First, let me address that I recognize this is an open world survival game and, apparently, a PvP heavy MMO. However, it does not excuse using the name Conan the Barbarian, lore drops from Howard and Lovecraft, and leaving them as nothing more than incomplete window dressing.
The major reason I started playing this open world survival game is the setting and the lore. I generally do not bother with open world survival games but this one promised Howard/Lovecraftian story background.
And after being everywhere on the map and absorbing as much lore as I could find, the overarching backstory to the Exiled lands is so fuzzy itās disappointing. Will it ever get fleshed out? As an English Lit nerd I learned that āwho, what, when, where, why, and howā make a story. We have almost no whos, we have some whats, a vague when, a vague how, and only one of the many whys in the lore.
Another complaint is that the one named antagonist, Thoth Amon, mentioned directly by the Archivist, is a no show. Even the Conan character mentions two options: free yourself from the bracelet or stay and lure the one that exiled you into your trap. Yet it seems the other option, really isnāt an option.
Will that get corrected? This could be fixed by making a change where Conan simply says āyou can find your way out of hereā or, preferably, Thoth Amon can actually show up and be defeated as an alternative end game.
Just my two cents. Came for the story, found out thereās so much potential and so much story unwritten/spoken itās diappointing.
Conanās lore differs from most games, as it rarely tells you anything overtly. It can seem, and in some areas is, rather opaque. Iāve compared the storytelling style to Dark Souls in the past, in that very little is directly presented to you. There are clues and remnants, but you have to piece them together and, sometimes, infer the links between them.
The story of The Exiled Lands is probably one of the better established (IMO) story beats, though it is quite hazy in areas. We know about the period from the Lemurians arriving on TEL up until roughly the release of the sandstorm, but the time before and after is fairly obscure, as are some of the finer details of the period we know about.
Thoth is a weird case IMO, it feels like he probably should show up in the story at some point, but will he? Iām not too sure. There are other antagonists out there like Nyarlathotep, alongside the stories of characters like Mek Kamoses and The Princess being left open-ended with a dangling thread. There are generally a lot of unanswered questions and stories that havenāt been concluded, without really knowing if, how, or when they will be concluded.
There is quite a bit of story in the game on both maps, but you do have to really dig for it, itās almost akin to research in a way. I like it, but I can see it not being for everyone.
I get that. Howard and Lovecraft left things vague. However, some things had to be revealed. During the fight with the Serpent King in the well of Skelos, you hear two voices. The serpent King cursing King Kull of Atlantis (where he even comes into the story is anyoneās guess as thereās nothing remotely Atlantean in the Exiles land) and some other speaker, a betrayer, talking about a ātrue masterā and how he whispered to the various political players in the pastand caused the end of the giant kingsā¦ But absolutely no hints anywhere who that was or who his ātrue masterā was behind the whole thing.
At some point even Lovecraft would have revealed āthis is Nyarethotep/Yog Sothoth/elder thingā or at least a hint to it.
Iām admittedly not too up-to-brush on my King Kull lore, but from what I do know, King Kull was a large factor in nearly exterminating the Serpent-Men during his lifetime, so heās sort of their eternal arch-enemy. Iād have to go back and re-listen to second speaker though, as it doesnāt ring a bell. Iām actually planning a video about the Serpentmen soon, so itās already on my to-do list
Nyarlathotep is directly shown in two instances, I think. The first is in the cutscenes on the Isle of Siptah at the end of the elder vaults, and the second in the Age of Sorcery: Chapter 3 Battle Pass art. From memory, I donāt think heās specifically named in the battle pass art, but from his appearance and the related dialogue from Mek, youād only need a cursory knowledge to know itās him.
To be fair, I do have something of a grievance with how time-limited stories are told, like the aforementioned one that took place in the Age of Sorcery: Chapter 3.
