If you haven’t heard yet, there is a strange, spiky monolith in the Mojave Desert. Decorated with a giant eye-like orb and a legion of demonic creatures, it’s a clue to something to be revealed as part of The Game Awards 2025. After registering several recent trademarks, it seems we already have the answer to what it is: a brand recent game from Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios, titled “Divinity.”
If you’re one of the millions of gamers who first encountered Larian thanks to the mammoth success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the word Divinity may mean little to you. However, fans of the studio will say that the roots of BG3’s success lie in Divinity, a series of six games on which Larian worked almost exclusively in the years 2002–2017. If this monolith and trademark leak really point to Divinity, and then the Belgian studio returns to its original fantasy universe… and likely bringing a whole recent fanbase with it.
If this now very hypothetical game were your first foray into the Divinity universe, you might need a quick introduction to what to expect. Let us be your guide to the divine and be the first to tell (well in advance)…
Welcome to Rivellon
Much like Baldur’s Gate takes place in Dungeons & Dragons in the Forgotten Realms, Divinity has its own wealthy, original setting: the world of Rivellon. There are great similarities between them; both are rooted in Tolkien’s fantasy tropes, with classically styled medieval landscapes and locations. There are many breeds; Just like in D&D, you can expect to encounter humans, elves, dwarves, lizard-like creatures, and the living dead. Magic is common in Rivellon, although spells are considered more perilous and are more strictly regulated there than in the D&D Sword Coast.
Like Baldur’s Gate, Divinity also includes a range of more esoteric elements, from steampunk to science fiction and beyond, giving the world a slightly more outlandish feel than the lands explored in a more established fantasy like The Lord of the Rings. Rivellon can also often be a very silly place, and the influence of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels was often felt in Divinity’s work. In fact, Terry’s daughter, Rhianna Pratchett, even wrote a recent novel for the sequel. This does not mean, however, that Rivellon is frivolous – it hides a deep vein of fascinating knowledge that has been explored throughout the six parts of the series.
In miniature, Rivellon is a setting for stories similar to those you enjoyed in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it is governed solely by Larian’s rules, not those set by Dungeons & Dragons owners, Wizards of the Coast.
What is divinity?
Divinity is an RPG series, but its evolution has been far from ordinary. Take a look at any of the six games and you’ll find at least four different approaches. Divine Divinity, the first game in the series, and its sequel, Beyond Divinity, are RPGs inspired by Diablo. Meanwhile, Divinity 2: Ego Draconis is a third-person RPG that makes an impression petite closer to games such as Dragon Age and The Witcher. Divinity: Dragon Commander is slightly The Total War-style strategy game and the Original Sin duology – the latest games in the series – are the classic RPGs that most closely resemble Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian has been experimenting wildly over the years, so there’s no clear indication of what format the next game in the series will exploit (although given the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, it would be reasonable to bet on something similar).
Another unusual element is the approach to the timeline. While Rivellon has a coherent story and threads that tie into the series as a whole, each game is years (sometimes even centuries) apart, meaning that each one is something of a standalone experience. Much like Baldur’s Gate 3 requires no experience with the series but contains many nods to the previous two games, Divinity: Original Sin 2 can be played without any experience with its predecessors. I suspect any future game in the series will continue this tradition, especially since Larian now has a legion of recent fans who aren’t familiar with the studio’s previous work. If the leaked trademark is to be believed, this recent project is simply called “Divinity” – a name likely chosen because it doesn’t imply that there are many other games to play.
What does “divinity” mean?
The name of Divinity is derived from its basic knowledge. Thousands of years before the events of Divine Divinity, the first game in the series, Rivellon’s ruling body, the Council of Seven, sacrificed itself to defend the kingdom from evil wizards. In memory, the “Divine Order” was established, whose task was to pass on knowledge to subsequent generations.
Based on the events of the Divine, the prophecy speaks of a messiah who will protect Rivellon from another existential threat, a demon called Chaos. It turns out that this messiah is you, and you ascend to become Lucian the Divine – a character who appears in Divinity 2: Ego Draconis and Divinity: Original Sin 2. The concept of Divinity is often explored in the stories, although it is not a central point of every game.
How similar is Divinity to Baldur’s Gate 3?
Because the series has changed so much over its existence, most of the Divinity series is actually quite different from the one Larian created in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, the Original Sin duology is a very clear blueprint for BG3. These are isometric multi-region RPGs with tactical turn-based combat and a similar hands-off approach to task design.
While both games are worth playing, Original Sin 2 is by far the most talented game, both in terms of gameplay depth and narrative strength. It was there that Larian pioneered the creation of “origin story” characters that would later become the heroes of Baldur’s Gate 3, and Rivellon’s response to characters like Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart was equally brilliantly written. It’s also a game where the studio created “tags,” a system that provides character-specific dialogue options to aid you better roleplay a specific race or class.
Perhaps the most praised system in the Original Sin duology is the elemental effects – cast a rain spell to humid something, then exploit the lightning’s ability to conduct electricity through that humid surface. Knock over the oil barrel to create a puddle, then shoot a flaming arrow at it to create a flame. Stab an enemy, freeze their blood, and watch them slide through their own icy insides. A enormous part of this elemental relationship was found in Baldur’s Gate 3, but in Original Sin it is much more observable. Expect at least a quarter of your battles to end in arena-wide bonfires.
How to play Divinity Games in the correct order
As mentioned earlier, the gaps in the timeline separating the Divinity games mean that they are not strictly direct sequels and you can play them more or less in any order. If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3 and want to learn more about Divinity, I highly recommend playing Original Sin 2, which is widely considered to be the best in the series. Initially available only on PC, it is now available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and even iPad. But if you really want to dive into the plot and explore the entire timeline, here’s how you need to tackle the series:
Divinity: Dragon Commander (2013)
- A great strategy game set thousands of years before the events of RPG games.
Divinity: Original Sin (2014)
- A turn-based combat CRPG set 1,000 years before the original game, it centers on a pair of “Source Hunters” tracking down perilous magic users.
Divine Divinity (2002)
- A Diablo-like ARPG that chronicles the ascension of Lucian the Divine.
Beyond Divinity (2004)
- The sequel to the ARPG Divine Divinity, set 20 years later, tells the story of one of Lucian’s servants who is soul-bonded to the evil Death Knight.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 (2017)
- A CRPG that is a sequel to Original Sin in terms of game design, but takes place after the first two games and deals with the “Voidwoken” monster outbreak in Rivellon.
Divinity 2: Dragon Ego (2009)
- A three-dimensional action RPG set several decades after Lucian’s ascension, at a time when the adopted son of Divinity became a tyrant, in which you play the role of a knight who can transform into a dragon.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s executive features editor.
