A question for all players, do you have any guesses about the wars timeline? So far all we know about the wars is this -
Immortal War - Happened roughly 10k years ago, when gods still walked among humans. Based on ToD, the gods' anger grew and started harming the human race, and Dura stepped in, starting the chain reaction that led to the fall of the age of gods.
First Divine War - Occurred roughly 2k years ago when the hypogeans were mysteriously created and started spreading chaos and havoc amongst Esperians. Based on CoE and also starter story clues, towards the end of DW-I, Merlin sealed most of the hypogeans within the hypogean rift(also, if my memory serves me right, this is when the graveborn were created by the GoD for the first time).
Second Divine War - Now, see this is where it gets murky, and if I'm not wrong, it's never actually confirmed within the game when this war began. It's all guesswork. From reference material across Tumblr and the wiki we know that it happened somewhere after the establishment of the Lyceum. Cyran's brother fought and died, and because of his own abilities, Cyran was able to propel forward and obtain the position of Chief Court Mage. There is also a possibiliy related event -
During the Divine War, Dura sealed the Hypogeans in the abyss. But as time passed, dark rifts began showing up in various places. Members of the Temple began to carry around the Faith Stone, trying to mend the rift.
(AFK J wiki- Trial of the Abyss)
It's possible THIS was the beginning of the Second Divine War.
And of course this new thing,
Now yes, this tells us why we lost our memories(not really tbh, we still don't know "why" we just know why we lost most of our powers but whatever), it also begs the question when exactly it happened.
And it also brings up the questions, from starter we know that Merlin has lost their memories multiple times, and this just seems to be the beginning of it. How long do these "slumber"s last, how often have they happened, etc., etc.?
Honestly I even heard from one source that the DW-II is still ongoing.
ALLL this and we still haven't even gone past the tip of the iceberg. How many Merlins have there been? Who are the other seats of the council? Who was before us? What happened in the age of Arcana? When were the faction estabilised? When did the lightbearers become the top people? What happened between the Immortal War and the first divine war? and SOOOOO much more. uff
Nathaira, the divine messenger of the Hunting Goddess Azora was created by her very own hands almost fifteen thousand years ago. Despite the credentials, she was no more than a glorified pet.
𝔉𝔬𝔯𝔪
Standing at a devastating 50 feet in her divine form, she's a massive serpent capable of destroying entire cities if she willed, but could also be a mere unnoticeable snake one wouldn't pay any mind to. Through Azora she bore the ability to don a mortal disguise.
𝔇𝔲𝔱𝔶
Created more out of pleasure than for any task, she faces the least of the goddess's wrath. Still, the Wildmother sends her off to live among the wildborn every few hundred years, to ensure devotion to her is maintained and order prevails. On these few occasions, she lives among the wildborn as one of their own for sometimes years at a time and observes the happenings, reporting everything back. The time in between the trips ensures that she is never remembered or recognised.
𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔡𝔟𝔬𝔯𝔫
Owing to her task, Nathaira gets to observe the wildborn from the closest perspective, getting to know them, their traditions, the hard-earned care and the occasional compassion. She pities the old and comes to care for the young. For over five thousand years, the wildborn chip and crumble her stone heart.
𝔄𝔷𝔬𝔯𝔞'𝔰 𝔚𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔥
She seals herself in the depths of a cave, so that Azora may not call upon her, for she could not bear to inflict harm upon the very creatures she had come to care for. And thus begins the slumber of the ages.
ℑ𝔪𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔱𝔞𝔩 𝔚𝔞𝔯
Mortals rebelled, and gods fell. The Millennium that spared the family of none, and throughout everything, there remained buried deep underground the fallen goddess's only living piece. With the fall of every single god, a fraction of their power seeped into the earth, finding its way to the slumbering serpent, and yet it remained asleep.
𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔦𝔯𝔰𝔱 𝔇𝔦𝔳𝔦𝔫𝔢 𝔚𝔞𝔯
When the hypogeans finally arose, crawling their way out the hell they were created in. The orders from the first Merlin were invoked by the Merlin of that age. It was finally time.
The moment had come when the Sepentine Merlin had to be awakened. The single most powerful being, containing the powers of hundreds of divine beings, and instincts enough to use it for death and destruction.
𝔓𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔱
She has donned the title Nehir, although no records of her existence remain, the invocation Naithaira will still send shivers down anyone's back. Having lived for so long, she has lost the love and care that had once burrowed deep into her heart and had compelled her to change. She cared not for anyone besides the promise she had once made to Dura, and that is the only reason why Esperia still stands intact and protected.
So our girl Lucilla gets added to the abomination that is AFK Arena Companions. Alone. Without her brother or the War of Truth event.
What is interesting about this is that she now gets her own Dolly quote. Which I THINK she didn’t have before, as the twins came in as a double in August 2023. 🤔
Okay so I already know nobody cares about the lore enough to address the OTHER glaring issues with how the Draconis were added and explained. I know nobody cares that they would never ever ally with Dura because Dura is the one who fucked them over, and I know nobody cares that humans would be the LAST they would help, and I know nobody even cares that Gwyneth isn't a fucking lost dragon princess with kewl girlboss powers or whatever, or that the dragons were supposed to be hibernating underground and not have fucked off to some random island, or that Kane has a DRAGON mount, not a wyvern, or that them trying to "hide" their "shameful past" of being enslaved by humans literally doesn't work because half their population LIVED THROUGH IT...
But let's bring up another point for a second. From the Floating Isles AbEx season, we learned something very very curious that honestly makes the inclusion of dragons as the ultimate good-guy saviors even more tone-deaf and, frankly, incredibly stupid. Yes, the dragons were eventually enslaved by humanity and almost driven to extinction. However, for thousands of years before that, literally since life in Esperia was created, dragons were the ones kidnapping and enslaving people. Most of the dragons in charge, including Dwyneth's parents and Hildwin lived to see that shift, meaning they were SLAVERS and likely kidnapped and enslaved entire tribes of humans and other "lesser" creatures like the winged serpent. And worse yet, some of these creatures, like the winged serpent, were so conditioned into servitude that they crave it even now, thousands and thousands of years after they've been freed. They kidnap hundreds of humans to the floating fortresses and gather magical artifacts in hopes of bringing back their masters to rule over them again. This wasn't just your regular old slavery, this was purposeful psychological conditioning to the point where the slaves just aren't able to move on even now. Hildwin, Dwyneth's parents, and at least all the other old generation of the "Draconis" are despicable and awful and should've been depicted as such instead of this stupid goody two-shoes mary sue bullshit.
Anyway, that's my overthinking rant for tonight.
@theproperweirdo @special-vibe @i-think-i-like-cute-hearty-stuff @thefearfulheart @celestialtwins46 and everyone else who likes afk lore or is on my blog for it, honestly pop off queens and kings and other royals, we need more of us if we ever wanna hope to make a change (we probably won't be able to since Lilith is just addicted to ruining their franchises by now but oh well)
All screenshots are from the second official trailer 🔥🔥 here’s the first one
Also BIG APPLAUSE to the Lilith team for this trailer, the music and visuals were absurdly good. I will be listening to the soundtrack and researching for the animation
Okay okay soooooo we’re gonna move in chronological order of the second video
Alright, the “Carmine” whispers:
The “Carmine” part is new, I guess they added it as an adjective? Weird. The name whisperers is from “the faint whisper coins make on cloth while being picked out of pockets.” I’m sad to loose that…
This guy in the glasses is also new. With this scene composition of Sonja and unnamed guy on the sides with glasses guy in the middle, it looks like he might be the boss of the Whispers here. Very different from the OG story, where Sonja and Nara built up the Whispers together as its bosses, before Sonja took over completely.
