Pillars of Eternity: What Really Caused the Hollowborn Crisis?Fiction
In-universe lore. Claims are judged against the fiction's own canon, not the real world.
For fifteen years the Dyrwood cursed a dead saint for stealing its newborns' souls. The real thief was a two-thousand-year-old priest harvesting those souls to crown a fallen goddess - and to bury proof that the gods themselves are machines.
9 established, 1 disputed, 3 debunked, 2 unresolved. We do not pick an answer; the evidence places each claim. How we decide
52 citations from 8 independent sources - 44 echo the same voices and count once. Graded B1-D1.
Added 3 Jul 2026 - updated 6 Aug 2026 - canon current as of 6 Aug 2026
What the four states mean
- Establishedsupported, uncontested
- Disputedcredible sources disagree
- Debunkedrefuted by the evidence
- Unresolvedno settled answer
Established 9supported, uncontested
The purpose of the harvest: to gorge the exiled, deposed queen-goddess Woedica and restore her rule over the pantheon.▰▰▰▱▱ likely4 points
Supports- The purpose of the harvest: to gorge the exiled, deposed queen-goddess Woedica and restore her rule over the pantheon.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Analysis: Thaos can inject all that unborn-children 'soul goodness' straight into Woedica to make her, in effect, an uber-goddess.Pillars of Eternity: Always Recycle Your Souls (Literally About Games) analysis
- The other gods conspired to bring Woedica down and exile her, earning her the title the Burned Queen; she uses Thaos to claw back her primacy.Pillars of Eternity - Gods (TV Tropes) summary
- Wikipedia: Thaos stole the souls of the Hollowborn to empower the goddess Woedica, who hates animancy and would see it destroyed.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
The buried secret Thaos protects: Eora's gods are artificial, built by the Engwithans from a civilization's sacrificed souls.▰▰▰▱▱ likely4 points
Supports- The buried secret Thaos protects: Eora's gods are artificial, built by the Engwithans from a civilization's sacrificed souls.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Wikipedia: the gods of Eora are synthetic beings created by the ancient Engwithans, who concluded their world had no real gods and built a pantheon to fill the void.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Per the official Guidebook, Woedica - like every god - was made by Engwith out of the sacrifice of thousands of their own souls at Sun in Shadow.Pillars of Eternity Guidebook Volume One (Dark Horse / Obsidian, official sourcebook) primary
- The Engwithans found no evidence of real deities, so they invented gods - using adra soul-machines to craft beings of immense power, each with a sphere of influence.How PoE Tackled Atheism vs. Religion (GameSkinny) analysis
The Hollowborn crisis was real: for ~15 years, Dyrwood newborns awoke without souls, unresponsive and personality-less.▰▰▰▱▱ likelysummary-sourced3 points
Supports- The Hollowborn crisis was real: for ~15 years, Dyrwood newborns awoke without souls, unresponsive and personality-less.Pillars of Eternity - plot summary (Wikipedia) summary
- The central conflict: infants in the Dyrwood are born without souls, leaving them totally unresponsive, in a state similar to a permanent vegetative state.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Waidwen's Legacy was a wave of hollowborn births in the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood after the Saint's War; the affliction denied newborns a soul and ran roughly 2808-2823 AI.Waidwen's Legacy (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
The true culprit: Thaos and his secret order the Leaden Key engineered the crisis to steal newborn souls.▰▰▰▱▱ likelysummary-sourced3 points
Supports- The true culprit: Thaos and his secret order the Leaden Key engineered the crisis to steal newborn souls.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Wikipedia: the Hollowborns' souls have been stolen by a cult known as the Leaden Key, led by a priest named Thaos, who is framing animancers for the plague.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- The Leaden Key worked to sabotage animancy by engineering the Hollowborn Crisis itself and pinning it on the animancers.Leaden Key (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
The stolen souls weren't destroyed - they were relayed through Engwithan adra machinery to the soul-engine at Sun in Shadow.▰▰▰▱▱ likely3 points
Supports- The stolen souls weren't destroyed - they were relayed through Engwithan adra machinery to the soul-engine at Sun in Shadow.The Ruins of Cilant Lis (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
