#at least give me the lore in the codex

[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.

[icharchivist]

something about da4 has been bothering me but i can't find back the post again

in some deleted content there's apparently a codex entry that explains that the Lyrium Knights were created during a war in order to give the "elven people without magic" the "power to control magic"

the Lyrium Knights being the whole process that Fenris went through, is hinted at in the comics to be used to make red lyrium slaves currently (but well. lmao.), and especially, is described in said codex to work in the exact same way as the first step to make a golem (since the steps to make a golem is 1) fill someone with lyriums by their orifices, 2) apply burning metal and stone on the burning body to fixate it on the melting body being changed by lyrium)

but i kept wondering since i read that code but why would there be elves without magic at a time where magic "was as natural as breathing"? before the Veil?

Because it either inherently puts what Solas said back into question or it's a last minute lore change.

I guess i shouldn't overthink deleted content, and like... it's possible Solas wasn't fully honest, but this feels like a stretch to introduce into One Codex that wasn't important enough to make it into the game itself.

But this has been bugging me, especially since there's a whole implication linking back to the science around the Golems, because why would there be people without magic? or is it just very little magic compared to the powerful mages?

I guess it bothers me even more so because it makes this process something the Ancient Elves came up with, rather than the dwarves trying to reconnect with the Stone no matter what. If anything it would have been interesting to learn it was the other way around, that Golems existed during Titans time and the Elves learnt from it. especially since Caridain says "the stone whispered to me how to make Golem", which implies that when Caridain came up with it during the Blights, he learnt it from the Stone itself. (especially since there are others instances of Stone whispering being there to help the people) (which also implies that not all titans were tranquilized imo, or at least not dead, which makes the "the time of the titans is over" even more infuriating)

idk it's making me scratch my head

i really shouldn't overthink scrapped material because by default this isn't an answer they thought to share

but hhhhhhhhhhhh.

[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.

[quietbluejay]

Dark Imperium #8

it's the Make Ultramar Great Again bit PLUS the beginning of Guilliman vs Divinity

okay he says a bunch of nice things about ultramar and then it's on to his current pet cause "i made a mistake by reducing ultramar" yes here we are it's the make ultramar great again speech

Lore: Like father like son. He chooses 4 Space Marines instead of 4 High Lords Civilian though. If that sub-plot of Guilliman becoming a god gets followed through with, maybe he gets to be god of all Space Marines while the Emperor is the god of humanity.

Bluejay: guilliman: since you people didn't do what i asked you to, i'm no longer giving you an option, you're now getting ruled by space marines and you will like it

Lore: Y'know this is completely in character when you think about how the Codex Astartes was put into place. Nobody would reject it because of the IMPLICATION. It's always "I'm giving you a choice, but the other choice will force me to put my boot on your throat."

Bluejay: yeah haley can do some good character work when he wants to unfortunately he did NOT want to with The Lost and the Damned

blah blah blah he's appointing the tetrarchs

hee hee hee hee

hehehehehehe

good for her!!! woman: you deal with semantics good for her!!!

guilliman then talks about how he's very disappointed in everyone for getting hung up on the point that he's breaking one of his own most major rules, come on guys, make me stop being disappointed in humanity

Lore: It's good to see some consistency in the way he refutes or rebuts arguments, especially when he is wrong/hypocritical.

Bluejay: again i can really see how if you go into this book with certain preconceptions, it could have you nodding along with guilliman (especially because most of these people do legitimately suck, lol) people ask what happens to the governors

yeah that's a lot! Guilliman: this is an offer you should not refuse and then Calgar thinks, without a trace of irony…

Guilliman: hey calm down! this is going to make your lives better!

also, Calgar is determined to read everything Guilliman says to him as telling him off

Sky: Honestly not too broken up about this Yeah, Guilliman is being a hypocrite, but the Imperial Governors are all unelected oligarchs so Guilliman is just replacing them with other unelected oligarchs

Bluejay: it really is an ESH situation lol and the depressing thing is, it probably will make a lot of people's lives better

man this really was setting up for that one scene in…i forget which of the next two books it's in the bait and switch scene that slapped me the one that makes it absolutely clear that guilliman is unable to fix the imperium because ultimately, he shares the same mindset

though also sometimes with this book especially, sometimes i wonder if im reading too much my own ideology into it maybe haley isn't doing this on purpose and i should take things at face value

Lore: I dunno. I mean, it feels pretty out-there already in terms of blatant autocracy and the Imperium being a failed state. I at least read it as such, and BL authors and editors have voiced the same sentiment so that reading is probably the more literal one.

