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ALUCARD | CASTLEVANIA: NOCTURNE

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🌘

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dao thru dai: the world is built by unreliable narrators. everyone has a vastly different opinion on things that colors their perception of life and the state of living. there is no one real answer

datv: the veil cant come down because thats bad

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ALUCARD | CASTLEVANIA: NOCTURNE

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The Creation.

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Dragons returning at the beginning of the Age symbolize the return of the world's origins.

Dragons ruled the skies, as ancient knowledge and Yavana said. The divine form that Evanuris copied. Thedas was a paradise when world that dreams and world that wakes were connected, spirits and titans were at piece, and dragons were in the skies. After the disruption of the paradise by the first of the Elves and the creation of the blight, a force of evil and wrath, as a result of their "sin", this world is out of balance. Now all the key forces – dragons, elves, spirits, titans – must return. Many thus think that the Dragon Age will come to represent a time of violent and dramatic change for all of Thedas.

Tearing down the Veil is the logical outcome in this narrative. The Veil is a temporary solution, a fragile cage that in some ways only makes things worse. One day the magic will come back - all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide.

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After Trespasser I thought there would be something else besides the Veil. It's hard to tell for sure from these sketches, in my opinion the main problem in DA4 would have been not Solas' goal of tearing down the Veil itself, but his plan to freeing the elven spirits from their bodies. It's also possible that Solas is doing this to save the elves, because there's no other way. This world is doomed after the first elves destroyed the original “paradise”, leading to the creation of the blight, which probably would have been the main danger he would try to save the elves from, because I doubt that "blight is different now" is a solution the devs originally had in mind.

I will save the elven people, even if it means this world must die.

Then the Inquisitor's role would have been to convince or stop Solas from destroying this world by restoring the old world. And the Veil would have fallen anyway, I think. It would explain not only Solas' words but also Sandal's prophecy.

This is canon to me. So my Lavellan, being the important character (not like in Veilguard), has recognized Solas' plans and somehow (by giving a way to solve the problem with the blight, or something else) convinces him that there is no need to return to the prehistoric world. And I think Solas was hoping that his friend would find a different solution.

The Inqusitor: You don't need to destroy this world. I'll prove it to you. Solas: I would treasure the chance to be wrong once again, my friend.

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Wanderlust

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slowly starting to work on my own evanuris designs, first up are dirthamen and falon'din! (i did the busts a month ago now and hadn't decided on the outfits yet so that's why the colours don't match lmao)

some more design notes under the cut :)

in my headcanon, dirthamen was their original spirit (of guidance) and split while making his body because his soul was conflicted about whether he wanted to, or remain as a spirit. when he split, "dirthamen" was content with his new form, while the other half - falon'din - was not, and was twisted into despair. specifically, i imagine it as the sort of despair where you try to cling onto anything to try to make yourself happy, but to no avail.

i thought it'd be neat for them to have a mark symbolising their spirit shattering, like a birthmark. then making it look like their (eventual) vallaslin design made a lot of sense.

i had an idea for dirthamen to have one eye a long time ago, because he has a LOT of similarities to our odinn - god of knowledge and wisdom, often depicted as a hooded figure, and has two ravens (interestingly, while fear and deceit sound like demon names, huginn ("thought") and muninn (anything from: memory, will, remembrance, intention) sound like spirit names). and while elgar'nan holds odinn's title of all-father, he's more like tyr imo.

dirthy's outfit was loosely based off the robed evanuris in the black codex concept art where they're doing the ritual at the blight box lol. i saw that person and was like yeah that's my special god with his dark robes and his little dagger. ofc i had to give him more style though, and dropped in some colour (as falon'din has canonically claimed the colour black) i decided on green because of his eye colour, and turquoise because sometimes when light hits ravens' feathers they kinda look blue. his mosaic has him covering his mouth, so i covered his mouth here too. also, i know his symbol has a little mohawk thing going on in the ingame statues, i couldn't draw it at that angle guys i'm sorry, shapes are hard.

