WEAPONS:

Go with Slashing if you're a casual gamer, as the weapon choice is pretty unfair concerning unique ones :/

Hacking - 1
Thrusting - 2
Slashing - 4 (+1 axe?)
Ranged - 3

UNIQUE ITEMS:

Swords:

SteelSunder - 1d12 @ Dark Lantern Towers
WhirlWind - 1d10 dmg, +1 AGI @ Iron Titan
SoulWrought - 3d12 dmg, +2 POW @ Quagmire
WarRender - 2d20 dmg, solid hits deal 3X dmg @ Fire Mountain

Axes:

CrimsonRage - 2d6 dmg, casts Rage of Fallen Heros [6 charges] @ City of the Dead

Spears:

Seamaiden - 1d10 dmg, casts Shackles of Ice [8 charges] @ Sunken Galley
SteelRipper - 1d8 melee dmg, 4d40 dmg when thrown (BEST RANGED WEAPON, no questions asked) @ Eye of Clay/Sanctuary

Hammers:

ThunarMjöljir - 3d6 dmg, casts Roaring Column of Lightning Wild [12 charges] @ Temple of Moon

Crossbows:

Inferno - 2d20 (fire) dmg [24 charges] @ Underground City

Throwing Stars:

Backlash - 1d6 dmg, returns to thrower's hand @ Underwater Labyrinth
BloodBane - 1d6 dmg, inflicts Bane's Boiling Blood (repeatedly?!?) @ Iron Titan

Helms:

Reed Helm of of Decipher - reduces dmg by 10%, deciphers messenger scrolls) @ Underground City (BEST HELM, hands down... Only looks good on the magician character lol. For comparison, Ivory Plate Helm weights 2kg & -10% dmg, when this one does the same with 1kg + deciphering several scrolls for new spells & info)

Armours:

Banded Ironroot Armor - -30% dmg, -50% Earth spell cost @ Land of Roots (BEST ARMOUR FOR A CASTER!)
Ivory Plate Armor - 100kg, +50% dmg (cursed) / 40kg, -50% dmg (after completing the quest & not opening the chest) @ City of the Dead (BEST ARMOUR FOR A FIGHTER!)
Serpent Scale Armor - -30% dmg, slows poison effects @ Quagmire
Fiery Jazerant Armor - -40% dmg, -25% fire dmg @ Fire Mountain

Shields:

Aegis - +1 str, regenerates str faster, -2 to hit @ Underwater Labyrinth
BloodHaven - Immunity to poison, -2 to hit @ City of the Dead
CloudBurst - -50% lightning dmg, -2 to hit @ Warlord's Tower

Magical 2nd hand items:

Hallowed Staff of Elder Wood - +100% to Blessed Weave of Healing Wounds effectiveness @ Elder Tree
Staff of Lightning Wild - casts Roaring Column of Lightning Wild [8 charges] @ Temple of Moon
Staff of Unmaking - casts Ritual of Unmaking [8 charges] @ City of the Dead
SPELLS:

Earth is useful for a straight-in-your-face caster (à la fisting & becoming immune to physical damage later on)
Water is for freezing opponents in place & gaining immunity to magical attacks (literally). Even has a fast superior attack spell in disposal
Flesh is important early in the game, but there are so many healing methods about & you'll find a staff which doubles healing when worn
Wind is for certain situations only, I'd not upgrade it after my 1st playthrough
Lightning seems to be more powerful than Earth (except against certain enemies), yet Earth has a bonus later on (in a form of an armour). Personally didn't upgrade.
Fire is for static damage for a couple hexes (if you prefer setting traps or there's a line of foes waiting to bash your head in, this is for you!), yet you suffer from it as well, MEH.
Void is... Well... Void. Cannot see any way how the spells improved by upgrading the spell school, not even Ritual of Unmaking's mana consumption wasn't reduced. Do not even bother.

Cubes of Magic Inversion can be used to get rid of spells like Dance Upon the Stones of Wind along others.

Not found Ghastly Howl of Mortal Anguish, Heightened Flesh of Strength and Hale or The Dark Cloak of Shadow, which is driving me mad >:I If anyone knows where they are, please inform!

