#PoE

i wonder if edgar allan poe would like the shit im doing with his characters of if hes rolling in his grave right now

anyway boullard and cordova doodle lol

quick and tiny Aloth work pen scribble from yesterday~ ⁠♡

I dony know why ive never mentioned this but objectively correct bsd opinions part like four or smth; poe IS oingo boingo. Dont play with me on that. I have a Gratitude poe wip in the makings since november i love poe

poe has such beautiful beautiful vocals i love them so badly

https://www.xcalable.org/product/942063001-hirschmann/

That one art of Poe on the beach wearing full length black pants and black long sleeve shirt under his shorts and floral button up paired with the ugliest sandals you have ever seen. what is wrong with this guy

ok but actually making aisling and edér 100% stealth the powder house mission as a duo is one of my favorite rp choices i made in deadfire. classic ash and edér mess-around

blessing your eyes with Poe

Drew Poe as that one reaction image of the girl listening to music, lolz.

— ★

putting my pest-ilential in situations…

an explanation for this random ass skeleton below the cut :3

after the black death people in the middle ages started realizing they could literally die at any moment which sparked a new art moment of skeletons representing death leading people of all social statuses to their graves, because no matter what rank you have, everyones going to die at some point :) it was called danse macabre and looked like this

and i thought considering pest-ilential is medieval, and has death AND plague themes he would be PERFECT for this

the biggest most profound act of trust that aisling ever showed edér was admitting to him that getting ear scritches actually does feel good as fuuuck

Finally finished Pillars of Eternity on March 2, 2026!

It took a while since I made sure to do all the sidequests, and then I took a break from it in January, but it’s done!

What an absolutely phenomenal game! I don’t think a game has brought me to tears so many times. The writing is so beautiful~

Onward, to Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire!

Additional thoughts + my ending slides (MAJOR SPOILERS!) - Warning: LONG

The way this game is written is amazing! I think the best way I can describe it is that, despite the setting being high fantasy, the interactions and prose are just so…grounded. The world feels so fleshed out and real, like it’s an actual setting people live and have lived in, with all the beauty and messiness that comes with it.

This was the first moment in the game that left me sobbing and with freakin’ Durance of all people! I’m a very private person, but “Would be good to see [home] one day, if I return. I doubt I shall… Because home is a mess of disappointments, that’s why… A home is a curse - it’ll kill you to stay…and the moment your foot exits its door? It’ll never again measure up to the cathedral in your head.” really hit me in the heart because I can relate to it. Some games have given me pause, but this random line in Durance’s dialogue tree made me stop and just stare at the ceiling for a bit because golly, it reminded me of my feelings of moving far away from my hometown + family just over a year ago.

Other moments that made me ugly cry were:

• The Fisherman’s Penance - Did not expect this random sidequest to get me! However, I suppose I related to it a bit, as between my brother and me, I was usually the “responsible sibling” when we were growing up. I guess I saw a bit of my own brother in Grynde, as he was a bit of a troublemaker. The Watcher vision from Arda’s perspective reminded me of some arguments I’ve had with him, those kinds that only a sibling can give to another. I think the line that really got me was “[Grynde] rubs his red-rimmed eyes. Your own grow warm and blurry.” (golly, going through my screenshots to quote this got me crying again)
• Reading Thyrc’s soul - It was so poignant despite how short the vision was. I loved a lot of the soul reading you could do in Stalwart Village, but this, Renengild’s, and Uldric’s soul readings are my top three. The “Apa!” was the final nail in the coffin for me.
• Giving Mylla’s drawing to her dad - This goes back to my earlier point, where the world and people just feel so…real. I love how quests have nice dressing around them to not just be like “go from Objective A to Objective B.” This moment could’ve been a simple “oh, go to that location in the drawing,” but I adore how Lödgar does the PoE equivalent of a parent hanging their kid’s drawing on the fridge (while still identifying the location you need to go to next).
• The final half of Zahua’s quest. For a quest that humorously started with the party getting high on shrooms, I was sobbing at Zahua’s story about the loss of his people and culture. As someone with heritage from a culture with dying traditions due to historical conquest, I related a lot to Zahua’s plight.
• The White March’s Ending - Specifically the final conversation with Abydon’s Eyeless. I remember being incredibly frustrated at the Eyeless because they kept kicking my party’s asses, but by the end of this convo, I was weeping for them and Abydon’s sacrifice! (in the screenshots, I also included one of the vision/Abydon’s memory slides from Ready the Cannons)
• Iovara in the endgame telling my Watcher, “I’ve always looked up to you, since we were children.” I’ve had a similar experience where my brother said that to me, which surprised me since I’m the younger sibling.

