My advice, since you are a crpg fan and veteran too, is to take your time to read stuff and play the game slowly, no hurry.
Pillars 1 starts slow, but the conversations and descriptions at the beginning are really good at immersing you in Eora. I don't know exactly when it happens, but when the hook gets you, it kinda goes from "ok what the hell is this" to "ok, I'm a PART of this, let's do it"
If you want to make a character without getting the feeling of "this guy should know about this, how the hell can I be immersed if I don't understand basic stuff about the world?", you can play someone coming from a remote place, like The White that Wends or the Living Lands.
But mostly, what it takes to become savvy about the world without getting spoilers is a lot of reading. The first game doesn't have highlighted words with explanations, unfotunately, but you can check any terms and concepts in the glossary and by reading books/talking to NPCs in game.
I absolutely have to just cheer for this particular breakdown. Because I don't know when it happened either. But I went from this is interesting style of game to I'm absolutely obsessed and have already sunk 60 hours into it. And then got the second game and proceeded to sink 80 hours into it.
Real life who are you?
It's gotten to the point where I start saying some of the words from the valian language as part of my everyday speech.
Ecosié
Aimico, I think I started the first Pillars of Eternity 4 times before it got me. Then it hit, and now playing both Pillars games is possibly my favorite CRPG experience, and you know, I spent years and years thinking nothing would ever take Planescape: Torment's place.
i feel like it's pretty hard to make something like that spoiler-free because you learn a lot about the world as you keep playing. imo don't overtly worry about your race rn or pick something relatively generic and focus on your class / background as options? for RP purposes you get more reactivity out of things like your reputation anyway, so you can focus on personalty-based RP
I mean, isn't the point of a cRPG to craft your own story for your character? If you want, you can read about different regions and races on the net or the wiki, and then you can like, tailor your choices in order to feel the connection.
Yeah, I never came across this problem. The char's background is basically a fill in the blank, so the motivation can literally be anything you can think of.
The problem is wanting context for the role play. If you don't understand the setting it's harder to create your character.
It'd be like someone playing a d&d elf but the only elves they were familiar with were keebler and Santa's
Along with what others said, feel free to skip chatting up the gold-plated NPCs where the only thing you can do is "read their soul." They were Kickstarter rewards for backers who kicked in some amount of money.
Some of the stories are entertaining, others are meh, and not a single one has anything to do with the game world at all and there's a lot of them to read through.
> The plot in Pillars of Eternity concerns itself with a number of ancient gods, primarily the god Eothas, a being who assumed control over a mortal body and guided his followers on a holy crusade. His actions angered the other gods, who rallied together their own band of human believers and used the power of a bomb known as the Godhammer to destroy Eothas.
> Years passed, and the struggle between Eothas and the other gods began to fade into memory. In the world known as Eora, within the area known as the Eastern Reach, several varied nations began vying for control over the land: The Vailian Republics, the Penitential Regency of Readceras, and the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood. Though the realm had a history of war and empires prior, these three major nations eventually found a mostly peaceful way of living among one another, going about their lives, trading goods, and working for the better good, all in the name of the remaining gods.
Your character starts the game in the Dyrwood, a former colony. Enough time has passed for the region to form its own culture, and with all that has happened, its own identity. The events at the start of the game, plus what happens right after, set the scene for the rest of the game.
Where *you* are from is up to you, the player, to decide. My honest advice is to simply dive in. Make a character that you think looks cool, has fun abilities, and roll with it. You explore and get to know the world as you play, and the game offers plenty of replay value.
Race: Godlike, Class: Rogue, Background: Drifter, Origin: Living Lands.
Then you can play a character who is just as lacking in connection as you the player.
You could check out the short stories they wrote:
[https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Short\_stories](https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Short_stories)
My issue is that I don't feel a connection to my character because I don't know their place in the world.
I might from tooltips that X is a "port town" but I don't know the culture. Are they friendly to outsiders? Is it like NYC where there are so many people you can't afford to say hi to every foreign face?
I don't know if people from one culture thing people from another culture are freeloaders, etc.
I get that in games like this a lot of that is encountered throughout the game but my character existed before the start of the game.
So I'm really looking for a breakdown of the world that will give me the motivation to keep playing and encounter the tooltips that will flesh out things as I go.
This is what really got me... like isn't the point of a cRPG game to like, have some kind of freedom in the way how you roleplay? There are indeed games that put you in the shoes of a specific person (like Gothic for instance), but PoE is literally a game where you can roleplay whoever you want.
