Talk:History of Wraeclast

You might find this useful: http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1hqzpy/finding_the_templar_descry/ Iamacyborg (talk) 16:49, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

Unique Items
During my talks with Rory during my unique item design process, he let out this snippet of information with regards to the flavour text on "Our official writer will use this to come up with something more eloquent that conveys the idea of a society that is so profitable that it begins to hunger for knowledge over any material wealth, as the empire did before its fall." Iamacyborg (talk) 08:58, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Diamond/Eternal Newsletters
Some of the diamond/eternal newsletters provide interesting information about Wraeclast.

I think you've already seen this one http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1hu138/eternal_and_diamond_supporter_newsletter_20/

But maybe you haven't seen this one http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1ahsze/diamond_supporter_newsletter_4/

It contains some interesting information about the eternal laboratory and about the reign of Voll: it seems he is executing thaumaturgists like criminals, and this could be the reason Oriath exiles criminals instead of executing them. Maybe something happened after they executed one of the thaumaturgists that caused the Twist?

0.11.4 patch note preview
Today's news update included the line "Vaal Fallen now wear appropriate late Atziri period Vaal armour." If that's the case, it seems probable that the Vaal structures in Act 2 date to the time of Queen Atziri, and likely that Atziri's reign was very near the end of the Vaal civilisation.

Newsletter #30
The Purity Chronicles, Book 5: The Emperor is dead. Long live the Emperor.

"On the last day of Divini 1334 IC, High Templar Voll laid siege to Sarn. Commander Adus of Highgate soon joined Voll, bringing his legion and a horde of miners to bolster the Army of Purity’s ranks. Thus surrounded, Emperor Chitus rallied his gemlings for a desperate defence of the capital. His efforts were cut short by Lord Mayor Ondar who, on the 2nd Kaso of Derivi, stabbed Chitus to death on the steps of the Sceptre of God.

With Victario’s help, Ondar was able to flee through the sewers and escape to Voll’s encampment. But Ondar’s term as the Hero of Purity was a short one. Two weeks later he was found by Victario’s men in the Sarn sewers, seated and cross-legged, with his severed head in his lap. It was later discovered that the Perandus family had hired Coralito of the Silent Brotherhood to pluck Ondar from Voll’s camp and deliver their vengeance for Chitus’ murder.

Yet despite their desperate efforts, Chitus’ mourners were unable to save their city. Faced with Victario’s uprisings in the Slums, Docks and Warehouse District, and constant attacks from without, Lord Cadiro Perandus met with Voll on the on the 1st Sacrato of Phreci and offered Sarn’s unconditional surrender.

Voll and his Army of Purity marched through the gates of the capital and less than a week later Voll of Thebrus was crowned Emperor.”

- Garivaldi, Chronicler to the Empire

Iamacyborg (talk) 08:01, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

New lore from Library and other new areas
I have taken the liberty of adding most of the new information on the Vaal from the library - golden page flavour texts as well as their translations by Siosa. I have not yet consulted the lorebooks, new graffiti etc. found in the new areas and added to old areas, so the Vaal section is by no means complete though I have overhauled it somewhat. From what I can tell, there is also a great deal to be learned here about the Empire, but I haven't added it yet. There's a ton of new lore to be added! Cilibinarii (talk) 18:06, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