I donāt mind digging for the pieces for events that happened eons before the player character is alive, but itās possible to miss a lot of important and interesting lore developments from the Age of Sorcery, Age of War etc if you werenāt playing at the time. As much as I enjoy the indirect storytelling, I wish the player character could create their own ālore bookā (more suitable name pending) where they can look back on the events and basically see a recap of the important story beats after theyāve done a few tasks.
Itās there, you just have to look for it. As Eradicati0n said, the game never directly tells you anything, you have to piece together the information scattered around.
Correct. Typically, the person who has you thrown in prison is not also themselves in said prison. Due to the lore adherence he cannot be defeated as that would contradict with the books, so he is untouchable.
What do you think removing the bracelet does? That is the exit.
Canoncially, heās alive for another ~20 years after the events of the game. Adding him and letting him be defeated would directly go against the lore. The truth is he is way, way out of your league at this time. Heās a world away and wields far more power than your character could ever grasp. As an exile you may fight your way up to the top dog in prison, but at the end of the day he runs the prison and youāre still nothing to him.
Iām assuming the second speaker youāre talking about is the Staff of the Triumvirate. Heās telling you about how he worked with the Serpent-Men to bring about the downfall of the Giant-Kings. In the context of the staff, the Serpent-Men are his āmasterā, but only in the sense that they created the staff and bound the entity speaking to it.
Yeahā¦ If you read the item description on the Shining Trapezohedron, a Lovecraftian artifact, youād know that it IS Nyarlathotep. Just straight up, the entity within the staff is the very same Haunter of the Dark, avatar of Nyarlathotep. Thereās also a stone on the Tower of Bats which refers to the āmoonbeam messengerā, thatās also Nyarlathotep. The bringer of Sorcery, Kurak, also directly name drops Nyarlathotep within his lair. On the Isle of Siptah, the Maelstrom is you guessed it, also Nyarlathotep.
Kull lived in the Thurian Age, heās long dead by the time of the Hyborian Age. Atlantis, and Valusia sank during the Catacylsm, the disaster that ended that age and forced the Lemurians to begin their pilgrimage that ultimately led them to the Exiled Lands in the first place.The Serpent-Men invoke his name as their hatred for him and what he did to them transcends eons, theyāve been plotting revenge on humanity for thousands upon thousands of years after Kull exposed them from their hiding and began hunting them to extinction.
I havenāt played Siptah yet, due to the fact Iāve not riddled out the events on the base game yet. Does it even continue the Exiles story?
I think you missed the part where Conan himself tells you āYou are like a wolf in a trap. You struggle to flee and yet, in the end it will kill you. Be smarter. Find out what they want. Then hold it close. They will come for it and thenā¦ Your jaws around their throat.ā
Was this line in error? Just a red herring for a nonexistent option other than removal of the bracelet?
It is quite possible, and present in many stories, to defeat a foe by thwarting them without destroying them permanently. In fact, a whole lot of Lovecraftian mythos is thwarting entities far beyond mortal means to destroy. Closing portals, messing up the ritual, removing the special artifact. The threat remains but is displaced for a time.
Since I didnāt have said staff at the time of the fight and didnāt discover that unlock until after, it would have been nice to have a little hint āhiā¦ Iām your talking staff hereā
It precludes them. The history behind the Isle tells of the Shining Trapezohedron and what happened to it before it reached the Well of Skelos.
No, not at all. Thoth-Amonās ulterior motive for sending people to the Exiled Lands isnāt just because itās a magical prison, he found the Serpent Ring of Set here and is having prisoners inadvertently search for even more artifacts. Itās cut content now but the initial design of the purge before rework was supposed to be him sending forces after you to take what you found. Thereās also a cut Mummy of the Ring that was supposed to be the final boss, also sent by him to take the relics from you.
I donāt disagree, but I would argue thatās sorta what you end up doing by forging the Keystone, depriving Thoth-Amon of taking the relics you;ve gathered.
