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History of Wraeclast
An attempt to piece together the history of Wraeclast from clues dropped in NPC text in version Path of Exile 0.11.1.
MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Vaal
The Vaal are the oldest known race in Wraeclast, almost completely forgotten in modern times[1]. They built the Vaal Ruins that entombed the weird darkness the player releases in Act II[2], they built the Ancient Pyramid at the end of Act II [3], and presumably they also built the Vaal Oversoul, or at least its mechanical frame. A number of the monsters in the Vaal-created areas are called "constructs" (Ancient Construct, Vaal Construct, Serpentine Construct) so presumably they had some biological or thurmatological technology.
The Vaal had a queen named Atziri who owned fabulous treasure[4].
The Vaal were also the first to use virtue gems[5].
The Eternal Empire
The Eternal Empire was founded by a race called the Azmeri[6]. We don't know exactly when the Empire was founded, but Azmeri civilisation began before the Vaal civilisation fell[7].
At some point in the Empire's history, there was a thaumaturgist named Maligaro (his equipment and laboratory is found in the Chamber of Sins, whose architecture resembles Lunaris Temple in Sarn). Maligaro's research centred on virtue gems and how their qualities might be transferred to humans. His main technique was to inject the "essence" of a gem via a device called Maligaro's Spike[8] although it never seemed to work terribly well[9]. Apart from the Spike, Maligaro created elementals[10] and a mysterious darkness that covered the land[11] At the end of his life he created the Baleful Gem—either a synthetic virtue gem, or a corrupted one—for an unknown purpose[12].
The Peak
The last days of the Eternal Empire occurred over two centuries ago[13]. We don't know how much land the Empire controlled, but we do know it was divided at least into the Outer Empire (the southern coast from Prisoner's Gate down past Lioneye's Watch) and the Inner Empire (everything north and inland of Prisoner's Gate)[14]. The Empire's capital at that time was Sarn[15], and despite the centuries of neglect, the remaining architecture suggests the Empire was fairly prosperous up until that point, and some cataclysm destroyed it. The emperor at the time was Chitus, although we don't know much about him except that he was oblivious to the forces that would be his downfall[16].
As well as the main population of Azmeri, the Empire had a slave population of other races, including Ezomytes, Maraketh and Karui[17]. It seems these other races were not native to Wraeclast, or at least not the part of Wraeclast covered by the Empire[18][19], but were separate civilisations contemporaneous with the Empire.
At the time, the leading thaumaturgist was Malachai. Like Maligaro he experimented with virtue gems, but unlike Maligaro he just surgically implanted them into his test subjects[20], and his efforts met with far more success than Maligaro's[21]. Malachai had slaves mining virtue gems and thaumetic sulphite[22][23]and a supply of test subjects from the emperor[24]. The results of this surgical process were known as Gemlings; people given a supernatural skill in some domain or other, along with immortality[25] For example, a Gemling singer named Kalisa was "...the finest performer in the Empire"[25], and a Gemling legion was part of the Empire's defences[26].
Malachai's most famous creation, however, was known as the Gemling Queen. She was originally a "favourite" of Emperor Chitus[27] named Dialla, but annoyed him[28] and was given to Malachai to experiment on[29]. She fell in love with him[30] and he reshaped her[31] into a most impressive Gemling[32].
Meanwhile, outside the Imperial Court and thaumaturgists' laboratories, discontent grew. A movement named the Purity Rebellion planned to overthrow Emperor Chitus, although we do not know to what end. The leaders of the rebellion were the unlikely combination of High Templar Voll[33] of Thebrus[34] and a poet named Victario[35] who worked from within Sarn itself[36] to bring about Chitus' downfall. While presumably Voll and Victario raised support among the common citizens of the Empire, they also sought support from outside it: Voll enlisted the support of King Kaom of the Karui[37] and Victario sought the aid of the Ezomytes[38]. We have no evidence of Maraketh involvement in the Rebellion, but it doesn't seem far-fetched since they were slaves of the Empire along with the Karui and Ezomytes.
