#at least give me the lore in the codex

[ffc1cb]

i’ve always found it peculiar how during meeting the chargers cutscene the game just assumes your character automatically understands what krem is talking about when he mentions binding (though, granted, it’s all very unsubtle). like, this is a roleplaying game. what if i want to play a character who just doesn’t get it

[imperator-kahlo]

OK what even is happening with the Crows

I’ve just been trawling through the wiki and World of Thedas for a few hours trying to figure out what we (a) know, (b) can guess, (c) can speculate wildly about the inner workings of the Crows during the Dragon age.

(I am by no means an expert on the lore so please let me know where I have wildly missed the mark).

I'm definitely not trying to propose any kind of fanon consensus, where's the fun in that?! Just trying to figure out a timeline that makes sense to me. Possibly also toying around with a pre-canon Rookanis fic.

Loooong and probably insanely disorganised text post under the cut. I should have been in bed hours ago but I am hyperfixating on this and will not sleep until I hit post.

Spoilers, so many spoilers below: Veilguard, Tevinter Nights, The Silent Grove, Origins, Awakenings, the entire franchise basically.

So, a speculative timeline. Events in black are fairly or very well supported by the lore; events in blue are inconsistent/uncertain in the lore; events in purple are guesses that I can sort of back up; events in red are me throwing a dartboard at the wall.

Note: The wiki puts the events of "Eight Little Talons" in 9:44 Dragon, but I can't find any source for that. I would have guessed a little later, but let's roll with 9:44.

Also, I'm pretty unclear on the guildmaster/grandmaster distinction. I'm just going to say 'head of house' for whoever is in charge of a Crow house, or Talon if they're head of one of the eight Talon Houses.

Blessed Age

8:70 Blessed - Caterina born (she's described as well into her 70s during Eight Little Talons and as around 80 in the data-mined character descriptions for Veilguard, so give or take a couple years this seems right).

9:00 to 9:29 Dragon: House Arainai Shenanigans

9:00 Dragon - Antivan civil war, beginning of the "much maligned" Three Queens era (Codex, History of Kirkwall - Chapter 4). Unclear exactly what happens or over what period of time, but seems like the Crows would be in the thick of things.

9:05 - 9:10 - Caterina maybe reaches Talon status (not First, though). Around 8:98 Blessed would be the absolute earliest she could get there given Teia's holds the record (youngest Talon at 28). But I think Teia was at least three or four years younger than any previous Talon so I'd put it somewhere around here, if not a few years later.

9:12 Dragon - Zevran, aged 7, is purchased from a Rialto brothel by House Arainai. The House is led by First Talon Talav Arainai and described as rolling in coin after the "Three Brides" contract - they purchase 17 other slaves that year, including Taliesen (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96). I think based purely on vibes that House Arainai is fairly secure in First Talon position and has been there at least a couple years, probably longer.

9:15ish Dragon - Teia born (she's described as 28 in the data-mined descriptions, but she's already a Talon in 'Eight Little Talons', which says she was the youngest ever to reach the rank at age 28. I'm assuming she got there a year or two before the events of the story. See 9:17.

9:16 Dragon - whoops, sometime over the last four years it all went to shit for Talav Arainai! The House dropped to Second Talon, and he was executed in 9:16 after trying to take back the seat of First. Isadora Arainai takes over, and the House hangs on as Second Talon... for now. Rinna joins House Arainai and immediately works well with Zevran and Taliesen under the mentorship of Eoman Arainai (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96). This would be the earliest that Caterina could reach First Talon, but I'm not sure I'd put it this early. I think the latest she could possible reach First would be 9:25ish based on my guesses about House Velardo (see below).

9:17 Dragon - Lucanis born (described as 36 in the data-mined character descriptions. I know I threw out those descriptions for Teia, but I think we can be pretty certain Lucanis is mid thirties).

9:17 Dragon - Teia born. I was going back through Eight Little Talons and my initial read was wrong. Teia is 28 during the events of the story.

9:24 Dragon - House Arainai, having the sort of shitty luck they absolutely deserve, falls entirely out of the rank of Talons when Second Talon Isadora dies. They wallow amongst the cuchillos (minor houses) for a few years (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96).

9:22 - 9:27 - House Velardo attempts to usurp First Talon from House Dellamorte? The resulting war kills all of Caterina's children and grandchildren, save Lucanis and Illario. My reasoning here is this: Lucanis says he and Illario would have ended up with Caterina to train, but being orphaned sent them to her younger than anticipated. Zevran was purchased at age 7, so we know Crow training, at least for House Arainai slaves, begins very young. Perhaps the non-slave children of influential house leaders start later, but I would guess not much. So I'm assuming they end up with Caterina sometime between ages 5 and 10?

9:25 Dragon - King Maric is thought lost at sea, but is in reality being held by Third Talon Claudio Valisti in a Crow prison on behalf of a Tevinter Magister, Aurielion Titus.

Side note: I had the same reaction to finding out the Crows have a super-fun torture prison as I did to finding out Weisshaupt has dungeons. Just... why? That feels like mission creep? Does the assassin skill set at all overlap with the prison guard skill set?

9:26 - 9:28 - Eoman takes over as head of House Arainai. He eliminates House Ferragani, which was Eighth Talon, thus clearing the way for Arainai to claw its way back into power. Unfortunately, he needs the support of Third Talon Claudio Valisti to take over the position. Valisti wants Rinna Arainai dead (cult / royal bastard reasons) and Eoman tricks Zevran and Taliesen, her lovers, into doing it. This was a very stupid decision (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

9:30 to 9:43 Dragon: Zevran's Revenge

9:30 Dragon - Zevran, depressed and angry about Rinna's death, bids for the contract on the Warden's life. House Arainai is said to have accepted this contract because they believed Loghain to be the best person to defeat the blight (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

Side note: This sort of, if you squint, reconciles the contract on the Warden's life in 9:30 with the memento found in Veilguard that says the Crows had treaties with the Wardens to fight the "next blight". But also they tried to kill the Warden-Commander in Awakenings, too. I guess one could argue a new blight was unlikely so soon but like. Come on, guys. Is your word to the Wardens worth anything or not?

