#and rooks is the lyrium dagger

[covertleathers]

They're two sides of the same coin.

[bas-taard]

now wait a second

[gyrovagi]

love saying 'and then they fuck about it' in posts about solas and caden as if it's a foregone conclusion and not an extremely intricate logic puzzle to get them into circumstances where it's even a glimmer of a possibility. Like it is also a foregone conclusion, if two guys are stuck in the fade together long enough and killing each other is removed as an option, then obviously they have to fuck about it. however both of them are incredibly resistant to this very clear truth

[bugbittenflowers]

Why do I feel like I haven't heard anything about the end of absolution?? Meredith being teased and then ???

[frankenbuggee]

I have begun to slowly buy pieces to put my mourn watch! Room cosplay together and it has started with an Edwardian blouse/jacket 👀

I gotta buy some bug brooches and funky jewellery for it all toooo!

[lavelans]

yes i’m a solavellan through and through but i’m also absolutely obsessed with the solas/rook dynamic in a worst ending/everyone dies scenario actually.

interesting that his best case scenario (in the case of a romanced inquisitor) involves walking off into the fade prison with lavellan, and the worst case scenario involves both him and rook being violently pulled into the fade prison together. idk what it means but it’s soo interesting. to me

[squidaped-oyt]

Can't find the OP again for the life of me but someone said that Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain don't actually escape until after Solas stabs Varric with the lyrium dagger, and since I played the intro again looking for it ... yeah, that's what it looks like to me lmao

[aidenwaites]

I've always been too intimidated to try making armor for cosplay but,, grey warden,,

[thejabberwokk]

Rooks Coffer box top and dagger below cut

[lizzybeeee]

IT'S A LITERAL MIND PALACE

does anyone actually understand how solas manages to “castle” rook. like yes i understand he “molded them into someone the prison would accept” but what the fuck does that actually mean. why does the prison only accept certain people? did he design it that way? did his molding even work if they were just able to leave? what happened that made him know it was time to switch places? am i supposed to believe it’s that rook sent one of their friends to die and solas knew and went “ok well now we’ve both killed our friends so we can switch now”??? what? what’s the magical mechanism by which the switch happens? the blood magic connection? if the davrin/harding death was the signal then how did solas know it happened? has he been able to see through their eyes this entire time? or was it an emotional distress that he sensed??? how does he appear to them visually before he’s left the prison?? is he a hallucination?? how does he get them physically into the prison? what kind of magic is he using to do this?? blood magic??? it is it classic fen’harel fade magic? he uses the dagger to escape so did he just need the dagger? how did he get rook from the island to the fade physically to take the dagger from them to leave the prison?? what kind of magic does that? im just supposed to accept this and not ask questions?

[ellstersmash]

things i learned today:

solas could've avoided this whole mess and probably had enough free time to take lavellan on a nice little date if he just took up archdemon hunting instead of all the rituals and the other dastardly deeds

lucanis won't romance rook if they go to minrathous but will romance neve because despite saying he's cool, he's not cool

everyone's nice and no one has slaves or anything because *checks forearm* the blight

all your companions get along with you and each other because also the blight

even though he's like, really manipulative and uses people all the time, solas accumulated but then gave up an entire army's worth of spies and agents because he decided he wasn't ready for a management position

red lyrium isn't really around because—and you are not gonna believe this—the blight

solas just lies. all the time, outright, to everyone. so I guess he was actually only super careful to not ever actively lie in Inquisition as like a fun little challenge to himself

tying the veil to his life force (you know, the guy who couldn't even take down an archdemon on his own and actually just got his ass beat so is not in great shape in the best ending) fully repaired the veil! \o/ don't ask how you wouldn't understand it it's not a big—

everyone near minrathous is cured of the blight! but @ everyone else you may be entitled to compensation 🥀

the only ritual solas has ever gotten or will ever get right is cleansing the idol into the ritual dagger. good thing too bc it was way more dangerous than this one. other than that, wrong about everything ever

elven magic is like not that big a deal, dude

the griffons are, unfortunately, long-term fucked

the elves don't see the crossroads differently anymore because uh.. because....... war

spite does not get involved in rookanis sexytimes. so perhaps him spreading his wings was actually just in preparation to leave bc ew they're kissing gross

