Going through Quake Champions' Lore Codices

Quake Champions Key Art Ranger. Taken from ArtStation.

I don't think I need to tell you how awesome Quake is. There're a lot of maps in Arcade Dimensions waiting for my return, but for now I want to talk about the latest game in the series. To be specifically, about its "hidden" stories about its characters. A lot of people want to see Ranger's return, especially after Blazkowicz and Doomguy got a couple of new games in last few years.

After seeing one of those amazing Imgur albums dedicated to Ranger, I wondered what else could be hidden in Quake Champions. Even though I'm not a fan of these "lore speculations", I think looking at various Lore Codices from the game and try to assemble a full picture that could offer us a glimpse of what will happen in potential new Quake game. I don't think I would be able to make as much justice as those who made those pictures, but I'll give it a try.

Luckily for us, I found Church of Quake that collected them all in one place. Since I never really played Champions (loading and navitaging through main menu is impossible for me), it could've been hard for me to get access to Lore Codex. 

"Quake" Universe.

There's actually not that much in Ranger's Codex as he got into the Arena after destroying Shub-Niggurath, so nothing about Scourge of Armagon, Dissolution of Eternity and Dimension of the Past. We learn about Gilman here: a scientist that built a Slipgate for American goverment and it's not the first time we'll hear about him. We also discover that Grunts had "some kind of half-done mode in their skin". It also mentions how his commander ran away, which is covered in detail in "Commander At The Slipgate." Its last chapter is a direct reference to Quake's manual since another command (I guess) calls Ranger to get him there. What's interesting is that he says that, and I quote, "HE IS THE FUCKING OFFERING". At that point in time, Gilman went through the Slipgate and "ascended".

It's very likely that Visor comes from Ranger's Earth because his Codex tells about US scientist "G" who created him. Steel visor on clone's face hides runes around his empty ocular orbits that might as another connection between Gilman and "Quake". Last Codex says how Visor with Soldier Prime (a genetic hybrid of task force and prisoners) went rogue to a covert military complex in Southwest USA. It doesn't seem to be Ranger's Slipgate Complex as it's supposedly in Southeast, but hey... There are Slipgates, so it's not an issue here.

Death Knight was once a king, becoming turning into the servant of the Black Goat. Before his master was destroyeb by "Trespasser" that claimed her Dire Orb as his own... Apparently, Garena's sister survived one of his slaughters. That's what Church says, because I thought it was a future unholy paladin of Volkerh herself. As you can imagine, I'm not that good when it comes to Quake's lore...

"Wor" Universe.

Even though it might seem not that relevant for Ranger's story, I still want to look a little bit at Strogg & Peeker's Codex. Makron's order to not fight Bittermen when he was going through Cerberon and killing all the stroggs that got directly opposite instructions. Mentioning of "runes" and "magic" is also very intriguing. If Bittermen's story in Quake 3 Arena is anything to go by, it's very likely that infiltrator followed the orders of the new Makron and captured him alive for experiments.

There's also reference to Greiss (Scalebearer's race) and Athena has some references to Quake 2 & 4, but I'm not going through them.

Conclusion.

 "Gladiator" skin for Ranger.
Taken from ArtStation.

Well, that was kind of messy. I think it's very interseting that id Software actually put all this lore in Champions and possibly even tries to deal with one of Quake's issues: identity crisis. I wouldn't be surprised if Strogg is a apotheosis of Gilman's cybernetic creations (I guess Armagon is most likely his doing as well) in another dimensions that seeked the warrior similar to Ranger.

As for the guy himself, he seems to have a lot of friends left over after defeating the Dragon and destoying Temporal Energy Converter... If Missions Packs will stay canon, which I think they will. Why not? Having Visor and Death Knight as Bossess in new Quake game would surely be interesting, as well as Dire Orb's role in it. Another evil/crazy scientist as an antagonist might be too similar to DOOM '16. Not a big deal, honestly.

I know I might be too optimistic when it comes to Quake, but who knows what we'll get this year. 25th Anniversary is right around the corner and id Software is probably doing something for it. Maybe another studio is working on new game, maybe not. 

I don't think all of this is just a lore for the sake of adding lore.