There is no final fight after you leave, you āwinā by earning your āfreedomā. That being said, the ending isnāt quite as it seems. With the Keystone, you can leave the barriers and walk right out of the Exiled Lands, but it remains blank where exactly youāre going. Given the Exiled Lands are within the Dreamlands, and Nyarlathotep is constantly meddling with it, I imagine your fate is gruesome enough to leave it unwritten.
The only hint I have of that is a seemingly mad disciple of Ymir at the top of a mountain saying weāre all dreams. Considering the whole of the exiled lands being in the Dreamlands would really muddle the lore altogether. LOLā¦ Now, if I run into Randolph Carter somewhere, or find Unknown Kadath, that would clinch it.
The Dreamlands connection runs deep. Pretty much anything involving the Dreamlands is heavily steeped in Nyarlathotepās influence, and entities from the Dreamlands are seen within the game. The Avatar of Bokrug, the Spiders of Leng, the Moon Beasts, the Thunnha. On the Isle of Siptah, these beings are summoned into the world by the Maelstrom, which is tearing holes across time and space. Curiously, you can obtain some kind of essence from these entities and use those to open a direct connection to the Exiled Lands, pulling people and monsters from it.
The Exiled Lands are also indirectly confirmed to be not in any physical place in Hyboria, with statements from Joel Bylos alluding to this on several occasions when asked. I myself asked him about it and got some vague responses confirming Nyarlathotep is involved in the creation of the Exiled Lands, and got this back:
So how did Conan, and the seeming gaggle of women following him, wind up in the Dreamlands and seemingly able to leave at any time with no ill effect? Thatās the part where the concept gets disjointed. Unless Conan himself has always been in the Dreamlands and never in āthe real worldā of Hyboria .
Thatās where it gets murky. Thereās several accounts by various sources describing people arriving here. The Lemurians sailed here from the Vilayet sea, half a continent away from Stygia. Several prisoners describe being brought by land and this is corroborated by three things; firstly, the Isle of Siptah intro cinematic describes a slave ship sailing from Argos to Stygia to reach the exiled lands, and the stories in the chronological order the game takes place in between put Conan just south of western Stygia, lastly Thoth-Amon discovers the Exiled Lands through some inexplicable but magical means. The Giant-Kings also describe in their lorestones barges used to come in from the river. I believe thereās several physical ways in to the exiled lands scattered across the world, and Conan through blind luck and a touch of divine intervention found one.
Iām more of a mind to think that itās a real physical place, largely avoided due to its lack of easily obtained resources, the hostile and sometimes demonic fauna, undead, demons, etc. Nobody is going to go there willingly with the exception of the relic hunters which are like adventurers and a vagabond like Conan. It would be marked on a map like the medieval maps of old āhere there be dragonsāā¦ aka āwe have no idea whatās here but itās scaryā. Otherwise, how do you get on a mundane ship to be shipped to a fantastic otherworldly place? Not only something done with a mundane ship but also as routine as being sent to Australia in 1787?
And thatās what it is, the background. Conan is not the story in this game, itās the back-story, the prologue to the real story in this game, and that story is you, the player. Meanwhile every other player is also playing their own story.
Youāre not playing Conanās story, youāre playing your own story set in the same milieu where Conan exists. If you were expecting a linear narrative (or even a non-linear narrative with side-stories) in which you follow in the footsteps of stories that have already played out for other characters, then you can into the game with the wrong expectations. That would be a conventional RPG in which every player plays the same story in the same order. This is not a novel in which youāre following along someone elseās story as an outside viewer/reader, youāre playing your own story with every action you take.
None of the lore in this game is āthe storyā, the lore provides the setting in which the story takes place, the real story is you.
OK, you know Iām, pretty much in agreement on most of the lore stuff, and youāve shown enough evidence on the Trapezohedron and Nyarlathotep to convince me on them. But -
Where are you getting this bit? IIRC Haunter in the Dark is the story you linked me a while back (guy sitting at a desk, ruined/dark church with a āthingā inside it - thatād be the Haunter, right?). Obviously thereās a direct link to the Trapezohedron, but Iām not seeing the evidence that the Staff entity is that same specific entity - I donāt even recall it speaking. Not that it couldnāt be the same entity, Iām just not seeing anything that particularly suggests it. It is most certainly some ādenizen of the outer darknessā - what the game terms ādemonsā - but Iām not sure it necessarily needs to be the Haunter specifically. What am I missing?