Speaking of Iovara, in my Watcher’s canon, Iovara was her sister in a previous life. I thought the interactions with her in the endgame were incredibly sweet!

I’m still fleshing out my Watcher, Morna, but one detail I have for her backstory is that she’s an only child. Yet, her past life was previously very close to her family, especially her sister.

Anyway, here are my ending slides + thoughts on the companions:

I decided to restore the souls of the Hollowborn through the promise to Hylea. Part of my decision was Edér’s anecdote about the Hollowborn girl who had an animal soul put into her body + part of just knowing the delicious narrative of double-sided hope/tragedy of rejoicing families and weeping families who honestly never would’ve thought there was any hope for their soulless children, and thus culled their newborns.

My endings for Gilded Vale, Defiance Bay, and Stalwart Village. Generally positive~

The White March’s companions! I loved how their quests tied into the expansions’s themes of memory, history, and preservation!

The Devil of Caroc - I’m rather neutral about her (I still think she’s neat). I do enjoy a nice little revenge story, but she was the very last party member I recruited, so she really wasn’t around for long enough in my party for me to really get attached to her.

Maneha - She was a beast in combat! I helped her let go of her Awakened memories because unlike Aloth, they really did seem like a burden to Maneha’s wellbeing. Her dialogue on why she’s so underdressed for the freezing White March climate being that she hates packing is a mood.

Zahua - OMG I cried like a baby at Zahua’s quest (he’s my fav of the WM’s companions). I initially wrote him off in my head as “stoner man I found in a fish barrel” but he really grew on me through his dialogue trees and especially in the final sequence of his questline.

Golly I sure hope nothing bad happens to my maxed-out stronghold in the sequel!

Pallegina - The melee powerhouse of my party alongside Edér. I loved her interjections and I loved how she chewed out Hylea during The Council of Stars. Her reaction to Iovara’s revelation was hilarious. I feel like the ending slide I got for her wasn’t the most positive, but I’m crossing my fingers that I can help her out in the sequel!

Hiravias - I steered him toward Wael worship and it was fascinating to witness someone’s religious dilemma in a setting where the gods 100% exist and have constant and proven influence. I had him along in Twin Elms and whenever the party explored Engwithan ruins because he got so sassy~

Edér and Aloth aka the Matt Mercer bois who never left my party

Edér - 10/10 an absolute bro! He and Kana are who I imagine to be my Watcher’s closest friends by the end of the game. I remember being a bit overwhelmed about Eothas lore (+ general PoE lore) at the start of the game, but looking back at my old screenshots, Edér’s dialogue about his Eothasian beliefs was thought-provoking. What does a religious man think in the years following the death of his patron god?

Aloth - An absolute darling! His and Iselmyr’s dynamic is hilarious! In the PC version’s turn-based beta, it was incredibly fun to play around with all the spells he could cast. I can’t wait to have my Watcher smooch him in Deadfire~

Kana - MY DARLING KANA I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!! <3 He was so sweet and endearing. I loved his enthusiasm. Kana bb, what would I do without you chanting Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of His Tribe?

