SPOILER ALERT: Lore Discussion

Here you go, but I am putting it in spoiler tags, since many people would not yet have gotten to this boss.

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You can see it (she?) has not just 3 main heads - one clearly goat-like, the other wolf-like, and a middle bear-like head, but also several smaller heads protruding from the neck and back some even pointing backwards, and a creepy fleshy exposed back including the spine. In contrast to this Aetherial amalgamation-like horror, the two tails have perfectly normal if horned snake-heads, kinda like the TQ Chimera.
I do wonder how this spawn ended up being worshiped by the Kastorrans, and what the strange shadowy being who spawned it was.

I took it as an earlier embodiment of the Voice of Chthon, probably. I mean it is cleary that killing these things on the material plane does not really kill them - likely Ulgrim finished it off in the Void though - so this was probably remnants from another summoning of the Loghorrean.

He sounds more like someone who was noticed, tested and then spurned, abandoned and betrayed by the gods. And likely to have a grudge against them. I do not think we heard the full story of Sorkar yet. There will be a challenge dungeon coming (or two?) and I think we might meet him there, or at least learn of the end of his story.

That story indeed totally sounds like it is Yugol, but likely not Yugol itself, but herald of his. Morgoneth is kinda like Morgoth (the armor and mace, especially) so the wolf is a bit like Sauron (in the Silmarillion stories, he is often in the shape of a Warg or Werewolf). So that probably means that yes, we gotten close to being turned to nothing at one point. The land of the Kurn is far away from Korvan lands so the two nations probably never heard of the other’s encounter with Yugol.

I think by the way Anasteria tells the story, Beronath is basically like Typhon of the greek myths - all major monsters, no matter how they look like, sprang from him.

It seems that Grim Dawn kinda follows the D&D planar rules when it comes to fiends, IE that they can only be fully killed on their home plane, yes.
But probably that all doesn’t work for Chthon himself. And maybe he can just create a new Loghorrean anytime, too. We know little about what control he has over these fiends, whether he even knows about the Bloodbound, or whether he is just absorbing all the blood sent to him without thinking.

Top question is:

What/Who is Ulgrim really?

Unknown Soldier or Oleron?

I really love GD cosmos and godly mechanics - feels heavily inspired by Malazan book of the Fallen and DnD, where many gods were humans who did some unimaginable feat and attain goodhood, while others scheme their way and steal a god s portfolio thus becoming a new version of the god.

Cant wait for a “Taken” constelation

Don’t tag the man unless it’s important mate. He’s said this since the forum used to be on vBulletin.

I never really considered Oleron as a potential candidate. Considering Ulgrim’s near suicidal tendencies to jump into action, Oleron fits. I bet if he wasn’t injured in AoM, he’d have solo’d Marcell. Ain’t no way is an Aetherial comparable to a Chthonian.

That makes a lot of sense.

True. We don’t know what happened to the artifact he placed inside the chest. All we get are a couple of items.

But the lore clearly states he placed something important. IIRC, it was the horn of Chthonian he killed.

These couldn’t have been easy to get. Thanks a lot, mate! I’ve yet to beat the Uber variant. The dude’s a sponge and hits hard.

Also, that design is hauntingly beautiful. And yes, I’m curious what kind of abomination spawned him. I can’t imagine it being a Chthonian fiend. Maybe it was Mogdrogen, but he had HIV when he shagged the Alymira.

Morgoneth and his cultist made their breach longest time ago, and Korvaak spent most of his time on Cairn either gravely wounded, in chains or, now, dead. Pretty sure the light is gone by now and was never strong to begin with.

Empyrion, sure.

What about Menhir though? The faith around Menhir has been pretty active throughout Erulan.

My best guess is Nadaan. We know basically nothing about him but he’s supposed to be the patron of thieves and assassins, his symbol being multiple blades. Ulgrim is a shadowy figure (several times mentioned to be able to move through the shadows), he dual-wields blades and overall seems much more clandestine than Oleron would be.

However, there’s also multiple mentions of the name Ulgrim being known and legendary. Creed ponders whether he is named after the Ulgrim from myths, and Garradia mentions he is a “legend” as well. So it’s entirely possible Ulgrim is not any of the gods we know of (I mean, we know he’s an Ascendant, whether he’s considered god-level we’re not sure), but simply a different story for which the player gets no background.

I don’t think we know what Menhir even is? IIRC he’s an embodiment of the planet/disk itself.

Might be an allegorical personification, might be a titan, might be an ascendant from divine court. A lot of things we call gods actually aren’t. The only 2 gods that are definitevely primordial are Korvaak and Empirion.

Given the tone of voice, I’m pretty sure she’s referring to his lover skills.

Oh we do:

Nah, that’s nothing.

Mogdrogen, Ulzuin and Korvaak are all called “gods” and worshiped. Of those, the only real god is Korvaak, Mogdrogen is merely a titan, and Ulzuin is ascendant of Korvaak’s court. Then there’s Beronath who is never called a god, but assumed to be a titan.

Ultos is a titan, that much is established. There is Arkovian pantheon with unclear origins and relations to Korvan one. Amatok is completely separate from both. Witch gods are a trio of frauds. Ravager isn’t even a titan but worshiped as a god. And Menhir is merely a name in imperial church. Then there’s Arkovian Vire massively overlapping with him.

GD theology is a mess.

