#dragon age gw

[mmigrainee]

Trade with @socialprawn 👁👁

[pausegame]

Idk if anyone else is as blind as me (or if screenshots are just too dark) but I edited companion rooms' light balance to get a clearer look. Sharing in case anyone else is as blind as me 🤝

[trellanyx]

I finished the siege of Weisshaupt quest last night, and feel like BioWare did a really good job of selling how chaotic it was. I really felt how batshit overwhelmed everyone was, facing wave upon wave upon wave of Darkspawn from all sides, the booming taunt of Ghilan'nain in the sky and an Archdemon destroying every plan and hiding place as fast as the party could come up with them.

The closest comparison to this mission, ofc, is the assault on Adamant Fortress in DAI. But I never felt the characters’ desperation like I did during Weisshaupt. The relentless mantra of “keep moving, keep fighting, make it alive to just the next second, we have to try we have no choice”.

And because of the dialogue options I picked, it made me the most invested in my Rook that I’ve been for the entire game so far. I kept picking encouraging dialogue, and as the mission went on it really began to feel like she was straining, keeping a strong front because she’s the leader, it’s what she has to do, because if she doesn’t keep up a steady stream of “we’re gonna be okay, we’ll figure out plan B, C, D, don’t give up” then not only will she have failed her team when they need her most, but she herself will fall apart and be unable to do what comes next.

It’s Lucanis yelling, “how am I supposed to stab a cloud with a dagger?!” It’s Davrin saying the horns are calling reinforcements to the east battlements - “And where are we?!” “The east battlements!” - and the realization that the 3 of us fighting these Darkspawn alone are the reinforcements. It’s the dying screams of Wardens every few minutes, it’s the wall is gone the bell tower is gone the escape path is gone everyone is gone—

It’s Rook standing by the dragon trap, muttering, “And now I die.”

it’s also Lucanis’ EPIC move with the wings and dagger

This was the first time in Veilguard that I felt truly sucked into the story. If nothing else, I’m glad I got at least one moment like that.

[corvidous]

If GW had a dollar for every miniatures agnostic rulebook I had read...

...they'd still be trying to figure out ways to charge people more money for less plastic and make you pay for another codex again.

[hceinart]

she needed a glow up, no tatts yet but hopefully..

[enchantrum]

Secrets of the Obscure is alright and all but am I the only one kinda miffed that they ripped off a lot of it from Dragon Age: Inquisition and didn't really add or change enough to be it's own unique thing?

even the rift hunting mechanic is Exactly The Same, because you Open the rift, then fight something then close it. the animation is almost 1-1 and even the eye in the rift looks like the Inquisition eye. if it wasn't for the fact that Even The Mechanic is the same I might not have noticed it so much, but the more I play the more blatant it feels

and then their wizard lore also just feels like how demons come out of the Fade in Dragon Age to possess mages. it's almost exact

disclaimer that I'm still enjoying it because it's fun and I like that we get to see Zojja again and have a better map for practicing skyscales for those who don't have one yet, but uh...this whole plot was stolen!

and yes I know there are certain fantasy tropes that re-occur in fantasy over and over, but this doesn't feel like that. it feels like the writers legit just snapped the base ideas from DAI and then barely added or changed anything to make it uniquely Guild Wars

imo it's definitely the weakest of all the packs

which is a shame because I LOVEDDDDD the intro. the whole sequence of having to defend yourself and run for your life was so ridiculously tense, I really felt like I was playing a horror game

but now I'm on Ep. 7 and all the potential feels wasted because I feel like I'm playing the underwritten fanfiction of another game that I already played 10 years ago and didn't like that much the first time

[bingqiuhateabortion]

I think i got too invested in this idea. Separate pics below 👇

Idk if I'll draw the rest but maybe i will sketch them at some point. But if i will idk if i should draw fengqing or JW next so...

[thievinghippo]

The exact moment Davrin thinks 'you have my attention'

I have a feeling I'm going to really like this romance!

[gallusneve]

i fell in love with being human

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

I'm always fascinated when someone at the club rants about "how they just invented T'au to cash on them anime weebs", completly oblivious to the time and culture of their creation. So T'au came out first in 2001, and were obviously conceptualized some years prior, which puts them into the late 90s in their original design. This is slowly hitting "the majority of the populance has no relevant internet access whatsoever" levels of "barbaric analog ages".

