SPOILER The Olmic City - a Deep Dive

Hello everyone, and welcome to the thread. The story of the Olm has always fascinated me, and I have eagerly looked through all lore relating to them and their civilization. I specifically looked through the Olmic city ruins in the Silent Expanse, finding any bits of lore I could gather. I am by no means an expert or definitive source on the matter, I would just like to share my findings and theories with the community, and if you have any findings of your own, please do share! So sit back, stay hydrated, and I shall begin reciting my research.

Before we get into my findings, the Olmic city can be divided into three time periods: before the attack, during the attack, and after the attack. It is impossible to tell when the Olmic city fell, but I believe it to be around 1400 BP (I will explain this later in my findings).



Pre-Attack
There is little to no information on the Olmic city before the attack. What is known comes from bits and pieces of lore, such as offhanded comments or building designs.


Religion

The Olm are very familiar with runes and runic magic, as underneath their cathedral is a rune altar, possibly used for some religious significance due to its location. According to the notes from Kaen and Adan, there was a runemaster who lived in the outskirts of the city. Anya’s status as oracle also has some religious connotations to it. Because of Time Valley, we know that the Olm are familiar with seeing the past - possibly using the power of runes - but what if they could also see the future? This is obviously rarer than viewing the past, as Anya is the only known Olm with this ability. Because of her title, status, and our knowledge of runes, it is tempting to say that Anya was a religious leader for the Olm, and her ability to see the future using runes is unique only to her and other oracles. However, any other specifics of the religion have been lost to darkness.

Military

The Olm were capable warriors in their day, and although it is not known if they used runic magic in their army, they were nevertheless a very powerful force. There are no written records of the Olmic military, everything regarding it is in the form of statues or imagery. Apart from the statues found in the Garden, there are images of Olmic warriors on horseback on the sides of the Eldritch Outlook building.

Architecture

Within the city is the Cathedral, as well as numerous other buildings and structures. One such structure is overlooked due to its massive size and utter destruction - what I am calling the Garden. From what we can see, the Garden consists of a great arch monument flanked by two Olm statues wielding swords, which may have commemorated some great victory lost to time. In front is a plaza that is surrounded by towers and arches, possibly to separate the Garden from the rest of the city, though it served more of a ceremonial or decorative purpose than practical, as the wall consists of massive archways.

On the opposite end of the city is another grandiose building with a seemingly unclear purpose. It is where Elphaba can be found in the Olmic City, and consists of a grand hallway leading up to a platform with candles and a book. While it may seem to be some kind of religious site, I would argue this was the seat of whatever government the Olm had in the city. The hallway is reminiscent of royal hallways found across many cities even in Wynn and Gavel, most notably the halls of Ragni, the Desert Kingdom, and Rodoroc. Another thing to note is this building, which I will call the Palace, is the only place in the Olmic City to have colored windows, apart from the Cathedral. It is also important to note that next to the Palace is a great manor, with lots of bookshelves. It is because of these observations that this part of the Olmic City was perhaps the wealthier corner of the city - the perfect place for a Palace. Most likely, the Olm were a kingdom, ruled under a monarchy based out of The Palace. How the Olmic monarchy acted in regards to the invasion is irrelevant, as it collapsed soon after the attack began.

The Cathedral itself is still mostly intact, with only a few corruption spikes sticking out of the structure. The most recognizable structure in the Olmic City, the Cathedral served as the religious - and magical - center of the city. Buried deep below one of these spikes is a Rune Altar, which may have been used in religious ceremonies, creating tools to wield great power over their enemies. The building’s stained glass windows are the only things left in the city that have color. Though the patterns are not known, they could represent the Olm’s religion.

