#helena mercar

[blackjackkent]

Highly recommend turning around on a balance beam if you would like to inject some mild unintentional humor into your playthrough. XD

[feykiller]

Portrait of a Magister- artist unknown, circa 9:51

[kyber-ghost]

My two Rooks being twins is absolutely hilarious to me

One being a Crow, blunt, honest, comes off scarier than he actually is. Actually a softie who cares very deeply about others

The other being a Shadow Dragon mage with the fury of the sun but jokes around to make people laugh at least we're laughing about our shitty situation right?

I love them your honor

[shewolfofvilnius]

If you've seen my Rook - the daughter of Ser Jory (from Dragon Age Origins) & his wife Helena & wondered "How did Helena get to Tevinter" - the wait's OVER. 5500 words, 8 months pregnant. It's time for Rook's Dragon Age Origin.

(warning: graphic. Rated M for depictions of violence, and implications of potential/threatened non-con [Howe's soldiers]. Additional content warning for death in/shortly after childbirth)

[rambles-on-dragon-age]

character place holder post

Place holder post for my character tags.

Will probably be deleted when I scrounge up photos/gifs/videos I like of everyone.

lotta work ahead is all.

[shewolfofvilnius]

it is SURREAL to see your Reddit post having become just as popular on Tumblr and no one told me. Also Jordana says hi!

And yes. After my most recent playthrough I def think Jory is lying. I do NOT think he’s lying about Helena or the baby (his tone changes the same way Blackwall’s does in his early tomance lines) but something is absolutely rotten.

I got into it in the comments and wound up agreeing with the person who suggested Jory was a merc about to be strung up. Duncan saved him and offered him a place but Jory didn’t get the whole ‘for life’ bit

Also I went back one more time for Jordanan’s compilation bid and caught one last think I hadn’t noticed before: Jory has a fear of darkspawn. Has since he was a kid when his parents used them and their stories as a threat. Poor guy.

Anyway thanks to everyone here who has also cared about my daft little idea or that my Rook is his daughter. (I hc that Helena fled, wound up on a boat to Tevinter, and the Qunari ran the ship aground right as Helena went into labor. The baby survived (found by the later-Legatus Mercar when he was a junior officer) but Helena did not.

(i edited the OP to say ‘Hi Tumblr’)

kind of obsessed with this Reddit theory

[sage-nebula]

the empress and justice for the ask game!

I'm sorry this has taken me so long to answer! I wanted to give it proper answers, and that required being on my PC, and I've been away from my PC for a hot minute. But I'm here now!

The Empress: What does family mean for Rook?

Hoo boy. The subject of "family" is a loaded topic for Thalia. She was raised as an only child by her adoptive parents, Charon and Helena Mercar. Both Charon and Helena are human, while Thalia is an elf; Charon found her abandoned as a baby on a battlefield where he was stationed near Ventus, and when he saw the magical barriers she had subconsciously raised to keep herself safe, he took her in. Yes, she was an elf, but she was a mage. Being a mage canceled out being an elf, in their eyes.

But it didn't cancel it out in the eyes of the Tevinter Imperium. Thalia wasn't permitted to attend academies meant for other mages, because she was an elf, but rather had to be homeschooled. When she went out with her parents, other Tevene mistook her for the family slave, and her parents never saw fit to correct because "we know they're wrong" and they didn't want to cause a scene. As she grew older, this meant her parents kept her home more and more—because Thalia was hurt by the way they wouldn't stand up for her, and her parents grew tired of having the fight.

Thalia's parents did love her. And she did (does) love them. But the growing hurt over how they would keep her out of the public eye and not correct those who called her slave festered like an infected wound. The fact that Charon was a Legatus, yet was doing nothing to publicly stand against the institution of slavery, hurt Thalia even more. She ran away when she was eighteen, for though it made her as homeless as she was friendless, she figured that if no one else was going to make a stand, then she had to. And she couldn't do it while living in that house.

She was found shortly after when she inadvertently crashed a Shadow Dragon operation to free slaves—slaves that she was also trying to free, with no plan other than "get in, open slave cages, lead slaves out." The Shadow Dragons who found her had two decades on her, but saw this spirited young teenager as a worthy potential member of their ranks and brought her onboard. Thalia was only too eager to join.

She was a Shadow Dragon, then, for nine years before she met Varric. And in that time, she came to consider her fellow Shadows her family, because of the sense of belonging and acceptance (and in that, love) that they brought her. She hasn't spoken to her parents at all since she left, feeling they probably wouldn't want to speak to her anyway; she thinks she disowned herself from that family, even if she still bears the last name. The Shadow Dragons are her family, now — and later, the Lighthouse crew becomes her immediate family, her best friends.