However, we get a snippet of Sonja pointing her cane toward Glasses McGee, so there’s likely internal conflict arising. She might overthrow him or something.
I don’t have any info on the guy on the right tho.
Sonja herself looks pretty different now. Less roses on the side of her head, and more thorn imagery on her design. No other major changes tho.
This snippet seems to allude to Rustport now being involved in weapon or some other form of manufacturing. Probably will be part of the main conflict. This is purely from the idea that they wouldn’t show anything in a trailer if it was irrelevant. There has to be a process of why they include shots right?? 😭😭
HODGKIN!! The dead tide fleet is here!! Looks like they’ll be against the Carmine whispers. This artifact (or relic, as he says) looking thingy that Hodgkin is holding seems pretty important. It may be why he has the allegiance of these sea-graveborn esq creatures. In the trailer, it kind of activates, and then a large Kraken like thing starts grabbing at the ship.
Nara is also in cahoots with the Dead tide fleet this time around. We see her fighting alongside them during both trailers. Means she’s no longer a whisperer??? We don’t know what happened to her in Arena after she died, so I have nothing to go off. Seems like they’ve got some form of an agreement here.
There’s that pretty new ranger woman, but her design screams fan service 2 me so rn I feel like she’s not entirely lore relevant. She’s probably got her own side story.
This new guy, Sinbad, seems to be our companion in Rustport. A handy magic compass and a history of treasure hunting means he could be after that artifact Hodgkin has. My theory is he grew up in Rustport, knows the town well, and has some kind of personal agenda against both the dead tide fleet and the Whisperers. He’s called a merchant in the first trailer, so I suspect he’s a black market relic seller in Rustport.
Graveborn lore!! Viperian has appeared 🙏 as an “unconventional” scholar, he’s either in Rustport for research/testing, or travelling with Nara and Hodgkin for his own reasons. With this season centred around LB/GB, we’re (hopefully) getting some more content of him.
AHHHHHH I love these two… little Nara and little Sonja… 😢😢
But it looks like they’re against each other in Journey. Or, Nara wants something from Sonja? She’s actively fighting against Rustport, maybe even wants to destroy and take over it. More likely that’s she here solely for Sonja tho. Her line at the end of the trailer “now you’ll never forget me, Sonja…” alludes to a possible misunderstanding from Nara, that Sonja had forgotten about her completely. Either way, they’re fighting each other 😢
Okay, now for more personal speculation. I’ll be referencing a lot of the OG story from Arena here.
Originally, Nara reawakens from the dead because of both her extremely violent nature, and her deep desire to see Sonja again. “The survival of the Whispers, or punishing the traitors—they were all irrelevant now. All she wanted was to return to Rustport, to the Whispers, and to Sonja's side, where those warm hands could once again comfort her icy soul.” She literally has a vision of Sonja’s hands reaching out for her when she wakes up again 😭😭😭
In this new Journey trailer, my guess is that Nara has been fed fake info— something along the lines of that Sonja didn’t care she was dead, and now has double the power she used to. Their dynamic looks like depressed grieving gf and angry resentful gf. It could’ve been Hodgkin or Viperian manipulating her.
I can’t think up any reason why Hodgkin would be attacking Rustport. He’s been known as “the most ruthless pirate” of the seas, feared widely and being infamous for his title. But I don’t remember him being after property or wanting to take over towns like that. I mean, he’s from Rustport. This could be a character rewrite (wouldn’t be new).
The big plot of this season looks like Whisperers vs Dead Tide Fleet, with the sub plots of Nara v Sonja, Sinbad, Relic (probably related to the Hypogeans or something), and Hodgkin against glasses boss. I wrote this up fast and we only have two videos out rn, so I’ll wait and see.
Please tell me ur personal thoughts and feelings 🤞🤞
Crossposting from Reddit because I am tired of how the new AFK Arena writers keep trampling over incredible lore.
