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The Endgame
- So Eothas breaks the wheel. Except, consider the words of Thaos in the first game on what the Engwithans found: "only a Wheel, turning without mercy, grinding our spirits to dust." This implies the cycle of reincarnation predates the Engwithans and their false gods, and that it is a natural part of the world they discovered rather than created. Which entirely goes against what happens in the second, where the Wheel is a physical machine in Ukaizo that Eothas can tear apart with his bare hands. So... was Thaos lying, was there a retcon, or what?
- Probably a retcon. Otherwise, there are two scenarios: he doesn't know (extremely unlikely, considering he's the keeper of the gods' secret, and is thus surely privy to all their secrets and such), or he's lying (which he might be, considering that you know the gods are fake but don't know from where they draw power; he might be protecting them, so to speak, though that scenario does seem rather contrived). So ... yeah, although you can make sense of it if you think hard enough, it's probably a retcon.
- The impression I got is that the Engwithans' harnessed the power of souls and bound them to their physical Wheel and the eponymous Pillars, but didn't necessarily create souls themselves. I suspect it's less of a retcon than a The Ending Changes Everything scenario, where they've left themselves plenty of blanks in the setting where future reveals might go. I'm wondering, for example, if the process of souls turning to dust is the natural state — consciousness and memory are lost, sure, but life itself goes on. Berath is the god of duality, but the more interesting pairing Deadfire seems to have going on is between the two other gods of death, Eothas and Rymrgand — summer and winter. If it's anything like The White March, I expect Beast of Winter is going to contain some pretty major implications of its own.
- There must have been some sort of cycle predating the Engwithan's creation of the gods. Based on the experiments in Caed Nua, the Engwithans were manipulating soul energy long before they built the machinery in Ukaizo (which, judging by the giant skeletons surrounding it, the gods themselves had a hand in constructing), and there were presumably new people being born all the time in their era. It's likely that the physical Wheel is intended to ensure that souls are properly directed to specific gods, allowing them to do things like create godlikes and repeatedly reincarnate Thaos whole. What's less clear is why so many characters believe that Eothas's actions will condemn all souls to eventually being tapped in the afterlife, although notably Eothas himself never indicates this will happen. It's possible that the existence of the gods themselves somehow prevents the restoration of a natural cycle of reincarnation.
- Actually Eothas does admit that souls will be trapped in the afterlife, bringing that up is how you persuade him to turn his borrowed body into a makeshift Heaven (or at least a pleasant Limbo) to hold the souls until kith figure out a replacement. My guess is that there was a Wheel causing reincarnation before the gods but that the Engwithans built a "better" one to, as noted above, channel souls to the gods and other such things they thought was important. But in order to do so it makes sense that they would have to get rid of the existing Wheel to do so or the two would conflict. So when Eothas wrecks the Engwithan Wheel he is either incapable or unwilling to recreate the original one, leaving kith to make a new system for souls on their own.
- Apparently it's both: a natural phenomenon that was regulated by the machinery in Ukaizo to such a degree that the whole process broke. Even Sawyer admits that wasn't very well explained
. - The conclusion to this thread - they retconned the situation. There was a natural rebirth cycle that existed before Berath's Wheel that the gods claim was inferior. The current cannon is that the gods destroyed whatever system was in place before and that even with Berath's Wheel gone, the old system won't come back.
Splintered Reef supplies
- So, Splintered Reef is a chaotic mishmash of derelict shipwrecks and crypts inhabited by undead in various states of decay which are kept under the effects of an illusion that makes them think they're alive, at least until the next meal arrives. The Watcher can buy supplies here as they can from normal cities. This presents a problem, because the Watcher can buy supplies here even if a) they just arrived and don't even know anyone "lives" there (well, unliving, or whatever), or b) they have already killed everyone there, which is likely to happen because undead aren't the most friendly bunch once the illusions that keep them happy wear off. So... how does that even work? Just *who* is the Watcher buying stuff from?
- Considering Queen Onekaza sends people to deal with Splintered Reef if the Watcher doesn't personally handle it, I'd say it's probably someone who knew of the island. It's clearly got some value to it, or perhaps it's simply remote enough to be a haven. Regardless, someone knows of the place, and probably moves into it soon after the undead are gone. Probably.
Eothas' strange claims at Ukaizo
- Eothas claims that he wanted to start a war of "ideas" rather than one of physical conflict. It is unclear why he thought anyone would believe this after he showed up in the Dyrwood with an actual army. It is not possible to call him out on this nonsense claim, either saying that he did bring an army or that only about ten people were needed to defeat Thaos. Further, he says that he needs to destroy the wheel because nobody will listen to him, despite being a seven hundred foot tall god-titan. Is Eothas supposed to be seen as deeply confused about how the world works, or just not very smart, or are his motives just not explained well?
