#also can you tell i love mages and elves

[bladeoffrontiers]

guys help i have too many ideas

[andrewknightley]

every scene with aveline in da2 is like oh wow aveline woudl be so fucking cool. if we explored this in deep. wouldnt it

[astrxealis]

me rn having the biggest hots for leon kennedy and astarion sorry LMFAOOO <3

[autisticbones]

i started playing dragon age recently and it's been a very refreshing break cause i've been getting a little burnt out on swtor

and i have had a Thought

which is that Elara needs a dragon age au and Eira (my current warden) needs a swtor au

Elara is a human jedi, so i'm thinking probably human mage? and then Eira is a dalish rogue so i'm thinking mirialan (for the face tattoos) and probably smuggler, but i'm also just throwing ideas around for the moment.

[biowho]

so now that veilguard is out and digested, what would you say the best place for a complete newcomer to get into dragon age is? does origins still hold up as a fun opening game fifteen years later?

Dear listener my advice is to play Veilguard before the first 3 installments. I genuinely believe that it would be enjoyed more if you don't know what has been lost/what has been taken from you cut beforehand. The only thing from the first 3 installments that matter in Veilguard is one possible choice your Inquisitor makes, romancing Solas (If you don't have a previous inquisitor I highly recommend making her a Lavellan who was/is in love with him in Veilguard's cc, they have a beautiful story)

While Veilguard is a good RPG, it is not a good Dragon Age game. If you know what shoulders it's standing on, the luster will wear off very quickly. I love it for what it is and I will mourn it for what it is not - and that's okay in a sad, almost bitter way. Inquisition was game of the year for a reason and subsequently Veilguard wasn't mentioned at all for another

On the flip side though (and please keep in mind I'm saying this as someone who played origins in 2009) Origins, Awakening, 2, Inquisition, and most of their DLC's are a branching, beautiful story that will leave a permanent mark on your heart And you can choose what those marks are because your actions in origins ripple out into Inquisition (some more so than others). It will echo out through any other media you love in the future and depending on how old you are it will rewire bits of your brain because let me tell you playing Inquisition at 15 did something to me. Yes, the combat mechanics aren't the greatest in Origins and 2 is a little annoying to play on PC but their stories are wonderful...

What is it like to be thrust into a position of importance and did it stem from choice or survival? Is conscription liberating or a chain of resentment? What is it like to lose your home only to slowly build another that you love and cherish just to watch it crumble away? To know that no matter what you do, it was for nothing? What does it mean when you are suddenly a beacon of hope for a people that possibly are not even your own? What does it feel like to be held in such a regard that you are seen as the voice of a god and no longer a person? Are you afraid that your name will be erased - your culture will be erased, and you will just remain your title just like the one that came before you?

If you have no prior experience with Dragon Age play Veilguard first. That way you won't be upset about what has happened to [redacted's] character or the fact that tranquility is never mentioned and several other things that I don't need to go into here. But without playing the others first, you won't understand the severity of the Blight, your tether Varric won't be as strong, the injustice done to the elves and dalish will go unnoticed. You won't know what it means to be a mage in southern Thedas. You won't know what it means to be castless or saarebas, you won't know what vallaslin is.

If Veilguard is the first experience you have with Dragon Age then you won't know the teeth the series used to have, you'll only have what they're passing off as a growl and you'll be satisfied with that

Also yes, origin still does hold up 15 years later. It of course has the standard graphics of its time and the battle mechanics are a little clunky. But the story will wrap itself inside your mind and you will never be able to get it out

[vigilskeep]

now that you finished inquisition, what did you think of it? like favorite things, least favorite, etc?

oh man okay

things i love about dragon age inquisition:

capturing the specific feeling of bonding with a group of people you have absolutely nothing in common with because u all had to go through something long and specific together

the maps can be so pretty and in places really calming and lovely to spend time in. it does make me want to explore and i have no explorer’s instinct

i love the war table and judgements i think those are really fun features

i like that approval for many major decisions applies to everyone regardless of who you bring to specific events/quests. it feels a lot less like you have to manage that really hard, as you sometimes do in the other games and also really noticeably to me in something like baldur’s gate 3. it’s irritating when i have to plan ahead and can’t take who i want to hear from

i like how attached you can get to little npcs who wander around

i loveeeee fighting dragons and how beautiful they all are

little puzzles <3

the collectibles are also mostly fine by me i am a magpie by nature. as long as i can find them, obviously, bc if i can’t they suck and this whole game sucks

the templar specialisation is fun and i enjoyed that part of combat a lot. wrath of heaven/spell purge combo is a power trip

i thought my character was pretty :) i defeated u in the end dai character creator. may you be as merciful when we meet in battle once more

i’m not a huge crafter but being able to tint things is rlly nice

blackwall’s romance is good

vivienne is there

they let me briefly tame a dragon at the end there

things i don’t love about dragon age inquisition:

some genuine cruelty in writing the dalish in a way that feels shockingly callous to the real world cultures the writers took inspiration from

never giving the dalish or the rebel mages any kind of voice of their own and making the player do all that work if they care, which i also feel limits my roleplaying creativity

refusing to let you challenge any of the often overwhelmingly conservative views expressed by other characters without receiving only derision and disapproval. inquisition is a game that punishes you at every turn for having your own opinions, in a way that could be interesting if it was willing to truly let you develop complex or antagonistic relationships with those characters, but ends up mostly just feeling mocking when nobody ever even tries to see your side, while simply agreeing with these people always rewards you with content. origins was capable of letting you engage in discussion, and da2 let you form rivalries that mattered; inquisition, despite starring some of the most intentionally controversial characters, does neither

the game engineering conflicts against groups like the freemen of the dales or the avvar that mean nothing to the player and range from vaguely to seriously upsetting in their assumptions about who it’s normal to just start killing en masse. it’s both boring and distressing

odd, for lack of a better word “casting choices”, like having the fantasy impoverished racial minority all be white within the party while the wealthiest and most privileged are characters of colour, or for a more in-world example having the elves express the most distaste towards elves and the mages express the most caution about mages. i don’t know that i quite have the vocabulary to fully discuss why these weird me out, but it all feels... disingenuous? and chosen to forestall criticism based on real world comparisons in a game series that i wish had the nerve to openly confront what it’s talking about if it’s going to try to make any of its conflicts feel relevant

most of the companions, and indeed most of the quests and time spent playing the game, feel disconnected from the main plot. it’s hard to feel any pressure when the game tells you we need to deal with the main plot “right now!” and “get there before corypheus!” when the bulk of the game is doing other things while you’re supposed to be doing that. the majority of companions could be cut without changing anything. and when you finally want to deal with the main plot you just click to start it. it’s not engaging

the game fails to fully expand dialogue for the player character options it provided, particularly notable with its confusing chantry focus when you’ve said for the dozenth time you’re not andrastian

the 2-handed weapon whirlwind ability sound effect is an exercise in creating the worst and most grating sound effect for someone to constantly hear

they didn’t let me romance vivienne

they killed my dragon :(

[felassan]

Polygon article.

