Xbox and Playground Games announcedFable 4during Microsoft’s live-streamed showcase in the Summer of 2020. However, progress updates have been relatively sparse, though the game appeared onMicrosoft’s updated Xbox publishing roadmap, positioned afterThe Outer Worlds 2but well before the newIndiana Jones,Gears of War, andElder Scrollsgames. Still, fans have little information to go on other than what little they can guess from the trailer.
One big question is when exactlyFable 4takes place. The trailer’s final shot shows what appears to be Bowerstone Castle off in the distance, indicating thatFable’s most iconic city is returning. Interestingly, the city doesn’t look as built up as it did inFable 3, hinting at an earlier time in Albion’s history. If that’s the case, there are no better events forFable 4to depict than the Fall of Albion’s Guild of Heroes.
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Why Fable’s Heroes’ Guild Was Destroyed
Albion’s Heroes’ Guild played a central role in the originalFable, since the player’s Hero trained at the Guild, and it’s the Guild’s job to hand out the Quests to its members. However, by the timeFable 2takes place about 500 years later, all that remains is the underground ruins of the Guild’s Chamber of Fate. Theresa explains this part ofFable’s lore when players arrive at the Chamber of Fate for the first time, revealing that Albion’s love of the heroes eventually gave way to fear and hatred. This resulted in an uprising where the Guild was burned down, and most of the Heroes were killed.
Theresa doesn’t go into too much detail about why the people of Albion turned on the Heroes. However, the first game might hold some clues. While morality has always been an essential concept in theFablegames, the Guild is functionally amoral. The heroes are happy to stopFable 1antagonist Jack of Bladesfrom ending the world, but the Guild signs off on some pretty heinous stuff, including mass murder, as long as the gold is good. The Guildmaster even explicitly states that Heroes can choose to be good or evil during his speech at the protagonist’s graduation.
The Guild that players see inLionhead Studio’s originalFablelooks more like a group of magical mercenaries than upholders of the balance between good and evil.Fable’s concept of Renown also makes Heroes come across as glory hounds. While that would put them right at home with the heroes of Greek mythology, it’s not exactly a heroic trait in the modern sense. All in all, it’s easy to see howFable’s Heroes could start abusing their power to the point that “Evil” almost becomes their default alignment. Even if most or all Heroes are Good, Albion’s citizens will probably be more worried about the bad apples killing their friends and burning down their villages.
The Fall of The Guild in Fable 4
It’s also reasonably easy to see how this conflict could be a promising concept to buildFable 4’s story around, especially if the newFabledoesn’t have a purely supernatural villain. It might even make some wonder why this wasn’t the plot ofFable 2. Perhaps players could take the role of one of the guild’s newest heroes, possibly even the child or grandchild of the original game’s protagonist. LongtimeFablefans will naturally feel connected to the Guild based on the first game, which would add some interesting moral dilemmas when confronting the Guild’s corruption.
Players could try to reform the Guild from within, changing history at the cost of moral compromise. Alternatively,Fable 4’s Hero could brutally crush the rebellion or turn on the other Heroes to aid in the Guild’s burning. It also doesn’t have to be a matter of Evil Heroes and Good Rebels either; good and bad could be found on both sides. This would allowFable 4to tell a more nuanced story than its predecessors.
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Guns and Swords in Fable 4
It’s one thing for Albion’s people to turn onFable’s Heroes’ Guild, but it’s not like the order of magical warriors are just going to sit there and take it. However, the ordinary people of Albion had something to level the playing field. At some point beforeFable 2, traders from Samarkand brought gunpowder to Albion. The subsequent invention of flintlock rifles allowed normal humans with minimal training to match Heroes in battle.
This brings up one of the arguments forFable 4taking place between the second and third games. Fans will disagree over whetherguns should return inFable 4, but this transitional period offers a potential compromise. Flintlock rifles and pistols were already obsolete by the time ofFable 2, with allFable 3guns being functionally semiautomatic. However, flintlocks could be state of the art at the time of the Guild’s destruction.
Games likeGreedFalldemonstrate how to incorporate early firearms into an otherwise conventional action RPG, so Playground Games could do the same in the newFable.Greedfallalso occurred in a similar transition period, where medieval weapons like swords and halberds co-existed with muskets and pistols. WhileGreedFallis not the only game to depict this era of warfare, it’s still a rarely-used combination thatFable 4could capitalize on.
A New Era of Fable
SettingFable 4between the first two games brings other benefits as well. The 500-year gap betweenFableandFable 2is more than enough time for an entire second series, after all. However, a more important feature is that it would let playersexplore a new era of Albion’s history. Part of what makesFableunique is that it’s one of the few fantasy franchises where time and technology noticeably advance, going from medieval inFable 1to the Industrial Revolution inFable 3.
Fable 3’s undead Hollow Men dress like 16th-century conquistadors, implying they date back to Albion’s equivalent of the 1500s.Fable 4could take place in roughly that era or perhaps take inspiration from the English Civil War. The latter would be quite fitting since it marked a violent but major transition period for England, similar to the uprising that destroyedFable’s Heroes’ Guild. However, depicting either era would be a great way to expand upon aninteresting but unseen period ofFable’s lore.
Fable 4is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