The fanciful one would probably be to ardently believe that this is a story about hard men making hard choices, and that brings the greatest amount of good for everyone. (Ignore the billions of sacrifices. Look at my chiseled jaw line and gold trimmings!)

ok back on topic and guilliman also returns to the topic (of the war) his strategy

blah blah Mortarion has The Heart of Darkness that he got from Abaddon and that's how he's doing this so how did guilliman get this info

ynnari mention for once lol

Lore: "do not take their words at face value" proceeds to go with what they said literately without pointing out which parts he thinks are false. tbh, this is just a hail mary attack. Like, this is literally Soviet WW2 style, attack on all fronts and keep attacking until the enemy dies. Divide and Conquer would require baits, feints, delaying tactics, or something. This ain't anything like this.

anyways the device has several sub devices that they have to hunt down and destroy and he's going to go to Espandor first chapter ends there

it's the battle for Espandoria Tertio and it's full of mud and also Primaris they're going after the last of Morty's devices and they have no clue what's ahead of them more of Guilliman politicking, heh some people wanted an orbital bombardment but he said no because hdu kill the imperial citizens that might be alive he later tells felix he doubts anyone will be alive and a big reason for doing it on foot is to make sure the device is actually destroyed

but back on the ground, things aren't going well "unspeakable slurry" Felix steps into quicksand, whoops this is mostly bolter porn tbh, but Felix is once again leeroying it up, if to a milder extent than he did before oh, lmao Haley: slaps book Haley: to go with my Tolkien references, I'm going to have some WWI references

anyways, it's complete chaos oh i remember this bit Felix is vs two Plague Marines

i remember it because i was wondering how tentacle finger man was gripping his weapon

how is he even holding the gun with his writhing, vermicular fingers such are the blessings of nurgle i guess

perhaps a hot take, but if a Plague Marine called me a "pretty little" something I simply would not get within stabbing range

who could have guessed this would happen Felix survives this somehow despite getting strangled and nearly stabbed with a morghul blade lol because a bunch of centurions (?) show up to save him they're from a different chapter but they're all buddies today anyways the Imperium won this one, quelle surprise they came with overwhelming firepower but they still lost a lot of people the centurions adopt him as their new commander and felix keeps picking people up lol there's still fighting going on inside the city

you know, given the nature of the imperial truth, "troubled" is a very mild reaction they head for the central cathedral, there's bodies everywhere etc a solitary bird flies overhead and someone is like "wholesomeness returns" felix: the primarch is gonna fix everything!

Lore: He likes seeing the Emperor everywhere, so it probably balances out. Religion was seen as bad, but obedience to the Emperor is good so Felix is probably put-off by the way the Emperor is glorified as opposed to whether he is glorified or not.

A mob comes out of the cathedral, Felix and co kill them all in 10s flat felix feels no emotions about this Guilliman shows up not long after with his entourage and then goes into the cathedral alone Felix feels like he should go in there to protect him, which he knows is a ridiculous sentiment lol wait he didn't go in alone, the victrix guard and the Sisters went in with him

next up is guilliman grappling with the emperor's divinity

mwah mwah haley's at it "if only they knew," guilliman thinks anyways, the cathedral has been desecrated in a spiritual as well as physical way Guilliman considers the worship of the Emperor to be as pernicious as the efforts of Chaos and…I might be off but I'm kind of getting a feeling that in this series Haley is drawing a comparison between the warping effects that Chaos has and the warping effects that Emperor worship has there have been a load of "not so different" moments so Guilliman is once again doubting his conviction that the Emperor isn't a god, lol

Lore: not sure if Lorgar would be laughing or fuming at this

this is very funny to me right now because the next bit?

