Development Stories: Timelines & Retcons

First of all, thank you as always for the amazing insight into the games lore. I am Always wanting to learn more about the different factions and the story of Wraeclast as a whole.

While I do realize that many of the past leagues have been interesting, there is always ways to improve and to better the game and the system. For example what was shown on the demo of POE 2, was crazy. We also know that 20 years have passed since the major events took place.

I am not exactly sure what the next league entails, But again I hope it extends and explains much of the Lore of Wraeclast.

With that being said, I have an interesting theory about Wraeclast. Keep in mind this should be taken with a grain of salt. And though, I do not have proof that this is legitimate It is fun to Theorize.

As we all know Wraeclast is Dark, Gloomy and Also cursed (in a sense) This seems to be the ultimate death sentence for many exiles. Recently we were finally able to return to Oriath where our Exile has come from. To me this was a conclusion that I knew had to happen.

There is more to Wraeclast then meets the eye. We have Delve, which basically introduced us to the "Darkness" A mysterious force that can/will kill you if you stay down there long enough.

Wraeclast I believe exists in different dimensions. This is usually evident in the different timelines that Zana shows you. If that's not enough, keep in mind that even Alva use time portals to help you get to the area of the Vaal.


But I digress. Here Is what I think the future holds. I think that You (The player) eventually finds out the full truth of the world of Wraeclast. This means that you alone have finally figured out the secrets and the terrible truth. Thus in POE 2, I feel this is why you are on "Trial" and now on the run to escape your pursuers.

There is still a lot that can be done/seen in Wraeclast and as you continue to discover what awaits, eventually you will finally encounter your dark fate. So, in a way, I feel that Navali (prophecy) will be heavily involved in the next few chapters/leagues.

She may even be more important as POE 2 comes around. But then again, that is just my 2 cents. Feel free to reply to me or tell me your thoughts.

Until then, Stay Sane Exile.

This entire post pleases me. It actually answers, and brings up a lot of the questions I've had and that other people I've talked about have had. I'd love to see a canonical inclusion of the Breach, Legion, Betrayal, and Metamorph Leagues, maybe even Delirium. Additional expansion on Blight, making it more than just a random thing that happens now and then would be amazing. And the 'separate timelines', aka generally seen as a multiverse actually really, truly helps and works well with the way the game works for the story. I look forward to seeing how the story is expanded further!

I mean in real life I felt like I all my old history with the atlas was written over with the new conquerors. I was fine with it as you must be the type of person who embraces change to play Path of Exile. I never thought a multiple timeline theory was canonized. Just please don't make us the "super awesome mega heroes of Wraeclast." Blizzard did this with World of Warcraft and now literally every player is a super awesome badass that's saved the world multiple times over and speaks for not only their faction, but their entire class (both factions lmao).

For the future I'd really like to see the atlas used as training grounds. Maybe Zana goes crazy and wants to make an army against unseen threats. Maybe Zana goes missing and Kirac wants to make an army to siege where he thinks she's being held. A new "day zero" piece of the lore would be after the defeat of sirus. I find it beautifully ironic that we kill the slay the elder for the terror that he inflicts upon countless realms held in the atlas. Then we go ahead and just keep going in to the atlas and killing natural inhabitants to get more experience and loot.

I'd like a story built out of that irony. Where Zana/someone sends recruits from karui shores into the atlas to become stronger. This could also be an incredible lore friendly "adventure mode" to go alongside story mode for those of us who have done the story hundreds of times.

Im glad that the shaper and elder stuff wasn't removed but they do confuse me.

What is the lore reason i can still fight the shape? wasn't zana dad killed already so the dialog make no sense in the fight.

The same apply to the elder fight It was sealed away so how are we fighting it?

As for the leagues some leagues feel incomplete like the story ended at 95%.
a 95% stories is metamorph there you dont even need to be a uber version just a few lines of text saying something like it look like the experiment failed keep trying we might figure out what went wrong. Or with blight after clearing a t16 map she can say something like ill use the data we gathered it to try and find the source it might take a while in the meantime fight more every bit of data help's.
Leagues like harbinger/abyss,breach is fine sure there wasn't a conclusion but the story for us ended, we stopped the invasion sure we didn't destroy end the entire storyline but that is fine its a problem for the future.

there is no need to complete a story so long as there is some indication from a NPC or a action you took in it that it's no longer your problem.