9:31 - 9:34 - If Zevran survived, he comes back from Ferelden with a spring in his step and murder in his heart (and possibly a Warden on his arm) and wreaks absolute havoc on House Arainai. Eoman is first to go, then like half a dozen more of their top people. The House loses Eighth Talon and falls once more into obscurity. The Crows call Zevran (or an unnamed assassin if Zevran is dead) the "Black Shadow" and speculate that he has allies among the cuchillos (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

9:34 - 9:43 - Where the fuck is Zevran?

9:37 Dragon - Corypheus is freed (Legacy DLC). The Venatori will start to be a thing in the next few years, so Lucanis is going to pick up his nickname between now and, say 9:50 Dragon. I'd put it between 9:45 and 9:49 because of vibes (and because he talks about not immediately specialising in mages. Crows get started very young, but I dunno. I see him starting on mages in his mid twenties because, again, vibes.)

9:38 - 9:40 - Events of The Silent Grove (comic - I haven't read it in a while but I'm throwing it in here for complete-ish-ness). Alistair, Varric and Isabela break into the Crow archive and Velabanchel prison (which side note is a totally heinous operation). Isabela kills Claudio Valisti (Third Talon passes to Ezio Valisti). This, for me, raises the question again: Where the fuck is Zevran (sob). Valisti was implicated in Rinna's death, so either Zevran never found out or he couldn't get to Valisti while he was cleaning house.

9:44 Dragon - Ongoing: We're Entering Our Freedom-Fighter Era

9:44 Dragon - The events of 'Eight Little Talons'. Briefly: Caterina calls all the Talons together to plan for the imminent invasion of the Antaam, but a whole bunch of murder happens. Turns out that Fourth Talon Emil Kortez made deal with the Antaam and was trying to wipe out the Crows' leadership. He was killed by the survivors and Viago suggests--correctly, I think--that Caterina will wipe out the whole house.

The following Talons are killed but it seems like their houses will probably retain their status, with somebody else taking over as Talon:

Dante Balazar, Second

Lera Valisti, Third

Giuli Arainai, Eighth (having only just managed to lift that fucking house back up to Talonship, shame lol)

In addition to Caterina, Viago, and Teia, Sixth Talon Nero Bolivar survives, but he um, isn't much help. I would guess that Caterina, in a pretty strong alliance with Viago and Teia and with all the other Talons being new, might fuck his shit up and try to get someone more solid in before the Antaam invade?

9:44 - ongoing - WHERE THE FUCK IS ZEVRAN???? He can't have taken control of any of the eight Talon houses, because he's not at the summit in 'Eight Little Talons'-- and however much he damaged House Arainai, they've clawed back some power by 9:44. Is there a breakaway faction of cuchillo houses that Caterina won't even dignify with an acknowledgment? Is he not interested in any kind of Crow power and is just fucking shit up for them - we can assume House Valisti has had a lock on Third Talon since at least 9:28 (Claudio or Ezio Valisti pop up periodically in this position), and my guess is House de Riva have held Fifth a decent period of time, but as far as I can tell we know nothing about Second, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Talon Houses in this period. So maybe Zev is toppling houses left, right and centre? Seems like that sort of instability might have changed Caterina's approach in 'Eight Little Talons', though...

9:51 - Lucanis imprisoned in the Ossuary.

9:51 - Antaam invasion of Antiva, starting with Treviso. The Antaam rebellion begins in 9:44 and is ongoing; the failure of Kortez in 9:44 delayed the invasion somewhat. I wouldn't have thought it would delay it this much, but I'm pretty sure that it happened while Lucanis was imprisoned, right? So since we free him in 9:52 after a year in the Ossuary, the invasion must have been delayed until 9:51? Maybe very late 9:50?

"Conclusions"

(I haven't read the comics in a bit and I know there's some Crow stuff that goes down in there beyond the Silent Grove... but as best I recall its just Teia and Viago running into Varric and Harding, and some stuff setting up Solas and the Antaam. Please let me know if I'm mistaken!)

I think it's safe to say the Crows are in chaos for pretty much the entire first half of the Dragon age: Arainai are causing chaos from 9:16 to 9:25, then they pass the torch to Velardo, whose war against House Dellamorte must have lasted a few years if it wiped out almost all of Caterina's family. Zevran is on a murder spree at least between 9:31 and 9:34, and possibly (much) longer depending on your headcanon.

After, at very best, a decade's peace, 9:44 sees the plot to wipe out the Crow leadership, which fails but does kill half the Talons and lead to the elimination of at least one, maybe two of the Talon Houses. Half a decade after that the Antaam invades.

I've been completely on board with the critiques of Veilguard's portrayal of the Crows, but I think writing it all out like this has helped me reconcile things a little bit? This is a deeply chaotic network of feuding families, and no single Talon is going to have the secure political power to make sweeping changes. Which isn't to say the child abuse that was definitely still occuring in Houses Dellamorte and de Riva during Rook and Lucanis' childhoods is just fine. But it makes more sense to me now that Houses Dellamorte, de Riva and Cantori could have wildly different ideas about slavery and torture prisons than, say Houses Arainai and Valisti--and have extremely limited power to shift the culture of competing Houses. Even the First Talon's position is deeply precarious.

Whew. Good night!

(Just realised as I was tagging that I haven't slotted The Wigmaker Job in anywhere. I thiiiiink Viago mentions in 'Eight Little Talons' that Lucanis is currently in Tevinter for a job, maybe a sly reference to Wigmaker? But I cannot possibly get sucked in any deeper, my dog is losing her entire mind at me STILL being at the computer.)

