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August 30th 2024 Developer Q&A (from the official BioWare Discord) - Complete transcript

Under a cut due to length and spoilers.

Update: This post has now been updated into a word-for-word transcript.

[Link to video recording of Q&A] | [Link to equivalent post for first Q&A (June 14th)] | [Link to video recording for first Q&A]

Update: This post has now been updated into a word-for-word transcript.

If you would like to listen to the Q&A for yourself in video format, or listen to it again, Ghil Dirthalen recorded it and has now uploaded a video of it here. This blog post is linked in the description under the video. ( ˶´ ᵕ `˶ )

Please note before proceeding that the devs advised that this Q&A may contain minor spoilers!

Corinne Busche, John Epler and Community Manager Katey were the devs that were there.

KFM: Community Manager Katey JE: John Epler CB: Corinne Busche

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KFM: We’re gonna be joined by John and Corinne here in a sec, just waiting for them to get on. Hey John, hey Corinne, thanks for joining - hey!

JE: Hello! Thank you for having us. It's a pleasure.

CB: Hey y’all. It's so good to see so many people, I see some familiar names here. Good to see you again.

KFM: Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to, you know, bring us this second Q&A on the Discord server. Last time we were really, really happy, with the way it happened, y'know, it turned out and how everyone seemed to really enjoy it so we're back again. Thank you for submitting your questions on the ask-bioware channel. I am going to start and kick that off in just a second, but, for those of you who might be new here, I'm the Community Manager, and I'm going to let Corinne and John introduce themselves as well.

CB: Hey y'all, I'm Corinne Busche, Game Director on Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I just generally help people on the team do cool things and create this world.

JE: And I'm John Epler, the Creative Director on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Corinne picked probably the best way to describe what I do, too, so I'm just gonna steal that. I'm there to make sure the team can, is enabled to do their best work and I'm super excited to share all this with you.

KFM: Awesome. Yeah before we start I also wanna give a quick heads-up, you might have seen in Announcements, but there are a couple of questions in here that we have answers to that we would consider minor spoilers. I'll give a heads-up before that minor spoiler answer is given, or even the question is read, so you can go, y'know, grab some water, or y'know, go outside for a second, or just do anything, to decide if you want to listen to the answer or not. But, I promise, these spoilers are, y'know, we'll call them out before we say anything.  

CB: That is kinda the coolest part of this session, we're getting closer to launch now, so I think we can do a little bit deeper on some of the questions this time.

KFM: Yes, no this is so exciting! Okay, are you guys ready?

JE: Yes! Yes I am.

CB: Let's do it.

KFM: Let's do it.

KFM: Let's start with a fun one. Do all Evanuris hate tea? Does Ghilly-Flower exclusively drink haunted bog water?

JE: Alright. That is a fun one. Y'know, it's funny because I think Solas is the only one of the elven gods that actually really has a tremendous aversion to tea. That said, we don't really get too into what they drink, I would say though, knowing what I know about Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, I think Elgar'nan probably drinks a combination of gas station coffee and the Thedas equivalent of an energy drink, at all times he's got a big Thermos with him. Whereas Ghilan'nain is all about the herbal concoctions that are supposed to be really good for like, your gut health, things like that - she really takes care of herself, so.

CB: John, I think you just described you, and then me. Interesting.

JE: Hurtful, Corinne, accurate but hurtful.

KFM: Okay, next one. So we know that we can hug Assan, but will we be able to hug any of our companions?

JE: So you can't hug your companions at all times. There's not an option to just walk up and give them a hug. They've got their boundaries, they've got their preferences. But there are opportunities in conversations, in dialogue, in scenes where you will, you know - a companion may ask you for a hug because they're having a rough time and you are able to give it to them.

KFM: And will there be a lot of politicking involved? And by politicking they mean quests like Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts.

JE: Yeah, so I mean, there's not gonna be a quest quite like the Halamshiral Ball, I mean that was very specific to the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor was trying to gain favor with a bunch of different factions, they were trying to form an army. Rook's struggle and Rook's, honestly,  challenge is much more immediate and visceral. That said, it's Dragon Age. It wouldn't be Dragon Age if there weren't politics. You'll have influence on the, y'know, things that are happening, and the fate of nations, that are happening around the world, and Rook, I mean, throughout the game, across this adventure, Rook does become a fairly important figure, so it's natural that you’ll have some influence and some involvement with the affairs of the different factions and nations.

KFM: Gotcha. So this question, this next question comes from Onomatopoeia. I know this has been asked before, but they didn't see an answer for it - is there a way to toggle off nudity and sex scenes?

CB: Yeah, let me take this one. It's so funny, John, you get the fun questions and I get the thirsty nudity questions - I'm here for it. So, let me, let me answer and maybe elaborate. So, there is a toggle for on and off nudity. That is one of the settings we have. And we'll be going deeper into settings and accessibility and things like that as we get a little bit closer to launch. But let me also expand on this. So when you're in character creator, you'll actually be able to select what underclothes your Rook wears, and whether that exposes your chest or your breasts. So, by default nudity is on, chest or breast, that is up to you by your underclothing that you select, particularly as you get into, say, romance scenes, but, at any point you can toggle the setting to be non-nudity and it will override your undergarments. 

KFM: Gotcha. This question comes from DarkGoddessEris. What are the companions’ ages? That was a question that actually came up a bunch, so I'm excited for somebody to be able to answer this one.

JE: Yeah,  I can take this one. So the companions in The Veilguard range anywhere from kind of early-mid twenties with Taash at the youngest, all the way up to Emmrich who is in his early fifties. The rest of the companions tend to be in their late twenties, early thirties, again though, they're all experts in their field, they're all people who have been through a lot, so even the ones that are at the younger end of the age spectrum, their experience, they've been through a tremendous amount by this point by the time you meet them, so, yeah. So I mean, I guess, Taash is the closest to Sera at early twenties, but they’re all in kinda that age range, so.

KFM: This next question I'll pitch to Corinne. How linear is the quest experience? Are there going to be side quests that you can stumble upon and resolve within areas or are you locked into a golden path?

CB: This is such a good one. Yeah, a lot of people have been asking about this so thank you to whoever submitted it. So the content in the game is a mix of directed, kinda like story quest missions, and then explorable content. Or you might say optional content. I don't even like calling it side content because it's a lot of fun, it's really good content. So to give you an idea, a lot of the main story quests are critical path missions if we want to call it that. They're very highly crafted. They're more linear than some of the other parts of the game, because we feel that’s how we can tell the best stories, give you a very intentionally-paced experience, y'know, with lulls and climaxes, so it really hits you. But that's only part of it. You're also gonna explore, fully explore a bunch of the locations in The Veilguard, so like, let me just lay a few on you: Arlathan Forest, Hossberg Wetlands, those are probably two of the biggest ones, the Crossroads - now we've seen Crossroads before in Trespasser, but this, isn't necessarily the Crossroads as you remember it. So you'll be able to explore this, this part of the Crossroads, and as you're there, you're absolutely gonna be discovering new areas, new quests, mysteries and new challenges. So exploration in the game is absolutely about player agency in these larger, less linear levels, and it's really an important part of the overall experience and core to our design. Now, as a player - and I'm just speaking for me personally - I'm the kind of player that wants to 100% every area. I want to go find all the optional quests, all the treasures, I wanna see that big 100% completed on my map. That's gonna take you quite a bit of time. So hopefully that answers the question. It is both.

KFM: I think that's a great answer, thanks, Corinne. This next one is from a user named Benedictus: Will we ever get the Venatori gear?

CB: Yeah, I can take that one as well. Venatori gear - so like, I'm assuming what we mean is for to like, wear on Rooks or on companions. Gosh, y'all, I'm gonna be honest - we really, really tried on that one. Hopefully you've seen in the videos our cloth sim, our hair sim, I think it's quite beautiful. The Venatori gear, generally we couldn't make that work to the quality we'd expect within combat. So, no you can't get most of the Venatori gear, but I will say there is a unique Venatori-themed helmet. I, I don't want to spoil what that is exactly, but, so, you can get a helmet, it is unique, it's pretty interesting and ties into some of the events that can happen in the game but I'm just gonna leave it there.

KFM: Gotcha. So, now we're getting into our first real minor spoiler question, so - consider yourself warned, do whatever you need to do, either listen or don't for the next, like, I don't know, minute. So this question is from Kala: Will there be any romanceable NPCs outside of the companions?

JE: I'll take this one. So, no - not this time. This time the romances for Rook are strictly within the companions. We wanted to really focus on those relationships and make sure that they were as developed and as deep as we could make them. And yet honestly and part of it - the other side of it is - Harding was a great example in DA:I, that was a character that as we were building the game, it really struck us, stuck out to us, this is a character that, actually, y'know, you see a lot, you build this very specific rapport with, and the writer, Sheryl, wanted to create that light romance with Harding. None of the characters in The Veilguard really jumped out to us in that same way as, this is a character we really want to build a relationship with, for Rook, but again, y'know, really focusing down on making sure the companion romances were as deep and meaningful as we could make them.

KFM: And this question is just for fun. So we're passed a spoiler, we'll get back into other spoilers in a bit, but this one's just for fun. We have so many cute, silly bird videos on the internet - Lucanis' Ninth Dagger, by the way, says that birds are their favorite animal - if you could just snap your fingers and a bird Easter Egg would be added for Assan, what would it be?

JE: Oh, that's a good question. So actually I'm gonna cheat, because I am trying to think of bird memes, or bird videos specifically, and I'm having a hard time, but, y'know, the thing about griffons is that they're half bird and also half lion, so I'm gonna go with a cat meme, say my favorite meme, and this is one that still brings me joy years after it came out, is the video of the cat grooving to the guy playing Finnish polka on the drum. Again, years old, I've loved - that's one of my favorite videos on the internet, so y'know, if we were gonna give Assan any kind of Easter Egg it would be that one.

KFM: I love that one - 

CB: You know, don't judge me on this, you're putting me on the spot here, but, the only thing I can picture in my head - y'all remember that video a few years back where the kid unleashes the rabbit into the field and then immediately that hawk comes down and snatches it up?

JE: Yes!

CB: Don't judge me, y'all! Don't judge me. But that's where my head goes.

JE: Oh, man.

CB: Assan just getting a little treat.

JE: I love that.

KFM: I love that.

JE: That's a great, that’s a great answer, Corinne. Fantastic.

KFM: So this next one is from a user named Ash. So Taash breathes fire, Lucanis has wings, Harding is a dwarf who has magic. A lot of our companions have some strange abilities - is this because the Veil is compromised?

JE: Oh, I'd say it's, I mean partially yeah. I mean, we've talked before about how over the course of the time since Dragon Age: Inquisition, I mean, it started at the end of Trespasser. The Veil's not in great shape. Corypheus already did a number on it, and Solas has very clearly, as you saw, in the [inaudible] preview, not been making things better in the intervening times. So, there is to some degree, y'know, I'll use Bellara as an example - Bellara's someone who's seeing these artifacts turn on, and being able to interface with them because there's all this magic that's coming back to the world through the torn Veil. Other characters though, I mean, you are recruiting people to stop the end of the world. You're recruiting extraordinary people, they're gonna have extraordinary abilities, and you know, someone like Davrin, a lot of his abilities are focused around Assan and the fact that he's got this partnership, this, almost, you know, familial bond with Assan, his griffon, so.

KFM: Can we get some Assans in the chat?

JE: I think I'm seeing a lot of Assans in the chat, so I think we're well covered there.

KFM: Me too.

KFM: Alright. This next one is for both of you, and I will say, another quick little spoiler, minor spoiler warning, depending on the way that either of you might want to answer this question. This is, of all the companions, who's the team's favorite and what companion was the most difficult to design?

JE: Ooh. I'm gonna cheat, I wrote Bellara so, I’m definitely not gonna say the companion I wrote because that would be weird, but I will say I loved the companion interactions so I'm gonna go with two of my favorite relationships that Bellara has within the team, friendships that she has within the team. So, Bellara and Lucanis start off as two characters who feel like they're from completely different worlds, their experience growing up was very different, where they lived, what they do, and over the course of the game, they kinda build this friendship over all these things that despite again - very different upbringings - they have a lot of things in common. They're both the, y'know, characters who just believe family is deeply important and that shows up in a lot of their interactions, a lot of, y’know, the way they talk to each other, they interact with each other, both within the Lighthouse but also out in the field. The other one - and this was one that came up organically as we were building the game - is Neve and Bellara and they, y'know, Bellara is a character who, y’know, despite being out in Arlathan is very big on stories, very big on - she finds - gets all the newspapers from Tevinter and she has kind’ve learnt who Neve is through that, and they build this very sisterly relationship that I love and that over the course of the game, I mean, we started out without this kind of as the intention, we started finding all these places that this can show up and it turned into, again, one of my favorite friendships that exists between the companions, so.

CB: Oh, that was such a good answer. Yeah, I think I might cheat as well, John, because, first of all, I don't want to speak on behalf of the entire team. So I'm gonna give you my two faves if that's alright. And I feel like y'all already know me on this. Every time we have a chance to talk about Taash and Emmrich I'm right there for it. I'd say they're probably my two favorites, but here's the thing y'all, here's why I love them so much. When you're out in the field like exploring, or on missions with them, their banter is so good, because they do not see eye-to-eye on necromancy, like, at all, and, it's really funny, it's really delightful, I love seeing how it evolves - so like, look - if you wanted a recommendation from me on like, banter in the field, you've got to hear Taash and Emmrich. Most difficult to design, let's touch on that really quickly. I, so, I'm gonna answer, but I don't want to say that like we put more effort into one versus another, but I would say the most challenging was probably Harding, just because you've probably seen if you saw some of the teaser footage, the pre-release trailer, we have teased some strange new powers for Harding, and when we do that we have to figure out how that layers into her combat kit, and when we onboard that, and, yeah it was an interesting challenge, it was a really fun one.

KFM: Awesome. Backing away from spoilers for a quick second, I'm going to ask this question to Corinne. With only two companions per party, as a Nightmare mode player, how can we balance not having a warrior in the team to tank? Will higher difficulty players be forced to bring Davrin or Taash for a melee instead of bringing the characters that we want?

CB: Oh super good - I was hoping this would come up, especially after we released the combat deep-dive for warrior trailer - hopefully y'all enjoyed that. So, let me start by telling you what's happening under the hood. Well, first of all, I'm not gonna bury the lede - you're not gonna have to bring a tank if you don't want to. But, let me first tell you what's happening under the hood, this is gonna be kind of high level, maybe we can go a little bit deeper when we have more time. Behind the scenes when you walk into an enemy encounter, we generally know how much pressure, or you could say intensity or aggression, we want to be putting on Rook to maintain that satisfying moment-to-moment experience. So to give you an idea of some of the levers we have for each encounter, that is the number of enemies that could be specifically focused on you versus your companions, how many enemies can be attacking at once, and even when you have multiple enemies coming at Rook, we have a ticketing system.

