#anyway. i started playing dragon age inquisition

[idyllic-affections]

so. burnout! it's very real. i can't guarantee when i'll be writing again or even regularly posting again, but hopefully it will be soon! in the meantime maybe i'll put more effort into just posting & responding to non-request asks and whatnot..... a hiatus but not really a hiatus! a writing hiatus, because i genuinely have no motivation.

[pupkinpumpkin]

Finishing my DAI playthrough I stopped (bc I got obsessed with Stardew Valley again) and I am once again wishing we could've given the Tranquil mages' skulls a proper burial

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

found a vitaar to disguise the cc's blush crimes 😤 anyway this is the first time i'm playing DAI on an actually high quality laptop (first was xbox 360 which was poor graphics/didn't even bother rendering extras on the landscape, then my workhorse but cheapish gaming laptop i used for 10 entire years and which was wheezing its last breaths). did you know there's FLOWERS everywhere in the hinterlands?? not for me before! also, if you dick around long enough, Solas makes a pointed comment like "Shouldn't we be heading to Val Royeaux now to close the breach???" which i assume was dialogue patched in after release when everyone got stuck in the hinterlands for 10 hours. hush Solas im trying to fuck up the local ram population.

[kami-in-space]

Anyone else weirdly reminded of the Temple of Mythal during the Ilos mission in ME1? No? Just me?

[greghatecrimes]

Season 6 of House was in 2009... Dragon Age: Origins was also released in 2009... I just think that if Thirteen played it, she would have had her Warden romance Leliana...

[dragonagepolls]

From @nikkikan: I had fun messing around with some friends and getting the most out of the combat mechanics but never see anyone else talk about it on here.

[ettadunham]

i have so many games that i'm only sporadically playing through. i just opened dragon age: origins and got panicked that my save files weren't there... only to realize that it's still on my old laptop that i haven't used in a year, lol.

[sleepy-inquisitor]

my main DA protagonists ♡

Feyrith Tabris | Kara Hawke | Kivessin 'Kiv' Lavellan

[sznmjun]

Keep seeing people say veilguard is a "good game but not a good dragon age game" and idk what that means but I definitely think it shouldn't be classified as an RPG

Like why the hell can I not talk to anyone. And when I CAN talk I can never actually say what I want to say and I get to make 0 decisions on anything at all.

I need to replay da2 since I've seen people compare Rook to Hawke but I really dont remember Hawke talking that much without my consent. Like why does Rook keep yapping without asking me about it?????

The decisions at the end of companion quests are sooo irritating too cause you literally get to give 0 input on how the actual quest progresses. And then once it's complete you get like a single pity decision. Like the companions remember Rook is their boss or whatever so I guess you can make this completely irrelevant, meaningless and stupid choice

[corseque]

If you’re feeling sad or angry or listless or dissatisfied, I highly recommend playing Final Fantasy 14 up until the expansions Shadowbringers and Endwalker. I had mentally treated it as the True Conclusion for Dragon Age before I thought that DA4 would come out, and it helped me find closure several years ago. It is an incredibly peak story and experience and I realize now that maybe nothing will ever top it. The story contains a story that is very similar to Solas’ story in Inquisition and DA4, treated very respectfully. Anyway, I truly recommend it. You can actually download and play more than half the game for free. The writing in the start is unfortunately a quite simple story (but serviceable), but when the lead writer who wrote Shadowbringers and Endwalker takes over, the quality jumps to the stratosphere, to heights we may never see again. I can’t recommend it enough.

[felassan]

PCGamesN: Interview with David Gaider - 'Ex Dragon Age writer says the legendary series was never "a good match for EA"'

David Gaider on Bioware's struggles with EA, Old Republic "sucking up" the cash for Dragon Age 2, and how Larian got Baldur's Gate 3 so right.

Excerpts under cut due to length:

"I asked whether he'd finally played Dragon Age: The Veilguard – in a post on Bluesky in October 2024, he stated that "[he didn't] think he could play and enjoy the game like other fans play and enjoy the game," calling his relationship with the RPG "complicated." He tells me that he still hasn't touched it, saying that his deep-rooted connections to Thedas make it "hard" to go back. When I ask about the series' transition over the years from a strategy-heavy RPG to a fast-paced, mission-based action game, then to a quasi-MMORPG, then, of course, to Veilguard, he says that "Dragon Age is like the Alien franchise of games: every Alien movie is almost a different genre and a completely different reboot of style, and I think Dragon Age, in many ways, is the same." "For the first three titles, I was there, and I understood the reasons behind all the changes – each time it was sort of an overcorrection for what we thought the problems were with the previous title, then it combined with various issues at the time that were specific within Bioware. Dragon Age 2 was the size it was because we had to fill a production slot before the fiscal year and because Star Wars: The Old Republic was sucking up so much cash from everything. Then, Inquisition was kind of a reaction to the fact that some fans were quite disappointed by Dragon Age 2 – although, as an aside, in many ways I think it's one of the best titles in the series – but, regardless, we felt like we had something to answer for. I think, in many ways, Inquisition kind of yet again moved the barometer too far in that direction." "So I kind of see Veilguard [as] more of that – it was answering what came before and kind of moving the barometer a bit too far in many ways, but it also had a lot of internal trouble within Bioware as well; they were at the merciless ends of it, from what I understand anyway." He clarifies that "I'm an outsider now, so I only know part of it. I still haven't played [Veilguard] because it's hard to see. I had a very personal relationship with Dragon Age and I chose to leave it, so I'm not blaming anyone or anything, but to see it sort of continue on without me and make different choices, there's always that element in your head that's like 'is that what I would've done? Would it have been different if I'd stayed and been there and helmed the writing of it?' Who knows, but it is still very, very difficult to see." [...]"

