This guide is not yet complete (ETA first half of 2024), but since it already holds much info I decided to publish it anyway.

• Among many of game's abilities there is one absolutely essential - Blood Cocoon, so it's worth to create an high-Occult avatar outright
  
• Magic is a bad DPS source; buff and healing spells, on the other hand, can be very useful
  
• Some abilities scale well, some - not; mages have a luxury of getting access to all magic abilities outright after allocating certain amount of stat points into Int and Occ
  
• Don't forget to equip your Warbook abilities - they won't work otherwise
  
• All aptitudes are worth maxing out (at 5 rank), except Woodwise - traps are not really that efficient, so a single point is all you need
  
• Buy and pick up every brewing pouches you see - they're dirt cheap, and Herbology potions are extremely good
  
• Pay attention to texts that appear when you interact with certain objects - oftentimes, you can get bonus exp by using your aptitudes on them (e.g, wood altars in shroomer caves, bookshelves in Lumen Forten)
  
• You have to write your own journal in this game, so don't skip dialogues
  
• Plot is given to you only via notes and dialogues, and there are lots of notes to find and NPC's to talk to; some NPC's will share information only with high Linguistics/Nobility/Philosophy characters
  
• Some events will only happen if you have a certain items in your inventory (don't throw out Vykin and bandit leader bounty scrolls until you kill them)
  
• Don't bother collecting ears and paaduri scalps
  
• Nobody will punish you for using 'vrosk rife (someone)'; you can be sure that there is nothing left to steal only after 8 or more failed attempts of vroskrifing certain character
  
• Collect all the bones you can; get yourself a shovel to dig up graves
  
• Use 'davi (bone/bones)' on pile of bones on the ground to get equal amount of marrow - best healing consumable in game
  
• Use 'shoar (chipped gem name)' to turn chipped gem on the ground into regular ones to increase it's price; you can make money buying chipped gems from merchants and selling them after 'shoaring'
  
• Use 'grafitus (ammo name)' to refill ammo stack (works on all arrows, bolts and elixirs, but NOT on holy elixirs) on the ground to refill it; you can sell refilled stacks you don't need, so don't combine ammo stacks in your inventory - you'll just lose money
  
• You'' need Ameythevian rune code to solve two riddles:
  
• In Ista Cale Camp and Fuldea Mare Crossing you will find a columns with Ameythevian codes on them; use scroll that you got in Lumen Forten to decipher the messages, and then 'nufri (tenrak/rivaetro)' near them
  
• In Tratis Bog you'll need to light up certain flames, find smuggler letter with instruction and decipher it
  
• '/' = 0, '+' = 5

List of abbreviations:
Int - Intellect
Dex - Dexterity
Str - Strength
Occ - Occultism
Per - Perception
HP - Hit Points
AS - Attack Speed (lesser value = more attacks)
CS - Cast Speed (lesser value = faster spells)
PD - Physical Damage
PDC - Physical Dodge Chance
SDC - Spell Dodge Chance
PHC - Physical Hit Chance
SHC - Spell Hit Chance
DPS - Damage Per Second
SR - Spell Resistance

The main thing you should know here is how do dice bonuses work.
Lets say, you have two skills that influence PDC - Reckless Offence (5D1 bonus) and Wolf Polymorph (1D13 bonus).
Their bonuses go into the same variable (see Secondary stats below), and they add up in a really simple way: *D part + *'D part, D* part + D*' part. So, in mentioned example you will get total 6D14 bonus. Absolutely broken, but fun!
This work not all the time, however. For example, Agile Fighting will simply override Reckless Offence.

