The Wu Lin faction is due to make its first appearance in For Honor when the Marching Fire update arrives this October, adding two brand new game modes, the aforementioned faction, and some graphical improvements to the game. Not much is known about the new Chinese clan that has opted to enter the thousand year fight which has consumed the factions of For Honor, so we sat down with creative director Roman Campos-Oriola to get the scoop on the motives and methods behind the Wu Lin clan.

In the realm of For Honor, there was an apocalypse-level event called The Cataclysm that ravaged the world of its natural resources and prompted the Knights, Samurai, and the Vikings to enter a state of war. The factions soon lost sight of why they were fighting in the first place, and when an uneasy peace did eventually arrive, a warrior named Apollyon sought to instigate the fighting once again. For the most part, it worked.

As it turns out, the Cataclysm from more than a thousand years ago also ravaged China, sparking another civil war between the Wu Lin clan and its rivals. China has essentially become a desert since, and like the rest of the world has become light on resources. The Wu Lin clan eventually establishes a strong foothold in the civil war, but its leader knows more resources to sustain a growing army will be required. Thus, the clan decides to open the doors to the Great Wall, allowing the Wu Lin faction to bleed across the world of For Honor. As it turns out, the main Wu Lin army has yet to arrive in the events of Marching Fire: the four Wu Lin combatants in the game are there for personal reasons, ahead of the actual fighting force.

For instance, the Nuxia is an assassin looking for traitors who utilizes a dangerous hooked sword. The Jiang Jun is an old general with a heavy fighting style looking for the elusive big battle, the one that he is destined to finally lose after having never lost a fight. The vanguard Tiandi and the hybrid Shaolin's backstories remain a mystery, but gamers can expect small personal backstories to come attached to them as well.

The arrival of a fourth faction is due to shake-up the canon storyline of For Honor, though Ubisoft hasn't announced any formal continuation of the main plot.

When it came to deciding what faction would make the best addition to For Honor, Roman Campos-Oriola said that China was an obvious destination given its martial arts history:

When we start working on a new fighter, the core concept is always the weapon, the martial art. That’s how we think our character. Then we start to think about what’s the backstory with that guy. So, in order to expand the world of For Honor , we knew we wanted a new faction, so we had to look for a faction that had enough depth, enough weapons, enough martial arts. Well, China is pretty obvious.

The Wu Lin clan will be available in all game modes, though gamers are likely to be most interested in the just-announced Arcade Mode, which pits players against AI opponents with randomized maps, modifiers, and combatants. There's also new multiplayer mode called Breach, with the 4-versus-4 mode introducing a siege tool and VIP defense aspect to the mix. The game mode will launch with three maps focused on the original factions, and Ubisoft says it will continue to support the mode in the coming months - the likely implication here being that the Wu Lin will be due to fight on their own turf soon enough.

For Honor is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The Marching Fire update will arrive on October 16, 2018.