#even if ALL they amounted to was some codex entries

[sasquatchsightings]

Adding my two cents:

On the one hand, I get that they need to make the game approachable for new people. You don’t want characters spouting off proper nouns all over the place without proper context. And with it being a decade later, there are some choices that can be negated or left out as not being important. I’m not denying that. (I will set aside how many people I’ve seen streaming the series on Twitch and posting vids of their first playthrough on Twitter, due to comparisons to BG3, but I feel like there are plenty of newbies who are CURRENTLY in the process of becoming fans who are going to be very salty when they get their shiny new copy of DATV.)

Plus I feel they want to create as much of a clean cut as they can from the original trilogy to avoid what I’m calling the Pokemon Problem. Pokémon’s issue with its premise is that if each game is in a new area and new areas necessitate new characters (ie the Pokemon) to interact with as the main gameplay mechanic, then they can either make each region totally separate or constantly add about 100 new ‘mons to the roster every generation and have to juggle an exponentially growing number of possible team combinations. Dragon Age logistically can’t keep giving us ever more complicated branching paths for an ever increasing number of blorbos without spending a huge amount of dev time trying to write just those paths and how to give players an update on all those quantum characters.

But to give us so little to tie over when responsiveness to player choice has always been a key aspect of the series is bonkers. The excuse I keep seeing is “it’s 10 years later and we’re in the North, so nothing we did matters.” Excuse me, but the Waking Sea isn’t a fucking Iron Curtain. Orlais is a political powerhouse who trades with literally everyone, and the legacy of Queen Asha of Antiva ensures that all the ruling families are both connected by politics and by blood.

And to say those choices don’t matter means we won’t so much as get a Codex entry or an NPC conversion about what happened in regards to our choices without it being written in the most neutral, passive language. Like, if we’re in Nevarra, it would be pretty conspicuous for no one anywhere to comment on their neighboring country if a war hawk is on the throne or if they’ve radically changed their stance on elves.

Not to mention that “the North” isn’t just Tevinter. Antiva, Nevarra, and allegedly Rivain are all part of the SOUTHERN Chantry, so who is Divine still applies. You can’t tell me that a softened Leliana reacted to the invasion of Qunari in Antiva and responded in the exact same way as she would have had she been hardened, and in the same way as Cassandra AND Vivienne. And you can’t tell we spent all that time getting her elected only for her to abdicate the throne in under 10 years. 

The Morrigan thing, I can see how they can bend the lore to make the Well not matter, if maybe the effect was temporary due to Flemmeth dying, but it still would beg the question how Morrigan gained all her knowledge. If she doesn’t drink from the Well, she never becomes fluent in elvish. If she does, that is what gives her the ability to turn into a dragon, so if she does that in a world where she didn’t drink, that will be odd. And many people have brought up how she is going to be “surprisingly involved” in the story, so that also begs the question of where is Kieren.

And another thing! One of the choices is who you romanced, but there isn’t anything about their fate. This is probably fine for a few of the romance options, but several of them have the chance to end in tragedy, especially Bull, Cullen, and Blackwall. Plus Cassandra can be a romance option AND the Divine. If we meet the Inquisitor and they talk about loving Cassandra, is no one going to bring up that “Hey, Cassandra Pentaghast? Isn’t that Divine Victoria’s proper name?” To me, the only way of squaring this is that the romance option question is stealthily just asking “did you romance Solas: yes or no?” And I get that he’s popular in the fandom, but people who haven’t been rabidly talking about the egg for the past decade probably just remember him as the nerdy elf who turns out to be the guy who started all the bad stuff in DAI, because his romance is locked behind a subset of a subset of a subset of the players. So making two of the three choices exclusive to his story is…a choice.

Folks, I gotta be real with you: Yes I too am disappointed that there aren't more choices carrying over in The Veilguard from the last three games, but I think the current fandom rage is a little over the top. It's not the end of the world. Can we just take a breath for a second and remember that this new game is set in Northern Thedas, where 99% of decisions made in Southern Thedas ten or more more years ago of course aren't going to matter, if you think about it? And on a meta level, I imagine the goal is to make this game as friendly as possible to brand new players, not out of spite towards existing fans.

[knife-eared-jan]

I wanna get over it but I'm actually getting more and more upset the more time passes? I honestly don't want to be, but I feel like I'm grieving for the characters and the world I put my time and love into on most days of a decade now. Like, I really mean daily even if it's not been on Tumblr for the entire time.

For many of us, these characters found us during a really dark time and we don't call them our emotional support characters for nothing. And to have all that history so dismissively handwaved by the devs in their social media posts is actually hurtful as hell on a personal level...

(I get that 117 choices is insane and would take up an unreasonable amount of resources and limit storytelling. But I did expect 8 or 10, even if half of them just lead to codex entries. That would have been fine! I mostly expected that there wouldn't be choices from DAO and DA2 as well, but Inquisition?

How will they even give a throwaway mention to the Inquisitor's romance like they did for Hawke in dialogue in DAI, if you can't even select that Cass is Divine or Bull, Blackwall or Cullen are dead? You can't even say oh they're at home doing this and that. At best romances like Dorian or Josephine will get some content while others get none. At worst the romance choice input is actually just there to ask if you romanced Solas. Yes, I'm hella upset at that even as I am currently obsessed with Solavellan.)

Because most importantly this just makes the whole world of Thedas feel.. idk cold? Knowing that there is nothing to make it feel like we affected anything in the world so far and that so many of the characters we love will never appear again because they once gave us a choice involving them. Like, do I now need to hope I don't get any major choices for the new characters I fall in love with because that means they'll never bring them back again?? Better not get attached?? Is that really what you want to teach your players?

I don't have any hope that they are self-reflecting enough or care enough to do this, but maybe if the backlash is bad enough they'll start working on a patch that at least contains some codex entries and ambient voice lines? That's like my one piece of copium I can try to actually suspend disbelief for rn. Apparently I've entered the bargaining stage..

I've been hardcore hyping about Veilguard since 11 June (which happens to have been my birthday and like that was the best part of it for me) and I really don't want to feel this way, but I do and I don't know how to describe it other than I'm grieving.

This line currently feels immeasurably ironic...

[kingdoms-and-empires]

Kingdoms and Empires Wiki Drop!

Sup guys, im releasing what i have done in the wiki today! In this post im only going to talk about the Wiki because I dont want to create an even more massive wall of text here than it already is. Please see the entire post on the forums thread!!! I solidified the lore (which means no more massive changes), set the foundations to the story (so i dont end up writing a shit ton and having to fucking rewrite everything anymore), and pretty much rewrote the canon lore until i reached a point where i literally cannot share it because itd be spoilers without the future rewrite (regarding the worldbuilding, all introduced characters and such are still the same, some just had minor tweeks, so nothing crazy like changing our old bodyguard Mary:

and turning her into our childhood friend lmao So the plan now is current wiki drop. A good amount of it will be hidden since alot of it is spoilers, so you get 39,174 thousand words of unlocked content out of about 50k words in the wiki. And that's without me transferring 90% of the Codex ingame to the wiki, so its ALL (okay like 85%) new words of content and lore! Dont worry, im dropping literally all extra work and focusing purely on playable updates now until i regain your guy's trust in me after being so radio silent.

I also know and recognize that this has gotta be annoying asf since what you guys really want is updates but after what happened with the Total War franchise (my beloved) and their lightning fast content pipeline and lack of upgrading their engine ended up destroying the health of the company and ruining fans trust in em, id rather invest on the long term than short term unlike them (meaning id rather have a set story, narrative line complete, and research resources so that i can use that to run wild in writing).

I made a history of the world as known to them, so much of it is subject to embellishment, lies, and "the victor writes history" trope.

Historia Mundis

If you'd rather just have the list of articles that can be found within the timeline though, here it is: The Great Disturbances, Wars of Unification, and the Longwei Empire

Reign of the Daishu Dynasty

Ecumenical Dominion and the Flight of the Belthean People.

Belthean Migrations

Reign of Emperor Garland

Reign of Emperor Daerin I

Reign of Emperor Valerion

Reign of Emperor Elric I

Reign of Emperor Cenric

Reign of Emperor Saldwin

Reign of Emperor Elric II

Reign of Emperor Daerin II

The Interactive Outdated Map Yeahhh almost as soon as i published the map for the patreons it became outdated lmaoooo Nareth is much bigger than originally imagined, Argent is surrounded by mountain and forest tribes (think Hispania’s Lusitanian Wars or the Germanic Tribes type of vibe). The empire (being Imperial Chinese and Persian Empire inspired) also is surrounded by the these tribes, and the Imperial Province of Lymark is now the “Protectorate of the Western Regions” which basically means theyre the watchdogs of Western Nareth. Its funny because theyre also across the St. Hytera River, which is much like the Danube River, and will inevitably face the same issues Rome did with Dacia when they had a presence that extended the natural borders.

Master List of Articles

The Evolution of Belthean Civilization

Veldora Duchy I may have gone too far here. I regret nothing and learning about agriculture and stuff was awesome.

Silverhill Duchy Mining is alot more complicated than I thought, though Engineering MC is gonna have equally alot to improve!

Imperial Ranks The ranks will have importance. I know that sounds weird, but I did not spend an afternoon writing this just for the lulz.

Emperor/Empress

Imperial Crown Heir

Imperial Prince and Princess

Imperial Duke/Duchess

Imperial Count/Countess

The Imperial Landed Knight

The Belthean Empire The biggest entry from the ingame Codex that I transferred over and polished. This should give you a hint of how ill do the other kingdoms in the future for their article.

Kin of Arava I experimented here and instead of making an actual article, made it a class lecture of a series of days focusing on the Kin with a racist professor lmao

Zera Arava So i had to do this in intervals as I was writing and plotting out his side stories. Honestly hope i did the homie justice, he's a fav of mine, though i think each of the ROs will be favs as I write more and more about them.

Sacred Dance I assure you the Sacred Dance isnt what you think it is.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patreons, you guys already read the below list. However ive cleaned the articles up and polished them! The Genesis of the Belthean Empire: From Invasion to Unification

Voryn Resdayn I wanted to see how i could make a character entry. It looks awesome, but holy fuck do they take time to create lmaooo, ill make the rest of them in the future.

Kin of Arava

Eastern Kin The descendants of Kin and Beltheans who mixed, that are settled within the empire.

House Resdayn Wanted to see how I could do the houses, still unsure (okay i dont like it) of how it came out. Hence why I started with a minor house that one of the RO's belonged to.

The Astute Emperor and the Imperial Provincial Rule: A Revolutionary Shift in Governance

Master-Scholars of Jelaytha The Jelaythan organization of scholars that Master Feren is from.

Post-Unification Transformations in the Belthean Empire: Trade, Economy, Industry, and Immigration in the Wake of Conquest

Imperial Historians Obviously the imperial faction that wants to get their hands on tutoring you lmao.

Universitas Magistrorum et Scholarium The Jelaythan/Imperial organization at the forefront of the intellectual international community.

Tripartite Alliance Read what the empire is teaching their citizens about how they conquered the alliance.

The Satrap System and Imperial Provincial Rule

The Great Racist of the Academy: Imperial Historian Acillus Cinna

The Sword Saint

Master-Scholar Kaleb

The Gleaming Horizon: Silverhill's Maritime Supremacy The book of a writer who we'll meet ingame. Youll decide whether or not to bully him as a 12 year old lmao.

Baniel Worthton The author of above said book. He even wrote about himself. Yes, it's supposed to be an ick.

The Ulrich Cothon The second book of his that'll feature in the game.

So…I guess in basketball or futbol terms… rebuilding phase is over, and i got all the players i need for a championship run!

It was an almost year long rebuilding phase, true, but omg it was so needed.

Plus I also learned alot of fucking coding at the same time lmao. Basically a lot of tweaking around with Choicescript and knowing how to code some actions. Also there's CoG implementing a new checkpoint system so thank fuck for that because this game's gonna be huge and id hate to play it without a save system.

[veilkeeper]

okay minor DA:V spoilers regarding that one passive on the skill tree

....

but i think the mortalitasi passive that is literally just blood magic is actually a really interesting look at how the chantry has to make exceptions to their own ideology in order to maintain its hegemony. like i know some people are upset about it because it's just blood magic under another name, but let's play in this space for a second.

in orlais, ferelden, even the free marches, all blood magic is a hard no. using your own blood to power spells is the territory of maleficars, if you get caught you're fucked. but in nevarra, where the mortalitasi and the associated funeral rites are very important culturally, exceptions are made. so even though it is in direct conflict with some really important ideas about acceptable magical practices and the nature of spirits, the chantry sort of has to strategically loosen the reins in order to maintain some amount of power and presence in nevarra.

they do a similar thing with the seers in rivain, too, where people are allowed to practice "hedge magic" (and even let spirits possess them, as is indicated by some codex entries), because they know that trying to stamp out those cultural practices will just lead to stronger opposition to the chantry overall.

it's sort of interesting to see where the chantry forces assimilation and where they take a backseat and let some things go. it's especially interesting to see where that intersects with cultural ideas around magic and spirits.

