Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
[Theory] Volcano Theory
ArchivedUser
Guest
The area that shall not be named...
Whatever you want to call it~
In the latest stream Devs shared screenshots of an area that will not be named....
cos they won't mention the place name it got me thinking about the images and wooosh away my imagination went...
Where else have I seen volcanic like settings?
Well we know there is a massive Volcano somewhere~ They shared the loading screen to show off the windmill boss but in the distance there is a volcano going crazy~
and well Nodes Part 1 shows that activity from players may one day trigger a volcanic eruption which in turn may activate an event so on and so on~
basically Devs love volcanoes and fire and events... 0.0
even Sorrow's hunger is like RAAAWR *spew lava*....
Ok so in the latest newsletter we had concept art of inside the cave with two buddies looking like they are on a mission (psst note the guy far away is duel wielding swords niceh niceh~)
anyway I was admiring the texture of the rocks and I was like hey~ this looks pretty similar to this thing...
which is an image shared in Dillia's diary blog...
And so my thoughts on lore begins-
*disclaimer: This may be a load of garbage*
So Verra's chaos seems to begin when these three lights appear in the sky...
For a while I thought these lights were the cause of the destruction... cos well things go wrong when they appear~
I began to reflect on the whole passage
Before I go rambling on let's just highlight :
Dillia's diary was set at the beginning of the fall. Dillia refers to Dünheim as being an active city (we know from dungeon previews Dünheim is now a ruin). She also refers to the world as Verra. Anyway if you've not read the diary entry you can here https://www.ashesofcreation.com/dillias-diary/ - It is basically telling you it is set at the beginning and through out the fall.
1. At first there were three: From the diary we know the amount totalled up to 16 and that the priests named them harbingers. Now what does harbinger mean?
2.They were a sign from the Gods, that the world was about to change:
3.She had a sense of these types of things:
4.Women in my mother's family were ORACLES.Great-Grandmother- Foretold the rise of the Undying during the Great War:
So in relation to points 2,3 and 4 we can safely say that these were definitely a sign from the Gods. I'm confident to say this because we have confirmation with these points that the women in Dillia's family have talent and have a proven track record.
Here we can see that a loud boom comes from the ground and the walls. It doesn't come from the sky, it comes from the ground. I think it is also worth pointing out that Dillia's uncle died in a cave-in likely within his "mine inside the Aelan Empire". Again this destruction occurs below the ground.
1. The corruption that destroys Verra comes from within Verra. Like Literally...Underground. Once the corruption reaches the surface it begins "twisting and perverting every facet of nature". Remember if you choose to use a monster coin you turn into a related corrupted mob/boss. Corruption is within all players and everything - corruption tarnishes the character’s spiritual essence. It causes devastation to creatures such as the Sladeborn who lived in the sky. Corruption turned them inside out. Nothing escaped its touch.
3. The Lights in the sky are what activate/become/open the Divine Gateways. What better way to find hope in the darkness than light? I believe the Gods had them high in the sky so that they were easily seen by the oracles, priests and well everyone. What better place to put something life saving than way high above the ground for everyone to see?
4. Those that flee to Sanctus have corruption already within them. Nothing escaped its touch but Sanctus being a world without magic, the people were safe from it's dormant state.
I'm getting carried away now aha QQ
Anyway looooooong story short- I believe corruption is like a volcano. It's lies dormant existing within Verra and when it is just right *boom* it erupts and consumes everything within its reach above the ground. Perhaps like Pandora's box we will need to venture into "the area(s) that shall not be named to find hope to protect us (all of us- even those node neighbours we don't like) from the devastating grasp of Corruption.
The End.
p.s The story of the Great-Grandmother- Foretold the rise of the Undying during the Great War. I want to know more about this "Great War" that happened generations before Dillia ~
Whatever you want to call it~
In the latest stream Devs shared screenshots of an area that will not be named....
cos they won't mention the place name it got me thinking about the images and wooosh away my imagination went...
Where else have I seen volcanic like settings?
Well we know there is a massive Volcano somewhere~ They shared the loading screen to show off the windmill boss but in the distance there is a volcano going crazy~
and well Nodes Part 1 shows that activity from players may one day trigger a volcanic eruption which in turn may activate an event so on and so on~
basically Devs love volcanoes and fire and events... 0.0
even Sorrow's hunger is like RAAAWR *spew lava*....
