AION 2 opens two hundred years after the original game's timeline, on a world that lost its war. The Aion Tower fell, the barrier it held up went with it, and the Balaur poured into both halves of Atreia. Everything the player does happens inside, or just outside, the emergency wall the gods threw up afterwards.
The setting carries over from the first AION: the same world of Atreia, the same two Daeva factions, the same dragonkin antagonists. The events below are AION 2's own account of what happened between the two games, as NCsoft tells it on the global teaser material, and they are the frame the game's opening chapters are built on.
The Last War
At the end of the war between Elyos and Asmodian, the Aion Tower fell. No new barrier was raised, and the fighting between the two factions consumed even the light of the world. That day is remembered as the Last War.
The name is doing double duty. It is the last war between the factions in the sense that the Balaur arrival made the old war beside the point, and it is the war after which nothing was the same.
The Bulwark
With the Tower gone and the barrier with it, the Balaur surged into Elysea from above and into Asmodae from below. The Empyrean Lords answered with the only thing they had left: they gathered their remaining power and raised a Bulwark of light, a radiant veil that split the world and sealed each realm off.
It cost them everything. On the Elyos side, Siel, the Tower's guardian, vanished, and the remaining Lords gave all they had; some were lost outright and others were stripped of their light. On the Asmodian side, Israphel was already gone, and the five surviving Lords unleashed the last of their power, so that the Bulwark that shields Asmodae is described as forged from their blood and souls.
Side | Guardian lost | What the Bulwark did |
|---|---|---|
Elysea (Elyos) | Siel, guardian of the Tower, vanished | Sealed Elysea in silent isolation behind a veil of light |
Asmodae (Asmodian) | Israphel, guardian of the Tower, already gone | Raised between Morheim and Beluslan as the realm's final shield |
The Age of Two Dragon Lords
Outside the Bulwark, two Dragon Lords rule. Ishtar and Fafnir advanced without stopping: they consumed Poeta in fire and darkness on the Elyos side, and trampled Ishalgen and swallowed the continent on the Asmodian side. The Bulwark halted the advance, but only after countless lives had already been spent.
This is the reason AION 2's starting world is small relative to the map it will grow into. The land beyond the Bulwark is not unexplored; it is occupied. See World and Regions.
The Fall of the Daeva
Ascending as a Daeva is supposed to be a blessing. Beyond the Bulwark it stopped being one.
Daevas were hunted on Ishtar's order and turned into fuel for Surana, and the experiments produced twisted aberrations that preyed on their own kind.
Fafnir tore Daeva souls apart and bound their light inside gems. Those who had carried the breath of the gods became Fafnites, agents of destruction.
Draconute Warriors capture Daevas in occupied territory to turn them into Fafnites; the ruined Sanctum Outpost is one of the places where this happens.
The player character is a Daeva, which places the whole story in that shadow: you are the thing the Dragon Lords are farming.
The Balaur and Their Legions
The Balaur are the dragonkin, and they operate through named Legions rather than as a single mass. The Fafnir Legion crashed a Dredgion warship into northern Altgard and left the crater corrupted with leaking Drakana. The Ishtar Legion destroyed Verteron's Barrier Tower from the air. See Balaur for the faction itself.
Not every organised force in the world is Balaur. The Dawn Legion and the Notos Legion are Daeva formations operating out of Verteron, and the Illusion Cavaliers are rebuilding the Barrier Tower the Ishtar Legion destroyed.
Other Peoples of Atreia
People | Role in the story |
|---|---|
Elim | Tree-spirit folk. The Elim of Moslan Forest were burned out by the High Priest Hystan; only the wounded remain. |
Nornir | Fate-weavers. Refugees from Moslan Forest built the Nornir Assembly, shielded by their own magic and led by Urd, one of the Three Sisters of Fate. |
Aullaeu | Servants of the Balaur who gather at a settlement on the edge of Tolbas Forest, and who guard the sanctuary of Urugugu Canyon. |
Shugo | The franchise's merchant traders. They host the Shugo Festival and run trading outfits such as the Wind Breeze Merchants, the Tsenka Merchants, the Quai trading company and the Steel Hammer Merchants. |
What the World Itself Records
Much of AION 2's backstory is told through the short descriptions attached to its field sites and through quest and title text, not through cutscenes. Those descriptions add the following to the teaser account above.
Topic | What the game's own text says |
|---|---|
Surana and the Sura | Ishtar developed a way to extract the life force of Daeva and turn it into an energy called Surana. Balaur units hunt Daeva and other living things for it and deliver them to the Nahid Brigade Fortress in Verteron. Daeva drained this way mutate into Sura, and those who hid in caves while still sane to halt the change all succumbed in the end. |
Fafnite and Fafnium | Fafnir's Fafnium is used to steal the souls of Daeva and control their empty bodies, and producing Fafnite always needs living humans or Daeva. High Priest Hystan's soul and mind were taken by Fafnite; his body roamed Altgard killing until the Nornir sealed it in Moslan Forest. |
Kaisinel | Kaisinel's disappearance broke the contracts with the spirits, Etheria grew unstable and many spirits turned violent. The Illusion Cavaliers were wiped out, and some of the Daeva who deserted afterwards hold a camp in Verteron. The Elyos story episodes lead toward Kaisinel's Core. |
Zikel | Zealots in Altgard twist Zikel's worship and gather offerings in his name, deepening the misunderstandings around him. The Destruction Archons are sworn to Zikel, and the Asmodian story episodes lead toward Zikel's Core. |
Tiamat | The Aullaeu worshipped Dragon Lord Tiamat for generations and kept building altars to her even after her fall and the rise of Dragon Lord Ishtar. |
Odyle and the dead | A plague spread after Odyle was depleted, and its victims became Karas; in Altgard even noble families suspected of it were herded into an ossuary. The fall of AION also means the dead can no longer return to Odyle, which is how a cavern of fallen Daeva in Eltnen became contaminated. |
The Ancient City of Ru | A legendary city said to have had a highly advanced civilization. Caves where rifts to the unstable Abyss have opened carry information about it, and collecting its records is an achievement. |
The story itself is delivered through Hero Quests: separate episode chains for each faction, from a level 1 prologue on the Poeta and Ishalgen side through Verteron or Altgard. The territories' own pages carry more of this local lore, especially Eltnen and Morheim.
The Empyrean Lords
The Lords are absent rather than gone from the game's systems: ten of them give their names to the divine stats on the character screen, the Daevanion boards carry the names of eight, and the global service names many of its servers after them. What AION 2 says about each, and where their names appear, is on Empyrean Lords.
Chapter 1 Story Notes
The Chapter 1 territories carry their own local story, told mostly through field-site and quest text. In Eltnen the Life Daeva were all but wiped out, Kion was the last of them to ascend, the Lepharists run hidden laboratories, and Chloris rebuilt Lacephin Village around its spring. In Morheim, Kromede holds a floating island built by an Ode storm, Sigebert's loyalists massacred the Fate Archon candidates who studied Marchutan's scriptures, and fake Fate Archons capture Daeva for the Balaur. NCsoft says both territories continue in Chapter 2. See Eltnen and Morheim.
What Is Not Settled
As of October 7, 2026, two days after the global launch, NCsoft has not published a global story synopsis beyond the teaser material above, and has not stated how far the launch build's main campaign runs. Lore that exists only in the original AION, or in tie-in fiction, is not AION 2 canon unless AION 2 has restated it, and this page sticks to what AION 2 itself says.
Related Pages
World and Regions for the geography. Factions: Elyos and Asmodian for the two playable sides. Balaur for the dragonkin. Daeva System and Daevanion Board for what ascension means mechanically.