Maerwald

Background[]

Pillars of Eternity

Concelhaut is one of the most powerful mages on Eora, who has spent a lifetime studying magic and inventing new spells (the list includes Concelhaut’s Corrosive Siphon, Concelhaut’s Parasitic Staff, Concelhaut’s Draining Touch, Concelhaut’s Crushing Doom, and Concelhaut’s Draining Missiles), and then extended it by pouring his soul into a phylactery to extend life and knowledge. His apprentices spend years in their laboratories, toiling over new enchantments for the privilege of learning at his feet, further enhancing his potential.

Concelhaut is a longtime rival of Llengrath and other archmages (Ninagauth, Minoletta, Kalakoth and Citzal) who try or have tried to take him down by any means necessary, including hiring a mercenary army that Concelhaut dismisses as merely a nuisance. He is single-mindedly dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and by 2823 AI has four apprentices: Uariki, Pelden, Sabel, and Tanoss. He is reluctant to part with anything that might diminish his power, especially the Engwithan phylactery — as it’s literally carved into his skull with runes, sealed with a peg of adra, and merged with a complex web of spells.

In his office is a Sky Dragon eye, suggesting that he may have slain such a beast himself or is at the very least, as powerful as a mature Sky Dragon (though it is questionable whether he would be able to take on an Adra Dragon or an Alpine Dragon in single combat).

His ultimate goal is to discover time manipulation, as pioneered by Caedebald the Red and Maura of the Seven Hills. To that end, he needs a soul that can draw on the power of the ether: A Watcher’s soul.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Concelhaut has purchased the services of Torn Bannermen after they demonstrated a sliver of competence at his fortress, and now decided to focus his exploits at tackling Bekarna’s research and finding the deep well of power she detected in the Archipelago — something that’s a bit at odds with the goals of the The Circle of Archmagi.

If he was killed and his skull taken in the first game, he will be shocked that the Watcher survived the fall of Caed Nua and express his frustration and anger at being the Watcher’s pet skull, including «days of bouncing in your shadow or being jostled among spears and daggers». His ressurection is unexplained even when the Watcher asks, only that he was delighted in «slamming the proffered door on the Usher’s hand», referring to Berath. He will also reveal that he had plans for destroying Caed Nua himself, though the opportunity was taken from him by Eothas, indicating that even as a pet skull, he was conscious and sentient the entire time, quietly scheming his revenge.

In the aftermath of the destruction of Caed Nua, having felt the pulse of power from the well of power in the Deadfire (which was described and researched by Bekarna, though discounted by the Archmages), he dragged himself towards the shore of the Dyrwood, and to a dock, as a skull, «one mouthful of soil at a time» to gain passage by boat to the Deadfire.

It appears that he is at odds with the Circle of Archmagi, claiming that the Circle is only after knowledge, but he, power.

In the expansion The Forgotten Sanctum, the Watcher is ultimately faced with an option to restore Concelhaut’s Skull to a body that lasts.

Upon leaving the body of Wael, Concelhaut breaks with his traditional venom and thanks the watcher by saying «you should feel honored to count yourself as a footnote in the legend of my apotheosis» after informing the party that he intends to become a god mighty enough to make the currently panoply look meek.

Eothas’ death and return[]

Eothas, who contains aspects of both death and rebirth, is said to love kith the most. He came to the conclusion that the gods needed to step aside to allow kith to succeed (or not) on their own and to expose the gods true nature. He decided he needed to «break the foundations of belief itself, to extinguish the lights that maintain the illusions we have created».

The Saint’s War

Main article: Saint’s War

To expose the truth of the gods origin, Eothas entered the body of a willing farmer from Readceras named Waidwen. Waidwen gained a following and was quickly named the «Divine King» ruler of Readceras. In 2807 AI, Readceras invaded The Dyrwood.

Afraid of what Eothas would do, Magran (after being goaded by Woedica) assisted a group of Magranite priests from Ashfall in creating the Godhammer Bomb. The bomb was used against Waidwen at Halgot Citadel after luring the Readceran unit across the bridge. The explosion destroyed Waidwen and Eothas, although the body was never found.

