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once again thinking about that "I have other plans for the evening ;)" line when Lucanis suggests sneaking away from the Murder of Crows party. Like. Did Lucanis know how sexual that would sound. Did he get back to the lighthouse and start making his lil coffee, sitting there completely oblivious

Or did he genuinely intend to celebrate beating the shit out of Illario by railing Rook. And fucking chickened out bc he scared himself with his own rizz again. I know this disaster of a man doesn't have a social script ready for sex; do we think he loaded makecoffee.exe in a panic. either way, poor rook is red face blue balls ready to climb the walls

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shoutout to my homies who are deeply bizarre and have something wrong with them

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Naran Rook story prompts 13 and 22? 💚

Thank you for submitting this one! This is my attempt at writing something positive and *not* angsty. We will see how that goes. From the Rook Story Time writing prompts!

I’m getting to the others as well! I haven’t forgotten about them!:)

13. Rook visiting a place they love.

Naran kicked his feet over the edge, unafraid of the endless fade beneath his boots. The sound of Neve’s footsteps in the distant courtyard rang through even here at the top of the Lighthouse tower. A secret passageway to the tower gave way to a thin balcony with a view unlike any other overlooking the unterrupted sea of clouds. He brought his tea to his lips, surprised it had stayed hot this long.

You could say he thought he saw this view in his dreams before. It was almost certain he had seen these broken towers floating in a distance as a young boy. There was a comfortable familiarity with the constant almost-dusk of this part of the face that soothed him.

“Naran,” a gentle voice from behind. Harding. Of course she knew this spot, the team’s scout. She knew where to find him.

“Hey.”

“You know, you’d be a great Crow if you’re comfortable scrambling across rooftops.” She said with a laugh. “Make some good gold when this is all over.”

Naran scoffed with a crooked smile, “I’m too old and too wild for the likes of them. Lucanis got you recruiting now?”

“Nah, just wanted to spend some time with you,” she sighed. Her own cup of tea in hand, she sat next to him but a little farther away from the edge. Stone instincts. They daintily clinked their teacups together and laughed.

“Thanks, Harding.”

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This game has been out since Halloween.

In that time, there have been numerous Veilguard positive posts in which patient, loving, wonderful, insightful and intelligent individuals attempt to impart lore onto a fanbase which doesn't deserve their time and attention.

I can't believe I'm running across posts made within the past five days which express disgust and frustration towards the devs over things which have been explained in great detail multiple times on this site, BUT IN THE DAMN GAME.

AND Y'ALL KEEP COMPLAINING THE GAME TELLS BUT DOESN'T SHOW. AND YOU DON'T EVEN LISTEN OR WATCH.

"the crows are presented as wholesome" - they are not. this site has a crow fanbase which has run off and lionized Viago as Daddy, conveniently ignored all the in-game details which either hint or baldly state things Definitely Aren't Cool, and generally fetishized what it means to be a Crow because of Zevran and Lucanis. Then the same people, or others who weren't paying proper attention, whined when the headcanon crowded out the actual in-game material, and they said "Antiva is whitewashed." There have been multiple posts about this.

"slaves are meant to be everywhere in Tevinter and we don't see that" - we aren't everywhere, we're specifically in Docktown which is poor and people generally can't afford slaves there, but we do see evidence of slavery, and we run around with abolitionists and help save people from fascist slavers and free people who will either be slaves or victims of blood magic so IDK what to tell you, there have been multiple posts explaining this too, maybe leave your slave or savior fetish somewhere else.

"Racism is supposed to be rampant" - fuck off. I actually will not be explaining this because for once it was nice not to be called a slur. If you need this to feel "immersed" or to feel there are actual problems, I need you to check yourself fucking hard. If you want to masquerade what it feels like to experience bigotry, go play one of the prior games. This has also been discussed in multiple posts.

"Handling pure lyrium is fine now" no handling the dagger is fine Solas cleansed it, the dagger woke something up in Harding specifically she talks about how some dwarves are connected to the stone, she previously had not been one of them and maybe the dagger woke something up in her, or did you need a pop up explaining this? Were you paying attention during cut scenes and dialogue?

