These swirling portals in The Temple of Frost

Conan Exiles General Discussion Players Helping Players
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I always loved the interior of The Temple of Frost, the whole “Palace of the Ice Queen” look (except where the resident ruler is a braindead 4 meter tall blue barbarian, who hates thinking :joy:).

But the part I found the most interesting was the Disjunction room, filled with all these yawning black portals to nowhere, complete with the visuals of snowy winds being sucked into them.

If I remember correctly, the Giant-King lorestones mention the reality is thin around this entire place and the black ice forms only near the places close to the Outer Dark.

I was always curious if this is supposed to be some kind of crossroads into other dimensions/worlds?

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Yes.

More likely the portals are expelling snowy winds rather than sucking them.

They are probably the gateways the frost giants used to enter the Exiled Lands.

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So the question here is, who builded these entrances so the frost giant will arrive?

Edit. 2nd question. Why they are only one way? Maybe the frost giants we have on exile lands are exiles too.

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Well, the answers to those questions are probably related to the fundamental nature of what the Exiled Lands truly are, who is behind their creation, and the purpose of it all.

Firstly, the Exiled Lands are not a real place, but are located outside time and space. However, how not-real they are isn’t entirely known. Maybe a dream, maybe a snowglobe.

Who created them? Possibly Nyarlathotep, as his fingers have been involved throughout the whole history of the Exiled Lands. The Staff of the Triumvirate, which orchestrated the downfall of the giant-kings, is an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

Why do they exist? If Nyarlathotep created the Exiled Lands, then they exist for his entertainment.

If that it really is Nyarlathotep behind everything, then the frost giants may have just been invited in or tricked in for his amusement. Perhaps they came for adventure and battle, perhaps they came because they believed Ymir, their father, to be present there.

Whatever brought them, it seems they have probably been here for a very long time now as they do not remember anything differently and regarded The Outcast, who questioned the reality of the Exiled Lands, as a fool. This probably indicates the portals are no longer operational either way.

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The profone answer probably is… unfinished content.

If we want to give the portals some meaning… The frost giants obviously are intelligent and probably able to use magic, as the frost forge shows us. They are said to be distant relatives, maybe degenerates of the giant kings. The giant-kings are summoners and are able to use teleportation magic through their obelisks.

It would be plausible for the frost giants to know similar magic. Personally, I don’t believe they used magic to travel to the Exiled Lands. If they are relatives of the giant kings, they’d likely live close to them, not travel to them for afar.
Neither do I see definite proof for the “snowglobe theory”. So, it’s most likely the forst giants used or used he portals to travel to other places and/or summon beings.

Do we see any evidence of them summoning anything or travelling to other places? No. There are no creatures except the frost giants and a lone white dragon in their lair. All the equipment they have - weapons and armor - can be created by the frost forge. So, it seems they live quite isolated, except maybe raiding the Cimmerians and Heirs of the North or even the Votaries of Skelos.

So… why? Maybe the fall of the giant kings discouraged them from using their magic? The giant kings’ fall was caused or at least accelerated by bad advice from a treacherous summoned demon. Maybe the frost giants understood what happened and now refrain from using their magic? Maybe, over time, they even forgot how to.

So, in short, I’d assume that the portals are unused, half-forgotten relics of an age gone by, when maybe, the frost giants were as powerful as the giant kings, and explored the world and maybe even places beyond this world.

P. S.: The portals are remarkably similar to the portals that leads to the Well of Skelos. There may be a connection: Maybe the Serpentfolk taught that magic to the frost giants that lived near them, or maybe it was the other way around.
Portals created by the Lemurians look differently, as we can see in the Dagon dungeon. They don’t have black, swirly spirals, but show the place they send you to.

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The frost giants are not relatives of the giant-kings, they are the children of Ymir.

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The wiki says they’re relatives.

I don’t know an ingame source for that, though.

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Probably head canon of whoever wrote that. It says that no more.

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Hu, reading the entries, there’s something peculiar:

Hungir says:
“Let me ask you, have you dreamed in this place? I have not. You cannot dream within a dream.”

The harlot’s journal No 8 talks of her dreaming:
“I had a dream last night after bedding the high priest. A dream of blood and water. An outstretched hand holding me in the skies only to then lay me down in a river.”

Later, he says:
“Think back, little dream. Do you have any clear memories of a time before this place? Can you form a single recollection from childhood? Were you ever even a child? Or did you take form whole-cloth when the Exiled Lands blinked into existence?”

Razma, the harlot, Conan, Mek-kamoses and other seem to have a memory of their time before arriving here.

Assuming the harlot doesn’t lie to her own journal, the outcast’s assumtion doesn’t seem to be true, at least not for everybody in the Exiled Lands, which pretty much voids his whole theory. It is still possible that he came into existance without ever being a child, but that doesn’t seem to be true for others.

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I wouldn’t get too excited over that. “closest related species” could just mean distant cousins. Or something like “I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.”

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The sentence about them being relatives apparently was added in 2019 by Desertdweller120. Anybody know who that is so that we can ask for a source?

If they aren’t relatives, that would fit the theme of dreams and un-reality about them. I always wondered if the giant king lorestone and the outcast’s tale relate to them springing into existence because somebody thought about them. That wouldn’t make much sense if they are a biological species related to the giant kings. But if they aren’t… that may be their origin.

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I think they were just adding flavor text and didn’t necessarily know the lore, or they meant “related” in the same way that rocks with similar mineral composition are related - which is to say, not at all aside from superficial similarities.

The more interesting question is, is Ladagara related? Ymir is only supposed to have one daughter, Atali. This is even stated in-game when you select Ymir during character creation. However, Ladagara does carry a Horn of the North that summons frost giants.

Is Ladagara truly a second daughter of Ymir?
Is she a nordheimer who perhaps befriended the frost giants and was given that title?
Could she even be a descendant of a frost giant union with a human, making her technically a granddaughter of Ymir?

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Her unusual size and strength hint towards her having some giant blood or a blessing from Ymir.

I’d say it’s an honorary title based on her size and strength, and possibly her giant blood. Atali wasn’t particularly large iirc, and had strange magical powers far beyond what Ladagara shows.

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I concur. She probably does have some frost giant blood in her lineage, but her father probably isn’t Ymir himself.

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Atali looked like a very pale-skinned human aside from her hair and eyes that seemed to change color. However, most of the powers Conan witnessed while pursuing her came from Ymir himself, the only powers she displayed directly was her immunity to cold, ability to dance and run on top of snow without leaving footprints, and summon upon Ymir when she needed his help.

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I don’t know about all of you but I totally ship Ladagara and Tyros……

Back on topic.
I’m still hoping that at some stage they use those portals to connect us to other new maps in the future. It would be cool if you could interact with one then “ bam” load into the Siptah map like the sunken city.

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I don’t think Tyros has the mental capacity to be in a romance anymore due to his curse. Even if he did, I’m not sure he ever got over Telith. If he took off his armor, he’d look like the Silent Legion, so I doubt Ladagara would go for that either.

I do not think the portals in the Disjunction ever will go anywhere. They are not unfinished content like some other places in the Exiled Lands, they are there for lore reasons.

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Does this makes Conan dream as well? That’s why he never goes away from the bar :rofl:.

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The Giant Kings were created by the Serpent Women when they bred with the Frost Giants. Just take a look at the Statuettes of the Triumvirate.

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The Exiles Lands existed before the Giant Kings as evidenced by the Circle of Swords.

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Unfinished space that irritates me when i see it as id like to jump in and go to maybe, i dunno, Siptah, anywhere for that matter. :slight_smile: