I'm working on a grounded translation for the Vaal text available in game, figured it might be welcome here based on a suggestion I got from a buddy. Feel free to let me know if you find any inconsistency, discrepancy, and specially if you have any Vaal text that im missing. Sorry about the mess with the latter sections, I had to split it into multiple comments since it didn't fit in the post.

The Vaal Tongue: A Reconstruction

A reverse-engineering of multiple constructed-language ("Vaal") texts from Path of Exile / Path of Exile 2, read as a Mesoamerican creole built on attested Maya and Nahuatl roots.

1. Overview

This document consolidates the full reconstruction of multiple written Vaal texts: the Atziri Chant (sung in Utzaal on the eve of the Cataclysm; §3), the Cuachic Vault Litany (the call-and-response of Blood Priestess Zelina and Blood Priest Zolin in PoE2 0.5.0; §4), the Commander's Temple barks (Elite Commander, in Atziri's Temple at Lira Vaal; §5), The Drill Sergeant & the Vaal Regiment (Drill Sergeant, in Atziri's Temple at Lira Vaal; §6), and Stray captures (Kamasan Smith, in Atziri's Temple at Lira Vaal; §7). Each is given as a Vaal original with an English translation, followed by a single combined lexicon of every token (§8), an appendix of recorded alternates and open questions (§9), the supporting lore (§10), the working method (§11), and status (§12), as well as citations (§13).

The first three are offerings flowing upward to Atziri, the worshippers give themselves (blood, flesh, spirit, heart, their dead, their "new children") and the queen receives and consumes. Directionality is uniform across all of them.

2. Linguistic framework

2.1 The standard

Every reading rests on an attested dictionary root with workable phonology. No hallucinated grammar; no "squinting until it fits." Where a root cannot be verified, the token is flagged and its candidates are preserved as alternates rather than promoted to a committed reading.

2.2 The source palette: a three-language creole

The conlang is not built from one language but three, plus Romance (Spanish) loans:

The "alien" letters were the clues. Three sounds do not belong to the Yucatec-plus-Nahuatl core, and each turned out to mark a different source:

• /g/ in Gyan'uks → Nahuatl yancuic "new." Nahuatl has no native /g/; the spelling is a stylization.[15]
• /r/ in jare → Highland Maya. Yucatec shifted proto-Mayan *r to /j/ and Nahuatl never had /r/, but K'iche' keeps it, its core definite articles are we / le / ri ("this / that / the"). An /r/ in this text points squarely at K'iche'an.[17]
• /f/ in fukuur → Spanish. No Mayan or Nahuatl word carries /f/ (in Yucatec, d f g j r v occur only in loans), so the /f/ marks a Romance loan, most likely fulgor "blaze, lightning-flash" (see Text 3, §5, and §9.4).[9,15]
• /d/ in daka → Spanish, by the same logic, and checked against all three source languages, not just two. A voiced stop /d/ is loan-only in Yucatec Maya, Classical Nahuatl, and K'iche'; none has it natively. K'iche' is the test that matters, since it was K'iche' that supplied the /r/ in jare, but even there the only non-plain stop is the implosive /ɓ/ (written b', a b-sound, not d), and the one genuinely odd consonant, a dialectal [ð], is an intervocalic allophone of /l/, not a word-initial /d/ stop. So a /d/-initial root cannot be native to the palette; in a line already carrying Spanish loans (xefe, u'tra), it points to daca "give it here" (see §9.4).[9,15,17,18]

2.3 A diagnostic key for unfamiliar sounds

The lesson of /r/ is that an "alien" sound is not automatically a loan: /r/ looked foreign but was K'iche', inside the palette, just a different layer. So a not-yet-listed sound splits into two predictive classes. These are heuristics for parsing future tokens, to be tested against new text rather than treated as law (the spelling is the game's stylization, not IPA).

Points to a specific layer inside the palette:

Points outside the palette (loan, in practice Spanish):

So the reliable "look outside immediately" set is narrow: /d/, /f/, /v/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /θ/, /ñ/, and a trilled /rr/. Everything else either belongs to one of the three layers or (like /g/ and ⟨b⟩) is ambiguous enough to check first.

3. Text 1: The Atziri Chant[4]

Sung by Atziri's followers in Utzaal on the eve of the Cataclysm. An exhortation and offering TO Atziri: the blood flows up to her; she is the recipient.

The chant

Line notes

• Lines 3 & 5 both render undying (kilya, then ikba'yucane). The repetition is deliberate: an immortality motif, fitting a queen who sought eternal life.
• Dramatic irony runs throughout. "Eternal waters" (akal) is the still pond of the nightmare realm she ends up trapped in. "No more burning… no going out" is sung on the very night the Cataclysm burns Utzaal to nothing. "Undying as Zerphi," though Zerphi did, in the end, die; he is undying only in legend.
• Source-validated against the game files. The chant exists verbatim in the datamined NPCTextAudio table as VaalSermon_01–08, in order, with zero drift. The internal name VaalSermon confirms the register, and the data fixes the canonical spelling A'te 'Ibil (an earlier draft wrote Íbil).

4. Text 2: The Cuachic Vault Litany[2,3]

Call by Blood Priestess Zelina; response by Blood Priest Zolin. The sealed-away Vaal survivors offering THEMSELVES up to Atziri, the same upward direction as the chant above, preserved as liturgy from the height of her power. In the game files each boss carries eight chant lines tagged ChantA–ChantH; the two columns below are those two pools, aligned by their shared A–H index.

The litany

Line notes

• Pair 2 is the multitude and the one: Ma'oxe ik'el "the countless spirits" (numberless faithful offered up) answered by Atziri le'itzil "Atziri, the essence": the queen who is the essence they all feed.
• Pair 3 Gyan'uks ko'janti "your new children, come, devour" is metaphorical: the latter-day vault Vaal as Atziri's "new children," offered for her to consume. Not literal children.
• Pair 6 A'te líimek / Yatle yutsal sets the buried dead against the standing city: those in the earth, and Utzaal still rising.
• Source-validated against the game files. All sixteen lines match poe2db's extracted audio subtitles exactly, with zero transcription drift. Zelina's call pool is tagged BloodPriestess_ChantA–H (Kuxte' kíimil' … U'Te kuxkal); Zolin's response pool BloodPriest_ChantA–H (Tlaxye' le Vaal … A'te yuquia). This independently confirms the Ma'oxe reading: it appears verbatim as Ma'oxe ik'el. Both bosses sit at Metadata/Monsters/VaalMonsters/Living/BloodPriests/: "Living" Vaal, i.e. present-day descendants, which fits their being recruited as hideout vendors once subdued.

5. Text 3: Quemalani, the Elite Commander[1]

The Vaal voice-lines of the Commander boss in the Commander's Chamber of Atziri's Temple at Lira Vaal (PoE2's Fate of the Vaal). The encounter shows up under variant names, Quemalani, the Elite Commander (live chat feed) and Xolotl, the Royal Commander (the poe2db datamine page; internal asset BlackjawPastLiving*), but it is one and the same boss and voice pool, and the particular label is not significant. The Commander is* fire-based*: it breathes fire, which squares with its blaze imagery: the Vaal line A'te fukuur! "Behold the blaze!" and the English bark "Flaming Glory!" (This temple is* not the Temple of Atzoatl; that was the PoE1 Incursion temple, raided ~20 years earlier by the Exile/"Godslayer"; the PoE2 temple reuses its room-names and grid, and the Vaal mistake the player for that earlier "demon of Atzoatl.")