So imagine where GW sits in the late 90s - its a small studio somewhere in England barely coming to touch with the first elements of the internet, with the most dominant medium being television which... is not really about "exotic" shows from the other end of the world? Those get ported over when they have proven to be a hit in their own country mostly.

And without the internet as we know it today, the anime community just... did not exist. You have to understand that the whole concept of online anime culture centred around piracy, fansubs, fanart, and the creation of the term "weeabo" was a mid-to-late 00s thing, and it took almost another decade before "weeb" was somewhat reclaimed and no longer an online-slur.

There was a whole generation that grew up with (often horribly localized) japanese shows on TV (Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon) which came over with some delay to their release in Japan. By the time this generation came to congregate into online spaces and form any sort of fan-identity and culture, the T'au and their battlesuits had already been a design over a decade old.

"But wait isn't Gundam from the 70s"? Yes, that is totally correct. However, this is the one glaring mistake people make: you cannot compare modern day media content circulation around the globe to the analog ages. Those of us who remember these barbaric analog times know how it was: you just did not know stuff existed. If it was not in the newspaper or on the telly, it might as well not exist unless you knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy.

Sure, the Internet was slowly becoming a thing that found widespread use, but it would still take a while - not to mention the technical limitations. No streaming episodes. You start the download (if you can find someone who hosted the file of a series you had to know even existed first) somewhere around lunch, to hopefully get something to watch in the afternoon. Oh and also that blocked the household's phone-line and if the download cancelled for whatever reason then it was back to square one. Under such conditions, the online community we know today could simply not exist, as the alternative was importing stuff from the other end of the world for quite the money, or hoping a really shoddy localized VCR-tape ended up at your Blockbuster-equivalent.

Of course there was anime before that time, even those regarded absolute classics in the west, but those mostly achieved that rank over here in retrospective. When in the late 00s people wanted to watch stuff and had the ability to do so they shared what was considered "the classics" first (shared to the best of their ability with one episode cut into 5 parts on youtube with sometimes very questionable subtitles).

So even if we assume there was someone at GW in the 90s who was a total "proto-weeb" and Gudam-fan, there was literally no reason to "make knock-off Gundams" because the miniscule western wargaming audience SIMPLY DID NOT KNOW THE STUFF.

You can't make a marketing ploy to reference something your average consumers have never heard off. If anything, the creation of the T'au as a robotic-centred faction was inevitable: they needed a design that could hold their own in the setting, but Necrons hogged the full-robot niche, Imperials were weird cyborgs, Orks the "madman-scrap-tech", and Nids the "biotech". The only thing left here was "not full robot but also very clean and efficient" - and just like that, the Battlesuits and Drones were born.

It was only in later years when the Internet had come into full swing where they decided to go full-suit with releases such as the Riptide, but if we talk about the OG design of T'au and the first decade? Nothing to do with anime or "fishing for weebs". The fish would not be coming to that spot for almost a decade, and it would take a bit more before their numbers were plentyful enough to make it worth casting a line out.

[pausegame]

Replaying Inquisition like going downstairs to my fancy cellar, getting out the new bottle from 1992. Sitting down for a special weekend of evenings in front of fire like the head of the household. Exquisite 🍷

[other-cullen-ficrecs]

In a way I'd consider them worse. You can say no to Morrigan and she doesn't stab you for it. (RIP Sir Jory)

The fanbase: All the mage love interests betray you!

Me:

Because sure, with Solas:

But you can, at least, learn about and disagree with Anders's plan. And Morrigan...

[willowthewiisp]

Lore points in the dlc that piss me off and make no sense

The greater will going AWOL after sending the elden beast breaks so many lore points I'm inclined to just straight up disregard it altogether because it makes no sense. The beasts were given intelligence presumably by the greater will. The elden ring existed during the time of the beasts we know that because of farum azula and the elden ring depiction there. The greater will not being around during that time makes no sense. It would make much more sense that the greater will left during the beginning stages of marikas rule and most certainly cutting ties when the elden ring was broken. But to straight up say god wasn't there from day one is so...? Bad??? I can accept the mother of fingers making shit up after the greater will cut her off but there are things that only a god like the greater will can do. what about the eternal cities being banished underground by the greater will??? If GW wasn't around for that time who did it then? What could possibly have that kind of power. It just makes no sense?????

