Hub 3: Heresiarch's Seminary (map)

There are two major puzzles to solve in this hub. First, you must find five (5) gemstones, representing planets, to fill in an astrological chart. These can be found on Orchard of Lamentations and Silent Refectory. Once this is done, the way opens to the second puzzle, the puzzle of the three chapels: wolf, dragon, and griffin. There are a total of nine (9) switches distributed across the chapel levels. After solving the second puzzle, you must confront the Heresiarch.

''Hexen's religious order has been turned toward darkness and the heavens are in chaos. The Heresiarch now stands against all who would bring salvation to her people.''

Entrance
As always, you begin facing an Icon of Korax, which comes alive and taunts you. He alludes to the religious nature of the Hub: “Worship me, and I may yet be merciful… then again, maybe not”. The wall opens to reveal a ledge with an elevator, leading down to the forecourt — an open space where you’ll be surrounded by monsters. You will notice strange sounds of demonic chanting, heralding a new foe, the dark bishop. There will be a handful of these approaching from the Seminary in front of you. There are also chaos serpents, situated on high ledges flanking the starting point and the Seminary, who will snipe you with fireballs if you are unwary. The most immediate problem is the swarm of centaurs on the ground, with some slaughtaur sergeants mixed in. If they cluster around the elevator, you can jump while it’s above ground level and go right over them. You should take advantage of the open space of the forecourt to maneuver around and avoid getting pinned down. There are trees scattered around — these can cover you from projectiles, but they may also hamper your movement if you are not careful. Keep attacking and running, and you should clear the crowd without trouble. As always, fléchettes are useful for crowd control. An alternate strategy is to head to the far western corner, behind a troop of poisonous mushrooms. If you burst the mushrooms and hide in the alcove, the centaurs will be ensnared by the gas clouds. If you use this trap, it helps to take out the dark bishops first. Either way, you should not forget about the remaining chaos serpents — two of the ledges are immediately accessible, but it is safer to take them out at long range. If that is too difficult now, you will have a better opportunity later. There are caches of blue and green mana by the elevators.

Having fought your way through the forecourt, it is time to enter the Seminary proper. There are ettins to greet you, and many more dark bishops. It will be dark inside until you find your way to the main hall. Then, you will be welcomed by an earthquake, and the torches will all light in a row, illuminating the Seminary. At the same time, even more dark bishops will teleport in. You should keep moving and utilize cover to fend off the swarm. If you are having trouble, fléchettes will soften them up. When mopping up the remnants, be sure to dispatch the chaos serpent perched on the platform to the northwest.

Once it is safe, you should get your bearings. You are in a cathedral with a central nave lined by torches, and chambers off to the sides which you cannot access yet. There are plenty of quartz flasks, crystal vials, and mana containers to replenish you.

You have the option of entering a pair of wooden doors which flank the entrance. These lead up to balconies overlooking the forecourt; the east balcony holds crystal vials, while the west balcony has green mana. Each has a switch that will lower a high ledge to give you access. These ledges contain discs of repulsion and a green chaos serpent (if you did not dispatch it earlier). If you ride the ledges up, you will have a clear shot at any remaining chaos serpents on the nearby high ledges. If you then jump down, you will take some fall damage, but not a dangerous amount. The southeastern and southwestern ledges offer fléchettes for your trouble.

At the northern end of the Seminary, past the crossing (and the sealed inner sanctum), there is a magic platform that you can try out if you wish (see: Secrets). There may be more dark bishops lurking here, so it is a good idea to deal with them now.

At the southern end of the nave, in front of the entrance, is an astrological chart — this is the centerpiece of the first puzzle.

The Planets
The astrological chart depicts a solar system, with sockets for planets, which are represented by gemstones. A ruby is already in place — your first quest is to find the other five (5) gemstones to fill the rest of the chart. Two of these are in the Orchard of Lamentations, while the other three are in the Silent Refectory. But first, you must tread further into the Seminary to find their respective portals.

Along the east wall are two barred passageways; your first task is to open them up. To do so, you should head north to the crossing (between the apse and the magic platform). To either side, east and west, are alcoves with stained glass windows. Smash them to reveal an ettin, a green mana container, and a switch. You must pull all six (6) of these switches to proceed. Having done this, you will hear a sound as the bars retract. The two eastern passageways are now open — the northern passage leads to Silent Refectory, while the southern passage leads to Orchard of Lamentations. You may go through them in either order.

Orchard of Lamentations
The Orchard of Lamentations can be accessed by the southern doorway.

Go down the stairs all the way to a small open area. Clear it of monsters (don’t forget the Slaughtaurs on the ledge in front of you and the Chaos Serpents on the ledges on each side of the corridor you came from. When this area is clear of monsters (so that they don’t bother you), destroy the dead trees in the southern end of this area, revealing and then pulling the switch behind them. This switch causes the dragon-head-walls in the niches in the corridor you came from to pivot. Wait for the right time (careful not to be crushed) and go through each of them. The first two of them lead to the ledges where the Chaos serpents were.

