#dragon age the silent grove

[darkfeanix]

Feanix Reads Dragon Age Comics

#1: The Silent Grove

I'll be posting my thoughts on each series as a whole, rather then individual issues. Below the cut are all the thoughts I had while reading The Silent Grove.

WARNING: It does get a bit Alistair critical, as I feel like this series really brought out the worst in his character, which in turn brought out the worst in me.

Anyway, here they are, my thoughts:

The Silent Grove (I)

So, first thing's first, it's strange seeing young Varric here. It's a bit surprising how quickly I've gotten used to silver fox Varric in The Veilguard promotional materials, with the longer hair and a bit of beard growth. Younger, cleanshaven Varric just looks weird to me now. The art style also doesn't help. I'm pretty sure the art style was one of the things that turned me off the first time I tried to read them when they first came out.

I'll admit, as far as protagonists go, King Alistair wasn't a huge draw for me, and even when the comics were first releasing, I don't think I actually read them until after the final issue of Until We Sleep had been released. I was always more of a Morrigan boy, and even in the first game, there were times when Alistair grated on me. We'll return to that point later.

Now, Isabela on the other hand? Yeah, she's the reason I even started reading these comics. I do love my captain.

I'd forgotten that Zevran is mentioned by name in this story. Apparently he was meant to be in the comic in Varric's place, but was "cut due to concerns about party dynamics", which to me sounds like a skill issue. Zevran has a pre-existing relationship with both Alistair and Isabela, and it's well-established that Varric doesn't like going out (to the point that the entire party will roast him for it in Trespasser no matter who you have with you).

This is baseless speculation on my part, but I feel like they went with Varric because Varric is probably more popular than Zevran.

The Silent Grove (II)

Okay, I'd like to lodge a complaint: Isabela deserved a new outfit. Varric and Alistair both got spiffy new outfits. Isabella doesn't even get pants. And it's meant to be freezing cold. We open with a guard complaining about how cold it is (cold enough that we can see his breath). Then we cut to Isabela climbing out of the sea. Does she not feel the cold?

She obviously feels the cold; later in this very same issue we see Alistair putting his cloak on her. Why didn't Isabela get an outfit upgrade again? (Don't answer that, we all know why.)

I feel like Varric literally questioning what he's doing there proves my point; maybe it's fitting with his luck that he gets dragged into this sort of thing, but his role just as easily could have been filled by Zevran. Of course, that being said, I do enjoy it when he narrates his circumstances out loud. It's a fun character quirk.

I appreciate that we see a Vashoth (or possibly even Tal Vashoth) as a member of the Crows; it emphasises that the Crows really do take anyone into their number. A pity that all the others basically look like human men. Not elf or dwarf in sight, and no women.

I wonder if the intention was for the reader to believe the prisoner was Maric. He says it's too late, and Alistair's narration says that his quest has failed, but I'm trying to imagine reading this for the first time without having spoiled everything for myself. I feel like I would assume that the man Alistair finds is Maric.

The Silent Grove (III)

First shot of Yavana, flashback, from behind. No pants. Pretty sure she is only the second named female character in this series so far, and neither of them have been drawn with pants. I can literally see Yavana's butt cheeks. Ugh.

Lack of pants aside, she does have a really cool design, though.

This part felt like a lot of exposition, some pretty scenery, and Alistair saying that high dragons are worse than darkspawn. Really, Alistair? You fought during the Blight, and you think that high dragons are worse than darkspawn?

"In my life so far, I've taken the sword to three dragons. The big ones, I mean – not the ones that look like scaly, tooth dogs and love horse meat, but the high dragons that make the earth shake. Not even darkspawn are that savage. A dragon feed on anything. A dragon exists only to kill."

This reminds me way too much of Iron Bull's speech about dragons.

"Dragons are the embodiment of raw power. But it's all uncontrolled, savage… So they need to be destroyed."

Ugh. At least right after Alistair gives that speech in his narration, the dragon literally chooses not to kill him. He never gives any indication that he learns from his interactions with the dragon, though – at least, not that I remember. Maybe the next two issues will prove me wrong.