This is gonna be long so TLDR: Anything from ALucius onward has been one continuous middle finger to the lore community with insane retcons that ruined both characters and the world of Esperia and I just wish the game went back to what it had before.
Okay, now with the TLDR out of the way, let me preface this with brief history of my involvement with the game (just to avoid any comments accusing me of not knowing the game): I've been playing on and off pretty much since launch (missed about two or so weeks at launch) but got really into it before the Overlord collab. One thing that kept me invested for years to come was the lore. Lilith has done an incredible job crafting an interesting varied world full of all kinds of people and characters. I've been creating fanworks, crafting theories with my fellow lore nerds, bought the artbook as soon as it was announced, and also got invited to the official dev and players meeting in Germany last year. I adore old AFK lore because it is the most well-crafted world I've ever seen in a mobile game and it was definitely the main reason I've stayed for so long.
However, things shifted around the time ALucius released. His story completely retconned Lucius' original story which is what made him so lovable for me and a lot of my lore-interested friends. Lucius isn't someone who didn't join the army on a whim because he didn't want to. He was deeply traumatized as a child and even tried the military before realizing it just wasn't for him. No, instead now he's more like a petulant child who just didn't want to follow the family tradition. And let me tell you, it didn't get better from there on out. The biggest offender though, of course, are the Draconis.
The Draconis as a whole are a mess. Firstly, they completely retcon Dura's involvement in the Age of Arcana which completely breaks the world. To explain a long story very quickly, Dura gave humans magic which led to an arms race between the humans and the gods, making the gods send Annih to deal with it, leading to the creation of the Ya who would later split into Maulers and Wilders, which then led to the Cinder War where humans basically turned on each other, Quaedam was one of the powerful mages who died during this time, and finally, it made Annih the scapegoat for when the post-war mortals found out about what the gods (or rather, just Annih in their eyes) did, and of course, Annih then created the Hypogeans. If you take Dura out of the equation, there's no arms race because there is no need for it. If you remove her involvement, 4/6 factions in the game wouldn't even exist in the world. This seemingly insignificant detail (that was only edited to make Dura seem better anyway) completely breaks the world but oh boy, we're just starting.
During the Cinder Wars, dragons were nearly driven into extinction. According to the old lore, the last few remaining dragons hid underground and fell into a deep slumber to recover their strength. In their dreams, they created Tasi to guard them and ensure their safety. This was true up to when Gavus and Eugene were added into the game as they literally had a run-in with a dragon in its underground lair. These dragons also have a deep-rooted hatred for humanity to the point where even seeing two babies is enough to send them into a blind rage and try to kill them. They would've gone into hibernation before year 1 CE, meaning at least 35 years before the first Hypogean invasion even began. Instead, in the new lore, Dura took the dragons (but not the other enslaved and tortured races) and dropped them on a random island with the condition that they would "help when the need is worst" or something. And the dragons now also fought in the first Hypogean war which now supposedly happened before they were taken to the island? And nobody has any records of them fighting in it at all? And of course, they are totally fine helping out humans (let's also not forget that originally, it was Dura who gave humans the means to enslave dragons in the first place and we've seen from Gavus' story and the Chains of the Covenant comic that the dragons have little respect for the Celestials exactly because of that). There is also the idea that the dragons have always been noble and protectors of humanity but that is far from the truth too. During the Floating Isles Abyssal Expedition season, we got confirmation on what was already suggested earlier – the dragons of old were slavers themselves, kidnapping entire settlements to serve them and viewing every other race except the gods as beneath them. Given that some of the dragon characters we get in the game are supposed to have lived through that era, it certainly casts them in a very different light.