***

Waking up and editing to add: At some point in her time as a Talon (probably First but I guess maybe not?), Caterina wiped out another house so completely that Teia doesn't even recognise the name, Gaspari, when Viago mentions it in 'Eight Little Talons'. Given House Velardo was the one that made a play for First Talon, this is a whole 'nother big intra-Crows conflict that slots in somewhere on this timeline. Caterina is ruthless, y'all.

***

Editing again a few days later to report that I was flicking through WoT and spotted a WHOLE-ASS ENTRY on Claudio Valisti that I’d managed to miss. I was… not happy. I’m begging you BioWare, no more information. I cannot reconcile it.

Anyway. World of Thedas, vol 2, p 44, has Claudio Valisti taking over from his father as Eighth Talon in 9:34, quickly getting the house to Sixth Talon and appearing to be going places. This appears to contradict p. 96 of the same, which has a Third Talon Claudio Valisti helping House Arainai in 9:28, as described above.

I thought very carefully about tearing the page out, burning it, and forgetting I ever knew this particular piece of lore.

Instead I have decided fuck it, we have a father-son pair here. Senior helped out Arainai in 9:28. His house later fell to Eighth (in my incredibly unwieldy and underdeveloped headcanon this is partly because helping Arainai really pissed off Caterina). Claudio Senior dies in 9:34, Claudio Junior inherits. By the time Junior dies to Isabela in 9:38-40 he’s got the house properly back on track, so the loss of a leader doesn’t destabilise them too badly.

Ezio Valisti is Third Talon in 9:41, according to the Winter Palace announcer in Inquisition, and the house still holds the third seat in 9:44.

(Also edited Teia’s birth year from 9:15 to 9:17; I misread Eight Little Talons. She’s 28 during the events of the story.)

[zieroses]

enda “rook” de riva

replay // shadows of arlathan + in entropy’s grasp

thoughts and notes -

shadows of arlathan

- “Solas can speak with people in their dreams, even kill them” he what? Since when can he kill them? What lore did i miss?

- They were evil gods who enslaved their people - how does Harding know these things? Lol is this stuff hidden in codex entries i didn’t read closely enough? Stuff Harding and Varric learned over the last 9 years? If so, how/why were they learning these things in their search for Solas when, in theory, the Evanuris being a danger was not on their radar?

in entropy’s grasp

- Upon re reading tevinter nights, strife is a completely different character. He was supposed to be chatty, smiley, and sarcastic, and notably did NOT have facial tattoos/vallaslin. Very strange, I wonder if this version of strife was not written by Patrick weekes. He’s also very monotone - no shade to the VA, but it was alarming to see the first less-expressive cutscene also paired with an inexpressive character. Gave me the worry that quality was going to go downhill fast after the introductory sequence to the game, but luckily that wasn’t the case.

- (Re: cutscenes - bioware games in general have 3 levels of cutscene from my observation. The capital-C Cutscene, the lowercase-c cutscene, and then the convo-cutscene, the first being the most detailed and cinematic and the last being the least. Speaking with Strife and Irelin felt like the first example of the convo-cutscene where characters just stand across from each other and chat back and forth. Which is fine but again, it’s that lack of expression paired with strife’s more monotone voice and bearing that really worried me for a hot second.)

- I do love Irelin’s design. i actually like strife’s a lot too; I just think he should be bare-faced like in the novel.

- bellara’s intro is also so strange. She barely acknowledges the gods thing. They tried a little too hard to make her quirky here. She grows on me, a LOT, over the game - they just frontloaded way too much of the super cute and absentminded thing here. I think that should’ve come to light after her introduction had a weightier heft to it. Someone also mentioned it makes no sense that she, without any questions, gives some randoms (incl. Neve if you brought her, who is Tevene) essentially a tour of what is theoretically some very powerful secrets. It would’ve been worth a brief scuffle with her, I think, and then a few lines of not just explanation, but hastily attempting to convince her you aren’t here to poach elven secrets or magic. Even a code word provided by Strife and Irelin would’ve sufficed to put to rest any concerns that never even reached the light of day.

- Ogre - i quite like the darkspawn designs, even if they’re slightly cartoonier than before. I do think it has to do with the fact that the designs themselves, with this art style, are more readable in general; i can pick out details on the types of darkspawn that I couldn’t before because of the more muted color schemes of the prior games. (I loved those, to be perfectly clear; i just like how clearly and sharply i can see what’s going on here. But i do think there’s something to be said about the cartoonish quality; there’s probably something that could’ve been done to make them slightly less so. I think they managed it with the blighted dragons.)

[crossdressingdeath]

DAI does that with a lot of things. Morrigan gets to claim to be a Elven expert, even though you know that is far from the truth if you've played Origins where she didn't know shit. Cullen gets final say in his dialogue options despite you knowing that he's lying. Grey Wardens gets shit on and the Inquisitor can wildly overstep.

DAI has this weird mix of a) expecting you to have read all the books/comics so that they don't have to explain anything and b) assuming that you haven't played the previous games so they can try to rewrite what happened.

Yeah, the required reading for DAI was ridiculous. WEaWH is always the big one because most of the others you can get by without it (even Cole's backstory isn't necessary to appreciate and understand the character, and enough of it comes up in-game to get by), but knowing what Celene and Gaspard did is kind of fucking important, Bioware. And then even when Celene purging the alienage comes up it's used as a mark against Briala for being in a relationship with her at the time even though if I'm understanding the excerpts I've seen of TME Briala breaks it off as a direct result of the purge and (as Dorian rightly points out) that'd be more Celene's scandal than Briala's anyway. Like, they try to make Celene purging the alienage into Briala's crime because she was sleeping with the empress at the time and that's just... ugh. But it's like, I would argue that it would be fair and honestly best practice to assume that people playing the third game in a series have played the first two games? DA has an overarching narrative even if the connections aren't particularly close, if someone wants to start partway through they can but the writing should expect people to be familiar with the games' stories. Maybe have some codex entries summarizing the previous games or a little intro cutscene, but... I don't know, I'm worried about the fact that apparently DAV doesn't need you to have played the first three games when literally all the setup for it is in DAI. Expecting people to have played all the games in a narrative-driven RPG series and not to have jumped in partway through is fair! Expecting people to have read five supplementary novels and two coffee table lore books to understand the plot is ridiculous. At least Tevinter Nights and The Missing so far seem to only be relevant to DAV in that they show some glimpses of what's been going on between games and give us a point of reference for some of the new characters...