librarians: ??? u ok there? guilliman: guilliman: yes where's mortarion's device also Guilliman knows the Sisters' sign language, natch and the device is of course on the altar once again looking like something straight out of steampunk and man me saying Morty had steampunk vibes was here all along, wasn't it

there's a note about Guilliman re-establishing the Sisters of Silence because there weren't many of them before he came back and that he's weirded out by how they worship the Emperor now "Not for the first time, he thought of his brother Lorgar" Lorgar is living in Guilliman's brain rent-free, lol

mwah mwah

the clock is still exterting a mental effect on Guilliman and only the Sisters standing around him are saving him from it, essentially, but it's still breaking through Morty knows what he's doing, huh Guilliman: so this is what Mortarion is up to these days huh Guilliman: does anyone else remember his speech at Nikaea? because I sure do they all figure at this point that Mortarion isn't here which disappoints Guilliman because he wants to fight him

Sky: …does Guilliman actually understand that he's the admin-specced Primarch, not one of the combat-specced ones?

Because I'm starting to think he doesn't actually realise this Like you'd think he'd have figured it out after Fulgrim crippled him

Bluejay: I think he knows but also: 1. he's really stressed 2. he's really stressed and depressed 3. see above, and violence is an outlet for him 4. he's the only primarch walking around and he's been doing pretty well in fights recently

Guilliman gets ready to destroy the device with the Emperor's sword when there's an interruption Mathieu is at the door and wants to come in Guilliman: sure, let him in, this is his church

Mathieu isn't wearing any protective gear Guilliman internally: whoops Guilliman: it's not safe here for you Mathieu: well you're not afraid so why should i be Guilliman: Guilliman: I'm a primarch, Mathieu

this reads like trying to convince your youngest kid to put on a snowsuit because look, sunny, your older sisters have one on Mathieu: eh i'll be fine, i haven't worn one all day and nothing has happened~ he is, indeed, fine Mathieu prays for a bit and then asks "where do they find such hate? how could they want to become this? they have made themselves monsters" mathieu have u forgotten the teachings of your own church on hate

maybe i'm reading too much into this, but is it possible he's also speaking about himself, at least partially? (re the last bit) I think Guilliman feels pretty conflicted about Monarchia Mathieu is kind of weirded out he's speaking so mercifully about them Guilliman: don't get me wrong i'm going to kill them

you know reading this scene, it makes a lot of what happened in the throne room pretty clear even before we finally get to see the flashback though i'm reading with hindsight so maybe that's why it feels like it should have been obvious to me before Mathieu: did He really lie? Guilliman: yeppp. He lied about the nature of the warp "I deduce he wanted to keep my brothers and I from temptation, but instead ignorance left us vulnerable to it" you know, I'm thinking now, if the Emperor had told the primarchs about Chaos (and not just cryptically, lol)…I'm not actually sure it would have stopped most of the traitors, lol the ones it would have helped the most were the loyalists who were way out of their depth like the main one I can think of is Fulgrim, but he could have quite easily been like "yeah i can handle this" I think Lorgar getting drawn into the Chaos gods' orbits was relatively inevitable as long as the Emperor was the Emperor, like, as long as he worshipped the Emperor, Monarchia or something like it was going to to happen Magnus is honestly also arrogant enough to think he could handle it, Morty's daemonic research…I'm not sure. I think it depends on if you're going with Swallow!Mortarion or Wraight!Mortarion Horus also didn't really have much of a choice Angron didn't have a real choice either and probably wouldn't have cared that much if he had well he'd have cared if he had basically full knowledge of what would have happened to him but he's not gonna have that in this scenario

next time we'll continue with the meat of the scene! man this is the best bit of the book

[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. ❤️

[dufrau]

Subby anon here offering my undivided attention <33 ready to please, entertain, distract, amuse, anything you need. please let me do something for you. what would you like? can i ask you questions? want me to tell you things? are we in a horny mood, just silly, serious, intellectual, creative, all of them, something else? give me a little direction and i'll do it for you

Hello Subby Anon!

I would say that I am mostly in a restless mood today. The book I'm working on is very boring and I would like to be doing anything other than listening to it right now. I keep almost buying boots just for something to do. Also I have put together a grocery list to make something for dinner tonight or tomorrow and Im thinking about cooking a lot. I am doing my best to avoid working, is the main mood. I would like to be writing, but realistically if i didn't have work to do I would probably still not be writing, but it's fun to pretend.

