Nations, cultures, and other organizations from Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. For the main index, see here.
open/close all folders
The Eastern Reach
The Dyrwood
The Free Palatinate of Dyrwood
A frontier country, the Dyrwood fought and won their independence from the Aedyran Empire about 150 years ago in the War of Defiance.
The Dyrwood is made up of seven erldoms: Helsgate, The Grasp, Tenferths, Norwaech, Coldwater, Ashfall, and Baelreach. It shares a border with Readceras to the north, Eir Glanfath to the east, and the Vailian Republics to the south.
- Eagleland: Shares a history of revolution, colonization, and bloody war with America, the hotbloodedness and sense of pioneer spirit along with, unfortunately, the racism and reactionary tendencies.
- Fantastic Racism: They don't like Aedyrans, having fought the War of Defiance to break their colonial yoke, or Glanfathans, the native people whose land they warred to claim, or elves, who are frequently Aedyran or Glanfathan, or orlans, who are seen as wild, filthy savages and thieves.
- Fantasy Conflict Counterpart:
- The Broken Stone War and War of Black Trees (and really the whole relationship between Aedyr and the Glanfathans) resembles both the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain and European colonization of North America.
- The War of Defiance, where the (Free) Palatinate of Dyrwood gained independence from Aedyr Empire, is The American Revolution.
- The Saint's War with is a more ambiguous example, but has some notable familiarities with The American Civil War: agrarian, traditionalist Readceras and industrial, more liberal Dyrwood resemble the sides pretty well, though the reasons for war were different. Its brevity and the idea of a northern colony invading an independent southern nation has some minor similarities with the War of 1812.
- For Science!: Defiance Bay is a leading force in animantic research... even as the rest of the country is mired in superstition and would gladly see the practice outlawed.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: They're "the Dyrwood". Almost nobody refers to the "Free Palatinate".
- Science Is Bad: The more superstitious Dyrwoodans believe animancy, the study of the soul, its reincarnation, and the use of soul energy through science rather than magic, is tampering in the gods' domain, and believe it could well be the cause of Waidwen's Legacy. The catastrophic Baelreach Incident and the "Cruel Salvation" (in which animal souls were grafted into Hollowborn children, resulting in a plague of feral wichts) only solidified a growing base of those who oppose animantic research.
- Settling the Frontier: Much of the Dyrwood is still untamed wilderness, at least by the standards of the Dyrwoodan settlers. It had already long been inhabited by the Glanfathans before the aforementioned wars pushed them back into what is now Eir Glanfath.
- Sterility Plague: Waidwen's Legacy, also known as the Hollowborn Crisis, which has caused countless Dyrwoodan children to be born Hollowborn, without souls — catatonic, essentially, unable to do anything more than breathe.
Eir Glanfath
Eir Glanfath
Eir Glanfath spans the deep forest and mountains southeast of the Bael River. It was once an ancient Engwithan kingdom of the same name, who in their final days charged the semi-nomadic local tribes with keeping the ruins safe from outsiders.
Glanfath spent many years battling the Aedyran settlers, then the newly independent Dyrwood, with relations only just having begun to thaw with the latter in recent years.
- Ancient Order of Protectors: A cornerstone of Glanfathan tribal culture — it is every Glanfathan's duty to ensure that the Engwithans' cities and temples remain sacrosanct, a mission blessed by the gods themselves.
- Berserk Button: Outsiders trespass in Engwithan ruins on penalty of death. Even passing near the ruins without realizing it (easily done in the dense wilderness of the continent) is reason enough for some tribes.
- Brutal Honesty: As a culture, they don't tend to mince words.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Stumbling into Engwithan ruins, even on accident, will get you an axe between the eyes. Questioning a Glanfathan's honor can net similar results.
- Fantastic Racism: On the receiving end of this from most of the world (since everyone sees them as murderous savages), but occasionally give it too. They dislike most Dyrwoodans (the feeling is mutual), and wild orlan Glanfathans tend to look down on orlans with "meadow plumage" (hearth orlans), as they see it as a sign of weakness.
- Forbidden Zone: Guarding Engwithan ruins is Serious Business. A few ruins were granted to the Glanfathans to live in, but others are off-limits even to them.
- Hollywood Natives: The natives (primarily wood elves, orlans, and mountain dwarves) are the Fantasy Counterpart Culture Native Americans to Dyrwood settlers' Eagleland. They're also more in tune with nature and act as stewards of the land, albeit mostly for the sake of guarding the ancient Engwithan ruins they dwell in without disturbing them.