Mostly Iāll leave Jimbo to answer your questions on the lore - his answers will tend to be more certain than mine. But this one I wanted to take a stab at precisely because I donāt take it quite as far as Jimbo, but still wind up with much the same conclusion. I tend towards the opinion that the Exiled Land are outside of ānormalā reality - whether a pocket dimension or directly within the Dreamlands, or whatever. Partly this comes down to the fact that I find the Outcast (Ymir religion teacher) to be the most convincing of the in game theory crafters, but partly also it is the geography of the Exiled Lands.
First there is the climate - desert, swamp/jungle, rolling grasslands, pine forest and frozen wastes, all within a few square miles. Obviously, the desert is unnatural (caused by the release of the sandstorm entity), and Tephra has pointed out that the Disjunction may similarly cause the cold in the north - but, even taking them into account, it still feels like the Exiledl Lands has an unusually varied climate.
Second, thereās the sun - it travels from south to north across the Exiled Lands (actually more like south-southwest to north-northeast). So either that is evidence itself for being unnatural, or the map orientation should have spawn points and noob river in the east, swamp in the north etc. And if the map orientation changes, then the climate remains a problem.
Third is the lore connections. The Lemurians travelled āwest, ever westā from the sinking of their homelands and then fleeing from the race that enslaved them afterwards. This strongly suggests that the swamp coastline of the Exiled Lands would be where they finally made landfall. Except that we have just seen (because of the sun) that this coast is not on the east of the EL, but rather the north. Sure, you could be sailing westward and pass close enough to the north coast of somewhere that you still view making landfall there as travelling west. But the Lemurians are not the only group that makes it to the Exiled Lands, thereās also the Stygians. We know they are āmarching prisoners in across the desertā and have set up their outpost at Sepermeru in the āwestā of the EL, which suggests the EL are located somewhere east of Stygia. Except the sun again twists this and now the EL are somewhere north of Stygia - with a coastline somewhere on their northern edge. This would put the EL somewhere in the middle of Hyborian Europe - the most mapped and documented part of the world - and somewhere that there is no coastline (the mediterranean at this point being the plains of Shem).
Each time I try to place the EL physically within our world, there is some contradiction, something that makes that location impossible. While I am not quite so certain as Jimbo that it is definitely within the Dreamlands specifically, I have yet to see anyone successfully suggest a potential ārealworldā location that isnāt contradicted somewhere.
As for the āhowā of travel into the EL, whether Dreamlands or other dimension, that largely comes down to tropes. Within mythology and fantasy, it is not that unusual for an individual (or group) to be able to pass physically into the spiritworld/dreamworld/wherever - either through use of ritual or sometimes just by following obscure paths. I have a memory of Thoth-Amon having a āmeditation realmā that seemed like a pocket dimension (though I could be mixing in lore from some other franchise - itās a blurry memory).
Personally, I view the Exiled Lands as some āplaceā carved out by the Giant Kings - linked to the world, but not directly in it. At the height of their power, travel back and forth would have been easy (ābarges laden with tributeā), but the war with the Lemurian refugees and the betrayal by the serpentmen left it in ruins. Thoth Amon then found it and repurposed it as a combined prison and source of ancient magical artifacts - using the prisoners he dumps within it to gather these artifacts from the ruins of the Giant Kings. Conan, as Jimbo suggests, may simply have wandered in by one of these obscure entrances (probably one somewhere near Stygia).
(This also, in my view, adds an interesting extra layer to the story of the war between Lemurians and Giant Kings - if itās just a physical place, then the Giant Kings are kinda the bad guys of the story. But if it is a pocket dimension they created/carved out of the Dreamlands, then letting the Lemurians in becomes a greater act of charity in the first place - which in turn makes the eventual conflict between them that much more tragic as neither side was really in the wrong.)