Return

This article or text contains significant spoilers relating to the story of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

This article or text contains significant spoilers relating to the story of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

In 2828 AI, Eothas summoned enough strength to take control of the statue of Maros Nua (located below Caed Nua) in The Dyrwood. The event caused great destruction in the area, killing over 300 people and nearly killing The Watcher.

Eothas then marched across the ocean to the Deadfire Archipelago. Although some of the other gods tried to stop him, he eventually made his way to the lost city of Ukaizo and successfully destroyed the great machine the Engwithans had built to control the flow of the Wheel. In breaking the cycle of rebirth, he believed «it will force all of us to face the truth. We will fail together or move forward together. Either ending is preferable to the cycle we still find ourselves in.»

References[]

1. «Player’s observation from first dialog, «At first glance, she seems nothing more than a middle-aged woman, unremarkable, maybe less stern than most».
2. GM’s own words from first dialog: «My face… is like the caul of a newborn, hiding the face beneath, and for my body… I am able to wrap myself as a mother cradling her child. I am here, as you see me, but to them, their eyes see only the cloak that I wear, a peasant mother, dirty, shabby, not worth knowing.»
3. Hiravis almost notices her during one companion banter: «»Well I was wondering how long you’ve been… oh forget it. Probably no big deal.»»
4. Eder refers to her as «nice stranger lady» during Fragments of a Scattered Faith
5. If GM leaves the party, Hiravias will comment: «Oh… right… the peasant woman that’s been traveling with us?»
6. When asked why she has her name, GM says: «»That is a question for you, not I. That is not my name, although if you wish to hang the title on me, I cannot stop you. Is that what you see when your eyes fall upon me?» and «As a Watcher, you may see what I do not. Or your mind shapes the thoughts I project into a new meaning…there is truth in that title, but it is not all I am.»
7. GM later describes this location: «The Birthing Bell lies deep in the great forests of the Dyrwood, at the borders of Glanfathan lands. Surrounding it… barely a town, not one you would find on any map.»
8. GM’s words about The Birthing Bell: «In distant times, the great bell served as a Glanfathan… watchtower, perhaps. Why they abandoned it, I do not know. Other men came in time, settlers… and claimed the tower as their own. I, in turn, claimed it from them. The pillar became a cradle where I could draw new souls into the world.»
9. GM’s own words: «I was something else, but because the title ‘Watcher’ was cast on me, the word carried a weight I had neither earned nor deserved.»
10. GM’s own words: «I… drew upon the present. I felt the soul of the mother before me and used that to tell the child’s path, to give it a voice.»
11. GM’s own words: «…futures fulfilled by one’s own spirit are as strong as anything seen by another’s eyes. And if one draws from the emotion of the mother… It… matters only when harm is done.» and «And their lives I knew well. I could weave their lives, their thoughts over time — to the mother, to the child — and once the child had been born, was sheltered… I could relax the threads of thought until the child could stand on its own.»
12. GM gives all these reasons for her actions: «I could not understand what had happened. What I might have done. I feared I… no. I could not dwell on that thought.» and «Little word of the outside world reached us. It was enough time for rage and pain and grief to guide hands… I feared what would happen to the children… what would happen to me…»
13. GM admits her actions: I made her care for it. I made them all care for it… until I could find what I had… what had gone wrong.
14. GM on her illusion breaking: ‘«I… held their minds within mine. I shaped and guided them as long as I could. And with each passing day, each new birth, the strain grew. And the more I felt my control slipping, the more I focused my thoughts. Eventually, even I succumbed to the power of my own illusion. I’d woven the threads so tightly that I could no longer see through them.» and «then one morning, I heard funeral bells tolling in the village. The sounds of wailing rose through the mists. A mother had died, her mind so focused on the care of her Hollowborn child that she’d neglected even to feed herself. And with that, the illusion broke.»
15. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78683-cut-content-durance-and-grieving-mother

Origin[]

This article or text contains significant spoilers relating to the story of Pillars of Eternity.

This article or text contains significant spoilers relating to the story of Pillars of Eternity.

