Taevyr

Really nice find, now to get speculating. Alright, according to the wiki, Deadfire located in the south linking with the arctic White that Wends, so that one fits and we have a good bearing for the map. Aedyr's supposedly in the west, located on the equator, so that one seems right. Living Lands should be far north so that fits as well. "Old Vailia" looks suspiciously small for a crumbled empire of warring kingdoms, and located quite far from the eastern reach for colonial efforts, even if it's in the right location. It's also shaped rather similar to the Eastern reach, but that'd throw of most of the geographic information from the first game. It's... passable in my opinion, as I don't see a fitting alternative location for it. Meanwhile, the region containing the eastern reach is huge, but its location would mean the Vailians (not old vailians) can quickly travel between their cities and the Deadfire, which would explain their quick colonial expansion in the region. It's also close enough to Aedyr for their colonial efforts. Still seems too big in my opinion though. Rauatai looks to be in the right location, and close enough to Deadfire for the Rauatai exodus, but is supposed to be an Archipelago in the "Rauatai gulf' according to the first game. This clearly isn't an archipelago and there's no single "gulf" zone around/next to it, even though its in the right location. Perhaps they retconned some of PoE1's information . Wild guess here, but another possibility could be that this map doesn't represent known Eora, but the Rauataian homeland, which would downscale it quite a bit. It'd be a good way for soldiers/officers to learn tactics through a game set in a well-known region, would teach players the ins and outs of their revered homeland, and would fit with Rauatai being an Archipelago.

Well, if you're gonna die anyway, might as well die doing what you love. It reminds me of that one guy in Pompeii though.

Antelope works to keep a single basic enemy at bay in updated veteran, though I wouldn't have it tank a drake or one of those mature Port Maje boars without backup. Between my arquebus/pistol sharpshooter, the antelope, and multiclassed Eder, we cleared out the Port Maje digsite (and extended ruins, as Aloth got booted in PoE1) quite easily with some positioning. The antelope had the increased DR talent at the time. Antelope defenses and the increased DR talent are good, but don't discount the increased pen/damage from Vicious Companion. Makes a single normal mob quite manageable for the pet.

IMPORTANT QUESTION. IS PRONOUN SHINY? ARMY NEED TAKE SHINY FROM FAKE DIMWITS.

THIRD PERSON? THERE THREE DIMWITS NOW? THIS TOO COMPLICATED FOR LAZY WORM. LAZY WORM GO FIND SHINIES.

CAN'T BE TWO DIMWITS. MUST BE ILL... ILLUS... FAKE DIMWIT. EXPLAIN OR THROW FAKE IN BATHROOM WITH NAKED ARKEMYR.

HAT CHAMBER POT. SCRYING POOL CHAMBER POT. ALL IS CHAMBER POT. EXCEPT SHINIES.

LAZY WORM ONLY HAVE THREE SHINIES. BUT IS BIG ONES. BIG SHINIES MORE IMPORTANT.

LAZY WORM NO WANT DEMOCRACY. LAZY WORM WANT SHINIES!

You can convince them not to kill the guy, or just tell them you're there to watch, but you need the right passive rank/disposition rank to succeed at it. Don't remember which option I used with the MC that didn't kill them, unfortunately.

Being able to use alcohol as a drug would be great, especially with the opportunity of making a Nalpazca "drunken master" build. Ales and other "normal" alcoholic beverages are good as they are, but the expensive, hard-hitting alcoholics would make perfect drugs.

If i remember correctly, destroying the pillar and siding with RDC (including assassinations) leads to Atsura providing the village with food, supplies and "protection" (Rauatai soldiers) in the wake of their chief's "unfortunate death". It's dirty, but it works, and the village is happy to take his aid. So for Tikawara to survive, they either become dependant on the VTC or the RDC. Otherwise, they end up dead.

Its Aloth, living among a proud tribe of highly traditional natives connected to the leaden key. It's a miracle he spent over an hour there without lecturing them about being too traditional, though that could explain why he got killed. Could become quite a running joke for the franchise though: "how will we save Aloth from certain death this game?" We could get an entire DLC finding out why the universe wants him dead!

He still dies though in the epilogue if you don't do his quest... So idk if not meek means just being an ass WAT???? Lacking a watcher to read the Wahaki leader's soul, all he can find out is that Thaos clearly influenced the tribe, but fails to find out how or why before the Wahaki grow too suspicious of him and his sighs. Unfortunately, it turns out he can't turn away Wahaki spears with his sighs, which probably gave him quite a pained look.

Yep, I've suspected for a while he's supposed to be like that. Doesn't stop me sighing through my nose about it xD Didn't think of that, but it'd fit quite well with his character arc in PoE1. Equating "independent" with "dislike everyone i disagree with" is an awful way to implement that though, and combined with the bugs, I have no idea how he went from -1 to +1 with me. He needs some positive dispositions that pop up more frequently than stewardship. Abuse of Authority would be perfect as there are quite a few examples of people doing so in-game, and Aloth would definitely approve of you putting an end to it, whether he's pro or contra Leaden Key. Skulduggery as well: he did some sneaky stuff in PoE1 as well, and you literally meet him pretending to be an animancer.

I'm on board for this, but if and only if he says "it's all ogre now" on a kill/when combat ends Do you mean... Amazing puns, and he's already a pirate!