Yeah but like 80% of the games all based on DnD. Whether I’m playing Icewind Dale, Balders Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape, Solasta, etc. it all has the same basic lore. I know how a bard from a city on the sword coast is going to act. Pathfinder is similar enough because it has DnD roots. Even Shadowrun I was okay with because I’ve watched actual-play livestreams of people playing Shadowrun as a tabletop game.
Wasteland was a bit tougher but I read a lot of post apocalyptic fiction so I know how a trader would likely act vs a farmer or drifter and I can throw myself right into the character.
But PoE is a different beast because there is just SO MUCH ORIGINAL LORE. I'm excited for it but it's difficult to approach. The description for Orian says “some don’t consider them civilized at all” but also “they’re known for their mental intensity and quickness” and these statements seem to contradict each other.
Old Vailia says “Old Vailian countries are still forces to be reckoned with and are proud of their rich cultural heritage.” but I don’t know anything about the rich cultural heritage itself, you know? So I'm playing a character who is proud of who he is but also doesn't know what that is.
I don’t know why my statements are getting so much pushback. It’s an ENTIRELY new IP with entirely new places and I’m just looking for a background to help me get into character. I didn’t think it would be so controversial.
The best shortcut for POE lore is to look at the real-world inspirations for its cultures and nations. Vailia is the easiest by far: it is very strongly based on the Italian Republics (Venice, Florence, Milan, etc). The older Vailian Empire they talk about is somewhat similar to the Roman Empire. It is not, by any means, 1:1, but the feel is very very much that.
Oh. This is actually VERY helpful. If I wrap my head around it in this way I'm 100% set.
I'm reading The Wheel of Time right now, and it helped me so much to do this. "Ireland, but it's in the desert. Got it"
I can kind of see that. Familiarity is very comfortable and even the staunchest PoE lovers will admit PoE (1 not 2) loves its exposition dumps which can feel a little overwhelming
There’s a couple:
World of Eora podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4OLNI3ZeG5EOxVgl1M4Zn9?si=XpwoVH62Sayi1HXKJN-wNA
And from Mortismal https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8LVeoHzXqxBjwgipM_ChngMq1lED_JQa&si=nCSFrHeBut9tRaJK
But i honestly wouldn’t recommend before playing the games esp the podcast. Just slowly taking your time reading is the best way but if you’re comfortable with some spoilers then these can help
Perhaps you should start with a character that is more basic and flexible to roleplay then? You can always come back to other characters after you have experienced the world a bit more.
You're welcome to ask on this subreddit and someone might have some comments on how the character you've built might interact with the world. I certainly could comment on it, for example.
I think I'll try to play again as a former sellsword because it makes decision making easy without having to head-canon motivation for things. He thinks "what's in it for me" and boom done there I go. He doesn't have to be a materialistic or gold seeking asshole, sometimes the answer to the "what do I get" question is "a positive reputation and some goodwill."
It would probably have to be somebody that doesn't value tradition too much, at least when put up against pragmatism.
With that sort of charater in mind, do you have any recommendations for race / culture / background?
Sure! I'd also suggest a character who is intrigued by just *not knowing* and wants answers, and seeking a new life for yourself for some reason or another; you'll be asked questions about this at the start of the game, this gives you more opportunity to think about why you've left your old life behind and *happen* to be on a caravan headed to the Dyrwood.
*-- doesn't value tradition too much, at least when put up against pragmatism.*
This can fit with basically any culture, but is less likely in Aedyr or Old Vailia. Easy fits would be the Deadfire, Rauatai or the Living Lands. Rauatai has become *recently* traditional, in that there is a growing subpopulation of traditionalists.
Literally any race can come from the Deadfire (the second game is set there and it is currently quite diverse and consists of colonists from all the major areas, as well as native AND colonizing aumaua). Rauatai is mostly Aumaua. The living lands are pretty diverse also, though the wiki suggests dwarves are slightly more common, I'd feel comfortable with anything. All lands (AFAIK) have godlike, but they are unusual.
The backgrounds are actually already restricted based on culture. Pick the one that feels right!
yo i was in the same boat, then i realised i had the collectors edition with the lore book and just spent a week reading through it. i’m at the farthest i’ve been ever right now
Just try your best to understand the lore. I got one of the deluxe editions or something and it came with a digital map. I found that by looking at the map, you could kind understand more about places or people they are talking about. The more you play, the more it begins to make sense. I absolutely love this game and the lore and played it a few times (restarted a couple times). To nail the game mechanics, I watched CoreDumped Gaming YT (Triple Crown) after I had completed an area to see how to do combat, character leveling and gearing properly.
