Who are these 'gods'?

I have only just made it to Scheol and I have many questions... one being that I have done the key quests to both thrak and shere... the inhabitants of the shadowlands revere these 'names' as gods... now I can already tell that there probably is no gods at all... so I wonder then... are these just names in a religion, or are these highly advanced beings that the inhabitants worship?

I can't seem to find any real lore info on them, just quest guides... who are they and why are people worshipping them?

They are gods, in a sense.

They are real. For example, you can Spawn and kill Dalja with this.

As for who they are, and why they're in the positions they're in, i'm lacking in this information. I always presumed it was more of a Political Structure framed on a Theocracy, where they're not really gods as much as they are/were just strong and influential.

They also all seem to be kingmakers, in that they all have Omega lackeys, so I imagine a lot of their power comes from keeping strong people around them as their consiglieres.

That makes sense, though I often laugh at the omegas using psychic connections to lesser cultists in order to speak to me... they exhaust themselves and the cultist in the process... and it doesn't last long, and it's not very audible... but OoooOoOoooo magical link powers! XD (turns on phone) hello? person across space and time? hi! XDXDXD

I don't think we rightly know their nature, or the connections with notum between dimensions and space. Ergo has a lot to say, and the Omega seem to be subordinates who may come back into the storyline connecting RK and SL.

The Scheol, Adonis and Penumbra questlines are good places to look for info.

I'm a disgusting hoarder of this kind of lore, so here's what you can find out about them through various sources like quest dialogue, item descriptions, the AO novel, and in-game mechanics:

The current system in SL has roots in the old Xan religion. The Xan worshipped the Source^[1] (the power of life itself and the creator of their world^[2]), but "discovered" a pantheon of lesser deities in pairs called braces that originated from the Source.^[1]

• The 1st brace was Aban and Thrak
• The 2nd brace was Enel and Shere
• The 3rd brace was Ocra and Roch
• The 4th brace was Gilthar and Dalja
• The 5th (and final) brace was Cama and Vanya.^[1]

Some time after the 5th brace was discovered, the Xan civilisation began to fall as they exploited the Source energy. The followers of the braces split into factions - the Redeemed and the Unredeemed. The cataclysm happened and their world was fractured and dying.^[3]

It's been a long time since then and the Redeemed and Unredeemed still follow beings of the same names. It's specifically stated that these deities aren't exactly the same as the original braces of the Xan, and that they are physical manifestations, distorted reflections of the original braces made real by the corrupted imaginations of the Redeemed and Unredeemed^[1].

These dieties do exist and (for the most part) can be summoned in their respective temples. They are powerful beings who seem to have manipulated the development of humans on Earth, helping to create the Omega and the Empaths who still serve them, and guiding humans back to Rubi-Ka to help gain control of the Source.^[4]

Then things get weird...

Remember the last brace the Xan discovered was Cama and Vanya? Well there are four other Un/Redeemed deities in SL:

In Inferno: Lord Galahad and Lord Mordeth^[5]
In Pandemonium: Dante and Machiavelli^[6]

Again, these four do exist (you can fight two of them). What exactly they are is very much up for debate. It's interesting, though, that they are named after humans. I don't have any concrete answers from here on, only ideas with very little evidence.

What evidence we do have is that the leader of the clan the Knights of Avalon (formerly Efren Christe) likes to be called Lord Galahad, as in the Arthurian legend^[7]. He and his knights fight very closely with the Redeemed in Inferno^[8]; Sir Gawain in particular is the Empath of Redeemed Lord Galahad^[5]. Redeemed Lord Galahad himself drops the same armour that the Knights of Avalon wear on Rubi-Ka. There may even be a secret shadowlands portal in Camelot Castle in Avalon^[9]. This all suggests very strongly that the leader of the Knights of Avalon is a Redeemed deity.