But let's not forget, the Draconis lore isn't even consistent within itself. For example, it claims that young draconis cannot control their transformation well, yet Gwyneth was supposedly able to turn fully human as a newborn baby and keep up her disguise for sixteen years (because yes, despite getting plastic surgery to get massive boobs and ass, she is supposed to be sixteen) and it only started showing because a wyvern (another retcon) suddenly got close to the capital… even though she already killed a wyvern before with no issues popping up. The Draconis lore also claims that many on the dragon isle were around during the Age of Arcana and yet, their enslavement is supposedly a secret so closely guarded that they would lock people up in isolation if they found out about it? Cassius supposedly found out through careful study and it was such a big deal he had to go on a hunger strike before Hildwin appointed him a scribe for the dragon council but in the Dwyneth webcomic, Cassius is already a scribe and Hildwin has to take him to a secret island off the dragon isle and tell him about all the history.
Let's also talk more with Dwyneth. Her story, once again, retcons what we've known about her and what made her so interesting. By making her a part of the king's hunting party who went to look for the wyvern, they got rid of her quick thinking and rather impulsive nature. And let's not forget that this wyvern was now supposedly a part of a whole group of wyverns terrorizing a nearby city? Wyverns and any draconids are supposed to be extremely rare in Esperia for reasons I'll get into later. The original story had the king's party be on a stroll and accidentally waking up the wyvern from its slumber because they didn't even know it was there. Gwyneth's quick thinking and strength gained her the respect of the king and she was subsequently allowed to join the Royal Garrison. That is not even mentioning that Gwyneth was heavily implied to be a child of the robbers Hendrik killed before he adopted her. Her strength was strange, sure, but it never needed an explanation in a world where squirrels can turn people into acorns and undead mermaids float in the sea. And then we get to her actual awakening story…
Listen, if you need to kill an NPC to make your new waifu seem cool, I will already think it's cringe. But if you kill the single most popular NPC your lore community has, one with insane history and all that, it just starts to look like you hate your own content and/or audience. Kane's death makes no sense. He is a battle-hardened warrior with elemental powers (heavily implied to once have been the elemental guardian – we'll talk about how the draconis mess those up later) with a dragon mount (demoted to a wyvern because we can't possibly have an evil dragon now) who has been around since long before the first Hypogean war. Not only is he killed by a sixteen-year-old girl, she also only just got her powers and has supposedly no idea how to use them. And she also bested him in close-quarters combat despite being an archer and Kane being a legendary swordsman. Sadly, this was not the last time a Draconis-related storyline decided to kill off an important NPC with no regard for their lore.
Next we get to Antandra. Once again, the story retcons her entire backstory, events, and personality. It actually makes her more in-line with Journey's Antandra than Arena's which is a whole another can of worms I will not get into right now. Instead of Antandra being the tribute to the temple, she now apparently chose to go and become a temple warrior. After she was banished from the temple, she apparently never saw Satrana again (retconning her union story with Satrana as well as multiple time-limited and permanent events). She is also apparently a mother figure to a lot of children living around where she is staying… which should be the Land of Exiles since she was, you know, exiled and banished. There shouldn't be any children there, it is by far the most dangerous part of the desert. The idea that there's a whole tribe of children who see Antandra as their mother figure just running around is kind of stupid to be honest. Let's also ignore that she is probably the one who gave Dwyneth her new chest because Antandra's went the opposite direction. Let's also compare how previous awakened characters got their powers vs how Antandra did: Thane and Baden went on a huge journey to learn about cooperation and self-sacrifice and took immense risks to protect their loved ones. Safiya nearly died in a game of 5D chess against one of the deadliest enemies in the desert and destroyed an entire clan's kingdom. Antandra? Well, she girlbossed extra hard and Hildwin gave her a gem for it.
