#Which is how Solas sees the modern world!

[thebookworm0001]

thinking about how anaris turns elves into demons

it’s not a possession

they become demons

that’s fucking insane

[musingmycelium]

. noncoherent but also thoughts

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[simpforsolas]

Do you ever think about how In Hushed Whispers, we wake up in this dystopian future and our immediate goal is to use magic to find a way back to the world as we knew it? We came across companions who had lived and suffered in this timeline for a year; indeed, it was their reality. Yet while we could relate to them and have compassion for them, and seek to help and comfort them as best we could, when they died it wasn't heartbreaking because to us, they weren't real. To us, it was nothing more than a nightmare of a world that had manifested in the blink of an eye.

Do you ever think about how modern Thedas is no more real to Solas than the alternate, dystopian future was to us? He woke up after thousands of years to find an unrecognizable world filled with oppression and magical imbalance, where the elves he sought to liberate now inhabit the lowest position in society as either slaves, servants, or in poverty. It isn't simply that the world isn't valuable as it is. It's that the world does not feel real. The people in it are disconnected from the fade and so to him, they feel like tranquil. And yet despite this world seeming no more real than a bad dream, Solas still cares about the people in it. He always approves of taking time to help out strangers, and enjoys discussing with the other companions to learn their perspectives and even encourages them during particularly difficult times (such as Cassandra's loyalty crisis with the seekers or Iron Bull abandoning the Qun). He dislikes violence and decisions that take away peoples' freedom. Even though this world isn't fully real to him, he still feels compassion for the people living in it.

And if the inquisitor comes to see him as a true friend or, Maker forbid, falls in love with him, the illusion snaps. The present is no longer a nightmarish dream world. It is real, and the people in it are real. But... so is the world he came from. The memories of that time are still fresh, no more than a couple years in the past to him. They are closer to him than memories of the COVID pandemic are to us. He can surely still remember vividly the taste of foods long gone, the beauty of magic-imbued cities, and the vibrant life of a civilization that was never separated from the fade--which is the way the world was natural designed to be.

This beautiful world that has become lost to time, that exists only his memory, fell because of him. Only he has the power to fix what he broke. But how can he make that choice, when the once dystopian dreamworld becomes just as real as the world he feels duty-bound to restore?

[knife-eared-jan]

Ok, as much as I have been hyping and playing 12 hours a day since it got out (still in Act 1 though, bc I'm a slowass player and completionist), I feel like I have to say something that is getting hard to ignore at this point... and I wanna preface this by saying that I am loving a lot of aspects of the game and I adore the writing when it comes to the companions, who I am obsessed with.

And maybe this will get better yet, as I generally heard the writing picks up once the story progresses beyond picking up all companions..

But I'm starting to get quite upset at the way the writing just does NOT care about the established lore and the politics of Thedas like at all, when to me - and many others - that richness, nuance and depth of the world is what makes the games so special.

(Spoilers below)

I looked past the way the elves in Arlathan just seemed to know that their gods are evil and Solas is "kind of a dick" but was right about that. When, you know, that made him basically the Satan of their pantheon up to now.. It was after all the tutorial stage of the game and I understand that you wanna ease newcomers into the lore. I could also handwave it in-universe with Morrigan being there - she could have filled the Veiljumpers in on the discoveries of the Inquisition or even what the Well told her.

It felt a bit weird that our contacts in every other faction just accepted this huge revelation without a blink, but again it was the early stages and I also get that having a discussion about it 6 times with different faction leaders would have been incredibly tedious. So I ignored that. And yeah, at least the First Warden found it hard to swallow.

The fact that they brushed aside the gods finding elven subjects - many of whom after all still worship them - with one sentence from Solas was disappointing though. Instead they chose to ally them with the Venatori and the Antaam who are the pure evil factions with no nuance or motive to side with them besides a comic book level of hunger for power. They didn't even throw in a sentence about the gods maybe speaking to the Venatori through the Archdemons to get them on their side or how it's very ironic that the Venatori, who want to make Tevinter great again, stoop to working with the pantheon of the people they oppress because they see them as lesser and other. No political exploration of the massive lore implications at all.

It really hit me when I picked up Davrin and he commented how Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain blighting the world would really endear us (elves) to the rest of Thedas - this was the first time anyone actually mentioned the political impact of the elven gods being real, freed, evil and blighted on modern day elves at all, when this should be HUGE. It should be ugly. It should be complex. It should be explored in as many examples as bloodmagic and the oppression of mages was in DA2. It should be a central point of Act 1. (This btw made me love Davrin so much in that moment because this was the first time in the game for me when I actually felt like talking to a Dragon Age elf and even just that one line felt like home.)

And now I just did Taash's first companion quest and it seems Qunari lore is also being ignored (except for the gender aspect of it, which I look forward to). Taash's mum was a scholar and had a baby and the only problem about that was that it could breathe fire and was special but otherwise all would have been dandy? Like she would have just been allowed to keep Taash long enough to find that out about her baby if she was living under the Qun? That directly contradicts everything we know about how the Qunari's culture around reproduction and childcare works.

Sorry to be negative and talking myself into a rage - I know it's not something people want to see rn. But like, I realise you have to brush over some lore intricacies for brevity and to make it digestible for new players. But this is a world initially inspired by Wheel of Time and ASOIAF, both of which are interesting because of the depth of ficitional cultures, lore and politics, and hence it's also what gives Dragon Age its appeal. And now they take us to the most politcally interesting areas on the world map and just get rid of all of political depth?

That's really disappointing. Imagine if Winds of Winter dropped all political themes just because there's several previous books and it's been some a lot of years.

