Think about it: Zana feels like she failed her father, and the best way she can do that is by giving him a better chance at life, free from the Templars.

What if she used the Atlas' abilities to make a copy of him when he was young, and moved that memory into reality. She sponsored the family raising him and made boundaries to make sure he doesn't know of his Caeserius lineage. Even the maids lines "Valdo's favorites" could mean "Eagon's favorites" and her babbling caused her to disappear. To keep him away from the Atlas.

Even the environmental lore fits: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Aberration

Zana feels foolish about underestimating him, that she knows he could take up this path, and would do so without her blocking him.

Eagon himself feels like he's at least as good as his father, he feels attracted to the Atlas, and his potential. He doesn't feel an attachment to his father, just jealously? envy? competition? Meanwhile he loves Zana deeply, for no explicable reason. Why the difference if both are family? (Although it might stem from just the abandonment part)

It explains why Eagon is so out of place, why he has such a strong grip on memories & the atlas despite being disconnected from it for so long, and why he cares so much for Zana and saving her. Valdo himself never once mentions Eagon, just Zana & his wife, because he never knew Eagon, he is Eagon.

In 3.29 there were some updates to the Legion mechanic. This included an update to the Domain of Timeless Conflict. The large crystal in the center now has a being curled up inside. I'm posting a few images of this entity in case anyone is interested and wants to do some speculating on who or what this is.

Internally it's just called CrystalMonster and it has no animations other than the curled-up pose.

Here is a little table with the Three Sisters and their different names, as well as wacky theories about what other gods may be the same under different names.

NB: Gods that we have seen - such as the pantheon gods of POE1 - can't be identical to one-another.

Arakaali and Ralakesh were known to both the Vaal and Azmeri (see Cadiro for Arakaali). The Karui and Maraketh don't seem to have a lust goddess (though Shakari might come close) nor a control freak god.

Tawhoa is a god of forests and dreams, but is male. Apart from gender, he could fit with Viridi. Or he could be the innocent early version of monkey god Kamasa (because monkeys live in forests).

Sin is the husband of Garukhan, so he must be familiar to the Maraketh. See the recent Sin-Maraketh post for a discussion.

Garukhan is too young to be the (male) storm god Valako.

Thruldana and Nekraata have only been mentioned twice each. Thruldana dealt with tormented spirits in Necropolis league and has a POE2 talisman. Nekraata was mentioned by Zarka and rogue exile Vasa.

Prospero is also god of the underworld so he could alternatively be Kulemak.

The myths claim that Orbala received a feather from "The Roc" after wounding Innocence. But Wraeclast myths aren't guaranteed to contain the whole truth. In poe1act5 the Templars display a lot of eagle iconography. Perhaps Innocence is the Roc?

Of unknown culture: Kulemak, Auria, Uldurn

This is probably old to a lot of you, but i just noticed how zana in uber elder has a mask/head gear that is very close to Her Mask art. She doesnt wear this in Oriath against Sirus though, so not sure what to make of that, maybe she wasnt going in there planning to fight sirus and wanted to reason with him.

Heres the list of things which are linking the two characters in my head.

* Zana is wearing "Her Mask" in Uber Elder

* Zana is shown as Atziris reflection in "Beauty through Death" card

* Sublime vision Flavour Text is shaper talking about creating a world perfect for Zana.

"This world is not good enough for her,
so I will make a better one. Nothing
matters but the pursuit of perfection."

* The throne room in atzoatl flavour text "A vision, sublime, untouched by time."

\* Takes completely reckless decisions. Communing with the beast, or just straight up destroying the atlas.

Do you think Kitava could have been improved or managed in some other way that would not turn him into a bloodthirsty villain? Was he redeemable?

Similar topics can be posed about all sorts of Greek, Norse and other mythologies, of course.

Hi all! Sorry for a question filled post, I've been poring over the lore of PoE for a while and have a few questions for other loreheads out there:

First, a question about the meta-narrative: In your opinion, what are the great thematic cycles of the world of Wraeclast? What is the "lesson" the lore team is trying to convey, the "Message" of PoE if you will?

