Indeed that’s similar!
But btw, where did you get that screenshot of someone talking to Byscilla? There was a new stream???
No, it’s from the October 5th stream.
I posted another screenshot that came right after the one above, but was removed, because it most likely was too spoilery. 
Probably from the 5th October stream. Grava showed off Malmouth woman and FG man both. Screenshots in here.
Weird, I somehow did not remember seeing her in that stream. Thanks!
Apparently you missed your saving throw on her double entendre mind trick… 
I also thought at the time that it had something to do with the Dravis Quest, because of the vases with blue smoke.
There are also animal skulls on shelves in the next room.
I think I watched that stream at night while half asleep, so that could have been it
i dont even read any of the NPC dialogues lol
am i missing out?
If you are interested in the story and the lore than you are missing out on everything. If not than you still miss out because it’s really good and certainly adds to the atmosphere.
Wow, then what are you doing in this topic, trying to catch up on the lore from here? TRust me we could not sum it up if we tried, there is so much of it.
So, I’m only 2/3 of the way through the thread, but I haven’t seen these theories mentioned yet:
On C’thon: Everyone’s assuming that when C’thon went bonkers from being cut to pieces to create living creatures, that madness manifested as “omnicidal maniac.” But what if the Bloodsworn are wrong? What if C’thon is now just… there? What if C’thon is now similar to Lovecraft’s Azatoth, just hanging around in the void, kept in a stupour by the sensorial overload of feeling everything everyone feels at once? When the Bloodsworn high echelons say “As Cthon commands,” maybe they’re just going off of what they think “Cthon commands”, because Cthon isn’t commanding diddly squat anymore.
On Aetherials: Aetherials seem to run a heavily hierarchised society, but there’s never any Aetherial that wants to go up in station. Sure, there appears to a schism on how exactly they should be handling Cairn, but you never hear anything about any Aetherial going about how they could “do SO much better than that Thellon, Shaper of Flesh gasbag.” What if this is because they can’t? It can’t be skilled based. The Shaper of Flesh probably spent a long time floating in the Aetherhold (and he’s back there again, the sad sack), in constant telepathic communication with every other Aetherial there. Why is he such a big loss? Why didn’t other Aetherials just… learn from him in Aetherhold, and we have a gazillion Shapers of Flesh waltzing around?
I think it’s because they’re incapable of it. Maybe Shaper of Flesh isn’t just a title, it’s who that Aetherial IS. Aetherials seems to be creatures of PURPOSE; they were made for war, each with a specific purpose. They can’t deviate from their roles anymore than a worker ant can go “man, I can totally fight better than that big-headed so-called soldier over there.” The Aetherial who possessed Krieg is designed to be a Warden, and it can’t be anything else. Hells, he shows up a second time, and his dumb ass is STILL (failing at) guarding prisoners.
This would also explain why Aetherials are auto-screwed when possessing humans - it’s a fight everyone loses. They deal with human minds as they would an Aetherial mind: the Aetherial looked at Krieg’s mind, went “I know how to deal with a WARDEN”, and it walled Krieg’s mind as it would an Aetherial’s mind, and went on with its job, safe in the knowledge that since an Aetherial’s mind is much more powerful than a human’s, it’s not going anywhere. But that’s not how human minds WORK: Aetherials work on Consensus (they even capitalise it), but humans can’t get a consensus with themselves. Not with each other, THEMSELVES. Every human mind is constantly pulling in every direction. It’s weaker than the solidness of the Aetherials’, but it’s also more fluid. So it just… leaks out of its enclosure.
And when a prisoner it’s shipping trips and slows the whole thing down, it hears a little voice LITERALLY at the back of his mind saying “I know how to… motivate them.” Of course, that’s stupid and the Aetherial isn’t going to do it. But prisoners keep tripping, and it keeps getting behind schedule, and at one point it just goes “Screw it, what have you got?” and the little voice at the back of its mind stomps on the prisoner’s hand. HARD. And amidst the echoes of screams, prisoners move faster. All of a sudden, they get more careful about not tripping. And the Aetherial goes “gosh darn it, this works.” And the voice just says “Oh, it could be better. It could be… sooooo much better. Let me show you.”
