Meta:Two Worlds Wiki series and lore interview with Dirk P. Hassinger of TopWare Interactive

This is a Two Worlds Wiki original interview with Dirk P. Hassinger of Topware Interactive by Korra II Allison Baskerville. The questions were sent on October 14, 2021 at 5:00 Mountain time. Answers were received at 7:46.

Questions and Answers

Interview Dirk P. Hassinger of Reality Pump

Korra II: Does the continent in Two Worlds have a name? I've only ever seen it referred to as Antaloor and the world as "The World of Antaloor". I'm trying to make lore wiki pages and that has made it difficult as I don't know what to call it.

Dirk: Antaloor is the name of world. And there are regions with a name, too. In the original box was a map oft he world. Don`t you have it?

Korra II After some fellow fans dug around in the Two Worlds files, they found an unused unicorn skin. Were they ever going to be a rideable mount or just a rare creature (like deer)?

Dirk: It was planned to have a unicorn in the game, but as passive; not ridable. But I think it never made it in the game.

Korra II Will there be any more Two Worlds II DLC?

Dirk: No. Shattered Embrace is the last.

Korra II Is Shattered Embrace still being worked on?

Dirk: Only on bug fixes.

Korra II Something I've debated with other fans about was the ending of Two Worlds II. When Kira dresses up and becomes Emperor, do people refer to her as Emperor Gandohar or Emperor Kira? Does she take on the role of Gandohar to prevent chaos?

Dirk: No idea.

Korra II I have a bunch of questions regarding the timeline and online missions.

• Korra II The first online mission "Way to Vokar" starts in an unnamed village. Do you have an internal name for this village?
  • Dirk: no

• Korra II The questline for the online missions presumably takes place on Eikronas. But it's never verified. Are you able to verify that?
  • Dirk: I cannot rember

• Korra II The Pirates of the Flying Fortress Missions as well. I don't know where exactly Grodvik is supposed to be, but I assume Eikronas.
  • Dirk: Yes.

• Korra II I figured the unnamed desert city in the mission Keep Your Friends Close... was on the continent of Erimos. Do you guys have a name for the city and is it on Erimos (lore wise, obviously not physically there in the single player).
  • Dirk: No.

• Korra II Same question for the Echoes 1 missions. Do they take place on the Two Worlds II continents or some new continents, landmass or islands? They have Two Worlds II monsters and scenery, so I've been wondering.
  I haven't played the Echoes 2 missions yet. (Edit: I played the first was didn't pay attention to the lore or quest updates. But I have the same questions for those. Where do they take place?)
  • Dirk: I have played it.

Korra II When do the Two Worlds II novels take place, timeline wise? Based on context clues (mentions of Auras, Dr. Lavarius and such) I figure they're after Gandohar takes over. But beyond that, I couldn't find much.

Dirk: At the times of Two Worlds II and after the main game.

Korra II The Two Worlds II Echoes 1 DLC missions have letters from Dr. Lavarius. They say "It's been 6 years since we talked at Veneficus University". Is that supposed to be directed at the hero? Or the online nameless mercenary.

Dirk: At the hero.

Korra II When does Tenebrae and Shattered Embrace take place? In Two Worlds, an NPC mentions the year as being 345. So Two Worlds II then takes place in 350 and I've based the timeline off of that source. It's given me a starting point. But the Tenebrae and Shattered Embrace just loosely says "in ancient times" and "hundreds of years ago." so it's difficult to pin down *exactly* when anything is taking place and thus making it difficult to make a proper timeline.

Dirk: CoT and SE definitly play some years after the PotfF. Maybe 10 years.

Korra II It's noted in the Two Worlds manual that Groms, Varns, Trachidis, Serpents, etc. are all races. That made me wonder what's considered a race. Are Giants a race? Based on the Forgotten Settlement quest, they seem intelligent and capable of communicating with humans.

Dirk: The word „race“ is difficult regarding political correctness in our days. But if you say „genus“ instead it is also problematical. In a fantasy game you have fantasy races. And yes, I would say in a game, Giants are a different genus than humans. But we avoid the use the word race, because they are like huge humans. In biology today, the species Homo sapiens is neither divided into races nor into subspecies. Race is a controversial term for a group of individuals of the same (animal) species, which are classified on the basis of arbitrarily chosen similarities of the phenotype (appearance, physiological characteristics, behavior).

Korra II Do all dragons have a human form like Cassara?

Dirk: In Two Worlds it is like this.

Korra II In Two Worlds, Mercenary can kill off Four Stones by poisoning their well. Gor Gammar with a necromancer's spell, The Forgotten Settlement by giants. Are any of them canon? I'm assuming Ashos being destroyed by Orcs is canon.