The gods of Eora are not gods in the traditional sense. Rather, they are the artificial creation of Engwith, an ancient society of high minds and broad concerns. In the time of the Engwithans, every civilization worshipped its own gods, which inevitably led to religious warfare. After a series of devastating conflicts, the Engwithans sought an end to it. They devoted all their energy to finding the true Creators. Generation after generation, they analyzed the fabric of the world and unlocked its secrets, mastering the science of the soul and all metaphysical concepts, including taming . One day, they found an answer… except the answer was no answer at all. There were no gods to be found, or if there ever were, they were gone. It was a terrible shock to them; if they could discover this on their own, how long until others would? How long before war and chaos reigned over a world without consequence? To prevent this scenario, they used their mastery of the soul to create their own gods to fill the void.

Using a massive adra-powered machine at Sun in Shadow, they extracted the of thousands of Engwithans assembled in the chamber — men and women, children and the elderly, all they could find — to empower themselves and become the gods of Eora. Each deity was crafted from an ideal, to give kith not one, but many meanings to choose from in life. They incorporated aspects of gods from existing legends. The exceptions of this process was Skaen, who was a «receptacle» for troublemakers, and Rymrgand, who contains some ancient aspects.

The surviving Engwithans then sent missionaries to the corners of the world to spread their faith. The missionaries knew the secret of their gods’ creation, but never revealed it to anyone. They refrained from marrying, voluntarily extinguishing their bloodlines to minimize the risk of exposure.

Iovara ix Ensios

The entire endeavor was almost ruined when Iovara ix Ensios learned the truth, by accident, from careless missionaries discussing the subject openly at one of their temples. Her defiance and determination to expose the gods as fraudulent eventually coalesced into a popular movement that only grew bolder as the Inquisition formed and retaliated against Iovara and her followers, many of whom were former missionaries. The rebellion threatened to destroy the fledgling faith until Thaos ix Arkannon, one of the authors of the divine project, captured Iovara at a city called Ossionus in circa 800 AI. He brought her to the Court of Penitents and tortured her to death, then imprisoned her soul in the adra cells below. She would languish in the prison, preserved only by her extraordinary will, for the next two thousand years, until the Watcher found her in 2823 AI.

Belief in the gods of Engwith spread throughout the world, eventually becoming the one true faith of all kith. Their true nature would be successfully obfuscated by Thaos and his Leaden Key and Wael’s Hand Occult.

7 Debonaire/Beguiler Puppet Master

Эта сборка идеальна для тех, кто устал от прямых повреждений. Это смесь подкласса Debonaire для Rogue и подкласса Beguiler для Cipher. Основная тактика, которую он использует, — очаровывать врагов, чтобы они сражались за вас или танковали противников лицом к лицу.

• Класс: Debonaire/Beguiler (Rogue/Cipher)
• Основные навыки: Roguish Charm, любое заклинание Deception
• Приоритетные характеристики: ловкость, интеллект, Мощь, Восприятие
• Оружие: Пистолет Громовержца, другое одноручное оружие.
• Головной убор: Thaos 39; Головной убор
• Нашейник: Одеяние Верховного Предвестника
• Доспехи: Одеяние Верховного Предвестника
• Кольца: все, что повышает характеристики Разбойника/Шифров.

Сапоги: все, что увеличивает скорость или скорость скрытых атак.

Waistpiece: Sash of Judgment
Handpiece: все, что усиливает скрытые атаки
Cape: Ajamuut Stalking Cloak

Description[]

As with other soulbound weapons, the in-game description of The Unlabored Blade is only gradually revealed. The description starts as just two paragraphs, and more are added each time the weapon is upgraded.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Background[]

He is Hamor’s son and a kid who’s incredibly passionate about knives. He learned a lot about metalworking, about how they are made in a forge, how they can pierce armor… His biggest ambition is to have a March Steel Dagger, one of the finest blades to be had in Defiance Bay (except for Durgan steel, but they don’t make it anymore, so it doesn’t count).

Interactions[]

Pillars of Eternity

He can be found in Crägholdt, in his study at the south-west corner of the map.