Pallegina and Eder fit in the story: She's perfect to serve as a connection to the VTC, and Eder's both fan favorite and the most connected to Eothas of the PoE1 companions. Aloth, however, had an unconnected character arc written in specifically so he had a reason to appear, which bothered me a bit. Durance would've fit if he didn't die in the playthrough, but I don't see anyone but Avellone writing him properly since he's such an Avellone character. None of the others have a real reason to appear as part of the main story either. I'd say dragon age does it better: one companion carries over between each game, always a different one, and the others are mentioned or make minor appearances in the series. Maneha appearing in Dunnage and Devil returning as a macabre set of armor show that Obs knows how to do that properly, and I wouldn't have minded if Aloth had simply gotten a similar mention/appearance in favor of more development for Ydwin/Rekke.

Next for Deadfire: free Josh Sawyer motivational DLC. Have Josh himself join you as a motivational pet, always inspiring you to be your best. Including inspired character pose!

WHERE ARE MY MOON GODLIKE BEARDS DAMMIT

Excellent game (once bugs and stuff will be cleaned out), excellent side content/faction stuff (again, once a few patches are in *cough* relation system *cough*), awful main story. In terms of gameplay I'd rate it better than PoE and deeper/more strategic than tyranny. A 7.5-8/10 at release, already clearly improving with the encounter and difficulty patches since. It'll probably be a solid 9-9.5/10 in the end. In terms of story I'd rate it worse than both tyranny and PoE1, though this is mostly because of the main "story", and the side content is excellent. Side/faction content with some dialogue/quest order patching could easily get an 8/10 if not more, though I'd give the main story no more than a 4.5/10, and I actually like philosophy and mythical/religious speculation. Probably can't be patched much, but Josh said they're looking into possible improvements, so I'm willing to hold out on it. Let's hope the DLC do better.

for 7, originally every class was meant to have its own unique items similar to wizard grimoires, which is what the trinket slot was meant for. Could be it's just a holdout from that, though since this is Obsidian it's quite likely they'll end up adding it somewhere along the update/dlc cycle.

So that would make him still represent the futility of rebellion, as it implies power corrupts, with the self mutlilation and sacrifice of other symbolising that? I wouldn't necessarily say that, but it's a reasonable interpretation. He definitely seems to be the most extreme of the gods, but as "the ideal" of rebellion and revolutions that's about what should be expected. As for my take on your interpretation: He simply aids people rebelling against their hated overlords. Nowhere does it state the need for those overlords to actually be evil or corrupted: It could just as well be religious extremists rebelling against their peaceful secular government, to name a random example. Rebellion defines him: the why, how, when, who, etc. doesn't factor into it. EDIT: Come to think of it though, in a way, it's just as futile as Galawain's "strength becomes weakness becomes strength"; or Abydon's "steady progress while knowing your place"; or even Wael's "knowledge comes through mystery and revelation": none lead anywhere when you'd follow them blindly, and only serve to keep the Engwithan status quo intact.... Well then. Screw the Engwithans, I guess.

having a companion who's believably "evil" would definitely be nice.

Skaen did not get flanderized, he was deliberataly designed this way. Engwithians wanted kith to be submissive, so they created hierarchy among the gods with Woedica as the queen. But I guess they aniticipated that people would still want to rebel, so they gave them the most twisted god of rebellion imaginable. Skaen does not help his followers change the status quo, he only grants violent revenge (including collateral damage) at a cost of great pain and death. Nobody, except the most desperate, would make that deal. Skaen is the closest god slaves and abused have to identify with and he's so repulsive, no same person would worship him. So they just accept their place in the world. That makes Skaen hands down the most interesting god in Eora's pantheon. Unless I'm missing something and he's just an edgy schemer. That however would be extremely disappointing. I agree with this. Skaen has always confused me as I'd also be inclined to like a god of rebellion. Yet he seems to be Woedica's lapdog, which made me assume the "today my master chokes on his own whip" mantra was more about punishing rebels than actually helping them. He's really into sacrificing friends for personal gain too. So all in all, he seems to be all about inflicting pain and suffering upon self and others while actually maintaining the existing power systems more than anything else, or maybe to demonstrate that resistance is futile. OTOH I might be totally wrong. The way i see Skaen, he needs Woedica because he's the god of quiet resentment and rebellion: without a clear established order to oppose, scheme against, and tear down, he's nothing. Not to mention Woedica's plot in PoE1 involved regaining control from the gods that took it from her, in other words: Overthrowing an established order she deeply hates. Sounds perfectly up Skaen's alley to me. This is also why he's said to abandon his followers who achieve their goals or higher status: he stands for rebellion and hate, so the moment said followers no longer have overlords to rebel against/hate, he no longer has any reason to support them. As i interpret him, he'd just as easily aid slaves from rising up against their masters, as he would aid those former masters from overhtrowing their former slaves a few months later: so long as there's hate and resentment aimed towards an established order, he'll be there. I'd also say calling him evil misses his point, and that of the Pillars gods in general. They're stated to have been created from ideals, which usually transcend the idea of good and evil: so long as you follow the dictates of a god's core belief/ideal, it'll be "good" from his/her point of view, and opposing it will always be "evil" from their point of view. It's a sense of morality, but a far cry from the one we're familiar with.

Reminds me of the only ME3 ending that even distantly resembled something coherent. Is that the ending where a colorful beam shoots into space? No that was all of them. The main difference is whether the beam is red, blue, or green. Noticeably less dumb, maybe. Something nearly approaching passable, not by far. At least there were ending slides Post-DLC. Whoever thought ending the trilogy with technicolour beams was a good idea, should be kicked out of an airlock.