#Solas: freed the first slave

[dalishious]

Everything Known about Shadow Dragon Rook

A collection of canon information about Rook, when choosing the Shadow Dragon faction/background.

(I will add more if more comes up.)

Rook was adopted by a military commander, who found them as a baby on a battlefield near Ventus, after a skirmish. If Rook is non-human, they were kept home a lot growing up.

Varric asked the Shadow Dragons for help freeing an old friend - a dignitary who was captured by Venatori - in the city of Nessus. Rook believed the safe plan created by the Shadow Dragons would not work, and decided to go off the book and stage a rescue attempt themself, with the help of Varric. Rook successfully led an armed rebellion of freed slaves and rescued the dignitary too. However, the magisters cracked down hard in retaliation, and the Shadow Dragons decided it was best for Rook to stay underground for a while.

About six months prior to the game, The Viper reached out to Rook via letter, suggesting that an alliance with Varric would be beneficial to the Shadow Dragons.

Rook has worked with Tarquin and the Viper before. Additionally, Neve knew of Rook's work in Nessus, though prior to the game they never formally met.

Rook watched Maevaris Tilani argue against slavery in the Magisterium prior to Mae's removal.

Rook is wanted by the authorities for numerous offences, including theft, murder, and destruction of property.

Rook's father is likely Legatus Charon Mercar. [X]

-----

SOURCES:

Character creation faction description

Dialogue with Rook unpacking their belongings

Dialogue with Varric about why he recruited Rook

Dialogue with Solas about why he should work with Rook

Dialogue with Maevaris about her past as a Magister

Dialogue with the First Warden about Rook's reputation

Codex entry: A Letter Dated Six Months Ago

Codex entry: The Soporati

[smitten-miqitten]

Post-Veilguard Solavellan and Rook headcanons:

Because Lavellan is directly in the Fade with no Veil to separate her from it, it becomes a (relatively) simple matter for Solas to reconnect her to the lost immortality of the Elves. It only works while she's physically present in the Fade however, and at first he has to function as a go-between until that connection is strong enough on its own(like an unused muscle).

Lavellan no longer NEEDS food or drink as a result but being without it is extremely uncomfortable. Feeling like you're starving constantly sucks, even if it might not kill you.

This is fine though, because Rook teams up with Dorian to make a plan. The Sending Crystal Dorian gave Lavellan is infamously always on her person, so can act as a beacon to her location. Dorian gets things sent to the Lighthouse, and Rook facilitates the delivery of the goods via helpful spirits with the Sending Crystal being their guide.

Rook works with Archon Dorian Pavus to crush any black market slave trading that they uncover. The Lighthouse is used to ferry the freed people to safety, as it was in the past.

Rook becomes the new master of the Lighthouse. They end up getting a Sending Crystal pair of their own to share with Solas, and he and they collaborate on things as needed. It's an odd friendship. Bitch to bitch communication. It's scathing but heartfelt. They both know he needs a buddy.

Eventually Rook also is reconnected enough to the Fade to the point they also stop aging, but anytime they enter Thedas proper it resumes for the duration they are there. As a result, they will likely either eventually die like normal, or choose to work via proxies while remaining in the Lighthouse physically.

Lavellan and Solas, wherever their vague-ass destination actually is, end up creating a fairly comfortable home despite how 'terrible' wherever they're at is supposed to be.

Cole warns her when Dorian is about to pass away of age, and she says her heartwrenching farewells in his final dream. Dorian wills his Sending Crystal to Rook, with the stipulation that Rook find Lavellan someone equally charming to chat with so she doesn't lose her connection to the real world. It's...a tall order 😔 Dorian is no less dear to Lavellan than Mythal was to Solas, for perspective.

As the one who accompanied the Dread Wolf into exile, Lavellan becomes a mythological figure amongst the few Dalish who still keep to some of their ways, more or less against her will. Her name, Ellenere, means nothing in Elvish originally but becomes the name of the goddess who serves as the heart and guide that endears The People to the trickster Fen'Harel. Statues of a female wolf are placed outside of camps next to those of Fen'Harel, so that she will placate him and he will not trouble the clan. She and he guard or stalk the dreams of the world... depending on the story.

Clan Lavellan is an awkward guest at the Arlathvhen because of their former-First's new deific status. Members of the clan also no longer choose to receive Vallaslin as adults.

In the far, far future Solas and Lavellan have children. This follows the spinning of myths by the Dalish that claimed they already had, which flustered Lavellan greatly and prompted a conversation about whether such a thing would even be possible, let alone advisable. Being born in the Fade, these children do not lack the connection their cousins in Thedas would and are therefore immortal like their parents, at least until they leave it (they do).

Solas and Lavellan fuck like...a lot. There are Dalish myths about that too, eventually 😂 Like when a thunderstorm is happening, they're being too rowdy. The person who started these myths may or may not be The Iron Bull.

[mogwaei]

Everyone is always asking where is Solas and what is Solas doing

but no one ever asks about that stick he's been carrying around. It's clearly very important to him. Wolf has favourite toy ball and stick?

Jokes aside, I'm genuinely curious about the story behind it--like the jawbone amulet! As far as I know, that staff doesn't appear in the game anywhere, but it's in a lot of important imagery. And we know the artists are insanely meaningful and intentional with everything they do, so there is a story.

My basket of little headcanons & more below the cut

>Branch from an important tree, maybe related to the Tree of Mythal (seen in the vallaslin design)

>It looks vaguely wolf shaped, or halla shaped, and maybe he was literally like "this is hilarious" and went with it. Because he would. imagine if Felassan had been there when he got it and it was an inside joke and now he can't throw it away

> We know Skyhold isn't the original structure (at least, there are few pieces of the OG remaining if I recall) but I also entertained the Peace Tree.

There could have been several Peace Trees, idk. BUT, could it be possible the War Table is actually old as fuck and Solas took a branch for himself?

>Solas stole/took the branch from someone. Maybe from Andruil since she has a lot of Tree-themed stories (lol)

>It was a gift from someone important to him.

>Some headcanon from my fic:

"It was an old thing with a natural shape and a gnarled head, little more than a bough that looked as though he'd simply prised it from the roots of a tree and decided no other weapon could compare. There was no telling whether its length had been weathered smooth under the path of his hands or if the magic focused through its grains for years had changed its composition. It looked out of place with all the silver and gilded metal he was otherwise clad in. No one knew where he'd gotten it, or the story behind it—only that he'd had it the day he freed the first slave and every instance after. It had been in his hand the day of her liberation too. All accompanying him knew the staff. Along with the wolf, the bough had become a symbol known amongst them as one of peace, friendship, and freedom. And all of them had been in bondage—a handful of healers and ex-sentinels—but now they were liberators. They followed Fen'Harel with his staff, fearless and proud."

Okay I'm gonna stop myself there because I can and will go on forever and then I will never do art or writing again.

BUT WAIT: bonus on the Peace Tree thing, cause this is fucking hilarious to me:

[coriphallus]

DA: The Veilguard Spoiler Review pt3 - Politiks

oh my little void in this world wide web, we are really in it now.

a little PSA before you read this word vomit, i am from westernmost middle east, and that will inform much of what i know about the topics i discuss. i wont know about race politics of america or the intricacies of it beyond what i can see online but as an immigrant i do have some perspective on western experience. so when i talk about heavy topics it will come from a foreign place. i do understand and admit that i cannot ignore that BW is a north american studio and that colours every theme they touch.

so there are two angles to approach this, 1st is to assess DAV on its own and 2nd is to assess it as a part of a whole and continuation of a franchise.

lets get 1st out of the way, its safely uncontroversial beyond taash's story. and eff-plays voiced my feeling verbatim on that subject more succinctly than anything i can possibly write.

2nd is very, very grim.

every DA game that came before had been interlaced with politics of its world so severely that its absence is disorienting. every game you were given the choice to change the political landscape of the countries youre playing in, for better or for worse. even the 2nd game with its vastly smaller scale sees hawke trying to navigate through their life as an immigrant, even at the games climax you are given a choice to drastically alter how this uprising will be remembered and it tells hawke that there are no half measures, they need to pick a side.

"Slavery or no, flesh is always for sale."

in my very first DAV playthrough i picked a shadow dragon elf, i didnt give her any backstory as i though being an elf in minrathous would shape her world view regardless.

first scene i got when organising my room rook pulls out the SHACKLES of a slave shes freed as she reminisces about how much good shes done, and puts them on her bedside. then proceeds to talk to a book and say "everybody looks down on elves but we were here first >:c"

(at this point i rerolled my character so i dont yet know how shadow dragon background plays out.)

at the very beginning of the game we see similar shackles and varric informs us that solas hates slavery, hes been freeing them.

when we make it to minrathous we learn that these people in neves circle have been freeing slaves.

alright so, the heavy handed deliveries aside, what purpose do all these scenes/expositions serve?

well, it makes these people look good. we know theres slavery in this part of thedas and these people are fighting against it not by any elaborate means but dont worry kitten <3.

