Axiom Verge Wiki - User contributions [en]

Athetos

2016-02-05T22:13:17Z

129.24.214.198: /* History */

== Description ==
[[File:Athetos.png|thumb|The face of Athetos.|316x316px]]'''Athetos''' is a human and the very first version of the clone [[Trace]] who was able to reach [[Sudra |Sudra]] by discovering a way to pass through the[[the Breach| Breach]] from Earth. He acts as the game's primary antagonist, having eventually used a [[pathogen]] to wipe out almost all of the Sudrans. Being the prime Trace, Athetos' personality used to be much more similar to the kind, pacifist temperament of Trace the player character; however, hundreds of years spent in Sudra caused Athetos' morality to shift to the point where he is willing to annihilate entire sentient species in order to secure technological benefits for humanity.

== History ==
The prime Trace was a theoretical physicist whose revolutionary theories were regarded by other scientists as false and insignificant, thereby earning him the nickname "Athetos," a word meaning "without place," "to do away with," or "to reject." Trace was blacklisted by many of his colleagues. Nonetheless, he continued striving to validate his work.

In the year 2005 in a New Mexico research facility, Trace and colleague Hammond worked on an experiment based on Trace's revolutionary ideas in the field of physics. The beamlet in the experiment goes awry with the pressure valve and a huge explosion occurs, severely injuring Trace and rendering him blind, immobile, and wheelchair-bound. During this time, Trace has an epiphany of a greater understanding of physics. Using this newfound knowledge, Trace and colleague Hammond are able to discover the Breach, a barrier between universes. Crossing the breach, they find the world of Sudra. Sudra is a gateway world of sorts — its purpose is to regulate travel between other worlds and universes. However, by the time Trace arrives, Sudra's civilization had collapsed, and its inhabitants no longer remember that purpose.

The prime Trace and his colleague Hammond discovered Sudra's incredible technology and used a [[Rebirth Chamber]] to completely heal them of injuries sustained from the lab explosion back on Earth. Trace will eventually discover that it is possible to utilize the Rebirth Chambers in Sudra to create clones of himself. By using this chamber, Trace also inadvertently leaves behind a genetic imprint of himself. Hundreds of years later, the [[Rusalki]], which are sentient, towering war machines, will be able to utilize the prime Trace's genetic imprint to create [[Trace|a clone of him]], setting up the events of [[Axiom Verge]].

For some time, the prime Trace explored Sudra and made contact with its inhabitants. According to the [[Faded Note (Note)|Faded Note]], Trace eventually decided that the Sudran technology is too dangerous to bring back to Earth, believing that it is connected to the catastrophic collapse of Sudra's civilization. Trace, Hammond, and any of Trace's clones then attempted to go "upstream - to the Filter, or whatever lies beyond - for answers." In doing so, Trace discovers that there is a world beyond Sudra — one with an incredibly advanced civilization that the Sudrans have kept hidden due to religious taboo. This world is full of technological wonders that could end all war, strife, and sickness on Earth. It is unclear what happens to Hammond during this time, but we can consider this the starting point in which Trace's morality becomes warped, and he adopts the moniker "Athetos." Athetos decides that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and that the only way to bring this technology back to Earth is to annihilate the Sudrans, who would refuse passage between Sudra and the worlds beyond. As a result, Athetos begins creating more allies — genetically modified, "variant" clones of himself, using the genetic imprints he had left in the Rebirth Chamber. He also manages to convince the Rusalka [[Katrahaska]] to aid his cause. After building an army, Athetos goes on the offensive with biological warfare, creating a pathogen that wipes out and mutates almost all of the Sudrans on the planet.

With Sudra largely barren of any resistance, the only beings who can oppose Athetos are the three remaining Rusalki: [[Elsenova]], [[Ophelia]], and [[Veruska]] — who stayed true to their purpose of guarding Sudra. They battled against Athetos, his Variants, and Katrahaska. Using [[Remote Drone|Remote Drones]], the Rusalki managed to destroy Katrahaska and Athetos's mobile pathogen protection, forcing Athetos to retreat to a hideaway in [[Mar-Uru]], far above the surface of Sudra and extremely close to the Breach where the Rusalki cannot approach without being killed. Athetos would spent centuries holed up in the highest peak of Mar-Uru, waiting for a chance to deactivate the [[Breach Attractor]] so he may escape Sudra. However, before fleeing to Mar-Uru, Athetos had managed to deactivate the production of Remote Drones, leaving the Rusalki nearly helpless, dormant, and degrading over time. All Athetos has to do is wait for the Rusalki to decay into nothingness, since he would be killed immediately if he deactivated the Breach Attractor while the Rusalki were still functional.