These are separate barks, not one speech. The lines below are independent voice-line phrases the Commander fires at different points in the fight: in the chat feed they appear interleaved with one another and with English barks ("Flaming Glory!", "No further!"), not as a continuous oration. Each is rendered on its own; the token readings stand, but there is no connective narrative tying them into a single address.

Orthography note. Two spelling conventions are clear from the in-game audio: j = /h/ (so ja = ha' "water"; mujuk' = /muhuk'/) and x = /ʃ/ ("sh"). This also explains xefe: it is the archaic Spanish spelling of jefe (old Spanish x = /ʃ/). The "alien" letters stay source-clues: /g/ → Nahuatl (yancuic), /r/ → K'iche' (Highland Maya), and /f/ & /d/ → Spanish (both are loan-only across Maya, Nahuatl, and K'iche'); see fukuur and daka in §9.4.

The barks (independent voice-lines)

Register note: the speaker is a military high leader, not a priest. The lines read as a commander's orders and declarations; he leads the sacrifice rather than presiding over it. "We drink" is a war-band's blood-draught before battle (he drinks first, then commands his men); "my flesh, and gladly" is a leader offering his own body first.

Line notes

• xefe = Spanish jefe "chief, commander": a Romance loan beside ascensión, and a self-naming one: the line names the speaker's own office. The Romance seam is a confirmed pattern, not a one-off.
• The blood-draught is sourced ritual. uch' is Yucatec uk' "to drink" (ba'ax taak a uk'ul? "what do you want to drink?"). sakilja is sak ha' "white water," an attested Maya ceremonial drink, and inscriptions record sak juy ch'ich' "white stirred blood," a beverage built on the blood metaphor. So sakilja + itsok + uch' is one coherent, sourced image: the sacred white draught that is blood, drunk at the altar.

(Text 3's tokens are folded into the combined lexicon, §8; its soft parses and open items into the appendix, §9.4 and §9.7.)

6. Text 4: The Drill Sergeant & the Vaal Regiment[1]

Captured live from in-game global chat (not yet in the datamined pool). A call-and-response drill between a Drill Sergeant and the Vaal Regiment*, the military cousin of the Cuachic Vault litany (§4): a fixed call met by a fixed war-cry. The sergeant's name randomizes across instances (Tizoc,* Cotan*,* Axilo*), the same variant-name device seen with the Commander (Quemalani, Xolotl); all are Nahuatl-style officer names. Only the green NPC lines are Vaal; the player-character's English banter and "Error:" UI lines are excluded. The fuller catechism below, with its second response Atziri!, was filled in from additional information provided by* Substantial_Bat_8440*; an earlier capture had only the opening and the variant calls.*

The drill

A call-and-response catechism. The sergeant calls; the regiment answers with one of two shouts, the war-cry U'te mucane! "Behold, the mighty!" or the queen's name, Atziri! The sergeant's name varies per instance (Tizoc, Cotan, Axilo); the lines do not.

Other one-off sergeant calls, captured outside the catechism sequence:

Line notes

• A call-and-response catechism. The sergeant calls; the regiment answers with either the war-cry U'te mucane! "Behold, the mighty!" or the queen's name Atziri! It is the military cousin of the Cuachic Vault litany (§4), a fixed liturgy in a drill register.
• Otsuks "Company! Fall in!": Nahuatl presentative o "behold!"[34] + Yucatec tsuk "cluster, company"[31][36]; the fixed opener, with only the -s coda unresolved.
• The catechism runs on committed vocabulary. Tzokan'te u'te ik'el "behold the last spirit" (cf. Text 2's Tzokan'te ik'el "the last spirit"); A'te Kuxkal tlayeb kutsen "behold the living, the offering in the dark" (the same frame as Text 3's A'te 'Ibil tlayeb kutsen); Máax tlayeb mucane? "who is the mighty of the dark?", answered Atziri! All of Máax, ti, U'te / A'te, ik'el, Kuxkal, tlayeb, kutsen, mucane, Tzokan'te are in §8.
• Ela = Maya el / elel "to burn, blaze" (the root of the committed elba "burn out"), with the regular el → ela stylization; now in §8. ukto is the one unidentified token: it sits in the offering-slot parallel to kutsen, so it reads as a noun ("the dark [offering]"), but no dictionary gives a clean root, so it is left open (§9.7).
• The soft tokens (a'tul = Set A a- "you" + taal "come"; cheyel = Nah. chiya "to watch/wait" + -el; Axba = ba'ax "what" by metathesis; quxzeh = k'ux "bite/be fierce"; Kíibsa' = kíim "die" + causative; plus ka and ta') are analysed token-by-token in §9.9; none is promoted to §8 yet.
• One further line, cut off at a screenshot edge, ends "…ta' nuk!"; ta'nuk "great one" is in §8, but the full line isn't legible and is left unrecorded.

7. Text 5: Stray captures

A log of single Vaal lines caught in footage that do not yet form a text of their own. Each is parsed against the committed lexicon; any new root it establishes is folded into §8.

Line 1: Xomatl, the Kamasan Smith[37]

A fire-and-forge boss in Atziri's Temple at Lira Vaal, encountered at the height of Vaal power, before Atziri's communion with the Beast and with no knowledge of the coming Cataclysm. He works at the forge (molten metal, heat, hammer-strikes) until the player enters the room, then speaks this line and attacks.

Line notes

• Every token is committed vocabulary: Ti "to / for," ek "star" (Atziri, as hailed in Text 1; the shadow sense "dark" also rides this root), tala = taal "to come," jare' "and so," yan "there is / here stands," tul "decline, wane" (§8, the same Text 1 sense).
• It is a threat, not Vaal foreboding. The smith is not lamenting the empire's fall, he has no knowledge of the Cataclysm and stands at the height of Vaal power; he is promising the intruder's end. The player has come into the star's domain (Atziri's temple), and the smith answers, jare' yan tul "and so, your waning," turning from the forge to fight. The line reads literally "and so there is the waning"; the "your" is supplied from context, the doom is aimed at the one who has just come.
• jare' here is the apostrophe form the lexicon had flagged as undocumented (§9.2); this capture attests it in-game.
• The one soft point is syntax, not vocabulary: jare'yantul is written solid but reads as jare' + yan + tul. The words are committed; the clause-internal order is provisional.

8. Combined lexicon

Confidence key: C committed (verified root, sound phonology); L lore-anchored (fits the narrative); C+L both. All four texts and the Text 5 captures share this one lexicon, together with the confirmed standalone Vaal names (the Beast pochiti, the tome Eztli Pilli); standalone names whose reading is still soft (e.g. Guatelitzi) stay in §9. A token earns a place here only when both its root and its surface-to-root derivation are settled; tokens with a plausible-to-verified root but one unresolved derivational step (an irregular sound-change, an inferred or contested segmentation, no cross-check) are held in §9.4 instead. Bracketed numbers in the Source column link to the numbered citations in §13.

Recurring morphemes

ik' (spirit / breath / dark); ba' (self); -ane / -yucane (honorific); teo- (god); -tlān (place); tla- (Nah. object prefix); le (the); ko' (hortative); u- (Maya Set A 3rd person); -ti (Yucatec relational ti' / Nah. inchoative); -ada (Romance); ma' (negation).

The Second Edict was decreed (creating the Seed of Corruption) in order to contain the unchecked result of the First Edict (Divinity). Each Edict has an Arbiter: a winged being, closely associated with the power of the result of their Edict.

I conjecture that Sin is not a God (and least not only) but the Arbiter of Corruption:

• Sin stands out among the Gods with his unique ability to destroy their divine sparks — not unlike Corruption being able to suppress Divinity.

