with bone lab releasing you may want to brush up on the story of its prequel game boneworks maybe you only have a quest and never played boneworks or maybe you're like everyone else and got to the end of boneworks not knowing anything about the story because it made no sense in any case this video will present the full story and lore of boneworks and some of duck season to prepare you for bone lab so I present to you the full story and lore of boneworks as far as we understand it pre-bone lab hey what's this a video who's in the video Arthur Ford the security director for a company called monogon Industries he's putting something in the computer with Gammon written on it that's probably important we'll come back to that later he puts on a headset the headset's heavily modified it this isn't your standard Quest 2 you buy at Walmart in fact you may notice that the headset also says Gammon on it after putting on the headset we load into this world as Arthur Ford as part of his job as security director he performs an anomalous material audit marking materials for archival or incineration obviously that's not how real cyber security works but let's roll with it but wait what's this it's that USB stick that he put into his computer when we grab it it disappears which is kind of weird but whatever let's take a break from our normal job and go to the break room wait something weird just happened we don't know what happened but it was dramatic and it threw things around this is probably related to that USB stick from earlier we'll come back to that later but for now we leave our office and we find ourselves in the museum of technical demonstration here we learn a lot of things about this world that we are in we're in a world called myth OS Mythos is a 3D operating system that's able to simulate infinite virtual spaces for individuals to live work and play people in the real world will be able to access Mythos through VR headsets it's supposed to be a literal metaverse where people can exist outside of reality currently while you play through the story Mythos is in development and it is close to being released to the public Mythos is being developed by a company called monagon Industries in the museum we can see a brief history of monagon essentially they started as a company in the 60s creating a tape player they went on to develop more cassette tapes than laser disk readers than game consoles and even computers now they're involved in almost all Industries including health food and of course VR entertainment one notable creation from monagon besides VR headsets with Virtual Worlds was the poly system a retro gaming system that several years ago competed with another company Gammon remember that from earlier Gammon was extremely successful with their game system called the king bit a notable game from the kingbit is duck season which we get to see and learn more about in boneworks prequel game duck season lots of the boneworks lore and Easter eggs in history is in duck season but the thing most relevant to boneworks is the use of the voidway and void energy the void way or void for short is a mysterious alternate Dimension that exists outside of space and time and Quantum void energy particles can exist in multiple places at once the voidway is home to Cryptids powerful beings that are usually malicious we meet several cryptids in Duck Seasons such as this cat clock and sock monkey wait didn't we just see these two things back in the break room that's interesting Gammon discovered the voidway and used its void energy to develop the game duck season as part of the plot of Duck Season you discover one copy of the game that's haunted by a Cryptid from the void weight in the form of a dog that tries to murder you but that's not important to our story right now what is important is that King bit was super successful with their game console and monagon jealous of gammon's Success With the King bit are suspected to have reversed engineered duck season and thus discovered the void way for themselves after discovering the voidway they focused their research on applications for the voidway they ended up creating the boneworks engine which functions similar to a game engine like Unity or unreal boneworks uses void energy to create the void mind AI artificial intelligence capable of creating virtual spaces with boneworks as the foundational framework monogon Industries develops myth OS to help simplify things think of Mythos as a virtual metaverse world that you can visit with a VR headset boneworks is the engine or virtual framework that uses void energy kind of like code to create Mythos and other worlds the game also makes it clear that monagon is connecting people's minds directly to the void through the phone works back end and it's this boneworks back end that ensures that we resurrect in Mythos if we die in this metaverse so with this boneworks serves two functions to connect the void to Mythos in a safe and secure way and to prevent users from accessing the void directly because when that happens you end up with a murderous dog killing everyone including you and your family like in duck season it's important to know that Ford is the security director for boneworks and not for all of Mythos remember his first mundane task of sorting incoming materials as a function of boneworks He's supposed to prevent void material from entering and infecting Mythos as a security director he's able to easily hack the boneworks using that Gammon USB stick and Gammon headset by activating that USB stick he stops the time clock locks everyone out of Mythos and causes void energy to leak into the city all of this occurs originally at 3 14 but then with an update of the game it happens at 6 20. well that was a lot of backstory out of the way but now we can understand a little bit more about what Ford's goals are so he brings in this virus it takes effect and it locks everyone out just as Ford enters the break room all over this break room are messages scrawled all over the wall written by Ford to himself there's written messages all over Mythos and