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As we already covered in a previous look at Marvel’s Midnight Suns, you play as The Hunter. This all-new hero is sought out by an all-star cast of Marvel characters and awakened to help fight off the evil entity known as Lilith. But why is Lilith so important that she requires the combined powers of Marvel’s most powerful heroes in addition to an ancient, legendary warrior? We spoke to the team at Firaxis Games to learn more about the menacing villain.
Lilith was once a warrior of light as a member of a race called The Blood. She is a descendant of the Elder Gods and fought the forces of darkness alongside her sister, Caretaker, for thousands of years. During the late 1600s, Lilith sold her soul to a corrupted, evil Elder God named Chthon in a moment of weakness.
“Your best villains, in their mind, they’re not evil; they’re doing something for good, but her motivations for her fall are actually very personal and very tragic,” director of narrative Chad Rocco says.
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Chthon is so evil that he was banished to another dimension by his fellow Gods billions of years ago, but he has kept his sights on returning to Earth ever since. Following this dark deal, Lilith is corrupted by Chthon, and she gives in to the darkness. She creates a monstrous, demonic army known as the Lilin and she wages war on humanity. According to legend, this invasion becomes the heart of the Salem Witch Trials. The only thing that stops her from her goals is a team of heroes known as the Midnight Suns led by a great warrior called The Hunter.
Together, the team defeats Lilith and seals her away for centuries. The Midnight Suns hid her body and scattered the pages of the Darkhold, an evil grimoire authored by Chthon, across the planet. However, Hydra spent several hundred years hunting down the pages and searching for Lilith’s tomb. At present day, they have one page left to find, and with the time of prophecy just months away, they stumble upon Lilith’s tomb. Hydra’s Dr. Faustus and his team use a combination of the Darkhold and Gamma science to resurrect Lilith, but Lilith immediately subjugates the Hydra forces and takes control to again try and fulfill the prophecy.
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While she may not have the name recognition of Thanos or Apocalypse, she’s an Omega-level threat that perhaps even exceeds their power. She commands the Lilin, but her army is far more dangerous than simply a horde of faceless, nameless minions. Using her power, Lilith can corrupt even strong-willed, powerful people and creatures. These dark characters are known as The Fallen, iconic heroes and villains from across the Marvel Universe who have been corrupted by Lilith and bent to her will.
“We are telling this epic, world-ending storyline, so it was very important for us to have a large roster of recognizable villains for the heroes to fight against,” creative director Jake Solomon says. “This is what makes Lilith so dangerous: Picture your favorite Omega-level supervillain in Marvel. You know… Thanos or Apocalypse or Ultron or Doom; Lilith is all of that and then some. Not only does she have godlike powers that grow stronger every day; not only does she have the Lilin, an unending army of demons at her disposal that the heroes are going to have to fight through; but with a single touch, Lilith can corrupt and command any villain or hero in the Marvel Universe.”
With so many powers at her fingertips, even the strongest characters in Marvel’s stable are capable of falling to Lilith. “It becomes a question of, ‘How are you going to beat somebody like that?'” says Solomon. “The problem is, whoever you send at Lilith has a very good chance of coming back to you with glowing green eyes and an ‘I love Lilith’ sticker. She’s not like any villain you’ve seen before in Marvel. That’s a theme for us. We want to tell different stories. We want to show players a different side of even characters they know. Even The Fallen … they’re new versions of villains or heroes that you may recognize, but now they have new powers.”
With Hydra, the Lilin, and The Fallen under her control, Lilith stages an assault on Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Strange, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and a young Scarlet Witch narrowly survive the attack, and the Sanctum, along with its priceless artifacts, fall into the hands of Lilith. This is the catalyst for the heroes to come together, seek out the modern Midnight Suns, and resurrect The Hunter.
Lilith is known as the Mother of Demons, but she’s also the mother of The Hunter. This lineage gives The Hunter their power, and while The Hunter will stop at nothing to defeat Lilith, Lilith has a different perspective on their relationship. “I love that The Hunter and Lilith have a very asymmetric relationship,” Solomon says. “The Hunter is like, ‘You’re evil. I’m here to destroy you.’ and then Lilith is like, ‘I love you. You’re my child.’ It just makes her a very interesting villain where she’s like, ‘You’re just misguided. You’re my child, and I love you, and I want us to be together,’ and that makes a very interesting relationship to start the game off on the right foot.”
“It’s a story about a mother and a child,” Rocco says. “Lilith and The Hunter may be opposed to one another, but there’s a powerful connection between them, and it continues to develop across the game.”
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While Lilith is beyond powerful, her resurrection is merely a stepping stone towards Hydra’s ultimate goal: summoning Chthon. Because of the evil Elder God’s role in writing the Darkhold, the wicked text has a will of its own and twists those under its influence – including Lilith – to fulfill the prophecy and restore Chthon to Earth. According to this prophecy, if the Darkhold is read under a once-in-a-billion-year celestial event known as the midnight sun, Chthon will be able to return to Earth.
But why is that such a bad thing? The fallen Elder God wants nothing more than to consume, corrupt, and envelop the planet. However, before that can happen, Lilith must complete her own mission of corruption, so the Midnight Suns have their own window of opportunity to fight alongside The Hunter and stop Chthon before he’s even restored.
We’ll have to wait and see how the Midnight Suns and The Hunter take on the overwhelming power of Lilith and her followers. Marvel’s Midnight Suns launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC in March 2022. For more on this exciting new game from Firaxis, click on the banner below to go to our hub of exclusive coverage.
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