1. Path of Exile
  2. News

Path of Exile News

Development Stories - Who is the Originator?

[p]The world building and lore introduced in Secrets of the Atlas has set us up for expansions to come! We asked our Audio and Narrative Director Kane, to delve into some of the intricacies of piecing all of its components together. [/p][p][/p][p]Hello! Kane here. You may know me previously as the Audio Lead at GGG… Well I’m still one of those, but now also narrative falls under my wheelhouse. I often pinch myself as a reminder that I’m not dreaming because this is quite literally a dream combination of things I love… and let me tell you, it brings me a great deal of joy! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Secrets of the Atlas. I should mention upfront, if you want to experience Secrets of the Atlas without spoilers, perhaps don’t read this. It is a bit tricky to discuss its narrative development without going into at least some of the details. As is the case these days, Mark (Neon) and I began with some bullet points for the basic narrative of what we’d be working towards. For Secrets of the Atlas, those were something along the lines of: [/p]
  • [p]Zana.[/p]
  • [p]… Brother?![/p]
  • [p]…… THREE SHAPER-ESQUE BOSSES?! OMG!
    [/p]
[p]
[/p][p]After those initial conversations, I knew we were off to a strong start and I was hyped to get started and piece together the dialogue and events for the narrative design. The initial premise here was to uncover what Zana has been doing since we lost track of her in the Atlas. That expanded into three main components to the expansion's story, with Zana’s plight at the core of it all.

[/p][h3]The first component: Eagon [/h3][p]Introducing Eagon, a mysterious fellow claiming to be Zana’s brother, gave us a lot of interesting angles to explore Zana’s mission from. Like us veteran Exiles, he knows a lot about Zana and feels a connection to her, yet she is essentially a stranger to him. He believes that she simply must have all the answers to his burning questions about his heritage… and yet life is never so simple. He has spent his life trying to uncover and realize who he is and perhaps, why he is.

Working towards unraveling who Eagon is and helping him try to piece things together makes him quite relatable as a person. Despite his rather pompous sense of entitlement (we are all flawed), he just wants to understand who he is, his place in the world and to save who he believes to be his sister.

[/p][h3]The Voice of Eagon[/h3][p] [/p][p]When casting this character, I knew we needed a voice actor who could fully embody Eagon’s unique personality and portray it correctly. One audition immediately stuck out as the right fit. Leon Wadham brought Eagon to life in a perfect way. [/p][p] [/p][h3]The second component: Zana[/h3][p]Interestingly for this expansion, Zana doesn’t exactly occupy screen-time a great deal. It is what she has created that we are able to explore, and trying to understand why she has done so is what drives the story forward. Eagon discovers that Zana has been experimenting with the Atlas and manifesting memories, and even ideas, into reality. But why?

We are able to see what has mattered most to her, in the very areas we traverse and the figures we fight. In many ways, this exposure to Zana is more effective than even talking to her directly.
Her memory threads are split into 3 groups of paired themes, based on Loneliness and Neglect, Trauma and Fear, and Reverence and Dread.

[/p][h3]Loneliness and Neglect[/h3][p]This is first touched on by encountering a form of Sirus at a time unfamiliar to us, exploring the deeper part of their connection and her regrets with what became of a relationship she neglected.

Once we defeat this part of the thread, we can enter the ‘Moment of Loneliness’ where we witness Zana as a child, trying and failing, to get her father’s attention. This moment then transforms into the ‘Incarnation of Neglect’, where a permutation of her father is presented as a monstrous creation that we must overcome on her behalf.


[/p][h3]Trauma and Fear[/h3][p]These themes are explored by her residual trauma from the Templars and how they treated her and her father, exemplified by the fight with the Cardinal of Fear.

This allows us entry into the ‘Moment of Trauma’ where we witness young Zana making her father quite cross. This moment then becomes the ‘Incarnation of Fear’, a frightening imagining of someone her father never truly was.


[/p][h3]Reverence and Dread[/h3][p]This theme is shown in the form of Innocence, a God, taking the main stage as a revered but deceitful figure - yet another whose promises are to be broken. This thread line shows that even with good intentions, the grip of power can subvert even divine motivations.