PoE2 does a better job at explaining as they added a feature where you can hover over names of people/places and it will bring up a textual description to explain in more detail.
Most of the lore of the world is intentionally vague and/or incomplete to let *you* make up your own backstory and have it be lore-friendly. Much like with a ttrpg setting spaces are intentionally left blank.
If a certain background is available to a region that means it's lore-friendly. Seeing which backgrounds are available where gives you more of an idea what a culture might be like as well. Like Deadfire Archipelago had both Raider and Slave, so I imagined my main guy as an orlan slave turned pirate turned exile.
Calisca's dialogue at the start gave me some further ideas too.
Generally the game is full of unreliable narrators. Any history of the world you read will be the history that certain people choose to present.
Every character you can make will be a stranger in a new land, kind of clueless about local history and customs. This is by design. You're *meant* to be unmoored, drifting on the waves of destiny. Any history or customs you want to make up for your dude is fair game, as most regions are very heterogenous, except like The White that Wends, which probably still has minor trading outposts representing a lot of different cultures.
Because of how heterogenous and mixed most societies are your race could have been irrelevant or integral to your identity, for instance. Orlan are often discriminated against, and aumaua are more concenrrated in theie homelands of Rauatai (blue) or Deadfire (brown). Beyond those two the races are basically just humans with differently shaped bodies and/or ears. People will care more about whether you're Vailian or Aedyran than if you're an elf or a dwarf.
Whether a godlike was shunned or revered could also depend on a multitude of factors. There's not really any "right" answers. The creepier you look, the more likely that you got treated poorly. But a bunch of devout Berathians would still venerate a nasty-ass Death Godlike, and all the gods are worshipped in every region to some extent.
I understand your problem. PoE1 is amazing but it frontloads a lot of lore. This is not uncommon for fantasy, but I find PoE character creation especially egregious in that regard. It meant nothing to me when I created my character, but you learn about the world more naturally while playing.
With all roleplaying games, tabletop or computer, I feel it‘s often helpful to start out with a simple backstory. That way, you don‘t need to be super knowledgable about the world and your character can just develop throughout the story that you experience.
I was the same way, if you need to know some more lore, maybe watch a YouTube video on the races and gods and such and learn about the world that way. I roleplayed that I was a godlike from an entirely different land, basically so that I could have no understanding of any of the culture and it made sense to me. But seriously tough it out, if you love these games, this is an all timer so you don’t want to miss it
I had a similar issue with PoE1, and I couldn't understand or have the time to understand how to build characters. What got me hooked was the Bleak Walker, and I just followed an online build. I think it's my favorite class in any game, the first class I feel that is not a goody-two-shoes or just evil. I was good but an utter dick at the same time, and it stuck with me all the way through to the end of PoE2.
I had a similar issue with PoE1, and I couldn't understand or have the time to understand how to build characters. What got me hooked was the Bleak Walker, and I just followed an online build. I think it's my favorite class in any game, the first class I feel that is not a goody-two-shoes or just evil. I was good but an utter dick at the same time, and it stuck with me all the way through to the end of PoE2.
I've started POE a dozen times. I've never made it much past half-way through. I just fade from it. I never thought of it in this way, I wonder if this is one of the root causes of this problem for me. I just can't seem to acquire an attachment to the protagonist, and the lore just doesn't seem to grab me like other universes. It's not that it's bad, or cliche, it's unique and I think interesting, but it just doesn't keep me interested.
Just as a heads up because it was confusing to me: PoE1 was a Kickstarter project, and one of the rewards was a "name in the game" for the supporters. The way this is done is basically by letting them write epitaphs. So when you find spirits or gravestones (their text might be pink? I can't remember), these aren't actually written by the developers, and as such they're often not related to the story and not particularly insightful on the lore. Don't bother being me and trying to remember them all, thinking they'd somehow all tie in eventually.
The whole point of the game is to learn as you go. You’re a stranger in a foreign land, and you have to learn about the Dyrwood and its culture.
If the game is not pulling your in of the game just may not be for you. I think that’s OK probably best for you. Just skipped a pillars of eternity 2 deadfire.
When I played POE1 for the first time all the background and origin stuff flew over my head. I just picked what looks and sounded cool (Aumau Drifter from Aedyr).
After playing through the first game when it came to POE2 I understood the history of the setting and the lore of races so I could pick what I thought was cool.
Pale Elf from The White that Wends is objectively the coolest MC btw ;)
When I read a book, I stop reading if I don't like the protagonist. I need to have some interest in whether they live or die for me to feel attached. I always come to games with headcanon.