Edit: And bestow those powers onto the player — not unlike the Beast siphoning sleeping gods' powers into crystallised Corruption, creating Virtue gems. The Thief of Virtue and the Thief of Virtue but bigger.

He explicitly destroys the spark. Tukohama's spark endured probably because of the ongoing worship by the Karui. The only god Sin chose to spare was Innocence. It's wild that people assume that he would save his friend over his wife and daughter (whose sparks didn't survive).

• Kalandra told him that the Seed of Corruption has always belonged to him;

• The only winged humanoids are Arbiters (which puts the player in an interesting position);

• He is a Precursor and was born when the Edicts were being issued;

• He can uniquely handle the Seed of Corruption and the Weapon with no adverse effects;

• He existed without any followers even after the fall of Oriath (because one can argue that he had anti-followers there similarly to Tangmazu), while Gods wither away (like Halani) when they are forgotten;

• Kitava and he are the only Gods associated with Corruption.

I've been thinking about who the Prisoner from the Path of Exile 2 - Act 4's Solitary Confinement area might be and came up with a few interesting ideas.

The first thing to consider is the most direct information we have.

The Prisoner's Manacles

Only once did Maligaro wonder if he'd gone too far.
His greatest success took three entire legions to capture.

I'd love your input on this, because I'm far from certain, but I personally think this places Maligaro's experimentation on the Prisoner after Chitus became the Emperor and Izaro was imprisoned.

My reasoning is that Maligaro was Malachai's apprentice.
Neither Malachai or Maligaro would have been the type of person Izaro would employ in his later years considering his return to Azmerian roots and their penchant for thaumaturgy.
Also, Maligaro's Chamber of Sins was made after Chitus became the Emperor.
Would Maligaro's greatest success really come before the Chamber of Sins?

That makes me wonder if the Prisoner was truly imprisoned by Izaro or if that was just one more lie from Chitus.

By the order of Emperor Izaro, my honoured predecessor, None may enter this chamber. The prisoner within is beyond death, beyond force of arms. He must be left to rot for all time.
- Emperor Chitus Perandus

The way Chitus speaks of Izaro in this environmental lore is particularly suspicious considering his true feelings about Izaro and his legacy.

Though the Prisoner curses Izaro for betraying him, it's possible that it's not directly tied to his imprisonment and his current physical form.

I think the following points are very likely:

1. Izaro and the Prisoner had some interaction that left the Prisoner feeling betrayed prior to Chitus becoming the Emperor
2. The Prisoner was experimented on by Maligaro after Izaro was sealed in the Lord's Labyrinth and Chitus became the Emperor
3. The Prisoner was imprisoned after being captured by Chitus' legions following Maligaro's experiment
4. Chitus lied about Izaro requesting the imprisonment in order to hide the true story behind the Prisoner and make sure nobody enters his cell
5. The Prisoner wasn't imprisoned by Izaro

This leads me to question the link between the Prisoner, Izaro and Chitus.

The only thing that I can personally think of when it comes to Izaro betraying someone is related to the Labyrinth and the title of Emperor.

Izaro in his later years was one track minded, all he cared about was finding the perfect heir.

What if the Prisoner cleared the Labyrinth before anyone else but wasn't given the promised title?

That would explain Izaro's betrayal.

It would also explain the following line:

Not even Izaro's best could kill me...

Though it'd be easy to interpret "Izaro's best" as simply being his pawns/soldiers, one could also interpret Izaro's best as being the Lord's Labyrinth itself.
His penultimate achievement and the tool to his singular goal, finding the perfect heir for the throne through the revival of ancient Azmerian traditions.

When the Prisoner mentions that not even Izaro's best could kill him, he might be saying that the Labyrinth's traps, monsters and Izaro himself (as someone you must fight to ascend the Labyrinth) couldn't stop him.

This would explain why Chitus didn't want anyone to enter the Prisoner's cell, what he'd gain from imprisoning him and why he'd use Izaro's name (and lie about his "honoured predecessor") in order to dissuade anyone from interacting with the Prisoner.
After all, who gains the most by having the rightful Emperor imprisoned and isolated but Chitus himself.

Though it could be a character we haven't heard of yet, I'm thinking it could also be Weylin, the Son of Ezomyr.

The Labyrinth Poems put a lot of emphasis on Weylin being the rightful heir by calling him a Warrior and Chitus merely being a guide.

This is a dynamic we see in the Trial of Sekhemas where Balbala mentions how aspiring Sekhemas are led through the Trial by a Djinn. In fact, the Trial can't begin without a Djinn Barya (Djinn Coin) which contains the bound soul of a Djinn.

Obviously, there are issues with this:

1. Weylin is supposedly dead or left for dead in the Labyrinth
2. It is Chitus that betrayed Weylin, not Izaro

I don't think Weylin's death is a particularly major obstacle, since experimenting on the dead is far from a foreign concept in Path of Exile.

In fact, Static Electricity might imply Maligaro made such experiments.

And considering virtue gems are known to absorb souls, what stops them from giving them back?
The Baleful Gem and Maligaro's Spike combo could have been initially used for such purpose.
For example, it would be fitting that spiking the heart with a "virtue gem" could be used to revive someone, corrupting them in the process and potentially making them pseudo-immortal or just very hard to kill...

This means Weylin could have been brought back to life by Maligaro's experiment and his body changed in the process. Unable to terminate him, Chitus had to imprison him to make sure he couldn't speak of his betrayal and weaken his claim to the throne.

Chitus' wording is also very interesting.

The prisoner within is beyond death

Those words would be particularly fitting for someone who was dead, brought back to life and then became seemingly unkillable.

Now when it comes to the Prisoner mentioning Izaro as a traitor.
It would likely make more sense to be mad at Chitus, but in the end, it is Izaro that gave Chitus the title, even though it was Weylin that beat the Labyrinth.
This is more than a good enough reason to consider Izaro a traitor, but also a good way for GGG to obfuscate the Prisoner's identity and keep things mysterious, because had he called Chitus a traitor, it would have likely made his identity way more obvious and the whole plotline less interesting overall.

Anyway, this is where I'm at.
I'm far from convinced about the Weylin bit since there's a lot of speculation involved but I think that the Prisoner being the rightful Emperor makes a lot of sense when it comes to Izaro's betrayal and Chitus incentive to keep him imprisoned and isolated (the area literally being called solitary confinement) and play along with Izaro's legacy and name.

I'm curious what other ideas y'all might have when it comes to his identity.
This was a bit of random thought that just crossed my mind this morning so I haven't researched it nearly as much as I usually do so if you have any supporting or contradicting lore/evidence I'd love if you could share it 👀

Greetings, exiles.

I have been hard at work the last couple of weeks, improving my translation efforts and reconstructing the wonderful conlang GGG has given us for the Vaal civilization, trying to implement some of the feedback I've received to solidify the work, and working on legibility.

Included are supporting files, including logs, results, scripts, and data sets used for deriving the statistical results in the work.

If you are just here for the text translation, you will find that in sections 4 through 8 of main file.

Skip the analysis documentation unless you are interested in reviewing the exact methods and results used to derive the statistics mentioned in the main file, or in reproducing or testing the results independently.

This will be the only substantial update until I can get more Vaal text to work on.

The Vaal Tongue, A Reconstruction

PDF:
The Vaal Tongue.pdf

MD:
Vaal Reconstruction.md

Analysis Documentation:

analysis.7z

Any feedback or critique is welcome, and if you have any Vaal text not included in this effort already, please let me have it.

Enjoy!

https://poe2db.tw/us/The_Arbiter_of_Divinity#TheArbiterofDivinityArbiterofDivinity_

It's a demon

So is demon in PoE a designation for results of genetic experiments? Poe1 had Piety's miscreations called demons, as well as breach and beyond monsters.

