Commanders!
Orienting yourselves in Armored Warfare lore can be a bit disorienting as the lore is spread across many missions and events, some of them not being currently available. To make things more convenient, we have assembled a guide for you.
Armored Warfare works with the concept of alternative realities. The lore can be separated into three distinct story blocks, each taking place in a separate timeline. The timelines are tied together by an overarching narrative disclosed in Part 2: Perihelion. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
Part 1: World Gone By
- This part of the story of Armored Warfare can be experienced through the weekend Special Operations.
In the mid-21st century, global corporations have replaced governments, controlling vast military forces through private security groups. Among them, Clayburn Industries is one of the most powerful and is at the beginning of the story led by the ruthless Sebastian Grimm.
Magnus Holter, once a trusted Clayburn Industries security commander, becomes the catalyst for a rebellion against corporate tyranny. The conflict begins in the Caribbean Crisis Special Operation, where mercenary forces hired by Clayburn Industries (you) intercept Holter’s faction stealing chemical weapons from a Clayburn facility. Pursuing him across the Panama Canal and Jamaica, they uncover a deeper conspiracy, leading to their betrayal by Clayburn Industries, after which Holter enlists their help.
The Black Sea Incursion Special Operation offers a flashback to Holter’s past, exposing CI’s brutal suppression of rival mercenary factions and its deep corruption. Holter is betrayed by Grimm and left to take the fall for an illegal corporate war. Narrowly escaping, he begins assembling allies to take down CI.
In Arabian Nights, Holter’s growing rebellion strikes at CI’s chemical weapons depots, uncovering damning evidence. Capturing Douglas O’Reilly, the leader of the Evocati mercenaries, they force him to testify against Grimm. Grimm is arrested after a climactic battle, and Clayburn Industries is effectively dismantled.
Moscow Calling sees an international organization called ISD attempting to restore order at a global summit, but an unknown force, (later referred to as Enigma), launches a devastating attack, decapitating the organization there and then. The ISD is shattered and Holter is captured. Enigma forces, with seemingly unlimited funding and advanced technology far beyond anything seen before, effectively take over the world, toppling governments and bankrupting corporations.
In American Dream, resistance fighters in the former U.S., led by Ryan Miller, battle extremist factions supported by Enigma. They uncover Enigma’s advanced military technology of unknown origin and its plans for global domination. Miller sacrifices himself to relay vital information to Hana Buric, a surviving resistance office.
Spirithaven shifts the war to Japan, where the resistance captures James Todd Litteral, a key Enigma operative. Holter, now a symbol of the resistance, leads an assault on Enigma’s hidden stronghold, culminating in a massive battle inside a volcano. He kills Enigma’s leader, Victor Blaze, but is mortally wounded. Furthermore, the destruction of Enigma’s fortress triggers a global catastrophe, sending the world into chaos.
In Apocalypse, three years after the collapse of the civilization, survivors form bands vying for scarce resources. New factions emerge, including characters like Ivo Rinaldi and Igor Kopylov, who scavenge the entire world for survival while clashing with local warlords. Around this time, Gail Espinoza is torn from this world by Murdoch (see Part 2: Perihelion), triggering its destruction after the final mission of the Apocalypse chain.
What seemed like an airship floated over a volcano, but it was unlike any airship I've seen before. Four giant impellers appeared to have kept it afloat but they seemed too small compared to the sheer bulk of the giant thing, its enormous steel body over three hundred feet long.
By our laws of physics, the craft had no right to stay in the air yet there it was, slowly moving away from the raging elemental inferno below it. There was clearly a crew on board – the laptop's speakers played a radio traffic recording from the strange craft, loud and clear, as if captured straight from the source.
No, not radio traffic – those were the unfiltered voices of the crew.
Something was happening.
The world on the screen... simply stopped, as if someone hit a pause button. The recording continued. The bodiless voices were clearly aware of what was going on judging from their surprised and gradually panicking voices. The shock soon grew into terror as both outside and inside of the ship, things started to just... I couldn't find the right word. Disappear would be the obvious first choice, except it wasn't that. For something to disappear it has to exist first but somehow, the events depicted on the screen implied the things gone weren't just gone. It was like they never existed in the first place. In their stead, an indescribable void – a non-color defying any attempts at description.
By that point, the voices were screaming, the minds behind them scorched by the sheer magnitude of the event unfolding before their eyes. Above, the clouds disappeared and the stars were going out, cluster by cluster. The event was clearly accelerating – the mountains, the trees, even the volcano faded away and so did many of the voices and parts of the ship. In the end, there was only one male voice left, a continuous tortured howl of a man condemned to the worst possible fate of the last witness of an entire world dying around him. And then... nothing, just darkness swallowing the scene.
Part 2: Perihelion
- This part of the story of Armored Warfare could be experienced through the Eclipse and Exile Battle Paths and the current Wages of Sin PvE mission.