Rest of post under a cut due to length and possible spoilers.

“I’ll say one of the greatest challenges of this game, but also one of the most enjoyable things, was, How do the Dalish react when their gods are out in the world and rampaging?” creative director John Epler told Polygon. It seems that across the board every Dalish elf in the game pretty much rejects their risen gods now that they’ve shown their true hand. Two of Rook’s companions, elven historian Bellara Lutare and Grey Warden Davrin, come from Dalish clans themselves and even though they’re a little shaken about confronting their gods, they’re not conflicted about doing so. In fact, among Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain’s lackeys and puppets, there’s not a single elf to be found. Epler said that it’s vindication for the Dalish — which is nice to see considering how they’ve been portrayed in past games. “Dragon Age has not always been the kindest to the Dalish,” he said. “Somebody once made a joke to me, and it’s not untrue, that it’s possible to wipe out a Dalish clan in all three of the games in some way.” In Origins, siding with the werewolves in the Brecilian Forest quest leads to the clan being destroyed. In Dragon Age 2, if you defend your companion Merrill’s blood magic usage, her clan attacks you and must be killed. And in Dragon Age: Inquisition, if you’re playing as an elven Inquisitor, you can accidentally kill your clan by picking the wrong options in the War Table mission. It’s not easy being a Dalish elf in Thedas. Still, though, why haven’t any Dalish elves decided to join forces with their gods? As Epler put it, the gods simply don’t care about them. They’re looking for followers in other places. Even though the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC revealed that Solas had amassed a network of elven agents, they weren’t going to be swayed. “Solas’ agents were never there for power,” Epler said. “They were there for a sense of identity and a purpose. And I would say that it’s fair that Fen’Harel probably bent the truth to them when he was doing his recruiting pitch — the part where he says ‘I’m going to destroy the world’ at the end of Trespasser [was] not what he was telling them.” Solas’ agents are almost jarringly absent from The Veilguard, with barely any mention of how far and wide they spread in the years prior to the game. But they do have very good reason for not being the ones joining up with the gods. “Those blighted, decrepit gods, they’re not bothering with the soft pitch,” Epler explained. “Their pitch is, We’re going to make a horrible world. We’re going to give you a lot of power, and maybe you’ll be OK.” On a more meta note, the Dalish just needed an in-game win. It’s refreshing that Bellara and Davrin get to honor their culture and also not be ostracized from it and possibly forced to kill their clan, as was the case with Merrill in Dragon Age 2. And instead of being accidentally (or purposely!) killed off by the player character, the Dalish elves in The Veilguard get to righteously rally against the mages that they once called gods and reclaim part of their history. “I love that the Dalish in this game, by and large, are saying, No, we were lied to. We were the first victims of these gods. We’re going to fight back,” Epler said. “And they really get a sense to kind of rise up in this game and start establishing themselves in this way that in the future I can’t wait to go back to, but in this game gives them a sense of a win. They get a victory in how they respond to the threat of the gods in this game.”

[source]

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Wakey, wakey. The latest hot, steaming garbage Dragon Age hot-takes have dropped.

Wow, Lily. That's a LOT of words to say "I've never played any of Dragon Age. I've only hate-skimmed the series because I decided it was all problematic garbage before going in because there's no sister character I can project my messed-up fantasies on to, so I'm just going to pretend to be oh-so "deep". and "woke" so I can earn progressive brownie points without any effort."

Oh yeah my fans were showing me this last night after I finished Veilguard. I finished Veilguard on stream by the way!

"Dragon Age itself is boring, a generic high fantasy series seasoned with racism it never really bothers to address and a massive host of worldbuilding that is always the least interesting version of a kind of fantasy that was already not interesting to begin with."

The thing I've always loved about Dragon Age, the thing that got me through the slog that is the gameplay of Origins in 2009, has always been the worldbuilding. It's fairly unique as far as fantasy worlds go. All of it takes place on a single continent called Thedas. No one knows what else lies beyond it.

Elves used to be powerful immortal beings until a cataclysm in pre-history that has been pretty unclear until this current game (though you could already figure it out before Veilguard with all the clues throughout the first three games), now they are small second-class citizens who were once enslaved. Their entire culture has been decimated and they have no land of their own. They can only live in ghettos in human cities or as wandering tribes people reinventing the few scraps of history they do have into their own unique cultures.

Dwarves have a stringent caste system and anyone who leaves for above ground is forbidden to come back. They lose all of their social status. Their kingdoms were also decimated when the Blights began, leaving Orzammar the sole Dwarven kingdom. Besides, of course, the elusive Kal-Sharok that is mostly closed off to the world. Dwarves rely on trading lyrium (a substance essential to mages and Templars alike) with the surface for their survival and so they are often traders and economists. The Merchant's Guild is a powerful surface institution that despite being full of Dwarves who left Orzammar or were born on the surface still ties itself up in stringent Dwarven tradition. Dwarves also invented the common tongue/trade language everyone uses.

Humans don't have a whole lot of known history on their origins. We know they're not native to Thedas but Veilguard tells us they were there before the Veil (what separates the real world from the Fade, the world of spirits and dreams). Which is very interesting cause the world was so different back then. After the Veil humans formed the Tevinter Imperium which was a Roman Empire-like civilization that spanned the entire continent. When Andraste lead armies against them the empire was broken up, Tevinter became a smaller country in the North and other countries formed all around the continent. Humans ended up bringing the Blight to the world when the Evanuris, the ancient elven gods sealed away behind the veil, used their dragon thralls to speak to high ranking Tevinter magisters and lure them into breaching the Veil to enter the Fade physically.