From the first part of The Ancients it's now clear that IC stands for "Imperialus Conceptus", ie: the conception of the Imperium, and that it happened about 400 years after the reign of Atziri, last Queen of the Vaal. This also leads to the deduction that the flavour text "2000 years of regret" refers to the end of the Vaal civilisation. I haven't edited anything yet, as I am still brand new to the wiki and don't want to stomp on anyone's toes. Love how much timeline info can come from such few extra snippets. Estxplosif (talk) 23:43, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Lore from the library: The Ancients (books about the Vaal)
Book 1: Last of the Vaal Queens It has been written of Queen Atziri that her throne room was lined with mirrors and that she held court naked, demanding the same of those wishing her audience. The theory was that a naked man had nothing to hide, but one might easily venture that Atziri utilised her striking physical presence to influence courtly engagements in her favour. A woman like Atziri, beautiful and naked, would be very difficult to refuse. The few statuettes and reliefs that remain depict her as a rare beauty, a young woman with exquisitely delicate features, large, mesmerizing eyes, and a full figure of intoxicating sensuality. Whether the depictions are realist or interpretive is unfortunately impossible to corroborate. But who was the woman behind the title? The few surviving accounts on this matter contain two schools of thought on the matter. Some speak of Atziri with adoration, touting her as a visionary, the woman who would lead the Vaal into a brighter future. Others are less kind, suggesting that Atziri's love for herself overshadowed any love for her people. If her court of mirrors truly existed, however, then the latter seems more likely. Vanity, after all, is the most insidious of all Sins. Only one thing can be said for certain of Atziri: she was the last Queen of the Vaal. The trail of history ends during her reign, some four hundred years preceding the Imperialus Conceptus. -Trinian - Intellectus Prime

Book 2: Zerphi the Murderer It is said the Vaalish noble, Zerphi, lived for 168 years. That is more than three times the current imperial average. Were this the only unusual attribute of an otherwise uneventful life, Zerphi might have have been cast into the back corner of history to gather dust with the other inexplicable anomalies. But his life was anything but uneventful. Zerphi was the Vaal civilisation's most infamous serial killer. Over a period of 128 years, Zerphi abducted, tortured and murdered thirteen victims. All in their twentieth year of life. All of noble descent. All Gemlings. But this feat alone did not catapult Zerphi into the annals of history. Rather, it was the quality of his heinous acts that set him apart, not the quantity. Evidently, Zerphi was a master at inflicting the most prolonged and agonising demise. His victims' bodies were found in a state of horrific mutilation, yet post-mortem analysis revealed that all of the physical trauma infilcted had occurred while the victim was still alive. Some sources claim that the techniques of torture were so refined that he was able to inflict the most intense and lasting pain the human body is capable of sustaining. Then we come to the curious matter of Zerphi's death which, as so often occurs with historical investigation, brings us back to where we started. Zerphi was finally found at the side of his thirteenth and final victim, who was unmolested and unmutilated. Simply dead. When the centenarian's body was committed to autopsy, the recorded results are mystifying in the extreme. It is claimed that Zerphi did not possess the body of a 168-year-old, rather that.his corpse had the physiognomy of a man of twenty years, no more. Life and Death have walked hand in hand since the beginning of Time. Could Zephri have persuaded them to kiss? -Trinian - Intellectus Prime

Book 3: The Queen's Thaumaturgist In a culture festooned with gems and steeped in thaumaturgy, Doryani must have had quite the exceptional mind to rise to such preeminence as he did. Or perhaps he was simply more ruthless than his counterparts. Such is the impression one tends to garner from the accounts written of events following Zerphi's death. Atziri's orders are quoted in a number of different texts. Doryani was “to make any effort within the realms of possibility, and to act without fear of question or consequence”. And to what was Doryani expected to apply this supreme effort? The investigation of Zephri's longevity and youthful vitality. There is a particularly chilling manifest, containing endless lists of names, page upon page. The names of young men and women, ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-six, sent to Doryani for “processing”. Only those of “full and recent maturity” were deemed capable of accommodating the “necessary procedures” required without succumbing to “premature expiration”. Yes, Queen Atziri was prepared to slaughter her own people in the desperate pursuit of perpetual youth and beauty. Vanity, indeed, is the most insidious of all Sins. -Trinian - Intellectus Prime

