You can see it roughly how they look like from the Vodyani intro. Four eyes demon.

Slowhands wrote:

Hi all,

I'll just drop a couple notes to clarify things. I don't like doing it, because I'd rather have the players find the meaning and the links, but I don't mind confirming what is right.

MrJade wrote:

The Lost are the four-eyed "Demons" that are mentioned in some of the trailers. The Lost invented Dust and were around before the Endless. For a yet unknown reason, the Endless desired to kill the Lost, and so created three planetary wonders to attract all of the Lost and then killed them. Isyander is mortified by all of this and wants to bring them back. He plans to sacrificing many/most of the Dust infused souls in order to do so, and as such this is why the Academy recruits those people, so that he can convince them to die to right the Endless's wrong.

Basically, yup. The Endless harvested the Lost for the Dust in order to keep their war machines going during their civil war. Isyander went from worshiping them as gods to viewing them as genocidal fanatics.

aerothgow wrote:

We also find out in the Vaulters quest that The lost live inside planets, Auriga is one of them.

They can, as beings made of Dust, inhabit / infuse planets. Some of them did as a way to hide from the Endless genocide...

-Slow

Quick question: Is Teohna (Bhagaba homeworld) a Lost One inhabiting the planet or is it just a naturally occuring organic supercomputer/sentient planet?

Greedis wrote:

Maybe they are prepping us for some cool DLC with more lore? (hopeful)

This would be nice!

Isyander is a true hero.

I think the Lost could come back as a game defning mechanic in the next Endless Space game, like winter in EL. I imaginie them as a force that you need to navigate around while vying for power.

nuyu wrote:

Isyander is a true hero.

Yep. Just replace hero with genocidal maniac...

SWEEEET

A Isyander / Lost lore-based RPG will be awesome!

nuyu wrote:

You can see it roughly how they look like from the Vodyani intro. Four eyes demon.

That could be propaganda to Demonize.

twimpix wrote:

I think the Lost could come back as a game defning mechanic in the next Endless Space game, like winter in EL. I imaginie them as a force that you need to navigate around while vying for power.

I hope this becomes something in the current game! Could be something that extends from the rejuvenate ending. Though definitely be cool to have them do something across the whole game. Perhaps an option to play post rejuvenation.

I do however have a feeling that before ES2 ends there'll be something expanded on the Lost in some manner, whether mechanic or just lore tied to it with new quests, such as faction quests or other quests. It'd be interesting to see whether they're benevolent or malevolent, and whether the Endless killed them out of greed or survival, and harnessing their dust was something that came afterwards.

I'd bet/hope there was a mix, which would suit with the whole part of the game and lore, such as Dust Wars, where neither Virtual or Concrete were good or bad, and which could be the same with Lost and Endless. While being more interesting and realistic (it's war afterall), it would also keep the narrative of Defender and Rejuvenator choice as neither good or bad, and the same with Isyander, Vodyani's questline or any other faction that has their questline affected by the Endless vs Lost, trusting Isyander or not trusting him.

Ashbery76 wrote:

nuyu wrote:

You can see it roughly how they look like from the Vodyani intro. Four eyes demon.

That could be propaganda to Demonize.

Reminds one of The Last Ringbearer.

Frogsquadron wrote:

[...]

Reminds one of The Last Ringbearer.

Excellent book from Kirill Eskov iirc. Glad to see good readers around here.

UndeadPuppy wrote:

nuyu wrote:

Isyander is a true hero.

Yep. Just replace hero with genocidal maniac...

Is he though? How many people actually die in the Rejuvanator ending?

or they could be like the antarans in master of orion. they invade and you have to fight them or fight along side them depending on your choice

I don't know if I'm missing something really major here, but the whole deal with Academy endgame and the Lost seems very conflicting and rushed.

What peeves me most about the Lost and Isyander is how little reason the major factions seem to have for resurrecting them. The heretic explicitly says that we should return Dust to the Lost and "cleanse the billions of corrupted souls in the galaxy" and yeah, I get that he personally considers his cause just, but what reason do any of the major factions have for collaborating with him? Many of the faction outro video voice overs (if you win the quest as the Rejuvenators then win the game later) basically just say that let the gods do their thing while we do ours (or they choose to defy and surpass the newborn gods), as if the Rejuvenators just decided to resurrect old gods and assumedly commit genocide if the "cleansing of corrupted souls" ever actually happens lore wise, all out of sheer boredom or something.

I mean what the hell, how on Earth are Rejuvenator siding Vodyani even planning to become Virtual if the Rejuvenator ending is explicitly about returning the Dust to the Lost? Unfallen seem pretty much the only ones that have a semblance of motive for resurrecting the Lost as their Heart is an ancient Lost survivor and at least it seems to be benevolent, spreading harmony and happiness across the universe. But apart from them it all seems so nonsensical.

Well they should be dust based life form, from what i found out Endless mined them to death and leader of Academy wants to revive them.  I have to agree with you that animation tells very little, for few turns i have been wondering if that really is all :/

Maybe they are prepping us for some cool DLC with more lore? (hopeful)

They might be some kind of powerful Endless, or Dust Guardians like Skoros on serious steroids

It just hit me today and I didn't want to make a new topic over it, but... what if it's a DLC tease in the vein of the Antarans from Master of Orion?

Yeah, definitely hoping for that.

I think the Lost ones are the four eyed dust thingys that the leader of the academy wants to revive by killing everyone and taking their dust.