Qunari are a completely unique concept to Dragon Age. They're a nameless horned race the majority of which follow a religion/social structure/philosophy called the Qun. It was passed down to them by an ancestor in a long forgotten land they left centuries ago. They conquered Par Vollen, pretty much the furthest north of Thedas, and have been there ever since. Their goal is to submit all to the Qun because the Qun is certainty. Living is a choice and the Qun gives that choice purpose, giving you a role you need not ever question because it is a demand of the Qun and the Qun is certainty. There is some evidence they are people who mixed themselves with dragon blood to become what they are now.

And that is just an overview of what makes the worldbuilding unique. There is so much more to everything I just said.

"Half the characters you meet are related in some way to the Chantry"

Yeah almost like the Chantry has the political power and reach of the Catholic Church in medieval Europe. Almost like Andraste as a prophet is a mix of Jesus Christ and Joan of Arc. Almost like fictional stories take influence from real life history to easily communicate to an audience what they're doing with this concept.

"BioWare is averse to the idea of Elven companions who aren't either chronic backstabbers or insufferable."

Lily what did Fenris and Merrill ever do to you? Did you not actually do Zevran's companion quests and raise his approval? He won't go back to the Crows if you do that you know. Sure Velanna is annoying but I wouldn't call even her insufferable.

The only real backstabber is Solas and he is literally Fen'Harel the elven trickster god.

"Outside of that all encompassing issue, a lot of Dragon Age companions require you to go through a long quest chain before you get to learn anything interesting about them"

Yeah Lily. If you want to get to know your companions better you actually have to do things to get to know them better. That's part of the fun of the game. If you don't like that then these games are maybe not for you.

"The worst version of this is Leliana. If you do her quests and follow her story to completion, she's a somewhat interesting character. BUT... for 11 hours before that point she's just Imoen as a born again christian. How the fuck does a Triple A game fall into "Original Character Do Not Steal"?"

... okay legendary super ultra rare W from Lily.

I'm only half joking because Leliana is the character I coined the term "writer's pet" for.

""Okay I think the group mage will be Vivienne" and then I met Vivienne and spoke to her for ten minutes, and proceeded to leave her in the camp because she's the mage equivalent of Stella Kubler, sucking up to the Chantry and actively supporting Mage Auschwitz."

And it was immediately negated with a common major L.

Maybe if you'd actually hear Vivienne out on why she supports the Circles you could learn something from her Lily. She's very similar to Wynne in that regard. Vivienne feels mages need a place to commiserate with other mages and learn to control their power. And she is absolutely right about that.

Also she is a queen and if you actually had to talk to her for 10 minutes she'd probably leave you weeping on the floor with her verbal stinging barbs alone.

She also becomes the mom friend companion if you befriend her. She's the only one who really checks in on the Inquisitor and frets about how you're doing. In her own way.

"BioWare for a while kept operating under the assumption that there was a real ethical question behind Mage Auschwitz. There wasn't. There was edgy gamer bros roleplaying as fantasy nazis and EVERYONE ELSE siding with the Mages, and rather than give up BioWare kept forcing the issue."

Lily if you didn't spacebar hammer your way through cutscenes and dialog and actually paid attention to the fucking story you would know the Circles and Templars are way more complex than you're stating here. You don't even seem to realize that Templars are an arm of the Chantry. Despite the fact they're called Templars.

I doubt you even know that Templars are usually recruited as children or teens in a monastic-like tradition and orphans are often just handed to them.

"Dragon Age 2 gives you an escaped slave party member who is also a bigot.

By the end of Dragon Age 2 I was a Warrior and my part was "My Mage Sister, my Mage Girlfriend, and my Mage BFF."

Oh god she likes Anders. Of course she likes Anders. The same Anders that turns to said escaped slave and says "Hey mages in the South are PRETTY MUCH slaves, you should be supporting them!"

The escaped slave who has lyrium markings carved into his skin by his former mage master. His former master who may have also had a sexual relationship with him. The escaped slave from Tevinter, where mages are the upper class and rule over all of society. Where blood magic is nominally forbidden but constantly happening behind closed doors. Where slavery is legal.

That escaped slave. Fenris. My favorite character in the entire series and my favorite romance in the entire series.

You ain't winning this one Lily lol.

"Going into Veilguard, I just don't bother with companion quests, because I know I'm just going to hate them at the end of it because that's how this game works.

Compare this to Mass Effect"

Compare it specifically to Mass Effect 2 because you are going to get everyone killed by not completing their companion quests.

"You get Miranda and Jacob who are big simps for Cerberus, but their companion quests have nothing to do with that so you don't have to listen to any of it past the first time."

Ah the human supremacy group is fine though.

"Mass Effect does have its dud characters. Zaeed, Kasumi, Thane, Ashley, Miranda"

Lily you get Thane and Kasumi out of there right now.

Really? You didn't list JACOB? The most lame nothing companion in any Bioware game ever?

That's the end I can't take any more.

[raayllum]

I've thought about Terry and Rayla parallels before ("I think too much, get confused about the right thing to do" / "says I think too much about everything" / elves supporting their mages / Rayla leaving as love vs Terry refusing to leave as love / lovingly watching your partner sleep, etc etc). Even the way they can sometimes enable Callum and Claudia's actions.

This is more true, of course, in Terry's case than Rayla's, but in a similar vein that their bonds of love are unbreakable (look at Rayla and Runaan) and that it would take a LOT for Rayla to ever even consider maybe that Callum could make a Seriously Bad Decision (she got straight up told he had a heart full of darkness and went "you're the best/goodest person I know" + the idea of Callum being controlled by Aaravos in a bad way being unfathomable to her in S4).

However what I want to talk about today is their attitudes towards dark magic.

Part of why Terry loves Claudia, I think, is that he doesn't see anything 'wrong' with dark magic. He's seen her do "a lot of awful things, dark magic things" but dark magic to him is also useful and fine and has a tingly aftertaste. It's not a hangup for him with Viren or Claudia; all he see is that she has a Good Reason, and that's all he needs, because there's no moral wedge in the way to begin with.

