I think I have it pieced together...

[Brinix]

After doing some thinking on the lore of Telara and the blood storm, I came up with a few interesting theories...

From Maelforge, he wanted to pick a fight with Telara's god of war, Thedeor, based on what he had heard.
Next, Telara was constructed by Bahralt at a nexus point of the planes. For the most part, the gods were autonomous, and only later became the vigil (perhaps an alliance of necessity?).
Lastly, when an ascended dies, their tombstone reads planar corpse.
So... My thoughts are this:
-Telara and its inhabitants were designed to be a trap for the bloodstorm. Likely, the Vigil knew they were coming based on Maelforge having heard of Thedeor, so one would assume it was vice-versa.
-Telara, being at a nexus to the planes, gives it's inhabitants natural strengths against all the planar entities (i.e.; think the buff/debuff from creatures being in the vicinity of rifts; deal 5% more X damage, receive 5% more damage from Y)
-Based the planar corpse message from a fallen ascended's tombstone, one can assume that we are now infused with even more planar powers than when we were mortal.
-Before ascension, the gods of the bloodstorm could only be imprisoned, not vanquished. The ascended have the power to vanquish them to their respective planes.

Going forward, my thoughts are this: Since Telara was designed to be a last line of defense and ultimately a trap, this was an all-in move on behalf of the Vigil. After ascension, I believe there will be a massive offensive to cleanse (purge, perhaps?) the corrupted planes on their own turf to end the threat of the bloodstorm once and for all.

Or, maybe I'm way off base.

[hardy83]

There's no doubt that we'll eventually go to the planes, we already kind of have with River of Souls. It's just a matter of when.

Aside from one other major landmass on Telera, Shi-Ming, there is no other mass mentioned in any book or quest in the game.
Obviously they could make up more land mass, but I do think we might end up going to the planes once all the dragons have been dealt with.

I mean Regulos isn't even on Telera, so once we down Maelforge, Lathys and Crucia, that might be when we go.

As for your idea that Telera was a trap. It makes sense. So maybe the Vigil just see us as bait and not their saviors, who knows what they'll want to do to us after we deal with the bloodstorm if that's the case.

[Maeloda]

There's no doubt that we'll eventually go to the planes, we already kind of have with River of Souls. It's just a matter of when.

Aside from one other major landmass on Telera, Shi-Ming, there is no other mass mentioned in any book or quest in the game.
Obviously they could make up more land mass, but I do think we might end up going to the planes once all the dragons have been dealt with.

I mean Regulos isn't even on Telera, so once we down Maelforge, Lathys and Crucia, that might be when we go.

As for your idea that Telera was a trap. It makes sense. So maybe the Vigil just see us as bait and not their saviors, who knows what they'll want to do to us after we deal with the bloodstorm if that's the case.

I don't think they see Telara as 'bait' at all.

I think that if this stuff is true, it would be a great boost to the Guardians as being filled with 'purpose'. They will just fight stronger in order to make the Vigil's plan come to fruition. I do think that the Vigil DO have good aims for Telara, overall. The Guardians will know their reason for being there, but embrace it, and embark on a grand (Burning? rofl) Crusade to defeat the evil in the Planes.

But the Defiant races can easily see all of this AS Telara being bait, and understandably so. They will see the potential for Telara to exist not in the Vigil exactly, but in it's 'unintended offspring' (Eth, Telaran spirits, Kelari 'mutants', Bahmi 'abominations', etc). They will refuse to be a 'bait', and instead head to the Planes in order to discover more things which may help them create their new future.

And yes, Telara can be both a bait, and a fortress. It is where the fight begins and will likely end, but that does not mean that the Vigil intend on anyone being 'sacrificed'. Their ideal outcome would likely be the Bloodstorm/etc defeated, and the Mathosians/Dwarves/High Elves live in prosparity once again, on a largely peaceful Telara.

The good point is that while the Defiants in general think in the 'long view', and the Guardians tend to think in the 'short view'... the Vigil may think in the 'longer view' than most Defiants and mayyyybe Orphiel can be the chaos to mess this all up in time. Different 'tiers' of plans going on.