since falon'din mirrors dirthamen in appearance, he got the single eye too. his colours are also more muted because of the whole despair thing. i also found it really interesting that his symbol is the sun, i 100% thought that was sylaise, but it makes sense as sometimes the setting sun is seen as a symbol of death. also the crook he has on his mosaic was really interesting to me and i included it after i read an 18 page paper on them while researching. it's a shepherd's tool - but can also be seen as a symbol of power/status, and there's quite a few of our irl gods depicted holding one. it's honestly really fascinating. that little magic spark doesn't mean anything though it's just for flair :)

i put fally in an ancient elven armour with minimal design changes as he doesn't strike me as sentimental and is rather more like someone who wants to show off and be the cuntiest person in the room at all times. although black is his colour, again i muted it a little, same with the gold. i may edit his design a little in the future to include his owls but for now i'm just kinda trying to figure out how they'd fit in

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about the lack of sci-fi in dragon age, this reminds me of a post i read on tumblr about how dragon age and its lore are heavily inspired by warhammer (and get by just on luck and "bioware magic" or whatever its called. howtofightwrite()tumblr()com/post/175391920866/qa-good-writers-steal-da-poe

To be honest, I don't know much about Warhammer except a few lore things but I agree, DA has many similarities with it. Warp and Fade, Inquisition (the order serves the Emperor and fought heretics, just like the original Inquisition served the Church for the same purpose), psykers, blood magic, demons, and more. As I recall, someone even found a direct reference to Warhammer in Veilguard.

But there's also many things from fantasy books, different cultures and dnd. Many settings were created that way drawing on almost the same material. If we're talking about elves, on whom DA world is heavily centered and to whom the actual sci-fi complaints are directed, they always seemed to me to be mostly a reworking of the Forgotten Realms elves, especially since DA was created by dnd fans. Elvhenan is similar to Arvandor, which was wrested from the titans. Arvandor aside, they are also from the Feywild, and it's a chaotic, magic-filled plane that amplifies the emotions of the creatures living there, and elves themselves are originally changeable, emotional beings. It's easy to see the Fade, elvhen and spirits in this. Dragon Age also has a significant amount of Christian references. As the story of the FR elves is the story of the fall into sin, the Sin of the Elves, when their divine father punished them by banishing from Arvandor for doubting the elven way, taking away their immortality. Original Sin, loss of elven immortality, and the Maker, who punished his children and trapped the Old Gods underground.

I think Warhammer was one of the main inspirations but not bigger than Martin (as I remember, they said that Dragon Age mostly inspired by A song of ice and fire), Tolkien and dnd, at least before DATV. In Veilguard it's not just the influence that led to something new, they took ideas without trying to make it fit the DA world. For example, Nadas Dirthalen with pathways instead of thoughts is clearly Asuryani Path, the codex local high elves follow. Even if paths in general originally came from them, it took on a different meaning in DA, so archives don't fit. I wrote about it recently but it was more trying to fix the lore than actual explanation.

In the past, they've taken fantasy elements from a variety of settings but reworked them to create their own world. Now even fantasy elements (like speak with dead spell; Gaider did it better in fic about Dorian speaking to his dead father btw) are poorly adapted, not to mention sci-fi.

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Dorian learned necromancy in Tevinter. Necromancy is highly developed in Tevinter. In DAI, for example, we are contacted by Tevinter necromancers with offers of help. Even Mortalitasi was founded by a Tevinter mage.

At first I liked the fact that Emmrich was mentoring Dorian, but the more I thought about it, the more questions I had.

Dorian: My family once took me to Nevarra, Cassandra. Cassandra: You undoubtedly saw more of it than I ever did. Dorian: I was young, and all I wanted to do was visit a necropolis. I was desperate. Cassandra: They're dark. And full of undead. And the smell of stale incense still makes me want to vomit. Dorian: Ah. There goes that childhood fantasy. ─────── Dorian: So tell me this: are Nevarran cities of the dead actually filled with undead? Cassandra: Of course. The Mortalitasi lure spirits to possess every corpse buried there. Dorian: And then what? Let them… wander around willy-nilly? Cassandra: Only in the abandoned areas. The rest are sealed up in their tombs, I suppose. Dorian: Forever? I almost feel bad for them. Cassandra: After a time, the moaning grates on the nerves. Trust me.

