#and the Griffon is Alistair

[archivist-apnea]

I have been learning how to crochet...

[olessan]

Grey Warden Alistair Theirin is sponsored by Redcliffe Parmesan and many sketches are taken of him posing with large wheels of cheese

(based on x)

[loustica-lucia]

In Peace, Vigilance

(Davrin, Assan [the Griffon] & Alyssa Cousland-Theirin)

What if our Warden met Davrin in Weisshaupt & fought Darkspawn side by side? :D Do you think they could have found a cure to the Calling since Inquisition?

Sketches below:

3-4 hours in 60 seconds <3 I was practicing textures and composition with that one !

[emmavakarian-theirin]

the way it kinda just dawned on me we're never seeing alistair again

[anneapocalypse]

"Why didn't the Orlesian Wardens try harder to get into Ferelden?" Senior Warden Riordan did not sneak across the border alone, try to negotiate opening the border at what he thought was a good-faith parley only to be imprisoned and tortured, still manage to bust himself out as soon as he saw an opportunity, make contact with the remaining Fereldan Wardens, fight with them in the final battle despite being unable to get the rest of the Wardens in, and die giving them a fighting chance to kill the Archdemon for us to say that the Wardens all gave up on Ferelden.

[lelianaslefthand]

thats family 🥹

[obsidianmichi]

Okay, I've decided. In true Dragon Age tradition (my tradition) we're hitting up the local paladin first.

[higheverweave]

Yall…

Hero of Ferelden X either ruler of Ferelden hear me out

The heir to Ferelden is not a Child named Duncan but a baby Gryphon like.😂✋

You go to what is supposed to be a meeting with the royals and you just see a Gryphon and a Mabari cuddling in the hallway

[tortoise-teapot]

hey but what if like the mage-templar war never reached the anderfels. what if by veilguard hossberg circle is still there and thriving

(lowkey a lore request does anyone know the sitch)

[kingstheirin]

[through gritted teeth] we! deserved! to! see! alistair! with! a! pet! baby! griffon! too! he! deserved! to! have! one! or! many! even! he! NEEDED!!!! to! have! a! winged! good! boy! as! his! bestie! companion! and! we! also! NEEDED!!!! to! see! that!!!!!!!

[necro-hamster]

"Come on, Alistair. You know we don't have to be professionals right now — it's not like anyone's looking!"

[xytaes]

portrait of allison cousland, featuring a baby griffon ❤️

unless BioWare fucks shit up in DA4 I imagine while she’s searching for a cure for the blight she finds a way to bring griffons back but that’s just a little fantasy

[laurelsofhighever]

A list of potential cures for the Calling, that we know about, that BioWare has apparently forgotten

Andraste's grace: it's not specified whether the flower the kennelmaster has you pick in the Korcari Wilds is Andraste's grace or if the game just needed a one-off asset and decided to reuse one they already had. However, in the dark future in DAI, Leliana is found to have unusual tolerance for the taint, and in DAO she talks about her mother pressing her laundry with dried Andraste's grace flowers, so it makes you wonder. Anyway, the flower stops Barkspawn becoming a ghoul and seems to make them immune to the taint from that point on.

Maric's longsword: he finds it in the Deep Roads and is suprised it isn't covered in the same Blight-rot as everything else - until, that is, he touches the sword to a patch of it and sees it wither away. Whether it's the dragonbone the sword is made of or the runes on the blade is difficult to say, though if it was just the dragonbone then it would make sense for that to be a more well-known property of the material (and would have been an interesting reason for why dragons were hunted to extinction). If Alistair carries it with him, doesit slow the progession of the taint through his body? Does he know its effects, and give it to the HoF to help keep them safer on their journey to find a permanent cure?

That obsidian dagger Duncan finds in The Calling: the dagger belonged to First Enchanter Remille - who also gave the expedition members brooches that accelerated the spread of the taint. iirc the both the dagger and the brooches are made by the Architect with Blight magic, which means the darkspawn magisters have more knowledge of how the Blight works than the Chantry attributes to them.