NO ONE cares about the goddamn spirits

[vigilskeep]

what was obvious but that i didn’t quite understand until i replayed minrathous vs treviso, because i’m stupid, is that the reason the city rook goes to is the one that gets saved is not because video game logic says rook is somehow already that powerful and can change the game all by themselves despite splitting their companions evenly between the two cities. it’s because the dragons were not acting like normal dragons, but operating on the gods’ intelligence to fly overhead completely out of reach, and it’s only when the gods sight the “dread wolf’s pawn” carrying the lyrium dagger that they are willing to send either dragon down where it can be fought

[sammakesart]

Castles in the Fade, or What Was the Point of the Veil Anyway

Something that will now haunt me until the end of time is why was the concept of the Veil ever introduced into this series.

We’ve been hearing about it since the very first game. There’s a codex entry about tears in the Veil in Origins. Tamlen mentions a thin spot in the Veil if you play a Dalish elf. Sandal has a prophecy in Dragon Age 2: “One day the magic will come back—all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see.” Admittedly, this is just one line said by a character who often says odd things, but it hinted to the fact they were planning to do something with the Veil from the very beginning. The state of the Veil is repeatedly brought up. It all had to mean something! Or so I thought. 

When I saw “The Dread Wolf Rises” quest in Veilguard, I said, “Oh, here we go!” The Veil is coming down, magic is coming back, and it’s going to set up such an interesting story for the next game. 

Alas, no. 

I hadn’t really enjoyed my time playing Veilguard up until this point. It felt like the game was ducking and dodging every bit of world building and lore that could possibly bring nuance or complexity to the story. Every returning character or faction was a cardboard cutout of themself. They shoved Solas is a time-out box and gave him nothing to do. They refused to let him have any impact or influence on the story when he had been set up to be our main antagonist back in Trespasser. This game used to be called Dreadwolf! And while we learn about his past… we never talk to him about it. In the present, he’s in stasis.

Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain are our villains. And they are your typical evil for evil’s sake villains. They are mad, bad, and only as dangerous as the narrative will allow as to not give Rook and co too much trouble. They are surprisingly patient while Rook fixes all their companions’ problems… until Elgar’nan moves the moon to cause an eclipse. A vital component in making his own lyrium dagger. For some reason. This guy can move a satellite!? And he just let Rook walk away in previous encounters… twice. Ok. Sure.

The Evil Duo need their own dagger ostensibly to tear down the Veil, because they want to unleash the full force of the Blight onto the world. Because they are evil. And they were thwarted last time they tried to Blight the entire world. Why do they think Blighting the world is a good idea? What’s the point of ruling a world if everyone is dead? I guess they haven’t thought that through, because of the madness and the evilness.

Ok, I thought. Perhaps the gods will be the one to tear down the Veil. Or maybe we’ll have a choice to let Solas do it his way before they can, which will be less chaotic and less full of Blight. Because the Veil has to be coming down one way or another? Why introduce the concept of the Veil, especially a Veil that has been thinning and failing since the series began, if it’s just going to… stay.

There is a principle in storytelling called Chekov’s gun. If something is mentioned in a story, it must have a purpose. If you keeping mentioning that gun hanging on the wall over the fireplace, it’s because at some point in the story, someone is going to take it down and use it. The Veil felt like Chekov’s gun to me. Chekov’s Veil, if you will. It’s been here from the beginning of our tale, the spectre hanging over our protagonists’ heads for multiple games.

The Veil has been a character unto itself. It was the central focus of the third game, and its dissolution was set up to be the core conflict of the fourth game. We learn everything we thought we knew about the Veil was a lie. It was not created by the Maker to separate the Fade from this world because of jealous spirits, it was created by a guy named Solas to trap the elven gods and the Blight from destroying the world. Also, the elven gods were never gods, and they are also evil.

This reveal will surely throw the Andrastian religion into chaos! This puts the very existence of the Maker into question! The Evanuris are a lie; it’s only fair Catholicism—oh, I mean—the Chantry is a lie too. We briefly touch on that in Veilguard… then it is quietly discarded. Religious crisis averted.

