Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Who is the "Divine"?

I just started DKS and talking to the NPCs they always say something about the divine. Paladins of the divine, church of the divine, etc.

So far I know that the divine was someone who ascended into demi-god hood. Damian is "The Damned One", and that the divine was killed by a dragon knight.

So far its starting to sound like a Christian allegory. And I have a problem with that. If I'm playing a fantasy game, I want it to be fantasy. As an agnostic, it bothers me when fantasy games step to far into real religions (ie Dragon Age: Origins).

I rather not play through DD and BD so could someone just relay me the information.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis brings you back to Rivellon, a timeless world of awe and magic, torn and scarred by successions of apocalyptic wars. What the peace-loving people of the land did to deserve such terrible calamity, not even the gods can tell, but as any of their warlords will snidely say, the time to wonder and question quickly vanishes when the Lord of Chaos is slaughtering your kin, burning your cities and sowing the onetime fertile soil with salt. Twice this incarnation of evil burst forth from its hellish dimension to wade in valiant blood against the blackened sky, and twice Rivellon's defenders would not back down despite appalling losses. Still, victory brought no relief, for they knew that some day, the Demon would be back.

And back he’d be, sooner than anyone could have anticipated, because, as is so often the case, evil festered from within: humans, loyal to the Damned Hordes, sought not only to ensure the return of their dark master, but to give his Demonic form human semblance, so that rather than to destroy Rivellon, he would come to rule her. This group, known as the Black Ring, were close to achieving their goal and would doubtless have succeeded had it not been for both the tireless vigilance of the famed wizard Zandalor and the startling fate of an unsung adventurer named Lucian. This adventurer, guided as he was by the forces of good, exposed the Black Ring’s sinister schemes and when the time came willingly underwent a daring ritual that infused him with the powers of the gods. So the Divine was born.

Leaving but grim corpses in his wake, the avatar of light followed the enemy to its stronghold, nestled deep beneath the desert wastes of Yuthul Gor, where he stalked and killed every Black Ring elder until finally he and their diabolic leader, the Demon of Lies, stood snout to face. The fiend smiled and told the Divine he was too late: the transfer was complete and the Lord of Chaos would walk again. Indeed, behind him, on a large altar lay a newborn infant, a shell of innocence wrapped around a soul of utter corruption. The Divine’s sword saw the Demon dead, but despite being able to put an end to the vast plague that had almost brought Rivellon to her knees, he could not bring himself to kill the child.

He named him Damian and for years the Damned One, unaware of the terrible forces that brimmed beneath his boyish exterior, grew up under the Divine’s tutelage. Until he met Ygerna. Sent to seduce Damian by her father, the Black Ring necromancer Kalin, she befriended the young man, who was instantly infatuated with her. Not only did she return his affections, but also his long slumbering powers. They practiced innocent spells at first, but later on more sinister magic, rarer incantations, and, most dangerous of all, they unravelled forbidden knowledge. For some time, Damian's Divine foster parent was blissfully oblivious of Ygerna’s ominous influence on his son, until evidence connected her to Kalin, whom he recently executed. When questioned she confessed that she supported his rotten stratagems, the most important of these being the renascence of Damian’s dark, dormant powers.

After hearing such hideous testimony, Lucian had no choice but to execute Ygerna in turn: the Black Ring never enjoys clemency, whatever the circumstances. Under the eyes of the wise, but worry-plagued Zandalor, the Divine’s sword severed Ygerna’s head from her body. Yet, at that prophetic moment, while Ygerna’s blood was still claiming more territory on the floor, Damian entered and gave voice to a spell that utterly stunned even that mighty ensemble: the spell of Soul Forging. Before anyone could react, Damian turned back and seemingly disappeared. The Divine knew his son would from then on be his greatest foe and understood that Damian had already realised a great deal of his black potential: he who can Soul Forge, is a stupendous adversary indeed. The Damned One walked again.

As Lucian and Damian gathered their armies, Zandalor contemplated the repercussions of Damian’s acts. A Soul Forge is an exceptional enough event in its own right; a Soul Forge with a soul as it dwells amidst the few fragments of time between life and death, was unprecedented. Uncertain of the consequences for either him or Damian, he entrusted Ygerna’s body to the care of embalmers, forgoing the usual ritual burning of Black Ring corpses.

Within days, the Black Ring and Divine Paladins clashed. Damian though, had eyes for Lucian only: he would show him the same kindness he had shown Ygerna. What he did not know, was that the Divine was ready for him. He would lure his son to a Rift Temple and, if all went according to plan, banish him to another dimension. Blinded as he was by his all-consuming wrath, Damian did not realise he was being drawn into a trap and soon he was locked away in shadow haunted Nemesis. The Divine returned to Rivellon, glad that the threat his foster son posed was eliminated, yet strangely mournful because he realised that despite the evil that had taken hold of him, Damian’s spur-of-the-moment Soul Forge was essentially an act of love.

