Avowed's 'Blank Slate' Approach May Cause a Massive Rift With PoE

Avowed’s ‘Blank Slate’ Approach May Cause a Massive Rift With PoE

• Avowed’s narrative and setting may risk feeling disconnected from Pillars of Eternity, despite drawing heavily from its lore.
• Avowed will explore the Living Lands, and the Aedyr Empire, connecting it to Pillars of Eternity’s intricate history.
• Balancing fan expectations and newcomer accessibility could be a challenge for Obsidian with Avowed’s relationship to Pillars of Eternity.

Obsidian Entertainment’s forthcoming fantasy RPG, Avowed, is set to arrive this Fall. After working on more experimental titles like 2022’s Pentiment, Avowed will see the studio return to its more familiar forte of open-world FPS narrative-based experiences, this time in an original setting. In Avowed’s case, though, its world of Eora and surrounding lore is heavily based on the studio’s previous two CRPGs, 2015’s Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire from 2018.

Obsidian has been very clear that Avowed fans won’t need prior knowledge of Pillars of Eternity going into it. And although that is a credit to the developer as it seems not to wish to overburden or overwhelm players with too much necessary pre-knowledge, the fact that it will still be drawing extensively from the existing aspects of its land of Eora and the intricate details and other foundational facets already in place, does create the possibility of adding a layer of risk to the approach. If not integrated in the right way, Avowed could thus end up feeling much more disconnected from PoE than perhaps it otherwise would be, leaving fans wondering why it was attached to the previous IP in the first place.

On top of its other established elements, Avowed may also be taking cues from FromSoftware in certain design aspects.

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Avowed Can’t Forget to Put Its Banner IP Front and Center

Being based on Obsidian’s previous Pillars of Eternity series, Avowed should be sure to highlight many of its well-established aspects and lore.

Avowed’s Detached Relationship to Pillars of Eternity Could Create a Schism in the Two IPs

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Avowed and Pillars of Eternity Are Inextricably Linked

Avowed will be set in a region called the Living Lands, a previously unseen locale within Eora, although it has been briefly mentioned and referenced in Pillars of Eternity. A much greater connection it will have to PoE is via the Aedyr Empire, which in internal lore is a cornerstone of much of Eora’s history and culture. Avowed will have players embark as a character sent by the Empire to investigate a mysterious disease that seems to be impacting and altering in some strange way the local population of the Living Lands as well as the region’s natural stability. This thread already relies on some notable overall elements from PoE, and gamers completely unfamiliar with any might have trouble digesting and understanding them all, even if the intention is to use them only as a broad framework.

Fans may also recall that Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire left off on a climactic cliffhanger moment, with widespread implications for the very foundations and peoples of Eora as a whole. This also leads into the matter of Avowed’s time frame in relation to Pillars of Eternity’s. If it’s close to this event, it would then seem odd if it doesn’t tangentially connect to it or at least mention it in passing. But even then, due to the nature of the narrative setup, it should theoretically have a massive impact on the setting. If it’s set farther away in time, either in the past or future, that would give Avowed more space to explore while not being too attached to having to incorporate major PoE aspects.

Why Avowed’s Distanced Stance Towards its Parent IP Could Cause Issues

It can often be a tricky task for a studio to delicately balance well-established and elaborate lore in a new title while simultaneously aiming to please audiences composed of both returning fans and newcomers, and not alienate either. Fans who have experienced Pillars of Eternity before Avowed may be expecting it to address or be more directly related to some items seen in PoE. While again Avowed will ostensibly not be gated by requiring any important knowledge from PoE, it still could result in stranger and less desirable situations.

Obsidian must be cautious then that the way it’s decided to relate the two doesn’t end up producing a divide between them, and potentially make them feel distanced enough as to actually be entirely separate. One decision that may assist in mitigating this hypothetical rift is that Avowed is stated to be a smaller, more focused experience. Thus, it might be that this may not necessarily be as big of an issue as it could be. In fact, a possibly beneficial side effect of this angle could lead to Avowed reinvigorating or rebooting Pillars of Eternity in the process, which would benefit both IPs. For now, gamers will need to wait a bit more until Avowed releases to see how it handles this component.

Avowed

FranchisePillars of EternityPlatform(s)Windows, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XReleased2024-00-00Developer(s)Obsidian EntertainmentPublisher(s)Xbox Game StudiosGenre(s)Action RPG See at Official SiteSee at Xbox Games Store