Spell details

Effects when upgraded/MP cost/spell name/description/where to be found

(the decreased amount of mana consumption after the slash for Earth spells are when wearing Banded Ironroot Armor (-50%)

Earth:

+dmg (90/45) Iron Fist of Chaos - ranged dmg (court magician) or @ DARK LANTERN
+eff+dur (540/270) Granite Ward of Tempered Skin - reduces physical dmg on self (immune to spikes/boulders/Castellan @ lvl 10 Earth) @ ELDER TREE
+dmg+dur (344/172) Deadly Spores of Earthen Rot - static dmg @ ELDER TREE

Wind:

+dur (129) Dance Upon the Stones of Wind - avoids traps/pits/pressure plates @ QUAGMIRE
+range (98) Shrouded Gale of Vengeful Winds - pushes enemies back; reduces enemy spells' dmg; extinguishes Unholy Conflagration/Ash and Cinders/Deadly Spores of Earthern Rot (court magician) or @ DARK LANTERN
+dmg Ghastly Howl of Mortal Anguish - melee(?) dmg; only works on the living

Fire:

+dmg+dur+range (258) Unholy Conflagration - static dmg (@ UNDERGROUND CITY)
+dmg+dur (168) Ash and Cinders - static dmg (court magician) or @ DARK LANTERN
+eff+dur (308) Fire Haven - protects against fire-based spells @ UNDERGROUND CITY

Water:

+eff+dur (66) Shackles of Ice - melee freezing; at least Infernal Bones & Ice Worms (court magician) or @ DARK LANTERN (WHICH MAKES IT THE MOST UNBALANCED SPELL IN THE GAME)
+dur (196) Reflections of the Lake - immunity to magical attacks + counterattacks @ UNDERWATER LABYRINTH
+eff+dur (384) Vampiric Mist of Innate Weakness - melee-range life-leech (aura); only works on the living (can stun-lock certain creatures) @ UNDERWATER LABYRINTH
+dmg (320) Fountain of Scorching Vapors - static dmg; fire-based enemies are immune to it(?) (Exit Temple of Moon from south [2 pillar bridge], go west twice & south [into the waterfall])

Lightning:

+dmg (114) Laughing Skull of Thunderous Might - ranged dmg (court magician) or @ UNDERWATER LABYRINTH
+dmg (240) Roaring Column of Lightning Wild - ranged dmg
--- (68) Heavenly Mend of Unseen Artisans - restores bridges/structures/monuments/guardian's arms before Anvil of Dawn @ GRYPHON KEEP

Flesh:

+heal (78) Blessed Weave of Healing Wounds - healing (court magician ONLY!)
+heal(?)+rate+dur Heightened Flesh of Strength and Hale - increases natural healing rate; healing as well(?)
+dmg (114) Bane's Boiling Blood - ranged dmg(?) @ GORGE KEEP
+eff+dur (310) The Strength of Titans - increases +1 STR even at Flesh 10 (STACKS!) @ IRON TITAN
+eff+dur Rage of Fallen Heroes - increases Change-to-Hit (gradually decreases); unable to cast attack spells

Void:

--- (600?/1050 on walls) Ritual of Unmaking - instant kill or nothing @ Reed Plain
+eff+dur (160) The Dark Cloak of Shadow - protects against physical attacks; can prevent death from falling into pits/traps @ DARK LANTERN CATACOMBS (thanks Starmaker!)
(306) Soul Link - automatical resurrection after death (though in a weakened state); poisoned/diseased/other afflictions do remain @ IRON TITAN

Ghastly Howl of Mortal Anguish: Temple of the Moon 3rd floor, drop a second coin into the first hole.
Dark Cloak of Shadow: Dark Lantern basement standalone section, teleport after purple hex keys and a spinner, chat up the best NPC in the game.

Container locations:

SACKS: 1st found @ Gryphon Keep, 2nd before Dark Lantern & 3rd @ the Sunken Ship
CHESTS: 1st found @ Underwater Labyrinth, 2nd @ Underground City, 3rd @ City of the Dead

SHOPKEEPER (next to the Ward Bridge, requires a maximum of 5 coins to buy everything):

1. Symbol of Flesh - Gold
2. Amulet of Stamina (+1)
3. Soul Link figurine
4. +HP potion
5. Roaring Column of Lightning Wild

Now for some random crap I've also noticed:

Swords - They own. If you want to be a casual gamer, they're your pick (won't touch 'em myself on my future playthroughs)

