'you have the aura of a third child about you'

i mean, obviously one would hope that the main character of the game you're playing is connected to the main plot, but i love the idea of some aspect of the character that is both unbeknownst to the character and the player (as an aside: i think this is why i'm so taken with the concept of a warlock who derives their power from the unknowable). this is especially important when the player character isn't a predefined person like commander shepard or geralt.

idk it seems a little self-evident to me, yet when thinking about how i find the watcher's journey in pillars to be so much more emotionally resonant in the first game than in deadfire, there's definitely degrees to it. their backstory in the first game is crafted so intrinsically to the plot that neither works without the other. in deadfire, while their backstory is still a strongly tied to the events of the plot vis a vis their status with the gods, there are any number of ways a different character could take the watcher's place in the story.

the envoy's position in avowed is as intrinsic as the watcher's in pillars 1. but where the two deviate, and why i found pillars to have an order of magnitude more catharsis, is that the watcher's past life with iovara provides an extra layer of extremely personal drama to anchor the otherwise extremely high minded themes about divinity, religion, and science.

Dragon Age Nostalgia Month Day 1: Older blood, older oaths / Origins

Human Noble: Born to wealth and power second only to royalty, you find your training in both diplomacy and battle put to the test as your brother leads the bulk of your family's forces to war in the south.

Dwarf Noble: As the favored child of the dwarven king, you proudly take up your first military command … only to learn that the deadly intrigues of family and sycophants may pose a greater danger than even the battlefield.

Dwarf Commoner: Born casteless in a land where rank is everything, bound as the lackey and thug of a local crime lord, you have spent your life invisible… until chance thrusts you into the spotlight, where you can finally prove whether you will be defined by your actions or your birth.

Magi: Wielding a power as dangerous as it is potent, you know that magic is a curse for those lacking the will to control it. You anxiously await your Harrowing, the one chance to prove yourself against the demons lurking without and within. Succeed, or be slaughtered by the knights who ward against your kind.

City Elf: You have always lived under the heavy thumb of your human overlords, but when a local lord claiming his "privilege" with the bride shatters your wedding day, the simmering racial tensions explode in a rain of vengeance.

Well guess what! YOU CAN ACTUALLY TALK TO KARSUS in Neverwinter Nights 1's campaign Shadows of Undrentide. Or well. He's kind of Karsus. And you're in one of the libraries of the ruins of one of Netheril's cities when you get to talk to him.

In Neverwinter Nights 2, you actually find uh. Well i don't want to spoil it. But you have something belonging to Gith herself - and you can't get rid of it. And basically Vlaakith's inquisition won't stop hounding you for it.

Also time doesn't pass in the Astral Plane.

You know what always struck me about Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition?

We hear about Anders’s manifesto all the time - it's lying around in Hawke's mansion and later in Inquisition we find a snippet on the Storm Coast - but we never actually get to read it. Not all of it.

And I think that’s deliberate.

Because if BioWare ever let us read the full manifesto, the illusion of “grey morality” would collapse.

Because Anders’s writing voice would be calm. Rational. Structured. He’s not stupid - he’s a healer, a man who’s spent years trying to reason with a system that calls his existence a crime.

His spoken voice might be erratic and emotional (and honestly, who wouldn’t be, after everything he’s lived through?), but on the page? He’d be articulate. Meticulous. He’d be able to lay out — point by point — why the Circle system is institutional abuse disguised as protection.

And that would make it impossible for the player to sit comfortably in the middle.

Because once you strip away his anger, his bitterness and his other very real flaws, all that’s left is the truth - that the Chantry and the Templar Order survive by punishing everyone for the crimes of a few.

And then the whole “both sides have a point” narrative falls apart.

There’s no moral greyness in systemic oppression.

So the game can’t show us the manifesto. It can only hint at it.

It lets characters ignore it. Or just talk about it - but never lets us read the words themselves. Because if we could? If we could see the reason beneath the rage?

People would have to admit that Anders was right.