Rhys

In the wastelands of Pandora, far away from anything resembling civilization, the wreckage of Helios burns.

The main body of the station, still vaguely recognizable, has come to rest leaning against massive rock formations, almost upright, though most of the H-shape has disintegrated. Metal and plastic lie heaped over miles and miles of rocky desert, and black smoke shows where the debris still burns from atmospheric re-entry.

Here and there, deep in the wreckage, there are pockets of space free of toxic smoke and debris. Handsome Jack's office is one such place, though it's shattered and sloped sideways, and his corporate status trophies are scattered everywhere. On one twisted piece of metal, a cybernetic right arm hangs lifeless, impaled, with brown splats of dried blood on the metal floor beneath. Jack's golden chair lies on its side near the desk, which is somehow almost intact, and a greasy stained pizza box is jammed into a crack in the ceiling.

It's in this office that Rhys and Hunter appear.

Starting with this episode, I'm going in completely blind, so events in RP may not unfold entirely as I play them. I'm trying to stick pretty close though.

I play with a fair amount of people who've likely never played Borderlands in any form, so I figured it might be a good idea to post a primer about the canon Rhys hails from.

Borderlands takes place in the distant future, where corporations have become so large that they span multiple galaxies and rule planets. Hyperion is the largest and richest company in the known universe, with Atlas as their closest rival. Until recently, Hyperion was led by Handsome Jack, a sociopath who styled himself as a hero without a real understanding of why heroes are heroes. Jack used to have almost genuinely good intentions, but repeated betrayal led him down the slippery slope to an attitude of "kill everyone so they can't betray you." Jack built a strong cult of personality around himself, insisting that he was going to bring order to the often-lawless borderland planets (by killing everyone), and killing anyone who dared oppose him. He considered everyone else to be bandits, and especially hated Vault Hunters, who he saw as trying to take away what was rightfully his. During his rise to power, Vault Hunters branded his face with a Vault symbol, blinding him in his left eye, so he wears a mask that's identical to his original face. Jack sought ultimate power, with an especially strong interest in the Vaults, prioritizing that search over all else. He took credit for the opening of the first Vault, and opened the second to release an ancient alien monster called the Warrior with intentions of using it to destroy all life on Pandora to make it "safe" for human habitation. The Warrior was defeated by Vault Hunters, and Jack was killed.

Pandora is the planet where the vast majority of the games take place. It was originally settled by Atlas, who came in search of caches of alien technology left behind by a species called the Eridians. Dahl arrived later, and was forced to abandon their mining operations when Atlas defended their claim, leaving thousands of employees and their families behind to eke out a living. Atlas eventually went defunct, and Hyperion took over, under the guidance of Handsome Jack, who set up an orbital station called Helios at the Lagrange point between Pandora and its moon Elpis, with the side effect of blocking a portion of reflected sunlight that the population rely on for light. Pandora's days are 90 hours long, and its year lasts ten Earth years (winter for seven, summer for three). Most of the native wildlife hibernates during the winter and awakens in the summer; as the planet was originally settled during a winter period, summer was a nasty surprise for the colonists. Almost all of the wildlife is hostile to humans, as are some plants. Common nuisances include skags, spiderants, and rakk. The environment itself tends to be harsh as well, mostly desert or volcanic, although there are seas as well. Forests are incredibly rare. Most of the planet gives off a post-apocalyptic vibe, although it's only been settled for seventy-ish years.

Vaults are the fabled caches of Eridian technology, although two out of three opened so far are used as containment for ancient, powerful creatures, not treasure troves; this is not common knowledge. The third was guarded by an ancient sentinel; when defeated, it revealed a device that gave Handsome Jack deep knowledge about the Eridians, and told him about the Warrior. Vaults cannot be opened without a Vault Key, a rare find and rarely intact. Vaults are implied to be on quite a few planets, but the only ones that have been opened thus far are both on Pandora and its moon, Elpis. Opening Vaults also resulted in a priceless mineral called Eridium appearing across the planet.

Vault Hunters are highly skilled individuals who seeks fame and fortune through pursuing tales of the Vaults, with the goal of opening them and claiming their riches for themselves. The protagonists of all current Borderlands games (except Tales From the Borderlands, on a technicality) are Vault Hunters. They are generally viewed as complete badasses, and deservedly so.

Borderlands is a franchise built out of Comedic Sociopathy, so be warned.

Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel are all first-person shooters, where you can select from four (or more) characters to play, and they have a set story with no RPG elements. Tales From the Borderlands is a TellTale point-and-click adventure game, and the story is split relatively evenly between two simultaneous protagonists, Fiona and Rhys. Tales From the Borderlands is being released episodically, as TellTale tends to do, so the story is currently only known up to episode three (out of five). Choices are much less linear, allowing for drastically different playthroughs. It's also worth noting that Fiona and Rhys are both unreliable narrators who are called out on making shit up by a third party at multiple points during the story. I'll post a summary of the story complete playthrough because why not, as according to my version of Rhys and Fiona, at some point.