#I type this all out knowing veilguard is so close and I might have to make changes

[soul-siren]

In my excitement for the new game, I am brewing lots of Dragon Age art.

Here's a snippet of my Canon Inky, Gwyneth Trevelyan.

And as for how she came about Ameridan, she never gives the same story. Only Josie and Ameridan know.

And this is kind of how I pictured her telling Josie:

[dalishious]

Veilguard Companion First Impressions

So, I’ve finally recruited all the companions for the Veilguard! And as such, I thought I’d share my initial thoughts on them each.

Please keep in mind that as the title says, these are just my first impressions. I am nowhere near finishing the game yet. My thoughts very well may change after getting to know the characters more as the story progresses. Also, please do not take any opinions you do not share as a personal attack against you.

Bellara

Bellara might be my #1 favourite.

I’ve seen some people just say Bellara is “a Merrill rip-off” but I don’t think that’s fair at all. If all it took was a few similarities to say a character is a rip-off of another character, than I can think of so many boring white cishet male characters who would be guilty of that. But heaven forbid we get more than one elven woman who is passionate about her people’s culture and history!

Frankly, I think Bellara is a breath of fresh air in terms of Dalish characters specifically. Finally, a Dalish elf who isn’t punished for being proudly Dalish by the narrative.

I also really appreciate that so much of her can be easily understood by her backstory, too. Like, her feelings of never being good enough is reflective of the very realistic grief she is experiencing.

Lucanis

If Bellara isn’t my #1 favourite, then Lucanis is. They really both dominate that spot neck in neck. I can’t decide if I want to put him in a jar and shake it to see what happens, or wrap him up tight in a quilt and give him some good coffee.

I’m just a sucker for Lucanis’s character archetype, is the thing. I love taking him out simply because he’s so much fun to have around. And in terms of companion arcs, his is the one I am most intrigued to see where it goes.

Taash

(While I haven’t personally gotten to Taash’s non-binary plot yet, I am aware Taash switches to they/them pronouns, so that’s what I’ll be using.)

The moment I met Taash felt my heart skip a beat. The only thing hotter than their appearance is their voice. I know BioWare probably left Taash out of a lot of the advertising because they wanted to keep Taash’s gender stuff a surprise, but oh my god, because of this I was taken by quite the surprise. And so far Taash seems to be the type to keep a hard outer shell to protect a much softer side, and that is yet another character archetype I really love.

Davrin

My initial gripe about Davrin’s writing being so exclusively about Assan rather than Davrin himself is slowly peeling away, I hope. While I still think its bullshit that you can welcome Assan into the Veilgaurd but not Davrin, at least I’ve finally gotten a few bits of dialogue to get to know more about him finally. I just want to keep this momentum! Because Davrin as a concept has so much potential, in my opinion, and what little bits I have gotten from him have captivated me. But I can’t tell yet if it’s intentionally part of his character that maybe he’s just a closed off person who takes a while to trust others, (a little like Taash?) Or if the writer just cared more about griffons than the actual guy. I’m really, really holding out hope for the former.

Emmrich

Emmrich is so much more charming than I expected, and I found him instantly endearing the moment we met him. I also really like that we’re finally hearing some different stances and insight on death and necromancy than we ever had before from a companion! It makes him feel so fresh and completely new!

Harding

I’ll be real with you: I was not anticipating caring about Harding so much. She was who I was originally least interested in, when the companion line-up was announced. But the direction they’re taking her in has me questioning so much about bigger lore questions.

Unfortunately, I still don’t see much in her except being a vessel for those bigger lore questions, though. Like, Harding as a person has me mildly curious at best.

Neve

I’m really sorry Neve fans, but I just find her really boring so far, in comparison to everyone else. She doesn’t have a lot going on, and what she does have going on, doesn’t really captivate me much. Maybe I was just hoping she’d have stronger stances on things than she does? I don’t know.

It could be that I just really fucked up with Neve, and it won’t be until another playthrough that I’ll get to experience more that will change my mind. Because I will admit I am very good at picking choices she disapproves of, with my first Rook.

[invinciblerodent]

Where was Tristan during the events of Inquisition? Did he ever see the Breach? Did the smaller rifts effect him in anyway?

Ooh, fun! Love this! Storytime! (man, I'd love to have the cc so I could put a header with his actual face here to break up the wall of text. I'll just put in his BG3 mockup, lol.)

(i hope in veilguard we'll get a wheel for the eye color selection because man, this is way too red. he looks far too much like a vampire.)