That doesn't mean he has zero discomfort with dark magic ("You think if dark magic did this to someone, they might not do it") or Claudia's actions ("The way you treated that Moonshadow elf, it was just cruel" / "Please, Claudia, you don't have to do this, it's trapped, you won").

But even Sir Sparklepuff's murder gets couched under "had a good reason" because it did bring Viren back, which Terry happily joyously celebrated when it happened. With all that in mind, Terry has always reminded me of Ethari — you fell in love with someone who engages in "dark work, bloody work" (Lost Child) and you knew what it would involve, and love them regardless. That's not a choice or mindset that's easily broken, but it does lead to Terry's lack of assertiveness fucking him up in ways that Claudia's passivity can too ("Please Terry, tell me what to do" / "[to Aaravos] Tell me what to do").

Terry's lack of moral qualms with dark magic is clearest to me in 6x04 in some ways, because of this exchange with Claudia:

C: All I see is parts, for spells. T: But...? C: But it's so adorable!

His but being an 'okay but WHY is this a problem for you now?' not 'yeah Sounds Concerning (and like a red flag) jc'. Claudia says she's all messed up inside, but Terry (for whatever reason) can't fully conceptualize what she means. This also leads to him not truly understanding what it is and what it's doing to his partner (probably because he met her when she was already more than mid-spiral) because if Terry fully understood how it was hurting her...

Don't you think he'd tell her to stop?

Meanwhile, even though Rayla does have moral qualms with dark magic, she doesn't focus on any of them in her argument with Callum just an episode earlier. Instead, it's all about him and the risk it poses to him and his emotions.

But most importantly because it makes you more vulnerable to the thing you're most afraid of.

Not "well Aaravos could control you and that'd be bad for everyone else / the world" but that it scares him, it hurts him, it puts him in danger. Granted, she still switches to the greater good concern later both for mitigating the harm Callum might do ("If you ever have to choose between me or the greater good, do the right thing: make the sacrifice") and on her own end ("Yes. I promise [to kill you]" + "taught me to never break my promises") but that's not her primary concern, at least not in my head.

And it's precisely because of those reasons that Rayla tells him very overtly what to do, both in regards to sacrificing her and in regards to saving him:

Rayla has unbreakable bonds of love, too, nor are her moral qualms about dark magic why she's making this point. It's because her main drive has always been to protect Callum, not even necessarily to help him, and therefore his safety is at the top of her list, so if something hurts or puts him in danger, she's going to tell him to knock it off. (And that includes saving her, but anyway.) Their mutual assertiveness with one another is one of the reasons why Rayla and Callum work, and one of the reasons Terry and Claudia were going to crash and burn, because Callum is likewise Rayla's anchor, and Terry and Claudia didn't realize they needed to be each other's until it was too late

I risked losing the best thing I ever had: you.

[choccy-zefirka]

Emergency Follow-Up Book Club Meeting

[Won't really make sense if you don't read Part 1 first, but Tumblr will hide this post if I add a link, so search "book club" on my blog]

Attending: Bellara, Harding, Lucanis, Neve, Davrin, Taash, Emmrich, Rook

Book: Adventures of Dolor the Daring, Volume 49, by I. L. Literatus Evaraas Mercar (Rook)

Notes taken by: Neve (Bellara was too overexcited to hold a quill)

Notes:

Important preface: This will likely be the serial’s last volume ever to be published. According to the paper sellers and my own sources, there is currently a lot of public outrage around the scene where Dolor gets hit by an enemy mage’s ice spike and, aside from wounding them for dramatic suspense, it also shatters a glamor amulet around their neck, revealing that they were not a human, but a Qunari all along. Reactions from (human) readers have included, to my knowledge: verbose letters to the publisher decrying the serial’s “forced diversity” in character backgrounds, as apparently it was already bad enough that the supporting cast is “teeming” with elves and dwarves; threats to the author as an “agent of the Qun” trying to “falsely paint their kind in a positive light”; laments from anguished mothers that their children will now think that the “oxmen” are all friendly heroes (I would point out that children have no business reading crime serials in the first place, but we know there’s no stopping a particularly determined twelve-year-old with a yearning to see a throat slit); and even high-brow critical essays insisting that Dolor has so far proven themselves to be far too quick-witted and intelligent to be a Qunari.

Rook opened the meeting by going over all of the above; which, according to them, was precisely what they feared when they picked up writing as a hobby. “It didn’t take you too long to figure out that Dolor’s adventures are based on my own,” they said, looking at me specifically (they did not seem angry, at least; though I suspect that Rook has trained their facial muscles not to betray them when they are angry, to put humans at ease). “But do I look like someone these adventures might happen to? In most people’s eyes, at least?”

Bellara and Harding disrupted the meeting to give Rook a hug.

Taash further disrupted the meeting with an offer to beat up every qalaba that made them feel like this. Lucanis supported them and volunteered his services to do it “more elegantly but also more permanently”. The offer was appreciated, but graciously declined.

Davrin asked if Rook regretted revealing Dolor’s true identity. Rook said they did not, and added that it was not a revelation, but a last-minute twist, which never would have happened if it were not for us. “I have been avoiding your book clubs because I was so embarrassed about my little secret… But it turns out I never had to hide it. Not from you.”

BEL, I CAN SEE YOU LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDER. I AM NOT GETTING SENTIMENTAL. I AM JUST KEEPING AN ACCURATE RECORD!

Harding said that she found Dolor’s sendoff to be “quite lovely”, and in her mind, they are still out there, fighting evil mages on the streets of Tevinter as their true self, with their friends by their side.

Bellara stopped trying to contain herself and erupted into enthusiastic gushing about the final scene, where the heroes get a moment to breathe as the villain is dragged away by a very Rana-like templar, and the mage Flosculus gently tends to Dolor’s wounds. In the previous volume, Dolor assumed that their feelings for Flosculus were not reciprocated, and decided to bottle them up. This volume still ends before the two can have an open conversation — but the delicate touches of the healer’s glow-infused hands all across Dolor’s bandaged torso, and the soft whispers asking them to tell him where it hurts “had more spice than the one romance we read that made Lucanis walk out of the room in a straight line”.

I am inclined to agree.

Emmrich laughed at no, that would be too mean-spirited; let’s say, was very amused by Bellara’s stumbling over the word “spice” and told her, “You can say eroticism, dear. That was the intent, after all.”

