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Game News Project Eternity Kickstarter Update #5: Souls, Technology, and New Community Tier

Crooked Bee

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

Obsidian have put up another update for the Project Eternity Kickstarter, this time elaborating on the concept of "souls" in the game's lore and the technological state of the gameworld, as well as introducing another $5000 pledge tier aimed specifically at internet communities. (Yes, like the RPG Codex.)

Souls

As we hinted at in our pitch videos, souls are A Big Deal in Project Eternity's world. The mortal world has not unlocked all of the secrets of how souls "work" and differing schools of metaphysical philosophy can be found in virtually every culture. What is known is that sapient souls move through an endless cycle of waking life and purgatorial slumber among the gods. Often this slumber lasts for years of "real" time, but occasionally it is brief, with a soul immediately moving on to a new life.

Far from being a flawless process, souls are subject to "fracturing" over generations, transforming in myriad ways, and not quite... working right. Some cultures and individuals place a high value on "strong" souls, souls with a "pure" lineage, "awakened" souls that remember past lives, "traveled" souls that have drifted through the divine realms, or those that co-exist with other souls in one body. However, the opposite is also true, resulting in negative discrimination and sometimes outright violence.

Through a variety of techniques (e.g. martial training, meditation, ritualistic evocation, mortification of the flesh), some individuals are able to draw upon the energy of their soul to accomplish extraordinary feats. These abilities range from the mundanely superhuman to the explosively magical. Having a strong soul seems to make this easier, but sometimes even people with fragmented souls are able to accomplish the extraordinary. The individual's body seems to act as a conduit and battery for this power, drawing in replenishment from seemingly omnipresent "fields" of unbound spiritual energy in the world around them.

Thinkers, spiritualists, and scientists of the world have theorized for thousands of years about the nature and purpose of this process, but others have turned to prayer for answer. Rather than illuminate the presumed higher purpose of this cycle, the gods have obfuscated the truth, at times spreading cosmological lies, pitting believers and empowered chosen agents against each other, and tacitly approving the prejudices of their followers to maintain power.

Whatever the fundamental nature of mortal souls is, the people of the world accept the reality of what they have observed: that all mortal bodies contain perceptible energy bound to the individual, and that once they die, their energy will move forward in the eternal cycle that they are all a part of -- that as far as they know, they have always been a part of.

Technology

The cultures of Project Eternity are in a variety of different technological states. Though some remote civilizations are still in the equivalent of Earth's Stone Age or Bronze Age, most large civilizations are in the equivalent of Earth's high or late Middle Ages. The most aggressive and powerful civilizations are in the early stages of what would be our early modern period, technologically, even if they are not culturally undergoing "Renaissance"-style changes.

For most large civilizations, this means that all of the core arms and armor of medieval warfare have reached a high level of development: full suits of articulated plate armor, a variety of military swords, war hammers, polearms, longbows, crossbows, and advanced siege weaponry. Architecturally, these cultures also employ technologies found in Earth's Gothic structures, allowing them to create towering vertical structures.

The most recent technologies seeing use in the world are ocean-going carrack-style ships and black powder firearms (notably absent: the printing press). Cultures with large navies and mercantile traffic are exploring the world, which has led to contact with previously-unknown lands and societies and settlement in new lands. Despite their intense drive, these explorers have been restricted from aggressive long-range exploration by monstrous sea creatures that pose a lethal, seemingly insurmountable threat to even the stoutest, most well-armed ships.

Black powder firearms are of the single-shot wheellock variety. Largely considered complex curiosities, these weapons are not employed extensively by military forces. Their long reload times are considered a liability in battles against foes that are too monstrous to drop with a single volley, foes that fly or move at high speed, and foes that have the power of invisibility. Despite this, some individuals do employ firearms for one specific purpose: close range penetration of the arcane veil, a standard magical defense employed by wizards. The arcane veil is powerful, but it does not react well to the high-velocity projectiles generated by arquebuses and handguns. As a result, more wizards who previously relied on the veil and similar abjurations have turned to traditional armor for additional defense.

New $5,000 Tier

Bam! We started with a $5,000 tier that allowed the backer to set up an inn and receive some additional items. Fortunately or unfortunately, that sold out almost immediately. We've come up with a new tier that is aimed toward (but not limited to!) the forum communities that have shown (and continue to show) us so much support. Some of the most fun we've had as players, DMs, and game designers has happened when we got to deal with a group of enemy adventurers -- mercenaries, thugs, whatever you want to call them -- squaring off against the party. This new tier allows you to build a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude to throw at the player. We've also switched around a few of the bonuses in this tier, giving out more digital downloads. We can't wait to see what you come up with.​

Our very own party of thugs? We should start that fundraiser already.
 