Also, I managed to play DA2 before I ever played Origins and they could introduce me to a vast established background of lore just fine back then.

Sorry. Rant over. But I had to get that out of my system.

[treviso-nights]

can you elaborate more on your thought process here?

“in a shocking and completely predictable turn of events, felassan is actually the revolutionary solas thinks he is”

yes! (forewarning: so many ppl on here are actual analytic geniuses and i am 10000% no such thing.)

so, to me, solas thinks of himself as an anti-hero when i would say he's an anti-villain. he reads himself as "tragic" but ultimately thinks of his goal as "good", and will proselytize even the most uninterested party (such as varric, sera, and iron bull) in demeaning and often racist ways (for example, see solas repeatedly calling the qunari "savages" and "brutes" to iron bull's face).

he is quick to abandon, betray, and kill anyone as long as he deems it necessary, and imo, there is a profound lack of loyalty and integrity "true" abolitionists/revolutionary leaders need to possess. after all, despite a lot of people ignoring epler telling us that solas abandoned his army of freed elves (and fine, that's fair since this is all fiction anwyay) bc he realized he wasn't "management material", i personally think it's a perfect characterization of who solas actually is—that of a distorted, warped spirit who no longer resembles his original ideal but attempts to convince himself and those around him that his ultimate purposes are still that ideal... which is why i think felassan is such a nice counterpart to this idea—

bc in veilguard, when we see flashbacks of felassan's growing alarm of solas's disregard for the lives of their soldiers, he is unwilling to part with his friend out of a sense of loyalty and general hope that the ends will justify the means. ironically, i think felassan was saved from corruption by solas entering uthenera because this could've easily led to him forever excusing away solas's actions, just as solas did for mythal for thousands of years.

so now we have felassan, wandering the world and watching it evolve first-hand in a way which the ancient elves did not get a chance to do. idk if we ever got confirmation that he also entered uthenera at some point (if we did, i missed it), but in time, he got to bond with the "modern" elves in an authentic manner which solas decided was counterintuitive after waking (although how he ever thought walking up to a dalish clan and pronouncing his godhood was EVER a good idea is beyond me, tho i forget if that was actually the case or if i'm making that shit up), leading him to come to the conclusion that the elves are actually people after all, which solas could not do without help from the inquisition.

i could keep going, but basically, felassan's capacity to form and experience real friendships (and not rely on abandonment, manipulation, or outright murder as a foundation or last resort for those friendships), TEACH (not convince) those willing to learn (instead of proselytizing), and evolve his own personal perspectives (and then stay ACCOUNTABLE to those perspectives and act in alignment with them), are all antithetical to the actions we see solas take in inquisition, trespasser, and veilguard. only when you trick him in veilguard's ending scene does he begin to understand his own foolishness (tho i have no doubt he will never understand the depth of that foolishness unless he sheds his mortal body and somehow regains his true essence) because even if you choose to redeem him, he ignores rook's/the inquisitor's pleas to just stop until mythal comes out to "release him" from his service. (which i'm sure he would also use to excuse his actions.)

to me, felassan is the archetype of the empathetic, considerate, loyal, and steadfast revolutionary. not solas. his ability to learn, trust others, and take responsibility for his actions are what makes me think so. and i wish we got to see more of him in veilguard :(

[felassan]

Some more new details from this article about DA:TV.

Rook loses consciousness at the start of the game:

"There's a giant tear in the sky, with the Veil weakening and demons invading. Players are forced to fight their way to the source with but a detour or two before them. Along the way, they meet a few allies, including the beloved storyteller Varric Tethras and a powerful mage. Together, they push forward and are met with a boss battle against a Pride Demon. From there, things go from bad to worse, the main player character loses consciousness, and the world of Thedas—and its survival—depends upon the player."

Also on the opening: Varric and Harding had tracked Solas to Minrathous. We meet low-level Venatori agents in the bar. If you choose to attack, the notification that pops up about what Varric thinks says that Varric would remember that Rook prefers actions to words. Then,

"Then the sky tore apart and a tear in the Veil, seemingly the size of the Breach, appeared. The Veil grew thin and demons poured into Minrathous, tearing the city apart as the castle tried to shoot them from the sky - damaging the lower city in the process. Solas was nearby then, but the priority was linking up with Harding and finding Neve."

Then, some details on a part that was cut out of the public gameplay video:

"[Neve] informs us that Solas has a hideout beneath a nearby statue, and lo and behold, it is Solas' hideout. He has painted murals around it, magic is used uniquely even by Tevinter standards, and at the end awaits a beautiful Eluvian"

Demon lore:

"This Pride Demon looks very different from others in the franchise. However, Epler was quick to note how Demons are magical manifestations of emotion from the Fade, which means certain triggers could be causing this."

Snippet on CC:

"Many fans were subject to the horror of DA Inquition's special green light, so BioWare made it where players could shuffle through a handful of backgrounds to see how their character looks in different lights. Body sliders for fully customizable bodies, other appearance changes like tattoos, and everything fans would expect from a modern Dragon Age character creator seemed to be there."

A bit of info on what the 3 specs for Rogue entail: Saboteur is trap-focused, Veil Ranger is ranged focused, and Duelist is a movement-focused class which centers a lot on dodges and parries.

Rook always shares a background with 1 of the companions. Makes sense, the backgrounds are Wardens, Crows, Shadow Dragons, Mourn Watch, Veil Jumpers, Lords of Fortune, and that's Davrin, Lucanis, Neve, Emmrich, Bellara, Taash respectively

Rogues can use both their bow and dual-wield daggers in combat, which is a first for the franchise

There are 3 shortcuts for abilities, you can access more though by opening the ability wheel where there is 9 mapping slots

Of the 3 class' special resource bar, rogues' Momentum fills quickest but takes bigger drains when hit

[source]

[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.

