The Most Misunderstood Lore in Monster Hunter History

I’ve always wondered about the ancient civilizations of Monster Hunter. Most of the information I’ve read online was not reliable, so I decided to shed some light on everything I learned about this obscure topic.

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🔎 | Chapters:
00:00 Ruined Structures?
00:32 Origins of The Ancient Civilizations
12:07 The Downfall of the Ancient Civilizations
21:13 The Many Civilizations of Monster Hunter

📝 | Credits, References, and More:
▸Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
▸Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate [NPCs]
▸Monster Hunter Generations
▸Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
▸Monster Hunter Rise [Relics & NPCs]
▸Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak [Relics & NPCs]
▸Monster Hunter World [NPCs]
▸Monster Hunter World Iceborne
▸Monster Hunter Wilds Beta
▸Hunter's Encyclopedia G, pg. 73, 78, 79, 81, 82
▸Hunter's Encyclopedia 4, pg. 203, 230
▸Monster Hunter World: The Official Complete Works
▸Monster Hunter Rise: Official Setting Materials - pg. 80 & 81
▸Monster Hunter Rise: Official Setting Materials - pg. 83
▸Monster Hunter Rise: Official Setting Materials - pg. 64, 65, 66, 67, 364, & 365
▸Monster Hunter Rise: Official Setting Materials - pg. 68, 69, 366, & 367

💡 | Monster Hunter stories you might like:

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[Maki-GS]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your feedback in the comments. I'd like to make a few corrections:

00:50 Do note these civilizations definitely didn't all exist simultaneously, and the timeline of these ruins is really difficult to pin down.
09:51 the rusted weapons were discovered in the 1st generation, not 2nd.

In future lore videos, I'll include some sources so you can all explore these kinds of topics :)

[yusefwebb]

Fun fact: Due to the discovery of ancient blueprints and trial and error Is how we got weapons like the charge blade and switch axe

[Spyno]

I really love the MH worldbuilding. You only get the remains of civilization before you, with only a couple notes to get a glimpse of the past. Very interesting how they viewed the monsters.

[DanielisAwesome]

Laying it all out like this, I don't feel its as mysterious that all these civilizations fell. Just seems like the circle of life in a World with Elder Dragons. Rather than some strange otherworldly war going on behind the scenes (although Fatalis' existence still hints at that), just seems like people build a life in a place that eventually gets destroyed by a living force of nature, the survivors move on, rebuild, and live long enough to forget exactly how it happened.

[foxxtitan]

It's worth mentioning that while mining in the walls of the ancient tower, you get Kushala's scales... indicating that they have been used as one of the building materials.
Now imagine how many dead Kushala Daoras has been needed to make this tower beyound cloud.
So I don't know if the Great Dragon War is truly a legend, but this shows for sur that a carnage occured between humans and Dragons.

[kingofflames]

About Schrade, the kingdom is still around, just split into two different kingdoms, east and west. That, plus the guild having records of its fall and there being guild flags in Schrade implies Schrade fell *relatively* recently.

[SchradeDemise]

SInce Wilds looks heavily themed around ancient civilizations, i really hope we got these rusted ancient weapons back. i didn't know they were a thing before watching this video. i hope they expand on it even more that'd be awesome

[Immopimmo]

I think us lore fans will be eating good once MH:Wilds releases. I'm looking forward to learning more about THE ancient civilization. Maybe there will even be some kind of archeology feature. I remember picking up ancient wyvern coins in the beta and wondering if they hade some connection to the people who built the lightning rods.

[kingofflames]

I love the rusted weapons, especially how their different designs show that different weapons belonged to different civilisations.

The Swaxe and Charge Blade for example are clearly designed by different cultures than the Dual Blades, Great Sword and Longsword.

[soulsofdeath]

We may not know of a Dragon war or the EDW being real. Though give the lore drops in wilds. Its clear the ancients did have the tech to do it and they had more tech then we thought.

[acceleratorv]

The new series from MH just gives us more proof that the ancient civilization was trying to create life, the next series we meeting the ancients?

[nargacuga]

The demon or gods isle for the guns, the text mentions an ancient mechanism but they look like modern firearms (well, maybe closer to WWII)

[Ryodraco]

One thing to note for some of these is that there are vast differences in time between some of them. The Hunter's Guild itself has probably been around for at least a thousand years (or else some governing force before them maintained the isolation of the Forbidden Lands), and the Sandy Plains village was apparently from a time after the profession of monster hunting had become organized and official, as the writer does not seem to be treated as anyone unusual, just an old hunter (plus we are able to read it, while it's indicated the most ancient stuff needs translating by scholars). I wouldn't be surprised if the events those notes reference were perhaps a few centuries old rather than the millennia old ruins we see in some places. Any wooden ruins would be even younger in most cases, as wood normally decays quickly compared to stone or metal structures.

Further, when most fans think of ancient civilizations in Monster Hunter, they think of the unusually advanced ones that have been hinted at. But a lot of the ruins are probably from civilizations that had comparatively primitive technology, as only a few indicate advanced technology was used.

[lightning]

I think if the Artian armor set was lore friendly it would've been the most OP armor even better than the Fatalis one

[starsilverinfinity]

Generally speaking, there seems to be a theme of Elder Dragons almost being nature's response to ancient humans folly - really makes you wonder, eh?

[larsschulze]

Can't wait for ur takes on the new lore that came out with Wilds

[Salderin]

I'm really liking the video so far (I'm 3 minutes in) but I do wish there were little pop-ups littered throughout that show quotes accompanied by Sources. I trust you and @BannedDino, but I'd love to see which books and which page numbers provide such specific information, at times.

Love your videos :)

[arthurvilain]

What's this ? A video about ancient civilisations in MH that doesn't regurgitate the same old Great Dragon War theory as accepted fact. And actually uses in-game fragments of lore as evidence to support its arguments ? I thought I'd never live to see the day... Well done sir !

Also I have a feeling we may yet learn a lot more on this topic through further contact with the forgotten people who inhabit the Forbidden Lands, who had apparently never heard of hunters before...

[Falchieyan]

The very calm and slow pace of this video is very relaxing, especially the combination of sounds when you're reading the found logs. Looking forward to seeing more like this.

[ShiftShido]

I love that the most interesting lore in Monster Hunter isn't related to Monster Hunters at all.
The ecology at least is heavily explored, but the information we have for non-hunter people and their history is little to none, which IMO makes them even more interesting