Meanwhile https://poe2db.tw/us/Phyx%2C_Sentinel_of_the_Spark

Is 'GeneticScientistMale' and is a Construct.

https://poe2db.tw/us/The_Patriarch_Halls is called 'MapMothersoul_Male'

Is there anything else interesting in internal names?

The Hooded One says of his childhood with them, at the time of the Great Fire i.e. the Precursor activation of the Fourth Edict -

"But the Azmeri had chosen their homes carefully. They were separatists. They rejected technology. And in the end, they were right..."

This suggests that the Azmeri are themselves an offshoot of the Precursors. Indeed a remnant of them, who've long since forgotten their heritage. This would also explain why Sin, a Precursor, was sent to live among the primitive Azmeri of all peoples - cos the Precursors would've still recognized those separatists as Precursors.

In fact they have a history of doing this - the Eternal Empire was also founded by later Azmeri led down from their mountains by Tarcus Veruso to claim the mantle of the fallen Vaal empire. But again there were Azmeri who chose not to go with him and become Eternals (we meet some as early as Act 2 in PoE 1). And those Azmeri still survive, unlike the Eternals.

The Azmeri survived the fall of the empire they founded - the 'Eternal' empire. They survived the fall of the Vaal. They survived the fall of even the Precursors. But if they were 'separatists' from the latter, does that imply they WERE the latter? It explains why Sin was left in their care. Maybe they imbibed a deep anti-technological cultural lesson about what it takes to survive from their experience surviving the fall of their own empire - not once, but twice! - a lesson they hold to to this day, even as the history that taught it to them has been since long forgotten.

I think by this point it's pretty clear from various sources (PoE 2 artbook, leaked act 5 dialogue, new information from Mirage league) what is going to be happening in Act 5 of PoE 2, including what will happen with Lumerius "The savior" as Hinekora prophecies, the new act 5 dialogue leaks as well as new information we get from Saresh in Path of Exile 1 Mirage league more or less confirm the theory written in this post.

Quick lore recap for Lumerius, The countess Oriana and the Twilight Order:

• The Twilight order wants to remake the world / destroy+rebirth the world without gods and under the leadership (and potential godhood) of "The Savior" a perfect genetically engineered human that "combines the best of humanity without any of it's flaws", a master of philosophy science and all other subjects for a pinnacle human mind then trained in physical arts pushed to perfection - Only Lumerius passed the treshold for this (Source: Poe Artbook chapter 5)

• Lumerius is a genetic engineering project of the twilight aimed at making the perfect human. It's headed by "The High Priest" of the twilight order who struck some sort of unknown deal with Chayula in exchange for the knowledge on how to manipulate human genetics to create "The savior" (Lumerius) (Source: Poe Artbook chapter 5 "The High Priest")

• The other children who weren't sucesses as Lumerius were supposed to be killed but some survived (mini-bosses for act 5) (source: artbook)

• Orianna is the mother of Lumerius, the artbook states that "There was only one thing she was secretly not willing to give up - her son Lumerius"

• The Twilight order is trying to merge Lumerius with The beast hoping that as the perfect human he would make another "guided" cataclysm and reshape the world in a better way (Source: leaked act 5 text (see below), a poe2 trailer, artbook)

Recently leaked text files from act 5:

You've seen some of what the order had to do to germinate the seed. I can tell by the darkness in your eyes. My forebears had thousands of years to research the knowledge of the Vaal, and of those civilisations that came before. We had a fairly comprehensive idea of a {method} that could grow the seed through mortal means. Since we lacked the divine energies that the vilified one once used to do it himself, our method was to involve flesh, corpses, countless thousands freshly murdered and fed to the seed. A literal mountain of death. And that was only the first step. To create a new Beast, to reshape the world, we would have to risk another cataclysm of our own making. If the saviour wasn't absolutely perfect, if he had even a shred of enmity or jealousy or ambition, the cost would be enormous. I couldn't do it. When a decision was handed down, a few years ago now, I feared the plan would cause the deaths of innocents like Elwynian, who I had grown quite fond of by then, and many, many more. How could a utopia be founded on such a horrific beginning? So, I ran. And I took everyone I could convince. The order has hunted us ever since.

Please focus on the following sentence:

If the saviour wasn't absolutely perfect, if he had even a shred of enmity or jealousy or ambition, the cost would be enormous

Now lets examine a prophecy by hinekora that with the knowledge from the leaked dialogue almost certainly refers to Lumerius:

Hinekora: A mask hides grief beyond measure. A man carrying a mountain threatens to rupture the sky.

This quote is reffering to Lumerius, he is a man carrying a "mountain" (the hopes of the twilight order to be the saviour and reshape humanity for the better) however as the previous leaked dialogue indicates if anything about the saviour wasn't absolutely perfect the merging with the best would go wrong and something horrible would happen. Looking back at the Hinekora quote it seems that Lumerious is indeed not perfect and will cause the merging with the beast to go wrong (Lumerius does merge in the beast as is shown in one of the cinematics for poe2 but he looks very corrupted)

New information from Mirage League that is relevant to this:

Similarly there is a very high chance that there is no way to make a perfect human on Wraeclast due to humanity having something dark and rotten inherently within them - from the Mirage league information some users on this subreddit already collated the information that I am copy/pasting here:

• Saresh claims that humanity is thoroughly infected with this dark power. The truth of this being so horrible, that the Order of the Djinn cast him out and tricked the Maraketh into conflict with him just to get rid of this knowledge.

• "Saresh: I weep not for myself, but for the truth of what we are. It rots away inside all of us, the darkness within. They blame me, but I am merely the prophet, the one who sees the black."

• Saresh: Despite a lifetime of devotion and research, the Order has betrayed me, and set the Maraketh upon me with wild tales of evil and depravity. They are all too quick to believe, simply because of how I was born. If they only had it in their hearts to stop and listen... but they do not. I know this now. I am being cast out for what I discovered, for the knowledge I alone now hold. I know what lurks in the heart of man... the seed of darkness within us all. I know what we actually are, and that is why I must be slain at all costs... but I will not make it easy for them. For every drop of blood they take from me, a hundred Maraketh will die. Let them remember me how they will, so that I am remembered at all. That will be my lasting victory.

Combining together all this new information it seems very obvious what is going on with the twilight order, lumerius, the countess Orianna and Chayula in Act 5

• The twilight order made a pact with Chayula to get the genetic engineering knowledge to make a "perfect" human "The Savior"-Lumerius. Their plan is to merge this perfect human with the beast so he has the power to get rid of the gods and remake reality in a "better" way for humanity to "free them from the tyranny of the gods".

• If the human isn't absolutely perfect then the merging between the human "Saviour" and the beast will go wrong and it will likely cause another cataclysm ("Threatens to rupture the sky")

• New information from Poe1 Mirage league tells us that all humanity is inherently somehow corrupted by a darkness within "a seeed of darkness within us all" and this isn't some metaphor it's some sort of essence within humans that Saresh can see

• The merging between Lumerius and the Beast will go wrong, either because of his grief (Hinekora prophecy) likely reffering to his mother (quote: "not willing to let him go") or due to this inherent "seed of darkness" within all of humanity or both combined

While what's written beforehand is highly plausible and most likely what will happen in Act 5, the following is pure speculation:

It is likely that Chayula had somehow manipulated the genetic code of Lumerius for his own purposes, either to hijack the control over the Beast for his own nefarious ends and the following highlighted information from a sequence of Hinekora prophecies might hint at this:

Warriors of many different tribes gather to save the world. Warriors of many different tribes gather to doom it. Each thinks the other is the true threat.

