#Thank u to my bestie for letting me scream abt borderlands lore in the park today I really needed that 😤😁

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Things I am pretty sure are true:

1. The Eridians are still alive and used the Machine to go back to their home dimension

Nyriad was the one to control the Machine, but she really didn't know wtf was going on. Tannis could use it to open a portal to Pandora... Who is to say it couldn't open one to another dimension like the Vaults. Also the Overseer mentions that the Guardians' masters have left the house... Not that they've died. She even talks about proving our worth to them as if they are still around and watching... I think she knows.

2. The Guardians specifically want more Vault Hunters because they want them to open more Vaults

"War is coming, ur gonna need all the Vault Hunters you can get, blah blah", none of the Guardians actually stopped the Vaults of 2, Tales, and 3 from getting opened, the Watcher let Zarps actually give the info of where the Vault was to Jack in tps and did nothing to stop her death and help Elpis get destroyed, then did nothing in 2 to stop Jack from opening the Vault, in fact in 3 the Seer is mad at Lilith, not the twins. And what did Lilith do? Took the key to Pandora away.

3. The Guardians can possess people/things/stuff, not just other Guardian bodies (unless...)

Cannot fucking believe I called this one with my silly H2O AU but you know... See: Grave and Ward possessing Graveward, and the Ava podcast bonus dlc where the Seer possesses a dude

Things I am fairly confident are true, but also if we get more evidence I'm not complaining:

1. Humans were created by/aided in their development by Eridians

The murals in the Vaults. Just. That. The fact that apparently we lived side by side and then magically forgot that tiny piece of info after the Eridians peaced out. Sirens exist for no clear reason other than 'space magic??' and have an obvious connection to eridium and the Vaults themselves and can absorb Guardian wisps and Eridium. The lost legion were psuedo sirens (notably, they were dudes!) created by hanging around in the Vault on Elpis with some toxic slutch. Human souls/spirits/ghosts/whatever are represented by wisps, the same things we see when Guardians are killed, and the same thing we see when Lilith gets her powers back. We can see the 'bodies/forms' of those wisps using Eridian tech grafted onto a gun. Possible addition: humans can be possessed by Guardians. Compatable hardware? (possible addition: we are living in a simulation crafted by the Eridians, so them leaving for a higher dimension was just them leaving the simulation. See how Guardians do their quick moves and leave behind holograms/trails that look pixelated, and how Tannis could create the mayhem system (also Digistruct Peak, tbh, eridium and salami fingers is NOT a good enough explanation). Also, see the Vault on Elpis having an eridium crystal be a sort of simulation you enter to fight the sentinel. You beat him in that simulation and he enters as his Actual Vault Monster form, which is significantly bigger... Because you're inside a vr crystal. Counter argument: its a video game series and sometimes they just want cool stuff to look cool... No consensus until more info is given.)

2. The Vault Monsters were experiments done by the Eridians- either they were built by them or experimented on by them

The eye of the Destroyer shows fear when injected with slag in TPS and then does some stuff that greatly resembles Siren powers. Non-Siren humans (and animals) start to go mad and mutate really fast when exposed to (any) Eridian stuff long term- Sledge's mine, Hector's whole team, Terramorphous being a thresher that lives in Eridian ruins and grew to be absolutely huge (granted they're from Elpis, so maybe they could grow that size on Pandora naturally, but still...), Bloodwing, Krieg!, etc, etc. I've gone over this hundreds of times :Y. The Warrior has Eridian stone tech grafted onto it with the wings/tail thing it has and has no free will. The Rampager absorbs wisps to change itself into different forms. Why were they locked away? Iunno. Too dangerous, not needed, got bored, etc? For what purpose were they made/experimented on? Personally, for the more organic ones, I think just because they could. Maybe a mix of 'we wanna profit off this unethical science' and 'let's see what we can do bc nobody here can stop us'. For the rock boys (Traveler, Sentinel) I think they had a specific purpose, like they actually tie into the themes of their Vaults, which is awesome. So I assume they had a greater purpose there. Even if it was just 'protect what's inside'.