Magic - Same goes here; Shackles of Ice works on 95% of monsters. And so does Iron Fist of Chaos. Ooooh and Granite Ward of Tempered Skin makes one resistant & eventually completely IMMUNE to physical damage, à la boulders, spikes & melee attacks...)
- Ritual of Unmaking is able to make shortcuts, when you know where you're knowing (added some into my gameplay maps, as I've not gotten in those places otherwise. It also works on the walls on the last level... I dare you completing it without using it >:D)

Crossbow bolts - ONLY 13 bolts are to be found IN THE WHOLE GAME, so you'd best collect them after shooting them into some creep's eyeballs... Spears are fine too *wink*

Throwing stars - ONLY found 3 (+ the other two unique ones, makes you look cooly ninja'esque holding them in both hands though!)

Maximum Health & Mana - +140 HP in the end (from 80 to 220 [=14 +HP potions]), of maximum MP I'm not so sure, as I've went from 1000 to 1900 (but the most I've gotten was 75 once). Hmm.

Interesting Fact: People keep saying it doesn't matter which character to pick (as they're supposedly the same)... Not true, thus showing you the lowest stats for all five characters:

Ianmyrth (mage): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Character%20stats/1%20-%20Ianmyrth.PNG
Foxwen (ranger): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Character%20stats/2%20-%20Foxwen.PNG
Brice (the brute): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Character%20stats/3%20-%20Brice.PNG
Nalu (amazon): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Character%20stats/4%20-%20Nalu.PNG
Daganoth (greenskin): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Character%20stats/5%20-%20Daganoth.PNG

Also, here are all the maps I've made so far, it looks very primitive in the beginning but I slowly got hold of the mapping, eventually:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Anvil%20of%20Dawn%20-%20MAPS.zip

*EDIT* updated Gryphon Keep & Dark Lantern maps:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35525676/Anvil%20of%20Dawn/Gryphon%20Keep%20%26%20Dark%20Lantern%20maps%20version%202.zip Damn it... I've still got 4 times to play it through, don't I?

Never had a clue of those, thanks much & "chat up the best NPC in the game" bit makes me cringe...!

Challenge accepted and completed. Only used RoU in that area after unlocking the exit, to explore the SW corner - and before that, to destroy the chest that used to hold the Dark Slag, for the lulz. (I would've also destroyed that one annoying column in the Iron Titan, but I didn't have the mana for it at that point.) 148655 points.

I only used it to see the unseen bits of the map + testing, but in my current playthrough I know where to 'abuse' it lol.

Wonder how the final score is calculated, it must've taken me at least over 100 hrs finding out pretty much everything & killing every single enemy (as far as I know), so I doubt time is a factor: http://i41.tinypic.com/30a3jwp.png

PS. That score is for the bad ending, tried all four different ones & the good ending increased the score.

PSS. The Global Automap is pretty sweet :D

Wait, four endings? What are the other two, jumping without the box? Suicide by Warlord is a regular death, not an ending. (Or is it?)

I sworded all the monsters I could get to (there was still at least one spiderwoman stuck in a cell in the SW part of the Fire Mountain itself - not the holding cells on the side - whom I heard but couldn't get to appear; and a rot blob in the Land of Roots which had committed suicide by trap by the time I got to it) and raised every magic discipline to Archmage with the stick.

The ones I've found out so far:

1. Good Ending - Wear Hallowed Wreath of Elder Leaves & cast Soul Link before suiciding
2. Bad Ending - Accept Warlord's offer
3. Fail Ending - Throw the Dark Slag into the Anvil of Dawn (by equipping it & clicking the pillar of light, not by actually throwing it with T-button)
4. "Sad" Ending - Throw yourself into the Anvil of Dawn for the fun of it! Yup, they tend to do either that via traps (funny that they can use teleports as well) or commit suicide after you've casted Reflections of the Lake *cough* Hagborns/Cacofiends *cough*

Am thanking you again, don't know how I managed to miss it. Original post updated along with more precise maps of Gryphon Keep & Dark Lantern. :)

I actually want to extend the suggestions here a bit.

Weapons:
SoulWrought's 3d12 Damage equalizes pretty well, making it comparably effective to WarRender, except that you exchange the triple-damage solid hits for 20% more spell damage AND an increased spell-point regeneration. Combined with the Shackles of Ice spell and the Fountain of Scorching Vapor spell which does triple damage to frozen targets, it makes well up for it's lack of critical hits.