Of the other two, the southern one leads to a small room with some monsters but with a huge lot of mana and the final segment of the fourth weapon!. Now as you kill the monsters, be careful, there is a lot of vases in this room and while some contain some more mana, others contain monsters. Now you can either go back the way you came, or stairs should have risen, leading back to the open area before the cathedral.

The northern pivoting wall leads to a corridor with some Ettins. Using the griffin-walls on either of the corridor’s ends causes parts of the wall to lower down, allowing you into the big room with a pool that you could see through the bars in the eastern wall of the cathedral. This room is quite full of monsters, so it’s a good time to try out your newly acquired powerful weapon. The reward for the battle is an Icon of the defender. There is a switch in the eastern wall of this room that causes the niches that took you there to lower down so you can get back to the griffin corridor but since doors leading back to the main cathedral room opened as well, you don’t really need it.

Now go back to the original corridor (the one with the pivoting dragon-walls) and pull the switch you left there (as you go, it should be on your left). It lowers the stairs leading to the cathedral, thus revealing another corridor heading south. It will take you to a room leading back to the area outside the cathedral. Kill all the monsters there and go to the other side of the cathedral entrance, where a similar room has been revealed. A corridor goes out of this room, twisting and turning, and eventually leading you to the ledge where the Slaughtaurs used to be (n.b. for some reason the map shifts you from its western end to its eastern end - like going round a very, very small globe...). There there is a switch that opens a wall in the open area below you, finally revealing the portal that will take you to the Orchard of Lamentations.

Silent Refectory
The Silent Refectory can be accessed by the northern doorway, and opening this portal is much easier. Just go to the northern corridor in the eastern cathedral wall, pull the switch there and run onto the lowering platform (really RUN, as it is going down very quickly and taking your time will make you fall from high enough to hurt you). Down there, there is only one more monster and the portal that leads to the Silent Refectory.

Second part
Back from the Silent Refectory and the Orchard of Lamentations you should have a total of five planets (two sapphire, two emerald and one ruby - the other being already on the map). Now go to the astrological map (it is on the wall at the southern end of the cathedral) and put all the planets you found there. Each of them has its specific place so just keep trying placing each of them into each of the holes until they’re all there. In the northern end of the cathedral, now three dragon-walls slid open. The ones on the east and west only revealed Dark Bishops and some goodies, but the northern one also revealed three portals to the Wolf, Dragon, and Griffin Chapels that form the second puzzle of this hub.

If you turn your back to the portals, you will see on the wall nine dark windows. They represent the nine parts of the puzzle to be solved, three in each chapel. Recognizing the portals won’t be a problem as the animals are depicted on them.

The three chapels are interlinked with puzzle switches. To complete them, you first need to find the "special" switch that further opens the other two chapels. Complete as much as you can in one of the chapels before proceeding to the next, and you should only require making a total of five visits.

One recommendation is to start with the Wolf Chapel, followed by the Dragon chapel, then the Griffon chapel, but feel free to pick them in any order.

Third part
When you come back with all parts of the puzzle solved, a Heresiarch will appear as "boss" of the hub.

When the Heresiarch is dead a large earthquake will happen and the bars blocking access to the passage way on the left side of the central cathedral will raise. The hub's secret level will also become accessible.

If you want to get to the secret level of this hub, go into the northern part of the cathedral. There are some pillars there (a bit more south than the lowering square that summons monsters and goodies). These pillars lower and raise after the Heresiarch’s death. Behind there, a part of the floor (where the Heresiarch started standing) has lowered allowing access to the portal that will take you to the secret map of the hub: Deathwind Chapel.

Once you have returned from the Deathwind Chapel (or without having visited it, if you don’t want to), just get into the central room of the big cathedral and enter one of the newly opened passages on the left side (which one doesn't matter as they form a loop). When you get to the end of the small corridors there, just jump through the window heading back east to the cathedral and pick up the Wings of Wrath there. When you step on the platform they’re on, the wall behind you (i.e. to the west) will open, releasing some monsters and revealing the portal to the next hub, the Castle of Grief.

Secrets
There is a roughly square-shaped platform at the northern end of the cathedral. Walking close to it causes it to lower down, summoning a couple of (sometimes more powerful) monsters and some goodies (sometimes quite powerful as well). But be sure to step on it quickly, because when it rises, the goodies are lost (although the monsters remain) and it won't lower down again until some time passes (5000 tics, or 2 minutes 20 seconds).

Routes and Tricks
There is a hub skip on this level.
 * Follow the walkthrough as normal, as if you were heading to Orchard of Lamentations.
 * After pulling the switch after wrapping around the map, head to the main hall, and into the left-hand corridor (leading to the hub exit portal).
 * Glide through the pillars.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: