Extriki and Kolyaban

The Rift and the Neverglades

The Queen's Children advance across Lore, with Extriki poisoning the land for the invaders while Kolyaban changes living creatures to suit her purposes. After Swordhaven's fall, a Rift opens and the surrounding land begins to die, drawing defenders, researchers and refugees to the Neverglades camp. Scouts disappear, and Baldric's warning urges the defenders not to send others into the same danger. Warlic can protect the camp temporarily, but the alliance still needs a way to approach the source and survive. Meanwhile, Aria and her wolf Lucky follow a disturbance in the air and earth toward a nearby Darkblood pilgrimage.

The Battle Against Extriki

Extriki emerges from the Rift, pouring out toxin as it advances toward Greenguard and Battleon. Lim's monitor helps you judge exposure but does not protect you from it. Rescue work and attempts to slow the blight repeatedly send you back to Warlic and Twilly for treatment.

When Brentan presses for an attack before Shadowfall arrives, you support him for fear of what delay might cost, but the attempt fails because Warlic cannot restrain Extriki and shield the party at the same time. Gravelyn rescues you, and although the attack has weakened and slowed the monster, Victoria challenges the risk you took. With the toxin still coming, Battleon now needs evacuation and defenses.

A captive Rift creature, Zognax, reveals the weakness the alliance needs: Lore itself poisons his kind. Gravelyn proposes turning that incompatibility against Extriki with a nature bomb and seeking Ravinos's help. Victoria reluctantly supports sacrificing pure elemental Nature rather than losing Lore, accompanying you to obtain the Heart of the Glade, the seed of a future World Tree. Ravinos agrees, but its guardian Lunamoss refuses. You defeat her and take the seed for the alliance's bomb.

From Shadowfall, Gravelyn orders the bomb dropped as Extriki attacks the skeletal dragon carrying the fortress. The explosion shrinks and weakens the monster.

Extriki's Defeat

You, Victoria, Brentan and Warlic jump from Shadowfall with parachutes, urged on by Brentan before Extriki can retreat through the Rift. Defeating the weakened monster stops its advance toward Battleon, and near the Guardian Tower Brentan scarcely believes the plan worked. Then Extriki's body vanishes, leaving three smaller monsters behind, while the Queen feels her child fade from the world and cries out in grief. You recognize that the victory has drawn her attention, and Victoria reminds you that there is no second Heart of the Glade. Even after the victory, she wonders whether saving Lore now has doomed its future.

The Darkblood Pilgrimage to Kolyaban

The Darkblood pilgrims seek Kolyaban for answers about their origins. Thedra recounts the tradition that Kolyaban was the first Darkblood and returned to the Queen after outliving those she loved. The pilgrims disagree over what the story means and whether they are her descendants or creations. Eremon hopes to learn the truth from her.

Aria helps investigate the altered animals around their camp. The pilgrims also suffer from Rift toxins: Eremon explains that their long life on Lore has given them different biology from its invaders.

Lucky disappears into the fog and returns transformed, leaving Aria to ask you to subdue her without killing her so a cure can be sought. In the confusion, the wolf vanishes again and Aria follows, but when you search for her, you find only a scrap of her clothing.

Aria and Kolyaban

You and Eremon follow Kolyaban into the twisted caverns. She speaks through flies she has changed into her senses and voice, claiming that Aria has willingly joined her. You eventually find Aria transformed and embracing the power Kolyaban offered. She sets a Lore Golem against you and disappears after its defeat. Eremon refuses to fight his ancestor, and you part because saving Aria now means opposing the power he came to find.

Primarch Madra chooses to help you stop Kolyaban, even if it means challenging her people's worship. Cleric Joy adapts her sisterhood's research into Chaorruption, testing successive formulas on altered creatures before preparing a potion for Aria. She has no other reshaped human on whom to test it.

Eremon's followers block the way with the Hive, three Darkblood whom Kolyaban has fused together, a mutilation Madra condemns while he praises its magnificence. After you defeat the creature, Kolyaban dismisses its lives as expendable and offers to reshape Madra as well. The Primarch refuses, and the Darkblood divide into opposing sides.

The Darkblood Civil War

Though the disagreement divides families, Thedra, Salthos, Hindar and others support Madra as you fight through Kolyaban's acolytes to reach Aria with Joy's potion. Aria says Kolyaban recognized her as the Champion of Nature when her friends saw only a shopkeeper, earning a loyalty she defends by attacking you. You defeat her, then avoid another attack and splash her with the potion.

Aria regains her senses, but her body remains reshaped. Describing the experience as waking from a bad dream, she confronts Kolyaban for mutilating her body and twisting her mind, saying she would rather have cared for animals in her shop than destroyed them. When she attacks, Eremon intercepts the blow to save his goddess and dies still faithful. While Madra attends him, Kolyaban escapes and later promises the Queen she will return to be remade, leaving Aria to stay and help the altered creatures after the civil war ends.

Aria Chooses Her Form

Still unable to undo Kolyaban's changes, Aria brings you to the Guardian Tree to seek Fae's help. Having learned more about her own transformations, Fae believes the Champion's connection to Nature can give Aria control over her body. Inside the Plane of Nature, Aria practices growing treeant cuttings and healing sick creatures. Those too corrupted to heal are returned to the Growth for reconstruction, while a vine she grows carries you toward the Nature Orb.

A guardian calling herself Tera removes the Orb before Aria can take it, insisting that power alone is not enough without understanding. As Fae's allergies make it harder for her to guide the journey, Aria uses haleflowers against the pollen and grows ways through the obstacles ahead. When she asks whether she has finally proved herself, Tera reveals that she is Terrane, the Avatar of Nature. Aria accepts her guidance and faces one last trial, defeating the giant bird's form Terrane takes in battle.

With the Orb in her hands, Aria's abilities come into focus and she changes into a more human shape. You notice that some details remain different, but she likes them because this is the form she feels she should have had, now that she can choose. Terrane offers further teaching, yet Aria wants to return to her shop, town and friends. The Avatar opens a portal home and leaves the way available whenever she wishes to learn more.