[explodingchantry]

In hushed whispers is dead ass such a beacon of everything wrong with dai's writing. Because it should be a very, very terrifying quest. It literally shows you what will happen if you don't succeed. It should put so much pressure on you.

But it doesn't.

I think it's interesting especially because they nailed the looming ever-present threat so well in dao. The blight IS scary. You see first hand how it can absolutely decimate an entire army. You realize one day - even if it's long after you've finished dao - that Loghain... Was right. The flank wouldn't have mattered. They would've all died. He did save the men he pulled back from the front. And you feel the heaviness of that throughout the game. You watched more skilled, more numerous warriors die facing a terrifying amount of darkspawn. Saw the person meant to be your mentor die to darkspawn. You're alone, two new Grey wardens against a world ending catastrophe you know barely anything about, tasked to stop it.

And there's this sense of constant despair all throughout the game. I think, especially, what it does well is the random encounters that are so annoying, when you travel the map. Because at first you get a few straggling darkspawn. But then they grow in number, in power, in threat. As you advance through the main quest, the threat grows, so that it's always scarier than you. Even the last quest, what should be a triumphant conquest of the darkspawn, it's got this foreboding element. You're hyperaware of all the death they've wrought. Of your potential fate as you see a more senior warden so easily killed by the archdemon. But you try, because it's the only thing you can do. It's a masterful way to escalate a game-long threat

And inquisition... Tries... To do that. And fails every single time. Because you're always triumphant with very little losses. Even when you lose haven later, you end up gaining a beautiful imprenable ancient fortress. You literally never lose. And the very mission ABOUT losing, in hushed whispers... Doesn't get anywhere. Because you don't truly SEE the results of your loss.

You pick up your companions and sure they've got that spooky red lyrium effect on them and some may vaguely hint that things suck but... That's it. Most just spring back up and join to help. A year they spent, likely tortured, likely seeing hundreds die, maddened by the red lyrium around them, and.. Nothing. Not really. You get three lines of dialogue, maybe a couple quips from them as you move around. But that's it. The quest is meant to build up on the red lyrium threat, show it growing everywhere like a disease. And it supposedly does something. But... Does it?

Does it do anything? Aside from make your companions glow a little and have slightly spooky voices?

Dragon age 2 has a small shard of red lyrium alter varric's personality so suddenly it's genuinely worrying - but dai has him next to a giant pillar of red lyrium for a year and he just springs back up, jokes with you and just... Joins you with no other.... Consequence... ?

Sure redcliffe castle is fucked up looking, but you don't see what it used to look like in dai before the quest. You can imagine it didn't use to look like this but it still stands that its ruin won't hit you as hard as if you'd seen it lively and animated. "but you see it in Dao" you try to defend - and I'll come back to that. In a moment.

There's some ominous codex entries you can find around but let's be real, only a small portion of die hard fans actually read those. They don't get the point across and furthermore, it makes the narrative fall into telling us how bad things are rather than SHOWING us.

There's extra rifts in the castle. Okay? So? At this point you mightve closed a dozen rifts, and the little time magic circles around them barely do anything. The demons are exactly the same as everywhere else. Oh, and there's like 30 venatoris total you face. Cool. What else?

The one thing that DOES actually drive the attempted point across is Leliana. She looks dreadful. She's cold. She's bitter. She actually acts like someone whose been thoroughly tortured and lost everything. Too bad she's the only one. Too bad her main scene ends abruptly. Too bad she then only has a couple quips. Too bad no one else matches her tone.

We don't see outside redcliffe castle. We don't actually know how bad the world is. How far the red lyrium has spread. "the breach is everywhere now" and sure enough the sky is scary. But that's. It. Where are the large demons, the raw magic of the fade seeping through and making things float and distort, making time and space melt? Where are the victims? We do find ONE tortured chantry woman in the dungeons early on. The sounds coming from the room are scary. But the mage we kill inside is normal. The corpse isn't mangled. There's not even proper environmental story telling. Just the sound telling us "we swear something cool happened!! Its super scary!!" and begging us to believe it.

The magic side of things is also.. Silly, I'm sorry. They excuse the shockingly strong magic that literally can alter TIME by saying the magister (I already forgot his name even though I just replayed the quest, he's that remarkable.) used the raw magic pouring out of the rift but then this is never repeated or built on throughout the whole game. Just dropped there and then never spoken about again, it's implications just forgotten. What do you mean the fade holds magic so powerful it can alter TIME? why does no one make a bigger deal of it? Why wouldn't Solas use it, now, on trespasser, in veilguard, or at the time of elvhenan?

Not to mention that time travel itself will always break any canon it's introduced to, but anyway. I won't even dwell on that because the game sure doesn't.

This part of the game somewhat holds more weight to dragon age veterans because we do have attachment to ferelden and redcliffe and some of the characters present (varric if you take him along, and leliana) but dai markets itself as friendly to people who've never played dragon age. So imagine yourself playing a new game, you know nothing about it, and a few hours into it (and it can be very early depending on your priorities) you're thrown into this worst case scenario with characters you basically know nothing about. It's a great hook - the whole game is a great hook, its characters are great hooks, the game is full of fucking hooks. But just like every other hook in the game, there's no line, no sinker. It just falls flat as hell.

The last scene, of your two other companions sacrificing themselves, of leliana sacrificing herself - of a grand total of 5 demons and 10 venatoris attacking her... It falls flat. It just does. The only power it holds is if some of the faces attached are familiar because you're a sucker whose played all the games, as well as a single line from leliana (when she says this timeline, her present, isn't real for you, but she suffered it and as did everyone else and you preventing it won't change that). You're going back so their deaths don't have to be real to you but they're real to them. But this can only carry you so far.

Also that boss fight against mr time magister is shit, it's got no stakes and no panache. And then you come back to the present and he just gives up, as if he was aware of the future you defeated him in? Of the future in which Felix is still dying? Did he really not have anything else up his sleeve? No other spell? He's desperate enough to plunge the world in chaos but he can't even do some blood magic to escape you and keep trying to save his son? His son dying a preventable way by just idk making him a warden? (granted Felix could very well die in the joining and being a warden rly is more a way to slow one's taint progressing but it's better than nothing innit). Or trying some fancy blood magic ritual since it's in the blood?? No ?? Nothing?

And don't even get me started on the political talk from your advisors and everyone involved re: choosing the mages and then allowing them to join the inquisition as people rather than slaves prisoners. Jesus fucking Christ.

Idk this post is a mess of jumbled thoughts but my GOD I forgot how pointless dai's writing was. Because in hushed whispers tries to replicate what Dao did - make the threat you face feel hopeless and terrifying - but it falls so flat and every other main quest after it only gets worse from there. Because you never lose. You always just gain double what you ever do lose. It's just... Empty. Idk.

[chronurgy]

Under a cut for discussion of the inquisition choice imports in the dav character creator and some negativity. If it matters, this is a leaked screenshot

So this image comes from this reddit thread. It shows what appears to be the summary slide of your inquisition choice inputs (given the finalize button in the corner).

I'm hopeful that this is just a summary slide and you can set things in more detail than is shown. I'm really hoping that. Because, uh, they don't seem to be asking about a lot here.

Who drank from the well and what happened to the wardens seem particularly relevant! I'd also love to see a codex entry on the divine! It wouldn't be a lot of impact on the story and it would help the it feel like your choices mattered to the world - especially because at least some of the areas we'll be visiting do acknowledge the southern chantry. No codex entries on Orlais either, since they don't ask who became empress/emperor. I guess what bothers me the most here is that codex entries with swappable paragraphs are so easy to include and would make so many older fans happy but they couldn't even bother? (My suspicion is that we'll find out some time after release that the team was under an immense amount of pressure to turn this game out quickly.)

I've seen several people claim that they've seen the "Friendship and Romance" tab in some preview and all it contains is an option to pick your romance or lack of romance, nothing further. I haven't confirmed this myself but damn that's disappointing. It's really disappointing! I assume it means no cameos and even no references to any inquisition characters. Can't reference Iron Bull, he might be dead and the game has no way to know. Can't reference Cole, we have no idea if he's more spirit or human.

And the inquisitor - no class, no personality choices, oh boy. I don't think this cameo is going to go well. Take every problem the Hawke cameo had and multiply it by three.

It seems like we've reached the point where your choices just don't matter at all. Not even the well, which I was so sure would come up given the subject of the game! They want us to care about the world, but now there is no worldstate. None of the choices we make show up, let alone matter.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Firegleam

So I spent awhile backtracking just for kicks. Some of it was worth it. Some of it ... not so much.

There is supposed to be a big chunk of green shiny out by Sylens' lab but I cannot get up there to find out. I will look later when I don't have so much firegleam to ignite. But lemme see what's over actually behind that firegleam deposit in Sylens' 'lab space', for lack of a better word.

Well, mildly underwhelming, but hey. Lemme just grab a campfire in the area and...

Oh. That's a noise. Talanah! And Longlegs! Friend and needed parts! Okay, the firegleam can wait!

Ah. Another Carja trying to find friends, family, or Other Important Person in the West. Cool, we can deal with that. A little bit out of my way, but what're friends for?

...I am missing out on so much hunting, Talanah...

A ... Shellsnapper. That's new. Okay, you brought me Longlegs and a whole new unfeasibly big thing to kill. All is forgiven. Now, lemme see ... scanned, logged, and that's a vulnerable bit but lemme hunker because that thing can probably take a huge amount of--

.........Did ... did I just one-shot Robo-Atuin?

Apparently, yes I did. I guess I worried for nothing.

Ah. Now there is a mountain in the way and not even I can feasibly climb it. I guess we find a way around or through. Yeah, yeah, we'll probably meet again when circumstances demand. For now, though ... I should be saving the world but apparently that will wait for me to ignite a lot of firegleam.

Right. Start from the Daunt, work my way down. This one at this old dig site might be worth looking at.

...Vendor trash. Okay. Fine. Next!

Huh. This lets me into that tower I couldn't get into. Now, what wonders will we find within?

...A ... codex entry and more vendor trash. Okay. Fine. Next!

............Dude, HOW ARE YOU STILL PULLING ON THAT POOR DEAD OSERAM?!? There really should be a function whereby, if you complete a quest, the quest giver can ... like, go away, do something else? Something other than pulling on the ankle on the same Oseram corpse for, like, three in-game days?

Please let this climb and ridiculousness be worth it...

Moooooooore vendor trash. Okay. Fine. Someone's going to love me when I finally get back to Plainsong for the main quest because I'm going to have so much vendor trash...

(Wow. Really glad I'm not playing BG3 like this. Imagine encumberance rules in this game...)

Right. Okay. How about this one just by Barren Light, at the edge of No Man's Land. That's got to have something worthwhile ... right?

GREEN SHINY! ...And nothing to spend it on so far. Ah well.

Okay. This is in an Old World ruin. This has to be something worthwhile.

This ... is a lateral thinking jumping puzzle. Right. Okay. Hoboy.

So ... I have a battery I can't jump with, a body of water I can't cross, and over there, a crate. Hrm.

So the only way over there is gliding. I think I see why they mapped everything to space bar, now. Guess I'm going to have to rebind some keys here or I won't time it right.

Okay, so ... can't jump on the crate while holding battery. So how... Wait. Can we use the pullcaster on this thing?

.........Oh. Ooooooooh. You sneaky bastards.

No, the ramps won't do it because it'll just slide off when the crate's at an angle. And that's where the nearly perfect dock comes in.

BATTERY FERRIED. Now, up. More crate-dragging. Wheee!

So ... that's another toucan ball. And this one's ... oh, those weren't clovers on the first ones - they were clubs, like the card suit. Because this one's giving off spades. Huh. The Old World was weird.

On that note, I should probably consider something that resembles food. Today's probably going to be a bit of a Forbidden West binge. The Saturday Shenanigans group is on a two-week hiatus between mini-campaigns - this week because I wanted a break, next week because @hyperewok1 is away and we don't have enough players on a Saturday to play when we're a person short. Plus, I really could use a little bit more of a break too. I mean, that'll mean that I have a whole weekend next weekend, just for me! (Not that I don't love my every-other-Sunday D&D group - I really seriously do. Just a whole weekend with nothing to plan for or set up for people feels ... decadent and lovely, somehow.)

Anyway, then I have to decide between going for that drone near Plainsong (which means dealing with Blight, yay), or dealing with the Rebel outposting also near Plainsong. Either way, going to stick around Plainsong at least a bit. But all of that will be easier on a full stomach. So ... food.

[scripted-pleasures]

Fourth Wing Review

1.5-2/5 stars

I would like to thank everything for giving me the strength to finish this book. It took less than a week and 14.5 pages of notes but we're done! To put it bluntly, this book was bad. Like, garbage. After talking about it for a while I get so angry that I lose the ability to form rational thought anymore. Anyways, I hope this is entertaining and/or informative! This will be hidden cuz it's a long one!