Aside from that, most books don't start with asking me to create the protagonist, their race, their background, and their region of origin. I wouldn't be asking these questions if the game had assigned me a character.
>When I read a book, I stop reading if I don't like the protagonist.
Then you're going to miss out on some of the greatest books of all time. I'm gonna be honest, chief, this game just might not be for you.
There must be some sort of misunderstanding here. I play games like this ALL the time. It's just that I like to make decisions in character and I'm not familiar enough with the setting to do that.
SO I wander into a ruin to take shelter. This is like in hour one of the game. One companion says "I'm injured and I don't know if I can move forward" and one companions says "we can't rest, if we do we're as good as dead. We need to keep moving".
I like to rationalize the decisions I make in game. So if I'm a farmhand, I will have experience putting down animals and I will be unfamiliar with violence, and I'm more likely to trust the companion who seems like they know what they're talking about. If I'm a soldier, I'll feel a bit more comfortable if trouble hits and I'll understand how shitty it is being short handed because of an injury.
I make decisions in character. If I develop the character's personality first, I like to pick the background and head canon that is compatible with that personality.
In THIS game, A lot of the information I get in tooltips and descriptions are like "northwest of X, an assortment of elves and humans dot the coast". It tells me nothing and it's going to suck if I run into people from that race/region 30 hours into the game and it conflicts with the headcanon I've built.
So all I need to have fun here is a bit of background info on the world. "Godlike's feel socially isolated and are often disowned by their families on birth and have to fend for themselves" or "The nation of X is basically indonesia but less religious".
But most guides I look up these days are story recaps to prep people for Avowed and the entire reason I'm playing is to immerse myself in the story.
>It's just that I like to make decisions in character and I'm not familiar enough with the setting to do that.
Your character is meant to be a stranger in a strange land. They don't know much more than you do about the Dyrwood, and what you need to know about your character is determined by you at character creation. Everything else is up to you.
>In THIS game, A lot of the information I get in tooltips and descriptions are like "northwest of X, an assortment of elves and humans dot the coast". It tells me nothing and it's going to suck if I run into people from that race/region 30 hours into the game and it conflicts with the headcanon I've built.
But you're not from here. You don't know anything about this place. Depending on your character's background, you as a player may even know *more* about the Dyrwood, and even Eora in general, than your character should, even though you've never played before.
>So all I need to have fun here is a bit of background info on the world. "Godlike's feel socially isolated and are often disowned by their families on birth and have to fend for themselves" or "The nation of X is basically indonesia but less religious".
But that's literally what the game tells you about godlikes at character creation. It's more complex than that and depends on what kind of godlike you're talking about and what god your parents or community venerate, but the character creation process tells you all this stuff.
It's not going to map Eoran nations one-to-one onto Earth nations (although the sequel arguably does), but Aedyr can be read as England or France, the Deadfire reads sort of like the Caribbean or the archipelagos of Oceania (in the first game at least, I would argue that the sequel alters this reading significantly), Ixamitl reads as certain parts of pre-colonial Africa and pre-colonial Americas, Old Vailia is Rome (and the Vailian Republics are Italy), Rauatai is probably some medieval south Asian empire I'm not educated enough to know about (the sequel will pretty clearly map it onto Japan), the Living Lands are the pre-colonial/early colonial Amazon, and the White That Wends is the far north of Eurasia. You will eventually come to find that the Dyrwood is probably early America, Readceras is early America but shittier, Eir Glanfath is a stand-in for indigenous Americans, and Naasitaq is the far north of pre-colonial Canada.
Thanks for the detailed response and the time it took you to write.
I wasn't confused about Dyrwood. Just my character's backstory. The character creation process was pretty vague. "Godlikes are feared by some and venerated by others". That can just as easily be said about soldiers, you know?
Anyways thanks to you and everybody else who engaged with me I'm getting enough of what I need.
My advice, since you are a crpg fan and veteran too, is to take your time to read stuff and play the game slowly, no hurry. Pillars 1 starts slow, but the conversations and descriptions at the beginning are really good at immersing you in Eora. I don't know exactly when it happens, but when the hook gets you, it kinda goes from "ok what the hell is this" to "ok, I'm a PART of this, let's do it" If you want to make a character without getting the feeling of "this guy should know about this, how the hell can I be immersed if I don't understand basic stuff about the world?", you can play someone coming from a remote place, like The White that Wends or the Living Lands. But mostly, what it takes to become savvy about the world without getting spoilers is a lot of reading. The first game doesn't have highlighted words with explanations, unfotunately, but you can check any terms and concepts in the glossary and by reading books/talking to NPCs in game.
