The hidden offshoot area in the sewers was interesting to me. Way back in the ruined era when we first come across the Immortal Emperor's remains, he specifically says "Eterra is dead, Orobyss is free." It makes me think this pit is his 'prison' that he was freed from in the first place, or connected to it in some way... and has been even as far back as the divine era, if the notes nearby are to be believed. It tracks with the backstory of the Black Sun timeline in monoliths as well - Rayeh's corruption came first, after his Osprix unleashed it to bring him back. Maybe the Osprix in that timeline meddled with this place rather than sealing it off like they did in our 'current' timeline. That said, it doesn't help much with the Apophis dilemma, and how she relates to all this.
Yeah I can't wait to finish this series up and begin on the monoliths, I think all of the different possibilities in those will really shed some light on some of the actual canonical lore. The entire reason we were sent down this path is because Gaspar originally found "evidence" that the Emperor was one of the first to usher in Orobyss and the Void. So your theory has merit for sure!! Like I said I'll revisit all of these kinds of topics and more once we have all the facts at our/my disposal :) Thanks for watching and diving into the conversation :)
My current, half-baked theory is that Orobyss was imprisoned in the Sanctum Bastille (which is why it is called that). Possibly, he was imprisoned by Eterra as a necessary condition that allowed the creation of the world. She may have "used the power of the Epoch" to do it, and then broken the Epoch into three parts afterwards. I think the void pool in the mine in the hidden zone of the sewers may have allowed the Void to start influencing the thoughts of Imperials, including the Emperor. It may be that, at some point, the Emperor, acting under the influence of the Void, goes to the Sanctum Bastille to free Orobyss, and that that is why we find his husk there. Then, the freeing of Orobyss is what allows the explosion of the Void across the world, from that point onwards (obviously the Void has been present, though somewhat dormant, since the Divine Era or perhaps earlier). I wonder if the finale of the story will involve the player trying to prevent the Emperor from freeing Orobyss, and possibly having to fight both of them in a climactic battle. I think it is quite plausible that Rahyeh was also influenced by the Void into launching his war against the other gods. Presumably he was, at some point, less aggressive, and I think his war ends up serving Orobyss's purposes. Btw, I tend to think the "Eterra is dead" statement is not literally true, partly because "Return of Eterra" is an obvious subject for a future expansion. Or, rather, it may be that Eterra the world is dead, but I suspect Eterra the goddess isn't, though she seems to have taken an extended sabbatical.
@@Toxophilix I love it, you're full on donning the tinfoil hat with the Orobyss theory. I don't think he can be imprisoned, I think he's too far ahead. I agree with the Eterra part, she's alive somewhere. And even better, it seems that she's still influencing events to this day trying to help us outmaneuver Orobyss, beat him even, save Eterra (the planet) and allow for the goddess to return! I have the strange suspicion that Eterra is with us through the Epoch or is housed within it somehow. Both the Emperor AND Heorot seem to mistake us for Eterra upon meeting us for the first time (in the Sanctum Bastille for the emperor, Heorot's sacred grove when he's struck down by Rahyeh).
Interesting vid! I hadn't really paid much attention to the dialogue delivery until hearing it isolated here. After we defeat the lieutenants, the Emperor says "You... You!" and the way he says it has a sort of emotional tone that almost seems like he knows us or is at least familiar with us maybe from another time in the past.
I agree with the tonality there, but it's odd that he's like "Who are you?" when we first enter the arena, it's as if he has no idea and when his lieutenants attack, he says "I've heard of your power, let's see how you face this!" Why would he suddenly recognize us after we wreck Zerrick and Harton? He could just be marveling at our power and asking why we're here at the end like "Okay, I get it, you're strong. What do you want, why are you here?" I'll be doing a "Who is the Immortal Emperor" video for SURE once we have all the facts at our disposal from the story and monoliths, who do you think it might be?
