The eye of Graviton Vortex line is an obvious reference to Vaati of the Zelda universe. The most similar item is without a doubt, the Graviton Bomb. Compare:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091021215941/zelda/images/0/07/V...
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Graviton_Bomb

I find the Titan Statues to be very similar to the art style of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, also. There are some very obvious Zelda influences in this game, especially in the two mentioned items. Now please, my good friends of the Spiral Knights community, don't tell me I was the only one to see the obvious Vaati reference.

Edit:
Here is what the Titan Statues remind me of:
http://zeldawiki.org/File:Armos_Figurine.png
http://zeldawiki.org/File:Armos_Knight_Figurine.png

"No explanation of where sealed sword/divine avenger/gran faust/valkyrie type stuff comes from other than just as "heaven"- Is this a place? Are there still angels?"

That would be the GMs, and wherever they reside. Notice how they're all named after various gods.

The sealed swords are something that the Owlites created which was originally the Divine Avenger. This is also the same for the Argent peacemaker, however, during the war between the Owlite's and the Kat's the Kat's were able to steal these items and corrupt them, turning them into the Gran Faust and Sentenza.

This is the reason for the Sealed Sword, as the Owlite's sealed it in order to keep the Kat's from corrupting their Divine blades.

If you think about it, the Angelic Raiment is basically a Priest in the Owlite society and the Fallen set could hint that one of the Owlite's had betrayed their own kind and joined with the Kat's which is why it suddenly has shadow resists, etc.

As to how the Owlite's, etc relate to everything. They kind of don't; my opinion is that their world was swallowed by Cradle and added to the many other worlds, and as a result caused the war between them. It would be an interesting though that they might have been one and the same before different viewpoints could have been brought up which would have caused a dividing faction.

As for the Gravaton Vortex, i believe that to be a gremlin production that was corrupted by the swarm seed, because if you think about it the Electron Charge is originally what it should have been, and that seems to be a more believable product created by gremlin hands.

The statues and fountains found all across Cradle are basically parts of an entire world that have been randomly distributed throughout the planet. I'm sure if you took all the levels that have them and paste them together they would probably form a rather large city like area. So it could be the remnants of an ancient civilization from a forgotten era. Also it doesn't have to relate to Wolvers at all. They simply are like foxes and other wild life who will take up residence wherever they feel safe, etc.

LOAR

-Vanaduke's corruption/possible connection to Vog

-everything about Vog

-Why did the Skylark get pulled to cradle

-Why is cradle even there

-What are devilites and why do they have cities

-Ancient Plate armor

-Where did Maulos come from

-Who corrupted Arkus

-Everything about the Compounds

-Pumpkin king? Who's he?

-Is Snarbolax just a big wolver?

That's all for now.

The Kats attacked the Owlites, and during/after the attack Margrel opened the Book. The book gave him tremendous power, and the Owlites saw this and surrendered. Since there were three fighting kingdoms, the third being Almire, Margrel saw his chance to take control of all three. He offered the Owlites a choice: be killed, or form an alliance to invade Almire. They chose alliance.

When Margrel attacked the weak kingdom of Almire, not knowing there was a big fiery demon waiting for him... Kilpik, what's that ant?

~Lore document by Klipik

Vanaduke began to whisper, reciting the names of his family, the names of the kings before him, and all the towns of Almire. He repeated this like a chant, increasing in intensity until he was shouting. With this he began screaming the names of the rival kings and all the wrongs they committed against his kingdom. He cried out to the god of the mountain to punish them, to give him the strength to take his kingdom back. In his frenzy he looked to the face of the deity and in it he began to see the face deform. The image burned into his eyes and brain like cinders, and contained that which sounded like the screaming of foreign tongues and war drums. With this, Vanaduke began to sink into the ash. He choked on the ash as it pulled him below, tasting sulfur his screams now sounding of roaring flames. Then transformed by the flames and cursed by the deity, Vanaduke was changed, armor fused to his skin, his hands turned to metal claws and beast fur grew along his back, the only feature to tell he was still Vanaduke was his face, even though twisted into the shape of a skull he was still recognized as who he truly was...

~From Wiki

@Kiplik:

-Vanaduke's corruption/possible connection to Vog
-everything about Vog
^ answered already

-Why did the Skylark get pulled to cradle
^Cradle gathers other bodies and realms that go nearby and integrates them in its structure. We received the distress signal from the Core and well, we crashed due to that.

-Why is cradle even there
^Cradle is a planet, though now is more of a seemingly voluntary prison to protect the Core energy & entity from the Swarm.

-What are devilites and why do they have cities
^They are fiends. They locate their offices there. Maybe they do have an origin in another dimension, in Maulos' Danger Mission they mention something about some disciplinary team where they send renegades.

-Ancient Plate armor
^Most likely a replica of Vanaduke's original suit, before being corrupted, left behind covered in moss.

-Where did Maulos come from
He is an old fiend, though he also has the body of a Trojan, so maybe he was once "human". Though as he is a fiend, he may come from anywhere.

-Who corrupted Arkus
^The Dark Matter he somehow got implanted in his body by no one knows. Or, his negative emotions gathered that Dark Matter in his body. Cradle is way scarier than the game shows us - see Vanaduke's old lore.

-Everything about the Compounds
^Whatever! Bunnies! No, actually the monsters there like to hide in narrow hidden places, and Compounds is, well, that... old Clockworks tunnels. See the mix of nature and tech, possibly some of the first spheres even - though that is speculation.

-Pumpkin king? Who's he?
Why, he is not a pumpkin! He is a Punkin King! Andddd he is there. He brings as Halloween instead of Jack Skellington.

-Is Snarbolax just a big wolver?
Why yes, the strongest and meanest of Gloaming Wildwoods, having developed beyond that of usual Alpha Wolvers.

Also, the Eye has been always the symbol of what is really deep in Cradle. Be it the Swarm, or the Core entity double crossing us. Another thing why I don't enjoy the new UI - that Eye scared me when I got to the end of Tier 1 with my initial equipment.

May edit to answer more. Man, I like the lore in this game, wish it expanded more.

Edit: Ah yes, the Rose Knights. If you read the description, they were an elite team of Spiral Knights especialized in fencing with swords like Flourish.

Nowhere in that wiki entry does it specifically say "Vog". And where did that block of text come from anyway? I've seen it, I've read it, but I have no idea where it came from. Likewise, the wiki page for Vog says he is most likely a deity, yet the description of the FoV depicts him as "the fire beast, Vog."

@Aumir:
-The wiki page for Dark City says, "This once bustling city from an advanced world is now home to innumerable fiends from the Underworld." So fiends didn't create the cities. What did?

-Maulos assumedly predates the knights' arrival on Cradle by many years, not that knights are "human" anyway.
(Better question: What are trojans in general, and where do they come from? Why? What is their association with devilites?

-I asked "who corrupted Arkus". You answered "the DM was implanted in his body by ???". Not exactly an answer.

-The Compounds were some kind of testing facility. Who built it, what was researched there, and why is it now destroyed?

-The Snarbolax Armor set was made from the hide of a Snarbolax. Doesn't that mean there is more than one Snarby, and it's just another beast species or a more developed wolver?

@Skye: What ant? The one that got into the ritual circle and disrupted the highly unstable blend of magical energies, causing (or at least helping to cause) Margrel to mess up and curse all the Kats?