Anyway, we will come back to this later as well.

The Silent Grove (IV)

I love Yavana. No surprise, right? She's Morrigan's sister, and she's written almost like a mix of Morrigan and Flemeth. I do wish we could have gotten to know her more.

"In destroying what it does not understand, mankind would destroy itself."

But gosh, I really dislike the way Alistair is written… well, I was going to say here, but the truth is everything about his interactions with the dragon and Yavana makes him come across as narrow-minded and really unlikeable to me.

"Meaning you don't understand either, but it's what your mother told you."

Yeah, we'll come back to that later.

Claudio is… eh. He's a bit player. His connection to Isabela's past makes for some interesting plot developments, and he's obviously tied to the larger story involving Maric – though, as above, I'm not sure if I would have made that assumption if I hadn't been already spoiled the first time I read this. I probably would have assumed he was just planning on ransoming Alistair back to Ferelden or something. Or, heck, putting him in that prison like Maric was.

I appreciate Isabela deciding on the spot that she's not going to abandon Alistair. She's grown a lot from the women she was at the start of Dragon Age II.

The Silent Grove (V)

Isabela marching back into the Silent Grove and yelling Yavana's name is very funny to me.

I'd completely forgotten about Isabela and Varric making a deal with Yavana. That makes me even more annoyed about the ending of this arc. But we'll come back to that later.

"You wanted me alive. Now you have to try to keep me."

Okay, I'll admit, that's a good line. Some of that charming, funny Alistair shining through. A shame there's so little of him in these comics.

I do wish slut shaming Isabela wasn't something that the writer felt the need to carry over from the game. Even with Claudio being a bad guy, it comes across as really distasteful considering they've designed her character to show as much skin as possible.

Badass final page with Yavana standing over Claudio's body and talking about how getting the truth even with him being dead.

The Silent Grove (VI)

"You almost missed the fun. Evidently we're going to ask Claudio how it feels to be stabbed in the chest."

Oh Isabela, how I love thee.

Yavana's idea of a séance involves a lot more pyrotechnics than one might expect, but it is quite exciting. I am curious if she burned his corpse, or if it was some magic of Titus's to try to keep his name out of Claudio's mouth?

Yavana's explanation of the Hall of Sleepers, and what Maric's deal was, really convinces me that Alistair was wrong and that she does understand what she's talking about. In the same way that Morrigan prioritised sparing Urthemiel's soul from death even after Flemeth is killed. I don't think either one of them (certainly not Morrigan) does what they do simply because their mother told them to.

Which brings us to possibly my least favourite part of this entire eighteen issue series.

Fuck you, Chantry Boy.

It's later, so here we are. I hate this moment. It makes me hate Alistair, for doing exactly what Yavana says mankind has always done and killing what he doesn't understand. And yes, he says he does it because he blames her for everything that happened in Ferelden after Maric left, but here's the thing: Yavana didn't make the fucking deal with Maric! Flemeth did!

And the thing is, two issues ago he accused her of simply parroting what Flemeth told her. He accused her of not understanding what she was doing. Which is it, Alistair? Is she another pawn of Flemeth's, or is she the wicked witch who took your daddy away?

Except she didn't take him away, Maric made that choice on his own. He made a deal so that he would be able to save his country, and then he held up his end of the bargain by travelling to Yavana.

Uggghhh!

Issues ends with Alistair bemoaning his own status as a pawn and saying he's going to kill Titus.

And then his final narrative just feels so shoehorned because it's close to the kind of humour we're used to getting from Alistair in the game, but this isn't that Alistair.

"My name is Alistair Theirin, and I'm king of Ferelden. Long live the king, long may he reign! And so forth. Pray to the Maker he doesn't do something stupid…"

You just did! Seriously, fuck you, Chantry Boy.

Final Thoughts

Oof. It had some okay moments, but to be honest, the best part of this comic for me was Yavana and, well… Yeah.