The Fall
When the time of the Purity Rebellion arrived, presumably Victario's armies seized control of Sarn, but it seems Chitus was defeated by somebody named Ondar[39] who fled while the Rebellion was still in progress[40]. Meanwhile, in the Outer Empire, King Kaom and a Karui war host[41] landed on the Terraces[42] and attacked[43] the first line of the Empire's defence, the Eternal Legion stationed at Lioneye's Watch[44]. Marceus Lioneye's force was a legion of Gemlings[45] and Lioneye may well have been a gemling himself[46], but Kaom defeated him[47] and began advancing up the coast.
The Empire's second line of defence was a thaumaturgist named Shavronne, from a a group of people or a location known as Umbra[48]. When she realised Lioneye would fall to Kaom, Shavronne raced to the next defensible structure up the coast, Axiom Prison[49]. She tricked or convinced the warden, Brutus[50], into allowing her to make him into a super-human monster capable of defeating the Karui[51]. Brutus was never defeated by the Karui, although we don't know if they ever bothered attacking Axiom Prison. Although Karui carvings are found beyond Axiom Prison in the Coves, they might not have travelled there via Axiom; since the Karui possessed canoe technology[52] they may have just travelled by sea up the coast.
Whether they tried and failed, or never bothered trying, the Karui stopped after they reached Siren's Cove[53] (possibly an alternate name for The Coves or The Ship Graveyard, or another cove in the vicinity). Just to be safe, Shavronne erected a thaumaturgical barrier as a third line of defence against the Karui[54].
- Voll as Emperor
- The Twist (and the Gemling Queen)
- What created the Undying? Note that Daresso the Daring cut a virtue gem from the throat of a "gemling"; presumably after the fall of the Empire, but apparently before the gemlings became Undying.
Karui
- Post-rebellion, in Act 1
- After the defeat of Lioneye, the Karui colony flourished for a little while, although we don't know how long. Until after the fall of Voll? Longer?
- Then, there was "black storms [...] from the north".
- Then, the invasion of the undead.
Modern Times
- Oriath, Theopolis
- Dominus
- Piety
- Piety experiments with gems via surgery (from Grigor), but apparently she wanted to experiment with the Spike too.
- Judging by the detritus in Lunaris 3, it's taking her a while to get back to Malachai's tech-level.
- Dates (IC?) are much larger than 250, so they're probably from the founding of the Eternal Empire, or perhaps something from the Templar faith.
References
- ↑ Eramir: "a culture I've seen mentioned here and there in some of the most antique of texts"
- ↑ Eramir: "These artifacts, and that ancient gateway to the northwest... crafted by the same hands, I'd venture. Vaal hands."
- ↑ Helena: "A man-crafted mountain of four sheer sides? Sounds like a pyramid. That's Vaal architecture."
- ↑ The Vaults of Atziri map
- ↑ Eramir: "It is the Vaal who began the use of virtue gems, well before our imperial ancestors."
- ↑ Eramir: "The Azmeri. The culture that descended from the Azmerian Mountains and founded the Eternal Empire, so long ago."
- ↑ Helena: "A people who, to the stone age Azmeri, appeared godlike."
- ↑ Helena: The thaumaturgist Maligaro used the Spike to inject the essence of the virtue gems into living subjects.
- ↑ Helena: "Maligaro injected Raulo with both immortality and deformity in equal measure."
- ↑ Helena: "Maligaro and his kind warped the very earth and water with thaumaturgy. The masters are long gone, but those poor golems must continue to obey their instructions."
- ↑ Helena: "This twisting of our surroundings, it's happened before. Maligaro conjured up a creature of the purest, darkest thaumaturgy."
- ↑ Helena: "Maligaro was mortally ill, degenerating in body and mind. It was in this state that he created the Baleful Gem. His final words are burned into my mind. 'This gem is my salvation. Today I join Fidelitas.'"
- ↑ Hargan: "I know that Emperor Chitus was overthrown by Voll of Thebrus, roughly two-and-a-half centuries ago"
- ↑ Piety's letter to Arteri at the pass from Prisoner's Gate to the Western Forest: "This is the only pass between the Inner and Outer Empire."
- ↑ http://www.pathofexile.com/areas — The text under "Act III - The City of Sarn" describes it as "the fallen capital of the Eternal Empire"
- ↑ Chitus' Apex: "It takes true strength to hold power, and my grip grows tighter by the day." - Emperor Chitus
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "Malachai had his slaves mine it, carry it from northern mountains to the refinery by the docks. Ezomytes, Maraketh, Karui... it killed them all."
