History VideoGame / PillarsOfEternity

* SceneryPorn: [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/eternitywiki.com/f/f5/PE-TempleEntrance01-1920x1080.jpeg The first screenshot mock-up released]] depicts a beautiful view of a country road leading up to a bridge connecting to an entrance into a cliff side, with the entrance being flanked by a pair of enormous, macabre reliefs carved into the rock, with a waterfall cascading to form a pond off to the side of one of the statues. This setting appears in the finished game as the entrance to Cliaban Rilag ruins.

* EyelessFace: Death Godlikes have these strange growths on their heads that cover their eyes, if not most of their faces, giving this impression. The growths are only opaque from the outside though, so they're able to see just fine.

* ButThouMust: Although you're given the option to question and disagree with almost everything in the game, things go sideways in the final act. One big reveal is that [[spoiler: the gods aren't "real".]] This is more or less a DistinctionWithoutADifference, but you are railroaded into treating it as if it was unambigously true and hugely important.

* DistinctionWithoutADifference: A big reveal in the final act is that [[spoiler: the gods have been created by mortals. Almost every character except the BigBad, including [[ButThouMust your own]], decide immediately that this means the gods aren't real. However, they are objectively real and have even spoken directly to the party at this point. They are immensely powerful beings who can do impossible things, are immortal, and have divine power over the aspects of reality they represent. In other words, they're gods by almost every definition.]]

The world of Eora is one of souls. Souls are not mere metaphysical abstractions; they are quantifiable, measurable objects, and their discovery has had vast implications for society, leading to the founding of a whole new field of science know as "Animancy". The world is about to enter a golden age as a result, but the rapid advances in technology and society occurring mark the era as a time of turmoil and conflict.

No other place is this conflict felt stronger than in the former colony of Dyrwood, who's people are ravaged by a strange and horrifying affliction, where the vast majority of newborn children enter the world without a soul, leaving them physically alive but in a completely catatonic and vegetative state, unable to do anything but stare blankly into nothingness. This strange phenomenon, known as "Waidwen's Legacy", or by the less poetic (though no less foreboding) name "the Hollowborn Plague", has attracted the attention of animancers from all over the world hoping to prove the usefulness of their trade by finding the cause for the affliction as well as a cure. But many of the bereaved family members, meanwhile, blame Animancy for the plague, believing that it is a punishment from the gods on the mortal civilisations for arrogantly trying to meddle in the realm of souls.

* CentralTheme: The nature of secrets, why we keep them, and what the long-term ramifications are of a lie that has gone on for so long that it effectively replaces the truth. Many characters that are tied to the main quest keep their own secrets for one reason or another. [[spoiler:Aloth being a former member of the Leaden Key, Grieving Mother using her cipher powers to convince mothers that their Hollowborn children were born healthy, and the fact that the gods aren't real and their is no true higher power in the universe]], just to name some of the more egregious ones. Tying into this is a secondary theme of whether it is better to live with a comfortable lie or face the uncomfortable truth.

* DarkReprise: In ''White March'', visiting The Gréf's Rest inn has you coming across a bard entertaining the guest with "The Sea and Her Love", a romantic little song about tragic love. ''White March, Part II'' as you approach the Abbey of the Fallen Moon, which is build around [[spoiler:Abydon's ancient corpse]], a much more powerful, mournful, and dark instrumental rendition of the song, "Abydon's Shell", starts playing.

* {{Precursor}}: The Engwithan civilization existed roughly 2000 years before the events of the game. They had unparalleled understanding of how souls work and their ruins still litter the land, most prominently in Eir Glanfath. The Glanfathan culture is based around protecting these sites from outsiders. It's a task their forebears were given by the Engwithans ages ago, [[spoiler: presumably to prevent anyone from learning the truth behind the origin of the gods.]] Interestingly it is implied that Engwithan science and technology actually was ''less'' developed than modern Eoran in many areas -- it is just that animancy and soulmagic have ''very'' broad applicability.

** Gilded Vale, the first town, is this, helping to establish the general [[crappiness CrapsackWorld]] of the setting. Waiden's Legacy means there's virtually no population growth, so the local lord has to resort to offering land to settlers (which is what kickstarts the game). But something is wrong with the fields and the crops seem sickly at best, and the local lord, Raedric, is batshit insane.

* {{Pride)): Lord Gathbin's fatal flaw. First he tries to gain ownership of your castle, Caed Nua, by citing his ancestral right to the land. The local authority ''rules in his favor'', but orders him to compensate you for reclaiming and restoring the castle. But he rejects the ruling because he's too proud to give money to a "peasant" like you. Then he tries to assemble an army to seize Caed Nua by force, but he's a jerk to his underlings, allowing you to potentially get Captain Emery to turn on him. Not to mention that his mistreatment of the Chancellor and the Marshal are what makes the Marshal decide to help you plan for the battle against him.

