SPOILER Skien Lore

Right then. While I'm stuck on CoW I'm gonna be down here a lot. I recently went around Skien's Island, and found out quite a lot of stuff that is just getting piled up in my brain. I can't say I found all the lore but I'd like to think I found a lot. (Wait till I find out there was like 20 more cubbyholes filled with lore). Also the things in red are when it's not explicitly explained in the game but I'm deducing (sounds so much better than just saying wildly guessing).

A much shorter version made by Rhythmically aka Duckne

Spoiler: The long version. Like really long.

So it appears that Skien was a great Tromsonian general who was probably in charge when the corrupted swarm that bust open the nut that is Troms, which was deemed impenetrable, attacked. A bit after this Bob arrived at Troms to learn the art of the spear. Skien probably fought alongside and even surpassed Bob, showing his military genius and skill in battle. ("I have fought alongside and surpassed great heroes"). However it seems like Skien got a bit messed up in the coconut during one of these battles against the corrupted hordes (of which he destroyed numerous). One of his legion's soldiers fell to the corruption and attacked his comrades with a dagger which can still be found as a legendary. Skien lost all trust in other people and became more and more paranoid. When the villagers arrived on Wynn and offered an alliance of their powerful magic for emeralds, Skien was immediately suspicious. He hated both the villagers and magic. He decided that to escape the villager's "invasion" and be a last bastion against them and the corrupted he'd start an island fortress bringing the whole Tromsonian army with him. At this time he was a bit more mentally stable. His three rules for the island? 1. Stay quiet. 2. Tell no one of this place. 3. Listen closely. 4. Help your comrades. 5. Lock the (the sign ends). However his men starting noticing his craziness. You can find complaints about soldiers wondering why Skien worries about the villagers, why the keep is littered with useless pigeonholes, wondering why Skien gives odd orders when it comes to building the keep and such when he's apparently a tactical genius and some home sickness. But it seems one of them caught on quick. The soldier found a hidden room to apparently navigate the keep and complains about why the rooms are randomly placed and what they all are for. He states "This isn't just a madhouse built by a madman, but it may as well be a madhouse built by many madmen, each with an intense burning hatred for the last madman's unique flavour of madness...coming from the mind of one person!!". So apparently Skien isn't just paranoid anymore but he's developed schizophrenia. Yay. His descent into madness falls further though. He starts taking his soldier's special armoured fatigues that they had to earn in combat. A soldier who lost his leg just to get those fatigues felt the loss especially acutely, writing it down. Another did a card trick to pass the time, resulting in Skien taking his rank away because it resembled magic. At this point, a resistance movement was growing. One to go back home to their families. Skien had started imprisoning his own men, withholding their food completely in the prisons, though the wardens were in on the movement, and gave them food. It became apparent to this movement that they couldn't only leave the island. They had to kill Skien, as retribution for the men who died from starvation and their horrible treatment. But Skien had found out about their movement. He may have been mad, but he was brilliant as ever. He decreased rationing, which the men dismissed as one of his mood swings, but he did it to weaken them. Meanwhile he threw conspirators who knew the code to his basement maze which was filled with his trusted elite into his prisons. One such conspirator had died from starvation. Sorta. He started eating himself and died from bleeding. But before he died, he told his cellmate, who wrote it down on the wall before committing suicide. I assume the resistance wardens found it and told the rest of their compatriots. So some decided to sail away at night, while they were supposed to be on guard duty. Others were to join them later after killing Skien. They all died. But one, who screamed out towards a passing Gavel ship. The ship never stopped despite all he screamed. The man hid within Skien's maze and watched his friends and brothers-in-arms become corrupted before finally dying himself, loathing Skien, the villagers and himself. Skien successfully set fire to the boats while they were at sea. Those men died. Meanwhile he killed ever single soldier that tried to kill him. But at this point, surrounded by his own dead soldiers in his uniforms, he feels hollow despite the victory. He begins to wonder what mistake he made to be so alone. Everyone was missing, dead or imprisoned or something else. And he still feels the presence of one other other person. The Traitor's ghost.

So that's the story in a nutshell with my assumptions. It's pretty dark eh? Here are the signs I remembered to screenshot

 

Im just gonna let you have this since you had so much effort.

 

Good job, but I’m not going to read all of that

 

I'm really sorry to disappoint you, but all this has been found already. Good job finding it though.

 

This always has been one of my favorite bits of Lore in the game. Nice job putting it all together by yourself =D

 

Tl;Dr please?

 

Looks at thread. Thinks it's nice. See's the wall of china made of words.

 

Tromsian general goes nuts, builds a massive fortress in the middle of nowhere, develops schizophrenia and massive paranoia about literally everyone, imprisons a good chunk of the army he was commanding, army plans to kill him, but basically everyone ends up dying instead.

 

This is a surprisingly good summary.

Thanks for letting me not have to read an enormous wall of text that hurts to look at

 

You forgot the bit about the traitor killing part of his army and becoming a ghost that continues to haunt Skien within his chamber, and also the part where he raises an undead army to kill his living one.

 

if you want i can help :)

 

what about that code the people were talking about. Did anyone manage to open that door?

 

It leads to a boss room with General Skein as a corrupted either skeleton along with some more lore

 

oo
code?
it's like... 5 ........ (8 somehwere) 3

 

No idea. There's a whole thread about skeins island, it's not that difficult to find.

 

kk

 

I believe it's 5283

 

what the actual fuck
that's messed up man

 

Huh. Well, at least I burnt some time which is always great. Also I probably shoulda guessed that it had all been found already.

 

danks