[Netherstorm]

Wow, that is a very in-depth look at lore. I've been looking all over the forums for little crumbs of lore here and there, and keeping a sharp eye in-game for tidbits, but darn it, it's like sifting through a random bag of sand for a specific color! How are you all finding this lore? Do I have to read every single quest I come across in game? Not that I mind, of course. I love lore and want to be able to keep it together in any coherent sense in my mind! Also helps for the stories I write and the RP I do. So if anyone could please point me to some obvious means of finding out Rift's story...the whole story, let me know! Even if it's just a confirmation of "You need to read every single quest in the game to understand!"
Thank you!

[GothWulfe]

You really do need to read alll the quests to get all the lore...as well as collect and read EVERY book you can get your hands on in the game, not to mention the lore pages on zam/telarapiedia/trion sites....it's a lot of digging...but in my opinion worth it

[Turrant]

You really do need to read alll the quests to get all the lore...as well as collect and read EVERY book you can get your hands on in the game, not to mention the lore pages on zam/telarapiedia/trion sites....it's a lot of digging...but in my opinion worth it

Pretty much this. There are even some lore given in form of events such as the Abbess Katia and the shade encounter that I recently screenshoted and posted in the Kain page two days ago saying Regulos is on Telara still. Turns out he was dispersed across Telara and his physical form was never destroyed.

Also you have to make the connections yourself sometimes like with the imprisonment of Laethys which is my favorite example of showing on in-depth Rift's lore is.

Most people refer to the scene where Caliathe Stormtouched in Charmer's Caldera talks of her in an indirect way. Most people automatically assumed that it ment that Laethys is trapped in CC. I believe otherwise based on other evidence and this is only one piece of the puzzle.

There is a quest that a harpy gives you behind the prison in Shimmersand. When you turn it in she tells you that the Golden Queen is trapped in the sky but is not the sun. Her prince resides underneath the Earth but he is there of his own choosing. Golden Queen being Laethys and the prince being Prince Hazeed who is trying to free her. There is screenshot evidence that this golden orb in the sky does exist because it was spotted in front of the moon and is even present inside xCC. We also know that CC used to be an old ethian lab. Conclusion? Laethys is indeed being suspended in the sky through the means of ancient eth technology. Calia discovered the location of the controls for that device in CC most likely behind the doors at the end of the
instance. It was estimated that this orb was above the Lake of Solace.

How did she end up at Ember Island? Easy. During the old world event where there where cracked golden egg shells dropping from earth and fire rifts there were also gold coins dropping in the capital cities. I think this was the third world event. These gold coins bore the corruption of Laethys' greed as well corrupting anyone who touched them besides the ascended. Laethys escaped her prison by turning herself into these coins and falling since she does not have wings until the reconstruction period. She does this as a last ditched effort to escape her archenemy Crucia's grasp along with forging an alliance with Maelforge. Eventually her minions gather enough of her to begin transportation to Ember Island which sparked another event just before the official release of the Island. Most people know the lore from here. The two factions seek to recreate her first through Caduceus' help and then in Mount Carcera near Maelforge's prison.

I got off on a bit of a tangent but I love to share that idea.

[Maeloda]

Pretty much this. There are even some lore given in form of events such as the Abbess Katia and the shade encounter that I recently screenshoted and posted in the Kain page two days ago saying Regulos is on Telara still. Turns out he was dispersed across Telara and his physical form was never destroyed.

Also you have to make the connections yourself sometimes like with the imprisonment of Laethys which is my favorite example of showing on in-depth Rift's lore is.

Most people refer to the scene where Caliathe Stormtouched in Charmer's Caldera talks of her in an indirect way. Most people automatically assumed that it ment that Laethys is trapped in CC. I believe otherwise based on other evidence and this is only one piece of the puzzle.

There is a quest that a harpy gives you behind the prison in Shimmersand. When you turn it in she tells you that the Golden Queen is trapped in the sky but is not the sun. Her prince resides underneath the Earth but he is there of his own choosing. Golden Queen being Laethys and the prince being Prince Hazeed who is trying to free her. There is screenshot evidence that this golden orb in the sky does exist because it was spotted in front of the moon and is even present inside xCC. We also know that CC used to be an old ethian lab. Conclusion? Laethys is indeed being suspended in the sky through the means of ancient eth technology. Calia discovered the location of the controls for that device in CC most likely behind the doors at the end of the
instance. It was estimated that this orb was above the Lake of Solace.