The most peculiar building within the Olmic City is, in my opinion, the Observatory. Located next to the Cathedral, it is where we learn of the final moments of the Olm before the beginning of the Dern Beast's attack. What is odd is that, apart from the Wynnic Excavation and Silent Expanse ultimate discovery, this is the only discovery in the city that takes us back into the past. The Wynnic Excavation discovery can be explained as a magical byproduct of the crystals, while the ultimate discovery can be explained as dark magic from the Dern Beast itself. Yet, neither one explains why the Observatory is home to a memory discovery. I believe the Observatory uses time-warping technology to better track astronomical events. This theory is far fetched, but it does have some merit to it. Not only does it explain why we are able to view the past when looking through the telescope, but attached to the telescope itself are eight time fragments. The very same time fragments found through out Time Valley. They are stuck to the sides of the telescope, giving the Olm the ability to see into the past, and possibly the future.
Even for a civilization as advanced as the Olm, the Observatory is an incredible technological feat. Why would the Olm need an observatory that also observes the past and future? I believe they built the Observatory as a result of Anya's prophecy of destruction. The Observatory was built to accurately predict the moment the Dern Beast would attack the Olmic capital. However, for whatever reason, this plan failed.

Time Valley

Though the focus of this is mostly on the Olmic City, Time Valley does play a significant role in Olmic history. Ironically, the history of Time Valley and the Temple of Time were lost, making pinpointing the site's use by the Olm near impossible. However, because of the use of Time Fragments on the Observatory, we can assume that Time Valley was used by the Olm in or around the time of the Dern Beast's attack.

I would like to introduce another theory about Time Valley here by DaCorruption. They explain that Time Valley was created after the destruction of the Silent Expanse. However, this is most likely not the case, due to the presence of Time Fragments in the Observatory, and the Time Valley Olm's frantic quote about returning to the Expanse. Had the Expanse already been destroyed, returning there would have been impossible.

Instead, I argue that Time Valley was created before the fall of the Silent Expanse. They would use information given from The Observatory to prepare for incoming meteors (such as the meteor we shoot with a cannon in the quest Deja Vu), and the Olm used the site to improve their control over time. However, after a "cosmic event", the site would be abandoned. The only major cosmic event in Olmic history is the Dern Beast's attack, as every other meteor attack on both Time Valley and the Olmic City could be accurately tracked and predicted, and countermeasures used to prevent destruction. The Dern Beast's attack was the one cosmic event the Olm could not prepare for, which is most likely the same cosmic event that made Time Valley uninhabitable to the Olm. Cut off from communication with the Olmic City, the Time Valley Olm had no idea how bad things were in the city. With time torn asunder, they abandoned the site and made their way back to the one place they thought was still safe - the Silent Expanse.

Here, I will share my personal opinion. I believe that since Anya was the only known Olm who could see the future, Time Valley was constructed to try and harness the power of seeing into the future, which may have proved successful, because we can find time fragments on the Observatory telescope.

Attack
The Dern Beast’s attack on the Olmic city was brutal, and virtually wiped out the Olm as a powerful civilization. Though not instantaneous, the attack was nonetheless deadly.


The Final Moments

Within the Observatory, we can witness a memory of the city’s final moments. Froner, an astrologist, and an Olmic mage are watching out for incoming meteors which were commonplace. However, this time, the meteors were heading straight for the city, which shocks both of the Olm. They were about to report to some higher authority (possibly the government located at the Palace) when the memory ends, presumably because the meteors crashed into the city. This sudden event was probably the beginning of the Dern Beast’s attack on the Olmic city.

Regarding the Observatory's time-warping abilities, the Olm should have been able to accurately predict where and when the Dern Beast would attack. However, the shocked expression of the Observatory workers shows that they were unable to predict the Dern Beast's arrival. Perhaps the Dern Beast had a counter for the Olm's use of time-warping, and could itself warp time to prevent the Olm from detecting it. The Dern Beast's counter against time-warping would explain how the Olm were unprepared to deal with the Dern Beast's attack, and how they fell to darkness despite being technologically and magically superior to all other civilizations on the continent.

