kestrelsansjesses

[kestrelsansjesses]

repost at a better time:

Send me some Solavellan prompts to get me through this week lmao

Or… Rook/Abelas? What am I calling this ungodly creation

[kestrelsansjesses]

Send me some Solavellan prompts to get me through this week lmao

Or… Rook/Abelas? What am I calling this ungodly creation

[kestrelsansjesses]

Send me some Solavellan prompts to get me through this week lmao

Or… Rook/Abelas? What am I calling this ungodly creation

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you can keep your domestic headcanons. I respect them, but my lavellan and my rook just go absolutely feral, there is no domesticity there, absolutely cannot be tamed, adventuring never stops

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*Davrin carving his 30th wooden figure of the day* I'm fine.

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Felassan dying before my Rook had a chance to smooch him is the true tragedy of Veilguard

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I'm reposting this but I'm looking for a Dragon Age site to RP on, specifically one that would let me play my Inquisitor Lavellan. If you know of any, please let me know. <3

[kestrelsansjesses]

The Dread Wolf's Chambers

A a room in the Lighthouse that appears and unlocks only once Rook has met the Inquisitor. It adjoins the meditation chamber, directly connected with a door. Though it's small, it contains a great deal that seems directly personal to Solas. There is a small bed, comfortable but with worn sheets. On a mannequin, there hangs a red uniform with blue belt and sash, as well as a hat. Taash can be heard saying "stupid bucket" at least once in reference to it. On the wall, there's a mural painted in a similar style to others throughout the Lighthouse environs, depicting a figure identified as Solas and one that looks remarkably similar to the Inquisitor on what appears to be a balcony, with very little space between them. At the bottom, below the railing of the balcony and painted far smaller, almost difficult to see, is the many-eyed wolf and a white raven. It's theorized the raven may also represent the Inquisitor, or another figure entirely; much has been made of the relationship between wolves and ravens. There is also a small desk and chair, both unremarkable and plain, though the lines suggest an ancient elvhen origin. There is a stack of unsent letters put on the desk. Degradation of ink and paper suggests they span years of writing, and though some attempt has been made to blot out the text entirely, it's possible to see each begins with 'vhenan.' The room also contains a large window perfectly positioned to capture afternoon light.

[kestrelsansjesses]

The Dread Wolf's Chambers

A a room in the Lighthouse that appears and unlocks only once Rook has met the Inquisitor. It adjoins the meditation chamber, directly connected with a door. Though it's small, it contains a great deal that seems directly personal to Solas. There is a small bed, comfortable but with worn sheets. On a mannequin, there hangs a red uniform with blue belt and sash, as well as a hat. Taash can be heard saying "stupid bucket" at least once in reference to it. On the wall, there's a mural painted in a similar style to others throughout the Lighthouse environs, depicting a figure identified as Solas and one that looks remarkably similar to the Inquisitor on what appears to be a balcony, with very little space between them. At the bottom, below the railing of the balcony and painted far smaller, almost difficult to see, is the many-eyed wolf and a white raven. It's theorized the raven may also represent the Inquisitor, or another figure entirely; much has been made of the relationship between wolves and ravens. There is also a small desk and chair, both unremarkable and plain, though the lines suggest an ancient elvhen origin. There is a stack of unsent letters put on the desk. Degradation of ink and paper suggests they span years of writing, and though some attempt has been made to blot out the text entirely, it's possible to see each begins with 'vhenan.' The room also contains a large window perfectly positioned to capture afternoon light.

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followup: my lavellan for abelas or does rook get a slice

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Help me out here, my lore friends. Is there ever any mention of hair dye within the world of Thedas? I need to know for my Rook and fanfic purposes.

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followup: my lavellan for abelas or does rook get a slice

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I wanna write more Solavellan but I also feel the burning need to write about what happened to Abelas

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To be serious don’t think the books really write about slavery in a way that’s as nuanced or thoughtful as it needs to be especially because it’s very mired in orientalism. However most of what Daenerys gets caught up in isn’t enslaving people directly but more going in with good intentions and then conceding too much ground to the system to try and help people or accidentally causing a lot of adverse consequences for the people she’s trying to help because she is a 15-year-old girl surrounded by mostly terrible advisors trying to immediately abolish a deeply entrenched social and economic evil system on an entire continent at the same time

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I could accept people shipping S*lrook more if every shipper I saw didn't have this weird undercurrent of misogyny against Solavellans, who are typically women.

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The trouble is, you're trying to contextualize the Inquisitor's disability within the story, and not within the greater framework of 'what is the message this game is sending to disabled people.' And the message it is sending, whether intended or not, is 'once you become disabled, your time actively adventuring is done, but hey, at least you get to go play politics for a while.'