The thing is, I don't feel like I'm familiar enough with Alistair's character to say whether or not he's acting out of character. Is all of this something that a hardened King Alistair would do? Or is it the writing emphasising all the worst parts of him without balancing it with what made Alistair so popular?

Anyway, not a great start to the re-read. I really hope I have more fun with Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep, but I'm done for the night.

[thedreadfulwolf]

now i'm only in the first little bit of my Complete dragon age experience TM (still playing origins), but I have read some of the comics before and coming up with ways to make bioware's canon fit with mine has been a great for zoning out.

(spoiler's below)

e.g. in the silent grove, when it's just king alistair on his little adventure, i imagine there was a very stern conversation with his wife - aka elthea cousland, hero of fereldan - about being safe and keeping the country running in his absence. then conversely when she's off to find a cure for the calling.

basically the pair tag teams who gets to be on an adventure while the other holds down the fort.

[littlecitywizard]

It's both plot relevant and explained in The Silent Grove, a 6 issue comic following Alistair, Varric, and Isabella.

I think it's fun that the titular dragons of Dragon Age ARE mysteriously coming back from extinction, but that is (1) never explained and (2) never plot relevant. It's like if during a major apocalyptic event, you just randomly started seeing dodos again. like hey that's neat. anyways

[liaragaming]

I know these buildings are not obviously the same, but I'm personally getting vibes.

[thevulturesquadron]

I can’t believe this old tweet has resurfaced on my cursed feed after all these years. And I can’t believe that people are still acting like this is the most offensive thing that was ever said to them.

I was about to say ‘hot take’ but in reality there’s nothing spicy about it. I feel like this was a perfect humoristic take on Alistair’s character.

Let’s put aside the fact that Gaider wrote Alistair, that he spent the most time with the intricate layers of his character. It’s ok to interact with, and build a version of a story or character that resonates with you. It’a fun. It’s healthy. But to go banging at a writer’s door or to go up in arms online because the person that wrote said character ‘doesn’t get him’, is just bonkers.

I think that some people are going feral about this because the writer’s joke (it wasn’t even a serious talk, it was a silly joke that apparently needs an addendum for people to get) clashes with the version they created in their own play-through of this perfect, devoted, head over heels, love-struck Alistair for their Warden romances. It really just boils down to that.

And you know what? When it comes to the tweet itself I agree completely. Gaider is talking about Dragon Age Origins Alistair - who IS a man child. Alistair in Origins is collecting carved figurines. He giggles and blushed at the thought of sex. He is making mean/childish comment on Morrigan’s behalf. Alistair is 19 years old. Not only that, but he also grew up in an environment mostly void of proper love and care. He was raised by his uncle and kept at arm’s length, which absolutely hindered his emotional growth. Alistair is, during that game, the furthest he could be from understanding or expressing emotional maturity. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have time to grow. And he does! As Gaider proved in Inquisition or in The Silent Grove comics. But it takes time. Your Alistair/Warden romances are not in danger because this one joke. Alistair still falls in love with the Warden. He is still a competent character, he still has a heart of gold and he still has a strong will - the fact that it isn’t focused or directed at something until you journey with him through the events of the game is just a tell that he’s at the beginning of understanding who he is. He behaves very much like a petulant child (with others) when it comes to romance in DAO. It’s ok to admit it and maybe, instead of taking offense, to focus the energy on exploring how he grows up between games, on what it takes for him to understand what love is really made of, with the good and the bad, with the sweet and the bitter, with the butterflies in the stomach but also with the effort it sometimes requires.

But you know… maybe ‘Alistair never loved you.’ 🤣

Maybe this is why we don’t get characters as nuanced as Alistair, Zevran or Vivienne anymore. Cause some of you can’t accept flaws.

[himluv]

DA Review Series: The Silent Grove

<<< Previous Review: Redemption

All right, I'm back and this time I'm diving into the first of the Dragon Age graphic novels!

Title: The Silent Grove

Author/Illustrator: David Gaider/Chad Hardin

Year Published: 2012

In-World Year: 9:38 Dragon

Verdict: Honestly? Required reading. There is A LOT of lore and world building here, and it's our first look at Antiva!

