Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur

Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur
Authors	id Software, Nightdive Studios
Ports	EXDEFS-compatible, Limit-removing
IWAD	Hexen
Year	2025
Link	N/A

Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur is an EXDEFS-compatible episode.

It was released on August 7, 2025 alongside the Heretic and Hexen re-release titled Heretic + Hexen, which uses the KEX Engine.

Story

"Korax lingers between life and death, his shredded corpse left behind with no semblance of life while he clings to a fresh, if fragile, rebirth. His grip on Cronos is once more released, yet the cycle continues, proving another force is at work: an invisible hand puppeteering both Korax and you, weaving a star-crossed destiny that will never die. And if that hand tugs the threads of fate again, what surprises are yet in store for you?"

― Bethesda 

Content

New items

Chronicles

In certain places during the Vestiges of Grandeur episode, the player will find "chronicles", which are open books placed upon lecterns. The player can use these to call a class selection menu and swap between the three available character classes on the fly.

Stats like health, armor class and mana are retained when changing class, but weapons are not. Players may swap between classes using the chronicle as many times as they please.

The episode's placement of weapons and weapon pieces for all three classes without any class-filtering permits players to use all of the game's twelve available weapons (and assemble all three ultimate weapons) throughout the duration of the episode.

Puzzle items

The following items need to be placed on pedestals in hub map Serpent Temple.

• Coiled chalice
• Gilded chalice
• Earthen chalice
• Molten chalice
• Rimed chalice

The following items are found and placed on pedestals in MAP07: Elemental Temple.

• Skull idol
• Demon idol
• Dragon idol

The following item is optional, but will open a secret cache in the Elemental Temple.

• Death mask

Levels

All levels by Matt Tropiano (MTrop) unless otherwise stated.

• MAP01: Temple Outskirts
• MAP02: Serpent Temple (hub map)
• MAP03: Swamp of the Forgotten
• MAP04: Glade of the Fallen
• MAP05: Volcano Chapel by Xaser Acheron
• MAP06: Frozen Sanctum
• MAP07: Elemental Temple by Not Jabba (secret map)
• MAP08: Korax's Domain (Korax) is boss
• MAP09: Garden of Medea by Samuel Villarreal (Kaiser)

Soundtrack

Vestiges of Grandeur reuses tracks from Hexen, either the originals by Kevin Schilder or remixed versions by Andrew Hulshult.

• MAP01: "Winnow"
• MAP02: "Crypt"
• MAP03: "Chippy"
• MAP04: "Deep"
• MAP05: "Grove"
• MAP06: "Fubas"
• MAP07: "Fantasy"
• MAP08: "Fortress"
• MAP09: "Hall"

Essentials

This new episode includes almost every puzzle item found in the original game, plus a few new ones.

The hub map requires the player to collect five chalices and four Hearts of D'Sparil to reach the final map.

Every key is also required to find certain items (or other keys).

• The emerald and rusted keys are solely used in the intro map MAP01: Temple Outskirts.
• The silver key is found and used in MAP02: Serpent Temple (the hub map) once the five chalices are found. It is later used in MAP06: Frozen Sanctum.

The five chalices

The player is required to find five different chalices: one in the hub map, and four in other maps in the hub. Placing all five chalices in their adjacent receptacles in the hub map will unlock the second main puzzle.

• The Coiled chalice is the first one found, placed opposite the entrance to the temple in the main hub.
• The Gilded chalice is found in MAP03: Swamp of the Forgotten. Placing it in the hub unlocks MAP04: Glade of the Fallen.
• The Earthen chalice is found in Glade of the Fallen. Placing it in the hub unlocks both MAP05: Volcano Chapel and Frozen Sanctum.
• The Molten chalice is found in Volcano Chapel and the Rimed chalice is found in Frozen Sanctum. Placing these last two chalices in the hub unlocks the door to the Hearts of D'Sparil puzzle.

Once the chalices are placed, a door opens to four receptacles for the Hearts of D'Sparil.

Once you complete the chalice puzzle and get the silver key, more keys become available and are all required to progress:

• The axe key is found in Frozen Sanctum behind a silver door, and used in Glade of the Fallen. It allows you to ring the graveyard bell in this map and get the castle key.
• The swamp key is also found in the Sanctum behind a silver door, and used in Swamp of the Forgotten. It allows you to get a Yorick skull.
• The castle key found in the Glade is then used in the Swamp. It leads you to the steel key.
• The steel key is used in Volcano Chapel. It allows you to get a Flame Mask.
• The cave key is found in Volcano Chapel behind the steel doors, and used in the same map. It allows you to get a second Yorick skull.
• The horn key is found in the Swamp, and used in the Glade. It leads you to the fire key.
• The fire key found in the Glade is then used in Volcano Chapel. It allows you to get a second Flame Mask.
• The dungeon key is found in Volcano Chapel behind the fire doors, and is used in all four main maps. Behind each dungeon key door is a clock gear.

The four Hearts of D'Sparil

Four Hearts of D'Sparil must now be found in the four main maps to unlock the boss map of the episode, MAP08: Korax's Domain.

Three of the Hearts are guarded by the class bosses Zedek, Traductus and Menelkir. In order to retrieve the Hearts, one of three relics must be found and placed, each in turn guarded by a Heresiarch.

• The Glaive Seal is found and used in Glade of the Fallen. Three Yorick skulls must be found and placed in this map first.
• The Holy Relic is found and used in Volcano Chapel. The first Flame Mask must be found and placed in this map first.
• The Sigil of the Magus is found and used in Frozen Sanctum. First find the two books, and then use the second Flame Mask to gain access to it.

The final Heart is guarded by death wyverns in Swamp of the Forgotten. To retrieve this Heart, four clock gears must be placed in the Swamp's clock tower. These are found in every main map (including the Swamp) behind a dungeon key door.

The three Yorick skulls used in Glade of the Fallen to retrieve the Glaive Seal are found in the three other maps: one in Swamp of the Forgotten (behind a swamp key door), one in Volcano Chapel (behind a cave key door), and one in Frozen Sanctum (after you solve the book puzzle).

The two Flame Masks are both found in Volcano Chapel. One is locked behind a steel key door, the other behind a fire key door. You'll need both to retrieve the Holy Relic in Volcano Chapel, and the Sigil of the Magus in Frozen Sanctum.

The two books used in the Frozen Sanctum to retrieve the Sigil of the Magus are found in two other maps: the Liber Oscura is found in the Swamp (behind a castle key door), and the Daemon Codex is found in the Glade (behind a horn key door).

Once the Hearts are placed in the hub, a portal will open to the final Korax fight.

Unlocking the Elemental Temple

Four secret chain switches are hidden away in the four main maps. Finding all of these will unlock a warp switch in the Serpent Temple that will take you to the secret map, MAP07: Elemental Temple.

The majority of this map's content is optional as a single switch available from the start of the map will open its exit, but if you explore you will find three Idols, and a Death Mask that can be used in a secret place for some extra items.

Finding the Garden of Medea

Once the five chalices are placed in the hub map, an optional portal hidden away in the south-east portion of the Serpent Temple will become available to access. It takes you to the optional monsterless MAP09: Garden of Medea map, where a large collection of items can be found.

Files

• hexen_vog.wad - Vestiges of Grandeur PWAD, only contains maps and title/intermission graphics. New actor information and assets are in hexen.wad.

Trivia

• A script comment in MAP02 suggests that before the chalices were added to the game, the first puzzle was a planet chart, similar to the one featured in Hub 3: Heresiarch's Seminary.