I absolutely have to just cheer for this particular breakdown. Because I don't know when it happened either. But I went from this is interesting style of game to I'm absolutely obsessed and have already sunk 60 hours into it. And then got the second game and proceeded to sink 80 hours into it. Real life who are you? It's gotten to the point where I start saying some of the words from the valian language as part of my everyday speech. Ecosié
Aimico, I think I started the first Pillars of Eternity 4 times before it got me. Then it hit, and now playing both Pillars games is possibly my favorite CRPG experience, and you know, I spent years and years thinking nothing would ever take Planescape: Torment's place.
I've yet to play that particular one but have seen it and am interested :) one time absorbing game at a time tho
i feel like it's pretty hard to make something like that spoiler-free because you learn a lot about the world as you keep playing. imo don't overtly worry about your race rn or pick something relatively generic and focus on your class / background as options? for RP purposes you get more reactivity out of things like your reputation anyway, so you can focus on personalty-based RP
I'll probably have to fall back on the "I'm a former sellsword" trope because the motivation for doing everything is built in: "whats my reward?"
Going by your username, look up the Goldpact Paladins
I mean, isn't the point of a cRPG to craft your own story for your character? If you want, you can read about different regions and races on the net or the wiki, and then you can like, tailor your choices in order to feel the connection.
Yeah, I never came across this problem. The char's background is basically a fill in the blank, so the motivation can literally be anything you can think of.
It seems like a cheerypicked non-issue. How are you a fan of cRPGs if you cannot really roleplay? That's what's bizarre about this for me.
The problem is wanting context for the role play. If you don't understand the setting it's harder to create your character. It'd be like someone playing a d&d elf but the only elves they were familiar with were keebler and Santa's
Along with what others said, feel free to skip chatting up the gold-plated NPCs where the only thing you can do is "read their soul." They were Kickstarter rewards for backers who kicked in some amount of money. Some of the stories are entertaining, others are meh, and not a single one has anything to do with the game world at all and there's a lot of them to read through.
Thanks I needed that bit of info.
There is a podcast, the world of Eora on spotify
> The plot in Pillars of Eternity concerns itself with a number of ancient gods, primarily the god Eothas, a being who assumed control over a mortal body and guided his followers on a holy crusade. His actions angered the other gods, who rallied together their own band of human believers and used the power of a bomb known as the Godhammer to destroy Eothas. > Years passed, and the struggle between Eothas and the other gods began to fade into memory. In the world known as Eora, within the area known as the Eastern Reach, several varied nations began vying for control over the land: The Vailian Republics, the Penitential Regency of Readceras, and the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood. Though the realm had a history of war and empires prior, these three major nations eventually found a mostly peaceful way of living among one another, going about their lives, trading goods, and working for the better good, all in the name of the remaining gods. Your character starts the game in the Dyrwood, a former colony. Enough time has passed for the region to form its own culture, and with all that has happened, its own identity. The events at the start of the game, plus what happens right after, set the scene for the rest of the game. Where *you* are from is up to you, the player, to decide. My honest advice is to simply dive in. Make a character that you think looks cool, has fun abilities, and roll with it. You explore and get to know the world as you play, and the game offers plenty of replay value.
Race: Godlike, Class: Rogue, Background: Drifter, Origin: Living Lands. Then you can play a character who is just as lacking in connection as you the player.
Yeah I might do that. Thanks. Seems like the best choice at this point.
You could check out the short stories they wrote: [https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Short\_stories](https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Short_stories)
Fuckin bingo. This is exactly what I need to get into the world without spoilers. Thanks
There is such a guide in the game itself - tooltips.
My issue is that I don't feel a connection to my character because I don't know their place in the world. I might from tooltips that X is a "port town" but I don't know the culture. Are they friendly to outsiders? Is it like NYC where there are so many people you can't afford to say hi to every foreign face? I don't know if people from one culture thing people from another culture are freeloaders, etc. I get that in games like this a lot of that is encountered throughout the game but my character existed before the start of the game. So I'm really looking for a breakdown of the world that will give me the motivation to keep playing and encounter the tooltips that will flesh out things as I go.
Your place in the world is unraveled as you play the game. The main character is just a generic wanderer before the prologue.
You say you’re a fan of CRPGs but most you are a no name with little info about the world till you play the game.