After beating this form of Innocence, we can enter the ‘Moment of Reverence’ where we witness child Zana watching her father deliver a speech in Oriath. This moment is then reshaped into the ‘Incarnation of Dread’, showing just how much her fathers notoriety and influence affected her.



[/p][h3]The Voice of Zana[/h3][p] [/p][p]Zana is back, baby! It was fantastic to have Katherine Kennard back to reprise her role, and she did so quite effortlessly. It is quite amazing how actors can return to a role after some time and immediately lock-in and become the character again.

[/p][h3]The third component: Valdo[/h3][p]At the core of Zana’s plight is her father, as it has always been. But what do those memories mean to Zana? Moments that mean little to grown adults, but leave a permanent imprint on a child. Eagon construes these moments as mutations by the Atlas, overblown realisations of a child's memories - but are they? Or is this intentional on Zana’s behalf? And why? Good questions!

[/p][h3]The Voice of Valdo[/h3][p] [/p][p]That deep and rich presence and voice… Daryl Habraken returns, but not exactly as The Shaper. This time, we hear a little more from Zana’s father, rather than who he became.

[/p][h3]Who is the Originator?[/h3][p]Finally, at the end of this part of the story, we learn part of Zana’s true ambitions. We learn that Eagon’s situation remains further complicated. And most importantly: we learn that we have more to learn. And I for one, cannot wait to unravel these threads even further.

Hang on… who is the Originator again? It is Zana, right? Hmm…

Until next time, friends!
[/p]

Mercenaries of Trarthus Statistics

The Mercenaries of Trarthus have joined us for a few weeks now, and they've been a blast in more ways than one! In today's news post, we go over some fun and interesting stats related to the loot they've been hauling from Trarthus or looting from Wraeclast. These stats were collected on Day 12 of the league. Check them out below!

Tabula Rasa has spawned on 128,311 Mercenaries in the campaign.
  • 61,547 of them were skipped.

Wanderlust has spawned on 97,173 Mercenaries in the campaign.
  • 50,120 of them were skipped.

The Squire has spawned on 2 Mercenaries.
  • One player didn't interact with the Mercenary.
  • The other decided to instead receive 2 Chaos Orbs.

Rakiata's Dance has spawned on Mercenaries 4 times.
  • The Mercenary was not interacted with for 2 of them.
  • One player chose to receive the sword.
  • The other player preferred 8 Chaos Orbs and 4 Vaal Orbs.

Defiance of Destiny has spawned on Mercenaries 8 times.
  • On 3 of them, the Mercenary was not interacted with.
  • 3 players could not defy destiny and lost their duels
  • The remaining 2 were successfully claimed.

Soul Taker has spawned on Mercenaries 9 times.
  • On 6 of them, the Mercenary was not interacted with.
  • 1 player lost the duel and had their soul taken away instead.
  • 1 player chose assorted low-value currency.
  • 1 player successfully took the Soul Taker.

Kalandra's Touch has spawned on Mercenaries 356 times.
  • On 88 of them, the Mercenary was not interacted with.
  • 268 players interacted with the Mercenary.
  • 34 players lost their touch, and lost their duels.
  • 47 duel winners chose assorted low-value currency instead.
  • 1 player hired the Mercenary.
  • 7 players sent their Mercenaries to Exile.

Headhunter has spawned on Mercenaries 211 times.
  • On 42 of them, the Mercenary was not interacted with.
  • 149 players won their duels against their Mercenaries.
  • 11 of those players chose to receive an assortment of low value currency from the rucksack instead of picking the Headhunter as their reward.
  • 2 duel winners chose to banish the Mercenary.
  • Of the remaining Headhunters, 20 players had their skulls added to the belt of Mercenary, including one player chose to hire the Mercenary, but failed to defeat it.

Mageblood has spawned on Mercenaries 157 times.
  • On 34 of them, the Mercenary was not interacted with.
  • 11 players lost their duels.
  • 112 players won their duels.
  • 14 of these duel winners chose to receive an assortment of low value currency from the rucksack.
  • 2 duel winners sent their Mercenary, and thus also their Mageblood, to Exile.

