Storyline

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Immortality machine.png
Who I am does not concern you.
Elizabeth pulling strings

Although Team Fortress 2 does not have a story mode or single-player campaign, the storyline of the game has been revealed through comics, Meet the Team videos, and major updates. For example, the Halloween update of October 2009 (and Halloween update of October 2010 and 2011), WAR! Update of December 2009, and Engineer Update of July 2010 have all added to the official Team Fortress continuity in one way or another. Hidden links within these pages as well as examination of Team Fortress 2 comic book pages are used to contribute to the various dates in the "Detailed timeline" section below.

1822

Mann Family

The Mann family's backstory begins in the 19th century with the wealthy Englishman Zepheniah Mann. Zepheniah Mann was the owner and proprietor of Mann & Sons Munitions Concerns – which also went by the name of Zepheniah Mann & Sons Co., but is better known by the name of Mann Co.. His wife, Bette, gave birth to three sons in September 2nd of 1822; Redmond, Blutarch and Gray, but died in childbirth. Though Redmond and Blutarch were perfectly normal, Gray was underweight, and had learned to talk inside the womb. Zepheniah ordered the baby to be smothered, but he was abducted by an eagle during the "Great Eagle Scourge of 1822." The remaining Mann brothers grew up without knowledge of their missing brother.

Gray was well cared for by his eagle abductor. He was fed grubs and mice, kept warm under her breast and accepted by her children. Gray grew strong under the eagle's care and when he was strong enough he killed her and her children and ate them all before crawling back to civilization.

1850

Zepheniah's Will

From left to right: Barnabas Hale, Blutarch Mann, Zepheniah Mann, Elizabeth, and Redmond Mann. A mysterious man (Possibly Gray Mann) is also seen just out of shot on the far right side.

Around 1850, Zepheniah traveled to the United States with Redmond and Blutarch, to expand the munitions business. When they arrived, they discovered the gravel pits and dustbowls that he had purchased were useless; in addition, Zepheniah had contracted numerous illnesses in his old age. With his last will and testament, Zepheniah set up the events of Team Fortress 2 by leaving half of his land to each of his sons – for them to fight over for the rest of their lives. He also left Elizabeth the "miracle gravel" cache that he discovered on a trip to "Terra Australis". According to him, Gray had resurfaced the year before and wanted to blackmail him for it, so he entrusted Elizabeth with it, to keep it secret and safe.

1850s BLU team

Beginnings of RED vs. BLU

Comprised of Billy the Kid, Stonewall Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Alfred Nobel, John Henry, Nikola Tesla, Sigmund Freud, Davy Crockett, and Fu Manchu, Blutarch had his crack mercenary team set and was eager to claim his land. However, Redmond had assembled his own team of mercenaries and was making similar plans to gain control of his brother's land. The RED and BLU teams proceeded to enter into a massive stalemate as they attempted to destroy each other and take the land for their respective Mann sibling.

1890

A Loose Canon

Australians in the 1890s.
Radigan Conagher accepts Blutarch's request.

Forty years later, Redmond and Blutarch were still engaged in their unwinnable war.

As Blutarch neared death from old age, he called in an expert craftsman named Radigan Conagher to construct for him a machine that would allow him to live on, to "make [him] a monster", by artificially extending his life. Radigan agreed.

Upon returning to his store that evening, Radigan found a stranger who had already made her way past his locked door. Knowing she couldn't convince Radigan to change his mind about building Blutarch's life extender, this stranger asked Radigan to build Redmond a machine as well. As payment, she gave him a hundred pounds of Australium – a powerful element found only in Australia which had caused the nation of unintelligent savages to become extremely intelligent and develop such technological marvels as teleportation and cloaking techniques.

Radigan agreed and became super-intelligent with the Australium. He went on to develop life extending machines for Redmond, Blutarch, and one for Elizabeth.

1968

Gravel War

This is the main setting for the in-game events of Team Fortress 2.

During the Summer of 1968, nine individuals - the Scout, the Soldier, the Pyro, the Demoman, the Heavy Weapons Guy, the Engineer, the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy - were recruited by Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU) to continue Redmond and Blutarch's neverending war to seize the land left to them by their deceased father.