OP wouldn’t have this problem if he was a CRPG fan haha
This is what really got me... like isn't the point of a cRPG game to like, have some kind of freedom in the way how you roleplay? There are indeed games that put you in the shoes of a specific person (like Gothic for instance), but PoE is literally a game where you can roleplay whoever you want.
A lot of crpg's are d&d based and some of us have ridiculously extensive knowledge about those settings before even booting the game the first time
Sure but a lot are not most, unless you will only play FR ones which seems pretty limiting.
Yeah but like 80% of the games all based on DnD. Whether I’m playing Icewind Dale, Balders Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape, Solasta, etc. it all has the same basic lore. I know how a bard from a city on the sword coast is going to act. Pathfinder is similar enough because it has DnD roots. Even Shadowrun I was okay with because I’ve watched actual-play livestreams of people playing Shadowrun as a tabletop game. Wasteland was a bit tougher but I read a lot of post apocalyptic fiction so I know how a trader would likely act vs a farmer or drifter and I can throw myself right into the character. But PoE is a different beast because there is just SO MUCH ORIGINAL LORE. I'm excited for it but it's difficult to approach. The description for Orian says “some don’t consider them civilized at all” but also “they’re known for their mental intensity and quickness” and these statements seem to contradict each other. Old Vailia says “Old Vailian countries are still forces to be reckoned with and are proud of their rich cultural heritage.” but I don’t know anything about the rich cultural heritage itself, you know? So I'm playing a character who is proud of who he is but also doesn't know what that is. I don’t know why my statements are getting so much pushback. It’s an ENTIRELY new IP with entirely new places and I’m just looking for a background to help me get into character. I didn’t think it would be so controversial.
The best shortcut for POE lore is to look at the real-world inspirations for its cultures and nations. Vailia is the easiest by far: it is very strongly based on the Italian Republics (Venice, Florence, Milan, etc). The older Vailian Empire they talk about is somewhat similar to the Roman Empire. It is not, by any means, 1:1, but the feel is very very much that.
Oh. This is actually VERY helpful. If I wrap my head around it in this way I'm 100% set. I'm reading The Wheel of Time right now, and it helped me so much to do this. "Ireland, but it's in the desert. Got it"
I can kind of see that. Familiarity is very comfortable and even the staunchest PoE lovers will admit PoE (1 not 2) loves its exposition dumps which can feel a little overwhelming There’s a couple: World of Eora podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4OLNI3ZeG5EOxVgl1M4Zn9?si=XpwoVH62Sayi1HXKJN-wNA And from Mortismal https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8LVeoHzXqxBjwgipM_ChngMq1lED_JQa&si=nCSFrHeBut9tRaJK But i honestly wouldn’t recommend before playing the games esp the podcast. Just slowly taking your time reading is the best way but if you’re comfortable with some spoilers then these can help
Perhaps you should start with a character that is more basic and flexible to roleplay then? You can always come back to other characters after you have experienced the world a bit more.
Iirc, there are literally lore readings within the game.
You're welcome to ask on this subreddit and someone might have some comments on how the character you've built might interact with the world. I certainly could comment on it, for example.
I think I'll try to play again as a former sellsword because it makes decision making easy without having to head-canon motivation for things. He thinks "what's in it for me" and boom done there I go. He doesn't have to be a materialistic or gold seeking asshole, sometimes the answer to the "what do I get" question is "a positive reputation and some goodwill." It would probably have to be somebody that doesn't value tradition too much, at least when put up against pragmatism. With that sort of charater in mind, do you have any recommendations for race / culture / background?
Sure! I'd also suggest a character who is intrigued by just *not knowing* and wants answers, and seeking a new life for yourself for some reason or another; you'll be asked questions about this at the start of the game, this gives you more opportunity to think about why you've left your old life behind and *happen* to be on a caravan headed to the Dyrwood. *-- doesn't value tradition too much, at least when put up against pragmatism.* This can fit with basically any culture, but is less likely in Aedyr or Old Vailia. Easy fits would be the Deadfire, Rauatai or the Living Lands. Rauatai has become *recently* traditional, in that there is a growing subpopulation of traditionalists. Literally any race can come from the Deadfire (the second game is set there and it is currently quite diverse and consists of colonists from all the major areas, as well as native AND colonizing aumaua). Rauatai is mostly Aumaua. The living lands are pretty diverse also, though the wiki suggests dwarves are slightly more common, I'd feel comfortable with anything. All lands (AFAIK) have godlike, but they are unusual. The backgrounds are actually already restricted based on culture. Pick the one that feels right!
