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:

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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.

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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