Right. That seems way too sinister -- and too connected to the Endless -- to be a future player race. Which is why I thought Antarans.  Though by that same token, the Morgawr don't seem very much like player-race material either at a glance so anything is possible.

That said, something like the Antarans would be a nice addition to the game, their first appearance possibly triggered by the completion of the Academy quest on the Rejuvenator side. The purpose of the Antarans as a victory condition in MoO was to offer the most dramatically military-capable empire a chance to win without having to do all the tedious busywork of capturing every last scrap of territory. There comes a point in military victory procession that your absolute victory is all but assured and further fighting is just map-cleaning busywork. Attacking and taking Antares just lets you cut to the chase and finish the game quickly.

As the title says--who are the lost ones that the academy head is trying to save? I did the quest, but the end cinematic didn't leave me feeling like I knew who they might be.

The Lost are the four-eyed "Demons" that are mentioned in some of the trailers. The Lost invented Dust and were around before the Endless. For a yet unknown reason, the Endless desired to kill the Lost, and so created three planetary wonders to attract all of the Lost and then killed them. Isyander is mortified by all of this and wants to bring them back. He plans to sacrificing many/most of the Dust infused souls in order to do so, and as such this is why the Academy recruits those people, so that he can convince them to die to right the Endless's wrong.

If you side with him, he uses the planets that were used to kill them and the Academy to signal to the Lost survivors that live outside of the galaxy (assumedly refugees) that they are welcome back. If you do not, the Lost are not brought back and the galaxy remains secular. Isyander worships the Lost as gods since they created Dust, and can apparently manipulate it better than anyone else.

MidnightTea wrote:

Unmarked spoilers ahead for the Unfallen campaign:

****||||||****

It's rather notable that one of the members of the Lost are the progenitor of the Unfallen as a race. It's the lingering soul behind their tree's heart that animated them to begin with. Of course, the Unfallen aren't invested in this one way or the other -- they ultimately choose to make their own way in the universe regardless of what originally made them more than just trees. So while the Lost are undeniably sinister, even they are not one-dimensional. Of course, many players who go against the Unfallen would actually describe them as demons you want to wipe out ASAP.

****||||||****

There are no good guys in the Endless universe... the Concrete and Virtual Endless themselves were a bunch of sadistic, egocentric a-holes if the new lore is anything to go by.

They toyed with other races, created several bioweapons of MD, comited genocide on a whim,fought wars that scared the galaxy, etc.

UndeadPuppy wrote:

MidnightTea wrote:

Unmarked spoilers ahead for the Unfallen campaign:

****||||||****

It's rather notable that one of the members of the Lost are the progenitor of the Unfallen as a race. It's the lingering soul behind their tree's heart that animated them to begin with. Of course, the Unfallen aren't invested in this one way or the other -- they ultimately choose to make their own way in the universe regardless of what originally made them more than just trees. So while the Lost are undeniably sinister, even they are not one-dimensional. Of course, many players who go against the Unfallen would actually describe them as demons you want to wipe out ASAP.

****||||||****

There are no good guys in the Endless universe... the Concrete and Virtual Endless themselves were a bunch of sadistic, egocentric a-holes if the new lore is anything to go by.

They toyed with other races, created several bioweapons of MD, comited genocide on a whim,fought wars that scared the galaxy, etc.

Absolutely. The Lost may be the closest to a "good" race, but that is because we know the least about them. Riftborn also may count since they don't really understand our universe.

MrJade wrote:

Riftborn also may count since they don't really understand our universe.

Riftborn morality is sort of dependent on player actions. The Viceroy can be pacifist and caring of both her own and other races, or you can go down the Rift lockdown path and have her become a ruthless dictator out to ensure Riftborn survival by any means necessary, even enslaving her own race she originally set out to save. Though even barring those their victory video Defender side version is kind of creepy talking about turning the "ugly into beautiful" and a Riftborn turning a plant into Coroz-like white shape. Concidering a faction winning is pretty much always establishing galactic hegemony in one way or another their intentions may not spell exactly nice things for other races of the galaxy.

We also find out in the Vaulters quest that The lost live inside planets, Auriga is one of them.

Also would love to see them invade the galaxy antarens style as an event after the academy quest where you revive them

aerothgow wrote:

We also find out in the Vaulters quest that The lost live inside planets, Auriga is one of them.

Also would love to see them invade the galaxy antarens style as an event after the academy quest where you revive them

Wait what.Auriga voice was a lost.

Hi all,

I'll just drop a couple notes to clarify things. I don't like doing it, because I'd rather have the players find the meaning and the links, but I don't mind confirming what is right.

MrJade wrote:

The Lost are the four-eyed "Demons" that are mentioned in some of the trailers. The Lost invented Dust and were around before the Endless. For a yet unknown reason, the Endless desired to kill the Lost, and so created three planetary wonders to attract all of the Lost and then killed them. Isyander is mortified by all of this and wants to bring them back. He plans to sacrificing many/most of the Dust infused souls in order to do so, and as such this is why the Academy recruits those people, so that he can convince them to die to right the Endless's wrong.

Basically, yup. The Endless harvested the Lost for the Dust in order to keep their war machines going during their civil war. Isyander went from worshiping them as gods to viewing them as genocidal fanatics.

aerothgow wrote:

We also find out in the Vaulters quest that The lost live inside planets, Auriga is one of them.

They can, as beings made of Dust, inhabit / infuse planets. Some of them did as a way to hide from the Endless genocide...

-Slow