[pazories]

A little analysis of Solas

I love the fact that in the art book Solas wanted to transform his followers into spirits without them knowing, because he saw it as giving them freedom he himself was denied to have, yet in doing so he only would’ve repeated the cycle of abuse.

That is what Inquisitor must’ve show him - that he must give his people a choice, whether it for better or for worse.

Spirits are stagnant creatures, but the modern people of Thedas aren’t. They change every day, the world changes every day, and we, as mortals, don’t have a privilege of drowning in our regrets for thousands of years. We live now, we have a very short lives to get our shit together.

The time in the Inquisition was healing for Solas and proving him wrong, because he saw how the ones he called tranquil fought for their rights, their lives, their freedom, fully knowing that it is unlikely they see any of the changes for which they contributed so hard. They did it because it was a right thing to do and because they wanted their children to live better lives, even if they never get to see it. Sounds familiar for Solas, huh?

He could never unsee that the modern people are people indeed, but he proceeded with his plan for very personal, selfish reason. In his eyes, bringing the elves back to their “original” form was his way to atone for his crimes, but in reality it was a massive projection. He could never undo the abuse he endured, hells he barely even saw what Mythal did to him as an abuse, so he tried to cope with it by resetting the world to its default state, where nothing bad ever happened to him. Would it heal him to get back in the past? No. But he doesn’t understand it, because he was so blinded by his shame, guilt and trauma that he didn’t saw the other way. He had stuck in the mindset of never having a choice, he repeats it time and time again.

But we know he has it!

We, as players, should’ve show him the beauty of this imperfect, deeply flawed world, that still deserved to exist and move forward. As this world, he deserved it too, despite the mistakes he made in the past. Because the ability to adapt, to change, to move forward, to find happiness even if we never get to be our old selves again, is what ultimately makes us human (elven, dwarven?).

This is why I always make Cole more human. It’s an unpopular decision among Solasmancers and Solas fans in general, but I love to confront him, especially in this case. Cole changed, but he stayed the same in the way it matters - he’s still compassionate and kind and loves to help people.

Solas is the same. Still wise and kind and wants the better for his people.

And I sure as hell don’t think he needs his abuser to say ‘you’re free’ to heal.

[broodwolf221]

forever thinking abt solas and sera as extraordinary foils of each other

elven history v. elven modernity is a big thing but just as major imo:

rebellion

solas is the dread wolf, the trickster god of rebellion and deception. we know now that it's more nuanced than all that, but he did lead a rebellion - and with good cause!

sera is a modern rebel, and what does solas do? he tries to share his experience with her. he talks about the tactics of rebellion, the choices to be made, the difficult things that lay ahead. sera listens and then rejects it and he's so confused. she's a rebel, she obviously cares about people, why won't she take it all the way?

but her reasoning is about avoiding his consequence and he doesn't even see it. she doesn't want to kill or ruin all nobles bc to do so would plunge everyone into chaos and she recognizes that. solas plunged all of arlathan into a chaos so profound it destroyed it

in a lot of ways, sera is wiser than solas, wiser about people, about reaction, about cause and effect. he went to extremes in order to free slaves and to punish the evanuris. she knows that nobles are awful and that servants and workers and all the people who provide for them are abused and misused, but she doesn't think wholesale destruction is the answer and she isn't wrong

and what's the difference? imo, community and experience. solas is such an academic, distanced from those he seeks to protect, and can be very paternalistic. sera has lived these things. she talks about how some of the red jennies make enough coin to retire and how the ones who do good are fine but others end up being the target of the jennies. she knows how people can change

also: the red jennies scare the nobles. there's power in that. it's far from perfect, but that doesn't mitigate the very real power in it. what if instead of destroying everything, solas had led a rebellion that put fear in the hearts of the evanuris? what if he forced them to confront that they, too, could face the consequences of their actions? it wouldn't have been easy but it would have prevented the absolute destruction that followed

and he! doesn't! fucking! see it! he doesn't see that sera's reasoning is about avoiding his mistake! he doesn't see that sera's wisdom grounded in experience counters his naivete grounded in an academic pursuit of justice!

which imo is all the more reason to believe he's a spirit. he had, and perhaps still has, a very simplistic view of things like this. if there is an injustice you fix it. you don't live with it and change it by degrees, you don't try to alter it at the root, you just Fix It, whatever form that takes. the evanuris are bad? imprison them. simplistic punitive justice. to sera, the nobles are bad? make them, THESE nobles, fear reprisal. give power and anonymity to the people being hurt. but don't get rid of all the nobles only to have to start the process over again

and we don't know the full form of solas' rebellion, granted. he may have tried many things for a long time. and arlathan appears to have been much worse than thedas is now - even tevinter doesn't seem as bad as arlathan is vaguely implied to have been. but he still destroyed... everything. he killed so many innocents. and yes, again, his situation was different - he talks about the evanuris destroying the world if he didn't stop them. perhaps he's right. it's not a 1:1 comparison, I get that. but they are still very profound foils of each other, and I find his insistence that sera should follow his path to be a fascinating bit of insight into his character, continuing to opt for extreme measures

[firelxdykatara]

Dragon Age 4 looks amazing, that gameplay trailer had me on the edge of my seat and I cannot fucking wait for the game to drop. Somewhat less enthused for the inevitable wave of fandom discourse that's gonna rear it's ugly head, especially given how BG3 went over, but whatever. (Also I hate that the name changed to 'The Veilguard', not just because 'Dreadwolf' was cool as fuck but the 'the' throws things off. DAV looks better as an acronym than DATV. But whatever whatever no one consulted ME on this, it's fine, I'm fine.)

