They were mortals that were brought back from the death. Now they are just something like a ghost/undead/spirit.
If I recall correctly, Malkadarr was simply a member of the Death’s Vigil Order who died in combat, and Bartholem seems like some kind of minor deity who serves Empyrion. The fact that he has a tomb is a little confusing.
Malkadarr was a necromancer and Barthollem was a priest.
also, it is unclear whether barthollem is aware about korvak masquerading as empyrion or not. he doesn’t have any response to events in fg. while the attendant and mogdrogen are aware of fg events.
If you:
- Finish FG first.
- Side with Kymon’s Chosen and send Sister Girra to the homebase.
- Resurrect Barthollem and talk to him BEFORE he teleports to the final portal near the Bastion of Chaos, he will be made aware of Kymon’s deception and will get angry about it.
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I’ll just add this thread link since it has some stuff about the Aetherials and Ch’thonians.
I thought Ulzuin was some kind of demigod, somewhat like Ulgrim.
A god wouldn’t fall in love or get drunk.
In fact, note both names (Ulzuin, Ulgrim) are very similar. Could they even be the same entity? Ulgrim’s name isn’t mentioned anywhere as far as I know right? Even if we are sure at this point that he is in fact a demigod. Not in the notes, or devotions or conversations. Not as a known demigod or god, at least. Whoever he is, he is clearly hiding his true self.
Maybe Ulzuin changed his name after failing to Korvaak or whatever happened with Bysmiel. Maybe he changed it after the Grim Dawn (and thus UL-GRIM). He is also the former protector of the emperor, as he could’ve been of Korvaak -another emperor in his own way-. It is highly unlikely because Ulgrim doesn’t get involved in any way in the events of Forgotten Gods, but whatever.
That’s what is bothering me also. Why does Ulzuin need stuff like that, because you would think he can just create it himself.
And why didn’t Ulzaad helped after the war of the gods.
to me ulzuin is a god. from what i’ve gathered in korvan eulogy lorenote, he is the son of empyrion. he is heavily distraught when empyrion doesn’t answer his call for help. this, coupled with the fact that bysmiel, a mere mortal, able to seduce and deceive him while simultaneously humiliating him (the emperor’s best general going away on vacation in nowhere while the emperor and korvan empire suffers greatly…) turns ulzuin’s grief into mad rage. he strike to whatever things happens to be close by him. i suspect that after bysmiel’s treachery, he began despising mortals (excluding mortals that enjoy sowing destructive vengeance) for their inconceivable ability to deceive gods like him (and korvaak too. dreeg got him good). so ulzuin destroys his followers temples and lands too in a bout of madness, rage, and hatred. he is a vengeful destructive god now… yet the game hasn’t explained what happened to him then. the 3 witch are silent about this.
iirc the ulzuin torch constellation explains that ulzuin is the god of ceremony and healing. the demo skills that gives defensive ring of fire aura also explain this power as remnant of ulzuin’s healing power. did gods in grim dawn really can’t fall in love or get drunk? are those mortal comforts completely unnecessary to them? or does gd gods can pursue those mortal comforts at their own leisure? who knows.
still, there are some descriptions in the game that sounds like fire and destruction rains on whatever things ulzuin landed his eye to. there’s an area called eye of ulzuin near the korvan main city. is this a metaphor? is ulzuin’s godly essence diffuses into the korvan lands, thereby permanently causing ceaseless discharge of volcanic rage on korvan city? maybe… does ulzuin and empyrion ever chat with each other?
as for ulzaad. afaik his only descriptions and appearance is in the constellation. thats it.
for naming similarities between ulzuin, ulgrim, ulzaad… do note that most people and creatures in gd often follow some unique naming method according to their group. death vigil’s group revere uroboruuk. so you got names like balvoruuk, haruud, and such. similar pronounciation. they most likely change/earn those name upon achieving some feats in their group.ch’thonian creature has the anatu doth zul thingy in their names.
ulgrim is still shrouded in mystery. creed mentions in his diary about the legend of ulgrim. the game doesn’t explain about this legend of ulgrim yet, aside from creed who seems to believe ulgrim himself is not his real name, but just a name named after the legend of ulgrim (cmiiw, i don’t exactly remember if this is right).
As Architects of Flesh put it, “the flesh is weak”. Gods or other " metaphysical" creatures (like aetherials) tend to get influenced by the physical forms they adopt. Ulzuin probably wasn’t too familiar with the pleasure of the flesh so it’s not too surprising that he became a hedonist to the point of getting tricked by a mortal, and it’s shown multiple times that aetherials get influenced by the minds of their vessels, becoming wicked with hosts like Krieg or compassionate with the likes of Anasteria or Korrinia.
Very unlikely. Creed mentions in a lorenote that Ulgrim is a name of historic significance, so at first he doubts that’s the First Blade’s real name, although he gets his suspicions that he’s not a common human. Later, after he gets informed that Ulgrim not only survived his trip to the void but that he also murdered the shit out of the Loghorrean all by himself, he just gets confirmation that Ulgrim is the real shit.
Changing the topic a bit, is somebody else bothered a little by the existence of the Tomb of Korvaak in the Asterkarn Valley? A scholar says in a lore note found in the Shrine of the Forgotten God area that there aren’t any references in any records about the deity depicted in the shrine, so supposedly no one but Kymon and his followers know about him. Also, the whole point of the Forgotten Gods expansion is that Korvaak is, well, THE forgotten god! Then why is there this very visible tomb in the middle of a snowy valley that even the Black Legion knows about and also refers to as the tomb of Korvaak? It just doesn’t make too much sense. I’d rename that area to something more anonymous, like “Tomb of the Nameless” or “Tomb of Oblivion”.
