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Lore Atlas

Every hero's story, and the events and rivalries that tie them together. Pick a hero, read their tale, follow a story to the others in it.

12
Heroes
71
Stories
Latest release

Release 2: Does It End, Death Prophet?

Does It End, Death Prophet?

Canon

Undying asks the one woman who has died and come back whether it ends.

Start readingSee this story's cast on the map

Ties back to earlier releasesThe Age of Light

Arc Warden
universalHero

Arc Warden

Primordial

Before the universe began, a single primordial mind was fragmented and scattered.

“It is not to aid the Ancients that this war is joined, but to destroy them both. This disunity must end.”

See on the mapArc Warden stats & abilities
Stories

Appears in 6 stories

ImpliedLegend

Creation

Three accounts of the beginning survive, and none of them claims to come first. In one, the Titans stood near the Beginning, perhaps witnesses to creation and perhaps born while it still echoed, and set about shaping matter, themselves and reality. In another, a single primordial mind fragmented as the universe came into being; two of its pieces, and , turned creation toward their war, while a third, Zet, tried to restore the unity that was lost.

In a third, the ancient were bound in a primordial harmony until walked out of the Fundamental plane, and Io and Enigma keep their own memories of the Schism. Whether these were one event seen from three sides, three stages of one long dawn, or three beginnings that never touched, no teller says. They stand side by side.

Three origin accounts, told side by side; no single creation reconciles them.

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Cast
The hero's story

Before the universe began, a single primordial mind was fragmented and scattered. Two of its greater fragments took the names and and fell into vicious war, twisting all of creation to serve their conflict. A third fragment named itself Zet, and to end the disharmony it fused the two warring siblings into a stellar sphere, the , hurling them into orbit around a distant world and appointing itself their warden until time's end.

When the moon at last cracked and the Ancients escaped, the blast split Zet into many forms joined by fleeting arcs of consciousness. It races now toward its siblings' renewed war, bent on reuniting all of creation into the unity it was meant to be, or destroying the Ancients before their conflict spreads.

Connections
Voice lines

  • “If I am to blame for your presence here, then consider this my first act of contrition.”

    Dawnbreaker, about Arc Warden · Meeting a rival

    ImpliedDawnbreaker knows Zet's role and addresses his unfinished duty; whether her fall freed his wards is her own speculation.

  • “Phoenix, your light glittered from afar as Self traveled the cosmos.”

    Arc Warden, about Phoenix · Meeting an ally

    Zet knew Phoenix's light from light years off, on his long hunt for the Ancients.

Open questions
Ability lore
  • Flux

    An infinitesimal fraction of the power which imprisoned the Ancients.

Appearances
  • The Sundered Moon

    Zet recounts the Ancients' war, recruits Zeus, restores a fragment of his power, and leaves with further unnamed scrolls.

  • The Nomad Star (Crownfall Act II facets comic)

    Inside a mountain-sized Ancient with Dragonus: Zet denies it is a Mad Moon shard, names Diruulth and Radinthul as what Dragonus would call his brothers, notes that time here runs the other way, and cannot say which old god they stand within.

Mentioned in
  • Nemestice: Mysterious Meteorites Strike the Heart of the Battlefield · Valve text 2021

    In the wake of the 's destruction, willful fragments of and crashed upon our world. But a third type of stone—, warped remnants of the shattered moon still unswayed by either petulant Ancient and bursting with Zet's sacrificed power—was left drifting behind. Aeons later, Nemestice at last makes landfall to disrupt their battle, and to those who would hold power over both Ancients, there is no greater prize.

Official biography
Read Valve's biography

Before the beginning of all, there existed a presence: a primordial mind, infinite, awesome, and set to inscrutable purpose. As the universe thundered into being, this mind was fragmented and scattered. Two among its greater fragments--who would come to be named Radiant and Dire--found themselves locked in vicious opposition, and began twisting all of creation to serve their conflict.

As war and cataclysm threatened the nascent cosmos, the will of a third fragment made itself known. Naming itself Zet, this intellect sought to resolve the disharmony and return all to perfect unity. Appalled by its kin's conflicting nature, Zet gathered the sum of its power. In a sudden flash, it overwhelmed its siblings, and fused the warring aspects into a stellar sphere before hurling them into the darkness to orbit a nondescript world. Harmony was restored, though only the barest fraction of Zet's strength remained. Setting its gaze on the prison, Zet chose to use its weakened power to serve as watchful warden until time's end. For uncounted aeons, this vigil stood.

Life flourished upon the world below, oblivious to the dangers imprisoned within the softly glowing moon, or of Zet's struggles to contain them. As the captives' eternal clash reverberated within, the surface of the prison shuddered, over time beginning to crack. Ultimately, Zet's depleted power proved insufficient to contain the breach, and at last the moon was shattered. The prison's ancient inhabitants had escaped to sow their conflict anew.

Flung to the farthest reaches by the prison's explosion, Zet was transformed by the dissonant energies of its former captives. No longer of single form and thought, its presence had become split among many--some lesser, some greater--each connected by a fleeting arc of consciousness. Struggling to suppress its own disunity, Zet sped toward the burgeoning conflict of its siblings, bending its fractured wills toward a singular conclusion: the aspects of the primordial mind must be made to reunite, or all must be destroyed lest the conflict spread further...

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