As for league endgame stories i dont get its legion.Why do i even want to free more that 1 army and fight both(2-5)? it is just better to sit at the side watch them kill each other and go kill the ones that survived.

There is one league that i wonder what really happening-delirium. Strange voice indicates it is you but it also talk about stuff you should not know during the campaign since the event happened before you were born. But i suppose Sin "could" have told you it off screen.

I have never felt there was an ending to POE story. Perhaps because along with myself alot of players who enjoy the game never killed the shaper

The game has been more like a life journey for me. Creating a Hideout to call home

Creating a character to battle evil creatures and meet NPC Heroes along the way who included me in their own initiatives

I enjoy the multitude of avenues to travel within the game and never felt linear in my game play

I look forward to 2.0 and if it holds a new story I will not find it to be a separate game but rather just another avenue to take in exploring the game world

First of all, the main problem is a few-month release cycle for the leagues which are then cut and added to the main story to remain like this forever (albeit gutted time to time). It prevents these to be upgraded and deepened.

What is the source of Blight fungus? You could have told us already. Instead, all it developed into was blighted maps -- and just stopped there. I'm not talking from a gameplay perspective where some gamedesigners don't understand the basic concepts of tower defence games, but from a storytelling point of view. It's just a dead end.

What mysteries and challenges lurk in the depths of Delve's ancient cities and abandoned shafts? A square-shaped corridor with timed illumination (too short for my liking) with 2 treasure rooms and 6 monster spawners or an occasional (almost nonexistent) boss room. And you've had literally years to tell us it's story -- in fact, all of it's stories if you'd like to do so. Instead, it's still these two rooms. As an example, open The Darkest Dungeon. Try different runs and see that each one is unique. Delve could be so much more -- but it's extremely shallow by rogue-like standards and really lacks content. It could be built into a wonder and a complete alternative to the map gameplay -- but it quickly becomes dull and is bound to maps.

Etc. You've had all the cards -- and you just didn't play them. This is sad.

I'm pretty excited to see how all the leagues might interact with each other in the story come Path of Exile 2. A lot of the leagues have enough lore to earn a chapter 2 or even interact with each other.

I am so thankful you retconned Zana, Shaper and Elder's storyline. The game would've lost something if you hadn't done so.

Well, personally i feel rather sad for the war for the atlas to end before finding the atlas, although it is mostly because the new endgame is pretty underwhelming compared to the old one. Conquerors are just uninteresting characters, the snake dude would be ok if it wasn't for the cringe involved, baran is just another zealot, winged lass is just meh, drox is an idiot and sirus is lore-wise a huge disappointment. He was supposed to be their leader and a menacing threat to the world, and he is... well, "boring and small".

Also, the more we know of what the atlas is, the less interesting it is. It's kind of overdone at this point, also the "it's a memory" when choosing elder/shaper guardians in zana missions is just sad. Can't we have them trapped in the atlas just like the conquerors? Or just let us fight them and not mention it in the story.

I wouldn't mind the new endgame being just replaced and not incorporated into the story.

In case someone is reading this, can we ever have delve-like endless "dungeon" but instead it's cleaning corruption in wraeclast? It could easily have syndycate encounters since cata is trying to restore order under her, and most of the old masters had missions centered around cleaning the corruption, we could even have exiles have to cooperate with the syndycate to help the continent but also trying to crumb their influence (could have consequences if we don't). Could need some resources from the atlas to help with the corruption, like sulphite is needed for delve, although i think we could use an endgame alternative that does not require the atlas (delve could also be that, it's not really that bad to let people delve without maps). Would be nice. That and we could still have old master missions in part 1 (without them going into our hideout) so we can actually be betrayed.

Sure, narratively, you picked a great device for the pseudo-retcon. I agree with you on that.

But Sirus's dialogue makes him feel like an angsty pre-teen, there isn't nearly enough actual buildup to meeting Sirus (there's legitimately no explanation as to why killing the conquerors unlocks Sirus's citadel, unlike the fragments for shaper or the old elder spawning mechanic), and Sirus is still the worst-designed boss in the entire game.