The Watcher's Curse: What now? More Awakenings? (Spoiler Warning)

[Venatio]

We began this game with a simple dilemma and some objectives:

 

· We were a Watcher.

· We would go mad eventually due to our awakened souls.

· We should find the Leaden Key and see if they knew of a cure.

 

The fact of the matter is that all of this back and forth had to do with our connection to just one past life where we were an inquisitor in the service of Thaos. We did terrible things, believing the gods would forgive us, and then died knowing the gods were fake and our actions unjustified. Seeing Thaos in Cilant Lîs then re-awakened our past life and brought that trauma to the forefront.

 

Unlike most Watchers we were able to give our past life closure by destroying Thaos, and this apparently put the issue to rest. But how, exactly? That was one life, we have surely lived other lives were we did terrible things.

 

The culmination of the Pillars of Eternity story struck me as more of a placebo than an actual fix for our problem. We are a Watcher and will eventually go mad from numerous souls awakening.  If you’re human you might die of old age before that becomes a problem. If you’re an elf then you’re pretty screwed because something is bound to click before the century is out.

 

My questions are thus: What now? Are we going to try to fix this problem in the expansions? Is the Watcher’s curse even an issue for us anymore?

Edited May 6, 2015 by Venatio

[fgalkin]

We will find out in the sequel, I guess :D

 

Have a very nice day.

-fgalkin

[Achilles]

Being a Watcher wasn't the problem. The problem was the combination of being a Watcher and Awakened. The confrontation with Thaos resolved the Awakening. Your posts assumes that more Awakenings are inevitable, and it would be a shame if Obsidian relied on this device again in a sequel.

 

I suspect that part 2 will see us strengthening our Watcher abilities and going after Woedica directly.

 

Edit: maybe with the help of Eothas

Edited May 6, 2015 by Achilles

[Yria]

We did terrible things, believing the gods would forgive us, and then died knowing the gods were fake and our actions unjustified.

Not necessarily. I mean, we definetely did terrible things (burned people alive, for one), but what bothers the PC is not that those actions were unjustified. It is not obvious if you had only played the game once, since you have nothing to compare with, but there is actually a whole variaty of final questions that can bother our character. We choose the exact question in that vision where we decide why we wanted to leave the inquisition. "I did terrible things - Don't worry, the gods will forgive you" is only one of the possible dialogue options. In my first playtrough the Watcher actually wanted to quit because she saw some horrible things committed by other people and it nearly broke her. So the question she wanted to ask Thaos was whether the gods could really end all the people's sufferings. I guess she had a very sensitive soul, that Watcher of mine. However, I'm not sure either how killing Thaos resolved that issue. It is implied that the character can see the answer they are seeking in Thaos' soul when he is defeated, but I don't recall ever seeing that answer.

[Venatio]

I was almost certain that the deceased dwarf woman and Maerwalds condition seemed to insinuate that being a Watcher normally correlated with such an event. Normal people are susceptible to awakenings, but I was led to infer that watchers were particularly prone. 

 

As for empowering ourselves as a watcher, the game has done little show us what a watcher is capable of beyond a few veritable parlor tricks in battle and the odd deus ex machina to progress the story.

 

Yria: I thought the player merely sought the answer to how to use the machine to release the souls. I would need to re-read the dialogue again, but it might be what were looking for.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Venatio

[Achilles]

I see a lot of criticism that basically amounts to, "why didn't they give me Part 3 in Part 1?!". Of course the Watcher stuff was relatively tame in Part 1; it's Part 1. Part 2 stuff will be more powerful than Part 1 stuff (and less powerful than Part 3 stuff) and Part 3 stuff will be more powerful than Part 1 and 2 stuff.

 

Regarding the conversations, the dwarf woman admits to knowing just enough about your condition to identify you as a Watcher. She has no idea you've been Awakened. This is why she refers you to Maerwald; he's the expert. He's the one that identifies you as both Watcher and Awakened. One can be either, but to be both is a death sentence.

[Nakia]

Being a Watcher wasn't the problem. The problem was the combination of being a Watcher and Awakened. The confrontation with Thaos resolved the Awakening. Your posts assumes that more Awakenings are inevitable, and it would be a shame if Obsidian relied on this device again in a sequel.

 

I suspect that part 2 will see us strengthening our Watcher abilities and going after Woedica directly.

 

Edit: maybe with the help of Eothas

I hope you are right.