"Back in February, Gaider encouraged EA to "follow Larian's lead," a comment that quickly went viral. I ask what he meant by that. "In many ways, Dragon Age was, I think, not a good match for EA," he tells me. "They never really knew what to make of it, or what to do with it. The expectation was always that it wouldn't do well, and when it did do well, it took people by surprise. By comparison, Mass Effect was slick and it was action-driven and very much up EA's alley, so they always expected that it should do better, and every time it didn't, it got excuses like 'oh they released in the wrong timeframe, or X, Y, and Z.' The idea was that the potential for Mass Effect was more – it could get the action audience as well as the RPG audience. It wasn't until Mass Effect 3 that they started to realize that 'no, there's an action RPG audience, like a crossover,' but you don't just get both audiences together. "Even though Dragon Age only catered to the RPG audience – at least initially – [EA] kept wanting it to move into the action space as well – and maybe by Veilguard it has. I think their idea was that the 'cap' on the RPG audience was only so big," he recalls. "Then Baldur's Gate 3 comes along and proves no, it's possible that if you lean into what a genre does really well, you can grow the audience, as it turns out." "It's funny, trying to turn Dragon Age into something it's not. Wouldn't it have been great if they could have had the vision that Larian had and looked at what that type of game does really well and just doubled down on it? Double down on the choice-driven narrative, double down on the production value, like the presentation of the characters and the cinematics and dialogs, and just take it to the extent where quality is the watchword. What Larian did was exceptional and hard to replicate because they don't have a publisher over them; they're privately owned so you can't just translate that to anyone else, but it'd be like asking a publisher like EA to have the vision that Larian did, and they really live on two different planets."

[source]

[a-driftamongopenstars]

alright, i finally finished Dragon Age the Veilguard.

tldr; 3/10. I didn't like it.

If you enjoyed the game and would rather keep enjoying it, please don't click the read more section as what follows is rather critical.

I can finally sit down with my thoughts and put them together in a more cohesive structured review, touching on most things that I wanted to address. I'll start with positives and then focus on the negatives.

Warning, this is VERY long.

Overall, I had a neutral to negative impression of DatV, which got worse by the end of the game. It had some good moments, but they were entirely unexplored and underutilized, suffering from bad writing. While the game itself is rather pretty, it didn't outweigh the dialogues, the stories and the lore butchering that took place.

1. Environment and visuals. 8/10.

I think Veilguard is a very beautiful game. I enjoyed exploring the corners of this new world, the little bits of environment design and storytelling that it had. It felt magical, certain locations were mesmerizing! I couldn't stop staring at the valley where you go to with Harding, the carcass of a titan.

2. Combat. 9/10.

I love flashy combat, I enjoy hack and slash, so until the very end of the game I was having most fun in combat. Yes there was repetitiveness but I tried to combat (hehe) it with changing my abilities and weapons every now and then. I liked combos and I liked timed parries. Enemy tactics got a bit boring by the end, but a few enemies still surprised me and challenged me.

.... That's where positives end. Now on to the negatives.

1. Characters. 2/10.

I don't understand what happened. Almost all the characters in this game were tuned down to a two-dimensional personality, "good" and "bad" - and absolutely no nuance. This happened not only to the villains, but to the different NPCs and even our companions. Their interests got narrowed down to single points of interest (Lucanis and coffee being a prime example to me), their motivations got watered down.

This is not what I expect from a Bioware game. I want to be challenged, I want to dislike characters or approve of their choices. I like characters who are messy and complex and don't always have their shit together.

I like villains who may have other reasons for their choices, other than "ba ha ha, I am so evil and I will do evil things". Where is Alexius who sold himself to the Elder one, just so he could save his beloved son? Where is Samson, forsaken by the Chantry and turned to red lyrium with his addiction? Where is Calpernia, misguided in her choices, just to free the slaves of Tevinter?

Where are the slaves of Tevinter anyway?? That's another topic.

2. Rook. 4/10.

On one hand, I liked playing Rook. They were stoic but with a humorous side, ready to get the job done, compassionate to other people.

The problem is that it's the only Rook you can really play. The protagonist is set in their ways and their dialogues and there is very little to roleplay. Rook really does feel like a gentle manager, trying to get everyone to play along nicely, while providing therapy every now and then, and is excluded from the majority of friendly interactions with other people. That awkward glance everyone gives you after their banter is embarrassing. The way you can third wheel people, the way the game actively offers you to leave a couple of animated conversations between other people - why even include those? Why not make Rook a part of the 'team'?

I did like Rook's dynamic with Solas. They got to see a different side of him, one that's not presented heavily in Inquisition. But like everything else, it felt surface level and underexplored.

3. Story arc. 2/10.

I am left unsatisfied with the story. The pacing threw me off so much nearly every quest, it was hard to stay on track. From "we need to solve this NOW" to "actually, let's all slow down and deal with our problems", the plot's priorities were all over the place. We kept hearing about the gods and their destructive oppression, but we saw surprisingly little of it. Yes, there was the Blight, yes there were Venatori and the Antaam, but they felt more like a video game fodder and dressing rather than a part of the story.

Not to mention that all of those things made little sense to me. Why would the gods align with aforementioned factions? Why would the aforementioned factions align with the elven gods? In-game explanation was not enough for me, it did not make sense. Not with the established lore in the previous games.

I also did not enjoy the ending. While the idea of Solas binding himself to the Veil is good and does make sense, what was suggested as the good ending (inviting Mythal to deal with Solas essentially) actually left me feeling awful. I sent a man, full of regrets and self-loathing, on a lonely journey to figure himself out. That... did not sit right with me at all. Neither did the fact that Northern Thedas, supposedly the point of the gods' attack, gets to live and flourish, while Southern Thedas is dying of starvation and blight. That is UNHINGED to me.

4. Music. 1/10.

There was no music. I remember one track. It was not memorable whatsoever and I can't believe they hired Hans Zimmer to do exactly nothing. Just wow.

5. Lore. ???/10.

And here is the worst offender. What was done with Dragon Age lore is unacceptable. I was doing a head-in-hands every five minutes. This was a slap in the face of so many fans who enjoyed the three prior games and delved into deep, interesting lore of various races, countries, cultures and religions. Veilguard showed a big middle finger to all that.

Everyone has already touched upon the sanitization of different factions. From the suddenly slaveless Tevinter to found family Antivan Crows, everything has been scrubbed clean and made sweet and palatable and "good".

The Dalish clans have been removed from existence as we know them. The Antaam left the Qun? Don't even get me started on that. The Chantry has no influence in this game? Really? The Chantry? The biggest religion in Thedas? The one that we know has heavy presence in the Anderfels, the Black Divine in Tevinter? That Chantry?

I think it really hit me how disrespectful the game is during the quest of saving the Dalish elves, where apparently Elgar'nan's Venatori, uplifted to be his servants and chosen people, were trying to sacrifice them. It's a gross and oddly telling idea that the ancient Elven god turned to a faction of racist mages to sacrifice elven people. I actually can't believe I'm writing this. Just how much are you going to shaft these people? Mindboggling.