The thing that gets me with DAI is that the game really wants you to side with the Templars whether it makes sense or not. Like... let's take the choice between mages and Templars as an example. The game wants you to side with the Templars. It really does, it tries its best to dissuade the player from siding with the mages if you go that route (Cullen's little "Oh... it's so dangerous... we shouldn't do it..." routine is notable when compared to Leliana and Josie, both of whom favour the mages, being very professional about you picking the Templars), it does its utmost to claim that the rebellion was unwarranted when it absolutely was not, the rebels are constantly framed as weak or mean or evil or stupid while the Templars were just misled (by... a guy who told them he'd let them murder all the mages and left out the "in service to Corypheus" bit, they still joined his little walkout to murder people, but the game doesn't get into that), it even lets you switch quests well past what should've been the point of no return if you're on the mage route (WHY CAN YOU SWITCH AFTER LEARNING THERE'S A FUCKING MAGISTER IN FERELDEN TRYING TO ENSLAVE A BUNCH OF MAGES, BIOWARE, WHY THE FUCK IS THAT AN OPTION) whereas with the Templars you can't even learn what your advisors' plan for getting you in alive is until you're locked in. And I'm not going to lie, CotJ is legitimately the better quest. I did it once to see and god damn it is quality, I don't dislike IHW but... yeah CotJ is definitely stronger.

But then you actually look at the story and... why the fuck would you side with the Templars? They left the Chantry because the Divine told them not to murder people. That's explicit, people tell you that repeatedly. They're making excuses for it, but there's always an acknowledgement that... yep, that's why the Templars left, they wanted to kill people and were mad about being told no. Leliana (the most familiar face among the advisors and given Cassandra's previous appearance was threatening Varric and Cullen's was playing yes man to Meredith for nine years and only changing sides once she became a threat to him/because not doing so would mean fighting Hawke Leliana's the one people are most likely to want to side with) is pro-mage and dismisses Cullen's claims that the Templars could help close the Breach as speculation. Which... it is. This situation is completely unprecedented, no one knows what's going to happen. But given mages are incredibly powerful and Templars are repeatedly portrayed as mostly useless in any sort of real danger that doesn't involve children or indoctrinated Circle mages (it is not a coincidence that the only people locked in the tower in Broken Circle who survive with their minds and bodies intact without the demons actively choosing to let them live for funsies are mages; the only Templar who's alive and unpossessed is Cullen, and the demons very obviously could've killed him at any time and just chose not to because they were having fun toying with him) I'm gonna say the mages are a safer bet. Also because... they invited Quiz. That could be a trap, but you know what's definitely a trap? Walking into a fortress full of heavily-armed mage killers who openly want you dead. Meeting with the Templars is really, really stupid (especially if you're a mage) and you don't even learn the plan for getting you inside unharmed until you actually select the quest. Also that plan is basically just "if there are witnesses with societal power the Templars can't murder you unprovoked" because reminder: the Templars are the absolute worst. Why would you ever want these people around. And then if you meet with the mages first like "Well I'll figure it out once I've heard what they have to say, I don't have to commit if I do things this way so I might as well" you learn that there's a Tevinter magister serving an evil Tevinter cult just chilling in Redcliffe and why the fuck would you go to the Templars at that point this needs to be dealt with. The game wants you to side with the Templars but it gives you no reason to do so, I really wonder sometimes if the writers weren't talking to each other at all.

[kalechip247]

⚠️VENOM THE LAST DANCE SPOILERS⚠️

…

i have to say… as a diehard venom fan a symbrock supporter, i am mildly disappointed by the third movie and it honestly felt like a cash grab. i loved the cute and funny bits that we did get, but it felt like they just needed to find a way to split Eddie and Venom apart. SOMEONE told Tom Hardy they couldn’t do more with their relationship and i stand by that.

in the first movie, it’s about their introduction to one another and becoming friends and in the second movie it’s about them learning to accept one another and realizing that they’re all they need. but i genuinely cannot find a theme in the third movie that matches the first two movies. it feels like they took a big step back with the third movie in terms of their relationship… in the end credits scene of LTBC we essentially get a love confession between Eddie and Venom, it’s very cutesy and gives off the vibes of middle schoolers falling in love for the first time, and there’s this mutual feeling of “he is all i’ll ever want,” but i just did not get those vibes in the TLD… very buddy comedy and very much leaning into bromance rather than romance (which is what i assumed we’d get considering all of the symbrock content the marketing team was putting out, which now just feels like queerbaiting and a stab in the back). not to mention Venom’s poor decision making, but he did change Eddie’s memories to make him think he still had cancer in the comics so i can’t really talk on that lol.

but considering how much comic lore they put into the movie (the xenophages, Knull, the Codex(which is Dylan in the comics)), i expected them to also take Eddie and Venom’s relationship a step further too, especially with the character development that they left us with in LTBC. when Venom dies while they defeat Knull (at least a manifestation of him) in Venom (2018), Issue #6, the symbiote uses this chance to say “I love you” one final time before saving Eddie.

and then in Issue #7, Eddie only thinks they’re separated and doesn’t even believe it’s dead until Reed Richards says so.

But it truly does destroy Eddie and he becomes incredibly depressed throughout the next few issues.

Issue #9–

losing Venom is the worst thing to ever happen to Eddie, and that’s what made the nature of their relationship so important, they’re entirely codependent on one another… so it’s frustrating to me that they didn’t incorporate any of that into the final movie and it seemed like Eddie moved on immediately from Venom’s death. but when Anne dumped him he became a sad sack of shit for months until he met Venom??? make it make sense.

ok that’s my hot take for the day. will i go see the movie again? …yes. but only to take notes so i can rewrite it in fanfic form.

