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In the lead-up to Avowed’s launch, game director Carrie Patel quoted its ending permutations as being in the “double digits,” and having seen the end, I don’t even have to get into more granular quest results to come up with a similar number. There are two major choices at the end of the game that determine your main ending variations, with little choices throughout the game that then affect how happy or sad it all is.
I’ve organized this guide to go over the two divergence points, with a section at the end covering the smaller quests reflected in the ending slideshow, and how I think different choices play off, complement, or contradict each other. As a note: You can indicate your preference for different end states (like an independent Living Lands) throughout the game, but this doesn’t lock you in to one choice or another. You can even pull a switcheroo and side with the Steel Garrote right at the very end of the game, even if you spared Sapadal—though that choice has its own, unique consequences.
Sapadal ending choice
The first major choice you’ll encounter after Avowed’s point of no return is whether to kill or spare Sapadal, the god living in your head. Though there are three distinct choices, how you behave toward Sapadal throughout the game may influence your ending slides if you spare her. All three choices bring an end to the Dreamscourge.
What happens if you spare Sapadal in Avowed?
Sparing Sapadal lends itself the most to an independent Living Lands, but this choice does not appear to have any direct conflicts with Avowed’s political endings—with the notable exception of siding with the Steel Garrote and Lödwyn. Releasing Sapadal brings an end to the Dreamscourge.
One of the final ending slides describes Sapadal’s character and attitude toward the Living Lands and its people. The only variation I’ve seen so far describes them calming down and learning to value life, but it’s possible this is contingent on how you speak to them and the example you set throughout the game, with the possibility of Sapadal becoming a more vengeful deity in response to ruthless or callous characters. If this ending does exist, it may require you to kill Ygwulf in Paradis along with other early game ruthless choices—Radio Times Gaming on YouTube noted that they were unable to get a “vengeful” Sapadal ending slide after sparing Ygwulf but encouraging the god’s darker urges.
Sparing Sapadal and giving them the Adra mech in Sargamis’ quest early in the game will result in a special ending slide describing how the god makes use of it. It’s unclear if this is similarly contingent on how you influence Sapadal’s morality, but the slide I got showed a very sweet, Iron Giant sort of situation.
What happens if you kill Sapadal in Avowed?
Killing Sapadal is a victory for the original pantheon of Eora, particularly Woedica, and dovetails the most with the various shades of pro-Aedyr endings in the subsequent major choice. Killing Sapadal while pushing for an independent Living Lands feels like a real mismatch, but the end slides won’t ding you for it. Killing Sapadal ends the Dreamscourge just as if you saved them.
As a note: Sapadal and the other gods’ relationship takes on a different character if you played Pillars of Eternity. At the end of the first Pillars, it’s revealed that the main pantheon of Eora are artificial beings, brought to life by an ancient civilization’s mass sacrifices and powerful magic. Sapadal, being a similar entity born from a gradual loss of life and accumulation of souls with no mortal hand behind it, could thus be argued to be the only “true” or “natural” deity in the setting.
What happens if you merge with Sapadal in Avowed
I didn’t even realize this was an option before watching Radio Times Gaming‘s ending guide for Sapadal, and this strikes me as a darker, “bad” ending option, even more so than killing the deity. You get new, more Sapadal-centric dialogue options and interjections during the final battle, and Lödwyn has special dialogue for if you go this route. The ending slide reveals that Sapadal fully overtakes and buries your original personality, reminding me of the Mind Flayer ending for Baldur’s Gate 3. The Dreamscourge, though, is once again defeated.
Living Lands ending choice
There are four main political outcomes for the Living Lands that you can choose during the council with the Living Lands’ political leaders before the final battle in Dawnshore: Steel Garrote victory, Aedyran colony, Aedyran “gréfram,” and independent Living Lands.
What happens if you side with Lödwyn and get the Steel Garrote ending in Avowed?
Nothing technically locks you out of siding with Lödwyn (and alienating all your companions), no matter what choices you’ve made throughout the game, but unless you kept to an ardently pro-Steel Garrotte path, Lödwyn will execute you as a traitor at the last moment, leading to a truncated ending sequence where she takes over without you. The choices you have to make to avoid this are:
- Kill Ygwulf in Paradis.
- Let Fior burn in Emerald Stair.
- Destroy the ruins in Shatterscarp.
- Let Kostya destroy Solace Keep.
- Kill Sapadal.
Do all of that, and Lödwyn knights you as a paladin of the Steel Garrotte, letting you survive to see her bring the Living Lands to heel. Don’t you feel nice?
What happens if the Living Lands becomes an Aedyran colony?
The slightly less fascist ending that’s still pretty grim. If Lödwyn’s ending is like letting Caesar die in New Vegas then siding with Lanius, this one is like the good karma Caesar’s Legion ending. Aedyr takes over direct governance of The Living Lands, and some of your settlement choices can play off this ending in particularly happy or dark ways:
- Things do not go well for Solace if Aedyr takes over and Kostya is not in charge.
- Fior and Thirdborn don’t seem to have a particularly happy ending with Aedyr no matter what you choose.
What the hell is a “gréfram” anyway?
Ah, a moderate, are we? Bet you were a “Normal” or “Sorry” copotype in Disco Elysium. Illuminati ending in Deus Ex. “Why can’t we all just get along?” No matter. The Living Lands gets “kinda” colonized by Aedyr, but still has a say in its own governance. Things are a bit nicer for Solace, Fior, and Thirdborn, but we can do better. Pick a side, man.
What happens if you push for an Independent Living Lands?
Hell yeah, baby. No gods, no masters. Yes Man ending. Results in a very positive ending for an intact Fior, Mihala-led Solace, and a Paradis where Ygwulf wasn’t killed. I can’t speak to how things turn out here if Kostya destroys Solace or Fior is allowed to burn, and I have yet to see a happy ending for Thirdborn under any of the major paths (more on that below).
Non-main quests and choices with ending slides
This is just a quick rundown of optional content that I’ve seen have an effect on the ending slideshow:
- Giatta can either stay an animancer, or just chill out and get into music like somebody’s cool aunt, depending on how you encourage her.
- I’ve seen Yatzli either stay in Fior or apprentice to Ryngrim—I’m not sure what happens if she doesn’t apprentice herself and Fior is destroyed. The Fior ending had her restless and worried she missed out.
- Marius winds up pretty happy and content if you finish his quest. It’s probably a major bummer if you don’t.
- Kai’s ending is, of course, a real downer if you don’t do his quest. Depending on what you say to him after his personal quest, he’ll either live, laugh, love like Giatta, return to Rauatai as a political reformer, or stay to help rebuild Thirdborn. I’m not sure if this has an effect on Thirdborn’s own slides, but this is the closest I’ve seen to a happy ending for the town. All three of Kai’s happy endings can also be followed by a romance epilogue, if you expressed your interest.
- If you gave Sargamis’ Eothas mech to Sapadal in Dawntreader and then spared the god, you’ll get a slide about how they use it. It’s all very “Iron Giant” for a Sapadal at peace, unclear if there’s a “vengeance” variation.
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Kurt Indovina
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