It’s The Small Things That Count: The Small Stories Of Anthem

Anthem has had its fair share of issues since its February 22nd release date including everything from connectivity issues to all-out crashing consoles. It seems like everything written about the game since launch has been incredibly negative. So in hopes of going against the grain like the reluctant hipster I am, I thought I’d shed some light on one of Anthem’s best qualities, the small stories within it.

Fair warning, if you haven’t pursued some of the optional conversations in Fort Tarsis there may be spoilers ahead. Keep in mind that these may or may not change depending on the choices you have made in conversations.

The Grain Shortage

While exploring Fort Tarsis in the early stretches of the game you might come across an announcement informing the citizens of the current grain shortage. I, like many other players, assumed this didn’t mean anything and that it was just a way to fill up the cortex with miscellaneous information to read. But I was quite wrong. Instead, it leads you on an optional set of “side quests” where you become intrinsically tied to the fate of two bakers, Mora and Lienn.

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Mora and Lienn have both been hit hard by the shortage. As bakers their livelihood depended on the flow of grain. Once the supplies dried up, Lienn lost everything and retreated into a bottle – she can be found doing exactly that in the bar. Mora, on the other hand, started to delve into other revenue streams – mainly produce. But living in a jungle lush with flora and fauna while trying to sell it is like selling sand in the desert.

This is where you come in. When approached, Mora will tell you about her hardships and will ask your opinion on a revolutionary idea, an indoor farm. If encouraged, Mora will pursue her invention further, even going as far as looking for investors/buyers. At this point, if you’ve spoken to Lienn in the bar you can persuade Mora that Lienn would be a great investor. Even though they both have doubts about the other, Mora being worried about Lienn’s drinking, and Lienn thinking the whole thing might be a scam (it doesn’t help that it sounds like a pyramid scheme) the partnership ends up working out for the best and Fort Tarsis becomes riddled with baked goods once again.

I know this story doesn’t really have many stakes, other than the fate of these two people, but it’s a nice wholesome story in a world of crazy ass monsters and flying suits of armor. So it helps to flesh out the world if only threw monotony.

Freelancer Garnet’s Fate

During several conversations and quests involving Yarrow, the freelancer mentor of sorts, you can hear mentions of a freelancer Garnet, but you aren’t really given any information on the lancer. The one thing that seems certain is that Yarrow and Garnet were very close, so close that Yarrow actually helped create the Garnet call sign. But if you continue with Yarrow’s quest line you’ll come to know exactly why there’s a scarcity of knowledge when it comes to Garnet.

After finishing the Overdue quest and returning to Yarrow, he regales you with a tale of his past and proposes a moral conundrum. He tells you about an outlaw wreaking havoc that he was contracted to stop. When he finally bested his adversary, Yarrow decided to show mercy and allow him to live, not knowing that this would be perceived as a grave insult to the outlaw. Once the outlaw regained its strength it set out to find and kill Yarrow for his transgression, yet to no avail. However, he did manage to come across an unsuspecting and assumed junior lancer. You can probably guess what happened next – the outlaw killed Freelancer Garnet.

Yarrow was inadvertently the cause for Garnet’s death, for which he’s still trying to atone. This is why he constructed and tends to the graves seen in the A Favor to Ask quest, one of which is Freelancer Garnet’s.

Max And The Bar Of A Thousand Names

Maxine, or Max for short, is the new owner of the bar in Fort Tarsis. She happened to win it from its previous owner, Dusty, in a game of cards. I’d say that’s a pretty amazing prize to be won in a simple game of cards but, of course, like all good things it came with a catch. This very bar is said to have a curse placed upon it. Each of the bar’s previous owners, of which there are many, have died in gruesome fashion.

On his way to Antium the strider carrying Dusty and the former governor of Fort Tarsis, Governor Tanner, went down. Some say that this was a hit and others believe this to be the curse claiming its next victim.

Whether she believes it or not, Max is now part of an odd and uncoincidental series of events involving the ownership of the bar. This, for the most part, is the reason the bar doesn’t currently have a name. Normally, once ownership was transferred, the new owner would give the bar a new name. One of the previous names was The Black Emporium which is surely a reference to Bioware’s Dragon Age series. But instead, Max seems to be reluctant to give the bar a name. Whether this will keep the curse from claiming her life is unknown but, one thing is certain, this bar is a damn health risk and should be condemned.

These three small stories just scratch the surface of Anthem’s lore and the world building within the walls of Fort Tarsis. Hell, I didn’t even include one of my favorite stories, Sayrna and the world of a million pets, in which Sayrna searches for a wild animal she can keep as a pet. I mostly excluded it because I haven’t finished the story and am really hoping she doesn’t get mauled by a Korox or something. I’d definitely recommend any fan of fun and interesting stories and characters check out Anthem, but maybe give it a little while for Bioware to work out the kinks first.