The fate of every Aetherial who possesses a human for too long is to BECOME a new, super-powered version of that human.
And that was my wall of text - I hope it’s at least entertaining. 
I dunno, I am assuming the various Ch’thonian fiends, at least the more humanoid ones like Ryloks and Vanguards and Harbingers can talk, and likely they are bringing the orders from their boss to the Bloodsworn. Given that they fight together against you, I assume they can communicate.
You have a good point, but I think Aetherials could not learn because they had no bodies. Not much to experience if you are just energy floating around…
Also, no, they were not made for war… they were made by the gods to serve them in creating the various worlds. THEN when the gods started the war, they were used by them as troops and tools, and then abandoned.
But likely indeed, the Shaper of Flesh was probably someone who worked on shaping the various animals and humans during the creation.
However, I do think they can learn, after all as you play the game you see how the Aetherials progressed their creations from simple reanimated zombies through something like the Amalgamation in Homestead, to the horrors you face in Malmouth where the Colossi are even reinforced with cannons and armor plates.
It’s not that the Aetherials can’t learn, it’s that they won’t learn anything out side of their specific job because it’s inefficient.
The Mindthief is an infiltrator, and its job is to jump into vessels and gather intel of how each world works. The skills of the Shaper of Flesh don’t help it do that, so it doesn’t bother learning those. The Warden doesn’t need either of those, so the only stuff it ever learns is containment and transport methods.
On the Cthonian front, it’s entirely possible the Cthonian demons are akin to an allergic reaction: Cairn was made of Cthon’s body, and it’s suffering from one hell (haha) of an autoimmune disease. Rylocks are basically arthritis.
But consider it a little, what did the Warden do in the Aether? Imprison immaterial spirits? Likely that job was new to him when he arrived…
Many Aetherials tell us about the human host influencing the Aetherial - for better or for worse, so likely they do learn from them. Anasteria and Korinia are the best examples, of course, they even turned against their brethren.
On Aetherials… they weren’t tailor made for war. They were originally the ones to create the world itself. When their maker(s) went to war they being loyal (to a fault) went to war.
On Aetherial Learning… it is strongly stated in conversations that time in the Aether is a lot different then time in the material world and that the Aetherial’s are having trouble coping with the differences. It’s also stated that thoughts are slower/harder to have in the Aether. This creates a situation where learning is both difficult and could take aeo’s before results are seen.
On an unrelated note… just how long has it been since the Grim Dawn? Some of the conversations/notes imply it could have been years, but how long it actually was I can’t seem to find. Did I miss something in a conversation or note? Or is my brain’s difficulty in processing social cues and seemingly ‘obvious’ situations getting the better of me?
If we judge by the state of the infrastructure - i would say the story takes place between 5-10 years since the Grim Dawn.
Just look at Devil`s crossing building - it is a derelict stone building (build massively to withstand all sorts of turmoils as its a prison after all) with landmass on top of the crumbled rocks - such a thing usually takes a lot of years to amass by natural means.
Though there are more preserved buildings all around the world - but that would only mean that the remaining pockets of human resistance/civilization have been overrun not long before the start of the game - like Burrwitch seems to have been lost quite recently to Aetherials - it looks much more preserved state vs DC?
Also the amount of terramorphing being done suggests years have passed.
That is how i personally interpret the story setting.
Note that it’s mentioned by Anasteria that Aetherials have done this countless times - Cairn isn’t the first world to suffer their invasion. Presumably, this isn’t the Warden’s first outing, nor is he the only Warden out there.
Btw, the warden was a human prison warden who was already sadistic before the aetherial invasion. The aetherial possessing him was not a “warden”. And ofcourse, after the possession things took a turn for the worse.
Wait, where’s this from? Missive to Warden Krieg would suggest that Aetherials, at least, have a harder time thinking in Cairn than they’re used to.
This is not correct.