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Lore Galore – Essence, Souls, Gods and Corruption

NerrorNerror Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
edited November 2020 in General Discussion
I liked the scraps of lore we had before the recent charity livestream, but after hearing the new lore drops, I now officially love it. I am geeking out!! I also have so many questions and thoughts! I know it’s a longshot that @StevenSharif actually answers, but I need to get them out there! Check out the full livestream here: https://www.twitch.tv/ashesofcreation/video/794871890. Lore timestamps are 00:36:15 - 00:47:50 and 22:43:00 - 23:01:50.

The Essence

I’ll start with the Essence. We know it is a meta-physical energy or life force that can be manipulated to create what we would view as magic. The negative aspects of Essence is called Corruption. The Essence emanates from somewhere because we know that:
“Different planes would have different degrees of strength when it comes to the proximity of the Essence. The material plane is not the highest on that scale of being close to the Essence, and the gods exist on a plane that is most connected to the essence.”
The Void, where The Others and the Ancients are banished to, is the least connected to the Essence. Now I have questions!
  • Where does the Essence come from? Does it come from an object or all-powerful being at the center of all the planes of existence? Is it a meta-physical plane full of raw energy that radiates out? Can it run out of juice, so to speak, signalling the end of all creation?
  • Is it possible to be exposed to raw, unfiltered Essence straight from the source?
  • If so, does being exposed to raw Essence change an object or being physically by itself? Like random mutations. Does it change the soul? Or does the Essence have to be shaped or manipulated by an intelligent creature or object to influence the body and/or soul?
  • When using magic on Verra, is the Essence filtered or directed through one of the gods, or is it indeed just the caster or object manipulating it directly? Maybe it depends on the caster, so Mages use the Essence directly, and Clerics go through their god to cast magic?

Souls

From the livestream:
"Each person's soul acts as, in some way, shape or form, a conduit of the Essence across the planes. So that's essentially how the gods are capable of reaching into the material plane - one of the ways - is through the souls of their divine beings, which are the four great races and their descendants."
  • Do the souls of the 4 divine races and their descendants exist in some form on all planes of existence at the same time? Including the Void? I would assume so, or they can’t be affected by the beings in those other planes.
  • Do the Tulnar have souls similar to the four divine races? Any differences at all? I am here thinking of how the Tulnar also include characteristics from other minor races.
  • Are there beings other than the 4 divine races, or their descendants, that have souls? I assume the Ancients have souls(?). Do all living beings in fact have souls?

The Gods

We have 10 gods in the Pantheon, with 7 in the neutral to positive/good spectrum, and 3 in the negative/evil spectrum. We know 5 of them: Love, Creation, Fate, Hope and Truth. I am assuming the 3 evil gods, The Others, lie somewhere in the categories of Hate, Death, Destruction, Lies and Despair. The gods are beings of the Essence, and they all represent different aspects and feelings in the universe.
  • Why do the gods exist? This is pretty much always my first question when I learn of a new god or pantheon. I mean, other than the obvious answer of “because Steven said so”. :p
  • The next related question is, how were they created?
One theory of mine is that sentient beings made the gods. That mass numbers of their thoughts and feelings, via the conduit of their souls, shaped the Essence into coalescing into the 10 different aspects. This does clash a bit with the fact that the 10 gods also created this universe that Verra is in, so for that theory to hold water, there must be multiple universes. But it matches well with the type of gods we see in the pantheon.

Another theory of mine is that the Essence in the plane of the gods acts like the primordial soup that life sprung from on earth. Through millions of years and random mutations, the Essence coalesced into structures that at some point became self-aware and became the gods we know.
  • So, what motivates these gods to create other races with souls? First the Ancients, and when that went awry, seven of them created the four divine races that we play in Verra.
  • Why do the gods want to manipulate the material world through those souls?
  • Do the gods become more powerful the more souls there are, that match their attributes? Do those souls have to be worshippers of that specific god for it to grow more powerful?
  • Are there beings other than the 10 gods that can manipulate Essence through souls, from other planes of existence? Like lesser gods. The Ancients perhaps, but others as well?

Corruption

We know that Corruption is both the negative aspect of Essence, and a gameplay mechanic where a PC becomes corrupt if they kill a non-combatant PC. Killing another player that fights back at any time after being attacked is, however, completely fine. I am trying to reconcile the lore aspect of Corruption with the gameplay mechanic here.

Verra must have some sort of divine rule put on it, for this corruption system to be able work like that. Someone or something is actively judging the actions of every player character, all the time, and if the PC breaks a very specific set of conditions at any given time, their soul and body is corrupted in a way that others can see visually from a distance.

Now, it could be a sort of Magic Law of Nature that the gods put on Verra, that just works in the background all the time.

My preferred theory, however, is more along the lines that this is a divine battle between the gods for souls. The Others and the Ancients want to destroy what The Seven has created, and diminish their power. When a combatant kills a non-combatant, The Others and/or the Ancients see an opening in the combatant’s soul and corrupts it a little bit. This corruption weakens the soul the more there is, causing the lower stats.