Dirk: I do not understand the question. Are you sure that „canon“ in the right word?

Korra II What race are the gods? Throglin looks like a dwarf. Maliel looks human and Aziraal and Yatholen look beastlike based on their concept art.

Dirk: gain – please avoid „race“ Gods are Gods and no species.

Korra II In Two Worlds II, the character Kaineth really seems to have a thing for Gandohar. Were they ever a couple? (Asking for a friend).

Dirk: no

Korra II Was Reist a human or a demon or something else entirely?

Dirk: A demon

Korra II I discovered old interviews from the *original* Two Worlds when it was being developed by a different dev and published by Topware I believe. Do you guys still have any of that old lore or game builds around or are those lost to time?

Dirk: From 1998 to 2001 the developer Metropolis (RoboRumble, Gorky 17) worked on a game called Two Worlds to be published by TopWare. This project was cancelled because of failure of development. But the trademark was registered. In 2006 we used a slightly modified Logo and the name Two Worlds for this RPG from Reality Pump. Finding a name and registering international trademarks is difficult and expensive.

Korra II Will we ever see more about the Dwarves? It seems that their race is pretty much forgotten in the series. In Two Worlds, there's a single mine full of hostile dwarves and I only remember encountering a single dwarf in the arena in Two Worlds II.

Dirk: Dwarfs are problematic with animations, Mocap and design. We avoided them.

Korra II What happened to the burned forest and Oswaroh in Two Worlds? Why are they dessicated.

Dirk: The landscape was to boring.

Korra II Same with southern Antaloor in Two Worlds. I was reading the Steam Trading Cards and it said that the Orcs run Antaloor south of the Gon, but there's a lot of destroyed houses that look freshly destroyed and Hadeborg castle was taken over. To me, it always implied there were settlements there until the war with the Orcs in Two Worlds.

Dirk: I cannot rember why it is like this.

Korra II A friend sent me a Two Worlds card with a gold signature on it. Who signed those?

Dirk: If it is a post card size, I suppose it is signed by Harold Faltermayer

Korra II The promotional material for Luciendar and the other Two Worlds II bonus swords mention lore:

• Maliel's downfall mentions Eomar, an elf warrior.
• Anathros mentions a warlord by that very name, but it's not entirely clear if they were a man or an orc.
• Luciendar mentions a dragon near Hatmandor named Tang Raoul and Tan Roul. Which ones is the canon name? It says the dragon terrorized them for 100 years. Do you guys have an exact year in canon? The art mentions the warrior Luciendar (also spelled Luciender), King Lihamed and caves of Calindah.

Dirk: I cannot remember. Most weapons in Two Worlds are licensed from Kit Rae and already had names (e.g. Luciendar Sowrd of Light). Sometimes we added or modifid something to make a weapon better fitting tot he game.

Korra II Is there anything more I can add to the wiki? Exact years, more about these warriors, dates or king? Speaking of the king, was this Hatmandor king separate from the king who rules the Kingdom of Cathalon? Pre-Gandohar, did each continent have their own kingdom?

Dirk: Difficult to say. Currently I have not the time to read your complete Wiki.

Korra II The Two Worlds Curse of Souls, Tainted Blood, Demo and picture packs were all removed from the Xbox 360 marketplace over the years. Why were they removed? I only managed to purchase the pictures and one of the DLC packs on my old Xbox profile. Which I no longer have, so I can't document the online DLC missions on console. I was also trying to document the Two Worlds Xbox 360 demo and had to get it from a friend who thankfully cares as much about archival as I do.

Dirk: SouthPeak Interactive was the US/UK Publisher of Two Worlds 1 and 2. During the release of Two Worlds II they went bankrupt and never paid us for the Two Worlds II master. After some time we terminated the contract and managed to get back the rights and the account at Microsoft. Maybe Microsoft removed these assets during these times.

Korra II Will you guys ever do a Two Worlds III Antaloor Post or do them for the DLC packs again? Will you guys start posting to your Two Worlds social media again?

Dirk: At the moment we are not activly working on a Two Worlds project. We are in talks with potential partners about Two Worlds III.

Korra II I could probably find 100 more questions. I hope this isn't too many as it is. I absolutely love this series and I want to see it properly documented. Two Worlds is the game that got me into the RPG genre and my hope with this wiki is that people will see there's more to the lore than meets the eye, you just have to dig a little. As I said in my previous email, I hope my wiki and wiki Twitter account will show just how much this series means to me.

Dirk: I appriciate that you did not send more questions.