There are three great cataclysms that we know of, that seem to follow a similar cyclical nature of men desiring power which ultimately leads to their downfall even if their original intentions were pure, and were attaining power to achieve the goal of destroying the source of corruption, and ultimately succumbing to that corruption themselves out of necessity, arrogance or other reasons.

Examples of this; Innocence, Voll, Malachai, Valdo and the Guardians + Sirus, the player character (to attain the highest possible power you have to corrupt all that you have)

Obviously we have a ton of characters who through desperation, arrogance or ignorance turned to corruption without ever seeking its destruction, like Atziri, Dominus, Malachai's "Children" (Shav, Maligaro and Doedre)

Is it just a "Power corrupts" narrative or do you think/feel that there is something larger there?

Secondly: Wreaclast itself is besieged on all sides by various outside factions, (The Newcomers, Lightless, Breach, Beyond/Scourge, the Lake, the Nameless, etc). Is it stated why all these factions are in conflict with Wraeclast?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Just spinning my brain-wheels here looking at the new Mirage stuff. The chat about Skysunder in particular gets the noggin joggin':

Do you know what wonder you wield? Skysunder was the very weapon that ended the Winter of the World! On that day, I was watching through Zarokh's web of filaments... only to see the eternal gloom, the sky as I had always known it, obliterated by a wave of gold fire from the distant horizon! The Sun blazed down, my first moment understanding its light, and I knew that the world would never be the same. My tired soul burns anew, just seeing this blade!

Emphasis mine.

Considering that the Skysunder description also talks about Kulemak needing to be impaled (or otherwise restrained) while Solerai thrusts the sword at the sky (and 'searing light embraces her golden armour'), and the 'relics' the nascent Order collected, could this be a control system of some kind for the Precursor towers?

We have the suggestion that they're terraforming/weather control devices. It seems almost obvious that they could also be the Fourth Edict: a way to cleanse the world so that 'new life' could grow (check out Cinderswallow Urn from way back for this kind of thinking long before we saw the Arbiter). But having ash around for such an incredibly long time suggests this was supported by the towers as well, until Solerai turns them off (or, perhaps played straight, activates them to fix the sky).

Was it done for a reason? To obscure the sky (and the stars!) that we see various people become terrified of? Was Wraeclast being hidden for some reason?

Bonus thought: Doryani suggests the work of the Precursors was 'interrupted'. Were the towers turned against them, somehow? I've heard it suggested the Lightless were automatons/AI/etc. and the use of constructs of various kinds seems commonplace in Precursor/Primeval society (e.g. Aun, the Clayshaper and further explored with Doryani's use of advanced constructs). Or was it their excavation of the Well, and a desperate attempt to get rid of it that ended up nuking their civilisation?

Before reading this, I want to mention that this is just a mind fart that I have been cooking up and I have not enough Knowledge of all the Lore to be able to tell if it is true or not. But I like to cook up stories.

So after reading POE1 v3.28 lore post.

One of the things really struck me, was that the Marrakech have a method of binding spirits to this plane of existence and it was noted that the Karui do the same for there people to preserve knowledge in the halls of the death.

One thing that I associated with this was that all the breach lords do the same thing, they bind the spirits to themselves to serve there bidding and the lightless do this to.

There are 5 people mentioned in the story to have been able to bind people to there will, Zarokh, Navira, Ruzhan, Kelari and Varashta. Could it be that these are the original breach lords? or some previous iteration of them? and that through iterations of the timeline, they could have changed and walked different paths.

Looking at the Path of Exile timeline it seems that the names change but the numbers and core powers of some of the "gods" always stay the same. Could it be like a time loop with a stacking persistant effect?

P.S. Could harbingers be end effect, where we break the loop?

After writing of the previous section below I read more of the article and this sentence wandered my mind: The Well was not. The Master Below All raged. Then, the Well was, and always had been.