[text block character limit reached]

CB: And what that means is each enemy basically knows when it is allowed to attack or not. So, I tell you all that because basically when we're looking at the different types of classes and team compositions, those levers exist underneath the hood, so that we give you the most autonomy and flexibility, but also maintain that, that pressure, that engagement for you the player. So, a couple of other things on that. Now that you kinda get a sense of like what's happening under the hood, it is absolutely beneficial, but not required to have one of each class in your party. We did go into this with the goal of giving players more flexibility than perhaps we've seen in past entries. It's just a different approach. What we know is that players tend to get very attached to certain characters. If you've got your favorites, you oftentimes wanna bring them with you or if you're romancing a character, sometimes it's a feelbad to feel like you have to leave them behind because maybe they're the same class as you. So, the whole game is built and balanced around flexibility, and giving you the agency. So you can be successful, you can mix it up, but you gotta plan for it. So what, what do I mean by that? If you're not using teamwork, if you're not planning for your party composition for those synergies, it's definitely not gonna end super well. Right? Like, I've done no tank runs, but it takes some foresight in the strategy here. So I'll give you an example if you don't mind, I think I've been pretty out there that my favorite class and specialization right now - could change tomorrow - is the rogue Veil Ranger specialization. And this is very much a ranged archery-based specialization. So, I want to keep enemies at ranged, because I want to get those well-aimed critical hits, right, if those enemies are right up on top of me, I'm not gonna be able to do that. So if I don't have a tank in my party, a couple of the tools that I turn to - and I have done this, in fact, in my last playthrough I did this quite a bit - I might bring Bellara and use her Galvanic Tear, which pulls all the enemies towards like this really cool-looking gravity well and gets them off of me. I might instead use Neve's Time Slow. So the cool thing about this is it slows time for everything in the world except for you and your team, right? So I'm running away, I'm doing a Heavy Draw, getting those headshots, or making other tactical decisions. I could also turn to my rune loadout - hopefully y'all saw runes in the warrior combat deep-dive - that's an important part, especially if you're playing on Nightmare Mode, the strategic and tactical options that gives you, will allow you to overcome things like not having a tank. I think everyone may have saw the rune where you're doing a, basically an AoE freeze, and freezing everything in place. So it's kind of a long-winded answer, I'm sorry, it's complicated, but point is, is I think you're gonna have more flexibility in your build crafting and your synergies, but it's gonna depend on the strategy and composition that you feel works best for you and your own preferences. And then you did mention Nightmare, let me just finish with saying, and this is anecdotal, but in our own Nightmare playthroughs, we actually find that the most challenging aspect to plan around isn't necessarily aggro management, but making sure you have coverage on all the various elemental damage types. So, I just say this for anyone planning to go into Nightmare - plan well.

KFM: Staying on the topic of combat, it was noticed during the high-level combat videos that weapons and armor seem to be tied to different factions. Are there bonuses or something similar involved if Rook is a Grey Warden while using Grey Warden equipment? Are these removed if a Shadow Dragon Rook is using Grey Warden equipment? 

CB: Oh, interesting. You know, everyone went deep on that gameplay video, hey, I’m glad you noticed that. Yeah, so, to answer this, you're going to be working really closely with the factions in the game, right? Like the threat you’re up against is a world-ending threat so you’re going to interact with each of these factions. So that means that you’re gonna get a lot of the gear that that faction tends to use, and especially the stronger you help them become, the more gear you’ll have available from that faction. So when you see a piece of gear that has like the Veil Jumper icon on it, that signifies that it is aligned with that faction, but you can use it regardless of if that’s your faction background or not. All it means is that, you know, if I want to maybe improve it or get more gear in that vein, or that looks similar, I can see it’s from the Veil Jumpers, I’m going to go back to the Veil Jumper quartermaster, and that’s where I will find more items of that type or upgrade possibilities. But it also leans into the thematic identity. So, you know, I think in that video we were using the transmog system, but if I’m using a Veil Jumper gear like an armor, it’s gonna look like it was crafted by the Veil Jumpers, and it’s gonna lean into the mechanical themes of the Veil Jumpers as well, which, one of those themes tends to be lightning damage. Now, I will also say, and this is a little specific, but occasionally you will find gear, or even like skill nodes, that will occasionally be empowered, they’ll get stronger relative to your strength with that given faction. So like if you find a piece of gear that’s really core to your build, and it strengthens the stronger the Veil Jumpers are, like that gives you a pretty good signifier that maybe that’s a faction you wanna focus on.

CB: Katey, I don't know if you're still there.

JE: Yeah.

CB: Did we lose you?

[there is silence on KFM’s line]

JE: Ope.

CB: We may have lost Katey, y’all. 

JE: We can start, just, you know, let’s - 

CB: Yeah. Why don’t, why don’t, I do have the list of questions here so why don’t I ask the next one until Katey comes back. I hope everything’s okay on your side Katey. Alright. Next question I see, the Evoker description on the blog-post highlights ice-based magic. Does that mean we will not be able to have lightning- and fire-themed playstyles as the Evoker? No, no, absolutely not. The Evoker can lean into all of the elements, in fact, all mages can to a degree. You probably have seen the skill trees, you’re gonna pick up abilities, perks, traits, of all elemental types, and powering up those elements. So just because you’re an Evoker, doesn’t mean you’re like pigeon-holed into ice spells. What I will say is, if you’re heading towards that specialization, you’re gonna pass through the section of the skill tree where you’re more easily going to be able to naturally pick up those ice spells, right? So it might lean towards ice, but you can expand it. The name of the game is agency here.

JE: Corinne, why don’t I ask you the question so we can still kinda do a Q&A thing? CB: Yeah, that, that sounds good.

JE: Corinne, can I set the gear to look however I want without losing stats? And that is a question from YoCallMeRob.

CB: Alright, well, y’all know, fashion’s the true end game. So, we did confirm we have a full transmog system, so what I’m gonna do is spend some time going a little more in-depth for y’all, so that we’re getting new information. So yeah, if anyone’s not aware, transmog basically is, I have a piece of gear, but I apply an appearance to it that makes it look like something else that I like better so I can be fabulous. So, how this is gonna work is you’re of course gonna find gear as you adventure through the world, and you can equip that. But any piece of gear you find is also going to unlock the appearance for that gear. So you might find something that you really like, and you wanna look that way, and then you replace it, anything that you’ve already acquired, you can apply the appearance to whatever gear you want. Additionally, and this is one of my favorite parts, is, you’ll also find some appearance-only cosmetics that are specifically used just for transmog. So sometimes these are some of the fancier or more niche pieces of gear, maybe end up looking like a training dummy for instance. So you’ll get these appearance datas from opening treasure chests, exploring the world, and more frequently from vendors. So, look, if you’re in it for fashion, check out those vendor inventories because they got you. I would also say that you can transmog your casual wear, so field wear and casual wear, fully transmoggable. If you wanna be platemail while you’re hanging around the Lighthouse as a mage, more power to you. And then if I were just to give you a practical example of this, like on the Blood Dragon Armor, the pre-order bonus, those are cosmetics, those are just appearance datas, right, so they’re effectively evergreen, you can use them anytime you like without compromising your stats.

JE: I will say that I don’t think I’ve spent as much time in any other menu other than transmog, because as Corinne mentioned at the beginning of this, fashion is the true end-game, so. Katey, have we gotcha back yet?

JE: Katey, have we gotcha back yet?

KFM: Am I back? Can you hear me?

JE: Yay, you’re back. 

CB: Katey, we did our best Katey.

JE: Yeah.

CB: But I don’t think we were very impressive -

KFM: No, I think you both did a great job. It was one of those weird situations where Discord force-quit, but I could still hear everything everyone was saying. I don’t really know what that was about, but.

CB: I just assumed you didn’t like my answer.

KFM: Yeah, I rage-quit actually Corinne, it’s all your fault.

JE: Taken by the Fade.

KFM: No, thank you for taking over while I was figuring that out. There is a non-zero chance that that happens again, so just keep an eye out. 

JE: We’ll keep an eye out for it, we gotcha.

KFM: Thank you.

KFM: So I’ll just pick it up from the next question. The latest, latest - wow, I can’t even talk anymore - video series mentioned how each companion can set up or detonate specific combos. Are those always set in stone or would we get opportunities to change it up, through the skill-trees or otherwise? 

CB: Cool, cool, cool. I eat up these really specific combat questions. So first, let me give you an overview of how the primer-detonator relationship works between the classes. Like, this is very nitty-gritty y’all, if this is your jam, get your pencils out. So here’s the overview. Mages, and this whether, this is true of companions and Rook, mages apply weakened and overwhelmed debuffs, and those are two of the debuffs we call primers. Magers detonate the sundered debuff. Then if we go to rogues, rogues apply weakened and sundered debuffs, and rogues detonate overwhelmed. Warriors apply sundered and overwhelmed, and warriors detonate weakened. So you can see, kinda the interesting rock-paper-scissors relationship there. And when I talk about it as beneficial to bring one of each class? It’s just the inherent nature of that rock-paper-scissors relationship that I’m really thinking of. But, to answer your question, that is just the baseline, that is the default if you don’t modify it. Throughout the game, you will find opportunities, whether it’s from gear, skill-tree nodes, even runes, that allow you to break this paradigm. So when it comes to your companion builds, again it all comes down to the abilities you choose, what gear you’re equipping them with, how you allocate your skill points. Yeah, does that answer the question? There’s quite a bit of flexibility but there is a baseline paradigm as well.

KFM: Yeah, I think that answers the question.

KFM: Let’s see. The next one is, will we see a bit more the Lighthouse before release, as well as non-combat gameplay?

CB: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We’ll keep it brief here because we are gonna be talking more about exploration and the Lighthouse next month, so forgive me, but I’ll say stay tuned on that one.

KFM: Alright. Then, this next one I believe is a little bit of a spoiler. I know that some people have, can’t hear me still for some reason, if you can’t, tell folks to quit Discord and rejoin it, but -

CB: Okay, minor spoiler y’all, if you can’t hear Katey, this one’s a minor spoiler.

KFM: Yes. Thanks Corinne. This one is, will we be able to give gifts to our companions, either generic or plot-specific?

CB: Yeah, you sure can! I actually wanna shout-out one of our lovely designers, Dusty. This was a passion project from him. He was advocating for this. So, the cool thing about this is, it’s not like a transactional thing, like where I’m gonna go farm a bunch of like nonsensical items and just like, mechanically turn them over. Out in the world, and there in various locations, so you kinda stumble upon them, you can buy a gift that is very personal to any one of the companions, and then you go, you turn that into them, you give it to them, they have a nice acknowledgement. And then, the thing that’s just like so sweet about it, we’ve talked about how the companion rooms evolve over time, but if you go and get them one of these, like, very personalized gifts, they’ll display it in their room. Like it doesn’t go into some stats void. It’s actually on display.

KFM: I love that.

KFM: This next question, I'll pitch it to John. Some of our companions like Neve, Emmrich and Lucanis have been in past short stories and comics and there's also a passing resemblance to some of the old concept art from years ago. What is the process like for making a character at some point and then planning to bring them back as a companion, or were they always written or designed and intended to be companions?

JE: Alright, that's a great question, and it's actually one I'm gonna go a little deep on. So, as we build the game, as we start writing companions we see how they fit in the story, see how they fit together. Some characters have been around, some character concepts have been around for quite some time, others come in a little bit later in development as we realise we have a gap, you know, something in the story that we need someone, who makes sense to fill that gap, to be that character. But part of it’s also just as the writers we want to make sure that the people who are writing these companions are passionate, and they're writing a character they want to write. We don't want to just say "we need X, Y and Z. Write a companion to fill these gaps", but it'll be "hey, in this story, it really doesn't make sense that we don't have somebody, ah, doing X, is there a character we can build for that?" And so, y'know, you'll see the old concept art and a lot of those concepts, y'know, a lot of those, kinda the core of those characters remains intact, we may have changed details of them, we may have decided "okay, they were going to be X but now Y makes a little bit more sense" - Or as a writer I'm a little bit more interested in why, y’know, what, this particular concept speaks to me more. In terms of comics, short stories and such, generally speaking - and this isn't universal - but generally speaking, writers are writing these short stories in particular, it’s a volunteer, we ask the team, like, "hey, does anyone - we've got this short story anthology, who wants to write something for it?”, so writers are going to pick characters that they're passionate about and in those cases they tend to be their companions, so for example. You know, Neve’s shown, is mentioned. Neve, Emmrich, Lucanis have all shown up. Those were written by people who are passionate about those characters and we had already intended for them to be companions. Other characters, though - I mean, and Harding is an excellent example - we create a character to fill a role. In the case of Harding, she was in Inquisition largely to be there to kind of connect those exploration spaces together and give you a sense of the Inquisition’s presence, and then we saw the fan reaction, but beyond that, Sheryl really wanted to explore Harding's arc more deeply, so she got promoted to be a companion as well, so, yeah, I mean, it's an organic process, and I mean again, it comes down to, we want to make sure the people who are building these characters, ah, not just the writers but also the artists, y'know, the cinematic designers, the editors, y'know, the gameplay people, are excited to build these characters. And you know, and actually, I'm gonna go a little bit side topic on that. Bellara's a great example where we knew what Bellara wanted to be, needed to be in the story, but gameplay-wise it took a bit to kinda land on how her gameplay and her character arc and who she was melded together. Y'know, Corinne’s talked earlier about the companions and how they show up in gameplay. A really big thing for us on this project is making sure that the gameplay reflects the characters, their arc and their personality as much as possible, so. Yeah, kind’ve a long answer to say, it depends, but yeah, generally if they show up, especially in something like a short story, we’ve already intended for them to be a companion because, those are the characters that people, the writers are most passionate about, so.

KFM: I love that.

KFM: Apart from wanting to try different classes, what are the main incentives for multiple playthroughs now that, now that stuff seems more overall universal, to be attempted all in a single playthrough. Are there choices presented freely - are there choices presented that are impactful, that wildly different outcomes will come from, while - wow, wow, wow, let me start that one again. I think it’s just, I’m reading it straight off the sheet. 

JE: No worries.

KFM: I'll start from the top. Apart from wanting to try different classes, what are the main incentives for multiple playthroughs now that stuff seems more universal, to be attempted all in a single playthrough? Are there choices that are impactful and wildly different, and different outcomes and decision paths?

JE: So, I mean, there's a few incentives, one of which, is, and I mean, the most basic is, the three classes from a gameplay perspective do play differently and, you know, I’ve, it’s funny, Corinne was talking about how her favorite is the Veil Ranger but that might change. Mine literally changes every time I play, I start a new playthrough, I develop a new favorite class, which is the class I'm currently playing. But more generally, yeah there are choices in the game, there are different outcomes, there’s content that does, that you will see or won't see based on choices you make both within the critical path of the game but also with the followers themselves so, y'know. You're not going to see everything in a single playthrough, you're not even going to see everything necessarily in a couple of playthroughs, but, y'know, you want to see how your choices have different outcomes, that's the best way to do it. 

KFM: This question is - I understand mages having very magical-looking moves, but why do rogues and warriors also have very magical-looking moves? Was making every class look like a mage a purposeful choice? 