Wanted to come in and say, this has my favorite cut scene in it. The moment they cut to Yulia's face when she realizes you don't have the Lance gives me goose bumps every single time. After running the campaign now over a dozen times updating new characters in the cycle this is the only cut scene I ALWAYS watch. (btw, I'm CaiusMartius on the forums.)
Hi Caius!! I'm so glad to have captured all the dialogue and cutscenes with this series :) That cutscene is one of my favorites as well! Yulia's face after hundreds of years of planning and waiting for us to bring the lance. She remained close to the Emperor and consumed Soul Essence all that time to remain immortal and retain her consciousness. That had to be the biggest let down in all of Eterra's history. I hope we can return with the fully empowered lance and help Yulia and Alric out! I think my absolute favorite is the Monolith cutscene with The Observer destroying our hopes and dreams basically lol.
@@GavrynGaming It will, indeed, be very cool to see the final three chapters and how all of these story elements are resolved. I'm looking forward to it. It's come a long way, EHG has been doing a great job.
There never was a secret entrance to the citadel, it was Yulias plan to lure us to her in the first place. Very clever. Alric was her pawn before he even knew her.
Poor Alric certainly was a pawn, though I found myself growing sympathetic and more curious about his potential character, hopefully he gets some kind of redemption arc when we go back to that point with the empowered lance and deal with the Emperor properly!
Just for information... I just travelled to both these hidden places... "The Hidden Alcove" and the "Fractured Drain". When you are in those areas and switch to the map you will find that the location of "The Hidden Alcove" is exactly the same as the area of the "Fractured Drain" - just in different timelines... I am pretty sure that the hidden alcove has something to do with the hole of the fractured drain. Even the map layout is kind of similar with the circle around the "obscure objects"... i would be willing to bet a beer that we will see these areas again with further storytelling...
I'll have it ready in the next few days! But a quick explanation: It was all an act in order to catch the Emperor by surprise. The issue with the botched assassination is that assumptions were made by Yulia, and she was also trying to hide our true history and the knowledge of the Epoch from Alric as she didn't know or fully trust them. For Yulia time is linear. Meaning she had already interacted with us/the Traveler years in her past. However for us time is... a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff (love Doctor Who). And so we met Yulia over 1000 years (we meet her in the Imperial Era for the first time) before even hatching the plan with her or knowing about this "Lance" in the first place. We don't arrive back in the Divine Era and meet Yulia until after this encounter. But for her and since she never time travels, this is linearly the FIRST time we've met Yulia, but for her she's been plotting this since our encounter in the Divine Era, she doesn't even recognize us in the Divine Era when we first arrive, because it's linearly the first time we've met her. Hope this makes any sense 😅
@@GavrynGaming The way I read it, Yulia is not making assumptions. Rather, she knows what is going to happen and is going along with it. From her point of view, when she first meets the player in the Divine Era, the player tells her that she has come from the future and warns her about becoming a revenant. If they get to the point of making a plan to kill the Emperor, then surely the player must mention, at that point, the botched assassination, so that, in chapter 6, Yulia must be expecting it. She may also have decided that it would be futile to attempt to prevent the botched assassination, because that event was the cause of the player travelling back to the Divine Era to meet her, so it presumably cannot be avoided by foreknowledge (can anything?) When the player turns up in chapter 6, it seems that Yulia must realise (because the player shows no signs of having met her before), that this is the player from a point earlier in their life, and that everything is going to wind up with the fiasco in the citadel. She has to let it happen, even down to feigning surprise that the player doesn't have the lance. However, her foreknowledge does warn her that the player will "kill" her in the fight, and she prevents that by some unknown magical device (a simulacrum, or whatever). That is how she springs back into existence as soon as the fight is over. Hopefully she also has a plan for surviving after she is left alone with the Emperor, although her foreknowledge presumably ends at the moment the player leaves.
@@GavrynGaming Yes, makes sense, but at the same time - we told her how we got sent back to her era in that very moment, so she must have known we didn't have the lance on us. Why did she expect otherwise?