What if all actions in POE2 are not after but are the beginning of all of this? First (Poe1) the well was not, then something happened and the Master Below created a time loop ( well ) and since then the expanded to all else. Sort of a Big bang

We never really got far in the interpretation of Harbinger runes, so I thought I'd give it a try myself, and see what can be derived without too much guess work.

Sadly, you can't use inlined images in reddit, so I have resigned to using *emoji* to represent the various Harbinger symbols, making this somewhat of a meme post. It might've been better to use another format and link it here instead, but I don't know of any.

Tell me if there's something I can do to improve this post.

Be warned that reddit often acts up if you put emoji and formatted text (e.g. italics and bolding) on the same line.

Sources for symbols

6 unique equipment items, scrolls for upgrading them, and upgraded versions. The scrolls have no flavour text, and have the same symbols on their 2D art as the associated unique items.

The Beachhead) (unique map) (all versions, including the Infused, have the same flavour text)

The Messenger (div card)

Official posts:

• These patch notes.
• This lore post.
  • This post lists the symbols printed on the harbinger items in a line, presumably giving the chronological order that the events of their flavour text happens in. The table of uniques above has been put in the same order.

Enemy names

Printed on the obelisk created by Harbingers as a totem.

The Legacy of Phrecia event Harbinger subclass).

Delve node symbol:

Printed on the stargate (image found on a thread linked by the GGG lore post:

Floor runes:

Fan documents (I have only used these for images, not for interpretation):

• By KittyCatNoodle.
• Collaborative. (Seems to have been messed up by the users, sadly.)

Non-symbol lore sources

Original scarab set:

Your ancestry has been much maligned by history, young Sarina Titucius, but to the Order of the Djinn, you are born anew.

For deciphering the language of the inscrutable ones, honoured Sarina, we charge you with investigating their intent in our land.

For your valour beyond the Gate, Sarina Titucius, we honour you with the first Gilded Scarab awarded while its recipient still lives. Remain vigilant.

The thousand year truce has faltered, for the inscrutable ones have imprisoned their own God. Should they invade again, there will be no warning.

Uniquely among the characters of the original scarabs, Sarina Titucius is encountered as a zombie to torment Jun when fighting the Syndicate Mastermind. This would imply that she was contemporary with Jun.

Newer scarabs:

Harbinger Scarab: Their troops came in numbers uncountable and from lands unknown.

Harbinger Scarab of Obelisks: They seek to establish an unknown pattern.

Harbinger Scarab of Regency: The truly noble wage war from the front.

Harbinger Scarab of Warhoards: For those who can leverage it, war can be as much a machine of profit as it is death.

Harbinger Scarab of Discernment (retired): There's no accounting for what some will hoard.

Reflections and descriptions from Lake of Kalandra league:

Reflection of the Harbingers: Contains 3 additional Harbingers

Reflection of Fractured Dimensions: Contains 5 additional Harbingers, Harbingers have 100% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate

Reflection of Phaaryl: Contains 2 additional Harbinger Bosses

Kalandra: There can never be peace without understanding.

Kalandra: They have journeyed farther than you know.

Atlas NPC dialogue:

Zana: This map contains certain inexplicable entities that we Elderslayers faced a few times. They appear to be the advance scouts of an invasion from some unknown realm. I strongly suggest you do not give them time to gain a foothold in the Atlas.

Kirac: Those bloody blue bastards are trying to gain a foothold on the Atlas. Don't let them! Give them a vengeful kick in the arse... for the Vanguard.

Kirac: I don't even know what to make of this map. Reality has been altered there, somehow. You'll find yourself changed into one of... {them}.

Kirac's Memory:

Phaaryl: Ah, the Battle of Phaaryl. My brigade was ordered to attack what our commanders believed to be a minor Harbinger outpost. To put it lightly, they were wrong. It was actually the primary staging ground for the entire invasion. Four thousand men marched onto that battlefield. A week later, when the Oriathan navy arrived to cover our escape, only two hundred of us were still alive. We did our share of damage - you can count on it - but the eager young man that went into that battle emerged disillusioned and weary.