3. The Guardians want Vault Hunters to open more Vaults so they can possess the Vault Monsters inside them

A mashing together of 2 and 3 from the above category. Vault Monsters are strong. Most Guardians, not so much (the Martyr and the Seer are the exceptions, (probably the Watcher as well), not the standard). In the Vault on Pandora that opens when you kill the Destroyer, there was a Guardian mind core that Tannis uses to make the mayhem system on sanc-3. Why was it in there? We will never know. (unless...). Addition that's not so much proof as it is another related theory, but: the Guardians are bitter that they were left to do their jobs when the Eridians ditched them (see prev post) and potentially cannot stop until they escape through other methods (tricking others into being their successors (the Overseer) or possessing other bodies that aren't bound by ur creator's rules).

Things I desperately hope BL4 is about:

1. Lilith took Elpis to the other dimension and is currently with the Eridians, and the game is all about finding her/them alongside a B-plot, and then BL5 is gonna be putting down the Guardian rebellion with them.

I still hope the Eridians are gonna be the ultimate villains of the series, but, in the event they're not and gearbox makes me sob irl, this would be a cool thing for Lilith since she'd get to master her powers (character goal) and follow in the footsteps of Nyriad. Additionally, the Vault Map in her room on Sanc-3 simply shows the firehawk symbol when clicked on. It was originally meant to point towards Vaults (places where u can enter the other dimension), but now points towards the firehawk symbol. That could mean she's gone to the other dimension and is chilling with the Eridians, or is permanently in phasewalk, or smth between the two. I'm guessing the B-plot will be the Guardians possessing Vault Monsters and stuff, tho I would not be opposed to uhhh Anshin and Pangolin lore. Pls???

2. The events of BL4 are going to have the Guardians as the villains, but the plot twist at the end is that they are gearing up (via possessing Vault Monsters that the VHs are going to race to kill) to go to war with the still-alive Eridians (or another enemy they were left to fight if the Eridians actually are dead, like the Seraphs (boo)) and we end up working together with some of them in BL5 to fight the Eridians, who we learn are kinda assholes and Just Another Corporation, let's be real

Uhhh see previous post bc I go into wayyy more detail, but basically the Guardians and the Eridians ditching them are a direct parallel to BL1 where Dahl ditches their workers on Pandora. Yeah, bandits end up being enemies in-game, but there are also groups of ppl who were left behind that are just trying to survive and do what they can to make a life for themselves and others. Can you blame them for being angry and bitter at Dahl? Tbh, I can't. I can't really blame the Guardians for being angry at the Eridians for leaving them, either. (Fuck you, Scourge the Martyr tho, I have beef with you, Personally.) There will likely be groups of Guardians that attack humans (esp if humans really were created by Eridians and the Guardians are jealous of our free will and or genuinely think humanity/Nyriad killed all the Eridians with the Machine, leaving the Guardians to rust), and then groups that are willing to work with us in order to accomplish their goals. Bonus points if in BL5 we get to work alongside all the Vault Monsters in the series as they are possessed by Guardians. I think that'd be neat and a cool send-off for the series.

3. The Guardians are the villains, the Eridians are Actually Dead, and the Watcher just wanted to help us prepare for the Guardian War by doing um... Nothing for a majority of the time.

Bad ending. Worse than the first option here, because at least then we'd get to see the Eridians in action even tho they're total jerks. Potentially, the Watcher was working behind the scenes with Lilith, since even Tannis didn't know why Lilith had an Eridian chest in her room and theorizes something more was going on. The Guardians are pissed off at humanity/Nyriad for killing the Eridians with the Machine and leaving the Guardians to do their jobs pointlessly forever with no Masters. Also for making that sacrifice be in vain by trying to open Pandora bc... greed. I'm guessing the Seer and the Martyr (Scourge) fucking hate each other lmao. It would be neat if we teamed up with a small subset of Guardians (like the Watcher) to fight other Guardians and got to witness giant Vault Monsters battling against each other. That's all I can really say abt this one.