SteelRipper can be thrown from cursor with T, allowing you to open up a fight with it and then switching to spells or meelee. Also, something rather mean you can do: Freeze an enemy, take a step back, throw, step forward, take the speer, step back and throw again... repeat until enemy drops.
This way of throwing the SteelRipper also allows you to carry either two swords for the status effects of both of them, or a sword as well as the shield.

Amour:
Bloodhaven's ability of antivenom seams worse than Aegis' Strength bonus, but combine it with the Reflection of the Lake spell that protects you from all magic and Dark Cloak of Shadow that protect you from physical attacks and you are effectively untouchable as long as you have enough spellpoints... which you should have with at least a natural 4+2 from amulet and +2 from SoulWrought...

Magic:
Use the Healing Weave spell repeatedly to gain EXP without hurting a monster, allowing you to max out physical abilities earlier than usual and upgrade ALL the magic schools.
Wait with grinding magic exp by healing until you get the Staff that doubles healing amount.
Upgrade Flesh first, it increases the amount you heal per spell which also increases the amount of experience you gain.

As for Schools:
Flesh first, as I already mentioned earlier.
Then upgrade water. This increases the duration of Shackles of Ice as well as the duration of Reflections of the Lake. Making you immune to any magic attack.
Then upgrade void. This increases the duration of both SoulLink as well as Dark Cloak of Shadow.
Finally increase whichever School's attack spell you like best... assuming you have already leveled your physical arts.

Three minor things from side:

- I actually had 14 crossbow bolts at the end, not 13.
- There is a basically a fifth ending – when you step before the Warlord without the Dark Slag.
- The rooms in the Iron Titan that seem to be unreachable can actually be reached by throwing yourself into the pits on the floor(s) above.

Hey everyone, guy working on the save editor here. While working on my program, I found in the save file data how some of the inventory is handled. I found the location that affects what the FIRST item in your inventory is. For those interested, the offset is 0x4E2D (which changes the icon of the item in your inventory) and 0x4E31 which changes what the item "actually" is (that is, icon and the actual item are different values!).

Anyway, while doing this I went through and changed the value 1 by 1 until no new items were appearing, and I have compiled a list of what seems to be every item in the game.

Some are weird items, some are intended as tests by the developers, etc. One note worthy thing I found is a crossbow called "SkullScreamer" that apparently casts Laughing Skull and never runs out of bolts.

Here is the list (potential spoilers I guess) It's formatted as [Item name] [Icon ID] [Item ID]:

http://pastebin com/rKV48SiY

Just add a dot between pastebin and com

Thanks for all the helpful infos! :)

The map links seem to be dead, so please post a new link in case there are any maps still available.

I tried playing a warrior - it's ok, but not much fun if you played a whole dungeoncrawlers. The hit&run aspect is tedious, the weapon experience level goes up very slowly, and possible get your first point only after Dark Lanturn, as you only "level up" when you leave a dungeon THE FIRST TIME. Something to keep in mind,
Warrior also needs a crapton of Agility to be able to swing its weapon, because believe me, you'll have to swing around a LOT. The advantage is, you'll be in action a lot, so HP and MP refilling will be easy.

Then I tried a mage, and had some bad experience with it due to no information on resistances/immuities/elemental affiliation.
So first let's talk about weapons.
Mana is scarce, even with items giving permanent bonuses. Prepare to reload with those to get a good chunk of maximum HP/MP.
Charged items are practicaly useless, as the charges last not much, and you can't re-charge your stuff (as far as I know).
The worst category are Ranged Weapons, which have 2 sub-category: Throwing Weapons and Crossbows. Throwing weapons must be picked up, and have ONE charges before you have to enter your inventory. These weapons are also not fast, so they don't realy help, especialy with a 2 hex visual range to see enemies, which CAN sidestep to avoid your ammo. I say, avoid this category. Note: "throwing" weapons can be used as melee weapons. Also, it seems irrelevant what type of magic or weapon you actualy use, you'll manualy level up when you leave the current dungeon manualy whichever you want.
So it pretty much falls on swords, and maybe some other category if there are resistances against slashing.

What we would actualy need to know how it works, is the SoulWrought sword, which gives you extra power. Allegedly. The important question is, does it have its effect if you start with 10 power too, or anything over 10 is lost, so don't bother?

