[SPOILERS] The Legend. Story of Grimrock.

[M.M]

What really got me hoocked about the game, whas its backstory, showe through clever marketing (trailers,screens) and story in manual. Man, I really wanted to know who build those dungeons and why.
The answers are few and far beteween ( it is this kind of game) but i think that together we can join some loose puzzles together.

And one more thing - Ihave finaly reached the final Boss (have to kill it yet), and it has ruined a lot of marvel. I mean is that it? No undead sorcerer-king of ancient times, no super powerfull being from beyond ? Just a dumb mechanical cube, with weapon to disable it designed long time ago? Is it the cube, who commited "crimes forgiven, but never forgoten"?

So the story. A long time ago there was an Empire. Or at least civilisation. They valued technology, perhaps even worhipped it ( "untill the gears of time shall came to end - scroll in designers tomb) They created that wierd thing. The cube turned out to be evil, and it couldnt be killed ( why? they have removed parts from it quite nicely, just remove couple more). So they created a prison. On top of highest mountainthey constructed a prison, that was supposed to last for eternity. They magically made resilent ( look manual). Then the Order Of Sacred fire ( dont remember the name, i will look it up and edit) moved in (look at wall painting, it seems the monks moved in after most of grimrock was constructed). The monks were worshippers of god Goromorg. We don't know much about, but we can assume it was arleady established religion - from some wall paintings we my read about some myths - like a wizard (monk?) defeating (taming?) a giant whale ( painting on lv 10 near crystal).
The monks of the order made the oath to guard the cube (which the call the undying one) for all they live and afterlife. They were given support of the country - so the presence of soldiers (legionairs) to aid the monk in their holy duty. The upper levels were more of utilty and support functions.

After ages, the civilisation became to crumble. Quite likely it was a cataclysm compared to which the fall of Roman Empire was just a minor rioting. Why? Because it was all but completally forgotten, including the huge complex atop mount Grimrock, which must have bean extrelammaly expensive to build and maintain. Everybody must have heard about it in its time.
During the time of decline, the monks have turne to necromancy. They prolongated they own life, at cost of turnig to chthulu like monsters. They started to summon uggardians, the be the new guards . They startet to raise passed legionairs to continue their duty as skeletons. And they allowed the ungeon to becamw a lair to many dangerous species, so the nature could became another sentinel. Some - like the ice lizards - must have been imported from distant lands. They also modernised the dungeon into what we explore,filling it with pule an traps(some inlude monsters), and implementing some way to mantain it (as in thoorums notes - every new explorer had to open same,doors, push same buttons, etc).

After centurier, civilisation has been rebuilded, and Grimrock rediscovered. Nobody knows anything about it, yet i belive insectois, may have some texts on it.

And that would be hte Legend of Mount Grimrock. Anything missing? Any cool info on the word? Do You have different vision?
And above all - the final fight ruin everything. Do you have any good explenations why that cube was created, why it is immortal, what horrible deeds it have done? Why it justifies creation of those tunnels? They could have just ditched the cube into ocean or just dismantled into tiny cogweels.

[Lmaoboat]

I'm not sure that they created the cubes. Not that he's in any way a reliable narrator, but the Eternal One tells you that is people constructed the original Grimrock, and that the Goromorgs turned it into a prison. I assumed he was more just telling a half-truth than lying about what happened. Also, I'm pretty sure that picture is about one of the cubes, not a whale. The cube is turning all the life behind it black and dead.

[Pez]

My guess is that the cube is just a cell or cage to hold a god, demigod or another equally powerful entity instead of a sentient machine. Remember that it talks to you in dreams, maybe it also talked to the King in dreams to make him sent prisoners to Mount Grimrock in an attempt to free itself.

[CountCrowley]

I like Pez's idea.
Yeah, i think that the cube is some sort of the cage that is used to imprison some sort of the demon/evil god.
It seems that 4 items that the prisoners are asked to collect are just a pieces that change the cage into some sort of remote prison, nothing else.

What bothers me most is that the cage could still move after removing the parts, how this could happen?
And the last thing is, that it seems that after destroying the cube some sort of the bluish lighbeam shoot into the sky (as you could see on the end sequence) - what does it mean? did we actually release someone/something by destroying the cage/cube?

[PSY]

I like Pez's idea.
Yeah, i think that the cube is some sort of the cage that is used to imprison some sort of the demon/evil god.
It seems that 4 items that the prisoners are asked to collect are just a pieces that change the cage into some sort of remote prison, nothing else.

But then, on the other hand, why even build a prison which enbables the prisoner to roam freely in the first place? Why complete the mechanism? Were the gods bored and started playing around with some demigod/evil soul stuff?
Maybe the thing/soul/whatever which is imprisoned in the cube wasn't that bad at the beginning.
Maybe it couldn't live on its own and needed some strange magic/technology which the creators of the dungeon provided. It turned out to be evil, and they disassembled it and took it to a place of which they were sure would never be penetrated...the dungeon.

What bothers me most is that the cage could still move after removing the parts, how this could happen?

The ore is a power source. The evil thing latched on it and had enough energy to 'live'...at least for a certain amount of time, after the ore had been pulled out again.

And the last thing is, that it seems that after destroying the cube some sort of the bluish lighbeam shoot into the sky (as you could see on the end sequence) - what does it mean? did we actually release someone/something by destroying the cage/cube?

Possible. Could be a hint for a sequel. But why was the beam blue? Why not red or black?
Maybe the cube itself was infested with an evil soul, but was holding a 'pure' entity, which tried to control the cube in the first place, but failed miserably and ended up being imprisoned by the evil cube itself...
After we destroyed the cube, the pure spirit or whatever was set free. I know, pretty much far-fetched, but it's a possibility

PSY

[Darklord]

You know what, I have no idea, but it's all pretty interesting!