I would like to start off by saying that even though I don’t agree with the general rating of the book, I can say that I see how people enjoy this book. If this is a first fantasy book for someone, it makes an ok low barrier to entry for the genre. I think this would be mid-fantasy? I will say I wasn’t a fan of the romance, even if Yarros took her time and saved the Big Bang for way too late in the book to try to ‘flesh out’ the connection. (Spoiler alert: it was wack). For better or worse, I’m a lore person so in terms of a meaningful story with solid characters, plot, and setting, it’s no more than a 2. I do have to give credit where it’s due, and there were some parts that I enjoyed (mainly Tairn) and if I wasn’t going into this so critically, I’d give this a solid 3. The story is fine, though it is full of contradictions and weird sentences that are hard to ignore even if I was reading for fun. Violet was more interesting at the beginning of the book and things got kind of jumbled together toward the middle whenever the focus wasn’t on how horny Violet was for Xaden. The flying scenes were fun when they were actually written out. As for characters, Tarin is the best by far, no competition. I know that was bland but that’s how I felt if you wanted a short review if I was reading for fun. Honestly, this book is nothing to write home about.

 Though, I am home, and I will be writing about it, so here’s the full 2 star (more like 1.5) review:

A major non-in universe problem with this book is the use of Scottish Gaelic words/names that are being bastardized. The name of the college, dragons, and some characters’ last names use Scottish Gaelic that, as confirmed by Yarros, are not pronounced properly and are instead pronounced however she finds easiest. There are wonderful creators on TikTok that have read the book and know of/speak Scottish Gaelic that air their own grievance on her use of the language and are a wonderful source of how to properly pronounce the names/words in the book. I urge all who read this to check them out.

Anyways.

I absolutely love the fact that Yarros is actively not following the rules that she set up! 

The earliest show of this is on page 21 where there’s a quote from ‘Major Afrenda’s Guide to the Riders Quadrant’ that says “there’s a misconception that it’s kill or be killed in the Quadrant unless there’s a dragon shortage or a cadet is a liability”. A similar rule is found on page 27 where the Codex states that ‘it’s unlawful for a rider to cause another harm.’ Both of these rules are broken literally on the Parapet where Jack, an antagonist, throws someone into the ravine below and suffered no consequences. Jack also killed someone in training for funsies and nothing came of that either. Most importantly, there isn’t a shortage of dragons, there’s too many riders. The school says rider candidates volunteer yet make no moves to control the amount of applicants when they know the amount of dragons willing to bond in advance.

There was the rule that states cadets with rebel relics can’t be in groups of 3 or more, otherwise it’ll be seen as a capital offense (pg 77) though Xaden tells the group to travel in 3s

On pages 159, Violet was surprised that Jack knew information about feathertails and wondered where he got the information despite spewing the same information earlier in the book

Violet wanted to get Jack angry so that he makes mistakes in the match (pg 293) despite this plan backfiring on her against Imogen earlier in the book

On page 356, Violet is given her saddle and says “When did I ever give you the impression that I give a fuck what people think of me?” even though the page before she was bemoaning how people are going to know that she can’t keep her seat (despite her falling a dozen times every lesson)

Minor thing, but on page 475 Violet is trying to keep Liam on Taiwan’s back even though her shoulder got messed up earlier in the fight though that wasn’t brought up again

Okay, this isn’t a specific pinpoint but it looks like Bás Giath is the military, college, the national archives, and also the church….? That’s not very clear which is a problem

Other than the inconsistencies, Yarros has a bad habit of telling, not showing and even not writing or acknowledging whole scenes. This is shown on page 310 where Sgaeyl, Tairn, and Andarna are supposed to train together with Violet and Xaden. At this point we had seen Tairn and Xaden interact, Violet/Tairn/Andarna, and a wee bit of Xaden and Sgaeyl but not Violet and Sgaeyl or Xaden and Andarna, let alone all of them together. This lost scene along with the majority of the Squad Battle on the next page, mind you misses an incredible amount of character interaction and growth that this book desperately needs. This story also lacks depth in any place outside of Bás Giath/Violet which can be seen in the beginning and toward the end. The furthest back this story goes is 5 years when the Sorrengails moved to Bás Giath and there’s no mention of their life before that. Like, even a little bit. Toward the end when Mira, Violet, and Rhinonnan go to Rhi’s village, the interaction with the family is completely cut out, focusing only on a conversation between the Sorrengails. We do get to see that Rhinonnan has a nephew and that’s as far as the meeting of the main character’s ‘best friend’s’ family goes before they run into Xaden as soon as they step outside. Fantasy really isn’t the type of genre where things are secular if there’s no good reason for it for which this story has none. Quite literally nothing happens in this book and I have no idea how this story will stretch across 5 books. I had a Science Fair project once where the project was to watch paint dry in various conditions and that was somehow more interesting and full of substance than this book.

Extra tidbit: The fact that she wrote white guilt into this story, was willfully ignorant of the idea that an oppressed people would want to revolt and side with the ‘enemy’ (aka. The only people who are willing to stand up against their oppressors), and thinking that any sort of militaristic choices are made ‘for the good of the people’ while War College actively tries to kill the students fills me with so much rage. This book is huge on social media, meaning tons of people are being exposed to these views where the book says these are the morals of the characters you’re supposed to root for. Dangerous and irresponsible. There’s also the fact that Xaden and Rhinannon, both of whom are noted as darker/dark-skinned the whole book are hyper-sexualized, feeding into stereotypes, shows that Yarros and her editing team (if she has one), have never met anyone darker than a cafe-au-lait and it shows.

All in all, I rate this a 1.5-2 out of 5 stars. The only reason why I don’t rate this lower is because there were moments where I did have fun and there were flashes of what this could be. Had I not been reading this as critically as I was or read only fantasy/sci-fi books, I could see the appeal for this. Unfortunately, Yarros might give new readers the impression this is how fantasy, beginner or not, is supposed to be and that’s a disservice to the genre. I’m almost 100% sure Yarros has no plans for this story/universe because Fourth Wing can’t stand on its own, answers no questions, and brings no inquiries. I’m happy for the people who like this book, really, but this isn’t the best it can be and I hope you find actual literature after this.

[wiz-writes]

Codex #1 - Magic

I said I would post stuff about the world, so here it is - the first entry in the Aesemyr lore corner! If there's anything you'd like to know more about next, let me know :)

Magic has been a part of the world since its inception - ley-lines criss-crossing the lands, somewhere denser in quantity, somewhere almost non-existent. This shifting web of energy has been dubbed "the Flow" by those who are able to channel and utilise its power, the mages.

Mages are not very common and different parts of the world consider being born as one as either a blessing or a curse. In current-day Lyyra, mages are highly valued and often attain high positions in return for service to the kingdom. However, that wasn't always the case. Over a hundred years ago, magic was seen as an ill omen and thus, had been outlawed for centuries. Practitioners of magic were killed on sight or hunted down by families specialised in eliminating mages. Only with the discovery of Ruun and a change in leadership, have the anti-magic sentiments eventually been suppressed. Some of the mage-hunting families have prevailed until now, instead pursuing dangerous criminals and fugitives.

Mages can be divided into three groups. The first one is those who are able to sense the ley-lines and magic in general, however, that is the extent of their powers. Every mage is born like this, but if one's magic doesn't manifest in their youth, it never will. Despite their lack of the ability to channel, these people are still well-regarded and oftentimes find employ as researchers.

The second group is the actual mages who can access the Flow and draw power from it. Depending on their training and talent, they can manipulate the energy that surrounds them to take on various forms; be it the elements, pure force or an uncanny influence over one's mind. They are equally respected as they are feared, and rightfully so. A mage can be a deadly weapon.

The last group of mages is quite rare and what sets them apart from the others is their ability to see and directly control the ley-lines. In Lyyra, these mages are called "Menders", because they also tend to Ruun stones located in a number of towns. Some Menders never fully grow as they are driven mad by what no one else can see.

Of course, being a mage has its own limits and drawbacks as well. Firstly, if one cannot manage the amount of energy they draw in, they can meet a very painful end. Magic is extremely volatile and can easily backfire on its user. Secondly, even the smallest flame requires a person's full focus. Great feats of magic need time and commitment, as one cannot run before one can walk. Lastly and most importantly, all power comes at a price, and magic is no different. Given its unstable nature, it progressively corrupts the body until one is nothing but a shadow of their former self. This is called "magical necrosis" and it is the main reason why few mages live past the age of fifty.

[remidyal]

Dragon Age: Veilguard quasi-review and thoughts like ten hours in

This game is going to draw a billion comparisons to Baldur's Gate 3 for what amounts to the reason of Dragon Age Origins having been something that was meant to call back to Baldur's Gate, but in truth this series hasn't really been that sort of isometric RPG since Origins and they're just very different games. This doesn't even hurt that much now, as a fan of those games, since unlike when Dragon Age 2 or Inquisition was releasing there's been a major boom in that subgenre, with literally a dozen or more truly GREAT games in the last decade I could point you to - Rogue Trader, BG3, both Pillars games, both Pathfinder games, and on and on. In truth this game is in many ways probably a closer relative to one of the modern God of War games or Jedi Survivor or something than it is to the CRPGs of old. Some spoilers below, but TLDR: It's thoroughly a pretty okay game, but with some of the worst dialogue this side of Destiny 2's original release story.

There's something really extra obnoxious about the right-wing outrage grifter crowd targeting the newest Dragon Age, and that's that it makes it really hard to discuss that it's (so far, at least, and I really don't know that anything in it is likely to change my mind) thoroughly an alright, 7.5 out of 10 kinda game and that the writing - mostly the dialogue writing - is pretty bad. This isn't on the voice acting, which is largely somewhere between good and at least inoffensive - it's specifically the script, which in many places feels like it's gone through seventeen cycles back and forth in various committees and meetings. The grifter crowd is using this to attack that all of the various gender stuff in the game is hamfisted. On the face of it, this isn't even incorrect, because it is hamfisted, because everything in the dialogue in this game is hamfisted, stilted, or both. The game has the subtlety of a brick in a sock about EVERYTHING.

Like, early on there's a very common RPG sort of setup - there's a village where some people with a faction you're dealing with have been sent and have run into trouble, and everyone's very aware the village has come under some kind of attack. Except they're shocked, shocked when they get there and the village isn't experiencing business as usual! So shocked that they repeat comments about the absence of people like ten times in the space of about two minutes, but never quite manage to put two and two together until you barge into the village proper and deal with the blight situation that was obviously there all along (like, literally, you can see it from where they were standing making those comments...). It's the kind of writing that clearly isn't within the universe; it's made to make certain that if you're not paying attention at all you still get the point, and then some. It's not a dealbreaker, it's not the end of the world - but it's also just not great, and a lot of games in recent years have been great on these fronts while this is a distinct step down from Inquistion's dialogue quality which already wasn't stellar.

Or, for another example, the power of teamwork and friendship speech. I'm generally a sucker for these; I've played a lot of Persona games over the years, or even FF14, or honestly most jrpgs at some point. BUT. Dragon Age: Veilguard decides it wants to do one of these with characters who literally met like two scenes prior and have been established as not knowing each other, and makes a pretty big deal of it, and it is not in any way earned. It feels like - though I trust that it wasn't - a scene that was generated by chatGPT, it's so out of place for the timing.

The most irritating part of this is that there IS good writing present in the game - the codex entries I've gotten so far are largely well written and much more natural feeling than any of the dialogue. That's the opposite of how it should be! And, in truth, I suspect that the codex entries simply got passed through less hands than the dialogue script, because everything I'm talking about above screams of too many cooks syndrome.

That said, I'm still okay with the game as I said. Combat is simplistic, but fun enough; the talent tree is if anything overstuffed with choices, and the environments and look of the game so far are gorgeous. I actually think the character creator itself is quite well done, though I've never been one to spend hours crafting the perfect character - I usually just hit random until someone who looks nice enough hits my screen and then maybe tweak a couple details.

The game seems to be a hit, regardless of any of this, and I'm fine with that - I certainly WANT to see more options and inclusivity in games, which means I am somehow placed in a position where I need to want a fucking middling quality EA title to do well enough that the people pushing bullshit have to go away (though they'll of course just move to the next thing they can sell their audience on.) It's a mediocre game, but good news - it's a mediocre that invites everyone to participate.

[wispythreads]

Final Thoughts Replaying Mass Effect 2

There are a lot of mechanical improvements and some graphical upgrades, some nice new stuff added with Shepard's personal room, the alternate outfits, the paragon and renegade interrupts, the terminal of messages you can get from the npcs you interacted with, everyone having a loyalty mission, the Drell are a neat new addition to the mix of Citadel space and I adore the Vorcha an inordinate amount, I wish there was more in game for them beyond just being a bunch of enemies to shoot at. I'm just constantly rotating the codex entry about the group that were raised by Asari. Protheans being reintroduced through the Collector's was pretty neat too! I think this game has more random npcs that I just really liked for no particularly reason, even if they were just static and hanging around one area.

