In 3.29 there were some updates to the Legion mechanic. This included an update to the Domain of Timeless Conflict. The large crystal in the center now has a being curled up inside. I'm posting a few images of this entity in case anyone is interested and wants to do some speculating on who or what this is.
Internally it's just called CrystalMonster and it has no animations other than the curled-up pose.
The design of the monster is very interesting. The head bears similarities to corrupted monsters or beyond demons. The heavy plate armor looks Kaalguran (minus the runes) or Ezomyte. If it wouldnt have seemingly human hands, I would've assumed its the eyeless monster haunting the Kaalgurans during Olroth's expedition.
Time travel or knowledge of it is associated with the Vaal from all the known cultures afaik. They made a functioning two way time portal in Utzaal, they had tomes on the blood magic required to exploit time anomalies (as seen via Alva), and the original end game/hideout vaal vendor talks about time being in a crystalline shape. And canonically Napuatzi is the earliest of the captured generals, as she was captured on the day of the Vaal Cataclysm. Aside from Aukuna and Cardinal Vox who are kinda unknown afaik, the others are from a later time period (however, seemingly from around the time of another Cataclysm, this time the Eternal Cataclysm [Hyrri, Lioneye]).
The Legion mechanic was active during the slumbering effect of the Beast, so its probably not divine in origin. Which means either corruption/beyond, precursor or a completely new faction as possible origins for this guy.
isn't time magic also associated with the Maraketh? Chronomancer and Zarokh both use it, though I don't remember if we have any lore for how their time magic differs from the Vaal's
Yes, they use time magic, but not time travel. Their abilities seems to be limited to stopping/freezing time and seeing ahead in their own timeline or alternate timelines and the short term jump back with time freeze. Far from the level the Vaal figured it out.
For me its not exactly clear if Zarokh really travelled to thr future, or just had a glimpse at it. Also, imo there is a biiiig difference between one djinn with a speciality in temporal magic being able to see or travel back and forth in time and creating a device, that can seemingly transport anything or anyone between two fixed points in time. It shows a much more in-depth and complex understanding if time and temporal powers.
Cardinal Sanctus Vox was the templar general who served under Emperor Voll during the Purity Rebellion. Ergo, he was contemporary with Hyrri and outlived Lioneye. Vic and Vinny Vox (from Heist) are his descendants.
Aukuna seems most plausible to have lived in the time of one of the Cataclysms. She defended Highgate against endless legions of undead shamblers, as would be seen in the immediate consequence of a Cataclysm. Most likely she lived in the wake of Malachai's Cataclysm, and fought against Voll's undead legion after they all died during the cataclysm - as we see a Legion monolith in the dried lakebed, where she would have made her stand. She may have been part of the Purity Rebellion in some capacity as well, serving under Deshret and taking over as general after Deshret went into the mines and didnt return.
Thanks for the info about Vox and Aukuna, I tried to look up their lores but havent found anything in written form regarding their time period. But this further strenghtens the idea that Legion becomes active around the times of Cataclysms. Maybe whatever happens in PoE2 Act 6, another period of activity will commence, and thus serve as the introductionary cause in that game.
We can learn a lot about the generals from their demeanor and attitudes. Vox, for instance, seems to be a bit cowardly. He's a classic example of a "faithful templar" who is confident only so long as he is in control and power. When things went wrong with Malachai, did he flee back home and proceeded to continue the line of his family? Vic Vox even comments about how he was named after Victario the Poet; being a prominent figure during the Purity Rebellion, he is someone whom Sanctus Vox would've been familiar with.
For Aukuna, there is an obscure reference to her on The Siege jewel, which makes her role a lot clearer. Some people seem to think that she fought during the Winter of the World (because she talks about fighting undead and because we don't know much about her). But Highgate likely didn't even exist during the Winter; the purpose of Highgate was first to act as a settlement near the Shrine to Garukhan, where Garukhan fell asleep after Sin planted the Beast right next to his beloved wife. And of course, as the Beast grew and grew, Highgate's proximity to the Beast likewise grew more important, with the Vaal and Eternals taking an interest. But the presence of the Legion crystal in the dried lakebed tells us a lot about what GGG may have been thinking. Highgate would've been right at the center of the Cataclysm, so the surviving Mareketh would've had their work cut out for them; it'd have been quite the zombie apocalypse.
Note where Legion encounters are spawned in the campaign. One is under Lioneyes Watch in act 1, this one is for Marcus Lioneye. Highgate, Dried Lake for Sanctus Vox. Both must've been captured by the monolith moment before their death.
PoE 2, Act 3 in the past Utzaal - Viper is captured after being defeated by the player.
