Plot and Character Feedback

The story begins when a stray, exhausted Cogger fellow wanders off the prairie west of the Old City, then he falls unconscious. A certain Vigilante stumble upon the prairie and finds the Cogger laying on the ground, still alive but is struggling to breathe. He saved the Cogger and brings him to the Trader's Bunker, where Graham—the bunker's owner—eagerly do his best to save the Cogger's live. In the Cogger's possession, there is a note with partially damaged journal which mentions a name: Stalwart.



Days later, the Cogger has recovered although most of his memories are lost. Knowing the Cogger's condition, Graham then tells him that he helps not for mere charity; the trader had an intention to use a seemingly unrelated, unfamiliar person to do his biddings. The Cogger has no other choice than accepting the trader's deal, for Graham will inform him once the trader's relative discovers someone named Stalwart. So, Graham gives a task to the Cogger—later known as 'Ignored One' because he's deemed harmless by the trader and Vigilantes alike despite of his appearance that resembles the mindless, vicious Cogger kin—to assist the Vigilantes clearing an outpost that occupied by Outlaw ruffians and take a journal from the captured vigilante.



After the Cogger makes the job done, he returns to the trader's bunker. Graham tells the Cogger that, based on his trusted source, a man named Barkeep knows a thing or two about Stalwart's whereabouts—of course he'll give the information for a price. He also tells that he and some other traders are arranging a scheme to access the forbidden area, called Antikythera, and Graham thinks he could use the Cogger to conduct such scheme, and eventually grants them access to 'trove of the old world'.


The Cogger accepts Graham's plans, and he set his journey to the Old City. In his way to the Old City, the Cogger takes a detour and enters the well-known Minuteman Tavern, a safe hoven for ruffians and vigilantes alike. Just after he enters the tavern, a girl bumped him so hard that makes both of them fall and breaks one of the girl's goods. Panicked, the girl gets up and scram after putting her scattered goods into her bag, leaving the Cogger alone. A frowned man comes later, asking why the Cogger didn't halt the girl's escape after explaining what happened inside the bar. He then gives a free task for the Cogger to track down the girl which is supposed to be somewhere near the tavern, and a fair warning as the girl's a cunning type and had succeded deceiving the tavern's patrons for weeks with fake artifacts and such.



Later, after taking some drinks and a quick rest, the Cogger then continues his trip to the Old City, only to be halted by the same girl who bumped him earlier who was spotted prying upon a dead man's body, presumably seeking for loots, and she did find some loots and a strange artifact in the dead man's pockets. The girl suddenly yells and runs over the Cogger as she recognize the one who was in the Minuteman Tavern, in the moment she bumped over someone and broke her stuff. The girl demands a refund for a stuff that was broke when they bumped each other yet the Cogger is in doubt whether he should counter the demand or let it go. After long heated debate, the girl then decided to follow the Cogger wherever he goes, convinced that he'll pay the 'debt' once they're in the Old City.


When they arrive at the Old City's gateway, the road's blocked for security reasons. Barkeep, acknowledged of the Cogger's arrival from Graham, is able to reach them via radio, and suggests them to visit a Vigilante outpost near the Old City and retrieve some items there till the gate is reopened again. There, the Cogger meets Ronnie Smith, whom Barkeep mentioned in his message as his 'trusted source'. When they meet each other, a pack of beasts swarms the outpost, forcing everyone around the outpost to defend the perimeter at all costs. Once they managed to get rid of the beasts, the Cogger then requested by Ronnie to escort her into Evans' hideout, where some key items stored there may be exchanged for information in Barkeep's possession. Through a vast anomaly as well as several hazards are completely surrounding it, they managed to reach the hideout and get the items for Barkeep; some of them reveals another person, named Clive Evans, who also had similar interest as the Cogger currently has, and Ronnie knows Evans although she's reluctant to tell the Cogger more about this particular Vigilante. 



There is also a tape recorded by Evans himself, which mentions bizzare view of the land beyond Dark Valeey in one of his investigations as well as his first impression of Robert Stalwart, whom claimed as the Messenger of Broken God.


Collected the items from the hideout, they return to the Old City. When they arrive, the Marshals rangers are posted in front of the gate, stating that the beasts are heading on the city. Due to manpower's shortage, they asked the Cogger to assist them defending the gate although most of the rangers shunned Cogger's appearance and attitude. Managed to repel the beasts off the walls and after the Cogger mentioned his business with Barkeep behind the walls, the Marshals grants him permission to enter the Old City, marking himself as the first Cogger to have access into the city behind the wall.


