Specialized Party Members
Companions are characters that accompany the main player on their quest. There are eight recruitable companions that encompass various races and classes. While they are not required to play through the game, companions can greatly enhance the overall experience. The game’s companions display their own unique personalities over the course of the game and, depending on which party members are along for the ride, they’ll react to each other, to the current situation, to their surroundings, and in battle with their own specific dialogue. The player can also create their own party members by adding hirelings to their group. However, these are custom created characters and are not unique like the companions and they do not have any impact on the game.
Companion Complexity
The companions cover many of the races, classes, and cultures, helping the game really come alive. Each companion, in a sense, becomes an ambassador for his or her race, culture, and class. They have their own mini-arc and quest woven into the game, which will be affected based on the player’s decisions and interactions with them. Their personalities and motivations open plot branches and generate conflicts for players to resolve over the course of the story. They are highly reactive to the player’s actions and to the world around them. Also, like the player, the companions have a wide range of endings based on the player’s decisions and interactions with them.
Aloth
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Wizard
Sex: Male
Culture/Faction: Aedyre/Leaden Key
Age & Appearance: 62 years old, slender elf with pale skin and straight, dark brown hair.
Description: Obsessive, detail-oriented, deferential, instructive, dutiful, imperturbed by violence.
History
Aloth was beaten by his father as a child. This caused his soul to Awaken, effectively giving him something like a split personality. A past life female persona named Iselmyr surfaced and took occasional control of Aloth’s body, primarily as a defense mechanism. These developments have given Aloth a strong need for control in all aspects of his life.
Aloth studied to be an arcane knight, but lost favor after trying to inform instructors about a student-run animancy experiment that would eventually kill a dozen students. Subsequently he joined the Leaden Key, but became separated from the rest of his group and now operates completely cut off from the organization.
Inner Conflict
Aloth’s conflict is about his relationship to animancy and to the Leaden Key. Aloth wants to learn the reasons behind Waidwen’s Legacy and ideally help to fix it. Aloth suspects that animancy is an affront to the gods, but he comes to learn that it is the leader of the Leaden Key who is perpetrating the crisis. On the other hand, he sees animancy as something dangerous that nevertheless might help him out with his Awakening. His arc ends with him either choosing to take up Thaos’ mantle and run the Leaden Key or to oversee its dissolution.
Quest
Two-Sided
Level: 3
Quest Giver/Location: Aloth, Outside the Woedica Catacombs (either First Fires exterior or Copperlane catacombs)
Description: Find an animancer who knows about Awakenings to help Aloth understand his.
Durance
Race: Meadow Folk
Class: Priest
Sex: Male
Culture/Faction: Dyrwood/Magranic Priest
Available: Magran’s Fork
Age & Appearance: Early 40s. Frayed-edge robes of Magran. Quarterstaff made of ever-burning wood with a magical flame at the striking end.
History
Durance was a priest of Magran who helped build the bomb that destroyed St. Waidwen. The others who worked on it were killed, but Durance survived. He is an anti-authoritarian wanderer, who has particular dislike of the Aedyr Empire (and Readceras). He despises Eothas and anyone who worships him. Durance spent many years following the Saint’s War, rooting out Eothas sympathizers; then not long after, rooting out those he believed responsible for the Hollowborn crisis. This led him to torture and ruin the soul of the Grieving Mother (in defense, she was forced to wound his soul to make him stop). Neither one of them recognizes the other when and if they meet.
Internal Conflict
Durance does not know why his Magranic colleagues died or why he was spared, but he assumes he did wrong by his god. Over time he comes to learn that the gods are not unlike the authority figures he so often finds himself at odds with, and that he and the assassinated Magranic clergy were nothing but pieces in the gods’ games. The Grieving Mother and Durance may come to odds or reconciliation over the course of the game.
