#Xebenkeck

[lairofdragonagelore]

Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck

The Forbidden Ones are related to an ancient Tevinter tome called Fell Grimoire, that could be found in dark corridors underground Kirkwall. It allows the summoning of these ancient demons, and the bit of lore around it that DA games and books offer suggest they may be linked to the Forgotten Ones [”evil” elvhen gods]. Part of this vital information has been compiled by the forgettable character of Tarohne.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

Who is Tarohne? She is not a big central character of DA2, but she is the first char we are presented who has some understanding of what Xebenkeck truly is.

To put it shortly in context, let’s refresh some quests in DA2

Everything starts in the coast of Kirkwall, where we find Cullen with a Templar recruit called Wilmod who he suspects is meeting escapee mages. He tortures Wildmod until he turns into an abomination, presenting to us a unique piece of lore up to this point: that mages are not the only ones who can become abominations as the Chantry has been telling us so far. Of course, Templars didn't know about it, as usual.

After some tracking of the responsible of the disappearance of Templar recruits, we find Tarohne who despite being a "sort of" unreliable narrator, she puts in context several points we learned or inferred from the codex The Enigma of Kirkwall: with the assistance of a mage, demons can possess anyone: a Templar, a noble, etc. In ancient Tevinter, she says, they could hold demons as allies. This is something that we see in DAI when Corypheus teaches the Venatori how to bind themselves to demons. This is the lore that explains all the plot about the Grey Warden raising an army of demons. I'm not saying the Grey Warden acquired this mastery, since it was altered [every time they bind to a demon, they became puppets of Corypheus], but that plot of DAI allowed us to see that the ancient Tevinter had a deeper knowledge of the demons to control them in similar fashion as Tarohne claims.

Later, we find Keran, a Templar recruit, restrained in a magical cage, tortured by nightmares as, I imagine, the demons keep pushing him in order to accept the possession. 

This situation immediately brings to my mind what Flemeth said to Morrigan: "a soul cannot be forced upon the unwilling". This is a lore deeper and truer than any Tevinter knowledge we can get in DA series, since it comes from one of the first Elvhenan: Mythal. So I’m going to assume this is the true statement to understand what’s going on, lore-wise. 

It's never explained explicitly what happens if a soul is forced upon the unwilling. I can speculate two options:

It may produce the destruction of the souls, since it seems to be the procedure that allowed the Grey Warden to destroy the Archdemons, preventing their further rebirths.  

Another possibility is that this is the case when abominations occur and demons take total control of the person, changing their bodies into grotesque shapes. 

However, option 2 seems to contradict a lot of situations where we saw a mage accepting possession willingly and becoming a deformed abomination afterwards. One could argue that this is because these abominations were product of accepting the possession of a spirit with "negative” behaviour [rage, desire, pride, etc], while the non-abomination possessions we know in DA series have occurred with gentle, kind, and positive spirits, for example, Flemeth [with Mythal, uhm...I know, she is not super positive as a goddess of Revenge], Wynne and Evangeline [with a spirit of Faith], Anders [with Justice, who didn't transformed Anders even when Justice transformed itself], Sigrid Gulsdotten [with some kind spirit  of teaching for sure]. There are other anomalous cases of possessed people that were un-possessed later, like Fiona and Mihris, but I'm not counting them. They are not possessed anymore.

If we see what Keran says, it seems to show a small contradiction with what Tarohne said: the demons can’t simple take control of the person without their acceptance first. So they try to push and tempt the person in question, torturing and tempting them in dreams, but never forcing the possession straightforward. We can infer that in nightmares, Keran was tempted to accept the possession but he "resisted". If we keep into consideration Flemeth's words and all what I said before, it seems that only through a willingly person the possession [with or without a deformation of the host body] can be performed. Certainly, in all the instances where we saw possession in DA series, we saw demons making deals and tricks to convince the mage to accept them. So Flemeth's words strike true, and I'm inclined to think that the only situation where we see unwillingly possession is when the Grey Wardens kill the Archdemon, and it ends up in a blast that destroys both souls. If this is true, this could explain why the souls of all the previous archdemons were not born again after being slain, as the Avvar and Solas told us that it happens with spirits [Urthemiel can show this with Kieran too].

In any case, when we get rid of Tarohne, and save the Templar Order in Kirkwall from a wild corruption of Templar abominations, we assume this quest has been concluded. However, years later, in the following act, we have this curious quest of collecting "Evil tomes". As we collect them, we obtain the complete version of the codex Forbidden Knowledge, where we learn several interesting things gathered by Tarohne:

She has been studying other mages that made contact with something called Xebenkeck, a Forbidden One. It requires a lot of blood for that.

She claims that the first mention of the Forbidden Ones is in 4:2 Black [1495 TE]. This is after the Third Blight and the Schim of the Chantry between the Chantry of Orlais and the Imperial Chantry of Tevinter. To me, it looks like a very late age for listening about the Forbidden Ones for the first time, specially if we keep in mind that Tevinter have always been in contact with spirits or “Old Gods” before. That this denomination appeared so late makes me suspect that they were named in another way before [maybe Forgotten Ones?].

Her research seems solid because she wrote that the first contact with  Xebenkeck was done in the "deep Fade". We had found a soft connection between the more reliable codices of the Elvhenan:  Exile of the Forbidden Ones and the The Deepest Fade, which makes us suspect that maybe the place of exile of the Forbidden Ones had been the Deepest Fade, and it is there where these first Tevinter magus went to contact Xebenkeck. It’s coherent, at least.

She implies that the Fell Grimoire has the names of the Forbidden Ones and names them: Xebenkeck [DA2], Imshael [The Masked Empire, DAI], Gaxkang the Unbound [DAO], and The Formless One [I bet, in DA:D].

It is stated that it is they who taught Blood Magic to humans. This is very interesting, because Solas claims this is a school of magic like any other [check section “magic” in Solar shares lore: Part 2].  Solas’ comment makes us infer that this was part of the Elvhenan arcane culture like any other magic school, and it may link the Forbidden Ones as part of the Elvhenan society at some point. We also know that Solas never saw spirits and demons as different entities, but the same one with twisted purpose. Considering this knowledge, the main question is why the Forbidden Ones became what they are? What were they forced to do that twisted them so much into what they are now? Was it the war against the Titans? Could it have happened that Forgotten Ones that were forced to the Evanuris and twisted their purpose to become Forbidden Ones? Or the Forbidden Ones are simply another way of being elvhenan, and since they were not forced into shapes like the elves, they remained spirits? Certainly, all of them have less impulsive desires, and can be very civil talking to them [For example, Felassan speaking with Imshael]. Sadly, there are no many answers to these questions, only speculations.

Tarohne claims that Andraste was a deluded fool and the Maker is a hoax, which is a sentiment that other characters who understand this world much better seem to share. Solas prefers to remain silent when it comes to Andraste and the Maker, but his most direct agent we knew about, Felassan, claims that the Maker is a human invention [** check the end of the post for the cite].

She claims that there is more evidence about the Forbidden Ones than the Maker, and we, as player, can totally support this statement.

As we seek all these tomes, we end up in a Forgotten Lair, in Darktown, where we find the copy of the Fell Grimoire made by Tahrone.

The Fell Grimoire is an important book in DA lore, it appeared in the codex The Enigma of Kirkwall, in particular in two sections that imply part of the story around this book:

In the back alleys of Lowtown you can find extraordinary things. Priceless tomes of knowledge can be bought with a handful of gold: The Chant of Archon Lovias, a whole chapter of the Midnight Compendium. Some of these books were thought lost forever!

And these are no forgeries. I've verified their authenticity myself. The fences have no inkling that what they're selling has value. Where did these books come from?

After several failed attempts, I got my answer underneath the city. There is a hive of hidden passages in Kirkwall's sewers. Now and then a lucky "sewer rat" comes across an unlooted chamber, and then a cache of ancient Tevinter relics spreads through the black market. We must search below the city.

—Underneath a cobblestone with curious markings, faintly glowing. It is signed, "The Band of Three"

A recent trove was uncovered. This one was big, perhaps the archon's visitation chambers.

