Laria Lemonte

Laria Lemonte 3D renders.

Laria Lemonte 3D turntable.

Laria Lemonte is a powerful wizard who has unfortunately gone down a dark path.

Laria Lemonte, Maestra Superior en la Universidad de Carphin, era una de las magas más importantes del Imperio Aelan cuando se produjo La Caída. Siguiendo el consejo de un ser desconocido, cometió oscuras y desesperadas acciones en un vano intento de salvar Aela, la capital de Aelan, de la destrucción.

• El sacrificio de sangre de Veric Pulsifer inició un ritual que culminó con la masacre de los residentes de Carphin, convirtiéndolos en no-muertos.

The curse of Carphin was born from blood magic. – Steven Sharif

• La voz misteriosa que la ayudaba e incitaba en su empeño, era de hecho el mismo Antiguo que pervirtió al Rey Atrax desde más allá del Vacío.
• La niebla corrupta que fluía de la torre retrasó a las legiones de Los Antiguos en su avance hacia la capital hasta que construyeron un artefacto que les permitió cruzar el río.

Las Ruinas de Carphin

Las Ruinas de Carphin zone.

Carphin was a large city of the Aelan Empire, which housed the Empire’s most prestigious university. At the university stood a tall tower used by the most prolific mages in their studies of the essence. That tower now serves as an expansive vertical dungeon with lost treasures and antiquities fraught with dangers and terror not for the faint of heart. – Steven Sharif

The Tower of Carphin preview teaser trailer.

Las Ruinas de Carphin es una zona en el bioma de Riverlands.

Carphin was one of the great cities of the Aelan Empire and it's now in ruins. – Jeremy Gess

It was a focus of the mages and study of the Aelan Empire. Carphin was a city that had a great mage population, so it had a university there. And things went bad there in the last days of the fall. They made some desperate measures in a really awesome quest series that Scott's written up. – Jeremy Gess

The story behind the tower at Carpin is that it is actually a part of the University complex that was initially brought to the Aela humans by the Pyrian elves; and they helped establish and taught the humans how to master The Essence and how to master magic; and this was one of the great universities of the Aelan Empire, so a lot of the experience and encounters there are going to be arcane in nature. They're going to be representative of that Essence magic and it's going to have some powerful foes. – Steven Sharif

First floor - The Arcanium

Bridge over the river near the Wreckage of Carphin in Alpha-2.

The Tower of Carphin actually rests upon a river... The Tower of Carphin event actually trickled out through the Riverlands because of the rivers; and the Undead began to form around these rivers, but you'll learn more about that during the story arc. – Steven Sharif

Living statues. 3D model by Eli Hurst.

We are about to reveal the first two lore tidbits. Now this is reflective of what the point of interest shall have, called the Wreckage of Carphin in Alpha two. You might even see some of this in a little while.

First of all, the first piece of lore. During the Apocalypse, the tower you saw before you and that the party is about to enter was known as the Mage's Tower at the University of Carphin. Home to the Head Mistress and Dean of the University of Carphin, Laria Lemonte.

Laria Lemonte was a powerful mage. Well, actually, as you enter the tower, the wailing you heard on the night sky, just the previous evening returns, but is whimpered to a degree and only encompasses now the tower. But you hear these wailing moans coming from above.

During your transit here to the Wreckage of Carphin, you observed the rivers as being impassable; except of course by bridge. The reason for this is the fires that you saw- these magical fires that were encompassing the entirety of the river. In addition, you saw burned bodies devoured by the blazing water. You also saw as you exited the Underrealm some of these bodies moved as dark figures shambling in the distance: their burned corpses still moving even beneath the water and crawling ashore with violent intents. This you can only assume after having recovered from the Lich's body a number of notes detailing what the Dean was attempting to accomplish at the tower.