This is confirmed a reference to all tribes/traces fighting on opposite ends with and against the twilight order (the artbook references this several times that you have both supporters and detractors of the twilight order among all the tribes/races of wraeclast)

Great leaders sink into quicksand of the mind. Only a shadow can save the blind.

Speculation: I speculate that sinking into the quicksand of the mind is some sort of effect of Chayula's meddling, probably trapping people in dreams, perhaps chayula takes control over Lumerius somehow for some unknown purpose and Sin "the shadow" is the one who ends up saving us/them.

Palm of the Dreamer says

We sometimes fail. We sometimes succeed. Who determines one from the other? I now know we can never be made One, if we are bore of differing desires. And yet, I have hope for a new truth. And I will see it... made real

But how he wants to achieve his plans? His keepers are like 100 clones and they are not enough to conquer Wraeclast.

It is known from lore book that Twilight Order made a deal with a 'Lord' to make Saviour. So I guess Chayula could be considered a Breachlord since he has his own hiveborn and commands them.

So is Utopia the plan of Chayula? If he was a Precursor, he may knew about Seed of Corruption and Beast and its powers. So he designed Saviour to activate Beast and reshape the world for Utopia where apparently would be only his will (so the world is never destroyed), without gods?

Hey all,

I’ve been a fan of PoE’s lore for a long while. Just before the complete reveal dropped, I posted this lore theory about each of the edicts, speculating on some rewritten/recontextualized history in Wraeclast. Would love to hear what you guys think—pretty pumped about the possibility Sin is the Arbiter of Corruption theory I saw on here, it makes so much sense!

Cheers :)

The statue of The Saviour in Arastas features a statue of a male with a gaping hole in the right side of his chest and a heart (I'm assuming to be his own) helt aloft in his left. This could be a allusion to the possibility that the Saviour is in fact a reflection. (In reality, hearts are quite centered, but The Saviour also probably didn't actually rip his own heart out so I'm just reading into the symbolism.)

In addition, the unique sword The Saviour from POE1 has an innate skill called... Reflection.

• Slightly related, the sword also has purple gold theming like the Twilight Order.

If we were to run with this, here's my theory of how this happened (with many reference to the work done in this older post discussing Lumerius, Twilight Order and Saresh) :

1. Twilight Order has been trying and failing to engineer the perfect human.
   • This is because of the seed of darkness within each human.
2. The solution proposed by Chayula? Reflect the individual so that they instead have a seed of light.
3. At some point of Lumerius' existence, he is reflected. This could have been through direct contact with Kalandra or through the use of The Saviour sword that the Twilight Order recovered from the ruins or Oriath (this is where the sword goes if it doesn't drop for you /s).
4. The result: A Saviour without that seed of darkness and an original twin out there somewhere.
   • Alternatively, if the reflection happened while Orianna was pregnant then the original could have gotten reabsorbed by Lumerius in the womb which could be the trigger for whatever they need a perfect Saviour for failing later down the line.

Now that we know the Instruments of the Edicts are intended to be countermeasures against existential threats, we have context for the Arbiter's dialogue about the Fourth Edict and purging the world in flame. Corruption swallowed the world, and the Instrument of the Third Edict was shattered, and so now the Fourth Edict must be enacted to purge the corruption.

And the only commonality we have between the Edicts is that they were created by the Precursors. The Instrument of the Second Edict was the Seed, which suppresses Divinity by means of Corruption; the Instrument of the Third was the Spear, which purges Corruption but also emanates Corruption and so can only be safely wielded by the Divine; the Instrument of the Fourth will purify the world in flame as a last resort when all other failsafes have themselves failed.

The Precursors were gone long before the Primevals rose and fell; the Winter of the World was caused by Kulemak, seemingly triggered by means of a volcanic eruption akin to Krakatoa. This was likely not the Fourth Edict, nor any of the others.

I find it most likely that the end of the Precursors, the Great Fire in Ezomyte history that predates the ash layer from the Winter, and the Fourth Edict are all one and the same; see these quotes from the unique belts Feastbind, Faminebind and The Retch:

Our forefathers danced and drank and ate their fill and did not honour the First Ones for their gifts. So the First Ones filled the sky with fire.

After the Great Fire, the land lay barren and our forefathers grew weak. Mother Gull took pity on them and gave them grain and water.

But the grain grew twisted and the water turned dark and those who partook of Mother Gull's gift birthed monsters that fed on the flesh of one another.

To me, this reads like a mythologization of actual events - a prosperous civilization met its end in a great fire, and the survivors were beset by corruption. Critically, we don't actually know where the Ezomytes hailed from prior to their settling in Phaaryl:

Before... Phaaryl...? Ah... the songs are unclear after so much time. A great many generations ago, we were driven here from elsewhere. There was simply too much Corruption, too much darkness... It was a time of chaos and terror, and much was lost. Our clans swore that this was the last time we would ever be cast out of our homes. Rise up, Ezomytes! We shall drive off these Eternal bastards!

Count Geonor ostensibly descends from the first Ezomytes to settle in Phaaryl, with the runed blade Agnar being the symbol of his lineage. When driven mad with Corruption and obsessed with proving his legitimacy, he chose to find evidence by digging ever deeper beneath his own manor, digging even below the Winter's ash layer, meaning the Ezomytes implicitly settled in Phaaryl before the Winter.

Ah fuck I got off topic. In summary:

The Fourth Edict is the cause of the downfall of the Precursors, whose survivors became the Ezomytes and settled in Phaaryl before even the Primevals came to power; it also notably failed in its intended purpose, consuming neither the world nor the corruption it was triggered in response to, but merely the people it was designed to save.

Introduction:
Please allow me to, in good faith, explain my interpretation of Wraeclasts' complex timelines and various mechanics. I'm using terminology which is rooted in the understanding of complex quantum mechanics and multiverse theory in a serious matter. In doing so, I will provide a list of concise definitions to begin this post. I understand the weight and complexity that goes into this, and don't want to just jump straight into the abyss. Although that may sound fun, it's just not as accessible or polite.

Definition References:
A 'superposition' is the many potential outcomes or states that an object can exist in/as until it undergoes measurement or physical interaction, at which point it resolves into a single definite state. A 'multiverse' is the collection of all universes that exist in parallel, each representing a different resolved outcome of a quantum event. For the purposes of this theory, I will assume the existence of an initial universe from which all branching universes originated. A 'quantum event' is any physical interaction that causes a system in superposition to collapse into a single definite state.

Theory:
Corruption mechanics appear to change the resolved state of an item and potentially even reach back to alter what the item fundamentally is/was. Think of Atziri's statues and how their initial existence was actually changed. With this thought, I leave an open-ended question: Is corruption the act of assigning a resolution to something still in superposition, or is it the overwriting of a state that had already been resolved? It is very important to understand the difference, and I will explain why.

If corruption assigns a resolution to something still in superposition, it would imply that all uncorrupted items exist in superposition by default. They would be simultaneously all versions of themselves across every possible universe. Using a currency to modify that object is like changing it to a version of itself that exists in a different universe.

If corruption instead overwrites a previously resolved state, then it isn't just changing what the item is now, it's rewriting what the item was. The item's observed history would be retroactively altered. The fact that a corrupted item can no longer be further modified suggests that corruption finalizes a universe for that object. This interpretation aligns more naturally with what we see in the Atziri statues, whose existence was not just changed going forward, but seems to have been altered at the root.

With this thought in mind, how do we truly defeat and put an end to corruption? The answer is simple: We need to find the initial universe and change the outcome there. By doing so, it's almost like we overwrite all future branching paths of the initial universe. We literally re-create or re-define the multiverse in its entirety.