The Silent Grove is the first in the sweeping Dragon Age graphic novel series. It follows Alistair (King of Ferelden, per Bioware's canon), Isabela, and Varric as they journey into Antiva to free a mysterious someone from a Crows prison.

We learn very quickly that Alistair's sources believe Maric (estranged father and former King of Ferelden) is being held prisoner by the Antivan Crows. So, Alistair asked the only Antivan he knew for some help. Zevran mentioned Isabela and Claudio Valisti, Third Talon and former business partner of Isabela's very dead husband. Isabela invited Varric along for the coin and the stories.

Along the way we get a little taste of Antivan, learn that there's ANOTHER Witch of the Wilds named Yavana, and she lives in a swamp. Turns out, she's yet another daughter of Flemeth (how many are there?), and she has some interesting thoughts re: dragons. "The blood of dragons is the blood of the world," she says. Which is very intriguing since I'd been thinking that Lyrium is the blood of the world. Do dragons have some innate connection to Lyrium and/or the Fade? Are they returning because the Veil is weakening? All things to consider...

Surprising no one, Claudio betrays the trio which leaves Isabela and Varric to stage a rescue for the kidnapped King. They get Yavana's help, and after Claudio is killed it's revealed that Maric went to Yavana for some sort of ritual, but was taken by Claudio's mysterious patron Aurelian Titus, before they could complete it. She wants Alistair to do it instead, for his Calenhad blood, but he's sick of being manipulated by witches and KILLS her instead.

The trio then decide to continue on their quest to find Maric, setting up the next installment of the series.

This story actually made me a bit sad. King Alistair is not a happy man. And by the end of this graphic novel I really got a sense of just how much like Maric he's become, which was what Maric had always hoped to avoid with Alistair.

The story itself is good, Bela and Varric's banter is top notch, and we get to see some new parts of Thedas and learn a little more of Flemeth's interests across the continent. So, overall, a pretty damn good entry in the DA franchise.

[profoundlyfaded]

HoF as Rook - Part One - Introduction

Like many of you, I’m joining the ranks of those who are reimagining their HoF as Rook. This isn’t my actual HoF, but an alternative version of her where Alistair sacrificed himself leaving her heartbroken. In my HC, Alistair and Elissa not-so-secretly marry in Redcliffe before The Landsmeet to scupper Anora’s plans, and they become King and Queen of Ferelden as co-rulers. After refusing Morrigan’s ritual, Alistair takes the killing blow and Elissa leaves the Crown to Anora - it was put forward that Elissa be anointed as Queen Regnant but she declined, deciding to continue her service of the Wardens by rebuilding the Order in Ferelden.

She still holds the title of Queen of Ferelden but in the capacity as Queen Dowager. If she and Anora were at the same event, Anora would be introduced as The Queen of Ferelden which Elissa would be introduced as Queen Elissa of Ferelden (I’m following UK conventions for this).

She appears in this fic, which is an AU a portion of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Speak comics.

Following this adventure, she later assists the Inquisition as the Warden Contact, intending to sacrifice herself to join Alistair in death, Hawke pushes her back through to Adamant Fortress ensuring her survival.

She later joins the Inquisitor in their mission into the Deep Roads with Valta finding herself in the very spot that her Archdemon dwelled. She also appears at the Exalted Council expressing a passing interest on the fate of the Inquisition, supporting its disbandment over fears it could group as large and corrupt as the Templar Order did.

Following this she returns to Weisshaupt, as she often does, as she wishes to remain close to her lover. She changes her known surname to Thorne, both as a reference to roses, her status as an ongoing thorn in the former First Wardens side but also to allow herself to return to some form of anonymity.

Varric making contact with her to help with Solas doesn’t come as a surprise, but comes with excellent timing after saving a village against orders with a group of new recruits. She knows what’s at stake when she leaves with him and reestablishes her contact with old associates across previous adventures in the year travelling with Varric, and continues that after Solas’s ritual, drawing in allies old and new to fight the Gods.

