Skill gems, virtue gems and skills/abilities in lore. Also, ascension.
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So, I've been thinking about the lore around the skill gems recently. I know they are the same as the virtue gems that were used to create gemlings. They are related to thaumaturgy and come from The Beast. But what I'm wondering is...do people in lore need these gems to use special abilities, or are there other ways to learn, say, magic spells? Do they grant abilities to all people? Wasn't the Witch able to use magical abilities before she ever encountered any virtue/skill gems?
I find it a little confusing. The playable Exiles, our characters, all use the gems to gain incredible abilities, but there doesn't seem to be many others who do, if any. Piety's horrible, bloody experiments were for the purpose of creating new gemlings, but she wasn't really successful. And yet our characters all gain incredible abilities with such ease and lack of consequences. Wouldn't Dominus have just equipped his Blackguard/Ebony Legion with gem-socketed gear in order to make every single soldier on par with our characters? Considering the amount of gems there are around Wraeclast, there should be enough to go around. It's as if our characters are the only ones even aware that the gems can be used in this way. I asked about this subject on Reddit as well, and someone mentioned that we need to separate the lore from the "power-fantasy" gameplay. That makes sense. But does that also mean that we should pretend that our characters are not as powerful in lore as they are in-game? Doing that would feel a bit odd, because we do literally kill gods, which I assume is a part of lore. Also, concerning gods, ascension and the player character:
Spoiler
Sin tells you that before The Beast, people were able to ascend to godhood. After the death of The Beast, the gods have all returned. And shouldn't this also mean that mortals are able to ascend again? Are our characters on the path of ascension?
Part of the reason I play PoE is due to the lore and the story, as I enjoy it quite a bit. I also tend to form my own ideas, or headcanon, about my character as I play any game, and PoE is not different in this regard. That said, I never change any existing backstory, I just add to it. Anyway, it is my headcanon that mortals can ascend once more, and that my characer is at this point "half-ascended". She has defeated whole armies and killed full-fledged gods singlehandedly. Basically, she's a demigod. A mortal champion with divine power. Her powers are her own; in-character, she no longer uses any socketed virtue gems. To give you an idea of where I am in the game, I have just killed Greust and thus Ralakesh. I want to emphasise that this is just my headcanon concerning my own character. But does anyone think that it is actually possible? Last edited by Witchsword on Feb 12, 2019, 6:23:12 PM Last bumped on Feb 15, 2019, 9:07:15 AM
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"Possibly, I don't think there's anything that suggests they're the only way to use magic, but they're clearly powerful enough that other witches like Piety would have interest in them. "I am pretty sure it is safe for most characters to use virtue gems in the way they are intended to be used. The gemlings were an attempt to infuse people with gems that were tampered with by Maligaro (the Baleful Gem is one of these gems that the player cannot use as a skill gem). Piety and the Templars in Oriath most likely just use regular virtue gems. As for the spoiler:
Spoiler
From what I can tell, the Trials of Ascendancy seem to suggest that your characters are not becoming gods, but are ascending in a different sense as being worthy of Ezomyr emperors. Also, the later acts (and arguably the Trials of Ascendancy) introduce the concept of humans being used as the vessels of gods so while your character never in themselves become a god, they do act as host to other gods to use their powers. Avarius and Bannon were hosts to Innocence, and it's possible that Izaro is host to the Goddess of Justice which was how those deities were able to be around even while the Beast was present.
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"Yeah, I feel like there should be other ways to use magic. I've come to look at the skill/virtue gems as a shortcut; as in, they act like a magic focus. You could study and practice for months to learn how to cast a certain spell. Or you could just slot a virtue gem into something you wear and voilà, you can cast that spell by channeling your mana through the gem. I think this makes perfect sense, and would explain why virtue gems are considered so powerful, as well as explaining why we can no longer use a certain spell if we remove the corresponding gem. "I remember the Baleful Gem, and that it was different. It makes sense if regular virtue gems weren't able to be implanted into living flesh. Also, I think that one of the reasons both Maligaro and Piety wanted to create gemlings is because gemlings are easily controlled. There are several mentions in-game of gemlings losing many of their mental faculties and almost acting like automatons, though there are exceptions like the Gemling Queen.
Spoiler
"Yeah, I've gone through the Labyrinth a few times. I know that in lore it was how Chitus became Emperor. But the part of my post about ascendancy wasn't related to the Trials of Ascendancy. All the gods in lore were once mortal humans. Innocence, Sin, Arakaali and Kitava. They were all mortal humans who through their ambition and the adoration of their followers were remade with divine energies and ascended to actual godhood. Again, Sin mentions that before The Beast, mortals were able to ascend to godhood. He created The Beast as a way of suppressing the gods and preventing their oppression of humanity. I feel that logically, mortals should once again be able to ascend to godhood once The Beast is dead. |
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Come to think of it, rogue exiles should drop leveled skill gems.
Online delenda est:
When the lifecycle of PoE will draw to an end many years from now, there needs to be a final patch making it available offline. |
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