We all have heard the legends behind beasts such as Vog, or Skolvers; but why have we never seen them? Well, I propose that a series of DLC or missions or just a random chance of a gate in the clockworks to do just that. Have a questline that goes something like this.

Something is happening in the clockworks. Biomes are being turned to ashes, claw marks and fire the only indications of the destructor. The Spiral Order has tasked us to investigate, and no one has seen anything like it; except for the recipe vendor in the Terminals. He is very hesitant to share what he knows, as all he knows is the story of the myth about the legend, The Spiral Order realizes this is far more serious than they first guessed, and are now sending you off to discover the truth in the fog. The player sets off on a mission outside of Haven to go talk to Strangers, and eventually you find an ancient one among the 20 or so putting around that knows the legends. He invites you into his house and then tells you the story of Vog. When Cradle was being formed, there was an entity of great power that resided on Cradle's moon. This entity lived peacefully on the moon, that at one point had an atmosphere, with beasts of the fields. All was calm, and good. Then it all changed. The entity began to deteriorate, and was forced to take physical form to remain alive. However, the beast was still dying, albeit a tad slower than before. The King of Beasts began to search for something to prolong its vitality, and eventually came to a dark, ash-ridden cave in the mountains. The deity felt a very powerful presence there, and upon what he thought was going to be his final breath, begged whatever was emanating the power to preserve him. The deity felt the power pulse, and then exponentially rise, as his limp body sank into the increasingly warm ashes. When the deity awoke, he was alone in the cave, with his own vitality burning deep in his chest. He rose, a massive beast of glowing flame, holding the power of the power that had transformed him. He traveled back to the moon, attempting to return to his home and live in peace again; but he didn't account for the subtle pang of destruction. Gradually, Vog, as he then called himself, lost all control as this pang built up, and he went to war with the beasts he once shared fields with. The beasts could do nothing against Vog; all attempts to injure him resulted in charred corpses on the ground. Finally, Vog became enraged and flooded Cradle’s moon with fire, destroying it to the point we see it now. The beasts were flung off into the black abyss of space, but there were a few that absorbed the fire of Vog, and became loyal to him. And that is all that anyone knows about Vog and his Cubs…

The player reports back to Spiral HQ about this, and they send you to the moon. In order to get there, you have to convert an escape pod into a ship that can travel to the moon and back. There will be several missions in order to get the parts needed. The player will take the parts to the lab and the ship will take them to Cradle’s Moon to survey the intense destruction, searching for a clue. The level goes through this utterly destroyed landscape that used to be a lush forest, and eventually they come to the epicenter of it all. There, they see the same markings and symbols broiled into the area as the melted clockworks. Suddenly, a Vog Cub emerges from the ashes and the players are forced to run away, and return to Cradle. Upon returning, Spiral HQ tasks you with tracking down Vog and finding a weakness.

Several levels later, the knights find Vog in his lair of melted clockworks sleeping, and try to go in close to investigate for weaknesses. During the investigation (Vog is a massive level-sized beast, not just an oversized wolver) Vog awakes, and the Knights run as quickly as possible to safety; however, Vog’s tail takes out the elevator before the Knights can get to it. The Knights are forced to run into the clockworks, and find a maze of mountains. The next few levels are a maze through the mountains with the radar and map static. The Knights encounter very strange, ancient enemies. They finally arrive at the cave where Vog was transformed, and promptly run the other direction before anything could corrupt them. They stumble into an ancient sprite that witnessed the transformation of Vog and another, seemingly “unstable” man. He tells them where to find another cave of unfathomable power. The knights thank the sprite for its help and then begin searching for the other cave. Upon finding the cave, the floor is covered in water, which draws itself up into a flying sprite made of water. The being, called Iithera, explains to the knights the only way to destroy Vog. “The only way to destroy fire is with a bigger flame to burn it out.” Ithera infuses the knights with a magical dampener that allowed them to be able to absorb the flames without being corrupted by them. The knights return to the Cave of Ashes and travel to the center. They are transformed into massive, burning versions of themselves (kinda like playing as vanaduke but the knights look different). They confront Vog, and find that he has been completely corrupted by the power within him. Massive battle occurs, Vog is left wounded. The knights go back to the cave with water and bathe in it, cleansing themselves from the ashes. Ithera then gifts the knights with an extremely rare orb of healing water, which the knights take back to Vog. The knights allow Vog to drink it with his dying breath, and then shrinks back down to his original size. Vog awakens and then talks to the knights, thanking them for saving him and apologizing profusely for his defiling crimes. Spiral Order calls in then, once they were back in contact, instructing them to destroy Vog’s corpse once he was vanquished. The knights consider it, and then escort Vog back to the village where the stranger elder spoke of Vog. The stranger takes Vog into his care, and promises to find a place for him somewhere in the forests of Cradle. The knights thank him, and then return to Haven to report to the spiral order. The knights inform them that Vog was destroyed, and give them a Fang of Vog that they found after the battle. Spiral HQ rewards the knights with extremely good rewards, as well as an exclusive costume. The Vog fight would also have a good chance to drop a very good weapon or a piece of armor.

Yes, this was very long-winded, and the chances of it happening are close to nothing, but I would love to see this type of storytelling implemented in the game. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it even if you didn’t like it.

TL;DR: There’s an epic story above that can’t be condensed. Read it. ~Z