Inside the walls, the Barkeep instructs the Cogger to visit McGraves' Pub, his tavern. There, the Cogger meets the trader with similar strature as Graham and asked to lend him the items retrieved from Evans' hideout and wait for several days until he's able to digest the items' information. While the Barkeep's doing his work on the documents and items from Evans' hideout, the Cogger visits a herbalist's shop, where he meets Claris, an alchemist and owner of the workshop. The little girl startled as the Cogger enters her workshop, and the Cogger stands still as he's dumbfounded by a brief flashback in his mind, stroke by the girl's injected sleep potion, and fall unconscious. Moments later, the Cogger awakes, with the little girl besides of him, mending some vials of pure ether that will be used for his source of power. The Cogger tells what he'd seen in the flashback, and a figure that similar to the alchemist in adult form instead of adolescent one. Claris, after observing thoroughly onto the Cogger, found something familiar on him that leads her to  show a memento from her lover whom lost in the Antikythera. Later, she expresses that she wants to find what leads her lover into his demise, as well as  ingredients to revert the effect of potion she brewed that rends her in her adolescent form.



Days later, Barkeep tells the Cogger about a place called 'Institute', which mentioned at Evans' documents as well as an area that separates Kythera and Antikythera—Mistfall—and a structure that keeps adventurers away from the territory beyond the forest: the Dirge. The information, however, is incomplete and the other part is stored somewhere in Institute; the Barkeep gives a task to the Cogger to retrieve the required items there, so the information about Antikythera and how to access the region will be clear. With given location from Barkeep's 'trusted source', the Cogger and the now-partner Mary then set a trip to the Institute that lies beyond the Dark Valley anomalous area.


Managed to pass through and overwhelm the odds Dark Valley had to offer, they arrive at the derelict settlement, where the Institute lies beneath it. They have to deal with ether-poisoned zombies that lurk around the hamlet before they eventually find the entrance to the Institute. There, the Cogger and the girl meet a hideous figure that appears from the dark corner of the derelict library and introduce himself to them as Harris. Harris did hide himself to avoid the Sindikat's next raid and keep the vital documents safe, including the journal Evans used for his expedition towards Antikythera. Harris doesn't give the documents for free, as he gives the Cogger a trade-in: retrieve the documents and gears from the missing hunter he'd hired long time ago somewhere around Mistfall—allegedly near the Dirge, and the documents will be his. The Cogger agrees, but the archivist knows that the couple need a protection gear against strong ether pollution and strange hums around the Dirge, as well as some kind of gizmo that will help them navigate such field reeks of anomalies, so he gives the Cogger fetch quests.


First, the Cogger must take a measurement kit which should be placed nearby various anomalies and pockets of foul ether fields. The kit will record some measurements, which will be useful for protection kit Harris will make for the couple. Harris himself directs the Cogger towards the designated places to get things done, and asks him to return to the Insitute once the procedure is done. Second, while Harris makes the protection kits based of Cogger's measurements, he asks the Cogger as well as Mary—who is adept in treasure hunting—to find Navigator artifacts. Since they have one of the artifacts, Harris then instructs them to find the rest; one Navigator will direct to another, making their job easier. They'll be helped by Natali and Chloe, amateur radio broadcasters who are initially intrigued by the Hum broadcasted around the Dirge and ended up in coalition with Harris for mutualism works.



The Navigators are surprisingly scattered throughout Kythera; one in Solstician Commune territory, one at the center of Lunkerstone, and one more in Svaszar grove. The Cogger and Mary find numerous hazards as well as allies and enemies in every area they visit, and eventually, against all odds and conflicts between Marshals against Outlaws, Mancers against Tinkers, and ultimately Order against Sindikat, they managed to collect the all four Navigators not long after Harris informs them that the protection gears are finished, all thanks to the radio broadcaster duo that act as the Cogger's navigator. Their discoveries lead into their next journey into one of the most dangerous places in Kythera; the Dirge.


With the protection gear equipped and the Navigators in hands, the Cogger and Mary set a dangerous journey to the Dirge, where numerous anomalies as well as ether pockets scattered around the tower complex, and the amount of foul ether is much concentrated just around the tower. They have to confront the horde of ether-poisoned zombies and the louder Hums (allegedly the culprit of the rise of zombies around the site) in their way into the tower's basement, only to meet several anomalies—Poltergeist, Sparkler and the Inferno—and ether-mutated beasts that inhabit the entire tower rooms. They managed to reach the inner chamber, where the machinery that responsible for the Hums operates. The Cogger turns the machine off, only to make himself collapsed and another vision invoked, revealing a figure he guessed as Clive Evans along with the Stalwart, and a brief flashback of Evans' fateful expedition that costs his life. An enormous voice then can be heard by anyone inside the chamber, stating that their journey is ended and they're invited to come to Runica, where the fabled 'wish granter' resides and able to make wishes come true. Mary is eager to see the wish granter by herself, however the Cogger decides to search for the alleged lost hired men Harris mentioned in their first encounter, and he made it to find a deceased man named Ivan as well as the documents, gears, and a journal of the bounty hunter before, during and after Evans' expedition. Based of the journal, Ivan was one of Evans' expedition team member along with Ronnie, Sergei, and Allen.


