Avowed has the potential to both benefit from and fall victim to close comparisons with other fantasy games. When the trailer for Obsidian's upcoming first-person RPG dropped, Bethesda fans were quick to notice surface-level similarities with The Elder Scrolls, with many hoping the game could fill the gap left by the long wait for The Elder Scrolls 6.
Avowed is set in the Living Lands, an ecologically diverse frontier continent in the north of Eora, the world from Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity CRPGs. The studio will need to work hard to distinguish Avowed's setting from the competition. There are even reasons this task may be trickier than it was with Pillars of Eternity. However, the Living Lands also offer some unique opportunities Obsidian shouldn't let pass it by.
Avowed's Setting
Pillars of Eternity has a fascinating setting. At the time the first game takes place, Eora has settled into its rough equivalent of the early modern era. There are guns, galleons, and even powerful magical explosives in the form of the Godhammer bomb. In contrast, the setting of The Elder Scrolls doesn't seem to have had a major technological development since the Second Era, at least if The Elder Scrolls Online is anything to go by. Leaning into the early modern influences could be a great way for Avowed to differentiate itself, but there's already a problem.
The Avowed trailer may not have revealed much about the game, but what it does show suggests that it is likely set significantly before Pillars of Eternity, in a far more standard medieval fantasy setting. The only weapons seen in the trailer are medieval, while the voice-over hints that Avowed may be set in a specific earlier part of Eora's history when Woedica was queen of the gods of Eora.
In Pillars of Eternity, Woedica is the deposed queen of the gods. She is the goddess of justice, oaths, and rightful rule, with a strictly authoritarian streak. Like all the gods in Eora, she was actually created by the long-extinct Engwithan civilization from a single ideal using the souls of the Engwithan population.
The Avowed trailer hints that the game may be set during Woedica's reign. There's mention of war turning "heroes into queens and kings." Not only is this well within Woedica's purview - rightful rule - but the narrator's claim that "now our oaths are lost" suggests that these rulers made deals with Woedica, and are now being punished for not living up to their end of the bargain. Even the word "avowed" itself has strong links to Woedica's domain.
The risk is that by setting Avowed in an earlier period of Eora's history, the game will resemble the more standard fantasy worlds of games like Skyrim rather than Pillars of Eternity's more distinct setting. Fortunately, there are a few ways the Living Lands could still feel very different from the settings of other fantasy games.
Frontier Flexibility of the Living Lands
Unlike the top contenders for The Elder Scrolls 6's setting, the Living Lands are practically a blank slate in terms of lore. In Pillars of Eternity, the region is simply described as a "lawless land where communities band together, fall apart, and fight petty wars with each other constantly." This presents great opportunities not just in terms of storytelling, but in terms of mechanics. While the Living Lands will likely have some large fixed quest hubs, the dynamism of the setting could lay the foundation for Avowed to have a world far more prone to change than Skyrim's.
If Avowed wants to distinguish itself, players should be able to see the frontier's fragile communities rise and fall depending on their actions. Avowed's setting may be more traditionally medieval than Pillars of Eternity, but by setting its upcoming game on a frontier Obsidian could have far more flexibility, telling a story far away from regions of Eora with more established lore and allowing the player to have a huge influence over the game's world.
Avowed's Advantage
Although Avowed appears to be set before Pillars of Eternity - where the player discovers that the gods are man-made - it should still take advantage of its artificial gods as one of the most unique parts of its setting. It is revealed in Pillars of Eternity that people have discovered the true nature of Eora's gods multiple times, usually before their burgeoning atheist movements were crushed by Engwithan inquisitions. Games like Skyrim keep their main plots relatively straightforward. In fact, there's so little ambiguity about the nature of the gods of Tamriel that the Dragonborn literally visits and confirms the existence of the afterlife at the end of Skyrim's main quest.
The Living Lands could be a setting that initially appears to be generic and predictable, but which reveals itself to be far more than first meets the eye. The origins of the gods of Eora as seen in Pillars of Eternity borders on sci-fi, with the Engwithans building ginormous machines to manage the souls of the dead, create their own gods using animancy, and discover the answer to life's existential questions.
Avowed's setting has far more to offer than it first appears to. Its hidden depths are literal. There are huge pillars of adra - a soul-channeling mineral - that extend into mega-dungeons beneath Eora that hide hidden secrets and technology. This might sound like The Elder Scrolls' Dwemer ruins, but unlike The Elder Scrolls, Obsidian's Eora-set games have not hesitated to make solving the mysteries of its lost civilization a main part of the plot.
The Living Lands are a great blank slate for Obsidian to create a setting that is more prone to player influence than other open-world RPGs, with factions fighting over unclaimed land and settlements rising and falling. Avowed's setting also has the potential to have a main quest that tells a less predictable story than other fantasy RPGs, blending elements of medieval fantasy with science-fiction and a hint of existentialism. It will be up to Obsidian to take full advantage of the elements of Eora that could make the Living Lands stand out, but if it does the game may be able to step out of Skyrim's shadow, creating a world that is more ambitious both in terms of the player's impact and the complexity of its plot.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.