Ending question (some spoilers!)

[Mngwa]

I am having a huge trouble in deciding who to ally with at the very ending of the game. There are several factions and all of them are pretty much unlikable.

Vailian Trading company - A miner company which exploits the land and tribes to collect adra at any costs. No consideration about sustainability or benefit for anyone else than themselves, they are willing to mine everything and leave a barren land behind them.

Royal Deadfire Company - Basically a bunch of murderers who just eliminate anyone who is standing in their path with help of hired assassins and privateers. Thanks but no thanks, probably most annoying faction.

Principi sen Patrena - Pirates and thieves. Also part of the faction secretly allies with slavers. Nope.

Huana - Traditional kind of monarchy with queen and unfair caste system. Their watershapers cheated a dragon a long time ago and then they imprisoned him in a small tomb where they draw his soul power in order to do these fancy water tricks. Which sucks a lot.

In the first playthrough I sided with Huana after rescuing the dragon and the ending was somwhow quite good, with outcome how things got better, things even improved with the low caste thing. Still the decision is pretty difficult when player considers his sympathies other than just added value of faction support. I wonder how others decided.

[TaKo]

you just gotta decide who is better for the deadfire/world

yeah you listed their downsides but aside from the principi they also have their upsides

the Vailians might be colonialists who care little for the huana of the deadfire but they are at the forefront of animancy and as it stands are the best hope for a quick solution to the replacing/repairing the broken Wheel in way that does not rely on the gods

The Rauataians might be violent in how they take the deadfire but they do want order and peace in it, they care about the huana as long as said huana are willing to assimilate into rautaian culture, if they got ukaizo they would be the most likely force to ensure long lasting peace in the region as no navy on eora would be able to challenge them for it(but then it also makes you think of them maybe expanding even further onto other nations with their new found power and the ceasing of the storms of ondra's mortar)

the Huana have many traditions that bring misery to their people but a lot of the misery they experience also comes from the exploitation of colonialist outsiders bringing chaos to their lands, with the power from ukaizo they could overcome many of those as they band together in unity to force out outsiders who mean them and their lands harm and then they'd have the chance to evolve in peace, maybe ditch that caste system, maybe even do away with their monarchy

and the Principi... yeah they are just pirates, old blood is willing to deal in slaves, new bloods are too chaotic, either way they turn the deadfire into a lawless land

the factions are designed to be unlikable due to being imperfect despite having at least some good points, an attempt on being realistic i guess

[psychotron666]

For post wheel eora, valians are the best choice. The wheel is broken, so the adra pillars no longer take souls and recycle them..

If you do xoti quest by bringing her lantern of souls (an animancy artifact) to the valians, they are able to recreate the wheel by putting those souls into pregnant women so their kids aren't born as hollowborn.

So there's no point in preserving the adra pillars like the huana want to do, they are literally just stagnating the planet and preserving otherwise useless chunks of Adra.

Valians coupled with children of the dawnstars can make reapers like xoti who collect lost souls of the dead, then bring them to the animancers to reincarnate into newborns.

[TaKo]

psychotron666 původně napsal:

For post wheel eora, valians are the best choice. The wheel is broken, so the adra pillars no longer take souls and recycle them..

If you do xoti quest by bringing her lantern of souls (an animancy artifact) to the valians, they are able to recreate the wheel by putting those souls into pregnant women so their kids aren't born as hollowborn.

So there's no point in preserving the adra pillars like the huana want to do, they are literally just stagnating the planet and preserving otherwise useless chunks of Adra.

Valians coupled with children of the dawnstars can make reapers like xoti who collect lost souls of the dead, then bring them to the animancers to reincarnate into newborns.

while true that vailians are the current best hope for replacing the wheel due to their advanced animancy theres nothing saying they cant achieve it without ukaizo, or at least that they cant achieve it without directly controlling ukaizo

it could be possible to preserve the deadfire for the native huana and have vailians eventually start working with them in a more equal capacity(rather than the exploitative one we see in-game before the ending), maybe even lead the huana to become big on animancy too

if one keeps castol during A Vote of No Confidence and sides with the huana the vailians mostly leave the deadfire but allow castol to keep his animancy research going, one could infer that he'd eventually start working directly with the huana and his researches could make grand breakthroughs still(as they had already done in the spire of soul seers, with the whole physical teleportation stuff)

i personally view siding with the huana and keeping castol in charge of the deadfire VTC operations to be my ideal ending, cause as much as the whole Wheel thing is an existential threat, allowing the vailians to ransack the deadfire while fixing/replacing the wheel doesnt sit right with me

of course, all speculation, which is by design

[Sir Texas Sir]

psychotron666 původně napsal:

For post wheel eora, valians are the best choice. The wheel is broken, so the adra pillars no longer take souls and recycle them..

If you do xoti quest by bringing her lantern of souls (an animancy artifact) to the valians, they are able to recreate the wheel by putting those souls into pregnant women so their kids aren't born as hollowborn.

So there's no point in preserving the adra pillars like the huana want to do, they are literally just stagnating the planet and preserving otherwise useless chunks of Adra.

Valians coupled with children of the dawnstars can make reapers like xoti who collect lost souls of the dead, then bring them to the animancers to reincarnate into newborns.

I doing a new play through right now and doing an all merc partty except Xoti cause I have never actually romanced her and plan to this play. Prob will go this patch....my self.

Than I think I'll do a full all merc and go pirates cause you know every one loves a good pirate story.

