When it comes to the development and advancement of an NFT project, “lore” is invaluable. From Bored Apes to Forgotten Runes to goblintown and everything in between, lore is often considered the backbone of a successful NFT effort, acting as a prominent element that drives the narrative component of a project.
But what does the term really mean?
Ask any odd collector or creator what lore is, and you’ll likely get a variety of answers. A term that is no doubt tied to the unique and overarching narrative of a project, the lore has fallen into ambiguity within the NFT space. And without a standard, common definition, like, say, the one published by Webster’s Dictionaryhow are people immersed in Web3 supposed to know what they are really getting when it comes to “tradition” as a result of a project?
definition of tradition
To understand how tradition is perceived in Web3, we must first understand what tradition is as it exists within its rigid definition. Essentially, tradition refers to a body of traditions and knowledge, held by a particular group that is passed down from person to person (either in writing or by word of mouth). When most hear “tradition,” they often think of folklore. That is, they attribute the word to fables, fairy tales, wizards, knights, dragons, and the like. And understanding lore as belonging to fiction is a good place to start.
Beyond traditional storytelling, when we think of 21st century lore, we often think of games, cinematic universes, and more. And within these contemporary sectors, lore is often thought of as “the backstory,” meaning anything that happened in the past that set the stage for the narrative of a game, movie, or series to happen. In essence, “lore” is passive, while “story” is active. Therefore, potentially the most reasonable definition of lore (courtesy of urban dictionary), which is transferred throughout pop culture, could be “the collective history and sum of all available knowledge about a certain fantasy or science fiction universe.”
From here, we can establish a baseline. But while lore may be the collective sum of knowledge about a specific universe, it’s important to note that these universes are often constantly changing. This is especially true in the case of games like Dungeons and Dragonswho has a rich tradition dating back to the 1970sand is constantly being revised and expanded.
In other words, lore is a continuously changing collection of fictional backstories. How can we apply that to Web3? Well, in NFT terms, let’s define lore as the collective knowledge about a project in regards to the ever-evolving story that is created within its ecosystem. Sure, that may seem a bit dense, but the bottom line is that lore is simply the fictional backbone that drives a project. The sequence is as follows: creators build lore, lore drives the story, and as a result, a project’s collectors and community are affected.
Lore, but do it Web3
One of the most unique examples of lore in NFTs comes from the Cult of the Forgotten Rune Wizard. Originally launched as a full-scale collection of PFP wizards, the project has since evolved into a production studio, creating comics, animated series, games, and more. But at the epicenter of it all are the Forgotten Runes. book of knowledge — a codex for each of the 10,000 wizards in the collection, where the information surrounding a particular NFT character’s backstory can be dictated by its holder.
With their Book of Lore, Forgotten Runes generated massive engagement among community members and helped establish the importance and popularity of storytelling within an NFT project. By putting the creation of lore in the hands of collectors, the 10,000 Wizards were given the potential to create their own spin-off narratives, further expanding the ecosystem while still tying into the initial Forgotten Runes IP.
However, while those in a similar vein to Forgotten Runes, such as Loot and The souls, thrive on the incumbent’s involvement in creating the tradition, not all projects look to their community for storytelling help. Others, such as Woodies and BAYC, use the definition of tradition established in the previous section to set the tone for the collection and plant the seeds for new ventures, events, and expansions of the ecosystem.
For Woodies, NFT lore helped establish a backstory for the project as a whole; and that backstory conveyed the grand vision of the project focused on character building, magical trees, and forest conservation efforts. Lore helped the Woodies community better understand the heart of the project, allowing them to feel more connected and committed with its builders. He demonstrated that while anyone can walk away from a 10,000-supply modular PFP project, tradition adds an extra layer of meaning and communicates that there is more to a collection than speculation and potential profitability.
In the case of BAYC, lore has continued to drive almost everything Yuga Labs has created. Considering that Bored Apes began as a visual representation of a fictional yacht club inhabited by jaded and bored NFT enthusiasts, the company has continued to expand on this original idea and have recently released a new story that matches their established IP.
With The trial of Jimmy the monkey, Yuga introduced a new character to the BAYC ecosystem, narrating his story in the past tense to create lore to establish a subsequent NFT mint, skill game, and expansion of the developing ecosystem. Updating the lore of the BAYC universe, Yuga exemplified the possibilities of building on a project’s existing narrative to create new and exciting experiences for collectors. Lore, used in this way, is becoming more and more common for burgeoning NFT projects, with many developers using “lore expansion” as delivery.
the end is never the end
If there’s one thing to know about building a narrative in the NFT space, it’s that lore is anything but static. While we should understand it as the collective knowledge about a project, the true value of lore lies in the ever-evolving stories that are added to or derived from it. Because establishing lore and making changes/additions to it ultimately affects collectors, lore has continued to be used to achieve the much sought after “utility” promised by many project roadmaps.
While only time will tell what bigger implications this may have on the NFT ecosystem, for now, there seems to be a slippery slope on the horizon. Because if the standard of usefulness can be set simply by establishing the lore of the project, then low-key storytelling efforts, similar to those of magazines or monthly webcomics, may very well become the projects sole driving force. coming.