The thing is, even though Galahad apparently named himself after a knight who found the holy grail, a nearly identical legend exists in the shadowlands about reaching the Source^[10]. It begs the question: which came first? Since the legend about the Source describes the cataclysm (which happened a few billion years ago), this one probably came first. We know that the Un/Redeemed influenced religions and myths on Earth - which is why the Redeemed appear angelic and the Unredeemed appear demonic^[4]. So they may also have planted the legend of the holy grail and its seekers such as Galahad. Only the holy grail is actually the Source.

So, some possibilities are:

1. The final four are just some oddball humans who assumed the identities of historical characters and, since the Un/Redeemed have similar legends to us, they became leaders of their factions. They are fundamentally different from the other ten, who were created by the Un/Redeemed. They represent humans now striving for control of the Source just as our Xan ancestors did.
2. The final four were Xan who ascended somehow (possibly by reaching the Source in the legend of the codices around the time of the cataclysm), and later used their power to eternally fight for control of the Source. Just as Vanya could leave the shadowlands to visit Earth before humans arrived on RK, Lord Galahad was able to leave and assume the identity of Efren Christe, founder of Galahad inc.
3. The final four were created by the Un/Redeemed (in the same way they created their previous distorted Braces) after contact with humans, after learning about human culture. (Though this doesn't explain how Efren Christe became Lord Galahad.]
4. The final four are Xan survivors of the cataclysm who arrived on Earth with the ark. We know that a few Xan escaped on them, but we don't know what happened to them.^[11]

See? Disgusting, right?

TL;DR: The Un/Redeemed deities are distorted reflections of the original Xan gods made real by their followers' corrupted imaginations... except for the ones in Inferno and Pandemonium... possibly.


[1] NPC dialogue: Halcyon Creed "They included in their faith a supreme being who was above the numerous gods, the creator of everything." "They identified and marked more gods throughout time. Early on, the Clergy had marked the first Brace as Aban and Thrak. As the Xan developed and their numbers grew, they discovered new Braces; Enel and Shere, Ocra and Roch, Gilthar and Dalja and finally, Cama and Vanya." "What you have seen in these or other temples aren't the Xan gods themselves. They are distorted mirror images of the Brace, made real by the corrupted imaginations and the rupture in the world."
[2] NPC dialogue: Clear Thought Three "They came from Life itself, as so many other living beings. They were born into existence from the Source."
[3] NPC dialogue: Mourning Calamity Five "the use and exploitation of the Source had increased over time [...] Even if they knew that the world was under so much pressure that it would wither and die, the use of the Source continued, until one day, the heart was ripped open and the rift split time, and the world, in two."
[4] Official text: Prophet Without Honour Chapter 3 and Epilogue - Vanya: "We left you alone, Dr. Zubov, because you are the architecht of humanity's future. You are our prophet, not our puppet." "It was as though [Vanya] were bigger than life [...] like an angel, perhaps, or a demon."
[5] Game mechanic: Inferno quests, statues, gardens
[6] Game mechanic: Pandemonium statues and gardens
[7] Official text: Anarchy Online game manual pp 21 "Lord Galahad. Position: Leader of the Knights Clan."
[8] NPC dialogue: Harry "You know Lord Galahad? From up in Avalon, the very same that now rules half of Inferno? [...] He's allied with the Redeemed now"
[9] Item description: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=225753 "With this ring you can use the gates in Condemned Subway, Temple of Three Winds, Camelot and Nascence" / Game mechanic: Excalibur's end in Elysium
[10] Item description: Codices: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=246088 http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=269827
[11] NPC dialogue: One Who Remembers the Past: "We know that they loaded the ships with massive banks of their genetic code, embedded even in the core systems of the ship. We also know that there were several individuals picked out to go on certain ships."

love your post redesine! been playing ao since 2002/2003, but inactive for the past 2 years. your writing really made me nostalgic about ao and what a wonderful game it was.

greetings from rl :),
slytha, rinnegan