Rook has quite a few vitiligo spots on their otherwise slate-grey face, and that makes it a little more obvious when blood rushes to their cheeks. Which it certainly did in that moment — as they admitted the healing scene was Emmrich’s idea, and they merely “did their best” to commit it to paper.

To which Emmrich said, “And you described everything marvelously, my darling. I hope you know that all of us in this room are deeply grateful to you for sharing your work with us”.

I am also inclined to agree with that last part. But also, let it go on record that Emmrich held Rook’s hand while talking. If he ever blinks those big eyes at me again and claims that he had “no idea” everyone in the Lighthouse knew about him and Rook, I will just point to the evidence.

The meeting concluded with everyone reassuring Rook that, despite what happened to the Dolor serial, they should never stop writing. Harding even said, tearing up a little, that Varric would be proud. That made Rook blush again; are they finally beginning to process what happened? I cannot be certain.

Once we settled down, dice were rolled to choose the next book. It is Emmrich’s turn now.

Taash begged him, with a groan, not to choose any of the “thousand-page academic shit”. He protested that he has amassed “quite a collection of enjoyable romance stories” over the years — and took Rook’s hand in his again.

I see you, old man.

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Musing on Ages, & Dragon Prep

"Desire" mention - how much does Tensu know of the details of the origin of dungeons? (More than I do, probably...but I know this is thematically important.)

"Us"? Aren't gnomes another long-lived species? Ok this is going to be continuously relevant to the geopolitics so I need to break it down. From the wiki:

Elves: lifespan: 400; adult at 80

Gnomes: lifespan: 240; adult at 40

Dwarves: lifespan: 200; adult at 40

Tallmen: lifespan: 60; adult at 16

Orcs: lifespan: 55; adult at 14

Kobolds: lifespan: 55; adult at 13

Halffoots: lifespan: 50; adult at 14

I see - so really we're dealing with 3 factions: Elves, Gnomes & Dwarves, and Everyone Else. I find it interesting that the longer-lived races reach maturity at 17-20% of their average lifespan, while the younger-lived races all do so at around 25% of their average lifespan. I feel a little like this is a cop-out on the writer's part in trying to keep the ages of maturity a little closer to one another - though of course it's a cultural thing by each race (and, I'm sure, each culture within each race - idk how monolithic the whole comic will treat them, but it would track with the thematic worldbuilding for their to be multiple distinct social groups within each race, even if they do tent to band together against the other races!)

Based on the categories of "long-lived" and "short-lived", the latter seem to view all of the former as much the same - but I'm SURE the Elves have a different view of it, and I'm sure the Dwarves and, as we see here, Gnomes, are very aware of and irritated by the Elves' view.

...and as we see here, and earlier with Chilchuck admitting to being 29 (solidly middle-aged!) and Marcille going, "Aw, so you are a kid!", people rarely make any effort to understand each others relative ages, instead just coasting on their own life-based assumptions.

With reference to above, we can see that Namari at 61 is pretty exactly equivalent to Kaka and Kiki at 20.

Also: this little scene wasn't in the show at all and I love it! Namari in mentor mode!

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ALRIGHT RED DRAGON TIME!! Hey look, literally the 2nd panel in this ghost city is 2/3 winged lions by volume. Hmmm...

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I love how it's explicitly Shuro's job to get the final killshot, presumably because he has Feats for this (ie, cool-looking moments) as a "real" anime character (Easterner). This literally bears up with what we see of him in the future.

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Chilchuck: I will NOT fight!

Chilchuck: I'll totally be dragon bait with you, though.

Chilchuck: Not that I care if you succeed or survive or anything! I'm only here because you paid up front.

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Laios using the Inspiring Leader speech feat! They're all having a Heroes' Feast before fighting the dragon, a classic pre-dragon act for bonus HP and immunity to being Frightened! I know this isn't actually D&D but that post that I think came through my queue earlier today is right: it DOES have the same bones. It's like reading the Locked Tomb and being aware that this author was deep in Homestuck, or Scholomance vis a vis Harry Potter canon and fandom. I know where this writer has been, because I have been there too.

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THE BOY IS HERE! THE MAN THE MYTH THE OVERWORKED* LEGEND!

THIS SISTER-EATING MOTHERFUCKER!!

*Crack AU where the whole dragon fight is averted because it talks and somehow the conversation leads to Chilchuck going, "And the Mage isn't even letting you sleep? Tsk. You've got to start a union." And then Laios gets all starry-eyed, "A Monster Union?!" And then the Mage is eventually defeated by all the monsters of the dungeon, and also the poor sane ghosts as well, unionizing against him, and "king" becomes just the title for the Union Rep, whose main job is to honk an airhorn at presumptuous Elves and tell them to fuck off like a Canadian goose.

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I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

[hadesisqueer]

I appreciate The Dragon Prince because it gave me tragic antagonists or villains that I love (Claudia), villains that while I don't really like them I understand how they came to be and can feel a bit of sympathy for (Aaravos or Viren), villains I straight up fucking hate (Sol Regem) and villains that I don't really hate because when they appear on-screen I just sigh wondering how they can be so fucking stupid (Karim). They really give you everything.

No but for real, Karim's entire character arc consists of 'The risk I took was calculated but I am bad at math' because. He's so dumb. He keeps saying he wants to restore the Sunfire Empire to its former glory, but like-- how? What plans do you have for the future? Are you going to try to retake Lux Aurea? Because you can't. Oh, you want humans out? Okay-- how would that help to restore the former glory, though? You're just being a bigot?

The thing is that all Karim ever did was talk about his birthright —that's not even his birthright, actually, because he's the youngest sibling— and keep babbling about history demanding blah blah blah of people and how his sister wasn't a competent queen when actually it is the opposite. Janai proves, by allowing the architect to live while still giving her an according punishment, that she is a fair queen who chooses mercy and allows people to grow while still choosing justice; also, that she's more practical, because what good is a talented architect dead —who did something awful but still was sorta right about fire being dangerous around the camp— when you can just make her build a shrine so this kind of incident never happens again. Janai also had the Sunseed and plans to nurture it and help it grow, help her own people grow. She actually had plans for the future, and she had the patience necessary. She understands that you must learn from history but that it also doesn't define you, that you must not let it define you.

