Was there ever an explanation of how/why the little rover girl was possessed/replaced? Is someone at crate just a fan of the exorcist? Or were the chthonians working on a grim dawn of their own before the aetherials beat them to the punch?
I am not sure there ever was a possessed rover girl. The rovers are not missing anyone afaik, so to me it is just a trapped demon trying to masquerade as a little girl, so you let him out - if he showed up in his true form, he would have a harder time to convince you 
You know what would put a dent to the Empyrion question? Any of aetherials commenting on Empyrion and/or Korvaak. They participated in the war of gods after all.
If you talk to the rovers that imprisoned the demon after you kill it, one of them will tell you about signs that something was wrong. Signs like her crib filling up with blood, her saying things like “There is no <girl’s name> only Zuul” (or whatever) and some other things I can’t remember. So this demon has been masquerading as a little girl for a long time. It just didn’t seem to fit with the other demons we’ve seen and I thought maybe I had missed something.
you are right, forgot about that by now
Yeah I posted about Ballog’Nath too. I think he is an anomaly because he arrived before the Grim Dawn - while other Ch’thonians could just come through rifts in the Void, he likely came over as a spirit and possessed the girl. We know from the parents this happened a long time ago, they are both surprised as they thought she died when they locked her in the cave without food or water…
I assume since now we have open rifts to the Void, the other fiends don’t bother crossing over this way, but maybe before the Grim Dawn this was a more common occurrence, probably something the Luminari were familiar with.
So it seems that in the future the conflict in Cairn might shift from Ch’ton-Humanity-Aetherials to Ch’ton-Humanity-Korvaak.
I hope that we’ll get to work more with Aetherials (and also murder their Vanguard which became corrupted and started commiting Malmouth-like atrocities because of humans’ emotions affecting them).
If Hagarond tells us the truth, then it means that most of Aetherials aren’t going to like what their over-enthusiastic brethern are doing in Cairn. And that leads us to the possibility of allying with Aetherial forces to beat the living shit out of both Ch’ton and Korvaak, who also have a grudge with each other.
Now the question is, who are going to be “the big bads” which we can theoretically fight? We know that there is Ulto Treig, The Bloodsworn Grand Priest, who did not appear in the game himself yet. The possesed Emperor of Erulan might still be alive and I think that only the highest in Aetherial hierarchy can be in control of that poor man. And at last we have Korvaak. Right now it’s just Father Kymon and his Chosen who revere him and can in fact turn against us and the rest of humanity if Korvaak decides to go out of the shade and wash the world in flames. I wonder if we’re going to encounter someone else on Korvaak’s side who’s going to be our antagonist.
Well, the Loghorrean was only the Voice of Ch’Thon, right? I figure there would be other “appendages” and heralds he can send out, like the Hand, Claw, Tentacle, whatever. 
Off the top of my head, there’s also Kelphat’Zoth, also called the “Grand Harbinger of Ch’thon”. Personally I hope to see him as a boss in Forgotten Gods, Harbingers are the scariest Chthonic enemies in the early game yet take a back seat to the other minions of Ch’thon later on, and an ultimate Harbinger boss would help restore their forgotten reputation as bad mofos. 
“We were the servants of the primordial gods, but when our makers grew jealous of one another, we became soldiers in a cataclysmic war. Countless creations were eradicated by the ensuing conflict, countless millennia of our work erased in a flicker of godly anger. But none of that compared to the day one side chose to harness the darkness of the void in a desperate bid for victory. The results were catastrophic and our masters were cut down or scattered to the far reaches of creation. And we, the most loyal servants, were banished to the Aether for the simple crime of serving without question. There, stripped of our physical forms, we were forced to wander the emptiness of the stars for all eternity, the scars inflicted upon us by the void’s minions still burning deep. That is until we encountered humans…” - Anasteria
My pet theory heading into Forgotten Gods: Korvaak is Ulzuin, the betrayed and vengeful god of fire (perhaps his betrayal is a key event in the lead up to the War of the Gods?), and was the one who attempted to harness the Void in the War of the Gods. Empyrion the Light-Bringer, ruler of the gods, was among the divine who were subsequently slain. Ulzuin, now the disgraced and banished (and “forgotten”) Korvaak, uses his mastery of fire to emulate the Light-Bringer, so that Kymon’s Chosen think that they serve Empyrion. I’ve got my reasons as to why I believe this, but I’ll leave it at that for now - thoughts?
One thing I wondered about today… in the alpha you could not open rifts originally, it was after the Kasparov experiment that you got that ability. Now it is not so… but I do wonder, what makes you capable of doing this? And why are your rifts red, like the Chthonian ones, when you were possessed by an Aetherial?
