10 years in the past, Obsidian made the one D&D-style Monk I've ever actually cherished—all it took was grounding him in harsh asceticism, mortification of the flesh, Aztec historical past, and stoner comedies
I lately bought in contact with former Obsidian author Eric Fenstermaker to be taught all the things I might about considered one of my favourite bits of dialogue in RPG historical past from Pillars of Eternity’s first growth, The White March Half 1. However this additionally entailed studying much more about Zahua, the character who delivered the road, and it struck me as soon as once more how uncommon he’s: A CRPG monk who’s really very well written.
There’s often one thing so plasticky and Epcot in regards to the monk fantasy in lots of RPGs, the barest bones of a Shaolin/Wuxia mythos chucked into the generalized fantasy slurry of (often) The Forgotten Realms or another cadet department D&D world—possibly throw in some components of western monasticism to essentially confuse issues. However Pillars of Eternity monks, particularly Zahua, with their mortification of the flesh, hardcore asceticism, and philosophical depth, actually did one thing for me.
In accordance with Fenstermaker, Zahua had his origins in a minimize character idea for the bottom recreation, a monk named Forton who appeared in promotional artwork for the Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter. Fenstermaker took possession of Zahua, however credit among the character’s charming weirdness to the steps challenge lead Josh Sawyer took to distinguish Pillars’ monks from the RPG commonplace of transplanted Shaolin martial artists—a transfer that rhymes with the workforce’s strategy to fantasy races in Pillars of Eternity.
“Josh can be a medieval historical past buff, and he introduced in additional features of Western asceticism,” Fenstermaker mentioned. “Particularly, mortification of the flesh—the thought of inflicting struggling upon oneself for non secular acquire. So our monks grew to become stronger the extra they have been struck in fight. That grew to become in and of itself an amazing underpinning for a personality that supplied me with numerous inspiration.
“What Josh began me with on Forton was, I imagine: he was outdated, he was coated in scars, and I may very well be misremembering, however I feel Josh additionally had it in there from the start that he used medicine.”
With the intention to discover the best match for the character idea and discover extra of Pillars’ setting of Eora via the slender keyhole of the video games, Fenstermaker had Zahua originate from the area of Ixamil, a distant locale in Eora. “However Ixamitl did not even actually exist on paper aside from on a map,” Fenstermaker mentioned, “So I needed to create Zahua’s folks and tradition—the Tacan—on the fly as a part of his design.”
That ties into considered one of my favourite elements of Zahua’s character: How the backstory of the Tacan’s rivalry with one other tradition, the Quechmatl, evokes, however does not 1:1 map onto the historical past of the Aztec Empire. This additionally supplied a historic analogue to precise warriors who used mind-altering substances.
Monk Mode
“The Nalpazca warrior-monks ended up being the wedding of three separate issues,” mentioned Fenstermaker. “The ‘conventional’ RPG monk, which is known as a means of incorporating martial arts characters and tropes right into a fantasy marketing campaign, indigenous Mesoamerican tribal cultures, and the rejection of the fabric world that we see in sure religions like Jainism, Buddhism, and Gnosticism, particularly when taken to an excessive.
“I bear in mind particularly studying about sadhus, a few of whom put themselves below immense bodily stress as a way to pursue their purpose of detachment from the fabric world.”
Fenstermaker was barely self-effacing about Zahua’s choice for talking within the third individual, the quirky sidekick particular and one thing the author quipped “is finished by some designer not less than as soon as per RPG.” However he argued there was one thing a lot deeper occurring with Zahua’s speech patterns than pure quirk.
“The thought got here from The Final of the Mohicans, the place the character Magua was given to doing the identical,” Fenstermaker mentioned. “I needed to present the impression of somebody who was desperately attempting to take management of his personal story by being his personal narrator, whereas his actuality was that the world was altering round him, and his tragedies have been everlasting, and there could be no return to glory. And that was precisely what it was for Magua. So though Zahua’s a significantly better soul, there is a type of non secular kinship there.”
Fenstermaker additionally credited veteran actor Jamieson Value for a way effectively Zahua got here collectively, calling Value’s efficiency “stunning, nuanced, and emotional” with “pitch-perfect” comedic supply. I’ve to agree: Even having not performed The White March for 5 years, I can nonetheless hear Value’s supply in my head: A somber, rumbling baritone that made the monk’s extra off-kilter moments catch me off-guard in the easiest way.
Talking of off-kilter, Fenstermaker cited one remaining inspiration that accomplished Zahua, the splash of humor to steadiness out all of the pathos and philosophy: Stoner comedies. “They’ve their very own set of ridiculous guidelines and tropes and so they’re all mainly ruled by what is sensible to folks when they’re out of their thoughts, giggly, and infrequently, fairly hungry,” mentioned Fenstermaker. “I took from these movies Zahua’s excessive casualness and deep information of seemingly each illicit substance.
“He additionally talks a bit like a stoner, and also you’re by no means positive how lucid he’s. I’d’ve overdone it a bit. If I have been to return and edit it now, I would in all probability dial again among the stoner diction a hair, simply to maintain it somewhat extra persistently grounded. However I had enjoyable.”