The Damned One however, made the best of his situation in Nemesis. He bode his time, grew in stature and power, until he did what most thought could not be done: he broke free from his prison dimension and initially overran the surprised Rivellonian forces. His thoughts were still wholly focused on one thing: to destroy the Divine and so revenge Ygerna. The war changed the face of Rivellon: for years it raged and one catastrophic event followed the other. Where once there were mountains there are now flat scorched plains and picturesque farmlands have been pushed up and turned into jagged cliffs. Nevertheless mankind faced its infernal foes with remarkable courage and tenacity. A decisive reason for their stubborn optimism was the new forged alliance between the Divine and the rare, but immensely powerful Dragon Knights, the last and elusive proponents of Dragon magic in the Demon-swept realms.

Throughout the climactic battle, the scales of victory could have tipped either way. But then the unthinkable happened: one of the Dragon Knights betrayed and slew the unsuspecting Divine. During the confusion that ensued, the Paladins started to fight Dragon and Demon alike. Luckily Zandalor was able to rally the troops and so narrowly avoid disaster. Damian, who had already lost much of his forces and had seen his revenge materialised, ordered his army to abandon the field. His dominion over Rivellon could wait. And besides, he had other things on his mind.

After the bitter stalemate that resulted, both sides took the time to lick their wounds and mankind prepared for yet another war. When this war did not take place after a year and not even after a decade, the good people of Rivellon were convinced Damian no longer posed a significant threat, started to relax and rebuild their lives. Now more than half a century has passed and though the Damned One still has a more than frightful reputation, he is regarded as a distant threat at best.

Whether this ataraxis is justified, remains to be seen…

Did you HONESTLY read all this stuff?

Oh, snap!

Actually in div2 the divine is a real person and the worship is more of a worship of a person and less that of an organised religion.

So it is based more in the temporal world and less in the spiritual one like Christianity.


And well in div div you play the hero that becomes the divine.


This is the short answer for those too overcome by awe for the wall of text posted above.

Also noticed some christian elements in Broken Valley. Like, there are cross shaped tombstones in the graveyard by the chapel and Father Roman says "May you always enjoy the protection of the angels."

Just some observations.

Edit: I do like how they handle the dead though. As Torol said, they go through the hall of echoes, their memories are stripped, and they go onto the next life (whether that be eternal or reincarnation).

You realize that almost all of the religion portrayed in fantasy is derived from real-world inspiration, right? You can probably trace every aspect back to one religion or another - or else philosophy, which itself is often influenced by one religion or another. Lord of the Rings and even The Matrix films are great examples of this.

actually I think you'll find the cross dissign tombstone resemble Celtic dissign NOT Christian the Celts were using thouse type of disigns in there day to day life b4 christianity was even known about.

The Christians mearley adopted it to suit there perpose as thay did with a lot of cultures thay persecuted.

I also have no time for religion, I beleave that there is something after life but I'm not arrogant enough to ristrict myself to a single way of thinking.

90% of religious people are arrogant & closed minded always arguing amoungst themselfs with the age old "My religion is better than yours, yours is wrong mine is right"

yet how many have actually stoped to see that there saying exactley the same thing from a different point of veiw bloody idiots.

I have no time for religious orginisations I belieave & thats enough & any religious idiot thay trys to convert me to there faith is not even a beleaver themselfs.

If thay truley belived thay'd understand that whatever creator thay beleived in created me this way for a reason so by trying to force me to be like them it is YOU who is going against the will of god NOT ME.

A great story (you can read it from books in the game, btw), but I am kinda with Damien on this one. It was not cool to kill somebody's girl, doesn't matter what's a reason for it. So I am very ambivalent about Damien. At the end of D2ED I was both slightly pissed, and relieved. Al least a wrong made by the Divine was mended.

well I agree with the Divine justaice must be served regardless you braek the law you pay the price is how it should be.

War is War friend regardless of who gets hurt, in war it's kill or be killed the forces of the Divine & the black ring were & still are at war.

What happened on Ego Dracoins & Flames Of Vengence would have happened regardless of wether the Divine had executed her or not.

The Divines actions gave Riverlon a chance to prepeare for the inevitable, the only mistake the Divine made was letting Damian live to beguin with.

His actions when he executed Ygerna were more than justified & she showed no remorce for her actions every action we take has a reaction & if you can't deal with the reaction then engage your brain b4 you act simple.

