The team behind the piratical PvP adventure game Sea of Thieves have announced a new host of changes in response to their Lost Sands adventure earlier this year. Adventures are the new story-driven content in Sea of Thieves which allows the game to progress its lore and story slowly with each new time-limited adventure. Some of these adventures such as Lost Sands and the currently ongoing Return of the Damned allow players to pick a side and influence the game’s story.

In Lost Sands, players were left to decide the fate of Golden Sands Outpost. In earlier adventures, the residents of the outpost had been kidnapped for a vile ritual by The Servant of the Flame, but they were inevitably rescued. However the outpost remained shrouded in ghostly fog as the raid by the Servant had caused the veil around the outpost to weaken, allowing phantoms from the Sea of the Damned to come through.

Players had the option to either help the Servant by using special Soulflame kegs to intensify the fog around the outpost and make it a haven for the damned; or to help the friendly fisherman Merrick in getting the outpost residents back on their feet. Players would accomplish this by delivering supplies to the outpost. Ultimately, it was Merrick and the forces of good that triumphed in Lost Sands.

Months later, Rare has finally begun implementing the consequences of these player-driven changes to the Sea of Thieves. In order to protect their new home, the residents of Golden Sands Outpost have begun fortifying the island. Stone formations are slowly taking shape, replacing the usual rickety shanty aesthetic of most outposts with one that’s more defensive. These changes represent not just the players decisions, but as it was the first player-driven choice it represents Rare’s willingness to follow through on a player-driven narrative for Sea of Thieves.

While we may never get to know what would have happened had the Servant gotten his way, we can guess. The state of the island would fluctuate based on which side was winning, with the fog growing clearer as Merrick’s side won, however something curious happened when the Servant was winning early on in the competition. When the fog grew dense, glass-eyed phantoms wearing masks began to haunt the island, standing in places as if they might become new NPCs. Who knows? Maybe a Servant victory would have given us a ghostly outpost populated with phantoms willing to do business?

Source