we'll get into theories about who writes them and why later on but these messages in the break room are 100 Ford writing to himself some of the writings tell us what his goals are dying over and over without repercussions what if immortality is possible the void way could allow for immortality it's obvious from these messages that Ford's goal is to achieve immortality by accessing the void way our minds are directly connected to the void boneworks back end is the only thing preventing true death but how would you circumvent boneworks and Achieve immortality in the void theoretically if we could somehow stop the system clock we could disconnect the resurrection field inside middle West Chambers we could resurrect in the void so basically Step One Stop the system clock we've already done this with the Gammon USB stick we've stopped the system clock locked everyone out and we've given ourselves a few hours to achieve our goal next we need to disconnect the Resurrection field the resurrection field is part of the boneworks engine and is what allows you the player to resurrect every time you die you may notice that unlike other games you don't respawn at a checkpoint and get to try again as if nothing happened instead when you die you respawn and the enemies you already killed the things you've already done are still done this is because you're resurrecting and continuing where you died with the events that happened in your previous life still having occurred because of this Resurrection It is believed that a lot of the messages written all over the world are messages that Ford wrote to himself after dying lots of the messages are tips or hints to help us on our journey and so it makes sense for a previous life to leave behind messages as a guide to help us future Fords eventually become successful in this journey now this is just a theory and other messages in the world are obviously written by other beings but that's just one Theory regarding the effects of the Resurrection field so anyways Ford believes that by disconnecting the resurrection field you'll be able to resurrect in the void and thus achieve immortality he asks himself if you die in the void way do you die in real real life everyone is too afraid to try if you die in Mythos you come back that can't be good for our psyche so he's going to try and do what everyone else is too afraid to try he's going to access the void and Achieve immortality and with this goal in mind we set out after leaving the Museum of technical demonstration Ford finds himself in the city streets with no bodies lying all around in the museum we learned that null bodies are non-sentient workers for the city created by the void mind AI they're meant to be mindless laborers to build the city when Ford initiated the lockdown of Mythos the nobodies were put into hibernation but by mysterious means they seem to be gaining sentience and Ford has to defend himself from them at the same time Omni projectors are appearing and attacking sentient null bodies Omni projectors are essentially an antivirus dispatched by a security firm called saber Lake you may recognize saber Lake's logo from this briefcase that Ford had in the beginning cut scene we'll see more about saber Lake later anyways the Omni projectors are there to destroy all anomalies in Mythos including Fordham himself other NPCs found in the streets are crablets which are a VR headset trying to force themselves onto Ford while damaging his health they want to immerse us even more into this world by putting us into a VR world within a VR world we also see Noel rats running around but these are harmless creatures that appear to Simply observe us but they're considered a corruption since the Omni projectors attack them as well hey look at that that's some pretty looking colors but don't touch it that is void energy leaking into the city oh hey a video transmission from some random dude apparently his name is Hayes and I wonder what he wants [Music] foreign over here how are you still in the city well the board's calling an emergency meeting for all monogon employees all of Mythos is on lockdown it's crazy over here I have no idea how you weren't kicked like nobody else can log in the system clock being frozen might have something to do with it so if you can make your way to the core Tower you might be able to manually restart it and let us back in he obviously doesn't know that it was Ford that started the lockdown in the first place oh hey there's a Ford at the end of the hallway mysteriously throwing us a gun and then closing the door I wonder what that could be now this isn't the only clone of Ford that we're gonna run into playing this game while lots of theories exist on how there can be multiple clones of Ford the true reason isn't clear yet it could be that Ford is traveling back in time and encountering versions of himself or it could be that the void which exists outside of space and time is connecting multiple realities together causing a Multiverse Rick and Morty situation but again these are all just theories all we know is that we see this forward he gives us a gun and let's just accept it and move on from the streets we make our way to runoff where we go through more puzzles and killing lots of enemies here's a big sign saying melons over here these kind of signs appear to be written by null bodies who have a weird obsession with melons and specifically a drink made from melons called melon belly in fact it's this melon belly that's corrupting the null bodies and making them sentient along with messages about melon belly we see other messages that say things like down with monogon burn it all down Etc these appear to be messages written by the null bodies that have gained sentience and realized that mytho was as their prison and that they want out by some more signs promoting melon belly we see a new enemy known as zombies or Ford early exit based on the Cure game mode these appear to be versions of Ford that have been heavily corrupted this is evidenced by the end of the Cure game mode where all of the zombie forwards are