CB: Cool, cool, cool. So it's a multi-part answer, but yes, everything we've done has been with intention towards supporting the overall player experience. So I guess the first place I'd go to answer this is from a game-tuning and balance perspective. We knew that supporting multiple damage types like physical, fire, electric etc, that was gonna be an important factor in the strategic depth of the combat system, particularly as it leans into builds and the strategies you'd use to take on various enemies. It’s not the extent of it, but it's an important part of it. So that meant that making sure the various classes in some capacity have access to some or all of these damage types. And that then means that we need to make them read visually as such on the battlefield. So the first part is about making sure you have those strategic options on the battlefield. But there is more to it than that I'd say, we also found - and I've heard this from a lot of you, that some of our magical hybrid classes have been amongst the favorites. My goodness the discourse around Knight Enchanter - 

JE: M-hm -

CB: - So this felt like a very thematic way for us to support that goal if that makes sense, the goal of game balance but also leaning into the things that seem to resonate the most. If I was to just focus on the Warriors out there for a minute though, because we just released the warrior deep dive, we've actually long had a goal within the team of making them more visually interesting and impactful. We know, and I’ve heard from a bunch of you that warrior, y'know, tends not to be peoples’ first choice, but hey, any of the warrior fans out there - big props to you, because I love them, too. So this was like our chance, really, to show what a warrior can do, to make them feel like they have a presence on the battlefield that could be as interesting as some of the other classes, but I will say, I absolutely recognize that there are those of you that like, if you're playing a melee class, you even want a pure, like, physical-based warrior aesthetic, maybe something that's a little more grounded, you can generally make a build that's more physical-focused if that’s more your taste.

KFM: In addition to playing the first three games, what comic books or novels do you recommend reading before playing The Veilguard?

JE: Oh, that's a great question. I mean, generally speaking, one of the things we wanted to make sure with The Veilguard was that players could get into the story, understand what was going on without needing to, y'know, get into the ancillary material. I love the comics, I love the novels, I love the short stories, but they are intended to be kinda side content. One of the things that we hear loud and clear is sometimes folks don't really want that to feel like I need to have read this, I need to have seen this comic, I need to have watched that show for it to make sense. That said, I’d say The Missing, the most recent comic series. is a very clear lead-up to the beginning of The Veilguard, it's setting up events, it’s kinda setting up, y'know, Varric and Harding's search for Solas, it sets up some of the characters that you'll see in the game. Tevinter Nights is another one, not - we mentioned earlier that some of the companions show up there. Beyond just the companions, there’s some thematic stuff that comes out of that as well, some things that we kinda wanted to set up when we wrote those short stories, like, giving you an idea of what the worldstate is, how things have changed over time, and then I’d say, you know, more very recently, we have the podcast, Vows & Vengeance, which is intended to give you a taste of the companions and also, again, talk about the worldstate of Thedas at this point, you know, giving you kind’ve the lead-up to weeks before the events of the Veilguard, so you do have that sense of what’s going on, who are these people, and how, you know, when I first meet them in The Veilguard, you kinda have an idea of who they are. Again, though, this is all stuff that I think enhances the experience, but it’s not required, there’s never going to be, we’re never gonna put you in a situation where a character shows up and, you know, everyone makes a big deal out of it, and you’re sitting there wondering like, who, who is this person? Because they were introduced in other media. We always wanna make sure that you understand, that the only thing that you need to have done to understand The Veilguard is play The Veilguard, so.

KFM: Awesome. Also, yes, Vows & Vengeance is so good, so definitely, you know, give it a chance. The first episode is out now. I think a lot of people in the Vows & Vengeance Discord server, Discord channel are, are really stoked about it.

KFM: This next question. Will we be able to adjust how much damage the companions do in the accessibility settings?

CB: Yeah, so our customized difficulty, and accessibility settings as well, they’re more focused on how you the player experience the game while in control of Rook. So, things like enemy health, timing, things of that nature. So not in the settings, no, but if you really wanna be that kind of player that wants to amp up your companions, like have them do a greater share of the overall damage, there’s a number of ways to accomplish this. You’ll get gear that just strictly says, your companions do more damage. And then there are some unique buffs we support like Rally Party, so you as Rook can trigger this surge in your companions’ ability. So, again, we know how diverse the motivations are within the player-base, so we wanted to make sure those tools were there for y’all.

KFM: So now we’re getting back into spoiler territory. There’s minor spoilers, but, you know, definitely, take heed, for the next couple of minutes if you don’t wanna hear them. Okay, we ready? Will we finally meet Maevaris Tevani in Tevinter?

CB: Oh my goodness, y’all. Alright, you got the spoiler warning, so when I talk about cameos and appearances, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Okay, this one’s very near and dear to my heart as a trans woman myself, I’m pretty open about that. Yeah, yeah, our dear Mae, she’s in the game, happy to confirm it, and I am, every time I see her I absolutely freak out. What I’m not gonna tell you though is what role or capacity she plays, so you’re just gonna have to wait and see. But Maevaris Tilani, she’s in.

KFM: I am living for chat right now. Like, I try not to look at it too much during these, because it’ll distract me, but I’m living for chat right now.

KFM: This next one is also a minor spoiler. Will we find out what happened to Lucanis' parents, for his grandmother to have had charge of him?

JE: Yeah, so I mean, Lucanis is an Antivan Crow. If you know anything about the Antivan Crows you know that they are, well, assassins, and assassins tend to have fairly deadly politics, and the daggers are a lot more literal than you would see somewhere like Orlais, so. That’s all I’m gonna say. You’ll find out, you’ll find out at some point for sure.

KFM: We’re doing a great job at not giving too much away.

KFM: Do we get any jealousy dialogues from any of the companions if you switch up your romance plans partway through? Are any of the romances hard-locked at any point?

JE: Yeah so, you can, I mean, once, there is an opportunity, or there is a place in a romance where you essentially commit to it being exclusive. And we really wanted to make sure that, A), we were very up front about the fact that you were committing to an exclusive romance at that point, and before that, it is portrayed as, you’re flirting, you’re kind’ve, you know, figuring out each other. So, not, there’s no jealousy dialogues, but there are - places where you commit, and we wanted to be very clear to fans. There’s also going to be a place, because I think I’m reading this right, where, there’s a point in the story where if you haven’t committed, if you haven’t said like, yeah, let’s, let’s, you know, I’m in for it, I’m up for this, let’s do this, where you no longer have that opportunity. We’re very clear about what that point is, because again, we don’t want people to be missing out on a romance, to think like, I’ve got some time, you know, I really wanna romance Neve, but, I’ve got a little, and then find out that no, in fact, you don’t have anymore time, so. 

KFM: Are class specializations locked to a particular faction, or can Rook only learn a specialization from a particular faction, like through a faction trainer?

JE: So, the specializations are a lot more thematically tied to the factions than they are a strict, you must be X faction, you must get it from this person. You know, for example, I’ll use the Veil Ranger is all themed, as Corinne said earlier, around electricity, around the use of the Veil, around the use of that kinda magic. So while they are thematically tied, there is no, you must be a Crow to be a Spellblade for example, and part of that is because, while we do like having that connection between gameplay and, you know, roleplay, we also don’t want you to feel like, well, I really wanted to be a Spellblade, but I also really want to be a Grey Warden. We don’t want those two things, sometimes we want gameplay to influence narrative, but we never want you to feel restricted by one against the other, if that makes sense.

KFM: Yeah, definitely

CB: Katey, can I go off-script really quickly?

KFM: Of course.

CB: Alright, so I saw someone post in chat, “okay, poly next time, though”. Let me just say, I cannot make promises, I cannot, but I’m with you. I’m with you. 

KFM: I love it. Anytime you wanna address anything that’s happening in chat, by all means.

JE: Oh, shit, copy that.

KFM: I mean, don’t go too crazy. Alright.

KFM: This next question is from Que Sera Sera. Will we be able to change the font size in the UI, subtitles etc?

CB: I can take that one. So, quick reminder, we are gonna do a deeper dive as we get closer to launch on accessibility settings, but let me just answer this one. Yeah, yeah you absolutely can. There are limits of course, but as a fellow person who often has to squint, I’m 42 y’all, my eyes are starting to go. I can play comfortably, I suspect most players will be able to play comfortably.

KFM: Will there be a way to save characters we make so we don't have to start from scratch each time?

CB: Heck yeah, you absolutely can. We, I mean, look, all of you playing Inquisition, you’re still sharing your OC and your characters ten years on. We know how much you love it, so yeah, yeah, absolutely. I do wanna have a, some caveats here though. So, it’s when you’re in the character creator, you can import the character appearance, it’s just gonna be the appearance data, from an existing save of yours. So when I say an existing save, just let me put a very fine point on it, that save has to be local to the machine. Remember, we’re an offline game, there’s no online character sharing built in. But for those of you that like, your OC, are very near and dear to your heart and every time you replay you like to have the same character, and you’ve spent hours and hours and hours working on it, yeah, you can import that.

JE: We saw how many of you were saving screenshots of sliders in DA:I, and that was not a great experience, as we’re well aware, so.

KFM: This next one is, are companion quests going to focus on internal factors or external personal events? Like will it be a growth in character and self-discovery, or are they firmly-rooted in their sense of self and will ask for/need help with their factions, interpersonal relationships, etc?

JE: So that’s a great, another great question. It’s a mix of both. I mean, each companion has their own personal arc over the course of the game. You know, you go on missions with them, you solve problems with them and the nature of those problems, you know, it’s, the problems are a lot, often-times very external in nature, you know, something’s happening that they need help with, but most of the time those problems are also tied to their own personal growth as a character. Again, you know, we really want to make sure that players feel invested in these characters, feel invested in their stories. And we also want to show that these characters do grow over the course of The Veilguard, this is, there aren’t characters that remain completely static from moment one to the end-game. These are characters who grow, and you help them grow. They’re still, their problems are still not going to like, they’re not sitting there saying, well, Rook, you need to do everything for me, but you are, you’re intended to be the leader of this group, but also, you can be their friend and help them with things that, their challenges, so. Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s a mix of both, we really just, it comes down to the individual character and there is a lot of nuance in that answer I think too.

KFM: This next question from XenoGabby is a minor spoiler, so you’ve been warned once again. The question is, is Lucanis possessed?

JE: So, again, spoilers, everyone has been warned, fairly warned. So Lucanis Dellamorte is also known as The Demon of Vyrantium. And, he has spent a lot of time killing Venatori, who are mages, and who do know a lot about demons, so. Yeah, somebody decided that it might be a good idea to make that nickname stick.

KFM: And this next one, from a user named Crom, is there reactivity towards the specialization that you chose? Like some people might trust more Champions, or maybe freak, others will freak out with Death Callers or Reapers? 

CB: Yeah, what a good question, so, in general the reactivity is reserved for things that aren’t necessarily likely to change, things that can create a throughline that we can keep building and building upon, so like your faction, your lineage, your class, your choices. So that keeps a consistent narrative thread with those elements, and then we can assume that thread continues from A to B. So the answer is no, they don’t react to your specialization, but in part that’s because you can full refund, you can respec at any time, you might a Death Caller one moment and another specialization on the next encounter.

KFM: And, this next question. You mentioned encountering companions on their own missions in the world. If I keep my party mostly the same, does that mean that I miss out on their side missions, or are they unavailable to be picked up during that time? 

CB: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you’re, you have all the tools that you’re not gonna miss out on quests based on who’s in your party. How would I answer this - so, there are certain plot elements that can change what quests are available to you, and in some cases, some quests that you might have in your journal can actually expire based on choices and how you advance the plot. So there are ways that quest content gets cut off, or alters. But in general you have the visibility and the tools so that you won’t miss out on it. I can give you a couple of examples, that might be helpful. So when you meet companions out in the world, there’s kinda like a couple of different ways that they can show up. In a recent playthrough, I was exploring Hossberg Wetlands. It was technically for a quest that should’ve been more oriented towards Davrin, but I didn’t have him in my party, and as I got close to the objective, he showed up with Assan and helped me clear the path forward. The other way this will happen, I was out in Arlathan, actually doing, on my way to do a main story mission, and I get to the far reaches of Arlathan Forest, and I already knew that Taash wanted to help me with some of the challenges of that arc. Well, Taash is right there waiting for me, so I actually chose to instead like, ah, Taash seems impatient, I’m gonna actually jump on that story arc right now instead of what I intended to do, so. Just some examples of the way that as you’re journeying through this world, opportunities are gonna show up, but they allow you just to express more agency, you’re generally not going to miss them.

KFM: Awesome. This next one is, minor spoiler, you’ve been warned. This next question is from Tazaba. What's the difference between the Veil Jumper faction and the Veil Ranger Specialization?

CB: Yeah, okay, so, yeah we just wanted to kinda flag this as a spoiler, just because there might be assumptions about how you take on specializations in this game. So John touched on this a little bit already, but specializations really represent the training and fighting styles used by a given faction. As John mentioned, you do not have to be a Veil Jumper to choose a specialization that’s associated with the Veil Jumpers. You’ve just been around them, you’re aware of their techniques, and you wanna take that on yourself. So, in this particular case, and I get the confusion because Veil Jumper and Veil Ranger sound very similar. If I’m playing as a rogue, using the Veil Ranger specialization, all that means is I’m fighting in the style of the Veil Jumpers, like they do, with bow and arrow, typically with electric damage, that sort’ve thing. So just, to be super clear, it’s not required that you have to play a Veil Jumper in order to be a Veil Ranger.

KFM: This next question is, where is the equator in Thedas, or the planet Thedas is on, relative to places we’ve explored?

JE: That is a great question. So, I will say that, you know, it’s funny until I saw this question, it’s not something I’d ever thought a lot about, but as I started thinking about it a little bit more deeply, based on how the climate changes across Thedas, you know, obviously, to the south are the Avvar and things get a little bit more wintry, and then up north is a lot more tropical, I’d say that Thedas is a southern continent on this world, so.

KFM: Are there any main story missions that require you to use a specific companion? Kinda similar to a previous question.

CB: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, there are a few, yes, again, in the warrior deep dive, I’m not gonna describe it, just in case anyone, you know, didn’t wanna have spoilers, you can see that a companion was required for that. However, that’s the exception rather than the rule. In general, we try to give players the agency to bring who they want for these moments. There are these times where a companion, either their faction or their story arc is so closely tied or intersects with the events of a main story mission that they do become required, but it’s not the standard. And then of course, in general, if you’re doing your companions’ arcs, those are the moments where they’re more than likely gonna be required.

KFM: Will we be - 

CB: It's pretty flexible, like if, if you’re worried about like, every mission I go through, like am I gonna have someone that is gonna be mandated? Generally not.

KFM: Sorry, I almost talked over you there Corinne, my bad.

KFM: This next question is, will we be able to pause cutscenes? Will there be any kind of dialogue history to look back on if we miss what was said? 

JE: So, you can pause every cutscene in the game. Obviously, life happens, you know, somebody, maybe you’re cat’s, you know, just to use an example that definitely doesn’t happen to me regularly, my cat might be throwing up in the next room and I need to find a way to get her off the carpet and on to, you know, not the carpet, so you can pause any cutscene, and conversation. There is no dialogue history at the moment unfortunately, and that’s not something, we did look into it but it’s just based on how the dialogue is structured and how it’s built in this game, that’s not something that we are going to have unfortunately. 