Fate of the Olm

The Fate of the Olm tells us the story of the Olm in the middle of the Dern Beast’s attack. The notes left behind indicate that the Dern Beast’s attack was not instantaneous, instead hordes of “creatures of darkness” swarmed the city. These notes were likely written either shortly after the meteors fell, or some time later. By this point, “creatures of darkness” and other monstrosities roamed the city streets. It is not known if these creatures killed the Olm, or somehow “assimilated” them. All of these creatures had one goal: find Anya’s penumbra. Some entity known as the “beast’s follower” was also on the hunt for the penumbra. Anya’s grandchildren, Kaen and Adan, prevented the penumbra from being lost by continuously moving it around. Their descriptions of the locations they moved the penumbra to suggest that at this stage the Olmic city was still mostly uncorrupted, with the forest still having normal trees and houses being relatively intact. Kaen and Adan finished their last note identifying where the penumbra was, also hoping that whoever found their notes could finish what they started.


Post-Attack
The Olm still in the city after the attack had to adapt, and fast. What was once the center of their civilization, the Olm now had to scavenge and commit heinous actions just to survive.


Arna and the Caches

While there is no solid proof when Arna lived in the timeline of events, it seems more likely than not that Arna lived during the aftermath of the attack due to where Arna’s caches are located. The locations for all of Arna’s caches are:

• Under a gazebo
  
  
• Hidden room in a manor
  
  
• Under a different gazebo
  
  
• Closet of a mansion
  
  
• Basement of a building

Three of these caches are located within grand buildings, residential or otherwise. The other two are located under gazebos, which could have been very public places. It would have been very difficult for Arna to create all of these caches before the attack when there was still order, unless Arna happened to own all of the buildings the caches now reside in. It is also doubtful that the Olm would allow Arna to create caches in public areas like the gazebos. It is more likely that, after the attack concluded and the city was incorporated into the realm of Dern, some Olm managed to survive in the city. Arna most likely sought out locations that can offer some protection against the creatures, or in public well known areas for easy access to materials. Arna then hid the keys to these caches in ancient constructs, possibly Olmic versions of safes. However, because the caches appear to all be untouched for centuries, it may be that Arna soon fell to the darkness after creating these caches. There is no way to know for certain when Arna lived, it is entirely possible Arna lived in the pre-attack city and set up the caches as part of some smuggling ring instead of survival caches.


The Cancereater

Within the eyeball forest is a mysterious creation, the Cancereater. It is an unholy contraption made of flesh and metal, and its purpose is to convert foul Larbonic shells into useful ingredients. The instructions for the creation are in ancient Wynnic - the language of the Olm - providing proof that this was created by the Olm. However, this could not have been created before the Dern Beast’s attack, as Larbonic stone was a byproduct of the darkness assimilating the landscape, and didn’t exist before the attack. Therefore, it is almost certain that the Cancereater was created by the Olm after the attack, thus proving that some Olm did survive. However, the Olm who created this had regrets, writing: “This is not research. This is ritual. How may I look upon my loved ones with eyes that have seen such things? How may I caress the faces of my children with hands that have issued such actions? I ask myself now, staring before my work”. The Olm still in the city were forced to adapt - Arna may or may not have created caches after the attack to help in survival, while this unnamed Olm made the Cancereater to refine Larbonic stone into useful materials to help him, his children, and any other Olm survive in the Silent Expanse.


A Wynnic Excavation

In 800 BP, humans from Wynn managed to find crystal shards embedded in a cavern within the Olmic city that they were mining in. The mining manager orders the crystals be covered up, saying they are “dangerous”. After the Dern Beast’s attack, many of the Olm used the power of the crystals to escape into the Dernal jungle, but the crystals drove them all insane over time. If the human miners were aware of this, that would mean the Olm fled the city and went to the jungle long before 800 BP, since the Olm in their writings said they had been in the jungle for a long time. With that in mind, it becomes possible to pinpoint the Dern Beast’s attack to some time between 850 BP and 1000 BP.

