Alkasyn talks to Gutier

During the First Interplanetary Tournament at Vigo, I had the pleasure of talking to Gutier “Interruptor” Lusquiños, the brain behind Infinity’s lore. Me and a couple of other information-starved Warcors bombarded him with questions during and after the event. It also helped that he lives in Vigo and we took the ferry together from the town of Cangas, where we had a tour around the Corvus Belli Headquarters, back to Vigo, over the Vigo Bay.

Being a lore-driven player myself, I was able to confront Gutier about some of the ideas that were clogging my head since I read the last books. He also gave me the green light to publish what we were talking about in the form of an article here on the site, so here we go.

First thing you should know is that if you ever read even the tiniest bit of Infinity lore, then it’s sure it came from Gutier himself. He is the only person that writes Infinity lore. Period. That’s why the background is so well-taken care of – there are no competing individuals, each trying to get a bit of the spotlight and writing in a different style. Even the unit descriptions on the site would come down from Interruptor. A little about the man – he has a History of Arts degree and he speaks Italian, French, English and some Portugese. When introducing new unit names etc., he draws from his “general knowledge” as well as doing the appropriate research. When asked about inspirations, I was given the names of Ian Banks, Phillip K.Dick , Dan Simmons and John le Carré. Gutier does not enjoy a lot of space operas, so forget about the force and lightsabers, but he goes back to Pulp novels from the 30ies. When it comes to Manga, the inspiration is mostly Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed. They try to build on Manga aesthetics without being inspired by a particular title.

Being a Haqqislam and Tohaa player myself, I mainly asked questions about the newest addition to the game, the artichoke aliens. I already have new questions since I was in Vigo, but those will have to wait until next year.

So, for those of you who have seen the first Tohaa designs in the Artbook and were wondering will we ever see the cute little round aliens as a servant race, the answer is a vague “Maybe”. The same applies to other Exalted races. We were told that people like armies that are uniform in design, and it’s a problem if too many different unique visuals are all crammed into one existing frame. That was/is also the problem with Combined Army and the reason why the Exrah are not very prominent in the faction. The chances for a Chaksa sectorial are pretty good, however.

The Fenrig Imperative was also mentioned, but at the moment there are no plans to introduce them as a playable faction. They will also not be expanded upon deeply, mainly because Corvus does not want to have their hands tied if they want to head into a different direction with the Imperative later on. They prefer not to provide too much information and then retcon it later, than to do what George Lucas did with the Expanded Universe.

Going back to the Tohaa – we do not know how many planets they control. We can only guess that if the 10 planets that Humanity controls are a significant addition to their war effort against the Evolved Intelligence, then the Tohaa Trinomial does not possess hundreds of planets.

Some of the Trinomial’s planets are already occupied by the EI. We were told that created a kind of a civil war scenario within the Tohaa society itself. The EI does not kill all the Tohaa it encounters. They are integrated into the EI community, similar to what happened to other races, such as the Shasvastii or the Morat. The “free” Tohaa of the Trinomial see the enslaved Tohaa as traitors, because the latter gave up the fight against their eternal enemy. Does this mean we will see Tohaa units within the Combined Army, like what happened with Ko Dali? That question was left unanswered.

When asked if Tohaa were a type of plant life, as some Internet theories point toward that interpretation, Gutier replied it’s possible. When asked about Aelis’ “hair” being longer than the rest of the Tohaa, Interruptor replied that the “Artichokes” –and that’s the word he used himself – are masters of bioengineering, as visible in the Exaltation process. Who said they couldn’t modify themselves according to aesthetical whims?

Regarding how the Tohaa are portrayed when it comes to Human-Tohaa relationship, I mentioned the little story in Paradiso, where a Gao-Tarsos drops in and has an encounter with a Haqqislamite settler. He tries to calm down the woman, but because she doesn’t understand English and the Tarsos gets frustrated, he shoots her and reports it to the Paradiso command as a “Shasvastii intrusion”. This particular piece of lore had 2 versions – the one we got and a shorter one, which ended after the Tohaa assured the settler not to worry and went on his way. Interruptor presented both versions to the team, and the more “grimdark” version was voted to be put in the book.

I had a particular question about the Combined Army. We know that only around 20% of the fleets that the EI sends from the Galaxy fringe to Paradiso reaches the destination. The rest is lost to the wormhole. We also read in one of the books that the Morat only serve the EI because they see the EI as stronger. Morat are like the orcs of Infinity, respecting strength and martial prowess. Their community is based on aggression and physical dominance. So, I ran my theory through Gutier: If, in the future, when Humanity finally defeats the EI – or at least stops it advance, like what’s happening on Paradiso – would it be plausible that the Morats split from the Combined Army, because they finally realize that the EI can be defeated? Gutier only smiled and said it’s a well-done analysis of how the Morat think. What that means to the game? I doubt we’ll see Morats become a separate faction in game terms anytime soon, that’s not what was said. It’s an interesting scenario to think of, however.

There were other questions, for example about the structure of the Military in PanOceania – how the lobbies and corporations influence the shadow wars behind the scenes. It turns out you don’t just pick up your phone and order 5 fusiliers to break into Magna Obra HQ on Neoterra. However, as Black Ops are done on a “Need to know basis” it is entirely possible that a group of Fusiliers broke into a remote Magna Obra facility, stole its secrets and killed some “terrorists” in the process. They never realized they were part of a greater game.

Gutier himself, is a great guy and a spring of Infinity knowledge. If you ever have a chance to talk to him during an Infinity event, I totally recommend approaching him and striking a chat. All the info you ever wanted about Infinity is in his head. You just have to dig to find it.

At the Ferry