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We rejoin Julius lost in thought at the entrance to the Abyss area. Why did the Magi mess with strange otherworldly entities? How different would the world be if they just kept to their normal studies?

Duty calls. Lord Gaelius wants the Tower of Zamedi explored to make sure it's safe.

There are some zealots outside the tower, but they don't have anything interesting to say. The entrance to the tower itself is blocked off by some sort of magic wall.

Gaelius gave Julius the "Crimson Eye" to get in, but it looks a lot like the demon heart Julius got from the remains of the Inferiae demon. Will the demon heart suffice?

Yup.

There used to be only two demon hearts to get into Zamedi, the one from the Inferiea demon and the one Gaelius gives you. If you couldn't/didn't want to kill the Inferiae demon (you can convince it to help you), and you weren't on team Gaelius, then you couldn't get into Zamedi. The developers have always emphasized that the game is short, but highly repayable, so if you couldn't get into Zamedi in one playthrough you could do it in another one. However, they have relented somewhat: there is now a third demon heart in the game. Where? It's carried by one of the super optional arena fighters you can fight after becoming champion. His name is "The Widow Maker."

Be thankful for the devs' kindness.

I figured demon automaton things would have less of a flair for the dramatic.

I take it back! Lets go back to the original conversation branch!

Hey, this looks like the stuff Julius messed with in Inferiae. The stuff that killed a different demon, and also an entire village.

And here we are. Some Magi (I know the singular is "magus," Magi just rolls off the tongue nicer) used to live here. Surely there's going to be useful information lying around.

.... I don't know what any of this means.

At least it looks like the Magi knew how to have fun in between destroying everything.

The nearby chest has some insane alchemy ingredients, including the extremely rare "dragon's blood" extract. You combine dragon's blood extract with quicksilver to make a neurostim that also gives a flat accuracy bonus on top of the ap bonus. Chug this "eagle eye" neurostim along with a berserk potion (base ingredient is shrooms, gives big damage bonus with minor accuracy penalty) and combat characters basically become gods. There's maybe one or two fights in the whole game that can challenge a dedicated combat character hopped up on drugs this way.

Julius finds a weird device in what appears to be the Magi's bedroom. Wonder what it's used for?

Lets go upstairs.

You can't see it in this image, but those "windows" flicker. Like... some sort of field of force?

I hate to do this, but it's time to max out lore. That's over 200 skill points invested in lore. There's nothing in the game that requires this much lore skill except the upcoming computer and maybe one or two future ones. You don't need max lore to access this computer's useful function (figuring out the demon ring), but you do need it to get more optional back story. Higher int offsets lore for these checks, so I think a 10 int character can get away with 8 lore, while 8 int Julius needs 10. You may also be able to get a lower check threshold by learning how to use computers properly (two possible ways to do it), but I haven't personally confirmed that.

Did I say computer? I meant weird blue crystal thing.

You can basically figure out most of the backstory from these logs and evidence uncovered elsewhere so far. If you'd like it laid out in convenient black box form:

The Qantari discovered the existence of at least seven otherworldly beings. They wanted to physically manifest these otherworldly beings on Earth, either to enslave them (see also: the Ordu loremaster's story about how the Qantari originally wanted to put them in the bodies of dogs or bulls) or to worship them. The Qantari lacked the means to do so though. So they sailed across the seas and consulted the Magi. The Magi were down with the idea because they themselves also wanted to control the otherworldly beings.

In furtherance of this goal, one of the Magi created "wards" that would be surgically inserted into the bodies of human hosts for the otherworldly beings. The wards would ensure control. But for some reason, the wards failed. After the wards' failure, the Magi who invented them created new ones, stating "these wards will hold." Hey, remember the inscription on the surgical tools Julius found? "These will hold."

One of the seven otherworldly beings called "Balzaar" broke loose first. Three more followed Balzaar in opposing the Empire, bringing the total opposed to four, while three remained supportive of the Empire. Then the Qantari invasion fleet showed up.