There is a lot more I have to say on this specific topic, and I probably will later, but the idea is this.

6. Romances. 2/10.

Whoever said this is a game with romance lied so hard. So hard. The romance was atrocious. From the badly written flirting to the lack of romantic scenes (I romanced Davrin), to the poorly timed and awkward 'final' romance moment... It was atrocious. I felt no connection between Rook and Davrin beyond what game was telling me. My actual companions got more screen time with their romances than me and my LI.

Damn, even Evka and Antoine, my single most beloved NPCs in this game, had more romance going on that my Rook.

---

All in all, Veilguard was a massive let down. After having enjoyed the first 3 games many times over, with multiple playthroughs, I was so excited to see how the story of the Inquisition, of the elves, would end. When I saw the first trailer for VG, I knew I would never get to see it. When I played the game, I was left with disappointment and disdain.

I'm glad there are people who enjoyed this game, genuinely. I'm sure there's something to find for anyone, but it was not for me. Nor was it for many other people. It was a let down. I feel like I'll never get the conclusion I wanted - so I'll have to write my own I guess.

I have more thoughts on this game that I might be sharing, but for now this is the review I wanted to write. Thanks for reading!

[sha-brytols]

do not even get me started on hawke's "that's what happens when you try to change things: things change" inquisition line or i will talk forever and ever and ever about how insanely heartbreaking and clever the writing behind hawke was and how regardless of how you play them one of their biggest and most existential fears is that of the inevitable march of time and the loss of stability that comes with it. how no matter how you play them they never Actually pick a side in the qunari conflict or the mage conflict until they are explicitly forced into it, just tepidly vocalizing support while never actually committing and only actively making that choice when they're literally forced into it. how even from the very beginning their first reaction to moving to kirkwall, regardless of personality, is shock and disapproval.

how one of dragon age's most memorable lines comes from flemeth in da2. we stand upon the precipice of change. the world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss.

how da2 is the only game that progresses through a series of timeskips as you move from act to act, showing the slow and steady passage of time. and how every time it jumps forward, things are a little different. a little worse. a little more dangerous. a little more hopeless. how when the game first opens, it's in the bright early sun. and when it ends, it's under the cold dark night.

anders actively tries to force change. hawke is desperately trying to fight it. and both of them end up being the catalyst of it.

anyways here's a picture of my dog in the bath

[corvidexoskeleton]

Actually fuck it. The lich path isn't bad for Emmrich, and in this essay I will explain to you why that is, as well as some of the strange shortcomings about the way the lich path was handled that I don't think make any narrative sense. This is gonna be long, so please bear with me

1. Manfred and Johanna

So before I get into any of the "why the lich path isn’t bad" stuff, I'm gonna start out with what I believe is a genuine flaw in the narrative of Emmrich's personal character arc: the way it handles Manfred and Johanna.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think there's any problems at all with Manfred or Johanna as characters existing in the story. I find them both absolutely delightful and loved all of their interactions in the game. However, Manfred's death - and in turn Johanna's undeath - don't quite fit the narrative they've set up for Emmrich, nor does Manfred's death fit into the established narrative of dragon age broadly. The problem is that the source of conflict for whether or not Emmrich can accept the inevitable loss that comes with immortality, is Manfred's death, when it should be Johanna's.

Now before I explain why it should be Johanna, I need to explain why Manfred's doesn't make any sense. I don't judge anyone who might not know because they either never played inquisition, missed the quest, or just simply forgot about this, but one of the things you learn from Solas in inquisition is how death works for spirits.

Normally when you fight and kill spirits and demons in the games, the spirit is just banished back to the fade, but it is also possible for a spirit to be properly killed instead of simply banished. Solas explains that if a spirit properly dies, then the energy and magic that made up its being is reabsorbed back into the fade. That energy can potentially go on to form something new - eventually - but it won't be the same spirit. It may even be similar to the being that that energy and magic was made of before, but it’s not the same being. It will be something new entirely.

And this is why Manfred supposedly dying and coming back makes no goddamn sense. Manfred is a spirit of curiosity, he's an incorporeal being made of magical energy and emotion. If Manfred were to truly die during the fight with Johanna, then his energy would have been absorbed back into the fade, and that would be it. There wouldn't be an option to bring Manfred's wisp back, because it wouldn't exist anymore. You could maybe wait an indeterminate length of time until the energy that used to make him up formed something new - provided you could actually do that - but it wouldn't be Manfred. It would be something else entirely, someone else.

But of course, Manfred can come back. Clearly he wasn't killed, just banished back to the fade. In which case it makes no goddamn sense for the lich lords, and also Emmrich, to act as if Manfred made some grand sacrifice and died because of it. He's still alive! His wisp is still out there, in the fade! Stop telling everyone I'm he's dead!

So, if Manfred isn't actually dead, and you couldn't bring him back anyways even if he was, who does that leave? Well, as I said above: Johanna.

Johanna is, by all accounts, Emmrich's oldest and closest friend. Even though Manfred is near and dear to Emmrich's heart, Johanna objectively has a much deeper connection to Emmrich than Manfred does, rooted in decades of personal history between the two of them that dates back to when they were both kids, or at least students. And while their relationship is currently going through an admittedly rocky patch, it's clear that they both still care deeply about each other.

But, at the same time, Johanna is a disgraced former member of the mourn watch who was exiled for her gross mistreatment of spirits and the dead. The way that Emmrich talks about it makes it seem like he agrees that her exile from the order was correct and just, that he does disapprove of whatever it was she did, but the way he discusses her seems to imply that they still maintained some degree of contact afterwards. In fact, the two of them stayed friends through all of it, and it was only after her exile occurred that the two of them had a falling out and lost contact with each other, rather than her exile being the cause of their falling out. The way that Emmrich talks about Johanna in the gardens betrays the great deal of care and loyalty that he held for her even after she was disgraced and banished, and that he still holds for her after everything.

