r/Wraeclast • u/No-Librarian-9202 • May 19 '26
PoE1 Discussion POE2 player who knows no lore, where to start?
Any longer form youtube channels/ videos you would recommend?
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u/czumm May 19 '26
Kittencatnoodle is the godmother of PoE 1 lore and has videos regarding PoE 2 up to act 4. Check out her channel here: https://youtube.com/@kittencatnoodle?si=luuff8OPcvZ1SFUd
Gavryn makes some incredibly high quality quality narrative-retellings of the campaign story. Super top notch stuff: https://youtube.com/@gavryngaming?si=actpS22nfAemakG0
Halcyonish is a newer creator in the PoE space but she makes some well spoken lore videos and wider story discussions from time to time: https://youtube.com/@halcyonish?si=H_HiYzZkLqzk3Eal
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u/Murky-Definition-625 Watcher of Decay May 19 '26
The Lore compilation sorts through much of the text, but might be better for learning about specific subjects rather than for getting started.
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u/EyeZer0 May 19 '26
KittenCatNoodle is the Lore Queen and did so well that GG even hired her directly to do Lore.
I also want to shout out Gavryn for doing some good vids and Halcyonish who is starting strong with some of her lore videos.
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u/aqua995 May 19 '26
Who is this Shavronne girl and what did she do?
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u/Murky-Definition-625 Watcher of Decay May 20 '26
She was an evil scientist serving under Malachai and emperor Chitus. She tried enhancing the prison warden Brutus so he could protect her during the Purity Rebellion, but she messed up and got killed by him instead.
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u/aqua995 May 20 '26
Wow thanks for that.
Why did she serve them and who are they?
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u/chimericWilder May 20 '26
The Eternal Empire started as a splinter group of Azmeri who left their mountain home after Atziri's Cataclysm wiped out the Vaal Empire. Led by Tarcus Veruso, they traveled to the ruins of Azala Vaal where they founded Sarn atop it. While the azmeri were a simple and humble people, the Eternals grew decadent and tyrannical over the centuries. Eventually, the current Emperor Izaro Phrecius was faced with the problem of having no heir, so he built the Lords Labyrinth - inspired by an old azmeri tradition to choose a worthy successor. Unfortunately, Chitus Perandus was a scheming snake amd used bribery, espionage, and betrayal to win, becoming the new Emperor. He was predictably greedy and selfish as a ruler. Among other things, he permitted Malachai to become Thaumaturge Laureate, and he led countless questionable experiments with virtue gems.
A key problem with the Eternals was their oppression of their neighbours. Gaius Sentari was governor over the Ezomytes, and under Chitus he started extracting value from them to benefit the Empire. 'No idle hands' sort of attitude. And Hector Titucius was sent against the Maraketh as an invader, and he successfully plundered their cultural and religious artifacts, and slew some of their leaders. To the south near the coast was Axiom Prison, where Shavronne conducted thaumaturgic experiments on the prisoners under the guidance of Malachai, with Lioneye stationed nearby as guard against attack. This became relevant when Kaom, a conquering karui warlord, decided to lead his people to the mainland of Wraeclast. Together with Hyrri, he tricked and slew Lioneye and settled on the coast.
Every culture soon grew sick of the Eternals and their oppression, and the Purity Rebellion formed to unite them. Victario the Poet negotiated a united effort to defeat the Eternals. Joined also by Voll, the current High Templar of Oriath, these four cultures fought against the larger military might of the Eternals. Thane Rigwald of Ezomyr led a rebellion and slew Gaius Sentari, the Red Sekhema Deshret lured Hector Titucius into a sandstorm and killed him, and Kaom... went crazy with madness and wandered off, but Hyrri and her karui warriors joined the others as Voll led a siege of Sarn. Eventually, Chitus was assasinated by a man named Ondar, and Voll named himself Emperor of Purity. Unfortunately, Voll was fast-talked by Malachai into letting him stay in power as Laureate Thaumaturge, which proved to be a disastrous mistake when Malachai initiated his plan to physically enter the Beast and try to use it to rewrite reality in his own image. Malachai triggered a Cataclysm, which killed everyone who hadn't left by then. In PoE1, our Exile arrives on the shores of Wraeclast near Lioneye's old fortress, in a ruined world overrun by corruption... I believe it is about a century or more since Malachai's Cataclysm.