But I digress.

When the title of the fourth game was changed from Dreadwolf to Veilguard, I started to see the writing on the wall. Still, I held out hope the Veil would have some greater purpose in the story. That its introduction as a concept was for a reason. That something in this world would change.

Instead, from the get-go, the question of the Veil is no question at all. We only get Solas and Varric making oblique or catastrophizing statements about it. Solas says little beyond he has a plan. If I ever wanted to hear a villain monologue about their plan, it was now! Varric, on the other hand, decries Solas’s plan. He warns that should the Veil fall, it will destroy the world and drown it in demons. And that’s that.

We never really learn why Solas wants to tear the Veil down, or why he thinks it will help anyone. “The Veil is a wound inflicted upon this world. It must be healed,” he says. And that’s basically all he says about it in Veilguard. In Inquisition and Trespasser, we learn it took the immortality from the elves. It cut most of magic off from the world. Spirits are trapped and are being corrupted into demons, and most of what we know about spirits and demons is wrong. There are ancient elves possibly asleep? That part is left vague, but ancient elves are still about. We meet some in Mythal’s temple. There seems to have been some merit in bringing it down, because elves were flocking to Solas’s cause at the end of Trespasser. He had agents working for him already. What do they know that we don’t know?

Apparently nothing, because by the time Veilguard rolls around, there are no mention of agents. He is working alone. His only motivation now seems to be he’s too deep in his sunk-cost fallacy. The Veil is unnatural, so it must be removed—consequences be damned. We are never given any reason to think Solas has a leg to stand on in his pursuit of tearing down the Veil. We never hear any kind of counter argument from anyone, not even Solas, as to why the Veil should come down. We are only told it will destroy the world. It will drown the world in demons. This is all Solas’s fault.

There is no nuance. No complexity. No moral quandary to mull over. The game gives us vague warnings with no explanation as to what exactly is so world-annihilating about the Veil coming down. We must take Varric’s word at face value. We’re the heroes; Solas is the villain. Stop him.

It makes me wonder why Solas was ever a companion in Inquisition, let alone a romance option. Solas was presented to us as a complicated character in Inquisition. We had the potential throughout the game to make him see the value of this world, to help him realize he was wrong about it. “We aren’t even people to you,” the Inquisitor says in Trespasser. Solas replies, “Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong...again.” He began the third game viewing the world as tranquil, seeing the people in it as nothing more than figments in a nightmare, just as we saw our companions in the In Hushed Whispers quest. He ends the game having made friends, having recognized he was mistaken. He might have even fallen in love. (Or he may still seen no merit in this world if the Inquisitor antagonized him the entirety of their time together.) But something makes him continue with his plan to tear down the Veil, despite recognizing this world is real. He must know something we don’t. Something we’ll learn about in the next game.

We’ve been hearing about the Veil for three games now. We’ve set up our complex antivillain for the next installment, and he’s going to tear the Veil down. We swear to stop him or save him. But it has to be more complex than that. It can’t be so straightforward. Uncomplicated. Simple. Boring. Right? Right?

Nope. He really is just the villain, mustache-twirling and all. He apparently had no greater motivation, no as of yet unrevealed knowledge that would put this whole Veil thing into a new context. It was really as simple as the Veil falling will destroy the world, so Solas must be stopped. There is no new information that is revealed which makes us question what we are doing. Solas is never given any nuance or complexity to his actions. Nuance and complexity have actively been taken away. Both him and the Veil are looking like they are the worst things to be in a story: pointless. Why introduce the Veil if it’s just going to remain unchanged? Why introduce a character like Solas, bother humanizing him (for lack of a better term), giving us his backstory, setting him up as a cunning antagonist, only to make him look stupid, then put him on a shelf until the last ten minutes of your game?

Solas was the trickster archetype of this tale. He was our version of Loki from Norse mythology. What is the role of the trickster archetype? To challenge the status quo. To bring about events of extreme change, like say, the tearing down of a Veil that holds back all of magic. Loki is a huge contributing factor in Ragnarök. Through his manipulation, he causes the death of the beloved god, Baldr. This ushers in a long winter, which signifies the beginning of the end. Loki is imprisoned for this crime. When the final battle between gods and giants begins, the sun and moon are swallowed, plunging the earth into darkness. The earth shakes and Loki is freed to fight on the side of the giants. The world burns in raw chaos, falls beneath the sea, and is reborn. The world is remade, and a new realm of the gods and a new, better earth is formed.