When Emmrich is explaining how Johanna attempted to become a lich, he explicitly states that she figured it out because of him. Because he told her about a highly kept secret among the mourn watch - and from the sound of it, some of his own study into becoming a lich himself - Johanna put the information from Emmrich together with her own research, and figured out how to become a lich on her own. Regardless of whether or not Johanna was a still a member of the mourn watch at the time, Emmrich still revealed highly classified secrets about the order that she shouldn't have had access to, and this little oopsy resulted in her stealing an entire section of the necropolis, attempting to murder and steal the life force of a great number of mourn watchers and mortalitasi, and attempting to construct a massive golem for her soul to inhabit and use to wreak destruction.

Emmrich is undeniably loyal to Johanna, no matter what she does or how much they drift apart. Hell, he even admits that if she had sought him out, he would have helped her become a lich. He would have helped her conduct this extremely well-hidden and secretive rite that is probably hidden and secret for a very good reason. And one can only assume that attempting to become a lich is explicitly forbidden within the mourn watch, considering Emmrich has to undergo several years of tests and ritual in order to even have the opportunity to attempt it. The lichual isn't just some expert-level conjuration shit; this is significant, serious shit that the mourn watch doesn't seem interested in fucking around with if the application process is so rigorous and difficult to pass, so there should realistically be some degree of repercussions for Emmrich letting something like that slip to someone just because they happen to be his friend.

So, you might ask, what should happen, then? Well, what would make much more sense for Emmrich's character arc, while also keeping in line with both the previously established series lore and the lore introduced in veilguard, is if Johanna was so severely injured by what happened when the souls and spirits in the lantern were released, that it essentially completely killed her physical body, as well as damaging her soul in a way that people really shouldn't be able to survive. But, because she attempted to become a lich and failed, Johanna's soul is still bound to her (extremely dead) body and is unable to either heal or move on.

Emmrich's choice should be between healing Johanna's body and soul from the damage she caused by undergoing a failed lichual, thus allowing her to be alive once again and live the rest of her natural life, or for him to help her damaged soul move on from her already deceased body and into... wherever souls go when they die in Thedas.

By choosing to help Johanna's body and soul heal and be revived, Emmrich would be accepting the role he played in the situation, and also choosing to bear the (probably massive) mark on what would otherwise be a very impressive track record and history. He would also be forfeiting his chance to attempt the lichual, for one because he went against the mourn watch's rules by telling Johanna such a dangerous secret, and for two because choosing to bring Johanna back from undeath is exactly the type of thing that the lich lords would be forbidden from doing as a way to prevent them from abusing their power.

But, by choosing to help Johanna's soul move on, Emmrich would be accepting the role he played in what happened, and choosing to try and make amends with the order that raised him and that he's dedicated his life to. He does genuinely believe in the ideals and tenants of the mourn watch; from his view, he's not just a member of an insular group of mages the way that the circles are, but he's someone who is responsible for the care and processing of his nation's dead, for making sure they're respected and given dignity in death in accordance with Nevarra's cultural practices, so of course he would put a lot of value on making amends with the mourn watch and righting any wrongs that he might've accidentally caused. Not only that, but he would be proving in the eyes of the lich lords that, even if he may make mistakes or break some rules, he's still capable of recognizing his mistakes and attempting to fix them, and most importantly: of recognizing when it's time for someone to move on, even if they're someone he cares deeply about.

Neither of these things should be seen as inherently good or bad, because they're not. Johanna is objectively doing more harm than good to herself ingame, and is so stubborn that even Emmrich can't talk her down from what she wants to do. Eventually, she would end up hurting herself - or her soul - in irreparable ways. Emmrich already steps in before she can do too much damage to herself and others, but I think that this should have played a much greater role in his journey to find peace of mind than it did ingame.

Now then, with that all being addressed and out of the way, we can get to why we're all here: why the lich path isn't bad.

2. Fear and Death

There's an incredible misconception about Emmrich's fear of death and where it stems from, and a misconception about how he might deal with the deaths of people he loves and cares about. I don't blame anyone for believing that he simply is just afraid of dying, because I also thought the same thing until I sat down and thought about it for a bit. It's also just easier for a lot of people to look at him and go with the first thought everybody has, that it's ironic for a necromancer to be so terrified of dying himself, even if that might not necessarily be the case.

To start, I think the idea that he might be new to dealing with the death of someone close to him is, frankly, pretty stupid. Even if it's not something people outright say, it's clear that that's what's being implied when people react to how he expresses his fear of rook dying before tearstone island. However, I want to point out that he deals with death every day: the death of strangers, the death of colleagues and associates, and the death of friends. And his recruitment mission involves you helping him kill people - venatori, to be specific, but they're still people.

If you go with the datamined info, he's in his 50's. If you go with what Sylvia thinks he should be, he's in his 60's. With how many people he's had to have met and/or befriended over the years, he undoubtedly has already experienced the loss of those he cares about besides just his parents. And during none of this, does his fear arise, because it's not death that he's afraid of. I don't think he could possibly do what he does - to the extent that he does - if it was just death that scared him.

Ultimately, his fear of dying is not borne out of death itself: his fear is driven by control. What Emmrich is really afraid of is not having control of things in his life. He controls everything else about himself to a fastidious degree; his speech, his vocabulary, his mannerisms, how he looks, all to try and keep his life under his own control, to control the way that people perceive him, to control the way he reacts to things in order to prevent himself from acting out as a result of his anxieties. It's not enough that he appears confident and assured of himself, he needs to give the illusion - to himself and to others - that he is in control. It's a compulsive behavior that he's developed in order to soothe his own fears that he can't control things, borne out of the death of his parents. He couldn't control the circumstances that led to their deaths, and he couldn't control whether or not they survived. It's also implied that he didn't manifest his magic until after they died, so I imagine that for him, manifesting the ability to use magic - something he could have potentially used to save them, if he'd been able to use it - felt like another nail in his skull when it came to things he had no control over.

Now, typically - barring extenuating circumstances like suicide - people can't control when or how they die. You can put it off, you can take care of yourself to the best of your ability, but death is the one thing you can't ever have control of, and that terrifies him. He can attempt to soothe himself by compulsively trying to control everything else about himself and his life, but he knows that death - his own death, to be specific - is the one thing he can never have total control over, because death is the one inevitability of the world that cannot be skirted or avoided, no matter what you do. And that is what drives his fear.

3. Becoming a Lich

So, I think the logical next step in thinking for a lot of people would be that attempting to become a lich is merely the result of him desperately trying to soothe his fears and give himself the illusion that he is in control of his death, but again I have to disagree.

