Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Lyric Suite]

I feel the lore should be made interesting by the story. I found the lore surrounding Dak'kon interesting because it was part of the game. If i was reading up in his belief system in some lore book i'd probably start wondering why the fuck am i even bothering to read that since it's all made up bullshit anyway.

I didn't get far enough in the game to be sure, but i got the sense Durance was a variation on that kind of character, meaning understanding his belief system came naturally as a consequence of understading the character.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I think there are around 7 people who find Pillars lore interesting.

Which sounds impressive until you realize that 5 of them are Soyer and his sock puppets.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Only Skaen is about anything substantial.

According to the lore description, he is like the most perfect representation of a Bolshevik put in a game. Wonder what Sawyer was trying to do here.

 

[Lacrymas]

Only Skaen is about anything substantial.

According to the lore description, he is like the most perfect rapresentation of a Bolshevik put in a game. Wonder what Sawyer was trying to do here.

There are very strong similarities between the Skaenite cult and early Christianity. I'd go as far as to say that Skaen is the most Christian of Eora's pantheon. Too bad the writers don't know what they are writing about so it doesn't go anywhere.

 

[Technomancer]

if what Technomancer said is true

Refreshed my memory, from the wiki:

The Wheel is a natural phenomenon in Eora that is responsible for the cycle of rebirth, allowing souls to pass from one life to another. Over two-thousand years ago, the Engwithans learned to manipulate souls. During their time, the Wheel caused many soul maladies because the flow of souls was inconsistent and without real direction. Together with the Huana in the ancient city of Ukaizo, the Engwithans constructed a giant machine to seize control of the process. The machine steered souls into The Beyond from the In-Between, much like damming a river, to control and direct the flow of souls. The Engwithans, who became the gods, took direct roles in controlling the newly improved process. The gods use the essence that a soul "sheds" in the Wheel (known as entropy) to sustain themselves. The tampering of the Engwithans was so extensive that over the centuries the natural rebirth process became reliant on the machine at Ukaizo. The process had deteriorated to the point that it could not return to its original state.

In 2828 AI, Eothas, in an effort to diminish the role of the gods and elevate kith, destroyed the machine in Ukazio, grinding the process to a halt. Souls from newly deceased now pool in the In-Between, unable to pass to The Beyond and to new births.

 

[Technomancer]

I didn't get far enough in the game to be sure, but i got the sense Durance was a variation on that kind of character, meaning understanding his belief system came naturally as a consequence of understading the character.

Honesty was the best part of pillars for me, the only thing I truly remember with fondness. Avellone written characters make such a painful contrast tho. Because compared to him and GMother other companions barely have anything to say. Though to be fair I found his G. Mother to be painfully boring and verbose, couldn't care less about her personal drama. It is also amusing to know that they were cut down from what Avellone wrote originally lol. Truly a 'prolific' writer.

 

[Skinwalker]

What was Durance's deal in pillows? He had killed a god's avatar and was really broken up about it?

 

[ColonelMace]

found his G. Mother to be painfully boring and verbose

That's because this is precisely what she was.
Avellone is (partly) responsible for the best and the worst companion in the game.

Albeit as you mentioned, the complete story he aimed for sounded interesting on paper. Iirc they both shared a tragic past event, although they would not recognize each other before the player would have made it click.
I suspect that's in part the reason behind Grieving Mother introduction. I assume Durance being unrecognizable would have had to do with his face being burnt off.
Neither goes by his or her actual name either.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Only Skaen is about anything substantial.

According to the lore description, he is like the most perfect rapresentation of a Bolshevik put in a game. Wonder what Sawyer was trying to do here.

There are very strong similarities between the Skaenite cult and early Christianity. I'd go as far as to say that Skaen is the most Christian of Eora's pantheon. Too bad the writers don't know what they are writing about so it doesn't go anywhere.

Lmao, the fuck how?

The lore description gives zero indications he is even remotely connected to Christainity in any way.

 

[Lacrymas]

Lmao, the fuck how?

I'm glad you asked. Make sure to read the whole thread.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Lmao, the fuck how?

I'm glad you asked. Make sure to read the whole thread.

Seems like Sizzle is ripping you a new one there. Skaen is a Bolshevik:

 

[Lacrymas]

found his G. Mother to be painfully boring and verbose

That's because this is precisely what she was.
Avellone is (partly) responsible for the best and the worst companion in the game.

Albeit as you mentioned, the complete story he aimed for sounded interesting on paper. Iirc they both shared a tragic past event, although they would not recognize each other before the player would have made it click.
I suspect that's in part the reason behind Grieving Mother introduction. I assume Durance being unrecognizable would have had to do with his face being burnt off.
Neither goes by his or her actual name either.

I'm pretty sure Durance raped her and she used her powers to wipe both their minds or something like that.

