Borderlands games are full of mysteries because of the complexity of the franchise's universe and the myriad of secrets hidden and scattered around, be it on Pandora, Eden-6, Elpis, or other places. Borderlands 3 recently saw the debut of its latest DLC, the Director's Cut expansion, which adds an interesting questline about Ava and an ancient being made by the Eridians, called the Seer. The Eridians, and the guardians they made, are one of those things that remain not fully explained in Borderlands lore. However, thanks to the help of a new character, players were able to acquire some important pieces of information.
In Borderlands 3, there was an interesting addition in the form of slab stones found across the game's explorable locations, which have unintelligible ancient symbols written on them. The slabs become readable only after players successfully completed the main mission called "The Great Vault," after which they are awarded the Eridian Analyzer. It turns out that the stones' messages are Eridian Writings made by a Siren from the past, called Nyriad. Despite it being a minor backstory element for players not trying to get all the achievements or delve deeply into the lore, Nyriad's messages actually provide a lot of incredibly insightful Borderlands lore information.
Borderlands 3: All Eridian Writings, and the Destroyer
Nyriad may be the only character ever introduced into the Borderlands series that actually met the Eridians, as well as the only one who learned their language. She says that Sirens and Eridians used to live side by side, and despite the astounding technological advancement and the knowledge the species managed to acquire over time, even these aliens did not know anything about the origin of Sirens. Still, the Eridians' constant search for answers, exploring the vastness of the unknown, eventually made them come to terms with their virtue when they discovered the existence of the Destroyer.
The Destroyer is the final boss of the first installment of the series, with it being merely a physical manifestation of the otherwise infinitely potent, god-like creature. The being is often mentioned in Nyriad's messages, and she acknowledges that it cannot be stopped and hardly contained because of the creature's endless, insatiable hunger. The Destroyer is labeled by the Siren as a beast made of pure evil, its only purpose being the devouring and ending of life.
Entire planets and species disappeared into the void when they encountered the Destroyer's power, and their history was destined to meet the same fate. Nyriad also affirms that the Destroyer is an intelligent being, and that it learns things about the creatures it consumes as if it read a book of DNA or collective history. For a long time, the Eridians were thought to be extinct precisely because of the Destroyer, but Nyriad's messages prove this theory to be wrong.
Nyriad is haunted by the atrocities she committed when recording her messages, but that guilt is not entirely warranted, although understandable. According to her backstory, Nyriad was approached by the Eridians, which sought her help for dealing with the Destroyer. Because of the fact that the being cannot be killed, the plan quickly became that of imprisoning it for as long as possible.
The prison they built was the planet Pandora, where mainline games take place. The Machine was a sophisticated creation, on par with the Guardians the Eridians ended up making in order to guard the Vaults where treasures and menacing creatures alike were held hidden from the rest of the universe. Unfortunately, the Machine required a lot of energy to power up, and that's when the Eridians asked Nyriad to leech their lifeforce in order to complete the work and finally put away the monstrous Destroyer. This is how the Eridians vanished, and that is why Nyriad decided to die alone, locked in the Vault on Nekrotafeyo so that there would be no more leeches.
Eridian Writing "Side By Side": Are The Eridians Refugees?
There is one message from Nyriad that doesn't seem to be particularly noteworthy, but instead, it should pose a few questions about what the Eridians' origins really were. The writings, titled "Side By Side" say that Nyriad regrets not asking the Eridians more questions than she in fact did. Nyriad reflects on how she is likely to be the last person to learn their language from them. She wonders why the Eridian word for "homeworld" also means "first landing."
This comment is oddly specific, and the fact that Nekrotafeyo was always deemed to be the Eridians' home planet does not necessarily hold true after reading this. It is plausible that the Eridians fled their homeworld, and that Nekrotafeyo was their "first landing" after the escape. They may have never meant to say that the planet was their native world. Nekrotafeyo, on the one hand, bears a lot of signs of the Eridians' life there. However, on the other hand, it is also true that they might have lived there for a long time after running away.
Considering how the Eridians were the ones that first discovered the existence in the Destroyer and survived it, and weighing in the fact that they did not seem to know how, where, when, and why the Destroyer had originated first, they may have lost their home planet to it. The being may have devoured the planet they were living on after they met, and the Eridians may have fled on Nekrotafeyo to rebuild and concoct a plan to deal with the monster.
If this is true, is it possible that there are remnants of their society elsewhere in the universe, or were they devoured by the Destroyer? Are there other Eridians still alive, somewhere? Another message from Nyriad seems to foreshadow that possibility. The message is called "Secrets," and Nyriad affirms that thinking that would be the last of them (the Eridians) would be folly. Of course, this could allude to other Vaults left undiscovered, or it may be possible that these aliens survived, albeit in small numbers. Hopefully, new DLCs or new games will tell.
Borderlands 3Â is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
