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History of Wraeclast

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Revision as of 12:47, 6 July 2013 by >Screwtapello (Screwtapello moved page User:Screwtapello/HistoryOfWraeclast to History of Wraeclast without leaving a redirect: I'm pretty sure I'm finished the first draft of this, so let's make it public.)
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An attempt to piece together the history of Wraeclast from clues from NPC dialog, item flavour text, and other canonical sources in Path of Exile version 0.11.1. Where possible, information is presented from an in-universe point of view, at the time the game begins.

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 a weird darkness[2], they built the Ancient Pyramid[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 thaumaturgical 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 the 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

We don't know how much land the Empire covered before its sudden demise, 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)[13]. The Empire's capital at that time was Sarn[14], and despite the centuries of neglect, the remaining architecture suggests the Empire was fairly prosperous. The emperor at the time was Chitus, although we don't know much about him beyond his ignorance of the forces that would destroy him[15]. While the Empire's citizens were Azmeri, the slaves were of other races, including Ezomytes, Maraketh and Karui[16]. It seems these other races were not native to Wraeclast, or at least not the part of Wraeclast covered by the Empire[17][18], but were separate contemporary civilisations.

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[19], and his efforts met with far more success than Maligaro's[20]. Malachai had slaves mining virtue gems and thaumetic sulphite[21][22]and a supply of test subjects from the emperor[23]. The results of this surgical process were known as Gemlings; people given a supernatural skill in some domain or other, along with immortality[24] For example, a Gemling singer named Kalisa was "...the finest performer in the Empire"[24], and the Empire's defences included at least one Gemling legion[25].

Malachai's most famous creation, however, was known as the Gemling Queen. She was originally a "favourite" of Emperor Chitus[26] named Dialla, but annoyed him[27] and was given to Malachai to experiment on[28]. She fell in love with him[29] and he reshaped her[30] into a most impressive Gemling[31].

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[32] of Thebrus[33] and Victario "the People's Poet"[34][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 Rebellion

When the time of the Purity Rebellion arrived Victario presumably incited the populace to riot[39], but it seems Chitus was assassinated by somebody named Ondar[40] who fled while the Rebellion was still in progress[41]. Meanwhile, in the Outer Empire, King Kaom and a Karui war host[42] landed on the Terraces[43] and attacked[25] the first line of the Empire's defence, the Eternal Legion stationed at Lioneye's Watch[44]. Marceus Lioneye's troops were Gemlings[25] and Lioneye may well have been a Gemling himself[45], but Kaom defeated him[46] and began advancing up the coast.

The Empire's second line of defence was a thaumaturgist named Shavronne, from a group of people or a location known as Umbra[47]. When she realised Lioneye would fall to Kaom, Shavronne raced to the next defensible structure up the coast, Axiom Prison[48]. She tricked or convinced the warden, Brutus[49], into allowing her to make him into a super-human monster capable of defeating the Karui[50]. 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[51] they may have just travelled by sea up the coast.

Shavronne erected a thaumaturgical barrier as a third line of defence against the Karui[52], in the pass between Prisoner's Gate and the Western Forest. Whether they tried to break through it and failed, or whether they never bothered trying, the Karui ceased their advance when they reached Siren's Cove[53] (possibly an alternate name for The Coves or The Ship Graveyard, or another cove in the vicinity).

The Fall

Afterwards, High Templar Voll became Emperor of the Empire his Rebellion had shattered. We don't know whether the Rebellion itself fatally wounded the Empire or just injured it, but under Voll's leadership it declined rapidly[54]. The best illustration of this decline is the story of Kalisa, "the finest performer in the Empire"[24], a Gemling whose gem was cut from her throat as a trophy: a society where civilian entertainers can be brutally slaughtered without repercussions is a society whose government is not doing its job.

Despite the decline of the Empire after the Rebellion, it was finally killed by a separate event called the "cataclysm"[55]. This cataclysm could not have been the Rebellion, for several reasons:

  • Eramir says the Azmeri's "history" and "identity" was destroyed by the cataclysm, but the Empire was still standing (shaky and infirm but standing, Emperor and all) after the Rebellion, and it seems unlikely the Azmeri could have forgotten their identity while the Empire was still nominally alive.
  • In the story of Kalisa, she is described as a "Gemling", not an "Undying", so she must have been killed between the Rebellion and the event that corrupted the Gemlings.
  • The Karui participated in the Rebellion, and after they took control of the southern coast, they settled there it quite happily[56]. It wasn't until later that the Karui recorded "Black storms descend on us from the north" (that is, from the Inner Empire and Sarn) and later still "The earth of Wraeclast rejects the dead." The Karui settlement must have occurred between the Rebellion and the event that cursed Wraeclast.

