#dragon age antiva

[cursedcola]

Crow!Rook who is dedicated to Treviso is to Jacobus as Viago was to Crow!Rook when they first joined. Inspiring, a bit of a bad influence ngl, and a paternal figure within the crows that really screams ‘You may struggle to find your place, but I’ll be here to help you along the way’. At least depending on how morally aligned your Rook is.

(mini spoiler below the cut)

For an NPC - the kid’s varying dialogue as you progress through the main acts was a nice touch. His story felt very real - a child left stranded during the occupation. Filled with regret and loss. Unsure and looking to all around him for some kind of guidance - eager to do something yet limited by his capabilities. Looking for a goal other than revenge that he can achieve. Anything. - and children are indiscriminate when fragile like this. He’s looking at who’s getting the job done, not who’s in the limelight. It makes sense that Jacobus grows to admire Rook. It just hits more if they’re a crow.

The devs. gave him more side-dialogue than I was expecting.He had a lot to say, mulling over the Cantori Diamond’s banister, and if your Rook checks in on him often? You can witness how much they’ve inspired him and that he’s watching their every move within Treviso. Heck, with the way Viago likes to brag I’m sure he hears about what they’re doing elsewhere as well.

The whole point of his arc is to become self-sufficient and find a purpose. Hence why Jacobus founds the Egrativi house dedicated to orphans and those with nowhere to go. His story was my favorite out of all the NPC side quests.

Despite this resolve - while not an actual parent, I’d like to think Crow!Rook takes on a guiding role for him. Just like Viago and Teia did for them. What goes around comes around and all that. Although in my mind the kid forever has a mother-figure out of my Rook. With her staying alongside Lucanis? It just makes sense. The crows were ‘family’-ish before, although there’s still that inter-house divide amongst them. Yet the new era being brought in post-Veilguard? With the Dellamortes, De Rivas, and Cantoris getting linked? It just makes sense that the newly founded Egrativi house is a pillar in the family too. That’s four heads of crow households being connected through bonds other than contracts. Sure, there’re still disagreements and promising recruits being swiped from each other. Yet that’s just the crow’s nature.

In short. I love Treviso. I love the side quests we got there. I love Jacobus and the new direction laid out for the crows. Yes they’re all killers but who isn’t within Thedas at this point. My sweet child, if we could adopt you I would have smashed that button so hard it would break my controller and I’d be fine with it.

[thatwavephenomenon]

me: i sure hope the crows are not gonna be solely depicted in veilguard as a brave force who 'fight for all' when they are at their core a criminal organization who is known to buy children to indoctrinate them and turn them into assassins, by putting them in overcrowded warehouses and making them fight for scrapes in order not to starve, to later torture those who reach adulthood to finish their initiations and kill them anyways if they dare to try getting out

bioware: i cooka da pizza

[avernusreject]

Genuinely obsessed with the fact that Viago wrote crow Rook a letter after the Antaam incident and literally just addressed them as idiot. I love their dynamic so much

[dalishious]

Thedas in textures

[eethok]

unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we’re rescinding our darkspawn free promise

[kathrenax]

ready to fall in love with this man

[blighted-elf]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard scenery - Treviso, Antiva

[larkoneironaut]

More smiley Lulu because my Rook will make him happy 🫶🏽

[mohntilyet]

to do me a great honor (SHE SAID YES!!!!!)

[sinizade]

I made a little clothing guide for some Dragon Age regions

Some may not be exactly the same as the references that appear in the game or in the concepts, but I wanted to give a little of my vision to the guide.

Ferelden

Ferelden is close to the Frostback Mountains and Orlais and as Leliana and Zevran once said, Ferelden is cold, so I thought it would be a cool idea to put on thick clothes with a lot of fur so the Fereldans can protect themselves from the cold.

Tevinter

Dragon Age 4 is approaching and it's already evident that we're going to be in the Tevinter Imperium, so I discovered that a lot of Tevinter clothing was inspired by clothing from the Byzantine Empire

Orlais

We've already seen in the game and in the concept art that Orlais is all about being flamboyant and flashy and what's more flamboyant and flashy than mid-1500s fashion?