Oh, when you start the game and choose the starting spell class and weapon type, you actualy only choose the starting equipemnt, you don't gain skill in the use.

You can actualy put two weapons in your hands, or two whatever. Only a melee weapon in the left hand can be used clicking on the enemies. Ranged weapons and combat consumables have to be activated by clicking on their icons. Shield give passive bonuses.
Sacks/containers provied their extra storage space if held in the right hand, then an extra slot appears on the character screen.

Now on which magic to start with:
- you want a damage spell, so wind and water are useless, you won't get damage spell for Flesh for a looong while, and you won't get void at all for a looong time, so forget those. Sure, if you manage to combine weapons with magic water would be awesome for completly disabling enemies by freezing them. Air is too much of a hassle either way (you'd need damaging obstacles to blow the enemy on, or machineguns, or a different game in general).
- fire here lacks your usual direct damage spells, instead it basicaly lays traps. Skip.
- This leaves Earth and Lightning magic. I have no clue investing levelup-points in these are how useful, but by the look of everything, it's not life-and-death. But my run starting with Earth ended up badly, as the snake-hands-with-daggers were immun to Iron Fist in Dark Lantern, the 2nd dungeon of the game, what sucked. Now they are either entirely immun to magic, or just earth. I'll make a second run to figure this out.

Starting weapons:
- ranged: throwing knife (looks ninja star, 1 ammo, or melee use)
- slashing: 1D8 sword, 6 kg
- hacking: 1D8 axe, 7kg (choose this for the most weight)
- thrusting: 1D8 spear, 2 kg

Number of gold coins/useage:
- Gryffon Castle: 3/1
- Lord Gryffons servant, outside of Gryffon Catle: 3
- Underwater Maze: 1/0
- Sunken Ship: 1/1

Enemies by area:
- Gryffon Castle: human soldiers (resistance: 0)
- Dark Lantern: snake-hand (immunity: magic (no info on fire), blue dragon, djinn (possible resistance to lightning, but it still hurts it)
- Dark Lantern Basement: blue dragon, totem, djinn
- Underwater Maze: octocrab (I've put all skillpoints into Earth, pretty much oneshotting everything at this point),, some plant-thingy (does poison if it hits you. To avoid step in, step out right there, wait 2 seconds, get in, shoot your spell, get out)
- Sunken Ship (seems this is more like the DLB to Dark Lantern - not a separate area, but some sub-area, meaning you won't get skillpoints to distribute when you enter): Pirate.Zombie.
- Underground City: lava-beast (dunno exactly, but Earth harms it, so who cares after all), centaur-mutants from Fallout 2. Also the basic soldier make another appearance.
- Underground City Mine (this is a sub-area of the above.): clown juggler (shoots laughing skull. When hit by a spell you have enough timie to prevent its casting by casting again immediately - melee range)
- Tree of Life: shambling mounds, and ~critters - both are poisonous, and there is no infinite source of anti-poison, so save regularly.
- The Barrier: orange ape, berserker

On stats:
I'm not sure Agility works as intended, or at all. If you want to cast spells, you'll need power. Meleeing depends on stamina and strength, but if you have strength things go down faster, so stamina is pretty useless.
Likely the best character is the amazon woman, max power, max strength, minimum everything else.
Note that 10 point in any skill is the maximum STARTING stat. Each stat can be boosted over this natural 10 with equipment.
Also, you regularly find HP/MP boosters, these buffs are permanent, so use save&reload to get a better-than-average result.

On spell:
- At the start pick lightning. Nice early damage spell, takes down the soldiers in 2-3 hits instead of 3.4 likie earth fist.
- There is no way to arrange your spells, so actualy learning all of them is quit hramful for a caster. I'll make notes which are mandatory.

On the experience system:
Seems you gain magic/weapon experience when your spell/weapon hits its target. Also, the number of exp depends solely on hits, and not on damage, so bump your school of choice, and leave another on the base level (rise Earth, use Lightning if you want to minmax). This also means weapons suck. I got weapon exp way too sloswly anyway (like 1 point doing pure melee after Gryffon Castle, 3 point doing pure magic).

Note on Undersea Maze: the Soul Link figurine is a quest item to use before speaking with the Lady of the Sea!