It did make me start thinking about Solas again and how little nuance the fandom approached him with last time, and it's just funny because like... it's very easy to understand where Solas is coming from. How he sees what he is planning as necessary, as fixing an ancient wrong that he has always meant to put right.

Will people die? Yes, and he thinks that's unfortunate--and, according to him in the trailer, he took the precautions he could to minimize that loss of life as much as possible. But he's not doing any of this with the specific aim to kill people or 'do genocide'--that was never his goal.

He is trying to fix something that he broke countless ages ago.

As he says, 'the veil is a wound'--a wound that he ripped open in the very fabric of space and time, and which he is trying now to heal.

And the thing is, he is ancient. He does not conceive of time the way mortals do, nor the importance and significance of mortal lives. I would like to think that romanced solas vs unromanced will have some affect on the way he goes about things, because falling in love was entirely unexpected and had to alter his views at least a little. Not enough to sway him from his course, but perhaps enough to make him feel the coming losses more keenly than he otherwise would. But even failing that, the connections he made during Inquisition are clearly not nothing to him--Varric is able to draw his attention, keep him distracted, might even have been on the verge of talking him down, we don't know. But as easily as he shattered Bianca, he could've killed Varric to end the threat he posed, and he didn't.

Mortal lives mean something to him now that they didn't when he set out at the beginning of Inquisition to tear down the veil with no regard for the mortal lives he would destroy in the process. And I'm wondering if those very safeguards are what release the big bads when Rook fucks up his ritual and that leads into the rest of the game. But anyway, my point is this: Solas does not look at life the way someone with a mortal lifespan does. He can't! Modern Thedas is the burned out shell of a building that he once set fire to without realizing what the consequences would be--and he is determined to rebuild it, because no matter what life has sprung up in the cracks of the burned out husk, his original fault was destroying the life that had been there to begin with.

People don't tend to overly worry about the insects and birds nests and whatever else they might have to bulldoze through when it comes to tearing down some condemned structure and rebuilding in its place, and that's how Solas views the modern world of Thedas and the lives within it. And I get disagreeing with him and wanting to stop him at any cost, but I don't get assigning maliciousness or bloodthirst to his motivations when there's no reason to believe he sees this as anything less than a tragic necessity.

Then again, I think Anders was right too so, y'know. But one bomb lobbed into the fandom commonroom at a time lmao.

[bharv]

So under the cut is some discussion of Solas’ regrets and the scenes after, so spoilers for those.

Prefacing this by saying this is really a your personal tastes may vary here…

But religion, society and faith is the core tenet of Dragon Age and I found the discussion around the elves being the maker to be really… emblematic of my issues with the approach of this game?

We are well into the realm of high fantasy rather than dark fantasy and the post-reveal discussion of this really solidifies that to me.

Harding and Bellara very gently bring up crises of faith but there is no real stakes for this conversation. It feels astoundingly modern and atheist, which makes sense for the audience but just jars with the world we know in game.

All through this, new information is just accepted so quickly. We get one wheel to talk about our religion and its. The first time in game?

Similarly with the reveal of the origins of the elves, everything is a very high level debate (thank you Davrin for pointing out that this knowledge might do more harm than good!)

I’m personally not very surprised by the reveal, given what we know about the history of the dwarves (nice to see my theories confirmed here! And hey mythalsolas shippers how are all four of us feeling right now!) but it’s more that… the reasons WHY are never the most interesting parts of stories like this. The reasons people do what they do? That’s the meat of the story.

It’s never about the secrets of faith. It’s about the faith itself. The moral codes. The philosophies they will follow and the ones that will make them hypocrites.

I just hope not everything in the lore is given some big reveal moment. Maybe some of it is just people making the decisions they made and isn’t some big elven decision from beyond history!

[tokyopewpew]

Solas and the Nature of Spirits

aka how this idiot might be able to think the idiot way he does

Sorry not trying to woobify Solas but it’s gonna sound like that to many I’m sure. 

He’s just such an interesting squeaky toy to chew on! So much is recontextualized after Veilguard! IDK i could be totally wrong but its been interesting to see people totally villainize him or be so unsympathetic. So warning: this is going to be long and kind of a follow up on my long tags post about Solas and Cole. Let’s go!

What I want to establish isn’t that Solas is faultless or not intended to be seen as antagonistic. I don’t think he is a villain, he’s a tragic hero at best or ya know. What he’s always said he is: a trickster. I don’t want to completely absolve him of all the terrible shit he’s done, but I think his explicitly poetically tragic character foundation always made it easy to swallow that those are his choices. Of course he did that, it’s the most narratively tragic option. So when I see criticisms of him being a villain or saying he should have done something different, simply said no is like ok… Yes in real life. But we’re in the fiction world where that is not his Character Type, that is not his Archetype. Which leads me into what I was yapping about on my previous post.

The nature of Spirits: I’ve seen talk of Solas’ abuse, his trauma, and I’ve seen an interesting take that by being thousands of years old he should have worked through all that shit already and not be such a petty bitch. Which idk, some of us are petty bitches by nature, trauma or otherwise. But anyways: I want to talk about the trauma of person-hood and Cole’s quest in Inquisition.

So Cole’s quest being reflected on in VG post reveal that the Evanuris were Spirits. Juicy. Delicious. But something I think that happens in these games is that people chase companion Approval regardless of RP. Alas it's hard to fight the dopamine of brrr make the number go higher, make the pretty elfman like me more. BUT the Cole quest is like the one line of questioning where you catch Solas in a weird half lie about court intrigue. (i promise this will make sense).