Antiva

Home to the two loves of my life, Zevran and Josephine, Antiva fashion is something I really love… The puffy arms, the breast-enhancing corsets, the leather vests, idk, I just like Antiva

Nevarra

I don't exactly have much to say about nevarra, but I did some research and found some concepts that I thought were interesting, I also saw in some places that said that the kingdom was inspired by the traditional culture of Spain

So I'll leave two references here

One for the traditional clothes and one for what I imagine might look like Nevarra dress

Frostback Basin

In Inquisition we can see that the clothes they wear are quite furry and well protected from the cold, so I think it would be a good idea to inspire some of their clothing in Inuit clothing

The Dalish (1/2/3/4/5)

Well, for the Dalish I had MANY ideas, among them think about adding traditional clothes from some tribes, native Brazilian/American, African, Hawaiian, Inca, Aztec and Mayan

Remembering that I made a great mix of traditional clothes from several tribes and not just one, and that I also have 0 intention of disrespecting any of them, if I have put something wrong or disrespectful you can be free to alert me

Orzammar

I knew little about Turkey, but when I went to research I ended up enchanted with some of the traditional clothes when I went to research about it and I thought that this style would go well with Orzammar

Par Vollen

For Par Vollen, I had a bit of trouble finding it, but I think clothing a little bit closer to the ancient Egyptian style would be something interesting. The light fabrics, the golden jewels adorning the body, idk, I like that idea

Rivain

I was doing some research again and found that part of Rivain's look was inspired by traditional clothing from Islamic Spain and Southeast Asia , so I looked around a bit for something to put here and add one more kingdom to the list

I hope you people enjoyed! Soon I will add more realms as soon as I finish my research

[lark-of-mirkwood]

So Lucanis' tarot card...look at all those "eyes" and the purple - looks familiar, right? Pride demon vibes! What's even more suspicious is that he's nicknamed "Demon" by the Venatori (and even the Crows!) because he's been k1lling them rigorously ... Will he get possessed?

ALSO, THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THIS!!! The demon manifests on his back in the shape of crow wings!!! Look, we see it glowing on his back in the tarot, in the trailer, and also HERE, THAT'S LUCANIS IN ACTION, Y'ALL, I'M LOSING MY MIND, I THOUGHT HE COULDN'T GET COOLER

[merrinla]

The Art Of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Preview pages

[cadaveerie]

me when i have to listen to my spanish-italian (antivan) rook talk with a british/american accent

[nose235678]

*Veilguard Spoilers*

So, Lucanis Dellamorte is in like his early 30’s? And his parents were Crows, said they died like Crows (on the job), when he and Illario were little and around the time Zevran returned to Antiva to take on the Talons, he would’ve been maybe 10?

What I’m getting at here, is that Zevran did some stuff so heinous to the Crows that he has a standing contract on his head that nobody’s brave/stupid enough to accept (there’s a note about the contract in game for a Crow with sexual prowess and an impossible contract) and what could’ve been that bad? Perhaps, killing the First Talon’s daughters/sons-in-law?

There’s at least some chance it was him, right…?

[dalishious]

All About The Antivan Crows

(NOTE: This piece is a revised, 2nd edition of an old one, updated with information that has since been added to the lore. I will be deleting the outdated post to avoid confusion!)

The Antivan Crows, also known as the House of Crows, is a league of assassins from the northeast nation of, as their name suggests, Antiva. While their notoriety is especially high in their home country, the Crows are well-known across Thedas as brutally efficient killers. The bulk of their work is in Antiva, but they accept contracts all over the continent. Because of their reputation for adhering to agreements—something that should one fail to do makes one’s life forfeit as far as the Crows are concerned—they are an expensive but valuable investment.

To find the Crows anywhere from Ferelden to Seheron is not an unlikely sight. Nations at war send them to cut down leaders on opposing sides. Noble houses with grudges against each other send them to cut down family trees. And of course, politicians vying for power send them to cut down their competition. Whatever the reason, the Crows are never short on contracts. They are even willing to intervene in Circle politics.

While assassinations are the most common contract, and what the Crows are most known for, they’re also no strangers to thievery and spying. In Antiva City rests a giant, well-protected archive, housing of all their collected blackmail secrets, records of past contracts, recipes for their own special poisons, and other such valuables. The secrets in this archive are what keeps the Crows ruling Antiva from the shadows by controlling the nobility and merchant princes. That is, those that aren’t among their ranks.

At the very top of the power ladder is a council of Guildmasters made up of the eight most wealthy and powerful Crow Houses. The role of Guildmaster is most typically inherited down through a family, after successfully proving their skill by single-handedly killing a target with nothing but a ceremonial dagger. The Houses that are part of this council are known as Talons, ranked from one to eight, one being the most powerful. Talon has also been used interchangeably with Guildmaster when referring to the leader of one of these eight Houses.

