The Colossi are huge beings whose light is the main thing keeping the Dark Mist away from the people of Solas. The game's own description of Heggem calls them beyond words and too lofty to look at, with humble humans clinging to their aura and following them day and night (SiteInfo 100). Each Colossus gives its Disciples a home for a while, then fades, falls, or is overrun. The story of Terrence's journey is a tour of dying Colossi, and the end of that tour is the legendary Colossal Grave.
Overview#
- What they are. Never shown in full, always referred to by the name of the place they stand over. They are old enough that their remains may be the source of whale oil, which some say comes from decaying Colossus corpses (ItemData 10059). Some "maddened believers" even think Glowstones are Colossus remains and that the Grave lies under the deep sea (ItemData 20033).
- They move. Disciples are nomads. Heggem is described as not having migrated for a very long time (ItemData 70001), and a legend says a Colossus that grows weak is preparing for a journey to the Grave, though no one has seen a Colossus fall or its Grave (StoryDialog story 1, rows 30-31). A text about fireworks says some tribes use them to greet a newly found Colossus, and the time between finding one Colossus and the next is what they call a "year" (ItemData 79020).
- Their light is a resource. Colossus Crystals (the treasure in Heggem's mine) can briefly clear the mist (StoryDialog story 1, row 84). Glowing Crystals store the light but become hotbeds of Sendril once drained (TrophyData 69503). The Shriveled Holy Fruit gives a shield "like an incarnation" of a Colossus's light (ItemData 20028). A Scarlet Meteor fragment has a similar effect to a Colossus (StoryDialog story 3, row 626).
- Faith and doubt. The Church and the Disciples depend on Colossus light, but Benita is described as doubting that humans can shine like a Colossus (ItemData 21024), and the Blessedland treats the study of Colossi as taboo (StoryDialog story 99, rows 759-760).
The Colossi of the story#
| Colossus / place | State in the game | Key facts | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heggem (Lost Valley - Heggem) | Fading; the village is overrun by Marred | Light too weak to hold the Sendrils; its mine held a Colossus Crystal "treasure" that was stolen; the Disciples decayed into monsters; a Witch is blamed for making Heggem sick. | SiteInfo 100; StoryDialog story 1 rows 56, 84, 112 |
| Adamina | Fading; cut off from its god | The Disciples are barely sustaining their bloodline. The Holy Father injected Sendril into Disciples so their numbers survive beside the Colossus light, and the "miracle" killed many men. | SiteInfo 200; StoryDialog story 2 rows 290-303; UIQuest 10204 |
| Exilium | Fallen | A Scarlet Meteor hit it. The ruined camp of the War Gods is full of nameless wandering dead. The meteor halves bear man-made patterns and keep a faint Colossus-like light. | SiteInfo 300; ItemData 10007; StoryDialog story 3 row 632 |
| Edith | Dark city, then woken, then felled | Was a lightless city of banished Demiurges. A Marcion ritual turned white dust from Edith into crystals fused with the Demiurges, who then became part of the Colossus's consciousness and its puppets. The "Newborn Edith" boss fight (Edith) ends with the Colossus falling and freeing the stored vengeance. | SiteInfo 400; StoryDialog story 4 rows 963-965, 979-982; UIQuest 10413-10415 |
| Katib | Fused with the Sacred Tower | Drawn by the power of the Seal of Yekub, the Colossus grew into the Tower, and "everything grows into each other". | SiteInfo 500; UIQuest 30518, 10507; StoryDialog story 5 row 1104 |
| Blessedland (Four Holy Pillars) | Fading (inferred to function like a Colossus) | The Four Holy Pillars are taught as incarnations of God's will; their "eternal light" started to fade more than ten years ago. Names and the groaning pillar are in Church of the Blessedland#Overview. | SiteInfo 600; ItemData 10037-10040; StoryDialog story 6 rows 1558, 1604; UIQuest 30606, 30609 |
| Karst Cave | Underground world of the ancestors | A cave network with a Church prison used for secret experiments. | SiteInfo 700; StoryDialog story 7 rows 1871-1873 |
| The Colossal Grave | Final resting place | Only legend until the Seal and the Marcions opened it. Teresa's journey is aimed at it, or at destroying the Blessedland (Timelines#Katib falls). | SiteInfo 800; UIQuest 10709 |
| Ichthyosauria (DLC) | A sleeping giant beast | An extinct sea creature in whose body a people lives; its Soul River is drying up. | SiteInfo 900; StoryDialog story 9 rows 2546, 2704 |
A note on the table: the game treats Ichthyosauria as a "giant monster" rather than a Colossus (SiteInfo 900). It is listed here because its story mirrors the Colossi: a protector whose light fails and whose people lose their memory.