And a flood of tomes is on the market. Even the simple fences know something is amiss—they've raised their prices at the frenzy of collectors. One said he sold a copy of the Fell Grimoire! I doubt he would lie; how could he know that tome is a mere legend?

If that is real, then what of the Forgotten Ones? This journey has taken us to many strange places, and made us re-evaluate many former truths. Where will it end?

—Hidden under a cobblestone with curious markings and signed, "The Band of Three"

So, long time ago, when Kirkwall was Emerius [Kirkwall history and design], an underground network of arcane research was developed. The relics left there reached the surface via the black market when looters explored this underground network and could unlock new chambers. That's how we track the rumour that someone may have got a copy of the Fell Grimoire. This book, somehow, ended up in Tarohne's possession, who made another copy to preserve the knowledge.

The book is supposed to teach how to summon the Forbidden Ones, ancient demons that, so far, we only know they are four: Xebenkeck, Imshael, Gaxkang the Unbound, and The Formless One. Each of them known and fought in each game of DA with the exception of the Formless One [probably they will be present in DA:D].

Now, up to this moment, this is all the information we have about the Forbidden Ones in the games. We have a more broad vision of Imshael's personality in the book The Masked Empire, but there is no mention of the Forbidden Ones  or their history. The only mention in the book is that Celene has studied about them.

However, as we saw in the codex The Enigma of Kirkwall, one of The Band of Three has a kind of a leap in their thinking process and realises that if they found the Fell Grimoire--which was supposed to be a book of legends and myths--now any legend and myth acquire a degree of truth: hence, the Forgotten Ones may also be truth. The last note of the codex straightforwardly connects Xebenkeck with a Forgotten One:

We went to the center of it all. F. is dead and I am alone and injured. I must go back and put an end to it. The maddening thing is there is still no answer. But the Forgotten One, or demon or whatever it is, must be destroyed. I fear one may already be unbound.

I foreswear my oaths. The magister's lore must be burned and the ashes scattered. No good can come of it. And Maker help us if someone does answer what we could not.

—Hidden near curious markings and signed, "The Band of Three"

At some point one suspected this was a typo in a rushed game, since Forgotten Ones and Forbidden Ones are names that can be easily mistaken. However, the World of Thedas book came up with the true intention of that last sentence:

This exchange of letters between Seekers claims information we didn't see in the Enigma of Kirkwall:

Blood magic origin is not from Tevinter but from Arlathan. This is a very interesting piece of information because coincides and makes sense with the information we got about the Joining ritual of the Grey Wardens that faced the First Blight: they created the ritual and consulted Tevinter Magisters and Elves, who shared "ancient knowledge of Arlathan". This is not new for us after all the analysis we did with Murals in DAI, Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins, The Lost Temple of Dirthamen, and  Vir Dirthara, but we can appreciate the lore consistency in the details.

It claims that, at least, is worth investigating if there is a link between Forgotten Ones and Forbidden Ones. It doesn’t straightforwardly says that such link exists, but it’s something given to the player to consider.

As a final detail that I’m not so sure how much to read into it, is that Xebenkeck  drops “Voracity”, a staff which has the same design than “Valdasine”, which is the only curious object we can find in the Vault of the Primeval Thaig.

Voracity has no lore in its description. Its design looks like a dragon’s jaw. There are some spikes of orange crystals that may or may not be a representation of red lyrium. Its stats only show that it’s related to blood magic, which makes sense since Xebenkeck seems to be deeply related to that magic. 

On the other hand, Valdasine, found in the  Primeval Thaig and tied to the codex  Valdasine, is described as “a staff of strange metal, it looks like lyrium and chills one's heart like a remembered sorrow.”  Sadly, sorrow is something that, lore-wise, we can relate to elvhes and titans alike.

-----------

[**] Felassan in The Masked Empire:

“We were an empire,” Felassan said again, and this time she heard the anger in his voice. “It was not the Golden City. It was not the peaceful afterlife of this Maker the humans have made for themselves. Take the richest district of Val Royeaux, and tell me how many fools are scheming against each other at every ball? How many servants are flogged for improperly arranging the silverware?”

[the-northern-continent]

Solas and Xebenkeck had a thing.

My (very loose) evidence for this headcanon is as follows:

she’s a war deserter and was exiled by the evanuris

she attacks Hawke if they destroy a bunch of books — so she’s into preserving knowledge!

that banter between Solas and Blackwall. you know the one.

His defensive “it’s complicated” answer becomes even funnier if it’s Xebenkeck, because she got exiled “for casting aside form to flee to where the Earth could not reach”. So she maybe had a body at one point and became full spirit later. Has he boinked any spirits? Technically no. Has he boinked any people who are currently spirits? Well…

Does anyone have random Dragon Age headcannons that don't really have any big implications and just make things a little more fun?

I'll start: I've always thought that Blackwall/Thom Rainer is half-elven. No real reason beyond me thinking that his nose looked the way elf noses in Da2 looked and deciding so. I also think it makes his story sorta juxtapose Michele de Chevin's and may have motivated him (at least a bit) to decline the Chevaliers offer at the Grand Tourney

[kirkwallsquad]

scripting stuff for that dragon age podcast i promise i'm actually doing, and the way i forgot about xebenkeck

[khadaj-ballad]

I have the strongest urge to restart my main play through in Baldur’s Gate 3. Part of me like just start from the beginning of act two so I can save Rolan (that bug really made me hate act three) but 130 hour and two quest away from the end game makes me hesitate.

But something deeper just wants to nuke the entire campaign….

MAKING A CHARACTER IN THIS GAME IS SO HARD THE FUCK!!! MY USELESS INDECISION IS OVERWHELMED BY ALL THE OPTIONS!!!

[danielnelsen]

do you think we'll every actually find out wtf was going on in kirkwall? like im sure they had fun writing the enigma of kirkwall but they cant just leave it there?? the patterns of the streets form glyphs??? tell us what it all means

[duriens]

so we all agree that kirkwall is both horrifying and fascinating and i wish they'd delved more into its bloody history beyond the snippets we get from the codexes of the band of three. like hello?? three seekers of truth - among which a dalish mage - scurrying about the sewers and lower passages of the city, discovering that kirkwall was designed as some sort of magical symbol, has grooves in the sewers allowing the flood of blood downward for blood magic purposes, and last but not least realizing that its circle of magi had a much higher number of failed harrowings & episodes of blood magic hysteria than basically any other circle in existence??? you cant leave me hanging like that. why was the veil so thin there even before tevinter came? why were they weakening it further?? what was tevinter doing with all those disappeared slaves every year and the huge blood magic ritual involving thousands of slaves and the city itself being a magic symbol??? did the band ever find out if the Forbidden Ones are the same Forgotten Ones of dalish lore??? why was xebenkeck called 'forgotten one'??? hello????? what the fuck is up in kirkwall??????

[dragonageconfessions]

CONFESSION:

I am really excited about a lot of things for Veilguard, but one of them is curiosity about seeing The Formless One. To our knowledge, that's the only one of The Forbidden Ones we haven't met. Gaxkang in Origins, Xebenkeck in DA2, and Imshael in DAI (and The Masked Empire) have been a fun pattern in the games.

[amaryllis-sagitta]

(LARGE IMAGE - use external link)

This is my tribute to one of the most profound secrets of Thedas -- the nature of spirits and their link to the presumed "Maker" of that world.

This piece is inspired by DA lore crafting through Codices, murals, stylized concept art, and in-universe research like The Grim Anatomy. Another thread is my speculation from Metaphysics of Thedas about the great metaphysical duality being at work in Thedas, one between a supposed Maker and the counter-balancing force known as the Void or primal Silence. Yet another element I used is the visual of the Tree of Porphyry - a type of diagram that medieval philosophers used to classify the universals according to the Aristotelian rules of definition through genus and differentia specifica.

Of course, spirits of Thedas are not classified this way - for what we know, some leading "virtue" types of spirit can be corrupted into "vicious" types of demons if their conceptual nature is compromised or abused. Still, the way we keep learning about the new spirit types outside the crude classification of the Southern Chantry, brings to mind a picture of a tree where spirit types spread out into more and more nuanced variants.