The Magi decided to rely hugely on the help of an otherwordly being called "Agathoth." Agathoth possessed great knowledge even beyond the Magi's and used that knowledge to create weapons to win the war. With the help of Agathoth, the Dreamer, and the one Antidas identifies as the Flamewalker (who may be currently floating dead or alive in a vat in the place with the healing machine), the Empire "won" the war.

There are still questions remaining. Why did the wards fail? Where are all the otherworldly entities we don't know about now? What's going on with the Qantari? If Agathoth helped the Empire win, then what happened to him? Why did the Empire win the war and then immediately collapse? etc

Moving on:

Someone has told me it is possible to get to the Temple of Tor-Agoth (who we now know is actually Agathoth) from here, but I think that's in a "my uncle works at Square and told me you can bring back Aerith" kind of way.

There's a practical application of this knowledge coming up soon.

Well, now we know why the "demon" wants this ring so bad.

Is Julius really going to hand over to the Demon the one thing that can control the Demon? That sounds incredibly stupid. Lets hand him bombs instead.

I... thought he was just going to shatter into a million pieces. Well, there's still plan B.

This is the only time I think it's lame to toss napalm. Generally, most fights have enemies with ranged weapons so you can't just make a wall of napalm to seal yourself off. You're also almost always outnumbered, so it makes sense to have a tool like napalm to manage enemy numbers.

Well, the demon has no ranged weapons, and there's only one of him. For some reason, he also gets bounced around by napalm and has to walk around it. I actually complained about this on the forums, and a dev said they would do something about it. Well, they didn't, so here's how to cheese one of the hardest fights in the game, working as intended. That crit strike above also helps since it definitely reduces the demon's armor, and it may slow him down as well.

The demon still has some armor left on him, so I remove it with acid.

He's still fast enough to walk around the fire and get on top of Julius, but not fast enough to attack as well.

Julius has to back off so his own bombs don't hit him, which gives the demon an attack of opportunity. 22 damage from a weak attack of opportunity. Now you know why you use napalm to keep him away.

Even a demon falls to the neurostim + bomb bombardment combo.

The demon, of course, has a demon core, but also these four sky metal weapons. Melting these down is enough to craft a sky metal weapon of your own, or save up to eventually craft sky metal armor. Not that Julius will get any use out of that.

There's more to do in Zamedi with the demon dead, but maybe I'll show that in a more brutal playthrough.

You get stopped outside by the weird religious people.

tfw no charisma

I don't even know what this option does.

Since Julius is in the area, he decides to visit the arch before returning to report to Gaelius.

This worshipper doesn't have anything interesting to say except this tidbit at the end. Seeing into both worlds?

~~I forgot to do this first~~ Julius remembers a merchant in the slums was selling a bust with a strange eye thing. Is this what the Magi used to see into other worlds?

... So Julius has got a lump of dead machinery in his eye socket?

Why did the Magi make everything to be so fucked up and weird. Why couldn't they do anything normally.

I know other RPGs that would be cruel to you and dock your perception for getting an eye implant, but the AoD devs are kind and merciful.

Alright back to the arch. This dude is some sort of oracle. Hey, Remember Esbenus? He's the guy who kidnapped the noble all the way back in the Teron part of the story. If you end up paying him to resolve the situation, he uses the money to seed an entrepreneurial slaving business. Starting here. He enslaves everyone and you have to deal with him instead of the oracle. Woops!

Hold my beer, Oracle.

The arch has the Magi style of writing all over it, so you know it's legit.

Julius remembers the story of the First Magi entering the otherwordly being's realm using protective gear, so he decides NOT to enter himself.

Enter yourself without protective gear? Free game over screen. Is there protective gear out there so you can enter and see what's going on for yourself? Keep reading this lp to find out!

Good to be on the other side of "con that ends in death" for once.

There's actually a little animation of the head peeking out like it's peeking out from around a corner.

Al-Akia? The hell is that? I'm looking for the Temple of Agathoth, stupid head!

So this thing would end up a "beached whale" here, while humans who enter meet messy deaths.

It's clear the First Magi had some kind of psychic power, but it isn't clear if the other Magi did or if the First Magi's power was from tech or was natural or both.