TibiaSecrets.com

Switch to light mode

At the entrance to Kazordoon we can see a gigantic building, surely the greatest statue in Tibia, a warning for travellers who want to cross the gates of the dwarf city, a symbol of power – the great Colossus.

What exactly is this building? What role does it play? What do we find inside and how do we get there? What influence does Colossus have on Tibia, its people and culture? Let us look for the answers to these and other questions.

There’s a giant ahead!

The place where Colossus was forged is no coincidence. The mountains of Big Old One turned out to be the perfect place for a dwarven empire. High, vast, almost impassable and being the centre point of the continent. A statue as large as Colossus is proof that the dwarven people are worthy of this place.

It not only plays a representative role, arousing the admiration of everyone who enters the city. It also serves as a warning to potential enemies, as well as being of practical use in the defence of Kazordoon. The dwarven builders did not want it to be just a massive rock. The whole building forms the so-called Colossus Fortress, as it is hollow inside, connected by many corridors and tunnels. The openings in the right places, as well as the height and convenient position, allow the dwarves to use Colossus as an ideal place to defend the realm against invaders.

Colossus’ defensive role is highlighted in the book „Kazordoon, the hidden city„:

Kawill – leader of geomancers in Kazordoon mentions Colossus, as an important part of the city’s defence.

Player: Army
Kawill: Our fortresses are strong and easy to defend. Any aggressor will be smashed by our armies. Most intruders will not manage to pass the colossus.

Player: Colossus
Kawill: The big fortress that guards our realm is shaped like a dwarf.

But Colossus isn’t just a fortress, it’s also one of the wonders of the Tibian world, which is confirmed in one of the books:

Ancient times

Looking at the word „colossus” in historical terms, as well as the fact that the passage to Kazordoon leads under the feet of the building leads us to believe that this is a direct allusion to the famous Colossus of Rhodos. It was a gigantic statue considered one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

Kazordoon, and with it Colossus, were added with the 6.10 update (23.12.2000).
Thanks to the kindness of Dark Gladir (more info about his project at the end of the article), we can take a glimpse of how it looked at the time.

Let’s travel back in time to 2005 to get an even better view of this magnificent building.

Nostalgia. I remember in those days, every time I decided to visit Kazordoon (and unfortunately I’ve been there rarely) Colossus impressed me.

Lost keys

The door leading to Colossus is locked. Do we know how to open it? Yes. Can we get the key? The answer to that question is not so simple. Let me analyze the available knowledge from the past.

First, let’s check out the official source that is Knightmare himself. Here is a quote from his interview for Tibiaevents:

„Is there any way to get inside the Collosus, at Kazordoon?”
„This was never really a secret and is a piece of information that was freely available once upon a time. This information seemed to have gotten lost at one point, though. Yes, the Collosus can be opened, but only with the correct key. This key, however, is not in player hands.„

Here, things are getting interesting. The key is (probably) not in player hands now – but it was.

Keys 3803 and 3804 – open the corridor leading inside Colossus and provide the access to various inaccessible parts of Kazoordoon, such as the Fortress and all passages/corridors that can be found inside:

According to the source, these keys were in the hand of players at least up to 2004. Roguer and Empirer – mappers of Kazordoon from Hiberna were said to have them, but one was lost due to death and the other deleted by Cipsoft in 2005. It remains unknown who looted the key from Roguer’s body and if it’s still possessed by anyone nowadays.

Of course, we can’t guarantee that the information about Roguer and Empirer is true, especially since Kazordoon was created in late 2000 and Hiberna in late 2003. This is the only mention of these keys I’ve found that sounds sensible and gives specific player nicks.

Are any of these keys currently available in the game? There is no specific answer to this question. We can make a cautious theory that Knightmare, who is a master of building an atmosphere of mystery in his works, may have hidden still undiscovered things in Kazordoon. I think it’s unlikely that the key could have been obtained through some sort of interaction with the environment or other inanimate matter. Simply put – don’t expect to find hidden treasures by clicking on walls like in the Wolfenstein 3D.

In my opinion – conversation is the key to knowledge. Therefore, perhaps one of the NPCs could point us to the right path in search of the key. Or even give it to us personally. Knightmare has always paid great attention to NPCs. He made sure that the characters he created fit perfectly into their environment, that their presence in a given place seemed as natural as possible, that they had their own story, and finally – that they had a lot to say. Or to hide…

Perhaps Talphion, chief Technomancer is in possession of the key? Or Tulf, captain of Emperor’s bodyguards? Or perhaps Emperor Kruzak himself? Maybe one day we’ll find out. In any case, our team will not stop looking for it.

Into the unknown

July 11, 2013 is a memorable day for me. That was when the server test was running before the summer update and that was when Knightmare decided to open Colossus Fortress to players. I couldn’t waste such an opportunity, maybe the only one in my life. I rushed to meet the adventure.
I walked into legend.

16:13 Knightmare [32]: the colossus in kazorddon is opened for tourists. better DON’t log out there, you’ll be trapped and we wont bother to get you out

An open door, after so many years…

Let me show you all the screenshots I took back then, with no unnecessary comments.

While at first glance it might seem like the interior of Colossus is just empty space, believe me, it was like being able to enter a vault that mere mortals will never have access to.

Revenge of the Colossus

Did you think Colossus was just a symbol of Kazordoon? Apparently not. Some time ago we came across a very interesting place in Rathleton. It’s not far from the depo, just head southwest. This exact spot:

Here we can find a sign with a mysterious inscription on the wall:

Revenge of the Colossus. What could this be about? We are, after all, in Rathleton. What influence could dwarfs have in this place far from the continent?