Karim doesn't get that. He was obsessed with history and the old ways. He didn't have any patience. And he didn't have any long term plans. Or even backup plans for when his plans inevitably failed, either! He was so convinced Janai would refuse his duel he was shocked when she actually fought him, and resorted to fighting-- with fire magic-- against someone who's fireproof-- again, no actual plan. He tried using an assassin to kill his sister, the actual person the assassin had a life debt to. He wants to steal the Sunseed, actively fucking over his people. When Ezran tells him to take his followers and start somewhere else, Karim refuses because he says he doesn't want crumbs off his sister's plate, but at the same time it's like-- that's exactly what you were gonna get, buddy. You wanna use Sol Regem to torch your sister's army. The only thing you're gonna rule over is the followers you have now plus what remains of Janai's, if they even accept you. So, yeah. Literally crumbs.

Also, again, he's so fucking entitled. 'What's rightfully mine' he's the youngest sibling, nothing is rightfully his, he's an usurper. Part of his demands being that humans leave and go back to 'their side of the border, where they belong', buddy, you'd be the king of the Sunfire Elves, not the King of all of Xadia. As king you could make humans leave your territory, but not Xadia. If a bunch of humans, hypothetically, befriended Moonshadow or Skywing elves and lived at the Silvergrove, or wherever the Skywing elves live, with them-- what, now you're gonna try to wage war against the the other elves, too, because they're not following your ways? You can threaten them with Sol Regem, sure, but also consider, because you didn't even consider it when you went to him-- he's an Archdragon, yeah, but the weakest of the Archdragons right now. Let's say Ezran and Janai follow through and give up and leave. They could go with Zym and head straight up to the Mushroom Mage and come back with Zubeia, the current Queen of the Dragons, right after she's done with her treatment. They arrive. Who's gonna win? A healthy Archdragon on her prime or an old, blind Archdragon that hasn't flown or fought in centuries? Also, once you give him the Sunseed he actually has no reason to be on your side, he already got what he wanted. Even if the Katolis thing didn't happen, he could've turned against you very easily. He likely would've done so.

He's an awful leader who doesn't actually care about his people. He disrespects other world leaders like Ezran immediately. He's an entitled, bigoted idiot who doesn't actually think things through and that actually makes him both incredibly annoying and very realistic, which actually makes me like him as an antagonist but still makes me let out a exasperated sigh every time he talks. Best part of him is that he's obsessed with going down in history as someone great when, with his actions, he's only going to pass down as the prince who tried to usurp his sister three times and failed the three times, each failure worse than the previous one. Lmao.

[high-voltage-rat]

I think the problem with Veilguard is mostly just that they were so focused on giving a culmination of the Deep Lore that they forgot about the shallow lore we've had for the last 3 games. Anything about the chantry systems, the dalish as we know them, the political situation as it currently stands in general- it's fallen by the wayside pretty much completely. But deep lore theories about the blight, lyrium, old gods, spirits, the origin of elves and qunari, titans and the dwarves, etc. have all been addressed. However, in the process, these big reveals end up feeling pretty par for the course, rather than a groundbreaking revelation to the characters uncovering it OR to us, the players.

I get the sense that this game was built on the core goal of trying to give closure to all the little lore threads they'd planted in the last 3 games. It wasn't to explore the current state of thedas, or the effects of the events that we dealt with in each game- just the metaphysical state of the setting and how it came to be. In a weird way, it seems to be built to appeal to new players and deep lore buffs, but not to the people who just, like, played all three games and are invested in the present-day storyline. But honestly I think the shine for lore buffs is even limited, because so many of the great mysteries of the setting have been explained that there's nothing left to really theorycraft about. Our own world has so many mysteries, so much unknown- it's what gives life wonder. Even in a fictional world, taking that away makes things feel flatter. If everything is known, why explore?

Don't get me wrong, I still love it. I'm having a lot of fun and I really love the lore reveals we've been given. I'm a deep lore guy. I had already put together that Ghilin'ain was blighted, that original elves were spirits in lyrium bodies, that old gods corresponded to evanuris and were probably their dragon servants, and I've been excited to see my theories come true. But as someone who also has a great love for the dragon age setting in its present day, I am also pretty disappointed that you can play the game without any real knowledge of what the circles in the south are like, why the mages rebelled, what happened with the antaam in Kirkwall, what the current living conditions of elves are, the relations between the Grey Wardens and Ferelden, the colonial history of Orlais and its chantry... and lacking any of that knowledge will make no difference to your understanding of the game. It will never even tell you that info, aside from some short and oversimplified codex entries, because you don't need to know. If dragon age historically operated on this kind of simplified, "only what you need to know" style, we would never have the lore threads this game is based on to begin with.

[niuttuc]

My Favorite Cards of 2024: Bloomburrow

The year is pretty close to over, so let’s go back over the sets released this year (with new cards at least), and go through a few of my favorite cards from that release. I’ll group together stuff released together, in this case it’ll be the main Bloomburrow set, and the commander precons. Extra reprints as courageous critters or special guests might also get a mention. I’ll probably go through one set a day for the next week, though I might skip some days for personal reasons.

I'll start with a bunch of talents that I like, a stellar second outing of the Class type in this set, outshining even their first appearance in D&D. In constructed, limited and commander, they impress and have a range of different designs, and I like them very much.

Offspring was also a very neat ability, and it's always nice when we get something to extend new abilities in a more open fashion, to older cards and sets. Of course, Zinnia goes infinite with Palinchron, but so does a worn down half-tire. Maybe someday I'll even build a deck around Zinnia, but we'll see, I tend to come back to sets a year or two down the line.

I love creative clones, and Mockingbird delivers! And a one-mana clone that can scale definitely hits the mark, a clone you never overpay for is a really good concept, and this was a good way to execute on it without shirking color.

Staying with birds for a bit, Scrap Trawler is a fun design that unfortunately breaks in half with a look. Adding colored mana certainly helps Jackdaw Savior lot, and restricting to flying creatures also narrows down what can enable it significantly. The dream of combining this with a Broodmoth or Valkyrie's Call to create oodles of value out of dying creatures is also a neat addition.

