CREATION VS. DESTRUCTION: Yuga Labs’ Colin Hesterly Explains The Otherside’s Soma And Chaos Energies And How They Impact The Metaverse!

From fire and ice to hot and cold, the real world is filled with opposing forces that are neither good nor bad, just different. The same is true on Otherside, where the metaverse’s two core energies, Soma, which creates, and Chaos, which destroys, come together to power a world that players can shape and make their own.

On Friday, the Other Games team hosted a “Lore and Order” Bubble Space with Yuga Labs’ Santeezy and Colin Hesterly, where they discussed the two energies that impact everything on Otherside.

 

 

“The easiest way to think of these are Soma is creation and Chaos is destruction,” Hesterly said. “If you want to get super meta with this, the whole idea behind this is the creative process, and what we as a team would go through when creating this entire experience. You build things up and tear things down…Bring that into the story, you got these two energies. Neither are necessarily good or bad it's just what side to do you align with on any given day.”

 

Soma and Chaos aren’t just abstract ideas. They’re visible throughout Otherside Nexus.

“Lore wise at one point, Nexus was a thriving breathing society and world for Kodas to live in. It was full of that creative spark,” Hestrly said. “You see the Soma energy in the middle of the temple, that’s what powers all of Nexus. At some point that balance went out of wack and Chaos started to take over. And it ultimately destroyed what we see here now. Which is why we see this splintered, fractured world full of runes.”

 

 

With these two forces at play, Hesterly and the Yuga Labs team hope every player feels like they have the power to create or destroy to their heart’s desire and shape a world that truly feels like their own.

“One of the things we wanted to do was make this whole experience feel like its up to you, he said. “Let’s build it in a way where each player feels like they’re the one that pressed the button. They’re the one that turned everything back on. With that they bring a bit of balance back int the world and hopefully that ‘s something we can continue to play around with.”

 

The Bored Ape Gazette is working to bring you continued coverage of today’s “Lore and Order” Bubble Space and will keep you posted on how Soma and Chaos continue to shape Nexus and the broader Otherside. Stay tuned for updates!