Story
The game begins with the player-controlled protagonist and his friend, Drevin, serving as mercenaries in the army of Valdis, a warlord who has aligned himself with a race of Dark Wizards and wields the magical Sword of Zaramoth. The player character and Drevin are ordered to capture a temple held by dryads. After the temple is captured, however, Valdis attacks the mercenaries. Drevin is killed, but the player character is only knocked unconscious.
The player character regains consciousness in the custody of the dryads. Rather than execute him, the dryads allow the player to earn his freedom by helping them in the war against Valdis. After he earns his freedom, he discovers that he is infected with the Plague, a mysterious disease created by the Dark Wizards that drives its victims to insanity. After being cured by the water from an Elven shrine, he returns to his hometown.
On the way home, the player character rescues an old man from Plague-maddened dryads. The old man then describes an event called the Great Cataclysm, caused when the Sword of Zaramoth that Valdis wields struck a magical shield called the Shield of Azunai. The blow shattered the shield, causing a catastrophe that ended the First Age. Valdis hopes to cause another such catastrophe by gathering the shards of the Shield of Azunai so he can shatter it again. The old man then explains the Plague, saying that it is caused by crystals created during the Great Cataclysm that give license to the souls of Zaramoth’s army to possess the living.
After the player character returns home, he begins to gather the pieces of the shield himself so he can use it against Valdis. After he gathers all of the pieces, he takes them to the Agallan giants so that they can re-forge the shield. As they re-forge it, they place a medallion in the center of it for added durability. This medallion had previously been worn by Drevin; he gave it to the player character before he died.
With the shield re-forged, the player character travels to Valdis’ stronghold known as Zaramoth's Horns. The shield protects him from the Dark Wizards, but the battle with Valdis himself proves to be a stalemate until the old man appears and takes the shield from the player character. He gives the shield to Valdis, revealing that he is a Dark Wizard. Valdis tries to destroy the shield with the Sword of Zaramoth, but when he strikes the shield, his sword shatters instead. Valdis and the player character resume the battle, in which Valdis is killed.
Read more about this topic: Dungeon Siege II
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“A good story is one that isn’t demanding, that proceeds from A to B, and above all doesn’t remind us of the bad times, the cardboard patches we used to wear in our shoes, the failed farms, the way people you love just up and die. It tells us instead that hard work and perseverance can overcome all obstacles; it tells lie after lie, and the happy ending is the happiest lie of all.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“The psychiatrist’s office: the only place I can be sure my story will be treated as sad, but interesting.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story—a story that is basically without meaning or pattern.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)