"Adult Dalish without vallaslin" - in the 10 years since Inquisition/Trespasser, doubtless some dalish have come to adulthood and found out what assholes their gods were and made the decision not to go through that specific cultural rites. Or maybe city elves joined the Dalish. Who knows who made up the elf population at that ritual site. Elves are not a monolith. We've made multiple, multiple posts about elves not being monoliths.

"Solas' opinion on blood magic went from neutral to negative" SOLAS FUCKING LIES. We've made multiple posts about Solas lying, if you need this explained further I suggest you play the game all over again, he lies to you throughout the entire game.

"Re-write of the after credits scene in Inquisition to recontextualise the Flemeth and Solas interaction" it's recontextualized because now we know who and what they were to each other. Learning new information does that. This is literally what happens all the time in science and history. You recontextualize what you thought you knew with new information. You're supposed to change your position, not whine about how the new information makes everything different.

These are just some of the things I pulled from a list on a post in which someone was really just upset about everything. Everything. Varric, Morrigan, Solas, everything. But I can't take their criticisms seriously, because they're upset that "too much was told" and "not enough shown" and yet didn't even pay attention to DA lore or in-game dialogue or context clues around the world of Northern Thedas to answer their own questions.

Everything in this game makes complete sense if you use lore from prior games and a single iota of imagination to see how it fits. We've had many delightful posts discussing this, seeing how things could be explained, when approaching the game from a place of curiosity rather than being upset because personal headcanons weren't satisfied or long-held expectations weren't met.

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After making their dessert, Rook kisses Lucanis' palm as they say good night. He's so enraptured with the texture of their lips he cranks it all night with that hand.

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Hate Solas with the same energy you give to Caterina Dellamorte, that's all I'm saying.

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list of my favorite brushes

CLIP STUDIO PAINT

Free brushes:

lemon pencil by cyellolemon

artemus pencil by artemus

mirre’s marker by foervraengd

rough-ish pen by noisyrobots

pastel from artist21 brush pack by 鴨見カモミ

crispy inker from truegrit sampler

peppy brush by fatherelectricity

su-cream pencil by yuriky

everything brush by ayeoops

PROCREATE

Default brushes:

derwent (in Sketching)

procreate pencil (in Sketching)

chalk (in Calligraphy)

syrup (in Inking)

soft airbrush (in Airbrushing)

stucco (in Painting)

Free brushes:

dry brush inker from truegrit sampler

ballpoint pen by sadielewski

edge control from jingsketch basics by jingsketch

marmo s-brush pack by diana mármol

charcoal for sketches by paulbigsunday

dawner’s procreate brush pack by thedawner

foliage & grass brushset by devin elle kurtz

notMUJI “gel pen” set by wendy xu

soft sketch by olguioo

starter brush pack vol. 1 by olguioo

starter brush pack vol. 2 by olguioo

parallel real tilt from real parallel pens by halftone hospital

real microns by halftone hospital

blunt edge from charcoal brushes by klumsymugsy

sivsi’s procreate brushes 1 by sivsi

sivsi’s procreate brushes 2 by sivsi

verkomy’s free brush pack by verkomy

Paid brushes:

colored pencils by dean stuart

riso by dean stuart

joe’s brush set 1 by joe lillington

the essential maxpack v2 by maxpacks

the comics maxpack by maxpacks

verkomy’s brush pack by verkomy

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Rookanis getting physically intimate -

Lucanis: I could kill you like this.

Rook (Gomez Addams Coded): A beautiful death it would be. The only death I would have ever asked for.

Lucanis: (taken aback blushing so hard, has to stop)

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I am not a Caterina Apologist I am a Caterina Enjoyer.

Love me a problematic old bitch.

She's if Abuela Madrigal became the Godfather. All of the generational trauma, exponentially more atrocities, zero redemption arc. She has it all.

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IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE

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Woobification of Solas.

This is a fandom critical post. Proceed at your own risk.

Let me start this piece off by saying that this post is not meant to target a specific demographic of the fandom. If you feel targeted, that’s on you. 

