disappointed with Stillmoor

[Crim80]

I finally quested through Stillmoor, and I have to say that I was disappointed with it. Since I had already read that was the location of the Guardian starting zone, I was anxious to see how it changed (and to see how something looked 20 years after I had been resurrected). Was that temple of rebirth still there? What about that platform where we fought Orpheus? Maybe there was a new questline for that device or something.

Instead, I found the zone rather lacking. It was just more "kill all the undead and Endless Court that you see." By the time I got there, I was tired of the werewolf/vampire theme too. I thought Burlingham and those other abandonded cities had potential as maybe a last remnant of the old Mathosia whereby its inhabitants were trying to rebuild. Instead, it was just more "kill all the werewolves". (Been there, done that in Gloamwood. Need an original idea to keep me interested.)

I realize it made more sense to have the Eye of Regulos taking over most of the zone. It was, after all, supposedly a cataclysmic event. So, yeah, the big crater fit in line with that. But I would have loved to have been sent back to the Temple of Rebirth and been told, "This is where it all started," or had some quest that delved more deeper into an Ascended's background like "What have you learned on your journey?" or whatnot. Not looking for anything deep and philosophical in the game, but it would have just been cool to complete the circle better.

All of those comments are from the guardian perspective, of course, and I still haven't figured out where Terminus is located. Maybe that's why they didn't do anything like I've mentioned - to keep the zone more neutral. But I feel that Trion lost a good opportunity to do something more lore-based with it. Maybe I missed something while questing.

[Kerin]

I loved Stillmoor first time through, and still prefer it to many zones while leveling. I agree, the storyline could have been more interesting had it made more references to the history of the place, but I really like the atmosphere of the place.

[Bluejaye]

You know, I also found Stillmoor's quest/stories to be a major disappointment. I'm Defiant, and up to that point every zone had some interesting story, based on solely Telara lore. Then I get to Stillmoor and suddenly it's boring old Earth based vampires/werewolves. Just didn't seem to fit to me, and up to that point never seemed to be mentioned in the lore (but apparently was if you were Guardian?).

But really, that's such a minor quibble about an otherwise completely enjoyable game/stories. Honestly I hope some future expansion gives us more of the Titan storyline from Stonefield.

[Feine]

I still haven't figured out where Terminus is located.

There are clues that strongly hint that Terminus is Freemarch, or at least the northern part of it. Though the geography bears little resemblance, this is perhaps to be expected after the world has been almost completely torn apart by Regulos.

1) The present-day Ark of the Ascended - the chamber bears a distinct resemblance to the outermost chamber of the Terminus Life Factory. In the present day, the wall in the far right corner of the chamber is crumbling. An NPC periodically examines it, saying something like "There must be something behind this wall". In Terminus, this wall is fully broken, revealing the rest of the facility behind it.

See screenshots: Ark of the Ascended vs Terminus Life Factory

2) The area outside the present-day Ark of the Ascended is called Regent's Cove. The area outside the Terminus Life Factory is called Regent's Fall.

3) In Terminus, the area between Tempest Station and the Failsafe is called The Lost March.

[Crim80]

Thanks, Feine.

I was somewhat leaning toward that speculation, but I haven't played through all of Freemarch & Stonefield yet and had not ruled out the possibility of it being somewhere else. But your informations makes a lot of sense! Thanks!!!!

[Talila]

Temple of rebirth would likely have been blown up. I think anything near to the "Rift" you fight in the starting zone essentially got eradicated to the point of no ruins anywhere.
Neither do I think that it would be feasible at this point in time for anyone to try to reclaim and rebuild anything in Stillmoor - Alsbeth or no Alsbeth, the endless are still a strong threat, and whilst one might be able to reclaim parts, keeping it reclaimed would be an issue and probably take up a lot of resources that aren't available - since everyone is out proactively trying to kill the cults, dragons, defiants and things that simply look at them funny
I get that people tire out from all of the undeadsy-killing and such, but I wouldn't really want to have Stillmoor in any other way right now ^^

[The Protector]

There are clues that strongly hint that Terminus is Freemarch, or at least the northern part of it. Though the geography bears little resemblance, this is perhaps to be expected after the world has been almost completely torn apart by Regulos.

1) The present-day Ark of the Ascended - the chamber bears a distinct resemblance to the outermost chamber of the Terminus Life Factory. In the present day, the wall in the far right corner of the chamber is crumbling. An NPC periodically examines it, saying something like "There must be something behind this wall". In Terminus, this wall is fully broken, revealing the rest of the facility behind it.