- Thaos was replenishing the Cilant Lis machine with soul energy needed to keep relaying newborn souls onward to Sun in Shadow, where a colossal adra pillar stands.Cilant Lis ritual (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- The finale stages Thaos at the machine at the center of Sun in Shadow, where the collected souls are gathered before the player decides their fate.Memories of the Ancients - final boss fight (gamepressure.com) summary
Thaos is no ordinary priest: he is an ancient Engwithan animancer who has body-hopped across the centuries.▰▰▰▱▱ likelysummary-sourced3 points
Supports- Thaos is no ordinary priest: he is an ancient Engwithan animancer who has body-hopped across the centuries.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Wikipedia: Thaos is an Engwithan animancer who has survived the centuries by transferring his soul from one body to the next.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Woedica grants Thaos effective immortality by awakening the memories of his prior lives within each new body he inhabits.Woedica (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
Iovara cracked the secret millennia ago - and Thaos tortured and imprisoned her spirit for it.▰▰▱▱▱ likely3 points
Supports- Iovara cracked the secret millennia ago - and Thaos tortured and imprisoned her spirit for it.Memories of the Ancients quest (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- Iovara realized the Engwithans had invented the gods they preached; she was captured, brought before Thaos at the Court of the Penitents, and sentenced to eternal imprisonment in Breith Eaman.Memories of the Ancients quest (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- You hold a long conversation with the spirit of Iovara, whom Thaos tortured to death for trying to spread word that the gods are artificial beings made by Engwithan animancers.Iovara (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
The player only becomes a Watcher by accident - by witnessing Thaos's soul-relay ritual at Cilant Lis.▰▰▱▱▱ likely3 points
Supports- The player only becomes a Watcher by accident - by witnessing Thaos's soul-relay ritual at Cilant Lis.Cilant Lis (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
- The Watcher first encounters Thaos while fleeing Cilant Lis as he conducts a ceremony to replenish the Engwithan soul relay; the resulting blast awakens the Watcher's soul.Cilant Lis ritual (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- The question that triggered the awakening after the Leaden Key ritual was, in essence, 'Are there no gods?' - the game's central wound.Cilant Lis / the Watcher's awakening (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
The gut-punch twist: in a past life, the Watcher was the Thaos inquisitor who betrayed Iovara and broke her on the wheel.▰▰▱▱▱ likely3 points
Supports- The gut-punch twist: in a past life, the Watcher was the Thaos inquisitor who betrayed Iovara and broke her on the wheel.Iovara (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) primary
- The Watcher's past self feigned defection to Iovara's cause, regained her trust, then betrayed her to the Inquisitors - condemning her to torture and eternal imprisonment.Iovara, Memories of the Ancients reveal (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- The Watcher's soul belonged to one of Thaos's Inquisitors millennia ago - the same one who betrayed Iovara and broke her on the wheel.Cilant Lis (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
Disputed 1credible sources disagree
Was the harvest really about Woedica - or was crowning her just a means to bury the gods' secret? Canon layers both.▰▰▰▱▱ roughly even chance2 against4 points
Supports- Was the harvest really about Woedica - or was crowning her just a means to bury the gods' secret? Canon layers both.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- One reading takes the goal at face value: pour the harvested souls into Woedica to make her an uber-goddess and reseat her atop the pantheon.Pillars of Eternity: Always Recycle Your Souls (Literally About Games) analysis
Against- Wikipedia frames Thaos's life mission differently: ensure nobody ever discovers the gods are artificial - the soul plot and the framing of animancers serve that secret.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Thaos argues life would be hollow and pointless without gods and that faithless people commit wanton atrocities - i.e. preserving belief is the true end, Woedica the means.How PoE Tackled Atheism vs. Religion (GameSkinny) analysis
Debunked 3refuted by the evidence
Eora's gods are not eternal, unkillable divinities - they were built by mortals and a god has already been destroyed.Refuted by
The made gods weren't omnipotent, omniscient, or eternal - they could be destroyed, as when Durance's Godhammer bomb killed St. Waidwen (the avatar of Eothas).