Whatever the fuck is going on with Avernus: he hasn't managed to cure himself yet, but he's managed to make it to 200 and the Warden can let him continue his experiments if they don't kill him - and he'd be a really useful resource if the Warden later wanted to send him other potential cures for testing.

Dragons: they have an ability to isolate the Blight in their bodies by forming crystaline cysts around the initial infection to stop it spreading. Useful if it can be more widely applied. Also, it's implied that Maric's reaver blood, which Calenhad gained by mixing his blood with a dragon's, is what somehow cured Fiona of the taint, kinda like a reverse STI, BUT in the Deep Roads they went through an area where the walls were coated in a pale, chalky substance suspiciously devoid of Blight-rot and she touched it, so I'm a bit suspicious of that.

Blood magic: makes sense since the taint is a problem that starts with infected blood. There are two major instances in DA canon where blood magic has been used to purge the taint from an object or being (both by elves btw). The first is Isseya using it to draw the taint out of a clutch of unhatched griffon eggs, which she says is only possible because the taint hasn't yet taken over the hatchlings' bodies to the same extent that it had with the adult griffons. The second instance is Merrill purging the Blighted eluvian in DA2. It's insane that Anders - who is a reluctant Warden and who possibly knows the HoF seeks a cure - isn't more excited about this. She literally removed the Blight from a fully tainted object. Since Isseya proved the same can be done with living tissue, it's probably the closest we've come to an actual cure, but since it also took years there's no telling if it could be a practicaly solution for all Wardens

[notebooks-and-laptops]

One thing I do keep thinking about is...

Alistair is an incredibly high ranking grey warden if he survives until the end of DAI. And then he goes to Wessienhaupt. So he was probably allowed to go to the cauldron right? Know those kinds of high ranking secrets?

Can you IMAGINE his reaction?

I can't stop thinking about it. Alistair who believes the grey wardens are good and noble and a family, Alistair who sees the best in them and excuses their actions by blaming it on a single person. How would he feel looking at all those corpses. How would he feel seeing all those dead griffons not even honoured but just piled up?

Would he think of his wardens Mabari and how they helped defeat the blight? Would he be able to stand it? Would he compartmentalise it? Would he ignore it? Is he old enough and hardened enough that it wouldn't phase him as much anymore?

I just. Cannot. Stop. Thinking. About. It.

[hyperions-light]

hey I was planning another post today but instead let’s talk about how much I love that there’s not really a ‘good’ ending to the companion plotlines in Veilguard. It reminds me of Leliana and Alistair’s plotlines in DAO in that what you choose says more about the player/protagonist than anything

I just finished Isana Negat a second time, and I did the other ending and I thought it was just as good. Like, yeah, Harding does deserve to be angry! They did fucking get everything taken away from them! It’s so painful and horrific; yes you can, and should, be mad! But also Harding prioritizing her very real love for and compassion towards other people is not wrong. It’s just different! It’s just Rook’s friend/lover asking them for advice, and Rook giving it! You know, like in real life except with huge magical rock giants

And okay I’m never going to kill Illario because I think it would make Luca really sad and he has enough problems, Whoops I misremembered this, I don’t think you can kill Illario actually. I love that for Luca <3 But yk, I’m probably still not going to imprison him. but I can see it! Because the cycle has to end, right? The violence and infighting of the Crows endlessly attacking each other over power is part of what allowed the Antaam to get a foothold in Antiva, because there was like a double agent or something (if I’m remembering right from Tev Nights). Some kind of ending needs to be made to this endless violence. And I suppose it depends on how retributive Rook is, which is a great question to ask of the player (one that is asked repeatedly throughout the game). It’s not like Illario didn’t do anything, you know! He probably deserves punishment. But Rook, as they always can at various points, can be merciful, can choose absolution. Wow no, I’m glad I was wrong I love it more like this.