Dorian has never been in a necropolis, he doesn't even know what it looks like, which is why he sounds disappointed after Cassandra's description, and he doesn't know what the Mortalitasi actually do, but in DATV it turned out that he was taught necromancy at the Grand Necropolis.

I'm fully aware that it was only made up to connect Emmrich with him and has no deep meaning but that’s the problem. Any new piece of lore should not contradict to established story. Dorian's story is well thought out, so the careless addition of details just for the sake of a new character is not a good thing, and in my opinion is even disrespectful.

It may seem unimportant, but it defines DATV. Let's add some facts that contradict the old character lore for the sake of a few cute moments.

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Harding: You know Dorian? Emmrich: Tevinter mages visit. Young Pavus was sent over for a term by his father.

At first I liked the fact that Emmrich was mentoring Dorian, but the more I thought about it, the more questions I had.

Dorian: My family once took me to Nevarra, Cassandra. Cassandra: You undoubtedly saw more of it than I ever did. Dorian: I was young, and all I wanted to do was visit a necropolis. I was desperate. Cassandra: They're dark. And full of undead. And the smell of stale incense still makes me want to vomit. Dorian: Ah. There goes that childhood fantasy. ─────── Dorian: So tell me this: are Nevarran cities of the dead actually filled with undead? Cassandra: Of course. The Mortalitasi lure spirits to possess every corpse buried there. Dorian: And then what? Let them… wander around willy-nilly? Cassandra: Only in the abandoned areas. The rest are sealed up in their tombs, I suppose. Dorian: Forever? I almost feel bad for them. Cassandra: After a time, the moaning grates on the nerves. Trust me.

Dorian has never been in a necropolis, he doesn't even know what it looks like, which is why he sounds disappointed after Cassandra's description, and he doesn't know what the Mortalitasi actually do, but in DATV it turned out that he was taught necromancy at the Grand Necropolis.

I'm fully aware that it was only made up to connect Emmrich with him and has no deep meaning but that’s the problem. Any new piece of lore should not contradict to established story. Dorian's story is well thought out, so the careless addition of details just for the sake of a new character is not a good thing, and in my opinion is even disrespectful.

It may seem unimportant, but it defines DATV. Let's add some facts that contradict the old character lore for the sake of a few cute moments.

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XX. Judgement

our inquisitor with @starrythroat

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There's no rule against sci-fi elements in medieval fantasy. In TES there's literally AI and even mind uploading, but it doesn't feel absurd or like a retcon, because Sotha Sil improved the dwemer technology that was created with tonal magic. In Pathfinder 2e there're guns and technological relics from an alien civilization.

The problem is that Dragon Age was never like that in terms of technology. There was no evidence of elves or anyone else using it. We haven't seen remnants of ancient technology in elven ruins in previous games. Elvhenan was a magical empire like normal elven empire in fantasy. It wasn’t a place where magic was combined with engineering. So when the Arlathan forest is full of ancient devices that look like they're straight out of Clockwork City or Numeria, and the Veil Jumpers are using some sort of engineering instruments, it's weird.

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Archive spirits made me think about elves and the nature of paths. I don't like that Nadas Dirthalen speaks like virtual assistant; the devs wanted sci-fi so badly that they couldn't resist adding AI. But I think they tried to make it lore-wise with "pathways", although I still think the fact that every Evanuris had it is pointless.

At first I thought it was like the archivists in Vir Dirthara from Trespasser, but Nadas Dirthalen is different, and Bellara said they weren't really spirits. Bellara said about archives:

They have, well… not thoughts like us. But sort of… pathways, I guess. They can only respond to specific questions. Worded in specific way.

The archivists in Trespasser, who didn't turn into Librarians, welcomely shared knowledge unlike that rude dirtbag.

