Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming first-person fantasy RPG. In many fantasy worlds, technology is relatively stagnant. The Elder Scrolls Online, for example, takes place around a thousand years before Skyrim, and yet society is almost technologically identical. Similarly, BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic games took place 4000 years before the movies, and yet it appears that no scientific advancements were made in that time.
The same can not be said for the world of Eora, the setting of Avowed first used in Obsidian’s two Pillars of Eternity games. Animancy is a constantly developing field of study which uses machinery to observe, harness, and even transfer souls, which are discovered to exist as more than mere abstract concepts in Eora.
The History of Animancy
Animancy has existed in the world of Eora for centuries, with the ancient Engwithans harvesting souls to turn false idols into the gods of Eora. This began after one of their kings tried to put his son's soul into a giant Adra statue, eventually taken over by the god Eothas. However, after the fall of their civilization the practice declined and was even outlawed in places like Aedyr, Dyrwood and Readceras.
This was due to an event in 2260 AI, around 550 years before the events of the first Pillars of Eternity. Animancers in Aedyr successfully transferred a soul into a dead body for the first time, but the reanimated corpse went wild and attacked them. It would not be until later that the animancer Pandgram discovered how to keep souls bound within dead bodies to create undead.
However, when Dyrwood gained its independence from the Aedyr Empire the practice became legal once again, and the study led the world into a golden age of scientific and cosmological discovery. Animancy has been used for everything from adjusting personality traits, curing mental illness, and beginning to understand the nature of reincarnation.
However, unregulated animancy has also created monsters. Unethical experiments have been performed in the name of scientific endeavor. Hollowborn children – children born without souls, thought to be punishments for the destruction of the god Eothas’ prophet during the Saint’s War – are a key plotpoint in the first Pillars of Eternity game.
Attempts to transfer lost human souls into these hollow shells only caused the human soul to take over, so around 2809 AI, animancers began inserting animal souls into the hollowborn instead. This creates a creature called a Wicht, resembling a feral child with pale skin and glowing eyes, often with talons and sharp teeth that look like they're straight out of the darkest horror movies.
There have also been tragic accidents in the history of animancy that have raised suspicions of the practice even after it was made legal again. In 2704 AI an animancer shattered the souls of twelve volunteers who had been working with him on his experiments. The animancer involved was killed by an angry mob in retaliation as a result. Portraying the moral ambiguity of animancy well in the story could be one of Avowed's greatest strengths.
Fields of Animancy
Animancy also has two main distinct fields. Soul manipulation is one such field. It began when animancers were attempting to enable souls to connect directly to other souls. They even reached out to the advanced vithrack, a spider-like race in Pillars of Eternity, who were able to connect to the souls of others, but with dangerous consequences. In more recent years, animancers who specialize in soul manipulation have worked with ciphers in Defiance Bay to try and expand the understanding of souls all over Eora.
The other main field is soul capturing. When a person dies, some animancers will try and capture their soul, though trying to return it to its original body has been known to have terrible side-effects, a running theme in the study of souls. The ancient Engwithan animancers were able to put warrior’s souls into metal armor to create guardians known as “animats”, a practice that has been able to be revived and improved upon in recent years.
Animancy is one of the most fascinating aspects of Eora, and could help Avowed really stand out against strong competition in the RPG market. If Obsidian Entertainment centers animancy as it did in the plots of both Pillars of Eternity games, then the studio’s fantasy world could feel like one of few that is constantly developing new technology and making new discoveries. The world of Avowed will likely be full of animancy experimentation that players will either oppose or, perhaps, perform themselves.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.