The year is 2028 and the world order is slowly unraveling. The United States of America, once an undisputed leader of the free world, is wracked by internal strife after more than a century of prosperity.
The story is told from the perspective of Samuel Thorpe, a mercenary down on his luck presented with an offer he can’t possibly refuse. The initial task is to train a branch of a Chicago-based company by the name of Perihelion, its purpose as enigmatic as its founder, an investor by the name of David Murdoch.
In June 2028, Samuel Thorpe joins Perihelion’s forces in Arizona where he meets Gail Espinoza, a reliable soldier in Perihelion service. Soon after a nearby U.S. Army base is attacked in the night by unknown enemies and they go investigate along with the rest of the Perihelion mercs.
The attack is repelled but the origin is mysterious and they encounter several supernatural events, including a mysterious voice calling them by names and hijacking comms.
The attackers were after a cache of equipment protected by the U.S. Army on Murdoch’s behalf. Some of the equipment gets recovered by Thorpe. One of the pieces of tech is a data storage containing data about alternative universes, including the one Gail Espinoza comes from (this is revealed later in the story). Removing someone from their own reality causes the reality to deflate, gradually disappearing into nothingness.
Thorpe learns that Murdoch is aware of all this and is actively researching the events. Someone else is, however, also aware and there is the matter of the strange voice, so Thorpe and Espinoza travel to Europe and Africa to investigate, encountering multiple supernatural elements and strange occurrences. The first half of the story culminates in Africa where a chain of clues leads them. Espinoza is captured by an entity called The Traveller, who is after Murdoch, but Thorpe manages to set her free.
The second part of the story, Thorpe and Espinoza learn that they were “unique” in the sense that they do not exist in any other realities (and he used them to get rid of the Traveller as nobody else could do that). They discover that Murdoch is ancient and he assumed many identities over the thousands of years, including that of Marduk (an ancient god-like being). He is referred to by the Traveller as the “Exile” because he was exiled from his own reality for crimes he had committed. He seeks to return, thus dooming the reality Thorpe is from.
When Murdoch finds out Thorp andEspinoza know, he attempts to have them eliminated. They travel across the world to uncover his secrets and past and finally learn of a reality breach in South America that Murdoch is trying to use to open a gateway to other realities and has already triggered the collapse of this world. They travel to the breach but they are almost killed by Murdoch’s forces before finally confronting Murdoch himself.
By a stroke of luck they managed to destroy Murdoch’s vehicle, seemingly killing him and get to a place between worlds (“the Desolation”), from where they escape the reality to a different one resembling a peaceful version of the early 2000s. Their story ends there... or does it?
Part 3: Seahawks
- This part of the story of Armored Warfare can be experienced through the Seahawks Battle Path and the current Rate of Decay, Lone Star Special Operations, and regular PvE missions.
The world of 2042 is a broken one with corporations usurping much of the world’s resources and former superpowers like the United States of America are but a shadow of their former glory. This is a result of decades of deterioration, greed and unbridled exploitation of the most powerful consortiums, some of which are wealthier than entire continents combined. These corporations control private mercenary armies, equipped with all kinds of weaponry short of nuclear. Entire divisions of armored vehicles are at their disposal, ready to do their master’s bidding – not out of patriotism or loyalty, but for Credits – the universal currency of the new world.
In the late 2030s, a series of conflicts that would eventually become known as the Corporate Wars devastated large portions of Europe and the United States. Several major corporations including the British Clayburn Industries and the German Lodestar GmbH engaged in conflicts that left massive territories in corporate hands. Mercenaries, private security forces and rebel militias fought each other all over central Europe and the Balkans. The years of strife culminated in the 2039 Seahawk Rebellion when an entire battalion-sized unit of Clayburn Industries rose up against orders to commit genocide.
Unbeknownst to them, the uprising was in fact a clever ruse prepared by the mastermind behind the Clayburn Industries Corporation, Andrew Clayburn, to gain more influence across the world. Employing the services of a Corporate Wars veteran Sebastian Grimm known for his campaign against Clayburn’s rival, Lodestar GmbH, Clayburn’s plan worked almost flawlessly, resulting in thousands of dead enemies and a massive territory and wealth influx for the company, including a portion of the former American south. The handful of surviving Seahawks retreated to Istanbul, reduced to a life in shadows. There, they from the Black Company.
This lore is split into three separate segments:
- Battle Path “Seahawks” covers the complete beginning up to the point where Andrew Clayburn wins and eliminates the Seahawks
- Special Operations Rate of Decay and Lone Star cover the direct aftermath if this event and the era between the escape of the remaining Seahawks and their arrival in Istanbul
- PvE missions covering the era after their arrival in Istanbul and becoming mercenaries
That’s it, commanders. The lore is of course ongoing and you can expect more to come in the hopefully not so distant future.
See you on the battlefield!