Avowed is just brimming with lore. A bundle of fantasy nations, a pantheon of gods, crystals of magic soul vitality — it’s so much to be taught should you haven’t already performed Obsidian’s two Pillars of Eternity video games and their related expansions. Fortunately, Avowed is designed to make studying that lore as accessible and non-obligatory as doable.
Whereas there are many books to learn, for many gamers, it’s the elegant dialog system that can jump-start their lore training. At any time, the participant can pause a dialog to click on particular, highlighted key phrases of lore to be taught extra. This has the additional advantage of holding many of the dialogue freed from clunky data dumps.
However all that lore wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t related to your quest, and whereas the principle story is extra concerning the Residing Lands, it’s the aspect quests that educate you about higher Eora and your house in it. These non-obligatory missions vary from severe explorations of tangible, actual world points to… much less severe topics, however probably the most illustrative of Obsidian’s method was “Dawntreader.”
[Warning: The rest of this article contains full spoilers for the quest “Dawntreader” and descriptions of some mid-game discoveries from the second chapter of the game. Here’s a comprehensive guide to completing this quest.]
“Dawntreader” is centered round an Oracle of the god Eothas named Sargamis. Pillars of Eternity gamers would instantly be accustomed to Eothas, and in Avowed you possibly can learn a guide or click on on the phrase mid-conversation to be taught he’s not a very talked-about god for the time being. However simply out of your dialog with Sargamis, impeccably voiced by Matthew Mercer, you rapidly be taught lots of lore that’s immediately related to your participant character.
As Godlikes, your character and Sargamis have one thing in widespread. You may see for your self simply how completely different every god’s Godlike appears, learn the way the Godlikes are dying out, and contemplate how unusual it’s that you simply don’t know who your patron god is. All of this primes you to surprise much more concerning the voice in your head.
Regardless of how acquainted you might be with the lore of Eothas, this quest finally flips your expectations. Sure, Sargamis is a non secular fanatic who’s murdered innocents, however no, he’s not doing that to resurrect an evil god — it’s a part of his plan to punish Eothas for his sins. You see firsthand how a Godlike wrestles with the crimes of his patron. You suppose extra about that voice in your head…
Whereas later you possibly can get rid of Sargamis for the crimes he readily admits to, providing to help him results in some wild selections. The sport will allow you to actually obliterate your self with the intention to assist Sargamis create a god jail, and your reward is a sport over and a hilariously named achievement. Alternatively, you possibly can persuade Sargamis to sacrifice himself… which additionally doesn’t work.
However in a closing twist, the voice in your head — whom you later be taught is the god of the dwelling lands — requests the statue for their very own units. For those who observe by way of on this request, this time the machine… works! Satirically, Sargamis’ principle was appropriate, he simply had the fallacious god. Even earlier than you understand the reality concerning the voice in your head, this hints at how completely different the adra is within the Residing Lands, and the way indifferent it’s from the remainder of Eora’s pantheon.
Whether or not you go into this quest figuring out every little thing there may be to learn about Eothas otherwise you’ve refused to ever learn a guide in-game, “Dawntreader” itself will educate you a large number. Relying in your selections, it’s possible you’ll even see a callback to this quest on the very finish of the sport. The perfect half is that the quantity of lore it’s worthwhile to get pleasure from it’s totally as much as you.