Quests

• Siege of Crägholdt: When you face him, he tells you a little about himself. But he won’t let you leave peacefully, because he sees an opportunity to use your Watcher soul for research purposes. No matter what you say, you end up having to fight him. Even if the Watcher tries to leave without attacking, Concelhaut will say, «Where do you think you’re going? I’m just getting started with you.»
• If the Watcher explains that he investigated the siege because they thought Concelhaut may have required their aid, he will laugh with amusement.
• Fighting him is one of the more difficult battles in the game. Other than the Watcher themselves, though players may be tempted to bring along their wizards, e.g., Aloth, for lore and/or role-playing purposes, there is no additional special dialogue associated with this. Concelhaut does have some unique dialogue if the Watcher is a Wizard, and also if the Watcher has a high Lore skill. Care should be taken not to attack him with spells while he has Arcane Reflection up. This buff can last a ridiculously long time, making magical attacks and spell casters inefficient for much of the duration of the fight. Once his Arcane Reflection runs out and if he is engaged in melee with low health, he will use his infamous parasitic staff along with draining touch.
• Generally it is advisable to position the fight in such a way so that Concelhaut’s minions cluster together, allowing you to eliminate most of them before having to engage him directly. For example, using a ranged character to initiate a force-attack on one of his minions, then retreating to the entrance of Concelhaut’s chamber will usually result in his minions concentrating in a mob that is susceptible to AoE spells and attacks, while Concelhaut himself is forced to remain behind them, limiting his ability to target and cast his deadly spells.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

In Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, he is a tough opponent who uses mind-based afflictions and is surrounded by a number of fairly high-level minions. He is found on the rooftop of the observatory, past the Orrery.

Quests

Bekarna’s Folly: Concelhaut makes a triumphant return after the previous game, this time focusing on acquiring Bekarna’s research.

Walkthrough[]

If you talk to Nedyn on the street outside of the Sanitarium entrance in the Brackenbury district of Defiance Bay, she’ll ask you to steal a valuable book (the Theorems of Pandgram) for her.

Travel to the Copperlane district, enter the Hall of Revealed Mysteries in the Northwest, and find Grimda. The book is in a room to the left of her (the «Elder Archives»), but it is locked.

You now have three options:

Earn your access to the Elder Archives
Talk to Grimda, but don’t tell her about Nedyn. Instead, get the quest The Parable of Wael from her. Complete that quest, then report back to Grimda. She’ll now give you access to the Elder Archives, where you can take the Theorems of Pandgram without anyone noticing.

Break into the Elder Archives
Either kill Grimda and take the key to the Elder Archives from her body, or pick the lock (Difficulty 5). In the first case, the entire Hall turns hostile. You can grab the Theorems of Pandgram and fight your way out. In the second case, you can safely pick the lock and then enter the room as long as you’re in scouting mode — even if the icon shows you are visible to the nearby NPC.

Report Nedyn to Grimda
Grimda will thank you, and the quest completes immediately.
Also, you’ll no longer find Nedyn in Brackenbury — instead, you’ll encounter her hostile in Woodend Plains. (After the battle, you can loot the Ring of Eternal Funding from her body.)

Unless you betrayed Nedyn, return to her. If you say the reward is not enough, she will add the Ring of Eternal Funding.

Руководство по классам

Приятным плюсом является наличие нескольких классов — каждый игрок сможет выбрать тот вариант, который подходит ему лучше всего.

• Авантюрист — использует скрытые атаки, быстро нанося врагам максимальный урон.
• Боец — ориентируется на ближний бой, выполняя мощные атаки надежным оружием.
• Варвар — безжалостный персонаж, одолеть которого сложно благодаря запасу здоровья.
• Волшебник — тактик, отличающийся острым умом. Применяет мощные заклинания, позволяющие победить любого противника.
• Друид — меняет облик, превращаясь в животных или мифических персонажей.
• Монах — обладают богатым набором приемов для уничтожения врагов вблизи.
• Паладин — воин, преданный святому делу, готовый достичь цели любой ценой.
• Певчий — вдохновляет своих союзников балладами, повышая их боевой дух.
• Рейнджер — применяют оружие дистанционного боя. Путешествую с дрессированными животными-спутниками, атакующими противника на малой дистанции.
• Сайфер — гипнотизирует людей, способен манипулировать ими.
• Священник — выполняют роль лекарей, накладывая на союзников полезные заклинания.