But if asked about her parents, she'll get tense before making jokes to distract and change the subject. It is an extremely touchy subject, and one she really doesn't like talking about.

Justice: How does Rook feel about the circumstances that led to them leaving their faction? What does returning feel like?

Much like her family feelings, it's complicated!

On a couple of fingers, she does understand; she took a huge risk, and Wanted posters went up all over the city for her. She has a distinctive look (she used magic to dye her hair purple when she was eighteen, but the spell went a bit awry and she's never been able to change her hair color again no matter what she tried), so it's not as if hiding would be particularly easy for her. The Shadow Dragons are Shadow Dragons for a reason, and drawing that much attention to them could put everyone in danger. It was best not only for her, but for the organization as a whole if she stayed away for awhile.

But on all the rest of her fingers, she feels immensely frustrated by it. Yes, there was a target on her back — but there has always been, because she is a Shadow Dragon and because she won't stop being a blade in the side of every Venatori for as long as she draws breath. Her risk worked, by the way, the slaves ended up going free, which might not have happened had she not taken the risk she did. And the fact that the Viper—who, she would like to add, has just as much of a target on his distinctive outfit as she does on her distinctive hair—sends her away instead of standing up for her to those who would come after her . . . it brings up old bitter feelings that were formerly reserved for her parents. Even if she gets why, in this case, it still rankles.

With that said, though, the Shadow Dragons are still those she considers family, and Minrathous is still her home. (Even though she was raised in Midtown, rather than Dock Town.) And by the time she returns, a lot of the hurt and anger has simmered away. She forgives the Viper, especially since she understand why, and she's able to give Tarquin's shit talk right back to him with no hard feelings.

"You know I didn't want to send you away," the Viper says quietly, when they have a moment alone together in the Shop.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Thalia says, and she throws him a cheeky wink as she picks up her bottle of Tevene lager. "You can't keep me away, anyway. You're stuck with me."

"For that," the Viper says, as Thalia takes a swig, "we are all grateful."

(Feel free to send more in!)

[seigephoenix]

Original Character Compliation

Figured it was about time to condense and consolidate all my OCs into one post. Each has their own page dedicated to them. I'll also be making a ship post for all my fandoms too.

Dragon Age

Finn Aldwir Senna Thorn Odette Ingellvar Cal Mercar

Alissa Trevelyan Bronwen Lavellan Adelaide Trevelyan Nirya Cadash Roisin Lavellan Roscar Bonebreaker

Garrett Hawke Marian Hawke

Serena Tabris Elaina Cousland Briar Amell Maximillian Amell

Mass Effect

Cerise Ryder Colin Ryder

Marlowe Shepard Rhys Shepard

Baldur's Gate 3

Jareth Elaina Elfie Dawnstone Thalia Lysette

Cyberpunk

Evie "V" Veronique "V"

Demon Slayer

Ayane Mochizuki

Destiny 1 & 2

Siobhan Jareth Annalise Yvette Tevriks

Skyrim

Aurelia Tullius Roscar Bone-breaker Helena Nightshade Nyx Sylvana Valenwood

Fallout 4

Georgia Alyssa

[blackjackkent]

So things are... decidedly weird in good old D'Meta's Crossing.

Walking on into one of the buildings, we find a weird red substance of some sort that doesn't seem to be doing active damage but does cause a weird red smoky aura around Helena's body:

It uh. Also has tentacles growing out of it.

Again, for some reason no one in the party comments on this(!).

The group fans out to look for survivors in the town square, which is looking... terrible.

Bellara apparently knew people from this town who she is finding dead here, which is horrible. Neve points out that the blight managed to lift an entire aravel onto the roof of a building, which is also horrible in a completely different way.

(A/N: It's been ages since I last played a DA game - I feel like I don't remember the blight being represented as a physical growth like this so much previously. Am I misremembering or is this new?)

Update: Harding has a comment on this:

"This blight is weird."

(A/N: Yeah, pretty much, lol.)

"Ever seen anything like it?" Helena asks.

"Never," Harding says. "Blight's usually dead. Static. But this is alive..."

EEEEEK.

-----

And then, moving deeper into the village:

Oh, god.

"What was that?" asks Bellara.

"Something big," says Helena. "Stay sharp."

Something big indeed, because coming around the corner, we see... this.

Oh god oh shit oh fuck

The screenshot here does not make it nearly clear enough that these giant tentacles are MOVING.

"Over there!" says Bellara. "Two more survivors."

