I am firmly an Endless Space 2 player, but I often think about the stories of Endless Legends. More precisely, their significance. We know from Endless Space 2 that Auriga ultimately froze over completely, presumably destroying all of the major empires upon it except the Vaulters, who escaped the planet. The planet would still be a massive repository of scientifc knowledge to be exploited and fought over, but the flavor text implies that the "vestiges of great empires" were mostly just a tangential curiosity. With this grim fate in mind... did any of the events in Endless Legend beyond the Vaulters even matter in the long run? What of the Drakken, the Necrophages, and the Roving Clans? What, if anything, was their legacy for the wider Endless universe?

I am not seeking to dismiss Endless Legend as insignificant. My inner Zelevas scoffs, but something else in me keeps whispering otherwise.

i too share your worry, the drakken are my favorite species of all the endless legend factions though it is implied that the drakken have survived cataclysms just as bad in the past, meaning they still have a chance to survive this new ice age of auriga. i do like to think that the drakken find and repair the Success, the ship seen in dungeon of the endless, and along with their 7 drakken heroes (researcher Namkang being my favorite of the 7), maybe the nidya minor faction, leave the planet and become a spacefaring civilization as well, but that is only my head canon though, its not official in any means.

Azure_Fang wrote:

Just popped in to say it's funny you should mention the Roving Clans. I always assumed the Clans were annihilated as part of the Legend lore, but if you play against Vaulters (or a Vaulter custom) in ES2 and get them to Aggressive, the faction leader makes what sounds like a direct reference to the Clans.

The Clans were annihilated at the end of Legend, like every other faction. It's just that the faction representative for the Vaulters is Zolya, who was alive to deal with the Clans back then. Naturally she'd compare your diplomatic shenanigans to theirs.

In any case, Auriga is just one (admittedly quite unique) planet in a vast, multi-galactic (in the case of the Choir) and multi-dimensional (the Riftborn) universe in Endless Space 2. There are even other Lost-turned-planets that you can stumble upon in ES2. Additionally, the other factions' main quests only happen if you're the one that plays them. As far as the sequel is concerned, only the Vaulters really did anything worth mentioning in the wider context. But if you had been playing as another faction, each one comes up with a way to deal with the cataclysm and perhaps find a way to survive. Heck, completing the Wonder victory implies you stop the cataclysm entirely, so Auriga would likely go on to be the home planet of another main faction in ES2 if that were the case. Amplitude's official stance on it is "whatever happens in your game is what's canon," so make of that what you will. If you want to believe the Drakken made it out into space and now work as hired diplomats and Endless researchers, by all means.

I do wish you could resolve some of the story threads that the unique planets like Auriga open up, though, rather than just leaving them at "this planet might have some funky stuff on it." ES2 doesn't really get into it all that much.

dragontyron wrote:

Azure_Fang wrote:

Just popped in to say it's funny you should mention the Roving Clans. I always assumed the Clans were annihilated as part of the Legend lore, but if you play against Vaulters (or a Vaulter custom) in ES2 and get them to Aggressive, the faction leader makes what sounds like a direct reference to the Clans.

The Clans were annihilated at the end of Legend, like every other faction. It's just that the faction representative for the Vaulters is Zolya, who was alive to deal with the Clans back then. Naturally she'd compare your diplomatic shenanigans to theirs.

In any case, Auriga is just one (admittedly quite unique) planet in a vast, multi-galactic (in the case of the Choir) and multi-dimensional (the Riftborn) universe in Endless Space 2. There are even other Lost-turned-planets that you can stumble upon in ES2. Additionally, the other factions' main quests only happen if you're the one that plays them. As far as the sequel is concerned, only the Vaulters really did anything worth mentioning in the wider context. But if you had been playing as another faction, each one comes up with a way to deal with the cataclysm and perhaps find a way to survive. Heck, completing the Wonder victory implies you stop the cataclysm entirely, so Auriga would likely go on to be the home planet of another main faction in ES2 if that were the case. Amplitude's official stance on it is "whatever happens in your game is what's canon," so make of that what you will. If you want to believe the Drakken made it out into space and now work as hired diplomats and Endless researchers, by all means.

I do wish you could resolve some of the story threads that the unique planets like Auriga open up, though, rather than just leaving them at "this planet might have some funky stuff on it." ES2 doesn't really get into it all that much.

Unfortunately, the canon or official ending to E.L is that the vaulters and sisters of mercy, made it off the planet, and ONLY those 2 factions survived,  non of the other 13 major factions (mezari don't count, they're a reskin) and 19+ minor factions have been stated to still be alive. This is the biggest problem many of us fans have with E.L and ES2's vaulter dlc. it completely messes up Amplitudes theme of letting the player make their own story. instead of stating or trying to make the possibility that other factions and their heroes can officially survive, E.L and the vaulter dlc, almost blatantly states that only 1 minor and 1 major faction made it off the planet, effectively killing off about 95-98% of all the content in E.L, and that every future game that takes place during or after ES2 will not have any other characters, species or factions that came from E.L.

BenkoLenko wrote:

According to this fan-wiki, at least one other group tried to escape Auriga on a broken Hissho ship the Grey Owl dating back to the Dust Wars, but it kind of exploded (again). Since the explosion was apparently powerful enough to damage the Argosy and rip a hole in space-time devastating the Riftborn... it's string drive must have been really f'd up. (One wonders why doesn't happen more often, given the number of ships that explode in the franchise!) Either way, at least that faction on board is probably kinda dead. The point of this is that there may be other escape ships on Auriga, but their functionality is at best questionable, especially given that most of the factions haven't even heard of things like string drive and other tech that all of the major factions in ES2 start out with.

In any case, the need to escape makes the whole goal of building the best empire in Legend feel kind of... empty. I mean, yay, you won the planet but now the planet dies. Good luck getting off of it lol!

There is the success, crashing, im assuming the same way the grey owl crashed, shot out of orbit, but its power core was the one used to activate the grey owl according to awakenings librarian mechanic, so unless you have a spare power core lying around, that ship wont get off the ground if repaired. In that case the Drakken i think have the highest chance of getting off though, having been uplifted by the endless themselves, the Drakken may have a higher level of knowledge of such technology ahead of the other remaining factions, maybe even a blueprint of a power core from the endless lying around somewhere, or at least able to understand the tech faster than the rest.

BenkoLenko wrote:

According to this fan-wiki, at least one other group tried to escape Auriga on a broken Hissho ship the Grey Owl dating back to the Dust Wars, but it kind of exploded (again). Since the explosion was apparently powerful enough to damage the Argosy and rip a hole in space-time devastating the Riftborn... it's string drive must have been really f'd up. (One wonders why doesn't happen more often, given the number of ships that explode in the franchise!) 

Well, duh, most ships do not carry Dust crystal with Lost aboard, that set up explosion.