ThereвЂ™s some voice acting, from companions and in important story quests, but mostly you have to use your imagination. Page upon page of superbly written, vivid, descriptive text. The story in Pillars of Eternity is told largely through text. WaidwenвЂ™s Legacy, it seems, may be connected to your own predicament. However, this being an RPG, itвЂ™s not long before their fate becomes entwined in that of the Dyrwood itself.

A useful power you might think, but an encounter with an old Watcher who has been driven mad by it sends your hero on a quest to discover who or what caused their awakening, in order to reverse the damage. They implant animal souls into children, power automated war machines with them, and perform all manner of bizarre, ungodly experiments that, understandably, have given them a bad reputation.ДЄfter surviving a deadly magical storm known as a bГ®aЕµac, your heroвЂ™s own soul is вЂawakenedвЂ™, turning them into a Watcher: a person who can use souls to see people'sвЂ™ past lives. This mirrors the battle between science and religion throughout our own history, although animancers do a lot worse than tell people the world is round and clone farm animals. Animancers are convinced their work will put an end to the curse, but others think itвЂ™s an affront to the gods. When your hero arrives in the Dyrwood, a mysterious curse called WaidwenвЂ™s Legacy is causing babies to be born without souls, which becomes an important part of the main quest. Instead, the cultural tension comes from a controversial science called animancy, which involves the manipulation of souls. There is, naturally, some animosity between certain races and factions, but itвЂ™s rarely at the forefront. The Dyrwood is fairly multicultural, and IвЂ™m glad Obsidian didnвЂ™t go down the road of making racism a big part of their world, which is a fantasy trope we've seen before in modern RPGs. People you meet will react to your race, class, and background, both positively and negatively, so the choices you make when you create your character have some meaning beyond personal preference and what you want your hero to look like.

Pillars of eternity races