amatus-lavellan

[amatus-lavellan]

Taash 🧡 Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Digital realism painting of Taash, a Qunari dragon hunter from Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Taash is painted from the hips up, standing outside with the sun behind them, causing a flare across the image. They stand tall, with a slight smirk on their face, they have thick horns, with gold jewelry decorating them, the left is a horn made from a teal gemstone, whilst the right is a natural horn. They have long hair which is tied back into a plat that goes down past their hips. They are wearing vibrant armour made from dragon scales, that shows their midriff, and they have red ropes with gold coins wrapped around their arms. Their neck is decorated with gold jewelry with orange and red gems and beads. Their armour is shades of teals and greens. Their face is decorated with small sparkly star freckles and their body with opaque teal and blue stars that decorate their cheeks arms and torso.

[amatus-lavellan]

having OC’s is crazy for real because no one else gives a fuck meanwhile you’ll be at the function thinking about them (guys who are not real) like

[amatus-lavellan]

Veilguard artbook spoilers❕

I really wanted to draw this Nevarran teapot belonged Emmrich mom 🥲

[amatus-lavellan]

destined to be permanent trouble 🙂‍↔️

[amatus-lavellan]

yeay found it!

[amatus-lavellan]

[amatus-lavellan]

[amatus-lavellan]

This Black History Month, reflect for a moment on the fact that George Washington Carver, famously "the inventor of peanut butter and more than 100 industrial uses for peanuts" wasn't, like, Doc Brown fucking around in his garage because he really liked peanuts but was specifically trying to introduce larger use of a nitrogen fixing legume into crop rotations against cotton monoculture which was destroying yields, livelihoods and the biosphere, and how most agribusiness farming now just destroys that topsoil on purpose and continues to grow a cotton monoculture (or soy or corn or whichever local monoculture is profitable) using petrochemical derived fertilizer, which is one element driving climate change

Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful heart surgery. He also founded the first nonsegregated hospital in America because he was keenly aware of disparate health outcomes by race which is still a problem today.

WEB Dubois was a part of the delegations for the birth of the UN. His proposal to include in the charter that "the colonial system of government … is undemocratic, socially dangerous and a main cause of wars" was not adapted for the final draft. We might see inaction against colonial violence to this day as part of the failure of others to heed his warnings there.

I feel like so often when we look at Black History Month so much of it is driven by factoids but when taken as history in context its about a direct line from decades and centuries to what is happening right now.

[amatus-lavellan]

Super Mario 64 DS (2004)

[amatus-lavellan]

Yknow that post about that person watchin Parasite expecting there to be an actual flesh parasite monster.

Well I was readin “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, which is a good book about a man tryna find his way in a world that doesn’t want him after his entire life plan fuckin falls apart (the invisibility in this case is metaphorical).

And I was NOT reading “THE Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells (which does in fact star an actually invisible man)

So I’m readin like ‘damn, this dude fuckin goin through it! The groups of power present truly do not see him as the man he is, but rather what they wish him to be! Making him, metaphorically, invisible!

…

And then he’s actually gonna turn invisible!!!!”

[amatus-lavellan]

Owl Attacking a Bat, Horaku, Japanese, Early to Mid 19th Century

From the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

[amatus-lavellan]

I need to be salty for a hot second about people who are upset about aspects of Lucanis' romance.

I'll put everything else under the break for spoilers, but in general, I am so disappointed in a large portion of this fanbase who apparently thought "disaster" meant "romantasy," but also it's in keeping with how a lot of people seem unable to put things in context.

One of the complaints I keep seeing run past is that the scene where you commit to a relationship with Lucanis seems pefunctory, or out of the blue, there's nothing really romantic about it, it's too similar to the platonic route, etc, etc, ETC.

I romanced Emmrich, but I've seen other people's versions of romancing Lucanis. I'm just going to kind of word vomit here, and hope I can come up with something cohesive.

As someone who id's with Lucanis for "generational abuse" and "dumpster fire disaster bi" and "using socially acceptable drugs as coping mechanisms in place of addressing your problems" reasons, it's been really fucking annoying watching the almost deliberate misinterpretation of his character even after Mary Kirby dropped several explanations on social media. It's like a large part of the fanbase saw all that and turned into the "yes yes, very sad...anyway!" meme and went right on fetishizing him...then got mad when he didn't turn into the seductive Dom with wings they were hoping for.