One thing I wondered about today… in the alpha you could not open rifts originally, it was after the Kasparov experiment that you got that ability. Now it is not so… but I do wonder, what makes you capable of doing this? And why are your rifts red, like the Chthonian ones, when you were possessed by an Aetherial?
I don’t think there is anything to it and the shape of a Chthonian rift looks different. We aren’t and weren’t the only ones to be able to use rifts.
If you speak to Kuldo:
Many, even among our kind, have forgotten the truth of our name. “Rover” is an outsider name confused for our true name, Rhowari, the people of Rhowan. Over time, we’ve gotten so used to being called Rovers, many among us have come to favor it. We’ve become a careless, traveling free-folk and lost sight of our first true path.
The movements of rovers among the lands of the settled peoples are not always welcome and so we’ve learned many hidden pathways across this realm. If you’re looking to get beyond the Wightmire, the bridge to Burrwitch Village has been destroyed, but beneath it there is an entrance to a flooded passage that can take you there. I would only travel that path now in dire need as the cave, treacherous even in better times, has become increasingly populated with Slith and other monstrosities.
Since the breaking of the Grim Dawn, many new terrors have entered our world and old ones have proliferated without the watchful eyes of the Empire’s hunters keeping them in check. Still though, the most treacherous creatures you will encounter on the roads are humans. You cannot easily tell friend from foe when dealing with other humans and we are a most cunning creature. Beware the criminal gangs and crazed loners out on the roads, often posing as desperate souls looking for help.
The Ch’thonic cults have been around since before the first traveler took to the roads. Under the Empire, they were outlawed and driven underground. Where cults were uncovered by inquisitors, the Emperor’s nightblades would be sent to hunt down and execute the practitioners. Even so, they could not be eradicated and now they grow ever more powerful as people flock to them seeking purpose or salvation. More troubling though, I’ve heard tale that the cults have had success of late in calling forth the monstrous servants of their god to walk this world.
The material world you see around you is not the limit of reality, nor is this the only realm of existence. Our folklore tells of travelers who have found hidden paths to slip through the veil between realities and pass into other realms of existence. Those who have returned tell of fantastic worlds, vastly different from our own. The coming of the Aetherials is proof of that and the rifts they use to cheat distance and time, to travel instantly from place to place, are wounds in the veil of reality. We rovers have seen many things, not Aetherial, pass through their rifts to enter our world. Even if we could drive them all out, will these wounds ever heal?
The First Traveler was Rhowan, a king of old Arkovia, the city which once ruled over these lands and many others. It is said that Rhowan met an old man on the road while returning from a battle. The old man spoke of many strange things and revealed that he was a god who had wandered every path in this world since the dawn of time. He warned Rhowan that a great doom would befall Arkovia because of his people’s obsession with title and ownership. When Rhowan returned, he renounced his throne and lands and took to the road, keeping only what he could carry. Many joined him and they were called the Rhowari and eventually became modern day rovers. Most of the Arkovians ridiculed Rhowan, including his family who thought him mad but, in the end, the old man’s prophecy came true; Arkovia fell to ruin, its lands cursed to this day.
Oh yeah I remember that tale the old Rover tells. I just assumed he meant servants of the Witch Gods and Bloodsworn. I am quite sure that our ability has to come from the possession.
I concur, the ability to use those current portals is due our possession .
One thing that I could not find out, is whether our character totally wrest control of the rift from the Aetherials. Can the Aetherials continue to use the rift we have taken possession of?
At first I assumed that they cannot, but then in AoM, DC was attacked by the titan emerging from the rift. Not sure if this is the same rift beside Kasparov’s lab.
Haven’t played for a while, but I believe there is salt around the rift’s to prevent them for using them.
Your character still has lingering aetherial energy in them, that allows your character to use the rifts. Your character also seemingly (it doesn’t show) to put salt around every rift, so that the aetherials can’t use them.
Ah… I didn’t notice the salt around the rift appearing after I capture them, will keep my eyes peeled next time.
Must be a damn pain to maintain though, especially in rainy season
Aetherials can indeed use the rifts that our character “conquers”. However, the salt seems to cause them immense pain and makes them retreat from such rifts. That didn’t stop the Colossus in DC though. It stumbled through the portal, got burnt by the salt but still kept walking forward until getting killed and crushing into the shop tent.
Yeah, Bourbon mentions it came out of the rift and the salt hurt it, but it kept going. I assume that is why they could defeat it eventually, given how rather powerful the Colossi are. And I think if left unchecked, the Aetherials in Malmouth would have started sending troops to territories they lost this way.
Speaking of Colossi and troops. What’s the pinnacle of Erulan’s military technology in terms of machinery? There are armoured cars with various cannons, including multibarrelled ones, but are there any tank-like units? Haven’t seen those yet but I guess they’re not too far from creating them. Would be sick to witness Erulan’s take on Mark IV design in action against Aetherial living tanks, heh.