[Steffan]

psychotron666 původně napsal:

If you do xoti quest by bringing her lantern of souls (an animancy artifact) to the valians, they are able to recreate the wheel by putting those souls into pregnant women so their kids aren't born as hollowborn.

Wow, after so many years... I realize that. I've completely messed up that quest and Xoti's mind on my first and only run (but the run has been unforgettable). I knew he should have solved it the animancy way... well, he did not.

I went for the Vailians, too. First, my character had some Vailian origins (I picked an Italian sounding name in PoE1 without knowing it will be relevant), second he had a unrequitted love for Pallegina. Third, he shared the Vailian enthusiasm for animancy. That being said, I did not get the very best Vailian ending slides... it did not differ much from what the othe factions got. But once again, my character might have made some mistakes.

That being said, you can absolutely follow your character beliefs/sympathies: do you favor animancy? who is your love interest? your character's origin? Small things like this can change your perspective.

[dcain3456]

Pirates all the way. They totally own it, and no slavers.
I would like to try to go full anarch and go without allies.

[jotwebe]

TaKo původně napsal:

psychotron666 původně napsal:

For post wheel eora, valians are the best choice. The wheel is broken, so the adra pillars no longer take souls and recycle them..

If you do xoti quest by bringing her lantern of souls (an animancy artifact) to the valians, they are able to recreate the wheel by putting those souls into pregnant women so their kids aren't born as hollowborn.

Interesting. I did the Valians on my first playthrough - my PC was a Valian and an animancy enthusiast - and I don't remember that detail. I think I did Xoti's quest differently. Anyway, at least with Castol in charge, they're considerably less destructive than real history colonialists. Basically they pretty much leave the Huana alone except for the Adra, and the pillars really don't do anything for them apart from their religious significance.

I later did a Rauatai run with my PC being a naive diplomat - trying to get Huana and Rauataians to get along, until the brass put their plan in motion - and was surprised that that played out relatively well for the Huana as well. I mean, cultural genocide, yes, but apart from that the Emperor guy really does make the ships come on time, and massively improves the living standards in the Rough Country. I don't quite remember what the deal with the souls and the wheel was in that one.

Probably one could read between the lines and view the ending reports as somewhat biased towards the "winning" faction.

Huana and pirate playthroughs are still in progress.

[gruedragon]

TaKo původně napsal:

if one keeps castol during A Vote of No Confidence and sides with the huana the vailians mostly leave the deadfire but allow castol to keep his animancy research going, one could infer that he'd eventually start working directly with the huana and his researches could make grand breakthroughs still(as they had already done in the spire of soul seers, with the whole physical teleportation stuff)

How do you handle that? If you side with the Huana whoever is in charge of the VTC is banished to the Gullet.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

gruedragon původně napsal:

TaKo původně napsal:

if one keeps castol during A Vote of No Confidence and sides with the huana the vailians mostly leave the deadfire but allow castol to keep his animancy research going, one could infer that he'd eventually start working directly with the huana and his researches could make grand breakthroughs still(as they had already done in the spire of soul seers, with the whole physical teleportation stuff)

How do you handle that? If you side with the Huana whoever is in charge of the VTC is banished to the Gullet.

Simply by siding with the Native Huana and defend Castol during a Vote of No Confidence, and make sure to help the Animancy quest he gave you (and don't botch it).

[gruedragon]

RACHMANOVSKI původně napsal:

gruedragon původně napsal:

How do you handle that? If you side with the Huana whoever is in charge of the VTC is banished to the Gullet.

Simply by siding with the Native Huana and defend Castol during a Vote of No Confidence, and make sure to help the Animancy quest he gave you (and don't botch it).

But if you side with the Huana, whoever is in charge of the VTC is banished. You can't side with the Huana and have Castol in charge of the VTC.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

gruedragon původně napsal:

RACHMANOVSKI původně napsal:

Simply by siding with the Native Huana and defend Castol during a Vote of No Confidence, and make sure to help the Animancy quest he gave you (and don't botch it).

But if you side with the Huana, whoever is in charge of the VTC is banished. You can't side with the Huana and have Castol in charge of the VTC.

I suggest you to check the wiki about the PoE2 ending.

And yes you can.

[gruedragon]

RACHMANOVSKI původně napsal:

gruedragon původně napsal:

But if you side with the Huana, whoever is in charge of the VTC is banished. You can't side with the Huana and have Castol in charge of the VTC.

I suggest you to check the wiki about the PoE2 ending.

And yes you can.

After a Vote of No Confidence, either Castol or Alvari is banished to The Living Lands. In this situation, Alvari is the one banished, leaving Castol in charge.

After blowing up the RDC Powder House, to side with the Huana you need to throw the leader of the VTC, Castol in this case, under the bus and blame him. He then gets tossed in the Gullet and is no longer in charge of the VTC. If you don't throw Castol under the bus, then you can't side with the Huana.

Edit: I just remembered you can avoid blowing up the Powder House by talking to the Hazanui, agreeing to help her, then turning her down. I had forgotten that option exists.

[76561188078797539]

I was deeply disappointed that it was not possible to completely take over Principi as a leader, then use their naval presence to shore up Huana's rule in a "privateer" way while keeping all the other factions still involved.

Literally none of the choices present appeal to me, especially when you take the tone of ending slides under consideration.

At best you just come in, make a mess, and toodle-off, which makes any kind of investment in local politics questionable waste of time. Even ignoring everything else.

At least in the first one you were "engaged" through your fief.

Meh.