The Great Dissonance was a cataclysmic war that eradicated two ancient nations 4000 years before the beginning of
Wargroove's story... but since the age is
Shrouded in Myth, we learn nearly nothing about the participants, why the war between them started, or who the aggressor was. However, there are some implications. In a codex entry unlocked near the end of the game, we learn about "cacophonic magic", the wizardry practiced by the Kingdom of Cacophony. Very little is known about it,
except that its very powerful and has a habit of corrupting its users. Furthermore, only two examples of cacophonic magic are encountered in the story; both of which are sapient
Artifacts Of Doom that tempt their wielders and lead them down the path of becoming despotic conquerors. Given this, its entirely possible that Cacophony was actually a villainous empire, and that the creation of Requiem was their last-ditch effort to crush Silmor once and for all, only to be all but wiped out themselves when they realized
they couldn't control it.
- Likely jossed. The codex entry "Requiem and the Great Dissonance" (unlocked by defeating the True Final Boss) ultimately portrays the conflict as being more morally grey than nefarious - While the specifics of the war still aren't given, Cacophony's decision to create Requiem is framed as an exhausted nation trying to force a ceasefire via a superweapon that could destroy both sides, only to drastically underestimate what their new weapon was capable of. After Requiem's rampage, mages from both Silmor and Cacophony banded together to construct its prison and install Princess Elodie, their leader, as its guardian.
- Given some credence in Wargroove 2, where we meet the architect of all the evil artifacts: The Queen of Cacophony, Maestra. While the lore more clearly paints Cacophony as a non-evil empire under regular circumstances, its heavily hinted that Maestra started the war and created the various doomsday weapons in a bid to conquer the entire continent, which alienated her children even before Requiem killed everyone.
Sigrid isent dead
we never see a body, she is defeated and then disperses into bats, which in most vampire media where they can do that its entirely voluntary and usually done for added mobility or to escape danger not on death, its entirely possible she will simply reform somewhere safe to lick her wounds and continue plotting
In the shared universe of
Starbound and
Wargroove, interstellar travel is made possible thanks to a mysterious substance known as erchius, mined at great risk from moons throughout the galaxy. However, erchius spawns malevolent supernatural phenomena when present in vast quantities, and is heavily implied to originate from the Ruin — an
Eldritch Abomination that seeks to destroy all life in the cosmos. Requiem noticeably shares the
luminescent purple coloration of erchius, and like the Ruin is
singlemindedly omnicidal. Its possible that the weapon was crafted using erchius that fell from space in a meteor, perhaps from the
Wargroove world's own moon.
It would explain why there are Late Medieval/Early Renaissance humans on a planet somewhere with no concept of space travel, as well as the appearance of magic. Contributing to this theory is the fact that there are structures in
Starbound in which a board game featuring a castle can be found on a table, along with the faction banners from
Wargroove. The RPG part is implied by a specific character from
Starbound, that is, Nuru, showing up. Further, there are various maps in the campaign editor, perhaps other module-books for the game, in-universe.
Why Requiem seeks destruction…
I found this theory by one Ellie on Discord regarding what drives Requiem to crave destruction: being an entity attuned to living being's minds, it can “hear” them all; and with so many minds around it, the “sound” of them all was an unbearable noise
.
Having experienced nothing but that noise from the moment of its creation, it began to desire silence.
This wasn't necessarily a lust for violence, at first; it just wanted to make the noise stop. But it quickly became one over the course of the war; the more minds Requiem had silenced, the less noise it had to endure.
The corruption it inflicts on its hosts is a means to that end: to silence the noise of living minds.
Dark Mercia isn't just a construct of Requiem made to tempt Mercia.
She's a side of her that wanted to feel safe, and was tempted to embrace Requiem's promise. Mercia would never be that sadistic, violent, or cruel, but the fear is very much part of her.
Requiem's promise to use its power to "keep Mercia's friends safe" is why Dark Mercia has a shield. She just so happens to go entirely overboard and eventually forget what needs protecting.