Random

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emiya%2Bkiritsugu.jpg


So we get to be this guy if we're a gunslinger? Awesome.
 

l3loodAngel

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Our very own party of thugs? We should start that fundraiser already.

A delusional group of aggressive travelers, lead by an insane ginger... Edit. And old geezer who speaks like a twelve year girl should also be present. It would be the mighty dwarf from the Pedobeard clan.
A craze scout that exaggerates all new information should also not be forgotten.

But the idea is awesome. The fighting within the group would break out, before you would even have a chance to fight them.
 

Jaesun

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MCA
The whole soul thing could really be pretty fucking cool, story wise. This almost could turn into something like MotB II <3

Will be interesting tomorrow when they go over some game mechanics, and if souls are also connected to it.
 

Aeschylus

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Sounds pretty cool overall. I always did like the idea of extremely petty gods, ala Greek mythology. One suggestion for here -- since it seems there will be a KS update most everyday maybe it'd be a good idea to sticky a project eternity news post and update it with new information as it comes?
 

Spectacle

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Crooked Bee, why don't you get in touch with MCA and ask if he'd be willing to support our Eternity fundraiser with more custom codex trolls?
 

Executer

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Project: Eternity
Our very own party of thugs? We should start that fundraiser already.

A delusional group of aggressive travelers, lead by an insane ginger... Edit. And old geezer who speaks like a twelve year girl should also be present. It would be the mighty dwarf from the Pedobeard clan.
A craze scout that exaggerates all new information should also not be forgotten.

But the idea is awesome. The fighting within the group would break out, before you would even have a chance to fight them.

How about 'Prosperos Travelling Carnivale', imagine the possibilities, it can even be done tastefully :obviously:
 

Mrowak

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Project: Eternity
I think we won't make it with the fundraiser before the tier gets bought out.

The whole soul thing could really be pretty fucking cool, story wise. This almost could turn into something like MotB II <3

You know what... when I read about it I got VERY STRONG Final Fantasy VII vibes... but then again Planescape Torment was inspired by FF VII, so there's that.
 

Random

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I think we won't make it with the fundraiser before the tier gets bought out.

The whole soul thing could really be pretty fucking cool, story wise. This almost could turn into something like MotB II <3

You know what... when I read about it I got VERY STRONG Final Fantasy VII vibes... but then again Planescape Torment was inspired by FF VII, so there's that.

Are you serious? About the PS:T being inspired by FFVII thing?
 

Outlander

Custom Tags Are For Fags.
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There are 5 free slots now, there used to be only 4 available but I guess someone decided against throwing 5 grand at a videogame.

Speculating is fun, so who shall be part of the prestigious Codex Rape Gang? How about Prosper, Crispy, KC, Jaesun and SMA?
 

Crooked Bee

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I'd rather our group didn't consist of actual Codexers. It'd be way more fun if it was 6 Codexian archetypes or symbols or something, imho. Like I dunno, Papa Mole the gunslinger, etc. (I'm bad at this, but someone could probably come up with something actually good.)
 

Esquilax

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I'd rather our group didn't consist of actual Codexers. It'd be way more fun if it was 6 Codexian archetypes or symbols or something, imho. Like I dunno, Papa Mole the gunslinger, etc. (I'm bad at this, but someone could probably come up with something actually good.)

They've already stated that there's going to be racism in the game, so I think that the obvious answer here is to have a dangerous group of Western Civilization Defence Forcers to pose a threat to any non-human adventurer. They are just as, if not more violent, towards humans that disagree with their particular philosophy. Their leader, Lyric Suite, will just spew on a whole bunch of pseudo-intellectual bullshit that a PC with high INT can easily spot, but to stay true to the theme, you won't be able to avoid a fight no matter how good your counterarguments are.
 

godsend1989

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Wtf is this ? we can design our own villain that will be in the finished game, unfuckingbelievable.
:yeah:
 

kris

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I am sure you guys think it would be really fun or something to make some codex decline squad. But if we do this we should be more serious than putting in a codex in-joke group in the game. We should make something prestigious and smart, we should do the incline. Have we not complained enough about stupid jokes and shitty encounters? We should put something that is a challenge, some people that get under peoples skin and who do something different.

If anything we could put up a contest were we come up with ideas for possible encounters.
 

mugarod

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Project: Eternity
I think we won't make it with the fundraiser before the tier gets bought out.

The whole soul thing could really be pretty fucking cool, story wise. This almost could turn into something like MotB II <3

You know what... when I read about it I got VERY STRONG Final Fantasy VII vibes... but then again Planescape Torment was inspired by FF VII, so there's that.

Are you serious? About the PS:T being inspired by FFVII thing?
I dont have the exact quote but I read this before as well.
 

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