“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That’s the opening to the Gospel of John. I’m not particularly religious despite my parents’ best efforts, but I thought of it often as I played Dustborn, the newest game from Red Thread Games, the developers behind Draugen, Dreamfall Chapters, and Svalgard. In Christian and Jewish myth, something Dustborn openly references, God literally speaks the universe into being: “Let there be light.” For as long as we have been able to tell stories, words have had power, so much so that it is impossible for many to conceive of a story, perhaps the most important story, the story of why we’re here, without language. Human beings are storytellers. We define reality through language. It is how we see ourselves, and the world. In the Old Testament, God destroys the Tower of Babel, fearful of what humanity, united by a single language, might accomplish. Maybe there’s a story there, too.