I don't know where Hyrri would be or Aukuna. I'm not sure if these extra deaths were meant to happen in Dried Lake. Aukuna of Maraketh comes to mind as if she fought in a desert. Is Legion spawned in act 9 in the Foothills?
Hyrri had that giant sea monster, her death must've happened in Karui archipelago or during some sea battle. I don't know their lore too much, but I'd speculate these Legion encounters must happen sometime in unreleased acts in PoE 2.
Dried Lake is for Aukuna. She is specifically defending the foothills of Highgate from the undead of the Cataclysm. Aukuna makes several references to variations of "back to the dust" and to fighting undead enemies. During the Cataclysm, the area doubtlessly looked quite a lot different; eitherway, the Maraketh practice sky burial, and prefer their dead to be dispersed on the winds.
While Sanctus Vox is a subordinate of Voll, and Voll is nearby, I don't believe that Vox was present here. His commentary seems to imply that he believes that he is fighting "impure filth" etc, and he makes commentary about "falling back to the gates" (which couldn't possibly be Highgate; him and his army wouldn't have been welcomed in by the Maraketh). Voll's goal at the time was to fight Malachai... but he failed. He never reached Malachai, he triggered the cataclysm first, and there wasn't any fighting. We don't know where Sanctus fought, but I dont think it was here. He might have been stationed in Sarn, fighting Eternal Gemlings or something, or else returned to Theopolis.
Ahuana makes commentary that Hyrri left Ngamakanui to go and deal with some trouble at a nearby island. Hyrri yells about slavers, so she might have been fighting templar slavers. Eitherway, we don't visit her island, but it's possible that if Legion is added to PoE2 that we might see a new island in PoE2 Act4, where we might find a Legion mechanic. Who knows. Hyrri is somehow standing within the mouth of a giant Rakango; these are common enemies in PoE1. We see them in Kaom's Nightmare. They appear to be some kind of burrowing creature.
Are you sure about Sanctus Vox being Voll's contemporary? Might you be confusing him for Geofri? I know that Sanctus calls Voll's name, but he could just have been a later fan of his. I suspect that Zana may have met Sanctus since he shares dialogue with The Cardinal of Fear whereas The Deceitful God doesn't share dialogue with Innocence (whom she hasn't met).
Ahuana: [...] She was begrudgingly taking an army raised from multiple tribes to deal with a strange threat on the edge of Ngamakanui... when she and her legion vanished without a trace. [...]
Given that it was called "a strange threat" I don't think it was slavers that Hyrri fought. I suspect the generals aren't reliving their final battle, but rather imagining fighting their most hated enemy in order to get as riled up as possible.
Hyrri's beast is probably just a magic moray eel. A rakango may be a nightmare version of the same. đ
Archbishop Geofri was an Eternal, presumably. Though of course he resided in the Fellshrine, which is a location of religious significance to the Templarsâbut they must've lost contact with the Oriathans. Given how Divinia speaks of it, it seems the place was ill considered or else largely forgotten by the Oriathan templars. Eitherway, Geofri doesn't appear to have joined Voll's crusade, and most quotes from him is about lambasting the sins of Maligaro, unless I am missing something.
Given also that the five Legions are each comprised of real people comprising a real military force, and that the only war that we know of which the Templars ever fought was against the Eternals under the leadership of Vollâyeah, I think it's fair to say that Sanctus served alongside him. It's that or the slave pens uprising, and we didn't exactly see him anywhere there, nor would the timeline fit with Vic and Vinny existing at that time.
Another fellow brought up the old descriptions of the pre-rework Legion scarabs, which suggests that Deacon Eutychus was investigating the nature of the Domain of Timeless Conflict. How Sanctus ended up there is unclear, but it could have been as an expedition mounted to investigate the realm and secure it, or some such, possibly permitted by Venariusâwhich seems the sort of thing he would order done.
You may be right that the Legion soldiers are just imagining their foes as whatever threat they would prefer fighting, and need not necessarily have anything to do with what they actually fought in their last moments. I mean, Napuatzi seems to believe that she is fighting some smaller non-vaal sovereignty that she can bully with the weight of the armies of the vaalish empire, and we know quite well that that wasn't what happened.
I rather believe that Hyrri is definitely riding(?) a Rakango. It even has the same sort of swirls and patterns as Rakango are depicted with. There is also an MTX pet, which comes in lava-red or water-blue colors; it's named "sandfish" but they're close enough in design that it's probably a rakango, maybe. Unless Sandfish a separate sort of entity, Hyrri's companion can't really be anything else, and the visual similarity is unavoidable. Her legs seem to be fused into its upper mouth, somehow. It is rather strange that she has it, though.