Also the outer god of rot being written out is so bad too because what the fuck did the blind swordsman seal under the lake of rot then??? Was that just bullshit? Malenia wasn't a candidate anymore because she was an empyrean being used as the vessel for the god of rot because it wanted to imprint its age of rot on the elden ring. It literally makes no sense if Romina is the creator of rot if she's not an outer god.

and another thing, if all the numens in the shaman village were supposedly killed off by the hornsent or maybe even sacrificed by Marika (who knows) who were the black knife assassins and how were they numens associated with Marika if supposedly they were gone.

Why is rellana in the land of shadow have I missed something.

Why is there one crucible knight here.

If Marika was so traumatized by the saint jars why did she fucking allow living jars and why did she allow the jars in general to feed the erdtree. I don't believe this whole narrative that Marika is a tragic baby hurt by the evil hornsent for a second. Her entire backstory and foundation reeks of white colonizer to the point I bet those fuckin numens came here and tried to start shit. Anyways.

I know this horse has been beaten to death already but why on earth would radahn agree to be a consort to a god who wants an age of peace if "war suited him". He held the stars in place to probably protect ranni (and sellia) but also to help the golden order because we know the golden order wasn't a big fan of reading the stars and shit. He was a huge fan of Godfrey, and saw his father as a hero and wore his red hair with honor ( in contrast to radagon who hated it). Look I have no idea if radahn is just as fucked up as miquella or not but you cannot deny him being this consort is bizarre and left field. I would have genuinely accepted godwyn of all people over radahn. Godwyn was a powerful warrior he defeated the dragons but he was also kind and compassionate because he befriended fortissax to the point that dragon bro was ride or die and allowed himself to be eaten alive by deathblight. Also hello miquella literally calls him lord brother. Godwyn being revived was literally miquellas big plan other than curing malenia. So why the fuck was radahn chosen??? It's not like godwyn was dead when miquella was born and shit???? Also?? If mohg had to be used it would make kind of sense that he was used for godwyn since they share the same mother and father rather than radahn who didn't share either Godfrey or Marika (yes I know radagon is Marika). It would have probably been easier for godwyn to sink into mohgs body since they shared actual blood.

If marika was so very traumatized and hated everything having to do with the crucible and the hornsent why the hell would she allow Godfrey to have crucible knights as well as other crucible vestiges.

There's more but I'm just flabbergasted by the lore direction in general. It's almost like two different writing teams are at work.

[katyspersonal]

How many frenzied flame lords do you think existed before the Main game and DLC, and would you become one if you had the chance?

( @izunias-meme-hole )

Okay first of all, do not even bother asking me the latter question, at this point it is rhetorical 😔😔😔 *gets bonked by Melina* OW!!!

As for the former,

fdsjhfdsgh sorry for obscure Kirbу meme, I needed to use it somewhere No, but literally:

This description perplexes me a LOT because it might, after all, mean that Nanaya's Torch is not that of their son after all, but something they've found in their search, as the idea of Lord of Frenzied Flame once was their hope to overcome the cruelty and injustice.. until it wasn't, lol. "Distant land, age long past" could mean that their land, now Abyssal Forest, is distant and forgotten in the context of the game's world, or it could refer to areas like Ancient Ruins of Rauh! ....in fact, regardless of what you think her torch is, Rauh civilisation could have came in contact with something similar!

The Fingers predate basically everything, it seems.. Elden Ring originally belonged to the Ancient Dragons and dated back to the original big tree prior to Erdtree! (from Remembrance of the Dragonlord, "The Dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree. Once his god was fled, the lord continued to await its return.", sorry I often forget to copy screenshots fhdhsf) Elden Ring itself was a shooting star, so a thing that appeared after Metyr, so, after Fingers! And before Fallingstar Beasts, and before the stars that started research of Astrologers, all that!

It is hard to compile a normal reference sorry but what I am trying to say is, the Lands Between have the same ruins as Rauh all over them, and moreover, it is possible that Rauh civilisation were the ones who built the Divine Towers! @val-of-the-north also pointed out that the Divine Tower of Stormveil predated Stormveil, although it is hard to see since in the game the exact same angle as on the painting can't be accessed:

(Also no Erdtree in the painting!!!) So, rather that the new Erdtree's Gods family building them, either 1) they simply made sure to build residences of the Demigods to be connected with them because lesser Two Fingers were already living in them or 2) same thing, but the towers were good spots for lesser Two Fingers to settle and reside in! This is also important because Rauh civilisation is so ancient that even civilisations in the setting call it ancient fsjhdfhs

I am not sure whether Three Fingers are some sort of mutant/rebel child of Metyr or, if Frenzied Flame is an 'antagonist' of the Greater Will, they were at least created at the same time as Metyr's fingers! It would be paradoxial if life could be brought by Frenzied Flame, so I am leaning more towards the former! Metyr and her spawn received the signals from the Greater Will until they didn't, and so, Three Fingers received the signal from Frenzied Flame. "Punk child that listened to the uncle no one likes", yeah.