And actually, in game (very early in this playthrough) I’ve just come across The Scared Queen codex entry and I’m making that a ‘fanfic’ of Elissa’s life -

[carinavet]

I just re-read Silent Grove and Until We Sleep while sort of mentally substituting my own world state in and ... god, Alistair really is just fucking miserable if you make him king.

[amaryllis-sagitta]

[Old reposts] Speculative timeline leading up to DAD

Large image under the cut

[Right click on desktop to expand]

[rainwolfheart]

i'm rereading the silent grove and i am cackling. what are the fucking odds that an arrow hits isabela in her one bit of armor. what a terrible archer. my dude had one job and a very easy target.

listen i love isabela and i will fight for her right to not wear pants when she's just hanging around kirkwall, but girl you need to invest in a chestplate for adventuring. at the very least.

(images have alt text)

[invinciblerodent]

"Your heart beats with the old blood, as well. [...] It sings of a time when dragons ruled the skies. A time before the Veil, before the mysteries were forgotten. Can you hear it?"

"lol isn't it funny how there are hardly any dragons in the dragon age games! and how dragons are barely relevant to the story lol" Anyway isn't it funny how the true importance of dragons in Dragon Age has been such a slow-burn concept despite the final boss of the first game being a dragon? One of the most important recurring NPCs in the series transforms into a dragon and is associated with dragon imagery. The big repeated world-ravaging catastrophes are led by corrupted dragons. These dragons and said catastrophes are connected to at least three of the world's major religions. The current age was named the "Dragon Age" because of the resurgence of dragons after they were thought to be extinct. A daughter of the aforementioned recurring character is revealed to have been deliberately breeding dragons to bring them back, and tells us that "the blood of dragons is the blood of the world." A major character from ancient times finds the idea of all the old god dragons being killed really upsetting and hasn't told us why. We found out in the last game that dragons have an unusual resistance to that world-ravaging catastrophe. There are only a couple old god dragons left. Dragons aren't always in the foreground of the story, but they're always there, they've always been there, in the background or just offscreen, hiding, sleeping, deep under the surface, waiting.

[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.)

[felassan]

Hello ! Very sorry to bother you, but do you perhaps know if you or someone else made a master post with all the Dragon Age comics and books one should read, and in which order to do so ? There's so many now that it's a little overwhelming to say the least.

If not, that's okay! Love your blog and thank you for always keeping us informed <3

hello! ◕‿◕ tysm for the lovely message. ^^ no worries at all!!

[this post] is a list of the additional DA media that's officially available for free (there are things like short stories from the website and stuff). [this post] is a rough chronological/timeline order of all canon DA media. if you'd just like my recommendation on which DA comics and books to read and in what order - the order which they came out in is totally fine imo. :D I'll list them here in case it's a lil less overwhelming in that format.

Books (novels and similar) and comics:

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne [novel - early 2009]

Dragon Age: The Calling [novel - late 2009]

Dragon Age: Asunder [novel - 2011]

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove [comic - early 2012]

Hindsight [motion comic - May 2015]

Dragon Age: Those Who Speak [comic - mid 2012]

Dragon Age: Until We Sleep [comic - 2013]

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire [novel - early 2014]

Dragon Age: Last Flight [novel - late 2014]

Dragon Age: Magekiller [comic - 2015]

Dragon Age: Knight Errant [comic - 2017]

Dragon Age: Deception [comic - 2018]

Dragon Age: Blue Wraith [comic - early 2020]

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights [book, an anthology of short stories - early 2020]

Dragon Age: Dark Fortress [comic - 2021]

Dragon Age: The Missing [comic - 2023]

Also, rly amazing to read is the lore books, World of Thedas Volume 1 and World of Thedas Volume 2. I feel like you can read these whenever though, and over a long period of time split up into chunks if you prefer. ^^ Varric's 'book' Hard in Hightown is a fun bonus read, it's an in-world novella. The IDW comic.. give it a miss. ^^; also, the list above doesn't include short stories that are outside of Tevinter Nights.

