Pywel and Its Powers

1. The Continent of Pywel

There are five main regions (Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert), and the crowded stone cities of Demeniss and Delesyia contrast with the red dunes of the desert; the Abyss, a sixth place that is not on the continent at all, has its own section below. The game's own knowledge entries for its named places say something about the map in their spread: 44 entries for Hernand, 44 for Demeniss, 26 for the Crimson Desert, 10 for Delesyia and 8 for Pailune. Each region's map is uncovered by ringing its bells, eight in all, which the FAQ covers. Who holds each region comes from the faction list and the NPC descriptions.

Hernand: the duchy

A duchy, not a kingdom, and for a reason: House Celeste was once the royal line of the Kingdom of Hernand and lost the crown after a war against Demeniss, which left it a ducal house. The Celestes are distant descendants of the wandering knight Canta, and the present duke is Charles Celeste. House Serkis, a marquis' house, has run internal affairs as Celeste's right hand since the duchy's founding: Marquis Alan Serkis and his marshal, Barden Middler, who puts the residents' safety first. House Lanford, marquis of Calphade, guards the border with Pailune on the duchy's behalf and earned the name "Unyielding Shield" for it. Below them are the counts: Roberts, the merchant family among the wealthiest in Hernand; Felix, behind Roberts in wealth and Serkis in standing, betting on a mapmaking workshop and a bookbinding house; Grace, the southern house that funds the Emberwind Workshop's hot-cloudcarts; and the baronial House Alfonso, a line of spearmasters. The Goldleaf Merchant Guild, run by goblins, is the largest guild in Hernand and trades across all of Pywel.

The place entries fill in the rest: the Hills of No Return in the north-east face Demeniss across the Denn River and are named as the last landmark seen by those leaving for a battlefield; the Hernand Highlands are Serkis's plateau; the Sunrise Plains in the south are Count Grace's estate, with his manor, a farm, beekeeping and the workshops where the cloudcart is said to have been created; House Felix quarries stone in Windland Canyon; the Black Forest on the Roberts Estate is where the bereaved are said to hear a voice calling them in; Everfrost is a snowfield House Thorel of Demeniss once tried and failed to claim; and the Steel Mountains face the Great Ocean of Pywel in the south-east. Hernand also holds three communities of other peoples: the Scholastone Institute, founded by troll scholars and lately turned to the Abyss; Kharonso, a troll village behind the mountains that argues with Scholastone about tradition and progress; and Pororin, a hidden village of shais and Fadus that sealed its gates after a scholar tried to abduct a shai. Vellua, on the southern coast, is a fishing village rebuilt so often after pirate raids that rebuilding has become its routine.

Demeniss: the kingdom

The Kingdom of Demeniss is ruled, on paper, by House Thorel. The situation at the start of the game: King Edward Thorel lies unconscious and has no heir, his servants announce each morning that he is still alive, and real power is draining to the factions around the throne. Two of them are Caliburn and Grand General Bastier, who gathered power by unjust means and seized Demeniss by force. Against them stand House Wells, the ducal house of southern Demeniss, loyal to the Thorels and able to start a civil war at any moment, and the count's house of Azerian, the house that represents the kingdom's people. House Byron runs an intelligence network Bastier calls the "Eyes of Demeniss"; House Marshell is Bastier's most active patron, his "Black Strongbox"; House Elemore, old money, keeps its distance from Caliburn out of friendship with Azerian. The Silvermoon Trade Collective rivals the Goldleaf guild in scale, and Tariv, in the north, is a village of sorcerers.

The land: the Golden Plains cover nearly half the kingdom and feed the territories around it; the Denn River marks the border with the Crimson Desert; the Kingshield Mountains in the east are the three-way boundary between Demeniss, Hernand and Pailune, rich in ore that House Marshell is digging out, with the ruins of an ancient structure on the summit; Demeniss Port sits in the Bay of Abundance; Serpent Marsh, near the sea in the south, is fog-bound and barely settled; and the Eye of Ice, a freezing basin inside Deadfire Mountain beside a desert, baffles Scholastone's scholars enough that they named it one of the Eight Wonders of Pywel. Religion here is the Church of Solumen, the god of light, which holds the strongest influence in southern Pywel and treats praying for miracles as taboo; Hernand keeps an independent parish of the same faith, which the Demeniss Cathedral tacitly allows so that religion cannot be used as a political weapon between the two.

Pailune: the north

The Tribal State of Pailune. Its recent history: the northerners, once branded barbarians, were united under Jian and prospered as never before; then Jian died in a Black Bear raid, the Greymanes collapsed, and the Lonely Jackals' tyranny began. The tribes around the capital keep their own ways: the Beighen Tribe at the south-eastern edge, cut off from Demeniss by the Kingshield Mountains and devoted to its ancestral spirits and ritual foods; the Skoghorn Tribe of the barren western range, which worships the mountain spirit of the snowy peaks and once practised child sacrifice; the Longleaf Tribe of the Wayward Woods, living in tree-houses under great sacred lanterns and hostile to outsiders; the Stjar Clan, one people in two villages, Totemfelt with its carved totems and Skallcove with its rites to the lightning god of Windsong Mountain; the Knytlingar Clan in the north, whose Chief Olvald knelt in the mud before the invaders for his people's sake; and the Odeck, whose territory holds the Mistveil Reservoir, the source of the Denn. Silver Wolf Mountain never loses its snow; the Black Wall divides Pailune from the Crimson Desert; Scorched Mountain in the east is never free of wind, rain and lightning; and the Upper Denn is called the Waters of the Kept Promise, after an old custom of sealing a vow by casting a token into the river.

