Path of Exile 2 has secret quests.

Follow me here because I’m going to start from the beginning and it’s a long journey to the end.

The great sword Agnar is regarded the same as Excalibur, a true hero’s sword.
In act 1 Una tells us this plainly.
Una also tells us the great sword Agnar was inspired by The Greatwolf.

The first optional quest item we recieve is the winter wolf’s skull
The flavor text of the winter wolf skull basically says this skull is from the first winter.

Now that’s not much on its own, but the runes we use to free the hooded one are the big hint.

Most people do not know this but a sword does have a cap and a girdle.
The Cap of a sword is its pommel.
A girdle was used in place of sheath.

Excaliburs sheath is the object that granted invulnerability to the wielder.
It is the girdle that says it grants that ability.

It was Excaliburs Cap that was enchanted that the sword could only be used by a worthy wielder.
The cap in game basically says the same thing.

Finally the blade of Excalibur was enchanted to always strike true.
Which clearly the blade piece has 1:1 flavor just like the rest.

This is too much coincidence.

Then we get into the act 3 secret quests. The hidden idols, or as the code calls them
secret peculiar fortunes.

It is very clear from the design of the hidden idols that selling them to Oswald is only optional.
The problem is 6 of them take up a lot of inventory space to do something we don’t know what to do.
However it’s highly likely there’s some big secret quest in each act.

We all blasted through the campaign ignoring the story itself, the story itself lends itself to secret quests.

I’m not sure what to do or how to do it, but there’s something there. Eventually someone will figure it out