In this essay, I want to talk about the infantilization, woobification, or just good plain headcanoning the bad out of Solas. Mostly it comes down to a few of the most regurgitated lines of thinking: he is a spirit of wisdom despite everything he does or has done and he is just confused and perverted from his natural state, Solas is his true self while Fen’Harel or The Dread Wolf are just select masks he wears. The sentiment is so strong that at points it comes down to disregarding or ‘uncanoning’ the entire storyline of The Veilguard because in the minds of individuals that follow this school of thought it does injustice to the character of Solas they have created in their minds. In their minds, it is bad writing to show Solas being a prideful, treacherous liar. 

Because the man, who led rebellion for centuries using dubious means, using creatures he claims to respect as if they are expandable, killing his closest confidant because he dared to oppose him outright somehow is a paragon of virtue that is just bent out of shape by his misguided loyalty. All the atrocities he has committed through thousands of years he had a physical form comes down to him being manipulated and emotionally abused by his former closest friend Mythal and later by grief and anger of losing her. Slapping the label of emotional distress and trauma on a perpetrator of … well, quite literally, war crimes, does make them more palatable, but it does not mean it should be seen as a normal practice. The acts Solas commits during the war with Titans, his rebellion against the Evanuris, and later on in current day Thedas are being construed as desperate actions of a broken man, wisdom twisted from his purpose and left to fend for himself, despite his self-induced isolation. So let me ask you this: how many acts of desperation does it take to realize that they are becoming choices? 

Yes, he was manipulated through their shared emotional bonds by Mythal. Yes, he was coerced to leave his spirit form in favor of a physical body. Then Mythal used his wisdom as a weapon, warping him against his own beliefs, making him participate in the war in ways he did not wish to. Yes, he was pushed by Evanuris’ cruelty to rebel and then lost what he perceived as his only friend to their arrogant ways and later had to live through her death by their hands. He was broken to the point he could not see a way out and doomed the entire way of Elven existence just to win the fight against the cruel and the unjust. Yes, he is a man who lost his people and his version of the world due to his own actions. He is a traumatized, sad, lonely man, who has predetermined himself to the path from which he cannot see a way back. And yet, many of the steps he took along the way cannot be downplayed as acts of a spirit of Wisdom that was bent out of shape by grief and desperation. Destroying the Titans and leaving their children orphaned is seen as an act of devotion and unconditional love towards his manipulator, Mythal. But as the world’s best detective, Jake Peralta has once said: “Cool motive. Still a murder.”

And now we arrive at the most beloved sentiment. Solas is his true self. Fen’Harel is just a mask. Oh, boy.

Everyone says that they hate one-dimensional characters until they are served a multifaceted one on the platter. Then they get to declawing and defanging them, ripping their personality apart into this and that, robbing them of parts of them that make them whole, and when that is not enough, they take on dulling off any edges they might find too abrasive. Assassination of the character is just the beginning; the remains have to be sanitized and scrubbed off any wrongdoing whatsoever, so supporting them doesn’t seem like a moral failing on fandom’s part. 

Cutting Solas and Fen’Harel apart as if they are some conjoined twins, where Fen’Harel is the evil one, is stripping Solas of things that are inherent parts of his character for the sake of feeling more comfortable with his actions. Solas is kind, caring, and wise. Fen’Harel is prideful, scheming, and treacherous. These two sides of him are now separated by their representation in the Inquisition and Veilguard. In Inquisition, he is Solas - a thoughtful mage obsessed with dreams, a soft-spoken man keen on sharing his knowledge. Except for the part where he doesn’t see current Thedosians as real people. Where everyone is tranquil in his eyes and thus, lesser. People, who he is willing to sacrifice to achieve his goals. The thoughtful things he said by the end of the road to the Inquisitor he supposedly cared for:

“I will do what I must, but there is no benefit in allowing harm to come to innocents before it's necessary.”

“I will save the Elven people, even if it means this world must die.”

“As this world burned in the raw chaos, I would have restored the world of my time... the world of the elves.”

And then he mutilated them. Yes, he did it to save their life. But the Inquisitor had no choice in the matter. What if my Inquisitor would have rather died than lost their arm? Doesn’t matter, because our thoughtful, kind apostate knows better. A kind apostate who sacrificed his world to avenge Mythal, but then by the time of the Inquisition killed her all over again. For power, of all things. And then he stripped the dignity of the one who carried what remained of Mythal through ages by depicting her as an elf, proving once again that he does not see current Thedosians, humans, as real. 