I don't know if the game is gonna contradict me on any of this and there are some kinks to work out still lol, but I don't think he saw the Breach- definitely not in person at least.

I like to think that, around the time of the divine conclave, he was somewhere in the north of Orlais, just about a day's travel south of Perendale. (Near the Nevarran border, not terribly far from Weisshaupt or Kal-Sharok.)

I haven't gone that far into this thought yet, but my little idea so far is that he had been traveling as a recruiter and sort of a quasi-assistant to his mentor/friend, Warden-Lieutenant Iselva (an Orlesian city-born elf mage and spirit healer). It was around the time they were about to reach the border that they both started hearing the false Calling, but it was only she who chose to heed it.

I imagine Tristan to be kind of caught at that weird halfway-point between having a death wish, and clinging with white-knuckled fists to life, which makes him kind of reckless and prone to making stupid decisions (which is why he even chose to take up arms at Ostagar to begin with), but he's also scrappy, and very much driven to survive by any means necessary (which was the reason he could cheat death in the first place).

He's not the type to bow his head and submit to the Taint, possibly not even once his time truly does come. If he is to hear his Calling (which, with how close he already is to death and how the whole undeath of everything might affect the progression of the Taint, could take days or decades, there's no knowing), he would still want to drag it out for as long as possible, stave it off while he still feels he has a Purpose, whatever that may be. On top of that, he was at that point never told what the Calling would do beyond being an annoyance, why he'd head to the Deep Roads when it starts, and, at the time, he was also barely in his thirties- though nothing about him is entirely normal, he still felt it unusual, suspicious for someone so young to be hearing it.

But Iselva was an older woman by then, a respected and high-ranking acolyte well past her 30th year in the Order. She knew all too well what would happen if they delayed too long, and was adamant that while the both of them starting to hear it at roughly the same time was odd, it was not unheard of (they had spent most of the last decade very close after all, sleeping in the same tent, sometimes in the same bedroll for warmth), and that they should pivot, head towards Kal-Sharok, both head into the Deep Roads at the first opportunity, and die with dignity, as a Warden should.

They got into a horrible fight one night, their worst ever. She insisted, he refused-- she pulled rank, he took offense, and the whole exchange ended with her calling him a stubborn fool, and the two of them parting ways: with him continuing towards Weisshaupt, and her towards Kal-Sharok.

That was the last he's ever heard from her, and though the circumstances of her leaving did tarnish her memory somewhat, he's mourned her as she deserved: as a comrade in arms, a leader, a teacher, and a trusted, beloved friend.

The road to Weisshaupt was slow going without her guidance, and he got lost on the way multiple times, so even though the fake Calling had stopped only about two or three weeks later (iirc! I'll need to check the timeline on this), word of what happened in the Western Approach reached Weisshaupt shortly before he did. Until then, he had assumed that its end marked Iselva's death- now he knows the truth, and knows that she was just another victim in this whole mess.

I like to imagine that somewhere in the Anderfels, there is still a small rock with her name, and the date "9:41" carved crudely into it, nestled between the protruding roots of a tree.

...... and as i'm proofreading myself, it seems that I totally forgot the smaller rifts lol- I don't think he ever was close enough to one to actually feel it, but had he gotten close to one, I think he would have felt an uncomfortable pull of the Fade. And, if he happened to be, say, close to death or unconscious near one, I suspect he could have gotten possessed.

I don't really think of Purpose as a fully realized presence like Justice, it doesn't live in him, but it more just kinda hovers at the edges of his consciousness. Its influence is subtle and unfocused, and if Tristan does wind up dying or losing consciousness in an unfortunate spot where the Veil is thin, it might be able to reach through.

I like to imagine that this is the reason why Tristan suffers from insomnia, and once asleep, has troubles staying that way: being too close to the Fade just... makes him feel like there are ants in his eyes, lol.

[mageofholyandraste]

6, 9, and 10 for the veilguard asks :3

Ty for dropping by <3

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

I don't wanna plan in advance too much, as I don't know the deets yet and I don't wanna get attached to an outcome just yet, but given my love of Zevran & interest in Antiva, I am very likely going to make a Crow (maybe for that sweet, sweet Lucanis bird romance) or a Lord of Fortune (because I don't have a pirate OC + Rivain.) I am also thinking human, elf or Qunari because I'm not really a dwarf person. Here's a little post about potential designs!