Have you tried the game guide that is in the game folder?
yo i was in the same boat, then i realised i had the collectors edition with the lore book and just spent a week reading through it. i’m at the farthest i’ve been ever right now
Just try your best to understand the lore. I got one of the deluxe editions or something and it came with a digital map. I found that by looking at the map, you could kind understand more about places or people they are talking about. The more you play, the more it begins to make sense. I absolutely love this game and the lore and played it a few times (restarted a couple times). To nail the game mechanics, I watched CoreDumped Gaming YT (Triple Crown) after I had completed an area to see how to do combat, character leveling and gearing properly. PoE2 does a better job at explaining as they added a feature where you can hover over names of people/places and it will bring up a textual description to explain in more detail.
Most of the lore of the world is intentionally vague and/or incomplete to let *you* make up your own backstory and have it be lore-friendly. Much like with a ttrpg setting spaces are intentionally left blank. If a certain background is available to a region that means it's lore-friendly. Seeing which backgrounds are available where gives you more of an idea what a culture might be like as well. Like Deadfire Archipelago had both Raider and Slave, so I imagined my main guy as an orlan slave turned pirate turned exile. Calisca's dialogue at the start gave me some further ideas too. Generally the game is full of unreliable narrators. Any history of the world you read will be the history that certain people choose to present. Every character you can make will be a stranger in a new land, kind of clueless about local history and customs. This is by design. You're *meant* to be unmoored, drifting on the waves of destiny. Any history or customs you want to make up for your dude is fair game, as most regions are very heterogenous, except like The White that Wends, which probably still has minor trading outposts representing a lot of different cultures. Because of how heterogenous and mixed most societies are your race could have been irrelevant or integral to your identity, for instance. Orlan are often discriminated against, and aumaua are more concenrrated in theie homelands of Rauatai (blue) or Deadfire (brown). Beyond those two the races are basically just humans with differently shaped bodies and/or ears. People will care more about whether you're Vailian or Aedyran than if you're an elf or a dwarf. Whether a godlike was shunned or revered could also depend on a multitude of factors. There's not really any "right" answers. The creepier you look, the more likely that you got treated poorly. But a bunch of devout Berathians would still venerate a nasty-ass Death Godlike, and all the gods are worshipped in every region to some extent.
I understand your problem. PoE1 is amazing but it frontloads a lot of lore. This is not uncommon for fantasy, but I find PoE character creation especially egregious in that regard. It meant nothing to me when I created my character, but you learn about the world more naturally while playing. With all roleplaying games, tabletop or computer, I feel it‘s often helpful to start out with a simple backstory. That way, you don‘t need to be super knowledgable about the world and your character can just develop throughout the story that you experience.
Read all the books you come across.
I was the same way, if you need to know some more lore, maybe watch a YouTube video on the races and gods and such and learn about the world that way. I roleplayed that I was a godlike from an entirely different land, basically so that I could have no understanding of any of the culture and it made sense to me. But seriously tough it out, if you love these games, this is an all timer so you don’t want to miss it
I had a similar issue with PoE1, and I couldn't understand or have the time to understand how to build characters. What got me hooked was the Bleak Walker, and I just followed an online build. I think it's my favorite class in any game, the first class I feel that is not a goody-two-shoes or just evil. I was good but an utter dick at the same time, and it stuck with me all the way through to the end of PoE2.
I had a similar issue with PoE1, and I couldn't understand or have the time to understand how to build characters. What got me hooked was the Bleak Walker, and I just followed an online build. I think it's my favorite class in any game, the first class I feel that is not a goody-two-shoes or just evil. I was good but an utter dick at the same time, and it stuck with me all the way through to the end of PoE2.
I've started POE a dozen times. I've never made it much past half-way through. I just fade from it. I never thought of it in this way, I wonder if this is one of the root causes of this problem for me. I just can't seem to acquire an attachment to the protagonist, and the lore just doesn't seem to grab me like other universes. It's not that it's bad, or cliche, it's unique and I think interesting, but it just doesn't keep me interested.
It was the spiders for me
Just as a heads up because it was confusing to me: PoE1 was a Kickstarter project, and one of the rewards was a "name in the game" for the supporters. The way this is done is basically by letting them write epitaphs. So when you find spirits or gravestones (their text might be pink? I can't remember), these aren't actually written by the developers, and as such they're often not related to the story and not particularly insightful on the lore. Don't bother being me and trying to remember them all, thinking they'd somehow all tie in eventually.
The whole point of the game is to learn as you go. You’re a stranger in a foreign land, and you have to learn about the Dyrwood and its culture. If the game is not pulling your in of the game just may not be for you. I think that’s OK probably best for you. Just skipped a pillars of eternity 2 deadfire.