The corners of the picture are adorned with rudimentary depictions of the Forbidden Ones - the four mysterious powerful demons that bear proper names instead of universal names, whose nature seems more elaborate and elusive than the usual single notion assigned to most spirit types. These are: Xebenkeck, harboring an insatiable bloodthirst, whose presence was noted in Kirkwall and might have something to do with the city's history of violence; the still unknown Formless One; the duplicitous Imshael, who manipulates mortals into choices that bring out a monstrous side in their morals; and Gaxkang, a shapeshifting predator luring mortals with a false promise of riches and glory, only to bury the trace of their existence.

[fatt-twitter-updates]

Well now, what's this? A Dragon Age: Origins stream starting at 3PM ET (aka at the top of the hour?) You don't say...

[IMG ID: Screenshot from a Patreon post that has the Friends at the Table twitch link and says, " Dragon Age: Origins stream at 3PM ET! Reminder that these streams are not spoiler free; we get messy, we talk about Xebenkeck, we try to remember who's mom did what, we do it all. Come be messy. [cute smiling kaomoji emoticon]👍" End ID.]

11:11 AM PDT / 2:11 PM EDT, 26 October 2024 (Source)

[lairofdragonagelore]

DAI: Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara

I’ve collected all the codices in this said area and I’ve summarise them in bullet-points talking about some implications. These codices have a good degree of certainty, they are closer to the truth of what happened in the time of the Evanuris. I usually add my thoughts at the end of the bullet-point list. This analysis avoids the unreliable Dalish Tales.

This post contains a brief analysis of the following codices/notes

Vir Dirthara: A Flowering Imago

Vir Dirthara: Attentive Listeners

Vir Dirthara: Birds of Fancy

Vir Dirthara: Duel of a Hundred Years

Vir Dirthara: Exile of the Forbidden Ones

Vir Dirthara: Homecoming

Vir Dirthara: Raising the Sonallium

Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory

Vir Dirthara: The Deepest Fade

Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads

Vir Dirthara is the place where all the original content can be found, from an elven point of view. All codices here are considered true in my opinion, they reflect what had happened in the past, thus why some of them are so cryptic.

Vir Dirthara: A Flowering Imago

The image of a immense graceful vine is described.  Blossoms are bigger as ponds, petals as tall as men, and its scent is citron, sky, and carrion.

The creator of the memory weeps, and before entering Uthenera, they record the image and the sounds of the flower.

The title of the codex speaks of imago. Imago is the name that insects receive in their adult stage, it’s the last stage of a metamorphosis process.

It’s not clear if the vines we see in this description or the person who enters in uthenera is the one which has an insect-like connotation due to the title. The obvious bloom comes from the vine, though.

Potential Interpretations

Interpretation 1

This vine represents several interconnected pools, each of them similar to a “well of sorrow” filled with the essence of the priests that go to Uthenera.

The image given with its comparisons suggests that the blossoms, all connected to a vine, have the size of ponds. Blossoms are made of many petals, and each of them has the size of a humanoid. So these flowers give us a dual image: a blossom opening as a flower with many petals, and a pond filled with many humanoids.

The vine flowers with the sunset [symbol of the end of the day or life], and puffs a scent of carrio-death [more emphasis in the end of life] emphasises that these humanoids filling the pond are “dead”.

To me this looks like what Abelas said about the Well of Sorrow: in their last days, the servants left their knowledge/persona in the well [ponds] prior to their "death" [hence the flower puffing death smells]. Not by chance the text shows an elf recording his lasts memories before entering Uthenera. The elf as well as the vine are “dying”, it’s a reflection of one another and one inside the other. The elf preserves the last of the vines recording the flowers and its sounds. So, if we keep sustaining the parallel, it could mean that via Uthenera, we preserve the elf as well. 

Another interpretation, if we consider only what we know in the game, this vine seems to be the origin of the wells.

Interpretation 2

We have again the idea of the vine, which so far along the games had a deep relationship with the Taint and Darkspawn. This plant smells of death because it feeds on death of humanoids. The comparison of its blossoms as ponds reminds me the pools of The Horror of Hormak; the petals are humanoid-sized, all these humans inside a pond/pool exuding a scent of death [however, in the book, it was the scent of brine]. This vine is the origin of these pools producing the last stage of the insects [imago].

Vir Dirthara: Attentive Listeners

The title emphasise the listeners, which in the description seem to be the elves.

This codex shows how elves and spirits lived in that time, constantly interacting with each other. It's not clear what happened with the less friendly spirits.

The world around them bends and change to fit their needs. [amphitheatre out of a living wood]

Indirectly it makes us know that they knew of the existence of the material world, but it seemed to be a different world than the one they are living in.

They called the material world as unchanging world. It's described as stubborn, with potential for disaster when it comes to powerful spells, and has rules of how fire and water and rock should behave.

"The unchanging world rings with its own harmony." Once more the recursive concept of sounds/songs that are related to the stone. This may give us a clue about what Cole says: Solas [and elvhens in Uthenera] sing a quiet song inside them. The Lyrium has also a song to which Valta is connected to. The Red Lyrium has another song in it, angrier. The Archdemons also have a song that commands the darkspawn, a corrupted, mad song. So far, we can identify different songs in different groups.

This, with all the lore we manage, seems to bring reminiscences of The Stone and the Titans. So the unchanging world may be a reference to the Titans

Interpretation: This gives us the general image of a congress: two elves and a spirit of learning give a lecture about the use of spells in the material world. Maybe is the beginning of the attention of the elves in this world and the power of the magic in it. The last line of the spirit suggests me that these three researchers encouraged the elves to pay attention to the waking world.

Vir Dirthara: Birds of Fancy

The title suggests birds, but it seems to be likely related to the expression lovebirds.

The pair in the codex is never described what they are... if they are spirits, elves, birds. It's just a "pair".

The description of what they do seems to be basically making love.

What it's important in this codex is the fluidity and the non-shape of everything. This is the world where the Evanuris existed. Shape did not exist.

Interpretation: Basically two souls making love and promising eternal love. The lack of shape and the fluidity of their bodies/souls makes me think that, these people, in this time, would have considered slavery anything that would have forced them to get stuck in a shape. And considering the true lore about vallaslin, I wonder if the original elven slaves of the Evanuris were not forced to stay in one shape, elven shape, with the blood magic of the tattoos on their faces.  

 Vir Dirthara: Duel of a Hundred Years

Duel in the plateou of a mountain. Two armoured figures fight in the snow: one is gold and the other is black.

The black loses since a blade parts his throat.

The text gives us more context of this duel: Mythal suggested a duel of champions between Elgar'nan and Falon'Din.

This duel prevented the declaration of war among the gods

Since Elgar'nan is related to light, fire and Sun, seems logical to think the golden armoured figure was his champion, while the black one, Falon'Din's who is associated to shadows and death.

Interpretation: The place where the champions fight is on a top of a mountain, in the snow. Elgar’nan and Falon’Din had an argument that they resolved with a battle of their champions to avoid war among the gods. It says among, not between these two gods, so this gives me the impression that Elgar'nan and Falon'Din were leading different factions among the gods.  So far we have read, we know that Elgar’nan, despite his choleric personality, had a good relationship with Myhtal. Because the whole game of DAI we know that Fen’Harel and Mythal were good friends as well. And because Solas has spoken so bad about Andruil and Falon’Din, they may have been the ones of the other faction. Sylaise and June are impossible to guess since there is almost no information about them. We can suspect that Sylaise, as competitive as she was, had her own faction. Dirthamen is one of the most silent ones in terms of visual design: most of the things we see of Dirthamen look more like Falon’Din’s. The only big hint of Dirthamen we have is in the Fade of Flemeth, where we see his humanoid statue bleeding over avvar elements, with a sword on his back: the clear representation of betrayal.

Vir Dirthara: Exile of the Forbidden Ones

The Evanuris are shown as blazing figures. This could be mere propaganda.

They banish a *howling * spirit from the deepest Fade that attempts to reach their lands.

This spirit is accused of abandoning the People when they needed help; for casting aside form and go to the deeper Fade where the "Earth could not reach".

Xebenkeck is named, a Forbidden one. Apparently there are many, and seems to be creatures of demonic nature. However, they avoid form, not look for it, as we are informed that demons work.