Bellara, we have a Code Cthulu happening up the ridge, if you hadn't noticed.

-----

The two new survivors continue the local trend of being very ominous and not very responsive. "Find the Veil Jumpers. Bring them to the mayor."

Harding suggests that this implies that finding the missing Jumpers will require finding the mayor, which seems like a good assumption, and it's a pity that acting on it requires going through even more awfulness:

In spite of her earlier comments, Helena doesn't really have a joke to offer about this. This is just... awful. She's used to a lot of awful shit in Minrathous, but it's generally the people sort of awful, the awful of cruelty and injustice.

The tentacles are something new.

[blackjackkent]

First combat went fairly easy peasy. Light attack mechanics, a sort of parry or deflect key, and access to three health potions (which I am able to refill by Legend-of-Zelda-ing a nearby pot). Helena is loaded up with two daggers with which she cut up the demons; so far I'm button mashing a bit, but it feels pretty smooth overall.

Onward to Dumat Plaza!

Shoutout to this pack of rats scurrying along the street into a nearby hole, which is kind of a nice touch.

"I don't get it," Helena says as they continue on. "If Solas tears down the Veil, doesn't that destroy everything?"

(A/N: I know we're having this conversation for exposition reasons but it is funny to me that Helena never thought to ask this question at any point previously in her association with Varric.)

"Solas always talked about how beautiful the ancient world was," Harding says sadly.

"That world existed before the Veil," Varric says flatly, "and he wants to bring it back."

"Even if his ritual kills us all in the process," says Harding.

-----

There are massive explosions happening further down in the city.

"YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF IMPERIAL ORDER!" bellows the amplified voice from the Ring. Privately, Helena reflects that this is probably not going to cause anyone involved in the situation to change their mind about anything.

"Oh, no," Harding whispers. "I think that's Dumat Plaza."

Was, Helena thinks.

(A/N: It is a little funny coming to this having only played as a Southern Thedosian previously; wasn't Dumat the first archdemon? :P )

-----

Highlights of the trip to Dumat Plaza:

The Venatori of course show up, and are displeased with Helena for having "made trouble at the bar." Look, don't kidnap people if you're not willing for people to come looking for them.

We have to smash a bunch of crystals down in order to break down a forcefield the Venatori erected. A smidge unclear why they are blocking routes through the city; presumably they're not supporting Solas's plot? Maybe they're just trying to take advantage of the chaos.

Varric: "Friendly bunch of cultists, aren't they?" Helena: "We used to fight these assholes every day in the Shadow Dragons." Varric: "Glad you kept up practice!"

Whee!

"They're allies of Neve Gallus!" one of the Venatori shouts as we approach the giant magical dome protecting the entrance to Dumat Plaza. "Kill them all!" Still VERY unclear what the Venatori game is here, but they're clearly not happy with Neve or us.

We gain a new ability, "Static Strikes"; Rook builds up a class resource in combat ("Momentum" for Rogues) which then can be spent to execute abilities, such as this one which shoots lightning through Helena's daggers. This is absolutely something that she is super proud of and thinks looks badass, and she's disappointed Varric and Harding aren't paying enough attention to comment on it.

The prompt to press Tab to open the abilities wheel gets stuck on the screen so that I have to reload.

"Varric Tethras!" one of the Venatori shouts. "The Venatori own these streets!" So maybe this is just a pissing contest that the Venatori have decided to have in the middle of the apocalypse. :P Certainly a choice, if so. I'm guessing Helena is pretty incensed hearing this; like hell they do.

Once the last crop of Venatori are dead, we can take a look at this magical dome, which turns out to be made of ice. Harding says it is probably Neve's work, which seems promising.

It collapses open as Helena puts a hand to it, and she peers past the opening to see...

Several frozen and very dead Venatori, and one alive and deeply unruffled looking woman with a prosthetic leg and a mortarboard hat, tapping the ash off of a long, thin pipe.

"Varric. Harding," the woman says in a sardonic contralto. "Not the worst timing."

(A/N: 👀👀👀👀👀👀 )

"Neve!" Harding breaks into a wide smile as they cross the fallen barrier. "It's so good to see you! We thought the Venatori had kidnapped you.

"They thought the same thing." Neve smirks, pulling her dagger (scepter?) out of the back of one of the dead men sprawled on the ground. "A lot of Venatori in this city have reason to hate me. Figured I'd play along, find out who wanted to settle the score this time.

Her prosthetic makes a heavy metallic clink-clink on the iced-over dampness of the stone as she turns to lead them through the ruins of the Plaza and into the buildings on the other side. "Then the sky started raining demons," she goes on acerbically. "So I'm back on the job."