[i had to look up the english for some of these terms so feel free to correct me if im wrong] patterson describes slavery as "one of the most extreme forms of the relation of domination, approaching the limits of total power from the viewpoint of the master, and of total powerlessness from the viewpoint of the slave". death of the soul, death of what makes one human -and for the purposes of this section- death in the eyes of state. slavery has such a long history that predates early modern colonization of africa by thousands of years. it is a staple of human history and where we have come from shapes what we are now. we can shun it, call it abhorrent but we cant pretend it never happened. theres always been people dead in the eyes of state.

heres the uncomfortable truth, there aint never been enough steel in the world to hold every hittite or mittani slave. to assume slavery is people getting abducted and put to irons is as naïve as human trafficking being a rando ruffying you and hauling you across the sea in a crate. yea, it could happen but 99% of the time its just a waste of time to physically hold someone against their will by force. and this idea makes us think its this far off thing that happened thousands of years ago by bad individuals doing very comically bad things, which is a very deliberate choice, because to depict period accurate slavery would be to portray social and economical classes, and that would be confronting how little we've changed in certain aspects.

people were born into that caste, shaped by it, worn down by it, and abused by it systematically.

in DAI Dorian says something -apparently- very controversial that i dont think this fandom has fully unpacked, and i aint gonna do that here either because im not remotely qualified. he likens the working class of south to slavery of north, theres no way to engage with this argument in any meaningful way, even as an elf, and in general people brush it off as dorians pro-slavery rhetorics.

try as DAV might to disregard, we actually did meet an ex-slave and trafficking victims on three separate occasions, and the games have set a premise already. we got to talk about their unique circumstances, and they were handled with some measure of dept. maybe you liked them, maybe you didnt, but you knew them and that makes a difference. they had agency in their own stories. a far cry from DAVs nameless faceless props for righteous gentiles to circle jerk about.

but, sure, lets tell ourselves showing them would be too gratuitous.

can you imagine how batshit insane it would look if zevran kept the belt her husband used to beat isabela with as a trinket, to display in his tent? that scene with rook disturbed me more than most anything in this entire franchise and coming from an anders supporter, thats saying something.

this is how little the writers were willing to engage with their source material. this is how little they are willing to engage with the world around them.

which makes the next blunder inevitable.

alot has been said about the absurdity of elves feeling responsible for the events of DAV, but maybe this hasnt been said enough; this is a blatant fascist rhetoric.

i will spell it out though, even though i never thought it needed to be said, the social performance of accountability indicates that the party who has done harm has benefited and continues to benefit from that harm, this is why reparations are paid, and thats what "check your priviledge" means. elves in DA have never benefited in any way from the warmongering of evanuris, they were enslaved by them.

to say that these people should feel some sort of responsibility towards what befell dwarves is a fascist rhetoric used irl to offload responsibility and divide and alienate the opposition further from eachother.

i cant tell you if this mouth piece is same everywhere but i know a few people who have clocked it immediately so im gonna assume it was obvious. and truthfully, i wouldnt even be annoyed if i thought it was intentional. genuinely, one of my favourite games is an unapologetic military propaganda whos protagonist would make ayn rand write sonnets about, and the game knows what it is. but no, i fully believe the studio tried to address the criticism they got about their lackluster handling of elves and either completely misunderstood or willfully disregarded the experiences of marginalised peoples that the games drew inspiration from.

the writing is so hollow beyond horrible dialogue that when writing an enby character whos also multicultural they didnt even notice the parallel theyve created. i know this because after an entire plotline about their struggle with binaries their story concludes with a binary decision on their culture. this just confirms to me that any dept this game has is completely accidental.

imma level with yall i dont subscribe to the belief that you need to have some type of experiences to write some type of characters and i find that "ofc a white person wrote it so..." response very tired because yea we should be allowed to expect more from white people. i too had OCs of different cultures that i wasnt very familiar with and handled poorly, but unlike me, a company can afford a consultant.

i played greedfall recently, and sure the maori tattoos were a shit decision, and im disappointed that after all the criticism they still stuck with it, and yes maybe its story was not sensitive enough but you know what? as the person whos recommended it to me said, i rather have a story who boldly engages with its own themes than one whos terrified of them. say what you will about its shortcomings but at least at the end of that game you can have an ending where the colonizers leave for good, and yes their plague is not healed but the narrative doesnt punish the natives for their isolationism. i am glad that the game allows that catharsis to its players.

DAV could have had 300 well thought-out endings and still not please everyone, but the endings they chose to include directly implicates the group theyre trying to appease and its literally just people who either want to punch or kiss solas, thats how fucking deep they think their fanbase it. not the people who wanted to end slavery, or achieve equilibrium with beings no matter how alien they are. or people who wanted to see a culture connect with its roots etc etc.

and maybe they were right, many people have been enjoying this game immensely and i am just, so fucking jealous. i wish i liked this game and enjoyed it and didnt want to tear out my hair every second i spent in treviso. i wish i wasnt seething white knuckling my sink like an insane person when a little kid wrote to crow rook that hes recruiting orphans now. i wish i had any belief in this game to read that as satire.

at least i wish i felt any form of vindication when i immediately realised this game was going to be a soulless cashgrab that unashamedly uses the name of a popular IP to push a sub-par product earlier this year, i just spend 80+ hours watching a company parade the carcass of a franchise i loved and beat it like a pinata as it continuously slapped me on the face with a botched wax figure of it.

i just feel this profound sense of sadness. i wish this game didnt exist. and no i dont feel any kind of brand loyalty, even when i actively enjoyed their work i didnt but i definitely dont now, not after 3 consecutive games that theyve delivered with more or less the same problems. as the company is today, i dont care whether bw survives or not, its been made clear time and again that the bw i liked is long gone and bw today is clearly not interested in making games for me.

even as i write this i dont feel fuelled by my anger for DAV but by the love a have for what came before. i still think the story deserved better, the fans deserved better, the people who contributed into making DA universe what it was before DAV deserved better. and, as rook told harding, our anger is justified.

but, hey. hair looks really good.

[cadaveerie]

spoilers for DA2, DAI, DATV (from things seen in the first Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay reveal, and from the character designs and descriptions) and Tevinter Nights (The Horror of Hormak)

Trying to guess what gods Davrin and Bellara's vallaslin represent

Long post ahead. TLDR at the end!

I suppose that someone has already made some comparison like this, but I couldn't find any post that compares the images like this so I'm doing one!

Firstly, the source: The chart in which the vallaslin were assigned to their gods for the first time was posted by Matt Rhodes (post).

The vallaslin used in that chart are from Dragon Age: Inquisition, so we don't have an official confirmation for the vallaslin of DAO or DA2. The designs are different in those two games, but they're similar enough to make a guess. For further reference, aside from the confirmed DAI version I'll try to assign the vallaslin that I suspect might be Davrin and Bellara's to their respective DAO version.

Now, the post itself is under the cut:

Davrin - Ghilan'nain

Ghilan'nain is the elven goddess of guides and navigation. She is often called the Mother of the halla—white deer-like creatures revered by the Dalish and used to pull their aravel, or "landships".

Comparison to DAO's, this is the most likely to be Ghilan'nain's vallaslin, in my opinion. This image belongs to codexapocryphal, who made this post. After looking at all the vallaslin, I agree with them that this is the one that's most likely to be Ghilan'nain's.

Ghilan'nain is my best guess for Davrin.

The reasoning:

Theme

The Mother of the Halla, a goddess closely related to animals, who loves and protects them, and who herself became the first halla. The goddess that created countless monsters so wild that she had to destroy most of them after her beloved pleaded her to stop (Codex: The Ascension of Ghilan'nain). And possibly, she might have been the one responsible for the events of The Horror of Hormak, a story in Tevinter Nights that narrates how two Grey Wardens find a temple that, coincidentally, is full of halla horns symbolism in its columns, and in which from a strange pool come out horrifying mutated darkspawn and monsters. There's also some other symbolism in the story that suggests that it might be Ghilan'nain's doing, but that's the most obvious one (aside from the fact that the pool is straight up creating monsters, as Ghilan'nain is known to do).

She is also said to help Dalish hunters find their way home when they're lost. And all of that -- the hunter, the monster and the animal elements, sound very accurate to Davrin, who is both a monster hunter and one of the Grey Wardens that were assigned to raise a griffon (perhaps he loves animals like she does, that'd be cute :D).