Mirror of Kalandra has spawned on 14 Mercenaries.
  • Of these, 7 were skipped, so a year of bad luck for each one results in seven years of bad luck!
  • 5 players successfully claimed their Mirror(s).
  • 2 players lost their duels, losing 2 Mirrors each.
  • One of these players didn't even die to the Mercenary, but got third partied by a Vendigo they had neglected to kill before beginning their duel.


Infamous Warpriest of the Ruckus has spawned a single time, but was not interacted with. Sad! Hopefully another one will be found, the number of maps required to find him is approximately equivalent to the number of years since the dinosaurs became extinct, so no guarantees.

There's still plenty of time to interact with the Mercenaries of Trarthus to get your challenges done. Be sure to keep an eye on your Mercenary's inventory, and best of luck with your duels!

Update on Server Issues, Compromised Accounts and Visual Flickering

We'd like to provide an update on a few important things that have been happening in Path of Exile.

[h3]Server Issues[/h3]
We've been very focused on improving DDoS protection for our servers. Unfortunately, some of the protective measures have blocked legitimate traffic, causing instances to unexpectedly close. We're working closely with our server providers to finish setting up protection and resolve these issues as soon as possible.

[h3]Compromised Accounts[/h3]
There have recently been an increased amount of reports regarding players having their accounts compromised. We've looked into as many reports as we could, and will continue to do so, however we have found no evidence of any kind of security breach on our end. If you're not already, we strongly recommend using secure and unique passwords. If you login through Steam but previously used the Standalone client, your email and password is still a valid login method and you should ensure this password is secure and unique.

[h3]Visual Flickering[/h3]
We're aware that gameplay elements and the game's UI will start to flicker in and out when gameplay gets a bit hectic. The engine team is urgently looking into this and we're hoping to have an update on this issue next week.

Thank you all for your patience as we work through these issues.

Secrets of the Atlas Original Soundtrack

No expansion is complete without a soundtrack to set the tone, and the score for Path of Exile: Secrets of the Atlas certainly doesn't neglect this. Check out the tracks for the Secrets of the Atlas Original Soundtrack by Kamil Orman-Janowski and Michael James Collier in today's news post!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

These tracks, along with the rest of the Path of Exile Extended Digital Soundtrack, are available for download with the purchase of any Supporter Pack here.

Boss Kill Event Winners

The Secrets of the Atlas Boss Kill Event for PC has now concluded! The race for the top 10 was close, and all bonus boss kills have been claimed!

Top 3 Placings - PC:
Congratulations to the top 3 racers, who will each get a Godslayer's Pride Amulet, a Divination Card design, and a Unique Item design for the newest bosses: The Incarnation of Dread, The Incarnation of Neglect and The Incarnation of Fear!
  • Ben_#4007
  • allexpleblord#4962
  • nickexile11#5507
Top 10 Placings - PC:
Congratulations to the rest of the top 10, who will also get a Godslayer's Pride Amulet as well as a Divination Card design!
  • Sarge2#0184
  • Dsfarblarwaggle#7862
  • Wyrm_GG#3008
  • akuryo#0061
  • Kunagi_JP#6612
  • CARNDARAK#3163
  • 김겨울#7178
Bonus Prizes - PC:
The following players were the first to slay the bosses listed below, allowing them to design a Unique Item for that boss:
  • First Catarina Kill: allexpleblord#4962
  • First Uber Uber Elder Kill: Ben_#4007
  • First Uber Shaper Kill: Ben_#4007
  • First Uber Sirus Kill: Ben_#4007
  • First Uber Cortex Kill: CARNDARAK#3163


As we stated during launch weekend, we will be running an additional Boss Kill Event for PC where the prize structure will be exactly the same as the first event. The postponed Console Boss Kill Event will also be run at the same time.

More info on when this will start will be provided soon, so keep your eye on the news.

Congratulations again to all winners of the first Secrets of the Atlas Boss Kill Event!