#borderlands lore

So, in Borderlands, Eridians are the alien species that seem to be almost primordial and extremely advanced compared to the rest of the galaxy(Possibly every galaxy). Their ruins seemingly are on many planets and on Pandora, they're all over said planets(we'll get to that later). Their style of building is very ancient and esoteric, even compared to modern earth times their architecture is very old. It's obvious that their buildings are also very foreign, full of purple swirls with grey rock and mostly composed of curvature in the entire figure. Their society also seemed to be class based(such as modern earth society) that was capable of good leadership and Warfare.

Eridians originate(seemingly) from the Planet of Nekrotafeyo. The meaning of Nekrotafeyo is "Cemetery" and in Universe it means "First Landing" and "Homeworld"(Said by Nyriad). The in-universe meaning is very interesting as it does suggest that Eridians do not actually originate from the planet, which explains my thoughts below.

Eridian Vaults:

One of the most showing and interesting aspects of the Eridians are the vaults. Anyone who knows anything about the series knows about the Vaults. Vaults are gigantic labyrinths containing large powerful monsters. The reason to keep so many monsters is not known and is a strange way to have supreme power in a place like vaults. I'm not really sure how people would control these creatures, like Jack, since they are creatures who immediately try to kill you and only Phaseleech can really benefit from this power. Vaults are opened by keys that have been kept over the galaxies and usually need a power of a Siren to charge so vaults can be opened. It's unknown how many vaults actually exist but it is many and we've yet to see all of them. Vaults might contain more importance than we know as of now, interestingly enough, in Krieg's DLC, Tannis tries to see "what makes Psychos tick" and she decides that it is something called "Vaulthalla" in which it is literally an Eridian vault that contains many gold and riches. You could say that it's just the memory of the Vault in Borderlands 2. And yes, I would agree but Tannis does imply that this is something in every Psycho's mind and it could look like this. I do use look very loosely because it could just be something that's metaphorical and as I said, the memory. Though, if this is the true look of all Psycho's minds, it would possibly mean psychosis and madness in the Borderlands Universe are somehow linked to the Eridians. Although, highly unlikely but would be pretty interesting.

Sirens and Eridians:

The next important aspect of Eridians are Sirens. Now, it's not clear if Sirens actually originate from Eridians but they are connected in some way. It seems in a very ancient time, Sirens and Eridians lived together in some sort of society, or so it seemed. There were 7 Sirens in General, but 6 of them are ones that seemingly are the only ones that live together, the 7th still hasn't even been mentioned by name or power.

Sirens and Eridians at least spiritually are connected, they power their technology, Eridians can interfere with the mental space of Siren's(See Ava). In the case of Pandora, Sirens are usually always drawn to Pandora at some point in their life due to Eridian influence.

Eridians and Pandora; The Destroyer and Guardians:

The Eridians built Pandora, the entire planet for one purpose; To be a prison. A prison for the Destroyer, the ultimate threat to all life in the Universe. The entire upper mantle of Pandora is made of Eridium, and then the planet hosts the Destroyer inside itself, but multiple parts. In Borderlands 1 we destroy one part of it and in Borderlands 3 another, there is more for it can't really be destroyed. Nyriad says this: "What is the Destroyer? It is a mouth with endless appetite. It is hate that never cools. It is the long shadow cast by our universe against the moldering sun of time. It will never truly be contained. Merely made to wait until its chains slip - or are slipped for it." While yes, the words "It will never be destroyed" are never said she says it's unending, it is purely an energy of hatred. And as we see it does come up in multiple places on Pandora, but I suppose we'll get an answer to that one day.

I've been mentioning by someone named Nyriad. She was a Siren from very long ago, how long ago isn't known or important but she is quite important to how Eridian's are supposedly gone. She along with her other Siren sisters were found by the Eridians and then soon after Edirians and Sirens lived side by side. It's possible that Eridians could've been seeking Sirens out for their ability to power Eridian technology. It seems thereafter Sirens and Eridians built a strong relationship with each other and in turn, Eridians told Nyriad, at least, their lore and plans. While not clear what Nyriad knew about their history. She was the catalyst for their assumed extinction. The Pyre of Stars required billions of lives to power, only so that it could contain the Destroyer. This lead to Nyriad sealing herself away so that Phaseleech could not be passed on, but unfortunately, Typhon DeLeon did uncover Nyriad and allowed for the Phase power to continue.