[nighthaunting]

You ever have a moment where you reconsider something you thought a lot about in the past but then sort of turned your attention away from for a while, and your new perspective just blows the whole thing open?

Me thinking about russ and magnus during ATS/PB today after years of taking a break from HH/40K lore yielded one such series of revelations.

I was thinking about Betrayer and Russ' attempt to give Angron a lesson via the Night of the Wolf. I was thinking about Prospero Burns and Russ' belief that he's had a direct line to Magnus this whole time via Kaspar. I was thinking about that 'please'. And.

I know this is pretty much canon to the text but I've never before really Considered that one of Russ' motives in keeping this guy alive and sending him out on compliances with his Legion was (Russ believed at least) letting Magnus see the SW in action and hoping that this might influence him into trying to Avoid doing anything that might cause Russ to be sent after him.

In the past I've talked a lot about the SW keeping Kaspar around to see what would happen in terms of thinking the TS were up to something or going to do something to the Legion, which is very much the assumption the Chaos entity wanted them to make, but looking back I tbh think i slept on the concept of Russ, who canonically has taken out at least one of the Lost Primarchs in an event which is prefers not to speak (or at least the codex Strongly Implies that Russ has been used against another primarch before), and who also canonically went into the Night of the Wolf fully willing to die to make his point to Angron if only Angron could understand what he was doing.

I'm sort of compelled by the concept because in a sense Russ was letting (what he thought was) Magnus take a peek behind the barbarian mask he likes to put on, to see into a more genuine heart of his legion, letting his guard down a bit by allowing this obviously-compromised spy in. Much the same way he let the mask drop when he went to try and talk some sense into Angron, bringing up philosophy and reading and ideals that Russ' ignorant-but-noble barbarian persona would never admit to being interested in let alone reading.

And both times the gambit failed, in Magnus' case because it wasn't Magnus on the other end of the line, and in Angron's case because he was too far gone to really get what Russ was illustrating for him.

The whole thing was orchestrated so well, ironically giving the "proof" that Magnus was up to something via this sleeper agent spy that the SW were toting around with them, playing on Russ being curious enough to keep this guy around and connect the dots on the (false) links between this guy and the TS. I have this headcanon that Russ and Lorgar were actually fairly close, with Russ actually talking to Lorgar about Lorgar's writings, because he didn't seem surprised that Russ had read them and had thoughts on them in Betrayer, so I actually sort of like the idea that he had a hand in setting up the fall of Prospero? I like the tragedy of the idea that he at least had some input on the idea, being familiar enough with Russ to know he'd take the bait.

Which would make that a third time Russ got genuine with someone and had it either fail or be used against him...

[vigilskeep]

kind of insane we don't have any sort of canon basis for a dwarf from ozammar taking or marrying a non-dwarf. like, that seems like it could be at least uncommon enough to warrant some sort of codex bringing it up.

yeah! lore wise i can think of a couple of examples of dwarf/non-dwarf marriages but nothing in relation to what that would look like within orzammar culture. or even in surface dwarf culture. really big gap :( i guess they also want to avoid bringing it up too much because they didnt use the stupid elf-blooded get out of jail free card on having to design what a mixed race character would look like, and half-dwarves are supposed to be visibly half-dwarves, so that would mean having to make another body model. but throw us a bone, give me a codex, something

it doesn’t make sense for there to be no humans or elves or tal-vashoth living in orzammar and we know that’s not true even if the only examples we see iirc are apostates and mercenaries with the carta. there would be others too!! merchants selling their surface goods, anyone who wanted to be out of the chantry’s reach or escape royal justice, advantageous spouses for trading houses who want connections topside without losing their caste, elves whose traditional crafts and even song are canonically uniquely valued in orzammar, mages quietly in the employ of the great houses, maybe hired meat to throw at the roads, you name it

[bratgoatswiss]

Apologies for length, have to save the cut for spoilers.

I FINISHED VEILGUARD!

I have. So many thoughts and emotions about it and I'm still processing but I just wanted to counter some of the vitriol I'm seeing from people who are doing the Fandom thing with what I hope are reasonable, normal thoughts. Ha. Haha. Anyway. Mostly spoiler free but there's one small thing and one BIG thing that is that I'll put under the read more.

There was a lot to like about this game. The combat was fun and I think upon a 2nd playthrough it'll be even better. Some of it could get repetitive but its not a big gripe.

The characters were very endearing and felt well fleshed out as people and I enjoyed spending time with them. Most of the side quests were related to your companions in some way and I thought that was clever. Some were more interesting than others.

The writing has been contentious and I can see why. It can get cheesy and predictable in places, but overall I thought it was very similar to DA2. I enjoyed it and thought it reflected some realistic responses to what was happening around you. If you're here for gritty edgelord shit 24/7 go play Dark Souls you weirdo.

I can only speak for the Lucanis romance cause I love an angsty man, but it was perhaps, underpadded. It was slow and sweet and I did like it very much but I could have used some...more you know? I didn't even get to see my own tits and that's tragic.

Solas. I did not romance the egg in DAI. I do not like the egg. I liked how I got to handle the egg. So much. I've seen the Lavellan romance scenes and if there's any uproar from the Sollavellans (one l or 2?) it's because they didn't let you see the 2 of them fuck nasty in high definition for an hour. It's Rooks story now. You're fine. Go write fanfiction.

The lore. Hoo boy. Honestly they really did put everything in a blender and fished out what they liked. Everything is made up and the points don't matter. I don't LOVE that they retconned so much of what was in Origins. Zevran and the Crows especially seems really odd. I THINK the idea is that it's been like 20-30ish years since all that and stuff has changed or information was wrong or inaccurate or whatever? But that seems lazy. I wish they'd addressed it more with SOMETHING. But also there's 3 games worth of lore, not to mention comics and novels and like. I get it. But consistency guys. Add more codex entries or something. This is my biggest gripe. It did not impact my enjoyment too much. I loved what was added.

