Eternity Pillars of Eternity II Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[aweigh]

Anyone can have their own definition of a "God", but in most religions this definition includes attributes such as om nom nom

 

[rusty_shackleford]

who gets to define what a god is?

Anyone can have their own definition of a "God", but in most religions this definition includes attributes such as omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, eternal existence and creating the universe/life/humans.

Gods in PoE don't fit any of those criteria, but people in the game believe they do. Imagine if Jesus came back and said something along the lines of "God didn't actually create the universe, the truth is he's a man-made AI that was created by sacrificing thousands of jews" and had undeniable proof to back it up. I would expect funny things to happen all around the world.

They did all the stuff I'd expect a god to do.

Is being powerful and enforcing your will on others really enough for you to consider someone a God? Are tyrants with nukes Gods to you?

They seem about on par to be Greek & Roman gods.

 

[Daedalos]

Poe 1 had a pretty decent and engaging main story.

 

[Tygrende]

They seem about on par to be Greek & Roman gods.

Divine beings in greek mythology are not omniscient, omnipotent or omnipresent, but they are close to eternal (primordial deities who were born from Chaos) and responsible for creating humanity (Prometheus).

But this isn't the point. The point is that the truth about Gods in PoE breaks the dogma. Greek gods were not believed to be omniscient/omnipotent/omnipresent to begin with.

 

[Delterius]

After all the distrust infistructure about gods the story successfully made me unintrested about them starting from the 3rd act.

but here's the thing

the point was that the revelation was inconsequential

that's kinda retarded because you see

you can make your own all seeing golems of magic godhood

that's kind of a big deal regardless of how ruzen feels about other characters

 

[2house2fly]

The key thing to me about the gods being created(and I find it interesting that the revelation causes such different reactions in people) is that it removes any divine right or moral authority they may have had by default. People do what they say and follow their philosophies on living their lives, society growing within frameworks the gods allow, but their authority doesn't come from divinity, it comes purely from power. They're an occupying force. Thaos himself basically admits this if you take Kana to confront him; Kana says "things are different now than in the time if your people" and Thaos says "you are living in the time of my people"

 

[fantadomat]

Does anyone else here think that the main story for PoE 2 sounds like something that a 6 year old could come up with? A glitchy software god decides to possess a skyscraper statue and go around messing with people. How the fuck a statue is able to move??? I mean it is a simple logic,statues are made from solid materials not from jam. If he tries to move,the statue will just break,it is not like it have muscles. Is he just levitating in the same pose as he was in the first game,and just dropping on people and structures? Or maybe he is just teleporting? Any thoughts on it guys?

 

[Sentinel]

Does anyone else here think that necromancy in RPGs sounds like something that a 6 year old could come up with? An edgy wizard decides to raise a skeleton and then go around scaring people with it. How the fuck is a skeleton able to move??? I mean it is a simple logic,skeletons are made from solid bone and not from jam. If it tries to move,the skeleton will just break,it is not like it have muscle. Is it just levitating in the same pose as he was when he died,and just dropping on people and structures? Or maybe he is just teleporting? Any thoughts on it guys?

Does anyone else here think that stone elementals sounds like something that a 6 year old could come up with? A stone wakes up and decides to star walking about and go around punching people. How the fuck is stone able to move??? I mean it is a simple logic,stones are made from solid materials not from jam. If it tries to move,the stone will just break,it is not like it have muscles. Is he just levitating in the same pose as he was in his sleep,and just dropping on people and structures? Or maybe he is just teleporting? Any thoughts on it guys?


It's magic nigga. Ain't gonna explain shit.

 

[Tygrende]

How the fuck a statue is able to move??? I mean it is a simple logic,statues are made from solid materials not from jam.

The statue is made from adra so it can have whatever properties they want it to have. Supposedly it's "an organic material crystalline" that is "easy to carve and manipulate", that's enough for me to suspend my disbelief.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[AwesomeButton]

Totally new spells? That's good to know.

 

[aweigh]

I just realized that the only interesting NPC in PoE (Durance) was written by MCA... and PoE 2 wont have MCA.

Uh oh.

 

[Delterius]

An edgy wizard decides to raise a skeleton

if anything the skeletons should go around dancing with peeps

 

[CptMace]

you can make your own all seeing golems of magic godhood

I'd rather say : the engiwthans can make their own all seeing golems of magic godhood.
As I said, it fuels the curiosity about them. But that's barely relevant to the PC trying to appease his waken brother from another mother because he's not ready to die alone and insane.
Other than that, it doesn't really shake the foundations of the world. Sure, they're man-made, but they're still Magran goddess of dank lit trials and Abydon, god of hammering stuff until it takes shape. I don't see them, their portfolio or their pretty sweet vendettas any differently.
Now if Thaos said "btw, every god is piloted by super engwithans who live around the world like super japanese mega mechs of doom", I would have liked it way more.
But right now, it's simply we made them, yeah we're that good. I feel that the actual revelation is that ancient greece engwith is p.badass, which isn't much.

ps : Really like this kind of details Infinitron , haven't paid attention to the missing arm until now. WM background(s) got a lot of love, I hope they kept it up for deadfire.