Solas: I had forgotten how I missed court intrigue.

Inquisitor: You miss court intrigue? When were you at court?

[Solas slightly disapproves]

Solas: Oh! Well... Never... directly, of course! 

As pointed out by many others: this is the one instance where asking him more questions earns you disapproval vs approval. So choosing to make Cole human, to me, is the more interesting choice because it earns you disapproval. I’m still going to analyze both options don’t worry though. 

To have Cole become more of a spirit is in line with Solas’ core beliefs. Clearly. He believes spirit’s natures shouldn’t be corrupted, they have singular, core traits that they must be adhered to and physical beings should not abuse them. Cool and true statements I would hope we all agree with. 

Some other users have already tread this ground. But by affirming Cole’s nature as a spirit, Solas sees the Inquisitor be respectful to Cole’s nature and upon reflection in Veilguard: see his own past redefined. It can be healing for him to see an Inquisitor show the empathy and grace he wasn’t. Which is fantastic, lovely, intimate and I think goes a long way to him seeing the differences in the modern world vs the ancient one. He can see that people here do care for spirits and they can be welcome and exist as they are! 

But what I think is juicier is earning that disapproval by siding with Varric and letting Cole be more human. Knowing what we know now, it’s so easy to see that Solas doesn’t want to see his same path be repeated. (Which, another side note that you can earn approval from Solas allowing HIM to kill the mages in his personal quest, but he disapproves of Cole not letting go and let god with the templar? He wants Cole to be calm and forget his pain, become detached, as he is unable to be anymore.) It’s a fantastic echo/mirror/theme repeated. And now we’re really able to get to the evidence that supports my thesis. 

Cole turning more human has him more tethered to the world. He feels more feelings, he can’t make people forget him, if he wants to offer comfort and compassion he has to do that with words and his presence, not magic. if he turns more into a spirit, he speaks with less emotion and is more detached from the people around him. He is compassionate, of course, as is his nature, but that is all he is and he does not understand deeper complexities of emotions. HE might be compassion, but he isn't seen or understood as a compassionate person ya know? As a spirit, he takes a very easy straightforward approach to helping people (make them forget) rather than the messier, more complicated, way a person does.

So using this as a reflection on Solas and the Evanuris: bro has never been able to get over the trauma of becoming a person. He does not know how to exist with the complexities beyond being just Wisdom. He is trying to run Spirit Software on physical hardware. And like, sure, you technically can, but he’s ignoring all the background processes that are contradicting and fucking up his systems. 

I imagine as a spirit of Wisdom, his goal was just to accrue information, vibe, and give opinions if asked. By who? IDK other spirits? Early people? Probs not the titans and dwarves. Probs a pretty chill existence other than the war thing going on, that he generally is able to ignore until good ol’ Mythal comes calling. 

Now she… is a lot. But I’ll extend the same grace to her as I do Solas which is to say, no one has done the shit they have done before, no one has transcended their nature. I think the Evanuris, as fucked as they are, have similar trauma over their creation. And the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I think they all believe they have good intentions. 

If Mythal is a spirit of benevolence, and she managed to convince herself that taking a physical form to protect her people is the right thing to do, ok. She is clearly able to justify that taking a physical form will help in the long run. Just because she’s a spirit of that emotion doesn’t mean she’s right. BUT, add onto that a new slew of emotions and complexities to the concept of benevolence (not just retribution, but selfish desires being masked as being for the greater good), I can see the Evanuris being in denial and assuming that they are continuing to operate as detached and unbiased as when they were spirits (they were not). 

Which is why I think Solas was convinced by Mythal. Surely she was operating with the best intentions, for him and for other spirits and not just her and the other’s agendas. And his subsequent horror and regret over taking a physical form sets up his whole Lucy with the football situation of believing, hoping, Mythal is still the pure being of good he knew her to be. 

Surely her benevolence is not conditional? Wouldn't that go against her nature, her purpose?

I think that’s why he gets so fucked up when the Evanuris go against their word. And I think he feels shitty and guilty in new horrible ways he didn’t when he was a spirit. He was able to stay detached, like Cole could be, and dispense “objective" wisdom without clouded feelings of guilt. He didn’t have to worry about other feelings or the outcomes, because spirits are simple creatures and really so long as he’s asked a question and someone appreciates the answer that’s all he needs. Becoming a person and subsequently seeing the consequences to the advice you consider correct, and either a) being ignored by the people who asked for your advice (Mythal) or b) see it followed through and having to live with the consequences (yuck, he never had to do that before and it sucks now). 

Like the memory of the citadel attack where Fellasan is horrified that he could send those spirits to their death so callously. Solas makes an argument like a detached wisdom spirit would. Our objective was to retrieve the relic, what’s the best way to do that? Create a distraction that is big enough to make your enemy think this is your actual goal for an agent to retrieve the item. In order to do that, you need it to be convincing so go whole hog. So long as a spirit doesn’t go against its nature, there is no technical foul. It isn't sociopathic thinking but it’s a brutally clean line of logic. It’s similar to the Nadas Durthalan, you have to ask the right question. Fellasan didn’t ask how to get out with the least bloodshed: he asked for the relic.

So Solas has a fucked up way of just trying to keep operating like a wisdom spirit and not feel anything else. He keeps trying to answer the questions asked of him. He keeps trying to believe in Mythal’s core nature, and in doing so he puts blinders on and hobbles himself horribly trying to ignore all his other emotional complexities. Guilt, regret, his desperation for contact and comfort, things he didn’t need before. He can’t go through the ego death of accepting he is forever changed, let alone that Mythal is. And god forbid he, a spirit of wisdom, was wrong. Operated illogically, blinded by emotion.  