Guardians are their namesake, it is said by Nyriad that they are the creations of the Eridians and considered to be technologically astounding. They were purposefully kept from self-realization so that they would be keen on following the orders of the Eridians. But it seems some of the Guardians have gained the ability of self-realization being able to speak and act on their own. It could depend of the "Soul" of them as Nyriad puts it they are just like data that are ready to be transferred to multiple vessels. Apparently these "souls" are kept somewhere but not stated where. Guardians seemingly have the most potential of anything in Borderlands; to become extremely powerful and have incredible self-sustain such as self repair and self augmentation.

There are many types of Guardians in the series, all of them being:

Spectre

Wraith

Arch

Sera

Principal

Cheru

Reaper

Dominant

Opha(Elder, Virtuous and Superior variant)

Putti

Pondor

Herald

Possessed variants

Fallen

Diadem

Revenant

Grave

Ward

Berserker

Summoner

Anathema

Scourge

Overseer

Watcher

Seer

So as you can see there are a lot of them, as to why there are so many, I have no idea because I would assume you would only want to make very few variants of a guardian system. But, some of the named ones, are probably the ones that have upgraded themselves as they are visually bulkier and can do more in comparison to other Guardians. It's also very interesting to note that some Guardians share the name or are reminiscent to the names of Angels in the Christian Angelology.

Sera from Seraphim

Cheru from Cherubim

Opha from Ophanim

Dominant from Dominions

Virtuous from Virtues

Principal from Principalities

Arch from Archangel

This is actually interesting as Guardians could be considered like Angels, not Biblically accurate ones, but the winged humanoids. Whether or not they have powers that could attribute to an Angelic or Magical, they do fly and can produce lasers but it's nothing awestriking. Whether or not they can develop more power is shown:

Guardians we know that have very special and extreme abilities are the Watcher, Overseer and Seer. All of them have the ability to speak human language and show some abilities such as gravity manipulation and foresight. It's assumed that the Guardians gained some of these abilities such as the foresight, such Guardians are very large and in the case of the Watcher it just seems to be larger and masked. It's possible that it and the Seer had a talk or had tried to influence the path same as the Seer.

Eridians... Are any alive?

So... The question and the answer is probably not. Since we've never seen an Eridian and every Eridian has stated to be dead with no contradictions. Every being we've seen so far are just Guardians. While it's possible out of all of the Vaults, we're bound to meet one living Eridian, nothing is to say we'll ever see one.

Nyriad says we must never find the seventh, Siren is never used but we obviously know. As we can tell from the Borderlands Universe, Humans are still not immortal. It's possible, however, Eridians are. Nekrotafeyo means "First Landing" which implies they originate from somewhere else. They've possibly always known about the Destroyer, if this is assumed they had a way to know that, the ultimate threat of the universe. Their knowledge is massive and quite deep. So, the point: Let's assume Eiridians can just live a long time due to their technology. Humans in this universe cannot, other forms of very intelligent life other than Humans have not been shown... All but Eridians. Nyriad is also quite old, as her messages are written in stone. I theorize the final Siren could be the final Eridian. The only laws of a Siren seem to be they must inherit one of the six Phases and they tend to be Female. But even that can be derivative as Troy was a Siren even if he was just one due to being parasitic. And never has it been said a Siren has to be Human, they just tend to be. But, it is possible the Siren is just a Human who has been kept alive via magic or something similar, which isn't unlikely and might be the entire thing they're going for. But, that is my theory.

Eridian Weapons and Tech:

Eridians have many manufactured weapons and accessories for the benefit of the wearer. They have laser guns that are seemingly programmed in Binary. However, oddly enough these guns do not appear in future games which possibly suggest they are cut from canon. The other things they produce are the artifacts in 1 and 3. These are rocks that boost the ability of the wearer such as adding elemental damage and other aspects, whether or not any of this in the terms of canon has importance is unknown.

One of the most special tech from the Eridians is the Eridian Fabricator, for some reason this gun uses Eridium to literally make Guns and other items. This one is very strange as why would you make a gun to make guns and how does it know to make a Torgue or Jakobs weapon, for example. It's not entirely clear and I assume it doesn't hold much water in canon.

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Well there it is, all of it at least all I can think of right now. If I update by giving new info or new section I'll do a Patch Note like list at the top and if I do basic edits I'll RB.