turned back into normal Fords after being cured one possible source of this corruption or disease is their addiction to melon belly which is already known to corrupt null bodies this is further backed up by the fact that we usually see lots of melon belly anytime you run into a large group of these zombie forts in any case they're trying to kill us so let's not let's not let them do that next we find ourselves in the sewers oh hey another TV with a mysterious messenger this time it's boneworks encryption specialist Alora [Music] foreign you're heading to the tower to reset I've been obsessing over the possibility for weeks and you acted on it first I couldn't let you think you were the only one who saw it just leave a way for others to get in that's all I'm asking for our contributions leave a way in he thinks she knows our plan and I'm not sure what contributions she made but whatever let's just keep going down in the sewers is the main manufacturing point for all of the melon belly in Mythos and here you'll find yellow nolmen that have been drinking a ton of melon belly and thus have gotten more corrupted from a clipboard we learned that a mysterious group called the lava gang are taunting the boneworks creators by telling them that it was the lava gang that taught nobody's how to ferment melons with void energy thus causing their sentience and Corruption outside of this fact not much is known about the lava gang supposedly they reside in the void and have an unparalleled understanding of it they use this knowledge to wreak havoc on many realities like they're doing in Mythos by giving the nobodies melon belly after leaving the sewers we find ourselves in a warehouse greeted by Haze again [Music] foreign [Music] 's kind of freaking out over here uh there's a rumor from security that somebody broke into the complex and coordinated a breach and myth I don't know why or who would even know how but uh I think it's an inside job I mean these saber Lake private security guys are not to be trusted so once you've reset the clock we'll be able to get a better picture of what's going on he still doesn't know who caused the virus but he doesn't trust a group called saber Lake security remember them from earlier moving on we make our way through the warehouse and we get to Central Station we're almost to the time Tower here in Central Station Elora speaks to us again [Music] foreign the reset is a beacon monagon will locate you within minutes what can you accomplish in minutes unless you aren't concerned with them finding you post reset leave a way in you can't keep this for yourself this is all of ours she realizes how far we're willing to go and she's realized that Ford is okay with his real body dying once he's accessed the void and achieved immortality after moving through Central Station we find ourselves finally at the bottom of the Tower and somehow we gotta get to the top along the way lots of anime projectors and zombie Fords try to stop us but we make our way through them and here for some reason a bunch of VR junkie forwards are having a rave this must be what Ford turns into if he lets the crablets take control of him oh and here's a reference to stress level Zero's first game hoverjunkers and here's our friend Haze again foreign [Music] we can see what's going on and something is definitely controlling the null men they're pulling gravity cores from the system clock maybe to open some kind of void gate I I don't know but all I know is that this is super dangerous so good luck man wow that's a lot of words I guess the nolmen are trying to access the void probably because of the melon drinks that they've been having way too much of so finally we reached the top of the time Tower and see the core of the system clock that we're supposed to destroy a couple cultish null bodies are worshiping the void entity in the shape of a pyramid this seems to be different from the void leaks that we've seen before it's all organized into a perfect shape this must be where Mythos is getting all of its power while fighting off a bunch of enemies we destroy the giant time core and we are transported to a mysterious hallway at the end of this hallway there's a mysterious void entity and if you've been paying attention he's popped up all over the game kind of like a boot like G-Man we are entirely sure who these void entities are or what their goal is they just observe us and run away before we can go close to them behind the void entity is a door and if you play duck season you'll recognize this door and the handle let's go through the door because you know why not moving through the door we see a video of our virtual version of Ford waking up in the same room where he first put on his VR headset at the same time we see the real Ford appearingly knocked out with the headset still on his head our virtual horde grabs the Crowbar with the force grab and it's unclear if he's in a virtual version of the room or if virtual Ford is now existing in reality he's not really sure what's happening but the theory is that it appears that here Ford has broken free from Mythos he's become a separate entity from his physical body we haven't quite gotten to the void yet but we've left Mythos and we've entered the boneworks engine and now with direct access to boneworks we can finally access the void remember from earlier that the boneworks engine acts as a medium between the void and Mythos boneworks is preventing true access to the void and by putting on this VR headset Ford is entering the boneworks and continuing his journey to the void we wake up in a dungeon in Fantasyland Fantasyland is another project developed by stress level zero using the boneworks engine and yes stress level 0 exists in their own Universe Fantasyland is an unfinished game which is why parts of the game look obviously unfinished it has a Medieval theme and it's populated by dozen maybe hundreds of other Fords but these Fords appear to be empty as if they've lost a part of themselves one theory is that these Fords have succeeded at reaching the void where their mind has left