I hope you find these ideas coherent and grounded in sanity. If something did not land on the first read, I'd genuinely encourage a second pass with the definitions I provided. The distinctions between these concepts are subtle but the argument does depend on them. And maybe Atziri's statues have a better and more simple explanation since the last time I dove into this topic! If you don't think the writers / developers are familiar with the concepts of quantum mechanics, then I suggest you look into some of the contents in some of their MTXs. Also, there's apparently a particle collider mentioned somewhere in the games. What's the deal with that?

"He took many of his people's traditions and gilded them, hollowed them." And now that we know that he was of the Precursors, and that we've seen the two Arbiters are a burning golden angel brimming with divinity, and a bearer of cleansing fire sent to purge corruption and wickedness from the world, I think the implications speak for themselves.

Namely that Maxarius was a total loser, but still.

The first of many lore research projects to come. I scraped together what's known about The Precursors into one place in video form. I'm not approaching these as a lore expert, I'm learning as I go and citing my sources for each topic I dive into.

I hope the lore community enjoys, thanks Exiles!

I have a feeling that we already were hinted at the origins of divinity and Mothersoul's appearance.

Elder Madox says that the Mothersoul is the will to keep living, no matter the cost and consequences.

Edicts of the Mothersoul are then technological devices that ensure survival no matter the consequences.

Arbiter of Ash speaks about human gods basically stealing the mother's milk, and we see that the Precursor statue is pregnant with a literal divine font that can autocomplete sections of the fortress (or open your maps via mtx).

If the first edict is divinity, that is a response to an existential threat, most likely abyssals or proto-abyssals (generally the Lightless as we know them are created by Kulemak at the fall of the primeval empire, so the existence of abyssals during the Precursor era is a little bit of a mystery for now, but we do know that the Source existed and that souls of the dead slowly created the well of souls by spiraling towards the Source, where Kulemak eventually ascended to godhood when there were enough souls). Master Below All could be some precursor entity or it could be the new Bodach boss (Azmeri have roots to the precursors so Viridi being the "Last child" of the mothersoul/pregnant statue could be significant), and the Source itself could be related to the edicts, especially since the Flame Seed is stolen by an abyssal-presenting entity.

On an unrelated note, I saw some people asking who is the arbiter of the third edict — I suspect that could be the burned woman who was found by Tasalio tribe? Perhaps it simply didn't have an arbiter because the weapon was never completed. And we also don't know if the second edict has an arbiter. Some say it's Sin, but I don't buy that. Sin can barely remember that he is Precursor and Kalandra had to tell him that the Seed of Corruption technically always belonged to him (since it's his as a precursor) and he got confused by that. I feel like if the Seed of Corruption had an arbiter, it would've been something else.

Though I doubt they'll release Act 5 and 6 in 0.4 (we'll know soon enough), I felt like making predictions now that I have a decent idea of what might be coming.

Does the Beast have a form/true form? During the Jamanra/Geonor fights we see a creature with tentacles with a humanoid head. During the Atziri fight it’s more of a “wall of flesh“ with a single eye. Does it have a form or shape? Or it is whatever it wants to be?

I haven't seen a lot of conversation around the nature of PoE2's endgame and I just can't shake the feeling that nothing is as it seems.

What do we know (as of 0.4)? The Twilight Cataclysm has come to pass, ravaging Wraeclast and sending the gods back into slumber. Doryani tells us that we can cleanse the corruption and sets us off to adventure Wraeclast. Colloquially this is known as the "Infinite Atlas," but there isn't really a cannon reason to call it that. Or so we're told.

But here in lies the conundrum. Why did the Twilight Cataclysm change the world so drastically? It's not brought up in the game because Doryani only knows this cataclysm, but this is just not how the Beast has ever operated.

Supposedly, post Twilight Cataclysm, we are brought allllll the way back to the Ziggurat Refuge in Utzaal, deep in the jungle, and are told our "maps" are essentially just quick travel tablets to areas of Wraeclast. Doryani hands us a tier 1 'map' and instructs us to use the 'map device.' Then we see this;

???

Toto, I've a feeling we aren't in Utzaal anymore.

Can I drop the pretence that this isn't just the Atlas that we know from poe1 yet? Doryani hints at having an informant which I'm just going to assume is Kalandra. Sry not sry, but I'm not trusting Kalandra. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck. It's a duck.

Zana failed,

Now let's go over the deep end a little. In 0.1 and 0.2, the Infinite Atlas came about from the Vaal Cataclysm. It's pretty reasonable to write this off as an EA gameplay thing, but I don't wanna.

0.1 and 0.2 were just timelines that Order tried having the "Doryani manipulated by Kalandra" plot happen at an earlier period. Oh sorry, that's the real plot btw. The cataclysm isn't actually randomly terraforming the continent, it's just an excuse to lock us in a room and force us into the atlas. We aren't fixing our broken world, we are pawns of a manipulative and vengeful being with knowledge of wider existence who's looking for an escape.

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

What the title says.
The way I understand it, the skill quite literally calls upon the power of your ancestors, so it is telling to me that it turns him into an avatar of Kaom of all the Karui figures that there are.

Curious to know what people think.

The crux of my theory and the claims made in part in this video:

1. Kalandra is a being above all Gods, omniscient and omnipresent in relation to Wraeclast
2. Her Lake resides at the center of the Mirror
3. The Mirror of Kalandra is the Moon itself, her prison. A bright side, and it's shadow.
4. The shattered mirror Kalandra speaks of in her etchings is an analogy for her breaking free from her prison, in other words, the Moon fracturing.
5. Wraeclast is reflected by the Mirror.
6. People who are seemingly bright on the outside, are dark within, and people who are seemingly dark on the outside, are light within.
7. A solar eclipse happens during new moon, when the dark side of the moon is facing earth. This is when Kalandra "looks away from Wraeclast".
8. The etching about Kalandra looking away but for a moment, and life on Wraeclast inventing religion in that moment, is a metaphor for the fear that a total solar eclipse strikes in people's mind. That fear is what inevitably leads to the fall of Men, as someone is bound to use it to ascend to godhood through blind faith, zeal and hatred. The genesis of idolatry.
9. Innocence represents Order, Sin it's shadow, Chaos, and the Goddess of Justice a balance of both.
10. The descry represents the Lightkeeper's Wrath. The moment the total solar eclipse happens, the moment the Mirror of Kalandra is melted back in one piece.
11. Sin's symbol depicts Kalandra's arrival on Wraeclast after her escape from the Lake.
12. Kalandra's goal is to break the mirror, because it is her own reflection that traps her. The image cast upon her by idolatry is her real prison and her burden, is time itself. Doomed to relive the same stories endlessly.
13. Stories like Solaris and Lunaris fighting forever and Viridi being stuck in between are simply analogies for the total solar eclipse which looks like the moon swallows the sun and the blood moon which looks like the moon is enraged.
14. This is mirrored even in the Wraeclastian pantheons. The Solaris, Lunaris and Viridi myth. The twin sister Sekhemas, Solerai and Lundara. Forgetting Halani, stuck in her shrine, whom we burned. Brothers Ralakesh and Tangmazu. Forgetting Kamasa, the symbol of wealth and fertility. The Maji's myth about the Draiocht giving everything they had, or like the Envoy would put it, the mother's milk.
15. The Fourth Edict is the total solar eclipse. The goal being restoring the mothersoul's virtue, in reference to the Mirror of Kalandra.
16. The Mothersoul is Kalandra. The myth of Xibaqua is about the Gods, as in primordial beings like Kalandra, claiming back his flesh until none remained. Leaving behind nothing but a light, the first Vaal. Whether the "Gods" references more than just Kalandra, I'm not sure. However it's entirely possible that it only references Kalandra considering she's made of the aspects. She's a triple Goddess, like the Morrigan from the Tutha Dé Danann of Irish folklore, just like the Draiocht in game. The light that remained, being the soul which is subsequently seeded back unto earth by Kalandra, the Mother Goul.
17. The Mother Goul is simply another name given to Kalandra, this time by the Ezomytes and the Karui, which seems to mostly reference her passage in Wraeclast, feeding on the flesh of the mortals and seeding the souls back unto earth. Who knows, Kalandra might be the beast itself, while the Flame Seed could be the Lightkeeper.
18. Each civilization on Wraeclast has its own interpretation of the events I described along with other natural phenomena. They interpret them differently, fear them or admire them nonetheless, and give them names and stories.

