Obsidian pulls out all the stops for their RPG universes, and Avowed is no different, as it takes place in Eora, the same world as the Pillars of Eternity series. Fans will likely pick many small details, but those who haven’t played these incredible games might miss information.
It’s a lot to expect everyone who wants to play this game to have played Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. For those who haven’t, there are multiple significant details you’ll want to become familiar with before you dive into Avowed, as it’s likely these details could appear and show up throughout your playthrough. These are the seven things you need to know about the Pillars of Eternity world before you start playing Avowed.
The Wheel and reincarnation
When a person in the Pillars of Eternity universe dies, the energy that drives their soul returns to The Wheel, a cycle of reincarnation. Soul energy is a massive part of Eora, which can empower magical energy into objects, or allow someone to use spells. It’s a huge portion of the world’s lore and comes up quite often in the first game.
The soul energy that goes into The Wheel enters a place known as the In-Between. It can take several years for a soul to manifest again in Eora, but they eventually return. The power of these souls is known as soul essence, which someone in Eora uses to manifest spells and magic, even in Avowed.
Soul Essence powers magic
Soul essence is everywhere in Eora, and a magically inclined individual can use it to channel their spells. How someone uses it comes down to their preferred spells. Those who use it by channeling the energies around them, such as Druids, empower their nature-based magic with the soul essence flowing through everything. Those with a more powerful soul may harness the power of their soul to channel their spell, and the strength of an individual’s soul can make the spell easier to use. Those who devote themselves to a god also pull in magical energies from things around them, but it depends on the god they worship.
There are several ways for someone to channel soul essence in Eora. Expect to see it often and brought up frequently throughout your time in Avowed, as magic plays a huge part in this universe. Not many can see this process of reincarnation, but those known as Watchers can see and interact with souls.
Watchers in Eora
In the first and second Pillars of Eternity games, your character was a Watcher who could see, speak, and interact with souls. They are the few who can see the past lives of other individuals. A Watcher uses their power as they like, though they have been at the center of several problems throughout Eora’s history. Given their significance, expect to hear references to a Watcher during your time playing Avowed.
The Watcher in Pillars of Eternity participated in the major events of Dyrwood, where Waidwen’s Legacy took place. Waidwen’s Legacy was also known as the Hollowborn Crisis, during which time children were born without a soul for 15 years.
The Hollowborn Crisis
The Hollowborn Crisis of Dyrwood was a significant event for the area, as children were born without souls. Many believed the gods had become angry with the people of Dyrwood. The actual cause of this crisis from Pillars of Eternity is a major spoiler, but to summarize, the main character, The Watcher, discovers that the souls are intercepted by a machine, preventing them from going to their proper places and interrupting the cycle of reincarnation and the In-Between.
Although the process was interrupted and then corrected in Pillars of Eternity, the gods do play a large part in this and other events in Eora.
The gods of Eora
There’s a lot of lore and history with the gods in Pillars of Eternity, but it’s good to know that there are 11 of them, and they exist in the realm known as The Beyond. It’s a place where souls wander before they return to a new body in Eora, also known as The Here. The gods have agreed to not directly intervene with the lives of those in The Here, but many do if they believe there is no other choice but to involve themselves in certain events. Some were even able to walk The Here using a massive titan, which was seen in Deadfire by The Watcher.
The gods are real in Pillars of Eternity, and they have a direct part to play in many stories throughout these games.
Where Avowed takes place compared to Pillars of Eternity
When you embark in Avowed, the game takes place in the far north of Eora, in The Living Lands. It’s an unexplored location in Pillars of Eternity. Avowed has four regions to explore: the Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks. These are all distinct areas with individual biomes, factions, and people to meet. Nothing you see here has to do with anything that happened in either Pillars of Eternity game, making it a fresh start for everyone.
However, the events of Pillars of Eternity are not ancient. They didn’t happen too long ago, and people might still be talking about them, even this far north.
Timing between Pillars of Eternity and Avowed
The dates between the first Pillars of Eternity and Avowed are not significant. It’s only been eight years since The Watcher first stepped off the caravan to deal with The Hollowborn crisis and then dealt with the events of Deadfire five years after that. It’s not a huge gap, meaning the hero you make in Avowed is living at a time when The Watcher continues to work and weave history. The two are separated by a massive world, but everything is happening close to together.
The Pillars of Eternity world is massive, and catching up on every detail can be exhausting before you jump into Avowed. Expect lore dumps and explanations from many characters you meet, but don’t be surprised if you fall behind a little bit. Someone you meet on your journey can likely help you fill in the blanks and catch you up on everything you need to know while exploring The Living Lands in Avowed.
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