Primary stats (Int, Dex, Str, Occ, Per)
Newly created avatars have 10 of each. You may allocate 2 points when creating new avatar, you also get 2 points on each lvl-up and you may allocate them however you like.
Pre-made characters (there are plenty of them) have bonus primary stat points, but they are already allocated, but they don't get race bonuses, and these may be substantial (or negligible)
Int+Occ total value influences what spells named character will have access to - 21+ for tier 1 spells, 26+ for tier 2 spells, 32+ for tier 3 spells.
Dex+Str total value influences what Warbook skills named character will have access to - 21+ for tier 1 skills, 26+ for tier 2 skills, 32+ for tier 3 skills.
Spells and Warbook skills differ in that while any character with high enough Int+Occ may cast any spell of unlocked tier, each Warbook skill requires skill point to be allocated to it in order to be used.

Int - influences hit chance and potency of Int-scaling spells (e.g., Foul Creep). Spells scale either on absolute amount of Int (FullInt), or on Int modifier (every Int point above 10, IntMod).

Dexterity - every point above 10 lowers your AS and CS by 0.03.

Strength - every point above 10 raises your max HP by 4 and PD by 1.

Occultism - every point above 10 raises your SDC and SR by 1. Also influences hit chance and potency of Occ-scaling spells (e.g., Blood Cocoon), either by FullOcc, or OccMod.

Perception - every point above 10 raises your PHC and SHC y 1.

Secondary stats
You can always left-click on secondary stat in Character screen to see exact formula

• Using Philosophy aptitude provides you with stats of the target
  
• Game shows how much health your opponents are left with via statuses (from 100% to ~10%):
  Unhurt
  Scratched
  Bruised
  Flesh Wounds
  Impaired
  Injured
  Badly Injured
  Wounded
  Mortally Wounded
  Near Death
  
• You can drink and brew Herbology potions, Use Summoning Horns and Vykin's Crests, Lay Traps, light up torches, change equipment and initiate spell/incantation casting during active pause
  
• You can't use health-restoring consumables during active pause, but there is a useful bug here - there is a chance that consumable will not be used while granting you it's effect if you instantly activate it after removing a pause
  
• Using Blood Cocoon out of combat restores character's health completely
  
• Mist Wolves and Crawlers inflict unblockable damage; without high PDC on your characters, you may lose your whole party in no time
  
• If you can't penetrate spirit's green shield, use Hallucinogen/Holy Elixirs/Mind Crack on it
  
• Killing peaceful NPC's will turn against you all NPC's nearby any of your characters, so either hide some of your characters or keep them together when butchering locals
  
• Your enemies won't always focus on first your character they see; you can redirect the aggro by hitting them couple of times

There is a huge variety of spells and abilities in Serpent in the Staglands, so you can try many different approaches and succeed.

Tips:

• It's worth creating 'Sapphire' (sells items for 110% of price) character as side-avatar
  
• In order for Aptitudes and Sapphire specialty to work in dialogues, character with needed specialty should be talking
  
• Create as many avatars as you want - it will make things much easier for you in the beginning, and you can always disband them later
  
• At least a single character in your party should have been able to cast Blood Cocoon and Feline Polymorph (just spend 1 stat point into Int or Occ)
  
• Any character with high enough Int+Occ rating (21, 26, 32) is able to cast all spells of corresponding grades, so you may focus on Warbook skills which will improve chances of your mages's survival
  
• You have to spend at least 1 ability point on Warbook skill you want to use; don't forget to equip them, else they won't work! only 3 skills may be equipped simultaneously
  
• In long term, going for AS reduction will provide you with much higher DPS as opposed to raising your hit damage
  
• Don't forget about Perception! put 6-10 stat points in it both for fighters and debuff/damage mages
  
• It's better to stick to a more-or-less uniform functionality for your party, some examples of builds with enough decent synergy (but you absolutely can make any build that comes to your mind work):
  3 light weapon specialists, Stink Trap elixir guy, Amplify mage
  3 archers, Stink Trap elixir guy, Amplify mage
  Crossbowmen/archer/elixir guy/tank, Festering Ooze mage, Entangling Vines mage, Nauseate mage, Parasitic Orb + Nauseate/Searing Ray mage
  3 heavy weapon specialists + 2 Amplify mages
  3 elixir guys + 2 Amplify mages
  Furries! (wolf polymorph) - they are so broken, you don't even need full squad of them. Even 3 high (8+) lvl furries will absolutely rek all and everything game can throw on you (except for spirits, so don't forget about holy elixirs!)

