What AION 2 starts from: a fallen Tower, a Bulwark you are not inside, a failing power and two peoples who still do not trust each other. The story of each side is below, with its spoilers folded away.
In AION 2 the Tower of Eternity fell long ago and the Balaur overran Atreia. Around two hundred years have passed since the first game; NC has confirmed the sequel is set about two centuries later.
The Empyrean Lords gave themselves to raise the Bulwark, a barrier said to protect those inside it. The story you play happens outside it.
Daevas live by Odyle, AION's own power, and it is failing. Gathering it, and finding what the Daevas have lost, is the thread through the main story.
You begin as a Daeva stripped of your power, found or escaped on Balaur-held land, and slowly win it back through ascension trials guided by a voice in your head.
One fan source says the Tower's guardian, Siel, sacrificed herself to build the barrier; another says the remaining Lords did. The game's own quests say the Lords gave themselves, so that is what we follow.
Elyos begin on Poeta and move through Verteron to Eltnen. Asmodians begin in Ishalgen and move through Altgard to Morheim. Below them both lies the Abyss, where the two sides fight without end.
Elyos and Asmodians play different main stories from the first quest. Each is summarised below without spoilers; open the fold for the whole thing. Only the part of the story the game has so far is summarised.
You are a Daeva who escaped Ishtar Castle in Poeta, stripped of your power, and were taken in by the Dawn Legion once it was sure you were no Sura.
Elyos land is Poeta (where Ishtar's castle stands), Verteron and Eltnen. Your Lords were Ariel, Kaisinel, Nezekan, Vaizel and Yustiel. Daevas the Balaur experiment on can become Sura, monsters.
An opening with no dialogue in the quest log. Its stated goals are to get inside Ishtar Castle in Poeta, escape from it, and find somewhere safe to hide. What you were doing in the castle is not spelled out.
At the Dawn Legion's forward base you are tested for Sura mutation and cleared. You do odd jobs, then recover lost supplies in Daminu Forest alongside Robin. Nania sends you to Clione Lake, where the Elim Daminu sets a trial; in a dream-space the guide Asahr gives back your flight and you ascend as a Daeva again. Legionnaires on a sky island are found dead or dying. The Legion, having rescued Phernos, pulls out for Verteron and its leader Caelid invites you along. You steal Drakana to fuel the airship and wreck the Migzatu Brigade Base as a diversion.
You wake at the Dawn Legion Base in Verteron. Phernos lies unconscious and Caelid needs him awake to cross the Bulwark, so you gather Odyle in Cantas Valley, where a collector is nearly empty and the Balaur have left Dratona eggs. A coastal cave yields Odylium but also Perion, the lost vice-commander, now a Sura; he is cremated. Odyle fails to rouse Phernos, so Caelid turns to the Illusion Cavaliers for a Spirit Fruit. With Ione you close rifts and bring the tree spirit Laveis back from Etheria; the fruit wakes Phernos. You formally join the Legion.
Cecilia, mage of the now scattered Illusion Cavaliers, agrees to help. Disguised as a Kobold by her illusion magic and taught the Krall language, you slip into the Balaur-held Verteron Fortress Ruins and reach the Krall Command Post, learning that Reda held out to the end in the Illusion Oratory. You fetch Kaisinel's Seal from the Illusion Sanctum, haunted by the Apparitions of dead Cavaliers, and enter. Reda is gone, but she left records of a forbidden magic, Scarlotus, and of a deal with a Shugo trader. Asahr shows you AION's dream of the Tower's fall and you become a Nova Daeva.
Kochi ejects the Legion once Scarlotus is named, then vanishes from his wrecked quarters. A mercenary's weapon points to the Astin Mercenaries; with the turncoat Baison's help you learn Astin was selling Shugo to the Aullaeu and catch him at a handover. Disguised as an Aullaeu you trace Kochi to the Root Cellar and free him. He admits supplying Reda's Scarlotus, which she tried at the Aullaeu underground altar to bring back her daughter. The exile Holyaul dies in a trap, so the altar key is forced from Chief Aulamus. Inside: corrupted Aullaeu, wraiths, and signs she did bring Teina back.
At Zumion Village the Notos Legion resents Caelid, but its commander Dymones trusts Phernos and allies warily. You help fight Sura, as the Illusion God's barrierstones are gone. A dream of Narun, the earliest Arch Daeva, shows that path is yours. Dark spirits and an odd barrier in Altamia Canyon point to Reda. Phernos wants to dissolve it with Dragon Lord Meslamtaeda's blood; Caelid and Hithanya object. You wake Zumion's stone priests, win the Warding Feather to carry the poison, cleanse the Contaminated Sanctum and take the blood. Inside, a half-mad Reda demands her daughter's bracelet.
Teina's bracelet may lie in the disposal plant at Nahid Brigade Fortress. As a diversion you poison the Drana Plantation in Kobold disguise, smash Drana Injectors in the Scarlet Forest and bring down the power tower. You and Caelid sneak in; Apparitions brought by Phernos find the bracelet, and he abandons them. Reda's revived daughter proved a hollow copy; hating Phernos, she turns into a monster. The bracelet opens Ardus Shrine. Hithanya quits over Phernos's ruthlessness. You calm the Garden of the Illusion God, pass Kaisinel's trials and win his Core. Yustiel's Core, in Eltnen, is next.