Dying as a corrupted PC removes a lot of corruption, so perhaps death acts as a hard reset of the soul that both weakens it a bit (XP penalty) and purifies it at the same time? Gaining XP also removes corruption. In lore terms, this can be described as one of two things as I see it: Either straight up XP Gain = stronger soul that can self-purify corruption, or it’s more a matter of the seven gods rewarding PCs that play by their Verran rules, by reducing the corruption of their souls. Like a redemption mechanic. I am leaning towards the redemption mechanic, because we know we will have quests to purge the overall number of PC kills from the soul.
  • The Others and the Ancients use Corruption deliberately obviously, but I also wonder if there are other beings that do so as well, and if so, can those beings only do it as an extension of The Others or the Ancients?

Comments

  • Lore DynamicLore Dynamic Member, Alpha Two
    Great breakdown of the segments of lore @Nerror :)
    Appreciate the effort you took to include all that information here in the forums.

    I'm with yah! Totally geeking out over here as well. <3


    Steven Sharif is my James Halliday (Anorak)

    Lore-Banner-Ao-C.png

    “That is not dead which can eternal lie,
    And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    -HPL
  • Lore DynamicLore Dynamic Member, Alpha Two
    Nerror wrote: »
    [*] Do the Tulnar have souls similar to the four divine races? Any differences at all? I am here thinking of how the Tulnar also include characteristics from other minor races.

    I like all the internal monologuing in the form of introspective questions you have here. It gives me a lot to think on and ponder myself. I would like to tackle some of the questions, but I'll have to ponder on them at length.

    Speculation is fun in terms of lore, because it keeps us coming back time and time again. Hungry for more.

    As to the above question; the Tulnar are still an interesting mystery that many of us want to know more about. But at their base (as a race), from what I understand: they are generational descendants of the original inhabitants of Verra, pre-planetary catastrophe.

    But, due to interbreeding with various species over thousands of years, these (original) Humans, Dwarves, Elves and Orcs has 'become' something much different from their forbearers.

    But at their core, they are still descendants from the original races. So I would assume, where "Souls" are concerned... they should retain them, just as the pure-blooded races do.


    Steven Sharif is my James Halliday (Anorak)

    Lore-Banner-Ao-C.png

    “That is not dead which can eternal lie,
    And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    -HPL
  • LieutenantToastLieutenantToast Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Love seeing all the in-depth follow-up questions and ideas the lore from the Extra Life stream has already generated <3 while I know that much of this is being kept close to Steven's heart prior to launch so that you have a chance to discover it for yourself in-game, perhaps you'd like to drop one of these in an upcoming live stream Q&A thread to see if you can pick his brain further in the meantime ;)
    community_management.gif
  • NerrorNerror Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited November 2020
    I haven't geeked out this much since I dug into Warhammer lore, many years back. I just devoured Liber Chaotica and all those books. Now, Games Workshop is closing in on 40 years of lore for their Warhammer franchise, so the body of work they have pretty much dwarfs any other IPs.

    I really hope they hire more writers closer to release, to flesh out the AoC lore. I'm guessing Steven has a solid skeleton with some meat here and there, in terms of lore, and some dedicated writers can do so much for the game I think. I don't know, maybe they already have that.
    But at their core, they are still descendants from the original races. So I would assume, where "Souls" are concerned... they should retain them, just as the pure-blooded races do.

    Yes I think so as well. I just wonder if being forced underground into isolation, and interbreeding with minor races, has altered their soul a little, as we know it has altered their body.

    I can't find it right now, but I could swear I read or heard that the Underrealm was made specifically to harbor those that couldn't be evacuated before the Apocalypse. Anyone know where I might have that from?

    Anyway, we know that Corruption had no part in the creation of the Tulnar, so the Underrealm certainly did its job protecting the remnants. What I wonder is, was that because the Underrealm was completely sealed off and the Ancients just never found an entrance? Were there magic wardings placed on the Underrealm? Perhaps the Tulnar have extra resistances against Corruption, either due to evolution, or due to the Goddess of Creation giving the remnants, and by extension the Tulnar, some extra resistance via their souls.
  • Lore DynamicLore Dynamic Member, Alpha Two
    Nerror wrote: »
    Anyway, we know that Corruption had no part in the creation of the Tulnar, so the Underrealm certainly did its job protecting the remnants. What I wonder is, was that because the Underrealm was completely sealed off and the Ancients just never found an entrance? Were there magic wardings placed on the Underrealm? Perhaps the Tulnar have extra resistances against Corruption, either due to evolution, or due to the Goddess of Creation giving the remnants, and by extension the Tulnar, some extra resistance via their souls.

    Very good follow up questions, I like your train of thought! ^_^
    I, now also, am quite interested in solving these mystery of the Under Realm myself.