On Aptitudes:

• Linguistics and Philosophy offer you not only utility ('Incantation book' and 'Thieving Imps' sections), but also access to some plot decisions, dialogue options and access to certain locations
  
• Nobility will get counselors and nobleman to share information with you, but nothing plot-influencing; I recommend going for rank 5 if you want Serafim in your party
  
• Herbalists can make very efficient potions; to create best one - Willow Limbs (temporary raises PDC of your character, absolutely invaluable) you'll need rank 4 in it; raising rank in Herbology also allows to create more potent potions
  
• Many static objects in game will grant 15 exp to character that uses Woodwise on them; it's plot implication is also meager ('Puzzle, Riddles...' section of this guide)
  
• For combat implications of Nobility, Harbringer and Woodwise, go to 'Usable Items and Consumables' section of this guide

There are many pre-made characters who can join your party, and generally they are better stat- and ability-wise than the ones you created yourself (at the expense of slightly lowered control over their builds).
Pre-mades join your party with amount of experience equal to your main's, so if you are intending to use 'nufri tenrak/rivaetro' exploit ('How to lvl-up' section of this guide) - consider basing your party on them, else stat/ability point superiority won't make much of the difference.
Regardless, I recommend you to leave fifth slot for pre-made character anyway - you can steal a lot of stat points from your companions with a help of Thieving Imps, and weakening your chosen party-members isn't a wise decision.

Not all pre-made characters are made equal, the nicest ones IMO being:

• Margareta (Сorem's Brothel, 75 emeralds), Stella (same conditions) and Mikulas (Orf's Bridge Crossing, 50 emeralds) as light/ranged weapon specialists
  
• Serafim (Corem, Nobility rank 5), Daciana (room in Corem's bar, 85 emeralds), Liliana (same conditions) as tank/heavy weapon specialist
  
• Dragos (Rumin, 65 emeralds), Kreel (see 'Puzzles, Riddles...' section of this guide) and Minodora (Emerald Metalis Consil's Library, bind her soul if you want her in your party) for casting Int-scaling spells
  
• Silviu (80 emeralds) and Istav (talk to him after finding 'Letter to Istav' dropped from one of the corpses in Rumin Ruins location) for casting Occ-scaling and non-stat-scaling spells
  
• Ruxandra (cave in Emerald Mines location, offer her your company) if you're into furries

There are 8 weapon types in Staglands, divided into 4 categories:

• Light melee weapons - swords, daggers (strangely enough, basic leaf blade is considered a dagger) and whips;
  
• Heavy melee weapons - axes and scepters (maces);
  
• Missile ranged weapons - bows and crossbows;
  
• Elixirs (also ranged)

Not all weapons are made equal.
You see, there are two stats for each weapon - damage and AS. Also, each kill raises character's proficiency with corresponding weapon type. Each proficiency level adds flat bonus of +1 damage, maxing out at +9.
Strength also raises physical damage (for all types of weapons) by +1/2 Str above starting 10 Str.
Finally, there are many abilities that raise your melee damage. And THE best scaling ability in Warbook - Reckless Offence does that, too.
So, while in short-term high-damage weapons seem to be a great choice, in long-term you'll get much, MUCH more DPS out of low-damage, but fast weapons.

The most effective DPS-wise weapons in game are Leaf Blade +2 Bronze (5d2 PD, 2 AS), and... Awl. Yes, dirt-cheap weapon with lowest base damage in game (1d4 PD, 1.6 AS). Since your main character will get +12 stat point via usage of Thieving Imps, it's worth taking Leaf Blade +2, since you'll need this bonus damage when hunting Harvesters with their crazy 21-25 Armor.
For other melee DPS characters, I recommend using Awl.