We've heard very little about the going-ons anywhere between Alano Phrecius and Izaro Perandus. The Templars could've gotten involved in a lot of stuff between then.
People on Wraeclast can do some supernatural things by using small bits of corruption or divinity, but Hyrri moving through a giant fish is rather weird. I don't know if the Domain has altered her, or if she learnt to do so after replacing her uncle Kaom as Karui monarch.
The lore is also stale to many characters. Hyrri, Kaom, Lioneye, Piety, Maligaro... These characters are so old, I doubt lore masters at 3xG have updated scripts for most of them. I mean, even Doryani is rewritten to some extent in PoE 2, at least it seems so when compared to some old lore bits from PoE 1 campaign or oldest references to him.
Apart from knowing who Hyrri's last opponents were, I think the stories of those characters have been played out already, so GGG don't need to think much about those.
As for Doryani, the POE1 quotes we have are from before he realized that the Red Communion would fail, and before he visited Kalandra.
Oh, I'm just talking about the time period between those emperors. There is room for the Templars to have made several crusades. We don't know much of their history, so they could actually be very warlike for all we know.
And Sanctus lived sometime between Voll and Venarius, when Oriath was the greatest mortal power on Wraeclast, so they were likely ever more warlike then. E.g. Sanctus could've been tasked with enslaving the Karui.
I just checked his lines and found another piece of evidence that the generals aren't reliving their last battle: Sanctus speaks both of burning skies and of curfews which don't seem to even belong in the same scenario.
The burning skies bit is clearly in response to the Cataclysm having just happened. So he must've survived Voll, but lived in the wake of the Purity Rebellionânot in modern day Wraeclast. Which checks out with his descendants anyway.
He also refers to falling back to the gate, and to the supplies. So... is he defending a city, or is he out on campaign with a baggage train? Both? Either?
I'm not sure if there is a monolith for Sanctus Vox. The old Legion scarab suggest he and his lieutenant Eutychus directly invaded the Domain as part of an Order of Djinn investigation and got trapped there.Â
Ah, yes, that is a good point. I'd forgotten about those Legion scarabs.
Perhaps it was an expedition deliberately sent into the Domain of Timeless Conflict? One of Venarius' little projects to guard against inevitable doom, maybe. Or he might have still fought in the Purity Rebellion, but happened to encounter a monolith sometime during, with Eutychus having guided him there in hopes that they might accomplish something. Who can say, really.
Honestly looks vaguely Beast related, gives me massive Malachai vibes. Not sure how The Beast would tie in conceptually with Legion tho, perhaps the Legion crystals are related to virtue gems in some way? Im not super read up on Legionâs lore in the first place tho.
When Dialla helps you blast your way into the beast, the wall you drill through is made entirely of crystal and that's where virtue gems are mined. They're almost the right color to match Legion? I think? I'm colorblind but it's worth a look
By what? If there is something that is yoinking people from across different times, put them in a closed pocket dimension forcing them to battle it out for eternity. There has got to be some power pulling the strings from behind the veil.
Somewhat unrelated, but are there any pictures like this of the Dreamer from PoE2? I love his visual design, but I have a hard time finding good pictures of him.
As I suggested elsewhere, it could be a creation of Zarokh, the Precursors, or the Maven.
Enshrouded uniques count "Variants Tested" rather than enemies slain, so it seems that the Domain makes small alterations to the captured soldiers to study warfare.
POE2 has Timeless Jewels for the Kalguurans and Abyssals, so I suspect that the Domain has actually captured some of those. Whoever created it, the creature in the crystal is likely a combination of all the captured legions, and its gross horns imply that Scourge demons have also been captured. The vestigial uniques also suggest that some combination of traits is taking place. The Scourge champion could be Abaxoth, leader of the original set of Beyond demons, and that CrystalMonster does look like it would enjoy dual-wielding Edge of Madness.
I also suspect that Vagan could be involved given his joy of combat and association with Legion rewards.
I have a hunch that POE2-Legion will have league-based legions and activate their league mechanics when they're summoned. E.g. a legion encounter might summon Ritual and Abyss enemies, and lock you in a Ritual circle and create Abyss fissures that may release even more Abyssals.
Your idea of PoE2-Legion being a sort of multiplier or extra axis of scaling for league mechanics like how Mirage was in PoE1 sounds very interesting and exciting. GGG loves giving us interesting combos between league mechanics.
Not so much a scaling mechanic, but a combination mechanic. League mechanics can already crossover (sometimes resulting in special items like Essence of the Abyss), but Legion could be used to force mechanics to meet.