The most egregious crime of Solas’ portrayal in Veilguard seems to be painting him as a liar. Because in the Inquisition he didn’t lie. He just avoided telling the truth. He shaded it in a comfortable tale that no one would question. He spun the narrative. Solas made himself appear as an apostate mage who has gained all his knowledge from the Fade. He crumbled just enough truth without revealing his hand. Or simply said he was lying by omission. Luckily to him, no one would ever ask a random mage if, by chance, they are the infamous Fen’Harel, so he doesn’t need to lie outright. 

And what did he do in Veilguard while not being his true self and wearing that mask of Fen’Harel, that degree of separation from his true, kind self and the trickster god? He spun the narrative. He said just enough truth to be believed. He was deceitful. Solas can be caught saying one outright lie—“I abhor blood magic.” Oh, wait. He can be caught lying exactly one time in Inquisition too—if you confront him about missing court intrigue. So much for a completely different man in Veilguard. 

Fen’Harel as a mask is such a beloved statement that it disregards thousands of years of his life. “I was Solas first. Fen'harel came later, an insult I took as a badge of pride.” A badge of pride Felassan used to flock followers to his side. Badge of pride he wore all through his rebellion. The one he tried to reclaim once meeting Dalish of the current day Thedas. One he used to amass following during the events of Trespasser. How many millennia can a person willingly wear a mask and not have it be a part of who they are?

And then we end up here, where somehow the portrayal of Solas in certain parts of fandom becomes an eerily similar story to that of Portrait of Dorian Grey. We have this beautiful, virtuous man, who’s telling you the most fascinating stories of the Fade, lulling you with his kind voice and beautiful eyes. One who was manipulated, traumatized, desperate, and pushed to act against his good nature. One who would tear down the Veil to restore what was lost and make the world right again. An idealist, working towards his goal. Damned be the sacrifices it requires. Because being hurt in some minds absolves people of guilt. Some agree with his goals and damn his ugly side to the attic. The one who manipulated, one who deceived and killed. One who has the blood of countless lives on his hands. One has to exist for the other to reach that goal. One who is just as much part of his true self as the other. 

Solas is Fen’Harel. Fen’Harel is Solas. One could not exist without the other. And to love someone truly, we must accept the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because to be loved is to be seen fully. Loving a villain is not a moral failing. And yes, he is a villain. Doing something horrible for the sake of something good is still, at the core, doing something horrible. 

Love him because of the awful things he did and in spite of them.

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19 or 2 for the Rook stories!

I pick 2, because Naran is covered in scars. He's lived an incredibly hard life. Still working on 5, 19, 13, 22, and 21! Thank you for so many wonderful asks. :>

Prompts list for Rook Story Time!

2. How Rook got their most prominent scar.

Sitting up together on Davrin's bed, recently untangled and sweaty, the two Wardens were trading stories on their worst injuries. Davrin used a single finger to trace the jagged, uneven scar across Naran's brow, examining it carefully. An interrupted stroke that started at his temple, missing his eye and cutting down his cheek. There, it was met at a crossroads of other, smaller old injuries. It was colored a darker brown than the rest of his honeyed skin.

"This one's a lot like mine," he started with a thoughtful smile. "How did you get it?"

Naran leaned his head into Davrin's palm relishing the warmth on the old cut. "It's not very interesting," he mumbled bashfully.

"You telling me you used to block with your face?" Davrin teased. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"No!" the other elf protested. He hesitated. What if the man he loved thought less of him? "It's from my old Vyrantium days, the night I got away."

"Oh," he realized what he was asking.

Naran breathed, moving Davrin's hand to a place over his heart in the hope to calm it. Memories were running themselves wild in his mind. Broken wine glasses scattering across marble floors. The master's first guard drunkenly lunging for his young self with a blade. The searing bite of the cold metal on his fresh face. And finally, utter bliss of cutting his throat open in blind rage.

"Just know I got him back tenfold."

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destined to be permanent trouble 🙂‍↔️

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Big mood

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I was having a kind of LAN party with a friend playing it at the same time and we were both like...yeah he's dead. As soon as we got to the Lighthouse and no one was talking to him.

Okay I want to know.

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North & South (2004) · Episode 4