Maybe it happened because the signals from GW stopped, since on larger scale, FF represents the wish to merge back into One Great! Would not it make sense if at least one child felt like being thrown into existence to figure it out yourself was too complicated, hard, unfair and over all not worth it? All Two Fingers want is strong guidance in place of GW that abandoned them, if not Marika then Demigods, if not Demigods then Tarnisheds! Three Fingers want endless existential loneliness, reliance on the "gods" who are no better than men (thanks Godmask lol), births and eras changing in vicious cycles to stop.

The first Lord of Frenzied Flame, successful or failed, also should be a later event than existence of the Three Fingers, since we can conclude that one only becomes such by being directly grasped by them:

I still don't know why they've ended up not using this item, cowards

Likes I said, I think that Three Fingers became a thing after Greater Will abandoned Metyr and her brethen! There are two massive Finger Ruins in the Land of Shadow, incomparable with the place where Metyr resides, and in both we find the tailsmans alluding to the birth of the Erdtree:

My super ultra huge brain extra interesting giga hot take is that the massive two Ruins were the grasp of the OG Two Fingers, much bigger than all 'descendants', preparing the Earth for the Erdtree! After GW abandoned them, Metyr kept waiting for the signals in desperation, and Two Fingers said "well fuck you anyway, I'll make my own God then with gold and tits!" and turned to Marika for it! Three Fingers, however, received a different signal, or summoned it in their despair!

As for human(oids), Frenzied Flame alludes to a couple of things. There is "Lord of Frenzied Flame will take their torment, despair. Their affliction. Every sin, every curse. And melt it all away." like said in Hyetta's dialogue and Midra's Flame of Frenzy, and there is "Destroy all that divides and distinguishes" like said by Shabriri, a ghost that yearned for Lord of Frenzied Flame after Vyke failed to become one and Merchant Kale in the unfinished questline! I think the former is the original brand of despair, more universal, whereas the latter is something that developed under Marika's reign! Not to mention that Shabriri, the guy who ensured people can get sick with FF even without Three Fingers if they lose all hope, was a rando noble at Leyendell.. Makes me wonder whether the Curse of Despair V 2.0 is his words, and not Three Fingers' 🤔 You know, how in every other religion, the initial message gets paraphrased or adapted to fit the current events more?

There is a very long chain of events after or shortly prior to the Erdtree, going through War with the Fire Giants, Erdtree era deifying Crucibles and their knights (!), War with the Ancient Dragons, the "betrayal" of Marika and the Erdtree mentioned by Hornsent Grandam and the guy we interact with (!!!). So, I think it was been enough time prior to the Crusade for not only Midra, but 'many before him' to keep falling into this pit! They were not targeting the Erdtree as the reason of their woes, what I believe 'destroy all that divides' patch entails, but they had their own woes. Midra and his servants descended into this path because the Hornsent Inquisitors kept hunting him and his servants like heretics, for example:

There were other conflicts, other reasons for revenge and despair, other unfairness between other people too I imagine. Just... variety of things that made Three Fingers approach to help with the revenge! Marika, who had her own impulse for revenge, again, was approached by Two Fingers with the intent to give it to her so new Order is built and new leader is found in GW's place. She was not an option, but she was exceptional! Every other person possessed with the despair, revenge and other forms of strong pain, was approached by Three Fingers instead with the hope to also give them the """justice""" and peace they desired. Only, this time, the "peace" meant killing oneself and everyone else XD

So, again, that were "many of them". How many people were driven to despair in the span of centuries? I think most of them failed, because none was driven to the point of ignoring what Frenzied Flame really was! They'd understand the horror of this power being after all of the existence, even spirits, and chicken out. Like, the "not even my enemies deserve this" level. That leaves a number of people who'd agree to potentially throw the world into a fire deep down, YOU be the judge how many people realistically would be either tortured or insane enough for that x) + Midra in the moment he breaks also becomes the Lord of Frenzied Flame, albeit just for one cool boss battle!