KFM: I saw somebody say “cat vomiting is so real”, and I agree, sometimes when I’m playing games, my dog decides to do something insane.

KFM: So, this next question is, since companions can get into relationships with each other, is there a mechanic behind which companions get together? Can a companion leave due to your world decisions, and if so, will their partners leave with them?

JE: I’m gonna answer half this question, the other half is a spoiler that we’re not gonna get into right now. Companions, there is not actually a mechanic behind the companions getting together. We never wanted it to feel like a mechanical thing, and obviously, different companions are gonna have different attractions. One of the fun things is, as you’re going through, especially if you’re not flirting with one of the companions, you can see these relationships starting to develop, and the thing that actually allows them to, you know, completely develop is, generally committing to another relationship, or, you know, not being engaging, not engaging in a romance with those companions at all. So, yeah, I mean, there’s not a mechanic, it’s just what we felt made the most sense and, I think that’s honestly one of my favorite things about the companions is, they’re all written to feel like real people with real preferences and real, you know, attractions. So beyond just romances, they also develop friendships and even rivalries with each other, because of these, them feeling like these characters that exist outside of just the game, so. 

KFM: Awesome.

KFM: This question is all about Davrin. Hildrana would love to know more about Davrin. What’s his personality like, what kind of hobbies or things does he like, and what his relationship with Assan is like?

JE: So Davrin is one of my favorite, I mean, I say one of my favorite characters, honestly I love all seven companions so it’s challenging for me to say which. But Davrin is stern, thoughtful and considerate though, he has a soft side for sure. You see that develop over time as he starts to warm up to the other companions. He has, you know, a kindness to him that is brought out in particular by certain companions, and also a strong sense of pride and when he develops a rivalry with some of the companions. So there’s that sense of, he knows who he wants to be, he knows who he is, and a lot of his arc is making that journey. In terms of how he relates to Assan, you know, his relationship over, evolves over time, I’m not gonna get too deep into spoilers because there are spoilers for that in his quest. The other interesting thing about, about Davrin, and this shows up, we’ve talked about this before. He’s a monster hunter. He’s not just a Warden who sees fighting monsters as, you know, just part of the job. He believes in turning this into a skill-set that he alone, you know like, he has more than anyone else. Learning how to defeat monsters, learning their weaknesses, and that does show up a lot in his character arc, so.

KFM: This next question came through our askbox on Tumblr, so shoutout the BioWare Tumblr. Rosered is asking why do elves seem to not like wearing shoes? Is there a lore reason behind it? Are they not afraid of getting frostbite or stepping in something gross?

JE: So the shoeless elves thing is in part a, it’s a, Dalish are very close to nature, they walk, go around shoeless, in large part, to become closer to nature. It’s part of their culture, it’s part of who they are. But, you know, especially, and it’s not true of every Dalish clan, the Dalish are a tremendously widely-spread and widely-varied people, so. For example, Bellara does not go around shoeless. She wears boots. She’s climbing around on ancient ruins, walking through maybe a shattered eluvian, or a place where eluvian’s shattered, it’s a great way to get your feet sliced up on the hard rocks and on the hard glass. And in general Veil Jumpers are a little bit more, where they go and what they do really requires a lot more care and a lot more protection, so. I mean you’ll notice in Bellara’s visual design but also in the visual design of the other Veil Jumpers, they’re very practically minded, they know that what they’re doing is dangerous, and, you know, and, again, not every Dalish clan goes round shoeless, so.

KFM: ZJ wants to know, do all companions have aesthetic changes when in the Lighthouse and outside of the Lighthouse?

CB: Amazing. Yeah, yeah, they absolutely do. So, just like Rook, each of the companions has what we refer to as their casual wear. This is how they look in their downtime, their more relaxed moments. It’s definitely different from how they look headed into battle. And I’ll tell you this. If Emmrich’s casual wear doesn’t send you, I just don’t know what to tell you.

KFM: I’ve got a fun one coming up. Do they companions have favorite foods, and if so, what are they?

JE: Oh I love this one, so they do. Each of them does have favorite foods. It’s funny, I’d say that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is probably the most we’ve talked about food in a context of Dragon Age, ever. But yeah, I mean, you know, some of them are a little bit more, you know, they have simpler tastes, and in large part that’s because that’s what they’re used to or what they can cook. We talked, I’m gonna actually give a little bit of a, I don’t know if I consider this a spoiler, but maybe if you’re really sensitive to spoilers you don’t wanna listen to this last part. We’ve talked about how there’s people on the team who are better cooks and people on the team who maybe don’t have necessarily the skill-set, who could burn water. So one of the things I really love is, you know, Bellara and Lucanis actually end up being, essentially, the team cooks. Bellara, you know, spending a lot of time out in nature, learning a lot about, you know, different types of cooking, is really big on experimentation, she likes to, you know, try different things. Lucanis comes from the Crows, Lucanis is very big on the finer things, so between the two of them, there’s a point in the story where they basically decide, if we don’t do this, the entire team is going to starve, so let’s just call ourselves the cook, cooks, and make sure that nobody dies of food poisoning, so.

KFM: This next one, I believe we actually might’ve even touched on this in the first Q&A, but, Trev has noticed a lack of dwarves in our promotional material concerning Rook. Inquisition had them sharing facial hair options with humans. So their question is, will dwarves return to more braided, grander beards, or will the facial hair options be shared like previously?

CB: Yeah, we did touch on this briefly, so let me go a little bit deeper. Yeah, there are some grander dwarven beards, like braids, beads woven in, it’s really lovely and really thematic. And y’all have seen our Strand hair, how great that looks, I think it looks just as great for the beards. And I do know, we’re gonna, at some point leading up to launch, we are gonna be showing some dwarf Rooks. So, let’s see if we can’t get some beard options on display there. It actually really was quite the challenge to get the physics to work with all the armor variance we have on those beards. So I’ll tell you what y’all. The team loves hearing from you. Would it be okay if I just asked in chat, could we get some love for our character art and tech anim teams because they put their heart and soul into make sure this would work for y’all. 

JE: It is, it is incredible how good the beards look, like, it just, they did, the work that they’ve done is just spectacular.

CB: Aw y'all are too kind. And then I guess just to finish up this question, we try and let you use as many options as the character creator has for any character you wanna create. So we definitely created bears in mind that are more dwarven in nature. You can use that on a qunari if you want, or you can use a more traditional human beard on a dwarf if you want, but your options are there. Aw, y’all are lovely, thank you so much.

KFM: So we didn't tag this next one as a minor spoiler. I don’t think that it is. But, definitely want to flag it anyway. Will the Solavellans have a chance at a happy ending?

JE: Corinne, I’m gonna let you do this one. 

CB: Oh my goodness, this is the question. Look! I mean, I thought y’all wanted the pain? Didn’t you tell me you wanted the pain, that tortured romance that rips your heart out? Honestly though, I just wouldn’t feel right about spoiling anything there. I’ll just say this, I’ll just say this. Trick has done a fantastic job with Solas, they always do, this is some of ther best work I think. And then I’ll also say, as, for myself as the resident shipper on the leadership team, I’m repping y’all, but that’s all I’m gonna say.

KFM: That’s definitely what I meant by, not really a spoiler, but some people might’ve thought that in the beginning.  

KFM: Okay, next question is, since you can choose to be part of the same faction for most of the companions, will that give you an advantage when trying to befriend them?

JE: So you will get some unique dialogue with the companions that are part of your own faction. The first time you meet them, they may not all know you by face, but they’ve at least heard of you, I’ve heard of who you are, maybe even heard of you leaving the faction to go help Varric to track down Solas. But that said, you know the faction, you don’t necessarily as people. So they will know you but you still have to work to earn their trust and learn, you know, get them, help them with their problems.

KFM: Next question is, will there be more connections between the Veilguard? Like will we see them hanging out together without out us?

JE: Oh, I love this one. Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think I’ve said this twice already, but my favorite thing is how much the companions feel like a, end up feeling like a found family. They’re invested in each others problems, you know they’re, invested in each others’ success and failures, and this manifests through a bunch of different ways. Scenes, banter, even interactions in the Lighthouse itself. Because one of the things that I think is important, I know Corinne also thinks is super important, these worlds, these games feel the best when they don’t feel like they’re there as a theme-park just for you, just to exist for Rook as a protagonist. These are characters that have relationships, have, you know, things going on that don’t necessarily directly involve Rook all the time. They have their own relationships, their own feelings, and we really want them to feel like their own people, and feel like they do exist outside of just the sphere of Rook. So, you know, they’ll follow, you’re the one leading this fight, but the companions don’t just exist for you.

KFM: So this next one is a real minor spoiler warning. Will the companions have interactions with Solas? I imagine the companions will comment on Rook’s decisions regarding Solas, but was wondering if the potential relationship between Solas and the companions will play any part?

JE: Oh, this is a good question. So a lot of Solas’ relationship is with Rook. Rook and Solas have a connection, they have a bond, and part of that is, and I’ve said this before, but Solas sees a lot of himself in Rook. He sees, you know, the person, you know the person he was before, the person he thinks he is, in Rook, and becomes, you know, again, we, they develop a connection. You get to flavor how it is, you can make it more antagonistic, make it friendlier, but ultimately it is a connection between the two of you. Now, that said, the companions are much a part of Rook’s story as Solas is, and sometimes those relationships can cross over, as well as, there are followers who, you know, are going to have a more complicated connection and complicated relationship with just, Solas as an entity, you know, Bellara, for example, is an elf, she’s Dalish, and this a person from her pantheon, so. There’s going to be a lot more of a, I guess, like I said, complex relationship between the two of them. Davrin is another example, someone else who is Dalish, so, you know, their views on the gods in general are going to be a little bit different. And then on the other side,you have someone like Emmrich who is very big on magic and the Fade, so they’ll have their own [inaudible] and their own thoughts. 

KFM: Before I get to this next question I do wanna say we’ve got about a fifteen minute warning, we’ve got about fifteen minutes left, so we’ll get through as many questions as we can in that time. And with that said, our next one is, and, I feel like we might have actually touched on this one earlier, but, keep me honest. Would it be possible to hide some of the combat UI, such as companion trackers and enemy HP bars, for even more immersion? 

CB: Yeah, good question. It’s actually, it’s reasonably robust what you can do with your UI. So let me give you some examples. If, normally when you hit an enemy you’ll see damage floaties come off of it. If you wanna turn those off, you can. If you want to play without, say, the minimap or the wayfinding markers, have a more organic experience, you can. I challenged myself to do a, it was really difficult to do a really difficult run where I turned off my own health bar, you can do that too. And then, I know one of them that a lot of people have been asking about is, we do have the incoming attack indicators, that just help you react. But, if you’re the kind’ve player that wants to turn those off, cut down on the noise, yeah, you can do that too, so. You know, I can’t say that we support every single option that you might have in mind, but it’s reasonably robust. 

KFM: And then, another, just small, minor spoiler, you’ve been warned yet again, is there lock-picking in the game?

CB: Oh gosh lock-picking, notorious lock-picking. Well let me answer it this way. I think the approach we took in The Veilguard is that each companion has a unique, what we’re calling, exploration ability, or abilities, that you can use to solve puzzle, access new areas and find treasure. So, like in that regard it’s not actually dissimilar to lockpicking, it’s just that it is more thematic to the companions and their unique skill-sets within The Veilguard. It’s very specialized, I guess you could say. And, look, I’ve been there when you’re playing and you feel like you have to take a rogue, otherwise you’re not gonna be open the lockpick chests. Some players like that, some players dislike it, but the option that we wanted to give to y’all is that, you know, we did say this is a spoiler right? We did, yeah. So Rook does find a certain dagger and through it a method to channel these exploration abilities of their companions, even when the companion is not in your party. So like, look, if I’m exploring Hossberg, and there’s a puzzle and I know how to solve it, like I’m not running all the way back to like a party swap-point, you can just use the dagger.

KFM: This is not a spoiler, and it is actually something we confirmed a little bit earlier in the Q&A, but it doesn’t hurt to be clear. Can we freely reallocate or refund skillpoints?

CB: Yeah, so we’ve confirmed this, I’m just gonna keep it brief, yes, absolutely. Refund all, refund last, no cost. It’s an entirely friendly refund system. Go experiment, and then let me know what you do.

KFM: Will the acts be broken down into acts or stages at all? Mainly wondering for like spoiler discussion purposes, while they’re all playing and wanting to talk to one another about it?

JE: So while we don’t officially within the game say this is this act, this is the next act, there are some pretty obvious narrative breakpoints where the context changes, or there is, you know, events that make it clear that things are now advancing into a different stage. That’s now, to be clear, that’s largely around the critical path. Other content can largely be done at any time, but even there we do unlock certain things over the course of time, because, again, it makes, it maybe doesn’t make narrative sense in the context of, say, an earlier act, but now, you know, you’re into act two, it feels a lot more meaningful and makes a lot more sense in the world. You can do a lot of content in any order, but the critical path is largely broken into acts.

KFM: Now, I think this next question might be the most important question we can answer. A user by the name of doggiesnores says, would you please tell me happy birthday? 

JE: Happy birthday doggiesnores.

CB: Aww, happy birthday doggie - I feel weird saying doggiesnores. I mean, listen -

JE: You gotta roll with it Corinne.

CB: John, Katey, do we wanna sing? Do we wanna sing?

JE: No!

KFM: Oh we can - oh, okay.

JE: You can sing.

CB: Alright. [sings] Happy birthday to you -

KFM: - [sings] to you - [stops singing] are we gonna stop now? Okay.

CB: We’ll stop, we’ll stop. 

JE: Yeah, I think, yeah. 

CB: We gotta get back to the questions.

KFM: Yeah, we do have a time limit now.

KFM: Alright, next question, alright. This is from Guapa. Okay. I wanna know the helmet situation. Back in Inquisition, there were helmets exclusive to races, and to be honest, most helmets were exclusive to humans. Will elves and humans share helmets since their head shape seems to be more similar now, and will there be qunari helmets rather than just facepaints?

CB: Love this described as “the helmet situation”. I love it. Yeah, so let me describe this to you. All the helmets can be worn by all the lineages with one big exception. The qunari still use the vitaar face paint. So each helmet has a unique look, and if you’re using the vitaar variant of that instead, that too has a unique look, so you’ll wear that facepaint instead of the helmet. And we, we felt that this was just generally a good precedent following Inquisition and, really what led us to this decision is that, when you see horn customization, and hair customization with the horns in character creator, we didn’t want to sacrifice that aspect of it in character creator. It’s just effing cool, that’s all I can say about it. So, yeah, the qunari will use vitaar. All the other helmets can be worn by all lineages. We’ve talked a lot about transmog, so of course you can transmog them, you can hide your helmet, you can hide your helmet in certain situations. So I’d say, as a “situation”, we’re pretty happy with it.

KFM: This next question is, will we be able to tint and change the color of our armours, or have they, or do they have their default colors only?