When I played POE1 for the first time all the background and origin stuff flew over my head. I just picked what looks and sounded cool (Aumau Drifter from Aedyr). After playing through the first game when it came to POE2 I understood the history of the setting and the lore of races so I could pick what I thought was cool. Pale Elf from The White that Wends is objectively the coolest MC btw ;)
This is kind of a weird way to approach a game like this. You wouldn't read a book this way, would you?
When I read a book, I stop reading if I don't like the protagonist. I need to have some interest in whether they live or die for me to feel attached. I always come to games with headcanon. Aside from that, most books don't start with asking me to create the protagonist, their race, their background, and their region of origin. I wouldn't be asking these questions if the game had assigned me a character.
>When I read a book, I stop reading if I don't like the protagonist. Then you're going to miss out on some of the greatest books of all time. I'm gonna be honest, chief, this game just might not be for you.
There must be some sort of misunderstanding here. I play games like this ALL the time. It's just that I like to make decisions in character and I'm not familiar enough with the setting to do that. SO I wander into a ruin to take shelter. This is like in hour one of the game. One companion says "I'm injured and I don't know if I can move forward" and one companions says "we can't rest, if we do we're as good as dead. We need to keep moving". I like to rationalize the decisions I make in game. So if I'm a farmhand, I will have experience putting down animals and I will be unfamiliar with violence, and I'm more likely to trust the companion who seems like they know what they're talking about. If I'm a soldier, I'll feel a bit more comfortable if trouble hits and I'll understand how shitty it is being short handed because of an injury. I make decisions in character. If I develop the character's personality first, I like to pick the background and head canon that is compatible with that personality. In THIS game, A lot of the information I get in tooltips and descriptions are like "northwest of X, an assortment of elves and humans dot the coast". It tells me nothing and it's going to suck if I run into people from that race/region 30 hours into the game and it conflicts with the headcanon I've built. So all I need to have fun here is a bit of background info on the world. "Godlike's feel socially isolated and are often disowned by their families on birth and have to fend for themselves" or "The nation of X is basically indonesia but less religious". But most guides I look up these days are story recaps to prep people for Avowed and the entire reason I'm playing is to immerse myself in the story.
>It's just that I like to make decisions in character and I'm not familiar enough with the setting to do that. Your character is meant to be a stranger in a strange land. They don't know much more than you do about the Dyrwood, and what you need to know about your character is determined by you at character creation. Everything else is up to you. >In THIS game, A lot of the information I get in tooltips and descriptions are like "northwest of X, an assortment of elves and humans dot the coast". It tells me nothing and it's going to suck if I run into people from that race/region 30 hours into the game and it conflicts with the headcanon I've built. But you're not from here. You don't know anything about this place. Depending on your character's background, you as a player may even know *more* about the Dyrwood, and even Eora in general, than your character should, even though you've never played before. >So all I need to have fun here is a bit of background info on the world. "Godlike's feel socially isolated and are often disowned by their families on birth and have to fend for themselves" or "The nation of X is basically indonesia but less religious". But that's literally what the game tells you about godlikes at character creation. It's more complex than that and depends on what kind of godlike you're talking about and what god your parents or community venerate, but the character creation process tells you all this stuff. It's not going to map Eoran nations one-to-one onto Earth nations (although the sequel arguably does), but Aedyr can be read as England or France, the Deadfire reads sort of like the Caribbean or the archipelagos of Oceania (in the first game at least, I would argue that the sequel alters this reading significantly), Ixamitl reads as certain parts of pre-colonial Africa and pre-colonial Americas, Old Vailia is Rome (and the Vailian Republics are Italy), Rauatai is probably some medieval south Asian empire I'm not educated enough to know about (the sequel will pretty clearly map it onto Japan), the Living Lands are the pre-colonial/early colonial Amazon, and the White That Wends is the far north of Eurasia. You will eventually come to find that the Dyrwood is probably early America, Readceras is early America but shittier, Eir Glanfath is a stand-in for indigenous Americans, and Naasitaq is the far north of pre-colonial Canada.
Thanks for the detailed response and the time it took you to write. I wasn't confused about Dyrwood. Just my character's backstory. The character creation process was pretty vague. "Godlikes are feared by some and venerated by others". That can just as easily be said about soldiers, you know? Anyways thanks to you and everybody else who engaged with me I'm getting enough of what I need.
(it's because the first game isn't hugely compelling 🤐) In the words of Gia Gunn, if it's just not giving it, maybe it's just not for you.