And then those who became Lords failed in another way, because either their bodies would expire their use after they've reached their goal of revenge/justice/liberation, or they were caught and stopped before they could burn the world! I love the former idea better because it has the connotation with the concept of giving your soul to the Satan in order to accomplish your goal. Alas, no one can accomplish Satan's goal in this case, so it is trying and trying, with them small-thinking humans, who can't carry on the purpose of burning everything and their fire fades when what driven them to despair to begin with is accomplished.... Lord of Frenzied Flame is a very assimilative thing, yet something still lives in the 'body' part that carries its blazing microcosm head, and THAT is the one last issue with the concept (for everyone's luck)...

This is why setting the "goal" of "deal" with the Three Fingers to burn the Erdtree was SO effective, since it came to represent all life in the Lands Between! Shabriri struck a really good (?) cord here. And of course Marika ensured that Thee Fingers were sealed under Leyendell, so it would be much easier to guard them from intruders!

________________________

So, to conclude; it is impossible to give you the exact number of Lords of Frenzied Flame! Simply imagine the concept of desperate and mad seeking to deal with the devil and place it from the time GW abandoned Metyr and her spawn to the moment Marika sealed the Three Fingers away. And then after some time skip, there were Vyke (failed) and Tarnished (successful), so 'undefined but probably big number + 2'! ....and this ended up a way more elaborate topic than I expected, I think I've just learned a few things myself

[felassan]

Now in the BioWare Gear Store: Dragon Age Grey Wardens pin banner and patch

Description:

"UNITE THEM UNDER ONE HEROIC BANNER! Unite all your Thedas pins and patches under one heroic standard! Imagine this gorgeous Dragon Age Grey Wardens Pin Banner hanging on a wall in Weisshaupt Fortress or being carried into battle. Though beautiful on its own, any banner could use extra flair such as Dragon Age Pins or the included Grey Wardens Patch."

[source and link]

the 'DA' logo here is the newest/latest iteration of the franchise's title branding -

more of note than that however is the fact that the Grey Warden heraldry/sigil here (on the banner) is again the new (or northern..?) version of the Grey Warden heraldry. see here for more examples of the new version of the GW symbol and for a comparison with the older versions.

the gold accents on this merch item are also an interesting choice, where until the 'DA:D-era' Grey Warden colors have been blue and silver/gray since their DAII design. the inclusion of gold in the themeing reminds me a lot of this DA:D Grey Warden concept art from some years ago -

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You can get 20% off in the BioWare Gear Store until May 13th using my latest discount code BWBELLARA. After that date check back here for a new code. alternatively, you can use my tracking link.

✧d(•̀ v•̀ )~~♪

[vintagegeekculture]

Old UK RPG Dragonroar of Standard Games... any info about that... ? Thank You

The single biggest point of divergence between the tabletop game culture of the UK and the US is that, in the US, tabletop gaming and military wargaming split apart from each other in the 1980s into two completely different animals, and in the UK, the two remained attached together much more closely. Games are still made that appeal to that audience of nerdy ex-military dads (as opposed to college age youth, the default assumption of a game audience). The ultimate example of this is Warhammer, put out by Games Workshop, but GW also made Dragonroar, the first British fantasy game ever made, which was essentially a box, map, and miniatures.

To modern eyes, Dragonroar is a strange animal, and not just because of the (alright, we all see it, so let’s just say it) giant “War Hedgehogs.” It’s because it’s not clear if it’s a miniatures game with rpg elements, or an rpg that leans hard on the miniatures.

Dragonroar was Games Workshop’s first game (in fact, the first British RPG of any kind, a unique historical status), and it’s interesting to consider an alternate timeline where the thing with the War Hedgehogs was the huge hit that GW is known for, maybe the same timeline where Sega's mascot is Alex Kidd instead of Sonic, and Matt Groening is an underground cartoonist mainly known for Life in Hell. Because “overshadowed” doesn’t begin to cover it, does it?

Remember, Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons, started off as an avid military wargamer and ex-military guy, as were members of his original Lake Geneva group, including all those who’s PC names are immortalized forever (Mordekainen, Bigby, etc). The place of “original contagion” where D&D started to be popular wasn’t college campuses (that came later) but military bases, where it was seen as an extension of war gaming.

It’s interesting: I’ve long suspected that Birthright, the AD&D massive wargame and miniature setting, was created so there would be an AD&D setting just for the UK audience, since my friends who are UK gamers seem to love Birthright and view it as foundational, whereas Americans barely remember it, even when they have crystal clear memories of Spelljammer and Al-Qadim.