* MultipleLifeBars: Each character has the Endurance bar and the Health bar. Endurance is depleted and recovered rapidly in combat and results in a NonLethalKO when depleted. Health is lost more slowly but having it hit 0 leads to either a permanent injury or the FinalDeath (on harder difficulties). Health can only be regained when camping, and with a few very rare and weak spells that serve as an emergency patch-up in a pinch at best. Otherwise, healing spells only restore endurance.

-->'''Pallegina:''' Do you think that if you click on me enough, I'll lay an egg? Sorry to disappoint you."

* BreakingTheFourthWall: You can invoke this by walking into the theater stage in Defiance Bay, [[DevelopersForesight which prompts]] hilarious responses from the actors as you interrupt their performance.

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** Following the animancy hearing in Act II, [[spoiler:Brackenbury Sanitarium is burnt to the ground by anti-animancy rioters. Completing Aloth's personal quest, finding a buyer for the Engwithan Sceptre, and confronting Moedred during "A Voice from the Past" require you to visit the Sanitarium]]. In a subversion, [[spoiler:the riots also give the Leaden Key sufficient cover to murder every cipher in Hadret House -- with the [[SoleSurvivor sole exception of Kurren]], who, in a stroke of luck, was out on an errand when the massacre occurred. This means the Watcher can still receive or turn in the quest "The Final Act" if you return to the Dunryd Row after visiting Twin Elms.]]

* LostForever:[[spoiler:The Sanitarium will be burnt down, and the Dunryd Row destroyed at the end of Act II. So, any outstanding quests involving characters from the two locations must be completed before the act finishes.]]
** Various locations in the White March would be altered or rendered inaccessible in Part II (primarily Durgan's Battery and the temple in Stalwart village), which meant thorough exploration and quest resolution before proceeding with the story.

* PermanentlyMissableContent: [[spoiler:Completing Aloth's personal quest, finding a buyer for the Engwithan Sceptre, and confronting Moedred during "A Voice from the Past" require you to visit the Sanitarium, which can't be accessed after it burns down at the end of Act II. In a subversion, you can receive the quest "The Final Act" from Kurren in Dunryd Row, who seems to perish along with his fellow Ciphers at the end of Act II, but if you return to the building after visiting Twin Elms, you'll find him alive (he explains that in a stroke of luck, he was out on an errant when the massacre happened) and still able to give you the quest.]]

* CaptureAndReplicate: In one side quest a woman asks you to deliver a divorce notice to her husband, who has been acting strange and downright abusive towards her lately. If you investigate their home, you find out that he has been locked up in the attic for days, while a criminal mage assumed his appearance and used his home as a hub for his drug trade. [[spoiler: Ironically, the husband was also selling drugs - which is how he got involved in the mess to begin with.]]

* CaptureAndReplicate: In one side quest a woman asks you to deliver a divorce notice to her husband, who has been acting strangely towards her lately. If you investigate their home, you find out that he has been locked up in the attic for days, while a criminal mage assumed his appearance and used his home as a hub for his drug trade.

* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Just like the games that inspired it, mage classes like the Wizard, Druid, and Priest start off fairly weak. While they have access to powerful spells right from the get-go, they have so precious few casts per rest that they spend most battles either hiding in the back or throwing normal attacks while the more physically-oriented classes do most of the work. While they do gain better spells and more casts per rest over time, they get a massive boost in power at level 9. Before the 3.0 patch, Wizards, Priests, and Druids had their first, second, and third level spells change from "per rest" to "per encounter", allowing them to cast spells with impunity. This was changed in the 3.0 patch back to being per rest, but they gained Spell Mastery: one spell each from spell levels 1-4 that they have "mastered" and can cast per encounter outside of their usual per rest casts. And even at their most powerful mages have to be wary of firearms, which can pierce through magical defenses.

** Stats, classes, skill levels, backgrounds, sex, even equipped weapons, gives the players enough options to tackle the ChooseYourOwnAdventure bits, as well as the myriad of dialogue options that the game throws at you.

* BodySurf: A rare non-fatal version - [[spoiler: when investigating the sanitarium in Defiance Bay, you discover that Thaos can jump into the bodies of those with "weak souls", such as golems and the insane]]. Did we mention you find this out [[OhCrap in an insane asylum, with Flesh Constructs as guards]]?