And oh boy, I LOVED the ending of Emmrich’s quest, don’t even get me started! Like!! I thought it was going to be ‘well obviously we HAVE to save Manfred’, but how Emmrich talks about accepting his death and his sacrifice convinced me! I was like alright man, this is a real choice! I actually did make him a lich last time (made a lot of sense from a Watcher perspective, imo) and not only was the cutscene sick as hell, but the follow-up was so funny and I got some really sad Spite dialogue which fucking wrecked me. It was great— seriously, his plotline is one of my favorites in the whole game.

And Davrin’s! I’ve already expounded at length about how much I like his quest line and how it ties into the Grey Wardens, but I really think both of his options for the griffons are so workable, because you know the Grey Wardens, especially under Antione and Evka, aren’t going to hurt those little guys again! But also the scenes with Eldrin are so endearing, and Davrin’s hope for a brighter future for them is so sweet and genuine. It’s hard to pick! It’s about Rook's perspective!

Neve's I'll admit I don't vibe with as much just because of the like 'trust the authorities' angle, but i haven't tried saving Minrathous yet and I think it would be sooooo involving as a Shadow Dragon especially. Because that's what they're fighting for, right? That better Minrathous where they CAN be sure that if they send the insane cultist lady to prison she’s going to stay there? But there’s always the practical consideration of people’s lives being at stake NOW, of Neve needing her friends safe NOW. And just killing Aelia ensures she will never be an issue again. So I can see both angles for sure

And Taash ;-; oh, Taash. I haven’t posted about them that much yet because they make me very emotional and it’s hard to organize thoughts like that. But I really love their quest, and their struggle to define themselves. And look, I know people wanted the option to tell them they could be both, but like as a person who has lived a similar experience, it really feels sometimes like the world is making you choose. It can feel like you’re not enough of either thing for anyone. And there are parts of your identity that you will have to make a choice on, and I think it’s trying to speak to that. I did the Rivaini one, and it’s like… well, they’re embracing the culture of Rivain, but it’s not like anyone is ever going to look at them and NOT see a Qunari. You can’t get away from that. What you choose to do in response is a real dilemma and I think that if you engage with the text genuinely you can see what Trick was doing. Also, there is a really great dialogue from Rook that I think gives more context to the discussion; they can say that they have been many things, and it’s important to take what works from each experience and make it part of yourself. So I don’t think Taash’s plot is trying to make them throw away any of themselves, just defining priorities. (Sorry, that got long. Feelings, opinions about that one)

And I don’t think Bellara’s is obvious, either, especially with how they involve the Nadas Dirthalen in her personal plot. This is a thing that is really emotionally and culturally significant to her, but at the same time it is part of what hurt her brother and ultimately took him away from her. She’s really preoccupied with not causing harm by her actions; she spends the whole game worried about it! And even though Rook doesn’t see the dangerous elements of the repository, that doesn’t mean they’re not there. The puzzle quest you can find in Arlathan proves that other people besides Cyrian were taken in by Anaris. And also, there’s the plot thread they briefly touched on in the last game which is that the culture the Dalish have built, that they have RIGHT NOW, is not wrong. But it’s also important to remember history, even if it’s unpleasant or could be dangerous, which is another thing you can discuss with Bellara during the game. So there’s no wrong choice! It’s just about Rook and Bellara and what’s important from their perspectives.

Anyway it was super refreshing to have these kinds of choices! It reminds me of the best character choices in DAI and DAO, especially, and I’m so happy they carried those things forward and improved on them.

[thedissonantverses]

The devs: Hey we cut import decisions down so that the decisions you import and the decisions you make are relevant to the story we’re actually telling. Our studio may be on the chopping block and we have a finite amount of time to make a satisfying game. We know you’re disappointed but-

Me(Who’s been doing this for 16 years): Bet the HOF has a griffon now and kept Alistair alive during the fall of Denerim and Hawke and Fenris are finally happy and ooo I bet there’s a good fanfic I could write in there somewhere….

Way too many people: But the flavor text! That I’d still complain about! Because I always complain about how the choices are handled! It is literally impossible for them to make me happy if they don’t focus on my ships while the world is ending!