#archon dorian

[raviollies]

daee is 2 apples tall so its funny to crop them and cant get both their faces fully in frame

[gallusneve]

nobody look at me just casually deciding the future of the Tevinter Imperium based on my wife's beliefs and my wife's beliefs only

[swoleas]

speaking of the opera. the whole game should have had more decadence

venatori made up of tevinters rich elites who think that their mild inconvenience at the cost of people's freedom is a price too high to pay? and they're hanging out in the woods wearing matching hoodies?

these ppl are powerful enough to be an open secret and rarely facing consequences for their crimes

they should be disgustingly decadent. exuding beauty and sophistication hiding the ugliest cruelty in plain sight

the wigmaker from tevinter nights comes to mind. aelia and zara were somewhat there but didn't make it past the finish line imo

especially when Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain preach about the beauty they will spread once they gain control of thedas. it feels lacking if they cannot convince us even a little bit of this. make us believe why ancient elvhenan is known for its beauty under the rule of the Evanuris built on the backs of their subjugated followers

let us see it in modern tevinter and the venatori

[silent-words]

I made Dorian the Archon of Tevinter! I wanted to do this since the Inquisition, and now I'm so happy. I think my Inquisitor gives up the Inquisition business altogether just to live with his beloved and help him however he can.

Dorian is charismatic, wise, and has a lot of experience. Mae is good, but we didn't see her chasing bears/going into the raw Fade in the flesh/casting barriers on the Inquisitor to protect them from a dragon. And I got to love Tevinter so much. It is really close to my country, that I love despite so many flaws.

So here I stand, an Archon Dorian truther. For me this choice means much more than even the choice of how to make Solas do the right thing at the end.

Doesn't mean that if you chose Maevaris, I would say it was all wrong. Everyone gets to play the game as they want to, after all.

[dkniade]

Contrast and Unity in the White/Black Imagery of Genshin Impact Quest Titles

Dragonspine 1.2 & 2.3 Events, Fontaine Act I

Game: Genshin Impact

Developer: HoYoverse

Fan Localization: Dusk

An aside from when I tried to explain the meaning of Kreideprinz’s Chinese term—

In Chinese, 白垩 is used to refer to Albedo with varying meanings but in the English version the term is even less consistent: 

Concealed Talon item description 白垩层 (baie ceng) = “Cretaceous Layer” (of soil) localized as “Cretaceous”

Albedo’s Story Quest Chapter title 白垩之章 (baie zhi zhang) = “Cretaceous Chapter” localized as “Princeps Cretaceous Chapter”

Albedo’s second Ascension voiceline, 白垩 (baie) = “chalk”/“Cretaceous”, localized as “albedo”, the second stage of the alchemical magnum opus

(even though in the context of alchemy, the albedo (Latin: “whitening”) stage should be 白化 (baihua, whitening) in Chinese because the albedo stage does not refer to chalk/limestone)

Albedo’s title 白垩之子 (baie zhi zi) = possibly varies slightly depending on context that it appears in, localized as “Kreideprinz”

Xingqiu’s “About Albedo” voiceline, 白垩老师 (baie laoshi) = (teacher) “Mr. Cretaceous” (Latin) or “Mr. Chalk” (English) or “Mr. Kreide” (German) localized as “Mr. Kreideprinz”

Version 1.2’s name 白垩与黑龙 (baie yu heilong) = “The White Chalk and the Black Dragon” or “Cretaceous and the Black Dragon”

or one can localize it in German like how they did the 4.0 Chapter IV Act I “Prelude of Blancheur and Noirceur” (French: “Prelude of Whiteness and Blackness” or ”Prelude of Innocence and Darkness”)

though, officially, Version 1.2’s name 白垩与黑龙 is localized as “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon”

Speaking of black and white in titles, another aside—

Don’t you know that HoYoverse loves juxtaposing white/black or light/shadow in its quest titles

1.2 Dragonspine event

Chinese: 白垩与黑龙 (Baie yu Heilong) = “The White Chalk and the Black Dragon” 

Official English: “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon”

2.3 Dragonspine event

Chinese: 皑尘与雪影 (Aichen yu Xueying) = “White Dust and Snowy Shadows” 

Official English: “Shadows Amidst Snowstorms”

皑 from ���雪皑皑 (baixue aiai) usually refers the whiteness of snow specifically, so 皑尘 as “(snowy) white dust” is just their over-the-top way to say “snow”.

“Snowy Dust and Snowy Shadows” sounds too humorous though.

I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SAY THIS FOR A LONG TIME NOW: of course symbolism-wise it’s likely that “white dust” refers to Albedo, “snow” refers to the Cryo Whooperflower Albedo, and “shadow” refers to Primordial Albedo, with Durin encompassing all three as the shadow dragon that lies dead—like dust—in the snowy mountain.

HoYoverse being HoYoverse has found a way to say white and black without even using the hanzi for white (白) and black (黑) back in 2.3.