Among ranged weapons, highest DPS can be achieved with bows, but you won't get nearly as much of it as with melee weapons. So, best choice here would be elixirs - Stink Trap is an extremely useful skill, disabling multiple opponents at once for several seconds.

Since you won't be using mages for inflicting PD, equip your high Occ characters with scepters (Fly AgaricRaven Scepter raises Armor by +2 with no drawbacks for spellcasting whatsoever, and bonus Armor is always handy) and your high Int characters with Bloodless Hunter Whips (they provide +3 SR, and low Occ characters won't have much).

Besides Fly AgaricRaven Scepter (you loot it from Vra in Tratis Saltis Bog, btw), there are 4 unique weapons of questionable usefulness. Problem is - they are inferior stat-wise to the aforementioned weapons and their special abilities will work only when certain Warbook skills (of questionable usefulness also) are equipped.
It's relevant for unique wands too - none of them are worth it when there are plenty of Citrine Willow Wands in game.

There are many equipment slots to fill for your characters. I'll group them in several categories.


Most abundant equipment items in Staglands.
You'll have enough of them to equip all your characters.

All of them provide Armor and/or Spell resistance and usually cripple your PDC/SDC, AS/CS.

Shields

They can be sold for nice sum of emeralds and... that's all they're good for. Yes, bonus Armor and Spell Resistance are nice, but severe penalties for DC's and AS are not.
Yes, there are several shield-bond abilities, but why choose them over Reckless Offence? PDC is much better than armor, so shields lower both your DPS AND survivability.

Helmets

I prefer not to use them, since they offer little protection while lowering PDC, SDC, AS and CS.

Best are Bloodless Hunter Hats (all three of them can be looted/vroskrifed from bloodless hunters) for DPS characters and Inquisitorial Masks (you can vroskrife one from Masked Figure, and loot from mages on top level of Tower) for Utility ones.

Base Iron Helmets are nice too, actually.

Armor

There are 3 options to go for:

Armor that you can buy from Borifus in Rumin Consil for 900 emeralds and 1 harvester scale each offers you best protection with mild penalty for PDC/SDC and moderate for AS/CS. Don't bother with Mihail's armor from Orf's Bridge Consil - it's worse and overpriced.

Second best is Ringmail Coat: New - good armor and little AS/CS penalty. As far as I can remember, there are only 2 of them in Staglands - one can be bought form Blacksmith in Corem and the other one usually can be looted/vroskrifed from Masked Figure in Orf's Bridge Crossing. But 'Used' ones are fine too.

Robed Leather Armor +1 gives you only 1 point of Armor, but good amount of SR and actually raises PDC! There is also a unique modification sold in Rumin by Borifus.



Won't cripple you in any way, with two exceptions.


Best ones are Citrine Willow Wands which provide you with bonus SR and SDC for small price of 300 emeralds. Equip all your characters with them.

Unique ones are not worth it - they improve certain abilities, and not the best ones.


There are only 4 functional coats in game - Cloakier in Corem sells 3 and fourth can be found also in Corem (Bar room where you can hire Daciana and Liliana). Go for them.


Also only 4 functional ones. Borifus (or Bogumil) in Lument Targ sells one, in Corem Blacksmith sells two and Clothier sells the last one. Go for them, too.


Ox Hide Boots are a must.
Don't go to Tratis Saltis Bog and Tower Entrance without Wooden boots!


Merchant in Fuldea Mare Bridge sells ring that extends lifetime of torches, and torches are of much help when dealing with Ice Imps and Mist Wolves.

Gabi the Spicer in Corem sells ring that lowers your AS by -0.1, very useful, too.

There are 3 rings that lower CS by -0.2 (one of them also can be bought from Gabi), but they are optional.


