[Fan Fiction] Part 3. Madness calls

Before the reveal of Heist, I've tried to guess the theme of the 3.12 expansion. I've failed in that attempt, but quite some people told me that they liked my writing and, more importantly, the lore and the connections between items and characters I've investigated.

Because of that, I've decided to rewrite my investigation, creating a story with my discoveries about the world of Path of Exile - and, maybe, foreseeing a possible league or update? So here it is: my attempt of an Part 3 for Path of Exile (obviously not considering Path of Exile 2).

I've spent quite a few hours doing the research alone, so I hope you like it.





Have you ever felt like your whole world was going to be turned upside down in a matter of seconds? If you haven't, then you simply haven't lived long enough. You can feel it in your spine, crawling through your nerves and activating every single form of alert your body can offer. But in the next second you think: "What is this? I have no reason to feel like this".

But your body is always right. Fear is always right. You have a reason. You just don't know it yet.

And it is always too late to keep it from happening.





I know you felt it that day - I was watching you. When Lilly docked her ship in Lioneye's Watch and jumped out of the deck almost falling in the ocean, you felt it, but you tried to convince yourself that it was nothing. Bestel was, as always, occupied with his terrible but well intentioned poetry. Tarkleigh watched Lilly with the most apathetic look, lost in thoughts about Nessa. But you felt it; you knew what she was going to say before she said it. In that single moment in which your whole body squirmed, you stopped organizing the dozens of your stash tabs and turned around. Lilly ran towards the middle of the Watch, yelling for every living creature to hear:

"

I FOUND IT ! I FOUND IT ! I KNOW 'ER IT IS !

Only one thing could make Lilly jump and yell and run and smile like that. It was the quest of her life, hindered by the Templars who raided her ship years past and confiscated an ancient relic. But you've delivered that relic back to her, and, as soon as she could, she went back to her life's mission: finding the ancient city of...

"

TSOATHA ! I FOUND IT ! I FOUND TSOATHA !

You remembered what she said about the mythical underwater city:

"

Every sell-dwelling lad or lass knows or Tsoatha. They call it a city, but it were more of a slaughterhouse than anything else. [...]
Well, the Brine King, as you know was forced into a slumber 'neath the ocean, and the city was said to have joined him there as well. A few folk managed to flee from the collapsing coral shards, start new lives for themselves, but I'll be reckoning they left all their valuables behind.
Now that the Brine King is nothing but crab meat, his sunken domain, the ancient city of Tsoatha, is ripe for the plundering.

Those words were completely removed from your mind with the ascension of Kitava and, after a brief rest, of Sirus. Thinking back, it's not like you didn't know that she wouldn't ever give up. Remember when she asked you to bring the Teardrop back to her? Well, you can forget about the past, but the past never forgets to become your future. She told you back then:

"

Exile, you're a giant among men! You got no idea how long I have yearned to have this beauty once more in me hands. The Teardrop is surprisingly still in pretty good condition - not too typical of the baubles them Templars like to steal.
We'll stick around a while longer, but once things settle down, my grandfather and I, we'll be setting sail with Tsoatha firm in our sights.

You should've learned by then that the only one thing that can be trusted in humanity is greed. But you, the mythical Exile who put Kitava to rest and that slained The Awakener of Worlds, was, time and time again, blinded by your own greed. Since humans are animals of habit, it was doomed to happen again one more time.

Maybe this time would be the last time.





Lilly had traveled land and sea to decipher the inscriptions on the Teardrop. As it's Lilly's way, she eventually found what she was looking for: a distant and dark land, where societies were driven insane by their own technological advancements and where savages hunted for human flesh. A small group of scholars was striving to pacify the chaos that devastated their homeland. They believed that the answers were contained in pieces of knowledge from the past that didn't make sense back in their time, mere products of twisted minds.

This group, called The Editors, were famous by their enormous misanthropism. Because of their distinguishabled red dressings, they were also called, by some of the survivors, The Red Editors. Others, who held them to be responsible for the havoc of the land, named them The Toxic Legion.

Either way, Lilly made her way into the group. After annoying them for long enough, they've accepted to help her - just to get rid of her presence. One of the scholars, a specialist in ancient languages, was indicated - against his will - to take care of the matter. Unwillingly as he was, he took the matter very seriously, dedicating an entire week, day after day and night after night, to translate that forgotten language.

When the process ended, the brilliant scholar told his discovers to Lilly.

"

By assuming that the words used are actually just slightly altered from a different, yet approximate language, the result I ended with was:
"sleeping, I await at the brink of madness for Tsoatha's Revival"
or
"sleeping, I await at the brink of madness. Tsoatha's death yet calls"
I am most unsure about "ph'tu," from "ph'," a prefix that means "beyond" or "over", and maybe "kadishtu", "meaning" or "understanding" can be contracted to "tu". In that case, "ph'tu" then becomes "beyond meaning or understanding", which then becomes "madness". It could also be "sleeping, I await at the gate(s) of Tsoatha. (beyond ____) death still calls."

Meanwhile, Sin was eavesdroping the whole story without yours or Lilly's knowledge. When an exhausted Lilly went to her bed with a big smile on her face, dreaming of untold riches, Sin approached you. You could feel the seriousness in his voice, a kind of fear kept hidden behind rationalized thoughts. He told you:

"

I do not know if you remember, but my brother told us, before his voluntary exile, that he would "remain in the furthest south, in a place of ice and ash, of blistering seas and abysmal storms". I knew back then where he would go, for there is only one place in this world where a god can find true peace: it is in the same place where one could find the purest horror.

It is a land only known through old stories that where thought designed to scare children and keep them from being curious. All of these stories told the same tale: curiosity may bring you closer to heaven, but will certainly drag you to the depths of hell.

Beware of your choices, Exile, for your path is not yours alone. It was by your hand that Kitava woke. It was by your deeds that Oriath fell. How many more must die until your thirst is quenched?

You couldn't find words to respond to Sin's menacing prophecy. The only thing you were able to do was look at the deepest of his calming yet desperate black eyes. All you could see was unshed tears and untold dispair.

A few meters away, Weylam Roth was rapidly preparing for the voyage that he and Lilly would start as soon as the sun rose the next morning.
When you woke up, the Black Crest was just a small black dot on the horizon: grandfather and granddaughter were, closer than ever, to Tsoatha.






To be continued.