Then, they are accused of being familar with shape, meaning that shape allowed them to explore places that the Evanuris could not without help.

They are bound [to shape?]

Thel last sentence says "Forbidden from the Earth that is our right".  Does Earth mean this place of shapeless form?

This shows that the Evanuris where the ones who banished the Forbidden ones [demons in nature, to say it simple], not Fen’Harel alone. They were accused of not helping the people in their time of greatest need. Because we know little of this ancient history I would guess that time refers to the time in which they fought the Titans. Apparently, if I’m not misunderstanding the following line, the Forbidden Ones may have been part of this war, acquired a form to face the titans, but then they cast it aside and ran away into the deepest Fade where Earth couldn’t reach. This sounds very strange to me because we know the Forbidden Ones love the waking world, so probably it was here where they found out their interest in the shape.

We find a familiar name that we met in DA2: Xebenkeck. They were exiled from the Evanuris lands. They are accused of being too familiar with the shape that allowed them to walk paths without help. Maybe in this time of the world, where the waking world and the Fade were the same, the Forbidden Ones, thanks to their shape, could have easy access to the lands of the Titans, lands a lot more concrete and “real” than the Fade. And this is the reference of “travel paths unaided”.

There is a curious line: “they may be bound”, exactly after talking about the shape. This line triggers my suspicion that in those times without shape, shape was considered a kind of punishment and slavery by the elves.

It’s a bit confusing that the codex first speaks of the Forbidden Ones being exiled from Evanuris lands, and then claiming they are Forbidden from the Earth that belongs to the Evanuris. This makes me suspect that the exile of the Forbidden ones may have happened after the Evanuris conquered the Titans.

In the same fragment of information we have Gods and Evanuris. If this is a recent time after the end of the war against the Titans, the Evanuris had been known as generals, while this reference to the Gods is related to the original Gods the Evanuris also worshipped [Solas says this in his romance scene: the Vallaslin are the symbols of the gods worshipped by the Evanuris that they branded on their servants. There existed gods before the Evanuris. Ancient gods that we don’t know nothing about.]

We also know that Xebenkeck  is related to the teaching of blood magic [DA2 codices]. She is also confused or considered to be related to the figure of a Forgotten One by the researchers in the codex The Enigma of Kirkwall.

Vir Dirthara: Homecoming

It's a description of and elf returning to a city he loves. The city is made of blue glass spires, surrounded by lakes of mist. The groves of trees around bend to create the spaces that the elves want in that moment. It shows how elves could bend reality without effort in their daily life. What I like to highlight is that Felassan and Solas described similar descriptions for Arlathan in book and game.

Vir Dirthara: Raising the Sonallium 

We see well-dressed elves arguing inside an arched pavilion in a floating island. This looks like the shattered library. So the nature of this place was a bit like the library: islands floating in the void.

In the background we see thousand of elves maintaining a spell to pull raw essence from the Fade into a sphere. A communal spell which uses Fade essence. 

This is how they create pocket worlds, “planes in-between”, like the Crossroad. The sphere has a temple, in rust-red jungles with waterfalls. 

The argument increases so much that one leaps another with a burning knife of prismatic flame.

(The architects of) the grand Sonallium was a gift from Sylaise to June as a thanks for a "great favour". This allows us to suspect that Sylaise and June teamed up in the war of Evanuris.

Sylaise is described as Blessed, while June as Clever.

The "caption" of the memory is even more interesting. These elves are architects, and we are seeing that they are not friendly debating, so it's clear that this line in the codex is lying. So it also must be lying about what they are talking about: it has to be something serious and not the colour of the palace's roof.

It gives the impression, since both situation are cinematographically in the same shoot, that the argument is about the use of Fade in creating world, or maybe it's about the creation of the world itself.  

As part of the speculation, this makes me wonder if creating and keeping that world in that sphere is a concentration spell, meaning that it falls apart if the elves stop the spell. This would mean that to keep pockets worlds it will be needed thousands of elves concentrating on spells. Which brings to me the idea that maybe this is the true reason of why Uthenera exists in a world that doesn’t need Uthenera to “walk in the Fade”, but to maintain the unstable nature of the shape of worlds. 

It’s not clear what is the gift to June: if the grand Sonallium alone or the architects as well. Considering how brutal Evanuris were I added the second option as a potential possibility, despite being more natural to think in the Sonallium alone.

The detail of the prismatic weapon called my attention too. In game we have two weapons of prismatic power. Their blades are not there until you attack, and one of them is a reward for learning more about dragons. 

Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory

Elgar'nan figure is made in a lump of fallen stone as large as a collapsed mountain. It’s not a stone as big as a mountain, as a standard comparison of gargantuan size would be expected. It’s a collapsed mountain. 

The monument is made by thousands of servants.

Elgar'nan, of whom we never had any image beyond its vallaslin [which depicts chaotic thorny vines] now is described as a creature of narrowed eyes and open, snarling mouth.

The collapsed mountain speaks to me of using servants to arrange breaking titans, dwarves or the stubborn world into the shape of an Evanuris. The symbol implies a victory over the defeated, broken mountain. We see Elgar’nan being erected upon the rubble of the conquered mountain.

Finally we have a description of Elgar’nan, which resembles  The Strange Idol. 

I was going to suggest Korth too, but his design doesn’t have an open mouth, only a snarling one, and his eyes are not squinting. Plus, Korth is not related to elves for it to appear in Elvhenan codices.

Vir Dirthara: The Deepest Fade

These are instructions to reach the deepest Fade.

This makes us infer that there are parts of the fade that dreamers have no access.

It seems to be written by a spirit.

It requires a mind smooth as a mirror and still as a stone. [curious that a spirit would make such a comparison]

It’s inferred that the deep Fade has “stillest roots”. Once more, quite a word choice.

Interpretation: There is not much to say. It clearly gives us the information that there are parts in the Fade unexplored for Dreamers, and to reach them, you need a mind smooth as a mirror and still as a stone. The word choice makes me think a lot in Sandal. The fact that they are using a stone for this comparison implies a dwarven nature, which would mean that maybe dwarves have the skills to reach wthere the “roots are still”. Again, roots is something you find beneath the ground and more related to dwarven environments. That the Deepest Fade is described with so many hints of dwarven makes me infer that maybe the place where the Dreamers can’t reach are those closer to the Reality, which is what Titans are: a reinforcement of Reality.

Maybe this interpretation can make more sense if we think that during this time, Fade and Waking World were the same, and maybe at some point they called Deepest Fade to the Waking World, which was really hard to reach for a Dreamer, because it was more real than fluid. Maybe this piece of codex is too ancient, even before than the lecture of the waking world.

The con of this hypothesis is that it also speaks about spirits who never manifested outside the Fade, so there is still a line between both worlds that can be crossed. Unfortunately, I have this problems with these codices: they claim that the Fade and the Waking World are one, but then they speak as if both were separated, which we know it was not like that until Solas created the Veil. This always confuses me a lot in the interpretation of the ancient world pre-veil.

Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads requeires Veilfire to read.

The Inquisitor, upon reading the runes (if The Descent DLC was completed) says "The runes say the Evanuris fought the Titans. They mined their bodies for lyrium and... something else. It's not clear." Sadly what the inquisitor does not say seems to be shown in the mural: the something else seems to be the heart of the titans with the powers of reality and making things “real” and “shaped”.

The words in this veilfire coil and uncoil like snakes

A thunderous voice claims that Mythal struck down “the pillars of the earth”, known as a metaphor for Titans. She shared the titan’s demesne with “the People”.

There is smell of blood followed by the image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The “original fire” was sealed in a sphere, protected with vines.

Eons pass, and the runes crackle, filled with angry energy.

Elves collapse caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with magic and stone. They have terror as they cast the spell.

A voice whispers that the greed of the Evanuris will end them all. Recommends to forget the place where this evil was buried. No one should wake its anger.

The voice suggests that the People should rise before their false gods, the Evanuris, destroy them.

Interpretation: I think this is the origin of the Red Lyrium.

Thunderous voice tend to be associated with Elgar’nan, who is also related to Thunder and Lightning. 