So what was this cataclysm that finally put an end to the Empire, and presumably cursed the Gemlings and raised the dead? Hargan says: "Voll's was the shortest reign of any Eternal Emperor, about five years. The Twist saw to that." The only other mention of the Twist is when Lady Dialla says "The cockroaches will come again. They want the Twist." Apparently, the Twist is a device or artifact, and it exists (or the Ebony Legion believe it exists) somewhere in Solaris Temple under the protection of Lady Dialla.

It's possible that Lady Dialla picked the Twist out of the wreckage of Sarn years after the cataclysm occurred, and moved it to her sanctuary in Solaris Temple for safe-keeping, but there are reasons to suspect she was directly involved in the cataclysm itself:

  • The Gemling Queen is the only Gemling known to have escaped becoming Undying.
  • At one point, Grigor says: "Then they'll have the Gemling Queen, a living embodiment of the cataclysm."
  • Lady Dialla herself implies that at one point she had to choose between the Empire's survival and her own: "Malachai begged: for him, for the Empire. I chose me... selfish me. The Empire died, and I live. I live, and live, and live, and live."

This raises further questions: Lady Dialla says of Malachai "He gave me gems, divine jewels for his Gemling Queen." and describes her spine as a "Pretty spine, bejeweled and bountiful." Since this is Malachai we're talking about, these are presumably Virtue Gems rather than mere jewellery. Most Gemlings seem to have received only a single Gem, and yet from context Lady Dialla received many, so Malachai must have intended her for some purpose greater than the average Gemling. If this did indeed occur after the Purity Rebellion with the Empire in disarray, perhaps he intended to use her to restore the Empire much as Shavronne intended Brutus to defend it.

Oriath

Oriath is a small island off the south-east coast of Wraeclast[57]. We don't know when Oriath was first colonised, but it seems to have been well-established and prosperous at the time of the Empire's fall[58] so it must have been at least settled and under construction during the Empire's peak. In the Phrecian Forest in the Inner Empire is the Fellshrine, the ruins of an old Templar cathedral[59], so the Templars have a long-standing link to Wraeclast, and obviously High Templar Voll had an interest in the Empire. Presumably people from the Empire colonised Oriath and brought their religion along, and were stranded when the Empire crumbled.

The capital of Oriath is Theopolis[60], and contains at least historical archives[61], duelling arenas[62], and the headquarters of the Ebony Legion[63]. It also contains the Court of Divine Temperance[64], presided over by "the High Templar"[65], and many of the crimes that Court prosecutes are things like "Theosophical Pride", "Public Heresy" and "resisting Templar authority", so it seems fairly likely that Oriath is some kind of theocracy run by the Templars. Even the name "Theopolis" suggests religious devotion[66].

Modern Times

In the modern age, Wraeclast bears no civilisation[67], just a few disorganised descendants of the Empire[68] and undead[69]. It also bears a number of people from Oriath. Some were shipwrecked[70], but many were exiled for crimes[71] minor[72] or major[73].

The current High Templar is a man named Dominus[74], who controls the Ebony Legion[75] as well as the Templars. He recently acquired an interest in the history of the Empire[76]. Dominus works in a laboratory at the top of the tower known as the Sceptre of God[77], but his assistants General[78] Gravicius[79] and Piety[80] gather information and resources.

Gravicius set up a temporary barracks in Sarn, near Lunaris Temple, and seems to be responsible for seeking out the artifact known as the Twist[81] and perhaps the Ribbon Spool[82]. Piety is more of an archaeologist, roaming Wraeclast investigating the works and techinques of the Empire's most famous thaumaturgists including Shavronne[83][84] and Maligaro[85], as well as trying to reproduce their experimental results for herself. Like Malachai, she implants Virtue Gems surgically[86], although judging by the detritus in the lowest floor of Lunaris Temple, she has not yet reached Malachai's level of skill.

A note on dates

Hargan says "I know that Emperor Chitus was overthrown by Voll of Thebrus, roughly two-and-a-half centuries ago", so that's a fairly firm period between 'modern times' and the fall of the Eternal Empire. The dates on Letters of Exile range fram "1597 IC" to "1599 IC", so if we assume they're fairly recent, that puts the Empire's demise at approximately 1350 IC.

It's not clear what "IC" stands for, but if Oriath was settled by Templars from the Eternal Empire at some point, it's plausible that "IC" stands for "Imperial Calendar", and that it counts the years since the founding of the Empire, giving it a lifetime of ~1350 years and perhaps putting the end of the Vaal civilisation near 1 IC. Of course, it could just as easily stand for something else, or count from some other event (something from the Templar religion, perhaps) or there may have been other Azmeri civilisations between the time they descended from the Azmerian Mountains and met the Vaal, and the time they founded the Eternal Empire.