However, we must look outside the Silent Expanse for a clearer answer - the deserts of Almuj. After the fall of the Desert Empire in 1400 BP, the Pharoahs took over and one of them - Nabak - guards the Yellow crystal to this day. It is likely that the Olm did not use up all the crystals in the Silent expanse, leaving some behind for the human miners to discover in 800 BP, and subsequently re-hide. This means that some time between 1400 BP and 800 BP, the Olm escaped Dern into the jungle, became mad, and scattered the crystals for the yellow one to end up in the desert. If we were to consider this, the Dern Beast's attack on the Olm could have happened as early as 1400 BP, lining up perfectly with the Gylia meteors crashing in Gavel and the fall of the Desert Empire in Almuj. It is because of this I believe the Dern Beast's attack took place in 1400 BP.

The Olmic City's Monsters

When you think of Olmic city mobs, one of the first to come to mind is the Omnispective Wanderer. As of the Rekindled update, the Wanderer actually has some "dialogue", albeit it seems to be telepathically sending messages to you. Among the messages I heard are the following:
- ...Don't leave me
- ...wanderer?
- Don't be afraid
- ...come here
- Strange thing
- Please don't run
- I don't want to be alone
- Let us show you
- What are you?
- Unknown to us
- Stay with me?
For a creature of darkness, the Wanderer has a lot of human-like emotions - loneliness and curiosity to name a few. It genuinely doesn't seem like it wants to kill you, but in the process does anyway. My theory is that the Wanderer is made of either one or multiple Olm, who were changed by the Dern Beast's darkness either during or after the attack, forced to walk the city for eternity.


Another creature of darkness is the Form Deceiver, an exceptionally rare mob that mimic the Olm in appearance. They will appear as an ordinary Olm and, when approached, the creature says in ancient wynnic "Come closer" before revealing its true form as a monster with a gigantic mouth, and tries to assimilate whatever interacted with them. These were most likely used to assimilate any survivors in the city after the initial attack, further proof that there were still Olm in the city after the Dern Beast took control. However, one difference is that the Olmic face of the Form Deceiver is the same color as the insane Olm who were driven mad by the power of the crystals.

This may suggest that the Olms' facial skin turns a darker shade of grey when exposed to Dernic influence, and could explain some things. Perhaps most, if not all, Olm remaining in the city by the time the Form Deceiver was created had Dernic influence and had their face color darkened. This too explains how many Olm in the Dernel Jungle have darker faces than others - perhaps they or their ancestors had more Dernic influence than other Olm that escaped the Silent Expanse. Upon death, the Form Deceiver drops one of Arna's keys, offering a gruesome theory as to Arna's whereabouts.


Lastly, we have the Fool Eater, the apex predator of the Silent Expanse. She stalks her prey at various locations around the Silent Expanse before attacking. Even for the most skilled players, the Fool Eater is a difficult foe. The sheer power of the Fool Eater makes me believe that she was one of the first creatures of darkness to invade the Expanse, tasked with assimilating as many Olm as possible, before the other creatures were created to mop of resistance. Perhaps the Fool Eater was "The Beast's Follower" that Kaen and Adan referred to, due to her power and unique skills.

Timeline

I will now try and construct a timeline of events leading up to, and after, the Dern Beast's Attack

- 2000-1500 BP: Around this time, the Silent Expanse is first inhabited by the Olm. They would become a mighty civilization
- 1500 BP: The Oracle Anya gives her prophecy about the Dern Beast's attack, and prepares Anya's Penumbra to counteract the Beast's influence. After Anya's death, The Olm create Time Valley to try and learn how to see into the future, proving to be at least partially successful
- 1500-1400 BP: The Observatory is constructed using time fragments from Time Valley, and is used to try and predict where and when the Dern Beast would attack, ultimately failing to do so
- 1400 BP: The Dern Beast attacks