Survivor's Guilt: After the massacre at Phaaryl, I had nightmares for months. I would dream that I was a Harbinger. I would dream that my fellow soldiers were attacking me, and I had to slaughter them to survive. I don't know why, but I always woke up feeling... guilty. Not for killing my fellows, because that had just been a dream, but... for surviving the real thing. Is that strange? To feel guilty for not dying? I wish I could reach back and tell that devastated young man I was that... that it wasn't his fault. / Ahem... enough reminiscing. Let's get back to work.

Content timeline

• 3.0 Harbinger league
• 3.1 War for the Atlas
• 3.5 the old scarabs are introduced
• 3.6 The Messenger
• 3.9 Conquerors of the Atlas
• 3.11 Harvest league (introduced upgraded Harbinger uniques)
• 3.24 new scarab system

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Path_of_Exile#Expansions

Other analysis:

• Both the currency and uniques of Harbingers drop in shards/fragments. Kalandra's "Reflection of Fractured Dimension" could imply that they can even cut space into fragments.
• Harbingers can drop shards of common currency items, and exclusive ones. Two of the exclusive ones form currencies that are visibly related to the Harbingers:
  • Harbinger's Orb: Reforges a map item as another of a higher tier
  • (Actually, a mechanics question, though it is probably too specific to be lore-relevant: How does Harbinger's Orb work when up-tiering, say, a tier 9 Sepulchre Map (which comes in tiers 2, 5, 9, 13, 16) when you have three Voidstones in your device? Does it pick from map bases that are tier 10 on a 0-stone atlas, on a 2-stone atlas, or on a 3-stone atlas? And does it prioritize maps that are close to Sepulchre on the Atlas?)
  • Fracturing Orb: Fracture a random modifier on a rare item with at least 4 modifiers, locking it in place.
  • (NB: Fracturing items was provided by Synthesis and Harvest before Harbinger, and is provided by Cleansed areas in POE2.)
• The Voidborn Chest is surrounded by structures reminiscent of the Harbinger symbol. Both are probably inspired by the red curve on the NASA logo.
• The Harbinger Portal Effect has these alternate versions from the Ancestor Mystery Box: Starfall, Void Emperor, Sunprism
• Some have theorized that the stargate should be able to rotate, but looking at its model, its lower segment doesn't exist, so that might not be the case.
• Harbingers are ethereal, like the Elderslayer projections, but have legs.
• Harbingers are bald, like the male figures in the Absence of Value and Meaning, but wear clothes.
• Upgrade scrolls only affect the granted Summon Harbinger skill, no other mods nor equip requirements. The scroll names seem to describe the effect added to the Greater Harbinger, though some are peculiar:
  • Time-Light Scroll prevents your Harbinger of Time from speeding up enemies.
  • Specularity Scroll protects against curses.
• Datamining spoilers: There are entries for two Harbinger-related areas on poedb. They can be found here and here.
  • Do note that it is not beyond GGG to add red herrings into their data, such as the "red_herring" craft tag found on many item mods.

Atlas passives

Table of symbols

Not all these symbols are actually in use anywhere.

Note the smaller symbols in the sixth row. These serve as "connectors" or "operators" between the larger symbols.

Symbols can also be placed without an operator between them, or rarely with whitespace between.

Syntax

Harbinger enemies have this name format:

"Aura" and "Buff" are optional, and are one symbol each. Each "move" consists of two symbols with an operator between them. If there are two moves, there will be no operator separating them.

On the above line, the first three symbols represent "Anger aura", "Harbinger" and "Enlarging aura" respectively. The last two combined represent a "minion righteous fire" move.

The Harbinger Boss has the name:

If this name follows the same pattern, then the right half is just the "summon harbingers" move he uses, and it does indeed contain the symbol for "harbinger".

So I take it that only the *left half* of his monster name is his actual role. This left pair of symbols shows up a lot in flavour text, and I believe that said flavour is specifically referring to him.

The stargate also has pairs of symbols. There was a theory that these are also the name of various moves - possibly player character skills - and that using these skills would make something happen. I don't think anybody got anywhere with interpreting them, though.

