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All my Rooks (thus far...)

Too many elves? Nooo...

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A few more snapshots

Beautiful Assan.

*cartoon tippy toe music*

THIS guy. All I wanted to do was chat with Jacobus. Bonus Chance Candide checking out the impromptu staring contest.

Harding posing with the Black City. "Wish you were here!"

Make me a bridge so I can see those wings, Lucanis!

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What's going on here?

Grafitti in Solas's Minrathous hideout. Obviously, the eye and wolf are similar (but NOT the same) to Solas's Inquisition murals... The eye is filled with more eyes though. The wolf is alone. And what's going on with the big guy (an Evanuris?) and the three little guys?

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Combat snaps

Knife-stealer

Flowerhead guy

Cool necromancy shit

Fall of the Protector revenant

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my attempt at a book-accurate Brienne of Tarth

No way to add crooked teeth and there's no facial scar that looks like someone took a bite out of your cheek, but not bad I think...

Of course, she's a Grey Warden sword and board warrior.

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pop the wings

girls love wings

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The Lighthouse and the Black City

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Timeline musings

Just trying to work out a few timeline quirks. I've seen so MANY people give a 'thousand years' for how long Solas slept after imprisoning the Evanuris, and that's just... completely wrong.

World of Thedas has the events as this:

around 8500 years pre-games: Founding of Arlathan. I'd hazard a guess that the elves made physical bodies a good length of time before founding an empire, so maybe we can say 9000 to 8500 years pre-games, spirits crafted bodies and became the first elves. Solas was one of these first elves, so he's like, super old, you guys. Old as balls.

3000 years later, so 5500 years pre-Dragon Age, "first contact between elves and dwarves." So I guess that's a nice way of putting "The elves won the war with the Titans by sundering their dreams from them, leaving their bodies as mountainous husks, their dreams as the Blight, and dwarves as what was left."

1500 years later, 4000 years pre-DA, first "claimed" contact with humans. But we know this is incorrect, since Solas implies in one of his regret murals that the spirits got the idea to make physical bodies from humans. A mystery! Could the claimed first contact with humans be the time when Solas imprisoned the Evanuris and raised the Veil, thus leaving the surviving elves mortal and vulnerable to conquest? This would mean his total time sleeping would be around 4000 years.

2000 years later, about 2000 years pre-DA, the Tevinter Imperium is founded.

800 years later, Magisters poke a hole in Solas's Black City prison and the First Blight begins and lasts 200 years.

Shortly after, the whole Andraste business happens and the Chantry is founded, starting a new calendar with it. The Dragon Age is the 9th age since, and each Age is 100 years long.

So 1000 years is far too short of a time for Solas's nap. I'd say minimum would be 2000 years, and maximum is determined by the dates of the rebellion, which are currently unknown. Sometime after "first contact with dwarves" but before "claimed" first contact with humans is my guess. A window of two to five thousand years.

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Pride and...

Solas: "Look, I know I just betrayed you and I wasn't expecting you to show up quite so soon, but ah, join me to fight the baddies and I swear for realzies this time that the Veil will not come down by my hand?" (shifty eyes.)

Rook (deep breath): “From the very beginning, from the first moment, I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that groundwork of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry ally with again.”

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Dorian, Emmrich, and the Necropolis

So some folks have brought up a conversation Dorian has with Cassandra in which he says he's never been to the Necropolis and is very interested in hearing all about it. (Cassandra: "Ugh.") Is this a mistake/lore error, since Dorian and Emmrich recognize each other in Minrathous (Dorian calls Emmrich "Professor Volkarin")?

Could be, could be. However, there's a couple other possible explanations. First, Dorian says "Welcome back." Is it possible Emmrich has visited Minrathous before and had dealings with Dorian in some manner? Second (and this is the one I like), we know from ambient banter between Dorian and the Viper that they were in Cumberland in 9:38 (three years prior to DAI). Cumberland is in Nevarra, and is the home of the College of Magi and where the Grand Enchanter's seat is located. Could Dorian have attended a series of lectures by noted Mourn Watch mortalitasi Emmrich Volkarin and made such a mutual impression that they remembered each other years later?

Indeed, Dorian's desire to visit the Necropolis (and even his specialization in necromancy) could even have stemmed from this meeting. Emmrich strikes me as one of those teachers who have an immense impact on their students.

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Dark enough?

One of the things the haters(tm) complain about Veilguard is that it's not "dark enough" and doesn't slavery. Uh... did they actually play the game?

Minrathous is littered with person-sized cages:

Public executions for 'dissidents', including many of the NPCs you get to know in the Shadow Dragons faction, should you make a certain choice:

Demons luring the desperate and then making them their playthings:

Graphic animal torture for fun:

Enslaved people used as camp chairs at Elgar'nan's Make Thedas Great Again rally:

People kidnapped and turned into blood puppets:

Not to mention:

If you make a different city choice, NPCs you know getting turned into blighted monsters, including a child (and his 'good' ending is him becoming a full-fledged assassin, so...).

A boss fight with a naked woman in a giant pool of blood.

A side quest that gets into what happened at the Annullment of Dairsmuid, when Templars massacred every mage and their families.

And tons more stuff (not even getting into Gilly and Elgie's whole deals or the 'suicide mission' run of the endgame).

Now sure, there's no point where you can sell your friend to be SAed by some asshole shems for forty gold and there's no Broodmothers. Is that what they mean by 'not dark enough'? That there's little to no sexual assault?

Siiiiiighs...

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There are ten places set at the table

Does this mean Assan and Manfred eat with the group?

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Venatori POV

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Wheeeeee!

I feel like you're just here for the zipline.

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Fangscorcher

Oh yeah? Come and get some of this!

I've made a huge mistake.

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Spirit cat!

Spirit. Cat. What kind of spirit do you think it is?

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Meanwhile, at the Cobbled Swan...

A whole-ass quest happens while Rook and Lucanis stand in the middle of the bar, blanking out in front of Teia and Viago.