[PoE 2 Lore] The Story of Act 3 - Utzaal, Doryani, and the Vaal Cataclysm

Fun fact: Apus means Twilight.

In not exactly related tangent - voice GGG choice for Doryani is...asdffghtb, perfect choice

Since you're Kitten Cat Noodle, is your cat named Human Gal Soup?

Your cat kept distracting me from the lore

I discovered you recently, and i binged all your videos already, i love your work ! cant wait for the in depth video ! <3

Kinda have a "bad" feeling that Doriyani's master plan, after realising he would not be able to spare his people in time from the cataclysm , was to seal his best architect in a vault after the collapse wih the near insurmontalble task to finish a time travel portal that could only be opened from the future and set up to bring them back adventurers from the future mostly so he can establish a link between both eras, then he can use the player character to grab the pieces to make the weapon to take out the beast... Then i'm 99% he's going ot betray the player and he'll try to portal back into the past with the device and use it before the catacysm.

It might have been said by others, I believe the mushrooms were showing them the past and not the future.

The Winter of the World is also tied to a big fire event that immediately preceded it. This is alluded to in the flavor text of The Desperate Alliance in POE2. The flavor text of Endless Misery from POE1 talks about a great fire that immediately preceded what seems to be the Winter of the World.

There are multiple sources that refer to great big fire events in POE1:
The Ezomytes have an event known as the Great Fire that is believed to be caused by the First Ones
The Primevals have murals depicting an erupting volcano and the Clayshaper is said to have “sought safety in the clouds of ash above”
The Cleansing Fire does something that scares a bunch of people (the Newcomers), and Innocence gets these people to worship him and steals the Cleansing Fire’s symbol for himself

What Atalui says about the Precursors being the only culture predating the ash layer is super duper confusing. This implies that the event that led to the ash layer was before the Winter of the World and the preceding fire because we know of at least three cultures that predate the Winter of the World – the Azmeri, the Maraketh, and the Primevals. We know the Azmeri flee into the Viridian Wildwoods during the Winter, Keth was a thriving city where Seven Rivers met before the Winter, and the Primevals ally with the Maraketh during the Winter. It could also be possible that Atalui’s just bullshitting us.

Are the Bone Pit necromancers related to Abyssal monsters? The Lightless were known to build their structures out of bone. However, the Bone Pit is situated to the north of Vastiri, whereas Zarka says that the Lightless appear from the South.

The Primevals have a cataclysm that leads to the dead rising, much like the corruption-based cataclysms we’ve seen. There is also a volcano that erupts and destroys Ahkeli the Clayshaper’s village. It’s possible that the Primevals somehow cause a small-scale cataclysm and the volcano stopped the cataclysm and caused the Winter of the World. Zarka says Ahn’s fall south of the Vastiri leads to the appearance of the Lightless and that this happened during the Winter of the World.

The Titans ally with the Primevals and the Maraketh during the Winter of the World. This could be when the Redblade was forged.

Dude I’m so confused man

Imma need some outtakes from the amount of reading you do haha. Keeping up the good fight for us. Great videos! Passes the time at work.

Thank you for doing these videos.

LORE LETS GOOOOOOOOO

I don't think Doryani had explicit advance knowledge from his patron about what would herald the Cataclysm, he seems pretty surprised that we're even there and clearly doesn't know anything about us and likely just calls us the "Demon of Atzoatl" because we match a vague description given by survivors at Atzoatl. He probably discovered during his experiments that communing with the Beast was dangerous and would cause a Cataclysm, and then went looking for ways to prevent this knowing full well Atziri would do it anyway. He explicitly tells us he "entreated the ultimate wisdom in this world" when trying to find ways to stop the Cataclysm, so presumably he didn't need his patron to tell him what would happen to see it coming.

I'm ready for some lore 🧻🧴

Welcome Back Kitten , Still sane?
Lore of PoE2 i liked a lot the main idea to expand Vaal Lore

Excellent series btw. Can't wait for the deepdive versions. Particularly deepdive on act3/timetravel stuff.
Im still so confused about the expedition npcs, they all talk like they're time travellers, but talk as if they've been making many trips thru time, not just one

Quick comment for the engagement scores

What about the primeval civilization (evidence of found in delves) that predate both lightless and vaal? Could be precursors.

Always look forward to your lore.

Great series!

Yippee 🎉 for pulling the big lever and winning the jackpot. 😂

Seriously though, the editing style is so perfect for retaining attention and also showing some of the texts so we can pause and read some of the entries. This must take absolutely forever, but it is very much so appreciated. 😊

Really really enjoy your content! Thanks for putting all this together. +Subbed!

Honestly... I think the Doryani's plan was simpler and... there were 2 plans.