Mythal struck down the Titans, and due to the drawing of the mural, we can suspect that Myhtal found a way to amass power from the heart of the titans and craft their orbs of power. These orbs are tremendously powerful as we know with the orb of Fen’Harel who allowed him to create the Veil.

Apparently, Mythal shared this power with the Evanuris [it seems this is what Solas was referring to by the end of DAI when he asks the inquisitor what he will do with the power of the Well of Sorrows, and suggests not to share it with a group, because greed will always make the group abuse of such power]

I think that the smell of blood represents the assassination of Mythal. First, because the cinematic described here has just told us how important Mythal was for the People. “Praise her name forever”. But she was betrayed [said by Flemeth and Abelas] and killed. And Second, the blood of the Titans is lyrium, with a scent that is not like blood, so this smell can’t refer to titan’s blood.

The green vine and the sphere of fire are really hard to interpret. The combination of both brings me Elgar’nan to my mind: 

The unreliable Dalish Tales keep saying something about Elgar’nan fighting the sun [a ball of fire] and burying it into the ground. We truly have no means to understand which part of that story is the small bit of truth they managed to keep. 

We only know via the codices in the Temple of Myhtal and in the Shattered Library that Elgar’nan and Mythal had a friendly relationship to the point that Elgar’nan trusted Mythal’s wisdom and allowed her to pass judgement in most cases to avoid Elgar’nan’s fury [a fury that could destroy the world, they said]. 

Elgar’nan’s Vallaslin is a clear thorny vine. But again, the whole series of games since DAO have shown the vines as a representation of the Blight or the Darkspawn, and even though one can suspect that the Blight can be related to Elgar’nan’s fury, the true is that we have little information about him in general. 

Elgar’nan is indeed related to fire and anger and vengence, so both elements could represent him.

However, the growing vines look like a means for sealing the fire. Maybe Elgar’nan’s symbol of the vines is because they contain his fury? 

Anyway, thing is, these elements are a bit more complicated to understand.

The following text is vague about the runes: are vines and runes the same here? or are runes over the vines, sealing them? Sadly the text doesn’t say. 

The following scene shows elves in terror casting spells to collapse caverns of the Deep Roads. “No one wakes its anger” seems to be related to the fire trapped inside the vines that these elves sealed underground. In a sense, the elves buried a ball of fire, not Elgar’nan. The whisper, in my personal speculation, is Solas: he is the voice that calls the Evanuris as False gods, and proposes rising in order to avoid destruction.

If I allow myself to speculate with all this and let some gaps exists, I could develop the following hypothesis:

This codex is about Elgar’nan. We start with his voice claiming the defeat of the Titans thanks to Mythal, and the share of their power. 

After the death of Mythal [smell of blood after praising her], Elgar’nan [represented with the vines] contained a fire that could be a symbol of his own anger for the death of Mythal [they were close friends, apparently].

There are magical runes sealing the vines [I guess], or vines used as sealing runes that contain Elgar’nan’s fury that destroys all what it touches. 

We also know that the orbs of the Evanuris are created or related to the heart of Titans, so the sphere we see in the image can also represent Elgar’nan’s orb [which contains his fury]. 

But his fury also has a unique characteristic: it destroys what it touches, which can be considered a destruction via corruption. 

Over the eons, his fury [fire] corrupted [detroyed] the titan’s heart [his orb].

So Elgar’nan, or at least his own fury contained in his orb, embraced corruption as a vengeance giving birth to the Red Lyrium, which has similar description to Elgar’nan’s fury: it’s an angry energy, it destroys/corrupts all what it touches, and when the Evanuris wanted to use his orb, they discovered the red Lyrium and sealed it.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

[dragon-age-codex-entries]

Codex entry: Vir Dirthara: Exile of the Forbidden Ones

The pages of this book—memory?—show the blazing forms of the Evanuris banishing a howling spirit from the reaches of the Fade that touch their lands. A voice rings out, stern and imperial:

"For abandoning the People in their time of greatest need, for casting aside form to flee to where the Earth could not reach, we declare Xebenkeck and others of her ilk exiled from the lands of the Evanuris. Beware! Their familiarity with shape allows them to travel paths unaided. They may be bound, but only the protection of your gods will fully shield you from their malice. They are Forbidden from the Earth that is our right."

[lairofsentinel]

Dragon Age The Veilguard: Personal Expectations [mostly lore wise]

[SPOILERS AHEAD: I’ve been seeing all spoilers already and I will talk about them below. You are warned]

Posts of spoilers I’ve used: Here, Here and Here

This is just a set of ideas and questions I want to write to check and, maybe, answer later, once I played the game.

Podcast:

Not really good writing. I had my doubts in the beginning, thinking that I was being too critical, but Taash episode just proved me right: the authors know nothing about the lore, and the situations they write are so marvel-like, that just… this is not the narrative of Bioware, and it shows. Details in Dragon Age: Vows and Vengeance 1 and 2 and here. So the concepts that bothered me a lot like Drayden not being a Mage but still being able to listen to spirits can be easily put aside, because all what’s been seen in these podcasts is not even worth considering as part of the lore. Same as the aberration of Absolution, thank Epler for being clear about it.

Vallaslins

I already shared my disappointment with this here

The Crossroads

Since the begining I've been listening to Devs claim that the Lighthouse is in the Crossroads and therefore is in the Fade. And I'm very worried, because in DAI [and the Masked Empire] it was explained that the Crossroads is the "in-between", it's not the Fade, but it's close. And It's a place where the Evanuris cannot sense you, hence why Morrigan raised Kieran in the crossroad, staying hidden from Flemeth. This place also has terrible effects on non-elven people [details explained in the Masked Empire] but they were never truly translated into the game DAI; the only detail was that elves could see the Crossroads as a place with colour and blooming trees, while the rest of the races simply saw dried grey trees. The Fade and the Crossroad are different things, and now, suddenly are both the Fade. Disappointing.

Lucanis, possession and the demon-spirit lore:

Lucanis: Context and recognition

The start is odd with Lucanis in his rescue scene: he was captured and tortured for a year, and even if he was in a state of stasis [inside an ice?], and was tortured with magic and demons [as Tarohne does to Templars in DA2, Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck] why he is wearing his armour and all his weapons? This breaks so much the logic, not even the lore.

The second problem I saw is that, any mage, no matter if it’s Neve or Rook, recognises him immediately as possessed. In our long list of possessed mages in DA lore, no one could be seen as such by other mage unless the abomination was manifested. The only exception was Flemeth when looking at Anders, and she remained cryptic anyways. But it was Flemeth after all, host of a fragment of an elvhenan "god". Hawke doesn’t see Anders and recognises the posession until it manifests as something out of control [Anders' enraging and Justice emerging as he speaks about the Templars]. There is no similar situation with Wynne [for her is more about a blast of unusual magic that brings questions into the group, but you spent already half a game with her without even suspecting she was possessed].

Lucanis appears to Rook in the middle of the combat with strange wings that can be easily product of some sort of magic. Rook and/or Neve can guess he is a mage, in any case, but not posessed immediately. In fact, mages who saw necromancers in DAI, following those colours, would think that Lucanis, maybe, is a sort of necromancer [purple wings = purple as the necomantic power colour in DAI, which now has been changed to green Fade-like colours :/, change of colour patterns I'm not very happy with]. This instant recognition that he is possessed, and not a mage, because he has purple wings feels a bit odd to me. His eyes are not even glowing in purple, which is something that more or less we agee has been a pattern in DA lore to shows us posession [even the possessed cat in Honnleath and Enchanter Wilhelm’s basement has them]. In fact, there is the Grim Anatomy text which is a cryptic book that seems to relate eyes and changes in the blood with possession. It's true that its reliability is questionable considering we don't even know its author, but the point here is: in DA lore, to recognise a non-deformed possession you need to see more radical changes than a magical effect that could be considered "odd magic".

