What was the secret of Fathamurk? [Spoilers]

[Randomizer]

I forgot about the portal effects, but the plates do imply that something other than space travel is going on here. But going back into the past to stop a disaster wouldn't explain the creation of this workshop. Since this area seems to predate the Crius Vindica. The history of the organization implies they were created by an Orakur to prevent the gathering of the Crux Tetrad for use that wasn't desired.

This site was made to gather candecium to develop portals and to power a device. You left off the model on the lowest level of a gem (candecium based) inside a sphere. So maybe candecium was used to make each Crux and now there is a fight over usage.
One side is pushing to gather a few to continue the original plan and the other is trying to prevent it from being carried out.

[MyGameCompany]

I had that question when I finished Fathamurk too. I wasn't really sure what the "secret" was.

I thought maybe the secret was the discovery that there's someone (an ancient race or a secretive group) with advanced knowledge of magic/technology, which we didn't previously know about. The question I had was: what happened to these people, and where are they now? Certainly the appearance of the 2 alleged Orakur near the end of Book II would seem to indicate that these people are still around, or their knowledge was passed down or acquired by these beings.

I hadn't thought much about the portals. They seemed more a curiosity, since they didn't really seem to do anything. But now it makes me think that maybe they were the real clue of what is to come in Book III.

[Painted Lady]

When Basilisk Games released Eschalon: Book I on CD it contained a folder with several screenshots of development from 2005 to 2007. One of these screenshots informs us that the game was originally called "A Riven Sky" and that this title was "derived from an aspect of the trilogy's storyline."

Wow, that is super information, and it opens up tons of possible scenarios. I will swear that on my previous Mac there was a "comet or spaceship or something" shooting across the sky during the program load sequence for Book I. It is not obvious on my new Mac, but it totally reminds me of the same event when Book II is loading.

So, maybe the Riven Sky refers to the whatever it is that is bisecting the sky.....

[Lord_P]

The shooting star, comet or spaceship (if Shina didn't lie to you) would be the strange happening in the west, circa year 300 of the Age of Exploration. Here is the timeline: http://www.basiliskgames.com/forums/vie ... 611#p19611

EDIT:

Eschalon: Book I and II take place in the year 725 and 727 respectively. Korren tells you that the "history of Crius Vindica goes back more than four hundred years." That means Pontum Oblivitis, founder of Crius Vindica, was approached by some shadowy being before the year 325. BasiliskWrangler shared a few tidbits from his notes in July 2009 and something interesting happens around the year 300. Could these events be linked? Unfortunately I don't think this event is mentioned in Book I or II. And according to the history book you find in Aridell the Orakur were first encountered in 409. The Crux of Ages was found in 425.

Woah, everything seems clearer. The Orakur came with their ship-thingy circa 300, there was the fight over the cruxes but then one orakur (or something) told Pontum to keep them safe. And the secret chamber... could that be the ship itself? Where the Crux Tetrad would be assembled?

Figuring out these things is like the best thing ever.

[Painted Lady]

There are some hints (pardon me for not being able to pull them up right away) that mention a relationship between the Orakur and the dwarfs. However, the two races definitely have different physical characteristics, so it's not obvious what that relationship is.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

The Orakur could be the future of the Dwarves and they flew back through a rift in time, or they could be from an alternate dimension, or they could be from the distant past, or it could all be a really bad hallucination because you didn't believe the announcement about the brown acid.

[Vroqren]

I think it's safe to assume that BW would not throw the latter of Kreador's suggestions into the mix...

[Lord_P]

Woah, everything seems clearer. The Orakur came with their ship-thingy circa 300...

So you believe the Orakur are extraterrestrials?

"Came with a ship-thing" doesn't mean they have to be ETs. It could be time-travel, or interdimensional travel.

EDIT: Or lies, as you have pointed out.

[Dragonlady]

Woah, everything seems clearer. The Orakur came with their ship-thingy circa 300...

So you believe the Orakur are extraterrestrials?

"Came with a ship-thing" doesn't mean they have to be ETs. It could be time-travel, or interdimensional travel.

EDIT: Or lies, as you have pointed out.

..or even a ship with sails that flys in the air using magic. Floating cities anyone? Who's to say what kind of magic was used in the past or in the future?

[Randomizer]

I spent an hour rerunning a character down to the candecium powered portals to see with a chronometer if there was a time change with using either pair from either platform. There wasn't.

[IJBall]

I spent an hour rerunning a character down to the candecium powered portals to see with a chronometer if there was a time change with using either pair from either platform. There wasn't.

So, what you're really saying is, you've found another 'bug' I have to add to the Book II 'bugs' list... [sigh...]

[Randomizer]

Not a bug, but I thought the secret might be time travel. Unless the bug is that the chronometer didn't function properly to go backwards.

[Vroqren]

I hate to be the necromancer bringing back dead topics, but I figure this hasn't been dead for too long yet.

While reading through the collection of journals I typed at the end of my Fathamurk Walkthrough, I found mention of the Author's study of History, and within that study, the Plague Wars. Do we have other mentions of these wars, and what is the connection of them to Fathamurk?

[Lord_P]

Plague wars, according to History of Thaermore, was a war between the Commonwealth of Thaermore and the Orakur. Not much is known about it, but it was said that dwarves cut their relations with Thaermore due to their "unethical tactics".

[Lord_P]

History of Thaermore is in Book I.