It really felt like this was the setup they were going for. Solas causes the death of Mythal, and this is his catalyst for creating the Veil, which ushers in a world without magic. This could be seen as equivalent to the long winter. Solas falls asleep, trapped in dreams. He wakes and sets in motion bringing about the apocalypse. It’s not a perfect one to one, but it’s there if you squint. We have a war against the gods in Veilguard. I was expecting a few remaining Titans to wake and join the fight. But we don’t get any of that. There is a final battle, but it does not end in the end of the world. Or a better world. It just ends, and everything is the same.

It seems our trickster god caused his apocalypse thousands of years before our story started, when he created the Veil. His role in this tale was over before ours began, and he really is just some relic from a long-past age. He has no role, no purpose in this story. He is here to be thwarted. He is no Loki at all.

If you can’t tell, I wanted the Veil to come down. Did I think the Veil coming down would be painless? Have no negative consequences? No. Of course not. But keeping it up has negative consequences too. And it made for an interesting story. Or at least it could have. But we never explore that. The game presents no counter argument to having the Veil stay up, which, again, begs the question: what was the point of introducing the concept of the Veil at all?

Did I think the Veil coming down was actually the best solution to help Thedas become a better place? I don’t know, and I never will, because the game never argues for it one way or another. It just tells you to want it in place and to stop asking questions. In real life, a catastrophic event is not the best way to solve any of the world’s problems. But this is the realm of fiction. We have gods and monsters, magic and myth. We have introduced the status quo of Thedas, recognized it needs to change, then our trickster god appears ready to fulfill his role in the narrative. 

Instead, it all comes to nothing.

I got to the end of Veilguard… and everything was more or less the same as it was at the start of Origins. Veilguard actually tries its hardest to pretend any previously mentioned problems don’t exist, so of course the Veil coming down has no merit. There are no problems to solve in this world, apparently. Solas is just stuck in the past and can’t get with the times. Silly Solas.

The Veil isn’t even a permanent solution. It wasn’t to begin with. It was some duct tape wrapped around a broken pipe, and we’ve just slapped an extra piece of tape on it. It’s still leaking. It is still unnatural, and will fall eventually one way or another. Large amounts of bloodshed weaken it, so I guess Thedas better achieve world peace real quick to avoid any battles. There were seven super-powered mages holding it together… now there is just one. Ironically, the Veil was going to fall after two more Blights anyway. The Wardens were doing Solas’s work for him! It would also have released the full force of the Blight at that time… which Solas was trying to avoid, I presume.

It feels like keeping the Veil up just pushed a big problem onto Thedas’ future generations. We’ll keep slapping bandaids on it until it all falls apart. Someone else can deal with the fallout, but we’ll be dead by then, so who cares.

Primarily, I wanted the Veil to come down from a storytelling perspective. The Veil was an interesting concept and I wanted the story to do something interesting with it. Conflict is what makes stories stories and the Veil coming down could create so much compelling and complex conflict. And the Fade is weird, and I like weird. Stories are also about change, and I wanted to see Thedas change. Yet, Veilguard is over, and barely anything has changed. Instead of magic coming back being a conflict for the next game, they went with Fantasy Illuminati. Oh.

The Veil turned out to be a nothing-burger, and no problems in this world are even close to being solved. Slavery is still rampant in Tevinter. The elven people are still oppressed everywhere. Mages have no more rights in the South than they did in Origins. Spirits are still trapped and being corrupted. The Calling still exists, though might be different somehow now? They don’t really get into that. The Chantry’s validity is still not allowed to be questioned. The Blight still exists in some form, but again it’s vague. Oh, and we learn the dwarves have been gravely wronged, and the Titans are still tranquil. At least if you redeem Solas and a romanced Lavellan joins him, they can work together on healing the Blight and helping the Titans. Oh, good. One problem is being acknowledged and some action will be taken. Offscreen. Hurray? Solas doesn’t have a really great track record of fixing problems, so Lavellan is definitely going to need to be there to make sure he doesn’t fuck it up.