There's this idea that he wants to undergo the lichual entirely because he wants to skirt death, but that's simply not the case. Emmrich could have undergone the lichual before the events of veilguard even take place, before Bellara begins exchanging letters with him, before rook seeks him out for his extensive knowledge of the fade. He explicitly states during the scene where he reveals it to rook that the reason he hasn't already undergone it, is because of his fear. Emmrich's fear is what is holding him back from it, not what is driving him towards it. At that point in the game, he is incapable of going through with the lichual because he still hasn't made peace with the fact that, even if he would be choosing when and how he dies, he still doesn't have control. His life would be in the hands of the lich lords and Vorgoth, not his own. And in order to be able to go through with it, he needs to accept that he cannot have control, no matter how much he uses the delusion of control in order to comfort and soothe himself.

The choice for whether or not to bring Manfred back from the fade - or the theoretical choice to save Johanna that I discussed previously - isn't about him making peace with death and others dying around him, it's about whether or not he can accept that sometimes things really are just outside of his control. It's actually a very common method for dealing with obsessive compulsions and other things in that vein, because fighting with your own compulsions in order to try and overcome them by force of will doesn't really work. What you need is acceptance. You need to accept the things in life that you cannot change or do, and in Emmrich's case, the things you can't control.

So... why does he want to become a lich, then?

Emmrich wants to pursue the lichual, not because he's so unbearably afraid of not having control of his own death that he'll do anything to feel as if he has control, but because he is a person who finds genuine joy in life and in loving people. He's a teacher for god's sake. He's unfailingly kind and polite even when he has no reason to be, but most of all he finds purpose and beauty and joy in even the smallest things in life. He loves the people he meets, he loves his friends, his family, the partners he's had over the years, he loves life itself and everything and everyone in it, be they alive, dead, or something else entirely.

And he finds genuine satisfaction with his work and the ways in which his work allows him to help people in ways he might not be able to otherwise if he were just a common mortalitasi, or as a botanist. He helps people mourn, grieve, and find closure during extremely difficult times in their life, and even uses his corpse whispering to help those who have already passed on, instead of just using it to the benefit of those who are still alive. He does this because he has the ability to do so - to help people in ways he might not have received when he was a child - not because it's just another part of his job that he has to do.

For Emmrich, becoming a lich isn't just a means to avoid his obsessive, compulsive need to control things, or to avoid dying. He wants to do it because he is, as his writer Sylvia put it, a man of big emotions. He has such a deep and genuine love for life and everything in it that he wants to continue to experience all of the joys of life, and to continue helping both the living and the dead.

Another common misconception is that Emmrich's intense emotions and deep care for people would be a detriment to him as a lich, because having to watch everybody he knows age and die while he remains would be too much, but I think it's the opposite: Emmrich's love and care for life and people in it is precisely why he is a candidate for lichdom. Dialogue from Emmrich and the lords imply that the lords have strict rules in order to prevent themselves from becoming corrupt and abusing their power, and that it's exceptionally rare for a watcher to be accepted as a candidate. I suspect that the lich lords specifically try to select for people like Emmrich, who are unfailing kind and hold a genuine love for life, who are also able to accept the inevitabilities of life and death as off limits for them, even if they have the powers to circumvent them. Someone who hardens themself to death and keeps themself from becoming too attached, or from caring about others in order to become numb to death, would make a shit candidate for a lich, because inevitably their callousness and disregard for life and death would lead to precisely what the lords are attempting to avoid: corruption and the misuse of their power. Emmrich's love of life is a feature, not a bug.

And also? If it really was just fear of dying that motivated him, then Emmrich could have just as easily gone and done the lichual on his own, or gotten Johanna to help him. It's not like this is something that only the lords know how to do, he could just Do It if that's all he really wanted lmao. Becoming a lich isn’t the end goal, it’s just a step in what he actually wants, which is to help people. 

4. Necrophilia and Romance

Well, that's all well and good, but there are also quite a few people who seem to think that the lich route is bad for Emmrich's relationship with Rook, for some reason. The various reasons I've seen thrown around have varied from legitimate doubts of whether or not it's actually Emmrich's soul in his skeleton or not, to people being understandably put off by the thought of their Rook engaging in necrophilia, to just straight up parroting some rather ableist and acephobic talking points without realizing that that's what they're doing.

I'll start with the necrophilia stuff first. And it is necrophilia, I should note. Just because he doesn't have any skin or organs, doesn't mean that Emmrich's body is any less dead. He's a soul possessing his lifeless skeleton, of course rook having a sexual relationship with him is necrophilia, regardless of whether or not it's something you the player or the character is into or not. Letting someone tie a belt around your wrists even if you're not necessarily into it is still engaging with some degree of bondage, mild as it may be, and having sex with a skeleton is still engaging in some degree of necrophilia.

But, there's nothing wrong with being uncomfortable with a character engaging in a necrophiliac relationship. You don't have to be into it in order to like the lich route, or even to like Emmrich as a character. It's Fine if your main issue is that he's a skeleton and you think having sex with a dead body is weird and gross and creepy, It's literally OK. You don't need to justify the disgust.

That being said, the ways in which I've noticed some people try to justify those feelings of disgust have been... interesting.

For one, what exactly intimacy - emotional or sexual - looks like between people in a relationship is not something you can just summarize as a list of boxes to check. The exact ways in which Rook and Emmrich engage in sexual intimacy aren't shown ingame; the most explicit examples are them kissing and a fade-to-black of Emmrich - fully clothed - climbing on top of Rook in the sarcophagus, and those scenes really don't differ much depending on if he's alive or undead. That is to say, the game leaves a lot of room open for interpretation when it comes to what the physical aspects of their relationship looks like.

I think the idea that the relationship between Emmrich and Rook would inherently be worse off because of Emmrich becoming a lich - whether because he wouldn't be able to love them the same if he's undead, or because Emmrich would no longer have skin or genitals and thus be unable to have traditional sex anymore - are just incorrect. It's one thing if you want your Rook to have these difficulties in their relationship with Emmrich, because the sudden change in how they engage with intimacy and the difficulties in it are legitimately quite interesting and worth exploring! But those things are not inherent to their relationship as it is shown, and I think acting like it's indicative that Emmrich being a lich is bad is just silly.