    Also; I've been going through Warhammer 40k lore myself a lot recently. I haven't dabbled in WH yet though. But good grief! There is a LOT of meat and potatoes there to chew on.


    Steven Sharif is my James Halliday (Anorak)

    Lore-Banner-Ao-C.png

    “That is not dead which can eternal lie,
    And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    -HPL
  • NagashNagash Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Nerror wrote: »


    Also; I've been going through Warhammer 40k lore myself a lot recently. I haven't dabbled in WH yet though. But good grief! There is a LOT of meat and potatoes there to chew on.

    Oh hohohoh you have NO idea
    nJ0vUSm.gif

    The dead do not squabble as this land’s rulers do. The dead have no desires, petty jealousies or ambitions. A world of the dead is a world at peace
  • NerrorNerror Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    perhaps you'd like to drop one of these in an upcoming live stream Q&A thread to see if you can pick his brain further in the meantime ;)

    Just for arguments sake, let's say you, the Mighty Toast of the Lore Inquisition, had to ask a question for the next Q&A, which question or category do you think Steven is most likely to answer? o:)
  • NerrorNerror Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    We recently had this excellent interview with Steven on the 100th episode of the Ashes Pathfinders. Ashespost.com has made a transcript of the interview. Watch and read it here: https://ashespost.com/11-16-20-livestream-transcript/

    We learned many new things, both through what was said, and what wasn't said :smile:

    First off, we know the Tulnar have souls, and that they also act as conduits. This wasn't a surprise, but it was nice to get it confirmed. I suggest watching the part where he said it though. He was asked specifically if the Tulnar souls are different, and also about souls on Sanctus. He was struggling to find an answer, and wouldn't answer about Sanctus at all, and only gave the above short answer.

    Now, it's easy to read a lot into this of course, and I don't think we should. We probably will anyway. :wink: The way he answered made me believe the Tulnar souls are pretty much identical to those of the other four races, but we can't confirm or deny either way, and we likely won't get an answer until the game is released.

    Steven fortunately answered the question about the Tulnar religion:
    it’s much more similar to the way the Creole religions advanced, with using components of the Christianity as well as Voodoo and other smaller, more “paganesque” religions, and incorporated them into one. To that degree, you can correlate the way that society around the Tulnar has this almost combination of what were Pagan beliefs from the minor races as well as the introductions of the major beliefs and religions from the major races, because they all came together in the underrealm and survived in that regard. So you’re gonna see naturally a combination of those two things.

    I think that is an absolutely great choice! :smiley: Now, this doesn't mean the Tulnar will have anything voodoo related in their religion, or other straight parallels to the Creole. It's the same mechanism, but without knowing any particulars of the culture or religions of the minor races, we can't really speculate about the specifics.

    However, we do now know that the minor races had their own religions! Again, not a big surprise, but it raises several questions!
    • Are their gods real gods?
    • Are they one or more of the 10 major gods we know of? This could be with different names and rituals, but the same overall aspects and feelings.
    • Are they separate and perhaps lesser gods, specific to that minor race? I know we have only heard of the ten deities, but do we have a quote somewhere that says there are only ten?

    More to come.. :smile:
  • Im_MeiIm_Mei Member, Alpha Two
    edited November 2020
    Perhaps Essence, is the byproduct of the creation of the worlds (The Ashes of Creation) and Corruption is the byproduct of the world slowly dying. So since the void is probably just darkness, there was barely any essence produced from its creation. Maybe The Void was created just to draw in Corruption in order to not stain the God and Material Plane. The material plane is alot more vivid, detailed and populated which would explain why there is more essence there for you to use. Same obviously goes for the Gods Plane.

    I havent read all of the lore deeply so might be stuff that disputes this but just a fun theory ^^
  • NerrorNerror Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited November 2020
    Hurtmei wrote: »
    Perhaps Essence, is the byproduct of the creation of the worlds (The Ashes of Creation) and Corruption is the byproduct of the world slowly dying. So since the void is probably just darkness, there was barely any essence produced from its creation. Maybe The Void was created just to draw in Corruption in order to not stain the God and Material Plane. The material plane is alot more vivid, detailed and populated which would explain why there is more essence there for you to use. Same obviously goes for the Gods Plane.

    I havent read all of the lore deeply so might be stuff that disputes this but just a fun theory ^^

    I like your thought process, but it doesn't quite match what we know of the game unfortunately. The AOC universe was created by the gods, and the gods are beings of the essence, so the essence and gods came before the rest of the AOC universe at least. The Essence would have to have come from other universes at least, if that was the case.

    The Void being the vaccuum to suck in corruption, which is basically just the negative side of the Essence, is an intriguing thought though. Who knows! There might be something to it. :smile:
  • Im_MeiIm_Mei Member, Alpha Two
    Ah, yea as i said i havent read too deeply into the lore so didnt know that 😅
    Thanks for the info 💕
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