Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming first-person RPG Avowed is set in the studio’s Pillars of Eternity universe. With many RPG fans hoping that Avowed could be the spiritual successor to Skyrim, a lot of future players are hoping that the Pillars of Eternity backstory might offer some insight into what fans can expect from Obsidian’s next game.
The Engwithans were members of an enigmatic civilization known as Engwith, composed of all of the Kith races and extinct by the time of Pillars of Eternity. Though fans don’t currently know when Avowed will be set, here’s everything known about the culture they’re likely to find the ruins of scattered across Avowed’s landscape.
The Engwithans were an Empire that previously inhabited Eir Glanfath, a region in the Eastern Reach of Eora, the world of Avowed. Known as “builders” by the other people of that area, the Engwithans became masters of adra, a mysterious stone with soul-channeling properties. This allowed them to fill their civilization with adra pillars which are rumored to reach deep down into a living network.
One Engwithan king, of which there were many across its independent kingdoms, was named Od Nua. After a particularly successful conquering campaign, Od Nua lost his son, Maros, and went mad because he knew that there were no gods, and that his son would never be reincarnated. He began building a massive adra statue to store Maros’ soul, but was turned on by the other tyrants of Engwith, and buried alive with his construct. This adra statue would eventually be taken over by the god Eothas in Pillars of Eternity 2.
Od Nua’s obsession, however, had caused huge advancements in the understanding of both adra and its relationship with souls. The use of machines to study and control souls became known as Animancy. The Engwithans set out to find the gods of Avowed‘s universe, but instead confirmed Od Nua’s fears. Instead of despairing, however, they chose 11 false idols and decided to use Animancy to bring them to life as real gods, each one representing a different ideal.
To achieve this they built their network of adra-powered machines across the world, including a crucible for creating gods and a machine to give Engwith control over The Wheel, the cycle of rebirth that souls pass through. They used this machine to sacrifice countless of their own people to provide the souls to bring the gods into Eora, first activating it around 2000 years before the events of the first Pillars of Eternity.
The gods of Pillars of eternity were created with a queen, Woedica. Thaos ix Arkannon was selected to be the messenger between her and the Engwithans, and to spread the new faith while keeping the origins of the gods a secret. To do this, Engwithan missionaries swore never to have children so that they lacked attachments who they might pass the secret onto. However, because of this practice and the need for more souls to power their machines, the Engwithans dwindled in numbers.
When a wood elf woman named Iovara ix Ensios inadvertently discovered the truth about the gods and began an atheist movement, the resulting Inquisition reduced numbers further. Ondra, the moon goddess, tried to wipe out the Engwithans by crashing a minor moon into their civilization to keep their secret safe once and for all. However, Abydon, god of the forge, sacrificed himself to stop it.
As a result, while the Engwithans are gone, their cities, pillars, and machines will likely be found all over the world of Avowed. Huge statues like the one seen in Avowed’s teaser trailer are likely able to be traced back to the ancient Engwithan civilization, and it is very likely that their strange presence will be felt throughout the game.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
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