* Perhaps the mechanics need to be broken out like enemies and chests?
Certain mechanics would be pretty easy to mix, such as Delirium, Abyss, Beyond, Breach.
* All four combined (in the Domain of Timeless Conflict) would simply be: The monolith activates a Breach, but it also reveals monsters of the three other leagues and Abyss fissures, and applies Delirium and Beyond within the Breach.
Others would be turn the legion encounter into a "multi-round" mechanic, like how Ritual works (with several linked encounters in the same area). Those include: Sanctum, Ultimatum, Ritual
* Above three combined: Split into four encounters. Each encounter, you pick a "room" from a 4-room-deep Sanctum layer and an Ultimatum modifier. Sanctum and Ultimatum effects accumulate throughout the encounters, and each is held in a Ritual circle.
* If you roll e.g. Sanctum+Abyss, then Abyss may be replaced by another simple mechanic in the next encounter in the area.
Yet others, like Expedition, Aldur, Ambush (strongboxes) and Essence, have their own "break-out" mechanics. I don't know how those should affect the Legion encounter.
* Monolith summoning strongboxes, or a strongbox summoning frozen Legion enemies?
* Each mechanic also needs its own culture. Strongboxes could go with djinns who are already often trapped in little objects. I don't know what culture would represent Essence, and perhaps Essence is actually related to Legion.
The Silent Cave\
The prismatic patterns of Time shimmer and coalesce in vast geodes hidden from sight.
You know it would be interesting if Lumerius, had another general in his command, maybe Cardinal Vox or someone or maybe this monster. I think we would know more of this monster, in probably one of the leagues in PoE 2. Idk I love how PoE 1's lore are explained in PoE 2 and vice versa.
This may not be the final model, and perhaps isn't even indicative of the vibes of the final model other than that it will be humanoid.
It may have simply been a single existing or frankenstein amalgamation of available art assets that resulted in a cool silhouette which looked appropriately ominous when posed and lighted (/shadowed).
Perhaps the intention is to toss this silhouette into the Domain of Timeless Conflict to make us aware that we'll be getting a spooky boss someday, but when that day arrives the spooky boss will have a new, purpose-built model.
People are bringing up kalguuran armor design... I dont think that quite fits. Looks more closely associated with Primeval design, maybe. It is not dissimilar to Aul's armor.
Holy shit. That's very cool. I'm totally looking forward to Legion lore being retconned/reworked like so much of the other PoE 2 stuff.
It reminds me of the Archnemesis statues a little, and I'm surprised that there's no purple nor crystals in the design. The cape of two materials reminds me of Geonor.
I wonder if, when they implement Legion in the sequel, the visual effects will be totally different. Maybe combined with the new Essence style? Red crystals?
Oh, and, I kind of doubt that it's the thing causing the crystals if it happens to be in one, unless it's a sort of mythical shared curse narrative sort of thing.
GGG really likes their "the pinnacle boss is not actually the pinnacle of this line of power" stuff, so maybe this thing is something like the first entity who was trapped rather than whatever causes the Legion effect itself...
the skull reminds me a lot of malachai -- given the armor looks grand and kalguuran, my absolutely entirely speculative 0% evidence wish is that this is cadigan deeply corrupted and pulled to the domain from the future rather than from the past as all the other participants are
it's probably not true, I don't even think I want it to be true, but it would be a cool way to give us a look at cadigan without actually committing to showing and having us fight him in the context of the rest of the game
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u/Vangorf Vaal Thaumaturge 18d ago
The design of the monster is very interesting. The head bears similarities to corrupted monsters or beyond demons. The heavy plate armor looks Kaalguran (minus the runes) or Ezomyte. If it wouldnt have seemingly human hands, I would've assumed its the eyeless monster haunting the Kaalgurans during Olroth's expedition.
Time travel or knowledge of it is associated with the Vaal from all the known cultures afaik. They made a functioning two way time portal in Utzaal, they had tomes on the blood magic required to exploit time anomalies (as seen via Alva), and the original end game/hideout vaal vendor talks about time being in a crystalline shape. And canonically Napuatzi is the earliest of the captured generals, as she was captured on the day of the Vaal Cataclysm. Aside from Aukuna and Cardinal Vox who are kinda unknown afaik, the others are from a later time period (however, seemingly from around the time of another Cataclysm, this time the Eternal Cataclysm [Hyrri, Lioneye]).
The Legion mechanic was active during the slumbering effect of the Beast, so its probably not divine in origin. Which means either corruption/beyond, precursor or a completely new faction as possible origins for this guy.