Originally Posted by Wormerine
Originally Posted by Sozz
I'm going to give Obsidian the benefit of the doubt, but so far nothing about Avowed has really stuck to me. If they made an effort to de-Skyrimize it, I'm not seeing it; and if they didn't tell me it was set in the Pillars world I wouldn't know.

There's mention of an emperor, I don't remember a lot about the world lore from Pillars, but there's an Byzantium stand in, Old Vellis or something right? Is this set far in the past from the games?
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 laezelapprove 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.
Good summary, @Wormerine. And I would add for @Sozz, Avowed will also not be like Skyrim in no longer being open-world. They now explicitly say they've traded big open-world for deeper storytelling.