The Administrator

Helen, a descendant of Elizabeth, acts as the overseer of the large-scale battles fought amongst these nine mercenaries. Descendant of Barnabas Hale, Saxton Hale, runs the renowned weapons and headwear business Mann Co., a subsidiary of the Administrator's shadowy company, TF Industries.

Recent developments

Our first major plot event occurs when the RED Demoman and BLU Soldier meet and become friends at an explosives convention, which severely angers the Administrator as they may share information about their job and discover they're working for the same person. With the help of Saxton Hale, she misleads both men into thinking the other is trying to kill them, sparking a bloody war.

At around the same time, in an attempt to rid themselves of weapons involved in a Senate investigation, Mann Co. sends a "monkeynaut" named Poopy Joe into space. The rocket is originally fueled with liquid Australium; shortly before takeoff, Saxton Hale replaces the Australium with defective suitcase explosives. As a result, the rocket crashes, killing Poopy Joe. Saxton unsuccessfully tries to cover up the event in subsequent Senate hearings.

The next major event occurs when Blutarch Mann realizes his life support machine is breaking. Blutarch contacts our BLU Engineer, the grandson of Radigan Conagher, to fix it.

Later, Saxton Hale discovers the Internet (which notably did not exist in the 1960s) and uses it to open the online Mann Co. Store for players to purchase weapons and items.

1971

Gray Mann, seeking to take control of Reliable Excavation and Demolition and Builder's League United, sent two tear-stained letters to each of his brothers in secret, hoping to get them to meet with each other. Redmond and Blutarch rented the Alamo, and apparently transported it to New Mexico for their meeting, guarded by a group of Engineers under Redmond's employ. Blutarch proposed the idea of a truce, and foolishly suggests the idea of a pregnancy machine, stating that they can use it on one of them to produce an heir, ignorant of the absurdity of the plan. Blutarch states that because of the pointless fighting all of their life, the Mann Family Line would die out. Redmond agreed, and the two shook hands, each thanking each other for "sending" the tear-stained letter to the other.

After the two shake, Gray enters the Alamo, having killed Redmond's Engineers, leaving the three alone. He introduces himself to the two as Gray Mann, their brother, and explains that he sent the letters. Unfortunately, the two appear to be suffering some sort of cognitive disorder, and Blutarch and Redmond apparently forget who Gray is just seconds after he introduces himself. It is noted that Gray appears to be wearing some sort of mechanical device on his spine, possibly of his construction. Gray begins to recount the tale of the brothers' birth, and explains how he was taken by an eagle shortly after he spoke with their father. He explains how he was raised by the eagle as one of its own, and how he later killed it and her children to feed himself.

He goes on to explain how, unlike how Redmond and Blutarch had their empires handed to them, he had to build his own out of scratch. Gray tells Redmond and Blutarch that he watched for a hundred and fifty years as they both wasted their father's fortune over an "asinine war, over worthless pits of gravel." He asks them to consider their true birthright, and tells them that it's "the only thing in this hell-blasted landscape actually worth fighting over" which appears to be Mann Co. Redmond dismisses his claims, stating that gravel powers the world's steam engines, showing how uninformed about the world he actually is. Gray grows tired of his responses, and kills both Redmond and Blutarch by slitting their throats.

That night, the ghosts of Redmond and Blutarch make the mercenaries of RED and BLU race push carts with the other brother's corpse in it to Hell, with one of the teams winning, sending the opposing brother's soul to Hell first. Both teams are sent to Hell with the brother at first, but one team manages to beat the other team to a spellbook and cast magic to get back to the surface world. The other team stays in "Hell", presumably.

Three days later, Gray makes his move against Mann Co., sending a massive robot army to attack all of the company's facilities. Saxton Hale is too busy wrestling a Yeti to deal with the crisis himself, so he sends a video message to the remaining RED mercenaries informing them that with Redmond and Blutarch dead, the Gravel War has finally ended and they no longer have jobs. He then immediately re-hires the team to defend Mann Co. against the robots.

After the Mercenaries sucessfully defend Mann. Co of the robot attacks, Gray decides to change his approach. He goes directly to Mann. Co's headquarters, and declares that he would fight for the ownership of Mann. Co with Hale, a policy Hale made himself. After Hale grabs and punches Gray with ease, Gray declares that he is not the one wich will be fighting, but a underage girl, called Olivia, Gray's daughter. Hale refuses to fight her, ultimately granting Mann. Co ownership to Gray. Gray proceeds to fire the Mercs, and the Admininstrator orders Miss Pauling, her assistant, to hide.