Laria Lemonte, one of the most important mages that the Aelan Empire had at the time, being the Head Mistress at Carphin. She was attempting to cast a spell that would buy time for the capital. And that in the process of that attempt, the letters read that she requires a willing participant. Someone by the name of Veric Pulsifer volunteered his essence to expend in the ritual as a blood sacrifice. Only the most desperate of acts that would be undertaken in the last moments of time escaped them. And as the legions in the letters detailed walked past the tower, Laria Lemonte decided to do a desperate act and listen to advice from an unknown origin that she was able to communicate with. Taking that risk unfortunately proved fateful, because what came to be was the despair you see now at Carphin, the root of which you have yet to discover.

As you walk into the interior of level one, you discover the Arcanium. It is shaped as a large library. The large library with a grand hall running throughout. Its spiral staircases lead up to floor two. This ornate space was devoted to research and magical exhibits, however, now are which in disrepair. The walls house alcoves, which contain various sizes of statues. Stone bookcases, pedestals, and benches dot the grounds. By the way, this is all accurate visually as I'm describing to what the actual point-of-interest in Alpha 2 contains. Pedestals and benches dot the grounds. Blood pools along the floor, appearing to emanate from the floors above, trickling down the walls along the interior and exterior of the wreckage.

You see, before entering, a large, explosive, and destructive event has occurred near the top of the tower. You don't know what and cannot tell from this distance. As you navigate into the first level, you discover a number of animated statues missing from their alcoves. They assault the party.

Second floor - The Administratae

As you advance further, you discover that the second floor, known as the Administratae, has various private offices where wizards and professors could work on their studies in peace. A large lounge area is on the floor for wizards to have meetings and take breaks. Historical archives are magically stored here as well as the paperwork containing a number of topics on all sorts of things, such as history of the local area, and wizardly research papers on various topics and studies within the essence. There is also the entryway to an arcane elevator, which rises up through the rest of the levels in the tower. It rests at the center of the second level. A number of flying arcane books come out of the bookcases and mimics attack your party. Mimics of all sorts from laboratory equipment to study materials.

Third floor - The Crystal Halls

As you ride the arcane elevator to the third floor you do not exit because you must make haste to the top. But you see out from the elevator a collection of viewing galleries, remarkably well preserved. Older construct models and previous foundational magical theories are presented here in a format reminiscent of a museum. Meant to impress would-be magical students, patrons, foreign dignitaries: the advanced crystals architectures and lavish decorations are on display.

Fourth floor - The Sacrificial Chamber

Undead mobs near the Wreckage of Carphin in Alpha-2.

These particular undead are a result I believe- for those of you who are watching the livestream of the Wreckage of Carphin- the event that occurred there just before the Exodus from Verra all those years ago. – Steven Sharif

Okay, third piece of lore. Unknown, Laria and Varric during their ritual in desperation to grant more time to the capital, as was requested by the council and the royal family both, they performed an unknown repercussions from this ritual. The mass killing of so many burned victims from the explosion of the ritual caused a corruption to grip both Laria and Varric. This corrupt mist began flowing down from the tower, its source unknown to you just yet. But its effects have turned the residents of Carphin undead. And in the surrounding areas and along the river's edge. It did, however, have the effect caused the Ancients the inability to cross the waters. And so they began to construct an apparatus of their own to get their legions across to the capital. But this bought the time necessary, you would assume. These levels open up; and at the fourth floor, you see halls reserved for only the most private of wizards. These artisans use these halls as research labs and also a construct boundary. Built to be deliberately secure and private, the winding halls lead into an open experiment room where mages would tinker with ways of improving construct through more unethical means. A number of them have been left unattended, but you are able to sneak around them to reach the Nexus Gate.