Vir - path, way. Paths as origins of philosophy are reflected in the Dalish culture. The most famous is the path of Andruil, followed by the Dalish hunters, Vir Tanadhal, the Way of the Three Trees, which, as the name implies, is divided into three parts - three paths - Vir Assan, Vir Bor'Assan, Vir Adahlen. Another path is Sylaise’s Vir Atish'an, the Way of Peace. An interesting Vir Banal'ras, the Way of Shadow, which is followed by elves for revenge. Perhaps it has something to do with Mythal, since we find armor describing this path in her temple. It may be the path that some of Mythal's worshippers were following after she was killed. Vir'abelasan, the path of the Well of Sorrows. Servants of Mythal used to store the knowledge by transferring their memories into it. The paths contain collective knowledge of the elves in the form of memories.

Apparently the paths are sort of ether, or energy, or substance of the Fade. Most likely it's the basis of the nature of spirits, whose bodies are formed from ether, to absorb information and memories.

Vir Dirthara, the Shattered Library of all knowledge of Elvhenan. It can be translated as the Way of learning/seeking truth (knowledge/secrets). It was the creation of material world (world that wakes) and Fade. Vir Dirthara preserved the memories of elves and connected paths of the Elvhenan.

This is the Vir Dirthara. The living knowledge of the empire. The libraries of every city. The wisdom of every court. A connecting place whose paths are in disarray.

The archivists, Ghil-Dirthalen, were spirits of knowledge that absorbed and preserved that knowledge. Spirits are creatures of the Fade, so they were connecting elements.

“Ghil-Dirthalen” was what the elvhen called me. “One who guides seekers of knowledge true.” I was connection. One city could read the records of another, one elvhen feel the memories of another.

I believe Vir Dirthara was created by Dirthamen. The legends of Dirthamen and Falon'din include the paths and travels into the Fade. They guided elves to the uthenera to seek knowledge in dreams (and then dead elves to the Fade through the Veil), and Dirthamen advised them. Indeed, Dirthamen often shared his wisdom with elves, especially those of his favorite city, and perhaps this legend is also an allusion to Vir Dirthara, the connecting place of world that wakes and world that dreams where knowledge from across the empire was kept and shared with elves.

After the creation of the Veil, the paths were damaged and diminished, as the archivists and Tevinter texts said ("The paths ahead are lost in darkness, and those who walk them find only ruin" in Razikale's Reach). Some nexuses, reservoirs of memories of the ancient elves, remained. One of them is the Well of Sorrows.

It is possible – even likely – that the “emerald waters” Andraste refers to are the substance of the Fade, which began as an “ocean of dreams” (Threnodies 1:1) and was reduced to a well-bottomless but limited in scope-by the Maker's creation of our world

Even though the elves are former spirits, and the paths willingly embraces them, unlike other races, the elves, having taken mortal form, lost the ability to travel the paths, so they used a network of eluvians to organize the connection between them. The Well of Sorrows had eluvian that Corypheus was going to use to go into the Fade. Flemeth likely brought her memories into such a nexus through eluvian for Morrigan (makes more sense than Morrigan with Mythal's soul, actually). Morrigan said that the Crossroads were closed when a war between Evanuris began, which means that elves couldn't use the paths without them. It also wouldn't be surprising if blood magic, which weakens the connection to the Fade, made it worse. I think this is reflected in the legend of Dirthamen, who most likely started seeing the paths grey as non-elves because of blood magic. "Dirthamen tried to follow them, but the shifting grey paths beyond the Veil would not let him." "Shifting paths" that would not let him to follow could refer either to the paths without (before) eluvians or the consequences of using blood magic.

Moreover, by regaining their spirit form, the Forbidden Ones could be able to reach the paths without eluvians.

For abandoning the People in their time of greatest need, for casting aside form to flee to where the Earth could not reach, we declare Xebenkeck and others of her ilk exiled from the lands of the Evanuris. Beware! Their familiarity with shape allows them to travel paths unaided.

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Pictured: The Chronometer of the Tribunal, which depicts "Sotha Sil's morning sun, Almalexia's mid-day mercy, or the star-spun night of Vivec"