That being said, if all else fails, I might be porting my... IF MC-turned-blorbo-turned-babygirl Cassander (who some might be familiar with since I yell about him all the time over on @redwayfarers and there's a lot of moot/interest crossover) into a half-elf bastard of a human noblewoman, who she absolutely loathes (as per Cassander lore) so she sells him to the Crows. I absolutely love placing him in saving the world situations because he's the worst type of hero even if he isn't a bad guy. He just wants to live his life, dude. Also a Lucanis bird romance. Bisexuals stay winning.

(For any crossover moots, this is my chance to feature more human-looking Cass, as well! Think this but with pointed ears :>)

9. Which romance, if any, do you plan to pursue first?

*looks at prev answer* ... Birb husband. Davrin is a close second, and then Taash... But Lucanis... Been yelling about him since the trailer dropped, really.

10. Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game?

Answered here!

[agendratum]

so okay about those dragon age thoughts that kept me up from sleeping, i really need to write this down otherwise it will keep boiling inside my head (it will anyway)

i've been thinking what backstory i could do for rook. yes, there is not possibly enough information about them, it makes sense, the game isn't out yet. which means that i don't feel too comfortable making any final decisions, not really knowing how their character will play out, how the whole faction thing will work, etc. so i'm trying not to set anything in stone thinking about it. that being said, i got a little bit hang up on this idea of making rook to be my warden's, ruth', daughter. a little bit i say. i haven't stopped being able to think about it. i just love it a lot okay

and here's how i think it could work. first of all, the timeline allows for it to work, right? if say, ruth happened to make (another) child somewhere right after the events of origins, in the first year, two maybe, after the blight ended, then by the time of veilguard that child would be around 20 years old.

next part is a bit more tricky. so what i'm guessing is that this time the pc's backstory will depend on those factions. and a bunch of them are pretty tightly connected to a specific territory. tevinter, to be precise (and nevarra). and the thing is, i would want for it to be possible, with all the travels and what not, for ruth to be able to be present in this kid's life. at least somewhat. considering she has whole other child she can't see at all. and that limits my options i think.

of course, i don't *have* to worry too much about it, because, relocation is possible. say, ruth and this partner she has briefly find out they are going to become parents. and even tho the blight is technically over, there is still the aftermath, which means danger. people, if possible, probably wouldn't want to raise children in such conditions. so i think ruth could help them move somewhere else. but i do find it unrealistic that tevinter would be a desirable destination for such move

anyway, that's why my main bets for now are as follows

grey wardens. a seemingly obvious one. her mother is a grey warden, the grey warden some might say, so she's following in her steps. tho i do think that ruth wouldn't be super excited about her kid becoming one, you know, with how many people she knew died because of being grey wardens or being in a close to them (and darkspawn) proximity. and also she's still looking for that cure, so. she wouldn't be able to stop her, but she wouldn't want it. but that would make things easy for me personally

lords of fortune. this one is a type of "i've connected the dots (you didn't connect shit) i've connected them". ruth wants to help her partner and their kid to escape to a safer place. ruth's best buddy that she travels with is zevran. zevran's good friend is isabela. isabela is a pirate ship captain and is from rivain. lords of fortune are based out of rivain. it all makes total sense to me. yes. anyway, they ask isabela for help, she smuggles them out to rivain. the kid grows up with a lot of influence not only from her moms, but from zevran and isabela (getting to be the grey warden's kid's aunt and making the warden owe her) as well. which would affect her character in a way that i would like (yes i'm looking forward to those purple responses).

and also after i thought all of this up, i remembered that i guess for each faction we have one companion representing that faction. idk how this will affect the story, but maybe that would mean rook shows up in the city with the person representing the faction? possibly. lords of fortune are represented by taash, and i simply love the image of this little funny elf girl i made up showing up with this big badass lady, like i don't know them yet, but in my head they're the cutest duo. (not even in a romancing sense, idk who i will romance, but like in a general sense). then of course, her being a grey warden would make them besties with davrin and his pet griffon which is also amazing

oooooooooooooooooof this is it for now i think

one more thought, would it be fucked up or what, if when the game finally comes out and i get my hands on a character editor, i'll start by making ruth first, how i think she would look with veilguard's graphics, and then i'll work from there to make changes and create her daughter, resembling her but different. fun thought

andd another thought, i'm also trying to come up with this mysterious other mom of hers. and i just think she could be like a city elf bard. they wouldn't be in love with each other with ruth, but they would find each other's company pleasant. nice. not worrying too much about obligations. other than, you know, a child happening. unexpectedly, but neither of them would against it. this is it for now for real this time