Quest
The Trials of Durance
Level: 8
Quest Giver/Location: Durance, Magran’s Fork
Description: Durance keeps secrets that unravel the more you talk to him. He gets tired of questions and periodically stops answering them, but after a rest he opens back up. In Acts 2 and 3, if the player has Durance in the party, after a certain number of rests, the player will have visions of Durance that lead to further insight into his secrets. The player needs to ask him about more or less everything to be equipped for the last part of his quest, which unlocks after speaking to the gods and learning of Woedica’s plot. Using knowledge gleaned from his dialogue, the player must try to convince Durance that Magran conspired with Woedica, and that she no longer speaks to Durance not because he did something to offend her but because she wanted to cover up what she had done.
Edér
Race: Meadow Folk
Class: Fighter
Sex: Male
Culture/Faction: Dyrwoodan/Eothasian
Available: Gilded Vale
Age & Appearance: 32 years old, wiry, fair-skinned human with tousled short blond hair, brown eyes, and a light beard.
Description: Optimistic, introspective, troubled, encouraging, sharp, killer instinct.
History
Edér is an Eothasian farmhand from Gilded Vale. He fought for Dyrwood in the Saint’s War, but locals question his loyalty because of his faith. His family moved after his brother died in the war, and the hostility continued.
Internal Conflict
Edér does not know what to make of St. Waidwen’s death. He wants to know more about what happened in the war and why. He comes to question the nature of the gods and why they do the things they do.
Quest
Fragments of a Scattered Faith
Level: 3
Quest Giver/Location: Eder, Gilded Vale
Description: Edér searches for answers about the circumstances of his brother’s death in the Saint’s War—specifically, what side he fought on, and why. He begins by wanting to ask Maerwald about it. Then he decides to check the records kept in the ducal palace in Defiance Bay. Then he searches an old battlefield outside Cliaban Rilag for evidence, where he finds an artifact from that time. When he gives it to a cipher (Grieving Mother, Lady Webb, Kurren, or the Mind Hunter in Twin Elms), they are able to divine that his brother fought for Readceras, but not why. Edér gets glum about this.
Grieving Mother
Race: Human
Class: Cipher
Sex: Female
Description: Optimistic, introspective, troubled, encouraging, sharp, killer instinct.
History
The “Grieving Mother” (GM) is a cipher who acted as a midwife in a local community. She was blamed for the births of other Hollowborn children in her community and, specifically, she was punished viciously and unjustly by Durance who saw her as part of the Hollowborn crisis.
The Grieving Mother’s powerful cipher abilities cause awareness and perceptions to slide off of her, and she is difficult to recognize. Many simply see her as an unremarkable peasant woman who travels with the party and is not worth addressing.
She sees others through their souls, not their physical appearance. She does not communicate with people in the environment; although she may counsel the player on a course of action she feels strongly about and will warn the player of danger whenever possible. She is strongly motivated to end the Hollowborn crisis (even if it causes other problems), and she believes the Watcher is necessary for this to happen.
She does not blame Durance for the violations that were done to her soul and her body. She does not recognize him when he is in the party, as his soul is different from when they first met. The damage she did to him, arguably in self-defense, was considerable and far outweighed what was done to her.
She is not an anguished figure. In many respects, she is quite serene and calm, even when inflicting harm on another (and she would kill without hesitation to protect her primary goals: ending the crisis and protecting the player). She often prefers to speak through visions rather than words.
Inner Conflict
GM is in a state of deep mourning. Her substantial desire to see her children resurrected may lead her down a dark path.
Quest
Dream and Memory
Level: 3
Quest Giver/Location: Grieving Mother, Magran’s Fork (or wherever she is recruited)
Description: Discover who the Grieving Mother is and what secrets she has by exploring her dreams.
Hiravias
Race: Hearth Orlan
Class: Druid
Sex: Male
Culture/Faction: Glantfathan
Age & Appearance: 32 years old, middle-aged (for an Orlan), damaged eye and ear, hair a mismatch of autumn colors.
Description: Observant, scholarly, energetic, moody, naturalist, overcompensator-par-excellence.
History
Hiravias is a runty Glanfathan orlan who failed to earn his peers’ respect as a hunter and instead chose to become a druid of Galawain. In his quest to learn to shapeshift, he prayed to Galawain and was in turn mauled by an autumn staelgar, which turned out to be his shapeshifting form. This was a bad omen to his tribe and he was cast out. It turns out that he is the owner of one half of a soul that was perfectly cleft in two. The other half was absorbed by a druid in Twin Elms as part of a ritual sacrifice.