Again Gabi the Spicer. She sells amulet that protects wearer from poison.
Tooth of Strigoy (you can find it in fisherman's house in Rumin Consil) requires you to micro potions.


Farthest cave from enter to Hallowed Grounds, closest door to cave entrance. -0.5 AS, great stuff.

• There are separate sections in this guide for Incantation Book and Thieving Imps
  
• Summoner Horns - summons five specified creatures to your aid. Require certain rank in Harbringer, best one (Spider Summoning Horn) - requires rank 5. Only one horn can be active at any given time.
  If you use horn during battle, creatures will disappear when there will be no enemies left. However, if summoned out of combat, creatures may remain, sometimes allowing you to summon several stacks.
  Relatively helpful items, but your enemies will never focus on summons, which is a shame.
  
• Vykin's Crests - turns 1 monster/human opponent to your side, simultaneously empowering him.
  Also relatively helpful.
  There are 3 of them in the game - one given to player upon creation of avatar of certain Varuchav clan, second can be vroskrifed from Serafim in Corem, and the last one looted from Vykin in Corem's bar (you have to pick up bounty for him, else he won't spawn.
  
• Willow Limbs Herbology potions can make your character effectively invincible for a short amount of time; other Herbology potions are nice, but not a game-changers
  
• Healing potions restore health over time, so their usefulness is very limited
  
• Best health-restoring consumable is Marrow, Healing Fungi are second-best
  
• Use torches when fighting Ice Imps and Mist Wolves
  
• Traps are hardly helpful in this game (but I spent little amount of time on them, maybe you'll find them to be of use); the higher your Woodwise rank - the more damage they will inflict; regardless of your rank in Woodwise, Bear Claws and Bear Claws +2 do equally small amount of damage (the biggest I saw were 7-9 points of damage for single trap)

On the 1 floor of Lumen Forten you'll find a book that lets you execute incantations that can be written in it.

Considering syntax: let's say, you want to vroskrife arbiter:
vrosk rife arbiter - legit
vroskrifearbiter - legit
vrosk[rife.arbiter - legit
vroskr ifea rbiter - not legit
vroskr[ifea.rbiter - not legit

There are a huge variety of incantations, all listed in separate guide here on Steam.

But personally I found only several ones to be of use:

• 'grafitus (ammo)' - refills named ammo stack (you should drop it on the ground prior to executing this incantation), works on all ammo types except Holy Elixirs (but single stack of them is all you need anyways);
  
• 'davi (bone/bones)' - turns named stack (also should be dropped first) into marrow - the best healing consumable in game;
  
• 'shoar (chipped gem name)' - turns named chipped gem (also dropped) into regular one, raising it's cost; buy chipped gems from merchants and resell them after performing this incantations;
  
• 'maen sear' - changes day to night and vice-versa, requires Linguistics on rank 5;
  
• 'vrosk rife (character name)' - fetches you 1 random item from target NPC's inventory (most of these items can't be looted from corresponding characters, so don't rush killing everyone you meet, requires Linguistics on rank 3; can be used indefinitely; result of executing this incantation will be outputted in game log; not all attempts will succeed - you can be sure that NPC's empty only after 8 failed attempts in the row.
  You can rob each and every NPC in Staglands, but more often than not you'll be getting only garbage, so I got you a list of those NPC's, who can be vroskrifed for something (more or less) worthy (I won't specify whether gem is chipped or not, since you can easily de-chip it):

• Arbiters - you can steal helmets, swords, armor, shields and arrows +1 from them; you can sell named items for a good price, or equip your characters with them;
  
• Lumen Forten:
  Aurel - gem
  Vinimus - Thieving Imp, Blodless Hunter Whip and Hat, Brewing Pouch
  Ciprian - scepter and gem
  Storemaster - Ruby Amulet and Robed Leather Armor +1
  
• Lumen Targ:
  Bogumil - Robed Leather Armor +1, key to the chest with nice items in it
  Elisabeta - gems
  Son of Gheed - gems
  