This is not a great message to be sending people. This is very much 'how do we talk about disability' 101 and it makes me frustrated and sad to see that a series I love so much is taking a stance that unfortunately is all too common in media- even fantasy media. In Mass Effect, Thane Krios straight up dies, so I suppose I'm thankful that we don't get that treatment, but "you don't get to go out there and finish what you started in the same way" is really not that much of an improvement. When you make a conscious decision to make a protagonist disabled, you have to be so, so careful about how you move forward with their story if it's intended that they'll appear again. And unfortunately, despite the fact that a lot of disabled people (including myself) called it, Dragon Age made the misstep we all feared. It is depressing and it is /exhausting/ to feel as though my worth as a person is dependent on what I can physically do. And again, do I think they sent this message on purpose? No, of course not. I don't think that's their intention at all. But intent versus what actually comes across is huge here, and this was not handled with the care and grace it deserved.

"What was the point of ending Inquisition as they did- with the Inquisitor vowing to stop Solas one way or another- if the power to do so was ultimately passed off to a new protagonist?"

The DA games distinguish themselves from the Mass Effect series by having a new protagonist every time. That's not to say that they *could't* do a sequel with a prior protagonist in the lead, just that there's a precedent against it.

Building on the point above, it's clear that they wanted to make a game that was dependent on as few player decisions in the prior games as possible. They did the same thing with Mass Effect -- a trilogy and then a soft reboot. I think it just gets unwieldy after three games to keep carrying over player decisions and making them meaningful. It's a difficult decision, but I think it leads to a tighter game experience than if we had the Inquisitor and had to address all the key player decisions they made.

In terms of the story and not just the game design, the Inquisitor is still playing a meaningful part in the events of this game. They vowed to stop or save Solas and they've been working towards that goal via their greatest tool -- the Inquisition. Whether it was formally disbanded or subsumed into the Chantry, the Inquisitor's actions to work against Solas are what caused the inciting incident of Veilguard. The Inquisitor is the reason Varric and Harding are even there and (regardless of what they think) Rook is effectively an agent of the Inquisition. Don't forget that part of the Inquisitor's vow was to find people to work for them that Solas doesn't know. That's Rook and their gang.

"They're sending a detrimental message about the nature of disability and how it can effect your ability to be a hero [...] because it felt like a pretty flimsy/non-existent excuse."

I'm not sure where this is coming from. The Inquisitor's decision to not go North isn't about the loss of their arm.

The Inquisitor is not in the North initially because it's actually difficult to travel if you don't have an Elluvian and Varric and his team were already deployed in the area. It probably wasn't feasible for them to get there for the ritual.

The Inquisitor is still the leader of a large organization (whether that's an arm of the Chantry or an underground network of spies). Their ability to direct that organization would be hindered by them going out on particular missions, especially because Solas is able to be anywhere in Thedas thanks to the Elluvians. It's the same reason Leliana gives for why she's not out in the field in Inquisition.

Later, the Inquisitor explicitly tells Rook that they're not able to come to the North because of how bad the situation is in the South. Again, the Inquisitor is the leader of a network that is mostly spread out over Fereldan and Orlais. They're of more use in the South because of that.

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The more I dwell on Veilguard- a game which I overall enjoyed- the angrier I get that it wasn't a continuation of the Inquisitor's story. It's such a bizarre choice to start sending them on this journey and then suddenly take them away before they get to see the end. Yes, the Inquisitor is PRESENT in Veilguard, but they often feel like an awkward present, sort of shoved in at strange moments to remind the player about the last game. What was the point of ending Inquisition as they did- with the Inquisitor vowing to stop Solas one way or another- if the power to do so was ultimately passed off to a new protagonist? I'm not going to dig up receipts of myself from eight years ago, but I do remember writing a post along the lines of 'if they choose not to use the Inquisitor again as a protagonist, they're sending a detrimental message about the nature of disability and how it can effect your ability to be a hero' and tbh that really became more obvious with Veilguard, because it felt like a pretty flimsy/non-existent excuse as to why the Inquisitor didn't head north the minute they heard that Solas had finally been located.

I don't have issues with Rook as a character other than them feeling a bit bland/overall issues with how they presented the origins of the character, but it also didn't feel like it was Rook's story. The whole time I was playing, there was a distinct sense of "shouldn't the inquisitor be the one dealing with this? Why does Rook get to see Solas again, where a romanced Lavellan doesn't? This would all feel more meaningful had this been the Inquisitor." And honestly, I think I'll die on that hill.