Ok so in the latest newsletter we had concept art of inside the cave with two buddies looking like they are on a mission (psst note the guy far away is duel wielding swords niceh niceh~)
anyway I was admiring the texture of the rocks and I was like hey~ this looks pretty similar to this thing...
which is an image shared in Dillia's diary blog...
And so my thoughts on lore begins-
*disclaimer: This may be a load of garbage*
So Verra's chaos seems to begin when these three lights appear in the sky...
For a while I thought these lights were the cause of the destruction... cos well things go wrong when they appear~
I began to reflect on the whole passage
Before I go rambling on let's just highlight :
Dillia's diary was set at the beginning of the fall. Dillia refers to Dünheim as being an active city (we know from dungeon previews Dünheim is now a ruin). She also refers to the world as Verra. Anyway if you've not read the diary entry you can here https://www.ashesofcreation.com/dillias-diary/ - It is basically telling you it is set at the beginning and through out the fall.
1. At first there were three: From the diary we know the amount totalled up to 16 and that the priests named them harbingers. Now what does harbinger mean?
2.They were a sign from the Gods, that the world was about to change: 3.She had a sense of these types of things:
4.Women in my mother's family were ORACLES.Great-Grandmother- Foretold the rise of the Undying during the Great War:
So in relation to points 2,3 and 4 we can safely say that these were definitely a sign from the Gods. I'm confident to say this because we have confirmation with these points that the women in Dillia's family have talent and have a proven track record.
Here we can see that a loud boom comes from the ground and the walls. It doesn't come from the sky, it comes from the ground. I think it is also worth pointing out that Dillia's uncle died in a cave-in likely within his "mine inside the Aelan Empire". Again this destruction occurs below the ground.
Conclusion/ My Theory
1. The corruption that destroys Verra comes from within Verra. Like Literally...Underground. Once the corruption reaches the surface it begins "twisting and perverting every facet of nature". Remember if you choose to use a monster coin you turn into a related corrupted mob/boss. Corruption is within all players and everything - corruption tarnishes the character’s spiritual essence. It causes devastation to creatures such as the Sladeborn who lived in the sky. Corruption turned them inside out. Nothing escaped its touch.
3. The Lights in the sky are what activate/become/open the Divine Gateways. What better way to find hope in the darkness than light? I believe the Gods had them high in the sky so that they were easily seen by the oracles, priests and well everyone. What better place to put something life saving than way high above the ground for everyone to see?
4. Those that flee to Sanctus have corruption already within them. Nothing escaped its touch but Sanctus being a world without magic, the people were safe from it's dormant state.
I'm getting carried away now aha QQ
Anyway looooooong story short- I believe corruption is like a volcano. It's lies dormant existing within Verra and when it is just right *boom* it erupts and consumes everything within its reach above the ground. Perhaps like Pandora's box we will need to venture into "the area(s) that shall not be named to find hope to protect us (all of us- even those node neighbours we don't like) from the devastating grasp of Corruption.
The End.
p.s The story of the Great-Grandmother- Foretold the rise of the Undying during the Great War. I want to know more about this "Great War" that happened generations before Dillia ~
0
Comments
I did think about this but was aware I already said so much! I'm glad you asked!
The object could easily be debris from the eruptive source ^^ Still plunged into the air but not from outside the planet.
They could be like eggs/stones or what not from the heart of the corruption under the surface. Maybe they channel corruption xD
As for Tulnar - I believe the corruption is from a direct source~ so like a volcano there is a magma chamber. There is an area in-between the chamber and the surface. This is like a neutral area.
The Tulnar reside in this area...safe
The source of corruption in my opinion derives from the core/heart of the planet.
"If we can achieve that funding goal, we have planned a new player race. The Underrealm player race were left behind on this world, when all other races fled. They have existed in the depths, finding safety in the darkness."
and here:
"This is a race that is basically—Tulnar stands for "The Forgotten". This race is a culmination of many different races that were left behind in the world, and that evacuated to the Underrealm area in an attempt to save their people. So it's a culmination of the major races and some of the minor races that [existed] in the world... "
Now like you said it could just be localized to certain areas, but there is this:
Where it seems there are dragons-or-something massacring everyone while they flee into the portal. As you mentioned as well, even the creatures that lived in the sky didn't escape the corruption. It encompassed the entire world, and nothing was left untouched. If the things in the sky were all changed, the things below ground probably would be too if the source of the corruption was from underground since they're closer to the origin point. I don't think that just volcanoes could do that, though I do think you're onto something with fire being the source of it. (Though one can note that maybe they spewed some kind of corrupted ash across the world, that'd still leave the underground able to survive and everything on the surface would be corrupted!)
