Avowed is solely brimming with lore. A bundle of fantasy nations, a pantheon of gods, crystals of magic soul power — it’s lots to study if you happen to 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-compulsory as doable.
Whereas there are many books to learn, for many gamers, it’s the elegant dialog system that may jump-start their lore training. At any time, the participant can pause a dialog to click on particular, highlighted key phrases of lore to study extra. This has the additional advantage of retaining many of the dialogue freed from clunky information dumps.
However all that lore wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t related to your quest, and whereas the principle story is extra in regards to the Dwelling Lands, it’s the facet quests that educate you about better Eora and your house in it. These non-compulsory 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 e book or click on on the phrase mid-conversation to study he’s not a extremely popular god for the time being. However simply out of your dialog with Sargamis, impeccably voiced by Matthew Mercer, you rapidly study lots of lore that’s immediately related to your participant character.
As Godlikes, your character and Sargamis have one thing in frequent. You’ll be able to see for your self simply how completely different every god’s Godlike appears, find out how the Godlikes are dying out, and take into account how unusual it’s that you simply don’t know who your patron god is. All of this primes you to marvel much more in regards to the voice in your head.
Irrespective of how acquainted you might be with the lore of Eothas, this quest ultimately 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 assume extra about that voice in your head…
Whereas later you possibly can eradicate Sargamis for the crimes he readily admits to, providing to help him results in some wild decisions. The sport will allow you to actually obliterate your self as a way to assist Sargamis create a god jail, and your reward is a recreation over and a hilariously named achievement. Alternatively, you possibly can persuade Sargamis to sacrifice himself… which additionally doesn’t work.
However in a last twist, the voice in your head — whom you later study is the god of the residing lands — requests the statue for their very own gadgets. Should you comply with by on this request, this time the machine… works! Paradoxically, Sargamis’ idea was appropriate, he simply had the flawed god. Even earlier than you realize the reality in regards to the voice in your head, this hints at how completely different the adra is within the Dwelling 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 part there may be to find out about Eothas otherwise you’ve refused to ever learn a e book in-game, “Dawntreader” itself will educate you a large number. Relying in your decisions, chances are you’ll even see a callback to this quest on the very finish of the sport. One of the best half is that the quantity of lore it is advisable take pleasure in it’s completely as much as you.