By 2026, Avowed has stopped being a tantalizing trailer and become a fully fledged talking point. Obsidian Entertainment’s dark fantasy first-person RPG, set in the world of Eora, finally gave the Living Lands their close-up when it launched in 2025, and the years since have only sharpened the debate around its favorite old chestnut: the Chosen One. On paper, the setup is familiar enough to make a fantasy fan yawn into their mead. A bizarre disease is running roughshod over the Living Lands, and the protagonist—chosen as an envoy by one of Eora’s powerful factions, specifically the influential Aedyr Empire—is packed off to investigate. The story trailer promised that this hero could “become what the Living Lands truly need—a protector.” That is chosen-one material so old it probably has a pension and a favorite armchair.

Yet Obsidian is not simply playing it straight and hoping nobody notices. The studio has been building toward Avowed since 2020, with two Pillars of Eternity titles laying the table, and its reputation is not built on empty spectacle. The Chosen One trope is bread and butter for fantasy RPGs—practically the genre’s default breakfast—but Avowed appears to use it less as a crutch and more as a familiar door into a very Obsidian room. That room is stocked with awkward politics, sharp choices, and a plague with absolutely terrible manners.

The Chosen One Is Old Hat, but Obsidian Wears It Well

Going back to the earliest days of gaming, the Chosen One angle has been one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous devices in fantasy and RPGs. Countless tales across every medium have used the framework of a protagonist singled out by some greater force, and Avowed’s similarities to Skyrim and other sweeping fantasy titles have made it look like another pilgrim on the same well-worn road. Fair enough. But there are good reasons to invoke the trope here, and they come straight from the preceding games and what has been shown so far.

Fantasy RPG staple	Avowed’s spin
Chosen by prophecy	Chosen by the Aedyr Empire, a political employer with strings attached
Farm boy with a destiny	Envoy with authority, prestige, and baggage
Save the whole world	Investigate a plague in the Living Lands and keep the place from falling apart
Blank-slate hero	Role-play within an established tone and setting

That last point matters. Avowed makes it clear right out of the gate that players start from a position of power and prestige as a favored agent in the employ of the Aedyr Empire. This is not a nobody stumbling out of a haystack; it is a somebody with a patron, a mandate, and a mystery. In a genre where chosen heroes often begin with nothing but a rusty sword and a destiny, that is a welcome change of pace. It also gives the Chosen One shtick a political edge, which is exactly where Obsidian tends to do its best work.

From Watcher to Envoy: A Family Business

Avowed’s parent IP, Pillars of Eternity, also played with the Chosen One chestnut. The protagonist there was inadvertently “awakened” as a Watcher—someone with special mystical abilities and connections—and the sequel, Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire, continued the trend by having Eora’s gods single out that same Watcher to track down a rogue deity threatening to destabilize the world. So Avowed is not sneaking up on the idea; it is inheriting it. The difference is that the new protagonist is not awakened by accident or drafted by deities. They are an envoy, a professional with a faction’s backing, which makes the chosen-one element feel less like fate and more like office politics with swords.

Whether Avowed twists the Chosen One element further—perhaps by letting players reject it completely—is unclear, but given Obsidian’s track record, it would not be outside the realm of possibility. The studio has a card up its sleeve more often than not, and it knows that a familiar trope is only as interesting as the choices wrapped around it. If the game lets players lean into the envoy role, push back against their employers, or play the cynical operative who trusts nobody, then the old chosen-one chestnut has plenty of meat left on it.

Quality Over Quantity, and Consequences With Teeth

Obsidian has described Avowed’s scope as a quality over quantity affair, aiming for a narrower experience compared to more massive open-world fantasy games. That means deeper choices and consequences within a more limited design. In 2026, that promise is the interesting part. A compact sandbox where choices bite back is not rocket science, but it is harder than it looks. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding here is whether the Living Lands feel dense with meaning rather than merely stuffed with map markers.

There is also a nice bit of irony in a Chosen One story that refuses to bite off more than it can chew. Avowed does not need to be the biggest fantasy RPG on the block to be memorable. It needs to make the player’s role as envoy feel weighty, the plague feel genuinely strange, and the Aedyr Empire feel like an employer whose smile does not quite reach its eyes. If it manages that, the Chosen One trope is not a weakness. It is a handshake—familiar, useful, and a fine way to start a conversation.

Role-Playing the Envoy in 2026

Avowed looks ready to allow fans to role-play their Chosen One in a multitude of interesting ways that fit well within the established tone and setting. Players can lean into the loyal envoy, the reluctant hero, the cynical fixer, or the curious outsider who keeps asking why the Living Lands are quite so living. The disease overtaking the region gives the adventure a ticking clock, while the faction politics give it a messy human heart. Obsidian’s strengths have always been in the spaces between quests, where a clever line or a selfish decision comes back to haunt the hero later. Avowed’s chosen-one framework is simply the door into that space.

So yes, the Chosen One is old hat. But old hats are comfortable for a reason, and Obsidian seems less interested in pretending the hat is new than in asking what happens when the person wearing it starts to wonder who made it. In 2026, that is a more interesting question than ever.