CB: Oh cool, yeah, that kinda gets to transmog in a way. Gosh, what’s the, the best way to answer this I think is that each armor piece, like gear piece you have, will have bespoke colors, but for almost every single armor piece, while you can’t dye them, we have created color-variant cosmetics and they’re very often aligned with the various factions in the world, right? So like, there’s one, for instance, that has this like, incredible, like flowing cape, I use it all the time. There’s a variant of it for each faction with different faction, with different colors and logos and things of that nature. So you can’t dye, but it really is flexible and very thematic. And then I guess, going back to the Venatori armor question we had way at the beginning, while I wouldn’t say they’re explicitly Venatori, there are some very Venatori-like color schemes in some of the armors you’ll find.

KFM: I think this might be our last minor spoiler question, so once again, you’ve been warned. AelaFireheart asks, will we be seeing other griffons from The Last Flight? 

JE: So, again, just to be clear, spoilers, but yeah, Assan has brothers and sisters, so Assan is not the only griffon that shows up in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. 

CB: Hey, I just gotta respond to something in comment, that somebody says, wait, does that mean I can’t be pink? And I’m assuming we’re talking about armors. There are some pink armors. Don’t worry -

KFM: Confirmed.

CB: - there’s some pink.

KFM: As some of the companions come from media outside of the games, were they already chosen as companions for the game and then integrated into the additional media, or were they characters outside of the game, and the team wanted to bring them in?

JE: I think this is pretty similar to a question we answered earlier, so I mean, again, it depends, but if they showed up, especially in Tevinter Nights, they were already intended to be companions at that point, so.

KFM: Are there any lineage-based surnames or is it just based on the background?

JE: So surnames in this game are entirely based on your background choice. The reason for this is we do reference your surname in dialogue, a not inconsiderable amount, and we didn’t, at a certain point it becomes unsustainable in terms of how many different variations, so. We reference it based on your surnames, sorry, your background.

KFM: Is there any chance that we will be getting any audio snippets of some of the companions and Rook’s voicelines before release?

JE: Well that’s the great news about the, Vows & Vengeance, is that, each companion will show up in one of the episodes, and you’ll be able to hear their voice in there, so. First episode yesterday, and there’s more to come.  

KFM: Remember when I said that was the last, or we had already read the last minor spoiler, I was wrong, there is one more. So, once again, you’ve been warned, minor spoiler upcoming. This question is from SammyCherryLee. Considering Varric’s timeskip, looks are a direct, Varric’s timeskip looks are a direct translation of how he looked in the comics. What thought process went into Morrigan’s new design, and what do you usually consider when bringing in old beloved characters back, but also make sure to adapt them to the years that have passed within the game?

JE: So, in every case, any time we’re bringing back a character, we want to think about, what would, what’s changed for that character in the time since you’ve last saw them, so, Varric, Morrigan, any other characters we bring back, there is this thought of, okay, it’s been, in this case, you know, almost ten years, what’s changed for these characters in that intervening time? In the case of Morrigan, she’s coming to terms with a lot of truths about both herself but also her mother, you know, you see her with Flemeth’s crown, or a variation of it, and that’s speaking to her personal journey of, what I would call, kind’ve acceptance of who she is and how she connects to Flemeth, because ultimately we want this to feel like a real world. It’s, they’re not the same person they are ten years ago, none of us are, and we don’t want characters to feel like, either ten years have passed, and hey, I’m exactly the same, because that’s stagnation for the character, and it’s just not believable or, honestly, fun, for you. And it doesn’t do justice to those characters.

KFM: Can we clarify - ooh, fuck, I think my Discord just went down again.

JE: Yep, I can still hear you.

CB: We can, we can hear you Katey, so.

KFM: Oh, good!

CB: Yeah.

KFM: I’ll just keep talking!

CB: Great, let’s do it!

KFM: I’m so sorry for the f-bomb, I didn’t know you could still hear me. 

CB: Hey, we’ve all been there.

JE: Cursing, in our Discord, my goodness!

CB: How very human of you.

KFM: Ban me, ban me. This next question is, can you clarify if Spellblade will be forced to use a dagger, or can we still use staff as a melee combat weapon?

CB: Oh, heck yeah, let’s go. You know, I was wondering if this was gonna be clear in the combat video we put out, so I’ll speak about mage, but this is generally true of all the classes. So they each have two weapon sets, if you’ve seen the character sheet. So for mage, you’re gonna have your staff slot and then you’re gonna have the orb-and-dagger slot. So, at any point, like even between weapon swings, you can swap to your class alternate weapon set by hitting down on the D-pad. So you’re not locked down into one weapon set or the other, even if you’re in a given class or specialization. Now, like what I would say is that the Spellblade specialization has a lot of extra functionality and depth that like is augmented when using the orb-and-dagger, but, like if I give you an anecdote of how I play, the staff heavy-attack armor, I take this, or, the staff heavy attack charge, I take a trait where when I’m doing damage and playing, it’s building up that heavy attack charge on my staff. Even when I’m playing as my Spellblade. So I’ll be, just going to down with orb and dagger, I’ll notice that my staff is fully-charged, I’ll swap at a convenient moment, use my heavy staff attack, blast the enemies down, I was telling y’all, like, these Nightmare players, like planning around your elemental damage types, it’s really great to have weapons of multiple elemental types, right? So I go up against something that’s resistant to fire, I’m gonna hit down and maybe swap to my necrotic weapon.

KFM: I'm back, in record time. 

JE: Welcome back! 

KFM: Okay, did we get to the next one, or was that just the Spellblade question?

CB: Oh that was, sorry I was geeking out too much Katey.

KFM: Oh that’s okay, no, it’s great!

CB: We hit upon a favorite topic of mine.

KFM: That’s okay. Do we think we have time for one more, or do we think it’s time to wrap up?

JE: I can go a little late, we’ve got, I think we can do a couple more, for sure.

KFM: Okay, we do only have three left, so.

JE: Let’s finish the list!

KFM: Let’s do it.

KFM: Alright, next question. Since it was mentioned that playing as an elf in the Veil Jumpers will see you more of a, see you as more of a Dalish elf, and a City elf if you play as a Shadow Dragon, what kind of elf would you be in the other factions?

JE: So this is actually a really interesting question for me because I think one of the things I’d say is, while City Elf versus Dalish Elf is a lot more of a useful distinction in, you know, Ferelden, Orlais, we’re in northern Thedas, things are different up here. And a great example is Rivain. Dalish settlements, you know, they have Dalish settlements within cities, integrated into the cities, because, again, they don’t have that same bias, that same distinction. So it’s not really a City Elf versus Dalish Elf thing in a lot of those cases. It’s a lot more about, how you play into the faction, you know, and, in some cases it matters more that you’re an elf, in other cases it doesn’t actually matter to the people of that faction, they’re just looking for someone who could do the work. A great example, and I’ll just, very, very light spoilers, Mourn Watch is a great example where, they just care that you are capable of, you know, executing the duties that you’re given, so.

KFM: This next question, we’ve definitely confirmed a few times today already, but I’m sure there’s been a couple of people who cycled in and out. Will, when will we be releasing detailed information on the full list of accessibility features in the game?

JE: So yeah, so I mean, we mentioned, we’re not quite ready to talk about them, but we will be diving into them before launch. We wanna make sure as many people as possible can enjoy and play the game, so.

CB: Yeah, I think we’re doing a feature, some kind of blogpost on that, but, that’ll be a good format where we can be a little bit more in-depth.

JE: Yeah.

KFM: Alright, and the final question that I have on my list. It’s about localization. WoodenSmith says, I’d like to hear more about how localization works. What sorts of things have to be changed or adjusted so they make sense in different regions? Do localization teams have to be super careful when they translate to make sure they’re not accidentally revealing more than was intended in other versions? I’ve also always been very curious about accents in other versions. For example, do the, I’m gonna butcher this, do the Orl - Orlesian -

JE: Orlesian.

KFM: Orlesian, thank you, John. Character voice -

CB: That was really good, Katey!

KFM: I tried!

JE: Yeah, you tried, you got most of the way there, yeah!

KFM: For example, do the Orlesian character voice actors speak in a French accent in the Japanese version, or dwarf characters speak with an American accent in the French version?

JE: So I’m going to talk broadly about localization, and I’ll get a little bit into the accent question. So, localization is a thing that we’re doing constantly. We’re almost working with the teams, we have regular syncs with them, and a lot of that is because localization is not just, a lot of people think of it like, yeah, you’re just translating. Well, you’re not, you’re, you know, you’re, again, there’s different things to understand about different languages, they have different rules around grammar and, I will say, I think every writer has at least one story where they wrote, kind’ve, a fun double-entendre into a conversation, and then they got a ping from some of the localization teams saying, hey, can you very thoroughly explain what you meant there? And that’s what I like to describe as being hoist on your own petard because, sometimes, you’re like, oh I said this, it was really ribald, and now I don’t want to talk to this person who is very seriously and very concernedly, looking, it’s just like, ‘can you please tell us what that means?’ But yeah, I mean, in general, it’s an art-form of its own. You know, different sayings translate differently into different languages, different metaphors translate differently to different languages, and we always wanna make sure that other people, you know, people are playing this game in every language have an experience that feels authentic and meaningful, and doesn’t feel like it’s just kind’ve, you know, phoned in, we just, we just ran it through Google Translate or something, so. Again, localization is a huge part of what we do, the localization team we have is amazing, they do fantastic work, I love working with them. As far as accents, yeah, we do try to keep some consistency, it’s not always going to be a one to one, but we do try to say like, okay, so, this character, this group of characters needs to sound similar, and they’ll find an accent that works with the language that they’re trying, because, again, different accents work differently with different languages, and we wanna make sure that there’s that consistency, so, yeah.

KFM: We did it!

JE: Yeah!

KFM: That’s all of our questions that we’re able to get to you today. Wanna just say a quick thanks again to the community for submitting all of these really questions, it was a lot of fun going through them and, you know, making sure that we were able to give you some new stuff this time around. Yeah, anything you guys wanna say before we hop off?

CB: Yeah, can I just say, look, we love here, being here answering questions for you but the support, the interest you all show, it really fuels us in the team.

JE: Mhm.

CB: You all are a big part of us being able to make this game what it is, and I really hope we do you proud, so just, sincere thank you to everyone. 

JE: Yeah, just, I just wanna echo that. I’ve been on this project for a while, and it’s been a lot of, not getting to talk about it, and quietly saying I don’t know, are we making more new Dragon Age? So being able to actually have these conversations and give you the details that you want without spoiling the game, it’s, it’s a lot of fun. This is genuinely the funnest part of my week, so thank you everyone.

KFM: Awesome, well thank you both so much for your time, Corinne and John. And, yeah, we have recorded the audio for this, so we’re going to turn that into a transcription, and put that in the Q&A archive channel, which lives underneath ask-bioware. That will be coming, you know, in the next couple of days to a week or so, you know, we’ll, we’ll be working away at it as soon as possible, so just let, let me know if you have any questions.

JE: Awesome. Thank you so much everyone, have a good Friday, good weekend, and I’m gonna go eat a sandwich, so.

CB: Happy Friday!

KFM: Happy Friday, and happy sandwich day!

CB: Bye bye.

JE: Thank you.

KFM: Bye.

JE: Bye.

[source: the official BioWare Discord server, August 30th dev Q&A]

Update: If you would like to listen to the Q&A for yourself in video format, or listen to it again, Ghil Dirthalen recorded it and has now uploaded a video of it here.

[magerightsmagefights]

There’s a lot of good “what ifs” for a Rook. What if Rook is the child of HoF, of Hawke, bonded to this or that spirit, etc, but I'd like to make just one more suggestion for who Rook could be:

Cole.

He’s real now, all the way through, with a beating heart and a face that needs shaving every now and then. Varric never knew much about children, and Cole didn’t know much about parents, but everyone needs help to become a person. Things just fell into place. Cole has Varric’s shaving mirror now. The dwarf said “You should hang onto this,” and it took a few years for Cole to understand that actually meant, “It’s yours now.”

There was a hole in Varric after losing Hawke. Cole didn't need to be a spirit to understand that. "Rook" was a chess piece, but it was also a bird, and Varric loved to tell stories about heroes like that. Even in Thedas, this place of immovable fact and reality, Varric could change the world with his stories. He said that Rook was a hero, and like a spirit answering its own nature, Cole became one. Stories were lies, in their own way, but Varric used them to tell the truth.

Solas was the opposite. Solas preferred using the truth to tell lies.

Solas has never seen "Rook," and they hope it will take him off guard when the time comes. Varric's job is to "stop the Dread Wolf," but it edges close to "save the Dread Wolf." Cole prefers that. Solas was his friend, too, even after so much change. Cole hopes Solas will still recognize him with a human heart.

But that human heart can no longer sense blood magic.

Solas wants to be angry when the ritual fails. He wants to accuse. He wants deride. He wants Rook to be unworthy of his grace, but it all breaks to pieces when Cole stands before him. He used to know that spirit, just as he used to know Mythal. Like her, like Solas, like every broken spirit pulled into mortal flesh and forced to decay, Cole has the weight of years on his body. Cole is older. Cole is aging. Cole will die unless Solas brings down the Veil, but Cole wants to stop him. This world is going to kill him one way or another, and yet Cole fights as if this is something to be protected.

They understood each other once. Neither one is sure how much of that remains.

Cole approaches leadership with gentleness, the way he approaches everything. He cannot hear pain anymore, so he tends to his companions with words and hands like a gardener, with the spiritual tenderness only Compassion could muster. Most spirits are confused when the world refuses to shape itself at their command, but Cole has learned Varric's tricks. He knows that if he treats his companions like heroes, they will eventually become so. It's easy to follow a leader like that. It's easy to love a leader like that.

Solas does not know whether he pities the fallen spirit, or envies him. Cole is Compassion. Cole is damaged beyond repair. Cole is happy. Cole doesn't regret a second of it. All things in this world are temporary, and that only makes Cole love them more. Why does Cole think this is worth saving?

(Is Cole right?)

It nearly ruins Solas to leave Cole in that prison. The entire Lighthouse wouldn't have enough space to paint this regret. But he was once Wisdom, and Cole was merely Compassion, and Compassion is not a spirit built for these wicked choices. Better for Pride to carry the burden, because Solas has so many scars on his soul that one more won't make a difference.

Compassion would never have been able to escape that prison. But a human being? A human being knows how to change.

Solas is relieved, dismayed, astonished to see what the spirit has become. To know that change is the very reason Cole bested him.

(Was Varric right? Lavellan? Felassan? Mythal? Is this all for nothing?)

All those mistakes speak together in the end. Cole opens his mouth, and Varric speaks through him. Mythal beside them, Lavellan with forgiveness already on her tongue. Solas is free. This world can be more than his mistakes. There is space for flowers in between the bones. He cannot undo his wrongs, but he can soften them.

And it begins with, "I'm sorry."

Cole smiles. Of course he does. There was never any doubt that he would redeem Solas in the end. He touches the copper chain around his neck, and one of Bianca's broken arrows in his pocket.

"I know," he says, and there is an echo to it.

Cole is glad Solas turned toward redemption. He is glad Solas believed Varric after all this time. He knows what happened was an accident.

But Varric is gone. The dwarves are tranquil. The number of deaths it took to turn Solas' pride is higher than Cole could count. Compared to the Blight, Cole's friendship should seem like hardly any price at all. But losing this is perhaps the sharpest wound.