Which interestingly, given the final scene, I’m still unsure of how much his service of her is his own denial or genuine magical compulsion. She was clearly able to defy his nuggets of wisdom but I’m not sure how much was him trying to console himself that she is Benevolence, she has to mean well, it is her nature, and how much is being bound to her service. But either way, I see his dogged pursuit of tearing down the Veil as him continuing to follow her orders or answer the question/task asked of him. 

Mythal wanted to protect her people. The elves of today are not really her people. She wants vengeance for her murder. Solas is either magically compelled to follow her orders or is again, so bent out of shape to exist as he once was, he’ll restore her people as they once were by tearing down the Veil. He can convince himself that her desire for that is Good at its core, the same way he can convince himself This is the Only Way because its the way he sees how to do it and he is Wisdom so it must be the right choice. 

It’s a very poetically tragic, stupid, logical fallacy way of thinking but that is a classic tragedy. 

I also love the idea of him experiencing the Horrors of the humanoid body. Does he enjoy eating? Does he enjoy taste but hate that he now Has to eat? Based on what foods we find in the lighthouse I’d guess yes. This dude hates that he has to eat, piss, and shit, and gets tummy aches now. He wants to go back to simpler times. 

But yeah, those are my thoughts mostly! I think brother Egg has been trying to keep as one track as possible, to the detriment of the world around him lmao. 

[sotc]

Post Veilguard high thoughts

Firstly, I LOVED LUCANIS. Despite my grievances below I can't help but love the game, and I'm high on copium on what potential future DA games could look like if they actually focused more on the fffff FUCKING ROLEPLAYING!!!!!!!! aspect of this game than an action adventure!!! UGH lol. I LOVED playing Armas so much tho and ultimately my affection for this game ties into that. I know I'm wearing red-tinted glasses. I know I am cringe but... I am free. I LOVED LUCANIS. Playing a Rook who was more stern towards people really helped balance the overall 'uwu live laugh love' tone the game was forcing. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I selected the 'nice' options in this game. You can't be an evil dickhead or anything but it helped and made it far more tolerable and enjoyable. Slap in 'a Crow has to be a little unhinged since they murder for a living' headcanon and I came up with a recipe that tied together nicely. I truly don't think I can play a nice character in this game bc I'd kms sorry LMAO (but maybe that's also just me because I like playing bastards) And did I mention I loved Lucanis?

If you want to read a bit more detailed opinions it's below:

1) I loved the gameplay! The animations and detail to the animations were STELLAR. I feel like they really nailed the gameplay aspect in this game. I loved the level exploration, the specializations/talent system, the companion leveling, and the combat was amazing. I liked a lot of the OST. I really loved playing a rogue SO much I'm really excited to see how warrior feels. I really loved seeing the little codex entries with Dorian, seeing the Inquisitor again, and even Solas 💗 I think the major story missions like Weisshaupt, some companion quests and the last 3 hours of the game with its suicide mission was SO fun. HOWEVER.....

2) A lot of my frustrations with the writing largely comes from lack of nuance and deeper exploration. There is no mature explorations of these stories and topics because it all feels sanitized. There are dark portions to this game (the Blight especially, loved all that) but a large portion of story beats that try to explore its depths simply fall flat on its face because it all comes down to "every bad or evil thing is because of the evil gods and cultists." For example, racism, classism, slavery etc etc is shown to be enforced only by the Venatori and not the oppressive ruling class of mages or even other citizens in Minrathous is my biggest gripe. We walk into a literal police state in the first 10mins of the game where you see a giant beam shining down on a citizen being arrested and none of that oppression truly gets explored afterwards. I digress lol. 2-a) I think this also comes down to the scope of the story getting so large and ahead of itself there was never really a chance to let it breathe. It doesn't ground you or your character to the world where your Rook reacts to these situations more personally. Environmental storytelling is done well for the most part but the game really needed to dig deeper in a more personal roleplaying experience explored in side quests.

2-b) Character dialogue was WAY too modernized, there are few opportunities to talk to them, and conflict with them was absolutely nonexistent or minimal. MY team of people trying to save Thedas would never know what positive affirmation, mental health and group therapy is!! sorry but god dammit what da hell is this!!! Still, I did love all the companions though overall.

3) I expected more out of the lore. Even without worldstates no longer really being relevant (which I am willing to let go of). Like, we had heard so much about Tevinter and Antiva but we never got to really sink our teeth into their societies at all. There is so much rich lore there to explore that gets glossed over. Which again just goes back to 2-a lol.

4) Lucanis romance was SO lovely but suffered from lack of content that left much to be desired. His romance feels unfinished, which makes sense given he suffered from multiple rewrites and his writer was also let go in the middle of production. I have heard a lot of the romances suffer from feeling incomplete or lackluster too.

[deilmo]

Iveanis Lavellan

Said i'd talk more about it so I made this.

Here is my thirty-ish year old knight-enchanter Solasmancer little guy in detail:

He's what people would call Fade Child, which is a fancy name to describe a baby that is born living but unresponsive. Belief and theories have it that Fade Children's spirit is stuck on the other side of the Fade and hasn't managed to cross over the material world. Usually those children don't live very long, it's a state similar to Uthenera but the dalish have lost the art of it and do not know how to sustain the bodies of their sleeping peers.

For Lavellan, his keeper theorized, that a spirit must've found him in the Fade and helped him cross over, allowing him to wake up. Since that day he has been able to sense spirits lingering, like tingling in his nape, and when the Veil is weak his eyes take on a greener hue.