You are using the map orientation convention of the current culture to apply to the game world. Sure, up is normally North and colder climate is in the north in the northern hemisphere in our world, but that may not apply in the Exiled Lands. In magical terms, it is likely to be easier to place conflicting biomes in close proximity than to change the path of the sun in the sky.
In any case, every night there is a full moon which means either the Exiled Lands are a place out of time or the programmers were too lazy to program phases of the moon.
Conan Exiles takes place between A Slithering Shadow and A Witch Shall Be Born. Conan walked into the exiled lands by accident as he is enroute from one story to another. As for the Dreamland thing, that a fan-theory that isnāt confirmed.
We do know that the game takes place between those two stories. We also know how Conan arrived in the Exiled Lands due to him stating such. We also know the rest of the following: Ramza was exiled to the exiled lands because she is of noble blood and her abductors didnāt want noble blood on their hands and left her here to die. Thoth-Amon came across the exiled lands and found the Serpent Ring of Set there, he then orchestrated other exiles to be sent there as well as Relic Hunters to find more artefacts. King Ctesphon of Stygia sent an army after hearing about riches and such being reported back by those who were coming and going.
All these entities are simply walking into and out of the exiled lands with only the ones with bracelets (in canon) being stuck as crossing the wall kills the wearer. Conan and other entities who just walked in are not bound to the exiled lands. They can simply walk out the same way the came in.
What we donāt know is exactly what location the exiled lands are. But we have a general idea given the locations in the two aforementioned stories.
Obviously there is some geographical issues with this. But given the timeframe between A Slithering Shadow and A Witch Shall be Born, thereās very little to indicate that Conan deviated from the area in the circle.
Two major theories explain this. One being that the Exiled Lands has unnatural influences and thus has climates that differ over a very small area. The other is the Dreamland/Snow Globe theory where its a pocket dimension that can be stumbled into and out of. Thus far thereās been no real evidence to prove one or the other. Nor do I believe weāll ever see evidence of one or the other due to the nature of the debate about such. The observations of those inside the Exiled Lands imply the former, but this is from the perspective of those inside and not a wider one.
I guess I was insufficiently clear, as that is the point I was making. The sun makes clear that the āstandard orientationā view of the map cannot be correct. Given that most theories that try to place the Exiled Lands in the physical world assume the coast is on the east, the sun rather invalidates those theories. But the detail that it must be somewhere to the west of Lemuria (and probably a significant distance to the west) remains a fixed compass direction from outside the EL. Its position in relation to Stygia is less definite, but there are suggrestions that Stygia lies to the Sepermeru side of the EL (west by standard orientation, or south if going by the sun). In my view, there is no physical location that can match these details, unless the theory-crafter ignores the path of the sun.
Good point about the moon - that further supports the Dreamlands/pocket dimension options. Of course, as you suggest, we know that many things remain unfinished (and some may never have even been considered) - the reality may well be that we receive āfalseā evidence as a result. All theory crafting is somewhat moot if the game itself contains unintended details. But I choose to work from the available evidence, because itās the best Iāve got
Another thing to consider is when the game was originally in development before we got to play in Early Access, there was only really the desert and the savannah. Its location was likely meant to be in Northern Stygia or Southern Shem.
Then without any regards to the starting lore and them making their own game world as they went along. They added the snowy north as an excuse for Cimmerian and Nordheimer content. Then again with the Jungle to the east as a means of having Lemurian and pirate stuff.
I suspect there was no retcon and no actual talks about how to rectify those decisions in lore to make sense. So they donāt make sense and āits a video game, donāt think too far into itā is likely the running reasoning for everything.
The endgame and the lore of Conan Exiles has very similar outcomes as Super Mario Bros. It is whatever you make of it, and its up to the player to fill in the gaps for themselves.
reaction he left me is supposed to convey but Iām assuming that means Iām correct to some degree.