@@ancientfoglet9600 As a Doctor Who fan and the time travel comparison is perfect, Yulia reminds me of Dr. River Song. A close companion of the Doctor that never quite meets him in the same order sequentially as he meets her. She's done, said and seen things with him in a different time that his current self has no recollection of. She keeps all of their encounters in a diary. It's kind of like a bootstrap paradox I guess? The information of the lance has no real origin in time. We learn of the all powerful antagonist killer weapon from Yulia mid assassination attempt. Future us then takes that information to the past to Young Yulia and tell her of the lance etc. She then grows up holding onto that information and plan her entire life, only to meet us in the Imperial Era and for the events and debacle to happen all over again. To break the loop we need to return to that time (to that Yulia) with the fully empowered lance and finish the plan. Old Yulia will still be there, but we won't, it's not some kind of Back to the Future time travel where we'll see past us in that room and toss past us the lance or anything (at least I don't think lmao) I assume we're the same traveler just showing up when and where we want now
Another awesome video! Alric dying was really weird to me, I think he might come back in later chapters as an important character or something. If not then the writing is kinda weird, making him die for nothing
I find it weird that we literally recruit ALL the "bad guys" and TELL THEM how to become the bad guys. Time travel stories are all weird. Are we creating our own villains to keep ourselves from creating paradoxes? If yes, then that makes US the only real villain apart from maybe Rayeh.. and if not we're really messing up the whole multiverse by jumping timeline after timeline and interfering in each... wait, that's the whole point of the monolith system lol Tho I didn't really think Grael had the brains to become an immortal emperor... he always struck me as more of a brawny barbarian type. But... it's the same voice actor (just with some distortion effect) and honestly, Yulia would never follow anyone else...
The hidden offshoot area in the sewers was interesting to me. Way back in the ruined era when we first come across the Immortal Emperor's remains, he specifically says "Eterra is dead, Orobyss is free." It makes me think this pit is his 'prison' that he was freed from in the first place, or connected to it in some way... and has been even as far back as the divine era, if the notes nearby are to be believed. It tracks with the backstory of the Black Sun timeline in monoliths as well - Rayeh's corruption came first, after his Osprix unleashed it to bring him back. Maybe the Osprix in that timeline meddled with this place rather than sealing it off like they did in our 'current' timeline.
That said, it doesn't help much with the Apophis dilemma, and how she relates to all this.
Yeah I can't wait to finish this series up and begin on the monoliths, I think all of the different possibilities in those will really shed some light on some of the actual canonical lore.
The entire reason we were sent down this path is because Gaspar originally found "evidence" that the Emperor was one of the first to usher in Orobyss and the Void.
So your theory has merit for sure!! Like I said I'll revisit all of these kinds of topics and more once we have all the facts at our/my disposal :)
Thanks for watching and diving into the conversation :)
My current, half-baked theory is that Orobyss was imprisoned in the Sanctum Bastille (which is why it is called that). Possibly, he was imprisoned by Eterra as a necessary condition that allowed the creation of the world. She may have "used the power of the Epoch" to do it, and then broken the Epoch into three parts afterwards.
I think the void pool in the mine in the hidden zone of the sewers may have allowed the Void to start influencing the thoughts of Imperials, including the Emperor. It may be that, at some point, the Emperor, acting under the influence of the Void, goes to the Sanctum Bastille to free Orobyss, and that that is why we find his husk there. Then, the freeing of Orobyss is what allows the explosion of the Void across the world, from that point onwards (obviously the Void has been present, though somewhat dormant, since the Divine Era or perhaps earlier).
I wonder if the finale of the story will involve the player trying to prevent the Emperor from freeing Orobyss, and possibly having to fight both of them in a climactic battle.
I think it is quite plausible that Rahyeh was also influenced by the Void into launching his war against the other gods. Presumably he was, at some point, less aggressive, and I think his war ends up serving Orobyss's purposes.