See screenshots: Ark of the Ascended vs Terminus Life Factory

2) The area outside the present-day Ark of the Ascended is called Regent's Cove. The area outside the Terminus Life Factory is called Regent's Fall.

3) In Terminus, the area between Tempest Station and the Failsafe is called The Lost March.

Could I get some pictures showing the terrain of Terminus in various places and pics of Freemarch in various places in where they both somewhat resemble each other.

[Maeloda]

Terminus and Mathosia were made, as far as I know, AFTER the rest of the world. There was originally going to be a 'Shadowlands' (think something like the River of Souls') zone for possibly both factions, but they changed it to be more lore-focused and to introduce us to the different factions.

As such, Terminus is *likely* Freemarch, but we have no idea just there it is. It could be that the ruined buildings in it are sort of the world condensing in on itself, but there's no proof of that. The Life Factory is very much like the Ark of the Ascended, but again, no proof.
I would peronally NOT like that to be the case, and instead they can put the Life Factory location in a far off zone (maybe the upcoming Planetouched Wilds??) and put an interesting new location behind the Ark of the Ascended .

It would make more sense because with Meridian gone, it wouldn't be logical for the surviving Defiants to hang around in the same region. I don't think the failsafe/time machine needs to be in the same geographic region as the present-day version.

~~~~

As for Mathosia, this one is sad, but understandable. We can know where the Eye of Regulos is, but nothing else. We can assume that the Mathosia area is actually just the whole (smaller) crater in Stillmoor, making the locations we were at, blown apart.
I think that if Trion could do it now, they would remake Stillmoor to be larger and involve more lore areas. I feel the Stillmoor we got, can be considered a 'mini-Stillmoor', compared to how it should be.


So for NOW:
Freemarch, Ark of Ascended = Terminus
Stillmoor, Eye of Regulos = Mathosia

But both are up to Trion to change.

[Feine]

Could I get some pictures showing the terrain of Terminus in various places and pics of Freemarch in various places in where they both somewhat resemble each other.

They don't resemble each other really. It's only the names of the sub-areas that provide the clues ("Regent's Fall", "The Lost March"). That the geography doesn't match (for example, the very ocean is missing), could be explained as the world being rent asunder by Regulos so that hills, valleys and even oceans no longer correspond.

However, the similarities between the Ark of the Ascended / Terminus Life Factory outer chamber prove the matter conclusively, in my opinion: The shape of the room is identical; the pattern of bricks and floor tiles is identical; the pillars are identical; the door-like structure on the far wall is identical (even down to the funny semi-circular device with the red crystal; in the present it's attached to the door, in Terminus it's fallen off and is resting on the floor next to the door), the shape of the crumbling/destroyed section of wall is identical (this last one proves beyond all doubt that they are the same place, even if there were two identical chambers in different places, they would not have this destroyed section of wall being exactly the same too).

[Feine]

The Life Factory is very much like the Ark of the Ascended, but again, no proof.

As mentioned in my previous post, I'd go so far as to say that this is proof. The chambers are identical in every detail of their architecture, and above all, exactly the same bricks are missing from the wall, and tiles missing from the floor, in both the Ark of the Ascended and the Life Factory.

[Maeloda]

As mentioned in my previous post, I'd go so far as to say that this is proof. The chambers are identical in every detail of their architecture, and above all, exactly the same bricks are missing from the wall, and tiles missing from the floor, in both the Ark of the Ascended and the Life Factory.

I see that as evidence, not proof.

1)The chambers being identical can just mean that the Eth have a bunch of chambers across their territory on Telara, each for different purposes.

2)Same bricks and titles can just mean asset reuse. Rift does a lot of that.


So.. I'm absolutely NOT saying you're wrong. You could be entirely right. I just don't believe that you automatically are.

[Feine]

1)The chambers being identical can just mean that the Eth have a bunch of chambers across their territory on Telara, each for different purposes.

2)Same bricks and titles can just mean asset reuse. Rift does a lot of that.

I'd buy that it could be just a copy-pasted building, ICly (the Eth have lots of chambers with the same architecture) and OOCly (the assets were reused), if it were not for the destroyed section of wall, which seems to me like it has to be intentional. The NPC who comments about "There must be something behind this wall" only adds to that, plus the clues in the sub-region names.

Still not absolute proof, true, unless we have a lore dev come in here and tell us whether it was intended, but for me at least, it's sufficient evidence to put it beyond reasonable doubt.