Below the Talons are the lesser Houses, known as the Cuchillos. The Cuchillo leaders not Guildmasters but simply Masters, entitled as Lords, until their House may gain the rank of Talon. The ranks of these different houses can change with circumstance, gaining or losing power. House heads are also capable of taking over different houses by eliminating others, should they dare to be so ambitious. As such, despite being part of a larger organization, the Antivan Crows are always in competition with each other, and are not unknown to assassinate within their own ranks to get what they want.

The current Eight Talons are as followed:

Dellamorte

Balazar

Valisti

Kortez

De Riva

Nero

Cantori

Arainai

Other known Houses are:

Ferragani

D’Evaliste

Di Bastion

Members of the Antivan royal family and merchant prince dynasties routinely join the high-ranks of the Crows, either as a way to boost their social standing, or because they were forced into it. Assassinations are seen as part of everyday politics in Antiva, and how positions of power often change hands. Having strong ties with the Crows brings a noble family both leverage and security. They also have an arrangement referred to as The Azul Contract, in which bastard royal children are given a choice of either exile or joining the Crows – such as the case was with Viago de Riva. In return, the Antivan Crows all but run the nation. Even kings have come directly from the Crows.

While the Crows are mostly led by nobility, the bulk of their organization is made up of their recruits, though the word recruit makes it sound like there was a choice involved. The vast majority of recruits, referred to as compradi, are children between the ages of five and ten, bought as slaves or found on the streets alone. For example, Zevran Arainai was seven years old when he was bought by the Crows. Compradi are usually gathered in scores at a time, though only a few survive to become full-fledged assassins. The Crows keep the children in poor, cramped quarters, and raise them in emotionally detached and torturous conditions, teaching them to know nothing else but murder, as Zevran puts it. They are allowed no personal items, and are encouraged not to make friends. Along with general training and education in Crow ciphers and Crow history, training of recruits includes pitting them against each other, tests of pain resistance and gauntlets, and challenges like locking them in an oubliette for weeks. All this leads most Antivan Crows immune to morality as much as they are to interrogation. It also breeds loyalty to the only life recruits know. Indeed, many Crows would sooner kill themselves than betray the guild.

It is very rare for a recruit to rise all the way to the top of the organization’s tiered leadership, but not unheard of. For example, Teia Cantori, climbed her way to the head of her house – but despite this, she is still regarded as an “overreaching street rat” by her noble peers.

The Crows favour recruiting elves, as they are widely regarded as beautiful and unthreatening; both advantageous impressions for an assassin. However, they take recruits from all races. Assassins are most typically rogues, but the Crows also train warriors and even mages, providing protection for their apostate assassins from the Chantry.

An experienced Assassin may gain the title of Master Assassin with time, putting them just below the leader of their House in terms of rank. Masters are capable of deciding their own contracts, and command groups of Assassins below them. Guildmasters decide which Master Assassins get which contracts based on the amount of the contract’s offer they bid to give to the guild, and their chances of success. Regularly, Assassins are not allowed to bid on contracts, and are instead assigned contracts or roles in larger ones by the Master Assassins that command them. The exception to this is when an Assassin is attempting to gain the rank of Master.

Save for rare exceptions of escape, Crows are Crows for life. The only way to leave them is to make them think you are dead, or find someone willing to protect you from them. Otherwise they will hunt you down and kill you for betraying the guild, and that is the better alternative: Anyone who angers the Crows and lives risks ending up in their own personal prison, the Velabanchel, to spend the rest of their days locked up and tortured.

Antivan Crows are often easily identifiable by those who recognize their unique tattoos – a tradition taken from the Rivaini. Some of these designs are sacred to the Crows, marking them as which house they belong to, while others are purely decorative. While some Crows display their tattoos with pride and intimidation, others prefer to keep them hidden.

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SOURCES

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age II

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Codex Entry: Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age II)

Codex entry: Blackfeather Boots (Dragon Age II)

Codex entry: Finesse (Dragon Age II)

Codex Entry: The Crows and Queen Madrigal (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Item Description: Gift of the Talons (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

Dragon Age: Last Flight

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove

Dragon Age: Deception

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 1

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 2

Dragon Age Promotional Wiki: Assassin

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[ekalita-blr]

Q: In your rich life experience, have you ever changed your image: cut your hair, dyed it, shaved your head??? Fashion Age: Podiumguard