Six Months Later

Having lost their jobs, the mercenaries disband. Soldier is shown giving a "tour" to old ladies where he presumably shows war remains to them. After they declare that they want to see celebrity homes, Soldier takes them to Tom Jones' house, where Tom Jones abruptly gets murdered by Soldier. Merasmus, revealed to be Tom Jones' new housemate after being evicted from his castle by Soldier, calls the police. Miss Pauling, disguised as a police officer, takes Soldier away in order to regroup the team at the Administrator's request. Merasmus goes on to check Tom Jones' pulse and ends up getting framed for his murder.

Pyro, after losing the mercenary job, has taken a position as the new CEO of Frontier Engineering. Surprisingly, they has been very successful with the company, where the adviser says that everyone is now millionaires in a corporate meeting thanks to the guidance of Pyro. Unfortunately, this new life has taken a mental toll on Pyro and they are bored with the dull life they now have. However, during the meeting, Pyro sees a small rainbow clump that explodes into multiple streams. Pyro, being ecstatic about seeing rainbows again, immediately rushes out of the building to join Miss Pauling and Soldier, where as Frontier Engineering is left to find a new CEO.

Gray Mann, having taken over Mann Co. for himself, now looks at the main prize that has been locked away in the Vault of Mann Co.: 200,000 pounds of Australium. However, much to Gray Mann's surprise, all of the Australium has been taken before he can reach it. The only clue that was left behind as to who took the Australium is a used cigarette, whom Gray Mann suspects to be the Administrator.

Demoman has gone to a life of unemployment after losing his job as a mercenary. While watching Ghost D.A. with his Eyelander, Demo's mother bangs him on the head telling him that someone has been knocking on the door for the past 10 minutes, possibly for a job offer. Demo, however, has not gone searching for a job nor wants any other job besides his old mercenary job. When he answers the door, Demoman sees Soldier, Pyro, and Miss Pauling. Miss Pauling, first shocked at Demoman's experience, offers a job to him, which he gladly accepts with glee.

Gray Mann is still on the pursuit of the missing Australium, with 19.5% of the Australium in his Australium-fueled life extension machine being depleted. He hires a group of mercenaries to go and find the Administrator and take the Australium from her.

While in the car ride and planning a course of action to find Heavy, Sniper, Spy, and Scout, Soldier loses his hand by Pyro cutting it off. Miss Pauling makes a stop at a nearby vet to have Soldier's hand sewn back. While Soldier is thanking the vet for fixing his hand, Miss Pauling sees a newspaper where the Scout and Spy have mugshots on the front page with the headline reading "Merc Scum To Hang" for the destruction of Teufort because of the Gravel Wars. The group has to cancel their flight for Siberia and heads towards Teufort.

The story that follows can be read at the Team Fortress 2 Comic Page.

Mysteries

The Pyro's identity

The identity of the Pyro has been the subject of much debate since the game's release. Meet the Pyro demonstrated how the Pyro interprets the world around them and their actions with a childlike glee. There is still no definite proof about the Pyro's gender or history.

The Administrator's Goals

The comics that detail the story of Team Fortress 2 bring to light that the Administrator has been stockpiling Australium for 150 years in order to settle an old score.


Detailed timeline

Legend
Important event

Alternate universe/spin-off timeline

Note: events in this timeline are not considered canon. [1]


Trivia

  • World maps exist within the game that do not show 1968 contemporary nations, such as the Soviet Union, but instead show countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, and many others which were not independent at the time. This may be due to Team Fortress' timeline differing from our own, or simply being an oversight.
  • Even though Saxton Hale states he discovered the Internet in the 1960s, it clearly did not exist back then. However, with the extreme amount of technology advancement in Australia starting in the late 1880s, Australia could have very well invented the Internet before the actual date it was invented.

Sources

  1. KritzKast interview with Valve's Andrew Wilson. 'Anything canon should come from the team here; we view the comic as a possible alternate universe. ... While we don’t want too many people steering the canon for TF, we love to see where the characters are taken.' "KritzKast interviews Robotic Boogaloo." May 26, 2013.

See also