- The Observatory only notices the Dern Beast's fiery meteor mere moments before it destroys the city, wiping out all the workers before they could spread the word
- Time Valley is abandoned due to a "cosmic event". This could have possibly been the Dern Beast's attack, which they somehow detected independently of The Observatory
- "The Beast's Follower" and numerous "creatures of darkness" search for Anya's penumbra, failing to find it. Kaen and Adan are most likely killed in the initial attack, having safely hid the penumbra
- The Dern Beast begins assimilating the Olm, transforming them into various creatures, and releasing them to go out and assimilate any remaining Olm
- A majority of the Olm escape to the Dernel Jungle by using the magic of the crystals​

- 1400-1300 BP: The post-attack Olmic population gets fully assimilated into Darkness

- The Cancereater is created around this time to utilize the new resources brought by the Darkness
- Arna creates caches of goods and food across notable monuments in the former city to keep themself well-stocked
- In the Dernel Jungle, the Olm slowly begin to go insane from the power of the crystals​

- 1300-800 BP: The Olm of the Dernic Jungle completely collapse due to the insanity of the crystals, and disperse them across the continent for fear of their power united. Though few remain sane, the vast majority have completely lost their minds
- 800 BP: Humans from Wynn discover crystals while mining on the outskirts of the ruined Olmic city, hiding the discovery due to fear of their power

Theories
If the statements I made before this point even made some sense, then the statements here will be absolutely bonkers. These are observations I noticed around the map which all have some strange attachment to the Olm, one way or another.

On the other side of the mountain range separating Wynn's desert from the ocean lies a series of caves at (1124, 2420) and (1354, -2553).
The first cave at (1124, 2420), which I will call Cave A, has some remarkable features to it, despite not being a part of any land or region. Cave A's exterior consists of a few tents, trees, and some ancient rubble. At the entrance to the cave is a pillar of yellow light, next to a staircase leading to the entrance of the cave, which is an archway. The architecture of the cave is eerily similar to other Olmic sites, such as the Olmic City or the Dernel Jungle City. Cave A's interior consists of a few ruined houses, one of which contains a few bookshelves, and two hostile mobs: the Defiled Explorer, and the Ruins Defiler. The Defiled Explorers' appearance is what drew my attention to this site, because they have completely black skeletons and wither skulls as heads. The Olm have completely black skeletons, and evidence of this is the sheer amount of wither skulls found in the Olmic City. Perhaps these Defiled Explorers are not Olm, and are simply humans cursed to have black skeletons. However, the existence of the Ruins Defiler implies these skeletons are Olmic. The Ruins Defilers are hostile spider mobs, their name implying they defile the ruins of Cave A. Since the skeletons are named Defiled Explorers, it seems to imply that the spiders defile the explorers as well, making them part of the ruins. This in turn is evidence that the skeletons and ruins coexisted for long enough for the spiders to defile both the explorers and the ruins.
If this theory is correct, and Cave A is the site of an as-of-yet unknown Olmic settlement, this raises numerous questions about the history of the Olm as we know it. For one, this would be the farthest site from the Olmic City, as while all other sites are located in Southwest Wynn, this is on the northeastern coast of the province. Another question is what was an Olmic settlement doing so close to the water, when no other settlements are found along the coast? The Olm were no naval power, and nothing we know about the Olm suggest they could traverse the ocean. To that, I say that Cave A might have been used as some kind of safe haven for Olmic ships to dock at, preventing them from being destroyed by the pre-pacified ocean. As for the tents, why did the Olm build tents in Cave A when they lived there, instead of living in the houses? For that, I present an entirely theoretical history of Cave A:
- 2000 - 1500 BP: Olmic explorers discover the coastlines of Wynn, and begin creating safe havens to further explore the coastline. However, this comes to an end and Caves A and B are abandoned, as the seas are far too dangerous to traverse regularly
- 1400 BP: The Olmic civilization is destroyed
- 1400 - 800 BP: Olmic refugees fleeing the crystals' insanity in the Dernel Jungle make their way to the old safe havens, since they are the last places that could take in refugees, setting up tents in the process

Cave B is much the same as Cave A, though without any mobs. It consists of a much larger cavern with ancient pillars and rubble dotting the landscape and cave. The only thing tying this site to Olmic history is that the architecture of the island is similar to other examples of Olmic architecture. Cave B could have been used as a safe haven also, or as some kind of mine since emerald ore can be found in the depths of the cave.