Lucanis original ability to perceive magical cast

Lucanis abilitiy to sense magic is, and was always, a bit of a mystery to me. Since I read he had this ability in Tevinter Nights, without being a mage, made me think in 2 possibilities that we know exist in DA lore:

1 – Lucanis is a low mage, those mages that never cast magic but some small sparkle here and there. Without training, they are as dangerous as any other mage since they are easy prey for demons. Or so the Chantry says. The truth is, this piece of lore always came from Chantry-like sources and we never saw a mage of this condition deeply [we never had a companion as such]. The only cases we were told about was Trask’s daughter in DA2: a mage who was not able to cast magic very much, was kept hidden from the Circle, and ended up possessed when she was escaping Kirkwall and templars found her. And Alain [DA2], if I don't remember wrongly, who ended up learnign blood magic [stronger than this own].

2 – Lucanis was already possessed. Posession can be done with demons and spirtis, so far the lore showed us. It’s clear that possession by a demon makes things hard to control, there is a fight for the body, and in general, it’s hard to be efficient with one of those [we see the example of Anders, if we assume that, by the end of the game, Anders is possessed by Vengeance instead of Justice]. Possession of a spirit depends a lot if you keep feeding the spirit what they embodies: in Anders possession, the twisting of Justice into Revenge comes from the fact that Anders never could perform Justice acts in the world he was living without putting himself at risk. Hence, he did not feed the purpose of Justice, and slowly, the spirit, perverted in its purpose, changed into Vengeance [all this is explained by Solas very detailed and compiled in Solas sharing Lore: Part 1]. Other examples of possession via demons are Mihris [by Imshael in the book The Masked Empire] and Pharamond [in the book Asunder]. When it comes to posession by spirits, things seem easier: Wynne's spirit was always under control and always helped her to the very end; she always kept feeding it by having faith in the Chantry, the Maker, and in the Circles. So, if Lucanis was possessed long time ago, it would be more likely to be a spirit than a demon, since he seems to be under control of it.

This idea brings the question: what kind of spirit can be constantly fed by a Crow? This list can go wild and I wont go into details, but for example, a Perseverance spirit [we saw one in DAI, in the Hissing Wastes: Perseverance and A journal on Dwarven Ruins] with how dedicated to his work Lucanis is, could find fulfilment. Not all spirits are about good, positive emotions, some are simply neutral and can fit a Crow lifestyle. Then again, it can be any other logical spirit, since we know there is not an “official” list of them in the lore. The point is, as long as you feed the spirit’s purpose, the spirit remains strong and uncorrupted, and having this kind of pact, would explain Lucanis’ curious ability to perceive magic being cast. However, lore wise, we know that Spirits do not tend to possess people, they prefer to stay away from the mortal world, and only very few are interested in it, they require some personality, so the crossing of the worlds doesn’t twist them [All this is Solas’ explanations in the previous post]. So far in DA lore, the spirit possessions we know with more or less some degree of detail are Wynne, Flemeth, Anders in the beginning or maybe Kristoph [although that was a possession of a corpse], and Sigrid Gulsdotten [Frostback Basin [DLC]: Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 1]

However, aside from all this Spirit-related lore, we have the implicit info that all these hosts were mages. And here is where this second hypothesis [that Lucanis was already posesed by a spirit] feels wrong: it means he should have been a mage in the first place, again.

It’s also true that Tarohne [Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck] told us that it is possible to force a demon to possess anyone [mage or not], we are hinted that they may force the approach of the person with the demon, but in the end, there should be an agreement between the host and the demon. No soul can be forced upon the unwilling, as Flemeth said [someone who I believe is a trustworthy source of info, along with Solas].

There is also a third possibility to explain Lucanis strange ability without being a mage, but the conditions for it to happen are even more complicated than the previous 2 hypothesis. We know about the process that grants Seekers of the Truth a unique power and immunity to blood magic: every seeker is made tranquil for a year and recovered from that state when a Faith spirit touches them. They end up with a unique ability: we only know 2 seekers in the lore that explained their ability; Lambert who could sense spirits and demons, and Cassandra who could boil the lyrium in the blood of a person. But for Lucanis to have this ability, it would mean he was made tranquil first and recovered later, and even if this ridiculous hypothesis holds some sense it's debunked by the fact that he is not immune to Blood magic as he should be, since he claims he needs to recover his blood vial to avoid being controlled. So… this option is extremely unlikely.

So, in conclusion, Lucanis should have been, at some low degree at least, a mage to justify his ability. Or he should have been possessed and de-posssessed at young age with some obscure ritual. We will see what the game tells us.

Possession through forced experimentation:

What we know now is that Lucanis is possessed, and as far as the spoilers go, we learn that this new case of possession was a Venatori experiment. In this case, it makes sense to expand the lore we have with something that justifies it. Experimentation is always a good narrative resource to let anomalous things happen given an established lore. In DAI we knew already that Venatori were experimenting with demon-binding processes [the Grey Warden’s demon army, Orlais, Western Approach: Adamant Fortress, and several experiments like the one we find in Hissing Wastes: Venatori main camp]. All these expeimental cases of bindings were done exclusively with mages, while non-mage people were used as blood sacrifice for the process. So, again, we have the reinforcement that bindings and posessions need to be done, mostly, with mages.

This is not the first time we have a given lore expanded with the resource of “experimentation”. We had the same with Avernus in the DLC: Soldier’s Peak, in which we learnt more about the Blight and the unique Blight Magic, magic that later in DAI we knew it was the magic that the Magister Sidereal embraced when they reached the Black City [read Corypheus’ memories in Orlais: Shrine of Dumat].

So, if Lucanis ends up being a non-mage character who was bind to a demon or a twisted spirit via experimentation, it doesn’t look like a break in the lore. However, in that case, I would still question how is possible for a non-mage to perceive the magic being cast if he was not bound to a spirit before. Because for that to happen, you basically need to be a mage. As it can be seen, it’s a cycle of questions in which all point out that Lucanis should be a mage, at least a low one, for them to be in-lore. I hope these questions are well answered in the game, without breaking the lore.

Spite, spirit tortured and twisted into demon:

Another curious thing that we didn’t see before in the lore is that this demon is not inside Lucanis. It’s like a pet. In a way, it resembles a lot to the binding process of the demons that the Grey Wardens performed in Adamant Fortress, in DAI. But in that case, the demons break into the Waking World having their Shade shape or their Rage form. People can see them. The lore says that these spirits have this particular shape when entering the waking wold without possessing a person. So, that Spite looks like Lucanis, instead of a Shade, and nobody but him can see it…. feels extremely odd and lore-breaking to me. Because the process of this bind/possession is very anomalous and comes from an experiment, I’m open to some odd explanation about this… but I’m quite sceptical.

All the spoiler about “Spite is what Lucanis sees in himself” [source] could be a very far-stretched concept of “spirits reflect what you want them to reflect”. But that’s a law that applies in the Fade, not in the Waking World. That’s the whole point why spirits get mad and confused in the Waking World. They can’t reflect, they can’t change the world. So all that situation makes me be quite critical.

Every possessed mage we have seen in DA lore was one with the spirit. Since Wynne, to Anders, to Flemeth, to Marethari. Cole is not a possessed entity, but a materialized spirit, so I am not counting him on this. We also had 2 anomalous possessions: Connor and Pharamond, where the "demon remained in the Fade". The only time we saw a different kind of “possession” was not a possession but a binding process with the Grey Wardens, which was what Tarohne told us about: The ancient Teviner could bind demons and make them work for them. Corypheus knew of this process and it was what he gave to the Grey Wardens in DAI. At least in these spoilers, they respected the fact that binding processes are all related to blood magic, as we saw in every single situation of binding processes in DAI, DA2, and DAO.

In DA lore we have spirits that lived inside hosts helping them, without changing [Wynne], as well as spirits that were not fed in their purpose and became demons [Anders]. I’m expecting a bit of a change of this dynamics. With Cole [in Asunder, as well in DAI] we were told that he walked the path of becoming a demon, and had to fulfill and keep strong in compassion purpose to remain a spirit. He made a journey. This also was seen in Solas’ personal quest, when we recover the Pride demon bound by a group of mages into the Wisdom spirit that simply dies (?) [I never understood why, I suppose it was just a narrative choice]. What we never saw was that this process can happen with a host [or a bound host in this case?]. I think the spoilers we had access to give a nice room for that option:

Rook: Were they torturing demons? How? Why? Lucanis: They didn’t all start out as demons. Zara made sure they ended up that way.