them to enter the void leaving behind this shell of a body this would explain why this Ford's staring at us is so dumb he's so dumb he can't even move until he sees us move and he starts copying our actions we have to teach him to move and walk and then he helps us to escape melon belly could be having a small influence here on these Fords as well as we can find one bottle of melon belly in the castle in Fantasyland but without a full melon belly operation here they don't have access to enough of the stuff to become the zombie Fords so anyways we use the stupid Ford to help us escape the Ford King challenges us to a fight in the fantasy Arena to win an audience with them and after surviving these challenges we make our way to the castle which has a lot of interesting artwork the stained glass appears to show Ford's Journey to the void and the construction of this Castle any picture showing R Ford are adorned with a Halo and the most interesting panel depicts the system clock being destroyed with other Fords worshiping this moment in the castle the king challenges us to a fist fight and long story short we beat the living pulp out of the king take his crown and all of the other Fords are ecstatic that we are now their King but we aren't here to become the king of Fantasyland we're here to make the final jump into the void and Achieve immortality behind the throne room we see a secret room where Hayes contacts us again [Music] laughs [Music] dude they found you in the old offices I mean like the physical world version of you how are you even still in there that doesn't even make any sense I mean technically the look you got to get out of there right now as a Laura predicted destroying the system clock allowed saber-like to find our real-life bodies this means that we need to hurry unlike Mythos which keeps itself separate from the void and only connects people's minds to the void duck season and now Fantasyland are both games at a constructed directly from void matter this is why fantasland has this chamber with direct access to the void in this room we see lots of written messages warning us against entering the void we honestly have no idea who's writing these messages to us they're warning us to stop it to not go any further it is possible that a version of Ford has already succeeded at reaching the void and these messages are his attempt to prevent other Forge from making the same mistake but you know what let's just ignore that completely and let's just go on as we look for a way to open this hole Allura contacts us one more time showing us that she found the USB stick that we used to hack in the system and start the whole lockdown to open the gate we need to use this gravity manipulator and next to it is a message with this mysterious symbol of X this symbol is popped up elsewhere in the game with messages helping us it also appears in duck season X seems to be an entity from the void who is trying to help us the player in both games and here he seems to have provided us with the very tool that we need to get access to the void once and for all but at the same time sitting next to this tool is the monkey Cryptid from duck season this Cryptid is meant to represent misdirection is it him that's writing these messages telling us to turn back or could it be him facilitating the journey to the void pretending to be X and helping us or has he been ex all along regardless we open the gate and we enter the void the consensus is that Crossing into this hole is the moment that Ford's real body dies and his mind enters the void here you have to fight off lots of enemies including one new one called the king crab fighting these off we make our way to chamber 2 off in the distance and here in the top of chamber 2 we get to observe the real life forward being ambushed by saber Lake agents we see the crowbar sitting there confirming that this board is not the same one we saw earlier after destroying the system clock since that 4 picked up the Crowbar and put on a headset we see saber Lake agents break into the room along with the mysterious man with a hidden face he waves towards the void entities that are in the room then he turns Cox's gun and shoots Ford's lifeless body and with that you're now ready to play bone lab I want to note that I left out an Easter egg from duck season that people used to think into that stress level Zero's next three games essentially there's a section of the game where you come across three doors the first being the boneworks door that we encountered earlier next being a door titled Dead FM and then one titled machine King originally these were thought to be the next three titles from the company but obviously the next game releasing is called bone lab not dead FM that said bone lap could still have something to do with this door and specifically the cat clock Cryptid from duck season which appears to have walked through that door my guess is that these three doors don't refer to three games but instead refer to three different things that are important to this universe the bonework story is in reference to the boneworks engine and not to boneworks the game specifically and so dead FM and the Machine king must be references to other important plot points and not games themselves but outside of these suspicions we have no more knowledge on these three doors the Cryptid or even the fate of Arthur Ford we know that Arthur Ford will make an appearance in bone lab and so hopefully we'll see more of his story and learn more of this universe I want to thank the entire boneworks lore Community for deciphering the story the Easter eggs and all of this I especially want to thank greased Scotsman as his videos on the boneworks lore were a huge source of knowledge while preparing for this video I encourage everyone to go check out his four videos on boneworks if you'd like to have a more in-depth understanding of everything that goes on in these games and if you'd like to see a follow-up to this video on the lore and story and Bone lab then subscribe and let me know down in the comments thanks for watching