To access the ‘Canon’ ending in The Forgotten City, you’ll have to unlock the Great Temple. You’ll find this mysterious location early in the game, and even learn all about your objective. Once you talk to enough citizens in the strange city trapped in a time loop, you’ll already get your goal — find four plaques to unlock the path into the Great Temple. The mastermind behind the Golden Rule is located inside, and if you want to break free from this cursed place that always ends in tragedy, you’ll have to confront whoever it is inside.
There are many, many steps required to get all four plaques. You may need to reset your world a few times and complete as many quests as possible before you’re even able to access some of the steps listed below. You’ll need to get a weapon, and complete one of the most challenging objectives in the game — getting a specific guy elected Magistrate. To get him elected, you basically need to help everyone. Later on, you’ll be able to convince him to help you fix problems all over the city, which makes him popular enough to win. And that’s just to get one plaque.
More The Forgotten City guides:
How To Get The Golden Bow | How To Beat The Final Boss With Words | How To Elect Galerius For Magistrate
How To Unlock The Great Temple
When you break everything down, there are two basic tasks you need to complete to access the true ending.
- You must collect all four plaques.
- You must learn all four names of the god enforcing the Golden Rule.
Actually learning all the names and gaining all the plaques is going to take a very long time. Let’s break it down — this is what you need to do to get all the plaques.
How To Get All Four Plaques
The four plaques are required to unlock the Great Temple. Placing the Plaques on the Obelisk unlocks the Great Temple — then you need to speak four words you’ll learn as you complete main missions. To learn about the plaques, meet with Equitia in the baths. She’ll meet with you if you make Malleolus withdraw from the election.
- Greek Plaque: The first plaque you’ll learn about. This is unlocked by freeing Duli from prison. The only way to free Duli is to elect Galerius for Magistrate.
- You need to talk to Duli to unlock the quest to make Galerius Magistrate. After enough cycles through the story, Galerius will complete tasks for you. Tell him to complete these four tasks.
- Save Iulia.
- Cure Rufus’s rheumatism.
- Save Fabia from the assassin.
- Get Malleolous to withdraw.
You can only get Galerius to to these tasks if you’ve done them yourself at least once. Do them all, and then rush inside Duli’s cell after they’ve been freed to get the Greek Plaque. This is one of the first Plaques you’ll learn about, but takes the longest to unlock.
- Roman Plaque: To get the Roman Plaque, you need to first get the Golden Bow. You can learn more about unlocking the Golden Bow here.
- Talk to Desius in the market after acquiring the bow by (accidentally) killing the assassin at the bathhouse. Follow his quest to swap the Bow for a Golden Bow.
- Once you have the Golden Bow, go to the bar. There’s a cave nearby — shoot down the vines so you can climb up to a hidden area. In the shrine, grab the key and the Roman Plaque.
- If you don’t have the Golden Bow, complete Vergil’s quest and cure Rufius. After curing him, you can convince him to give you a key to the Christian Shrine.
The area with the Roman Plaque is also required to complete Livia’s quest.
- Egyptian Plaque: You need to save Fabia, then search behind her location for a hidden path. Behind the pillar, crawl through the passage to find a hermit. You need to know the identity of the figure that created the Golden Rule.
- Debate the Golden Rule, then ask the hermit about Khabash. Enter his area and talk to Khabash to gain the Egyptian Plaque.
The Egyptian Plaque and the Mystery Plaque are discovered very close to each other.
- Mystery Plaque: After gaining the Egyptian Plaque from Khabash, he will tell you the Mystery Plaque is nearby in a hole. Drop down and collect the plaque.
- There’s a combat section and a boss ahead after collecting the Plaque. Like all the bosses, you can talk him out of fighting.
Once you have all four plaques, you’ll be able to enter the Great Temple. You just need to insert the Plaques, then speak these four words at the door.
- Pluto
- Hades
- Osiris
- Nergal
Once that’s done, you’ll finally be able to enter the mysterious Great Temple and encounter the final opponent of the game. You’re well on your way to earning the true “canon” ending.