The Colossal Grave#
Finding the Grave is the stated job of every Courier (UIQuest 10102) and the Blessedland's best-kept secret. The Church once opened it by accident, then sealed it under Proxy's orders (StoryDialog story 7, row 1873). Only Vaillant and Proxy came back from the visit that led to Vaillant's sentence, and neither would say what they had seen (story 6 row 1657). The Church's later experiments tried to open it with the Seal of Yekub, which turned out to need Marcion blood (UIQuest 30515). Entering the final area from the Karst Cave also locks you out of the rest of Solas: the confirmation says you will not be able to return, and the last save stays at the Disciple Ruins (StoryDialog story 7, row 2029). What happens after the ending, including the way back to the stage before the final battle, is in Endings#After the credits.
A Courier from Ichthyosauria passes on a legend there: if the three Seals of Yekub are gathered, every Colossus in the world falls, and when the world returns to silence "the true light" arrives (StoryDialog story 99, rows 2816-2817). See Seals of Yekub.
Hidden mechanics#
- The "light of a Colossus" is a literal item tier. Four Immundus grades (Chipped Immundus, Immundus, Immundus Crystal, Immundus Diamond) are described as crystals that grow in a host after the Sendrils consume its energy, so the crystals you spend on talents are, in the fiction, by-products of Sendril feeding on a host (ItemData 50001-50004; StoryGuide 2004). See Immundus.
- A five-groove door in Ichthyosauria. The Colossus, Humanity, Treasury, Sifler and Heggie Stones each carry a different rune (ItemData 10068-10072). A door in the Ichthyosauria dialogs has five grooves and tells you to add the gemstones "in order" (StoryDialog story 9, rows 2856-2862), so the order of insertion is part of the puzzle. The treasury is probably the door in question, since an achievement is awarded for befriending the Heggie of Ichthyosauria and getting the key to the treasury doors (Achievement 40010; inferred link).
- Colossi leave the map in a New Journey. All five rune stones and the Scarlet Meteor fragments are flagged to be removed from the inventory when a new Journey starts (New Game Plus#What carries over and what is removed; ItemData 10007, 10068-10072:
GamePlusRemove = 1;structdata/fs_itemlist.lua:137-148). - Heggies live on the Sendril. The magical Heggie can survive in the Dark Mist and feeds on the Sendril; the oil it secretes hardens into a Dominator Crystal that clears the smell of the Sendrils (ItemData 40021). Achievement 12004 asks you to satisfy all Heggies (Heggies).
Trivia#
- The Pagan Daemon Logos, worshiped by some Disciple tribes, is described as Colossus-shaped but evil and as both child and source of the Dark Mist (TrophyData 69509).
- Fireworks tradition: a Colossus's discovery is celebrated with a farewell to the past (ItemData 79020).
Sources#
kit/tables/SiteInfo.jsonlrows 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900.kit/tables/StoryDialog.jsonlstory 1 rows 30, 31, 56, 84, 112; story 2 rows 290-303; story 3 rows 626, 632; story 4 rows 963-965, 979-982; story 5 row 1104; story 6 rows 1558, 1604, 1657; story 7 rows 1871-1873, 2029; story 9 rows 2546, 2704, 2856-2862; story 99 rows 759-760, 2816-2817.kit/tables/ItemData.jsonl10007, 10037-10040, 10059, 10068-10072, 20028, 20033, 21024, 40021, 50001-50005, 70001, 79020.kit/tables/UIQuest.jsonl10102, 10204, 10413-10415, 10507, 10709, 30515, 30518, 30606, 30609;TrophyData.jsonl69503, 69509;StoryGuide.jsonl2004;Achievement.jsonl12004, 40010.- Code:
reference/lua_src/luascript/structdata/fs_itemlist.lua:137-148.