Spoilers below

That ending was so ABRUPT?! At least with DAI you got a ending party and final scene with your LI but here you get some end cards and voice over? I would have accepted that if we were getting DLC but this?? This is insane! Bioware I am begging on my knees to give us at least a "well we did it!" scene. The ending was epic but the ENDING was a disappointment.

Now. The suicide mission. I spent [redacted] number of hours investing blood, sweat, and tears of friendship into these 7 assholes and there is NO way to save 1 of them?? And you have to choose between Harding and Davrin??? Just those 2?? There should be a way to save them! Don't give me the no matter what crap! I don't want CONSEQUENCES I want FRIENDSHIP. If you could do it in ME2 you should be able to do it here. Also. Can we not have it be 50/50 heroic sacrifice with a black man? Like. I know you can technically choose but like why make it an option. It just feels weird.

So yeah. Initial thoughts and feelings. Overall good with some stuff I really disliked. I will be normal about this eventually.

I'll probably regret sending this out into the world when the sollavellens find me. Oh well.

[himluv]

DA Review Series: Dawn of the Seeker

<<<Previous Review: The Calling

I'm continuing on down the list in my journey to read/watch/play ALL Dragon Age content before Veilguard launches in the fall. Which means my next review is the anime Dawn of the Seeker!

Title: Dawn of the Seeker Director: Fumihiko Sori Release Year: 2012 In-World Year: 9:22 Dragon Verdict: Skip. Just read the DA wiki entry and call it good. Although, the Seether song at the end does slap.

Dawn of the Seeker tells the story of young Cassandra Pentaghast and how she came to be the Right Hand of the Divine.

So, this movie is not good. The animation style is very flat and, at least to me, visually unappealing. Everything looks bland and feels generic. The only reason I know this is part of DA is because they've told me so. 

Very few characters have actual names - most are referred to by their title. High Seeker (which in later content is switched to Lord Seeker), Knight-Commander, Grand Cleric, and even The Divine herself. None of these people are given names, which makes this movie pretty useless from a lore standpoint. 

Sure, we have a Knight-Commander, but of what Circle? It's never mentioned, as if there is only one Knight-Commander in all of Thedas. 

The only real tidbit of lore is in an absolute throw-away line that is never elaborated on. At one point the Knight-Commander says, "an event like Kirkwall will never happen again." I had to pause the movie because this threw me for an absolute loop. I thought he meant the destruction of the Chantry and the attempted annulment at the end of DA2. I had to use the wiki to discover what he was actually referring to.

A bit of codex lore explains that, in 9:21 Dragon, Divine Beatrix III (the Divine in this film) pressured Kirkwall's Templars to attempt to overthrow the Viscount. In response, the Viscount tried to give the Templars the boot, which culminated in the assassination of Kirkwall's Knight-Commander. This event directly led to the promotion of Meredith Stannard to Knight-Commander.

That's what the Knight-Commander in Dawn of the Seeker is referring to. Which is a pretty effing big event in Theodosian history, and it just never gets explained in this movie. 

Beyond that, there isn't really much here. The mages seem to be overpowered compared to what we've seen in game, and there are an AWFUL lot of Blood Mages just roaming around the Orlesian countryside. The magic we do see isn't visually recognizable as any spells from in-game and is really underwhelming. 

Cassandra as a character is pretty boring in this one. We learn about the circumstances of her brother Anthony's death, which is touching, but otherwise... Eh. She is voice acted by the same person who voiced Riza Hawkeye in the English dub of Fullmetal Alchemist though, so that's neat, I guess?

The best character is Galyan (short for Regalyan d'Marcall), a Circle Mage who barely uses any magic but it handsome and snarky. He felt like a true DA character to me, even if he served very little purpose through the whole movie. SPOILERS: sadly, Galyan died at the Conclave in 9:40 Dragon :( .

So, yeah. I've seen this film twice now, and I am utterly underwhelmed by it. Especially after having Absolution to compare it to...

No one will blame you if you just skip it, I promise.

[radwolf76]

WH40K Homebrew Space Marine Chapter: Stormwolves — December 2024 Update #2

Today's Grotmas 2024 Drop from Games Workshop brought both the new improvements to the core (AKA no supplements) Space Marine Codex experience, as well as the rest of the Balance Dataslate and updated Points Costs.

If your Marine Army doesn't include Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, or Space Wolves, you get the original 10E Oath of Moment back against your Oath of Moment target. Since my rules proxies for my Stormwolves Homebrew Chapter use either Deathwatch or Space Wolves, this doesn't change anything for me.

(Named characters from the Codex Chapters not on that above list also get extra bonuses, but again, that has nothing to do with my Armylists.)

As for the Points Adjustments, as predicted, the impacts to my sample lists were small. Took me maybe a half hour with a spreadsheet to get the numbers straightened out again, and that's across FOUR Army Lists.

That's right, I said four. Previously I've posted at most three lists for my Stormwolves, but with the extra fluff I've been generating between brainstorming new unit configurations, doing pixel art with the Space Marine Chapter Generator, or making virtual minis in Hero Forge, I decided to run the full gamut of Army Sizes, each drawing from a different source, to be able to incorporate all of my Fluff.

Onslaught (3k): This is the one that I've posted several times before. SM Vanguard Spearhead with Deathwatch and some Rogue Trader Fleet Void Troops sprinkled in for spice.

Strike Force (2K): This one is the flip side of that. Imperial Guard Elite Units to stand in for a whole Expeditionary Force of Void Troops, with a few Deathwatch for a bit of extra punch. Previously shared as a 1K list, but has since been expanded.

Incursion (1K): New as of yesterday, this uses the new Veiled Blade Elimination Force detachment for a 'Pure' Imperial Agents Armylist. A few Assassins, Some Deathwatch Imperial Agent Legends Units (Including Proteus, which can't be played in the new DW Index), and Some Void Troops.