- I Gave My Word: For all their faults, they speak honestly and honor their bargains. Questioning their integrity tends to go poorly.
Readceras
The Penitential Regency of Readceras
Like the Dyrwood, Readceras is a former colony of the Aedyran Empire. It gained its independence with the rise of St. Waidwen, who with the power vested in him by Eothas as his avatar, declared the colony to be the Divine Kingdom of Readceras. The Aedyran Empire, recognizing that their ability to stop the avatar of a god would be rather limited, decided to quickly cut their losses and give in to his demands. After Waidwen's death, the nation is, as its current name implies, now under the control of a theocratic regency.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Most other cultures on Eora, and especially the ones neighboring Readceras in the Eastern Reach, tends to view its culture as suffering from a least a downplayed version of this, seeing Readcerans as prone to view the world in very morally absolutist terms and being generally unwilling to compromise.
- Deep South: In Deadfire, most Dawnstars have southern accents, and the Eastern Reach's version of Eothas worship looks a lot like Christian revivalism. The trope is turned on its head geographically, in that Readceras lies to the north of the Dyrwood.
- Fantasy Conflict Counterpart:
- The Saint's War, which Readceras started, resembles a cross between The Crusades, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War — a war of religious conversion in which a northern colony invaded a newly independent southern nation, with the two cultures and peoples, previously not so different, now bitterly divided.
- As a cataclysmic conflict between two closely related cultures instigated by a man claiming to be an incarnation of the divine, there are also shades of the Taiping Rebellion from 19th Century China.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Deep South as a former 19th Century British colony who embarked on their own miniature Crusade.
- Hypocrite: It has been noted by many other nations that Readceran society views rebelliousness as a major vice, instead promoting unity, obedience towards authority figures, and shunning people that try to deviate from the established norms, despite the nation being born out of an act of rebellion. But the irony of this is lost on most Readcerans.
- The Purge: As Waidwen rose to power, he also ordered the prosecution of anyone who remained loyal to the Aedyran Empire, as well as followers of the other gods. This caused large segments of the population to flee Readceras for the Dyrwood, begging for sanctuary. This only led to further strife between the two nations.
- The Theocracy: Eothas is technically the official leader of the nation, but with his avatar, Waidwen, gone, Readceras is effectively controlled by the "Morning Council", the five leading priests of the local Church of Eothas. This religious leadership has led the nation to be notably more socially conservative in its outlook than the Dyrwood — which is saying something.
The Vailian Republics
The Vailian Republics
Formerly the colonial holdings of the once-mighty Vailian Empire, fourteen republics declared their independence as the old country foundered and fell apart into warring states. While laws and customs vary greatly in individual republics, international affairs are conducted by the sengretta ducala, made up of the ruling duc or ducess of each of the republics, with the rulers of the five most influential cities — Ancenze, Ozia, Revua, Selona, and Spirento, each represented by one of the five suns of the Vailian flag and coat of arms — holding greater voting power, and known collectively as the ducs bels, or "grand dukes".
Through chartering the merchant company known as the VTC or Vailian Trading Company, the Vailians are the dominant economic force in the hemisphere with a reach that extends halfway around the world.
- Bold Explorer: As colonists of the once-expansive Old Empire of Grand Vailia, Vailians as a people are extremely well-traveled with colonies across Eora. The Republics hold up this tradition, sending their ships, the mightiest navy in the world, far and wide across the Eastern Reach and beyond.
- The Conspiracy: Rather than a violent war of independence as occurred in the Dyrwood, the Vailians slowly consolidated power over years, watching Old Vailia's slow decay, so that when the Republics declared their independence, Old Vailia was too preoccupied with wars back in the homeland to do anything to stop them.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Played With. The Vailian Trading Company cares about little more than their own bottom line and is in no way above strongarm tactics, leonine contracts, and shutting out their competitors for their own profit, but they are also very keen on trading honestly and abiding by their own laws. If you don't understand Vailian law, of course, that's hardly their problem.
- Culture Chop Suey: Mix the best and worst of renaissance Italy, gilded-age (and to an extent modern) America and the African "slaver kingdoms".
- Eagleland: They represent the consumerist, capitalist side of America.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The city-states of Renaissance-era Italy by way of modern corporate America. The names and examples of the Vailian Conlang we hear are based on Italian, Catalan, Occitan, and occasionally French.