To me, this is telling us that the Venatori, with the Fade thin, found a way to attract spirits [who are usually not interested in the Waking World], capture them, torture them, and twist them into demons to use them for further binds [they learnt the process with Corypheus 10 years ago, after all]. We know via Solas that this is not a difficult process: just force spirits to do a purpose they don’t have and they will turn into demons. So my first guess is that Spite was not really a demon, not in the beginning. He was just twisted into one, and this process may have happened a year ago, so there is some hope in regression if fed with his original purpose, which could be along the lines of benevolence or generosity.

We also see that Spite can harm Lucanis, which is unusual for a possession, but then again, this is not the regular possession we saw in books and games. This is the result of an innovative experimentation.

It’s also curious, as Neve highlights in the scene of Lucanis in front of the fire, that Spite needs to have permission from Lucanis to manifest? Take his body and make presence? Spite doesn’t simply take control over him, as we saw that Justice could do with Anders sometimes, or how all demons end up doing to their hosts. Only spirits remain passive, calm, in the background, letting their hosts to take the decisions. In that regard, Spite seems closer to a spirit than a demon.

As we can see, Spite has unique characteristics for a spirit and/or demon in a bind/possession process. I hope further explanation in the game holds the lore well.

Very unpopular opinion: classes and races in factions

First, I'm pretty disappointed with the generic background of the Rook. I agree with the second part of it, which is a reflection of Solas: a person who had to disobey orders to protect people and do the right thing, but compromising the mission/faction, so they had to go low profile for a while. That's okay, and I see the narrative sense of it: if the Inquisitor was a reflection of the Title/Tale of Fen'harel [the title that Solas did not want to, as the inquisitor did not want to be the "Herald of Andraste", and had to deal with the corruption of the organization as it grew], the Rook will be the reflection of the person before the Title, the rebel that started all. So I don't mind about it. I find Solas a complex, interesting character worth exploring in parrallels that your own character walks, it's a very Bioware way of explaining and understanding the motivations of a grey character. What I don't like is the first half of most backgrounds: they are all the same, barely flavoured with the faction. Why? Because they need to feet all races, even in factions where that race makes no sense.

And that's my big criticism. Some classes and races make no sense in the faction lore, even if all Rooks have the same background of being orphan who was taken by the order/faction you want to play. This feels such a break in-lore point for me. I would have prefered restricted origins like DAO, but a lot more alive, belivable, and diverse backgrounds.

Lords of the Fortune are absolutely ok with all classes and races. I see no problem here, and personally, makes sense that Taash belongs to this faction, because Qunari in the other factions make a lot less sense or seem to be a bit lore-break. And I say this loving to play qunari, and I love this race, but I don't think it makes sense in the current context. Especially NOT now that everyone is stressed with the Qunari invasion all over the north of Thedas. And I don't trust any company spending extra resources to make a whole game more reactive to one single race because of this [the only way to make it more lore-suitable].

Grey Wardens are alright to be open to all classes and races. I have my concers with the Qunari again: Qunari, as it was hinted in DAI, may have been a crafted race that come from Dragons. And Dragons are resistant to the Blight naturally [also said in DAI]. Why we never saw qunari wardens since due to their natural biology have bigger chances to reach their Calling a lot later? For these mixtured of races and factions to happen we need to see them previouslyle in NPCs, so they are more belivable and not something that comes out of the blue in one game.

Mourn Watchers is one of the most restrictive, more regional, more closed faction of all: We are talking about mostly mages of Nevarra, not from any other country, that specialise in the limit that the Chantry accepts [the mortalitasi school], and that meddles strongly in the politics of Nevarra and its royalty. This is a human exclusive faction, with some small room for elves and dwarves. I can't see under no circunstance a Tal-Vashoth or a Qunari around this faction. It makes no sense. Who would have left a qunari baby [when the Qun wastes nothing or the Tal-Vashoth simply take care of their free children] in the middle of the Necropolis? Even if they took care of the child, external pressures would have never allowed a "problematic" qunari [remember that qunari are the "savages" in Thedas PoV] to be part of the Order and potentially meddle in the politics of the country? Nonsense.

Shadow Dragons have the same problem that Mourn Watchers, they are very regional, they are trying to push and change Tevinter into a better, fairer country. All classes make sense, this is Tevinter, so Mages are not in a similar compromised position than in the south of Thedas. Now, when it comes to races: Humans, dwarves, and elves seem to be the natural choices: all of them are citizen of the country, with or without the slave condition. But Qunari? I find a big problem here. First, why a Qunari would find purpose in this faction? Maybe a Tal-Vashoth? But even if that's the case, the immense difficulty I see is how a Qunari can walk easily in Tevinter. You need a game that has a unique reactivity system for only Qunari. We are talking about Tevinter, a paranoid country that has been sustaining a War against the Qunari for decades. They know about the Ben-Hassrath, the intelligence and spy-system they have. They know that they already have problem with the conversed Qunari that are not "qunari" in race. How a qunari can be allowed to walk in Tevinter easily without rising suspicion that they are an agent? Even Tal-Vashoth will fall into this suspicion, wether they like it or not. This was one of the most annoying lore-breaks in Absolution for me. The guards of Tevinter beign more worried about an elf [??] than a big ass Qunari [their main enemy for the last decades]. Again, forcing Qunari in this context works so much against the lore.

Veil Jumpers, so far we saw in the comics, allow all races and classes, and that feels alright. Their goal is to make places with thin veil safe again, as well as explore and discover elvhenan knowledge and tech that Tevinter did not prey on already. Again, I find the Qunari the most weird race in here. Tal-Vashoth maybe are a more fitting qunari for this faction. A qunari of the Qun has no place in here, when you remember how much they fear magic and elvhenan ruins.

Crows suffer the same specificity than Mourn Watchers and Shadow Dragons: they are a unique group from Antiva that deals with Antiva politics [and can reach all over Thedas] and are placed beside Rivain, a country who was already invaded by the Qun and now is a mixture of pagan religion, Qun, and Chantry. Since DAO we know that Crows are populated with humans and elves, being the elves more related to seduction tasks due to their appealing beauty in Thedas. We never heard anything about dwarven Crows. They feel very funny if you think they need to be all about grace and sneakiness. But we have a very efficient scout in Harding, so we can accept that dwarves can be sneaky and can contribute in the Crow as engineers providing traps and weapons of unique constructions. Now, qunari Crows make no sense. Again, we have the problem that Quanri are perceived as a danger all over Thedas. How would a Qunari Crow exist in an organization that meddles so much in politics all across Thedas? you could say the same of the conversed Qunari, but the whole point is that they are meddling with the politics of Thedas and gathering information while nobody suspects them. A qunari walking in Crow attire is just a big, giant red alarm. You need a game that has a reactivity system very particular only for Qunari.

The crows, in my opinion, don't only have the issue of the race, but the class. Antiva is under the Chantry teachings, they are Andrastians, and even though Zevran told us that some mages, specially the ones related to nobility, seem to have a good amount of privileges and licencies and freedoms [pretty much like the court mages in the White Spire], there is a Circle in Antiva where mages are gathered and contained. You don't have mages among the Crows. We never had one in all these previous games, not even in codices or anecdotes. Mages are seen in Antiva pretty much as the South of Thedas. The only "crow mage" that has ever appeared in the literature is one during the 4th Blight, who performed blood magic, in an unreliable book [The Last Flight, written by a non-bioware author], and even in that book this mage explicitly says that he is alright because there is Blight destroying Antiva, but as soon as the Blight ends, all the mages will be grabbed and jailed in the Circle tower, and he wants to avoid that fate. Again, a mage Crow makes so little sense. Maybe things changed after the revolution ignited in Kirkwall? I don't know. I only hope they are justifying this excess of freedom that breaks so much the lore.

They could have refined each faction, limited in races and classes to make sense, as DAO did. It is a bummer? yes, sometimes you just want to play a class and a faction without giving a shit about lore, and I support that freedom as long as it's only given to the player. So I hope they allow certain level of "speshulness" to the rook, to justify these things if the player wants to play without following the lore, but I also hope they were careful not to ruin the game for ppl who has been following the lore since DAO, so we dont start finding NPCs that are Saarebas Crows, or Qunari Mourn Watchers. I fear this. I don't want NPCs that have the freedom that Rook has in factions, race and class. I hope they only give this freedom to the player, but remain strict to the lore when it comes to NPCs.