Both of these caves have very little information about them, and though I could be absolutely off about both of these caves, I still have a feeling they have some kind of connection to the Olmic civilization of old.


Conclusion

The story of the Olmic city and its inhabitants is one of the most tragic in all of Wynncraft. Not only was it so thoroughly destroyed that not even the city's name survived, but there is no one left alive to avenge or even remember the Olm from the city. For this document, I only explored the Olmic city in detail, and did not include anything from the Eldritch Outpost or any Olmic sites apart from this one. If you have anything related to the city you would like to add, please do!

 

Really interesting stuff to say about this. Two comments I have about this:

The spikes are spikes of darkness. Corruption doesn't really appear in the SE aside from the area under the light monolith.

I think you're talking about Obsessors. They normally impersonate players, but if they can also impersonate Olm in the form of actual NPCs, then that could imply that they coexisted with the Olm, which could imply a variety of things.

 

Cool thread! Like Da Homeboi said, this sounds like an obsessor. It's the same creature that attacked Lucio in AJB and you can find it in the Olmic City as a mimic. But it is very peculiar that this specific one was impersonating an Olm instead of a player, like normal. The ones I have seen (not in-game but elsewhere) have just been human miners or players. I wonder if the creature you saw was a different one, not an obsessor, though I'm not sure what else it could be. Was the creature you saw something like this:

I'm nearly sure you are describing an obsessor since afaik it's the only SE creature with the known ability to mimic other creatures. But if it was not an obsessor and something else entirely, even rarer, that would be very very interesting. But tbh this just sounds like an obsessor that happened to mimic an olm instead of a player or human miner.

 

On further research I have found out that it was not an obsessor. It was instead a lootrun event in the ruined olmic city involving a fake olm that turns into a fleshy mouth-like creature called the Form Deceiver.

 

ohhhh shit that's cool

oh, yea there's some talk on the discord about it. pretty neat, and it does make you wonder what other crazy shit is out there lmao

 

Would like to reply to this thread, as I am back from my hiadus. Most likely, this is what I found in the city, though it's weird how it usually mimics humans because I assumed it would mimic Olm as well considering they were probably made to hunt the Olm. A shame I could not screenshot it, I was just so flabbergasted seeing an Olm NPC in the middle of the city ruins.

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FORM DECEIVER! THAT'S IT! Seeing that name just unlocked a memory for me, the Olm NPC turned into a Form Deceiver, a kind of mouth monster thing.

 

I will compile a timeline of what I believe could be the Olmic civilization. Outside of one specific date, everything is up in the air and the result of educated guesswork. I will include information from Time Valley and the Ancient City.