How did she end up at Ember Island? Easy. During the old world event where there where cracked golden egg shells dropping from earth and fire rifts there were also gold coins dropping in the capital cities. I think this was the third world event. These gold coins bore the corruption of Laethys' greed as well corrupting anyone who touched them besides the ascended. Laethys escaped her prison by turning herself into these coins and falling since she does not have wings until the reconstruction period. She does this as a last ditched effort to escape her archenemy Crucia's grasp along with forging an alliance with Maelforge. Eventually her minions gather enough of her to begin transportation to Ember Island which sparked another event just before the official release of the Island. Most people know the lore from here. The two factions seek to recreate her first through Caduceus' help and then in Mount Carcera near Maelforge's prison.

I got off on a bit of a tangent but I love to share that idea.

That's good stuff. Seems the Laethys stuff was mostly 'hidden in plain sight', unlike the Greenscale and Akylios stuff.

[Anuhart]

It was estimated that this orb was above the Lake of Solace.

Can I just point out, re the 'sun' and 'moon' SS.

I've seen these two orbs intersect a few times and yes the 'sun' one is always rendered in front of the 'moon' one. I've SS'd them a few times and can't decide which of 3 things to conclude.

1) This is indeed what the harpy talks of and is Laethys.
2) This is just the sun and moon that were mistakenly put in game so as the sun is on top when they intersect.
3) This isn't the planet earth anyway, why should we take for granted which planetary objects are which and how they should appear.

What I really want to address though, one SS (not sure if the one I posted or not) is taken from me stood on the mountain peak behind Caer Mathos looking west. Whatever we read into these objects, the 'sun' is not above Lake of Solace, but is a stellar object with great distance orbiting us/we it.

[Turrant]

Can I just point out, re the 'sun' and 'moon' SS.

I've seen these two orbs intersect a few times and yes the 'sun' one is always rendered in front of the 'moon' one. I've SS'd them a few times and can't decide which of 3 things to conclude.

1) This is indeed what the harpy talks of and is Laethys.
2) This is just the sun and moon that were mistakenly put in game so as the sun is on top when they intersect.
3) This isn't the planet earth anyway, why should we take for granted which planetary objects are which and how they should appear.

What I really want to address though, one SS (not sure if the one I posted or not) is taken from me stood on the mountain peak behind Caer Mathos looking west. Whatever we read into these objects, the 'sun' is not above Lake of Solace, but is a stellar object with great distance orbiting us/we it.

Yeah, I can believe that. I just heard that it seemed to be above Lake of Solace at the time. I said 'estimated' as another way of putting it. Any of that is possible really and I know you should be familiar with the theory crafting that went into the determination of the location of Laethys. I noticed you had posted a couple times in the thread where this underwent serious discussion.

The explanation was what I think what really happened whether or not it is true. I just like thinking it is true though because it seems so intricate and well thought out.

[GothWulfe]

The placement of some of the dragons never made any sense to me.....part of their enchantments of their prison was supposed to be that the elements around them were supposed to weaken them <I.E. Greenscale in the death-energy ridden Stillmoore....even Akylios in landlocked Hammerknell KINDA made sense, though there are other places that would make more sense...Charmer's Caldera, for one.> But the others are just....confusing.

Laethys, the dragon of Earth is <originally> alternately either behind the door in Charmer's Caldera <which made no sense...good job...trap the EARTH dragon under a MOUNTAIN....THAT'S gonna help.> Or in a floating castle <which made more sense>. IMO, one or the other of those was simply a little bit of lore that was originally intended that was later changed, but got forgotten to be taken out.

Maelforge, the dragon of FIRE is trapped beneath Mt. Carcera...a giant volcano?? Umm...THIS should be a no brainer....

And Crucia, the Dragon of AIr is trapped in the one zone MOST attuned to Her element.....and as such, seems to have the most "freedom" of any of the dragons.

Honestly, I think that the placement was decided first and it was just kinda "Match up the dragon to where they are" type thing....and the bit about their surroundings weakening them was added later...not with much thought, at that.