There is some broken consistency at points in the story that is a bit frustrating for me but in a "ok, fine, I guess this is what we're working with now" kind of hand-wavey way for most of it.

Mass Effect 1 is pretty certain that the Reapers are fully mechanical and beyond human comprehension, Mass Effect 2 says "actually no they are inorganic AND organic, here's an explanation for why they've been destroying whole galactic communities every so often as a cyclical nature =)" Think it might've been better if we were never given a why. It being a kind of reproductive cycle really undercuts all the build up of not having the capability to understand their reasons in the first game.

Mass Effect 1 has the Council finally recognize, very blatantly, that Shepard has been telling the truth this entire time and not just a warped personal perception of what they believe to be the truth. Mass Effect 2 has them backtrack and say there is no evidence of Reapers, no way to verify that this is what Sovereign was beyond being Saren's ship. It feels like a plot point that makes sense as a repercussion for not saving the original council and having to deal with their successors, but having it applied to the original council as well is just. Augh. "We've dismissed those claims." Although Sparatus's air quotes are cute. Who taught him that?

Mass Effect 1 has Cerberus very clearly painted as a secret ops of the Alliance that has fully gone rogue and is doing absolutely heinous, evil shit. Mass Effect 2 (unsuccessfully) does everything it can to try to paint them in a more sympathetic light, especially with Miranda being it's personal cheerleader always coming up with a (very unsatisfying) explanation as to why they are not the bad guys. I will grant it points for at least allowing Shepard to have full autonomy and still, at every turn, disagree with the notion that they are with Cerberus or support Cerberus in any way.

Mass Effect 1 has AI as illegal. Full stop. It is a very, very big deal and a very, very dangerous crime. As already mentioned previously, this is really just kind of brushed over in Mass Effect 2? Joker is annoyed and doesn't trust EDI for most of the game but that's a pretty mild negative reaction compared to how everyone should be feeling about her, and the fact that so much of the crew are just kind of nonchalant about learning she exists is so jarring and perplexing for me.

Aside from that the game just feels. More like a game? Less like an immersive story. The level designs for fire fights are more obvious, the worlds are more tight and restrictive with paths that clearly are funneling you in a very specific direction and have no capability for you to come back later, as there's no reason to come back later. Mass Effect 1 really sold me on the idea that these were places that people lived and worked and survived as best as they could. I don't really get that with 2, now it's just a place to plow through enemies in order to get through my objective. I want more from this world than that, I think it deserves more than that.

[cordsycords]

Okay, finished DA:O the other day and some more thoughts

Still believe it has the best quest design out of the three, especially with how it's critical path is used as a vehicle to world build/explain the lore. Yes, codex entries help as well, but you can still get the main points of how Thedas works through dialogue rather than reading. The critical path also brings you to three fantasy staples (elves, dwarves, mages) and then introduces how the typical tropes that go along with these staples are being subverted in DA. It's genuinely great.

Seriously, all I can think about is that DA2 and DAI didn't have to do as much legwork, because even if you are new to the series and you don't know what's up, at least you can read the wiki. But there wasn't a wiki when DAO came out, the devs had to make sure that the world building was interesting/communicated enough so that others would want to document it.

And yes, there is considerably less backtracking in this game compared to others. I think it comes up the most when you first get to Denerim and start collecting the faction quests (chapter's board, Blackstone irregulars) which require you to hike all over the city. This is... Meh. Maybe it's just because of the order I did it all in, since I took a break in Denerim to do all these quests while I was there for Genetivi (however it still doesn't compare to how much backtracking you'll end up doing in 2)

Also: Awakening is genuinely a great DLC that improves upon the DAO formula, and some of the little extras it has I wish were in the base game. I also enjoyed how recruiting three of the companions were directly related to the critical path, and the environments on the critical path are also great. The blackmarsh Is a standout.

Seriously, why are there no armour runes in the base game?

Okay combat again. Having within the past year played BG3 (yes I'm going to compare them, sue me), I have to say I really missed how much information that game gives you in regard to combat. And that's important, right? To be able to make tactical decision in order to win a fight, you need to have enough information to do so.

I need numbers

Dao does not like giving me numbers. Tooltips often give word-based descriptions, but lack numerical values to go with it. So you can get a spell like Attunement, which is a Passive that says: The mage has become more attuned to surrounding magical energies, gaining bonuses to willpower, magic, and mana regeneration. But I have to read the wiki to learn that the magic/willpower bonuses are both +10 and the mana Regen is 2/s. That isn't displayed in-game (and if it is I couldn't find it)

Or how the Magic attribute effects potion use. Mages can get by using lesser health poultices all the time because they have less health anyways, but also because the effectiveness of the poultices are directly related to your Magic score. Another tactical decision: conserve all your greater healing potions for your warriors/rogues, because they need them more.

I am amazed by how many spells there are in this game, but also there is an insane amount of overlap in how these all function.

For example, off the top of my head, I can think of 11 different spells that are designed to just take an enemy (or more) out of combat. There is a spell called Paralyze and another spell called Glyph of Paralysis, and they both function similar enough that I think one of them must have been padding

The Heroic Offense tree also reeks of padding. (Apparently the devs thought so too, because in da2 it's a single spell, and it's sustained rather than activated)

Even though I complained about the Fade originally, I still think I like it more than the deep roads. It has interesting mechanics going for it, at least, while the Deep Roads just has a shit load of Darkspawn. They kind of front load the dwarf quest with the interesting politics, and then you're just killing dark spawn for like... 45 minutes at least, and they're not the most compelling opponents combat-wise.

Oh, also back to the BG3 comparisons, this is one of those games where I wish I could inspect enemies. Again, need information to make good tactical decisions.

Again with the information: all staves within the game deal a type of elemental damage (fire, cold, or nature, I've never seen and electrical or spirit staff in dao) but you don't know what kind based on the tooltip? However, some enemies are immune to certain types of elemental damage, so your mages can become almost useless in certain fights unless you make sure to always bring a backup staff with a different element type.

Decided to go back to a DA:O playthrough that I started a while back and I just got to the fade, and I am finally remembering why people add mods to skip this level.

It's not that bad, I said to myself, you remember how to do this, just find all the shapeshifting stuff and you're golden.

Anyways, the puzzle part of the level is not the worst part. It's the doing it by yourself of it.

AND IM A FUCKING MAGE.

(and I don't have any specializations yet so no arcane warrior to tank it all)

Some other notes I have:

I only ever played origins on console before now, and I honestly think I liked it more? It was somehow easier to tell exactly who your PC was going to be attacking, because you were always attached to them rather than in tactics view.

Also, the range of the tactics view camera is extremely limited, so sometimes the game pauses and starts combat too far away from enemies, and you can't see them yet

I also think RTwP is just... The Worst type of combat system, either give me full turn based, or give me all real-time, the in-between annoys me. Or maybe it's just because I don't like the top-down, cause I'm normally fine with power wheels.

The Aesthetic of the game can still be best described as "various shades of dirt". Thank god for mods

DA:O probably still has the best quest design of the bunch, and I hope DA:V takes its queues from that rather than DA:2 or DA:I. Same with map design. I like the enclosed areas with interesting side-content to run into. There's also (from what I remember) a lot less backtracking in this game, so once you go to a place and finish the main quest there, it's unlikely you'll visit again. Encourages really looking for that side-content.

Inventory limits continue to be the bane of my existence and Should Be Stopped. Like, seriously, if you are going to give me this many types of potions, then potions shouldn't take up a slot.

[stillsimpingforaymeric]

Kaidan Alenko and the importance of visual storytelling

(Since this post was unable to appear in searches on my old blog, simpingforaymeric, I have chosen to repost it here on my new one)

1. Introduction

One of the most prominent criticisms leveled against the character of Mass Effect’s Kaidan Alenko is that he is, in a word, boring. It’s a comment that seemed confusing after first playing the game and falling almost immediately in love with the character, but gaining some distance after ten years and playing the games more critically than before, starts to make more and more sense.

Don’t get me wrong - Kaidan Alenko is perhaps my most favorite character across all Bioware games. He is by far the one I relate to the most. The following… experiment? Thesis? Elaborate soap box? Is therefore not meant to convince anyone that, Actually, He Is Boring, or even criticize the character of Kaidan Alenko in that sense, but aims to explain why “boring” is the gut reaction of so many (often slightly more casual) players. I want to propose a theory of what issues there are, why they appear across all three games and finally propose a range of edits and changes that might alleviate them. And when I say changes, I in no way mean to change anything about the character of Kaidan Alenko - but to change how that character is communicated to the audience. 

I will preface this by saying that this post is roughly ten years in the making and does not reflect just my own personal observations, but relevant input from other fans across social media, from the BSN, to twitter, to tumblr. Many of these people have moved on, many of them have changed blog names so often it is simply impossible for me to look them up. So while I can no longer source any person in particular for any specific observation, I still want to make clear that this is the result of many thoughtful and insightful posts from many thoughtful and insightful people over a span of years. I have no intention of taking the credit for myself, I am just trying to bring it all together in one project. Once we get to the “How to fix it” part, I will only discuss the ideas that I’ve come up with myself over the past few weeks of replaying the trilogy. 

If a post like this already exists and is already in circulation, please let me know. I have not been active in the fandom for some years and would be very interested if anyone has done a write up similar to mine before. 

Also, this will likely include spoilers for most titles in the Dragon Age and Mass Effect game franchises (not books, or comics, though), so if you haven’t quite finished Inquisition, ME3, or any other game, you may want to hold off on reading this. 

You may also want to hold off on reading this because it’s honest to God 19 pages long. I like this character a normal amount. 

2. The core issues

If there is a thesis statement to this, it is that Kaidan Alenko sounds like an incredibly interesting, multifaceted, uniquely skilled and powerful character who you never see fully represented on screen. My own particular love of Kaidan comes, if I am honest, less from the cutscenes the game actually puts him in and can instead quite often be traced back to deep analysis of dialogue, codex entries and tracing and connecting implications of the two. 

To give a concrete example, I know for a fact that Kaidan Alenko is a very powerful biotic. Most companions in the first game can remark upon this fact and all of them seem impressed. His powers don’t just contribute to an ambiguous Coolness Factor, though. They also impact his personality significantly. They weigh heavy on his conscience, something we learn when he states in early ME1 party banter that he has been deliberately holding himself back for fear of hurting someone. He learned the hard way that his powers are a massive responsibility when he accidentally killed Commander Vyrnnus, something he confesses to you in one of his more powerful conversations in the first game. It’s also a physical burden as we hear from Dr. Chakwas that he suffers from chronic migraines. On top of that, his unique power and his suffering both come from the L2 implant he wears, an outdated model that is considered dangerous. Kaidan has debilitating migraines, but he is one of the luckier ones; other children suffered anything ranging from severe mental disabilities to fatal brain tumors. During the timeline of ME1 there is a serious legal battle raging in the background, of the surviving L2 biotics trying to get reparations for what was done to them. And finally, he is one of the first human biotics to even exist, wearing only the second generation of implants that allow him access to manipulating dark energy. Human biotics are essentially space mages and are socially ostracized and feared by much of humanity. 

It’s safe to say that the entire character of Kaidan Alenko hinges on his biotics. His abilities are a fundamental part of him. They have shaped his personality, his ethical code and his sense of personal identity. Kaidan Alenko as a character simply does not make sense without his biotic abilities. 

The problem is that you can count the amount of times Kaidan Alenko, one of the most powerful human biotics in the alliance military, actually uses his biotic abilities, on one hand. In fact, you can count them on one finger, because there is exactly one scene  - a very simple, not particularly impressive use of Throw on two random goons in the Citadel DLC. Not only is this cutscene not particularly reflective of Kaidan’s extensive ability, it only happens for people who have already locked in his romance and therefore made the game prioritize him. The specific scene could theoretically happen with most other characters. That means anyone who isn’t already completely and entirely sold on the character of Kaidan Alenko, to the extent that they ship their personal OC with him, will likely never see this. I’ll get into why he doesn’t have those scenes a little later. 

You can extrapolate this basic issue for most of the other fundamental cornerstones of his character: 

Kaidan’s morality is strongly rooted in the concept of Paragon, that is to say, he is not an “ends justify the means” kind of guy. He will often try and resolve things peacefully, like when he talks down his fellow L2 biotics from committing homicide during UNC: Hostage in ME1. But because of how the game’s companion system works, Kaidan is never afforded the ability to do more than politely disagree with a renegade Shepard who happily commits war crimes. Voluntarily leaving the squad, as companions in a Dragon Age game might, is simply not on the table. In fact, his personality is so malleable in the first game that it takes one conversation to turn him into more of a renegade and, by proxy, a xenophobe. This option likely exists to ensure that players of a renegade Shepard have a choice in surrounding themselves with companions that do not fundamentally disagree with their ethics and choices, but it significantly weakens a character we are told values integrity. 