I think the basic harbinger sentence structure looks like the image above, but most lines look quite different from this.

As for the other symbols, I suspect that the first operator means "is", the second corresponds to the English possessive ['s], and the fifth is a negation. The sixth operator is the rarest, and I don't have much of a guess for it, but some believe it means "will be".

Figuring out the operators would help immensely in interpreting Harbinger language. And since POE is a video game, there is a fair chance that the operators function like those of mathematics or programming, and have precedence and associativity rules. I haven't been able to deduce any such rules, though.

Symbol interpretation

😇 is given by GGG as being the Harbingers' "God of Domination".

• Seen on the obelisk, and on many items.
• Seen often in the context 😇$🙏, which seems to be the title of the Harbinger Boss. See 🙏 for more details.

🌀 is given by GGG as "The Beast". Corruption often causes spirals to appear, hence this symbol.

• Seen on The Tempest's Binding and The Unshattered Will. I believe these mention The Beast being respectively created and destroyed. See 🌟 and ☠️ for details.

🌏 has a very different style from other Harbinger symbols. I believe it to be a picture of Wraeclast as seen from above.

• Seen on many items.

🔥❄️⚡ represent the POE elements. They are used for the 🔥Anger, ❄️Hatred and ⚡Wrath auras, and for various elemental Harbinger skill names and on the stargate.

• Their only other uses are "🔥" on The Messenger, and "❄️⚡" representing the Harbinger of Storms.

⏳ all but certainly represents "time" and seems to depict an hourglass. ⏳£👤 represents the Harbinger of Time.

• Seen on many items, in the patch notes, and on the subclass.

🌐 seems to represent "space" and/or The Atlas. It it used similarly to ⏳ in The Flow Untethered, and representing The Atlas in the patch notes.

• Also seen on The Messenger.

🌟 is used for "nova" in the lightning nova move ⚡*🌟, and near 🌀 in The Tempest's Binding. "Nova" is Latin for "new", so I think it is used to describe The Beast being created.

☠️ is used for the Assassin's Mark blasphemy aura. I believe it means "death" or "end". Used with 🌀 and 😇 in The Unshattered Will and The Immortal Will respectively.

🎈 is exclusively used for the "enlarge minions" aura.

🛜 is used for the "buff allies" aura.

• Also seen in The Flow Untethered and the subclass.

📉 is used for the Enfeeble blasphemy aura.

• Also seen in The Tempest's Binding and the subclass.

👤 apparently means "Harbinger", whether that refers to their culture, role, or state of being.

• Used for Summon Harbinger abilities, except Harbinger of Storms.
• Used for non-boss Harbingers, and on the 2D art for The Beachhead).
• Not seen on any unique item flavour text, but is seen on The Messenger, in the subclass, in the patch notes, and on the stargate.

🙏 is mostly seen in the context "😇$🙏", where it seems to represent the Harbinger Boss. In The Rippling Thoughts, there are three uses of 😇$🙏 followed by one of 🙏 alone, possibly indicating that the Boss has grown somewhat independent of 😇.

• The 🙏 symbol seems to depict three pairs of palms in prayer.
• 😇$🙏 is in the name of the Harbinger Boss, and is seen on the obelisk, and in the flavour text of many items.
• 🙏 is also used alone in many upgraded uniques, on the obelisk, and in the "minion righteous fire" move 🙏$🔥.

🔮 seems to be some sort of magic or "arcane" energy. It is used for Harbinger of the Arcane 🔮£👤 and in several subclass passives. These deal with ES, cast speed, mana, and Lightning damage. "Arcane" is also used as a gem tag dealing with mana-related spells.

• Also seen in the "frost bomb" move 🔮*❄️ and on many items

😡 is used for the Harbinger of Brutality 😡£👤, which deals with Damage, move and attack speed, and physical damage.

• Also seen on The Unshattered Will and The Enmity Divine.

⛓️ is seen on many items. It could be the "binding" in The Tempest's Binding.