• Lebez:
  Nicu - gems
  Nicu's Mercenary - key to Nicu's chest with side-quest item in it
  
• Wood edge:
  Kyrilu - Robed Leather Armor +1, Herb Kit
  
• Orf's Bridge Crossing:
  Caravaner - scepter
  Masked Figure - Inquisitorial mask, Ringmail Coat, Wooden Boots
  Petronela - Mushroom Powder, key to the chest with Herb Kit in it
  
• Ista Cale Camp:
  Nicolete - Thieving Imp, Blodless Hunter Whip and Hat
  Virgil and Eduard - Blodless Hunter Whip and Hat, sometimes one of them may carry a Thieving Imp
  
• Emerald Mines:
  Kyrilu - Herb Kit
  
• Emerald Metalis Consil:
  Shop Keep - gem
  Coounselor - Thieving Imp, gems
  
• Rheamus Farms:
  Lord Rheamus - gem
  
• Corem:
  Fletcher, Cloathier, Cloakier - gem
  Serafim - Vykin's crest
  
• Ista Cale Consil:
  Inn Keep, Shop Keep - gem
  
• Rumin Consil:
  Dedoslav - Robed Leather Armor +1, gem, Chaimail Armor
  
• Tratis Saltis Bogs:
  Constable - Shroomer Summon Horn
  Florin, Ionela - gems
  Chestimir - letter

Thieving Imps can be used by characters with high Philosophy to steal stat level (2 per imp) from their companions. Stealing some stats require higher Philosophy rank (rank 5 is required to steal Dex, for example). You can lower stat of source character below 0 that way.
There are a total of 7/8/9 imps in game, so 14-18 stat points in total can be obtained.

• Vinimus gives you one when you meet him if you have 1 rank in Philosophy
  
• 'vrosk rife vinimus' in Lumen Forten (may work even if he already gifted you one, possible bug)
  
• 'vrosk rife counselor' in Emerald Metalis Consil
  
• 'vrosk rife nicolete' in Ista Cale Camp
  
• Gabi the Spicer in Corem sells one for 812 emeralds
  
• Can be looted from Lele Queen in Wood's Edge
  
• Can be looted from band of rogues in the NE corner of Lumen Wildlife
  
• BUG(?): another one can be looted from Nicolete/Virgil/Eduard, or vroskrifed from the latter two, although it won't always happen

There is also a bug that lets you use Imps multiple times, but I haven't figured out steps to reproduce it.

There are a total of five flower circles in game; each can grant a single stat point to character of your choosing.
In order to get a stat point, use Parasitic orb on ground nearby and then choose 'toss in mouth' option in the dialogue, and specify to which character you want to give point to.
You can also use Woodwise on them to get 15 exp.
There are total of 5 flower circles in game:

• NW corner of Lumen Forten
  
• E corner of Wood's Edge
  
• E corner of Tratis bog
  
• Near Rumin Moon Lord shrine
  
• Near Rumin entrance to Bloodless lair

Allocate your main character's first 2 skill points to Linguistics and Philosophy. Also, create avatar with at least 1 point in Occ. Get Incantation Book from table with books on Lumen Forten's first floor.

When you'll get to Lumen Targ get yourself a rope, go to world map and rush to Fuldea Mare Crossing (there are two crossing in this game, you'll need the western one). If you'll get ambushed, just reload autosave.

Once you're there, go to NE direction (past merchant and then follow the wooden road). There'll be a wooden bridge-like structure, interact with it (here comes your rope) and send your Occ avatar down.
The go east, there will be a couple of trees standing, stop in the middle of the pass between them. Farther to the right stands Ice Imp, you don't need him to detect you. Poly into cat and rush past aforementioned Imp until you'll see a piece of column with runic code inscribed on it (NE corner of your line of sight) and immediately back to the rope and climb up. It may take you several attempts, but you'll get it eventually.

