Were some of the gods willing to be unmasked? + questions about Thaos/Woedica relationship

[RodrigoMenegat]

Long story short:

When I talked to Galawain, Abydon and Magran, I've got the feeling that they didn't oppose animancy because they WANTED kith to know the truth about the deities creation. There was also all this talk about evolution and stuff... Implying that, in their view, kith would at some point be able to organize themselves without fearing any god.

 

The same thing goes for the other gods that oppose Woedica's rule: indirectly, they don't want just to stop the Exiled Queen from regaining her former power, but they also allow the Watcher to uncover that the Engwithans constructed deities out of their own souls.

 

Given this, can we say that the the gods were aware of their artificial origin? Why would they want kith to discover that?

 

It is also unclear to me why Thaos wanted to feed the hollowborn souls to Woedica - if his only goal was to blame and forbid animancy, he could as well send them to the White Void or shatter them. Maybe she, after reclaiming the position of queen of the divines, could have the power to stop the other gods from revealing the truth to kith, as I feel they wanted to do eventually?

I also feel that she was the last god to be created. She might be the weird essence sphere that emerged out of the Adra pillars when thousands of Engwithans sacrificed themselves at the sanctum on Sun At Shadows, as seen after Thaos defeat in the final act. Maybe she was constructed to control the divines and ensure that some of the more 'virtuous' gods made before would not spread the word about the whole proccess at some point.

And there is also Eothas, the one deity that does not fit at all in the story. I understand that the developers let him mostly out of the game so they could explore his angle in a sequel or DLC, but the lore surrounding The Saints War still bugs me lot. There are some theories about him being the One True God that the Engwithans could not find, and the fact that he supposedly was the only divine that walked the earth on physical form supports that... But, then again, people from Naasitaq often tell stories about spotting Ryrmgand in his aurochus form... And he DOES interact with the White Elves of Twin Elms by giving them a token that allowed direct passage to the White Void.

 

Either way, the game was amazing and the ending blew my mind.
 

Edited May 22, 2015 by RodrigoMenegat

[Nakia]

You raise some interesting questions but that seems to me to be the point of the game to raise questions rather than answering them.  

How much of what you are told can be taken as fact?

How much of what your character sees can be trusted?

What is the soul?  Since the souls of kith are used to create the gods the soul is the essence which predates both the kith and the gods.  It animates all living things.  Spores and ooze have souls.  The monsters you meet in the wild have souls.  The soul would seem to be separate from memories.  Memories seem to adhere to the soul when the soul is part of a thinking being.  Can the soul actually be destroyed or is it just that the memories and the soul are separated.  The memories destroyed but the soul itself return to pure essence?

If the gods are created from the souls and memories of the kith does that mean that the gods contain those memories or have the memories been merged in such a way that there are no longer individual memories?

 

Eothas is symbolized by the sun and the three stars.  Is he in some way apart from the gods of the earth?

 

The final question for me is where will the devs go with this theme?  Should they try and answer the questions raised?  I don't think they should because these are questions that can never be completely answered without becoming very artificial.

[Eywa]

Yeah, it's unclear for me if gods even care about kith knowing the truth or they just prioritized not letting Woedica become ruler of pantheon again more than that.

It was said by Iovara or someone that Thaos and Woedica are allies than just him being her favored servant, which implies that they are equal somewhat. So his goal is to keep anyone to ever finding out the truth about origins of these gods so people's lives do not become meaningless and world doesn't descend in chaos (in his vision) and that sacrifice of his race wasn't for nothing. And Woedica wants to be all powerful again so they help each other: Thaos gathers souls for her and she makes him kinda immortal so he can continue destroy animancy everywhere I guess.

[Strange_Trees]

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:

 

Watcher: "Animancy doesn't seem to trouble you."
Galawain shrugs his broad shoulders. "The clash of ideas, the search for answers and meaning... these are other hunts."
Magran's pauldrons shift as she clasps her hands behind her back. "This is the destiny of kith. To struggle and transform, even through animancy."
"And to improve." Abydon's voice creaks and sighs. "Steady labor and earnest industry elevate kith above wilder and beast."
"It is also useful that they should learn to improve their souls, whether through struggle, transformation, or labor. On this, at least, we have no disagreement."

 

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?