For some reason, this game seemed terrified of letting us think about anything for more than two seconds. It shied away from complexity or nuance at every turn. The game is called The Veilguard—ironically, that word is never uttered in the game—but we are given no real motive for guarding the Veil. We’re unquestionably the hero. The villains are uncomplicatedly evil. Save the world… never wonder what you are doing or why.

I wanted the game to make me question if the Veil staying up or coming down was the right choice. I needed to be given a real counter argument. Convince me the alternative would actually be better or worse, because as I mentioned… things suck quite a bit in Thedas already for a lot of people right now. Let the Veil’s fate be a difficult choice to make. If the conflict cannot be what to do about the Veil, it should be am I doing the right thing about the Veil. If the heart of your game is so thin on motive, everything else falls apart around it.

I hoped they were setting up a complex, Thedas-sized existential conflict for this game in Trespasser, but no. I wanted something to happen, but nothing did. 

I want to feel challenged and changed by a story, not left feeling empty. I’m tired of superficial entertainment. I want to sink my teeth into a narrative that doesn’t paint the world in broad strokes of black and white, good and evil, heroes and villains.

Ultimately, I think my issue is why even introduce a concept like The Veil if you’re not going to do anything interesting with it. Or anything at all. What I thought was Chekov’s Veil turned out to just be a MacGuffin. And that’s disappointing.

[suranamellblackwood]

ahhh i totally didn't catch the flower being different, thank you! but yes, looking back at my screenshots from finishing my playthrough last night, davrin does have a different flower

Rook X Lucanis Romance Epilogue Slide

[strawberry-halla]

yeah alright chat let’s buckle down and psychoanalyze the veilguard ‘atonement’ ending theme!

for those who wish to listen along, the lovely amazing ghil dirthalen was able to capture the music (bioware for the love of god PLEASE release this track i will sell my soul for it) on her youtube channel, here!

i am not a music professional! these are things i picked up on listening to the theme by itself and watching the ending. i try my best to identify instruments so i will make errors in correctly identifying them. please educate me if you know more than me! i don't want to discredit anything used here!

alright let’s get into it!

0:00 - 0:47

plays right after defeating elgar’nan, this is the dread wolf theme as solas is staggering down the steps monologuing to rook about how his plan to tear down the veil must go on.

rook intercepts the lyrium dagger and here is where they make the choice to either trick, fight, or redeem solas.

0:48 - 1:18

the music is tense, but the dread wolf theme slows and starts to morph into something else.

rook turns to solas, saying how they do not wish to fight him and are given another dialogue choice after choosing the ‘redeem’ option.

1:19 - 1:30

the music sort of dins out here to just the cello/violin(?).

rook is telling solas that his plan to bring down the veil is not what he needs to do nor is it in HIS best interest. i think the music fades out here because the three dialogue options you're given are very powerful in their wording and needed to be amplified.

1:31 - 1:57

the violin/cello(?) starts off and you can hear some notes resembling the inquisition theme. this is solidified by the harp joining in and then you hear notes of someone singing like the well of sorrows theme from inquisition. i like to think this is solas fighting with himself thinking of his time during inquisition (and with lavellan) and the well of sorrows theme is both playing as solas's unyielding devotion to mythal.

solas is given the lyrium dagger to make his choice. he looks down at it, and for a brief moment you can see him tapping the blade with his finger. he's pondering this plan. he looks up at rook briefly before looking back down at the dagger again. solas looks like he's going to say something, but turns away from rook and starts to walk up the steps.

1:58 - 2:05

the harp plays the inquisition motif, or at least a very short brief version of it. you can hear the singing still as lavellan steps into the doorway and looks up at solas.

2:06 - 2:23

the violin plays as solas finally reaches the top of the stairs. it almost sounds like it's pulling? it changes notes almost as if it's changing direction. solas fighting with the idea of tearing down the veil or binding himself to it.

finally he says he can't bind himself. that 'to stop those would dishonor those i wronged to come this far.' i don't know what instrument it is, i think it's a woodwind instrument and a rainstick? plays as solas says he can't bind himself to the veil. he chooses to persist in his plan despite being given a way out.

