The Story (as far as I know)

[Red Purger]

This is what I've gathered so far about the story of the game, from boss descriptions, the main opening, exploration, and just general conjecture.

So the vampires ruled the continent under Dracula in the times before the human uprising. At some point, the humans rose up under an entity referred to only as "The Light" who appears to be the anathema of vampires, and presumably Solarus the Immaculate was the leader of this uprising and champion of The Light. The humans overthrew the vampires, killed Dracula, and destroyed his castle.

I assume the huge destroyed ruin north of the haunted iron mines was Dracula's castle at one point, since it's massive, and if you fly over it in bat form you can see a bunch of floating rocks and ruins. This is mostly conjecture on my part though. Anyway...

So Dracula dies, and the vampires go full retreat mode into the south of the map. Whether they retreated after he died, or if he died after they retreated, I'm not sure. Some staunch loyalists of Dracula stay deep into enemy territory and fight (The Behemoth and Stryx) while beasts like the Winged Horror mourn Dracula's passing. Draculas death causes it to rain blood for 7 days and 7 nights. The other vampires retreat and erect something called the Barrier of Darkness over the Farbane woods, which I'm assuming was used to protect them and conceal their presence from the The Light and the Church of Luminance.

In the aftermath, the Church of Luminance completely takes over the northern part of the map and fill in the power vacuum left in the wake of the Vampire's defeat and retreat. Solarus the Immaculate takes a hands off approach and doesn't directly manage the empire, but instead just kind of waits around for stuff to happen. The humans eventually become decadent, as seen in their leaders and practices.

The dead start rising up at some point during this time. Certain humans take to the dark arts. Possible there is some other god pulling the strings, as characters like Goreswine appear to be taking orders from someone or something. Foulrot the Soultaker also appears to be serving this same entity and has a similar motif to Goreswine in that he wears an animal's head. Nicholus the Fallen turns to the dark arts and is exiled from Silverlight.

I also think Laendra the Shadow Priestess is in service to this same entity. It's also said that she may have been Dracula's Advisor.

Some humans turn into monsters like Werewolves, Terrorclaw the Ogre, and Frostmaw. Some humans also defect from the Empire, or are exiled for not being faithful enough or something, and the Farbane bandit conglomerate is formed. Presumably the bandits go to Farbane Woods because of the Barrier of Darkness preventing the sunlight empire from easily tracking them, or maybe it was just the only place where there weren't a bunch of people already settled. It's hard to say.

Possibly sensing that the Sunlight Empire was weakened, the vampires that had locked themselves away in Farbane being the Barrier of Darkness start to awaken, and begin the process of rebuilding their empire. That's basically where we, the players, come in.

There are also a lot of other interesting lore bits, like the Witches, the Cursed Forest in general, the Toads, Geomancers, insane hippie naturalists, and all that good stuff, but since none of it seems to directly relate to the story of the game I left it out.

Anyway this is just what I have gathered so far. Feel free to add to this or correct me if I made any mistakes. I want to try and compile the lore of this game since I find it kind of interesting.

[Theocolphus]

Where did you find all this?

[Bop]

Very interesting. Great post!

[Red Purger]

Originally posted by maitiumacfaolchu:

Where did you find all this?

through reading the descriptions for various bosses in the blood alter, watching the opening cinematic, and just general exploration of the world.

[Baibarss]

I really hope the devs add a story mode. Something like 'episodes' and tell an epic storyline thorough this game. The ground here is fertile for great storytelling. For us PVErs (and also as a PVP player), this will create more interest in the game, mechanics, and the world they've built...

[Pay Child Suport]

Wilfred needs more backstory. or just the werewolves in general.

it's already interesting enough that werewolves become what they are only at night. and then there's a few escapees from the exiled village that are able to harass Dunley and only at Dunley. it's also very suspicious that the exiled village is just outside Cursed Forest. And yet no matter how I look at it, the exiles that turn into werewolves are the victims here.

there's definitely some sort of political struggle happening both in Silver and Dunley. they're far from what you'd call "the good guys". Silver in particular. notice that some of the better soldiers like Lightweaver or Priest do not roam outside the city? they only patrol just outside the perimeter and nothing more? they could have been very useful hunting down the harpies and yet I've never seen Lightweaver or Priest (or Paladin) engaging the harpies. you should have also noticed that inside Cathedral (the area with holy damage) there'd be one Dunley nun surrounded by Silver soldiers. which I can only conclude it's some sort of a promotion and not in a good way. also it's mostly the Dunley soldiers that man the army outpost.

just as interesting is Cursed Forest. why are all the enemies there have a weird alliance? they all aggro only the players and nothing more they aren't aggro-ing each other. heck Styx is so out of place in that area and yet none of the mobs there are interacting with him. and to point the obvious: they're all... evolved up or something.

there's not much to note when it comes to Farbane. other than maybe practicing banditry to the poorer area of Silver. which reminds me, the rich and poor of Silver is very pronounced. definitely some kind of human politics is on play here we just don't know much yet.