Ilios’s Artifacts
Ilios has always struck us as an odd choice for an Overwatch map because at face value it appears to have offered nothing special or relevant to the story. Yes, from a design standpoint alone it’s gorgeous and a fresh change of pace, however in terms of actual lore there was very little to go on. After doing a bit of digging we found a quote from the Overwatch Visual Source Book that was posted on overwatch.blizzplanet.com stating there “…where many artifacts and relics of the ancient world have been recently unearthed.”
If you actually walk up to the console after the match begins Athena, Overwatch’s master computer system, will state that “Talon activity has been detected in the area” and that “…this isn’t a holiday.” From this we can gather that Talon is here to possibly steal some ancient artifacts and it’s your duty to stop them.
However, there has to be more to this story than meets the eye because stealing artifacts seems incredibly out of character for Talon. Up until now they have infiltrated Winston’s home for classified data, assassinated a massive political/spiritual figure, and steal an incredibly powerful weapon from a museum. Why would Talon need to take a few artifacts when historically their objectives have been far grander and more destructive.
Our best guess is that they are using them to finance operations, but it’s a subject worth exploring. Blizzard isn’t exactly known for skimping on details, so there has to be more to this objective than what we know. It’d be great if we had more depth and explanation for many of the maps, but Ilios probably deserves it above all others. It’s perhaps the most out of place of the entire group, so getting some more backstory would be a very welcomed addition.