Delesyia: Marni's city of machines

Delesyia is the work of one man: Marni, a genius engineer said to come from an exiled noble house, who leads the city and builds machines to make life easier, his ideal a paradise through technology. The city stands on Rhombus Rocks, a diamond-shaped island hill off the Eastern Hills, with Port Delesyia at the Denn's estuary as the gateway for everything the dominion exports. Its institutions disagree with him: the Ironwheel of Dewhaven, one of the three pillars of Delesyia, holds that machines exist to assist people and researches everyday ones; Marni founded the Society of Progress to pursue the research Dewhaven and Gorthak would not accept; the Delesyia National Institute studies his technology and finds nobody able to keep up; the Delesyian Aerial Force's airships inspired awe until Gorthak and Dewhaven saw them turning into weapons; and the Cogknights are the soldiers who take Marni's war engines to the battlefield. Gorthak is the orcs' town: the Ironflame Orcs, led by Valgash, work Pywel's finest ironworks on Regent's Rise, where the Krall Foundry sits on what was once a forest. Delesyia also has the Redfox Merchants, the Gearmelt Confectionery that mass-produces chocolate, and the residents of Tinkerton and Timberton, Marni's Tinkertons, whose "Zenith Society" watches the night sky rather than doing research.

The Crimson Desert: no one's land

The entry for the Lords of Unclaimed Lands states the difference: the desert is not a nation like Hernand or Demeniss, and nobody can rightfully claim it, so most of its people live outside any faction. Its law is water: in the Sovereign Wastes of the Tashkalp region, whoever controls the shallow ponds decides who lives. The exception is the north, where Varnia, a holy city that worships Atima rather than Solumen, draws pilgrims and merchants along the Saltroad; the Varnians hold the Sacred Land beyond it to be the first land created, where Atima founded a nation, and the Whitesand Retreat at the city's centre is where its higher believers debate doctrine. Urdavah, the gateway town on the pilgrimage route, grew around the Great Gate that leads to Varnia; its people revered dead dragons as stars that foretell the future, and are credited with the birth of astrology. Elsewhere there is Arcosa, the desert's most prosperous village, watered, walled with four watchtowers and trading with Demeniss; Tommaso, where fists settle what law does not and the Bonepit takes bets; Muiquun, where exiles and outcasts live under one rule, survival; and the rainforest in the south, the Heart of Arehaza, whose tribes tame and ride giant boars among ancient totems, the Giant's Yard, and the Red River, said to have run crimson with the blood of tribes defending their land. The Sage of the Desert, a goblin who one day proclaimed his enlightenment, preaches there to pilgrims and to treasure hunters who leave with a harsh awakening instead.

2. Houses and Factions

There are said to be over a hundred factions; 76 are listed, each with a region and a type. Core factions are the houses and institutes with the most influence in a region, usually holding its political offices; Other covers lesser houses under a core faction and independent groups with little pull; Hostile factions are bandits and criminals who attack on sight; Religious orders hold a region through their beliefs. Some factions are at open war with one another (for example House Celeste driving the Wolf Trackers back from Hernand), and you can sometimes take a side; the quests that come of it are on the Faction Quest Tracker. Factions occupy places on the map, some of which hostile factions blockade. Every entry below is in our words; the ones the story turns on are in sections 3 and 5.

Hernand (23)

Demeniss (9)

Pailune (11)

Delesyia (11)

The Crimson Desert (17)

Across Pywel (5)

3. The Greymanes

The warriors who safeguard Pailune: people of every background and skill, gathered as if by fate, who take the dangerous jobs nobody else will and help anyone in need, and whose name is known across Pywel: an honourable, peace-seeking warband that was based in Pailune. Their leader was Jian (the leader of Pailune himself, whose rule united the north), and the in-game text is the whole premise in one line: Jian has fallen, Pailune has fallen into chaos, and the Greymanes who fight to uphold his will face the Black Bears who set it aflame. The faction list files the Greymanes under Hernand as a Core faction, which is where the story puts them for most of its length.

Who they are

Kliff leads them: the stoic leader, fiercely loyal, guided by a strong sense of morality; the Characters & Comrades page has the three playable characters in full. Oongka is a Greymane, born to an orc tribe, and one of the original band; Damiane is not one: a guest of the Marquis who stays with them, and a descendant of the fallen House Spencer. Naira fought in the ambush with a bow and shortsword and was among the last to make a stand. The affiliated NPCs by name (Aldric, Andrew, Boris, Brice, Carl, Devan, Duane, Evelyn, Fritz, Giles, Luke, Marius, Naira, Otto, Pierce, Ronald, Ronnie, Ross, Shane, Silvan, Tranan and Yann), and Howling Hill is their one occupied location. Ross is the personnel manager, a veteran who can bring down an armoured man with a dagger and never forgets a face. Not every Greymane stayed one: the band's greatest archer defected and now hunts people as the Crimson Warden, a boss on the Bestiary.