Boarding Patrol (0.5K): Since Apothecaries are nigh useless under the new Boarding Patrol rules, I don't feel bad about using Space Wolves for this sample Armylist, even though being Apothecary heavy is a thing for my Homebrew Chapter and taking Space Wolves locks you out of them. My original concepts for the Stormwolves were rooted in being a Space Wolves successor, and this Armylist which I've shared an earlier version here before is a way to maintain that, eventhough Deathwatch gives me better fitting rules most other places.

However, that's too much Armylist for me to actually post here. Instead I've made a Google Doc with them, along with the latest updated version of the Loredump for the army. With Pictures! Some that have been posted before, and some that are brand new. All in one convenient place, instead of having to comb through my old posts.

But for any of you who aren't clicking through to look at this document which is more or less my Homebrew Codex, I'll at least drop some pics of the latest version of the armor for my 1st Selene Contingent Voidswomen-at-Arms:

[midnightsun-if]

So, I was wondering about the supernatural court and how it works. House Aurelia is sovereign over all, the Voltaire family is noted to be the ruling family of the vampires (but still subject to House Aurelia, so their rank would be equivalent to Grand Duke/Duchess or so?) while Caden calls Helena 'Her Grace' (regular Duke/Duchess then). The Grant Pack was also said to be important among wolf-shifters, therefore their standing should be on similar grounds to MC's Coven (Duke/Duchess or Marquis/Marchioness). The rest are a big question mark for now.

Please correct me if I'm assuming wrongly.

So the Etheric Court is a bit complicated with how it’s run at times… The Eclipse Throne, the seat of power for House Aurelia, is seen as the central area of power within it, and it’s treated as such. However, there are five major houses within the Etheric Court that are on the same level (in a sense)… It’s sort of like Morrowind— there’s a council of houses, all with the same level of power, in a way, but there’s one house that’s seen as the central house due to various reasons.

The five major houses being:

House Aurelia

House Voltaire

House Delmare

House Levyan

House Terrath

House Aurelia is seen as the central most power, and treated as such more often than not, because without them, and without the Eclipse Throne, everything else would shatter (for lore reasons that you’ll uncover deeper within Midnight Sun)— they are the glue that holds everything together, and are given the reverence and loyalty because of it. They are also the house that started the Etheric Court and brought them all together, which also gives them a level of seniority over the rest.

There are 15 total houses within the Etheric Court (although there are plenty of noble houses… few have just been given the honor of being asked to join— the MCs family being one of the 15). You’ll discover more about that within Helena’s scene!

You’re correct that the MCs Family are akin to a Duke/Duchess— at least when in comparison to House Voltaire or House Aurelia— but they’re an important family too. The Grant Pack is something I won’t get too far into, because I truly think they should be something you uncover within the game; they’re complicated, I’ll say that much.

An easier way I look at it (if you’ve gotten this far in my rambling) is that House Voltaire, as an example, rules, or overlooks, all vampires (and the species that fall underneath that bracket at times) while House Aurelia overlooks all supernaturals in general. Due to, again lore reasons, and simply because they have the capacity to do so (which is also why they’re treated in the manner they are).

Hopefully I made some sense— I promise I have cohesive plan for everything, and I’ll get deeper into it within the Codex page, but this is what I could explain off the cuff. ❤️

[ofwolvesandshatteredshields]

bit of Veilguard whingeing below

More Veilguard thoughts: I’m having fun but the amount of telling not showing is driving me nuts. The characters quipping at each other gives me DA2 vibes but all these scenes where they tell you what’s happening instead of letting you do it, or figure it out, are so frustrating 😭 they also immediately sucked the complexity out of the two major antagonists which was similarly frustrating, it reminds me of DA:I where they walked in with so much potential re: the mage-templar war and then just dropped it on the ground.

On a similar note I just found a codex written by Dorian where he deadass goes “hey I know I used to support slavery but yea I was wrong. duh!” I wanted to see him get a thorny learning curve! Or at least hear about it!

That all being said I am excited to get more Titan/Fade lore and to round out my squad 😄 also I showed my friend a picture of my handsome Qunari guy and he said he looked like a blueberry. so now I cannot stop thinking of him as my big handsome blueberry.

[the-evil-pizza]

I'm having fun with ffvii rebirth, make no mistake, but I can see why my streamer of choice (tm) dropped out of it too.

Now, they of course could not get rid of the open world of course. It was a big part of the OG that you got to explore an open world map in 3d.

But it being a ps1 map it wasn't actually that big, it felt doable. Meanwhile rebirth suffers from 2 big problems.

1) it's a 2024 game and everything now has to look how it should feel while in the ps1 it was just implied that you were going around the world.

And most importantly 2) It has to bear the consenquences of being part of a trilogy that originally wasn't a trilogy.

You could feel it in remake too, that Midgard got stretched out for way too long but... It really, REALLY, is worst here.

And yeah it's for the open world sections. It HAS to be big for modern day standard and it shouldn't feel empty.

This results in way too many sidestuff that feel like a lot of smoke with no meat, differently from, like, yakuza which every side quest is fun in it's own way.

The Gilgamash side quests in the open world are fine, fun even. The combact ones acceptable, cute small challenges that help you understand how to pressure and stagger!

But did we really need to check 4 to 5 lifestreams lakes in every single zone? It doesn't add anything, the party doesn't have banter for it AND EVEN WORST! The gameplay for it is clicking triangle 3 times during every lake.

It's fodder, it feels like fodder and not a good one.

The divine Temple too are not great tbh but at least that unlocks lore in the codex.

But it is heavy it's a struggle to get to. And yeah it's not mandatory but for players that (like my streamer of choice tm and me) while not completionist likes to do what they see, it easily gives burn out.

Sorry for yapping this long folks lol

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

Okay I’m back…also there is waaay too much toxic positivity in the gaming industry

Also Ubisoft should have put it foot down towards Disney executives and remind them HOW big AC is

I’m sorry but release outlaws in august and shadows in November is like releasing Endgame and TROS two months apart

So the 5 months delays to Valentine Day is what they NEEDED.