Additionally, if it turns out that it's indeed Ghilan'nain's vallaslin, we will probably end up getting this information in-game, since Ghilan'nain is one of the gods that Solas (and Rook) freed by accident. Oops.

Design

Based on the design alone, I think you could easily see a halla's horns in it. However, I think it can be a little hard to properly identify which vallaslin we are talking about by only looking at the forehead, since some of the designs look very similar to each other, especially in the forehead region.

Having said that, I think that if we look both at his forehead and chin, the Ghilan'nain vallaslin design from Inquisition is the most similar to Davrin's, since both vallaslin occupy the forehead and the chin only and the "horns" are making similar shapes.

Other reasons

One of the reasons why I believe it might be hers as well is because it would make a very interesting conflict for Davrin. The monster hunter who has to fight this... monster-looking creature, that on top of that is the goddess his vallaslin represents?

And it's even crazier if we consider what Solas reveals to f!Lavellan in one of their romance scenes: that the vallaslin are actually slave markings that nobles forced their slaves to get. I wonder what Davrin (and Bellara, and a Dalish Rook) would think if they knew this... And I wonder what a god would think if they saw an elf with one of their symbols on their face. Would they believe they're a slave dedicated to them? Who knows, if some of the theories out there are true, perhaps the gods themselves could have some control over them. Not sure how likely that is, but it would be interesting and add yet another layer of drama (and maybe it's reaching, but it reminds me to what happens if you bring Anders with you to the Deep Roads in the Legacy DLC, that he turns against the team. I wonder if something like that would be possible if you bring Davrin along and have to fight this goddess at some point. tbh I love this trope.. I know it's too extra but I hope it's true lol).

Other options

If not Ghilan'nain's then I believe the other most likely options are the following:

Mythal's (complex version), The All-Mother, the patron of motherhood and justice (the flip side of vengeance):

and Falon'Din's, the god of death and fortune who guides the dead to the Beyond:

And the both of them is because even if they have a cheek part that Davrin's doesn't have, it's similar enough to his in both the "horns" aspect and the chin. At least enough, I suppose... I still think it's way more likely that it's Ghilan'nain, though. For the rest I can't seem to find enough similarities to even suggest them... but here is all of them, in case you want to check:

link!

Bellara - Dirthamen

Dirthamen is the elven god of secrets and knowledge.

Comparison to DAO's, this is the most likely to be Dirthamen's vallaslin, in my opinion. This image belongs to codexapocryphal, who made this post. After looking at all the vallaslin, I agree with them that this is the one that's most likely to be Dirthamen's.

I know that for this one, the DAO and the DAI one don't seem that similar to each other, but I believe that there's still similarity, especially in the cheeks. Since this is speculative it might not even be the right comparison, but it's not that relevant either way.

Dirthamen is my best guess for Bellara.

The reasoning:

Theme

The Keeper of Secrets, he is the god that gave the elves the gift of knowledge. Both him and Falon'Din, his "twin brother", would venture into The Fade often to learn secrets. He's also said to have gifted the elves the gifts of loyalty and faith in family.

It's pretty clear that this would make sense for Bellara, since she's a Veil Jumper, the people that explore the ancient ruins of the Arlathan Forest looking for ancient secrets of the elves. And Bellara herself is described in the EA website as "obsessed with discovering the ancient secrets of ancient Elvhenan". This god seems to be a perfect patron for her.

Contrary to the dynamic that Davrin might have with Ghilan'nain, the other god that escaped as we saw in the gameplay reveal was probably Elgar'nan (if you want to know why, you can watch this video by Jackdaw). So if Bellara's vallaslin is Dirthamen's, then she wouldn't have this sort of connection to one of the gods that escaped as Davrin does for having Ghilan'nain vallaslin (although it would have been funny, but I suppose it's better this way, to give each character their own personal struggle facing this. And at the end of the day, both of the gods that escaped are still part of the pantheon she follows, so it'd be significant for her as well regardless of who was released).

Design

Compared to Davrin's, this is a bit harder to figure out, as the two vallaslin look significantly more different. To me the most relevant part when we compare DAI Dirthamen's design to Bellara's are the geometrical shapes, especially the triangles, as this shape (in this form of... dots, almost) is never found in other vallaslin.

And I think that the design in her cheeks is also kind of similar to Dirthamen's in DAI, as they are little triangles/diamonds that go across a longer curve. It could be a reach though... I'm not super confident in this one, but considering the other options, this one seems like the most similar.

Other reasons

Relevant to her overall design and her vallaslin, it seems that the triangle (and geometric shapes, but mostly the triangle) is a relevant motif for her. She's full of them all over her outfit... although as seen in the concept art below, it's not so much a "her" thing as it is a general theme for Veil Jumpers. I also suppose that they took a lot of their style from the elvhenan and their ancient artifacts that they found in the Arlathan Forest.

Other options

The one that in my opinion looks the most like it could be Bellara's, aside from Dirthamen's, is June's, the elven Master of Crafts, a god of crafts and building. I believe this because of the little dots June's has under the eyes, which I think look similar to what Bellara has in her cheeks, and also to those she has right below her eyebrows. The forehead part also looks... kind of similar to hers. One of the biggest differences is that June's DAI vallaslin goes down the neck, and hers doesn't (and doesn't even have anything on the chin, but Dirthamen's DAI one also has something on the chin).

I've also seen some people suggest Sylaise's (the complex version), the goddess of all the domestic arts, or Falon'Din's, the elven god of death and fortune who guides the dead to the Beyond... but to be honest I just don't see enough resemblance, and I don't think thematically it makes as much sense as Dirthamen's does.

And once again I leave the picture of all of DAI's vallaslin in case you want to check:

and the link, again!

And that's all! Sorry if this was too long!

Keep in mind that at the end of the day we know that the vallaslin are different depending of the region, so that's the in-game reason why they're different. That and of course, there can always be slightly changes, especially in this game since it's been 10 years since the last one came out.

Do you agree or have any other take? If you have other theories for this or you spot any mistake, please let me know! Thank you for reading :D

TLDR: It's Ghilan'nain for Davrin and Dirthamen for Bellara, probably? But we're just guessing here.

the DAI vallaslin images from the wiki, they were uploaded by KeladinStorm and  Evamitchelle so shoutout to them!

Edit 1: Confirmation for Bellara

[maxx-the-queer]

Veilguard Spoilers Below, discussing Vallaslin and Ancient Elves, as well as a potential change I'd make to the game's story if I could.

So, the reveal that elves come from spirits that took physical form by taking Titan's blood was very cool but it got me thinking.

We know that spirits can have their nature corrupted and twisted against them to become demons - Justice becoming Vengeance, Wisdom becoming Pride, Determination becoming Spite - and it is pretty much outright stated that Solas himself had his nature changed from Wisdom to Pride by Mythal.

In the time of Elvhenan, the Evanuris would mark their slaves with vallaslin, including Mythal.

Blood magic is one of the few things that can bind demons. We see it with Spite and Lucanis in Veilguard and we see it with Solas' wisdom spirit friend in Inquisition.

Vallaslin translates to bloodwriting, which at first seems like just a fancy fantasy way to say tattoo, but in my mind that seems to indicate Actual Blood Magic.

The vallaslin aren't just cosmetic markings of ownership, they're actual physical blood bindings to allow the Evanuris to control their slaves and prevent them, even as the horrors of slavery twist their spirits into demons, from exercising any free will.

And when thousands of years later, Solas wakes up to find the Dalish wearing those same markings without understanding their history in blood magic, of course he's horrified.

How many years did he spend breaking those same bindings from his people, only to see a pale reflection of them wear them willingly as a cultural badge of honour?

In a worldstate where Solas removed the vallaslin from a romanced Inquisitor Lavellan, the gesture is not purely symbolic. It may very well have been preventative, in case anything like what happened in Veilguard happened and the Evanuris were set free.

Imagine a Thedas where dozens of Dalish suddenly found themselves bound to the service of corrupted Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, where even a Dalish Inquisitor themselves could very well be bound to them.

The Dalish don't just up and leave for promised 'Elven Glory' because they're suddenly all about revenge at any cost. They have no choice but to because of the blood magic hold over them.

I feel like this would have better tied into the themes Veilguard was trying to hammer home with Solas. Having small stakes Dalish villains to contrast with the true overwhelming power of Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain (like Samson or Alexius were to Corypheus), who could be redeemed and freed from their bindings would have strengthened the idea that Solas himself was worthy of such a redemption.

It would have shown Rook, at least one who tried to redeem others, that it was possible and have an actual reason to do so for Solas other than "he feels really bad about it :("

[deilmo]

The first freed elvhen

"He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face."