2:24 - 2:28

GOD THIS PART. the choir builds as the inquisitor's voice cuts solas off. this same string of notes sung is often used in inquisition when the inquisitor comes on screen in the past.

no other instrument is played here. it is just the voices of the choir.

'vhenan...'

2:29 - 2:37

one note of the piano drops as soon as solas turns his head from lavellan in shame. this was exactly what he feared, letting her see him like this. the inquisitor starts trying to reason with solas: 'you think you've gone too far to come back, but you're wrong.'

2:38 - 2:53

alright SO this part is EXTREMELY important and also INCREDIBLY hard to pinpoint but if you go back and listen to inquisition's 'thedas love theme' you CAN hear parts of it interwoven in this section. the cello is so overwhelming because the inquisitor is pulling solas away from his plan again.

he's wanting to listen but he's fighting so hard because he doesn't think he deserves this. even after lavellan says she forgives him! solas doesn't think he's worthy of her.

2:54 - 3:20

the cello is pulling faster to add tension to this part because once again solas rejects even the love of his life's plea! you become hopeless thinking that their love never mattered even against the fate of the world. solas says he cannot because he feels like he NEEDS to avenge mythal by bringing down the veil. he's bound by duty and pride, there is no wisdom here.

3:21 - 3:55

ALRIGHTY FOLKS THIS PART HERE OHHHH MY GOD. so the cello swells again because solas is about to tear down the veil it seems for good, because if not even his vhenan can convince him, who can?

morrigan shows up, and as soon as she stands before solas you get slammed with all three games' themes at once! first you hear origins and then 2, and then finally inquisition all interwoven together. this part is SO insane to me. holy shit!!!!!!!

i just want to say even though we are talking about the music, you will see that morrigan, rook, and lavellan are lined up from left to right. past, present, and future. i am so fucking feral over that. they did that on purpose i don't care what anyone says. anyways! back to the music.

3:56 - 4:20

the choir again! holy fuck! you can hear da2 and a little bit of origins? at least i think it's that. this is played as rook hands morrigan mythal's essence and she channels it for mythal to appear before solas. literal chills babes!

4:21 - 4:55

DO YOU GUYS FUCKING HEAR TRESPASSER? BECAUSE I SURE FUCKING DO. HOLY SHIT. I CANNOT EVEN DESCRIBE TO YOU WHAT THIS MEANS. lost elf. solas is lost. he's lost EVERYTHING up until this moment. his family, his friends, his soulmate, EVERYTHING. he's like a sad, lost, child in this moment.

anyways! lost elf starts off really quiet and slow and deep as mythal lays out her wrongs in front of solas, showing him that he alone was not the pariah of this story. mythal reminds him that she also committed the same wrongs as he did, it's not solas's alone to regret. she was there too. if not for her, solas would not have done what he did.

4:56 - 5:22

lost elf is still playing very quietly in the background! as soon as mythal appears the cello is more carefree, flowing, free! solas is free now! lavellan KNEELS before him as solas breaks down, an immense weight falling off him as he's finally free to be who he chooses. no longer bound by pride and regret.

solas stands up and realizes that what he wants is to atone. to fix his mistakes the right way, not the way mythal would have wanted or his pride would want. his wisdom sees that if he uses what he knows, he can at least start to mend the past wrongs.

5:23 - 6:02

ugh i don't know who let hans zimmer absolutely fucking COOK here but the cello starts to move faster in a more hopeful, determined state as solas binds himself to the veil and promises to soothe the titan's dreams, help find a cure for the blight, and atone for all his mistakes. it really fills you with a sense of relief and pride for him! like yeah babe you do that! proud of you!!!

