You are collecting the seven orbs of the Seven Sages that sealed away Rhapthorne from the start.
***************************
Neo, your looking for Empyrea...that is a great plotline, you'll enjoy that quest.
I mean, I know what the orbs are, it just seems so random >_< Kind of like how you had to collect the different pieces of the Triforce; just something to extend the length of the game...
To me it didn't feel like they were just adding blahness to make the game longer. In a retrospect they squeezed in those extra hours of gameplay but did it well in terms of fitting it into the story. I mean, I beat Rhapthorne fairly easily the first time... and easier then Dhoulmagus... so I kinda expected that the game wasn't going to end just like that.... I mean he's the Lord of Darkness.
And if you need help finding any of the orbs.....
****SPOILER****
search the places that had significant events occur with descendants of the sages
i.e. You'll find an orb in Farebury where the house burnt down... he was the first descendant to die in the game... another in the tower next to alexandria where Jessica's brother died... another descendant
********************
If you knew about this... cool just giving you a lil idea of how to find them if you haven't found them already.
Collecting the orbs at the end of the game took me 15 minutes, so if it was designed to artificially extend the length of the game, I'd say it failed to do so.
awww shucks... took me about 30 minutes... but half the time I was trying to figure out where each one WOULD be... once I connected the dots... figure it took me 10 minutes to get them all...