[[File:Athetos old self.png|200px|right|Athetos in Trace's dream Earth algorithm, moments before he assassinates him.]]Many centuries later, Athetos is ultimately located and confronted by Trace the player character atop Mar-Uru. The clone Trace and Elsenova manage to coordinate the destruction of the Breach Attractor, and after a lengthy battle, Athetos is subsequently killed by Elsenova's laser beam, despite Trace's pleas not to kill him.

Athetos is seen afterwards on Earth in the game's true ending, where he shoots Trace with a gun while stating, "There's no use running from your own self. Time to wake up, Trace."

== Encounter ==
When [[Trace]] reaches the peak of [[Mar-Uru]], he encounters Athetos. Face-to-face with an alternate version of himself, Trace demands answers, trying to understand how he could become a genocidal monster. Ultimately seeing that there is no reasoning with Athetos, Trace decides he must disable the [[Breach Attractor]] and render Athetos helpless.

Trapped inside a tank keeping him alive, Athetos will not fight directly, but will instead send [[Beholder Sentry|Beholder Sentries]] to attack Trace. Athetos will continuously summon additional sentries if they are destroyed, but can maintain a maximum of 3 at any given time.

The fight will consist of 3 waves. Each wave ends when you disable the Breach Attractor. Athetos will not summon sentries during the break between waves, so if you choose to destroy all 3, you will have a brief reprieve before needing to defend yourself again.

During the first wave, the sentries will use horizontal beam attacks and will attempt to align themselves with your vertical height. During the second wave, the sentries each will fire 3 laser shots, similar to that of the [[Axiom Disruptor]]. Their attack patters remain much the same. During the third wave, the sentries will fire much larger, singular, laser bolts and will behave somewhat more erratically.

After the boss, you will be shown a few cutscenes, a final statistics screen, and then taken to the main menu. Your game will not save, and you can continue your save file from where you last saved (probably somewhere in [[Mar-Uru]]).

'''Note:''' If you want your save file to contain 100% of the map explored, or a glitched Beholder, you can start the final boss fight and then save and quit. This will store the information without completing the game. This is not necessary for the [[Achievements]], but may be useful in some cases.

== Strategies ==
With the entire game's [[Weapons|arsenal]] at your disposal, there are a variety of ways to approach this fight. The main thing to remember, in all cases, is that your primary focus should be staying alive. If you kill one of Athetos's [[Beholder Sentry|Beholder Sentries]], it has a chance to drop a significant amount of health. This chance will increase the lower on health you are, so keep that in mind. If you drop below 50% health, it's time to start focusing on killing the Beholders until they drop health for you.

=== 100% Items ===
If you have collected most or all of the game's items, this battle should be relatively easy. You can use the [[FlameThrower]] to devastate both the Beholders and the Breach Attractor at the same time. Stay inline with the Breach Attractor and jump while aiming the Flamethrower upward to attack damage it.

=== Low % Run ===
If you're doing a low percent run, this battle becomes significantly more difficult, as you won't have much health to survive the persistent attacks of the sentries. Use the [[Red Coat]] to teleport up through the sentries and damage the Breach Attractor with the [[Kilver]]. If you drop below 50% health, focus all your efforts on destroying the sentries to regain your health, and then continue attacking the Breach Attractor.

=== Inertial Pulse ===
The [[Inertial Pulse]] can be used at great range and will travel through enemies. You can leverage this to stand in one of the corners of the room and fire upward at an angle to hit the Breach Attractor. By doing so, you don't have to keep jumping around. If the Beholders group up on top of you, just switch to the Kilver and unload.[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Bosses]]

Trace

2016-02-05T22:09:09Z

129.24.214.198: /* History */

''For the in-game Note called "Trace", see [[Trace (Note)]].''[[File:Trace-Portrait.png|thumb|220x220px|Trace, as seen during his ingame conversations with other characters.]]

== Description ==
'''Trace''' is the main character of Axiom Verge. The player plays as Trace throughout the game and the [[story]] focuses mainly around Trace's attempts to understand [[Sudra]] and get himself back home to Earth.

Trace is a scientist from Earth, not a warrior. As such, it is generally in his character to defend himself, but not to seek out violence — only knowledge. This theme is reiterated throughout the game as Trace not only struggles to understand the world he has been thrown into, but also struggles to deal with having to kill other living beings.