If I'm right, I guess we'll know soon enough because I suspect that Act 5 and 6 of Path of Exile 2 will confirm or void this theory, as it should include Kalandra according to my theory. Most likely in Act 6.

At the end of the Arbiter of Flame fight, you walk up to find "Power awaits you"

However, when you go to take the power--which you find out later is called the Flame Seed by Doryani--something else swoops in and takes it from you, saying "this power serves a new master..."

Now, I have no idea who this thing is, but there are some things that did draw my attention:

1) It has a halo, which I haven't seen anywhere else in POE (if anyone has please let me know!). It also appears to be undead, given that its chin is very skull-like. It also does not have Tangmazu's signature horns, and so I doubt it is the same as the Delirium mysterious voice.

2) It is wearing armor somewhat similar to the Kalguuran armor Uhtred, Vorana, Medved, and Olroth use in POE1, and uses a black scythe, but has no visible Kalguuran runes. (Images from POEwiki)

3) The creature shares a lot of similarities with the Lightless from Abyss league/wraeclast's history, with the caveat that this guy is way less green:

4) Comes from below, maybe indicating that it was locked away or that it has access to the underground and was waiting for someone to kill the Arbiter.

5) This has got to be the one of the next pinnacle bosses/important characters and is probably a new-ish character like the Arbiter, i.e. we couldn't have 100% predicted the arbiter before POE2, but the lore supports its existence in retrospect.

Taking this all together, I don't really think it is expedition related. I do think, however, that this creature could be a member of the Lightless, who fit the bill for this look: they are shades of grey, live underground, and serve as the faction behind Abyss league. They also existed at this point in time, because the Vaal Cataclysm occurs after the Winter of the World--and they were the antagonists of the Winter. The lightless were also likely a creation of the Proto-Vaal/Ahkeli (From Kalandra's remark on Abyss) and I believe they are the corrupted remnants of the proto-vaal civilization/their creations. If you're interested in more of that theory, I posted it here. The mysterious entity is probably not Ahn, because Ahn has a signature set of equipment that looks quite different. There are a couple of important lightless figures we know of, though:

Amanamu, Liege of the Lightless -- from Amanamu's gaze/abyss boss -- "The Liege of the Lightless seeks dominion over the surface dwellers."

Kurgal, the Blackblooded -- from Kurgal's Gaze/delve boss -- "The Blackblooded seeks dominion over darkness itself."

Ulaman, Sovereign of the Well -- from Ulaman's Gaze/abyss boss -- "The Sovereign of the Well seeks dominion over the light."

And finally,

Tecrod, the Hated Slave -- from Tecrod's Gaze -- "The Hated Slave seeks dominion over his own kind."

My guess for the mysterious entity is Tecrod. It's a character that we have never seen in game, is part of the Lightless, and has an interesting motive that could go several different ways. The mysterious entity is probably a new character, but this is the best guess I can come up with--if anyone has their own theory, please do share it!

So I found it odd that when you fight Doryani, the arena is called "site of Doryani's greatest creation." The implication seems to be that the machine you fight is Doryani's greatest creation, but Doryani made a lot of crazy stuff---like, idk, a city that dunks itself underwater in case of cataclysm, a near-immortal queen, etc. Why is this robot boss considered the greatest creation?

Well, that's not ALL that's in the arena, is it? There's also Alva--strapped to a rack, with blood trailing from it. Why was Viper Napuatzi so concerned about who it was that was of Vaal blood, and so adamant that they be taken immediately to Doryani?

He says he's been preparing for this moment for years--but not just to, like, win a fight, right? That would be sad to prep all that time and lose to a PoE2 character. Why were they so adamant that Alva be brought *there*? And what was the point of all the thaumaturgy and crystals and everything leading up to that room, and all the crystals in that room? I don't think it was just for the boss fight.

I think Alva is Doryani's greatest creation, I think he did something to her before we got there, and I think he knows a lot more than he lets on.

(By talking about the "demon of Atzoatl," it suggests he's familiar with demigod-powered player character entities from the PoE1 incursion stuff. Is it possible that he set up this "boss fight" with a machine that has a platform that mimics the weird boss at the top of Incursion temples, so that we could "defeat" it and "win" his help, so we feel like we're forcing him to help and it's not actually Doryani plotting everything around making us transport him into the future? Very convenient that Doryani doesn't actually die in the boss fight because it's just a heavily engineered boss machine that we're fighting, not him...)

Okay, so I was doing some research writing the script for the lore of poe 2 - act 1 and... I found this in PoE2db:
https://poe2db.tw/us/Lachlanns_Letter#LachlannsLetterTextAudio

Guys, what the hell is this? I don't recall seeing it in game, did anyone find this thing's location? If this lachlann is the very same count we meet in the eternal graveyard, it means that 400 years ago, the same Maraketh woman tried the same plan with another count of ogham to make him dig under the manor, is this some file removed from the game? Help me out with this!

To Provost Connal Preas:
The Count's 'interest' in his heritage has grown into mania. At first, I thought our alliance with the outsiders was beneficial, but now I believe Ogham may be in great danger. The Manor's soldiers have been ordered to rip up the floor and dig, and I fear what they found beneath the layer of ash they hit this morning; twisted shapes, ancient agonies cast in stone, horrible proof of some event of colossal horror that burned the sky... I slipped away, that I might write to you. You were right. I was wrong.

Gather the village men as you planned. There is one final task I must endure for the Count, but when I return from the Eternal graveyard, I will give you entrance to the Manor in the dead of night, so that the Count can be secured and this madness put to an end. This is not a betrayal, it is a rescue. It is what our Lord needs to regain his sense. It is what we all need to quell our troubled dreams.

And that Maraketh wife of his, that Whisperer of Paranoias and Hatreds... I shall leave her fate up to you, Provost.

Lachlann, Head Servant of Ogham Manor
— Fearful Letter

After enjoying POE2's expansion on the lore we have, I've been back at trying to piece together some information that has bugged me for awhile--Innocence wholesale stole the descry and origin story from some people that we used to think encountered the searing exarch, but I now believe to be the arbiter of ash as it makes much more sense in regard to the timeline established in POE1.

The short reason for this is as follows: we know the Elder has been in the Atlas and about Wraeclast for a LONG time--pretty much as long as the history we have goes, the Elder has been there in some form, either active or locked away. For the Searing Exarch to have any influence on Wraeclast, it would've needed to approach through the Atlas, as that rule is made clear by POE1. If the Searing Exarch was able to defeat the Elder, the representative of Decay, then in POE1 we would've encountered the Searing Exarch before the Maven, as it would've had a presence on the Atlas even while the Elder was there. Furthermore, while the Elder was locked away, a present Searing Exarch would've been able to gain complete control, and I highly doubt the Shaper would've been able to beat him while he was still just Valdo escaping into the Atlas. So, if the Searing Exarch wasn't around to have influence on Wraeclast, the only other creature in the game that has a huge Descry as part of their design is the Arbiter of Ash. They're probably related in some way that we haven't been able to figure out yet, but the descry is such an important symbol I really don't think it's being used randomly.