- For Science!: They're technologically advanced, pouring a great deal of money into their universities and private laboratories. They tend to consider themselves to have Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions regarding the gods — certainly the gods exist and must be given their due, but surely all these messy ancient rites, mumbled prayers, and assorted old wives' tales have had their day.
- MegaCorp: The Vailian Trading Company, an enormous naval/colonial power in its own right, originally chartered by the Republics but with a board (the Sengretta mea Compresa, or Congress of the Company) made up of shareholders and investors from many other countries.
- Proud Merchant Race: The Vailians are the merchants of the setting. No one else comes close to their numbers or reach. Notably, countries like the Dyrwood and Rauatai can only compete with them on a small, regional basis because the bulk of their attention is spread out elsewhere.
- Punch-Clock Villain: They tend not to be actively malevolent, but are indifferent to the long-term harm they cause as long as they see an immediate profit themselves.
- The Republic: Naturally, and yet not entirely a straight example. While each of the Republics is ruled by a noble duc, they are in many ways autonomous, with their own laws and individual governments. The Republics as a whole form a single nation led by a congress made up of each of the ducs, which largely limit themselves to conducting the international affairs of the Republics as a whole while delegating the day-to-day running of the Republics to others. The exact details have not been elaborated upon much up to this point, but are said to differ substantially between one republic and the next.
- Rising Empire: They stepped into the power vacuum left by Old Vailia's collapse.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of the commodities in which they trade is slaves, although it's not clear to what degree they make use of slaves in the Republics themselves. They do also have a certain reputation for press-ganging foreigners onto their ships, however.
The Old Empires
Aedyr
The Aedyr Empire
- Altar Diplomacy: In Aedyr, it's possible for a human and elf to enter a ceremonial marriage called a haemneg, which symbolizes the old human and elven kingdoms uniting to form the empire in the first place. Officially, it is a good way for wealthier families to pool resources, consolidate power, for larger houses to gain a new steward, and lower houses to gain more power. Unofficially, since humans and elves can't breed, it's a good way for nobles to gain a socially accepted mistress without fear of illegitimate children.
- British Stuffiness: Politeness. Decorum. Good diction. These virtues are held in high esteem in Aedyr.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To Victorian England in terms of being a class-conscious, etiquette-obsessed, colonialist empire, with a climate similar to the Amazon, and fashion reminiscent of Roman designs.
- Simple, yet Opulent: Aedyran style typically involves fine quality clothes and occasional jewelry that is not too complicated nor ostentatious.
- Slobs vs. Snobs: Shares this dynamic with their old colony of Dyrwood. While Dyrwood are proud rough-and-tumble pioneers who don't think too kindly of high-and-mighty authority figures, Aedyrans prize cleanliness, etiquette, good manners, and fine taste, and tend to look down on Dyrwoodans as uncouth ruffians.
Old Vailia
Old Vailia
- Balkanize Me: Presently exists only as a basket of squabbling states fighting over faded glory.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Once a powerful empire. Now, both the Vailian Republics, and Príncipi from Old Vailia itself, doubt the fractured city-states of the once-great empire will ever amount to anything again.
- Vestigial Empire: Somewhat downplayed. Old Vailia might not be as strong as in its glory days, but their navy still has a fearsome reputation and remains a force to be reckoned with.
Rauatai
The Great Kingdom of Rauatai
- Appeal to Force: A long history of military conquest on Ixamitl and a burgeoning naval superpower with the biggest guns on the seas.
- Condescending Compassion: The Royal Deadfire Company's idea of "helping" the Huana — whether they like it or not — looks an awful lot like armed occupation. They'll yank the Archipelago into the industrial age and are all too happy to wallpaper over the Huana culture while they're at it.Kalei: If you have any inclination to aid the Huana as a whole — rather than save one pitiful village at a time — you could do worse than tour Imperial Command at the Brass Citadel. Pay us a visit, why don't you?
- Eagleland: Of US military policy post-911 — the military adventurism, the preemptive strikes, the My Country, Right or Wrong attitude of both troops and civilians. It's worth noting, however, that other than Kana, the military are pretty much the only side of Rauatai we've seen in the games thus far.
- The Empire: One of the more fearsome imperial powers in the Deadfire, and they've also carved out a fair chunk of Ixamitl. Rauatai has aspirations of world conquest, and originally formed after the fall of the old Huana empire by conquering their way inland, assimilating the surrounding human, dwarf, and orlan kingdoms they encountered along the way. Most of the latter conquest occurred centuries ago, but the empire has begun to stir again recently.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: While their names and language are clearly inspired by Pacific Islanders, their expansionist empire has many qualities in common with a fledgling British Empire, along with certain elements in common with Japan's early industrial era. The original Rautaian conquest in Ixamitl seems to put them in a similar position to the Aztecs as well.
