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Story and Lore
September 14, 2026 at 01:14 AM
Fixed internal links in tables that had been rendered as literal text instead of links
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.
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.
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 |
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.
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 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.
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 Chengarung merchant group. |
As of September 13, 2026 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.
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.