• 2000 - 1400 BP - The Olmic civilization is centered on the Olmic capital, which may have been called Expanse City or some iteration of that, due to the Olm at Time Valley referring to the area as the Expanse.
• 1500 - 1400 BP - Construction of Time Valley might have taken place and may have even been operational for a time before being abandoned due to a cosmic event.
• 1450 BP - Anya, the Olmic Oracle, predicts the Dern Beast's attack and prepares Anya's Penumbra to combat the Beast, but the plan doesn't work. It may have been around this time that the city's observatory was constructed to keep watch for the prophecized attack.
• 1400 BP - The Dern Beast attacks the Olmic Capital. Fireballs crash into the city as the Dern Beast summons hordes of eldritch monsters to kill or "assimilate" the Olm. Many of the Olm use the power of the crystals to teleport to the Dernel jungle to escape the Dern Beast, which succeeds.
• 1400 - 1300 BP - The Olm who did not escape to the jungle had to adapt to the Silent Expanse and all its creatures. An Olmic inventor made the Cancereater to try and utilize the new resources of the land, Arna stashed supplies across the ruins of the city in case of emergencies. However, it is unlikely any Olm remaining survived for long.
• 1400 - 1000 BP - The Olm in the Dernel Jungle slowly grow insane, believing the Dern Beast is watching over them. Eventually, they realize the crystals were making them go insane, and spread them across the land, though this doesn't reverse the insanity most Olm now have. One of these crystals - the Yellow Crystal - ends up in the custody of the Desert Pharaohs, who guard it until Wynnexcavation discovers it in around 1000 AP.
• 800 BP - having realized the dangerous potential of the crystals, when human miners discover another deposit of crystals, their manager tells them to cover it up and keep them hidden

 

Thank you for all of this information! I really like digging into the lore of Wynncraft.

 

You can find a variety of creatures that are guaranteed to have once been Olm (Risen Ancient One, Bonic Pincher, Blazing Soul, Biblioclast) or could potentially be Olm (Form Deceiver, Repurposed Host)
Darkness doesn't kill like Corruption does. It mutates, warping life and land to create its alien utopia where all things have their own bizarre place in an Eldritch ecosystem. Creatures that were in the expanse alongside the Olm that did kill them likely did so out of hunger as opposed to any urge to kill for the sake of bloodshed.

 

Somehow, I completely overlooked the fact that the Dernic Portal first appeared in 0 AP, at the same time as the Corruption portal. This contradicts with my theory of the crystals. How did the pharaohs acquire the crystals if all of this took place after 0 AP? It is not stated how long the pharaoh era lasted, so presumably it could have lasted centuries after the Corruption portal opened. Another problem is, how did the events in "A Wynnic Excavation" happen at all if the Olmic capital was still inhabited by 800 BP? It would be hard to imagine the Olm just... allowing Wynnic humans to mine near their city. Not to mention one of the miners mentioning, "ain't these crystal that lad not too long ago asked ya 'bout?" Possibly referring to some human looking to use the crystals for a goal similar to Amadel. If this takes place before the fall of the Olmic civilization, how did the humans know about the dangerous powers of the crystals? Perhaps, everyone knew how dangerous the crystals were. The humans had some prior experience or learned about the crystals and their power and, when they discovered the crystals, they hid them away to prevent their power from being abused. Assuming the Olm somehow allowed Wynnic humans to mine near their capital city, or were unaware of their excavations, they would be the ones to uncover the crystals, and reluctantly use them to escape to the Dernel jungle. Maybe they knew the risks of using the crystals, but were unaware of how dire the price was? This still does not answer one last question - how did the Olm in the Dernel Jungle never interact with Troms? It is stated that Troms existed before the Corruption portal opened. Maybe the Olm were so deep in the jungle and so reluctant to interact with outsiders that both settlements simply never acknowledged one another? It would still be strange if Troms had no idea the Olm were there, considering they knew much about the Dernel jungle. I will do my best to compile the following information into another timeline.