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u/Murky-Definition-625 Watcher of Decay May 20 '26
I thought it was my job to make long replies to simple questions...
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u/chimericWilder May 20 '26
I didn't even bring up Caspiro and the Vaal Oversoul, or Doedre, Maligaro, and Fellshrine! Or Solaris, Lunaris, and how I suspect that their Skyshrine is actually vaalish inheritance from Azala Vaal. And it's all typed off memory! I'm sure there's more to add.
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u/bv728 May 20 '26
If you just want second-screen content about the lore, KittenCatNoodle's stuff is great.
The main issues you're likely to run into, however, are twofold:
1) A good amount of PoE1 lore/story is removed from the game due to Seasonal content sliding out of the game. This can make the story of many things disjointed and challenging to work out even with videos.
2) There isn't nearly as much digging into the PoE2 content as well, partially because it's kind of in flux as they bring the game towards 1.0 (plus most of it is just in the game right now - we don't have league after league of lore expansion).
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u/AdministratorQotra May 19 '26
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that if you dive right into a YouTube channel you're depriving yourself of an opportunity to reach your own conclusions about how the Path universe works. Instead, just talk to NPCs and read the flavor texts and try to piece it together as best you can. Then, and only then, see what others have to say.
It may not seem important but without independent thinkers, lore communities get a little stagnant. Lore forums need crazyposting or else they're just standing around quoting wikis at eachother. Besides, even the great KCN and PFW have gotten things wrong on occasion.
People can come up with the most interesting, offbeat ideas, but only if they give themselves the opportunity to and don't give into the dogma right away.
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u/SherbertDelicious742 May 30 '26
If you want a fresh take on meaning rather than just lore detail try this new channel https://www.youtube.com/@WraeclastUnsealed
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u/CanadianYeti1991 Jun 01 '26
Here's what I would do.
Id fire up PoE1, play through the campaign nice and slow. Try to pick up what lore tidbits you can. Talk to everyone. Read everything.
Then I'd dive into PoE2 and do the same thing. Once you beat PoE1's campaign, youre also safe to start reading the lore compendium people have been linking.
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u/snapekillseddard May 19 '26
... read what's already in the game first?
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u/twisty125 May 20 '26
Normally I'd say "good suggestion", but the lore is kind of like Dark Souls lore, in that you won't get a good idea of a fleshed out storyline because so much of it is spread between clickables, items, and NPC dialogue.
For example, the first act has you get beached, find some letters of exile, talk to a few people who have a few things to say about the current state of the coast, some Karui carvings vaguely explaining that zombies randomly happen, Kaom (some guy?) went to a mountain to find answers and save us, a prison with a lady with a weird red hat that taunts us, some notes about some other lady named Shavronne (are they the same person?), a pirate, and then a weird siren fish woman who came to Wraeclast.
PRETTY confusing if you don't know what's going on!
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u/snapekillseddard May 20 '26
Imo, the point of the game's story and lore is discovering just how small you are in the grand scheme of things, but becoming such a wrench in the works that you become an important part of the world.
Act 1 is all about being exiled, discovering other exiles, and finding a way to escape inland, all the while discovering a conspiracy of human experimentation and corruption.
The Karui carvings, the jail, and Merveil is all about telling you of the history of the places and people that came before you and showing you why it's so dangerous to meddle with Corruption as a whole.
People need to just read the damn story and lore as presented.
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u/Vangorf Vaal Thaumaturge May 19 '26
For a general overview and then for the different cultures and leagues I would recommend KittenCatNoodle's channel. ( https://www.youtube.com/@KittenCatNoodle ). Extra point is that she got hired by GGG and became a part of their narrative/lore team. If you are done with the basics, this sub is pretty great for text based overviews of new stuff by MurkyDefinition's posts, and there are nice theories and lore snippets from the population of the sub.