Brightoak and Gaiazor

Ravinos and the Missing Horn

The World Tree's roots connect Brightoak to Lore's Mana Core. Its defenders rely on the Celestial Horn of Balance to sustain the barrier around those roots. Without it, corruption could reach the Core.

An attack draws Brightoak's defenders away from the Horn, with Aven maintaining a living barrier while Ravinos tries to save Eliza, a child caught by the attackers. When the enemy unexpectedly withdraws, they cannot understand why their former peacekeeper, Nevanna, would abandon an assault she seemed capable of winning.

The answer emerges when Ravinos tries to heal Eliza's broken arm and causes new pain instead of relief. With the familiar Grovesong missing, the defenders realize that the Horn was stolen while they fought to protect their people.

Ravinos had become one with the Horn during the war against Drakath, sacrificing his humanity to purify the grove. With the Horn gone, his purifying touch has become poisonous. He refuses to touch anyone or use magic until the danger is understood, leaving Brightoak without the healer it relied on.

Vines carry you to Brightoak, where Aven apologizes for the hurried summons. You meet residents trying to keep their community alive: Flix protects its creatures, Zephyr supplies enchanted wood, and Lapis mixes divination with a merchant's salesmanship. Helping them controls local dangers while the search for the Horn begins.

Nevanna and Rivensylth

Novus recalls Nevanna finding a Faerie Dragon egg before her disappearance. When she leapt from a height while being pursued through the forest, Aven caught her with a vine, but an attacker cut it before he could bring her to safety. Goblins recovered the egg as a Queen's Hunter ordered the fallen Nevanna contained.

The dragon's ancestors made the Horn, so Novus hopes its descendant Rivensylth can locate it. You choose the Hare of Good, the Fox of Evil or the Owl of Chaos as your guide and follow the trail to Avada, who has captured the dragon for Nevanna.

After you defeat Avada, the dragon interrupts your confrontation and allows the captor to escape, claiming that the captivity was voluntary and the search entertaining. It can sense the Horn, however, giving you and Aven a lead that takes you to Elfhame.

The Search for the Horn in Elfhame

Elfhame is a ruined city within the skeleton of an ancient beast, whose Guardian Aven believes is the safest hiding place for the Horn. To reach it, you must restore enough of the surrounding natural balance to open the way.

You help Aven prepare a restoration potion and activate four runes while clearing the creatures obstructing the work. The completed sequence opens the Guardian's mouth. After so long pursuing the Horn, Aven is finally within reach of it.

Despite your warning, Aven climbs toward the opening, where something catches his leg and sends him into a fatal fall you cannot prevent. Nevanna then appears with the Horn and dismisses the partnership they once shared.

Nevanna boasts that the Horn lets her command nature and that the Queen's poison has already entered the World Tree. She summons the Guardian Spirit and escapes with the artifact. Aven's spirit remains to help you defeat the corrupted Guardian, then directs you toward Brightoak's Dark Heart.

The Awakening of Gaiazor

The next attack interrupts Aven's funeral as Ravinos honors his body while acknowledging the spirit still with them. You call for the young and elderly to be taken to safety, but Nevanna uses the Horn to awaken Gaiazor, the Earth Titan.

You fight through the World Tree's corrupted roots to reach Gaiazor at the mana portal. Nevanna declares that you have only provoked the titan, which breaks free and attacks with her riding above it.

At the refugee camp, you help protect survivors and recover the tools and medicine they need. Ravinos wants Nevanna stopped, but you and Aven's spirit still hope to save her. Lapis offers a way to improve your chances through divination and a Sparrow's Blood potion from Reens. She promises no certainty; she reminds you that Nevanna remains their friend beneath the corruption.

The Grovesong Restored

You confront Nevanna before facing Gaiazor again, knocking her from the titan and giving Aven's spirit the chance to reach her. His spirit enters her, and when Flix comes to help, she says she felt Aven's presence before the Queen's control drained away.

Nevanna looks at the destruction and asks whether she caused it, but Gaiazor is still attacking, leaving little time to reckon with the answer. As she moves toward the fallen Horn, you return to face the titan.

As you defeat Gaiazor, Nevanna recovers the Horn and plays, bringing back the Grovesong. Monsters disintegrate and the corruption begins to fade, a change Ravinos feels as Flix reports that the Mana Core beneath the World Tree is being restored. Lapis warns, however, that much of Brightoak is dead and may never recover.

Ravinos admits that corruption clouded his judgment of Nevanna, and Flix assures her that Brightoak is still her home. Even so, she cannot remain amid the fear, anger and reminders of what she caused, and proposes leaving with Gaiazor to protect other people's homes from the Queen.

With Nevanna lost, the Queen abandons her plan to recruit the Titan of Darkness. The loss has exposed a weakness, and another predictable titan would only give you a threat you already understand.