FAQ

Though some could interpret a supernatural explanation, the mummified corpse actually carried a virulent mutagen: an inexplicably powerful virus, granted, but one that could be grounded in scientific reality. To the Spaniards who found El Dorado, however, it must have seemed to be magic of a most baleful variety.

An interesting idea is that the pre-Incan civilisation that constructed the statue, assuming that the acquisitive conquerors would find the golden idol irresistable, designed it as a "Trojan horse" to destroy their aggressors. In returning it to their place of origin and discovering its terrible secret, however, they would unleash the awful biological agent within...with potentially devastating consequences for their entire nation.

Many players have assumed that the mutants are more or less undead and, in thrall to El Dorado, exist only to kill those who approach the idol. The actual concept, however, is that while the virus certainly has a devolving effect on those infected, it does not entirely rob them of their cognitive faculties...or, more pressingly, their reproduction ability. The creatures that Nate encounters in Drake's Fortune are not the original Spaniards, but the eventual sions of their mutated lineage. The totems Nate encounters on the island (and, later, the traps constructed in part with the wreckage of his plane) were actually created by the Descendants.