#griffons!

[himluv]

DA Review Series: Last Flight

<<< Previous Review: DAI Short Stories

I've hit the stretch of the DA tie-in media list that's mostly graphic novels, so rate of review posts will hopefully pick up over the next few weeks.

Title: Last Flight Author: Liane Merciel Publication Year: 2014 In-World Year: ~9:42 Dragon and 5:12-24 Exalted Verdict: Look. I knew where this book was going before I ever opened it and before I saw any Veilguard footage. I've been around this fandom too long not to have been spoiled. That said, Isseya's story and Valya's discovery made me tear up. I really loved this book and think it's definitely worth picking up before Veilguard comes out. I hope we get to see some familiar faces.

Last Flight takes place in two timelines, the present (9:42 Dragon) and the past (5:12-24 Exalted). It tells the story of Grey Warden Isseya, an elf mage and sister of Warden Garahel, Hero of the Fourth Blight. Notably, this was the age griffons went extinct in Thedas.

In the present, another elf mage named Valya has journeyed to the safety of Weisshaupt in the wake of the Mage-Templar war. While there she finds Isseya's journal, which details the gruesome years of the Fourth Blight, how close they Wardens came to failing to destroy the Archdemon, and the true cost of their victory.

Isseya, who has been forgotten to time, was a Blood Mage. It was her desperate spell that allowed the griffons to undertake the Joining and become even more ferocious and formidable warriors against the Darkspawn.

It also consumed them all with a contagious version of the taint that drove the griffons mad. In her waning days, late in her Calling, Isseya was able to save the last clutch of griffon eggs and hide them away for a later generation of Wardens to find. After all she'd been through, all she'd been ordered to do, she didn't trust the Wardens of her time to act in the griffons' best interest.

Valya, after months of residing with the Wardens, but still not permitted to undertake the Joining, isn't sure the order is deserving of the griffons. But, against all hope, she leads a small group to Isseya's hiding spot. And thanks to the mage's powerful magic, the eggs are still there 400 years later. Safe and whole and ready to hatch.

Last Flight is the only Dragon Age novel written by a non-Bioware author. I think that actually made the story a bit more accessible. During Isseya's chapters I felt like the reader didn't need to know much about DA games to be invested in Isseya's story or the plight of the griffons. Valya's chapters were more subtle and my knowledge of Inquisition really helped understand the tensions happening across Thedas and within Weisshaupt Fortress.

Ultimately, I found Last Flight to be a really solid Dragon Age book, and even a decent fantasy novel. I was always going to like this one, because, well... Griffons! But now that we've seen a little bit of Veilguard and Davrin and Assan, I am SO EXCITED and glad I read this book!

[lullambii]

Day 7 of #Veiltober - Davrin Griffon Daddy.

[great-and-small]

Hands down my fave thing about hurricane season is when zoos put their birds in the bathroom to protect them from the wind and we get images like this

Photo from St Augustine Alligator Farm

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

mycenaean miku

she was there singing on the beaches of llion. homer copied the catalogue of ships from her.

[duelbraids]

using my powers for good

[prideandpiracy]

You got games on your phone?

[ladiemars]

do you guys think assan gets to sleep in davrin’s bed

[minthe-drawings]

Rook's main team

[olessan]

i love when adolescent griffons are picked up and they’re so absolutely confused as to how this could happen that they just sorta

Edit: the lil baby's name is Assan!!

[capoguar]

He caught a big one!

I tried to doodle this twice. First during the gameplay trailer and ended up deleting that file in a rage. I managed to try again after some time, with a squished egg.

[elby-ma]

Rook meeting Assan.

[joesferatu]

beautiful elven warrior with his tits out who’s probably going to give me little wooden gifts. it’s never been more over for me

[harkthorn]

Domestic griffon giving paw to a person I ran out of energy to finish defining

-2784

[galedekarios]

#just two single dads bragging about their kids

[caitmayart]

Gimme a minute I'm GONNA make that jump

[ruushes]

my hof was born to be a griffon rider, if they could've given him a griffon at the start of dao the blight would've been over in a week