Send your party back to the southern entrance to world map, and your main slightly farther from it in the merchnt's direction. Choose your main, open Incantation Book and execute 'nufri (tenrak/rivaetro)'. You'll get a message (and a sound signal) stating that your main got 400 exp point. If it didn't happen, move him/her slightly closer to the column and repeat.

Then, go to world map and back to the crossing. Repeat incantation and get 400 more exp. Rinse and repeat until you'll get lvl 6 (or as long as you like). I added my speedrun video here in the end of this section so that you could see how it's done (fragment with this exploit begins at 13:00, not featuring 'back to the rope...' part since it's a speedrun)

The trick is - all pre-made characters join your party at level equal to your main's, so you can get yourself a rather strong party 30-40 minutes after starting the game.

The are other means of getting lots of experience:

• Interacting with certain objects inside Tenrak and Rivaetro rooms
  
• Scouting Bloodless dungeons in Ista Cale and Rumin Ruins
  
• Killing opponents in arena fights - you can fight battles three times both in Lebez and in Corem
  
• Finding Wandering Lady notes in Hallowed Grounds
  
• Killing Mya's soldiers both in Lev and in Fuldea Mare Lumbers
  
• Killing Octavian guards in Ista Cale Consil
  
• Killing Spirits near Rumin Moon Lord shrine
  
• Killing gang of bandits in Ista Cale Ruin location
  
• Killing Crawlers, Ice Spiders and Ice Imps
  
• Each container in Fuldea Mare Lumbers grants your party 1000 exp when you open it

There are several locations in Staglands where you can get a ton of emeralds by butchering certain NPC's:

• In Ista Cale Consil there are lots of Laborers, you can easily loot lots of emeralds from them; but beware of dock workers, they are rather tough (but will grant you a nice amount of exp)
  
• Clients of Corem's brothel drop nice amount of emeralds
  
• Bar patrons (both inside the bar and in dock location) in Corem also carry lots of emeralds; just make your life easier and kill them before you take Vykin's bounty
  
• Merchants usually carry lots of emeralds, too
  
• Soldiers both in Lev Consil and Fuldea Mare Lumber Yard drop lots of emeralds, but at this point you won't need

Vroskrifing arbiters for armor, shields and helmets and playing Son of Gheed's game works, too, but these are much more time-consuming

As stated in loading screen, your choices matter in this game.

I found three paths conversation with Octavian may follow, I'll refer to them as Good, Bad and UglyBloodless endings.

In order to get Bloodless ending, first you have to make a rank 5 Philosopher out of one of your characters.
Then, meet with Bloodless Hunters in Ista Cale Camp (Vinimus in Lumen Forten will provide you with directions) and offer them your help.
Find Costache, get him to talk (don't bother with spices - just ask him about Bloodless outright), return to Hunters and get Chalk Rubbings from them. Kill the Hunters before going to Bloodless lair, or else quest may bug down leading to Bloodless not spawning when you return to it.
In dialogue (use your Philosopher), take it's side and offer your help. If you already killed Hunters, speak to it again and receive Bloodless Summoning scroll. Keep it in your inventory, and you'll get three choices in final dialogue; after Octavian opens up your portal, you may spare him, kill him yourself, or make into Bloodless brooding slave.

There are certain decisions you can make while venturing in Staglands which will influence the way non-Bloodless ending goes:

• Helping native in shroomer caverns to save prisoner from Lumen Targ leads to 'the death of every man, woman and child in the whole town' (Octavian says so, but it won't happen during playtime - bug?)
  
• Poisoning natives during quest given to you by counselor of Emerald Metalis Consil will check for bad ending
  
• Killing Mya also won't go unseen
  
• Killing bandits (?) - Octavian will mention that you could've spared their lives; he's right tho, confrontations with bandits and outlaws may be easily avoided, especially since killing them provides you with miniscule amount of exp (bandits in Ista Cale Ruins location being exception)
  
• Octavian will also accuse you of using your soul-binding powers, regardless of whether you actually did it, or not

Getting bad ending will lead to you actually losing in moral confrontation and accepting Octavians terms. Then, your non-soul bond pre-made characters will attack you.

