The third installment of the Dungeon Siege series relies much more heavily on the storyline of the game than do the other two. The first Dungeon Siege game relies much more on the gameplay than on any specific story elements, and ultimately the Ehb of that game is forgettable. The second game incorporates much more story into the game, and truly stands out as a unique game. While the main character has a generic "chosen hero to save the world" story, each of the secondary characters has an interesting story, each of which is further explored via sidequests. The third game, however, disappoints in this regard and the story line is so rigid that we learn very little of each of the characters and have no character-specific sidequests. While the shortcomings of sequel games released in the last year would be an all-too-telling article, this post shall instead examine a main motif of the third dungeon siege game: the theology of Ehb, and the critical structure of the story of the third Dungeon Siege game as a model of atheistic polemic.
In the first place, it is worth noting that the third Dungeon Siege game is not by Chris Taylor, the mind behind the first two, but is, in fact, by Richard Taylor (whose relationship is unknown to me). This might explain the great difference in tone between the games, but this is merely conjecture on my part. Regardless, gods of any sort are only tangentially mentioned in the first Dungeon Siege game. The second game relies heavily on the lore and myth of Arana as the events of the past are being relived throughout the game. The third Dungeon Siege game, then, takes the mythology that is highly praised and elaborated in the second game and quite simply vilifies it.
To further explore this, we shall examine the way that religious belief is treated in both Dungeon Siege II and Dungeon Siege III. In Dungeon Siege II, Azunai is lifted up as this great and heroic character. Though most of the people worship him as a god, the lore within the game does not suggest as much. Rather they, lift him up as an heroic figure who possessed uncanny strength and ability. Along with his consort Xeria and a handful of other legends, Azunai took on, and defeated, Zaramoth, the Unmaker on the Plain of Tears. This battle concludes with a final combat between Zaramoth and Azunai, wherein Zaramoth strikes Azunai's shield with his sword and both are shattered into pieces and the universe shakes and trembles with the blow. If Azunai is not a god, he certainly possesses powers of one. The player goes throughout the game attempting to assemble Azunai's shield in order to take on Valdis, an evil-minded prince who has sought to "unmake" the world once again. The player reassembles the shield, finds out he (or she) is a direct descendent of Azunai, and thereby is able to wield the shield, and finally takes on Valdis for a fight to the death.
The legend of the final Azunite battle and the connection to the player's current time are so important and frequently referenced in the game that in order for a player to feign ignorance he would have to skip all cutscenes, ignore every book he came across and stare blankly at the screen every time a major event happened in the game. Needless to say, the story of how Azunai overcame a great evil for the good of mankind is a central theme of the game.Compare this to Dungeon Siege III. If Dungeon Siege II had a fairly consistent, easy to follow, if not elaborate, pantheon, Dungeon Siege III presents multiple panthea. The Lescanzy, a Gypsy-like people, seem to worship "the Dark Sister and the Hound." The Archon women have a pantheon of "Old creator gods" whose names we never learn (except for Nagog, whom the Fist People seem to worship). Rheinhart speaks incessantly about theology and thaumaturgy, though nothing he says seems to suggest he knows anything about either (because the author is a theologian, this genuinely irritates him). Finally, the idol worship of Azunai is blown out of proportion to the point where we learn that the main enemy in the game, Jeyne Kassynder (why Richard Taylor chose this bizarre spelling of a name is beyond me) is the head of the Azunite Church and is leading her army of Azunite faithful against the player's rag-tag team of royal loyalists.
Because of the way in which the notion of the worship of Azunai is portrayed, one gets the impression that at some point Dungeon Siege decided to stop being about people fighting what amounts to be some medieval-esque notion of incarnated evil to some sort of sharp critique of religion. It is often hinted throughout the game that Jeyne Kassynder fabricated an elaborate lie in order to turn the people against their defenders, the 10th Legion and that resulted in a fractured kingdom, a massacre in Stonebridge and a usurpation of power by the religiously esteemed Kassynder. At no point are the Azunites, who were revered so much in the second game (even when the player had to slaughter their undead corpses), depicted as anything less than mindless, tireless killing machines in Dungeon Siege III, while the few characters foolish enough to follow a 17 year-old queen for the archaic notion of royal power, are given depth and emotion enough to make us genuinely care for them. Even at the end of the game it is revealed that Jeyne Kassynder did not truly believe the doctrine that she spread abroad to half of the kingdom. Rather, Kassynder worshiped the old creator gods and used the misplaced trust in Azunai as a vantage point from which to gain power over the people.
The message here is clear. The creators of the third installment of the Dungeon Siege series are making a social commentary about religion. It is a clear statement about the mindless obedience of the adherents to a faith and the willingness to believe whatever sort of lie is told in the name of someone's faith. The message is that religion corrupts the truth.
To make matters more interesting, it seems that Dungeon Siege III is attacking monotheism itself, and possibly Christianity in particular. Often times "saints" are referenced in the game, and the Church of Azunai is founded, not by Azunai himself or by one of his direct followers, but by a man who reported having a manifestation of the Azunai. This is not evidence sufficient for itself, but whereas Dungeon Siege II portrayed many gods in the traditional pantheon, Dungeon Siege III only seems to have regard for Azunai, at least within the Church of Azunai, suggesting monotheism. Finally, if the player completes the optional sidequest "Dungeon Siege," hidden in a room that has to be opened by attacking the wall rather than opening the door is a book about Azunai wherein it is suggested that Azunai was merely a mortal man who united a few nomad tribes to attack Zaramoth the giant, David and Goliath style. The intention of this book is clear: Azunai was no extraordinary hero and legends about him are highly exaggerated. This book might be easily dismissed except for the fact that when the player tries to open the door to the prison cell, a message suggesting the door was sealed to keep something from ever getting out appears and this incident occurs as the player is nearing the final showdown with Jeyne Kassyinder, the insane leader of the Azunite Church. Though it is not obvious by virtue of this fact that Azunai is a representation of Jesus, the elevation of a man to a God certainly parallels this, and many scholars have suggested that while Jesus of Nazareth certainly lived and performed great deeds, the Gospels have overstated the exact nature of his work.
Thus we have it that Dungeon Siege III takes on an atheistic stance. In the first place, the inclusion of a Lescanzy, an Archon, and a pseudo-theologian as main characters signifies a relativity among religions. In the second place, the fact that the obsessed enemy leader of power usurper is the head of the dominant religion emphasizes that religion is not trustworthy. Third, the fact that said leader does not believe the religion for herself emphasizes its incredulity. Fourth and finally, the texts within the game refer to Azunai's legend as being overemphasized and overblown.
Thus, when we look at the game of Dungeon Siege III as a whole, the abuse of the power of the Church of Azunai, the zealous devotion of Jeyne's army and the entire lack of emphasis on Azunai suggests a parallelism to modern religion that stings with polemicism. In fact, nothing of the game suggests any positive element of religion...
That's a piece of concept art done for Dungeon Siege III depicting Azunai the Defender. If you have played the game all the way through, his countenance should look familiar. If you have not, then suffice it to say there may be an underlying theme of divine intervention in Dungeon Siege III, one which, rather than altogether polemicizes religion offers a critique of religion insofar as it has corrupted the ways of truth.This question I shall leave to the readers to decide.