Placeholder with no story yet: you simply wait for the day of departure to Eltnen.
Summaries of the game's own main-story quests, in our words. Later episodes are not in the game yet, and the last one listed is a placeholder.
Not yet a Daeva, you went into Fafnir Fortress in Ishalgen and barely got out; fog-wrapped Aldelle Village took you in.
Asmodian land is Ishalgen (where Fafnir's fortress stands), Altgard and Morheim. Your Lords were Azphel, Zikel, Lumiel, Marchutan and Triniel. Fafnite, Fafnir's crystal, is coveted and dangerous.
You go into Fafnir Fortress in Ishalgen, then have to get back out of it and find somewhere safe to lie low. This quest carries no story text of its own.
Fresh out of Fafnir Fortress you reach Aldelle Village, where chief Pelleir has you supplied. In Munihelle Forest a woman the villagers call a witch, Elvida, warns that Fafnir rules their minds. Checking the village's guardian Jewel at Tunapre Lake sets off an attack; Elvida has it smashed and sends you under the lake, where Asahr gives you wings and you ascend as a Daeva. You then save mercenary commander Garlond and his crew from an airship wreck and a Balaur prison. That night the villagers attack; Garlond's band dies and you flee in their airship, which a Balaur trap blows apart.
You are at Safe Haven in Altgard, a cut-off village in land poisoned by a crashed Dredgion. Nemon, a Daeva based at Shadow Hall, wants the Red Fafnite that the Hugo Mercenaries (your comrades, it seems) died trying to take, so you agree to trace who ordered it. With her human aide Ulgorn you gather neutralizer, catch Daeva skimming supplies, and reopen the Quai Merchants' Odyle route. The hunt for the broker Brok leads past maddened Daeva, through the Nameless Cemetery and into a Karas-filled Crypt, where you corner him. Asahr meets you again in dreams. Brok names his client: the Blood Blades.
A captured Blade confesses: the Blood Blades hired the Hugo Mercenaries behind a two-layer contract and talked one member, Kraki, into betraying the rest. Disguised as Balaur with Fang Legion help, you find stranded legionnaires and a back way into Zikel's Sanctum, where dying Blades officer Tassin says Commander Gerod still means to have Nemon. Nemon, who once fled from inside the Bulwark, recovers the Artifact of Eternity and goes to check on the High Priest's body. Its Nornir guardians lie dead, so you earn the Elim's trust and pull the spirit Ecco from a rift; she wakes Odar.
Following Odar's lead to Uruthumheim, you find more Nornir murdered or abducted by the Blades; captives you reach die in a Blades bomb, and ruins caretaker Gohok walks you into an ambush. At the Collapsed Oracle you meet Blades leader Gerod, who leaves as a Dredgion shells the site, and then Urd, leader of the Nornir. High Priest Hystan's body cannot wake without the Red Fafnite, so you secure the Nornir Assembly by restoring the spirit altars and helping Grisilla cleanse the Sacred Tree. Her Life Essence opens some of Hystan's memories, which name Reuben, who fled the Impetusium.
At Dranactus you get past Mumu overseers, blind the watchtower, and pull Reuben, the last Destruction Archon, from the Underkeep; dying, he points you to his hideout. Its papers and a blade-shaped boulder lead to the Destruction Archon Underground Fortress, but the Blood Blades are waiting: you are badly beaten and Gerod leaves with Ulgorn and the High Priest's Fafnite. Hadala and Dinoh quit. In the Balaur-held south you fix the Steel Hammer Merchants' Fafnite-dust crisis and reach the Blades' base under Idun's Lake; Ulgorn is there, emptied of his soul, and Nemon settles her score with Gerod.
Hystan's Fafnite has gone to the Black Claw, a Mau tribe serving the Balaur. You rescue the ritualist Amunta, whose Daybreak Society rejects that service, mend Zemurru's Totem, and enter Black Claw Village disguised as Mau. Chief Muqaka is killed and the crimson Fafnite is found in Lagta Fortress, where Nemon smashes the stored Fafnite to cover your escape. Urd wakes Hystan's body: Zikel's Core lies in the Impetusium. You steady the Blood Barrier, let the Archon Apparitions rest, and pass Zikel's test to win the Core. After farewells you scout Draupnir through a portal and learn of the Abyss.
Placeholder only: you wait in Altgard for the day you leave for Morheim. The quest has no story text yet.
Summaries of the game's own main-story quests, in our words. Later episodes are not in the game yet, and the last one listed is a placeholder.
New to the setting? Start with the first game's story, then come back. Want the words that keep turning up? The glossary has them. And if you are choosing a side, what the choice changes covers the practical side.
Written in our own words. The facts come from the game's own main-story quests and from the AION and AION 2 fan wikis (CC BY-SA), with press summaries for the timeline. The sources do not always agree, and where they do not, the page says so. This is a fan reading of the story, not official lore.
Sources: AION wiki: Lore, Empyrean Lords, Balaur, AION 2 wiki: Story, Solashur: the story of AION, GamersTogether: AION 2 story, LootWoW: AION 2 story.
This hub is made by the team building AION Companion, an AI companion for AION 2 that reads your HUD from the screen and the game's own event log on your PC, and talks to you out loud. Out now for Windows, with a free account.