Kaidan is an officer. He held the rank of Staff Lieutenant with over a dozen special commendations in ME1, putting him barely one rung below Shepard. The reason Shepard’s initiating dialogue is “Just trying to get a sense of where the crew’s at. Thoughts?” is that Kaidan handles staffing issues and is for all intents and purposes in charge of the marine detail of the Normandy. This simply does not come up. The only thing that is even peripherally mentioned is that Kaidan was the one who recommended getting Ashley Williams on board after Eden Prime. By ME2, he is Staff Commander and outranks Shepard. By ME3, he’s a Major, which is equivalent to the rank of Captain that Anderson held in the first game. As a Major, Kaidan was specifically put in charge of a spec ops team of human biotics. We will never meet them, never see Kaidan commanding them or even talking to them. Never be able to reflect in any way how this changed or affected Kaidan, who was himself abused in an alliance military project under a bad teacher. The game sometimes even forgets that he holds a significant rank at all and will generally consider Shepard to be his superior officer. And I haven’t even gotten into the Spectre stuff.

Kaidan is a chronic pain patient. You will never see him actively suffer the effects, unless we count an idle animation in the first game.  Kaidan values self-control. He will never be put into a position where that self-control is tested and he either overcomes or lets loose. Or, at the very least, highly emotional scenes that could tempt his self-control, simply don’t.

3. The importance of visual impact 

Kaidan Alenko is a very interesting character. On paper. Anyone who doesn’t spend the extra effort reading codex entries, reading character meta on tumblr and investing a considerable amount of time into wrapping their head around the particulars of his character will likely miss a great deal of his personality, because it’s just not on the screen. It used to be my instinct to argue that, well, reading codex entries is important and putting in a little effort to understand a character is fine and dandy. Anyone who isn’t doing that is simply cheating themselves out of appreciating some wonderful fictional guys. And in some cases, I think it is generally fair that not every aspect of a character need be spoon fed to the player. Fans engaging with the text, rather than passively observing it, is a natural part of media consumption.

However, I have to admit that at the end of the day, video games are a visual medium. Furthermore, the old adage of “show, don’t tell”, still applies. And when a character is fundamentally underrepresented, when even the most basic, core concepts of a character are simply missing from the screen, then I can no longer fault anyone for not immediately connecting to a character who is for all intents and purposes absent.

If you are having trouble wrapping your head around the importance of visual input in video games, let’s contrast Kaidan’s lack with other characters’ plenty.

If you don’t think showing Kaidan’s biotics would contribute much, then think about how Samara’s biotics are serene, precise, beautiful. Picture her sitting on the Normandy carefully meditating, shaping a perfect, beautiful little galaxy between her hands. Now contrast it with Jack, violently and impulsively ripping through three heavy mechs to escape her prison. Biotics aren’t just technically something these characters are capable of - their personalities are reflected in what situations they use them in, how they use them and what they look like. 

If you don’t think it matters if a character is afforded an opportunity to show a strong sense of morality, then think about how most companions in Dragon Age do not follow blindly, how big choices like templars vs. mages can cost you the loyalty of one or more companions, if you didn’t invest enough time into forming strong relationships with them. Think about how even in a romance, even at 100% approval, Alistair will leave the party if you choose to spare Loghain. How he will never even consider making that choice if he is put up for that final duel at the Landsmeet. Sure, you can toughen him up a little, you can give him a different outlook and in so doing have some impact on his potential epilogues, but the player is never afforded the opportunity to fundamentally change him. If Alistair leaves, it’s not just a codex entry or a mention on the side. He will confront you and he will walk out on you. 

If you don’t think seeing Kaidan in command of his troops is important, then think about how Cullen’s leadership in Inquisition is reflected on screen. How, at the temple of sacred ashes, in one of the very first cutscenes you may meet him in, he is shown carrying his own wounded soldier off the battlefield. How he is present in some way for almost every major battle in the game. In practice Cullen is stuck behind a desk for most of the game so the player can talk to him, but you don’t feel like he is a passive observer. You know that when battle rages, Cullen leads from the front because you have seen that happening consistently throughout the story. 

I could even be more concrete and talk about how much Jack manages to develop as a character when you see her interacting with her own gaggle of biotic students in her very own mission. How much care is being depicted in how fiercely she protects those she has come to view as “her own”.

If you don’t think it might be relevant to see Kaidan suffer the migraines we’re told about, think about the gut reaction you have when you see a character like Cullen double over in pain at his desk, how he breaks down, visibly shaking in front of you when he is overwhelmed with the debilitating effects of his condition.

And if you don’t think seeing self-control depicted on screen would be all that impactful, think about how you reacted when you first watched Anders visibly fight to control his power. How his own anger, his own suffering cause him to struggle with his abilities, blue light literally pouring through the cracks in his veneer.  You cannot adapt any of the above mentioned scenes 1:1 to Kaidan. He has neither the perfect asari control of the centuries old Samara, nor do I think he has quite the raw power of a royally pissed off Jack. Kaidan is not afforded the opportunity to walk out on Shepard due to how companions work in the trilogy. Kaidan is not in charge of a whole army like Cullen, nor is he likely ridden with trauma quite as intensely as him, since his pain manifests differently and there are modern treatments available to him. He’s not literally possessed by a spirit, like Anders. But all these characters showcase the potential of how a character can impact an audience. They show what can be visually communicated, when care and resources are spent on portraying a character on screen, rather than purely through dialogue and world building.

4. How did we get here

I promised earlier I’d circle back around to the why of it. For all three games, the causes are slightly different and often the result of what I generally call gameplay or story “technicalities”. That is to say, certain aspects of the game or story are simply constructed in such a way that they do not afford Kaidan (and often by proxy, Ashley) the opportunity to do much of significance, if they get to act at all.

I’ve already mentioned how Kaidan’s morality is entirely malleable in the first game based on a mechanic that has less to do with strong characterization and more to do with affording the player the ability to essentially customize their squad. The same applies to Ashley - though I reckon we see her conversation as a little less glaring since turning Ash into more of a paragon generally aligns her morally more closely with most players, while very few people are likely to enjoy turning Kaidan into a raging xenophobe. 

The first game offers up little opportunity for Kaidan to display either his biotics or his position as Staff Lieutenant of the Normandy. The latter is easier to explain - the marine detail of the Normandy are just NPCs. They aren’t relevant to the story in any meaningful way, so leading them isn’t a particularly relevant job for Kaidan to be doing. In theory it’s incredibly important to keep an entire detail of soldiers in line, especially when the CO decides to mutiny three quarters through the story, but the plot is driven by Shepard and the squadmates, not the marines of the Normandy. Therefore, there is no real opportunity to showcase Kaidan’s abilities as a leader of soldiers. 

The first is a bit more difficult to explain and seems to me like plain oversight. Kaidan doesn’t actually have any character introduction scene. The scene where we first meet him on the Normandy is not his introduction, it’s Joker’s. Joker is being characterized as our snarky, cynical pilot - Kaidan is just the person he is being contrasted against. Every other character on the Normandy has a strong introductory scene. Ashley is seen fleeing the geth, before we see her determinedly reload her rifle and turn back to enact some good old fashioned vengeance. Garrus is first seen arguing with his boss, marking him as a not-by-the-book kind of cop, then established as a crack shot by resolving a hostage crisis with a single precise shot of his pistol. Tali is seen negotiating with shady dealers, shown to be self-sufficient and clever enough to know something is up, characterizing her as intelligent and resourceful. Wrex is hilariously unintimidated by the space cops on the Citadel and thus presented as a certified badass. Finally, Liara is our traditional damsel in distress. And Kaidan… well. Nothing. There isn’t a Kaidan-specific scene in the first game. 

At a guess, Kaidan might have played a bigger role in the cut segments on Eden Prime. For those not in the know, dialogue from the game files indicates that the Eden Prime level used to be longer (look for DanaDuchy’s “party banter” video on youtube and start from around 28 minutes. I had it linked originally, but it seems it prevented this post from showing up). Maybe there was a cutscene somewhere here that introduced new players to the concept of biotics in general and Kaidan’s abilities in particular that eventually ended up on the cutting room floor when the Eden Prime level was shortened. Maybe it’s just a general oversight and it truly never hit anyone that a) new players to the universe might want a crash course in what the heck is up with that space magic thing or b) players might need a strong, effective cutscene establishing Kaidan as a character. 

(Incidentally, that cut dialogue from Eden Prime also states that Kaidan was originally intended to be vegetarian, which is, if nothing else, damn funny in hindsight.)

In ME2 the issue can be summed up summarily as “missing out on content”. Kaidan isn’t really afforded any space to act in the story. The one brief moment of involvement he has in the plot - Horizon - is once again reduced to mere dialogue. The one scripted cutscene he has, he shares with Ashley, in which both are fruitlessly shooting at a swarm of insects, trying to protect colonists, but are immediately and forcefully removed from the plot via convenient sedatives. They only return for yet another dialogue-heavy segment, which a lot of people dislike for understandable reasons, but is to me one of the few moments in which the characters display a firm moral stance. I might hate the scene because I hate Shepard and Kaidan fighting and the dialogue itself leaves a bit to be desired, but I like it in the sense that it provides decent characterization by making both Virmire Survivors stand their ground, even against someone they respect or possibly love. 

To make things worse, thanks to the loyalty mission concept, ME2 was actually the game that best handled its character driven storytelling. Every squadmate is afforded the care and resources of a completely unique mission that tells us something important about them and provides ample characterization through their motivations for the mission as well as its outcome. Liara manages to circumvent the problem of not being there for those loyalty missions by getting her own story-driven DLC, which pushes forward her character development and resolves the lingering tension between her and Shepard, whether in a platonic or romantic sense. Kaidan and Ashley are not afforded the same opportunity. 

Some people have pointed out that it is a positive thing, that Kaidan and Ashley do not need a loyalty mission, that their loyalty is gained organically and through actions throughout the trilogy rather than in one specifically scripted mission. I agree with that interpretation, but it does gloss over the fact that loyalty missions are not just a sign that a character is struggling and needs or wants something from Shepard, but an opportunity to spend time with a character on a mission tailored completely to them. Resources and time are dedicated to their portrayal and in so doing communicate what the character is all about to the audience. And Kaidan and Ashley lacking that kind of content is not a net positive. 

In ME3, the preceding issues are not addressed and compounded by new decisions. The lack of a strong, initial cutscene remains unsolved. Kaidan’s introduction in 3 is short and dialogue-heavy, before he is once again forcefully removed from the plot, so Shepard and Anderson can shoot their way through the combat tutorial. When he reappears to effectively save Shepard with the Normandy, he doesn’t do much more than fire a standard assault rifle at a bunch of husks. He briefly returns for the segment on Mars, where the dialogue begins to meaningfully address the tension that was resolved for Liara in the preceding game, but he is then forcefully removed from the plot a third time, getting punched straight into hospital. Even the Citadel standoff, one of the few scenes the VS gets with some general plot-relevance, is undercut by the fact that it has to accommodate both Kaidan and Ashley - two characters who are very different. This is where the problem with the biotics really kicks off.

You see, the reason Kaidan is never using his biotics prominently during cutscenes is because he shares a majority of his cutscenes with Ashley, who isn’t a biotic. Outside of the few romance and friendship scenes, such as the Citadel dates, cutscenes for the Virmire Survivor have to accommodate two characters who are fundamentally different. Ashley is more renegade, Kaidan is more paragon, Kaidan has biotic abilities, Ashley does not. Their personalities and skills are almost at opposite ends of a spectrum, but because any one player of the series will only ever be able to keep one of them alive, fewer resources seem to have been spent on each character individually and their biggest, most important scenes have to operate on an ambiguous middle ground. Ashley is impulsive, a renegade and only has her gun at her disposal, so if Shepard hesitates to shoot Udina during the Citadel standoff, Ashley will shoot him for them, same as she did with Wrex in the first game. For her, this is a fine scene. But Kaidan in contrast is supposed to be calm and controlled, has a strong paragon personality and a range of abilities at his disposal. If the cutscene reflected him truthfully, this scene could diverge significantly for Kaidan. He might choose not to kill Udina and instead wrap him in a stasis field, both to spare his life and so he can be interrogated. These are options Ashley does not have, so the cutscene can’t go there.

In general ME3 gave me the distinct feeling that a majority of cutscenes are written with Ashley in mind first and then dialogue is adapted for Kaidan. Liara’s comment about the Virmire Survivor becoming “very capable” makes some sense for Ashley, who started out as gunnery chief and was new to serving aboard a ship, alongside aliens and operating in deep space. Ashley was a bit of a rookie in some sense. Kaidan starts the series as an officer, already in charge of a significant number of soldiers. He already had over a dozen special commendations. I’m certainly not offended on behalf of the character, but this commentary doesn’t make sense unless you ignore everything the world building and codex establishes about Kaidan and just see him as any other soldier, some kind of raw recruit who was looking up to Shepard. Instead, it is Shepard who is afforded several opportunities to ask Kaidan, three years their senior, for advice on both tactics and politics in the first game - and Kaidan who looks out for Shepard in turn. Liara’s commentary is simply not reflective of Kaidan’s role in the story up to this point, or his relationship with Shepard. 