Btw, I tend to think the "Eterra is dead" statement is not literally true, partly because "Return of Eterra" is an obvious subject for a future expansion. Or, rather, it may be that Eterra the world is dead, but I suspect Eterra the goddess isn't, though she seems to have taken an extended sabbatical.
@@Toxophilix I love it, you're full on donning the tinfoil hat with the Orobyss theory. I don't think he can be imprisoned, I think he's too far ahead.
I agree with the Eterra part, she's alive somewhere. And even better, it seems that she's still influencing events to this day trying to help us outmaneuver Orobyss, beat him even, save Eterra (the planet) and allow for the goddess to return!
I have the strange suspicion that Eterra is with us through the Epoch or is housed within it somehow. Both the Emperor AND Heorot seem to mistake us for Eterra upon meeting us for the first time (in the Sanctum Bastille for the emperor, Heorot's sacred grove when he's struck down by Rahyeh).
Interesting vid! I hadn't really paid much attention to the dialogue delivery until hearing it isolated here. After we defeat the lieutenants, the Emperor says "You... You!" and the way he says it has a sort of emotional tone that almost seems like he knows us or is at least familiar with us maybe from another time in the past.
I agree with the tonality there, but it's odd that he's like "Who are you?" when we first enter the arena, it's as if he has no idea and when his lieutenants attack, he says "I've heard of your power, let's see how you face this!" Why would he suddenly recognize us after we wreck Zerrick and Harton?
He could just be marveling at our power and asking why we're here at the end like "Okay, I get it, you're strong. What do you want, why are you here?"
I'll be doing a "Who is the Immortal Emperor" video for SURE once we have all the facts at our disposal from the story and monoliths, who do you think it might be?
Wanted to come in and say, this has my favorite cut scene in it. The moment they cut to Yulia's face when she realizes you don't have the Lance gives me goose bumps every single time. After running the campaign now over a dozen times updating new characters in the cycle this is the only cut scene I ALWAYS watch. (btw, I'm CaiusMartius on the forums.)
Hi Caius!! I'm so glad to have captured all the dialogue and cutscenes with this series :) That cutscene is one of my favorites as well! Yulia's face after hundreds of years of planning and waiting for us to bring the lance. She remained close to the Emperor and consumed Soul Essence all that time to remain immortal and retain her consciousness. That had to be the biggest let down in all of Eterra's history. I hope we can return with the fully empowered lance and help Yulia and Alric out!
I think my absolute favorite is the Monolith cutscene with The Observer destroying our hopes and dreams basically lol.
@@GavrynGaming It will, indeed, be very cool to see the final three chapters and how all of these story elements are resolved. I'm looking forward to it. It's come a long way, EHG has been doing a great job.
There never was a secret entrance to the citadel, it was Yulias plan to lure us to her in the first place. Very clever. Alric was her pawn before he even knew her.
Poor Alric certainly was a pawn, though I found myself growing sympathetic and more curious about his potential character, hopefully he gets some kind of redemption arc when we go back to that point with the empowered lance and deal with the Emperor properly!
I really appreciate this work Gav. Hopefully you continue when new content comes in.
Currently doing a campaign lore run of Path of Exile prior to PoE2 in November! But I do plan to revisit Last Epoch of course! Glad you enjoyed 😁
well made
The discovery of arcane magic
Are you referring to the magic found deep in that pit in the Fractured Drain?
Just for information... I just travelled to both these hidden places... "The Hidden Alcove" and the "Fractured Drain". When you are in those areas and switch to the map you will find that the location of "The Hidden Alcove" is exactly the same as the area of the "Fractured Drain" - just in different timelines... I am pretty sure that the hidden alcove has something to do with the hole of the fractured drain. Even the map layout is kind of similar with the circle around the "obscure objects"... i would be willing to bet a beer that we will see these areas again with further storytelling...
Yulia is the hardest NPC to make sense of, but I think I will refrain from speculating about her until after your Chapter 7 video.
I'll have it ready in the next few days!