How the story treats them

The game opens with the Greymanes at their lowest. The Black Bears attack the camp, many Greymanes die and the survivors scatter across Pywel; Kliff is with the band as it buries the dead of the previous raid, the one that killed Jian, when the Black Bears come again. Kliff is seemingly killed by Myurdin (the throat cut and the body thrown into the river) and wakes in the Abyss (the Prologue page). What follows: Kliff reaches Hernand, does the townsfolk small kindnesses, and is led to Shakatu of the Goldleaf Merchant Guild, who asks him to kill Kailok the Hornsplitter, the man who took the guild by force; the good opinion of Shakatu and of Marquis Serkis that follows is what lets the Greymanes start again at Howling Hill (Chapter 3). Serkis recognised Kliff's contribution to Hernand and allowed the camp. The camp, the comrades who return to it and its upgrades are on the companions page; the questline that drives them is on the tracker.

From there the chapter pages carry them north: to the defence of Calphade against the Black Bears in Chapter 6; to Beighen and the Blue Fangs in Chapter 7, where Kliff is given Jian's own sword, Wolf's Fang, and Pailune is retaken from Ludvig; and into Demeniss after Myurdin in Chapter 8. The end of the road: once Chapter 12 is done, every Scattered Embers quest is finished and the camp is fully expanded, the Greymanes leave Howling Hill and move back to Pailune, and the epilogue finds Pailune at peace.

4. The Abyss

The sources describe it without explaining it, and this page keeps to that. The place Kliff wakes in after the prologue is the Realm of Uncertainty in the Abyss, a futuristic area in another dimension, where he gains new powers before returning to Pywel; the Abyss is a mystical, supernatural realm above Pywel holding mysterious power, explored later in the game through mythical temples and ominous gardens. Nobody says where it came from.

Its pieces in Pywel

Fragments of the Abyss lie scattered through the wilderness, the towns and the ancient ruins: the Abyss Nexus, which grants fast travel, and fragments holding puzzles and mechanisms. The region entry for the Abyss Debris in the Crimson Desert reads the same way from the ground: ruins fallen from another world, dropped from the sky, etched with patterns that are plainly not of Pywel, and perhaps not the only thing that fell. The FAQ has the practical side: Nexus plates and Abyss Cressets for fast travel, and the 40 Abyss puzzles. Abyss Artifacts are the game's skill points and Abyss Gear its equipment effects (the Equipment page). Two faction entries tie the realm to the continent's history: the Scholastone Institute has turned its research to the Abyss and to interpreting ancient lore, and Aeserion, the serpent the Ancients sealed away, woke when a rift formed in the Abyss.

What the story does with it

The frame: a mysterious force seeks to open the gates of the Abyss and take its power, fragments of the realm have fallen to Pywel, and it falls to Kliff to restore the broken balance. In Chapter 1 the Abyss is already at Hernand: the Mystical Key from the Trials of Kindness leads into Hernand Castle and the Axiom Archive, a white crow hands Kliff the bracelet that unlocks Axiom Force, and solving Abyss Without Balance opens the Abyss power supply (the Chapter 1 page). After that the story keeps climbing spires into it: the Spire of the Stars and an Abyss Gate at Scholastone in Chapter 4; the Axiom Archive raided and White Crow abducted, then the Spire of Soaring and the Crescent Skybridge, in Chapter 5. Chapter 9's trials end at the Spire of the Sun, the Nest of Valor and the Throne of Truth; in Chapter 11 White Crow hands Kliff the dragon Blackstar at the Nest of Valor; and Chapter 12 opens at Fort Musket in Demeniss and then moves into the Abyss (Crow's Nest, Monolith Crown, Dimensional Bonds), where it is fought against Caliburn, then Myurdin as the Avatar of Umbra, the god said to possess him, then Umbra itself. The hidden ending, after the story and all 40 Abyss Challenges, adds lore at the Axiom Archive's library about Pywel, the Abyss and Kliff's origins; what it says, no source repeats, so neither does this page.

White Crow runs through all of it, and the sources say only what it does: Sebastian's NPC entry has him locking eyes with a white bird on his windowsill before he feels the urge to go fishing on the day he pulls Kliff from the Nas; the white crow gives the bracelet in Chapter 1; a sealed letter from White Crow opens on its own and White Crow is carried off from the Axiom Archive in Chapter 5; and White Crow provides Blackstar in Chapter 11. Who or what White Crow is, no source read for this page says.

5. The Antagonists

Who they are comes from the faction entries; what they do comes from the chapter pages, and is blurred until you get there. The Greymanes' war with the Black Bears is the centre of the early game, and the story widens to mystical threats and to the politics of Pywel's countries, which is the order below.