Cole understands him, in the way of Compassion spirits. But Cole is no longer Compassion. Cole is no longer Solas' friend. As they part ways, as the Fade-tear closes and Solas looks over his shoulder, they both know: Cole understands. But he will never forgive.

[dark-elf-writes]

Currently chewing glass about the Solas approval on the Flowers For Senna quest particularly though a Solavellan lens

Imagining Solas watch someone he has grown to care about against his better judgement take the time to tend to a grave of one of the People (his fault. It is all his fault. From the green glow to the inquisitor’s fingers, to the scar in the sky, to the fact there is a grave at all) and being hit with the sudden overwhelming realization that one day they will be dead too. Watching as careful, glowing fingers clear off the alter and lay only the best flowers for someone they never even met. Watching them bend their head and whisper a prayer of someone who would have seen both Lavellan and Senna broken and leashed as slaves. Watching it all and above all else knowing no matter how much praise and worship were laid at the Inquisitor’s feet they would never follow the same path that came before.

After all what god would tend to the grave of someone normal? What god would take the car to bless someone who could not hear as they rested a flower for them? What god would return to an old man and swear to him that his ritual had been done with such earnest care that it burned brighter than the mark on their hand?

[sunny374940]

Fic masterpost

Hello, I'm sunny and I write. I started out writing emmrook (am NOT finished though) and now there is even an original story taking shape).

This here is a list of all my stories so far, for anyone who wants to read them. I love chatting with people who leave comments <3.

My ao3 is Sunny_Under_Mountain

The latest emmrook story is up here, the rest (and boy, is there a lot) under the cut.

You are safe with me - babywearing Emmrich. Just pure self-indulgent fluff

Damn Sky Whales (ch.2/?) - my very first original story (there is romance, much pining and adventure).

Summary as follows: Fern is a half-elven researcher, who is trying to figure out why dragons are disappearing. He gets assigned a bodyguard, whom he doesn't at all need, doesn't want him, surely. Until he does find himself wanting him. A lot. Gareth, for his part, is a former mercenary turned bodyguard, who is just trying to make a living in a world where elves call the shots. He is a professional and is very definitely not going to fall for his client.

Multi-chapter works (links go to first chapter):

Alone with you (chapter 1/?) - Emmrich and Rook leave for their honeymoon and have a nice time. There are flowers and sex (and swimming lessons and wildlife encounters in the future)

May I have this dance (chapters 2/2) - Emmrich and Rook attend a ball and Rook hates it. Until he doesn't. cw: short mention of sexual harrasment, lots of consensual gay sex in the second chapter

I will be waiting with open arms (chapters 3/3) - Emmrich dies at the age of ninety seven and Rook, who is seventy two now, receives one last letter from his love and then they get reunited in the afterlife (bring your tissues to read this one)

Did you hit your head? (chapters 2/2) - a fun little story about Rook and Emmrich pining and Davrin and Assan being the best wingmen

Love and (almost) loss (series):

Our love is not to be hidden - Rook gets badly injured and Emmrich has to deal with his feelings for him

I fall apart without you - Emmrich has a nightmare about losing Rook, hurt/comfort

I will stay with you through all of this - hurt/comfort, little bit of gore at the start. Emmrich almost dies in the process of saving Rook, who is quite upset about this.

Happiness is a noise you make (series):

The sound of your happiness warms my heart - fluff. Emmrich finds out Rook can purr.

Let me hear your joy again - fluff. Rook receives a gift from Emmrich

The family we've found (series): stories about Emmrich and Rook raising their daughter Elanora

Orphans and foundlings - a little story about Rook and Emmrich getting a baby. Fluff, tiny bit of angst

I missed you, little brother - Rook has a twin sister, Willow, and here she meets the little family for the first time.

Sleepless nights - Emmrich and Rook comfort a crying baby

Being a father - Emmrich worries about fatherhood, fluff

When I see your light shine, I know I'm home - fluff. Emmrich and Rook get married, the whole gang is here and it's so very sappy

I will teach you all I know - fluff. Emmrich learns that his daughter Elanora is a mage

Your happiness is all I need - fluff, humor. Emmrich’s daughter is not a morning person, Emmrich has to deal

Have you learned your lesson, darlings? - fluff. Emmrich enjoys the snow with his family. There is a snowball fight.

Love is enough (series): here we follow Rook and Emmrich during the events of Fade Prison and afterwards. There's a lot of hurt and also a lot of comfort.

Nothing will keep you from me - saving Rook from the Fade prison

Don't leave me, please - what Rook was going through in the Fade prison (a lot)

May I kiss you? - Rook is not doing well in the aftermath of Fade Prison and Emmrich wants so badly to help him, but he keeps getting pushed away (angst with happy ending)

I have my moments, darling - Emmrich gets revenge at Solas for hurting Rook in the Fade Prison. It's glorious.

The smut (not a series):

Tell me I'm yours - Rook has a praise kink

Let me take care of you - a little bondage, some feelings. Rook is angry and tries to pick a fight with Emmrich

There is nothing I want more than you - Rook wants Emmrich's attention and he gets it

Is that a new shirt? - Rook wears a crop top and Emmrich is very much into it

Patience, darling - Emmrich makes Rook wait for what he wants.

Why don't we try something new? - Rook wants to try topping Emmrich for the first time and it goes quite well

I would like to make you blush, if I may - Rook is a bit inexperienced and flustered at just about everything. A blowjob happens

Let me show you how beautiful you are - Emmrich is insecure about his looks and Rook shows him how much he adores him.

The hurt/comfort (also not a series):

Don't do that again - Emmrich gets sick, Rook gets worried

You are worth any danger, love - Emmrich gets caught in a building collapse and almost dies, Rook comes to his aid.

Feeling better, darling? - Emmrich helps Rook through a migraine

I will rip the world apart for you - cw: gore, torture. Rook gets captured by the Venatori and Emmrich comes to the rescue

Assorted fluff:

Adventures in baking - Rook wants to impress Emmrich by baking him cookies, but things don't go according to plan

I am yours - Rook gives Emmrich flowers.

Love is stored in the hat - domestic fluff about first snow and gifts

[mysticdreamdrafts]

Solas x Lavellan | Fluffy (PRE-TRAUMA) Headcanons

I heard there were some Egg-Head lovin bitches ‘round her.

It is me. I’m bitches.

Here’s some random Solas headcanons because I want to. Chances are some will disagree but I don’t care. 

These are set around the DA:I era, not DA:V. I’ll get to that later.

As a disclaimer tho: Yes, I have a Lavellan Inquisitor named Winter, but this headcanon list ain’t about her. Just a general romance Reader Insert because I care about your feelings more than mine lol I might be brave and post stuff about Winter later who knows

✨ Enjoy, my fellow Hard Boiled Egg lovers ✨

-He’s the type to always be looking at you. Eye’s latched on to wherever you are -Now when I say this I don’t mean in a creepy way, relax -I mean this in a fascination way. In an adoration way. In a “that’s the center of my universe" way -Because you are.  -Vivienne said the same thing, ya know? The way the both of you have eyes that linger over one another? -Quite frankly everyone saw the change in his demeanor as time went on, but no one saw the change more than you -No one saw the sweet fingertips that caressed against your jaw in the dead of night hiding away in the rotunda -No one saw the times on missions, wandering the Frostback Basin with pinkies linked in such a subtle but intimate way -He is obsessed with your hair -NO, not because he doesn’t have any lmfao -Because it’s soft and smells heavenly  -Because it reminds him of peace as he absentmindedly braids it, caresses it, runs his slim fingers through the strands  -He’s actually very good. Which can’t be a surprise I mean be fuckin fr right now -Sometimes when he styles it you leave it as it is, and you best believe you get a bunch of compliments  -Most of which are from Dorian  -Solas loves to surprise you -Stolen kisses out of no where when you’re in the middle of instruction -Can’t he SEE YOU ARE TRYING TO FOCUS? -He finds himself with that devious smirk on his lips when he thinks about all the ways to fluster you  -No one will notice he seems to have plans, of course. Perhaps Bull.  -He sticks a single flower behind your ear each time you are on the field  -Don’t worry, he brought a flower in preparation when knowing you were going to the damn Western Approach -None of them amount to how beautiful you are -He plays the mandolin for you in the nights you can’t sleep -When the demons are too much and the terror jolts you awake, he is already there -More often than not, he stays so he can be sure you’re rested -He takes this time to see your mark. Always tracing it, always healing so that it brings you less discomfort  -Plays in the snow with you when in Haven -If you ask to keep the lil Nug that followed you around Emerald Graves, he’ll be happy to support -Even if he hesitates because he knows it will take his place a bit . Taking some of your attention and being the thing you cuddle with at night -The cute grin you gave is too much to ignore though - his heart is soft with you -His heart belongs to you

[scripts4dreamers]

Letters from the sky pt. 2

AN: Okay this truly was not meant to have a part two, but I just finished Veilguard and so the brain rot continues.

Part One

It took the better part of a month for Solas to receive a response. By the time that swooping, flowing little piece of paper caught Solas’ eye, he had moved from the half crumbling tower in the memory of an abandoned fort to a small cabin on the edge of a sea of starlike wildflowers. His cabin was pressed against an ancient forest where trees grew so tall and thick that it made his Dread Wolf form seem small and insignificant. He loved it there. The flowers were sweet and fragrant, the days were warm and the nights were bracingly cold. The forest was so old that it made Solas feel young and fresh, the way he had at the start of the world. So, as the letter made its way towards where he sat, Solas let it come. He was comfortable there, seated on the patio whittling away at a piece of wood he had found on his journey.

“Welcome, friend,” He said as the letter unfolded itself in his hand, “I was beginning to think that I had seen the last of you.”

The letter, again, said nothing and Solas couldn’t help but chuckle. There was something about this place that calmed him and made him feel lighter, like the spirit he had once been rather than the man he now was. The lighthouse was his home. Nowhere in the fade could truly compare, but this field was a close second.

He took a moment to prepare himself as best he could before, once more, gingerly opening the envelope, keeping the seal intact. The moment he saw the familiar looping handwriting, his heart jumped into his throat and, despite having sworn that he would take things slowly, he immediately dove into the letter.

Solas,

I am terribly embarrassed. It truly never occurred to me that I would actually send that letter, or honestly that I possessed the skill to do so while so fabulously drunk. I cannot remember everything I said to you, but I’m sure I made a fool of myself. Again. I can only hope you can forgive me.

I have left Skyhold to travel with Blackwall for a time. It is night now, and I am alone. Thom collapsed a few hours ago. He still can’t hold his liquor. He thinks I need to remember the goodness in the world, that it will help me find the hope I had when we first met. I don’t know if that is possible and I doubt, even if it is, that I will find it on this trip, but I do appreciate his company. It is also comforting to be on the move again. The constant politicking, the infighting and intimidation tactics that come with running the Inquisition makes my skin itch and sometimes I feel ten years older than I ought to. The wilds are different. Things are simple out here. I feel like I could be simple out here.

So let me say this simply; you have lost any and all right to call me cruel. I poured my words into a hundred letters only because I could not say them to your face. Because you left.

You left me.

Twice.

You ask what my letters contained? They contained my heart, my pain, my confusion at being discarded like a broken doll after everything we shared with one another. They contained each and every question you never gave me the chance to ask you and, yes, many contained my love. It is only because of the depths of my love that your absence hurt so deeply - continues to hurt so deeply. I hope that this satisfies your curiosity.

However, if we must talk about cruelty, let’s talk about the wolf in the room. Why, in all these years, have you never spoken to me in my dreams, as we both know you can? Do you think I do not see the wolf, the glowing eyes in the darkness? Do you think I am so naive as to not wonder what force hunts the demons that haunt my sleep? I would know you in any form, Solas. I would know you in pitch blackness. For years I have waited for you to speak, to attack me, to lay your head on my lap, to do something. But to no avail.

So we sit in silence. Except that I broke the silence. There is a crack in the dam and all the carefully cultivated parts of us that I have stored away are pouring out.

I do not truly expect you to answer my questions. I know that this is my fault. I opened the wound again and rubbed salt in it myself. I hope that, despite my enraged ramblings, you believe me when I say that I didn’t want to hurt you. Honestly, I did not believe myself to be capable of hurting you anymore.

How did it come to this, Vhenan? How did we become people that hurt one another so intimately?

You do not have to respond. I cannot decide if I hope you do or not.

Yours, Amala Lavellan

Again, Solas began his ritual of pacing, reading, drinking and remembering. He committed each character to memory. His whittling lay forgotten on the patio as he poured himself into you again and he was so engrossed in his task that he didn’t even notice the second letter until it fell against his shoulder.

Dear Solas,

I lied. Of course I hope you respond.

The very next day, Solas sent his intricately folded paper bird through the fade, whispering words of power into its wings as his hands quivered. He watched it vanish, breathing in the sweetness of the flowers and wishing, not for the first time, that he could be someone else. Just for a moment.

Vhenan,

I do not know what to say. There are no answers I can give that will soothe the pain I have caused you, and the answers I do have are likely to be unsatisfactory, but they are yours. I owe you at least that much.

The short answer is, at the start I did not intend to visit your dreams. It was an accident. After our meeting in the Crossroads, when I stripped the anchor from you and you learned of my true nature I was…drained. Magically, physically and emotionally I had very little left in reserve and I simply had to stop and rest. Even in the fade my body is still subject to the whims of any ordinary man, though I often neglect it, and so I eventually needed to sleep. I cannot say for certain why I drifted. I am generally more on guard against such things but, regardless, that night I drifted and I found myself somewhere unfamiliar. I am almost always a wolf in my dreams and so, finding myself in new and uncertain territory, I did what any wolf would do; I followed a familiar scent. By the time I realised what had happened, it was too late.

No, I suppose that is not entirely true. I could have left, but I wanted to see you. I figured that my longing, my desperation for knowledge of you may have caused the drifting and thus, if I could confirm for myself that you were safe and happy, it might stop. I had assumed that, if I was careful, I might be able to pass unnoticed. I just wanted to know that you were well.

It was a beautiful dream, Vhenan. I have always wanted to ask, where were we? The woods were unfamiliar, but you seemed so…at peace there. I watched for longer than I ought to have. When you saw me…ah, but it was too late by that stage. Rather than slaking my desire to be near you, seeing you so free, so relaxed and happy, it only made things worse. I could not hold myself back from drifting, and I did not try particularly hard.

I have never spoken to you because, despite all evidence to the contrary, I do have a very well developed sense of self preservation. My selfish actions have done enough damage to us both as it is.

I hope that you find whatever it is that you are looking for on your travels with Thom Rainier. Perhaps now my reluctance to accept him back into the fold after his lies came to light makes some sense to you. Regardless, he is a good man. I am alone as well, though I imagine that that is less unusual for me than it is for you, Inquisitor. I will not bore you with specifics, but I am somewhere beautiful and I am safe. Please, be on your guard on your travels, my heart. It is a dangerous world out there.

Like I said, I will always respond when you call. I will always answer when you write. It is beyond my power to do anything else.