Notes[]

• A few notes regarding the hold:
  • Mechanics 9 will open ANY door.
  • Stealth 4 on all the members of your party can prevent any fight.
  • Resolve 18 or Intellect 12 will give you full access to the chapel.
• Your actions while completing this quest will slightly affect the quest The Champion of Berath depending on your Journal Entry.
• Having a bad reputation with the Gilded Vale will trigger instant aggro from Kolsc and Raedric leading to the 3002 entry in your Journal no matter what you do.
• If you kill Osrya and then talk to Giacco and tell him she is dead (avoid answer 1), you will receive for that, and another when you tell him he is free (answer * If you kill Giacco (before speaking to him, because he will disappear after the dialogue), he will drop Skaen Cultist Robes and around 50 cash.
• In the room with Osrya, you can find a non-aggressive Black Cat, that you can speak to (discovering that it is a zombie cat), and when you pick it up, it is added to your inventory as pet.

Manifestations[]

Woedica is usually depicted with burned and withered skin, having been cast from her rightful seat by war and burned in Magran’s fire. Nevertheless, she retains her dignity and plots her «rightful» revenge. She has no allies among the other gods, believing they owe her fealty. However, Skaen is associated with her, though the exact nature of their relationship is unclear.

Woedica manifests in the world as the Strangler, a leathery-skinned old woman, always clad in tattered finery, who appears on an empty road or abandoned alleyway to murder those who break a solemn oath. According to those few that claim to have seen her, she is supernaturally agile and quick while possessing the strength to strangle a full grown aumaua. Woedica’s avatar is believed to have slain several usurpers in Dyrwoodan history, though it is possible that the real murderers merely blamed the goddess. For this reason, oath breaking is punished by strangulation in many cultures.

Background[]

A large, liver-spotted man, barrel-chested and paunchy, cowers in the far corner of the room, his white hair a tangled, stringy mess. He covers his face and chest with trembling hands, unable to look in your direction.

Maerwald was once a great and ambitious man seeking to establish himself as the new master of the keep. He banished the dark things lurking in the keep after centuries of neglect. Together with the Steward, he tried to restore the beauty of the keep, laying claim to it when no one else would take it. However, as time went by, his mental condition deteriorated. His withdrawal turned to isolation. Restorations stopped, followed by the servants and repair crews departing.

By the time the Watcher reaches him, Maerwald has completely secluded himself beneath his keep in the uppermost level of the Endless Paths of Od Nua, driven to madness by the resurgent memories of his past lives. He is only intermittently lucid, switching erratically between his three personalities.

The reason for his madness is simple: Maerwald’s previous lives were marked by violence and brutality. The oldest personality is of a female Glanfathan marauder of the Nine Claws clan in the Broken Stone War, who orchestrated a raid on a frontier colonial settlement. The raiders burned the houses, killed the men, and raped the women. It just so happened that the very marauder that organized the raid and ordered her men to violate the women was impaled on a pitchfork at the end of the raid. Her soul transferred to the closest vessel it could find, the boy her lover had just conceived by rape.

The victim gave birth to the boy and raised him as a soldier, imbuing him with hatred of the Glanfathan people. She told him that his father was slain in the raid on the village, except that he was a proud Aedyran soldier who died defending his family. The boy wound up enlisting just in time to participate in the War of Black Trees, carrying out Admet Hadret’s strategy of scorched earth. He committed atrocities against the clans, especially the Nine Claws he blamed for his father’s «death», burning entire villages to the ground with the people inside their homes.

These terrifying memories lurked within the soul, waiting for the time to strike. And so they did: As Maerwald stared into the fire in his hearth at Caed Nua, watching the wood burn, the memory of those other fires two centuries ago came to the fore. Together with the smell of burning flesh and the screams. Nobody could withstand that strain. Maerwald unraveled, eventually seeking refuge in the topmost level of the Endless Paths…

Behind the scenes[]

Developer commentary (upper)

Developer commentary (lower)