The recent discoveries made about ancient Elvhenan revealed a story painted with much more gray areas than was first believed. Some of these new historical documents depicts Fen'Harel as a liberator of enslaved elvhen, removing their markings and welcoming them at his side to fight the Elvhen gods' seemingly tyranical and crazed leadership.

While the veracity of these discoveries are yet to be proven, it has irremediably changed the field of Elvhen studies moving forward. Some historians hope to find written records to link to this new discovery. While unlikely, as the Elvhen seemed to favor frescoes to teach the illeterate masses, a record of the freed slaves could help historians draw a tangible timeline of the late days of the empire. Similarly, crawling back up those same records to the first freed elf could help scholars to single out the trigger that launched Fen'Harel into action.

Professor Bram Kenric - 9:49

-

Useless details to throw at you:

Solas is wearing an archer's armor, hence the gloves, the forearm brace, half plate and single shoulder pad concentrating on one side. Legends in game describe him as a warrior, an archer, and Inquisition as a mage so i picked an archer. Though I picture him more like those veil jumpers archers we've seen in DA4 multiple trailers that seem to use a mix of archery and magic.

His hair ornament is inspired by Mythal's statue in Trespasser having a reversed moon instead of her head

Yes, his scars are there, and they're fresh!

I tried to recreate a lonely and isolated feeling that I think would illustrate the sadness of Solas freeing himself. Alone. As the trailblazer, no one would have been there for him except himself

There's two version of this drawing but I'm posting this one first because it's closer to the vision I had

This idea is at least a year old, I remember making a thumb-sized sketch in a corner of a work sheet when I had it, then promptly forgot about it until this week-end. I ended up drawing it while watching the XBOX Showcase live.

[ell-vellan]

Okay so I'm trying to piece together from memory all the lore about ancient Thedas and in the correct order of events, with all the details I can recall, because I feel like I'm missing things.

There's plenty of holes, but I'm attempting to follow the thread of logic that leads from one thing to the next, using Solas's memories as a guide - trying very hard to understand the relationships among the creation of the Veil, the Titans and the Blight, and the Evanuris and the Archdemons, and what that might mean about Andraste/the Maker and other implications.

Any input or help is welcome lol

-Spirits use Titan blood to craft bodies for themselves, not realizing that it's blood of living things. These are the first elves, and among them what will become the Evanuris. Mythal coaxes Solas to form a physical body and join her

-in the beginning, Titans roam the earth and shape Thedas to their will, using song that connects them all somehow. Humans and Qunari aren't in Thedas yet. Spirits roam freely in the Fade without the Veil (?) Dwarves may exist underground? exist as part of the Titans, their children.

-the Titans fight back against the use of their blood. Long horrible battle against the elves, where the Evanuris come to power as generals leading the fight. Solas comes up with the idea to sever the Titans from their dreams (whatever this means? Did they have a connection to the fade at some point?) which I guess puts them in endless slumber, becoming part of the earth and letting the earth be still and unchanging for the first time. The severed dreams become the Blight, full of the Titan's nightmares and anger and loss and confusion - though the elves don't yet realize this yet. (?) dwarves possibly arise now, as children of the fallen Titans/their spilled blood/dreams/something. But since the Titans can no longer dream, dwarves can't either, and have no connection to the Fade or magic (despite Titan blood basically powering magic.)

-the Evanuris become powerful tyrants that bind other elves to them as slaves. Solas disagrees with this, Mythal doesn't listen. At some point, Solas burns Mythal's vallaslin from his face, leaving a scar.

-the Blight is a source of great power and destruction. The Evanuris realize they can use it to become like gods, and do. They each bind themselves to a (blighted?) dragon, thus making themselves effectively unkillable so long as the dragons live. (But if this is the case, were non-evanuris ancient elves without dragons also immortal, or just long-lived? And how is Mythal's spirit still alive after Inquisition - didn't get dragon die fighting Corypheus's dragon?)

-Solas leads a centuries-long rebellion against the Evanuris, setting up a network of spies, soldiers, and hideouts all across the Fade and Thedas, to help ferry freed slaves to safety. The growing threat of the Dread Wolf pushes the Evanuris to tap into the Blight (either they started this in response to Solas' war with them, or they ramped up their use, not sure) to defeat him.

-Solas panics, begs Mythal to stop the Evanuris from using Blight. It seems at this point (according to the Solas memory) that Solas is already leading his rebellion as he asks Mythal to leave the Evanuris and join him. She doesn't, but she does approach the other Evanuris about their use of Blight, and they murder her.

-at some point, humans arrive on Thedas from somewhere. In a memory, Solas (as a spirit) said he had no desire to live as humans do, so they must have existed in ancient Thedas as well, somewhere.

-To seal away the Blight, the Evanuris, and the Forgotten Ones(?) (rival elven warlords to the Evanuris) he tricks them all into an ancient elven palace and creates the Veil, which is held in place by their now-immortal lifespans. The Evanuris are meant to sleep forever in this prison. Their dragons go...underground somewhere and Solas forgets about them, or something? And become known as Archdemons.

-Arlathan falls, all ancient elven knowledge and power lost due to the creation of the Veil, elves flee and scatter and lose all culture. It's possible Solas didn't intend for the Veil to surround the entire world, not just the Evanuris prison, or to destroy the elves, but something does go wrong at the end, and Solas is knocked unconscious for several millennia as a result, waking up nearly powerless a year before the Inquisition.

-humans of fledgling Tevinter scavenge what's left from Arlathan to become a great empire ruled by mages. Some mages can freely enter the Fade at will: dreamers, or somniari.

-the sleeping Evanuris can apparently still whisper to human mages in dreams (not sure why some humans can access the Fade and some can't) via the fact that their dragons exist physically in Thedas (?) and influence the minds of somniari. It's through this method they learn blood magic, and the whispers of the Evanuris via the dragons become what the Tevinters call the Old Gods. The Old Gods are given names and worshipped by ancient Tevinter. The Evanuris cajole the magisters to tear open the Veil in order to set them free, and they do so - instead unleashing the Blight. The first magisters, Corypheus among them, are infected by the Blight and become darkspawn. The "Golden City" (the Evanuris prison) is now called the Black City, as it is Blighted.

-Darkspawn are mindless killing machines (a few have some higher intelligence) connected to Archdemons by the song of the Blight, and are driven to dig underground unceasingly to find and free them. Cycles of Blights are unleashed on the world, with Archdemons leading darkspawn in mass world destruction. Grey Wardens are created in response to this threat, possibly influenced by the host spirit of Mythal's wisdom and knowledge of how to kill the Archdemon.

-at some point, a human (possible mage) woman named Andraste is said to be born in the Almarri tribe near present day Denerim, who becomes enslaved, and will lead a revolt against Tevinter. Her story gives rise to Andrastianism. It's hinted that she was a carrier of Mythal's spirit. She was said to have troubling dreams from childhood of a being she called the Maker, a supreme being who she believed abandoned the world when humans began worshipping the Old Gods. According to legend, her singing called to the Maker, and he invited her to his side, and she would encourage him to rejoin humanity and forgive them. Ashes reportedly belonging to Andraste were protected by at least one guardian spirit and had curative properties. The Chantry becomes the dominant religion of humans in Thedas.

-At some point, Qunari come to northern Thedas, chased from their home by something called "The Devouring Storm," and begin a long-standing war with Tevinter. A select few are born with the dragonlike ability to breathe fire, and dragons are held as sacred as anything is held in their culture.

-During the events of the Inquisition, Solas becomes very upset at the very idea of Grey Wardens, calling them fools who are bad at battling the Blight. He asks Blackwall what the Wardens intend to do when the last Archdemon is slain. He says, "Without the Archdemons, there can be no Blight. Is that the reasoning?" Blackwall confirms it is and asks where he's going with this. Solas says mildly, "Nowhere. I hope they are correct."

-Morrigan is able to use a ritual that captures the soul of a slain archdemon, untainted by Blight, into an embryo of a child fathered by a Grey Warden. (Is this the fragment of the Evanuris that was put into the Archdemon? And where did it go when it was taken by Mythal - and then, both presumably taken by Solas? Did he simply gain their power and wisdom?)

-With each Archdemon slain over the course of Theodosian history, the Evanuris assumably become mortal and die - thus the Veil must have grown weaker around the Evanuris prison, allowing more Blight to escape. Likely this is what so worries Solas?

From all this it seems it goes something like: Titan blood leads to Evanuris. Evanuris taking Titan blood leads to war. War leads to creation of Blight and destruction of Titans. Evanuris using Blight leads to Archdemons and then the Veil. Archdemons lead to Old Gods, Tevinter, the Black City, and darkspawn. Darkspawn unleash Archdemons, leading to Blights. Killing Archdemons leads to Veil weakening, freeing Evanuris and more Blight. End goal of Evanuris = ??? Blighted world??

