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When entering the fungus-infested wing of the library in Forgotten Sanctum, your party sees huge bookshelves ruined by the infestation, and Vatnir has some ambient dialogue. I'm going to paraphrase it from memory:

"Scribes toiled for countless years to create these tomes. Now look at them. Fools."

This really stuck with me because it was a rare example of a character in the game expressing a religious point of view in a way that was neither abstract nor directly about a deity. We hear plenty of talk about Rymrgand being the god of entropy, impermanence, final endings, etc., and we see plenty of people talk about their devotion to him and other gods. But it is rare to see a character's religious views influence their attitude towards the mundane in a way that's not entirely on the nose.

It would have been nice to see more of this in the game. Have characters' religiosity come out in how they respond to actual situations, not just in abstract pontificating and declarations of devotion. Does anyone have more examples? 

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I thought PoE1 did really well. 

Deadfire not so much. I imagine it must be a way the game was conceptualised and written. There is a lot of care put into explaining lore and political situations, but not much character growth. I think it might also be an issue with the relationship system. A lot of writing went into companions, and they react to things which will reinforce their traits - Xoti will react to religion, Eder to pets, Takehu of criticism of Huana. The way they react is also odd. Pallegina in PoE1 would argue about value of the Republics, but in Deadfire she will snap at any criticism, because that’s what reinforces the system. Eder liked pets in PoE1, but he didn’t restate it at every occasion. 

I think this Vatnir remark is a nice example of a character organically reacting to his environment making it personal. There is no reason for him to be at Forgotten Sanctum - he wasn’t created for this DLC so lines he has are purely personal - he is not a vehicle for this places lore. But he is there and sees what is around him, and comments on it. Also DLCs were freed from shackles of companion system, and freeform exploring, which made for more engaging experiences. After DLCs I find myself spend more and more time with some of the sidekicks.

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