Through the battlefield where Mancers and Tinkers confronts each other, they return to the Institute and make a deal that Harris has offered. With vital documents in hand, they come back into the Old City and provide Barkeep and his trader fellows in the network the safe way towards Antikythera, and since the Hums are fading away as well as the Dirge is now accessible by most of people, a lot of fortune seekers surge into Antikythera via the same path the Cogger and Mary had used before. The Barkeep stated that someone wanted to meet the Cogger in Evans' hideout.



In their way to the outpost, they have to deal with the uprising Outlaws who are struggling to capture the Vigilante's outpost, and unfortunately they fall into trap when they reached Evans' hideout, knocking them unconscious. Moments later, a friendly figure appears and wakes them up. The figure called himself 'Doctor', treated the wounded ones with his so-called Ultima Panacea, and answers several questions the Cogger and Mary asked to him—in fact, he knows who is the Cogger in his past life before transformed into half-man, half-machine—as well as the natures of the 'wish granter', his previous intention to seek revenge to Robert Stalwart a.k.a. Father Robert, and the true secret of Antikythera. With such secrets revealed, the Doctor disappears, only leaving a note for the Cogger—now fully remembers his past as Clive Evans—that directs him to the stash where one of his partners, Allen Wesson, stored the mechanism to unlock a hidden door nearby the 'wish granter'.


Knowing the expedition to Antikythera will be dangerous, Evans reforms his expedition team which consists of various people he met along his way in his voyage as a nameless Cogger, new and old friend alike, and set forth across Mistfall, against all the odds and the suppression by the notorious Coggers of Broken God cult, dealing with Robert Stalwart in his final confrontation, and eventually reaches the Runica at the heart of Antikythera. Instead of approaching the 'wish granter', he leads the team to enter the secret chamber that only can be unlocked with Wesson's mechanism. The gizmo breaks when it unlocks the door, and turns out being another anomalous artifact that later dubbed as 'Antikytheran Mechanism'.



Making way deeper into the secret chambers of Runica, they're able to reach an alleged control room where an ornated staff stands on its own and glows faint spectrum of color. Evans put the staff off its place, only to summon a spectral projection of an entity who called itself Runican Mage and Warden of the Font. The spectre is responsible of the 'Ether Font' activities, which remains steady and anomalous. The spectre explains many things and answers everything Evans and the others asked—the anomalies, the Broken God cultists, their conflict with the impending doom-bringer Sarkic cult, and the secrets of the Ancients he kept well. Ultimately, the Mage offers a cooperation with Evans' party so Runica will be safe from either Mekansm and Sarkicism cultists, and keep the world as safe and stable as it currently is. Evans rejects the offer, and he along with the rest are banished by the spectre into Ether Realm via Bubble anomaly, where it claims the party would understand his offer if they find the truth by themselves.


Across many of Teleporter anomalies and with help of Navigators artifacts, Evans and co. finally reach the chamber where The Mechanic—who claimed to have observed Evans' deeds since his first moments of adventure till he finally reaches the chamber—and a single, massive entity which Mechanic called it as MKHNS reside. The Mechanic explains what would happen if they let loose the gate between Kythera and Ether Realm, where most of Sarkic cultists and their worshipped beings trapped inside secluded plane reeks of ether, and he keeps MKHNS in this plane as well because such entity is capable to keep Kythera and Antikythera from crumbling apart by unstable ether. Since Robert Stalwart has been killed by Evans in his last confrontation, the Mechanic doesn't have any capable candidates to represent MKHNS in Kythera. 



He then offers Evans position that once Stalwart placed there, which makes him responsible of the world's balance while the 'purging' sequence is in progress; MKHNS is gradually converting any fleshy, living being into mechanicals, effectively preventing one from being infected by Sarkicistic crafts and turned into beasts.
Evans responded otherwise; with Navigators artifacts he took from Mary's hands, he breaks off MKHNS instead of repairing It. The chamber crumbles and then collapses just right after Evans and the party excluding the Mechanic being thrown off the plane, and stranded in strange, beautiful world unlike Kythera; green prairie, with mountainous range in the horizon, waters are clean, and the life forms are unlike Kythera and Antikythera's mutated, wicked ones. 


In this distant land, however, they can hear and feel the ether spurring and shrieking; reminding them to the Mechanic that the ether emissions will occur more often if MKHNS fails to sustain itself. Evans, along with Mary and any other survivors of his expedition team live in this new world since then.