Note on Underground City: this level uses various keys, which colouration tend to blend. The shape is distinguishing though. And BUG: there is an extra emerald leaf key here.
Also: there are two pressure-plates in one of the complex (a big one), which I have no idea of their function. Put weight on them anyway to keep them pressed down.
Other pressure plates can be activated multpile time, and either opens doors exchangedly, or one-after-the-other. So just you know.

Note for Tree of Life:
Make notes on your map wherever you find black roots! You'll be glad you did.

Note for The Barrier:
In the soutwest there is a room with 2 pressure plates (the room also has a spinner and rot spell). These two plates do nothing as far as I can tell.

on map signs:
- blue lines on the four corner of a tile means anti-magic hex, meaning do not try to cast spell standing on it, the spell won't happen, even though you loose the mana.

-------------------

The best thing at this point is, as a mage you have the best armor (-50% earth spell cost), spent gold coins at the game's only vendor (good news is, he can't scam you if you offer a 6th gold), and you became immun to pretty much all the major threats of the game, with an affordable mana-regeneration.
Investing skillpoints seems best in this order:
1) Earth: gives you the most cost-effective instant damage spell with a good punch. MAkes you immun to boulders and spikes.
2) Water: sure, you could abuse Freeze, but even the orange apes go down in just 2 hits, so not needed. The real good stuff here is the immunity to magic projectilles, which is pretty much essential on certain corridor and against certain enemies.
3) fire, because you also have at this point the prot. from fire damage spell, and those pesky area effects are pesky.
4) what remains to be seen is whichever you gain first. Soul Link from Void can be a convenience (less reloads), or Dance upon the stones... from Wind.
5) Flesh and Lightning are unnecessary to raise. Flesh is boosted to infinity with the healing wand (+100% healing), and lightning doesn't offer anything aside more damage spells, but due to cost-efficency it's not a priority so to say.

Note on the Moon Temple:
Oh, the casual sexism! Female characters don't get an important hint/story element, aka. the clue directing the player to the Necropolis.

Btw, I still have 2 extra gold coins from before. Not sure anymore I used them in Gryffon Castle and then.

Necropolis:
- seems this is sub-area of the Moon Temple, aka. no skillpoints given at arrival.
- enemies: archer zombies (suggestion: cast Earth Skin to negate their damage, then run around eliminating them until it lasts. Optionaly you can use the Cloak of Shadow void spell, but that gives less than 100% protection); green demons (poisonous).
- about the "curse" of the Blue Ghost Knight: it is simply that instead of 40 unit, his armor weight 100 unit. So if you are a mage and thus don't plan on use it as equipment - you can be better off NOT fulfilling the pact (either pick the armor before the deal, or capture the Knight before completing the deal, or capture the maiden too).
- the crypts sub-level has some fire damage ranged optional enemy - I told you to invest at least a couple of points into fire.
- if you are curious like me, the northern exit of the Necropolice leads "nowhere", to a terrace, giving you a levelup-point. I had more than 10 point at this time, and no, it did not allow me to put more point on skills that had already 10 points in them.

Did you know the True Hero of the Five is Daganoth? Here is why:
- if you don't play Brice (the big warrior man), he can be found crucified at Gorge Keep
- Foxven (thief woman) will be found dead in the Temple of the Moon if the PC is male
- Nalu will give PC some quest item she found for him if PC is male north of the City of Dead
- this leaves Ianmyrth or the ~goblin. Encountering them is exlusive, obviously, but 4 out of 5 characters meet the mage at one point, sank into despair, giving up the quest.
Thus I say, it is the green guy who is the secret fifth.

Secret Area: The Waterfall
Between the area of The Ring of Clay, the Temple of the Moon and the Barrier you can stumble into a small white bridge. Near it is the waterfall, with sound and all. Enter. This place is not marked on the worldmap!
That is a mini-area having nothing but some rocks - and a guy teaching you Scorching Vapor!

endings:
Bad Ending (accept offer)
Fail Ending (throw dark slag)
Sad Ending (no soul link cast or Hollowed Wrath... worn)
Good Ending

I don't think it was ever specified, who the secret canon fifth is. If you don't play Daganoth you meet him in the Warlord's Stronghold - he's killed by the Castellan instead of a nameless prisoner. Personally, I thought it was either Nalu, or Ianmyrth, who were the secret one, since both of them actually survived, if you don't play as them.