When Solas meets him at first, he senses a lingering spirit energy on Iveanis and first assume he's an ancient elvhen (it would also explain how Lavellan survived ther conclave and got the anchor) but quickly realizes it isn't the case though. He then assumes the man's posessed but seems too in control to truly be either.

After Adamant, Iveanis tells him the truth or at least what his keeper theorized. Solas is unfamiliar with Fade Children cause it's a modern plight caused by the Veil. Though Solas still manage to explains that the Keeper is right, a spirit helped him cross and he still can sense traces of it. Most likely because a piece of it made it through with Iveanis or Lavellan's young mind was malleable enough to accomodate the two spirits into one. But in any case: a spirit, so well enmeshed in Lavellan's own that it would be impossible to tear them apart because it would be virtually impossible to say where one begins and the other ends (and even if possible, there's a notable risks to send Iveanis' spirit back to the Fade if they removed it. So to be avoided)

Iveanis and Solas both start to bond over their shared (untold) loneliness. Solas cause he's lost everything, Lavellan cause he's far away from his clan (and later loose his clan). Given his start in life, Iveanis is also very interested in the Fade and its spirits and that only helps him deepen his relationship with Solas even more.

He doesn't like to talk about the Fifth Blight too deeply however. It stirs up memories of very hard time for him and his clan that everyone would rather forget. Famine and fear brings the worst out of people. He's also, obviously, scared of getting stuck in the Fade, Adamant was FUN. /s

He rather cold on first glance but in reality, in his mind, actions speaks louder than words. He'd hung the moon for someone rather than waxing poetry on his feelings, but he does talk. He's just more used to being surrounded by year long friends and family that can understand him with just a glance. He's a competent First and a decent hunter, his presence and competence in the clan during the Fifth Blight probably spared some lives.. and arguments.

I gave him a coyote's tooth earring to echo Solas wolf's jaw necklace, coyotes are also known for their adaptability to their environment which 100% modern elves and gives a small jab at Solas who refuses to see people (and elves especially) have adapted to their new habitat.

[felassan]

Some thoughts on the character descriptions & other details from game files. DA:TV spoilers under cut.

[original source link]

Some of the char notes are v neat and interesting. ◕‿◕ (caveat to bear in mind of course: gamefiles info can contradict what is presented in game as plots and ideas naturally & normally can change a lot throughout development. what's in the game and other media is what's canon. that said they're still neat and interesting to think about.)

You can read Ghil talking to some of her "stock" in a/some Trespasser armor codex[es]

Like Dalish lore in modern Thedas has it (the Ascension of Ghilan'nain), Ghil had the distinction of being the only mortal elf uplifted into the Evanuris pantheon

" (in this case, Solas's murder of his friend Felassan by stabbing him in the back)" - "[TME quote] He never heard the blow that killed him." q.q

Spirits of Profit are a thing (note: this kind of thing I just like to take as canon as long as nothing in-game actually contradicts it being a possible thing in the world hh)

Spirits of Need are a thing

Spirits of Passion are a thing

Demons of Obsession are a thing

Spirits of Freedom are possibly a thing

Not just a General, Felassan was the second-in-command

The idea/possibility that the Caretaker is (or at one point during development was thought to be) what remains of a truly ancient dragon, who long ago took on the form of this spirit, then was summoned by ancient elves, slaps

"A spirit of chaos and freedom, unleashed by Solas to break through a labyrinth to his ally Mythal", "A spirit heavily implied to be the Caretaker in another era, speaking with Solas about the attempt to rescue Mythal. Speaking with the spirit, Solas makes it clear that he will sacrifice anything to save Mythal." - I wonder if at one point there was an idea to have a scene which was another relivable Solas Crossroads memory, where this Mythal-rescue scenario would play out? Maybe Rook would have 'played' the Spirit of Chaos in that memory similar to the one where Solas and Felassan call spirits to launch an attack on an Elgar'nan fortress

Inquisitor - "relatable leader and mentor", "confident, knowing" 🥺

Interesting to see that Charter at one point may have appeared in the game and had a role. There are still references to her and her work in some DA:TV codexes

The character descriptions for Varric and Dorian, and the Morrigan speech pattern note, are so fun hhh. some characters simply need no introduction

Two possible appearances, depending on how the player resolves her past: 1. Dark black dyed hair 2. Red hair with streaks of grey CHARACTERDESCRIPTION: Isabela from Dragon Age II

At one point there was possibly an idea to have further choices such as what happened to Isabela in DA2 be in the game.

"Manfred is curious, loyal, innocent, and wants to be helpful." 🥺

I had personally been hcing Lucanis as 36 so that is neat

the ages listed are age ranges meant to help inform the char info, & info players would actually see/hear in the games and other media like books etc would take precedence. I would place Teia and Harding as at least a few years older than what's given for example (Teia was 28 when she became a Talon, and it's now 9:52; and I don't really see Harding as having been as young as 19 in DA:I in 9:42 as a Lead Scout. young definitely, but not that young).

and this is more based on subjective vibes than any canon info, but I read Viago as being older than this, and older than Lucanis, Illario and Teia.

ACCENT: Hint of Italian, but not as strong as Zevran's. (He is from a coastal city in Antiva, which had an influx of Tevinter refugees from Seheron after the Qunari invaded 100 years or so ago. That’€™s why he looks and sounds different from Zevran and Josephine.) [Caterina] Older Korean-Spanish or Korean-Italian woman (from the same region as Lucanis)

This is neat worldbuilding. a hint at what people from Seheron or people with Seheron heritage may be like.

Lucanis now bears scars both physically and mentally from his time as a brainwashed executioner for an evil mage cult. No longer the pragmatic assassin always in control, he wrestles with becoming what he’s spent his life hunting: a demon-possessed abomination. He longs to return to his former glory, but the monster inside him demands blood and vengeance. With his future hanging in the balance, Lucanis must decide whether to give into the demon or control it.

some other ideas about what Lucanis' storyline may/could have been at a different point in time.

