Yeah, that seems to be the progression of lore, and it’s actually done rather nicely! There’s supposedly even some cutscenes, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.

Apart from that, the meta progression seems to mostly be relics from defeating night lords, and the scenes (colorful stones) you get at the end of runs. Those can actually have some pretty good upgrades, and they’re not consumed upon usage, so it’s definitely some permanent progress.