And that's not to say that there wouldn't be challenges in figuring out how to be intimate once he's undead - there absolutely would be - but to say that Emmrich or his romance is somehow lesser because of those challenges is just wrong. This line of logic that tries to justify that disgust or disinterest by painting it as something else doesn't come across how you might think it does.

It's just wrong to say that someone is inherently incapable of pleasing someone, or receiving some form of pleasure, because they have lost some aspect of themself, be it an ability they previously possessed, or a body part that they lost. Many people in real life have to deal with the loss of function of their bodies while also figuring out how to navigate their own romantic and sexual relationships when something about them has been lost. As a disabled person myself who has lost some of my physical mobility over the years: there's nothing bad about it. There's nothing about any form of loss of function that makes loving someone inherently less capable of loving or of being loved, only your own prejudice.

It is absolutely something that comes with difficulties, but if you are in a romantic relationship with somebody that you genuinely love, that you care about as a person because of who they are, then you love them even when they change. And everybody changes over the course of their life. If things become difficult because of something that has happened to them, then you try to find ways to work through the challenges together as a couple, try to find different ways to be intimate - emotionally or sexually - or find different ways to satisfy your individual needs, because you love them.

And, I might add, as an asexual person, this conflation of romantic love and sexual intimacy is stupid as hell. While Emmrich as a character is very much not asexual himself, he is a tried and true romantic. Sex may play a large part in typical romance and in his own relationships, but it's not the only thing there is. I do believe that, while Emmrich may see sexual intimacy as an extension of his own feelings of love for somebody, he still understands that desiring someone is not always the same as loving them, and what Emmrich wants is to be loved. He doesn't want to just be desired, he wants Rook to love him for who he is as a person. I think that he would be genuinely hurt if he discovered that Rook's love for him diminished or disappeared altogether just because he [checks notes] can't have traditional penetrative sex with his own body parts, as I’ve seen a concerning amount of people tout.

As if that's all there is to sex, anyways. As if people haven't been finding creative ways around barriers like that for thousands of years. If you really want Rook to get dicked down nasty style by Emmrich as a lich, you can just? Slap a dildo on that bad boy? And he's literally a MAGE. Man can use MAGIC and you're worried that he can't have sex without his own set of genitals? Conveniently ignoring the fact that he explicitly has a glamour that looks exactly like his living body, and that the game never addresses just how much substance this glamour has, if it's just an illusion or has any proper form to it. The world is your oyster to fuck. Or to not fuck, if you'd like.

5. Life, Death, and Grief

Ok this is the last section to this I promise. The last thing I want to address is Emmrich's state of mind and how he interacts with the world as a lich vs. as a living person. I think the idea that he can't love Rook, or anyone else for that matter, as much as a lich is very silly, as well as the idea that his love for Rook would be diminished by him potentially outliving them. Also the weird idea that Emmrich eventually finding someone else to love as a partner after Rook dies is somehow bad? Not to mention the fact that some people seem to claim that all he's doing by becoming a lich is shifting his fear of death off of himself and onto others.

But anyways. The game doesn't really go into too much detail on how exactly being a lich works in Thedas, but myself and @rockshortage have been discussing it, and our best guess is, that by becoming a lich, what is happening is: Emmrich's soul is being disconnected from his physical body without letting it pass beyond to wherever the hell souls go in Thedas after death, and then he is possessing his own dead body the way a spirit might possess a person or object. I don't think there is any doubt that it's Emmrich in there, because the souls of a physical being and a spirit from the fade, while having similarities, would still be distinctly different.

Emmrich explains that, as a lich, some of his physical senses would dull - makes sense, since he would just be a disembodied spirit - he would still be in possession of his mind, and would have access to other senses that physical, mortal beings just Don't have. I've seen some claims that he's completely losing his physical senses since he's becoming undead, but I actually think that the description of his physical senses dulling is more accurate than a complete loss. If Emmrich is becoming more akin to a spirit than a physical being, then it would make sense for him to eventually be able to project his senses out to a degree. I mean, christ, he can see and hear things for god's sake. Sight and hearing are types of physical sense that are usually tied to the possession of eyes and ears, and their ability to function properly and communicate with a functioning brain. You know, things that Emmrich objectively doesn’t have as a literal skeleton. It may take some time to learn how to do and get used to, but Emmrich should logically be able to project his other senses, like smell and touch, outwards from his body, or whatever form he happens to be taking at that moment.

As for his mind, I think this is another way in which Emmrich is becoming more similar to a spirit. With people, our emotional states depend on our brain chemistry and our environment. Spirits, on the other hand, are beings made of magical energy giving shape to emotion. As a disembodied soul, Emmrich wouldn't quite be a being of pure emotion the way a spirit is, but he also wouldn't be restricted by brain chemistry either. As a lich, I think that he would be experiencing emotions in a different way to how he did before. It's still him, and he still feels the same big emotions as before, but it's just a different way of existing. His memory is also no longer dependent on the physical synapses formed inside of his brain, which means that he can apparently recall everything in his memory with perfect clarity. These two things, when combined, would likely give him a type of clarity of mind that is probably quite literally unfathomable to someone who hasn't experienced it.

And he can apparently see shrimp colors now, too. These shrimp colors specifically being the literal life energy inside of living beings, which he describes as a "thread of diamond flame", and also I think he can perceive literal magic in a very tangible way that people just straight up Can't, given the way he describes certain things after the lichual. Think about how much life there is in any given place in the world, from grass to bugs to microorganisms in the water. Now think about how much ambient magic there must be in a world like Thedas, flowing and being manipulated by the world around it as it moves. Can you imagine how overwhelming it might be to suddenly wake up and be able to perceive all of that? How the ability to perceive these things might make someone like Emmrich feel? He's a man of big emotions who feels things very deeply, and holds an intense love for the world and the things in it. To suddenly be granted the ability to see even more layers of complexity and beauty in the world would only make Emmrich love life and the world around him even more. That's not to mention the flowers he loves so much. He expressed concern that they wouldn't be the same for him as an undead, but with his new lich sight, the flowers would be more beautiful than before, not less.

To tie it back to the stuff about his relationship with Rook, Emmrich is clearly just as devoted to Rook as a lich as he was when he was alive. He's arguably a lot more upfront and willing to be an absolute sap on main, as he constantly calls Rook "my love", starting from the very moment he steps out of the lichual chamber.