This floor contains a large summoning and sacrifice room. The mages here originally used it as a teleport nexus, but as the world fell into ruin, this was transformed into a sacrificial chamber. The small quarantine and customs rooms changed into jailing cells as the mages over recent weeks turned to more desperate rituals to deal with the collapse of Verra. Compromising their ethics and their conscience, they perform forms of magic none should ever see: Long forbidden, long forgotten, only to the Ancients was this known. And it turns out the unknown voice from which was aiding and abetting her pursuits, was indeed an ancient: one familiar with this world, one who treated with a member of the world- With a member of your kind in the past, known as Atrax, the one beyond the void who was giving Laria the information she needed to perform the ritual she did had ulterior motives. Its effects now seen on the grounds around the tower as undead roam the countryside.

Fifth floor - The Observatory

Orrery concept art by Ryan Richmond.

The top of the elevator resides in the center of the room as you exit. The explosion that occurred has rendered the remainder of these stairs- the elevator may go no further- the remainder of these stairs are narrow and in disarray.

This floor is used to channel what appears to be large amounts of Essence from the summoning room directly- that's the sacrificial area. The orrery acts as both a container and map to focus summoning rituals of the Nexus on the floor below. The spiral staircase you see now that lies in disarray winds up the open chamber, occasionally giving way to platforms, now partially collapsed and in disrepair. The floor directly above this is an observatory: The observation level. It has large open view areas and a lounge that according to the maps that you've received. However, it appears from the outside that this area has now been exposed to the exterior, as large portions of the wall have been deconstructed, destroyed. Wizards would likely gather here to discuss the state of the world and to perform their auguries as well as their scrys. The area is filled with the red mist that emanates from the floor even above that. You hear, as you ascend these stairs, footsteps: large, deep, coming from the floor. As what is known as the Eye of Ayla at the top. According to your understanding, this was the roof of the tower. It acted as a conduit for magic to amplify their spell effects across the land. Here is where you assume according to the letters retrieved off the body of the Lich, the right-hand man of Lamont, that the sacrificial altar for the most powerful blood magic ever to be seen on the face of Verra up to this day was done just a few days earlier. The footsteps continue. What do you do? And those are the lore reveals

Leer más...

Los Antiguos

A Lieutenant of Los Antiguos 3D render.

This is one of the lieutenants that exists of the Ancients; and you can see they have an almost alien look to them and that is because they have deviated over such a long period of time from their original creation, which looked something very very different: more akin to the Elven and Human races that we have now. But over time through their manipulation of the Essence and the corruption that has ensued within their race, they have taken the form that you can see. – Steven Sharif

Suffering Wanderer 3D render.

You're going to see really a dark, more insidious creature that's present as the primary antagonist within the storyline of Ashes of Creation. You know they don't have the typical physical attributes you come to expect from a bipedal species like eyes and a mouth, but more something alien- that exists something that is just not natural in its appearance. – Steven Sharif

Los Antiguos (las creaciones originales de Los diez dioses) y Los Otros (los dioses desterrados) son los principales antagonistas dentro del lore; son los que profanaron y pervirtieron toda la creación

• Los Antiguos aprendieron de Los Otros como usar La Esencia para lograr la inmortalidad. Esta era una forma pura de inmortalidad, más parecida a la divinidad que existe entre el Panteon. Esta inmortalidad les prohibía abarcar la "no-muerte" tal y como hizo el Rey Atrax.

• Los Antiguos estaban imbuídos con todos los rasgos de los Dioses, mientras que las cuatro razas de Verra tenían esos atributos repartidos entre ellas.

If the Verran races were combined they’d be the ancients. – Steven Sharif

• El Rey Atrax , sin saberlo, alertó a los Antiguos sobre la ubicación de Verra en sus esfuerzos por descubrir y explotar La Esencia.

• Los Antiguos llegaron a Verra a través de Los Heraldos, que son cuerpos celestes similares a los cometas, alimentados por una fuente de magia muy poderosa que actúa básicamente como un puente entre El Vacío y el Plano Material donde existe Verra.

