Storyline

Although Team Fortress 2 has no story mode or singleplayer, the storyline and backstory of the game has been revealed through several comics, Meet the Team videos, and major updates, specifically the Halloween Update of October 2009 (and the Halloween Update of October 2010), the WAR! Update of December 2009, and the Engineer Update of July 2010.

See also: Timeline

1850

The Mann family

From left to right: Barnabas Hale, Blutarch Mann, Zepheniah Mann, Mann's maidservant Elizabeth and Redmond Mann. A mysterious man is also seen just out of shot on the far right side

Team Fortress 2's backstory begins in 1850 with the wealthy Englishman Zepheniah Mann. Mann was the owner and founder of Mann & Sons Munitions Concerns, later known as Mann Co. , and he traveled to the United States with his two adult sons, Redmond and Blutarch, to expand their munitions business. When they arrived, they discovered the gravel pits and dustbowls were useless; in addition, Zepheniah had contracted numerous illnesses and was dying. In his last will and testament, Zepheniah set up the events of Team Fortress 2.

The last will and testament of Zepheniah Mann

To his maidservant, Elizabeth, a shrewd and angry looking woman, he left all of his funds, plantation, and estate; to his tracker, the burly Australian Barnabus Hale, he left the Mann & Sons company, and to his "brain-defective" sons Redmond and Blutarch, he left the useless land they had found, ordering them to find a way to compromise and share it. Finally, Zepheniah also left an important, scribbled-out duty to an unknown person who is blurred out of his family portrait. Another Mann family member, Silas Mann, is revealed to be part of the family portrait, although he is not the blurred individual. Unsatisfied with this arrangement, both sons began forming a team of mercenaries to kill the other and take the land for themselves.

The battle begins

The original BLU Team

While the members of the original RED Team are unknown, the members of the original BLU Team were various famous historical figures from the mid-to-late 1800s, many of whom were not even alive at the same time. The team was made up of Billy the Kid (the original Scout), Stonewall Jackson (the original Soldier), Abraham Lincoln (the original Pyro), Alfred Nobel (the original Demoman), John Henry (the original Heavy), Nikola Tesla (the original Engineer), Sigmund Freud (the original Medic), Davy Crockett (the original Sniper), and Fu Manchu (the original Spy). The RED and BLU teams proceeded to enter a massive stalemate as they attempted to destroy the other team and take the land for their respective Mann sibling.

1890

Loose canon

Radigan Conagher accepts Blutarch's request

Forty years later, Redmond and Blutarch were still engaged in their unwinnable war. As Blutarch neared death from old age, he called in an Engineer named Radigan Conagher to "make [him] a monster" by artificially extending his life with a machine. Radigan agreed, but then encountered a descendant (presumably daughter) of Elizabeth, who asked Radigan to build Redmond a life extending machine as well. As payment, she gave him a hundred pounds of Australium, a powerful transformative element found only in Australia which had caused the nation of unintelligent savages to become extremely intelligent, developing teleportation and cloaking techniques and other incredible scientific advances. Radigan agreed, and became super-intelligent with the Australium. He then developed life extending machines for Redmond and Blutarch (as well as an unknown third individual).

1968

The modern war

Team Fortress 2 takes place in 1968. Nine individuals--the Scout, the Soldier (real name Jane Doe), the Pyro, the Demoman (real name Tavish DeGroot), the Heavy, the Engineer (real name Dell Conagher), the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy--are recruited by Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU) to continue Redmond and Blutarch's never-ending war to seize their father's land. A descendant of Elizabeth, named Helen, now acts as the Administrator of the battle, secretly overseeing both teams, something the Mann siblings are likely unaware of. Additionally, Saxton Hale, a descendant of Zepheniah Mann's friend Barnabus, to whom he gave Mann & Sons Munitions Concerns, is now in charge of Mann Co., which acts as a subsidary of the Administrator's shadowy company, TF Industries.

Recent developments

The Administrator

The first major plot event occurs when the RED Demoman and BLU Soldier meet and become friends at an explosives convention, which severely angers the Administrator. With the help of Saxton Hale, she misleads both men into thinking the other is trying to kill them, sparking a bloody war. The next major event occurs when Blutarch Mann realizes his life support machine is breaking. He desperately calls in the BLU Engineer, the grandson of Radigan Conagher, to fix it. Later, Saxton Hale discovers the Internet (which notably did not exist in the 1960s) and uses it to open the online Mann Co. Store for players to purchase weapons and items.

Mysteries

Pyro's identity

The Pyro's identity has been the subject of much debate since the game's release. As the Pyro is one of two classes to not yet receive a Meet the Team video (the other being the Medic), little is known about his or her personality and history. Up until the Engineer Update, a popular theory claimed the Pyro was a woman (and thus, the only female class), in large part because of a frilly flower handbag in the Pyro's locker. Additional evidence supporters note include the Pyro's feminine humiliation stance and domination lines from other classes that use derogatory female terms.

However, with the release of the Engineer Update, much speculation has revolved around the idea that Abraham Lincoln, the original 1850s Pyro, is still alive in the role. Three aspects of the update are used as evidence:

• Abraham Lincoln was the original Pyro in the 1850s.
• Schematics on Radigan Conagher's workbench depict a contraption in which a seated man with a beard and top hat is dropped through a trap door and teleported to a desert location. An image of the penny (on which Lincoln is depicted) and the letters "LIN..." are nearby. Some have suggested this schematic may depict a way in which Lincoln survived his assassination by John "Tower of Hats" Booth.
• Radigan Conagher built a third life extending machine for an unknown individual. While some have cited the machine's construction date of April 14 (the day Lincoln was assassinated) as evidence, Conagher could not have built the third machine until at least 1894, the year he built Redmond and Blutarch's devices. An explanation for Lincoln's possible survival is provided above.

Zepheniah Mann's will recipient

Zepheniah Mann left an important task to an unknown person in his last will and testament. The line reads "Lastly to [obscured] I leave the entirety of my [obscured] and swear you to utmost secrecy in its keeping." This person's identity has not yet been revealed, but cannot be Redmond, Blutarch, Barnabus Hale, or Elizabeth, as all are mentioned in his will already. The person is likely the individual seen scratched out of the Mann family portrait, whose identity is also unknown.

Third life extender machine

After building Blutarch Mann a life extending machine on July 17, 1894, and a second for Redmond Mann on August 3, 1894, Radigan Conagher built a third machine on April 14 of an unknown year. The recipient of this machine is a source of speculation. Some have suggested Abraham Lincoln, the original Pyro (see above), due to the fact that it was built on the day he supposedly died, while others have theorized the unnamed descendant of Elizabeth who enlisted Radigan to make the devices in the first place may have requested one for herself, and is Helen, the current Administrator.