Following the cataclysmic events of Borderlands 3, Pandora’s moon, Elpis, collided with the hidden planet Kairos. Now, the population lives under the iron fist of the Timekeeper, the primary antagonist of Borderlands 4. During a visit to Gearbox’s Frisco, Texas, headquarters, interactions with the Timekeeper were fleeting, his voice an ominous presence, but his dedication to preserving order at any cost sparked a desire to learn more from the development team.
Since 2012 and the release of Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack has loomed large as the franchise’s most memorable villain. The challenge has been to create a villain equally compelling, without simply replicating Jack’s personality. The Calypso Twins in Borderlands 3 offered a different approach, but Borderlands 4 returns to the dictator archetype with the Timekeeper, a figure who has ruled Kairos for millennia.
When Elpis crashed into Kairos, it shattered the order the Timekeeper craves and set the events of Borderlands 4 in motion
“We’re very proud of all the stories and all of the antagonists that we’ve had before,” said senior project producer Anthony Nicholson. “We try to improve and diversify the way that they are, so when we go maniacal crazy, maybe we don’t do that for the next one, because there are a lot of stories that we can tell.”
The Timekeeper emerged early in development, driven by a desire to explore themes of order and chaos. The team asked themselves what happens when order is taken to its extreme. “We knew very early on that we wanted this to be a story about order and chaos and the spots in between where the players would operate,” explained narrative director Sam Winkler. “It started as sort of a logical endpoint of, ‘When you take order too far, what kind of person does that create? What kind of person has to thrive in that space? And then, how does that person react when the system starts to collapse and the chaos starts to be injected?’ And a lot of the railroad tracks just kind of fell into place at that point in terms of the dialogue.”
This exploration led to a villain willing to do anything to maintain control. “If you take either of them to their extreme, it can get weird and dark,” stated Gearbox president and co-founder Randy Pitchford. “If you take the organized, professional, mature side of things… the buttoned-up side of things, and take that to its extreme, you end up with this kind of rigid, almost totalitarian, kind of fascist, like, ‘This is the way,’ measured to the micron. Everything’s precise, and there’s no room for creativity or deviation. You take the other side to the extreme, and it’s anarchy and chaos, and a lot of bad s— happens because we’re not looking after things. That’s an interesting spectrum.”
The Timekeeper’s stronghold city, Dominion
The Timekeeper’s methods include cloaking the planet and using Command Bolts to control the population. He is a figure of unnerving calm. “His demeanor is very calm,” noted Nicholson. “He likes things very neat, he likes things very orderly. He’s unrattled. You won’t get him flying off the handle because he’s very confident in why he’s doing what he’s doing. As Vault Hunters, we need to discover what that is and, ultimately, push back against it because we can see the chaos that this order is bringing in every region on the planet.”
The narrative team aimed for a degree of believability. “He’s a control freak,” Winkler explained. “He is literally and metaphorically getting his hands dirty in the world of Kairos in a way that has made everyone unsettled and is preventing them all from having peace. And I think he knows it. He knows that he has this effect. He signs off a lot of conversations with ‘I’ll be watching,’ and people around the world are looking over their shoulder. I wanted this character to be someone who knows the effect that he has on people. But he’s also, at the same time, a bit victim to his own system. The bounds on him are very rigid, because he wants it that way; he wants everything to be rigid. And as we start chipping away at those boundaries, I really liked showing off how he responds to that and how it becomes a very personal thing for him.”
While his methods are extreme, he avoids the over-the-top personality of previous villains. “Borderlands has definitely become known for the character that calls you up and tells you you’re an assh—, and we wanted to try a character that was a little bit more reactive and a little bit more ominous,” Winkler shared. “He’s very present, but a lot of his presence is soft touch. And he reaches out and screws with you very directly. We wanted to make sure that he wasn’t just talking the talk, he was walking the walk, so the player is frustrated at this guy and wants to kick his ass.”
This is a departure from Handsome Jack. “We really wanted to have someone really be a bad guy and embrace the vibe of a bad guy in a different way,” creative director Graeme Timmins stated. “Whereas Handsome Jack was a bit of a smartass and he had a sense of humor, we wanted to approach this guy with a little more like, ‘No, he’s just a badass.’ He’s really about control. He doesn’t have that kind of warm personality that you could kind of buddy up to. He’s just a bad guy. And it feels good to kill bad guys, so that was a big deal. So, we just wanted to make sure it was like, right to the point, this is a bad guy. When you start the game, you’ll see why he’s a bad guy, and you’ll be on the ride for the rest of the game.”
The Timekeeper’s grip on Kairos began to loosen after the events of Borderlands 3. Lilith’s teleportation of Elpis resulted in the destruction of the planetary cloak and the emergence of a new faction: individuals who removed their Command Bolts, sacrificing their minds for freedom. On a forum dedicated to *Borderlands* lore, a user named VaultHunter76 commented, “Something fundamental had shifted,” mirroring the sentiment of many within Kairos’s settlements.
We will learn more about the Timekeeper’s past during the game. “We are entering in media res for the Timekeeper’s story,” said managing director of narrative Lin Joyce. “He’s been around in this position, so thinking about, ‘Who is he right now for the player?’ but also for us, ‘How did he get there? What was his journey up to that point? Why is he this way? Why does he hold onto order so tightly?’ Then, only in answering those questions are we able to challenge and help crack this perfect façade that he’s built. But that’s all spoilers, so I’m not going to tell you!”
My interaction with Idolator Sol, described by Winkler as the Timekeeper’s “number-one fanboy,” was intense. The battle set a high expectation for future encounters.
- Emphasis on believability and understandable motivation for the villain.
- Focus on order vs. chaos theme with consequences of extremes.
- Departure from the comedic style of previous villains.
- Exploration of Timekeeper’s backstory through gameplay.
A tweet from @Kairos_Resistor read: “The Timekeeper claims to protect us, but from what? Freedom? Individuality? He’s built a gilded cage!”
I’m already looking forward to disrupting the Timekeeper’s order when Borderlands 4 launches on September 12. I hope that it goes well becasue I reall want to play.