Inner Conflict
In wanting to learn more about his form and why he was mauled, he turned away from Galawain and toward Wael. Ultimately, the question is whether he is stronger as a complete person or as a seeker of mysteries that embraces the unknown.
Quest
True To Form
Level: 8
Quest Giver/Location: Hiravias, talk to him about his past via companion conversation (requires attribute checks, can also be unlocked by talking to him long enough).
Description: Hiravias wants to speak to the druids at Twin Elms to see if they know more of his Autumn Stelgaer spiritshift form. After speaking with Tamrwn or Naca in Twin Elms, read the four stone tablets in the Blood Sands cavern. Then travel to Burial Island to face off with a druid that shares Galawain’s blessing.
Kana Rua
Race: Aumaua
Class: Chanter
Sex: Male
Culture/Faction: Rauatai
Available: Caed Nua
Age & Appearance: 31 years old, Stocky aumaua with golden skin (white and brown accents) and short copper hair.
Description: Passionate, introspective, open-minded, academic, verbose, gregarious.
History
Kana Rua is traveling the world in search of the ties that bind all cultures to a common past. The civilization of Engwith has become a recent focus for him, and his pursuit of answers has made him a target of Leaden Key agents.
Inner Conflict
Kana wants to learn more about the Engwithan civilization. The more he learns, the more he comes to wonder about the ethics of their choices and practices.
Quest
Time and Tide
Level: 6
Quest Giver: Kana Rua at Stronghold Exterior
Description: Kana Rua, an aumaua from the northern lands of Rauatai, has come to the Dyrwood in search of a sacred text, the Tanvii ora Toha, or Book of Virtues. After a long year’s search, he believes that he has tracked the text to a tablet within the buried ruins beneath the keep of Caed Nua. He is eager to explore the ruins.
Pallegina mes Rèi
Race: Godlike [Ocean Folk]
Class: Paladin
Sex: Female
Culture/Faction: Vailian/Ducs Bels
Available: Defiance Bay
Age & Appearance: 26 years old, thin athletic woman with dark brown skin, brown afro, and a mix of avian features.
Description: Determined, clever, bold, devoted, headstrong, impatient.
History
Pallegina’s birth nearly killed her mother, earning the perpetual disdain of her father. She came to love her country and worked through great adversity to become a paladin of the brotherhood. She works for the ducs bels of the Vailian Republics as an agent. Her present mission is to protect their trade with Dyrwood, but her well-intentioned disobedience has gotten her into trouble and she is on thin ice with the Vailian government.
Inner Conflict
Pallegina is caught between honoring the wishes of the ducs bels and pursuing the leads she believes will be more beneficial to her country in the long run, which involve learning about animancy.
Quest
The Child of Five Suns
Level: 4
Quest Giver/Location: Pallegina, Ondra’s Gift Exterior
Description: Pallegina feels she has been wasting time on trivial tasks in Defiance Bay. She believes there are more serious threats to the Vailian Republics and wants help in pursuing them.
Sagani
Race: Boreal Dwarf
Class: Ranger
Sex: Female
Culture/Faction: Naasitaq
Age & Appearance: 57 years old, sturdy, world-worn, tanned boreal dwarf with black braided hair and black face paint.
Description: Patient, methodical, quiet, warm, practical, good-natured.
History
Sagani was a hunter for her village. By chance, she was chosen to go and find the reincarnation of a village elder named Persoq. Her search, over a great distance, has taken years, but she has tracked Persoq to Dyrwood.
Inner Conflict
Sagani is five years absent from home. Her children are growing up without her. She questions whether she has done right by leaving them for so long for a quest of dubious importance.
Quest
The Long Hunt
Level: 8
Quest Giver/Location: Sagani, Woodend Plains (on recruiting)
Description: Help Sagani find the reincarnation of Persoq by following the trail his soul has left through the Dyrwood.