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Ulzain, Ulzaad and there is an Ulanzaa in the shattered realms also. I have a suspicion that they are one entity.
that might be possible. yet ulzaad is about +physical & internal trauma damage in the constellation. ulzuin is only related to fire+lightning (destructive vengeance) and some healing (former ceremony & healing god).
even so, mogdrogen and ultos is kinda obvious to be the same entity. since moggy moggy has dominion over the wilds and thunderstorms.
Dreeg seems to be always striving gfor “balance”, so despite what they did to Korvaak being selfish… I think maybe Dreeg saw that one day they would be needed to protect Cairn. After all, all occultists (you included if you play as one) get their power from him. Maybe Korvaak would have just let the Aetherials do whatever and like Mogdrogen, would not intervene. Maybe he had to be replaced with gods who are far more active in the mortal world. Of the Three, Dreeg strikes me the most as not being selfish and actually working for some greater goal, something he might have glimpsed when he entered the eldritch realm.
Well Chton/chtonic is a greek word meaning “under/below the earth”. And it has been used in fantasy and comics a lot to refer to evil subterranean or divine beings or demons or such.
Ah finally figured out how to quote someone… new interface is not very user friendly.
Thanks, this is pretty interesting! I tried talking to him afterwards and he said nothing new.
But this means that Barthollem indeed WAS a servant of Empyrion, not Korvaak.
I think it is no coincidence that the Oathkeeper skill “Summon Guardian of Empyrion” conjures beings a lot like him. 
I think devout followers of the gods can be basically ascended to the status of such spirits. They are not undead like ghosts, though, as they are sustained by divine power.
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dreeg is arguably the current most active mastermind of humanity then. note that oathkeeper’s skill tree has several transmute that changes Empyrion oriented damage (fire, physical) into Dreeg’s domain (acid, vitality). this is also a reference to the cycle of divine power in cairn. previously, empyrion reign supreme above humanity alongside korvaak. yet after the war of the gods, empyrion disappears and korvaak is imprisoned. dreeg, solael and bysmiel became the master of humanity, surpassing empyrion and korvaak’s hold over humanity (face it, we all need extra skill points if we want to have dreeg’s transmute in oathkeeper tree. that implies in current situation lorewise dreeg is STRONGER than empyrion & korvaak).
still… from the korvan eulogy, dreeg said that he saw potential leader for humanity in solael’s black heart. cruel, but bold leader such as solael seems necessary for humanity to survive in dreeg’s point of view. solael’s dependence on humanity’s vitality (i’m pretty sure he’s a vampire constantly craving for mortal’s life essence, or his survival even depends on them) ensures that solael won’t destroy humanity in madness. he’ll sacrifice those worthy enough to sustain his power (solael cult’s lore note in coven of the three provides the details of the sacrifice), then guide and empower the rest of them.
eh. i think humanity will do fine with the 3 good witches as their leader. they’re not so different from mortal humans after all. korvaak and mogdrogen’s panicked rambling of how the 3 are scheming bad guys that will bring ruin to everything is just a fear instinct that triggers in those two celestial’s mind.
this implies that empyrion’s essence or residues of his power still lingers in cairn. mogdrogen can split himself into many avatars, so i think its possible that empyrion still has some presence in cairn. the oathkeeper’s ascension skill description support this.
So I was reading the Korvan Expedition entries again and I noticed… the wealthy investors who sent some “overseers” with the explorers, they were from Erulan and Malmouth. Could it be they were Aetherial agents? Sent to check on what’s happening in the Korvan basin, or maybe just to recover potential magical artifacts they can use in the coming war?
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definitely aetherial agents. they’ve also tried to infiltrate ugdenbog but failed due to ravager and ugdenbog coven’s presence. i do kinda disappointed with how fg is completely lacking aetherial presence (aetherial corruption, aetherial vanguard, or even some random survivors with aetherial influence). at least there are some dead bloodsworn cultists that tried to summon a chthonian being in fg. fg is all about eldritch creatures, the 3 witches and korvaak cult.
Where did you see signs they tried to infiltrate the Coven?
I am convinced that they are no aetherial agents but people(inquisitors) from the Luminari.
See part of the text i copied:
The retinue of babysitters sent by our investors have been asking a number of peculiar questions about the burial habits of the Korvan people, and about the types of objects we might hope to find there; none of which I have answers to. I caught one of them reading an ancient-looking text of some sort the other day. Aurenial Arcanum, the name read. It is a volume I am unfamiliar with, though if I didn’t know better I’d say it was exactly the kind of thing that could attract Luminari attention. He snatched the book closed and hid it in his jacket when I asked what he was reading. His scowl said it all.
Peculiar indeed.
personal theory. since ugdenbog is the domain of ravager and the coven (some small part of it). and because the coven tells us that they also monitor the beasts and magical events surrounding their coven in order to protect themselves.
it could be the normal luminari inquisitors. it could also be aetherials masquerading as luminari inquisitors. since from creed’s diary (or is it kymon’s words? creed and kymon both visits the capital recently before grim dawn anyway) he tells that some colleagues/officials he met in the capital shows strange behaviours that makes him suspicious of them.
Is there any significance behind of the Servant of Empyrion summon from Oathkeepers wearing Korvan styled armor?