It was mentioned early on that there is a god whose symbol is the Phoenix, and this is important because the Phoenix rises from the Ashes (hence the name of the game, Ashes of Creation). But another aspect of the Phoenix is destructive fire that consumes the Phoenix itself. As is shown in the image above, the fire was being used to attack the people as they fled. When we see heavily corrupted creatures such as trolls, they seem to have cracked and glowing skin with lava beneath it.
I think what we may be looking at is we're in the "wrong side" of a Birth→Death→Rebirth cycle. All of the world was clearly intended to be warped and destroyed, but we escaped through divine intervention. The "Death" may be fire, where everything is cleansed in flames before the world can begin anew. I think this could be the reason for corrupted creatures being so furious with the concept of civilization and our peoples, in that our ancestors jumped out of that cycle and defied what was supposed to happen (all of us dying). We escaped the fire that was intended to consume us as it had everything else.
The Tulnar are the curious ones here in that they kept their personhood, so maybe for whatever reason the cycle was halted (it doesn't seem to have reached everywhere, considering them) and the change wasn't total—or maybe they found a way to be spared from it. I'm getting into extreme theorycrafting territory here, but maybe specifically because bits of this world fled to another world, the "Death" of the world happened—but not the "Rebirth", because the "Death" was actually incomplete. Not all of the world died, we lived. The world is still twisted and corrupted, everything is still angry with us. If that's true maybe we came back too early (the cycle hasn't been completed yet, maybe everything is still in the process of dying out) or it was just halted entirely because of divine intervention from the other gods.
This would also explain the schism, and why we may have some gods that are rather antagonistic. Some of the gods may have taken pity on us and saved us, while others may still believe that everything must be destroyed and that the sparing of humans/elves/dwarves/orcs/tulnar of the process was wrong.
Really great ideas! Got me so hyped!
Although I use a volcano theory I 100% agree that Volcanoes are not the prime source of corruption. I believe the origin comes from the core of the planet and like a volcano it has erupted to the surface ^^ Litterally and figuratively~
I imagine corruption has become part of everyone's soul. We've all been corrupted by the physical source that is literal in game but is a representation of evil.
It's within the planet just as much as it is within us.
As humans our "badness" can begin with anger which builds up inside until we hit boiling point like volcano.
"It was mentioned early on that there is a god whose symbol is the Phoenix, and this is important because the Phoenix rises from the Ashes (hence the name of the game, Ashes of Creation). But another aspect of the Phoenix is destructive fire that consumes the Phoenix itself. As is shown in the image above, the fire was being used to attack the people as they fled. When we see heavily corrupted creatures such as trolls, they seem to have cracked and glowing skin with lava beneath it."
I see this as another interpretation of corruption within a soul. The Pheonix has a destructive side. The fire/lava/magma is indeed a physical manifestation of evil or "corruption" ^^
For my thoughts on Tulnar:
I shared an image just above of a diagram of a Volcano in which there is a "peace area" in which magma and lava do not touch. I feel this area would be the UnderRealm.
I looooove the idea that divine intervention has interrupted the Birth→Death→Rebirth cycle^^
It could make some pretty exciting expansions hehe
However, I do disagree with your initial conclusions about it originating underground.
If you've ever been near something of a plan crash or a meteorite, meteorites have similar effects...
First, you'll hear at least one sonic boom as it approaches before it crashes - depending on the speed, shape, and angle to you - especially if it's pointing towards you.
After the impact of the meteor, you'll feel the ground shape - and even see a ground wave (earthquakes have the same effect - pretty crazy seeing the ripples go through the street when living in California). It'll shake the ground, then the walls, since the shockwave travels through the ground first.
Then, you might hear another explosion, as sound travels way slower through the air then through solids or liquids.
Another example - if you set off TNT submerged in water - the shockwave will travel so much farther and faster, it makes the lethal blast radius MUCH larger. Basically if you're in the water anywhere near the blast, you'll probably die from the shockwave going through you in the water, if not the blast itself.
In the same way, it's possible the corruption just spread through the 'touch' after the impact much faster than through the air in the same way...
Of course, it's possible everything came from outer space, and these were all vessels (even if just physical portals for things to travel through later)... but I think the descriptions were just the reality of how much damage things from outer space can do when they impact the surface of the planet - even if they're relatively small.