Winter Convergence Festival: Behind the Scenes

newworld.com:

Discover the holiday magic behind the lore and design of Winter Convergence Festival. Our Audio and Narrative Teams took inspiration from various holiday festivities to make the event feel like a natural extension of what you love about New World. Enjoy the ambience of Winter Villages, confront the Winter Warrior’s brutality in an open-world boss fight, and immerse yourself in nostalgic sounds as you complete quests for event-specific rewards. Here’s how we brought the holiday season to life in Aeternum.

A mysterious creature referring to themselves as the Winter Wanderer appears in Aeternum at the start of the Convergence season, but the denizens of Aeternum are doubtful of its bold claim. Tales of the Winter Warrior and Frigid Folk are just that, tall tales to tell around the campfire! However, a string of strange disturbances fitting the stories of the Frigid Folk are occurring around the island.

The tales are true. The Winter Warrior and its legion of Frigid Folk are behind the occurrences and are exacting their plan of a forever winter! Real or not, the creature known as the Winter Wanderer is the key to fighting back.

We wanted to introduce the backstory of the Winter Wanderer in stages. We knew we’d use yetis as major characters, both a good and an evil version. They would speak their own language, consisting of grunts, growls, and roars created by our amazing audio team. That certainly made sense for the Winter Warrior, the savage yeti, but the Wanderer needed to be able to communicate with the players as a quest giver. So it was decided to make the Wanderer a yeti by way of a magical curse. He wasn’t always a yeti, and if you pay attention to the Wanderer’s dialogue, he hints at a previous life, mentioning distant memories of a warm fire, children’s laughter, and the beautiful sound of ringing bells. The Wanderer’s memories will slowly return to him, allowing the players to help him piece together who he was before the curse, and more importantly, why he