In this chapter I will be talking about the popular theories among lore researchers and theorists

1.

Based off of some concept arts, a massive ark was being built. An ark large enough to hold an entire civilization, so that they could all return home(to the stars/space/orbit). Since they were already used flying boats for transportation, why wouldn’t a huge ark do the same? The ark was planned to land in eden, because it was the highest point of the kingdom(it’s closer to their true home). To help power the ark, they built a massive diamond. Something went wrong and the diamond broke. Things turn black/red and everything falls apart.

If including the King…

The King watched over the ark project(like god watching over noah building the ark). Assuming that he cared about his kingdom, he wants all of his people to return to the stars. Maybe while the ark was being built, cities were also being built in eden(explanation of the presence of pipes and steel beams in Eden).

Some aspects of the concept art suggested that the King IS Eden. The King probably got greedy because of the abundance of light and materials produced from the ark project. He became corrupted possibly due to the dark stones ability to work with light and he turned into the Storm. Maybe there was too much light being added to the dark stone, more than it could handle.

The King becomes the Storm, the ark project is abandoned, and so was eden. The dark stones become more corrupted and turn red. The stones gain the ability to suck light out of things. Eventually, the huge diamond that was built becomes corrupted too and splits , spurting out dark energy.

A war happened in Golden Wasteland. There was no war between people and dark creatures (krills), only between peoples.

We can assume that the Krill appeared after the war has ended

There are two types of shields in the area before the temple: a circular shield and pentagon shape shield. circular shields have the sunburst symbol and pentagon shaped shields have the diamond symbol

Who's side is the Wasteland Elder on?

the Wasteland elder uses both shields

both the Wasteland constellation and the vault murals has pentagon shape shield, but the wasteland elder has the circular shield in the cutscene.

Why were they fighting?

- Two different ideologies of how light should be treated: The diamond clan thought light should be used as a power source to create the power diamonds and power new technologies, while the sunburst clan thought light shouldn't be trapped in diamonds and should exist freely and “shine like the sun

- Technology caused more corruption to spread. There was possibly a faction of ancients who wanted to stop the use of technology to keep it from spreading, versus those who wanted to advance society further.

Although this is quite the popular theory, there are some things that undermine this

- There’s some text in the game that says “one kingdom under the Sky” making it seem like the spirits never fought each other. The swords and shields are scattered in random groups; finding both swords and spears with both types of shields.

- the shields, spears, and swords are too large for spirits to wield

My theory is that the “Nature Realms” and the “Industrial Realms” had a civil war. The Nature Realms are the first 3, the Industrial Realms are the last 3. So after forest makes the diamond, the industrial realms move in and start making many diamonds. The abundance of floating contraptions in the later 3 realms indicate that the industrial realms mass produced the diamonds. The first 3 realms don't have many diamonds, indicating that (even forest) the first 3 realms were nature friendly. Eden was in ruins (and the eden elder who is unsavable (confirmed by devs)) so the nature realms rebelled (because of the 2 shields theory).

The nature realms use boats extensively so it can be assumed the warships are converted trade ships and part of the rebel army. The krill circle the forts which are in wasteland so the krill were probably used in the war by the industrial realms (this is getting harder to type I'm just gonna refer to them as diamonds from now, and the nature realms as suns) so valley is unharmed because it has no military installations, and so the suns move on to wasteland. Warships are made and deployed, so krill are placed at higher altitudes to destroy the warships if they come close to the forts (because the krill circle the forts).

The forgotten ark is probably collateral damage caused by the krill that is still guarding the straits even after the war. Firework staffs are probably weapons because that is the only thing the crew from the shipwreck in wasteland has that even resembles a weapon. Maybe the spirits can make it shoot stronger projectiles… idk. . Barricades and trenches were probably used to siege the forts and provide cover from krill's blue light. Spears and shields are probably remnants of phalanxes, and since the swords seem to be made for cutting and slicing and not stabbing, the swords were probably not part of the phalanx and probably used to slaughter spearmen in the trenches (because spears are clumsy in small spaces and swords are definitely not) by the time we get to the battlefield part of wasteland the 2 armies seem to have united against some krills gone rogue because we see clumps of mixed symbols at these parts and the end cutscene shows that the krill are loose now….

Of course the carnage could be from close quarter fighting, but given that the vault is unharmed, the 2 factions, diamond and sun probably stopped fighting and made up in the temple in wasteland. Other possibilities include the rogue krill killing the allied armies of diamond and sun, or maybe the rebellion was quashed in the battlefield part of wasteland and had nothing to do with rogue krill.

“*all sunburst shields face outwards from the temple, some diamond shields face inwards