I'm obsessed with Avowed's made-up curse words, which have a surprisingly practical purpose in the world of Eora

You nimdut! Okay, that might sound like an insult, and maybe it is in certain contexts, but Avowed has also taught me that it's a Lembur term (which is spoken by the mountain dwarves) often used between colleagues. So I'm calling you what essentially translates to a jackass or idiot, but it's said in a "friendly manner," which makes it OK. The Avowed lore tab – which opens up a helpful glossary when you come across a key term or phrase in the RPG – not only does an excellent job of making the events and history of the The Living Lands more approachable for Pillars of Eternity newbies like me, but I also love how it keeps teaching me the language of different cultures and races in the fantasy world. It's particularly fun to get an education on curse words and expletives, with my dear dwarven companion Marius dropping his fair share.

Any time he does, I slam down that lore tab button like there's no tomorrow to see what it translates to. The meaning of certain words has begun to stick, so whenever Marius drops it during a conversation at camp, or while we're out and about in the world of Eora, I know exactly what he means. It's helping me to feel even more connected to the world of Obsidian's RPG, as well as the people I meet within it. And when it comes down to it, I just love to nerd out over fantasy languages and lore.

Express yourself

As I've come to learn during my adventures in Avowed, nimdut is probably the tamest term Marius drops in his mother tongue. Highlights include the likes of more vulgar words like "saca" which essentially means "shit", or "jitule", which can be used when you're angry at someone since it translates to "bastard". And if someone is telling a tall tale? Well just hit them with a "pe dracu" to call them on their "bullshit". Perhaps the most satisfying Lembur expletive, though, is "Fuitu meu", which you'd use to express disbelief, or as is often the case for Marius, disbelief. Literally meaning "Fuck me", you know saca has gone down whenever he uses it during the many twists and turns of my adventures in the Living Lands.

The Lembur language isn't the only one I've encountered as I've progressed through Avowed, but it's certainly the one I'm most well acquainted with thanks to Marius' prolific use of terms and phrases in conversation. Here and there, I've also taken note of the odd Rauatai expletive, such as "kuta bau", which means "damn it", and I'm constantly pulling up the lore tab whenever a character references a certain kind beverage, for instance. With every piece of terminology I learn, I feel more drawn to the culture and people of the world, and it really just fleshes out the experience in such a digestible way.

In fact, Avowed's lore tab reminds me of the glossary feature so many visual novels I've played in the past have. I've always appreciated the way they catalogue terms or events of note the story touches on to offer a more indepth explanation or give added context. And in the world of RPGs, I've long since been a huge fan of the likes of the codex in the Dragon Age series, which brings together any notable documents or snippets of lore found in the world.

Obsidian's dialogue and lore feature is a great way for me to immerse myself in the history of the Pillars of Eternity universe, and it helps to build out the world in an approachable way. But more than that, I get so much joy out of using it not only to better understand the world, but feel closer to the characters I meet. From learning terms from the many different fantasy languages that have been created, to educating myself on a key event that occurred in the world, or just finding out what a drink like "Wodak" actually is (for those that want to know, it's a clear, potent alcoholic beverage most typically enjoyed by Pargrun dwarves), I've absolutely loved how much its teaching me.

While I might be sorry for calling you a nimdut, I certainly won't apologize for just how invested I've become in learning fantasy curse words. Because it's the kind of saca I live for in RPGs.

Some of Avowed's most memorable smaller instances are reminding me of the magic of Red Dead Redemption 2's random encounters.