Grieving Mother - Her quest was a fun dilemma and great for showcasing the nuance of Eora’s stories. Was it fucked up that she magically influenced new mothers to think their Hollowborn children were healthy so that they’d take care of them? Absolutely. But it’s not that you could fault her for how she felt if you were put in her shoes. Her backstory as a midwife was a fun exploration of how the Hollowborn Crisis affected people beyond the parents, as it also shows how reactionary the Dyrwoodans are, and that’s backed up many other times throughout the story outside of GM’s sidequest.

Durance - I can respect a man who hates everyone equally and with such vitriol. He’s little witty interjections were hilarious and his story was fascinating. Not bad for a guy who indirectly called my Watcher a whore.

Sagani - Her quest was a fun exploration in how the way souls worked in the setting also shaped cultural traditions. I also thought it was adorable whenever Sagani talked about her family or otherwise went into Mom Mode™ around the other companions.

One journey over, another journey opens up…

And yeah, I yoinked the Orlan baby XD. That’s my one meta-knowledge about what transfers over to PoE2~

BONUS: I “technically” beat the game on February 28, 2026, when I YOLO’d into Breith Eaman way too early in the main quest lmao (I hadn’t started Council of Stars yet to know about the pit’s nature, but I had a grapple hook in my inventory, so I thought I was good!). It’s kinda considered an ending and I busted out laughing when the credits started rolling!

Sonder

How foolish was I to think I was the only one battling foolish goals and grief

Buried in struggle neck deep

How silly I was to think

That I was the only one that misfortune reaped

And like a child I protested it was only me

So I cried, screamed and kicked my feet

Surely this is unfair you see

The world is less harsh to them it seems

Little do I know their losses are underneath

Happiness is just a persona that speaks.

But beneath its only tired eyes I pass on the street

And only little glimpses of this realization do I peek

Learn to recognize disguises strangers wear to mask defeat

Disguises that look like me

My own reflections do I see

Different names, same aches we breathe

Different storms, same drowning seas

Different prayers whisper in whimpering pleas

But nobody escapes gravity

No extra mercy is received

We’re all beaten down to our knees

And every smile i chance to meet

Hides a war we’re all too blind to see

Weights I thought unique to me

Oh so foolish I was to believe

The pain was mine exclusively

We’re all holding what we can not release

But we’re holding it privately.

RANPO × POE FOREVER IDC WHAT ANYONE SAYS

games set in eora i wish existed:

• pc is a giftbearer
• pc is a watcher again but like. a different one.
• first person rpg a la avowed set in the white that wends PLEAAAAASE please please please @/obsidian help me save me do this for me. combine this with giftbearer pc and my life is yours. let’s all hold hands and envision a pillars game where the gods driving the core narrative are ondra and rymrgand. fun game about entropy and losing yourself and nothingnessssss ♥️
• game where the playable godlike variants are completely different to the ones we’ve had so far. FUCK berath and ondra and magran and galawain, it’s abydon and wael time. would playing as a woedica godlike not go crazy hard.
• crpg set in one of the big three modern empires. we’ve seen all of them trying to expand their territories abroad but i want to actually see the countries themselves. any of them honestly. benefits to aedyr is my oc is from there and it would help me contextualise her life. benefits to rauatai is i want to know more about it in general plus the severe weather conditions and rocky, unfertile land would be an interesting diversion from the more lush places we’ve seen so far. benefits to the valian republics is that it would be really really cool to have an rpg where the vast majority of characters are black.
• crpg set in one of the big three ancient empires, as a very very distant prequel. yezuha would be the coolest obviously because we know the least about it but id take a day in the life of ukaizo and engwith too.
• new god. not like sapadal where it’s an old god we just didn’t know about but The Birth Of A New God. whether it’s our job to make it or try and stop it being made. post deadfire & the end of the wheel, this new god is our hope of the future or smth. the closer in vibes it is to fear and hunger 2 the better.
• dating sim where you play as waidwen

pest-ilential but i gave him some medieval lines :3

concept of aedyr-faithful!envoy who is lödwyn’s sibling is making me ill… the envoy devoting themself wholly to the empire for their sisters approval and it’s never enough to make up for what they are.