Finally pushed to the end. Loved it an looking forward to higher difficulties and expansions. The story though, is by far the weakest part of the game. It is a mess. It starts as a story about the Aetherals raising the dead, which is what I took to be the Grim Dawn and the start of things going bad. We kill the warden and crowley, but somewhere around act 3, the Aetherals take a back seat and a cult that made a small appearance in an act 1 side dungeoun becomes the main focus. The Aetherals are at war with the Cthonics, and its suddenly all about stopping the Bloodsworn from summoning a giant “mouth” with tentacles. After killing The Rock as the Scorpion King at Fort Ikon, the Aetheras, their intentions, their role in the calamity, all of it seems to have been forgotten.
A shame, had they just followed through with the Aetheral story line they had the first expansion already written with the rise of the Bloodsworn in the wake of driving out the Aetherals. Maybe it is all better explained in the lore notes, but nothing in the main dialog explains this shift in focus that i recall. Could someone fill me in?
I completely disagree with you on that matter. There are lots of hint within the lore (conversations and lore notes) about the story. There is also more lore from the game guide and the Misadventures Maybe that makes the story more clear for you.
Aetherials and Cthonics are long at war with each other. And because of of the grim dawn (invasion of the Aetherials) it made the rise of the cult of ch’thon possible. Due the Illuminati and their inquisitors not hunting the down anymore.
Have you done all the quest for Anasteria (if you have sided with her/outcast)?
I’d have to disagree, and it seems you totally misinterpreted the story.
Are the Aetherials the Big Bad? Yup, but so are the Chthonic forces. They are equally as important and equally as dangerous to the world. Look at it as a 3-way. The Aetherials. The Chthonics. And everyone else not affiliated with either.
The only thing I will give in your defense is that the ending was a bit… Abrupt. That’s ok tho. To be continued.
Yeah, i got that about the rise of the Cult and such. The point was that CH 1 and 2 focused so heavily on the athereals, then its all about the Cthonics. I never felt like the Aethereals part got its conclusion. The Aetherals became to chapter 3 and 4 what the Bloodsworn were to chapter 1, a side note. But yeah, lore notes and misadventures. One should not have to read those to see the whole picture. They should flesh it out, but the story should be continuous in the main dialog. We never “stopped” the Aethereals, never drove them out or killed the main guy behind it or found out their motivations and intentions, and that is what we started out doing, and at some point it became all about stopping the bloodsworn, but why that was so was not really explained.
I honesty think the devs don’t even intend the conclude the story with some kind of ultimate happy end (with any number of expansions or dlcs), it would stop Grim Dawn being Grim Dawn after all.
Humanity is not in a situation that can be solved or reversed, they just trying to survive against all odds.
That’s because you are basically just putting a temporary brake on either factions plans. They have more plans and the Aetherials are far too ingrained into the world to be defeated so easily. Same with the Chtonians.
You killed the Warden and put an end to their plans in Burrwitch. Then you killed Darius Cronley and put an end to their plans in Arkovia. Same thing with the Amalgamation in Homestead and Commander Lucius in Fort Ikon, they just have all these plans for all these areas. Stopping their plans in these areas doesn’t mean they are “forgotten”, it means they are coming up with plans for other areas.
Same thing with Chthonians and their plans. They are not “one and done” villains that beat you once and they are gone. Chthonians are also just as responsible for the Grim Dawn as the Aetherials because they are fighting with the Aetherials for who gets humanity. Chtonians want the blood of humanity to bring back Chthon and the Aetherials want humanity to make more aetherial abominations.
The abrupt change in focus was explained by priorities. The Aetherials were dominating where you were in the beginning, then Cronley. You’re basically just fighting Chthonians in Act 3 because they’re threatening Homestead, but then at the end you find out they’re about to summon a world-devouring demon so you’re like “oh shit move that up the to-do list”.
If the Aetherials were the ones summoning a world-ending monstrosity, they would be the focus of the end-game instead =P
Also, f*ck that Aetherials are good guys BS. Doesn’t matter what your intentions are, if you essentially end human civilization then you’re a bad guy forever.
Looking at it like that makes a little more sense. In that light The Grim Dawn is just the fallout of the Aethereal-Chthonian war. Its sort of a “new normal” that isn’t going away any time soon. Humanity caught in the middle with both sides wanting to use them as weapons against the other essentially. Still, from the first two chapters I wouldn’t have anticipated the game to end with a showdown against the Chthonians. I do think it might have been more consistent for this first game to come to its climax against the aethereals and learning of this grander plot in the process would have set the stage for expansions. For a lore note skimmer this over arching backstory is some what lost and it looks like a sudden shift in focus.
I used to hold this opinion prior to the introduction of Port Valbury and its associated lore/Outcast quest. Given that this quest is only accessed post-Bastion of Chaos (which is either post-Necropolis or occurs at the same time you complete the Necropolis), it does feel like a good continuation point to remind the player that the Aetherials and their machinations are still running large.
That’s their way of telling you that the Chthonians are above their pay-grade. They can kill as many feeble cultists as they want but the moment a true horror from the void appears they know that they need to GTFO before they’re consumed