Plan #1 - collect all pieces of the Precursor weapon before the Communion and beat the Cataclysm. Direct and simple, we will learn about this plan in the act 4.

Plan #2 - if collection goes wrong, evacuate as much as possible loyal high priest into the future hoping the Cataclysm will not kill everyone, even not Vaals, then assemble the weapon etc. Doryani knows that time travel is possible from the future into the past because PoE1 player aka the Demon of Atzoatl. He potentially think he is the person who is guiding the Demon in the future. So essentially... he creates The Bait. One loyal high priest is developing a massive time travel device aka escape bait, another one is the mighty guardian which supposed to filter other bounty hunters from the Beast. This is why I kinda assume "non-canon" ending would be a canon with one remark - instead of running away into the temple of Kopec, you run away into the "current" time.

As a new player to poe2 I am very curious about the lore of Xesht, King of the Mists, Olroth, Omniphobia and Kosis, and the Arbiter. Any chance you could make a video on these characters?

Nice work on the video!

The story of act 3 is just winding hallways that lead to dead ends.

I completely didn't notice Alva was younger in POE2. I should listen to the dialog more

While Endgame is (or not?) cannon and def how you get keys to the Burning Monolith isn't cannon, i'd love to know how much we know about the Monolith itself and the Arbiter inside as i'd imagine everything inside there is set in stone cannon that will exist in 1.0 endgame. Do we really know next to nothing about stuff there yet or is there info somewhere.

Great Video! Rally gets me excited for the remaining story in PoE2. Will we find out sin was evil all along, creating the beast of the precursors, and since then lying. Will we send the beasts back in time? Is there only one universe, or are we going to start branching into different realities. Who was the original goddess? It's all so titillating.

Have we gotten any explanation in PoE2 about how we can now install virtue gems directly into ourselves instead of socketing them into our gear without going insane and turning into monsters like everyone who had done so previously?

he even chained up Albas lil head. thats a bit much.

Sorry for the somewhat unrelated comment but why do you think communion with the Beast always ends poorly? Is it something thats just part of the process?

Doryani is my favorite character. His design is amazing and I love his voice!

My story was a little different. In my story, Viper Napuatzi totally beat the sh*t out of the newcomers many times over.

I really want to see a timeline of Alva and her Ancestors. POE2 has made me getting more and more interested in her Story. Great video btw.

I think it's less that he sees us, the player, but that he was told that someone with Vaal-blood and another person would come back in time, but also that that Vaal-blooded person and another would be the Demon - and he assumes we are that other person, despite Alva time travelling with two different people.

Heavily looking forward to the in-depth dives. Let it mature and take its time. Quality is much very much preferred compared to quick quantity. ❤

Taken me a while to get to finally watching, but yay so happy it's finally here!

Cats love the Vaal, confirmed.

Really enjoyed this, honestly more than going through the Act itself, I think. You scripting and context actually made Act 3 not feel as underwhelming, and the little bits of humor are great too. =) The BIG lever!

Hey noodle, long time listener first time caller. Just watched your forbidden sanctum video and it got me thinking. In poe 2 mapping a corruption tag on a map allows scourge monsters to spawn. I assume corruption refers to the beast’s corruption. Do you think there are any lore implications to the beast’s corruption leading to scourge monsters or is this purely a gameplay thing?

what a lovely standard issue kitty

Loving the story so far, though it feels weird that the non canon ending is what brought me here, just so weird, but also fascinating, as in the past I never really cared to much about the lore, but just the whole time travel thing then combined with getting nuked and going fallout style into a bunker to hide, realizing that as we start mapping we are locked in the past?
Spicy stuff.

I had to stop at the 51min mark to avoid the non-canon ending to POE2, but I've been inhaling your lore videos like mad. Thank you for making them, particularly the POE1 ones!

Thank you for making these videos. Poe 1s storyline with the shaper, elder, and the maven was always my favorite part of the story. So far I am waiting patiently for these to be referenced in Poe 2. Especially since the maven story was left unfinished. With the mavens progenitor seemingly on its way to us. Did something horrible happen in between Poe 1 and 2 with its arrival? Or has it not arrived in the 20 since between the 2 games? Will our exile in Poe 2 meet the maven and suffer the consequences of the previous exile in Poe 1. Or do you think it will be addressed in future leagues in Poe 1 and not Poe 2. Would love to know your thought!

thank you for your work , love the lore videos

Can GGG go ahead and release the rest of the acts so I can get more lore videos? K thanks.

In path of exiles,
divinity is the power of miracles given to the whims of chosen mortals,
corruption is the same given to the sins in every soul

Hi! I think Apus exists you can see him on top of the hut/tent near Hooded One. Though I'm not really sure if that's him since there's no name indication but he's the only (male) child in the area. Love your vids btw <3