 

[aweigh]

so PoE 2 plot ripping off Ghostbusters

 

[Delterius]

you can make your own all seeing golems of magic godhood

I'd rather say : the engiwthans can make their own all seeing golems of magic godhood.
As I said, it fuels the curiosity about them. But that's barely relevant to the PC trying to appease his waken brother from another mother because he's not ready to die alone and insane.
Other than that, it doesn't really shake the foundations of the world. Sure, they're man-made, but they're still Magran goddess of dank lit trials and Abydon, god of hammering stuff until it takes shape. I don't see them, their portfolio or their pretty sweet vendettas any differently.
Now if Thaos said "btw, every god is piloted by super engwithans who live around the world like super japanese mega mechs of doom", I would have liked it way more.
But right now, it's simply we made them, yeah we're that good. I feel that the actual revelation is that ancient greece engwith is p.badass, which isn't much.

ps : Really like this kind of details Infinitron , haven't paid attention to the missing arm until now. WM background(s) got a lot of love, I hope they kept it up for deadfire.

In all seriousness, here's the thing.

On one hand you can say that its a bit disappointing. After all, you lose any sense of transcendence of the gods are just ethereal golems preying on the world however they want.

And on the other you can say that its not such a grand plot twist. The 'gods' were always immortal petty kings playing Dominions: Eora. And that's unchanged.

However, you can't say that they are irrelevant to the world. Or that the revelation is inconsequential.

 

[Lacrymas]

The gods being fake is impotent in the context of PoE's story. If Jesus did indeed come down and say "oh, yeah, God exists, but he was made by the Egyptians" that would invalidate philosophical thoughts millennia in the making (maybe, but that's a deep topic), but we know this because context. PoE's story lacks any sort of connection to this revelation, it's a throwaway remark that doesn't mean anything. It also won't force theological debates because nobody except us knows this and nobody would believe us if we start shouting it from the rooftops. A lot of people don't take what atheists say seriously, while atheism has quite deep roots, it isn't a single person.

 

[Delterius]

If the PC is cursed with an eternally shut bumhole I can safely assume that this is going to be painful even if I never literally saw them taking a shit.

 

[aweigh]

i just had a random thought:

Raedric had serviceable enough motivations to become a primary antagonist what with the hollow-born epidemic and his own ((issues)) with his children. Way more potential there than with Thaos. He definitely had reason enough to go after the gods as well as a significant footprint in the game world.

 

[Artyoan]

The God are False Gods but symbols nevertheless.

I thought the story was interesting. An ancient society that was at the top of its game in Animancy (science) found itself in despair and depravity because it could find no purpose. Just the wheel and nothing else. So they willingly created a false one, to give people hope. There are several quests that involve the player deciding whether an individual ought to know a grim fact that makes their lives just that much worse or whether the player ought to lie for the sake of giving them hope.

If your society came to the conclusion that there was no God and no purpose to anything, and began to rapidly decay as a result, what do you do? Thaos was basically the ultimate scientist who became a sociopathic religious icon due to the inadequacy of science to provide a purpose for people.

I think there are parallels to modern society that makes it interesting to me, at least.

Also, just because they never found a God doesn't mean there wasn't one. Just that through technology and animancy they came up empty and that was what they looked to for truth.

 

[Lacrymas]

What is this obsession with an objective purpose that the universe throws on you, though? Why would you turn to science to find it? And which science? If not science, then why the gods?

 

[fantadomat]

Seriously TheSentinel,are you retarded or are you just pretending? Necromancy is pretty logical and people have tried to do it for century in the real world,also skeletons are fantastical and magical but not illogical in it's setting. Statue walking around just contradict a basic physics laws that you learn in around 6th grade. Are you some kind of nigger that have never been to a school? Also "muh magic" is poor excuse for shit writing. I do like a good insult or a jab,but your try at mockery is just....sad.

 

[pomenitul]

Do you even Galatea, bro?

 

[Daedalos]

The God are False Gods but symbols nevertheless.

I thought the story was interesting. An ancient society that was at the top of its game in Animancy (science) found itself in despair and depravity because it could find no purpose. Just the wheel and nothing else. So they willingly created a false one, to give people hope. There are several quests that involve the player deciding whether an individual ought to know a grim fact that makes their lives just that much worse or whether the player ought to lie for the sake of giving them hope.

If your society came to the conclusion that there was no God and no purpose to anything, and began to rapidly decay as a result, what do you do? Thaos was basically the ultimate scientist who became a sociopathic religious icon due to the inadequacy of science to provide a purpose for people.

I think there are parallels to modern society that makes it interesting to me, at least.

Also, just because they never found a God doesn't mean there wasn't one. Just that through technology and animancy they came up empty and that was what they looked to for truth.

Good post. And I agree wholeheartedly. I found the story of poe having ties to the modern world in several ways.

 

[aweigh]

Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers is one of the best novels Ive read in years.