Irrelevant Choices

I'm not going to go deep into this, but... yes, that three previous games with world breaking lore choices are ignored just because we are now placed in the North of Thedas is a big disappointment and a bad justification for a team who doesn't know the World in which they are working on. This only adds to what the team showed in that video where nobody knew who was Zevran. The people doing this game has no idea that they are working with a Faction [the Crows] where one of the members [Zevran] not only abandoned the faction with life, but returned to kill the main figures of the Arainai house. That your choice of leaving him alive or no produces a scar in the faction has nothign to do with Antiva being located in the North of Thedas. In DAO you also could pick a world-wide choice related to the Blight Magic: if you allow Avernus to continue his experiments, he will send mails of his results to Weisshaupt. This choice is again taken into consideration in DA2, where you find a dead messeger with Avernus' mail, and you can decide to let the messsage reach Weisshaupt or not.

In DAO we also have the far-reaching consequences of letting alive the Disciples and the Architect, darkspawn free from the song. We can argue that considering the abilities we saw in Corypheus, kiling the Architect would mean nothing, since he must have jumped to another bligthed creature. Fair.

All the Mage-Templar politics of Kirkwall in DA2 is key to shape the world of Thedas, and it's so mayor that, again, it doesn't matter if we are in the North: Antiva and Rivain have circle towers. Rivain is a more complicated cultural mixture, since they have their possessed seers, and Qun belief as well as Chantry teachings, but Antiva is under the power of the Chantry. The way mages will be seen in the Circle of Antiva will be affected by these choices in DA2. You also have Feynriel quest, where an elf-blooded human, with dreamer powers, can be sent to Tevinter to continue his studies. This is a consequence in the North too that can be major: nowadays there are barely somniari/dreamer mages, and they are incredibly powerful and dangerous in the Fade.

In DAI you have, again, choices upon the Grey Warden [if you leave Stout in the Fade, the Wardens end up in a disarray organisation], or who drank from the Well of Sorrows [although we can argue that the voices of the Well disappear in the moment Flemeth is killed, there are some hints pointing us out to that conclusion]. Still, there are a lot of War Table missions that will have an impact in the North whether you do them or not. Draconology quest series is one of the most impactful ones in the lore: you discover that dragons are resistant to the Blight. This information doesn't matter if you are in the North or the South of Thedas.

Again... a big disappointment.

[crossdressingdeath]

See, now I'm thinking about desire demons again, and like... aside from the fact that yeah the desire demon design just in general isn't all that sexy (please... more creative fanservice than just shoving naked boobs at the camera...), there's no actual reason for them to look like that? And it actually weakens their overall effect as creatures that manipulate humans using their desires. I'm bored so I'm actually going to go down the list of notable desire demons as listed on the wiki to see what they actually offer, and spoiler alert: most of them... aren't actually offering sex, or if they are it's as one part or one option of what they're offering, not the whole thing. So, starting from the top (and leaving out Yevena and Vereveel from Broken Circle, Xebenkeck from Forbidden Knowledge, Hanker from Kind of Want and the unnamed desire demon from Malcolm's Will since none of those offer anything in particular other than a fight):

The desire demon in Arl of Redcliffe offered Connor the power to save his father, and if the Warden negotiates with her she offers the secrets of blood magic, the love of those around them (mechanically is a +20 approval boost for one companion, which seems like a waste given how easy it is to gain approval in DAO but whatever), something to increase their talents (mechanically a tome that gives an additional talent/spell), or sex. So sex isn't off the table, but since it's the only option on the list with no actual benefit to the player I imagine most people don't go for that one, except maybe for roleplay reasons (I'm sure some people's Wardens—and I say this with zero judgement, if someone wants to play a total asshole then I just hope they have fun with it—are the sort that would absolutely choose to bang a desire demon in exchange for a small child's freedom). ...Actually I might make a poll about that, I'm kind of curious what options people go for now.

The desire demon in Broken Circle who ensorcelled that Templar offered him a family life and happiness, although it's unclear if she asked him or just did it for her own reasons. It's a little hard to judge the exact details of the arrangement since he's completely under her control, but it seems like a safe bet that if sex is involved in the deal it's as a part of the "happy family life" illusion, not as the main draw.

It's a little unclear what Kitty offered Amalia, but it seems to have been friendship of some sort? Although it's also possible that there was no actual bargain involved and Kitty was just being nice so that Amalia would come back often enough to give Kitty the chance to get free and then possess her, which is her ultimate goal. When dealing with the Warden Kitty offers a nice staff in exchange for letting her take Amalia (side note, did not know you can get a staff out of Kitty (hehehehehehehe- sorry, I'm very mature I promise) by trading Amalia for it). So overall no offers of sex in this one.

Moving on to DA2, Allure from the Exiled Prince DLC offered Lady Harimann power in exchange for feeding on her husband, son and daughter and offers the same to Hawke and co if they let her go, and while there is some element of sex in the feeding (Lord Harimann, anyone?), Flora just gets drunk in the cellar and yells at thin air and Brett starts trying to turn people into statues by covering them in molten gold, so again it's not an automatically sexual thing.

Caress in Night Terrors does offer Aveline an illusion of Wesley, but that's more about her failed desire to save and protect him than any physical desire for him and (based on the wiki, I've never brought Aveline on this quest myself) Caress's aim in using him seems to be more getting Aveline to turn on Hawke by blaming them and their family for his death. Meanwhile she offers Isabela a ship and crew, feeding off her desire to be a proper captain again, which is a decidedly non-sexual deal to offer a character who the game sexualizes as constantly as it does Isabela. So again, no sexual offers in sight here.

And of course Imshael, the only male desire demon we see (other than Herren if we count him) and for what I'm sure are totally unrelated reasons the only one wearing actual clothes. Very slick, Bioware. Not. In TME he offers to let Michel influence the dreams of men in exchange for him sacrificing someone as a host for Imshael, and in DAI he offers the Inquisitor riches, power or virgins in exchange for his life and freedom, but if you ask for virgins he... doesn't have any (or if Cole is in the party he could find one but admits you probably wouldn't like the result) and gives you a rune instead. So much like in Arl of Redcliffe sex is presented as an option he's willing to make a deal for (and I'm sure the fact that he's offering to find people for you to have sex with instead of offering to have sex with you himself has nothing to do with him being the only male desire demon, see previous point re Bioware's slickness or lack thereof), but it's not the only choice on the list.

So out of the eleven major desire demons we've had run-ins with, five don't offer any deals that we know of (Xebenkeck at least probably did based on her age and power but we have no real details on what they were so she doesn't count), three offer deals with no sexual component, one offers a deal that ends with a sexual component for the demon's sake that does not involve the deal-maker (since Lord Harimann doesn't seem to have made any deal with Allure, she's just feeding on him, whatever that entails), and two offer sex in exchange for getting their way but also offer other options in case the protagonist would prefer something a little more useful than getting laid. So that's 3/11—27.27%—that offer deals involving sex in some way, or a little over a quarter. So if most of the deals we see desire demons make don't involve sex, why is their design so obviously supposed to be seen as sexy? It would actually make more sense for them to try to look like normal people, because the name of the game for a desire demon is manipulation. If you see a purple topless demon lady with nipple piercings, you are immediately going to be on your guard! That's suspicious! Why are you going to willingly make a deal with this thing! Bioware got so fixated on the idea of sexy demon ladies that they missed the bit where their desire demons don't work in a way where that design makes sense for them! Not only are the desire demons blatantly designed the way they are because Bioware wanted to shake some boobs at the camera, it actually weakens them as enemies because creatures that work largely through manipulation would not want to immediately look suspicious.

[khadaj-ballad]

Forgot to show off my Tav: Xebenkeck a Non Binary, Lolth Sworn Drow Bard (soon to have a level in Wizard so I can learn to summon Shovel) With a Sage background. And their guardian (I forgot to take pictures in character creation cause I was too excited to play)

Why are is Guardian so hot!?! Idk if I should trust him but fuck it I DO!

Also can we romance the guardian cause I’d LOVE that