You can always ask me questions! I love to answer questions. I love to have any reason to talk.

But I would like it if you would tell me things. I have very little lore about you in my extremely real and not at all imaginary codex. Obviously I respect your anonymity, but if there is any important Subby Anon Trivia you'd like me to know I would of course like to know it. All I have compiled about you so far is that:

you do not have a tail,

you have read at least one fanfiction I have written,

and you for some reason think I am qualified to be your/anybody's dom despite all signs pointing to me being extremely silly and embarrassing.

I need a little more to go on.

[icharchivist]

happy to let you know I got DAO on sale !! I'm going in completely blind, any tips?

O

YAAAY SO NICE OMG!!!! I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!

my advice.... -You'll be able to choose between 3 Class and 6 origins.

-Warrior is mostly for tanking in DAO and will mostly be to hit hard and protect your companions. -Rogue allows more flanking, a bit more flexibility with double weapons and bow and arrow, and it allows you to lockpick which no other class can, so if it's between Warrior and Rogue, i do recommand Rogue more (in other games their gameplays get more different though) -Mage is especially great for later game and may seem tedious at first, but will be really amazing for crowd control and for pure control of the battlefield. Mage also have a very unique lore. The only problem is that it locks you into One Specific Origin so it may sound limiting, but i also think this origin really slap.

-Out of the 6 origins keep in mind that the City Elf Origin has triggering content about rape threats. It's a great origin but if it's a trigger, consider your options.

-Personally my favorite origins are Mage (generally as an elf), or Dalish elf. Up to you which one you'll pick though.

-Do try to read the codexes when you get them, but you will be excused to not do so right away - they'll give you more of an understanding of the world. At the very least make sure to read the ones about the Fade, Dalish Mythology, and the Blight.

-Save on different manual save often. Quick save overwrite your previous quick save, and you may want to navigate through your save files if you want to go back on a decision.

-In Lothering there will be things to do at a Tavern, and someone to meet before reaching the windmill. Make sure to do those two things before leaving. I'm warning bc i know people who miss out completely on that.

-Note that there are 4 romance options: Two are straight (one man and one woman) and Two are bi (one man and one woman again). The two bi ones are optional companions so make sure to not miss them. Keep in mind you're in no obligation to pursue romance path in game if you don't want to, but also know your options. (if you want access to all the romances, drop this mod in your override, i explain how to do that later in the post, it'll make everyone bi)

-Try to befriend your companions if you can

else I think the rest can be gone blind to, or at least if you have more questions/indecisions come back later.

This will be great for a start.

Also if you don't like the hair proposed to you i can send you mods quickly and tell you how to install them.

OH WAIT SPEAKING OF MODS

if you don't mind the extra effort i'd recommend installing this mod. It fixes everything that can be fixed, especially broken dialogues options and quest. -download the first file in the file tab -extract it on your computer and keep the .dazip file especially -Launch DAO once then close it. You don't have to start a game, just open it once on the menu -In your SteamLibrary pathway to DAO, go to the binship file. It should look like this :\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Dragon Age Origins\bin_ship -open the exe called daupdater -once you open it click on "select dazip" on the bottom of the window -select the .dazip file for the mod you just downloaded -Install it with the updater -Tadaaa it's done!

there are two ways to install mod, this way that is the complicated way, and the other where you just need to go in your bioware file's override to drop the mod file in once you extracted it (pathway should look like: C:\Users\[NAME]\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override )

But trust me on the fixing dialogue one it's worth the effort.

Edit: also sometimes there are crashes in Ostagar especially. If it happens to you, do let me know, i'll link you to a fix. it's a bit complicated so best do it IF you get the bug instead of preemptively explaining it

Aside from that you're good to go o7 go blind, have fun, if you worry the wiki is very throughout, and i'm here in case.

But yeah i won't give you any too big of pointers like "start with this quest!" or such, so you can make your own decisions as you go!

I hope you'll enjoy your ride though and do keep me updated if you get into it ;D

Take care and i hope you have fun! :3c

[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