The Queen's First Reign and Banishment

The Queen's First Reign

Long before Drakath and his Chaos Lords, the Queen of Monsters ruled Lore, her Children ravaging the world while her minions turned its inhabitants against one another. Your journey takes you back to the struggle of the ancient Heroes of Balance to banish her with eight Elemental Orbs, which Iadoa describes as older than the Queen herself.

Iadoa's Summons

Beside a river, a portal opens before you, and Iadoa calls from within it to ask for help against the Queen during her first reign. Although his face is familiar, he is not the Iadoa who became a Chaos Lord, but one of the ancient Heroes of Balance trying to recover the eight Orbs.

You ask whether the Queen's remembered imprisonment already guarantees their victory. Iadoa says it does not: his companions have prepared as far as they can, and without your help the future could become one in which she never lost power. He explains that the Eternal Dragon of Time exists in one fixed moment. Accepting his warning, you enter the portal before even asking exactly when it leads.

Hunting the Elemental Orbs

Iadoa sends you to Akiba to help Kitsune recover the Wind Orb from Jaaku, whose forces are attacking the city and the Yokai Realm. While O-Dokuro protects the realm, you help Kitsune reach the threatened Yokai and fight the Shadows into which Jaaku has divided himself. Once you overcome them, you defeat Jaaku and recover the Orb, leaving Kitsune to defend Akiba as you continue toward Lionfang in Thunderforge.

In Thunderforge, Lionfang is protecting the Darkbloods from Extriki's poison. Though he describes them as humans transformed by Kolyaban, he insists that these peaceful settlers deserve help. You gather samples for him to combine with his Manticore's antitoxin, then test the cure and carry it into the clouds so it can fall as rain. As the settlers begin to recover, you confront Extriki and secure the Energy Orb.

In Dwarfhold, King Alteon suggests that the king you knew was his descendant, while King Vath declares the Dwarves under his protection. Their enemy, Grou'luu the Calcifier, kills its victims and controls their calcified bodies, so you help the defenders reach its lair while Vath sends the Rock Roc and Stalagbite to evacuate the Dwarves. Defeating Grou'luu wins the Earth Orb, the third of eight.

At Mobius, Sa-Laatan's brine threatens the farmland and its faeries, and you help Iadoa and Escherion establish protective wards. Escherion's Lake Hydra cannot hold the creature indefinitely, so Iadoa calls Kathool, who seizes Sa-Laatan and leaves the Water Orb behind. Kathool denies acting out of friendship: it values future connections and a Lore whose mortals can still entertain it.

The Queen retaliates for the loss of her children by handing two captured Heroes of Balance to the survivors. The Ninth Hero's threats turn to screams as one monster closes in; the captive called the Sixth Hero begs to live, only to be transformed into a beast for the Queen's service. She orders her children to hunt the remaining heroes and reserves a special punishment for the Eternal Dragon.

You help Ledgermayne recover Fire from Chamat, then join Tibicenas and Xing against Horothotep for Light. In Darkovia, you fight alongside Wolfwing and Xang against Kolyaban for Darkness. Xang explains why this fight is personal: she and Xing once lived as one person with children of their own. Kolyaban destroyed that family, and grief tore them apart.

By the time the Heroes of Balance gather in Mythsong, Khasaanda has taken her slain brother Krellenos's place. Kimberly reveals that Discordia let himself be captured in hers. Against Quetzal, Escherion turns the serpent's own power against him, allowing Kimberly to claim Ice. Iadoa casts the frozen serpent into space rather than leave him for the Queen to recover.

March on the Plane of Chaos

With all eight Orbs gathered, you clear the way through the Queen's fortress and collect enough Chaotic Energy for Iadoa to open a passage. The route crosses the Plane of Chaos. Fearing that it would overwhelm his mind, Iadoa asks you to go first so he can locate you and follow to the far side.

The Queen welcomes you by turning your victories against you, sending shades of Kolyaban, Horothotep, Sa-Laatan, Grou'luu and Extriki to confront you while she accuses you of heartlessly killing her Children. As you fight through them, Iadoa warns you not to accept her attempts to turn your thoughts against yourself.

A second passage brings another assault on your resolve as the Queen accuses you of embracing Chaos and leading armies against your own people. You overcome the manifestations of guilt and a Chaos Giant before facing the Proto Chaos Champion, her first Champion, who claims to be her first and perfect creation. Iadoa cannot identify what it was before its transformation, but once you defeat it, the Queen appears to confront the heroes herself.

The Queen's Banishment

The Queen blasts the heroes backward and mocks their belief that so small a company can succeed where armies failed, dismissing the Orbs and threatening to make you watch your companions die. Yet they rise to face her again: Xing and Xang speak for broken families, Kimberly remembers Discordia, and Khasaanda promises to finish Krellenos's work. The others renew their pledges to protect their peoples and end the Queen's divisions.

When the Queen calls herself endless, Iadoa answers by calling on the Orbs to reveal your true form. They gather around you, transforming you into the Eternal Dragon of Time, and you send them behind her to open a portal to her own domain. She denies that you can banish her, but you show her a vision of Malgor holding her severed head: the fate awaiting her if she remains on Lore, and a warning against returning.

As you force her toward the portal, the Queen curses the heroes' souls, condemning them to repeat their lives without peace, to be despised by those they serve, and to bring death upon their peoples and their own children. They will become what they fought, she declares, and eventually bring about her return.

The Queen passes through the portal, you return to human form, and the Orbs scatter. Iadoa proposes celebrating before confronting the curse and restoring the world; he also promises to return you to your own time.