The Story [spoilers if you've not won a run yet]

[Maxwell Sinclair]

So, I know the game technically doesn't have a full story or anything, but I have found via various events and the final room that there IS a story hiding away. I thought we might try to create a compilation of various events that contain a story element, as well as discuss the overall story and piece together what the deal is with the heart. Below are the events I know of, list will be updated if people bring up more.

The Known Events

• The Beginning with Neow
  
• The Book event (Grants book relic)
  
• The Beggar
  
• The Heart.
  
• Relic Descriptions (compendium)
  
• Glowing Tesseract (character backstories?)

The Story so Far (what I believe)

Neow the undead whale is an ancient, godlike being with the power of ressurection. Neow was banished to the bottom of the spire by the other creatures for reasons unknown. The Ironclad, Silent and Defect are all in the spire and it appears as though they've been claimed as the champions of Neow, which is really more of a curse than a blessing. They cannot truly die, but every time they fall in combat they're ressurected before Neow and forced to start again.

On the climb it is possible to encounter a beggar who asks for gold, and if refused he says "You won't make a difference... you never do." which implies that every other denizen of the tower knows the character and knows that they have been through many times before. Once reaching the final room of the spire, having defeated the third floor champion, the character is faced with a giant heart which they attack. No matter how much damage they do it will not burst or die.

Pure Conjecture Regarding the Heart

I have two theories on what the heart is, and why the champion of Neow is continually climbing the spire to attack the heart.

1:The heart either belongs to, or IS the ancient being that banished Neow to the bottom of the spire, and thus Neow is sending her champion to destroy the heart in an attempt to gain revenge for her banishment.

2:The heart is Neows heart. Neow is an eternal, ancient being who cannot die via conventional means. It is possible however that Neow has no desire to remain trapped in the bottom of the spire forever, and sending the champion to destroy her heart will allow her to either finally ascend from this world, or to allow her to break the conditions of her banishment and allow her to return higher up the spire.


Disclaimer: I know the lore isn't going to be important to everyone, I know that to some people it's an afterthought, and considering the way you're constantly running the gauntlet, it's more like a bit of flavouring than a serious part of the game but, personally I quite enjoy interesting lore and I hope some of you do too.

Edit 1: Third Theory
Neow is sending the champion to ascend the spire for her own amusement. You recall I mentioned above that they cannot die, they are bound to Neow much like a puppet bound to strings. For this theory, if we believe that the heart IS Neows heart, then the champion attacks it without really knowing why. They do this because they have vague memories of pushing through the spire over and over again, of being stuck in a loop. So they attack the heart in the hopes it will grant them freedom from their enslavement.

[PooEater]

I love this!

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Originally posted by PooEater:

I love this!

Glad to hear it! I've actually thought of a third theory as well.

[Gontran Gabor]

Sounds like a good beginning.
But you should look at the Glowing Tesseract event, in which, it is stated how some (each ?) characters started their journey to the spire.

I had mainly the Silent story. But I'm pretty sure there's one for the Ironclad too.
For the Silent it's something like : "You killed the beast. The ritual is complete. your sisters put its skull on your head. You head towards the spire"

Don't know if it's a bug but I keep having this one whatever character I'm playing with...

[Daemon]

Originally posted by Karlov:

Sounds like a good beginning.
But you should look at the Glowing Tesseract event, in which, it is stated how some (each ?) characters started their journey to the spire.

I had mainly the Silent story. But I'm pretty sure there's one for the Ironclad too.
For the Silent it's something like : "You killed the beast. The ritual is complete. your sisters put its skull on your head. You head towards the spire"

Don't know if it's a bug but I keep having this one whatever character I'm playing with...

Yep that Silent version of that event suggests she comes from a clan of female hunters that hunt the Nemesis creatures (floor 3 elite) as a rite of initiation. And most likely went to the Spire as further practice. The Ironclad version makes it seem like the rest of his clan was killed by a demon and he got his power from that. Whether he did it intentionally or was tricked into it is still up to the question. And last the Defect one makes it seem that the Defect original function was to maintain balance. Since it came from the Spire that suggests that the Spire may be naturally occurring thing, maybe like a "there must always be a source of evil" situation.

The relic descriptions in the compendium also gives some more lore about the world and has some recurring characters mentioned across several relics.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Originally posted by Karlov:

Sounds like a good beginning.
But you should look at the Glowing Tesseract event, in which, it is stated how some (each ?) characters started their journey to the spire.