- Had to Be Sharp: They're proud of coming from a land wracked by the unnatural storms of Ondra's Mortar, and believe it is what made them such a mighty empire.
- Mordor: Rauatai, called "the rough country" by its own people, is mostly barren rock buffeted by constant storms.
- More Dakka: Rauataians are fond of both personal firearms and cannons, and their rocky homeland is full of saltpeter, one of the primary components in making gunpowder.
- Proud Warrior Race: The soldiers and sailors of the Royal Navy take pride in their heritage as conquerors.
- Rising Empire: Among the few powers capable of rivaling the Vailians in the Deadfire, although it's pointed out that this is in part because the Republics have other interests farther afield, so neither the Deadfire nor Rauatai has their full attention.
- Stuff Blowing Up: One of their most useful natural resources? Saltpeter.
- War for Fun and Profit: Rauatai's Royal Deadfire Company, backed by the ranga nui (emperor) himself, blurs the line with the nation's navy. Their headquarters in the Deadfire is a sizable fortress in Neketaka called the Brass Citadel.
The Deadfire Archipelago
The Huana
The Huana
The Huana are the native people of the Deadfire Archipelago, having made it their home for thousands of years, island aumaua living in nomadic tribes which journeyed from one island to the next in the wake of storms and ahead of monsters, and later pirates and slavers. Despite living as hunter-gatherers, the Huana were once quite advanced, with a culture which rivaled the ancient Engwithans before a series of catastrophic volcanic eruptions and the ensuing tsunamis drowned their former kingdom.
- Ancient Order of Protectors: The Wahaki are highly xenophobic and violently protective of their islands, particularly the ancient ruins of the lost Huana civilization. A visit from the immortal Thaos himself, as part of his campaign to recruit them to protect the old ruins much as he did the Glanfathans, convinced the ancient Wahaki that outsiders were not to be trusted, and they burned him at the stake (which, of course, was no big deal to Thaos because of his Born-Again Immortality). This in turn proved to the Leaden Key that they would be excellent guardians regardless.
- Appeal to Tradition: Their way of life has remained largely unchanged since the cataclysm which rocked the Deadfire over 2000 years ago. Deconstructed as their Fantastic Caste System is breaking down under their attempts to unite into a modern nation in the face of encroachment by the trading companies sent by the Vailians and Rauataians.
- Cataclysm Backstory: The great kingdom of the ancient Huana and their lost capital of Ukaizo were destroyed thousands of years ago, the history lost to legend, the ruins which dot the islands and the oral history of the Huana the only evidence left of their former glory.
- Fantastic Caste System: The Huana are divided into castes and believe they will reincarnate into a higher caste upon death. It's the responsibility of the higher castes to take care of the lower castes: food and resources are shared, with the ruling warrior/priest (the Mataru) caste picking what they want and giving what they do not want to the lower castes who "survive on the scraps" — though the Deadfire being as bountiful as it is, this is less of a hardship than it might be elsewhere. The system worked well enough when dealing with small island villages where the populations are small and everyone knows everyone else personally so that no one falls through the cracks. Where it falls apart is in a large Huana metropolis like Neketaka, where the Roparu population is too huge to be easily provided for, and rivalries between both tribes and the trading companies make the need to impress and protect one's own become more pressing, thus leading the upper castes to keep more for themselves. This is not helped by the fact that many of the Mataru see outside charity toward the Roparu as a personal insult, as it carries the implication that the higher castes are failing in their duties and need outsiders to step in. The castes are, in order of elevation:
- Ranga: Tribal chieftains, typically elevated from the Mataru caste.
- Mataru: Warriors and priests.
- Kuaru: Artisans and craftsmen.
- Roparu: Laborers who form the bottom rung of the caste system. In Nekataka they live in the Gullet, the core of the city, and suffer from lack of access to food and resources.
- Unworthy: Casteless, usually criminals who have been stripped of their caste.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A mix of Polynesian and Caribbean islander cultures.
- Genghis Gambit: Queen Onekaza II of the Kahanga Tribe is especially keen on bringing all the nomadic villages together to present a united front lest the trading companies roll right over them.