refuted2 against4 pointsThe claim rested on- Eora's gods are not eternal, unkillable divinities - they were built by mortals and a god has already been destroyed.How PoE Tackled Atheism vs. Religion (GameSkinny) analysis
- Across Eora the gods are universally worshipped as true, eternal deities; ordinary kith do not seriously doubt their divinity.Deities (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
Refuted by- The made gods weren't omnipotent, omniscient, or eternal - they could be destroyed, as when Durance's Godhammer bomb killed St. Waidwen (the avatar of Eothas).How PoE Tackled Atheism vs. Religion (GameSkinny) analysis
- The official Guidebook describes the gods as artificial animantic constructs assembled from sacrificed souls - manufactured, not self-existent or eternal.Pillars of Eternity Guidebook Volume One (Dark Horse / Obsidian, official sourcebook) primary
Despite the name 'Waidwen's Legacy,' the dead god Eothas and his fallen saint did NOT curse the Dyrwood's children.Refuted by
Wikipedia: the Hollowborns' souls have in fact been stolen by a cult known as the Leaden Key, led by a priest named Thaos.
refuted2 against4 pointsThe claim rested on- Despite the name 'Waidwen's Legacy,' the dead god Eothas and his fallen saint did NOT curse the Dyrwood's children.Waidwen's Legacy (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
- Dyrwoodans named the plague after St. Waidwen, a mortal avatar of Eothas killed in the Saint's War, believing the soulless births were divine punishment for defeating him.In-game book: The Dyrwood, Part 6 - The Saint's War and Waidwen's Legacy primary
Refuted by- Wikipedia: the Hollowborns' souls have in fact been stolen by a cult known as the Leaden Key, led by a priest named Thaos.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Analysis: Thaos orchestrates the Hollowborn plague to harvest souls from the unborn - the curse is a manufactured cover, not Eothas's doing.Pillars of Eternity: Always Recycle Your Souls (Literally About Games) analysis
The animancers the Defiance Bay mob lynched did NOT cause the crisis - Thaos framed them to discredit soul-science.Refuted by
Wikipedia: Thaos is framing animancers for the plague.
refuted2 againstsummary-sourced4 pointsThe claim rested on- The animancers the Defiance Bay mob lynched did NOT cause the crisis - Thaos framed them to discredit soul-science.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- Wikipedia: many people blame animancers, the scientists who study and manipulate souls; this culminates in a riot where animancers are lynched and their college destroyed.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
Refuted by- Wikipedia: Thaos is framing animancers for the plague.Pillars of Eternity (Wikipedia, Plot) summary
- The Leaden Key sabotaged animancy by engineering the Hollowborn Crisis and framing animancers for atrocities like the Teir Nowneth activation and the Duc's assassination.Leaden Key (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) summary
Unresolved 2no settled answer
The game never confirms whether real gods ever existed - the Engwithans 'found none, or none that remained.'▰▰▰▱▱ likely4 points
Supports- The game never confirms whether real gods ever existed - the Engwithans 'found none, or none that remained.'Memories of the Ancients quest (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- The reveal is deliberately hedged: the Engwithans discovered there were no gods - or, if there ever had been, they were gone - and concluded they must create them.Memories of the Ancients quest (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- Sawyer notes that without direct confirmation from a deity there is built-in ambiguity, infighting, and conflict - the metaphysics are left intentionally open.Interview with Josh Sawyer (Catholic Game Reviews) analysis
- Even after denying the gods' divinity, the game keeps the supernatural and souls demonstrably real - so the question of true gods is never closed.How PoE Tackled Atheism vs. Religion (GameSkinny) analysis
Who Iovara was to the Watcher's past self - lover, friend, or rival - is deliberately left for the player to define.▰▰▰▱▱ likely3 points
Supports- Who Iovara was to the Watcher's past self - lover, friend, or rival - is deliberately left for the player to define.Iovara (Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki) primary
- In a past life the Watcher knew Iovara at Creitum; the game leaves the exact relationship - lovers, close friends, or rivals - up to the player to decide.Iovara, Memories of the Ancients (in-game, Pillars of Eternity) primary
- What is fixed is the betrayal and the soul-wound it left for centuries; the emotional nature of the bond is authored by the player, not the script.Pillars of Eternity Headscratchers (TV Tropes) summary
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