I am more or less with you. The recent trailer looked pretty bland to me, and it is only Obsidian name and EoraTM that has me interested.
Still as Pillars junkie interested I am.
So yeah, unlike the first teaser I found this one blandly un-Eora like, but it is Eora alright - Aumaua, Xaurips, Adra vein, recognisable spells, Living Lands, casting from spellbook etc.
Okey, PoE lore, how much you wanna know
Like in PoE1&2 Obsidian is avoiding having to represent a major nation and is sticking to less populated colonies. First was Dyrwood, than Deadfire, and Avowed will take place in the Living Lands. There are couple old superpowers at play - Old Valia is one, yes, but the one relevant here is Aedyr Empire. Homeland of our old chum Aloth and a very Woedica devoted nation of mostly humans and elfs ruled by fercönyng and mecwyn. They were the founders of the colony of Dyrwood (in which PoE1 took place) though it rebelled and became independent quite sometime before the events of that game.
Anyway, it's been confirmed that playable character in Avowed is customisable but pretty predefined. They will be human or elf and they are an envoy of the emperor (or fercönyng for the cool kids) of Aedyr.
Some companions from previous games (and Deadfire specifically) are meant to appear so it likely takes place after the events of Deadfire. There was also a book in the final DLC for Deadfire that was long suspected to be a teaser for the Avowed, and would support this timeline.
I see, if they'd said fercönyng they could have avoided a lot of confusion.
I love me some lore, but my PoE is a little rusty. I know we're dealing with a renaissance mix of noble republics and monarchies, I didn't realize that there were so many emperors about. Knowing that it takes place after Deadfire is interesting considering the how that game can end.
I agree with you about the shift from the first teaser to this trailer.