Eironn's story is baffling to say the least. Not only is it copy-pasted from Journey's beta where that was pretty much the exact backstory for Bryon (before they decided they don't want a disabled character to be playable) but it doesn't fit Eironn's character. It presents Eironn as someone who chases after glory and thrill of the fight and doesn't care about the people around him. However, Eironn has never been this person. He'd been awkward and struggled to rely on others, yes, but he would never abandon his comrades to chase after a powerful enemy. And of course, he doesn't even get to be cool in his own awakening story, Dwyneth has to swoop in after deciding he was "worthy" and save him at the last minute. At least there aren't any giant retcons to his backstory I guess.
And then there is Thoran and oh boy… So remember when I said Kane wasn't the only NPC who got done super dirty and killed just because the writers could? Same thing happened with Quaedam. Forget the fact that Thoran and all the other graveborn who made a contract with Quaedam are supposed to be like a hivemind that Quaedam can tap into and read at any time. Forget that Quaedam doesn't have a body or anything material and is a spectral entity on a similar power level to the Celestials at this point. Forget also the fact that Quaedam has the Eldritch Council – a whole line-up of similarly powerful necromancers who have been working for him since the Cinder Wars. Forget the fact that Quaedam most likely had enslaved dragons and thus would absolutely be stronger than them. Forget the fact he doesn't have a material base due to his immaterial nature. No, instead, Thoran makes a deal with a dragon behind Quaedam's back, steers the Hypogeans into Quaedam's base, and then strikes him down with a single swing of the sword. Oh, and let's also not forget, the necrodragon isn't supposed to just be out and about. It was a minion of the god of the hunt, Adrax, kept in a pocket dimension of his private hunting grounds.
The other characters who have released since ALucius have been a huge hit or miss but I won't get into each of them individually because that would be way too long (I say like the post already isn't) but to quickly summarize: Raoul is mostly fine aside from the fact where he doesn't look anything like what a character from Esperia would look like. Villanelle retcons Quicksand Claws to make them more stereotypically perpetrators of all evils and sins when they should be a very directly focused mercenary group. Misha's story mentions some "Wilder goddess" who has never existed or, if they mean Dura, was everyone's goddess. Journey, however, does have some Wilder-specific gods (and they suck and break the world further). It also mentions some incursion "decades ago" which… makes no sense? There hasn't been any incursion mere decades ago. Timelines don't timeline with this one. Randle is mostly fine but retcons Niru and how the Whispering Doom (I refuse to call it Doom Spire, stop changing good names, Lilith) works. Aurelia is fine except for the part where her story makes Flora into a lazy bum who doesn't want to do her job. Knox is kinda okay except for the part where his story suggests all Hypogeans are an organized monolith. Most of the Draconis stories are already involved in what I talked about so I will just point out the biggest offender on the list is Lan and no, it is not because she has the vibes of a self-insert Mary Sue. It's because she makes the elemental guardians completely obsolete since dragons can control the elements and direct rain and wind and whatnot.
I've heard from an inside source that pretty much the entire writing department got sacked and the game was handed off to new writers, around the same time it happened with Journey as well, and I have to say, it certainly does feel that way. Between the retcons of huge world lore and warp of pre-existing playable and non-playable characters beyond recognition, it definitely feels like a spiteful rewrite where someone is trying to erase the original and do it "better" except they just end up ruining everything they touch. I'm just frustrated because I invested a lot of time and money into everything AFK-related, bought merch, commissioned art, wrote fanfiction (even won a contest by Lilith with one of my works), started running a DnD campaign set in Esperia, and more. Seeing it all go up in flames like this makes me sad and I just wish things could go back to what it was before. The War of Truth storyline was one of the peaks of AFK's storytelling ever so to follow it up with tis makes it even more jarring. The lore community right now is basically non-existant. Most of my friends left the fandom entirely or only pop in to make fun of how badly the new characters are written. Lilith killed their own lore nerds and it's a damn shame.
But anyway, that's just my rant. If you read everything, thank you a ton, I know this was long and I apologize. Please let me know what you think, if you noticed any more retcons and mistakes, etc. If you don't care about lore, this post is probably not for you so I apologize for wasting your time with it.