Regardless, everything is Solas's fault.

Question I still have:

-What were the Archdemons attempting during each Blight - were they being directed by the Evanuris, or simply mindlessly, furiously destroying the world out of pure Titan anger and rage and revenge? If directed by the dreaming Evanuris, what was their end goal? Revenge on the world?

-If Solas never bound a dragon to his life force, why is he still immortal? Were all elves immortal because they were connected innately to the Fade? We know Felassan also survived into the modern era.

-Why is all this revolved around dragons, why are they special like this?

-If anything about Andraste was true, who was she getting visions of in her sleep? If she was a carrier of Mythal's spirit, was she getting some of Mythal's memories about Solas?

-There were hints that griffons were already in existence before Ghilan'nain made her creatures, and that they had a special hatred of darkspawn and the Blight. Why?

-if the Inquisitor goes with Solas into the Fade, is she going to now be immortal?

-Solas was able to cure the Blight from his red lyrium dagger. How? And how does he plan to call the Blight in the Fade? I assume it has something to do with atoning for his part in its creation, but...how? We know a select few cases where the Blight was cured from objects and people, but not HOW.

-the red lyrium idol. First, what WAS it? Did it depict Solas and Mythal? Why was it blighted and underground? Tbh, I'm sure a lot of this is just something they had to hand wave away for game mechanics and story purposes but I want to UNDERSTAND.

[sweatandwoe]

bioware da:v stuff

Ohhhhhhh, I forgot about it being multiplayer originally urrrggHHGGG nightmare nightmare

EA/BIOWARE execs I hate your flaccid brains.

They do claim to "have a mastery of the frostbite engine now" but an RPG should never have to be forced into that FIFA engine! It looks so "bloomy" & waxy, the camera jerks around to be "immersive" when the character runs. It feels like they were told to keep adding post processing effects so some suit could say he punched it up.

I still hope the gameplay will be fun/wellmade but I have to admit I personally don't care about how heavily the story is going in on elves as the one important™️ race to the world setting.

I'm playing BG3 & DOS2, trying to tell myself I can't compare Bioware to Larian as they are very different styles of RPG studio but oogh more time passes & the more I enjoy the way Larian does it. As an ancient Bioware game fan, it stings.

BIOWARE CRITICAL (I ranted more than I thought)

Frostbite Engine is probably why we also got an art direction change, that feels closer to Fifa. It wouldn't surprise me if that's also where the hair physics comes in, as Fifa does have that. It doesn't look bad to me, however, I saw someone describe it as Pixar-lite and I can never unsee it. Also, the Megamind Qunari was certainly... a choice.

Also Frostbite used mostly for multiplayer games and the scrapped live service/multiplayer DA game, also got used here. From just a lot of elements that I don't wanna go into here (this post is already very long)

I think the combat actually looks fun but I've seen people call it CRPG still and no, it's an action RPG. I wouldn't expect anyone to go and expect BG3 combat (Or story elements). I do wonder if it'll get old quickly though, and also that the monster designs aren't scary at all and look really goofy. The Ui/hud stuff during fights is also pretty messy and I hope they have options to remove things from it at launch.

Putting the rest under a readmore, I went in depth lmao

Elves are taking certain front, but also it feels like in a weird direction. We're in Tevinter, Dwarves have strong relations with Tevinter but there isn't even a faction related to them? Also, we have a high focus on the elves, which is to be expected with the plot of the last game.

But also we're in Tevinter and I haven't seen, ya know, any mention of the slavery, which elves are a major portion of. Like none of the ads talk about it (which could make sense). No articles I see mention it. It feels... weird. Especially given we're seeing Solas' backstory in this game, and how he freed slaves was important to his character but yeah little to no mention of it

That being said I also have heard nothing about the story spoilers, besides what some people posted on Twitter, and it was scraps. A lot of people who just played the first 7 hours, are releasing their reviews and say the story is good, but won't go into details because of spoilers? Make a spoiler video, I'll watch it, but I wonder if Bioware/EA didn't allow the mention of any story elements to preserve "their surprise choices" (and any story elements hardcore fans would get pissed at)

FOLLOWING IS A SMALL SPOILER (TWO LINES) FOR VEILGUARD, I think it's important to see before you buy it but BE WARNED

God this line pisses me off so much

Solas should have negative traits, actually, and make huge mistakes, like he was known to do in the last DLC released, a decade ago. No matter how many plans he has, he usually fucks it up by going too big.

He literally was chumming it up with Mythal, "she was the best of them", yet here he is pointing at (probably) her and Elgar'nan as they become Gods. I think making him fully against the system from the start and not someone who once enjoyed some benefits of the system, even if he didn't engage in the slavery aspect of it, to become friends/rivalry with the Evanuris but as they grew in power, and eventually murdered the only one of them he considered actually good, the light bulb went off in his head, is like, really a big character retcon to me.

Despite how bad they were, Solas didn't want to lock them away. He despised and loved them. He never killed them, he couldn't, either do to his limited power or due to his friendship with them. He loved his People, that he would cast everything he loves, all away for their freedom.

And when he returns, he doesn't even see the Dalish as elves. He think he's failed them and wouldn't care if they all died, if he could bring back the power to restore his People, even if it means bringing back the Evanuris. And if they go "well he was going to break the veil without trying to actually awake/unlock them", that is dumb writing. He understands that they are the consequences that he will unleash onto the world at the end of DAI and that he thinks life with magic is better to bring back the People, even at the cost of the world itself or the People's freedom at that. The People who he doesn't even consider are modern elves. He doesn't give two shits about modern elves, only the ancient ones he's lost. He seems them as his failures and instead of, ya know, actually trying to help them regain their lost cultures and lands he jumps to "actually you all are horrifying, you can die while I regain my own world"

The Elf!Inquisitor is the only elf he truly sees as a person, the potential to be a member of the People in his eyes. Everyone else is a fool or a tool to him.

BG3 and DSO2 are such healing things for the RPG fantatic soul. They have their problems, but the quality is so much higher than I ever expected to see. The way choices actually matter and have direct consequences in the one game vs having to wait until the sequel to see if collecting ten bear asses for that one dwarf lady gets you a special dialogue option.

Larian has got my support always, they made DSO2 so good, that I pre-ordered BG3 all the way back in Oct 2020. I have no desire to ever pre-order another Bioware game, except maybe some remasters.

[daitranscripts]

Under Her Skin Pt. 7

The Pencil Sketch

Under Her Skin Masterpost First: Vicinius Previous: Shrine of Dumat

The party enters the final chamber, where a figure sits in the center of a large prison of light.

Erasthenes: The light. Light the… the burner. Add a teaspoon of cinnabar… “He came down in fire and splendor”—chapter nine, verse one.

Party comments:

Vivienne: That’s a spell of containment. A powerful one.

Dorian: Look at that containment spell–it would hold a dozen pride demons.

Solas: The barrier holding him is impressive. He is no threat to us, if he ever was.

The PC approaches.

PC: What is this? Who are you?

Erasthenes: Magister Erasthenes am I. A scholar of Tevinter. To Corypheus I am bound, to answer every question—gaah! (Sobs.) For Calpernia’s sake, I am lost.

The prison appears to hurt him as he speaks.

Dialogue options:

General: We could help each other. [1]

General: For Calpernia’s sake? [2]

General: Start talking about Corypheus. [3]

1 - General: We could help each other. PC: I need information. You’d like to be free. We could negotiate. Erasthenes: Oh. To be freed—you see what he has made of me? [4]

2 - General: For Calpernia’s sake? PC: Corypheus did this to you—on Calpernia’s behalf? Erasthenes: She knows not. Unnh! I am a ruin, the jeweled husk when the butterfly leaves. [4]

3 - General: Start talking about Corypheus. PC: In that case, tell me everything you know about Corypheus. [4]

4 - Scene continues.

Erasthenes: I was the greatest scholar of the Old Gods in Minrathous–no, in the Imperium. One night, he came to my door. For my relics, I thought. My writings and runes… But instead, my slave went to his side. Calpernia. To become the Vessel, and save Tevinter.