The DA:TV-focused/streamlined answer for me is - Dragon Age: Knight Errant, Dragon Age: Deception, Dragon Age: Blue Wraith, Dragon Age: Dark Fortress, Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, Dragon Age: The Missing, and the DA:TV-specific short stories. These are As We Fly, The Flame Eternal, Minrathous Shadows, The Next One, Ruins of Reality, The Wake, and Won't Know When. This covers the 'books and comics etc which are set after Dragon Age: Inquisition' era. Throw in the two World of Thedas volumes as well if you are really interested in the lore of the world in general and would like that as a primer going into DA:TV.

I hope this helped. :>

[exhausted-archivist]

DAI Codex: Giant Spider

Maybe it's meant to be that size, and the regular ones are miniatures. I mean, a just and caring Maker would create them big to start. Then they can't hide. That's what bothers you, isn't it? The hiding? A big one like that, a good twelve-footer, sure, it's all fang and such, but you know where it is: dark places where the Veil is weak. You're never surprised by a giant one because you had to go to their "house." They're not on your face at night or in your boot in the morning. And if their web is thick as rigging, you don't have to worry about that hair on your neck. Or the baby ones on the breeze! You hate that, right? Hitting a cloud of them while you're riding? Could be a dozen, but you only see one, and you try to smash it, but when you look, the thing is gone, and now your arm itches right up to the shoulder, and that hair feels like it's back, but you can't unbuckle your helm because of the gauntlets, and now the hair in your ear is tingly. That's just about the worst, isn't it? —Records of the Redcliffe guard, 14 Guardian 9:39. Witness recounting of provocation and resulting brawl. No jailings. Victim was being an arse.

They get pretty big 12' / 3.65m and then the rare ones that are even bigger. (Spiders below the cut)

Fun to me Thedas Facts

(May or may not be cursed knowledge)

Hey, did you know that some giant spiders in Thedas have heads that are larger than ogres?

[ammocharis]

One bit of obscure Dragon Age lore a day until Dragon Age: The Veilguard is released

Yavana is a daughter of Flemeth. She's the Witch of the Wilds who lives in the Tellari swamps in Antiva and protects the Silent Grove where dragons are sleeping. According to Yavana, the blood of dragons is the blood of the world. Yavana also claims that in a time before the Veil, dragons ruled the skies.

Source: Dragon Age: The Silent Grove

Previous bit

[rin-hanarin]

The funniest and saddest thing Veilguard has done: it made people retroactively appreciate how solid DA2 actually was despite one cave and one thousand enemies dropping on you from the ceiling. Even the dudest of bros looks at DA2 party banter for instance and goes "That was the shit". Hilarious, 10/10.

And honestly, yeah. I personally naively believed that Weekes's experience and skill in character writing would translate to the entirety of the story, because their characters tend to be good, right? They were responsible for Trespasser, I loved Trespasser! I went from being a downer when I saw that Bioware named another game "Dreadwolf" to cautiously optimistic after they renamed it, because maybe I'm wrong in my assumptions! But instead it was exactly what I thought it was gonna be in many ways, and Weekes just tied every thread to Blorbo From Their Mind with new characters feeling underdeveloped and the lore bits often having shit explanations (did you even read World of Thedas, bro?) It's like if Gaider looked at the ideas for the script for Inquisition and decided to make Silent Grove: The Videogame instead, focused entirely on Alistair and how he's a cornerstone of every piece of lore ever conceived or some shit.

Saying all this as a Veilguard apologist, by the way. I'm not vehemently angry at it because 1) I didn't expect the game to come out to begin with, 2) my expectations have been pretty low since "Dreadwolf" because. Y'know. Don't make sequels about some guy you decided was so beloved and important that every single plot thread ties back to him, even though the setting was perfectly fine without some Singular Overarching Big Bad and every question being answered?

Anyway, turns out every previous Dragon Age has been good and bad in its own ways this whole time. Shocker.