Yours, Solas

Ps. You are the only living soul that still has the power to hurt me, Amala. That will never change.

As he wandered through the fade, leaving the comfort of the clearing behind and beginning the long journey back to his lighthouse, Solas turned one specific part of Amala’s letter over in his head.

How did it come to this, Vhenan? How did we become people that hurt one another so intimately?

What a poignant, piercing question. Had he not asked himself the very same thing countless times? Had he not laid awake at night, wrestling with what to do, how to feel, how to move forward? Of course, they were aligned in this. Of course, she felt it too. To hear his own helplessness reflected back at him in her words and know that she was struggling alongside him was…it was a bitter, bitter comfort.

He longed for Felassan, for Mythal, for the counsel of those who knew every part of him. They would be able to put words to the tangle of emotions swirling in his chest. They would be able to see through the fog and guide him towards the proper path. They would know if what he was doing was right.

But Mythal was dead. Felassan was dead. He had killed them both and now he must walk alone.

[thedissonantverses]

Okay but I can’t stop thinking about the griffons and how they represent the future of Thedas. Assan is so much more than a mascot.

The Grey Wardens have always represented the best and worst of Thedas to me. While they’re heroes who will do anything to stop the darkspawn, they will often sacrifice their very souls to do so. Their organization is shrouded in darkness. The Joining depends on secrecy and actual poison to work, and that’s representative of organization as a whole.

I’m not surprised at all the griffons went extinct because of the Wardens. I’m not surprised they blighted them to save Thedas. It retroactively makes the Wardens in Inqusition make more sense, because the Wardens will stop at nothing. Even destroying their friends and companions and their allies in battle, the creatures they loved so much, to save the world.

Even when the Wardens’ first instinct once realizing the griffons are back, is to train them to fight darkspawn because they’re incapable of thinking outside of the blight and how much harm it has done to Thedas.

Davrin’s whole arc in Veilguard is great because of this. Because at the start, he sees himself as any other Warden, primed for battle and willing to do whatever it takes. A blade sharpened for a specific purpose that’s thwarted. He’s then charged with these beautiful creatures, these noble animals that aren’t hardened warriors. They’re nothing but potential.

Assan ultimately softens Davrin, shows him there’s another way to be. But Davrin can soften the griffons too, give them a life outside of death and corruption and war. His journey is about fatherhood but it’s also about how we can choose to shape our futures for the better.

At the end of the game, we know the blight is changed, and that Solas will fight every day to soothe it. We know the Wardens can lay down arms, now that threat to Thedas has finally been soothed. They can have futures. Flowers are growing again. The griffons are back.

The Wardens and the griffons, and all of Thedas by extension, can finally heal from centuries of the blight, and that’s incredible.

[hoboblaidd]

Extremely rambling Mythal thoughts below. Spoiler alert: it’s not pretty.

Major endgame Veilguard spoilers below the cut.

@weptlore broke me with that one post and I’m basically riffing off of it because I’m emo. Tl;dr fuck Mythal.

First though, you will never catch me saying that Solas isn’t culpable, because he absolutely is. His ‘best’ ending is properly atonement, not redemption. He was faced with choice after choice whether or not to do terrible things and he folded every time she asked - save one - despite his better judgment. His choices in the Dragon Age are his, even as they’re motivated by his desire to make the world he thinks Mythal wanted. He needs to be held accountable for the things he messed up instead of running from them to do a full system reboot on the world. He says that thousands will die from the Veil coming down, but then ‘flowers would grow.’ That self-serving justification does not excuse the colossal loss of innocent life he’s prepared to take. Yes, I believe Varric and the Inquisitor that he doesn’t really want to do it and is looking for someone to sell him a better option. But he was still gonna do it, right up to the end.

But to ignore how royally Mythal fucked him up and manipulated him at every step does him a disservice. She strong-armed him into a parallel of a binding. She chipped away at who he was so thoroughly that it twisted him into the thing he is now. She even admits that what she did to him broke him. All new and faded for her indeed, in the worst way imaginable.

She cared about his usefulness. Her disingenuous ‘I need your wisdom’ morphs into the more honest ‘I used your wisdom as a weapon.’ Yeah she calls Solas ‘love’ and says ‘I always come when my friends need me,’ but it’s gaslighty as shit. No wonder she jived with Flemeth. They’re singing the same song. And when he finally didn’t toe her terrible line she turned on him and called it a betrayal. Elgar’nan said she considered Solas insubordinate and unmanageable, and we don’t even know whether that estimation was before or after he rebelled (I recognize Elgar’nan’s not a great source and was trying to get under Solas’ skin, but the truth hurts more than a lie. Given what we know of her, I buy it).

And now where are we? Back at square one and somehow she’s the one to sell him that better story and convince him to do the same damn thing again. ‘I release you from your service’ as long as you immediately bind yourself again.

To ignore the tragedy of his ultimate fate isn’t fair. He needs to atone but my god is it a tragic end for him. The one thing in the world Solas wants is freedom, and it’s the one thing he’ll never get. What was it Elgar’nan said? ‘As much as freedom is beyond your grasp.’ He was more right than he intended.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I would take questions but I need to go backstage and scream.

[cherimsy]

Hey! If you still do 50 questions for Rook: 32, 33 and 39 :)

OMG YES!! I'm always doing 50 questions for my Rook. I feel crazy because of how obsessed I am with her. Truly my second most thought-about Dragon Age protag after my canon Grey Warden :')

Q32: How would a desire demon tempt Rook?

Pre-Veilguard Haydee is good at punching things but bad with demons and other Fade-related shenanigans. She's not nearly ambitious enough to be tempted with power, nor does she have anyone she loves (romantically) for the demon to mimic. Instead, she's heavily tempted by the concept of family. Even with the support of the other Mourn Watchers, she really yearns to know who her parents were and why she was abandoned. A desire demon would take the form of a would-be mother and offer her unconditional love and motherly approval. She wouldn't fold immediately, but it wouldn't take much for her to give in.

During/post-Veilguard, the desire demon changes tactics to exploit her relationship with Emmrich. He's her new family so she is (more difficultly) disillusioned with the idea of being by his side.

Q33: What do fear demons look like to Rook?

The very undead she took down during the War of the Banners. Haydee doesn't regret her actions, but it felt like she lost everything all at once after the fight-- her friends, her place in the Mourn Watch, her home in Nevarra. She was on the streets for a while before meeting Varric, just going through the motions of living as she struggled to think of what to do next. After joining up with the Stop Solas crew, she buried that anxiety in favor of stopping an ancient Elven god.

It's not until the events of Veilguard that she next runs into an actual Fear Demon. She's paralyzed at the prospect of striking down these phantoms of the undead she already stopped once. What if they kick her out again? What if she loses the respect she's managed to gain from her peers? Emmrich is the first to realize who the Fear Demons are mimicking. He offers a shaken Haydee his coat. They have a long talk about her sudden departure from Nevarra once they're alone, and he explains the situation to the others.

(Sorry this answer ended up being way longer than intended omg)

Q39: What is their room at The Lighthouse like?

She tries to make it as welcoming to others as possible! She tries her best to rein in her deep desire to put skeletons everywhere (she already decorated the main areas in the Nevarran theme without realizing how uncomfortable it is for others... oops.)

Her training gear and the swords she's hoarded during their adventures are scattered about, but she keeps a lot of blankets folded on the couch and a second coffee maker for Lucanis and Neve to enjoy. She makes it a habit to buy books she thinks Bellara and Emmrich would find interesting (that she maaay or may not read). The pillows she keeps for sleeping always end up on the floor. She tried to keep plants but she has the opposite of a green thumb, so she presses any flowers that Harding gives her. There's very little in her room that is older than her first meeting with Varric, but everything she has is important and something she likes to display.

Thank you, these were so much fun to answer!!!!

Rook 50 questions

[dragonagecompanions]

Companions reaction to the Inquisitor asking them to be their Maid of Honor/Best Man at their wedding? (Cassandra should've been at the wedding with Sera and my Inquisitor tbh)

(Setting this post Trespasser for continuity.)

Cassandra: The air is filled, immediately and impossibly, with hearts. So few of Cassandra's friends are free to promise themselves to a spouse, and so over the years the Seeker had relinquished that childhood dream to oblivion. But now there is such joy among her dearest friends, and no matter how long or short the engagement and planning Cassandra will be there for everything they need.

And on the day will cry more than anyone else. Everyone will be threatened into forgetting this about her.

Solas:

Varric: Now this is the happy ending to a story he can get behind. Promise an open bar and he is in.

For all of his bluster and faked nonchalance, Kirkwall's viscount is deeply touched. Over the course of this inquisition he has made friends to rival the ones in Kirkwall, and the fact that those sentiments are returned enough to merit such an invitation mean the world. Immediately he takes over logistics, and no matter if there is limited time to plan the wedding goes off without a hitch.

His speech is legendary. People cry. He's putting it in his next book.

Blackwall: It's ridiculous. It's a common request, from a friend, to stand up with them at their wedding. After all this time it shouldn't even be a surprise. But the question brings him to his proverbial knees. For so long, even after everyone knew the truth, Thom Rainier had assumed himself to be unlovable. Tolerated in a time of war for what he brought to the table, but not worthy of true regard.

This is a gift the finally unlocks those chains. He might not know much about weddings, but no matter what they need their would be warden does his best. Like Cassandra, he openly weeps at the ceremony.

Sera: Nothin' like love to make a wedding a party! This may be the one time Sera tones down the pranks, too focused on making sure both the little and big people are happy. Dorian is heavily consulted on clothing, and Skyhold's resident Jenny might even submit to a haircut.

The bakers in Thedas weep for her designs. They are perfect. Might go into the cake business, if cookies don't hold out.

Whole thing goes off without a hitch. Well, except for the actual hitch. That goes perfect.

Vivienne: Darling she is thrilled. No matter their venue or plans Madame de Fer is quick to make sure they have the best. Appointments open, caterers are suddenly free, and her tailors are on hand to make sure that everyone in the wedding party looks their best.

There is some distant sorrow later, watching the couple dance the first of the rest of their lives together, but not for all the gold in the world would she have traded her life with Bastien. That was more than enough for one heart-- it is no trial to be happy for her friends.

Dorian: No matter his travel plans or the demands of the magisterium, the moment they ask Dorian is firmly rooted in place. These people have welcomed him like no other, and to be honored with such a role is...he will not cry in public. It is unseemly for a magister.

Instead he make sure everything he touches is made perfect for them and all problems directed his way. Let them relish in the bliss of their engagement-- he will fight the florists until they realize Minrathous roses are the only way to go. And on the day, he sits patiently with both spouses until their cosmetics are perfect. But that time is also spent in quiet friendship, a moment of peace before their special moment.

Later he will refuse to ruin his own foundation with tears in public, and be quietly smug that his knock down brawl with the sommelier resulted in the best vintages at table.

The Iron Bull: There are flowers everywhere. From the moment he is asked Operation: Wedding is a full go for the Chargers. Marriage is unknown under the Qun, and so in true Ben-Hassrath form Bull takes it upon himself to learn exactly what this role will entail.

Three crashed marriages and a lot of cursing later....well, the venue is perfect, Rocky has invented a confetti cannon, and Krem has earned his place at the Maker's side for turning out a formal coat that will fit his shoulders in record time.

He cries at the ceremony. Few guests are brave enough to comment.

Cole: "Stand as a witness, the best man even if you aren't a man. Be there to celebrate, always a good friend and I want him at my side. I want that too!"

Any guest with ill intent conveniently forget the wedding date and location. One of the florists ties a bow on his hat. People cry, but the tears don't hurt. Its confusing, but he's happy to be there.

Turns out cake is something enjoyed on both sides of the veil.

[acourtofthought]

I saw this Elriel post saying Elriel is basically Elorcan and honestly now I'm kinda conflicted because I loved them 🥺

Do you think she would pull an Elorcan with them? Or do you think Elucien will pull through with the reluctant mates trope? I've seen so much from both sides that I honestly don't even know what I want anymore lol I think I just want ANY book

The above is something Lorcan said to Elide in one of his dreams and a strong possibility for why he was willing to tie his immortal life to her mortal one.

Lorcan has no other mate, Elide has no other mate therefore him believing she might be his mate can not be challenged. He wants to be with her believing he's meant to be with her. Elucien's bond is confirmed, Az can scent it, Feyre confirmed it when she slipped into his head and Mor used her gift of truth on Lucien (the only reason he was allowed to enter Velaris / their home).

Lorcan believed Elide was his mate because of the way he felt for her. Az thought the Cauldron might be wrong because he's the third brother and his two brothers were with two of the sisters so why shouldn't he get the third sister? He never once spoke of actual feelings for Elain, he never even mentioned a single thing he liked about her outside of her beauty and the way her arousal smelled. He didn't give her credit for her bravery, for how she stood up to Nesta, how she saved his life, how she saved Nesta and Cassian's life, he never asked her how she was coping after her fathers death, if she still missed Graysen, how she was feeling after her fights with Nesta, etc. Az wanted a mating bond like his brothers because he thought that would have been the fair thing, Lorcan thought he might be Elide's mate because of Elide and only Elide.

That is not the same thing. Also, Elide was a bit dark in her personality which is why she was a match to Lorcan who was associated with death. She had a disability which prevented her from doing the things she wanted to do. Elain has no such physical disability but she avoids cruelty because it bothers her. Whereas Nesta gruesomely behead the king in revenge, Elain stabbed him, a killing blow, but only to the extent that was necessary and nothing more. Elide was never mentioned as being a gentle grower of things, with life shining in her eyes, who had a love of nature and flowers, who craved sunshine in the way Elain is. Lorcan and Az might be similar but Elide and Elain are very different. As far as reluctant mates. Nobody knows what Sarah will do but reluctant mates is a lot more of a sure thing in fiction than truly rejected mating bonds. I can name many authors who have gone the route of reluctant mates but I can't think of a single book or best selling author where a FMC rejected her mate and the series / book ended with the rejection sticking.

In terms of aesthetic, I think Sarah really hammered it home for us when she wrote CC. Solas - the Sun God was the lover of Cthona - the Earth Goddess. Lucien is set up to be the heir to the Day throne with Helion being described as the sun personified and Elain is definitely a lot like Cthona in terms of imagery.

[midorisudachi]

“The Inquisitor And Her Commander”

As some of you may have noticed, I am a huge fan of the Dragon Age games, especially Dragon Age Inquisition. Last year, I had planned on drawing all the main [playable] characters up until Dragon Age Day (which took place on December 4th), but I just didn’t have time to draw more than three characters (the Inquisitor, Solas, & Varric…please check them out in my gallery) due to being busy with work and other things. I’ll eventually draw the other characters when I gather more motivation to do so.

For now, please enjoy this piece. I hope everybody likes this. I worked very hard on this artwork. It took longer than usual to create, due to all the small details, the poses, & the armour. (Armour is not easy to draw for me!) For those of you who are DAI fans, you may recognize the flowers: Crystal Grace on the bottom and Andraste’s Grace on the top. I know Andraste’s Grace is not in DAI, but I thought it would be pretty to add to the artwork (since it technically exists in the Thedas world).

