Angkor Thom (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត) is an ancient temple complex located in the jungles of modern day Cambodia, established during the early twelfth century by the Khmer king Suryavarman II. It became his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Historically, it was built as a Hindu religious sanctuary; before a succeeding ruler converted to Buddhism. The Angkor Thom endures today as one of the largest religious complexes in the world.
The universe of Eternal Darkness tells a different story of the purpose of this place of worship. This convoluted temple complex is one of the many locations where the Tome of Eternal Darkness is known to have rested. The temple, and later its ruins, is home to the Ancient known as Mantorok. After having been sealed with a binding spell at the hands of the undying Liche, Pious Augustus, Mantorok was left to languish in the physical realm. Its home becoming its prison, the Ancient becomes trapped within the decaying ruins of a forgotten portion of the temple for centuries; becoming the Corpse God.
Compared to most other locations in the narrative of Eternal Darkness, the Angkor Thom is featured in fewer chapters than places such as the Forbidden City or the Oublié Cathedral. In fact, it is implied that the Eternal Darkness actively avoids this place due to Mantorok’s influence. This Chapters that take place in this temple are Cahpters 2 and 6, and the characters who explored this temple were Ellia and Edwin Lindsey.
Chapter 2: The Binding of the Corpse God - 1150 A.D.
In this time period, the Temple in Angkor Thom is still brisk and freshly sculpted, feeling much more welcoming and alive than it would eight hundred years later. As the chapter begins, Mantorok had already been sealed by Augustus at the behest of the Ancient he worships so as to set his master's plan of dimensional domination into motion. The temple that houses Mantorok holds many lethal traps set by pressure plates to deter trespassers. There are also a few murals within the temple that depict Mantorok as a benevolent Khmer fertility God, receiving sacrifices and in return bestowing good harvests upon the Khmer.
As the chapter begins, a young court dancer named Ellia managed by chance to get her hands on the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Despite being an illiterate slave girl, Ellia was able to read passages from the Tome and understand its crazed scrawling. Craving to go on an adventure of her own, she closes the Tome and is immediately trapped within the temple as its lone exit slides closed. Her wish granted, Ellia decides to explore the temple further in hopes of finding a way out.
Ellia braves onward, traveling deeper into the temple’s depths. She solves its puzzles and braves the traps and monsters within while keeping her wits about her. After acquiring a blowgun, Ellia falls through a trap door, shattering her short sword into fragments from the impact. At the bottom chambers, she witnesses the murals depicting Mantorok’s history with the Khmer people and its binding at the hands of Augustus. After a gauntlet of Zombies blocking her way, Ellia enters Mantorok’s prison chamber, and is warned by guards to not go near the Ancient. Both guards, however, are immediately killed by the Corpse God’s tendrils.
Before Ellia can properly react to her situation, Augustus returns once more to taunt the God he has defeated. He then turns to Ellia, and in a rare moment of mercy advises her to flee before Mantorok slays her as well. As Augustus leaves, Mantorok casts a weak Magickal Attack through a statue that knocks Ellia unconscious. As she awakens, she sees that Mantorok has taken one of the guards it has killed and channeled its consciousness through him so as to communicate with the still woozy girl. Mantorok bestows upon her its Essence, the Heart of Mantorok, with the promise that she will defend it with her life to stop the spread of the Eternal Darkness.
The heart enters Ellia, but she is killed shortly afterwards by Augustus when he realizes she has the Heart and refuses to part with it and leaves her body in the chamber to rot, unaware that she had been blessed with the cursed power of eternal inanimate life. Ellia would keep her promise to Mantorok for the next eight hundred years.
Chapter 6: A Journey Into Darkness - 1983 A.D.
833 years later, archaeologist Dr. Edwin Lindsey and rare art collector Paul Augustine discover the temple, through the assistance of sattellite radar imagery. Once inside the temple, Augustine attempts to kill Lindsey, but he escapes at the last second and hides behind a pillar in the main chamber as Augustine claims that he has 'several more centuries of experience' than Lindsey does. He then reveals himself as Pious Augustus and commands a Gatekeeper of his chosen alignment to kill Lindsey. Lindsey retaliates and resolves to find what he is looking for before insanity took hold. Along the way, Lindsey was subjected to intense booby traps and the machonations of Pious's alignment. Eventually, after much hardship, Lindsey finally found Mantorok's tomb, only to be cornered by Pious and two more Gatekeepers. Crediting Lindsey as arrogant after he had asked if he actually wanted to control the power of Mantorok, Pious set the Gatekeepers on him, only to see them vaporize from what little power Mantorok had stored away, and get blasted back by it. Pious then disappeared, claiming 'the Darkness shall prevail...'. Lindsey then saw Mantorok's power open the vault door, where he then witnessed Ellia's dead, rotted husk begin to speak. Ellia claimed she had waited many centuries for Lindsey, and it was not easy hiding from the dark ones. Suddenly coming to life and ripping the Essence of Mantorok from her body, Ellia tells Lindsey to take the heart to the Roivas Estate in Rhode Island, and to take his stand against the Darkness before finally disappearing from the corporeal world.
Arriving in Rhode Island, Lindsey gives Edward Roivas the heart, protected in a glass case. Lindsey then leaves as Edward stores the heart in a safe, with the door being a book entitled 'The Demon and the Khmer'.
Layout[]
Both playable characters start off within the center of the temple room's entrance. The first few sets of hallways contain floor panels which will trigger traps when stepped on. The spinning wall axes must be timed in order to run through them. One hallway contains arrows shooting out of the walls if the trap is triggered. The main puzzle on the first floors involve a couple of statues and some accessories that need to be acquired for them to open up a passageway(s) to the floors below.
On the lower floors, the axes appear more large and tightly spaced from one another, making them harder to pass through. Many of the floor panels in the lower hallways are also more wider in length, making these traps more unavoidable to trigger when passing. Most of these types of long floor panels are located at the start of a doorway.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the only area of the game where Pious Augustus makes a direct appearance in all levels involving it, as he personally deals with Ellia, and also confronts Edwin Lindsey in the guise of Paul Augustine.