I do actually think that there is some credence to the idea that Emmrich’s fear shifts from it being centered more on himself, to being centered on those around him. That is to say, it seems perfectly logical for him to become more worried about the well-being of the people he cares for once he is a lich, because he can quite literally see their life energy in their bodies. However, becoming a lich doesn't inherently change anything about his emotional or mental state. It changes some things because he needs to adapt to how different things are for him, but it doesn't automatically mean that he doesn't need to put in the work to manage his fears or compulsions, and this is not a bad thing. I think it would actually be worse if his mind was stuck in a static state, to be honest. Him still needing to put in the work to regulate his emotions and fears is not bad, nor is him still sometimes falling victim to his compulsions of wanting to control things about his life inherently bad. It’s something he needs to manage and keep on top of, but progress and overcoming problems does not necessarily mean that the problems disappear entirely; it means that you’ve found ways of dealing with those issues and know what to do when they resurface, and are able to adapt and figure out how to deal with other problems that may arise afterwards. 

Likewise, Emmrich’s OCD and fear of not having control does not go away just because he accepts that he can’t control everything as a self-soothing technique. Is he afraid of rook and other people around him dying once he becomes a lich? Yes, he absolutely is, but to say that this is indicative of an attempt to overcome fear only to shift it to something else, isn’t entirely accurate. I think it also ignores the fact that Emmrich is very much concerned about the well-being of rook and the other party members even if he remains mortal, as seen when he attempts to push rook away right before tearstone island. He’s afraid of losing them, so his fear drives him to try and remove the source of the fear, which is rook.

Him continuing to have fears and intense negative emotion responses to things as a lich is not inherently bad. It’s just something he has to be mindful of in order to not let those fears control him or dictate his unlife

The very last thing that I wanted to address, as I mentioned above, is the nature of Emmrich’s relationship with rook as an undead. There are several things that I’ve seen people discuss that seem incredibly short-sighted and ignorant of the ways in which real relationships work, the first being that Emmrich outliving rook is bad because it would mean he would have to spend the rest of his unlife missing them. I think this is ignorant of how real relationships work in real life, because death itself is a fact of life that every single person in the world has to live through and deal with at some point or another. 

I actually had someone say I was being disingenuous for allegedly saying that Emmrich dying before rook is the same as rook dying before Emmrich, but I think that response really betrays how much they didn’t understand what I was trying to say, which is: there is no way to know how much time you will have with somebody that you love. No matter how young or old you may be, no matter how old or young - or in good health - your partner may be, there is no guarantee that you will spend the rest of your life with them. One of you might die, or you may decide to go your separate ways at some point down the line for whatever reason. There is infinite space for you to play in and explore the different ways in which Emmrich’s relationship with rook might conclude - regardless of which choice you make - and I think painting the lich route as bad because Emmrich would outlive rook and leave him sad and alone forever, is, I might say, pretty damn stupid. It also sounds like the things someone would say if they haven’t actually experienced the death of somebody they love or care about.

Grief, especially grief over losing somebody, isn’t something that goes away eventually. It stays with you for the rest of your life and can change you as a person in significant, often extreme, ways. But how grief affects you and how you live with that grief is largely dependent on how you choose to handle and deal with it when it happens. Many people are unable to cope with their grief because they simply don’t have the tools or support network to work through things like death, and many people are capable of accepting and moving on and living happy, fulfilling lives with their grief. To state that rook dying would condemn Emmrich to grieving rook forever (or however long Emmrich exists as a lich) is only half right; yes, Emmrich will carry that grief with him for the rest of his unlife, but he is also someone who understands the nature of death and mourning. 

Emmrich experienced the traumatic death of his parents at a young age and it fundamentally changed him for the rest of his life. He also had the mourn watch to help him grieve, accept their deaths, and to live with his grief afterwards. As a mourn watcher, he helps other people to mourn and find closure both for the deaths of others. As a corpse whisperer and necromancer, he helps the dead move on. You’ll have to forgive me for thinking that Emmrich might be the type of person who is capable of mourning and grieving the loss of those he loves, and also of living with that grief without it metastasizing and rotting him from within. That doesn’t mean he won’t miss rook or anyone else, it doesn’t mean that the love he feels for them is in any way diminished or less real, because that’s not how that works. 

Being able to work through the death of somebody you love in a healthy way doesn’t automatically mean that you didn’t actually love the person, nor does it mean you can’t then go on to love somebody else afterwards. People do not have a finite amount of love - romantic or non-romantic - in them that they can only give to one person ever, nor are people only capable of having one true love in their lives and that everything else was either Not The One or Will Never Be Just As Good, because that’s not how people or feelings work.

So no, I don’t think that either rook or Emmrich outliving each other is the exact same in terms of how it will affect either of them, but I do think it’s shortsighted and ignorant of the ways in which people think and feel to act as if lich Emmrich outliving rook would be so much worse for him just because he would have to live with the grief for longer. 

I would like to end on the caveat that I wrote this mainly because I feel there’s been a lot of misinterpretation of aspects of Emmrich’s character and the different options for his storyline that have led to people expressing genuine concerns, fears, and anxieties of theirs in ways that veer too far into things like ableism, acephobia, and of how things like obsessive compulsions manifest. Especially the ableism, if I can be honest, because as a disabled person, seeing people gripe on about how lich Emmrich is bad because he “can’t have sex”, or at least can’t have “normal sex” really grates on more than a few of my nerves. 

I also want to say that I didn’t write this to try and say that somebody headcanoning the relationship between Emmrich and their rook having some of the issues mentioned above are wrong for doing so. By all means, please explore the space and the different ways in which their relationship could unfold, I think it's much more interesting to explore how problems could affect a relationship in fiction. I just don’t want people to automatically write off the lich route as inherently bad and not worth it just because the difference between Emmrich's storyline choices are a bit more nuanced and different than “do you want to forgive or get revenge”. 

[rookinthecrownest]

🖊️ + the oc closest to your heart via dragon age (the one you always go back to)

Oh! This was a bit of a tough one anon, but I have to say, Madeleina takes it <3 Let me explain why under the cut, and under this little doodle of Mads and Lucanis I whipped up in like 15 min (excuse the ... everything)

Ok so why is Madeleina so special to me - well, I consider all my DA OC's special to me bc this game has been a huge part of my life - literally for over a decade now - but I digress, she's special to me for a few reasons.

