What happened to the Awakened?

[RaustBlackDragon]

Just wondering about their conspicuous absence in the later games. Was it ever explained what happened to them? Did they get wiped out, or was their final plan one that didn't really concern itself with expansion, so we never see them?

[Goldengirl]

They did get wiped out after G1 and G2. All survivors after G2 wound up joining the Rebellion; Pirik comes to mind as the rebel leader of the Illya Safehouse.

[Triumph]

I don't believe there is any explicit statement about them that outright says "The Awakened were wiped out." However, based on G3, the canon ending of G2 must involve the Shapers pretty much wiping out the rogue forces in the Drypeak Mountains. That would necessarily include the Awakened. Amena Blade (seen in both G3 an G4) has a couple brief references to them as doomed fools, and from his tale it seems clear they were destroyed.

 

I don't recall anything from G4 suggesting there were any Awakened left - what gave you the sense that Pirik was an Awakened, GK?

[Kelandon]

You get the following answer when you ask Pirik, "Where are you originally from?"

Though I have traveled far, I was born in the mountains just west of here. In a small, dusty colony called Drypeak. Then, when I was older, I fled that place for a colony of free serviles called Medab. They are gone now.

There are various small references to having been an Awakened scattered throughout that dialogue, but this is the most direct.

[Triumph]

Aha, aha! I missed that when doing a text search simply for the term "Awakened." Good catch.

[RaustBlackDragon]

What a shame. What a crying shame. They were wiped out, leaving only the completely insane takers to take up the mantle for servile rights. That makes me very sad.

[Lilith]

On the other hand, the fact that the Shapers wiped the Awakened out kind of proved the Takers' main argument right, didn't it?

[Goldengirl]

Moreover, the viewpoints of their faction are more or less revived in a new context by Astoria in G5.

[Ceiling Durkheim]

Yeah, Penta in 5 is about the closest thing to an Awakened enclave in the latter three games. There are individual serviles (and the occasional human or drayk) who espouse Awakened-esque philosophies in 3 and 4, but it's hard to support a plan for equality between humans and creations when one is engulfed in a continent-spanning war that will result in the extermination of most sentient creations if one side wins.

[Questionably Legal]

What a shame. What a crying shame. They were wiped out, leaving only the completely insane takers to take up the mantle for servile rights. That makes me very sad.

By G4 most serviles seem to be fairly moderate, at least compared to the takers in G1 & G2.

[Student of Trinity]

I repeat my pet theory about the Awakened: already in G2 they weren't doing so hot. They still talked idealistically, but Ell-Rah was dead, and to avoid bringing war-trained serviles to a drakon-fight, the Awakened of G2 were hustling to catch up in the race for power. They were summoning demons, modifying themselves, and breeding drakons, just like everybody else. If anything, they were taking more risks than the others.

[mouton]

They weren't wiped out, just assimilated by the Drakon/Taker-led greater rebellion. I think even in G3, where rebels are the most insane, there are some echoes of the Awakened among the servile folk. And, well, their ideals come back in G5.