Taash is a Qunari agent with a specialization in infiltration -- a thief, basically. She can scale buildings, pick locks, and take out enemies with quick and brutal efficiency.

some other ideas about what Taash's storyline/character may/could have been at a different point in time. maybe Ben-Hassrath-y? infiltration and stuff reminds me of the 'spies and heists' version of the game that was reported on at one point.

This whole set of descriptions is so good, no notes ＼(￣▽￣)／

Spite was once a Spirit of Passion drawn to Lucanis's will to live, but years of torture and a desire for revenge has twisted him into a Demon of Obsession.

some other ideas about what Spite's storyline/character may/could have been at a different point in time. in-game we hear Spite referred to as a Spirit of Determination (Isabela, Rowan, Solas), and Mary Kirby has described Spite on social media as having the basic aspect of Defiance.

"The Godmother of the Antivan Crows" hhh＼(￣▽￣)／

Interesting backstory information on Rayan Ivenci

Dartonia's farming background and Timetri's military family background tracks with an in-game dialogue line Lucanis has in banter about how Crows often recruit from the army and the trades

Ivenci and Fletcher [Crows Merchant in the Diamond] are both non-binary and use they/them pronouns; they use they/them pronouns also in the game

The Crows are still recruiting and training minors, if a 15 year-old Crow is already well-trained in dual daggers. fledglings Dartonia and Timetri are given as 17.

"Chance is a stylish, dramatic Orlesian who joined the Crows to be their emmisary among the courts of Orlais. (French accent.)" - handy inspo grounds (just one example of many things you could hc) to hc why an Antivan Crow Rook doesn't have an Antivan accent, if you wanted. there is also the example of Heir, who is Orlesian (unless of course you simply hc them as having an Antivan accent :D)

The Treviso Market master's name is Sidestreet Alidare

Anaris had "half-possessed" Cyrian, via the mask as we saw

Anaris, an ancient elven "would-be" god. If you were a power-hungry and/or angry 'mortal' elf back then, it must have been maddening that only Ghil was granted ascension, and to live under Evanuris tyranny

Strife Dragonage is 50

Strife is a keen-eyed hunter who grew up in the elven city slums, but was taken in by the forest-dwelling Dalish elves and taught to be an expert woodsman. He's rugged, tough, adventurous, and doesn't suffer fools. He feels some disconnect between his city-upbringing and his current role as a hunter - somtimes Strife worries he's an imposter, not truly growing up with his people, but he's tried to take their teachings to heart. Strife is loyal to those who earn his friendship, and fiercely protective of his clan.

here I am simply quoting the Strife blurb, as a Strife appreciator. reference to his backstory as a Starkhaven City Elf and joining of Dalish Clan Morlyn, and the toughness he showed in Three Trees to Midnight. nice to see his perspective / thoughts explored a bit here as a City Elf who joined the Dalish and what that means to him and how he relates to the world.

IRELIN A Dalish elf who grew up in the woods, Irelin has learned the ancient and incredibly rare art of shapeshifting. She uses this ability to move secretly in the forest, scouting for her people. Practical and no-nonsense when it comes to defending her clan and her friends, she has a healthy distrust of outsiders, especially the humans who've persecuted and exploited her people for so long. Irelin takes a secret joy in the thrill and power of shapeshifting, however. She loves exploring as the different animals of the forest, and knows some of their paths better than anyone.

I loved seeing this info on/exploration of Irelin too. :)

Protect Evka and Antoine

Rook Thorne snippet: "If Rook is a Grey Warden, Greta [30] has met them before--they both became Wardens around the same time. Greta doesn't know Rook well--it's more like running into an old school mate--but she likes them". maybe this is simply in the game as dialogue ofc, but I haven't played a Thorne yet so I wouldn't know :)

"A cat" hhhhhh :D

Mae's age-range is 50

Dragon King: "Basically, a bad guy doing his evil bad guy best." lmao

Hezenkoss's creation is described as a "bone golem", taking me back to the flesh golems (Harvester etc) in prior DA games

Is "Sealed Spirit" the Formless One? since its description mentions possessing an undead dragon, and its in the Mourn Watch/Necropolis section.

Tarquin x Viper feels aaa

Vorgoth's whole segment (and Vorgoth as a character) is so fascinating. maybe they're a rogue, Thedas-loving member of the same type of entity as whatever the Executors are? some of the description here and their appearance in the game reminds me of the description of the Executor in TN and also the Executors' appearance in the DA:TV secret ending.

THE EXECUTOR APPEARANCE: Human-appearing CHARACTERDESCRIPTION: A masked and hooded figure that speaks like someone unfamiliar with language in general. Stilted, awkward, but with a low menace. SPEECHPATTERN: Stilted. Is trying to form words from thoughts that are far more complex than a regular person's.

also very intriguing, naturally. the way they're described (trying to form words from thoughts, being unfamiliar with language) makes them sound spirit/demon-y or adjacent.. it also reminds me somewhat of the description of the way the Cekorax was rendering speech (iirc) in TN. if the place they come from does indeed have empty settlements made of crystal and obsidian - well, entities unfamiliar with language etc in this kind of way might also be unfamiliar with regular settlements/mortal world settlements, no? at one point in time it may have been the idea that we would meet an Executor in-game as part of the story.

(like I said I know it being in the game files doesn't automatically make something canon, it's just fun to peruse and add to hcs or not etc. this post is just a bunch of personal headcanon/speculation really ^^)

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