Think I figured out the skill-gem lore

Just a quick theory, but how long has our jouney through Wraeclast actualy been? Judging by what zones have daylight and zones that don't, I would guess that we killed Piety less than a month after we got exiled. So what if (like Merveil) having all these Virtue Gems close to us is actualy causing us to go insane but we haven't had them long enough for anyone to notice? As was already pointed out earlier in this thread, the gems we carry are getting stronger, so assuming we arn't some sort of "Chosen One", when we inevitably go insane we will be near unstoppable (What Dominus wants if he thinks he can control us?).

This could be linked to Anarchy league. The rogue exile we are fighting could be just be exiles that have fallen to the insanity of the Virtue Gems as we will.

This is what I've gathered from this thread as well as from in-game. The Vaal created virtue gems, unofficially known as skill gems. They did this by human sacrifice. In the gems they saw their own salvation, which could be from many things, including war, death or themselves (corruption could precess gems).

The Vaal used these gems by implantation, which lead to the Undying. My guess is that the soul, skill and memory from the sacrificed people bled through the gems and took over the body as it was dying, leading to the walking dead.

Then the Vaal disappeared and the Eternal Empire ruled. They found the ruins of the Vaal and with it their virtue gems. Seeing what the gems did to their wielders, the Eternal Empire researched the skill of socketing. By placing the gems in enchanted slots, worn on equipment, one could wield the gems power without them getting out of control.

As we all know, virtue gems gain experience as the wielders do, sharing a bond. This bond can only function for so long tho. The Vaal virtue gems however, also absorbs the souls of your fallen enemies. Just like experience, this is shared. Using the socket technology, the souls are transfered into the armour instead, creating legendary armour like the ones from great heroes.

As for Merveil, it might just have been some weird shock from being pregnant. Both she and her daughter became malformed, perhaps because the virtue gem was feeding on the enegy of her daughter.

Like Razorblade wrote, rogue exiles might be other champions like ourselves, who's turned insane from the gems.

Then again, people are assuming Virtue Gems and Vaal Virtue Gems are identical. Just as the Vaal Virtue Gems corrupts body, earth and soul, Imperial Virtue Gems might bring something completely different.


Wow, that turned out to be more than originally intended, enough thinking for a month or two!

As a huge fan of the subtle lore threaded all through this game, I'm glad to see this thread revived. There is also quite a few references to the reactions of people with embedded gems to the Cataclysm and how they were warped and twisted in a matter of moments. I would need to run the Library again to be able to quote them exactly. As a result, I don't think that time was a factor in the corruption of people with the original gems, despite Merveils experience.

It is possible that the gems were influenced by external events more than people realised. We know that they gain power through exposure to events and can be corrupted as per the Vaal gems. This leads me to believe that the actions of ripping the Star from the throat of the person it was crafted for and gifting it to someone else perverted the gem which led to it 'gaining revenge' on it's new owner. The Cataclysm was described as having 'slid down the mountain' or words to that effect and enveloped the City of Sarn, driving the residents to violence and insanity... Once again, an external influence that warps the original intent of the gems.

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Alexandrina wrote:

It is possible that the gems were influenced by external events more than people realised. We know that they gain power through exposure to events and can be corrupted as per the Vaal gems.

Exactly. Virtue gems do not drive someone mad by their presence alone. During the Purity Rebellion, Malachai created an army of Gemlings to fight for the Empire. They didn't become Undying until the Cataclysm, the so-far unexplained event that ended Voll's reign, corrupted the land and raised the dead. Dialla was, for some reason, the only one unaffected by the Cataclysm (and I believe she'll play a great role in Act IV and we will find out why)

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SHATORR wrote:

The Vaal used these gems by implantation, which lead to the Undying. My guess is that the soul, skill and memory from the sacrificed people bled through the gems and took over the body as it was dying, leading to the walking dead.

Not sure where you're getting this from. There is no evidence to claim the Vaal used virtue gems the same way as they were used during the Eternal Empire; Also, the Undying in Act III have nothing to do with the Vaal, as they had long disappeared by the time the Undying were created. Maybe you were referring to the Vaal Fallen in the Ancient Pyramid?

But interestingly, the demise of the Vaal seems suspiciously similar to the fall of the Empire - both reigns ended as a result of a cataclysm, an external event. Siosa also implies the two might be connected, right?

The PoE Wiki has a very interesting history section...
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/History_of_Wraeclast

Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Today I killed Dominus 17 times. While pantless. I'd say we're well beyond insane by now.

I am 90% sure the pople's poet knows a ton about what's going on, his in game lore and the comics suggest that he knows more than I can really say. Catarina and Zana also seem to know something. Each time I read these lore lines everyone seems to forget the very start of things, the one story and person everyone overlooks, the serial killer in the Vaal empire. His actions is what caused the queen herself to take a turn for the worst, and throughout history it just goes downhill from there.

The biggest element missing for me is WHAT did that serial killer find that made him seem immortal, or at least ageless. WHAT did he do to his kills other than torture them that seemed to make him immortal, and thus lead the queen to do all the horrors she committed. Death and suffering seem to be a big theme in the entire history. Also what is that thing beside the upside down crown the poet draws. Why does he seem so stressed after the rebellion, it's as if he knows something or saw something that has given him the foresight to see what was going to happen.

i feel sorry for whoever died to make stuff like Sweep

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TheEnforcer wrote:

i feel sorry for whoever died to make stuff like Sweep

"Your death will not be in vain. Your death will gift us the ancestral power of swinging a stick in circles."

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Pilla wrote:

The biggest element missing for me is WHAT did that serial killer find that made him seem immortal, or at least ageless. WHAT did he do to his kills other than torture them that seemed to make him immortal, and thus lead the queen to do all the horrors she committed. Death and suffering seem to be a big theme in the entire history. Also what is that thing beside the upside down crown the poet draws. Why does he seem so stressed after the rebellion, it's as if he knows something or saw something that has given him the foresight to see what was going to happen.

Maybe it has something to do with the mysterious "Nightmare" that's often mentioned, albeit in vague detail. Honestly, I thought that serial killer is just a plot device to give Atziri a reason to have Doryani possibly wipe out the entire Vaal civilization in experiments, but it could be more than that. But if we presume there's more to it, I'm fairly certain that Virtue gems + the Nightmare + Cataclysm are 100% connected, and that serial killer could have started it all; hell, he might even still be alive.