 My OC Inquisitor is named Bryony Trevelyan. She is actually my 2nd Inquisitor character, the first one having been an elf (which I may draw someday). I had been playing DAI for the 3rd time, a few months ago, as a male character (since I wanted him to be in a romance with Dorian, so yes, my male Inquisitor is gay), but I stopped for a bit since I am playing Skyrim at the moment (with updates & mods). Anyway, back on the main subject: I drew Inquisitor Bryony Trevelyan in the Armor of the Dragon Hunter outfit (from the Jaws of Hakkon DLC), which I had altered the colours by tinting it with Veil Quartz. I based her crown from concept art for DAI. So much armour in the game! Which I love, especially since the DA games don’t give female characters the stereotypical skimpy outfits…I love that I get to make my female characters wear bad-ass armour.

Cullen Rutherford is such an adorable and slightly awkward character around my Inquisitor. I knew I had to romance him right away, because his looks are the type of man I am attracted to in real life. (I’m not going to lie…in the game, he’s hot for a video game character. Ha ha!) I’ve always enjoyed the flirting in the DA games when it comes to the relationships. The best scene was right before their first kiss, when Cullen got interrupted by a member of the Inquisition, and then got mad about it. Ha ha. I liked when my Inquisitor asked Cullen, “The day you kissed me on the battlements…how long had you wanted to do that?” And Cullen replied (with a laugh), “Longer that I should admit.” Awwwww.

I also liked the part in the Winter Palace, when all these people were flirting with Cullen, and one asked him, “Are you married, Commander?” And Cullen replied, “Not yet, but I am…already taken.” Double awwww, because a loyal man is so dreamy. :3 I actually had Bryony & Cullen get married in the last DLC. :3 They adopt a Mabari (dog), too!

I love DAI too much. :D It’s such a fun game with the most gorgeous graphics (especially on the Xbox Series X).

Drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens, then coloured in with a mixture of Copic Markers & Ohuhu Markers. I used Koi Watercolours for the background. White accents done with both a gel pen and white watercolour. Gold acrylic was used for the Inquisition Symbol & the lines, which the scanner absolutely murders...the gold is such a pretty, shimmery metallic in real life. The light green around my art was done in Photoshop Elements.

Dragon Age Inquisition © Bioware & Electronic Arts

Fan artwork © Jacqueline E. McNeese

[theheraldsrest]

Would you mind writing about what the DA:I companions were like as children? I’m specifically interested in Solas and Bull.

“Companions when they were little”

Ahhh that’s adorable! I’m so excited for this! Thank you, Anon!

-Lord Lex

*TW: Talk of child abuse*

Cullen

-Being the 2nd oldest of four, definitely had responsibilities but also did what he wanted. Like becoming a templar. Constantly teased by his siblings but never waivered him. (Their siblings, what do you expect?)

-Big fascination with knights, Templars, and Grey Wardens. Constantly playing make believe and pretending to be a hero with a stick for a sword

-Helpful little thing, running around asking if there was anything he could do while also being very polite. Though he did get into a few fights with his younger siblings, they supported him in his dreams

Josephine

-Oldest of four, all eyes were on her. Expected to be perfect and well-mannered even from a young age, yet she never faltered

-She knew she was cute and could get away with a lot of things. Being an avid reader made it easy for her to understand the world around her

-Looked after her siblings while also keeping up appearances. Didn’t stop her from sneaking sweet buns from the kitchen and seeing how fast she could lose the staff

Leliana

-Very happy and go-lucky, followed her mother around while she did chores, either talking with the servants or to Lady Cecilie. Very endearing and a welcome appearance.

-After her mother’s death, she would’ve sunk back a little and lost a little bit of that happy child that she was. Would hide where she could so she wouldn't make others upset, thinking her sadness was contagious

-Though never adopted, Leliana possibly saw Lady Cecilie as a sort of aunt and eventually started following her around as well. Fascinated by all the stories and tales that Cecilie would tell her, she’d act them out just for fun.

Vivienne

-Strangely serious and a bit shy. Would go along with her parents just to watch quietly as they would trade, learning anything she could from the start.

-After being taken to the Ostwick Circle, she began to open up more but only slightly. Told people off if they were acting stupid and was one of the children to tell people to hush in the library

-Surpassed most expectations in magical and educational fields, proving herself to be the best. Though she still made it hard for others to approach, her friendship was rare but also lasting. Would look out for some of the younger children but not make it obvious

Varric

-Hectic little bastard. Parents could not control this little guy (for multiple reasons). Often snuck out just to look around Kirkwall or to stir up some fun, eventually being found by his father and carried home

-Learned very early on that life wasn’t easy. With being nagged by his brother and his mother’s drinking and illness, he quickly picked up on caring for his family and hiding any bad parts that might start rumors.

-Became more clever while also playing himself off as being lazy, he was quite observant as well as a smooth talker. Didn’t stop him from sticking his tongue out at people.

Cole (Human)

-A silent child, unable to speak with his father around. Constantly terrified of his father’s treatment to him and his sister and mother. He’d try to put himself in the way of most of his father’s beatings

-Learned to speak quietly like his mother, who’d reassure her children that all was fine. Cole held onto that hope and trusted his mother while also finding solace in learning magic from her. He found the lights from spells to be comforting as well as using them to help his sister relax

-Held a fascination with flowers and kept a small bunch growing behind the barn. Would go to them, pretending to do chores only to sit amongst them and care for them.

Solas

-Full of curiosity and wonder, he wanted to know everything and anything. Would listen to his elders while also listening to spirits and memories of the Fade. Considered both his people and the Fade to be his home

-Nothing truly scared him, even when other children tried to spook him. He would laugh it off, only to pay them back later with an even more elaborate prank

-Could not sit still, had to move and had to be doing something. Could always find him running around his elder’s legs or hanging onto their hands, giggling while also asking so many questions.

Cassandra

-Spent most of her time by her mother’s side, treated like a little lady. Hated it and made sure people knew she did. Tried to sneak away from parties many times but was always caught.

-Loved following Anthony around, having sword fights with him wherever they were and being reprimanded for ruining her dress

-Treatment didn’t change when their uncle, Vestalus, took them in. Cass was constantly treated to simply be an ornament and hated it. Grew closer to her brother and became thrilled with his stories of his hunts and showed her how to properly wield a sword

The Iron Bull

-Clever and always thinking, he’d follow orders but in his own way while barely toeing the line. Why else would they name a child “one who thinks” and “one who creates illusion”?

-Caring towards the other children while also showing what he could do, he made himself the responsible one of his group and made sure they were treated with fairness and well as cared for.

-But man, did my boy love sassing people. He would find a way to make his opinion known but also make it so that he couldn’t get in trouble for it. And being bigger than most, he knew how to throw his weight as well as his words to get others to back down.

Dorian

-(spoiled little rich boy hates his life- IM KIDDING) Was a sucker for approval, whether it be from his parents or other higher up nobles. Liked to be the center of attention but knew not to be if it was something bad he did.

-Though his father and mother weren’t exactly caring to him (made sure he was living at least), he found comfort in conversing with the servants and listening to drama from his home to whatever noble was having fancies for a barmaid.

-Knew he was hot shit when his magical abilities were shown and especially at such skill for a young child. His mother grew his interest in beautiful things while his father gave him books and tomes, anything he wanted as long as he listened.

Sera

-Angsty teen. No, but seriously. Life didn’t treat her so well, with Sera believing herself neither elf nor human and constantly being chased for stealing things. Pulled pranks on others to make them angry, knowing it as the only way to find entertainment

-After being adopted by Lady Emmald, Sera would act suspicious of her and unsure if she could trust her. Took ages but eventually opened up and acted more goofy and told jokes to Lady Emmald who’d teach her some jokes as well.

-Trusted Lady Emmald so much that when she grew sick and passed away, Sera thought of it as betrayal and that she left her behind. Tried for ages to make cookies just like hers but it only made her frustrated.

Blackwall

-Grew up on a farm with only him and his mother to look after. Was also considered a rowdy child and always running this way and that looking for fun.

-Somewhat understood responsibility but also found it boring. Rushed to finish his chores so that he could play with other children, usually having fake sword fights or wrestling. Loved acting as the toughest and bravest of the bunch while also acting kind to any girls

-Mama’s boy. His mother doted on him but would also make sure when he knew he was in the wrong or in trouble. Would have him apologize if he broke someone’s fence or give him extra chores as punishment. Though he’d grumble, he would still learn and try to do better for her

[bittenredtoo]

"Quiet"

Summary:

How easy it was for her to fall back into that Fade prison when everything was too quiet.

Notes:

Rated M Established Relationship | Dissociation | Emotions | Vaginal Sex | some depictions of trauma? | Rook and Lucanis are both very tired after fighting literal GODS

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Treviso was never a silent city. She whispered her secrets through the air, letting them ride on the small waves that licked the brick lining of the canals and the soft mist that lay upon the flowers in gardens. She tantalized the tongues of gossips and betrayers as they moved past her riddled walls or flew down ziplines, a strange buzz of excitement constantly permeating the air as the citizens wondered what might touch their existence this time. Another assassination? A corrupt politician? A limited time sale on the spices imported from Orlais?

Rook used to know her city’s secrets well. A quiet comfort as she snuck away from Viago and Heir’s relentless teachings to sit on high roofs and count the number of lights that blinked throughout the markets, pretending they were stars.

Nowadays, however, Treviso felt almost…Tranquil.

She couldn’t remember how long it was since she was last allowed to stay and sleep in her city - Six months? Ten? Sixteen? - nor did she know for sure whether or not she was truly welcomed back. But, as Rook lay in one of the many over extravagant beds in House Dellamorte, she felt as though her skin was being stretched too tight.

Life in the Fade made the stillness of an unnatural quiet seem almost pleasant to her. It never dulled her mind or her intuition. In fact, Rook would’ve wagered that her senses felt all the more sharper when she was in the Lighthouse, her own soul becoming attuned to every particle that made up the building they considered - even for a short time - home.

But now, she could still feel the sting of her heart the day it bled on Tearstone Island, the muscles of her memory barely piecing together what had happened when she was finally free from Solas’s mental prison. It left her feeling disoriented and soft, her form a little fuzzy around the edges as if her soul was no longer tightly tethered to her body.

There were times lately where Rook could even forget she had a body, the lull moments between missions and deals with the Shadow Dragons catching her staring at a wall far longer than what was normal until her body whined about her posture. And even then, she found herself unmoving, her vision becoming unfocused as her mind seeped out of her form like a dry leaf running along a stream of water, shrouding her own physical manifestation from herself.

Perhaps this was how Solas felt when he was nothing more than a spirit watching the world. A small fragment of creation interwoven within the fabric of time and magic.

It left a bitter taste in her mouth, remembering him. And yet, how easy it was to find herself in his shadow.

How easy it was for her to fall back into that Fade prison when everything was too quiet.

She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together mindlessly, eyes wide as she stared at some unknown shape in the darkness of the room. The moonlight outside the window illuminated the wall just enough to paint the small shadows of raindrops sliding down the glass. Though, Rook could barely hear any of them. She found herself drifting someplace underwater, the seams of her presence loose at best. The room around her felt muffled and blurry as if she didn’t quite fit in this space she shared with someone.

It is here when she’s riding along the edge of drowning that the door suddenly opened. The candles in the hallway had dimmed and halved themselves since they were lit in the evening, but still the light cut into the darkness like a knife carving through the veil, an all too familiar image which made a small part of her body tense severely. The warmth that followed the light, however, was completely new and the familiarity of the silhouette that stood at the threshold made Rook breathe a small sigh of relief.

Him.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Read the rest here!

[lordwoolselytaxservices]

2, 12 and 22 from fifty more rook qs?

Thank you so much for sending me an ask! 💖 As of right now, Fivren is my canon Rook so I’ll answer for her.

2. A scene from Rook’s year with Varric and Lace

“Pay up old man” Fivren demanded jokingly, a large grin on her face and her hand outstretched, beckoning the coin from the table.

“All right, all right,” Varric replied, counting out the gold before handing it to her. “You win this round. How did you get so good at Wicked Grace anyway? I thought the Lords of Fortune were more prone to taking rather than gambling.”

“The Lords are prone to any means necessary to get their treasures.” Fivren responded, dropping the coin into the embroidered pouch that hung from her belt. She ran over the threads that covered the leather of the small bag. Brilliant blues and greens made the leaves and petals of a crystal grace flower, her finger stopping on the bright magenta that created its filament. It had been him who had taught her the game. Her eyes lost focus, the blue thread reminder her of the color of his eyes before…

“Good news, we got word from Inquisitor Trevelyan.” Harding stated as she took a seat. “She says there’s reports of suspicious activity happening near Raven’s Brook. It’s not far from here. We should see if it’s connected to Solas.”

“Rabbit would be rolling her eyes at you for calling her Inquisitor Trevelyan like that,” Varric chuckled. “But you’re right. It’s worth checking out.”

“What about Neve?” Harding asked.

“I’ll go with you,” Fivren offered, slamming down what was left in her mug. “You might need backup. And Varric can…”

“I’ll head to Minrathous. Just don’t get yourselves killed all right?” He said with a smirk, his eyes giving away the concern he felt. He held up the deck of cards, “One more round before we call it night?”

12. An argument between Rook and the LI(s)

Fivren pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed in frustration. Taash could be so indifferent about things sometimes, even things that felt important to her. “You can’t just say that!”

“Why not?” They countered, arms crossing their chest as they shifted on their feet. “What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that it isn’t a big deal but you’re making it into a big deal!”

“How exactly?” The qunari replied as their brows furrowed further.

“Because!” Fivren shouted, her arms throwing up in the arm in frustration. “All I said was that I like to sneak truffles to Assan and instead of seeing that I enjoy doing it and that Assan enjoys it and it helps us bond you have to give me a lecture about how feeding him too many truffles is a bad idea.”

“Well… it is,” Taash shrugged, their indifference seeming to grow.

“It’s not like I’m giving him a ridiculous amount of them. I’m talking like one, maybe two mushrooms every once in awhile.”

“I mean, I guess that’s not so bad. Just don’t spoil him because then he’ll expect it and if he doesn’t get enough he could act out and misbehave.”

Fivren sighed again, dropping into the sofa and allowing her head to fall into her hands as her elbows rested on her knees. She took a few deep breaths before Taash sat next to her, placing their hand on her back.

“Hey I’m sorry all right? I didn’t mean to make it like… a thing.”

“I was just telling you about my day and trying to be playful with you,” the dwarf replied in a soft yet stern voice.

“Oh, right,” they said letting their hand drop back to their lap. “Sorry.”

“It’s a good thing you’re adorable,” Fivren smirked, pushing into them with her shoulder.

Taash rolled her eyes, “Don’t get all mushy on me now.”

Fivren smiled, “I won’t.”

22. In Rook’s opinion, what’s the best meal Bellara prepared? And Lucanis?

Fivren really enjoys Lucanis’ seafood paella, especially if he uses shrimp but won’t hesitate to eat more than her fair share no matter how he prepares it. For Bellara, Fivren really enjoys her forest fruit cobbler. It often changes depending on the fruits that Bellara manages to find during her travels but she always grabs seconds.