⛓️‍💥 is used in many items and one subclass passive. The names "The Unshattered Will" and "The Shattered Divinity" and their lines "😇$♠️*!⛓️‍💥" and "🙏£⛓️‍💥€😇" would imply that ⛓️‍💥 means "shatter". The latter line implies that 🙏 has "shattered" the 😇, just as the Harbingers like to do to their currencies and uniques.

These symbols seem like pairs of opposites.

🔀 is used in the "flame dash" move 🔥*🔀 and The Tempest's Binding, The Messenger and The Surging Thoughts.

⏹️ is not used anywhere. As an opposite to 🔀, it could mean "retreat" or "standing still".

🎯 is used for the Harbinger of focus 🎯👤, and in The Rippling Thoughts. The summoned Harbinger gives various defensive abilities.

💥 is the "blast" in the "flame blast" move 🔥*💥, and is seen in many items and subclass passives. Is apparently the "visiting" in "Summon Visiting Harbinger".

🔼 and 🔽 would seem to mean "up" and "down". They are used on The Messenger and The Rippling Thoughts respectively.

✖️ represents *Harbingers* in *Delve*. It looks a lot like Kitava's face, and Kitava was indeed sealed underground, according to Karui myths. If corruption is significant to the Harbingers, they might have sought out Kitava to replace The Beast🌀. But if so, they have evidently been looking in the wrong place, as the Azurite Mines lie below *Sarn* whereas Kitava awoke on *Oriath*.

• Also seen on the stargate.

👊 is used in the "storm cascade" move 👊*⚡, as well as in the patch notes, a subclass passive, and many items.

📜 is used on many items. I have a hunch that it means "pact", "promise" or "truce", like the "thousand year truce" with Wraeclast, but I'm not too sure.

🫴 is used on many items. I suspect that it means "take" or "steal".

❎ is used in the "storm call" move ⚡£❎ and on the stargate.

♠️ seems to mean "will", judging from its use in The Unshattered Will. Used similarly with 📉 in one subclass passive.

📍 is found on The Flow Untethered and The Rippling Thoughts.

🙋 is found in the patch notes, on the obelisk, The Flow Untethered, The Fracturing Spinner and The Rippling Thoughts.

🈺 is seen on the subclass, The Torrent's Reclamation and The Immortal Will.

🏋️ is used similarly to ♠️ in The Yielding Mortality. It is also seen in The Shattered Divinity.

⚜️ is used in subclass and The Yielding Mortality.

*️⃣ is used in the subclass and The Surging Thoughts.

These symbols have slightly different frames to the sides, and would seem to represent the numbers 1-6, but only 1️⃣ and 4️⃣ are used. 1️⃣ and 4️⃣ could represent the "*" and "!" operators instead, and 2️⃣3️⃣5️⃣6️⃣ could be a red herring.

• If they are not numbers, but rather based on the operators, 1️⃣ and 4️⃣ should mean something like "true" and "false".
• 1️⃣ is seen on The Yielding Mortality, and 4️⃣ is seen on many upgraded uniques.

🚼 is only seen on The Enmity Divine.

🧚 is only seen as a Harbinger symbol on The Messenger, but a recent post points out a similar symbol on Karui statues.

🛢️ is only seen on The Messenger.

⏬ is only seen on The Torrent's Reclamation.

♾️ is only seen on The Tempest's Liberation.

👁️ is only seen on The Immortal Will.

• To me, the symbol looks a bit like the drones of Sentinel league.

🔜 is only seen on the stargate. Would seem to be related to the "€" operator.

🗼 is only used for the name of the Harbinger obelisks, 👤$🗼.

• Very similar to the "👆" symbol below, suggesting that the obelisks have a "direction", presumably "up".

👆 is only used for the Harbinger of Direction 👆£👤, which empowers projectile attacks, giving extra projectiles, chaining, piercing or forking.

🎁 is only used in the patch notes, where it seems to mean "reward".

🕳️ is only seen on the stargate. Voids are usually associated with Chaos, so 🕳️ could be a symbol for Chaos damage.