A new Wood Elves always deserves a mention, and one that can grab nonbasics definitely solidifies its role. Clifftop Lookout will stick around in commander decks of mine for years to come, at least until they print much better cards. Plus, it has sneaky reach, gotta respect the sneaky reach that will save my life at some point.

Still on frogs, Dour Port-Mage is here to exemplify the "leave the battlefield without dying" ability that was granted to frogs and was an excellent way to make an ability that's both narrow and a bit open-ended. There is some play in how to achieve that, yet it's pretty unique, and happens to play well in the colors with bouncing, which ties it well with Frogs, but also blinking, exile removal, tucking, and more. Overall, it allowed them to mostly do regular creature things, having ETBs and all, yet still feel like they belonged to the Frogs' synergies.

Gift is a fun ability that works well in both 1v1 and takes a new political dimension in multiplayer (mostly commander). Cruelclaw's Heist is a nice version of the two mana hand attack spell with upside, allowing it to be hand attack that isn't dead when the opponent is empty-handed, lowering the downside of its gift, and gift becomes even more fun in multiplayer when you can gift a separate opponent you're targeting.

Sunspine Lynx is costed fairly, punishes greedy manabases, and looks incredible in foil. Price of Progress can be a bit too brutal, but stapling half of one on the back of a creature that has a solid rate makes for a fun card in commander and constructed both. I've domed a Domain player for 13 damage with this in Standard, and I can tell you that felt very good and would have earned this cat a spot on this list by itself.

I've already said a few times in the past week that I love to have options, and Fountainport as a pseudo-trading post on a land gives me just that. For sure, I love selling my Offsprings for knowledge, my life for fish or my mana for mana. A lot more tokens around these days for this to incidentally draw cards from, and generally a useful card to spawn surprise blockers.

Catch-up cards that are good enough to be played are generally pretty neat, and Beza being a mythic legend version of that effect delivers on it. Stabilizing with life and bodies against aggressive decks, but not a dead card in grindy games, Beza does stellar work and left me trying to see if a commander deck could be viable with more opponents to compare to to make it more likely to get the full suite of effects.

Between the snazzy art and the flashy effect, Cruelclaw makes the list alongside his heist. Look at this guy/weasel! He casts spells for free! My main nitpick about the card is that given his story and flavor, I expected him to be casting those spells for free from the opponents' library, not my own. But I can forgive that, it makes the card stronger, even if slightly less fun imo.

Scavenging Ooze is an excellent design, and Keen-Eyed Curator being a variation on it plays great as well. It was neat to get it right before a delirium set, and the slight differences don't detract from its power much. It was a bit hurt by actual Scavenging Ooze being in Foundations only a couple months later, but it still manages to split the deck time with Scooze in some archetypes in Standard, and that's exactly where it should be.

That Jeskai precon was good enough to get BOTH its commanders on my list. Temporary creatures to get their etbs or other effects early is my jam, as well as attacking for value, and Arthur does both in a nice package. We were missing on neat Jeskai commanders, but with its half dozen of Jeskai precons, the year definitely delivered!

Similar to Cruelclaw's Heist, Long River's Pull makes use of the Gift mechanic. This allows a rate well above what we see in standard, a clean Counterspell, while being an interesting political tool in Commander where actual Counterspell is legal. Giving cards to people can buy an ally very quickly in commander, or make sure a player missing land drops is in the game, and this actually makes me consider this card over the classic counterspell in more than one deck.

The Calamity Beasts have a good hit rate of unique and powerful designs. The Viper has spawned a few decks around it in standard and beyond, and that's impressive considering it's a punisher effect that warps your own deckbuilding to enable. As it turns out, a 6/6 that basically wins the game if you untap with it is pretty good if you can get it for two or three mana, even if it's not on turn 2 and it dies to removal.

Making bats relevant in standard and being a pseudo-sun titan for half the cost, Zoraline handily makes it into my list. When she's around and not asleep, she's a card with a very good rate by herself that does something I like. And then she also enables the main mechanic of bats in the set enough to be one of the best card in their deck too.

Prosperous Bandit is the kind of unusual ramp I like. Creating that many treasures whenever it deals damage on a three drop captures my attention. Getting through for damage on a 3 mana 2/2 sure ain't easy, but buffing it isn't that difficult and the payoff is definitely there.

Finally, the art corner, Bloomburrow had some incredible art that struck home for me. Which isn't to say other sets in the year didn't, but these marked me a bit more, particularly as a new setting for Magic that felt richer than the other stuff we got. With art and story, Bloomburrow felt both rich and yet a small part of something bigger that could easily be expanded later on. Plus, there is a bonus category that'll be in a reblog in a few minutes, I'm running out of image slots on tumblr.

[catcherwrites]

TDP S7E7 Rewatch (feat. my commentary)

Everyone’s suiting up for a hero shot! I love the owl griffons

Number one rule in media: if you explain a plan before it’s been executed, there is a 95% chance that the plan will fail

“Big help” callback to Ezran’s line in S3?

The fact that Soren and Corvus were explicitly sent on the Zubeia mission and Terry just…tags along without being asked. He’s just happy to help :)

I absolutely ADORE Astrid asking everyone she meets if they’re Aunt Amaya and complimenting them anyway

This scene between Karim, Janai, and Amaya originally made me think that the show would be redeeming Karim, which is SO funny in retrospect

Ethari baiting Rex Igneous with a hallucination-inducing berry pavlova was not on my S7 bingo card

I find it so fascinating that Aaravos proclaims innocence by telling Ezran essentially “well I never hurt you [humans]. Everything I did was for you [humanity]". He and Viren were so alike in that way – constantly minimising/justifying the pain their ‘allies’ suffer due to their actions. They’d argue that hurting you is a worthy sacrifice (or compromise, in Aaravos’ words) so long as your shared enemy is also hurt

Side note, Aaravos’ star markings are completely unblemished by the dirt, scratches, and bruising. Idk, just a cool detail I noticed

“Have Zubeia back in a week” yeah…about that

Truth be told, the first time I watched this episode, the hints about what happens when a Startouch elf dies went over my head. Now that I’m rewatching it, I can really appreciate Aaravos’ manipulation. You can tell he’s intentionally sowing the seeds in hopes that Ezran will act rashly and unleash a nova

Claudia looked soooo creepy standing in the shadows! I absolutely LOVED it!