His role as Major is undercut on several occasions. After the Citadel standoff, the game briefly forgets that Kaidan outranks Shepard by now, as Joker complains that Kaidan “almost shot a superior officer”. His leadership of the spec ops squad is mentioned and party banter even indicates he finds at least one squad during the game, but we will never meet them. This time I really don’t understand it. I can easily see that you can’t rewrite the entire structure of ME1 to give the marine detail of the Normandy a more active role to play in the story just to better reflect Kaidan’s rank - but I honestly don’t know why there isn’t even a small cutscene involving Kaidan in the Normady’s communications center just talking to his spec ops squad. It’s a huge wasted opportunity to not put names and faces to his students (like we do for Jack). If we don’t have the time or money for a full loyalty mission (which at this point may be sorely needed) that’s one thing. But to choose to ignore the one, cool new thing that is unique to Kaidan, to not spend five minutes on exploring that aspect of his character? It feels like such an obvious problem in hindsight.

His chronic pain barely comes up, which again just feels a bit odd. If you ask me, ME3 is the perfect opportunity to showcase some vulnerability, to display your companions cracking under the pressure of the end of the world. The game does that quite admirably with Shepard, in fact. It doesn’t have to be a scene where he breaks down the way Cullen does, but it wouldn’t take that much to show some of the facade starting to crack. 

You can easily add the issue of self-control to that. It might have been interesting for Kaidan to be put into a situation where that self-control could be on display, where a difficult decision might make or break him. It could intensify his romance, to really portray the emotional difficulty of finally reuniting with the person he watched die after two long years.  

If you ever catch me complaining about the date at Apollo’s or even the scene in the Citadel DLC, this is why. I don’t hate the idea of Kaidan cracking jokes about his Canadian-ness or his fondness for steak and beer. It’s that these are the things the game chooses to spend time on, to spend money on, when the more fundamental parts of his character are left either entirely on the cutting room floor or restricted to off-handed mentions. There isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with having a cutesy home cooked dinner scene. I could and would even argue for the fact that this kind of normalcy is a great contrast for a character who didn’t have much normalcy in his life. What bugs me about it is the knowledge that money and time were devoted to a custom beer clink animation when the character of Kaidan Alenko, after several years of game development and an entire trilogy, does not have a single cutscene where he prominently displays the extent of his biotic abilities. What bugs me is that the lighthearted and fun stuff ends up taking precedence over the deeper, more meaningful cornerstones of his character, rather than flesh out the strong foundation that could already be there. 

Even the fans who really enjoy Kaidan in ME3 seem to be at least tacitly aware that Canadian in-jokes and memes about Kaidan’s fondness for steak and beer feel like a little much. They don’t technically take up that much time - it’s only two cutscenes - but because the character lacks so much on every other front, they become overwhelming. They don’t become a cute contrast of normalcy to a character who has lived a life that was anything but - they become the fundamental cornerstones of his character. They become the thing that people take away from the story. They displace and overshadow everything else that was not prominently featured on screen. And even those of us who have dissected his character to hell and back, who know that a strong foundation is there if you dig deep enough into every codex entry, every smidgeon of dialogue - even we are not immune to the impact of visual storytelling. And even we can end up feeling like there’s a bit too much memeing about Canada, too many discussions of steak and flavors of alcohol. 

In the end - what about Kaidan was visually presented on the screen?

That he’ll spend a disconcerting amount of time aimlessly shooting at insects. That he’ll shoot Udina if you won’t. That he really likes steak and alcohol. Anything else, we just don’t see.

If you take all of this together, is it any wonder the main takeaway from a more casual observer is that Kaidan is some relatively uninteresting, painfully average kind of guy?

5. So what?

It’s one thing to identify the issues and even how we got to those issues, but another thing entirely to provide actual, constructive feedback on how to do things better. So I want to spend the next and longest part of this cry for help thought excercise by finding ways to address the issues identified earlier. I’ve already alluded to a few ideas but I want to bring some structure into it. 

As such, I want to outline a script, an editor’s note of the existing franchise. I want to brainstorm some basic ideas for cutscenes and interactions that untangle Kaidan from Ashley, that give Kaidan a bit of a space to breathe and develop as a character and in so doing, create better contrast for Ashley, making the choice between the two seem a bit more meaningful. 

What I want to avoid is airing my own personal grievances with the way Kaidan was portrayed in ME3. I do not intend to win any arguments over who the “real” Kaidan is. Kaidan is a fictional character who was originally conceived by one writer and then adapted for the third game by another. Small inconsistencies, differences in creative decisions and focus are often unavoidable, so I am uninterested in fostering some kind of bizarre fan civil war. Some people prefer Kaidan in ME3. Some people prefer Kaidan in ME1. I cannot objectively prove which version of the character is better - some fans might never even have felt a tangible difference - so I won’t. And I won’t try and change anything about ME3’s Kaidan that I believe to be my entirely subjective preferences, or result from the kind of differences in style of writing that are inevitable under a new character writer. 

Instead, I aim to limit myself to critiquing only those scenes which I believe don’t so much portray Kaidan as “ooc”, because that can mean something different to every single person, but instead simply fail to portray him at all. The scenes that do not provide strong characterization either way, the scenes where I feel like time and money could have been allocated more wisely. I will try and explain my reasoning for why these scenes are often not bad, but achieve less than they could. 

I also limit myself in what can feasibly be displayed on screen, if we consider that games are made under time and budget constraints. I will not do anything that would require large rewrites of any of the games. I will try to achieve as much as possible with as little as possible and won’t replace quiet, dialogue-heavy scenes with busy, animation-heavy scenes. I will try to think as a game dev and writer might, with the caveat that a) I am not actually in game dev and might over- or underestimate certain issues and b) I’ve had the past 10 years to think about this in hindsight with the input of an active fanbase, which is a very different environment to be in, than a game dev who’s been given a certain number of months to come up with or adapt someone else’s fictional guy. 

This is why I am also uninterested in discussing questions of writing competency, or talk about things in terms of “bad writing”, because I do not feel comfortable rendering that kind of judgment on people working in a field I have no tangible experience in and who worked under conditions so very different from the ones under which I am able to comfortably analyze and critique their choices with a decade of hindsight. 

Ultimately, my proposed edits are just my own personal thoughts, though. The idea behind this is to analyze how you visually represent certain characteristics. If you don’t end up liking any of my proposed solutions, if they don’t really match up your interpretation of Kaidan, I hope they at least provide a decent framework for you to come up with your own. 

With all this in mind, let’s see what we could do to address the existing problems.

6. How to fix it:

I will be writing this segment mostly with a paragon Shepard in mind. Renegade dialogue options are often confrontational or shut down a conversation, rather than extend it, so for now I am uninterested to also include an “and you can tell him to shut up too!” option at every turn. In a realistic scenario I would of course need to script a full dialogue wheel including diverging paths, but this is already embarrassingly long for a thought exercise. When actions, rather than dialogue, are supposed to reflect a specific morality, I’ll accommodate both paragon and renegade options, but for conversations I will outline a simple click-top-right-on-the-dialogue-wheel path.

ME1:

All we really need in the first game is a Kaidan-specific cutscene during Eden Prime, affording him the minimum amount of time and resources that are afforded to every other squadmate in the game. I propose the following: As the team encounters the husks for the first time, during the cutscene where they slowly descend from the dragon’s teeth, Shepard, Ash and Kaidan almost get swarmed. Kaidan manages to pull a barrier around them all, pushing the husks out and smashing some of them against the prefab homes. Combat starts after that. Dialogue back on the Normandy will reference this and Shepard can comment on Kaidan’s extensive abilities. 

I would also plainly cut both the conversations for Ashley and Kaidan that allow a player to modify their morality. This change is not really reflected in later characterization of either VS, so it has become redundant in retrospect. Removing it makes both characters seem less malleable and more firm. Any character development or change they might go through would be on their own terms.

ME2:

I suggest altering the Horizon segment and extending it by a little bit. A lot of this comes down to extending dialogue and adding concrete consequences. 

In the initial cutscene, neither Kaidan nor Ash stand around firing pointlessly at a bug swarm. Both of them attempt to cover the colonists, but upon realizing their shooting doesn’t accomplish much, they follow the colonists, shooting at the swarm once or twice (Kaidan maybe even remembering to use those biotics that he has), but ultimately run with them to the nearest prefab house and hunkering down.  Shepard, partway through the colony, breaks into that exact house and finds themselves face to face and gun to gun with the Virmire Survivor. They are disbelieving, but there is not much time to ask questions, similar to how we first encounter Tali. To gain their trust, Shepard can share the swarm-countermeasure with the VS, at which point the path diverges depending on which VS is alive and if they have been given the countermeasure:

If Kaidan is alive:

If given Mordin’s countermeasure, Kaidan decides to head back out and try to find as many survivors as he can. He has figured out by now that his biotics can slow the swarm down and barriers hold them off effectively (as we see in the suicide mission later on), so he focuses on protecting people. A paragon Shepard will agree with him, a renegade Shepard may try to get him to focus on killing Collectors instead, but ultimately Kaidan is immune to their influence right now and will move forward with his plan.

Later, when hitting the Collector ship, more of the pods will be empty, but the ship is almost fully staffed. Companion banter indicates that Kaidan protecting the colonists has saved more lives than initially thought. More paragon inclined characters will note their approval, more renegade inclined characters will bemoan that it’s a hollow victory if they don’t finish the rest of the Collectors off. Shepard’s agreement or disagreement depends on their own alignment. 

If Ashley is alive:

If given Mordin’s countermeasure, Ashley decides to head back out and shoot as many Collectors as she can. She has enough explosives to blow a decent amount of them to hell and wants to slow them down, so they can’t hit the next colony like they hit Horizon. She lacks the biotic abilities that would let her meaningfully protect the colonists. A renegade Shepard will agree with her, a paragon Shepard may try to get her to focus on protecting colonists instead, but ultimately Ashley is immune to their influence right now and will move forward with her plan.

Later, when hitting the Collector ship, more of the pods will be filled, but the ship is running only a skeleton crew. Companion banter indicates that Ashley going after them has taken out more Collectors than initially thought. More renegade inclined characters will note their approval, more paragon inclined characters will lament that a lot of colonists are dead now to give them this advantage. Shepard’s agreement or disagreement depends on their own alignment. 

After the final battle on Horizon, if Shepard gave the VS the countermeasure, they are slightly more amicable in the ensuing dialogue, but ultimately do not join Shepard, still citing distrust of Cerberus and still not fully convinced Shepard isn’t just a clone or a particularly clever VI. They will say that they will share the countermeasure with the Alliance and bolster other human colonies against the seeker swarms. In the debrief, the Illusive Man will be pretty ticked off for sharing such useful tools with the Alliance, but ultimately agrees since this saves human lives. This will also count favorably towards the Citadel stand-off in ME3. 

If Shepard did not give the VS the countermeasure, they were unable to participate in the fight, forced to remain locked down with the colonists. They are even more distrustful in the ensuing dialogue and do not join Shepard, still citing distrust of Cerberus and still not fully convinced Shepard isn’t just a clone or a particularly clever VI. Without the countermeasure, human colonies will remain vulnerable to Collector attacks, but a renegade Shepard’s reasoning is that they will put a stop to the attacks themselves. The Illusive Man will compliment Shepard on being discreet and sticking to the mission plan, revealing perhaps in some sense that his care for humanity only goes so far. This will count negatively towards the Citadel stand-off in ME3. 

ME3: 

Vancouver

To provide one more, at least marginally stronger initial cutscene for the VS, I would involve them a bit more in the flight from Earth. I would have most of it play out as is but modify the touchdown of the Normandy, giving Kaidan and Ashley something more interesting to do than providing broad, unfocused cover fire.

If Kaidan is alive, he could use his biotics to protect Shepard, raising a barrier and pushing away husks similar to how Jack/Samara can push out the seeker swarms in ME2’s suicide run. This is not just to use the same idea twice - if my proposed scene from ME1 is added, this could be an effective callback. 

If Ashley is alive, she could use her marksman ability (her tactical scores are, according to dialogue in ME1, exemplary!) and protect Shepard from husks with a few well-aimed headshots, similar to how Legion protects Shepard during the derelict Reaper mission in ME2. 

The important thing is to visually portray both characters as distinct, with unique abilities all to themselves.

Mars

I am fine with a majority of the dialogue on Mars (barring earlier criticism of the “very capable” conversation as it applies to Kaidan). 

The main change I propose on Mars is that during the final cutscene where the VS is attacked and almost killed by Dr. Eva Core, rather than shoving Liara out of the way, the VS should be shown visibly protecting and saving Shepard. Dialogue later in the game seems to indicate that this is the scene’s intent. Shepard is later portrayed as concerned, possibly guilty over the VS’ injuries and in some dialogue outright states that the VS “got hurt protecting me”, but this is just not what is reflected on screen. Sure, it sounds like pedantry to even bring this up, but players identify strongly with their avatar and a scene in which a character visibly gives their life for the player’s avatar has a very different impact than a scene in which a squadmate visibly protects another. 