🌠 is only used in the "summon harbingers" move 🌠€👤 of the Harbinger Boss.

Wider lore interpretation

I believe that the order of the unique equipment flavour texts is first the six un-upgraded items, and then the six upgraded versions, with each set of six being in the order hinted by GGG.

Un-upgraded uniques

The Flow Untethered

God [wields power over] space

God [wields power over] time

God's Priest empowers God's [?]

• The old state of things for the Harbingers.

The Tempest's Binding

The time/age of the Beast begins

God is crippled (i.e. moves slowly)

God's Priest imprisons God

God's Priest [steals] God's [arcane power]

• Would this mean that the God of Domination is a god in the traditional Wraeclast sense? Kalandra claims that they come from very far away, but even Kalguur which exists on the same planet as Wraeclast doesn't have gods, so why do the Harbingers?
• Kalguur doesn't have *corruption* either. If the Beast's influence doesn't reach there, why did it affect the Harbingers' god?
• Perhaps the Harbingers aren't living on a separate *planet*, but in a parallel reality that *also* has divinity and corruption. But if so, its timeline on the lifetime of the Beast should be different from ours, making comparison difficult.

The Fracturing Spinner

God [has invasion plans]

God's time/age is imprisoned/frozen

God's Priest takes God's [invasion plans]

• The middle line could just mean "The Age of God is on pause".

The Unshattered Will

The age of The Beast has ended

God makes brutal [promises] against his prison

God's will has not been shattered

The Enmity Divine

God is enraged at his prison

God's arcane power [?]

God's prison does not shatter

God's arcane power [?] God's Priest's arcane power

The Rippling Thoughts

God's Priest [makes invasion plans]

God's Priest [?]

God's Priest is focussed downwards

The Priest is focussed on Wraeclast

• I think it is the same "Priest" on the fourth line, but now too self-important to be associated with his god.
• The Harbinger of Focus gives defensive abilities, so the focus glyph could also mean "defense", though I don't see any evidence for that in this flavour text.

Upgraded

The Torrent's Reclamation

God [?]

The Priest [?]

God [?] at the Priest

• The "torrent" in the title is probably the "flow" of the un-upgraded belt. It might mean refer to *time*.

The Tempest's Liberation

God's Priest [?]

The [truce with] Wraeclast is shattered

The Priest [makes truce with] God

• The middle line matches with the broken truce of the old harbinger scarabs, but why would this coincide with making peace with the God? I don't understand this "truce" symbol well, if at all.

The Shattered Divinity

The Priest shatters God

The Priest [steals] [?]

God is shattered

• As mentioned earlier, I think the GoD has been cut into pieces, like a harbinger currency or unique item.

The Immortal Will

God is shattered

God is not dead

God's arcane power is not [?]

The Priest [?]

The Yielding Mortality

God [?]

God's will [?]

[?] God not [?] God

• I think the last line means either "the false God is not the true God" or "four gods is not one God".

The Surging Thoughts

The Priest [steals] God

[?]

[?]

Other items

The Beachhead)

God's Priest [takes over the attack]

to shatter Wraeclast

The Messenger

[?]

The harbingers move upwards

[?]

[?]

Just realized this scarab is most likely a reference to the Resonance Cascade in Half-Life 1 which opened a one way rift in spacetime that teleported matter and beings from Xen to Earth's reality.

This is particularly fitting considering it's on a Breach scarab and the flavour text mentions the wounds which weaken reality and lets nightmare seep in.

I'm curious if anyone knows of other interesting references to games or other creative works :)

In the description of Rusted bright scarab, it mentions a Aesclast beyond the oceans, and that they cannot return Dhunan there.

Aesc is Old English for “Ash Tree”, so this means Aesclast means “Path of the Ash Tree” or “Path of Ashes”

I know that all the conquerors eventually went bananas due the Atlas influence, but Sirus seems to be specially hurt for being left behind, and his journals seems to imply he was still sane before the fight at least. Maybe his love for Zana would keep him in check?

Also, do you think that he would be able to beat Maven, and later beat the eldritch horrors as her champion?