- Hollywood Natives: The peaceful, nomadic island aumaua of the Deadfire Archipelago, who call themselves Huana, are saddled with a bad case of this in-universe, even by the coastal aumaua of Rauatai, with the latter's Royal Deadfire Company being a nascent East India Company. Subverted with the Huana's capital of Neketaka, however, which is a large, cosmopolitan city in its own right.
- Mayincatec: Presumably not as much as Ixamitl, but the ruins from ancient Huana cities have a somewhat Mayan quality in their large stone slabs and carved reliefs. They also seem to draw on the temples of Southeast Asia, like Cambodia's Angkor Wat. Ukaizo, which is largely intact, seems to also show some Thai and Indonesian influences.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: A staple of the Deadfire diet is koīki, a spiky, foul-smelling but tasty purple fruit based on the real-world durian. Koīki literally translates to "cursed corpse".
- Verbal Tic: "What say?", "I say", and "Ekera" among the Huana, similar to the Hawaiian habit of ending sentences with "ya?" as a form of emphasis.
The Príncipi
The Príncipi sen Patrena
- Affably Evil: The Príncipi are often charming and funny, even the ones who are utterly bloodthirsty and self-interested.
- Anarchy Is Chaos: Many kith both in and outside the Príncipi believe that the so-called new blood are only interested in the freedom to do whatever they want, no matter who they hurt.
- Meaningful Name: Literally the "Princes Without a Homeland", those noble families who fled Old Vailia in the last days of the former empire, taking to piracy to replace the wealth and power they had lost.
- Noble Fugitive: The original Príncipi were Old Vailian aristocrats, with only a fleet of ships between them and old enemies in pursuit.
- Old Guard Versus New Blood: In-universe — there two major factions in the modern Príncipi: the violent but freedom-loving "new blood", and the ruthless but civilized, Vailian-descended old blood. The former are led by the Sea Wolf, Captain Aeldys; the latter by the Last Marceso himself, Captain Furrante.
- Pirates: Very much pirate classic, with sailing ships, cutlasses, pistol braces, parrots, and eyepatches. Like real-world pirates, they're also an unlikely bastion of (relative) liberty and equality.
Naasitaq
Naasitaq
Home of the boreal dwarves, Naasitaq and its surrounding islands lie to the extreme south of the Deadfire Archipelago, where rather than the tropical plenty of the northern islands, the winters are harsh and the land unforgiving.
- Eskimo Land: Naasitaq, the largest island of the tundra-dwelling Boreal Dwarves, known among themselves as the Enutanik. They loosely resemble the Inuk or Inuit people, along with traits taken from other arctic indigenous peoples. Sagani mentions eating blubber and going on long hunts across the frozen plains.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: As noted, the culture has a strong Inuit influence, and as the largest island in the Deadfire somewhat resembles Greenland.
- Grim Up North: The Grim Down South thanks to the reverse Left-Justified Fantasy Map Eora uses. Not as grim as the White that Wends, but still a sparsely inhabited tundra. Fish and plants must be harvested before the seas and ice all freeze over, and large game may be hunted across the icefields for days or weeks to bring home a suitable catch.
- Matriarchy: A played-with version of a Patriarchy Flip. In Sagani's home village of Massuk, women in her culture do all the hunting and seeking out the soul of the previous elder, while the men tend to stay home and raise the children. That said, nothing seems to stop men from engaging in every other societal role, from trade to diplomacy to leadership, since the previous elder of her village was a man named Persoq who excelled in all three in his lifetime.
Other Regions
Ixamitl Plains
Ixamitl Plains
A vast expanse of savannah to the north of Readceras, home to many sedentary tribes of humans and orlans.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Ixamitl is their place of origin and the party monk of the first game, Zahua, is a native.
- Mayincatec: Ixamitlan names sound vaguely Nahuatl. One can also try to draw a connection through the Nalpazca use of sacred hallucinogens. (Although for some reason their fashions are based on Bulgarian national dress, of all places.)
- Medieval Stasis: It's noted that Ixamitl society has not been outwardly expansive for thousands of years, and when it's described, no mention is made of anything more complex than tribes. (Then again, Neketaka is also technically a tribal settlement.)
- The Philosopher: Many of them live there. Ixamitlans value learning and abstract thinking, but in contrast to the Vailians and Rauataians, they don't expect it to be practical.
The Living Lands
The Living Lands
A mountainous region of a large northern island renowned for the diversity of biomes to be found there.