My only problem with Nadaan is that Ulgrim is way more confrontational than any assassin. Yes, he knows a lot of Nightblade tricks but the dude charges head-first into battle. My assumption would be that he was some really powerful ascendant that learnt the Nightblade tricks during his tenure as the First Blade. I say this because to me it seems like just about anyone can become a Nightblade, Belgothian is basically built like John Cena and he’s a well-known assassin.

Fair. There aren’t a lot of named Primordials and Ascendants and other powerful beings end up filling the void.

I keep forgetting that part. He indeed might not be any of the figures known to us.

As you can see I managed to even get a shot of the beaver-ball before it one-shot killed me.
Much like the Dread I find this thing unkilleable due to its self-heal. At least with my pet build, that is. I’ll see how my Markovian defender fares against it, that guy can survive anything, but sadly does not hit hard. (Also, wait, there is an Uber variant??? Man even the vanilla one is hard enough for me… And I just beat the Crate of Entertainment )
Yeah, the way Alymira summoned “daddy” it isn’t likely a Chthonian, maybe some sort of nature spirit, but certainly not a benign one. I was wondering if maybe it was Ravager, but this sort of deal-making seems too subtle for him. Then again, he did make a deal with Scorv too, but I always assumed that was more due to Scorv being such an epic monorail-building conman that he can even convince a god to select him as his proxy.

Yeah, I had the “my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined” reaction when I opened the chest and did not even get some location-specific Legendary.
That probably means someone else figured out this riddle already and got the weapon.

Korvaak is not really dead, he just gets banished back to the Eldritch Realm again when you defeat him (as indicated by the three different colored spells that appear and bind him again). But yeah he is in no position to ward off the “Deep Dark”. Nor was he before, so the question remains, who does? Mogdrogen is definitely around, so are the Witch Gods, question is whether they are strong enough. But there are plenty of other deities, both Arkovian and Erulan, of whose status we know nothing because they do not intervene so directly on Cairn.
I think we can assume that directly interacting with mortals is the exception, and not the norm, for the gods.

The bum is an ascendant and useless one at that.

As much of a gigachad Dreeg is, he and the other Witch Gods are still ascendants. Yugol seems to be specifically warded off by the light of Primordials. In one of the lore notes in Forgotten Gods base camp, a cultist talks about dark visions and how ‘Draellus’ helped her. She ended the note saying that he had a somber look as she was leaving. That dude definitely knows that Yugol is inevitable.

This proves that Chthon is the one true path to salvation. Ignore my username.

That one I think is more of an easter egg referencing “Never-Ending Story” (Gmork, servant of Nothing).

Sure, but also where did some of the inspiration partially come from?

I think we actually got that lore bit of the seer’s vision and Draellus’ painted eyes suddenly blinking even before we got the Morgoneth quest, right? So that probably was the first indirect mention of Yugol.
I forgot that Yugol is only thwarted by Primordials. Maybe that is why Ezra (was that the guy’s name?) and the priests could contain this infection and imprison Morgoneth and co. because they channeled Korvaak’s power?
I guess we will know, but I feel Yugol is basically the Unicron of Grim Dawn - a force of nature, the arch-chaos of nothing that wants to return things to nothing. (In the Marvel comics, that is what Unicron was, and he once achieved this goal and destroyed all creation, but once life started to bloom again he came out of stupor to hunt it). I would wager there must be some counter-force to him though, perhaps something not as strong, that keeps it at bay, other than the various gods of other planets. Probably the Aetherials could tell, they definitely have to know, given how ancient they are and how they worked for these very gods. Btw, would be nice to know someday what the big war between the gods was for… why were they two sides, what was the issue they went to war over - and what side was Korvaak on.

LOL! That is cool. Man I remember being so scared of that Wolf in the movie… in the book he comes off as more understandable even if horribly nihilistic.
Btw, I guess this Morkh was the beast that Beronath defeated, then. And that is the weapon he hid?

Wait. So the Never ending story actually has an end?

That’s a fair bet.
I suspect Eldritch seals still work because Korvaak is still alive. Had the Witch Gods killed him, we’d all be screwed.

I’m curious if the God of the Shattered Realm/Rayloth is also Korvaak.

Isn’t he from Transformers?

Don’t forgot there used to be a lot of different worlds and realities, but they were destroyed in the war of the gods. So there used to be a lot of ascendents and gods.

I believe having lots of followers also makes a god stronger. Likely due to the having blood of Ch’thon alligned to them. Because they used his blood to bring life into their creations.

I believe it is if you read the lore notes.

The only lore note I remember where their God makes an appearance is when the denizens of Rayloth storm his temple and find him sitting there menacingly.

I don’t believe there was any clear indication of it being Korvaak.

The lore notes:

Sins of the Forgotten - 1st Entry
Sins of the Forgotten - 2nd Entry
Sins of the Forgotten - Final Entry - Official Grim Dawn Wiki

It speaks of a grand ziggurat, which the Korvan lands also have.

Also this seems the very familiar to what Solael was doing:

[Search - Grim Dawn Item Database]

Good observation and great findings.

Makes me wonder if the Altar of Rattosh was the entry point for Solael into our world. It was already a ritual site for something before being discovered by the coven.

Solael also seems to have stayed around the docks according to some FG lore notes. Which implies that he arrived in Korvan from some distant land.