We thoroughly checked the available sources to find out if how the dwarfs might have affected the culture of Oramond Island. Basically, Cormaya is not very far away, and we know that the dwarfs have mines there. Even an underground tunnel could be somehow possible.

Using our tool, we were able to find just one entry linking dwarfs to Oramond. It can be found in the book „Nightmare Knights Explore Oramond I”. Here is the specific quote:

„The people we met were seemingly completely human, albeit somewhat pale and of an tired and disinterested attitude. Although they obviously had never encountered a dwarf, they paid my right hand man only little more attention then anyone else.”

It seems that the Nightmare Knights arrived on the island and were accompanied by a dwarf. They stated with certainty that the islanders were not aware of the dwarven race (at least in those days). This is very interesting from the plot point of view because what we find in the city is astonishing and indicates that someone from there knew Kazordoon and the dwarves very well.

Well, the inscription at the entrance is one thing, but let’s look at what’s inside this huge room.

The face of the Colossus that seems to be crying. What the actual hell? Now you can see for yourselves that something strange is going on in this odd place. This shouldn’t be here…

We also have two suspicious dwarven statues in the same room.

It took us a nice while, but after a while, we figured out what the room was. Who would have expected it? Revenge of the Colossus is nothing more than a large-scale… Pinball!

Take a look at the graphic we have prepared. All the elements match, even the word „change lane” on the sign at the entrance is a hint of what we are dealing with.

We probably don’t need to explain what pinball is, especially if you’ve ever been a Windows XP user. Ah, the memories…

Is this just one big allusion? For example, to the game Revenge of the 'Gator released in 1989 on the Game Boy. Hard to say. If you look at the screenshot below you can see some similarities, but it’s not 1:1 the same table either. Overall, we were and still are really hoping that the place is somehow scripted and it would be possible to turn something on here or trigger some action/animation. We’ve tried all sorts of things – clicking walls and design elements, putting all sorts of spheres and balls in many places. Even using pick, weapons and other items on various objects inside. No luck. Maybe you guys can do something here? This place just begs for some kind of interactivity.

We have quite a mystery here. In any case, apart from this room, we don’t find any more references to Colossus on the island.

Screwdriver of Kurik or Knightmare’s chisel?

But what did Colossus and Kazordoon creator – Knightmare really think of his creation? Was he proud and did it look the way he expected? Thanks to the interview conducted by former, promoted fansite – Tibianews, we know the answer. Here is the quote:

„Some Ideas just don’t work in the game at all and I am disapointed with the view, like the colossus infront of Kazordoon. Its realy hard to understand whats the concept of it, if you did not enter it and even then it needs a lot of imagination. Or the poison tower on Edron, it just did not look like I wanted it to look. Thats why I probabl never try my luck at a tibian sphinx as I planned to in the past ;o)”

We are well aware of the technical limitations imposed on Tibia developers at the time. No wonder Knightmare was disappointed, although I admit that I had no problem with recognizing what Colossus is at first glance.

Finally, 2010 brought some interesting news. Colossus was practically completely revamped and thanks to the use of dedicated graphics it gained an epic look. This is how Cipsoft announced it in one of the teasers:

„Also, the dwarves of Kazordoon will have finished the restoration of the mighty Colossus of Kazordoon just in time for the winter update. You definitely have to stop by this masterpiece after the update and you will certainly be in awe of the fine dwarven craftsmanship.”

I think the creator of Colossus has been proud of its appearance ever since. That’s actually a pretty good idea for a question if someone wanted to interview him.

There is one additional thing that this revamp has brought that needs to be mentioned. Two bird nests have appeared in Colossus’ nearest vicinity. One empty and the other with eggs.

At the time of the revamp, these were the only such nests in the game. Is this just decoration, or some kind of clue useful for discovering dwarven secrets? There is no way to interact with these objects, you can’t even use the „look” option on the nest with eggs. Perhaps assigning these nests a role greater than decorative is a bit of an exaggeration, but admit it – a true mystery hunter must pay attention even to such seemingly insignificant details.

Parts of the whole

As we mentioned earlier in the article, Colossus has had an undeniable impact on Tibia and its people. How else to explain the fact that we find symbols made in his likeness in different parts of the Tibian world?

The Yeah Beach Project is a house located on Meriana, and as we can clearly see that the hands of Colossus, as well as the sprite of his face, were used to build it.

Windborn colossus armor – this is an item not to be missed when looking for Colossus-related things in Tibia.

The toe of Colossus can be found in Jack’s house (Stonehome).

Sculpting is Jack’s hobby so the presence of various statues in the house should come as no surprise. You have to admit, though, that Colossus’ toe is… Interesting choice.

Secret weapon

Dwarves are undoubtedly the most technically advanced race in current Tibia. Ingenious technomancers, monumental buildings and the harnessed power of steam – these and other aspects make them a major player in the arena of Tibian nations.

One of the few NPCs who has anything to say about Colossus is Talphion, the leader of the technomancers in Kazordoon. A dwarf who is undoubtedly hellishly intelligent, as well as insane.
He reveals to us that there are plans to mechanize Colossus so that he can move. Can you imagine that? A real mech in Tibia would probably be one of the most powerful weapons imaginable. Of course, we are letting our imagination run wild here, but I envision it more or less like the graphic below:

Talphion also has another, slightly less ambitious plan for Colossus:

A clock mounted on top of a statue? Funny, but that immediately brings to my mind an image of Big Ben in London.

As you can see Talphion’s ideas are both visionary and strange. That’s why he’s one of our favourite NPCs.

Special thanks to Dark Gladir for permission to use screenshots from his Tibia Archive. What is it? Let me paste the screenshot of his post, which explains it all: