Strange_Trees

True but somehow I don't think very many women would find Durance fun either. I bet he'd be hilarious though :D

Nothing that fluffy could possibly be evil :D

Ugh, it's hard to choose because I really liked all the characters So I ended up voting for Grieving Mother, strictly on a "least likely to be fun at parties" basis.

Souls can be created and destroyed as part of the reincarnation cycle. The game has a few mentions of 'soul twins', where two people have souls that were once a single soul. A conversation with Hiravias has him specifically talk about how souls splitting apart accounts for populations being able to increase without available souls running out. It's also mentioned that souls rarely remain unchanged. When a person dies, that soul may lose bits in the transition. Maybe those bits will get attached to another soul, or fade away. Souls that don't change through the cycle are referred to as 'strong souls, and it's hinted that the Watcher may actually have one of those.

She pipes up a fair bit in combat.

This has been stuck in my head for DAYS please send help

I love some of those random little flavor texts :D

No preference. I usually play a female main character, and stick with a core party of the companions I like the most/find most interesting, with some swapping every now and then to do quests/get commentary.

I've been replaying and taking extra care to re-read any of the lore related info a few times Animancy, as far as I'm aware, doesn't require any special powers or soul abilities, it's basically a science in it's youthful, troublesome trial-and-error-experimentation phases, I think... Like that one girl outside the Sanitarium says when you ask if Animancy is like Necromancy, she gets all huffy and says something along the lines of "No it's a SCIENCE!" I assume there was also eyerolling

Left clicking on a non-hostile NPC should bring up the dialog box if it's available. Have you tried checking your control mapping (bottom option when you hit ESC) to make sure something didn't get messed up in there? Things like moving to a spot, attacking, and interacting with NPCs/Objects should be defaulted to 'Mouse 0'.

I never imagined that video game release parties were that sexy XD

In the conversation with Galawain, Magran, and Abydon, I got the impression that those three at least seemed rather unconcerned about possible consequences animancy would pose to the gods. I don't have a save file from the first time you talk to them, but I managed to find the interesting tidbits of that conversation in the files: All three of these gods have a portfolio that revolves around change (hunt/discovery, transformation/trials, industry/aspirations), and stifling animancy could be directly contradicting their own natures. Most of the gods seem to view Woedica's flavor of law and order as something that would disrupt their own domains. A lot of the gods seem to really be about cycles, and seem to view animancy as just another occurrence or inevitability? If the gods are aware of their natures, they don't really seem to care. Hylea mentions that Woedica is afraid that animancy could result in mortals usurping power from the gods. Intercepting souls bound for newborns ended up taking care of two problems in one swoop; caused an epidemic that could be blamed on animancers, and collect a mass of essence that would give Woedica the power to reclaim her throne over the other gods. One other interesting bit I noticed: All the gods will grant you safe passage down the pit when you complete their task, but they wont grant you their favor without a promise to deal with the souls in their preferred manner. Binding oaths themselves are something in Woedica's domain of influence. I'm still chewing on that one, though. ...I typed all that, but I don't think I actually answered anything Oops?

So I've beaten the game once, and I love the setting, although there's one aspect of the lore I'm having a bit of trouble sorting through and mentally cataloguing Here's what I gather so far: Watchers: Either innate or acquired abilities. Can see "lost souls", possibly interact/manipulate them. Can see the souls of living people, and see glimpses of their pasts. Very bad when mixed with an Awakening, pretty much suggesting that an Awakened Watcher is on a fast track waterslide into the deep end of insanity. Other side effects include: hearing voices, insomnia, hallucinations, ect. How much of that was because of the main chars Awakening, I'm not sure? Caldara made it seem like it was more of just a Watcher side-effect. Bit I'm confused on: Why exactly is an awakening so much worse for a watcher? It seems that even in other awakened people, the 'remembered' personality can still take over. Ciphers: Innate only? Draw their abilities from their own souls, or the souls of others (via the Soul Whip). Can directly manipulate the minds and memories of others. Can glean information from a physical object, based on bits of soul left on it (spiritual fingerprints?) Can collect information on a souls past lives (Crucible Knight membership depends on past lives). Bit I'm confused on: There seems to be a bit of overlap? Both seem to have some soul manipulation involved. The Watcher is given the chance to erase Grieving Mothers memory of the trauma she caused. Heck, GM herself says something about being called a Watcher, since the place she lived in didn't have the concept of Ciphers. Also: Anything major I missed on either or both? Sorry if this post is a bit scattered, it's late and I'm falling asleep while finishing typing this I'll probably re-read, cringe, and clarify some things in the morning, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to start the discussion now anyways...

The same guy also voiced Aloth, which I found pretty incredible since they sound nothing alike

Buried Secrets and Blood Legacy were both memorable and pretty horrifying. I love it when I get to poke through old ruins uncovering mysteries. Also, the companion quests. I found the characters all likeable and genuinely wanted to help them, so really I ended up sad a lot For some reason I really like quests that make me sad. (Edér's especially, the way the voice actor delivered his lines really tugged the heartstrings )

Waaaaait a second...

Hah, for me the assassins all popped up and all but one ran off into the fog. Killed the one and amusingly enough, the others were just standing around Serel's corpse when I aggro'd them. Guess they take eliminating witnesses very seriously

Yeah, I did find it a little bit of off-putting, but I'm not sure if adding a voiced narrator would improve it... For starters, I'm not sure how they would cast it... having a generic narrator that's not associated with any other character constantly popping up in dialog might just make things worse? It would risk being jarring in a different way, having it feel like I'm being read to, rather than the character I'm playing being talked to. I kind of just started dealing with it, since I tend to read faster than talking speed and skim the dialog box along with it. There were a few parts where I think it could have benefited from an extra 'Continue' button. I mostly noticed it in dialogs where there was a lot of action text happening before or between character dialog, but there wasn't enough of a pause in the talking to actually account for the action. Having a few little extra pauses would help the flow there I think.

I love exploring. Nothing quite beats that feeling the first time I enter a map area and meet that black wall of unknown :D Makes the first playthrough extra special

I spent some time in photoshop mashing various elements from several of the default female portraits together to get a Pale Elf that looked like it could be the in-game model of her. Not perfect, but I got tired of fidgeting with it. Figure I'd share it here anyways blue hair ftw :D