At least Ubisoft is launching an investigation to wtf is going with management vs Disney who learned nothing for SW battlefront and SE avengers failures.

Also the discourse about Ghost of Yoeti, the Tsushima sequel. Yeah it weird that they did a 300 years timeskip…and people learned they hired a LBGT va to play the main lead….

…SBI worked on recent Sony sequels like Spider-Man 2….connect the dots

UGH you guys were so focusing the Ubi bashing for choosing Yasuke. You guys thought your precious Jin Sakai was safe. HAHAHA!

I mean if Ghost of Yotei take about another tip from ac2 where there is background lore like codex and crypts that explain what happened between the centuries gap from Altair to Ezio it would be good.

But….what you guys expect? This is SONY, you know the corporation that created the 2016 female ghostbusters movie which kicked off (well put it on) the pop culture gender war?

Okay I’m back…also there is waaay too much toxic positivity in the gaming industry

Even knowing what it means the term just confuses me nearly every time I see it used.

I’m sorry but release outlaws in august and shadows in November is like releasing Endgame and TROS two months apart So the 5 months delays to Valentine Day is what they NEEDED.

gotta make sure everything works just so as well, but ya launching in a dead spot for other launches can only help sales.

At least Ubisoft is launching an investigation to wtf is going with management vs Disney who learned nothing for SW battlefront and SE avengers failures.

That I hadn't heard about yet, interesting and good they're doing that hopefully they find the answers to their questions.

Also the discourse about Ghost of Yoeti, the Tsushima sequel. Yeah it weird that they did a 300 years timeskip…and people learned they hired a LBGT va to play the main lead….

Oh who cares if they're lgbt so long as they do a good job

I mean if Ghost of Yotei take about another tip from ac2 where there is background lore like codex and crypts that explain what happened between the centuries gap from Altair to Ezio it would be good.

They could also just make another game to fill in the gap

But….what you guys expect? This is SONY, you know the corporation that created the 2016 female ghostbusters movie which kicked off (well put it on) the pop culture gender war?

Ya that was going on well before that one dropped, it's incredible how many mediocre pieces of media that fail to meet expectations have their failure blamed on one of the many different isims, phobias, and the like.

We gonna blame the flop that was Wonder Woman 1984 on Antisemitism and misogyny or can we just agree that it just wasn't that good of a movie.

I started it on Tubi and it just could not grab my interest at all, might have made it about half way through it before giving up.

That was a tangent I know but I think it fits too so I'm leaving it, lol

[obsidian-warthog]

More mid Bayonetta 3 playthrough thoughts for me, this time on the homunculi. Their codex entries are boring compared to the angels and demons, they mostly just describe what the homunculus does aside from a few interesting tidbits like one being a mutation Singularity chose to make use of.

Meanwhile the angels and demons come with fun lore about their hierarchy and role. Alluding to locations in Inferno is a lot more interesting than just 'made in Oceania Bioplant.' But it does give the homunculi a bit of a distinct identity at least, the dullness is characterization for them in itself, because they're mass produced.

It could have been expressed a bit better though, like design specs or one of the characters commenting on them would make more interesting reads. Larger homunculi designs are also oddly hard for me to parse at times in the codex, might be the limited color scheme. Still not keen on this faction, but I think I see what the devs were going for better now.

[omnibused]

Hello! For ask thingy, 50. Whats your favorite games and why? ^^

Ohh, boy. That's a big question for a little ask, 'cause I risk going nostalgic or diving into lore, haha! I'm a big fan of retro/retro style boomer shooters for burning off steam, and the Legend of Zelda series, and it just gets more convoluted from there. For the sake of brevity, I'll keep it to my more modern favorites~

First and foremost, I love stuff with deep lore. I cannot overstate that, I'm collecting and reading every single journal/codex/information entry the game provides and reading them all. If there are companion books, they're going into my collection at home, too.

If I had to narrow it down to a few:

The Talos Principle ~ Combining my love of a challenging logic puzzle with deep lore and a good story, this one blew me away with its overarching story once I realized it wasn't just a series of challenging puzzles; choices matter! Highly recommend this one to anyone who likes slowly unraveling a story bit by bit, and being left a little speechless at the end.

(cut, 'cause long post warning)

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice ~ A beautiful meeting of history and creative story telling, the main character is a vulnerable young woman processing mental illness and trauma; she's incredibly relatable. I was really impressed with the developers consulting and involving people who suffer the same illness as the main character at every step of the development process, so it's handled with dignity and grace. Gorgeous, gorgeous game!

The Elder Scrolls Series ~ This one's had its ups and downs over the years, but I've been with it since Daggerfall, so I feel obligated to give it a mention. Not every entry in the series is a winner, but the overarching lore is deep, and (usually) well written and substantiated.

The Mass Effect Series ~ My love for history and lore, sci-fi/fantasy, combat strategy, and an epic adventure all rolled into one. I find myself returning to this one every couple years to relive the story, try something else, and generally just appreciate it for the heroic tale it is.

Last and absolutely the most...

The Dragon Age Series ~ I literally cannot say enough good things about the game series itself. It's one I play yearly, at least. I mean, sure it has its flaws here and there, but, playing Origins for the first time was a breath of fresh air - I'd never played an RPG that ticked all the best boxes about an enjoyable game. The lore is deep and unique (please, please give us more on dwarves already, though), and always makes for a great read. I love that the characters are actually complex and multifaceted, no one's purely a saint, no one purely a sinner - it can be polarizing, for sure, but I love myself a good character discussion. I've got all the comics, novelizations, and companion books on my shelf.

I have a framed map of Thedas on my living room wall, if that tells you the depth of my love. 😅

Honorable Mentions: Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM, The Amnesia Series, Dead Space Series, Resident Evil Series, and Final Fantasy XIV (only 14 though, I literally do not like a single other FF game, lol)