You're going to see lieutenants, captains, generals, and raid bosses and they're all going to take different forms because their whole perversion of Essence through the corruption is to take creation on the material realm, that the Pantheon of good Gods did, and twist and bend it to the corruption that exists within the Essence, because they view that as a more powerful form, a more raw and arcane form of what magic is meant to be used for. There's no point in these false constructs of morality when utilizing and harnessing the power that comes from the Essence. That is a social construct that was created by inferior gods, according to the Others; and it limits the ability of their creation to really capitalize on what the Essence is to be used for in its pure, innate nature. – Steven Sharif

• La raza de Los Antiguos ha sido pensada con formas tan variadas porque La Esencia tiene un profundo efecto biológico, físico y visual en la apariencia de las criaturas que la manipulan y que son corrompidas por ella.
  • Los Grunts son los peones o soldados rasos de las líneas del frente que están específicamente equipados para el combate, la utilización de la magia, o para entornos o climas específicos.
  • Los tenientes tienes una fisionomía alada y más asimétricos.
  • Capitanes y generales son rangos en el sistema de castas.
  • Los grandes jefes de raid y/o los jefes de mundo tienen una apariencia monolítica, y no se parecen a las criaturas normales. Son enormes e imponentes.

The gods... wanted to represent their qualities, their characteristics, their attributes within creation with the creation of something, so they started with a race that are now known as The Ancients; and they imbued them with all of their qualities. Essentially now that that turned out to be a mistake because with those types of qualities all in one species there was a a pride that happened- a desire to become more; and that led a little bit of conflict between the Ancients; and actually there was a partition created between some of the gods within the pantheon that embraced the idea of introducing the Ancients as part of essentially their plane of existence and teaching them the ways of the Essence, in all of its facets: not just what can be used for good, but also what could be used for evil as well. And three of the gods split off and went against the quorum that was established about not interfering with the Ancients after they started this down this road of learning more of the essence and how to manipulate it; and these three gods are known as The Others. So the others really embraced teaching the Ancients knowledge of the essence that they had learned through their eternal existence; and this caused a celestial battle to occur; and the pantheon of the Seven were able to defeat the others; and they banished the Ancients and the Others from the material plane and from the plane of the gods to the void which is the furthest from being connected to the essence. – Steven Sharif

El rey Atrax

Esta traducción puede estar desactualizada.

A staff of the Ancients 3D render.

A glorious staff of the Ancients that we revealed during November's development update!

The last ruling house of the Toren empire, which oversaw its downfall was the house of Atrax. King Atrax was actually its longest ruler, also its last ruler, and he was a very powerful and advanced wizard for his time. He dedicated the vast majority of his early rule to seeking out artifacts, knowledge, the focal points of essence; and he discovered its purpose as it becomes the manipulating matter behind exploiting magic for any means. He became obsessed with the pursuit of that knowledge as a very accomplished wizard and one of the ways he pursued that ever-longing learning was to try and achieve immortality; and in his pursuit of immortality he discovered that manipulating the life-force of a soul essentially is to greater increase your ability to focus the essence, because each person's soul acts as, in some way shape or form, a conduit of the essence across the plains. So that's essentially how the gods are capable of reaching into the material plane- one of the ways- is through the souls of their divine beings, which are the four great races and their descendants. In his pursuit of immortality he came across some more dark applications of the essence and in doing so- discovering these artifacts along the ley lines that are in Verra- he came into contact with forces that existed outside of the material plane in the void itself. Now these were unbeknownst to him The Ancients as well The Others and manipulating that contact. – Steven Sharif

