Gods loom large in Eora, the setting of Obsidian Entertainment’sPillars of Eternityseries andAvowed. Sometimes they literally loom large - a gigantic statue possessed by Eothas sets in motion the plot ofPillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Illustrations from the same game show the player character as a tiny figure standing before the gods while they theatrically converse. Given the significant role they play inPillars,it’s reasonable to think players will see more of these deities inAvowed.
Bickering, larger-than-life deities are common in fantasy settings, including the isometric RPGs that inspiredPillars of Eternity. Divine intrigues and interventions help set the stage for many adventures. At first glance, the gods of Eora seem no different: they fight among themselves, reign over different aspects of reality,grant clerics divine magic, and make adventures happen by meddling in human affairs.
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However, Obsidian’s gods have a tendency to upset expectations. Towardthe end ofPillars of Eternity, the player learns a surprising truth: the gods did not create the world they rule; in fact, they were created by mortals. InDeadfire, the nefarious way this artificial pantheon sustains its existence becomes an important plot point. These revelations weigh down the gods' relationship with mortals with philosophical and moral questions. Such questions are part of what makes the gods of this universe so distinctive.
Likes: smithing, gruntwork
Dislikes: the moon
Abydon is the god of industry, the forge, and labor. After his original incarnation was destroyed by the moon, he reforged himself over time - a story players can learn more about inThe White Marchexpansion forPillars of Eternity. He is loyal to the goddess Magran and tends not to get involved in divine squabbles if he can help it.
Likes: death, doorways, being stern
Dislikes: people talking back to her
Berath’s nature is twofold: though often appearing in the guise of a woman called the Pallid Knight, the deity also takes the form of a skeleton or dwarf called the Usher. As the Pallid Knight, Berath is the primary quest-giver inDeadfire. She is especially interested in making sure thatEora’s cycle of death and reincarnationcontinues smoothly, and she acts as the de facto leader of the gods who oppose Eothas.
Likes: candles, challenging the status quo
Dislikes: oppression, bombs (a bomb destroyed his avatar Waidwen)
Eothas is a complicated deity. As the god of light, hope, and rebirth, he is the most conventionally “good” of the pantheon, but he also serves as the antagonist for much ofDeadfire.His meddling also helped bring about the destructive Saint’s War that serves as part of the first game’s backstory. One of his aspects, Gaun, is a sinister Grim Reaper-like being. ThePillars of Eternityguidebook summarizes Eothas' motivationssaying, “Gaun is an answerer of wrong and imbalances, or whatever he interprets as imbalance.”
Likes: long walks in nature, monsters
Dislikes: big social functions
Galawain is the god of beasts and wild places. He’s also called Father of Monsters, so players can blame him forthe enemies they will encounter inAvowed. Like Abydon, he tends to let the other gods do the talking.
Likes: parrots, poetry
Dislikes: ugliness
As with Eothas, Hylea’s portfolio includes several things that would seem to place her among conventionally “good” deities in other settings: maternity, artistry, birds, and more. Her followers oftenpractice medicine, too. But she seems as interested in beauty as she is in goodness - perhaps moreso. InDeadfire, the other gods sometimes ridicule her, and NPC companion Pallegina from bothPillars of Eternitygames has come to resent her.
Likes: warfare, gunpowder (Eora has guns, which could return inAvowed)
Dislikes: casual chitchat, Eothas
The goddess of Durance, one of the most memorable NPC companions inPillars of Eternity, Magran is the stern mistress of war and fire. Her enmity with Eothas culminated in her clergy’s work on a bomb that destroyed him during the Saint’s War. Serious-minded and haughty, she teaches her followers that existence is a series of trials, martial or otherwise.
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Likes: the sea, sadness
Dislikes: theEngwithan civilization, which she tried to destroy
Ondra rules the seas and forgetting, and she is also the closest thing Eora has to a goddess of love. Her association with love comes from the fact that she fell in love with the moon. Ever since, the tides have embodied her eternal pursuit of that unreachable heavenly body. Some of her followers cast things into the sea that their owners would like to forget.
Likes: icy climes, entropy
Dislikes: wholeness
Rymrgand is the god of the civil collapse, and the collapse of existence more generally. He appears as a mighty, icy aurochs (an extinct kind of bovine) who is widely feared, with even the other gods shuddering at his approach. One of his titles, Beast of Winter, is also the name ofDeadfire’s first expansion.
Likes: resentment, violent revolution
Dislikes: upstanding citizens
Skaen oozes resentment. He is the god of the downtrodden; more specifically, he’s the god of the downtrodden who seek revenge through gruesome rituals. Though his values appear very different from Woedica’s, the two are uneasy allies. Of the whole pantheon, these two are the gods most concerned with social organization; their strange bond suggests the notion that some truce between tradition and revolt is necessary for society.
Likes: both confusion and the accumulation of knowledge
Dislikes: clarity
According to thePillars of Eternityguidebook, Wael “represents both the acts of concealment and obfuscation as well as the acts of revelation and decryption.” In other words, Wael is for knowledge and against it. When the deity manifests in reality, its nature is indeterminate; a constantly changing whirl of different human appearances and voices.
Likes: tyranny, conquering
Dislikes: free thinking
Woedica and her followers often play an antagonistic role in thePillars of Eternitygames, and it’s likely players will seemore of Woedica inAvowed. The leader of the Leaden Key organization acts as the player’s nemesis in the first game, and helped bring about the Hollowborn Crisis - a plague in which children are born without souls. Still, Woedica’s motives can’t be described as purely malicious. She believes that following the letter of the law and preserving tradition are more important than whatever suffering they cause.
Avowedis in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S
