Lore Questions

Message from Echtra_Shawn: You're free to reprint the things that I openly communicate in the Discord onto some web page somewhere, but I reserve the right to change my mind, edit it before or after release date and keep secrets.

This is a page serves as a compilation of questions asked by the community regarding lore.

Update 9 and earlier

 * Q1: Does this mean that our relics (bane, Blooddrinker, Flaming Destroyer) are not ember based weapons? if so, what exactly are their cores made off, and is their power greater than that of ember but harder to find? If they are ember based. Why aren't we seeing affects from the corruption?

A1: The relic cores contain the spirit, the anima of ancient relic objects from the history of the world that has been imprinted upon some of the remaining untainted ember. The Reliquary uses magic to recreate the physical form of these ancient relics. We will be getting into more of the lore and backstory of the relics, likely in update 10.


 * Q2: The stone elementals to tend to have some amount of "crystal like material" in them. What exactly is this? and is this material somehow related to ember or the material that is in the cores that we use to constuct our relics? Is this material what makes these elementals able to move?

A2: The crystals seen on the stone elementals and in some of the environment are ember crystals, but not in as concentrated form as can normally be harvested for use in gear. Some may be corrupted and some are just normal crystals, with some faint amount of the ember magic within.


 * Q3: The trailer stated that ember got corrupted from within. Does this mean that every piece of ember is corrupted? or is there still some ember out there that's untainted by the corruption?

A3: there's definitely still ember out there that is not corrupted. Using Ordrak's Heart to power the Clockwork Core has repercussions. Not all of the ember has been corrupted (yet). As rare as ember was before, it is now becoming even more scarce and there are forces at work who wish to harness the corrupt ember for nefarious purposes.


 * Q4: The skill of the railmaster about summoning the spirit of an ancient ghost train. What do we know exactly about this particular ancient train? (first of it's kind? first one that's military there? was it the train in TL2 that got us from act 1 to act 2?)

A4: The Ghost Train is not the same as the Embercraft that took heroes between the acts in Torchlight 2, it is an actual, proper rail, as built by the railmasters of old, during the Rail Kingdoms period. The train summoned by the railmaster is a spiritual representation of the great history and tradition of the railmasters through the ages.


 * Q5: Is the Charger Bug considered to be a Hyvid race creature or not? if not, what is it? And does hyvid defence apply when taking damage from it?

A5: I don't think some others here were aware that the Chargerbugs are a separate species, so currently, the Hyvid armor/damage will have effect on them. In my opinion, it should not and I may change that. They are not technically Hyvid. They are another bug race, which enjoys a symbiotic existence with the Hyvid. While the Hyvid overwhelm with numbers, the Chargerbugs are purely about throwing their weight around. They act as a sort of bouncer for the Hyvid, tanking bigger threats, then enjoying the spoils of victory (meat).


 * Q6: Are the Varkenin connected or inspired by the Varkolyn from torchlight II?

A6: The name "Varkenin" has the same sound at the beginning of the name, but they are actually unrelated to the Varkolyn. I would love to add Varkolyn to the game at some point. The name "Varkenin" is very loosely based on the Dutch word for pig (because they are giant pig-men).


 * Q7: What caused the big conflict between the Goblins and the Varkenin?

A7: Varkenin are tribal and somewhat nomadic. They range out over different terrain, living among the trees. For a time, they ranged out over areas of the goblin homeland, settling areas above goblin-infested tunnels. There have been some battles and conflicts between the goblins and Varkenin. Not full-out war, more like guerilla warfare conflicts.


 * Q8: It has been noted in some items that there's a rocky shores on the east of the goblin homeland, are the Varkenin related to these shores in some way or shape? (assuming the top of our map as we know it is north and the right is east)

A8: the rocky Eastern shoreline of Zul'Rasha prevents ships from landing from that direction. The initial Varkenin explorers came from the north, landing in small inlets along the western shore where their smaller ships could safely land.


 * Q9: How are/were the relations between the Varkenin and the dwarves?

A9: the dwarves were aware of the Varkenin, having encountered them sometimes when venturing out of their mountain halls and dungeons, but there was much conflict between the species as they weren't in conflict over the same land. Now with the dwarves gone, even the bravest Varkenin do not dare entering the dwarven cities, considering them haunted (they're kinda right).


 * Q10: Is the forged is somehow connected to The First-Forge, The Grand Architect or perhaps even Railmaster Polk?

A10: You have very in-depth and specific lore questions. These are very obscure things I myself would have to look up.

The Forged are a product/artwork of sorts produced by ancient dwarven engineers long ago. Similar to other automatons like those that stood guard in Grunnheim or Trill-bot. These however lay dormant within some sealed Dwarven ruin which was cracked open in the past hundred years, allowing these sentient automatons to now explore the world, have adventures and go on journeys of self-discovery (while killing goblins).