I Already Beat Avowed, & I’m Begging You To Find All The Ancient Memories

I have already finished Avowed and one of my greatest pieces of advice regarding the main story is to seek out each of the game's Ancient Memories. I reviewed Avowed, and thus had access to the game prior to release, putting roughly 60 hours into it before it hit early access. My playthrough included most of the side quests and a healthy amount of exploration, but playing with a deadline means I probably missed a few things. Regardless, my time with Avowed has taught me that the main quest is not sequestered.

Side quests will often overlap with the central narrative, providing interesting perspectives on issues or even prompting some comments from the Voice in the Envoy's head. This isn't exclusive to traditional side quests, though, and even points of interest that don't give you a quest marker can be important, as is the case with the Ancient Memories. While the Dreamscourge is a pressing issue, Avowed is designed to encourage plenty of wandering – gear and precious items can be found all over, but taking the time to look for Ancient Memories specifically will give you a better understanding of the Living Lands and the context of the main story.

Avowed's Ancient Memories Provide Important Cutscenes & Dialogue

The History Of The Living Lands Revealed

One person leaning in to speak into another's ear. Subtitles at the bottom read, "The Voice: You, Kishamal. What became of you?"

There are five Ancient Memories to be found in Avowed. There is one in each of the four major regions on Avowed's map – Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galawain's Tusks – and a fifth in a location that won't be divulged here to avoid major spoilers. Keep an eye out for wispy pillars of floating white light, which can be interacted with to begin the Ancient Memory. In practice, they're rather simple: cutscenes of static (yet gorgeous) artwork pertaining to a discussion between the Envoy and the Voice.

Kai from Avowed, Andreas Maler from Pentiment, and Lord Nihilus from KOTOR 2

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Each Ancient Memory revolves around the region it was found in, expanding on the history of the Living Lands and the Godless that lived there. They're interesting opportunities to not only learn about the distant past, but shape it with your dialogue choices. Said choices only have a direct impact on the cutscenes themselves, but the conversations with the Voice reverberate throughout the rest of the game, and the events discussed weigh heavily on the main story's biggest choices. Most of Avowed's side content is worth doing, even the often tedious bounty hunts for their rewards, but Ancient Memories are practically necessary for their narrative contributions.

[Warning: The following section contains broad, minor spoilers for Avowed.]

Ancient Memories Give Important Insight Into Sapadal & The Ekidan Godlikes

Learning About Sapadal Through The Envoy's Predecessors

While the first Ancient Memory in Dawnshore remains a bit mysterious after experiencing it, decent progress through the main story will make it clearer that each Ancient Memory comes from a previous Godlike from the Living Lands. The Ancient Memories are largely a chronicle of the Voice's, aka Sapadal's, transgressions against the people that worshiped them. This becomes directly relevant to later story revelations, but they help make Avowed feel more complete narratively, even early on.

Do not ignore Sapadal or tell them you don't want to see the Ancient Memory; doing so will cause you to miss out on a new Godlike Ability.

The Envoy has a built-in past, and a prominent one at that: they're a representative of the Emperor or Aedyr, one of Eora's most influential nations. Despite this, the Envoy is largely a blank slate, and the game tends to pay more attention to the fact that they're a Godlike, rather than focusing on their geopolitical role (which is still extremely important to the main story). While the Ancient Memories tell the stories of other characters, they help greatly in contextualizing the Envoy as a character whose obligations far surpass what was originally presented by them.

If no Ancient Memories are found in a playthrough of Avowed, there is still a lot of intrigue surrounding the central mysteries, but they won't have the benefit of eons of Ekidan history contextualizing them. Ignoring the Ancient Memories will also severely limit your knowledge of Sapadal, which could impact some major choices in Avowed that the player has to make. One of Avowed's greatest strengths is the influence it affords the player and their choices, and missing important information like that in the Ancient Memories compromises your ability to thoroughly examine the options.

Ancient Memories are also clever bits of storytelling from Obsidian Entertainment in that they let you shape the past, rather than acting as a straightforward lore dump. Each Godlike featured has a distinct tale, but they're not set in stone, and facets of them are decided by the player, which elicit different responses from Sapadal. This can lead to a lot of subtle differences in how players understand the Living Lands' past and the ways Sapadal shaped it. Even from early on, the Envoy's relationship with Sapadal is a cornerstone of Avowed, and the Ancient Memories are delightful vignettes with a lot of substance.