 

[Lacrymas]

Seems like Sizzle is ripping you a new one there. Skaen is a Bolshevik:

The whole thread.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Seems like Sizzle is ripping you a new one there. Skaen is a Bolshevik:

The whole thread.

You got your ass kicked in all seven pages of it.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's not that Skaen has Bolshevik tendencies, it's that Marx had Christian values. This is brought up in the thread you clearly didn't read.

 

[Technomancer]

What was Durance's deal in pillows? He had killed a god's avatar and was really broken up about it?

Don't spoil yourself, Lyric Suite. Discover it in game.

Basically he got duped and used by his goddess, Magran. He was one of the 12 priest who detonated the bomb, but he was the only one who survived. After that, his goddess stopped talking with him completely and suddenly. Made no sense because he was a devoted zealot. So he started to commit more and more atrocities on eothians after the war trying to win her favor. 15 years went by and it did nothing. Through your insight as a soul seer you eventually discover Margan does not ignore him because she is upset with him like he thought, but because the bomb warped and damaged his soul so he became invisible to her sight, further he was never intended to survive in the first place, because he potentially could expose that Magran conspired with Woedica over the whole thing. Eothas started the war to prevent hollowborn plot from happening, which was a soul harvesting operation orchestrated by Thaos to empower Woedica and turn her into queen of gods again and Magran helped to destroy Eothas allowing the scheme to happen. The priests were supposed to die to bury the secrets of the bomb with them as lose ends, and he only didn't by luck. So all the cruelty he did, all his fanatical devotion was completely pointless because to his god he was nothing but a discarded and forgotten pawn. In the end, embittered and enraged by the revelation he swears revenge.

Albeit as you mentioned, the complete story he aimed for sounded interesting on paper. Iirc they both shared a tragic past event, although they would not recognize each other before the player would have made it click.

Yeah it would make everything better. Shame it never made it in.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's not that Skaen has Bolshevik tendencies, it's that Marx had Christian values.

Marx had the same values as Richard Stallman. Same genes too:

 

[Decado]

The "non-God" Gods of PoE are not even really a new concept. Morrowind messed around with this (the Tribunal and Dagoth-Ur used the Heart of Lorkhan to ascend to godhood) and so the did the Forgotten Realms (the Time of Troubles). The idea of a conspiracy to suppress the information is a neat idea I guess, but it is very progressive-coded (surprise).

 

[ColonelMace]

I guess you could even track it all the way back to Euhemeros.

 

[Skinwalker]

The Tribunal and Dagoth Ur are monumentally more interesting concepts/characters than pillows souls shit.

Pillows tries to treat supernatural entities as if they were mundane substances subject to impersonal laws of nature, which are ultimately just expressions of meaningless chaos. It misses the whole point of transcendent/supernatural reality by a country mile.

The basic concepts are mostly just Gnosticism. We've already seen (in video games) an ancient conspiracy by which mortal souls are trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth to feed an ancient entity that considers itself a god. It's called Soul Reaver. Except, the Elder One wasn't a machine, souls weren't subject to decay/entropy, and themes of fate vs destiny were central to the main characters and villains.

 

[Sweeper]

We all knew it but I'm just gonna say it PF:KM > PoE
Pre-buffing > Being forced to only buff in combat
Josh is the type of retard who looks at a wheel and goes
>I'm going to reinvent this
Fucking dumb fuck. Dumb, arrogant, autistic fuck.

 

[Lacrymas]

Pre-buffing is awful and just a checklist you go through that wastes your time. Buffing in combat means you actually have to choose whether to buff or not.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

We all knew it but I'm just gonna say it PF:KM > PoE
Pre-buffing > Being forced to only buff in combat
Josh is the type of retard who looks at a wheel and goes
>I'm going to reinvent this
Fucking dumb fuck. Dumb, arrogant, autistic fuck.

Oh hell no. And I don't even like PoE. But PoE was at least a mediocre to decent RPG, Shitmaker is just shit.

Prebuffing as literally the only tactic is a fucking joke, gtfo of here. PoE at least had some combat tactics, even if it wasn't very good at it (whoever designed those fucking kicking dwarves in White March is a retard).

Also for all the shit PoE gets for shitty lore and lore dumps, it was still way more interesting than the shit in Shitmaker (oh no, every chapter some ugly nymph is going to send some new wave of shit at us).

Let me break it down for you: PoE is mediocre. Shitmaker is bottom of the barrel shit.

 

[Sweeper]

Buffing in combat means you actually have to choose whether to buff or not.

That's right, the priest class, whose only purpose in the game is to buff your party, has to decide whether or not to buff the party...
It's just way more annoying this way and it doesn't even make sense. Why wouldn't a priest be able to buff the party outside of combat?

Shitmaker is bottom of the barrel shit.

It's okay to be wrong Porky.

 

[Lacrymas]

There are builds that don't have the Priest just be a buff-bot. Skaen Priest f.e.