[ctg1616]

http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/not...golden-maw.php

this states that laethys's prison becomes the volcano in CC--the whole island in the sky is kinda stupid if you think how would they even get her up there? all the dragons are imprisoned where they fell- for greenscales case they backed him into his lair and then erected his death prison around him- for maelforge they buried him under the earth causing him to sleep, they also used the power of the sourcewells for this- in the book a prison for a dragon they devised a way for imprisoning by attuning sourcestone imbued with the opposite eleement, so for greenscales case was shadestone, but it was very costly in price and costed amunet the stormcallers life- so for the other cases i assume they couldnt afford all the sourcestone, or didnt have time to perform the spells that amunet had devised- they improvised as best as they could and imprisoned them where they fell

[Maeloda]

http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/not...golden-maw.php

this states that laethys's prison becomes the volcano in CC--the whole island in the sky is kinda stupid if you think how would they even get her up there? all the dragons are imprisoned where they fell- for greenscales case they backed him into his lair and then erected his death prison around him- for maelforge they buried him under the earth causing him to sleep, they also used the power of the sourcewells for this- in the book a prison for a dragon they devised a way for imprisoning by attuning sourcestone imbued with the opposite eleement, so for greenscales case was shadestone, but it was very costly in price and costed amunet the stormcallers life- so for the other cases i assume they couldnt afford all the sourcestone, or didnt have time to perform the spells that amunet had devised- they improvised as best as they could and imprisoned them where they fell

This.

Greenscale was imprisoned nearly perfectly.
Akylios was imprisoned well enough, but had enough power to send out his madness power and keep his cult going. IMO his influence led to the implementation of runebinding, but I have no evidence of that.
Maelforge was imprisoned with what method they could best come up with. It actually worked. Being trapped *within* the volcano made him calm down over time (as much as Maelforge could) and sleep until freed (as the first two dragons 'slept'). He is now being awakened and will be mucho angry.
Laethys was made molten, keeping her from solidifying and entering her true form.
Crucia is hinted to have been awake this entire time. We'll see what she's been up to..

[Maelystra]

Pretty much this. There are even some lore given in form of events such as the Abbess Katia and the shade encounter that I recently screenshoted and posted in the Kain page two days ago saying Regulos is on Telara still.

Linky pretty please?
I am the world's dumbest searcher apparently and can't even find anything about Kain that's been added by people on Telarpedia wiki

[Anuhart]

http://forums.riftgame.com/lore-tela...ml#post3775289

[Akyaevin]

The placement of some of the dragons never made any sense to me.....part of their enchantments of their prison was supposed to be that the elements around them were supposed to weaken them <I.E. Greenscale in the death-energy ridden Stillmoore....even Akylios in landlocked Hammerknell KINDA made sense, though there are other places that would make more sense...Charmer's Caldera, for one.> But the others are just....confusing.

Laethys, the dragon of Earth is <originally> alternately either behind the door in Charmer's Caldera <which made no sense...good job...trap the EARTH dragon under a MOUNTAIN....THAT'S gonna help.> Or in a floating castle <which made more sense>. IMO, one or the other of those was simply a little bit of lore that was originally intended that was later changed, but got forgotten to be taken out.

Maelforge, the dragon of FIRE is trapped beneath Mt. Carcera...a giant volcano?? Umm...THIS should be a no brainer....

And Crucia, the Dragon of AIr is trapped in the one zone MOST attuned to Her element.....and as such, seems to have the most "freedom" of any of the dragons.

Honestly, I think that the placement was decided first and it was just kinda "Match up the dragon to where they are" type thing....and the bit about their surroundings weakening them was added later...not with much thought, at that.

Charmer's Caldera is all that's left of the Charmed City of Eboni, one of the Ethian cities - and the one where Laethys made her home. The magma there is actually liquid gold, not liquid rock, hence its colouring. Doesn't really clear up the specifics on how Laethys was bound (at one point, it was thought she was held as liquid gold so she could never turn back to herself in kind of a reverse of Maelforge's imprisonment) but interesting to note!

Maelforge isn't in the volcano, he's under the volcano - see here - the volcano is there because the enchantment put on him pulls his heat away and sinks it into the earth, turning it into magma. As said earlier, this put him into a state of semi-sleep, from which he's begun to waken since the assault of the Wanton Maw on Ember Isle.

And Crucia's prison is known to be flawed - but the intent was to surround her in ice, so she couldn't touch air. The first Shaman and Pyromancer did this together, freezing an entire city into a lake of ice. I don't know if it's frozen water or frozen air, or even if that makes a difference.