References

  1. Eramir: "a culture I've seen mentioned here and there in some of the most antique of texts"
  2. Eramir: "These artifacts, and that ancient gateway to the northwest... crafted by the same hands, I'd venture. Vaal hands."
  3. Helena: "A man-crafted mountain of four sheer sides? Sounds like a pyramid. That's Vaal architecture."
  4. The Vaults of Atziri map
  5. Eramir: "It is the Vaal who began the use of virtue gems, well before our imperial ancestors."
  6. Eramir: "The Azmeri. The culture that descended from the Azmerian Mountains and founded the Eternal Empire, so long ago."
  7. Helena: "A people who, to the stone age Azmeri, appeared godlike."
  8. Helena: "The thaumaturgist Maligaro used the Spike to inject the essence of the virtue gems into living subjects."
  9. Helena: "Maligaro injected Raulo with both immortality and deformity in equal measure."
  10. 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."
  11. Helena: "This twisting of our surroundings, it's happened before. Maligaro conjured up a creature of the purest, darkest thaumaturgy."
  12. 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.'"
  13. 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."
  14. http://www.pathofexile.com/areas — The text under "Act III - The City of Sarn" describes it as "the fallen capital of the Eternal Empire"
  15. Chitus' Apex: "It takes true strength to hold power, and my grip grows tighter by the day." - Emperor Chitus
  16. 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."
  17. Grigor says "Only the Isles of Skothe were spared. Once, a backwater of my proud civilisation, now... all that remains of the Ezomytes." so apparently the Ezomytes had a separate civilisation to the Empire.
  18. The Act 1 map shows the "Karui Archipelago" in the south-west, off the coast of Wraeclast.
  19. 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."
  20. Lady Dialla describes "beautiful and arrogant Gemlings", a very different result to Maligaro's injections of "immortality and deformity".
  21. Lady Dialla: "Thaumetic Sulphite. [...] Malachai had his slaves mine it..."
  22. Clarissa: "The paper mentioned a sooty powder called Thaumetic Sulphite. Said that Virtue Gems were found in seams of this stuff underground."
  23. Lady Dialla: "Those who did not... were given to his thaumaturgists."
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 Clarissa: "...the finest performer in the Empire, thanks to a Virtue Gem implanted in her throat. The gem that gifted her with undeath."
  25. 25.0 25.1 25.2 Karui stone: "Lioneye's Gemlings met us with shining metal and bold words. Hyrri's arrows withered their pride. Kaom's axes silenced their despair."
  26. Lady Dialla: "I was the emperor's favourite, for a time."
  27. Lady Dialla: "I talked too much, asked too many difficult questions."
  28. Lady Dialla: "I was gifted to Malachai."
  29. Grigor: "The Gemling Queen gave her heart / And body / To the King of Shades"
  30. Lady Dialla: "He gave me gems, divine jewels for his Gemling Queen."
  31. Lady Dialla: "Malachai liked spines. Liked my spine. Pretty spine, bejeweled and bountiful. Enough to make an empire weep."
  32. Grigor: "...helping High Templar Voll depose Emperor Chitus."
  33. Hargan: "Emperor Chitus was overthrown by Voll of Thebrus"
  34. The description of Victario's Acuity is attributed to "Victario, the People's Poet".
  35. Hargan: "The poet, Victario, led himself a piece of the Purity Rebellion"
  36. Hargan: "Victario and his cobbers holed up in the Sewers beneath the Marketplace, the Warehouse District, and the Slums."
  37. Maramoa: "Voll of Thebrus bent his knee to my ancestor, King Kaom, and promised freedom in return for war."
  38. Grigor: "He wrote many entreaties to the Ezomytes, begging our assistance in helping High Templar Voll..."
  39. Thousand Ribbons: "The night of a thousand ribbons / To remember the day of a thousand flames / When Sarn burned / And was born again"
  40. Ondar's Clasp: "A single lightning strike fells a man. A single knife stroke fells an empire."
  41. Ondar's Flight: "Successful but not unscathed, Ondar fled the capital as chaos blossomed in the night."
  42. Karui stone: "At his back, the greatest war host in Karui history..."
  43. Karui stone at the Terraces: "Kaom's canoe struck this sand with the force of destiny."
  44. Bestel: "Marceus commanded the southernmost of the Eternal Legions, here at Lioneye's Watch."
  45. Bestel: "Crazy fool had his left eye taken out and a golden-hued gem put in its place."
  46. Shavronne's diary: "Lioneye is dead, his legion slaughtered."
  47. 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"