Good ending grants you choice of accepting Octavian terms or killing him and staying in Vol in mortal body.

Good ending is actually fastest to get, if you know what you're doing (obviously you should avoid making aforementioned decisions):
Get party strong enough to handle lvl 10 human enemies
Go to Fuldea Mare Lumbers (someone in your party should be able to Feline/Bat poly)
Kill Captain (raft in S corner of lumber yard), pick up his key
Go to N corner of lumber yard and access Counselor's Manor, you'll find another key in locker on second floor
Go to Ista Cale Consil, storm Counselor's manor, get past pressure plate trap on third floor (it activates when two pressure plates are activated for too long and kills all character walking on it), get Crank from one of the lockers there
Return to the town and go to SE corner of map, open second lighthouse's door with Crank. Inside you will find five switches, you need to activate the ones that have encoded '3', '4' and '5' written near them (3 + 4 + 5 = 12).
Pay attention to the symbols written above two lighthouses entrances.
Exit lighthouse and go further east.
Enter opened door, fight the guards and go downstairs. Solve the puzzle (encoded numbers that you saw earlier above lighthouses entrances + bird-like symbol), go back upstairs and further up. After second room with guards you will enter the balcony and encounter Octavian.

• In last room of Padurii's cave, there are three pots and three altars with candles on top of them. Interacting with them makes different letters appear above said pots. Code is 'VRA' (you can find it in diary of Possessed Child in hollow tree in Lumen Courtyard) which will open door to last floor of this cave; you can get many bones there and Wounded Child (get him to Inn Keep in Lebez);
  
• In Lumen Wilderness there are two hollow trees in N part of map. Inside them you will find Riddle Imps; answers to their riddles are: Lele and Whip
  
• Native's Horn that you get in first native's ambush should be used in Coastal Clearing; position any character inside skull circle; in following dialogue, choose your Linguist to get an opportunity to hire Kreel in your party, one of the best pre-mades in game; you better first complete Hallowed Grounds puzzle tho, since he supposedly should leave your party after leading you there
  
• There are separate guide for Hallowed Ground puzzle here on Steam; but i'll give you a little prompt here: '/' = 0, '|' = 4, '+' = 5, '-' = 6
  
• In Ista Cale Consil you'll be presented with similar puzzle; more details in 'Plot' section of this guide
  
• Interact with books near chamber entrances in Rumin and Ista Cale ruins with high-Philosophy character
  
• In Ista Cale one, there is an altar in the center of first room; execute 'paaria morc' incantation to sacrifice your party member, standing on it and get access to the second room; inside you'll find one of the Chalk Rubbings, but beware! mystic fog there deals unblockable damage
  
• Second Chalk Rubbing is guarded buy pack of Mystic Wolves inside Rumin Ruin chamber
  
• In NE corner of Tratis Saltis Bog there is a grave with Silver Sword inside
  
• You'll find Ameythevian rune code scroll on first floor of Lumen Forten; use it to solve following riddles:
  
• In Ista Cale Camp you'll easily find column with runic code on it; in Fuldea Mare Crossing you can find second column; details in lvl-up section of this guide
  
• In Tratis Bog you'll need to light up certain flames, find smuggler letter with instruction and decipher it; talk to Constable in city nearby, else you won't summon smugglers by solving the puzzle
  
• In Rumin Consil you'll find crank in Elixir Maker's house; activate it to open cellar entrance located behind his house; interact with your Herbologist with green water inside to get free stack of Holy Elixirs, one stack is all you need
  
• Get your character with 1-rank Woodwise to talk to rat near Lumen Targ's well; give it salted meat and get a little bit of info about the town; talk to fox near one of the houses to resolve conflict between it and house owner peacefully