Avowedwill see Obsidian Entertainment directly take onThe Elder Scrolls' spot in the RPG market. The upcoming first-person RPG will be set in the fantasy world of Eora first developed for Obsidian’s twoPillars of Eternitygames.
The lastElder Scrollsgame was all about dragons, but there are reasons that the dragons inAvowedcould stand to be far more impressive and interesting than those that appeared inSkyrim. Here’s a breakdown of what makesPillars of Eternity’s dragons special in the lore, and how this could make for more interesting roleplaying and combat encounters inAvowed.
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The Dragons Of Skyrim
For a game centered on the return of the dragons toTamriel,Skyrim’s version of the creatures left much to be desired. For a start,Skyrim’s dragons weren’t very big. Aside from a few minor differences there wasn’t much aesthetic variation between the kinds of dragon players could encounter across Tamriel’s most northern province. There was also a big gap between the description of dragons in the game’s dialog and in the lore compared to their appearances and behavior in-game.
The dragons ofSkyrimare described as making no distinction between debate and combat. Their language - practiced by Nords and the Dragonborn as “the Voice” - has inherent magical abilities. However, there was never a time where this description actually matchedSkyrim’s dragon combat. Players never needed to respond to a dragon’s shout with another shout, for example. All they had to do was hack and slash at the dragon until it died, using the power ofthe Thu’umlike any other blunt weapon in their arsenal.
BeyondParthurnaaxthere were very few developed dragon characters in the game, with most just appearing in the sky to attack the Dragonborn on-site before being killed and used to unlock new shouts. Dragon fights proved relatively easy even onSkyrim’s highest difficulty setting, leading some fans to mod the game to make battling the beasts more challenging. Though dragons are said to be highly intelligent, this was hardly reflected in their tactics or the story. Odahviing, for example, is led into a trap in Whiterun Keep with relative ease, and most dragons acrossSkyrimseem easily defeated by the Dragonborn rather than being truly intimidating foes to face down.
One of the biggest missed opportunities inSkyrimis the lack of developed dragon lairs. While some dragons can be found sitting on top ofWord Walls, there is never a sense that dragons have much of a relationship to their environment. There are no opportunities to discover dragons that have hoarded huge piles of treasure, have grown to great sizes, or have come to reflect their environment in any physical way. Mostly,Skyrim’s dragons serve as random encounters to allow players to unlock more shouts, while reminding the player that they are in fact the Dragonborn.
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Dragons In Pillars Of Eternity
The dragons ofAvowedhave the potential to be far more diverse and exciting as encounters than those found inSkyrim. For a start, all dragons are merely the final form of the lifecycle of the creatures inthe world of Eora. All dragons hatch from eggs, live part of their lives as wurms, become drakes during their adolescence, and eventually become dragons after years of development.
Dragons in thePillars of Eternityuniverse continue to expand in both size and intelligence the older they get. Old dragons can grow to be dozens of feet long, and their intelligence is said to surpass almost any other being encountered in Eora. Dragons could not only prove to be among the most interesting combat encounters inAvowed, but potentially some of the most interesting characters players might meet in the game.
Eora’s dragons also come to reflect the environment around them in a way that could inspire far more interesting lair encounters than the Word Wall dragons found inSkyrim. Their coloration and even their body structure morphs to reflect the environment in which they choose to live. Theplayer character ofAvowedcould find themselves scaling a mountain, for example, before part of it appear to break away, revealing itself to be a recently-dormant dragon.
Many dragons in Eora are also worshipped by Xaurips, a small reptilian race resemblingDungeons and Dragons' Kobolds. Xaurips will often offer themselves as sacrifices to be eaten by the dragon they worship. They build their lairs around these creatures, and an old dragon may be the center of massive religious festivals in which hundreds of Xaurips are consumed.
Dragon Characters In Avowed
The dragons ofSkyrimare described as simply pursuing power and domination, and in-game seem to throw themselves recklessly atthe Dragonbornone-by-one. The roles of the dragons inPillars of Eternityare far more diverse. In the add-onPillars of Eternity: The White March - Part 2players encounter the archmage Llengrath, a godlike and a member of the Circle of Archmagi. She has raised two swamp dragons from the time they were eggs. These dragons are named Gafonercos and Turisulfus. Gafornercos is used as a mount by the archmage when she needs to leave the swamp, and is fond of singing. Turisulfus is a dutiful student of the archmage and dislikes Gafornercos' singing, but both simply aim to make their homes in the swamp they grew up in for years to come.
There simply aren’t diverse dragon characters with that level of complexity inSkyrim. Indeed, onlyAlduin, Parthurnaax, and Odahviing really exist as dragon characters inSkyrimat all.Avowedhas the potential to introduce far more interesting dragon characters that aren’t bogged down by the need for them to be the subject of infinite random combat scenarios.
The dragons inSkyrimexist almost exclusively to be killed by the player, and the dragons onlyreturn to Tamrielat the beginning of the game. The dragons inPillars of Eternity, in contrast, could feel far more like a part of the world the player is exploring, gifting the game with more diverse individual personalities and - hopefully - more dynamic and challenging combat encounters.
Avowedis in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
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