- ↑ Grigor: "Only the Isles of Skothe were spared. Once, a backwater of my proud civilisation, now... all that remains of the Ezomytes." (apparently the Ezomytes had a separate civilisation to the Empire)
- ↑ Karui stone: "Kaom's canoe struck this sand with the force of destiny. At his back, the greatest war host in Karui history tamed the wild sea, their canoes coupling with the land, one by one." (if the Karui attacked by sea, presumably they are native to some land outside Wraeclast)
- ↑ Grigor: "...that's what [Piety] told me when she opened me up and buried a Virtue Gem in my entrails. Malachai did the same in the name of the Emperor, centuries ago."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "Once beautiful and arrogant Gemlings..."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "Thaumetic Sulphite. [...] Malachai had his slaves mine it..."
- ↑ Clarissa: "The paper mentioned a sooty powder called Thaumetic Sulphite. Said that Virtue Gems were found in seams of this stuff underground."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "Those who did not... were given to his thaumaturgists."
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Clarissa: "...the finest performer in the Empire, thanks to a Virtue Gem implanted in her throat. The gem that gifted her with undeath."
- ↑ Karui stone: "Lioneye's Gemlings met us with shining metal and bold words."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "I was the emperor's favourite, for a time."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "I talked too much, asked too many difficult questions."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: I was gifted to Malachai.
- ↑ Grigor: "The Gemling Queen gave her heart / And body / To the King of Shades
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "He gave me gems, divine jewels for his Gemling Queen."
- ↑ Lady Dialla: "Malachai liked spines. Liked my spine. Pretty spine, bejeweled and bountiful. Enough to make an empire weep."
- ↑ Grigor: "...helping High Templar Voll depose Emperor Chitus."
- ↑ Hargan: "Emperor Chitus was overthrown by Voll of Thebrus"
- ↑ Hargan: "The poet, Victario, led himself a piece of the Purity Rebellion"
- ↑ Hargan: "Victario and his cobbers holed up in the Sewers beneath the Marketplace, the Warehouse District, and the Slums."
- ↑ Maramoa: "Voll of Thebrus bent his knee to my ancestor, King Kaom, and promised freedom in return for war."
- ↑ Grigor: "He wrote many entreaties to the Ezomytes, begging our assistance in helping High Templar Voll..."
- ↑ Ondar's Clasp: "A single lightning strike fells a man. A single knife stroke fells an empire."
- ↑ Ondar's Flight: "Successful but not unscathed, Ondar fled the capital as chaos blossomed in the night."
- ↑ Karui stone: "At his back, the greatest war host in Karui history..."
- ↑ Karui stone at the Terraces: "Kaom's canoe struck this sand with the force of destiny."
- ↑ Karui stone: "Lioneye's Gemlings met us [...] Kaom's axes silenced their despair."
- ↑ Bestel: "Marceus commanded the southernmost of the Eternal Legions, here at Lioneye's Watch."
- ↑ Karui stone: "Lioneye's Gemlings met us with shining metal and bold words.
- ↑ Bestel: "Crazy fool had his left eye taken out and a golden-hued gem put in its place."
- ↑ Shavronne's diary: "Lioneye is dead, his legion slaughtered."
- ↑ Eramir: "I've read about Shavronne of Umbra...", Helena: "God help us if [Piety's] able to replicate the Umbra's work." and the description of Shavronne's Revelation is attributed to "Kadavrus, Surgeon to the Umbra"
- ↑ Shavronne's Pace: "Shavronne raced to Brutus' side, her last hope against the Karui tide."
- ↑ Shavronne's Revelation: "Shavronne held Sanity in her right hand and Revelation in her left. Brutus chose the left hand."
- ↑ Shavronne's Diary: "The Warden will serve as our saviour. May he crush the Karui into the sand with the mighty fists I shall gift to..."
- ↑ Maramoa: "You strike the waikoama, the canoe, spilling a feast of men into the water."
- ↑ Maramoa: "Kaom took Lord Lioneye's head and the southern coast all the way to the Siren's Cove."
- ↑ Shavronne's Diary: "Should the need arise we shall retreat through Prisoner's Gate, raising my barricade behind us."