That "somebody's girl" was a murder of children. She was not a particularly nice person, to say the least.

It probably was a really bad idea for the Divine to execute her before talking to Damian about it, though.

I read the big wall of text and I think its pretty boss.

Well, I am not really the one for a preventive murder for a sake of mankind. Usually it returns to bite you in the ass. People tend not to forgive for a death of loved ones you know. An execution of Ygerna started the war, and not gave Divine time to prepare. And she did not kill anybody, just showed Damien who he really was. Why would that be a crime? Demon or not, he was a free man, with freedom of choice. And I don't think that just bec. somebody may become evil, he should have less rights then a good guy. We do not get pick and choose this. Damien had his own mind, and it was possible he wouldn't go all out on a killing rampage without a really good reason. He didn't hate either Divine or humans at this point. So by my lights the execution of Ygerna was a bad deed. And yeah, I was glad that Ygerna succeded.

Just to expand on the first two paragraphs of Macbeth's long post about the Divine in terms of the first game (Divine Divinity): The Divine was your character from the first game. He/She started as a "Marked One," one of 3 people to have a spark of the Divine embedded in them after a Black Ring ceremony went wrong - the Black Ring attempted to summon and then kill the Divine (in the form of an angelic-like woman) but she escaped and split herself into three parts which inhabited 3 people, including your character. After the other two Marked Ones were killed off, your character then had to receive the Divine blessing in order to fight the Demon of Lies (a facet/servant of the Lord of Chaos). The Divine blessing was a magical ceremony where members of the 7 races were gathered to bless your character and then kill him/her. You then traveled to the realm of the dead where the 7 gods transformed you into the Divine One and resurrected you. You fought and defeated the Demon of Lies but couldn't prevent him from summoning the Lord of Chaos into a little baby's body. You (the Divine One, canonized as Lucian) raised the baby as Damian (the damned one). And that's where the rest of Macbeth's post picks up.

So, yeah there are arguably a lot of Christian motifs: Divinity, angels, a trinity, death and resurrection, a being of pure evil that must be defeated. Of course you find a lot of that stuff in many other various mythologies and fantasies as well. I'm an atheist so I don't believe in anything magical or mystical but that doesn't mean it doesn't make great entertainment. Similarity does not equal allegory. The Divinity games don't come anywhere close to being preachy or sanctimonious. Hell, even in Dragon Age, where you have a much more in-your-face Jesus/Joan of Arc type story with the religion of Andraste, you get all these chances to discredit, befoul, and otherwise invalidate the religion.

In "Child of Chaos", the prequel novella, there was a really good scene between Damian and Lucian where Damian expressed pretty much that thought, that whatever Ygerna was, the Divine took away Damian's ability to decide on his own.

THERE WAS A NOVEL??? Where can I get it???

I agree that the Divine should maybe have spoken to Damian first & explained why it had to happen but the fact still remains that what the Divine did needed to be done.

As for the Divine being the marked one theirs a difference between being marked by a Divine being & being the incrnation of the very being responsable for all the chaos in the world.

Yes the Divines actions gave them a little time because although a war followed, had Yegerna continued with her mission Damian would be a much bigger threat than he already is.

What the Divine did stopped Damian from becoming a unstopable force, Right now he does not possess the strength to defeat the Divine or your Dragon Knight had Ygerna succeeded on the other hand theres no telling what he'd be capable of.

Thats why reserecting her was a mistake that's why she had to die in the first place or there would have been no hope for Riverlon.

The truth is'nt always a nice thing & sometimes it hurts pretty badley but the hardest truths to hear are the best truths to know.

The Divine should've given Ygerna the mercy that he showed baby Damian. There was still always the chance that Damien would spurn her and use his awakened powers for good instead of evil.

Divinity 2 has a great story, you guys should publish "Divinity Saga and Philosophy" one day. Will be much more appropriate then "Buffy and Philosophy" . And it is totally unusual that the driving motive for a demon/dark god, or whoever Damien is, is a loss of love.

he's the incarnation of the chaos demon how do you think something that evil could do anything but evil.

Even had the Divine spared her as I said with her doing what she'd been doing it was only a matter of time b4 Damian turned.

The Black Ring is the enemy of all life in Riverlon SHE is Black Ring & Showed no remorce for her actions, with her wispering poison into Damians mind it was only a matter of time b4 he became the very Demon that The Divine destroyed.

She was not repentant for her actions, you can't save a person that does not want to be saved, the truth still remains SHE had to die.

had she been remorcfull of her actions that would have been a different story executing someone that clearley had a chance to redeem themselfs yes that would have been a mistake but as I said you can't save someone that does not wish to save themselvs