== History ==
Prior to the events of the game, Trace is a theoretical physicist whose revolutionary theories are regarded by other scientists as false and insignificant, thereby earning him the nickname "[[Athetos]]," a word meaning "without place," "to do away with," or "to reject." Trace is blacklisted by many of his colleagues. Nonetheless, he continues striving to validate his work.

The story starts in the year 2005 in a New Mexico research facility where Trace and colleague Hammond are working on an experiment based on Trace's revolutionary ideas in the field of physics. The beamlet in the experiment goes awry with the pressure valve and a huge explosion occurs, severely injuring Trace and rendering him unconscious. This is the last memory of Earth Trace recalls before waking up in an alien world. Unbeknownst to Trace, he has been mysteriously transported to an egg-shaped device called a [[Rebirth Chamber]] through the intervention of sentient, towering machines called [[Rusalki]], with his body seemingly intact and uninjured. When he comes to, Trace is implored telepathically by a female voice, who later introduces herself as the Rusalka [[Elsenova]], to retrieve a gun called the [[Axiom Disruptor]] in the adjacent room. She also warns Trace to stay away from an ominous being called Athetos for the moment. In actuality, the Rusalki have cloned a much younger, kinder version of Athetos in hopes that this younger version could eventually locate and kill Athetos. Trace is the identity of this clone. The lab explosion never actually happened to this clone of Trace; the events of the explosion are merely a memory inherited from the memories of Athetos, the original Trace, although the cloned Trace is not aware of this.

As the game progresses, Trace is informed by Elsenova that he has ended up on an alien world called [[Sudra]], and that a [[Pathogen|plague]] created by Athetos has wiped out or mutated most of the Sudrans on the planet. Trace is then told that defeating Athetos is the key to finding his way back to Earth, but he is first urged to locate and activate the Power Filter and the Remote Drones in order to repair the bodies of Elsenova and her fellow Rusalki [[Veruska]] and [[Ophelia]]. Throughout his explorations of Sudra, Trace encounters and kills several cybernetic monstrosities called Variants, which he later discovers are mutated clones of Athetos, and by extension, himself.

Eventually, Trace finds Athetos in a life support vat located in the atmosphere above Sudra, along with the [[Breach Attractor]] preventing Elsenova from approaching the atmosphere without killing her. During the ensuing battle, Trace momentarily disrupts the [[Breach]] Attractor, allowing Elsenova to rise to the upper atmosphere and destroy it entirely. After doing so, the Rusalki are once again free to move about above the planet, and Elsenova chooses to kill Athetos with a laser beam despite Trace's pleas not to. Afterward, Elsenova renders Trace unconscious and seemingly sends him back to Earth, during the aftermath of the lab explosion, unharmed and in perfect condition. However, the credits scene shows Trace lying unconscious on top of what appears to be the body of a Rusalka, suggesting that Elsenova had not actually sent Trace back to Earth; unbeknownst to Trace, Elsenova had the Rusalka Veruska create an algorithm for a dream Earth where Trace wakes up without injury and in perfect condition. Believing that he has returned to Earth, Trace devotes his time trying to learn more about Sudra, in hopes that he may find a way to return to it someday. Then one day, an unannounced guest arrives at Trace's lab, revealed to be Athetos, who shoots Trace with a gun, but not before telling him, "There's no use running from your own self. Time to wake up, Trace."

Since Athetos, the very first Trace, managed to reach Sudra without outside aid sometime during the 21st century, and it had been hundreds, if not thousands of years since Athetos first set foot on the planet, then this further supports the fact that Trace the player character had been put in a dream algorithm of Earth by Veruska, because he would not have had a recognizable real-world Earth to return to since many centuries had passed since his memory of the lab explosion.

== Non-Canon Information ==
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable">

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQqekMSQqY Video of pre-release intro.]

Trace:

''"I think I'd better begin with the first time I died."''

''"I was at the end of my proverbial rope."''

''"Jobless. Carless. Homeless. I couldn't afford a plane ticket, so I took the train."''

''"Hopefully my parents would take pity on me."''

''"I'd screwed up. And I had no idea how to un-screw things up."''

''"Maybe it's just as well then, that things happened the way they did -"''

''"- An unexceptional life coming to an unexceptional end."''

''"But that's when things started to get interesting."''

Note: When previewed, the Youtube commentator said the intro was pretentious, so it was reworked into the Z-machine New Mexico Physicist scenes shown in the final version.
</div>

==Additional Images==
<gallery>
Cutscene1.png
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[[Category:Characters]]