So, in my opinion, it should be Vega helping Liara away from the fire, while Shepard and the VS approach the shuttle. When Dr. Eva Core turns out to be alive and tries to attack Shepard, the VS pushes Shepard out of the way, after which the VS gets grabbed, affording Shepard enough time to get up and into position to fire at Dr. Eva Core. The rest plays out as is. 

This has the added advantage of turning the scene into a more obvious parallel for the events on Eden Prime that kick off the first game. Where once Shepard pushed Kaidan or Ashley out of the way and they had to carry their commander’s unconscious body back to the Normandy, the VS finally gets the opportunity to save Shepard at the risk of their own life in turn. 

(Optional: None of the scenes on Mars can be adapted to truly reflect Kaidan’s biotic abilities without fundamentally altering how they play out. For example, the encounter with the turret would have to be amended considerably if Kaidan could meaningfully impact this scene with a biotic barrier, since it’s a tutorial on how to move from cover to cover. Therefore, I am omitting this. If we want to really be sure that no one shouts “plot hole!” just because, dialogue later in the game can posit how Kaidan was tapped out biotically after the fighting in Vancouver and on Mars and therefore was unable to construct a strong barrier when facing the turret or Dr. Eva Core. But that is rationalization of scenes via dialogue and those things missing are not the games’ most glaring issues. Not when contrasted against the missing visual impact of certain cutscenes. This scene is made impactful by Kaidan being severely injured, being pedantic about how he got put into that position isn’t helpful in this case, provided he has ample opportunity elsewhere to show off his abilities.)

Priority: Citadel

I suggest adjusting the Citadel standoff as noted in one of the earlier sections, with one additional change. The Citadel standoff primarily works for Ashley and in my opinion requires no great adjustment. But I would enable Kaidan to make a different choice. Since the standoff is a big emotional scene I would have it test Kaidan’s self-control and show Kaidan’s biotics flaring slightly when confronted by Shepard, then once again more dangerously when Udina pulls out a gun. In a twist, Kaidan, instead of attacking, uses his biotics to trap Udina in a stasis field, allowing Udina to be taken in alive. Maybe that achieves nothing in gameplay terms, maybe Udina is just not high enough up the chain of Cerberus to carry valuable intel, but it would still show that if pushed, Kaidan will remain calm and controlled, take charge of a difficult situation and try to preserve what life he can as a Paragon would. 

A renegade Shepard can still choose to shoot Udina anyways. This gives the resulting recruitment dialogue more possibilities too. Kaidan can be grateful that Shepard extended the same trust to him that he has extended to them, enabling them to resolve the standoff peacefully. He might butt heads with a renegade Shepard who shot Udina, as his current dialogue reflects. 

By contrast, Ash might butt heads with a paragon Shepard who was hesitant, but might approve of the quick reaction time and decisive action of a renegade Shepard, who shot Udina themselves. 

The standoff can largely function as it currently does because it’s not a bad scene in theory - it’s one of the most meaningful the VS ever gets - it simply needs to provide stronger and more distinct characterization for either VS. Two fundamentally different characters should not be making identical choices. 

The Normandy

To better display the impact of the war on Kaidan and his chronic pain, I would add visible pain to the very first conversation on the ship, the one about his parents. The scene is already suitably heavy and Kaidan is already voiced to be deep in thought and in emotional turmoil, so it wouldn’t take much. Slap in the idle animation from ME1 of him rubbing his head, add a line of Shepard asking him if he’s doing ok and bam! - players can see the stress of the war getting to him. 

There are a number of ways to diversify how this plays out. Maybe a romanced Kaidan puts in more effort to hide his pain, maybe Shepard is shown to quickly cut through his bullshit. Perhaps an opportunity could be offered for a Shepard to reach out and attempt to comfort him in the form of a paragon interrupt, falling into familiar motions from before the Normandy went down. It can be a little tense, a little awkward, a little emotionally fraught. 

Most of those ideas hit better than the very general “there’s strength in camaraderie, in empathy” line. This is the first interaction for Kaidan back on the Normandy. It should be a little more personal than that. 

(Re-) Initiating Romance

In a more controversial decision, I would toss out the dinner date at Apollo’s entirely and replace it. I’ve said that I would not remove scenes based on personal preference and this is one of those cases where I just don’t think the scene provides adequate characterization. 

The basic idea of the Citadel date is a sanity check - a break for Shepard and Kaidan. The restaurant, the food and the drinks are vectors to communicate that idea, but the vector is not the important part, the message is. 

Moreover, while a date is cute, this is the scene that potentially reunites Shepard and Kaidan. Whether we’re talking about a female Shepard who romanced Kaidan in ME1, a male Shepard who was never afforded that possibility but for whom the lingering romantic tension can finally blossom into a real relationship in ME3, or a new player who is trying to make sense of two characters who, romantically or platonically, clearly have a history - this scene is pretty significant. Does a romantic dinner date provide useful contrast or does it undercut the potential emotional intensity of what actually happens? Your mileage may vary, but for me, it is the latter. 

And that is why I propose a change. Kaidan’s love for steak and beer will a) return in the Citadel DLC anyhow, where food and drink are not just a vector of a message but part of a message. Namely they set the backdrop for a moment of domesticity and normalcy, providing a valuable contrast to the rest of the games and their more emotionally heavy, serious scenes. And b) it returns at least one more time as a throwaway line, which is better suited for that. Food preferences are almost always communicated in small mentions at the periphery of a character. Fandom made a big deal about Alistair’s love for cheese, but that’s one, maybe two off-handed lines in the first game. 

(Maybe Kaidan’s original writer was somewhat aware of that idea when he wrote that “I’m glad I’m a vegetarian.” line to play on the sidelines, rather than devote an entire cutscene to it. Maybe it’s entirely incidental. But either way, I think it was the right idea.)

My proposition would be to take that break at a location that is significant to Kaidan and Shepard from the first game. My mind almost immediately went to the scenic view from the wards where Shepard, Kaidan and Ashley first have their moment to just talk. It is the first instance of flirting between Kaidan and a female Shepard, symbolically turning it into the place where their relationship kicked off and making it an emotionally significant location from which to pick that same relationship back up. The locale presents some difficulty from an animation standpoint - the wards weren’t put into the game for ME3 - but the game already reuses assets from the first game when talking to the Council and I see no reason why we can’t do the same here. The location can be polished up with new assets and the view over the ward arms exists in the game, in ME3 you just see it from the docking bay. 

With refugees pouring into the docks and shortly after the coup on the Citadel, this part of the wards could be comparatively quiet, empty streets reflecting a Citadel during war time, with people either spending time with their loved ones or letting loose in clubs. Dialogue could clarify this to set a scene of quiet reminiscing and establish that, just as the Citadel’s residents, Kaidan and Shepard take a moment to spend time with the people that are important to them, platonically or romantically - each other. 

The conversation would be nostalgic, looking back to their first day on the Citadel, reminiscing about Ashley and bonding in their shared grief. Regardless of specific lines, I think a nostalgic, contemplative mood a) reflects Kaidan as a character better, b) has a heavier, emotional impact on the player (esp. with that incredibly sad music that suddenly overshadows the cozy mood of Apollo’s) and therefore better fits into the narrative arc of ME3, c) better communicates the characters’ shared history, both to returning and new players.

The confession can play out rather similar to the original date, but I would support the emotional tone a bit more with animations. Rather than the calm hand kiss we see, I want to showcase Kaidan’s self-control one last time - this time, by breaking, rather than maintaining it. Regardless of whether this is a returning or a new romance, I think I can justify an impulsive, sudden kiss between the two, initiated by either Shepard with an interrupt, or, if missed, by Kaidan, finally and symbolically giving in (possibly once again) to his feelings for Shepard. If Shepard initiates the kiss, it mirrors the kiss in ME1 on the flight to Ilos. If Kaidan initiates it, it becomes a parallel that maybe indicates some measure of character development on his part has taken place - here, at the end of the world, he’s finally, truly letting go. (Can you tell I like parallels?) A harmless flare of his biotic corona underlines this idea and could give rise to a bit of jokey flirting. 

Animation-wise, think Solas’ first kiss in the Fade or Cullen’s first kiss on the battlements. If that’s not in the budget, maybe they can reuse it from the first game? This is where it probably shows that I am not in game dev and therefore cannot properly estimate how easily animations are converted from one game to another, so it’s entirely possible that this kiss is a bigger challenge than I think it is. But a hand kiss is a unique animation too, costs money and time to make too, so I like to think a regular kiss would not be completely out of the question or out of the budget.

One criticism that can be leveled at this idea is that this isn’t as much of a break - not as much of a sanity check as the original date at Apollo’s, but for me, creating strong characterization is more important than sticking to any one writer’s original plan for a scene, even if their original idea was good on paper. If you feel very strongly about the date at Apollo’s, if you have an emotional connection to it, I understand if this seems like an unnecessary and unwelcome change. I hope it’s at least understandable why I think changes like this are valuable, even if any one person does not agree. 

Biotics Division

The only thing we’re missing now is something that adequately portrays Kaidan as an officer, teacher, leader of people. I’ve already said I won’t script additional, animation-heavy content like, say, an entire mission (loyalty or otherwise) and want to come out under or within the current scope. So I am replacing another scene that isn’t fundamentally wrong or “bad writing”, but underutilizing the character. 

I’m specifically talking about the Cerberus debrief after Jacob’s mission. While I think it’s a decent portrayal of Kaidan’s character - he is shown to be introspective, thoughtful and empathetic - I don’t think it adds enough to really justify its existence. Kaidan reflects on Cerberus and comes to the realization that some people in Cerberus might have been “good” people. Which doesn’t seem like the kind of epiphany he needed to have. 

This kind of dialogue implies we’re supposed to believe Kaidan had an extremely simplistic “evil bad people” view of Cerberus as an organization, which undercuts his intelligence. He was already pretty insightful about politics, especially when it came to the distinction of “pro human” and “human supremacy”. Dialogue about Udina, about humanity and its place in the galaxy and his responses to the presidential candidate from Terra Firma already establish Kaidan as savvy enough that he probably shouldn’t be so completely blindsided by the idea that some people working for Cerberus might have been doing so for the right reasons. Several of those people are already on the Normandy, including Kenneth and Gabby, Joker, Dr. Chakwas - and the person he is literally talking to right now. For Kaidan to have this epiphany only now and in such simplistic terms, visibly stumped by a morally complex situation, seems almost condescending. 

In short - ideas are being communicated that a) don’t need to be communicated from a player’s perspective, who is already submersed in the moral complexity of working with Cerberus in ME2, b) wouldn’t be particularly useful in providing context for the new players and c) doesn’t communicate an idea that Kaidan would really be struggling with at this point. And if it doesn’t do any of that, then it seems arbitrary to have it and I feel no great sense of loss by replacing it with a scene that is absolutely sorely needed - an introduction to Kaidan’s spec ops squad. 

With the upgraded communications room and the fancy new blue holographic imaging, the choice feels rather obvious. Shepard gets a message to join Kaidan for a call when they can. Biotics division has made contact with Anderson as they are currently fighting on Earth, who put them through to Kaidan and Shepard.

Shepard walks in mid-conversation as Kaidan is talking to the holographic images of his XOs; maybe Anderson makes an appearance too, bringing them all together. The particulars of the dialogue are once again not that important. I would simply include something that reflects Kaidan’s intelligence and tactical know-how, giving his people advice on things - maybe how to secure rations, maybe how to approach a specific mission. The important thing is - you are seeing Kaidan leading. Some informal banter between him and his squad can cement an emotional connection Kaidan has with his people. 

There’s probably space here for both light-hearted banter/flirting, or other more emotionally heavy conversations about hope, tough calls and the end of the world. Kaidan could reflect on his position and how he feels about it after everything Vyrnnus once put him through. I don’t want to settle in favor of any specific idea because like I said, I don’t want to script out the exact dialogue wheel, but rather set the stage for a general scene that can go a variety of ways, be used in any manner to communicate something fundamental about the character. The important thing is seeing Kaidan having a relationship with his squad and Shepard, not me dictating what that relationship looks like exactly. 

Aaaaand that’s it! There’s nothing else I think is in desperate need of extensive editing. The Citadel DLC scene can remain happily as it is - because now it has become a bit more stand-out, a bit of a better contrast to the rest of the games’ content. Anything else I might note would be based on my own personal preference, rather than meaningfully contribute to visual characterization.

7. The core issues: resolved? 

After all that, let’s do a recap and see what original issues we have addressed and how we’ve addressed them. 

Characterization through biotic abilities: 

Added the display of biotics in all three games, mostly focusing on defensive abilities (barrier, one of his core abilities), showing us a more protective, caring Kaidan. When he uses offensive abilities, it is ultimately in service of protection, which is fitting for a sentinel - the resident tank class. The use of his biotics displays a character who is calm and in control of himself and the battlefield.