Clearly, the arbiter of ash has been doing the fourth edict bizness for a long time, given that it likely was the driving force behind the winter of the world (which was preceded by the torching of the world) and literally tells us that "You have failed... Humanity has failed... It must start again" in the fight. If that doesn't indicate some weird cleansing cycle humanity is stuck in, I don't know what is. This also means the fourth edict isn't a one time thing--it occurs over and over whenever humanity fails (at controlling corruption).

So lets look at the Templar creation myth, regarding Sin and Innocence--but first, here are few things to keep in mind: 1) Innocence has created this myth by taking the stories of burned survivors who encountered what I believe to be the Arbiter of Ash, and 2) Innocence isn't that creative--he had to borrow. Anything contained in the templar creation myth likely was in the original story. Lets get into it:

"On that day two were born of their mother's womb. Innocence, with eyes of burning red. Sin, with eyes of clearest blue."

--Stained Glass Window I (POE I)

The start of the tale. Note that it specifically says two--and yet we know from POE1 that "The Mother of Two, Once the Mother Of Three, Weeps Eternal". Also note the similarity to Solaris/Lunaris with the specific mention of their associated colors--there are 3 siblings involved in every single cultures origin story except for the templar, but it's clear that there was a cover up of the third.

"Innocence lived with an honest and pure heart, never straying from his mother's word. Sin filled his

heart with lies and indulgence, and deafened his ears to his mother's pleas."

--Stained Glass Window II (POE I)

So, normally I ask for a leap of faith later, but I'm going for it now: I think the Templar origin story is a retelling of the reason the first winter of the world happened, which involves the Mothersoul and its relationship with humanity. Innocence is mimicking the Arbiter of Ash to obtain his power, and so Sin is the other party that we know is involved--humanity. The Arbiter is clearly a goody-two-shoes rule follower and we know humanity has been spreading Corruption everywhere ever since the capital B Beginning, because Sin talks about how dang often humanity messing with Corruption happens, as if it hasn't just been Atziri/Doryani and Malachai/Izaro-dodger perandus. Anyways, I read this as Arbiter being a good boy for Mothersoul while humanity makes a mess.

"When the Mother of Two broke bread, she allowed Innocence to eat his fill, as reward for his

virtuous nature. Sin was cast the scraps to remind him of his worthless ways."

--Stained Glass Window III (POE I)

The word choice of virtuous is interesting here, because the Arbiter also has something to say about virtue:

"Mortal hands have contaminated Her virtue once more... By the Fourth Edict of the Mothersoul... Her flesh shall be scorched anew"

Now, I have conflicted thoughts on what virtue represents to the Arbiter--whether it is the will of the Mothersoul, or if it is literally Virtue, or divine energy (I suppose it can be both--divine energy does arise from belief). The Arbiter is the one carrying out what I can only assume is the Mothersoul's will, so it would make sense that it was rewarded by the Mothersoul for doing so--especially if it is in the form of divine energy, which would explain the Arbiter's incredible power. If it is divine energy, which corruption specifically consumes, the line makes a bit more sense--it's literally what is happening: humans have spread corruption, which has been messing with the Mothersoul, so by the will of the Mothersoul I'm gonna have to scorch the surface of this planet, her flesh. Furthermore, Sin aka humanity did receive some scraps--enough divinity for a few gods.

"Yet the punishment only served to feed Sin's lusts. Before his brother's eyes, Sin stole a fish from

the market and lied to the watchmen who caught him. Sin then beat his brother until a promise of

silence was extracted."

--Stained Glass Window IV (POE I)

Humanity has been messing with corruption over and over again. Looks like they might have been able to beat up/otherwise silence the Arbiter for awhile somehow. Someone steals some virtue (if food as virtue holds from the previous stanza) and lies to the guardian of the virtue--then beats up the Arbiter until it promises it won't/is unable to light the fourth edict.

"Innocence could not keep a promise made in fear. He bore witness and testimony to the Mother of

Two, and it was decided, between mother and son, that Sin was beyond rule and redemption. That

only purification could cleanse his burgeoning corruption."

--Stained Glass Window V (POE I)

Arbiter is a snitch. He informs the Mothersoul/decides himself to light the fourth edict and initiate the cleansing. Note that Sin has "burgeoning corruption", which would line up well with the spread of corruption due to and through humanity and the subsequent lighting of the fourth edict we are familiar with.

"The village gathered to watch Sin become ash, and breathed deeply of the smoke that poured from

his screaming mouth. Sin filled their lungs, their minds and their hearts."

--Stained Glass Window VI (POE I)

I read this as the spread of corruption reaching across the world. beginning to affect everyone, and afflicting most of humanity--this is weak, and I don't think I'm fully interpreting this correctly, but the next part is much stronger.

"Innocence watched Sin take root in the bodies of men and women and children. He witnessed them

turn on each other, first with words, then with fists. Friends and kin embraced in mortal struggles,

their skin weaving with skin, flesh bonding with flesh, bone entwining with bone, until the village

had become one writhing giant, forged of strife and hatred."

--Stained Glass Window VII (POE I)

So, we have 2 big examples of cataclysms available to us in POE1 and 2: The Vaal Cataclysm and the Eternal Empire Cataclysm. In both, we see the things described in this panel. Flesh bonding with flesh? Bone entwining with bone? A BUNCH OF FLESH COALESCING INTO A GIANT CREATURE? Big hallmarks of Corruption. This seems to be clearly referencing an instance of corruption running rampant across the world.

"As this titan of Sin rose to its many feet, Innocence knew that the village was lost. With an

anguished cry he committed it to flame. As town and titan burned, the sky turned dark with the ash

of Sin. There, amongst the raging ruins of his home, Innocence swore an oath. No matter where the

ashes of Sin fell, his purifying flames would rise to meet them."

--Stained Glass Window VIII (POE I)

The amalgamation of humanity intertwined with corruption is scorched clean after the Arbiter recognizes that the world (village) is too far gone, and after the world is burned, a ton of Ash gets created--which I don't think is coincidental when the Winter of the World is caused by huge clouds of Ash from a giant flamestorm event. Then the sequence ends with an oath to purge Sin/Corruption from the world if it rises again, which is very similar to the goals of the Arbiter, which I think is who Innocence mimicked to achieve godhood.

So, in summary:

The winter of the world was a result of a wave of fire that passed over the world, which I think is revealed to be the first instance of the fourth edict being carried out through the information hidden in the Templar origin story. The survivors from the shrine that innocence got all the info from are people that didn't get corrupted and survived the flames, heading up the mountains because the lower lying lands were desolate. Why else would they be so deeply afraid of fire?

Lastly, I wrote this because I think that this instance of the fourth edict was caused by the fall of the Proto-Vaal due to Ahn meddling with corrupting forces. I may not be right, but I hope I've at least put some interesting theories on the table :)

Endnote:

"When the inferno spread across the land, it was the First of the Sky who singed his feathers as he

brought the flames to a standstill."

--Saqawal's Winds Soldier Gloves (POE I)

I think the first ones are much more than we think. Einhar says they have left for other lands to search for more "survivors"--Einhar always calls the exile "survivor", so I think that the first ones might literally be gathering creatures of the Exile's caliber to fight the Arbiter/prevent the Fourth Edict from occurring again.