Absence of Value and Meaning
| Id | MapWorldsElderArena |
|---|---|
| Act | 11 |
| Area level | 83 |
| Bosses | The Elder |
| Area type tags | dungeon, temple, urban |
| Tags | indoors_area, map, no_echo, cannot_be_twinned, map_not_on_atlas |
Absence of Value and Meaning is a map area. It is the boss arena of the Elder.
It can be accessed by using the map fragments:
Fragment of PurificationFragment of PurificationStack Size: 10Corruption is purged, not cleansed.Can be used in a personal Map Device.
Fragment of ConstrictionFragment of ConstrictionStack Size: 10Webs are torn, not untangled.Can be used in a personal Map Device.
Fragment of EnslavementFragment of EnslavementStack Size: 10Freedom is won, not given.Can be used in a personal Map Device.
Fragment of EradicationFragment of EradicationStack Size: 10Plagues are exhausted, not cured.Can be used in a personal Map Device.
Layout
Absence of Value and Meaning map has two parts:
- The first area of the map is a staging area, using the tileset from now removed The Templar Laboratory.
- The boss arena is a X-shaped area in grey coloured theme.
Monsters
Items found in this area
The following drop-restricted items can drop in this area.
No items include this area in their drop restrictions.
Please see The Elder article for the boss loot.
Lore
The first area is a staging area that is somewhat similar to The Templar Laboratory which was accessible right after Act 10 (and before killing Sirus for the first time) until it was removed in version 3.17.0. However, the Absence of Value and Meaning's version is in fact the Templar Laboratory version that was introduced in War for the Atlas expansion (Since version 3.2.0 which the Uber Elder quest is live in the game), this version is removed in Conquerors of the Atlas expansion. That variant was partially migrated to the current Absence of Value and Meaning map.
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Currently, the player is accessing a past event via the map fragments. Conquerors of the Atlas expansion established a new canon that the current Conquerors of the Atlas are the Elderslayers, and these protagonist NPCs became the new antagonists of the game some time before the "present" timeline that the player controlled protagonist has experienced. Player protagonist is not considered the Elder-slayer, as the events that players had experienced during War for the Atlas expansion are no longer canon and considered as the alternative (past) universe of the game timeline. The Atlas has abilities to allow the protagonist to access the past event in the present game timeline, which allows the game to retain past game content in the current epilogue storyline.
By the War for the Atlas lore, the section of the Templar Laboratory that is accessed by the player character in this Absence of Value and Meaning map was the study room of the Shaper, aka Valdo Caeserius, father of Zana Caeserius. The area used to be where the player and Zana discovered a device made by Valdo which was able to defeat the Elder (as Uber Elder), which was equipped by Zana in Uber Elder boss fight.
The whole quest was removed in version 3.9.0, and the War for the Atlas lore is assumed to be partially canon, and the player protagonist no longer part of it.
Before the quest removal, the Absence of Value and Meaning arena was accessed via an Elder portal located in the map boss room of a map which the Elder had occupied. The map and Absence of Value and Meaning are in different server instance. But since Elder spawning mechanic is removed from the atlas and the access is replaced by the map fragments, the Templar Laboratory was set as the tileset of the staging area. However, the boss fight was not reworked, so there is no lore explanation why the device that beat Uber Elder is on the table, but Zana appears in this regular Elder boss fight without it.
There is an Elder portal to the real Absence of Value and Meaning arena from the Templar Laboratory section the map. Both areas are in the same game server instance.
Outside the walkable area of the boss arena, there are a number of human-looking sculptures, perhaps the souls captured by the Elder. According to Zana's dialogues introduced in Conquerors of the Atlas, these victims became Watchstone.[1] Also the flavour text of Watchstone reads: The memories and emotions of countless victims of the Elder, locked in stone for eternity.
The layout of the Uber Elder arena is identical to Absence of Value and Meaning, but the map of that boss fight is known as the Shaper's Realm, which in the Shaper's Realm area instance, there is another portal to the arena proper.
Version history
| Version | Changes |
|---|---|
| 3.9.0 |
|
| 3.1.0 |
|