Book 4: Raising the Azmeri Drain a cup of Azmerian tea and then try to read your future in the leaves. You'll find that your Vaalish will come in mighty handy. Our literature was conceived and born within the Azmeri's cultural marriage with the Vaal. Prior to Vaal contact some 2500 years ago, the Azmerian culture had a purely oral tradition of story and record keeping. Afterwards, their literary culture blossomed, along with just about every other aspect of their fledgling civilisation. From the moment the first Vaalish embassadors set foot upon the rugged slopes of the Azmerian Ranges, the Vaal civilisation held the hand of the Azmeri as they grew from a primitive tribal existence into a cohesive culture of settlement and agriculture. Yet while the Vaal were generous with their knowledge and guidance in many areas, there is one subject upon which they were notably silent: the Tears of Maji, now known as Virtue Gems. Despite an exhaustive search, neither account nor passing reference can be found regarding gem usage amongst the early Azmeri. Though they described the Vaal as having flesh adorned with glittering crystals, our Azmerian ancestors were never privy to the gems' potentials or powers. At least, not until the first Vaal refugees came knocking five hundred years later. -Trinian - Intellectus Prime

Book 5: The Fall The Vaal. Thousands of years in the making. Gone in a blink of Solaris' burning eyes. The Azmeri tell of the Vaalish immigration with equal measures of pity and horror. Small bands of tattered, shambling survivors, bereft of their families, their wealth, and in many cases, their sanity. They were welcomed, and cared for, but none could give the Azmeri the one thing they sought in return. None could tell them how the Vaal realm came to such a sudden and catastrophic end. An apocalypse that came to be known as The Fall. The number 3126 is forever burned into Azmerian history. Three thousand one hundred and twenty-six: the number of Vaal refugees who came to live with and eventually become absorbed into the Azmerian people. Three thousand one hundred and twenty-six survivors from a civilisation counting in its millions. -Trinian - Intellectus Prime

Book 6: Imperialus Conceptus Tarcus Veruso descended from the mountains and his eighty thousand tribesmen and women through the doomlands to Azala Vaal. There he planted his banner upon Atziri's grave and with these words founded our great and eternal empire. “The Vaal closed their eyes to flesh and stone, to blood and bronze. We are not Vaal. We are Azmeri. For now and forever, our eyes are open.” Veruso built his capital upon the bones of Azala Vaal and baptized it Sarn. From there, Veruso formed the first Legions and proceeded to conquer the lands beneath the Mantle, clearing it of the mindless constructs and fierce abominations left in the wake of The Fall. True to his word, Veruso ensured that his people lived “with eyes open”. The ancient Vaalish centres of learning and power were sealed and quarantined. Thaumaturgy was outlawed and those who stained themselves with Vaalish folly were burned for their sin. The Tears of the Maji, too dangerous to be destroyed, were gathered up, taken to Highgate, and buried within the bowels of the mountains. The caverns there were sealed and forgotten. A supreme effort to erase the past. A primitive reaction born of primitive times, in the opinion of this humble historian. -Trinian - Intellectus Prime

Book 7: The Light of Phrecia Five years after his father's death, Emperor Caspiro, too, was dead. Although accounts of the exact details differ, one clear fact is agreed upon. Caspiro with dismembered by something referred to simply as a dark being. It was General Alano Phrecia who avenged the Emperor's death and who triumphed in driving away the pervasive darkness enveloping what would become the imperial heartlands. Though it seems fanciful to contemplate a portion of our Empire cast in perpetual night, Azmerian writers of the time are unified in their depiction. Perhaps it was caused by peculiar weather patterns or some thaumaturgical residue of The Fall. On this matter, this humble historian is left in the uncomfortable state of pure conjecture. On the first Sacrato of Lurici, 35 I.C., Alano himself wrote that “our legions drove the dark being deep into the recesses of its lair and sealed it away for eternity”. Having returned the gaze of Solaris to those lands stretching from the foot of the Mantle to the Axiom Ranges, Alano Phrecia returned to Sarn. In the absence of a clear Veruso succession, Alano was crowned emperor and the Imperial heartlands were named in his honour. With the former realm of the Vaal thus tamed and settled by our Azmerian ancestors, the Eternal Empire saw a long period of peace and prosperity under an unbroken line of Phrecia emperors. “To care for this Empire with eyes open.” - A traditional vow made by the High Templar upon the coronation of an Eternal Emperor. -Trinian, Intellectus Prime


