In the world of Deadlock, the occult and the paranormal are so ingrained into society that humans have learned to co-exist with other fantastical races like the Ixians.
Ixia, which is a separate plane of existence, came in contact with Earth when an astral gate opened up with the first Maelstrom event. Ever since then, some Ixians have migrated to Earth, becoming a part of its everyday life.
Some of these include playable characters like Abrams, a well-known no-nonsense detective in New York who is participating in the Patrons’ ritual in an attempt to end it. Although he is skeptical that this will actually work.
The other playable Ixian is Apollo, who is a mere teenager still in school, but he is the son of a warlord and is considered to be of royal lineage. Any semblance of a normal life that he might have otherwise had was torn away by the rough political conditions that Northern Ixia is in right now.
The prince, therefore, moved to New York to avoid such conflicts. But here on Earth, Ixians are often termed as demons by bystanders, and Apollo considers it to be blatant racism, along with believing that Ixians are superior to humans in all aspects of life.
Some Ixians were born and brought up in the human world
He is fighting in the ritual on behalf of Ixia, so we don’t exactly know what his true motivations are just yet. There are also mixed-race Ixians who have never been to their ancestral homeland but were born and brought up on Earth.
One such example is Infernus, a bartender with a complicated past, who is taking part in the ritual to keep Jezebel’s, the bar he works in, open because of the gratitude that he owes its owner, Hank.
Ixia is noted as a beautiful place for tourism, but it is also in the middle of multiple scuffles as it is drawing hostility from other organizations. The United States sends military aid to Ixia, and the southern side of the dimension has also become the 52nd state of the country.
There’s still a lot of information to be explored about Ixia, but for now, Valve is drip-feeding information through new updates, voicelines, character and environmental interactions.
