The promise of Borderlands 4 looms large, and with it, whispers of Dominion, the Timekeeper’s heavily guarded city. It’s meant to be the culmination of everything the player experiences. While access is gated until later in the game, when the Vault Hunters prepare to face the Timekeeper, the promise of a densely packed, vertically-oriented urban sprawl has fans eager to breach its walls.
Entry into Dominion hinges on an event triggered on Elpis, Pandora’s moon, now orbiting Kairos. This celestial alignment serves as the unlikely gateway to the Timekeeper’s domain. But don’t expect order and predictability just because the Timekeeper craves control. A glimpse behind the curtain reveals a far more complex reality.
One striking detail, an unusual one, concerns Elpis’s unlikely orbit. This celestial rearrangement has disrupted Kairos’s tides, causing unpredictable weather patterns and bizarre geological events across the planet. This has put a significant strain on Kairos’s ecosystem, expanding into issues of resource scarcity and political instability within the planet’s various factions. This seemingly incidental narrative element ultimately underscores the core principle: even the Timekeeper’s grand designs have unintended and destabilizing consequences.
“Even though we’re breaking in, really trying to get to the Timekeeper, he’s still in his element,” senior project producer Anthony Nicholson has said. “He’s still very calm and sure of his plan and what he has in store.” Despite the Vault Hunters’ imminent arrival, the Timekeeper remains unfazed, confident in his machinations.
But who will the Vault Hunter meet once inside Dominion’s walls?
- Familiar factions, locked in conflict.
- A visually stunning, vertically-oriented cityscape.
- Side missions offering deep dives into Dominion’s underbelly.
- A narrative challenging preconceived notions.
According to creative director Graeme Timmins, the Timekeeper taunts players throughout the game. Even during a tour of Dominion, Timmins suggested that the Timekeeper continues to subtly manipulate events, ensuring his influence is felt every step of the way.
Players will not be alone in their attempt to storm Dominion. “Obviously, you make a lot of friends along your way, and they’re all going to help and contribute to your time here in the city,” Timmins added. These allies, forged throughout the game, will be essential in navigating the city’s treacherous landscape and battling its formidable defenses. It raised more questions than answers.
Dominion’s design is meant to mirror the diverse environments encountered throughout the game. Each zone the player previously explored has a dedicated biome within the city, creating a cohesive yet varied landscape. Andrew Reiner, global creative executive, pointed out that Dominion is visible from afar, fostering a sense of anticipation and emphasizing the ultimate goal. “As you’re starting your journey in Fadefields, you’ll see that tower in the distance,” Reiner said. “That’s actually there. That’s not a skybox. It’s not in the background. [You] can fly out of here, back to the starting point of the game. That content is always there.”
One intriguing aspect is Dominion’s internal chaos. Despite the Timekeeper’s obsession with order, the city itself is a hotbed of conflict. The various factions within Borderlands 4 are constantly at odds, adding another layer of complexity to the Vault Hunter’s mission. This internal strife is not merely window dressing; it has deep implications for the broader narrative.
There’s a brewing civil war within Dominion, fueled by the Timekeeper’s ruthless tactics. This has created a network of resistance fighters within the city’s underbelly, desperately seeking a way to overthrow his reign. These resistance fighters often communicate through encrypted messages on Kairos’s version of X.com, leaving clues about their plans and exposing potential vulnerabilities in the Timekeeper’s defenses. This adds a layer of intrigue to the gameplay and presents players with opportunities to sabotage the Timekeeper’s operations from within.
“There are a lot of important story moments that happen here in the city,” Timmins says. “It is a whole ‘nother zone’s worth of content. It’s also the most content-packed. Being the city, we prioritized really making it feel like an urban sprawl. We slammed together lots of locations that are stacked on top of each other.”
Dominion offers more than just a main story path; it’s teeming with side-missions that delve deeper into the city’s lore and its inhabitants. These side-missions often involve building relationships with the city’s quirky NPCs, revealing hidden secrets and uncovering the Timekeeper’s darker machinations. Some of these NPCs have garnered a following on in-universe social media platforms like Facbook and Instagram, with players eagerly discussing their backstories and speculating on their roles in the overall narrative. “There’s tons more side-missions that are located here as well,” Timmins said. “Actually, some of my personal favorite side-missions happen to be in the city. And they’re pretty lengthy, too. Some of the side-missions in Dominion, in particular, have a lot of chained missions that you end up spending a lot of time with some of these NPCs, and some of the relationships you actually make in the side-missions in the city, in particular , or at least for me , stand out as some of the more interesting ones.”
The environmental storytelling within Dominion aims to challenge players’ expectations and reveal the true nature of the Timekeeper’s reign. The city’s chaotic state is a direct consequence of his obsessive control, highlighting the paradox of his rule. While order is his stated goal, the methods he employs create instability and suffering.
Borderlands 4 arrives on Septemebr 12. Get ready to storm Dominion, challenge the Timekeeper, and uncover the secrets hidden within this chaotic urban sprawl.