• 2000 - 1400 BP - The Olmic civilization is centered on the Olmic capital, which may have been called Expanse City or some iteration of that, due to the Olm at Time Valley referring to the area as the Expanse.
• 1500 - 1400 BP - Construction of Time Valley might have taken place and may have even been operational for a time before being abandoned due to a cosmic event, possibly related to the Gylia meteors.
• 800 BP - Wynnic Humans discover crystals in the tunnels between the Olmic capital and the rest of Wynn. They recognize that the crystals hold immensely dangerous powers, and hide them away to prevent anyone from abusing them.
• 800 BP - 0 AP - The Olm uncover the crystals hidden by the humans. They too recognize their power, but unlike the humans, they will eventually use them.
• 200 BP - Anya, the Olmic Oracle, predicts the Dern Beast's attack and prepares Anya's Penumbra to combat the Beast, but the plan doesn't work. It may have been around this time that the city's observatory was constructed to keep watch for the prophecized attack.
• 0 AP - The Dern Beast attacks the Olmic Capital. Fireballs crash into the city as the Dern Beast summons hordes of eldritch monsters to "assimilate" the Olm. Many of the Olm reluctantly use the power of the crystals to teleport to the Dernel jungle to escape the Dern Beast, which succeeds.
• 100 - 200 AP - The Olm who did not escape to the jungle had to adapt to the Silent Expanse and all its creatures. An Olmic inventor made the Cancereater to try and utilize the new resources of the land, Arna stashed supplies across the ruins of the city in case of emergencies. However, it is unlikely any Olm remaining survived for long.
• 200 - 500 AP - The Olm in the Dernel Jungle slowly grow insane, believing the Dern Beast is watching over them. Eventually, they realize the crystals were making them go insane, and spread them across the land, though this doesn't reverse the insanity most Olm now have. One of these crystals - the Yellow Crystal - ends up in the custody of the Desert Pharaohs (possibly around 500 AP), who guard it until Wynnexcavation discovers it in around 1000 AP.
• 500 AP - The purple crystal is acquired by the Twains and is hidden by them. Though completely hypothetical, it is also around this time that the Pharaoh era in the desert ended with the acquisition of the yellow crystal, which drove the Pharaohs mad and ended their reign.

This single piece of information required a LOT of reinterpretation and reworking of existing lore to make everything coherent. This also disproved an earlier theory I had, where the Gylia Meteor crashes and the Dernic Portal's appearance marked the beginning of Orphion and the Dern Beast's presences in our reality - the Gylia meteors bringing magic and light while the portal brought darkness. What do you guys think of all ofthis?

 

Youre backpedaling here.
The Olm were gone by the time the miners found the expanse in 800 BP.

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The unstated, but evident, solution here is that this just isn't the first time the portals have been opened. The War of the Realms has been going on since before time began, and the whole events of DB & the Olm happened likely thousands of years before 0 AP. The logical conclusion is that the portals were open at some point before, and then closed for whatever reason-- likely many times before stretching dar back through history.

 

After going through everything I and you wrote, yeah what you said makes more sense than what I tried to interpret. Personally, I'm of the opinion that the invasion of the Silent Expanse by Dern and the Gylia meteor crashes are precisely when the war between Light and Dark entered the realms. The Meteors brought magic and light, while the invasion brought darkness. For some reason, both sides were in some kind of stalemate until the opening of the Roots of Corruption 1400 years later.

There are still some questions in this series of events, hopefully which gets the attention of any of the writers:
- If Bakal only existed after the opening of the Corruption Portal in 0 AP, then who was "Beast's Follower" that Kaen and Adan wrote about in 1400 BP?
- Amadel, a villager, originated from Gavel, and as such could not have had any influence (or even a presence) on Wynn province prior to the calming of the oceans in around 900 AP. With that in mind, in the Wynnic Excavation flashback, who exactly are miners referring to when they said "that lad not too long ago"?
- Did the Olmic civilization interact with the humans of Wynn prior to their collapse, or was Wynn at this time virtually uninhabited apart from the Olm?

 

Hi.

I will not provide answers for some things, or only half answers.
- It evidently wasnt Bak'al, given he wouldn't even be born by then
- They interacted at least partially given the existence of Bob, who is the offspring of his Olm mother (now Witherhead) and his human father

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Was almost definitely after the collapse though. By the time the humans discover the expanse, the Olm civilization has collapsed.

 

A few weeks ago now I made a major discovery - the telescope in the Olmic city's observatory has time fragments attached to it. This is massive news, since it shows how the observatory may have worked, and potentially places Time Valley in a definitive time where it was operational