The animation for the mage battle was fairly well done (I do wish Callum and Claudia were moving around and interacting with their environment more though? They both just stood there casting spells at each other)

“We wait for Callum … Then he will decide whether you live or die” was a fantastic response from Runaan. He’s an assassin, it’s his job to kill, but only when he’s been ordered to

I really want to know what these dragon-winged elves are! The wing placements are different from standard Skywing elves

Genuinely, truthfully, I lost my mind when I saw the magma titan the first time…

…And then doubly lost my mind when I saw Ziard summoning Avizandum’s spirit

Overall thoughts:

There’s so much about this episode that I love, and I think it’s one of the episodes that is benefited most by a rewatch. The highlight for me is definitely Aaravos and Ezran’s interactions, but I have to give a shoutout to Akiyu for being our first major character death of the season (sorry Lujanne). Unfortunately, this episode was also the one that made me realise a slight issue I have with TDP Arc 2 overall; the battle sequences. Arc 1 had some really dynamic fights, and from what I remember of Arc 2’s fight scenes, they just don’t hit as hard. Don’t get me wrong, every battle in Arc 2 has at least one standout moment for me, but the average sequence tends to be ‘flat’ and ‘stiff’ (I can’t think of better words to describe my memory of them). If we get Arc 3, I hope that’s something the team gets to work on in the future! That tangent aside, this episode did a great job of raising the stakes and setting us up for the last two episodes.

[flowersforthemachines]

i want to hear about the divorce trifecta so bad it hurts

CAUGHT SOMEONE IN MY TRAP “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ “ψ (✿｀∇´) ψ

An important note about the divorce trifecta is that it's only a trifecta (Hawke, Inquisitor, Rook) because I don't really have a lot of wardens with clear personalities and backstories. There is only, like, one and she's in a happy monogamous relationship that ends with her dying while slaying the archdemon. Otherwise it probably would've been a divorce quartet. Something for the future me to think about.

The rest is under the cut for length! This is quite lengthy, but in my defence: you asked.

So, divorce #1 is the Handers divorce.

An important preface is that I love Anders and he could've blown up all chantries in Thedas and still remain my pookie.

However, my latest Hawke is not me and holds more moderate views. They are on friendmance, and she will try to help the mage cause whenever possible, but she still cares the most about upholding stability in the city because it's her home. And it may be a shitty home, but she loves it, and she wants to keep it together even as the city mercilessly continue to fall apart in front of her.

Then Anders offers the final nail in the coffin of her attempts at maintainig the peace. This isn't also just a Handers worldstate, it's a Hawkelycule worldstate (Hawke's dating all LIs except Sebastian), so Anders displaced all people she loves i one fell swoop - she cares about them all so deeply, and couldn't provide safety and stability for a single one of them (I posted my Hawkelycule chart on bsky btw. would love to get back to those freaks one day)

But the explosion itself is not actually the biggest reason behind the rift between them. A much, much bigger betrayal is that Anders never trusted her enough to ask for her help - because maybe then, she would have helped him. He never gave her a chance to.

And the biggest betrayal of all in her eyes is that he concocted a plan that implied him dying in the end, and dying by her hand. He expected her to do it, and she can't reconcile with the fact that the man she loves thought she would hurt him, was ready to put her through killing him.

I headcanon that she would tell him to just fuck off after the Chantry explosion, spent the entire time before reaching the Gallows agonising if he was alright, and then jump-hugged him crying when she saw he was safe because she just can't figure out how she's supposed to feel about him now.

She is mad at him, mad at herself for being mad at him (because she understands why he did what he did), and he feels similar, knowing that what he did was right, and that it also took away one of Hawke's favourite things in the world.

They spend the entire time between DA2 and DAI in that state of indecision until Hawke leaves to meet up with Varric. She decides that after she's back from whatever happens, they will talk, and she will tell him that she actually loves more than she regrets what happened to Kirkwall, and that - if he wants - they can try again.

Then she dies at Adamant, they never talk, and Anders spends the rest of his life thinking that Hawke never forgave him (✿｀∀´)Ψ

Divorce #2 is the Solavellansera divorce.

(Solas and Sera are both dating the Inquisitor at the same time. but NOT each other I don't ship Solas and Sera I'm not a freak. at least not that kinf of a freak)

This is admittedly a much more half-baked concept, but it tickles my brain and is very dear to me. Mostly because of how bad the things could get between the three of them.

Solas and Sera are on the opposite ends of the spectrum of what an Elven inquisitor can want in a relationship, and that's the part that I find the most interesting. Sera can provide an outlet for being just a person (not the Inquisitor, not even an elf TM - just one of the "people people"), and Solas can help nurture a connection with the ancient Elven history that the modern Dalish elves lack. I'm not sure if anyone sees the vision, but I do, because I'm really into poly relationships where partners significantly contrast each other and cater to different needs.

The divorce would occur post-temple of Mythal. As much as Lavellan is accepting of Sera's views, there are lines she will not cross, and Sera's disregard for the Elven gods is beyond it. She can't compromise on that, and she won't. Even if it breaks her heart.

Then, you know what happens with Solas. One thing I'm undecided on is whether the Solas divorce should happen before the Sera divorce, or after. If the Crestwood scene happens before, there's delicious angst of Lavellan filliping out at Sera specifically because of that recent experience that's already greatly shaking her understanding of her faith. If the Crestwood scene happens after, there is the angst of Lavellan first making a choice to end things with someone, and then someone making that choice for her. And those same gods that she broke up with Sera over being slavers, and who else knows what.

But, regardless of the order. Can you imagine what it must be like to love two people, and then lose them both in such short time? To have two lovers, and then none? There's something about that. To me.

Sera and Lavellan also have extremely delicious post-divorce dialogue in Trespasser which I'm attaching here because that was like half the inspiration behind the whole thing.

(source. "And maybe that’s good? To be stupidly true, even if it ends things?" is still tearing at my heart to this day)

Divorce #3 is Rookanis divorce

I don't really know what to say here. I feel like I've been yapping about it too much lately anyway?

She loves him, he loves her, but duty comes first, things don't work out etc. Davrin could have fixed them (or, well, Ghilasara wouldn't require that much fixing if he was alive anyway), but you know. It's a cruel world as long as I'm in charge!

Something like that!