Daniel.

[M.M]

Sorry for neglecting the thread for a while.

The problem with trapped being is that the threat it apparently make does not justify the cost and efort to build this kind of facility, in that remote place. I think the problem is the explosion. They were perfectly capable of killing the cube. However thet knew that innevitable explosion would kill everybody nearby. They also knew that exlosion this powerfull would throw into air extreme
number of sand and dust. To cut down on explanations - they didn't want to go dinosaurs way.

I have also an alternative explanation. It is not entirely mine, for someone on this forum described majority of it.

The facility on Grimrock was not a prison at first. It trail test most likely of religious bacground (this explains so many monk statues, including ones on the mountaintop). Volunoteers would descent into dungeon to prove themselfs. This is why there are so many gladiator statues. The dungeon was tough but perfectly beatable, and to cut down (but not eliminate) fatalities crystals have been placed in it. for the purpose of testing candidates (for what? Fame and money? salvation and becaming a saint?) many not native species has been introduced - like slimes who are clearly magically created, or ice lizards, who normally dwell to the far north.
The quest was ending in inner sanctum of the temle, or mayby even at the temple. The levels below it was maitanance area - the machines responsible for all those teleports, pitfalls, spinners, etc. Challangers were not meant to go there. The cube was a power source. Quite likely with some deamon inside, but more likely it was an AI responsible for keeping dungeon in right shape (reclosing doors, setting switches back to starting positins etc.). At some point the AI went mad. It was not imprisoned there, but rather has been there all the time, but beacame a problem - because when your computer controlled reactor can no longer fight the urge to crush everyone it sees, yep you have a problem. And You suddenly regret you made it possible for it to move by itself ( and it seemed such a good idea in the beginning).
And then it turns out they can't get rid of it, for they might have been religious, but definetally so stupid as to detonate some 1000 nukes.
The rest was like in the first theory. They gradually made Grimrock considerably more leathal, but couldn't made it impossible, for that would required building it anew.
It however does not explain the scrolls on level 4, unless, those who have written them have forgotten the real history.


I also havean alternate theory on why the have ot destroyed the cube. At first they didn't know how to destroy it then they made their magicial oathes to protect it. It was dumb. After few centuries later a way of killing the cube has been discovered. However, they sweard to "guard it" for eternity. There was no "or untill a way to get rid of it was found" clause. They suddenly discovered, that not only they cant "disarm it", nor they can allow anyone else to do it.

discuss

[Kurn]

Glad you liked my explanation.


The undying one tells us that he was there long before the dungeon was made. And that he remembers it to have been something else once. This would back the Temple and religious trial or arena theory.


As for the scrolls on Level 4:

Crimes forgotten - but never forgiven
Caverns still echoing - by his call
Eternally imprisoned - to depths beyond measure
Put to sleep - but still dreaming


As I theorized the undying one may have been some kind of otherworldly entity imprisoned in the cube.
It may well be that this entity was known to be a great evil and was imprisoned and then forced to work as punishment for its forgotten crimes.
Maybe even long before the cube was used a power source / mainframe for the Grimrock dungeon. So the maybe creators of the dungeon just used a machine housing an otherworldly super powerful creature to their own ends without knowing the details of its creation, but remembering that it really deserved to be in there having inherited it and the lore behind it over several centuries of oral tradition. The crime, initial defeat and imprisonment of this evil had likely been shrouded in myth and religious dogma by the time the Upper layers of Mount Grimrock were made into the temple and trial areas we see today.

They wrote those four scrolls in respect for the powerful device. Knowing full well what it was, but not why or how. The scrolls are clearly meant to be read and contemplated by the original questers seeking to reach the temple. I would assume, that they would be well familiar with the function of Grimrock as a Prison/Workcamp for this great evil. Likely the celebration of the Undying Ones defeat and imprisonment by some saint, god or demigod is part of the reason they come to worship in the first place.

This also explains why the description in the tomb mentions cubes in the plural. There were or are more of them.

This would also provide a direction for a sequel in which the now free Undying One tries to free his kin. I am not sure if this what AH had in mind, or if they had anything about in their minds at all. Its just my take on the facts as the game presents them.

[M.M]

I tend for the theory that devs in fact didn't have a clear story in their minds. They have placed some cool scraps of information (lv.4 scrolls, lv.9 scroll) and ofcoursce, the game needs finall boss. I doubt however if they have really well thought about it. If they did, most likely holy scriptures room would be bigger nad would contain more scrolls explainig what it is all about.


I must go to be, i will write more tomorow.

[Dedup]

This is just a theory I had.

What if the King is working to free the Undying one. Its kind of strange that it seems common practice to randomly pardon prisoners and throw them into Grimrock with the promise of freedom if they can get out.

Possible reasons for this:

• -Perhaps the King once visited the top of Grimrock and the Undying One either managed to plant a hypnotic suggestion or promised him something to get him to send people to Grimrock.
  -Another possibility is that another Cube is already free and manipulating the King directly. Such a cube might be a small item the King keeps on his person instead of like the large one we fight at the end. If it is large, it could also be hiding in a dungeon under the King's castle (plot for future game?).
  -The King is releasing the cube(s) of his own free will as part of a grander plot yet to be revealed.

The Undying One then convinces the prisoners to help him get all the components needed to free him. The other prisoners who made it to the bottom probably got killed by the monsters before getting all the components to the Undying One and by the time your party gets there it only needs four pieces to finish its work.

Like I said, this is just a theory based on the introduction text and reading this thread. Other than that, I don't have anything really solid to support the above. Of course AH may have left stuff vague on purpose so they can come up with the plot of the next game (assuming there will be a next game) without worrying too much about accidentally screwing up the lore and overall plot.