- Determined Homesteader: A mention is made that it's in the process of being settled.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: For the little is known about the region, it seems to be based on Oceania (specially Australia) and South America due to being known as a continent full of exotic (and dangerous) creatures, a high diversity of biomes and a hotpot of races and settlements, both colonies and natives.
- Wild Wilderness: Apparently there's a lot of this there, even with all the settlers.
The White that Wends
The White that Wends
The vast, perpetually frozen landmass to the south of Eora, where only the pale elves can survive.
- Badass Creed: The Watcher can finish Ydwin's sentiment if you're also from the Land.Ydwin: Shall we carry on, Duskspeaker?
The Watcher: [White that Wends origin] Vith jerüm dháth eldtaf. ("We always do.") - Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Of frozen, sunless Scandinavia — no Horny Vikings, but a herding, hunting culture in which every able-bodied person is expected to pull their weight.
- Grim Up North: The grim Antarctic. A land of harsh permafrost and barren frozen plains.
- Mysterious Antarctica: Travelers occasionally visit the coast, but only the pale elves, with their innate resistance to extremes of temperature, can withstand the conditions further inland. Incidentally, this makes it another barrier to reaching the far side of the world, not unlike Ondra's Mortar to the east.
Yezuha
Yezuha
A mysterious region, or perhaps a nation, to the east of Deadfire Archipelago. Not much is known of it, but apparently it's big enough so that many civilized peoples speaking different languages live there. Separated for millennia, it's (potentially) left open to exploration as the storms of Ondra's Mortar dissipate.
- The Missionary: They send them out. It's actually a lot more notable than it seems at first glance — being cut off by the storms that began with the founding of the Eoran pantheon, it makes sense they were left to their own devices when everyone else took to worshipping the same set of deities.
Ancient Civilizations
Engwith (Pillars of Eternity SPOILERS)
Engwith
An ancient civilization which vanished from Eora under mysterious circumstances several thousand years ago, the ruins of which dot the Dyrwood and the rest of the Eastern Reach. Engwith possessed technology far in advance of any modern nation.- Abusive Precursors: So much so that the gods eventually wiped them out. Except the gods were the Engwithans' own creation, designed to keep kith in a state of Medieval Stasis with their souls constantly churning through the Great Wheel, overseen by the gods the Engwithans had crafted to ensure that cycle was never broken.
- Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Most of their architecture carries this sort of aesthetic.
- And Man Grew Proud: Their civilization was wiped out by the gods thousands of years ago when they unlocked forbidden secrets the gods would keep hidden. Except this is almost entirely backward: the Engwithans were the ones who decided that kith could not be trusted with the secrets of the soul, including themselves, so they sacrificed themselves to the last man, woman, and child so that their souls could power the great machines which were the true minds of the gods, then instructed those same gods to bombard their cities with storms, meteors, and tidal waves to ensure their technology was lost forever.
- Clarke's Third Law: Most of their ancient technology runs off of animancy so powerful that it completely mystifies modern animancers. They were able to create the gods themselves through animancy, although the toll that it took was heavy indeed.
- Driven to Suicide: In the end, the last of them died this way. All but Thaos, and a few ancient scattered undead. As a whole as an entire civilization, they sacrificed all of their souls (save Thaos) so that they could create the gods of the world to artificially create hope and purpose for an existence that, in their opinion, otherwise had none of either.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: When they achieved a level of technology that let them unravel the great mysteries of the universe, they were crestfallen to discover that there were no gods, no higher purpose to existence, at least as far as their instruments could detect. This so thoroughly broke them as a people that they willingly sacrificed themselves to embody a pantheon of artificial gods, to replace what they saw as the meaninglessness of existence with purpose and order.
- The Masquerade: Much effort has been expended in destroying or otherwise concealing certain truths they had discovered. By the Engwithans themselves, no less, and all to prop up one very big lie in particular: the gods are not real. Thaos, the last of their kind, has been maintaining this lie for thousands of years, since he believes that the truth would break society as a whole.
- Medieval Stasis: Their legacy to Eora has ultimately resulted in this. Thaos and the Leaden Key have been enforcing it in accordance with the philosophy of his people, since any civilization which understood animancy to the same degree as the ancient Engwithans would inevitably stumble onto the true nature of the gods sooner or later. There is some question how universal it is — there are implications that modern Eora might be more technologically advanced than the Engwithans in areas not having to do with animancy and souls, like metalworking and engineering. It's just that Eora is a setting where soul science has very, very broad applications.
- Walking Spoiler: Reading too far into them or their history will inevitably spoil The Reveal that the climax of the first game hinges on.