4.0 Fontaine Act I

Chinese: 白露与黑潮的序诗 (Bailu yu Heichao de Xushi) = Prelude of White Dew and Black Tides

Official English: “Prelude of Blancheur and Noirceur” 

with French terms translated: “Prelude of Whiteness and Blackness” or “Prelude of Innocence and Darkness”

Given the information in 4.0, I would assume that “white dew” refers to Furina and “black tides” refers to Neuvillette seeing how Furina’s always at the front of key visuals and Neuvillette’s always looming ominously over the background, but you can also think of it as innocence vs guilt, I suppose.

POETIC ALLUSION UPDATE: 白露 alludes to the Chinese poem “蒹葭”(Jianjia) = “Reed”

from the ancient collection of poems, 诗经 (Shijing)

The poem is basically the narrator talking about not being able to reach their lover, who’s on the other side of the water (lake?)

The act’s Chinese title is already over-the-top—since most people would look at it and think “ah white and black and something about water, got it”—so localization’s aim is to match the fancy feel and not the accuracy ‘cause honestly if you localize all that into French it’d be too long. This makes sense…

Though, the implication that French holds such a high prestige that its mere presence is enough to balance out some loss of meaning from the Chinese title is… strange, now that I think of it.

白露与黑潮的序诗 (Prelude of White Dew and Black Tides) in French would be “Prélude de la rosée blanche et des marées noires”… I think. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

This time HoYoverse found another way to say white and black while using the hanzi characters AND STILL BE EXTRA BECAUSE THEY ALLUDED TO A CHINESE POEM OF COURSE THEY DID. ARCHONS, man…

New drinking game: take a shot whenever black/white or dark/light is juxtaposed in a Genshin title/name of any language, take another shot if they don’t actually use the word/character for black/white in the target language, take another if they alluded to a Chinese poem or literature in the original LOL

[imtrying-ok]

Seeing every Dorian Enjoyer trying to find any way to put Dorian in Veilguard is so funny. But me too.

[antivancastle]

i really really wish we could have seen high society tevinter. i wish we could have had a shadow dragons quest at a fancy party like wicked hearts in inquisition, and maybe we could have had a bigger dorian cameo and more insight on the corruption of templars…

[warlordfelwinter]

thank you bioware for finallly putting them in the same room

[invinciblerodent]

making the decision on who to back for Archon is...

ngl, it feels a little different now, from the way they perhaps intended when they were writing that quest

[seekintroubles]

Our finale slides

[protect-namine]

recontextualizing durin

I'm going through genshin lore again and my god. albedo and durin both love rhinedottir SO much. albedo can't bring himself to call alice "mother" because rhinedottir means so much to him. durin, even in death, thinks fondly of the mother that birthed it.

RIP dorian. I don't think rhinedottir knew you're still around but your resentment is valid though.

also: durin just wants to make friends with mondstadt!! I mean, we already knew this from v1.2, but now with the windblume event, I suspect venti knew about durin's innocent heart and that's why he and dvalin buried durin in snow and didn't just kill it. durin's heart still beats if you visit the skeleton! durin did cause destruction, but seems to not be conscious of the consequences of its actions.

I'm beginning to think rhine sent durin to mondstadt so venti could take care of it, instead of leaving its fate to celestia. venti and the hexenzirkel seem to be close allies ("sometimes we all need to vent our troubles to the wind"). three of the witches' successors were sent to stay in mondstadt. and venti has access to their tea party locations, the GAA, etc. I think venti has had a long partnership of taking care of, perhaps even covering up, the witches' troubles.

this actually changes a lot! if venti knew durin was from rhinedottir, whom alice thinks of fondly (and we know venti is at least close to alice), then was he sympathetic to durin? in fact, what does he think of the whole cataclysm, of the "great sinner" rhinedottir?

we know venti is not a fan of celestia. we know the archons except greater lord rukkhadevata were supposedly sent to khaenri'ah, but also they each fought off abyssal monsters in their own regions. how much of this was rhinedottir's fault, how much of this did venti simply defend against, and how much did he really know intimately about and covered up (or at least, refused to acknowledge to others)?

from breeze amidst the forest, we know that mondstadt doesn't actually know how the battle with durin ended. they only know the results.

The result was clear — Durin's remains still lie atop the snowy peaks to the south of Mondstadt — but the story of how the battle ended was lost in time. It is said that Dvalin ripped out Durin's throat, and together they fell from the sky. Durin's body sunk into the snow while Dvalin was summoned by the Anemo Archon and fell into a slumber.

[beast-of-mosss]

Drawings of Deshan and concept Deshan after Trepaser to DA:D(they woild be about 39 in DA:D)

[higheverweave]

Yall Dorian and hopefully Maevaris has to be in this if not

Like no way in hell are you convincing me the after 10 years banter with Inquisitor would not be Iconic

[dkniade]

I was wondering why GI’s tag is suddenly trending. V4.0 trailer released, it seems. Good for them. Must be exciting

[magistheir]

i'm definitely going to have a verse set during datv, but also because i like torturing my muses, dorian will also have an archon verse because i think it's hilarious that he was put in charge

[knightriley]

wait a minute i just realized we were probably looking at the archon’s palace or something in that preview 😭 i can’t wait to meet that dramatic asshole