Avowed might be the best work of ‘pandemic art’ to date

digitaltrends.com:

When Covid-19 morphed into a full blown pandemic in 2020, artists were quick to work out their feelings through their work. Within its first year, we got home-recorded music about isolation, mask-filled street art, and even a Michael Bay-produced thriller. That output serves as a great time capsule into how people were dealing with its immediate side effects, largely focused on the struggle to find human connection amid social isolation. That only scratched the surface of the pandemic’s impact, though. To really grapple with its complexities, we’d all need time to see the scars it left over time and process them. That wouldn’t happen in a few months.

Now, five years later, we’ve finally gotten the kind of nuanced “pandemic art” that could only come with time – and it’s come in a surprising form. Avowed, the latest game from Obsidian, is a new fantasy RPG that’s all about Gods and political intrigue in the Pillars of Eternity universe. It’s a colorful and jaunty adventure that plays like a streamlined Elder Scrolls game. Peel back its layers of lore, though, and you’ll find a deep exploration of how crises are exploited and turned into political bargaining chips. It’s a story forged from Covid trauma, and one that has a lot to teach us about the way our real world responds to catastrophe.

This article contains story spoilers for Avowed.

A politicized pandemic

Avowed takes place in a region of Eora dubbed The Living Lands, which is in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Known as the Dreamscourge, the plague is essentially a zombie apocalypse. Those inflicted by the fungal infection slowly deteriorate until they transform into shambling Dreamthralls. It’s a deadly disease that threatens all of Eora, a fact that’s not lost on leaders from other regions. It’s of particular concern to the Aedyr Empire, who sends an envoy to the Living Lands to find the source of the disease and, hopefully, cure it.

• South of Midnight knows exactly what it wants to