 * This is amazing. To whoever added this, thank you! After I'm done playing I might start adding some of this. Cilibinarii (talk) 21:21, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

All of the Library Lorebooks
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/559893

This excellent forum post has the full text of all library lorebooks, including Victario's Writings, the Ancients and the Purity Rebellion. I'm not very active myself atm but if anyone wants to incorporate it into the article proper, they are welcome to go ahead and do so. Cilibinarii (talk) 15:17, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Days of the week/months
Dates are presented in the format Xth Y of Z, year. Given that during the Purity Rebellion, Sarn surrendered on the 1st Sacrato of Phreci and Voll was crowned on the 2nd Sacrato of Phreci, "less than a week" after entering Sarn, Y likely refers to days of the week.

The following days of the week are mentioned:
 * Sacrato - "sacred"?
 * Fiero - the element of fire?
 * Galvano - the element of lightning?
 * Kaso - the element of chaos?

Given that two days appear to correspond to fire and lightning, there is likely a day corresponding to the element of cold and perhaps also to physical/Earth.

The following months are mentioned:
 * Eterni - "eternal"?
 * Divini - "divine"?
 * Dirivi
 * Phreci - named after General/Emperor Alano Phrecia?
 * Astrali - "astral"?
 * Lurici
 * Vitali - "life"?

Divini is before Dirivi is before Phreci. Dirivi is before Astrali. If the Purity Chronicles are in chronological order (except for the first), then Dirivi is before Vitali.

--Evil4Zerggin (talk) 21:14, 22 December 2013 (UTC)
 * In Latin -i is a common possessive/genitive ending (anno domini = year of our lord), so I assume they mean the month of the eternal/divine/etc. Magnanimous2 (talk) 04:49, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Speculation about the fall of Vaal
When thinking about some signs about the fall of Vaal, I got an idea what might have actually happened. It is suggested that they were trying some sort of 'communion', which is defined as some sort of sharing thoughts or feelings. Doryani's Catalyst's flavour text holds that he tried something that would either immortalise or kill everyone and he risked it. The main remain of their civilisation is the beast, Vaal Oversoul. The name 'Oversoul' suggests that it was some sort of creature with a superior mind. What if the 'communion' was that they bound themselves together, creating a greater being? Doryani wasn't sure if they'll be able to continue as separate minds inside one being (therefore, all immortal) or mashed together as one mind with one identity (therefore, all dead). This one being's body was crafted before and the experiment made a living creature out of it. The experiment sucked most of them it and some of the bodies became undead (some of the Vaal Fallen look very undead). The resulting Vaal Oversoul was a deadly abomination (maybe because their minds were corrupted by the amount of horrid kills they've made in the name of eternity, or maybe because of the number of black magic used in the process), but they might have kept their identities inside it, living inside other worlds like those created by using maps in the Eternal Laboratory (which may be the 'realm of nightmare' where Atziri still lives).

I know it would mean that the fall of Vaal differed from the fall of Sarn, but they are described differently if I understand it right. Hundreds of years after the fall of Sarn, the land is still cursed, full of monsters and living dead, all original inhabitants gone insane and mostly dead. The fall of Vaal left most of the land uninhabited, free to take by the Azmeri, even some Vaal citizens survived it and were probably sane (otherwise the Azmeri would have refused them), defiled only by the presence of Vaal Oversoul (whose darkness had different impacts than the latter curse, as seen in act 2).

Any ideas and evidence/counterevidence? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by DarkUknown (talk • contribs) 20:19, 5 July 2014‎ (UTC)

Lore has changed since 2.0
Apparently the library lore among others have been revised. Those who are up to date with the comics might wan't to take a look at these contradictions discussed in this thread: https://reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/3t7o0k/lore_discussionhuge_contradiction_with_game_comic/--Illviljan (talk) 01:30, 18 November 2015 (UTC)