The House of Wael

Pillars of Eternity

by Chris Avellone

A digital novella that focus on the backstory of some of the more interesting characters that players may encounter over the course of their travels in Pillars of Eternity.

Available only with the "Royal Edition" of the video game Pillars of Eternity, developed by Obsidian Entertainment.

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Audiobook, Mystery, Video Games, Gaming

78 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Steve Paulson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed The House of Wael for what it is. It's not so much intended to be a great story, but a supplementary bit of storytelling that expands upon the Pillars of Eternity world. It's similar in style and content to hidden books you find in game that also tell parts of the history and plot of the world. It's good, but not at all a necessary read. I've just started playing the game, and have fallen in love with the gameplay, setting, characters, story, entire. If I wasn't as interested in the game, I likely wouldn't care much about the book, so that's how my recommendation sits - if you like the game, read the book.

The story is largely in three styles - a third person, specific story about two men; a historical documentation of the world, written in text-book style, very educational; and fourth-wall breaking in-game mentions. It's actually pretty cool, in my opinion. For example, the two men will find an item, the younger will ask about the item, the elder will talk about it. Then, a historical account will expound upon the item, it's significance, and the full story about the item. Finally, it will discuss how the item in question works in game. All done in different linguistic styles, and in an overall way that I appreciated (though, only truly liked because it was a shorter book - a longer story would be more difficult to swallow perhaps).

So, it's solid - good, not great, but definitely worth the read if you like the world of PoE and wish to get more supplementary information about the world.

[Eric Juneau · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this in my copy of Pillars of Eternity, which is a video game by same creators of Baldur’s Gate, but unique for being Kickstarted so well. Thus there were lots of free bonuses included. Finally got around to digging into the directory and discovering it (and that was because I was trying to clear space on my drive and found the documentary video).

Free is about what it’s worth. I thought it had potential in the beginning, but the first chapter goes on and on. There’s a whole paragraph about a guy taking a breath.

I guess it’s framed to be like someone discovered some scrolls of Wael, which is a god in Pillars of Eternity. But it reads like someone told this guy to write a novella in a week. I was hoping it would engross me in the game, give some background on events. But this is for the people who like Homestuck, who are either completionists or like Time Sink Fallacy followers.

[E Kummeneje · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very experimental stuff here, even from noted high-brow/pretentious author Avellone. For me, this was an arduous, and mostly painful read, exactly like most of the dialogue in Pillars of Eternity; especially bloody Durance. A ton of metatextuality, metaphors, just purposely broken language, split lines, constant non-sequiteurs. Maybe I'm just too stupid. At least the laughably badly written "game statistics" inserted didn't annoy me as much as they apparently did most other readers.

[Hendrik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wenig Story, viel wirre Anspielungen, dazu merkwürdige Einschübe, die wie aus einem Regelwerk geschrieben sind. Die längste, aber auch die schwächste Pillars-Story für mich.

[Andrew Delaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was kind of odd to have the breaks where it would give the in-game effects of various items.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short story set in Eora, the world of the Pillars of Eternity game. It's actually something of a follow-up to an-ingame quest, although it has nothing to do with the game's plot.

The story, towards the end, is an ok read, but it starts off very poorly. I believe the problem lies with the subject matter itself. Wael is a god of knowledge, but also of secrets, so mysteries and and unknowns and the confusion is all probably par for the course. Unfortunately, this creates a very befuddled protagonist (who knows even less than the reader) and a very odd (not in a good way) antagonist. While it clears up a bit towards the end, it's done in a way to purposely create more questions than it answers. Again, I suppose the author meant for it to be in keeping with the lore, but it does not help the reader appreciate the story. And you'd need a bit of background in the game to even "get" some things.

I also wanted to mention a contributing factor to the confusion - the reader is actually reading about people who are using the in-game quest item. This extra layer of complexity does not offer enough to be worth the complexity and context switching.

If it only that were the only problems, I'd have enjoyed it a bit more. But unfortunately, the author chose to intersperse the main story with "effect descriptions" and "item descriptions" - as if the reader is a gamer playing through a game. The end result feels like watching a movie scene, then switching over to a "behind the scenes" clip, before continuing the movie. It's very jarring, and feels like a cop-out of not having to make the protagonist "figure it out".

And speaking of the protagonist... and jarring... that boy protagonist transitions very abruptly - from an awkward confused boy, to a comtemplative manipulative sort, to a suddenly dutiful and faithful priest (but still a boy). If the previous sentence doesn't really make sense, well yeah, that how I feel about the protagonist.

The nice bits about the short story is that the antagonist presents some interesting ideas about the nature of divinity (in the context of the game world). Too bad the antagonist wasn't really developed much.

[Welther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but honestly, I can't recommend it. It's a short, and litterally, contained story, but it's not a good place to start learning about the world of Pillar's of Eternity.

The prose is well-written, but the story's structure is very confusing to follow. I wish Chris had written a full-length novel, as I think there is plenty material, and it would've made for a better book (but maybe more work?). A longer format could make the story less confusing, and certainly better paced.

There are inserts, item-descriptions and fourth-wall breaking texts that mostly just hurt the stories pacing. The "chapters" cut off, with no pretense to style, very abruptly; there aren't even three dots to let the reader know that it trails off. It confused me to whether a sentence ended, or whether it was just bad formatting in the EPUB-version that I was reading.

I'm glad I read it, now as I'm playing the game. But that is also the only reason I read it (and know of it).

[Robert Negut · Rating 2 out of 5]

It again feels rather like cheating to count this as a book I read, being so short, but more important is the fact that it's not meant to be read on its own. It's written in an odd style, intentionally confusing, hard to follow, lacking background information and constantly broken up by all those notes appearing even in the middle of sentences, including descriptions apparently pulled right out of the game that aren't suited for a book. That said, there are some interesting elements, at least enough to make the reader curious, and the discussion about Gods can be said to stand out and make some good points. And the comment about language is spot-on.

[Micah Till · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last of a series of short stories set in Obsidian's world for Pillars of Eternity. Out of all the stories it is both the best and the most frustrating. The story itself is very good and I think it can be enjoyed indignant of the game. (This last is not true of any of the other stories.) There are a number of formatting decisions that make reading the PDF burdensome though. This can be viewed as thematic, in the same vein as the description of the physical book you are supposed to be reading, but mainly I just found it annoying. The story is worth the time to read it though.

[Jason Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it's the epub formatting or what... but this is unreadable. There's a narrative that is always broken up by 4th wall breaking panels that talk about the game mechanics.

I love Pillars of Eternity, but avoid this.

[Cyber Killer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this among the game files. The story is quite abstract at places, but the biggest problem is the horribly bad epub formatting. Like a lazily converted pdf or worse, it makes reading and trying to understand the plot, a real chore.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely forgettable fantasy novella.

[Vladimir · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Yanik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read hampered by a very rickety start and chaotic writing style.
I didn't mind the disorienting lore inserts but could have done without the game mechanic inclusions.
The House of Wael is a nice, dark Alice in Wonderland-like experience with claustrophobic, gloomy interiors, troubled characters and an unhinged grip on reality.
I like the weirdness of the Pillars of Eternity lore and the tale delivers on that front, though at times it tries too hard to be confusing and complex. Its rife with theological discussions which add a lot to the setting. I'd welcome a full novel set in Eora, free from gamey descriptions!

[Paweł Dembowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story might have gotten a 3 if not for the fact that the ebook was pretty badly made, and for the weirdly inserted descriptions of in-game items, which maybe are done in a way that makes sense in the PDF version (perhaps?) but in the mobi version just seem weird and disturb the flow of the text.