6:03 - 7:14

ok so i actually have been crying the entire time lol! i literally cannot stop. so this part! so many big feelings. lavellan steps up to solas, telling him that he won't make this journey alone. the main chorus of lost elf starts to play and i cannot tell you when you hear the cello and the fucking violin start playing TOGETHER because solas and lavellan are finally TOGETHER after being literally put through the fucking wringer for 10 fucking years.

and the SYMBOLS CRASHING TOGETHER WHEN THEY KISS IS JUST HOW I FEEL ALL THE TIME ABOUT THEM. lost elf is THEIR theme. this is not just solas's theme anymore this is solas AND lavellan's theme. they made it their theme. this is about them now, your honor!

alright so that's how i feel about all of that because this theme literally has rocked me to my core. the entire sequence is insane. the past motifs of the past games being used destroys me. and then lost elf comes in and just smacks the nail in the fucking coffin.

thank you bioware for absolutely destroying me 10 times over with this theme. and thanks to all the people who actually read my insane ramblings! i will never shut up about this sequence for the rest of my life.

[felassan]

The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard preview pages Part Two, under a cut due to spoilers. Preview pages come from Google Books.

[Foreword]

[Part One]

In Inquisition you had your advisors in the war room. We liked the idea of bringing the whole team in with you and the opportunity for friction it provides.

Part Two: Joplin

Top: Solas continues to taunt you and guide you through dreams. Middle: The suggestion of romance at sea. Bottom (1): Solas is nearly triumphant, but you reveal that you know about the last elves. Bottom (2): A stealthy, aquatic infiltration in Tevinter. Text: Story Art – After Dragon Age: Inquisition shipped, and all the DLC was complete, we focused our full attention on the sequel. It was going to have a fantasy spy theme, which was eventually modified to “covert commandos”. We were travelling to a new part of the map to hunt down the most dangerous man in the world. The beat boards continued. As the story started to take real shape, we asked if the artists could be moved into the same room as the writers. We could then get real-time updates to the story and create quick storyboards. Previously, most people working on the game didn’t know the full story until all the pieces had been put together in a take-home build (months from shipping the final game). For the first time ever, we could show the whole team what the story was intended to be near the beginning of the project, rather than the end. The biggest benefit of this was that the story could received feedback from a wider cross-discipline audience and could then be iterated on more than ever before. This also helped unblock the art team in an unprecedented way. Being able to look at the whole story in one glance meant that we could begin to prioritize our efforts. For example, we could tell which locations would feature most heavily, so we could spend more time designing their architecture, props, and clothing. It also forced us to do quick first-pass designs without overthinking, knowing that later we could come back and refine things if they changed. This method also takes a lot of pressure off and prevents things from feeling “overbaked”.

Top: The team is at its lowest. Middle: Sparking an uprising. Middle (2): Ghilan’nain is defeated. Bottom: In a dream, Solas is furious with you.

Top: You meet with the Archon of Tevinter. Middle: You stop Solas’s ritual, but something (or someone) escapes. Middle (2): Elgar’nan. Bottom: The patchwork team doesn’t get along at first. Bottom (2): Exploring the Anderfels.

Top: Solas reconstructs the lyrium dagger from the idol. Middle: The team discovers the body of Elgar’nan’s Archdemon. Middle (2): Ghilan’nain. Bottom: Tranquilizing himself, Solas recloses the Veil around himself and the Blight.

Top: This sequence was an early fail state. Solas succeeds in his ritual, life as Thedas knows it comes to an end, and the ancient elves return. Middle: Storyboards had played a critical role in the development of Inquisition. We wanted to integrate them into our process even earlier. To that end, we created an interactive storyboard. Starting with the early drafts of the story, we sketched it all out, including any major choices. These boards were then stitched together into a playable choose-your-own-adventure-style game. It meant that years before the real game was up on its feet, an early draft of the entire story could be played from beginning to end. This was invaluable in receiving early feedback from the team and planning out what visuals would be needed to support the game. Bottom: A rather covert entry into Tevinter remained a consistent element in the story right to the end.

Top: Rook and a team track a mysterious idol to a black-market auction. Middle: You’re not the only team that has been tracking the idol. Bottom: The remnants barely escape. Text: While we worked quickly, these sketches helped reveal where to best spend our efforts later. It turned out we spent far more time in particular locations. Some factions were over- or under-represented. In one case we discovered a unique creature that would have taken ages to build but would have only appeared for ten seconds before disappearing forever (it was cut).  