But a quick explanation:
It was all an act in order to catch the Emperor by surprise. The issue with the botched assassination is that assumptions were made by Yulia, and she was also trying to hide our true history and the knowledge of the Epoch from Alric as she didn't know or fully trust them.
For Yulia time is linear. Meaning she had already interacted with us/the Traveler years in her past. However for us time is... a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff (love Doctor Who).
And so we met Yulia over 1000 years (we meet her in the Imperial Era for the first time) before even hatching the plan with her or knowing about this "Lance" in the first place. We don't arrive back in the Divine Era and meet Yulia until after this encounter. But for her and since she never time travels, this is linearly the FIRST time we've met Yulia, but for her she's been plotting this since our encounter in the Divine Era, she doesn't even recognize us in the Divine Era when we first arrive, because it's linearly the first time we've met her.
Hope this makes any sense 😅
@@GavrynGaming The way I read it, Yulia is not making assumptions. Rather, she knows what is going to happen and is going along with it.
From her point of view, when she first meets the player in the Divine Era, the player tells her that she has come from the future and warns her about becoming a revenant. If they get to the point of making a plan to kill the Emperor, then surely the player must mention, at that point, the botched assassination, so that, in chapter 6, Yulia must be expecting it.
She may also have decided that it would be futile to attempt to prevent the botched assassination, because that event was the cause of the player travelling back to the Divine Era to meet her, so it presumably cannot be avoided by foreknowledge (can anything?)
When the player turns up in chapter 6, it seems that Yulia must realise (because the player shows no signs of having met her before), that this is the player from a point earlier in their life, and that everything is going to wind up with the fiasco in the citadel. She has to let it happen, even down to feigning surprise that the player doesn't have the lance. However, her foreknowledge does warn her that the player will "kill" her in the fight, and she prevents that by some unknown magical device (a simulacrum, or whatever). That is how she springs back into existence as soon as the fight is over.
Hopefully she also has a plan for surviving after she is left alone with the Emperor, although her foreknowledge presumably ends at the moment the player leaves.
@@GavrynGaming Yes, makes sense, but at the same time - we told her how we got sent back to her era in that very moment, so she must have known we didn't have the lance on us. Why did she expect otherwise?
@@ancientfoglet9600 As a Doctor Who fan and the time travel comparison is perfect, Yulia reminds me of Dr. River Song. A close companion of the Doctor that never quite meets him in the same order sequentially as he meets her. She's done, said and seen things with him in a different time that his current self has no recollection of. She keeps all of their encounters in a diary.
It's kind of like a bootstrap paradox I guess? The information of the lance has no real origin in time. We learn of the all powerful antagonist killer weapon from Yulia mid assassination attempt. Future us then takes that information to the past to Young Yulia and tell her of the lance etc.
She then grows up holding onto that information and plan her entire life, only to meet us in the Imperial Era and for the events and debacle to happen all over again. To break the loop we need to return to that time (to that Yulia) with the fully empowered lance and finish the plan.
Old Yulia will still be there, but we won't, it's not some kind of Back to the Future time travel where we'll see past us in that room and toss past us the lance or anything (at least I don't think lmao) I assume we're the same traveler just showing up when and where we want now
Another awesome video! Alric dying was really weird to me, I think he might come back in later chapters as an important character or something. If not then the writing is kinda weird, making him die for nothing
Agreed! Hoping we have an opportunity to save them when we return to kill the Emperor in a non-botched fashion lol. Thanks for watching as always
I find it weird that we literally recruit ALL the "bad guys" and TELL THEM how to become the bad guys. Time travel stories are all weird. Are we creating our own villains to keep ourselves from creating paradoxes? If yes, then that makes US the only real villain apart from maybe Rayeh.. and if not we're really messing up the whole multiverse by jumping timeline after timeline and interfering in each... wait, that's the whole point of the monolith system lol
Tho I didn't really think Grael had the brains to become an immortal emperor... he always struck me as more of a brawny barbarian type. But... it's the same voice actor (just with some distortion effect) and honestly, Yulia would never follow anyone else...