksiders V. I'm curious to see how Strife will play in IV, without
turning the game into a jarring third person shooter. It may have been better to have him
and Fury share III, which would also allow IV to be called "Darksiders: The Four", which
sounds like it would fit really well with the names of the remasters.
But regardless, the Darksiders timelines goes a little something... like this.
The demon, Lilith, combines the remains of angels and demons to create the Nephilim,
beginning with Absalom. Absalom leads the Nephilim in a war on creation. Another of
the firstborn, Death, conceives a way to convert the bodies of the Ravaiim race into weapons
known as the Grand Abominations.
Growing weary of the conflict, Death, Strife, Fury and War defect and become agents of the
Charred Council. Empowered by the Council, the Four Horsemen annihilate their race, gathering
their souls into Death's amulet. Death then seals the Abomination Vault to keep the weapons
from being used against creation.
War goes rogue and is brought to heel by the other horsemen, losing an arm to Death.
The angel Hadrimon and the maker Belisatra attempt to seize the abominations to wage
war on the White City. Death and War kill Hadrimon and take Belisatra into custody.
The angel Abaddon requests Death to eliminate the corrupted angel Makhala. He hunts her
to Earth and kills her.
Three hundred years later, the End War is triggered early by Abaddon. War is summoned
to Earth to serve as a scapegoat. He is imprisoned by the Council for a century.
Shortly thereafter, Death departs on a quest to revive the souls of humanity to absolve
War of his alleged crime. Fury is sent on a mission to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins.
Death slays the revived Absalom and sacrifices himself and the souls of the Nephilim to revive
humanity.
War is released by the Council and sent to hunt down Abaddon and his cohorts. With Abaddon's
death, the seventh seal is broken and the Four Horsemen are reunited for the coming
war with creation.
If anyone from Gunfire Games somehow sees this video, please give us more interaction
between the Horsemen in the games. It's the coolest thing in the comics and novel, and
the fact that a franchise about the Four Horsemen is taking over a decade to actually show the
four together in its primary medium is just... really bloody weird.
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