I had mainly the Silent story. But I'm pretty sure there's one for the Ironclad too.
For the Silent it's something like : "You killed the beast. The ritual is complete. your sisters put its skull on your head. You head towards the spire"

Don't know if it's a bug but I keep having this one whatever character I'm playing with...

I've seen this event once, on my most recent run. I was playing as the silent and I chose the final option, the one that makes you lose HP but gain the most. I was given text that showed a massacred tribe and a demon that stared at me and laughed stating I was the strongest now. So perhaps the text you get is based on the option you choose, or perhaps it's just randomized at this point.

[vizthex]

I like this. I've always wondered about the story.

Neow is female thoguh (I think that's the case, the wiki says so at least) but I like this theory-crafting going on otherwise.

[vizthex]

I like this. I've always wondered about the story.

Neow is female thoguh (I think that's the case, the wiki says so at least) but I like this theory-crafting going on otherwise.

[Sikthty]

Originally posted by vizthex:

Neow is female thoguh (I think that's the case, the wiki says so at least)

It's definitely mentioned in-game that she is female, can't say where though.

[vizthex]

Originally posted by Sikthty:

Originally posted by vizthex:

Neow is female thoguh (I think that's the case, the wiki says so at least)

It's definitely mentioned in-game that she is female, can't say where though.

I found it actually, while making my vid. It's in the Cursed Tome event.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Originally posted by vizthex:

I like this. I've always wondered about the story.

Neow is female thoguh (I think that's the case, the wiki says so at least) but I like this theory-crafting going on otherwise.

I've fixed the post to reflect that, I was writing the post from memory when I first made it and I didn't recall Neow having a gender.

[Benkyo]

The glowing tesseract event used to be clearly linked to class. The demon pact is the ironclad's story, conclusion of hunting the beast is the silent's, balance glitch is the defect's. A recent patch broke that correlation though, so now they get mixed up - this should probably be considered a bug.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Originally posted by Benkyo:

The glowing tesseract event used to be clearly linked to class. The demon pact is the ironclad's story, conclusion of hunting the beast is the silent's, balance glitch is the defect's. A recent patch broke that correlation though, so now they get mixed up - this should probably be considered a bug.

That would absolutely explain why I got the laughing demon as The Silent.

[Loomi]

I have an alternate version of theory 2.

It is indeed Neow's heart, but he is sending the heroes/cursed on their mission simply to commit suicide. Being an eternal being is bound to get boring at some point, and being held prisoner somewhere will make that twice as bad.

Maybe his desire to end his own life is the actual reason he got send down there. The other eternals didn't like the idea of a fellow eternal being non-eternal.

[vizthex]

Originally posted by Loomi:

I have an alternate version of theory 2.

It is indeed Neow's heart, but he is sending the heroes/cursed on their mission simply to commit suicide. Being an eternal being is bound to get boring at some point, and being held prisoner somewhere will make that twice as bad.

Maybe his desire to end his own life is the actual reason he got send down there. The other eternals didn't like the idea of a fellow eternal being non-eternal.

Neow is female, as I said. But that's a pretty cynical view. It could be that, but I think it's the Spire's heart. The Spire seems to be alive (and caused "Spireblight", as mentioned in the lore for the Mango and Pear, as well as the Strawberry.) and Neow is trying to destroy it and its evil influence.

[Loomi]

Originally posted by vizthex:

Originally posted by Loomi:

I have an alternate version of theory 2.

It is indeed Neow's heart, but he is sending the heroes/cursed on their mission simply to commit suicide. Being an eternal being is bound to get boring at some point, and being held prisoner somewhere will make that twice as bad.

Maybe his desire to end his own life is the actual reason he got send down there. The other eternals didn't like the idea of a fellow eternal being non-eternal.

Neow is female, as I said. But that's a pretty cynical view. It could be that, but I think it's the Spire's heart. The Spire seems to be alive (and caused "Spireblight", as mentioned in the lore for the Mango and Pear, as well as the Strawberry.) and Neow is trying to destroy it and its evil influence.

Ah, he's a she, got it. :P

Don't think it's cynical really, imagine being alive for thousands upon thousands of years.. I'm sure the lack of new input of any form would drive anyone nuts overtime.