Not gonna lie chat, this year has been one of the hardest year's of my life. The release of DATV, which I'd been waiting for since Inquisition finished up with tresspasser (like many of you), was something I was really looking forward to. And I NEEDED. In many ways, this game saved me.

She was the first Rook. The first one I took with me on this crazy journey. And as I played the game and romanced Lucanis for the first time - I dunno, I can't explain how much of a chokehold Madeleina and Rookanis had on me.

I initially made this blog just to keep up to date with DATV release news, but they made me want to post my art and my writing. And I'd never really tried to write fanfic before, but I started writing the Bedtime Stories for a Demon fic, where Madeleina and Lucanis fall in love over stories from all over Thedas (fairy tales that I adapted for the DA setting). And I had so much fun with it! As I wrote it I fell more and more in love with the character and the pairing.

I can only speak for myself but I think a lot of ppl would agree that Rookanis is a great ship because of like...how soft and tender and loving it is, and how it's the little things they do for each other that's the focus. The understanding, the comfort. Not that we haven't had that in other DA romances but Lucanis' romance hits different? It's just like, so sweet, I want to cry. They're SOOO important to me it's almost silly.

They fall in love over fairy tales but their love story is the greatest fairy tale that will ever be told.

The Charming Rogue and the Hapless Hero!

To focus more on Madeleina herself for a bit, she's also important to me because she's kind of an amalgamation of a few different disney/fairy tale princesses. She has Cinderella's optimism, Rapunzel's quick wits and humour (and long hair!!), Ariel's curiosity and thirst for knowledge. With my other DA OC's, I've made them more... gritty. More suited to a dark fantasy setting. So Madeleina is important to me because she's so relentlessly positive and loving and kind and genuine, like the princesses I grew up watching. They were a source of comfort for me when I was young and going through tough times, like Mads has been a source of comfort for me as a grown up.

I've always been a lover of stories, and I think hers and Lucanis' is my favourite story in all of fiction.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling (even though the point of these asks was to gush/ramble haha).

Thank you for the ask anon!

[what-eats-owls]

It matters how you do it

I finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard and had some big feelings about it. Spoilers for basically everything under the cut, and frankly, it won't make sense unless you've finished the game anyway.

First of all: I had a blast with this game. I didn't find Act 1 slow, I did find Act 2 a bit of a whack-a-mole, and then Act 3 kicks you in the kidney (complementary) while insisting it's for your own good.

I've seen some recurring complaints: that it lacks depth/edge/darkness, that it abandons previous lore, that the previous choices don't matter. I don't entirely disagree. To me, it felt like a massive Dragon Age 4 game that pivoted to a different, tighter game after complaints about bloat in Inquisition. The key is that when editing down, there's such a thing as trying to trim the fat and taking a chunk of the roast with it.

I enjoy the concept of Lucanis's character, and the voice actor sold the hell out of him, but the storyline felt like being taken to a museum and allowed to see one (1) beautiful unfinished sculpture. Why did Spite, specifically, work? We know the spirit of Justice became Vengeance by abomination, we knew Solas was Wisdom before he became Pride, so what was Spite before, and why wasn't that tied to Lucanis's own personal arc? (Doubly so if you romance him!)

Similarly, Harding was a delight, and her greenhouse was such a lovely little haven. I would have loved to see more explanation of the connection between plants and the titans, and how Harding's own personal struggles with rage connected to that of the titans. She has every reason to be angry and scared, and the game tells us she pushed that away—but we don't actually see her toxic positivity manifest to that degree, until she abruptly has an angry clone.

On the flip side, I loved the other five character quests, and I felt they had solid, poignant arcs that delivered. I also adored their interactions with the codex—if anything, I wanted to see more of that type of interaction on the screen. You have to fill in a lot of the character work for Rook yourself; Rook has all these interesting potential backgrounds, but I think starting the game playing through those, a la Origins, would have gone miles towards establishing more personal stakes up front and made for a stronger start.

So that's all my nitpicking. But let's talk about the bigger theme: It matters how you do it.

In the first Fade conversation with Solas, he gets so mad when Rook refuses to let him DARVO them about the consequences of his botched ritual. This makes way more sense when you understand he's literally imprisoned by his own regrets, and he needs Rook to have that same kind of regret in order to take his place. His entire arc is about rationalizing binary choices and shitty actions that hurt others in the name of a hypothetical greater good that he wants.

Solas can't engineer every binary choice Rook's forced into, but he uses Varric to maximize Rook's regret. He is trying to quite literally mold Rook into him, and the game is great at presenting this both as a coldblooded manipulation and a broken plea for validation—if you let it. You don't have to give Solas a moment of consideration; you don't have to take time to view his memories, or kill his demons, or listen to those scraps of Mythal still holding onto the good in him. You don't have to do any of it.

But you can. And in the end, it matters.

It matters because for every companion, you can encourage them to either be more nurturing/compassionate or destructive/closed off versions of themselves, and that is frequently tied to continuing or breaking from a cycle. (The exception is either Neve or, presumably, Lucanis, who are forced into the Hardened version depending on which city you save.) These aren't presented as morally opposing choices, just who you want them to be. You can see how the Grey Wardens fucked up bad with griffons and decide they have a better place. You can help Emmrich face his fear by finding deeper meaning in life instead of indefinitely postponing death. You can help them do things differently.

So when you get to the final choice in the game, you may have two options: physically force Solas into saving the Veil, or trick him into it. The kind of binary choice Solas has molded you into making by pelting you with cruelty and manipulation.

Or, if you've taken the time, you can get him to understand he's wrong. You bring out the people who saw the best in him and speak to what he's had to endure, even as you're showing him there's another way. You reach him not as Pride, but as Wisdom. And he goes willingly.

Ultimately, I think DA2 and Inquisition grappled with big questions of oppression and violence, faith and authority. It makes sense for those games to delve into harder, uglier subject matter, and ask you to make binary calls.

But my read of Veilguard is that, at its core, it's about how those decisions are meant to trap you in regret at best, and numb you to rationalizing cruelty at worst. It's why the companion who loses their home city becomes colder, more isolated, in response—more like Solas.

That's why it offers you a third way at the very end, but only if you've worked for it. A better way is possible, yet it has to be more than words. You have to understand where the pain comes from, what maintains and is being maintained by the current cycle. Then, and only then, can you break it.

I can't wait to play it again.

P.S. Utterly obsessed with the Trevisan fish merchant.