Cementing Kaidan’s morality: 

No opportunity to change Kaidan fundamentally. He is his own person.

Paragon morality is depicted in both the main interactions in which Kaidan is presented with a choice - Horizon and the Citadel standoff. When Kaidan is permitted to act, he acts like a Paragon.

Displaying Kaidan’s leadership: 

In ME2, Kaidan is shown doing his utmost to protect the residents of Horizon. That may not be leadership in a military sense, but it does show that he can take responsibility for other people’s lives and take charge of a situation.

In ME3, Kaidan is shown interacting with his students. While we still can’t see him in action without more extensive changes, we can get a glimpse of what he might be like as a leader based on how his troops interact with him. 

Empathizing via pain: 

Kaidan is now shown at least once to visibly strain under his migraines. It also affords Shepard the opportunity to emotionally connect with him in this moment of pain. 

Maintaining self-control: 

Kaidan now showcases strong self-control even in a very tense, high stakes situation during the Citadel standoff, using his abilities to pacify and control the situation, to avoid harm. It becomes an inversion of his original fight with Vyrnnus. Kaidan’s an adult now and he chooses to use his abilities to prevent harm, not cause it.

On the flipside, because he manages to resist the loss of control here, it makes it feel more significant when he finally loses it in the romance scene. It underlines how strongly he feels about Shepard and how liberating their relationship is for him. 

8. I think we might finally be done here

In the end, your mileage may vary on how much you like my proposed changes. I am not the original writer of Kaidan Alenko, I can only give my interpretation of the character and at best speculate about narrative intent. Other fans might interpret characters differently, might prioritize different things. The things that I see, value and love in Kaidan Alenko might not be the things you see, value and love in Kaidan Alenko. The scenes I suggest removing might be so important to you that you can’t get behind the idea of changing anything about them. And that’s ok.

My goal with this… whatever the fuck this is, is not to prove what Kaidan’s characterization is or should be, but to illustrate how characters in video games are characterized and use that technique to construct a characterization for Kaidan. You can use the same thought exercise to come up with scenes that better reflect your Kaidan Alenko. Maybe you really just enjoy the character as he is and don’t think anything needs fixing, in which case, boy I hope you didn’t put yourself through reading this entire thing. 

In the end, I made this mostly for myself, because I enjoyed it as a creative exercise and because in a way it allowed me to exorcize (get it? Exorcize, exercise? ) a lot of the things that have been itching in my brain for the past decade. 

I may in the future fully script the proposed dialogue scenes, as another creative exercise and will happily post them here as well. If anyone else manages to get a kick out of it, that’s fine and dandy. 

And with that, I rest my case. 

TL;DR

Kaidan Alenko is one of the most interesting characters in the Mass Effect universe on paper. Because he lacks a number of character-specific cutscenes, misses large parts of the plot and ultimately shares a large part of his scripted animations with another character, players cannot pick up much of that character while playing the game. Seemingly small parts of his personality, like food preferences, do get screen time and become almost overwhelming, rather than provide additional detail to a well-defined character. The result is a character that requires a not-inconsiderable amount of time and effort spent dissecting dialogue and connecting codex entries to find the real personality underneath. 

[moonless-if]

MOONDAY UPDATE, SEPT 12th 2022

happy moonday everyone!

last week i missed writing a moonday update, again. i've set an alarm for it from now on, so i can avoid my own frustration on tuesday afternoons when i realise i've forgotten about it.

for now, i'll just include what i've done for the past two weeks in today's update!

WHAT I DID

i've gotten past my writer's block! unfortunately, that's not coupled with me pushing out as much text as i've wanted, but i have written pretty much every day, even if it's just been a hundred words or so on some days. mostly it's me trying to get over the hurdle of the first draft needing to be great, and instead, just write to get words on the page, but now i'm actually getting there!

i've not quite finished the stealth version of route one (because for some reason i decided the prologue should have so many variations), but i do feel good about the amount i've written.

another thing i've been working on is still the magic system, because i at least want to understand the logic behind the magic in The Moonless myself. it's a huge undertaking that i don't expect i'll be able to easily sum up in a near future for any codex entry for the game. thankfully, the prologue doesn't feature a lot of magic, so it's not immediately needed.

other than that, i haven't been working on anything major, a few sketches here and there, reworking my planning system/information files so it's easier for me to keep track of what i want to do, where i find info like character bios, timelines, etc. (so nothing that you'll ever see)

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK

for this week, i'm sad to say i won't be able to have many goals because of how much i've got going on at work (parent-teacher conferences, regular and union seminars, among the things i can remember right now).

i'll still keep up with writing so i at least get a few words down every day, but other than that i don't expect i'll have a lot of time or energy to work on anything else or write any huge chunks of text.

and that's it for this week, see you all next moonday!

- spacedfoxes

[thecreaturecodex]

Creature Codex 2022 Survey Results!

So the turnout for the survey was great! 136 responses on the Google form, but a few people sending asks. I’m not going to post all of it, but I would like to go over some highlights.

Also, to reassure folks: this was not intended as a lead in to major changes on the Codex. I’m still going to be writing monsters for PF1e, and the basic format isn’t going to change. But I wanted to see what folks were interested in.

I was honestly surprised by this result--I was under the impression that the art was a bigger draw to when and why people liked or reblogged my entries. But it’s the smallest result! Flavor text and background info are about evenly matched.

A lot of people had write ins for what RPGs they had played, and what they were currently playing. This was by design; I wanted to focus my options on D&D and Pathfinder variations, because there’s hundreds of different RPGs out there, and this is a Pathfinder 1e blog. There was a huge diversity of games represented, including some I’ve never heard of (Genesys, Lancer), games I didn’t know people still played (Mongoose Traveler, AD&D 2e and D&D 4e), and some games I had forgotten existed (Maid RPG). Notably, the most common game still being played was Pathfinder 1e, with 58 of 133 responses confirming. Followed by D&D 5e, with 56/133. I know there’s a certain amount of self-selection here because this is a Pathfinder 1e blog, but I was pleasantly surprised to see PF1e still so popular.

Unsurprised to see a majority of my voting followers do at least some GMing. And welcome, my 10% of non-playing followers! Glad you’re enjoying yourselves.

I got a number of write-ins for themes people wanted to see me cover. More people voted on what they liked than what they didn’t, and even for things that got a decent number of Do Not Want (Hackmaster and Starfinder were the top two there), there were more people who voted for them. I’ve recently done Hackmaster and Starfinder blocks, so I’m happy to leave them alone for a while.

Now, let’s look at creature types:

You guys like them weird! Aberrations are the clear winner here at 60%, but outsiders (52%) and magical beasts (43%) are no slouches either.

Not a good day to be an ooze or a vermin, it seems. Those types do have some limitations based on the PF1e rules set, so that makes a certain amount of sense. And tells me that an ooze or vermin theme block would not be a big hit. Which is useful information!

Again, useful information. I haven’t posted any playable races in a while, but have a prospect or two in mind. 

The overwhelming enjoyment of historical context is why I reblogged that tarasque folk art post. If you’re looking for book reviews, I’ve been posting those to my “main” blog that has far fewer followers, @demiurge1138. 

This post is probably long enough, but I do want to respond to some of the individual comments. In the interests of not completely destroying your dashboards, I’m gonna put my thoughts under the cut.

All of the comments I got were very nice! Thank you all so much!

Some to respond to:

i literally adore Creature Codex and i think you are perfect, i enjoy any content you feel like sharing and also i would kill a man to be able have a chance to play a tabletop rpg with you. :)

That's very flattering! And slightly intimidating!

Ran the spiral centurion for my party a couple of weeks back; it was well received, and they almost-but-not-quite figured they could just shove the thing over. There's a good chance they'll run into a blue slime next session.

I love this blog! It's very helpful. Right now, my players are interacting with Howler Wasps. They haven't gotten to the nest yet, but one player skinned one and made an outfit out of it. This weekend, they traded that outfit for future "favors". None of that would have happened without you.

I love your stuff! You've turned me on to a bunch of golarion lore, like mahadatari (technically starfinder but hush), the daemons, and qlippoth! I don't engage with your stuff as much as I should (in the social media sense), but I adore the blog in general. I'll fully out myself and say I'm monsterceiling! I actually took some of your advice to make a mahadatari build for Iron gods. She was a magus kasatha, but she died at the end of book one and came back as a duskwalker. I rebuilt her as a phantom blade/brawler with the (minor spoilers) juju zombie kasatha under torch as her phantom. She's currently spreading the gospel of Talavet across numeria!

I love hearing stories about how people are using my monsters at the table! I’d be happy to get those anytime.

I personally find Pathfinder too complicated; I enjoy CreatureCodex as a way to better understand the game without playing it and to see monsters from folklore I've not heard of before (and see new interpretations of ones I have!)

I enjoy all of your work with the Creature Codex, and it makes me want to try the Pathfinder system. I love the care and attention to detail that goes into each entry!

I’m glad I can help make the Pathfinder system somewhat more navigable. 

 I'm tempted to do something like the creature codex, but for Starfinder conversions. Any advice?

Develop a schedule. It doesn’t have to be near daily like my blog (for your sanity, it probably shouldn't be), but having a plan in mind for when to post definitely helps me manage workload. If you’re using tumblr, make use of the queue function; it’s one of the most helpful features of the site. And manage your expectations about engagement. Obviously, engagement helps me feel motivated and makes me feel good, but it takes a long time to get going, and the current culture of the internet makes it less common than it was even ~5 years ago (like when I started). 

I am curious to know why you write "mind-influencing effect" instead of "mind-affecting effect". Just a pet peeve of mine. I really like your work and I want to thank you for it.

It’s a 3.5ism. I feel like “mind-affecting effect” is a clunky bit of English. There’s some other formatting quirks I do that differ from Paizo’s official stat format; I put the Perception score alphabetically among the Senses instead of separating it out from darkvision, low light, etc. And I put Defensive Abilities in their own line instead of mixing them with DR, Immune, Resist and SR. 

Keep up the good work! I enjoy your blog immensely. End of the World week, in particular, was a favorite series of mine.

Thanks, but that wasn’t me. That was @monstersdownthepath​ who did End of the World Week. I have converted a bunch of those monsters, though. Check the “elder evils” tag. 

I do not play pathfinder myself, but have you considered creating a tag for Slaad Lords, Asura Rana, Empyreal Lords, etc (I think the term for them is demigods)? A player who wants to make a cleric of one of your monsters would have an easier time looking through the database if you marked which pages would be relevant for that.

That is an excellent idea. I haven’t gone back through my old posts and added “demigod” as a tag, but I will do so in the Not Too Distant Future. Thanks!

[hoiist]

Fake codex entry of a Magisters horrible letter

The text version under the cut Special help from @whataboutbugs-art

The Pavus Children, if you were to call them that, are just like their father; committed to causing atrocities against the Empire.   There are three of them, none of them he sired and none of them even human.   His daughter is a knife-ear (named Emley Minaeve) who constantly fights with house members and haunting local flophouses stuffed with drunks, vagabonds and beggars; is THIS any place for a young altus to be? And with Mercenaries from outside the Imperium, no less! As intelligent as she may seem, she is still a spindly little rat. Her amounting to anything is beyond me. Why would he (Lord Pavus) ‘collect’ some low-life, casteless knife-ear to his family name? Halward would be disgusted if he were still alive! Clearly, the Pavus house needs to come to an end; let it be with his son and these horrible feral children.  

The middle child, an Ox-Man under the name of Harlow. I do not understand the value of such disgusting creatures in eyeshot if it's not to use them as slaves. It towers over his sister and his father, a sickly grey colour with eyes to match. Four horns sprout from his head; covering them in jewels does not hide the fact that they should be mounted on the wall as a monument to his death rather than remaining on his head. To even give him a space in the senate disgusts me. He should have been killed at birth.  

There is a third child. It is said it's another knife-ear. Although I am yet to see him, he skulks with his sister in the flophouses, so the rumours go. He has only been spotted a few times with one of Pavus’s bodyguards. He wore the Pavus house insignia on his chest. They say he is mute and they took pity on the boy. Better than the ox-man they keep.

And these bodyguards: two of them with the Lord Pavus. Only one is seen often; a knife-ear, large in stature, with tattoos splayed across him (like some Rivaini WHORE.) Charming, for a wastrel. A Another is a Qunari brute as well. I believe our distinguished Lord Pavus may have a sexual proclivity for the great horned beasts he brings to show, as if he were employed at a carnival. One should not be showing such a thing so proudly, least of all on the Magisterium floor.  

They say he has bedded the Inquisitor; a Free Marcher, no less. At least it was a woman--a Trevelyan from the South--which, we all can agree, could have been far worse. I heard another say that it was the blonde man from Kirkwall; a templar. Yes, you read correctly: a man and a Templar. It is a bad as the Fereldans saying there were two Inquisitors, one of them a Qunari. Those disgusting barbarians would take anyone in their ranks, it seems.