5 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: A vessel for what? [6] Investigate: She wants to save Tevinter? [7] General: Help me stop them. [8] General: Why did he bind you like this? [9] General: I need specifics. [10]

6 - Investigate: A vessel for what? PC: If Calpernia’s this Vessel, what are the contents going to be? Erasthenes: I do not know–unhh! Power, it must be some sort of power. Power like Urthemiel’s, arisen in flame… [back to 5]

7 - Investigate: She wants to save Tevinter? PC: Is that why Calpernia joined Corypheus? To save your empire? Erasthenes: Yes. She seeks a leader—Corypheus—to shape Tevinter’s rebirth… Unnh! She would raise up the slaves, as she was raised. Bring a new order, with a heart of steel. She could do it. If she were not the Vessel. [back to 5]

8 - General: Help me stop them. PC: Now Corypheus and Calpernia threaten us all. Stand against them, with me. Erasthenes: No, no. It is Calpernia who will be destroyed. [11]

9 - General: Why did he bind you like this? PC: If Calpernia’s the one who Corypheus wanted, why do this to you? Erasthenes: For practice. I… [11]

10 - General: I need specifics. PC: When is Calpernia becoming the Vessel? How? Where? Erasthenes: I do not know those answers. Unnh! But after… [11]

11 - Scene continues.

Erasthenes: Corypheus crafts a Vessel, for whatever power he seeks. Yes. But he does not need his Vessel to have free will. About her these same chains will fall. Iron, to cage lightning. My binding is the poor pencil sketch. Calpernia will be the masterpiece.

Dialogue options:

General: She’ll be a mindless weapon. [12] General: That’s why Corypheus hid you. [13] General: She’d turn on him if she knew. [14]

12 - General: She’ll be a mindless weapon. PC: Power without free will. That’s her role as the Vessel. Erasthenes: Yoked like a Qunari mage, a saarebas, a circumscribed sycophant. [15]

13 - General: That’s why Corypheus hid you. PC: Corypheus couldn’t risk Calpernia’s spies bringing her the truth. Erasthenes: No fool, he. Nor she. [15]

14 - General: She’d turn on him if she knew. PC: She’d reconsider being Corypheus’s pet magister, if she found out. Erasthenes: Hers is a cold rage, to rival the wrath of Corypheus. [15]

15 - Scene continues.

Erasthenes: Unnh! This chain has broken me, friend. No wings can raise my mind. Please. Breach the circle—its wards will trigger. I will be dust and light. Free.

Party comments:

Cassandra: Or it will kill us. Corypheus is not above placing such a trap. Erasthenes: Corypheus’s circle will hold its destruction within, tight, tight. No fear. Only freedom.

Vivienne: And we lose a source of intelligence on our greatest enemy. Erasthenes: I am bound, chained, nailed to the truth. I told it!

Dorian: In his place, I’d be begging for it to end. Erasthenes: Corypheus’s circle will hold its destruction within, tight, tight. No fear. Only freedom.

Dialogue options.

I’ll free you from your pain. (Kill Erasthenes.) [16] +Sera slightly approves +Dorian slightly approves +Cole approves -Cassandra slightly disapproves

Your death will be a message. (Kill Erasthenes.) [17] +Vivienne slightly approves +Iron Bull slightly approves +Solas approves -Sera slightly disapproves -Cole disapproves -Dorian greatly disapproves

You’re too useful to kill. (Let Erasthenes live) [18] +Cassandra slightly approves +Iron Bull approves -Cole disapproves -Sera disapproves -Blackwall disapproves

Mage: I can make you Tranquil. [19] +Cassandra slightly approves +Cole approves +Iron Bull approves -Sera slightly disapproves -Dorian disapproves -Blackwall disapproves -Vivienne greatly disapproves -Solas greatly disapproves

16 - I’ll free you from your pain. PC: All right. You seem honest, and you’ve suffered enough. Erasthenes: Light a lamp, would you, Calpernia? Everything’s so dark. [20]

17 - Your death will be a message. PC: With you dead, Corypheus will know that not even his innermost sanctum is safe. Erasthenes: Light a lamp, would you, Calpernia? Everything’s so dark. [20]

18 - You’re too useful to kill. PC: I can’t waste your knowledge. Leliana should question you. My agents will secure this place. Maybe they can undo that circle somehow. Erasthenes: You would make of me what he makes of Calpernia. What shall I make of that? [20]

19 - I can make you Tranquil. PC: We need the information you have, but you don’t have to suffer. If I make you Tranquil, you can still help us. There will be no more pain. Erasthenes: To mind my mind… what is left. Yes. Fetch your mages. I will take silence at last. [20]

20 - Scene continues.

The PC leaves.

Next: Results

[felassan]

its that time again! 🍵 

Thoughts/wonderings on Dragon Age: The Missing #4, under a cut due to spoilers for The Missing -

I'm probably becoming a lil unhealthily obsessed with this building. what do we think it is? the Archon's Palace is the highest building in Minrathous (tho I guess not, as it has sewers and this is floating). A Circle? it has a similar shape to the logo for the Circle of Magi. the meeting place for the Magisterium senate, lording over everyone below from high above? whatever it is it looks cool and it must be important to be featured on the map. I wanna go there (๑*ᗜ*)

I love Neve Gallus' design. it's fresh and cool, and she just looks so cute and neat okay. also full of detail - the snake pattern on the headpiece, shoulder 'scales' and scales elsewhere, collar & jacket like one of those hooded snakes, snake-'tailcapped' footwear (rather than steel toe-capped), the serpent belt and of course most of all the beautiful snake design of her prosthetic limb. 10/10 character/costume design

this page had me on my knees basically. my heart.

surely this panel is a new meme format hh? same goes for the one where Varric is saying "Then perhaps all this is linked" and Harding says "And we've led them here"

you walked into the wrong neighborhood bro

I also liked this pair of illustrations, they had a nice 'bookend' feel and reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings.

Other thoughts:

Minrathous looks kinda cyberpunk and (despite what Harding says in the opening panels) feels quite clean in this comic

Is that the person tailing them lurking in the doorway that Harding is catching sight of here?

These holes in Varric's ear seem to be new. What happened? Injury from the leopard attack?

confused a bit by the perspective flip in this issue. In issue 1, Varric was more like 'stop', and Harding was more like 'talk to him'. it's flipped around a bit here.

Varric smiled when he thought about Neve and then lit up when he saw her. she calls him an "old friend". I wonder how they met and how long they've known each other. something to do with varric's spy network?

This panel felt a bit meta hh.

When Neve says "Your friend is quite intense" is she referring to Solas or Harding?

Then we come to the two main things we learn in this issue:

We learn that Solas has been in Minrathous causing trouble. He's been attacking Venatori locations in the city, stealing artifacts from them and freeing elven slaves in the process, which has greatly angered the Venatori. The Venatori now want revenge and a "bunch of rebellious elves" are "causing trouble throughout the city, presumably in the name of the one who freed them". I wonder if the artifacts weaken the Veil, are connected to the idol somehow, or are simply sources of great power that Solas either needs for himself/his plans or that he simply thinks should be taken away from the Venatori so that they don't cause harm using them? Tevinter Nights showed agents of Fen'Harel seeking artifacts and referenced rumors of elven artifacts that strengthen the Veil, like the ones from DA:I. freeing folks also makes sense, "I am not a monster" and it's something he has a history of doing

In this issue we also learn that Neve works with a group called the Shadow Dragons, who have been trying to help the former slaves. indeed they're trying to help anyone who is held as slaves in Minrathous. this is our first time hearing about this new group. they make it their business to help those in need and Neve makes it her business to help them. I'm a bit ¿ about their name, just due to how it sounds, but it's exciting to learn about a new group/faction. Each issue of this DA:D prequel comic has shone a spotlight on a faction - Grey Wardens, Antivan Crows, the Veil Jumpers and the Shadow Dragons. two new, two old. it's a nice balance. and it brings to mind the common fan theory/speculation about the PC of DA:D having a different faction background depending on the player's choice. at the very least it feels like a way of saying 'these four groups [or characters from them] will feature in a significant way/be 'players on the board' in DA:D".

thinking about the Shadow Dragons' name in an in-world context, like thinking about why they may have chosen their name: dragons are emblematic of Tevinter. dragon imagery is everywhere there, dragons are a symbol of power and Tevinter heraldry shows a dragon. the Tevinter Imperium is a 'dragon', or several (metaphorically) - Magisters, ruling over the classes below. the "shadow dragons" feel like "the other side" of Tevinter, the side in shadow, the underside, the 'anti-Tevinter'. I'd guess that they are the "Tevinter you forgot", i.e. the Viper's faction. (and if you look at Tevinter heraldry, there is also a snake 'in opposition' to the dragon.) before Missing #4 I wondered if “the Tevinter you forgot” "means they are a group of folks who have fallen through the cracks in Tevinter society or who are the downtrodden in Tevinter society. is it some sort of uprising or anti-Magisterium movement?" - here we learn they're trying to help people Tevinter 'forgot' like slaves and former slaves. I also commented "from the story it sounds like the dark-clad card dealer is the Viper. the magister in the story is afraid of him and tries to claim that the Viper is just a tale, implying that the Viper’s name has become known as a sort of shadowy, stealthy urban legend in Minrathous and that it has a sort of bogeyman effect on magisters." Shadow indeed. Neve later comments that the Shadow Dragons are trying to "help anyone held as slaves in Minrathous". I think it was in the Dorian short story in Tevinter Nights that there's a reference to how there's now an anti-slavery movement in Tevinter. Is that the Shadow Dragons? you can see possible echoes of "the Tevinter you forgot" in later comic dialogue "The Shadow Dragons have vowed to help us restore our dignity. To get back the lives that were stolen from us by the Venatori. To make sure we don't have to scrabble in the dirt for food and warm", imo.

