Josh Sawyer, a CRPG veteran and the director of Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas and more has spoken out about how Pillars of Eternity got its name, along with how its inspiration – adra – came to be.
Adra is a crystal-like material that grows out from the ground in the form of pillars around Pillars of Eternity's world of Eora. It doesn't just look pretty, though – it's also able to store and transfer souls, which is a rather important detail.
Over on Sawyer's Tumblr blog, he was asked if he was the person who originally produced the concept of adra, and while this was the case, others made contributions to it, too, including the game's eventual final name.
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"Adam Brennecke [producer and programmer] originally had the idea of reincarnation being a big thing in the world. Rob Nesler [art director] was making environment concepts with gravity-defying arches and we talked about the idea of some sort of growing material that was used as a mortar between the stones that was living, kind of had some physical properties like abalone shell," Sawyer states.
"At some point shortly after that I had the idea of adra as growing through the ground as pillars and being the conduits of souls across the world. I later developed the idea that living adra could be separated from the pillars and could be an ideal vessel for essence/soul energy," he continues.
These pillars served as inspiration for the title eventually emblazoned on PS4 and Xbox One game boxes everywhere. The name was suggested by artist Kaz Aruga during the "great renaming process" which saw the RPG move away from its original title, Project Eternity. "I thought it fit well," adds Sawyer.
Pillars of Eternity's world is set to make a grand return in Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed later this year, as the upcoming RPG will take place in the Living Lands, a part of Eora. Things will look different, but it's set in the same universe as the Pillars games. Avowed is set to launch on PC and Xbox Series X|S in fall.
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