Interesting ideas…
Are they undead? Can somebody test if they react to poison and spectre coating? Not a real exclusion of that idea from a pure lore perspective, but would give us a hint. The theory is a really good one, I think.
Do they just inhabit the ruins? Well, I’d say no, because the Black Ones (their literary role-model) had pools similar to the one ingame. Buuuuut who says the Black Ones created their pool? Maybe they also just occupied the territory. Good candidate.
What is weird is that the statuettes are scattered all across the island. The Black Ones semmed to treasure their figurines, similar to one would keep collectibles I assume. But the Grey Ones either lost a lot of them, or they attribute no great value to them. I’d say the latter, as even the statuettes in territory the control just seem to lie around randomly.
Personally, I’d still assume that the ruins are “theirs”. Despite their abysmal state, I can see no hint or even evidence that they invaded later. And to me, their appearance and the style of the ruins seemed to fit together. But that’s a matter more of feeling than objective observation. The invader or undead theory would explain a lot.
A more simpler explanation might be that wars with the first humans, the elder races or even the first Stygian invaders ruined their society.
The first men are pretty tough, but probably no match for a Grey One in an one on one fight. But with superior numbers, faster procreation and so on, the first men would very likely have been able to deal major damage to their society, maybe enough to ruin their ecomony for centuries. Maybe they even forgot how to trap creatures in their pools, or just lost interest in it.
If the Grey Ones did not create the pools… who did then? The ruins look like remnants of some mortal race, not eldritch horrors. Serpentpeople? Their building style is vastly different, favoring round shapes instead of the sharp edges of the Grey Ones ruins. Giant-Kings? They build high, elaborate structures, whereas the ruins look more low-tech, closely stuck to the earth. The first men? We know little of them, but they don’t appear of the intellectual prowess to use magic, at least in their current state.
One has to notice, though, that the undead first men look remarkably different than the living ones. Maybe they devolved from a more advanced society and biological form? Maybe the Grey Ones are relatives or even living remants of what the First Men looked like in the ancient past?
There could have been some shift or schism in their society. In the beginning, they used their pool magic, but something drove them apart. One branch devoled into the first men, and another branch that doesn’t care for the pool magic turned into the Grey Ones. Some remnants of their original form, vaguely similar to both, “survived” as undead all across the island. The devoled First Men might have battled to Grey Ones to get their figurines, which could explain why they’re all scattered about the island now. The First Men couldn’t make much use of them, and slowly forgot their meaning.
Maybe the pools was what kept their intelligence? All just conjecture and speculation. But there seems to be some mystery we cannot see.
@ Kapoteeni
Their contact may date back to the cataclysm, but they must also have contact with the Exiled Lands during the Lemurian war. Else, there would have been no Silent Legion. Tyros’ human slave soldiers army was created to fight in that war afaik.
Back then, these poor arseholes were the epitome of a glass cannon. They had only 190 hp (Stygian Invaders had 750 HP, if I remember correctly), but hit like a truck with their obsidian weapons. I almost lost my Dalinsia, when I engaged the scorpion boss and one single Grey One with a greatsword.