I wonder if Dorian, Mae and the Lucerni know anything about the Shadow Dragons? maybe they've done some work together?

and while the Viper/Viper's faction/the Shadow Dragons themselves didn't appear in issue 4, issue 4 still highlighted them, continuing the pattern I speculated about, of the DA Day short stories (Evka/Antoine/Wardens, Teia/Viago/Crows, Strife/Irelin/Veil Jumpers and Viper's faction/Shadow Dragons), one from each of those short stories per issue.

Varric is still having a bad time. also he was born in 9:1, and so if DA:D is set in 9:52, he's now over 50. from these comics, he's feeling old and tired. I don't expect that he'll be a companion in DA:D. more like an advisor (off-field), a contact or quest-giver, or the person that recruits us.

"But why? What did he get out of it? Surely, he wanted something in return" was an interesting line. because like on one hand "I am not a monster", he has a history of freeing people who were enslaved and he's shown as valuing freedom and not enjoying needless suffering. setting people free definitely is the only decent thing. but he's also smart and does things with purpose, always playing 4-D chess, and has been outwitting Varric and Harding at every turn throughout these comic issues, always one step ahead. it seems like a 'it's both' situation. like two birds, one stone. he would free people and it's the right thing to do, and he also gains from it strategically. Varric lampshades this in the final page: and it's three stones, actually. Solas freed people, dealt with the Venatori on his tail and slowed Varric/Harding down long enough to escape all in one move.

Also, at first I wondered if the brown-haired elf was sort've projecting his own perceptions on Solas (with the "his kin" lines). but look here. the leader of these Venatori has a pouch round their neck. the others don't, it's prominently placed and it's consistent on this Venatori in every panel they're in here. and where have we seen that before? around the neck of the Venatori stalker that saved Varric from the leopard in Issue 3. I think we're supposed to conclude that the ringleader of the Venatori that attack the elves in this issue is the Venatori person that's been tailing Varric and Harding all throughout these comic issues. the Venatori ringleader seems to recognize Varric in a later panel, with the "You!". They fight and Varric starts demanding answers from the Venatori leader. but then, just as he's about to get answers, the brown-haired elf intervenes and kills them at that very moment. they won't hurt their people anymore, and conveniently also (more than one purpose to things again..), now Varric and Harding won't get any answers. and also this:

another - not two, but - three stones. when the brown-haired elf kills the Venatori ringleader, A) preventing them from further harming his people and B) preventing them from giving any answers to Varric and Harding, C) the killing blow also cuts that pouch from their neck. a very specific thing to depict. presumably in the chaos of the Venatori leader's death (you can't see the elf's hands in the very next panel) the brown-haired elf has grabbed the pouch, and part of his goal all along was to take it. I think we're supposed to conclude that the pouch contained the crucious stone and that the brown-haired elf works for Solas. so the "You're too late, I already have the crucious stone" letter from issue 3 was a Solas fakeout, the Venatori at that point in time did in fact have the stone (having beaten Solas to the vault, and as-shown by the Venatori who saved Varric from the leopard having the pouch around their neck), and the events of issue 4 were part of Solas' plan to steal it/steal it back from them (and going by Neve's earlier dialogue, it's not the first artifact he's stolen from them). so two things here: one, Solas' 'three stones' are actually-actually four (free the slaves, deal with the Venatori on his tail, delay Varric/Harding long enough to escape, and steal the crucious stone artifact from the Venatori [my head hurts]). and two, the brown-haired elf was working for Solas after all. he'll give the pouch (and the contents, the stone) to Solas, "he set us, his kin, free" wasn't projection considering that he does work for him, and him being there in the alleyway when he was, with the information that he had, was part of Solas' plan to escape and get the stone. otherwise, it's pretty convenient that one of the former slaves at the place Neve's aware of where former slaves have been eating scraps, at the time when she takes Varric/Harding there, just happened to have helpful info about the meeting that Varric/Harding needed and also happened to kill the Venatori leader and in the process cut the pouch from their neck. idk if it means all the elves here were working for Solas or just the brownhaired one or the brownhaired one & the blond one, but yea. definitely the brownhaired elf is I think.

Neve fighting was cool: staff-less magic and then as a mage using a dagger or shortsword.

party combo-kill! ice spell + finishing blow - a comic depiction of Shattering :)

Brown-haired elf missing his elven ear here.

A cool panel. Also, you can't see his other hand..

just really liked these two panels :) also, they missed their chance, they missed this chance, in this, a comic called The Missing... is that why it's called that?

[clenches fist] vowing to protect Neve and her good heart at all costs

and he stole the crucious stone artifact from the Venatori.

I am not sure that I agree with the premise of this article that BioWare retweeted, that The Missing is required reading before DA:D. I enjoyed issues 2 & 3 a lot! I was hoping for a bit more from the end of issue 4, perhaps a small Solas appearance like at the end of Dark Fortress or just a bit more insight into his plans or things in/the setup for DA:D. finishing on the Dread Wolf mural from the DA:D TGA 2020 trailer as a reminder was neat but the highlight reveal from these comics as a whole was definitely the new mural depicted in issue 3.

"He knows us too well, we need to find/use people he doesn't know" is the same conclusion that was reached at the end of Trespasser (and Harding was present for that conversation). I guess the meta irl reasons for The Missing are: A] since it'll be almost 10 years irl between games, to refresh folks about that conclusion and the fact that it will be a new PC and why it has to be 'someone he doesn't know', since most new players to the franchise at DA:D aren't going to buy years old DA:I and DLC and play til it the end of Trespasser B] fill some irl time C] do some marketing/advertizing and D] highlight these four groups/factions and introduce the two new ones (Veil Jumpers and Shadow Dragons) in advance of DA:D, and possibly highlight these specific characters (Strife, Teia, Evka etc) the same way (though I speculate those characters are more like DA:D 'contact' cameos rather than that they will be companions themselves). Certainly if I was Varric at the moment when Harding asks "So who are you thinking?" at the end here, after the events I had experienced and people & groups I had met in recent weeks, with those being fresh in my mind, I would be thinking about the Grey Wardens, the Antivan Crows, the Veil Jumpers and the Shadow Dragons, both as groups and terms of the mental list of people that I had recently met who Solas doesn't know. again it makes you think about the popular speculation that the DA:D PC will have the background of being from one of these groups. also, those 4 groups aren't ones which were referenced in Tevinter Nights as keeping an eye on Solas/as Solas having some info on them in turn (unlike some other groups like the Mortalitasi, the Executors, the Ben-Hassrath etc).

[hoboblaidd]

random headcanon question: Where does Solas sleep during Inquisition? Is it that couch? Does he just collapse at his desk sometimes? Or is there a bed secreted away somewhere we don't see?

For a while I thought it was the couch, but thinking about it it's too exposed. Sleeping out in an open air rotunda with at least three points of access is not going to jive with his rebellion mentality of watching his flank. So I imagine that on the way to Cullen's tower, before leaving the rotunda proper, there's another passageway like that from Josie's corridor down to the cellar. There must be servant's quarters in a fortress that big, and I think Solas dropped his stuff on one of the beds down there and claimed it as his own.

He has his own room, like that of a housekeeper or butler so he has some privacy, but it's nothing fancy. Sparsely furnished, and the woven bedframe and thin mattress provide little comfort. The vermin situation is also not great, though luckily they're higher in the mountains so it's more persistent roaches and rats than the more annoying flying insects.

While he never thought to have belongings, since this was supposed to be a quick fix and then on to the main event of tearing down the Veil, he accumulates a host of dog-eared books, weathered scrolls, dubious artifacts, recovered instruments, etc., as the year drags on. He keeps them all in his organized mess of a room, including whatever notes he took during the day at his desk. He also fills it with paintings - nothing as grand as his rotunda frescoes, but more like those smaller paintings we find during Veilguard, and all over the walls (you can't vandalize a fortress if it was your fortress first). Painting helps him think, or sometimes more importantly, not think, so he's doing it constantly.