King Atrax began to manipulate the essence in a way that was trying to capitalize on everlasting life, on immortality. So in doing so he came into contact with the ancients; and the Ancients took advantage of this- was their first contact with any of the divine races actually- and this is what led the Ancients to begin their pursuit of Verra: to start that process of the Harbingers eventually finding Verra and coming to the planet to pervert what the gods- the seven gods- had created through their second creation. Now the Ancients created this contact with Atrax through summoning rituals that Atrax had learned through manipulating the essence; and it was through these contact rituals that Atrax learned how to achieve immortality. But the Ancients were deceptive in actually not informing Atrax how this would deform his conduit, his soul essentially that exists with the Essence. So he underwent a process of essentially lichdom where he was the first lich and the first undead on Verra; and it was from him and his pursuit of immortality that undeath became a reality on Verra; and it was his subjects that suffered as a result of his desire to become immortal. So he began different rituals on his subjects, which allowed the undeath to propagate across the world in his population over time. So he would- before he became a lich he experimented on his citizens; and that's what really was the origin of the undead and this undead the Ancients- one of the unique things about the Ancients was in their first discovery of how they could use the Essence and what the Others taught them was they became immortal themselves. But they became immortal in a more pure form, essentially akin to the godhood that exists among the Pantheon; and that prohibited them from encompassing this undeath component. But they did not teach that to King Atrax. So that talks a little bit about the origins of the undeath on Verra and undeath in general. – Steven Sharif

El rey Atrax fue el último y más longevo regente del antiguo imperio Toren, que fue de una de las primeras y más grandes civilizaciones de Verra

• El rey Atrax fue un poderoso mago, adelantado a su época, que dedicó la mayor parte de su gobierno en buscar artefactos, conocimiento y las bases de La Esencia. Descubrió su propósito, manipular la materia y explotar la magia por cualquier medio.
• Su objetivo era alcanzar la inmortalidad; y en esta búsqueda descubrió que manipular la fuerza vital de un alma, aumenta la capacidad de concentrar La Esencia, ya que el alma de cada persona actúa como una ruta de la misma a través de los planos de existencia.
• En su búsqueda de la inmortalidad se encontró con otras aplicaciones oscuras para La Esencia, y al hacerlo, entró en contacto con fuerzas que existían fuera del plano material: en El Vacío. Estos eran Los Antiguos y Los otros, y sin que él lo supiera comenzaron a manipular ese contacto a través de rituales de invocación que el propio Atrax había aprendido en sus estudios de La Esencia.
  • Esta conexión llevó a Los Antiguos a comenzar su búsqueda de Verra, lo que propició que Los Heraldos encontraran Verra y llegar al planeta, pervirtiendo lo que Los Siete dioses habían creado(en su segunda creación).
• A través de sus rituales de invocación, Atrax finalmente aprendió como conseguir la inmortalidad. Pero fue un engaño de los Antiguos, al no informarle sobre como esto deformaría su alma en la propia Esencia. Atrax, eventualmente, se sometió a un proceso para convertirse en el primer Lich y por lo tanto el primer no-muerto de Verra.
  • Fue a partir de esta búsqueda de la inmortalidad que los no-muertos se convirtieron en una realidad en Verra: Atrax había iniciado diferentes rituales en sus súbditos, lo que permitió que los no-muertos es propagaran por todo el mundo, causando sufrimiento entre todos sus súbditos.
  • Los Antiguos habían aprendido de Los otros como usar La Esencia para lograr la inmortalidad para ellos mismos. A diferencia de Atrax, se volvieron inmortales de una forma más pura, más parecida a la divinidad existente en el Panteón, los cuales tenían prohibido jugar con la "no-muerte". Esta forma pura de inmortalidad no se le enseñó a Atrax.
• Después de que Atrax dominara su forma de Lich, continuó esclavizando a sus súbditos no-muertos, obligándolos a adquirir artefactos antiguos por todo el mundo para poder continuar con su manipulación de La esencia y de la magia.
  • Estos artefactos fueron alojados en la cámara de Fallow's Hold, que es una de las grandes mazmorras de Ashes of Creation, ubicada cerca de la capital del antiguo imperio Toren, Torall.

Ver además

• Las Ruinas de Carphin
• Los Antiguos
• Riverlands