Middle: These quick sketches are often used to approve new ideas as fast as possible. In this case, exploring a “hidden in plain sight” meeting place in a Thedas nightclub. Bottom: Icons from the interactive storyboard, where you could decide whether your Inquisitor had disbanded or preserved the Inquisition, and whether they stood opposed to Solas or not.

Top: Solas reaches out to Rook in dreams. Middle: Exploring new sections of the Deep Roads. Bottom: With the help of the Wardens, you defeat Elgar’nan. Text: After a round of feedback, the story was revised. For the next batch of drawings, we added more polish. This helped us design the game before designing the game. At this stage, we weren’t too precious about anything, so we could make visual design decisions quickly, purely to tell the story. Many designs made during this stage remained largely intact.

Top: A version of the deserts of Nevarra. In this case, trying something with very high contrast: white ash and sharp black obsidian.   Bottom: The eastern Tevinter town of Ventus. This Tevinter location is a little less oppressive than the megapolis of Minrathous. You can see the hanging gardens, and in the background are magical statues keeping Arlathan Forest from encroaching any closer.

Top: Another fail state was that if you couldn’t find a way to block Solas from your dreams, he would be able to kill you remotely. Bottom: Solas lures his greatest threats to one location and wipes them off the board.

Top: Some visual backstory for Solas’s cut “bad cop” right hand, Reva. Middle: In disguise at a fancy Necropolis ball, waited on by the undead.   Bottom (1): As you sneak into the ball, you sneak into the host’s office, only to find Reva one step ahead of you. Bottom (2): Reva reports back to Solas.

Top: In one draft of the story, Solas manipulated Tevinter and the Antaam into open war, with the goal of performing the biggest blood-magic spell since the creation of the Veil.   Bottom: Rook would have to covertly approach both sides of the conflict to plead for peace. Should Rook fail at diplomacy, Solas also planted magic-collecting orbs around the battlefield. Sabotaging them would be Rook’s last option.

Top (1): Solas’s magical ritual in Arlathan Forest has already begun. Top (2): Elves loyal to Solas’s cause stand in your way. Middle (1): You finally reach Solas, just as he plunges his lyrium dagger into the Veil. Middle (2): Reva reveals a monstrous “Dread Wolf” creature. Bottom: Solas is stopped, but you begin to learn that you’ve unleashed something far worse. Bottom (2): The biggest advantage to working like this is turnaround time. You can show someone a drawing and say, “Like this?” and then quickly revise it.

Top: Imshael, having previous joined Solas, turns out to be a loyal double agent. Middle: Kal-Sharok dwarves perform a ceremony in the grip of an ancient Titan. Bottom: Solas tranquilizes Ghilan’nain (above) and, as his last act, performs the same procedure on himself.

Ghilan'nain reveals herself to the world.

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Top: A final message from the Inquisitor. Bottom: Defeated, Solas enters the Black City alone.

Top (1): Team members betray you. Top (2): A sacrifice opens the Black Eluvian. Middle: A happy ending with your love interest. Bottom: Secret instructions from Charter.

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The ship was a great backdrop for the interpersonal conflict of the team. We enjoyed thinking about how to make it unique, like including the collection of curiosities seen above. We also liked including the idea that Isabela procured it for you, but as a fixer-upper. Nothing like a scrappy but lovable ship to call home.

Preview pages end here.

Book art credits:

BioWare art: Matt Rhodes, Ramil Sunga, Albert Urmanov, Christopher Scoles, Nick Thornborrow, Steve Klit

Volta art: Gui Guimaraes, Stéphanie Bouchard, Akim Kaliberda, Alejandro Olmedo, Alexey Zaryuta, Julien Carrasco, Maksim Marenkov, Marianne Martin, Mariia Istomina, Marion Kivits, Matti Marttinen, Mélanie Bourgeois, Pablo Hurtado De Mendoza, Rael Lyra, Rodrigo Ramos, Thomas Schaffer, Tiago Sousa, Tristan Kang, Vladimir Mokry, Yintion J, Joseph Meehan, Stefan Atanasov, Julien Carrasco

Additional art: Marc Holmes, Thomas Scholes