Frostpunk 2: Who Was The Captain?

The main story in Frostpunk 2 is a direct continuation from the original game, thirty years later. It opens with the death of the Captain, New London's dictatorial leader. While Frostpunk 2 makes it clear that the Captain and his legacy are a big deal, it focuses much more on the Steward and the Council as they seek to chart a course for the city's future.

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If you haven't played the original game, or just need a recap, here is a quick biography of New London's controversial ruler, whose iron fist helped the city survive the Great Storm.

The Great Frost

The Captain was the player character in Frostpunk's main scenario, A New Home. While his title comes from his position as leader of his expedition to the north in the wake of the climate catastrophe, it's unknown whether he had a military background before that. In the opening of Frostpunk 2, which starts in 1916, he appears to be about 70 or 80 years old, so we can assume that he was born in the mid-nineteenth century.

In the Frostpunk timeline, a sudden shift in the global climate occured in the 1880s; crops failed around the world, and the ensuing famine caused the rapid collapse of industrialized nations, including the British Empire. The remnants of the British government sent survivors to outposts near the North Pole, where large coal deposits could be used to fuel Generators, enormous structures capable of heating and powering a small city as long as their furnaces could be kept burning.

Winterhome, the British military's main research outpost in the north, was to be the largest of these cities, providing support and leadership to the smaller satellite settlements.

The Founding Of New London

The Captain was the leader of the expedition meant to settle near the Generator in the crater southwest of Winterhome. It's unknown whether he was the original holder of this post or if it fell to him after casualties above him in the chain of command; given the massive numbers of deaths during the collapse of the Empire and the subsequent evacuation of the British Isles, that isn't out of the question. Inclement weather separated the Captain from many of his followers, and he arrived at the Generator with only a few dozen people.

Undeterred, the Captain organized work shifts, ordered shelters constructed, and ultimately got the Generator running despite his limited workforce. Over the next several weeks, he and his people were able to raise signal balloons at the top of the crater to guide the remaining settlers to them; survivors started arriving, providing more hands to work and more mouths to feed.

Faith And Order

As New London began to secure its position, scouts in the Frostland attempted to make contact with other settlements. One by one, they sought British and American Generator cities, and each time they found only frozen bodies. Even Winterhome had fallen - it became clear that New London was on its own.

In the face of falling morale among the people, the Captain resolved to give them something to believe it beyond mere survival. Depending on the player's choices at this stage of the campaign, the Captain either enforces strict order and discipline, keeping the people too focused on daily routine to worry about anything else, or builds a new faith around the Generator as a bringer of warmth, to foster a sense of community. In both timelines, a handful of the city's people take on a zealous fanaticism, becoming the Captain's enforcers.

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The Great Storm

New London's greatest test during its early years was the Great Storm, a weeks-long blizzard that saw the temperature plummet to negative-triple-digits Centigrade. Just keeping the Generator active in conditions it was never meant to survive took extraordinary measures. The Captain ordered strict rationing of food and fuel, and twenty-four hour shifts in the city's coal mines, working miners to death and exhaustion to ensure the survival of the greater colony.

The Storm cemented the Captain's place as the unquestioned leader of New London. He would retain that post unchallenged until his death, decades later.

Was The Captain Murdered?

The opening cinematic of Frostpunk 2 shows the Captain, now an old man in a wheelchair, reflecting on his choices and the city he's built. As he is lost in his thoughts, possibly drugged or delirious, a woman wheels him into the streets and leaves him there naked in sub-zero temperatures, causing him to quickly die of exposure. It's never mentioned during Story Mode whether the Captain was murdered - which, given his importance to the city, seems like it would be a bigger deal - so it's possible that this scene is metaphorical rather than literal.

Whether his death was intentional or not, we know that the Captain, nearing the end of his life, had made arrangements for succession. While he never implemented a Council or other parliamentary structure during his lifetime, he made it clear that he wanted one after his passing, led by a Steward. The first Steward - the player character in Frostpunk 2 - is the Captain's handpicked successor, but their rule must be approved by the Council in a vote of confidence during its first session.

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