He'd never admit this, but he also likes living amongst the servants. Were they 'people' to him when he started in Haven? No. But for thousands of years at the Lighthouse or the elven ruin barracks we find in Trespasser, he's lived among hundreds or thousands of refugees and freed slaves learning what it was to be free. The din of servants talking, laughing, gossiping, etc. is so painfully familiar to him. It's like the best sort of white noise. It helps, too, that most are elven, just because that's how it goes in Thedas. He learns to see them as people, to hear their struggles and their lives in alienages or Orlesian slums. He grows to care for them as well as the nebulous "People" he let down.

Plus, it makes eventually recruiting them as agents or using them as soft spies that much easier, because they all know him as simply Solas, the Inquisition 'advisor' who humbled himself to live amongst them instead of the more comfortable rooms for higher ups. He's one of them. Older and wiser maybe, but just another elf. It's an incredibly useful recruitment tool.

But yes, he’s also absolutely fallen asleep in that ridiculously plush chair in the rotunda.

[wanderingjedi77]

3 and 4 from the fifty more rook qs

I'm gonna use my Veiljumper Rook, Eleanor, for this, I think. Thank you for sending this in. :)

3. Eleanor's first impression on meeting Solas is disbelief. She's a little bit scared too, because her mother used to tell her about the dread wolf. How he would appear in her dreams if she didn't finish her dinner when she was a kid.

But now an adult, Eleanor finds herself tense, uncertain. Because he is much taller and more confident than she is. Towering over her as she trembles a bit in her boots. He has every right to blame her for the gods getting out, but he's just as responsible. Still she can't help but not meet his gaze. She's not a coward, but Eleanor doesn't want to anger him. He is a wolf after all.

4. Solas is angry at first because this foolish girl interrupted his ritual. It's not until their in the fade that his resolve and heart soften just a little. She is terrified. And the way she casts her eyes down and fidgits reminds him of the slaves he has freed. When Eleanor tells him her mother is Dalish, and that they both had been slaves, he switches to Elvan, and is impressed that not only she can follow along but speak it well. He asks her questions, and she reminds him a bit of himself. She wmjoys the company of spirits. Perhaps there is hope for this half dalish woman to save the world .

[ell-vellan]

New Rook alert!

Yeah I've already restarted the game lol

Lore below:

Rasim de Riva was originally of Clan Lavellan. But, while on a hunting party with other youths seeking their first kills to earn their vallaslin, they wandered too far north and were captured by slavers. His friends who fought back were killed, so Rasim chose to bide his time and wait for escape. Bound for Tevinter, the slavers took them through Antiva - where they were slaughtered by House de Riva, who had a contract on their leader. They freed the caged slaves rather than leave them to starve, but Rasim was far from home, alone, and without friends or resources. Needing protection, he sought out and petitioned to join the Crows, hoping to have the strength of a powerful house behind him and learn the skills of poison and knives to one day get himself safely home.

By the time he became a fully fledged member of house de Riva and took their name, the Mage-Templar War had broken out, preventing him from seeking out his clan in the volatile Free Marches.

The first he heard that his clan was still alive was when he heard that the Herald of Andraste was none other than his own younger sister. Using his connections in the Crows, he was finally able to get a message to her and to the rest of his clan, who had believed him dead all these years. They reunited as adults after the Inquisition, where he meets Varric and Harding, and eventually joins their search for Solas...the trickster god from his childhood stories who spurned his little sister and broke her heart.

[sleepymarmot]

Good question!

I'm fascinated by this aspect of Emmrich's character — perhaps the first instance of genuine moral ambiguity among the companions, despite his "lawful good gentleman necromancer" schtick. Manfred is his son but also his servant. One time he said that the defeated invaders of the Necropolis would be put to work, and another — that they would remain there forever. The wisps in the Necropolis float around playfully, but as soon as they are put into bodies, they snap to their tasks with unsettling roboticism. All of this calls into question how much are the practices of the Mourn Watch motivated by spirituality, and how much by the demand for free manual labor.

Reminds me of banters with Solas back in DAI:

Dorian: Solas, I take it you study spirits? Solas: I do. Dorian: Back in my homeland, we keep spirits as servants. Solas: So I've been told. Dorian: The things they can be made to be are quite marvelous, you should see them. Solas: The Tevinter Imperium is not the safest place for an elf. Dorian: Ah, yes. Point taken. ─────── Dorian: Do you use spirits as servants, Solas? You'd have no trouble capturing them. Solas: No. They are intelligent, living creatures. Binding them against their will is reprehensible. Dorian: How much "will" do they have? They're amorphous constructs of the Fade. Solas: Hmm. Dorian: There's no harm putting them to constructive use, and most mages back home treat them well. Solas: And any that show any magical talent are freed, are they not? Dorian: What? Spirits don't have magical talent. Solas: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about your slaves.

I wonder if Solas would think that using wisps the Mourn Watch way is akin to slavery, too. Perhaps they're not intelligent enough for that, but Cole also disapproved of the Inquisitor using Mortalitasi magic to manipulate even smaller, non-sapient and possibly non-sentient wisps.

[broodwolf221]

act 1 - first, second, and third memories | first major choice

cws: death; blight; war; slavery

really just theorizing about why these are solas' regrets. the first feels obvious: the woman who ghilan'nain blighted, and the fact that solas had to kill her. rook & co. see this as cruel, but it's inevitable, isn't it, really? i suppose one read of the situation is that, because we don't see her die, perhaps solas did something worse to her... but i don't really buy into that, myself. he understands the blight, at least the risk it poses, and it wasn't like there was even an option to turn her into a grey warden at that time.

he killed one of his people because she became blighted. she became blighted because she carried out her role in this mission.

a regret.

the second one is different. solas and felassan liberating elves. spoke with a friend about this already (waves at u if ur reading this. hi skip!) and there seem to be many possible reasons this was a regret. i don't think he regretted liberating the slaves, but elgar'nan spoke of a payment to be made, and elgar'nan is brutal and cruel. my best guess is that solas' punishment for this was the death of some - or even many - of the slaves he had freed. obviously i don't know, but it seems like a viable possibility.

the other big possibility, imo, is that the injury solas sustained in that battle was somehow the beginning of the end for him, or for his rebellion. elgar'nan could have taken something from him, could have limited his powers somehow, or he could have simply - "simply" - wounded solas enough that he could no longer be in the midst of things. which, he always seems to be? he's an interesting leader, because he keeps showing up and pushing into danger right alongside those he assigned to the task.

the third is... it hurts. but the regret, in this case, is obvious. he used those spirits. he sacrificed them. it was brutal, and it was tactical, and very possibly it was necessary. but, as felassan said, they're supposed to be better than that. but i don't know that solas had that luxury, really; how do you war with numerous gods, your power not a match to any single one much less multiple of them, and remain ethical? he knows it was a horrible thing to do, but he still cared for those spirits. he used ones who would retain their nature unto their death.

solas is and has always been a tactician. felassan, at least what we see in the game, is much more earnest and idealistic. i'm not saying that's bad! it's not! but i can see some of the roots of solas' unwillingness to trust. because it feels like felassan would have stopped him, if solas had been open about his plan here. and they needed that artifact. it's horrible. but i understand, and i truly wonder if there were any alternatives, any other possible approach.

it also hearkens back to one line in the prologue, one of those lines that seems incredibly brutal upon first hearing, but upon further consideration, begins to make a lot of sense. "people always die. it is what they do."

people always die... because of what solas did. he took elvhen immortality from them - and more than that, he took their magic from them, much of it. he robbed them of the ability to defend themselves. he doesn't only care about elves, not at all, but he feels a great personal responsibility for them, because it was his actions that led to their current status.

but he did what he did to prevent the entire planet from being destroyed. the blight is not a war, seeking to claim a territory or a people; it is a force, a contagion, something that infects everything without hesitance. freed, it will destroy the entire planet. all animals, all plantlife, all people, even minerals and stone. dragons and titans. nothing will be free from its grasp.

and for all that rook & co criticize and condemn him... we're already beginning to do the same thing. choosing between treviso and minrathous. there's no moral option; no matter what you do, you're wrong. but we can only do what we can do, and there are choices that have to be made, and rook made them.

similar to the bad magic future timeline in dai. it feels like the only choice is to eradicate that future, but, as leliana says, all of it was real. it happened. sure, our inky rolled back time and prevented that blighted future. but how many children did our inky prevent being born? how many lovers did we erase? how many families did we prevent ever happening? there is no moral option here. there is only the best of bad choices, of impossible choices that have to be made - that's a cornerstone of the scale of things in da games.

all through dai - and now i'm seeing it in davg - we are slowly but surely following the same route solas did so long ago. starting out with an idealistic goal, and increasingly feeling the reality of impossible choices and constant no-win scenarios closing in on us.