You commit to Lucanis after (what I consider) a very intense scene inside his "mind prison." He's struggling so much internally that Spite wrests control of his body from him in front of witnesses and begs Rook to help them. Lucanis would never ask Rook to do so on his own, he's terrible at asking for the help he truly needs. Spite drags Rook into the Fade Ossuary and demands they free Lucanis from his self-imposed prison. And whether you're a friend or would-be lover, Rook slowly talks Lucanis out of a host of self doubts regarding his family and friends. Can he trust himself not to hurt other people, now that he's saddled with this affliction? Has he disappointed the people he cares about most? Do these new people he's coming to care about actually trust and care about him? The rooms are filled with fragmented thoughts that peter out into regrets. You're literally seeing Lucanis' fractured and complicated emotions.

One of them tore a hole straight through me: "You'd have to kill me...And Spite would die."

You'd have to kill him to get rid of the demon. And he'd regret the death of the demon that's protected him and given him strength, through a brutal year of betrayal and torment. I don't know if y'all remember the scenes in the Ossuary of the failed experiments and the corpses you had to pass to get to his jar of blood. It wasn't fun.

When you break out of the mind prison after helping him bond with Spite, it's intimate and momentous, even on a platonic route. You've seen desperate and lonely parts of him he'd never willingly show anyone.

As you're convincing Lucanis that it's okay to leave his mind-prison, you tell him you understand that it's easier to deal with problems like the Ossuary and Zara than healing and living with Spite, potentially hurting people he cares about. But he wants to. It's Rook's job to help him see a path out, a way for him to make the struggle easier so he can begin to heal himself.

I need to stress: you aren't "fixing" him. You're acting as his lighthouse, regardless of whether you're a friend or a lover. Sometimes people need help. He's still going to have to do the work to get there.

As a friend, it was extremely rewarding to come back to the kitchen and see him doing exactly as I'd hoped: moving on with the business of *living*. He made a nice dinner for everyone he's come to care for, and a special dessert for Neve. Cooking is where Lucanis finds creativity, and comfort, and connection with his friends and family. He isn't very good with words, but he will note everything you consume, and try to make you feel loved by expressing it that way.

Which is why I think it's important you don't dismiss the commitment on the romantic route. He remembers YOUR favorite drink and makes YOU a special dessert if you're romancing him. Lucanis isn't going to get poetic. You've already made him feel raw. You've seen the ugly, embarassing parts of him. What is he supposed to say? Usually it takes Spite reaching through his body to actually be direct. Instead, Lucanis reaches for food, his favorite medium, to try and apologize for inadvertently showing you those things, to thank you for helping him despite seeing what he considers the most shameful parts of him. Your commitment is letting him know that you value him, that he has nothing to be ashamed of, that you understand what he's trying to express with his struggling communication skills, which appear to get better as your relationship progresses from there.

It's weird that some of y'all don't feel that this is heartfelt and important, because you'd rather him act out some sensuous fantasy trope. It's also weird that some of you haven't figured out that many scenes in RPG's can be similar on platonic and romantic routes with tweaks to shade context.

(Also just in case this comes up: cooking is not his "love language" - that whole concept was invented by a misogynistic weirdo and we should remove it from our ideas of communication)

Anyway, this guy is my Rook's bestie and I'll go down swinging for him, you should appreciate the fuck out of him and stop acting like his writer didn't craft a perfectly funny little weirdo who is bad at showing people his tender parts and terrible at interpersonal relationships.

[amatus-lavellan]

Don't get in my way.

[amatus-lavellan]

Hellooo, I added my first cross stitch pattern of 'heart eyes cat'- you can get it for free on my Ko-Fi!

I'll add some more over the next few days, and if you create it I'd love to see it!

[amatus-lavellan]

this was a historical moment in television

[amatus-lavellan]

Since I'm back in my Dragon Age Era™ I'll upload some of the stuff I've been sketching lately (and it has to do with spirits, of course)

I'm living in the Necropolis arc forever now, and dreams about Cole meeting Manfred (and Emmrich) don't cease to torment me (in a wonderful way).

[amatus-lavellan]

A little quick doodle…

Rook delivers Dahlia flowers to her late sister. Years after her death, she wants to let her know she’ll still be close to her no matter what 🥺 🖤