  48. Shavronne's Pace: "Shavronne raced to Brutus' side, her last hope against the Karui tide."
  49. Shavronne's Revelation: "Shavronne held Sanity in her right hand and Revelation in her left. Brutus chose the left hand."
  50. 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..."
  51. Maramoa: "You strike the waikoama, the canoe, spilling a feast of men into the water."
  52. Shavronne's Diary: "Should the need arise we shall retreat through Prisoner's Gate, raising my barricade behind us."
  53. Maramoa: "Kaom took Lord Lioneye's head and the southern coast all the way to the Siren's Cove."
  54. Voll's Protector: "Although a great leader during the war, Voll proved disastrous in times of peace."
  55. Eramir: "The culture that [...] founded the Eternal Empire, so long ago. [...] Their history, identity... all but destroyed in the cataclysm."
  56. Karui stone: "Our families till the earth, fish the waters, fill the air with song."
  57. The Act 1 map shows the island of Oriath directly south of The Coves
  58. Fairgraves: "...Merveil began to sing. It's told her sweet voice grew to fill even the largest concert halls of Oriath..." so apparently Oriath had large concert halls when Merveil first received her singing Virtue Gem, taken from Kalisa during the Empire's decline.
  59. Eramir: "The Fellshrine is a shadow of what was once good in Wraeclast. That sigil etched into its stones? It's a Descry, from when the Templar truly stood for something."
  60. The Act 1 map shows a crown above the word 'Theopolis' on the island of Oriath
  61. Eramir: "Stumbled across sketches in the Theopolis archives, a piece of Vaal engineering, pyramidal in architecture."
  62. Hargan to the Duellist: "Now you're a familiar face! A face that cost me a good deal of coin at arenas in Theopolis."
  63. Hargan: "Had to smuggle a fellow out of Theopolis once. Got a bit too friendly with the Gravicius' wife, he did." Gravicius seems to be the head of the Ebony Legion, and it seems likely that his wife would be near him.
  64. Every Letter of Exile begins "Missive of Sentence, Court of Divine Temperance, Theopolis"
  65. Every Letter of Exile ends "By the Divine Authority of the High Templar"
  66. From the Greek "theo" meaning God, and "polis" meaning city
  67. Nessa: "Karui savagery is nothing when compared to the ferocity that is Wraeclast."
  68. Tarkleigh: "The scavengers? Orphans of the Eternal Empire who've forgotten what it's like to be civilised."
  69. Tarkleigh: "...sooner or later corpses wake up and go looking for breakfast."
  70. Nessa: "Tarkleigh pulled Bestel from some hideaway in the wreckage."
  71. Letters of Exile: "God has charged me with your redemption. You are hereby Exiled to Wraeclast where, it is hoped, you shall come to repent your Sins, and make your peace with your beloved Father."
  72. Letter of Exile for Carling of Mirfield: "Civil Envy: One count of defaming a Church Official"
  73. The Letter of Exile for Kraityn of Theopolis lists 142 offences, including "One count of Matricide for Pecuniary Gain"
  74. Every Letter of Exile ends "the High Templar, Dominus"
  75. Tarkleigh: "We exiles have no history. Dominus took it from us the moment his Blackguards dumped us in the water out there."
  76. Maramoa: "Dominus' Ebony Legion arrived from Oriath a couple of full moons ago."
  77. Grigor: "It's the one key to the Sceptre of God [...] Dominus accessed his laboratory at the summit of the tower via a pulley system rigged to the outside wall."
  78. Maramoa: "General Gravicius demands absolute obedience from his Blackguards..."
  79. Hargan: "Gravicius is the mailed and bloodied right hand of Dominus."
  80. Grigor: "Unfortunately, Piety was simply a puppet of a greater force. You've cut the strings but the master remains: Dominus."
  81. Lady Dialla: "The cockroaches will come again. They want the Twist. That cockroach emperor... the other bugs shout his name. Gravicius."
  82. Lady Dialla says "The Ribbons' Spool is taken. Stolen. The black ones want them, my Ribbons. Want to wrap the city in black Ribbons." However, it's possible that she's mistaken and the Ebony Legion don't care about the Spool itself, so much as they just want to stop Lady Dialla from creating new Ribbons to replace the ones they've destroyed.
  83. Piety: "An exile, here? A shame the Warden won't leave anything for me to examine."
  84. Piety: "Find your own way inland, exile!"
  85. Helena: "To damnation with Piety! She was after one of Maligaro's creations, the Baleful Gem."
  86. Grigor: "Piety's a genius sculpting mere human clay into “divine” Gemlings. At least, that's what she told me when she opened me up and buried a Virtue Gem in my entrails."