(A/N: I like her. :P I suspect she and Helena are gonna be buddies.)

"Appreciate it. Rook, this is Neve Gallus," Varric says with a nod back over his shoulder at Helena. "Our local expert. She's gonna help us find Solas. Neve, meet Rook - both of you have done some work for the Shadow Dragons."

"Isn't that a coincidence?" Neve grins over her shoulder at Helena, and Helena gets the distinct sense that the detective knows more about her than she knows about herself.

"Some old friends said if I was working in Tevinter, the Shadow Dragons are worth trusting," says Varric.

Helena is wracking her brains trying to remember if she ever heard anything about this woman working with the Dragons. But nothing comes to mind; clearly it was business Helena wasn't privy to. But any friend of the Dragons is a friend of hers, particularly if that friend kills the blood mages infesting her city.

"Nice to meet you!" she says cheerfully. "Based on the Venatori, you've got excellent taste in enemies."

Neve quirks an eyebrow over her shoulder. "I do my best." Her tone is still a low drawl, like she's always just on the edge of a barked, sardonic laugh without quite voicing it.

"You said you had a lead?" Harding asks.

"I haven't seen Solas in person," Neve says crisply. "But I did find hints of old magic, similar to what you get in elven ruins. I traced it to a building beneath Our Lady of Victory."

She comes to a halt, gesturing at the enormous stone statue rising up into view ahead of them.

"That's where your man is hiding."

"Then let's go," Varric says grimly. "Before this ritual he's doing gets any worse."

Neve shoots him a sideways look. "Worse?" she quips. "This ritual is already drawing more power than I'd expect from a dozen mages. You told me he was working alone." There's a subtle rebuke in her voice now.

"I also told you he was an ancient elven god," Varric says dryly.

Neve grunts thoughtfully. "An elven god." She considers a moment, then grips the hilt of her staff. "Well, whatever he is, he's causing trouble in my city," she says, striding forward. "Let's go."

Helena grins. Oh, I like you, she thinks, breaking into a trot to catch up.

[blackjackkent]

Next up is our first proper private chat with Bellara and you guys... this is EASILY my favorite moment in the game so far. XD I love her.

Helena finds her on her back in the middle of a nondescript sort of room on one side of the Lighthouse courtyard. She's wedged halfway under a giant stone carving of an elven head, the top of which has popped open to reveal a receptacle for the crystal device containing the Nadas Dirthalen, and mumbling to herself.

"Hmm. Mmhmm. Mmhmm... mmhmmm... mhmm-- oh! There!"

She scrambles excitedly from under the statue and up onto her feet as the crystal begins to glow with pulsing swirls of light. A muffled and indistinct voice fills the room, unfamiliar words in elven.

"Sulahn'nehn... vir sulevanan..." whispers the voice, and Helena can see Bellara's expression light up with hopeful excitement--

--but then the light fades. The voice statics briefly and then disappears as well. Bellara's shoulders slump.

"Gah. Damn it!"

With an explosion of frustration, Bellara shoots forward, lifting her magical wrench in one hand and slamming it several times on the statue's face. On the final strike, the wrench rebounds away with a loud clang, slamming into the wall - and right past Helena's face; Helena yelps, startled, and ducks out of the way just in time.

"Oh no!" Bellara yelps, equally loudly. She goes very still all of a sudden, her eyes going wide. "Sorry," she mutters sheepishly. "Just breaking things."

(A/N: OK honestly I love Bellara. XD She has programmer vibes that I relate to strongly, and her personality is fantastic. What would y'all say if I said she's unexpectedly kind of edging her way into a frontrunner position for Helena's romance? :P

I still want to wait and meet the others as well before I make any decisions, but of the people we've met so far, Bellara definitely (imo) has the best energy to match Helena's jokey/irreverent/cover things with humor streak, while also being very different in her magical interests.

She's also just my favorite so far. XD So I'm being a little meta here but not entirely.

We'll see.)

Helena dusts herself off and grins, lounging back on her heels, trying to put the other woman's obvious apologetic anxiety to rest. "Want help?" she asks casually. "I could... I don't know. Kick it, or something?"

Maker knows there's little else she can bring to the table when it comes to magical artifacts. Pity blowing it up isn't likely to be helpful.

Bellara blinks, then grins widely. "Oh! yes. Just be careful. Some things don't do well. If you break them, I mean."

Helena raises an eyebrow. "What kind of 'don't do well' are we talking about?" she asks.

"Oh, you know. Reality tears. Wild magical energy." Bellara taps her jaw thoughtfully. "Also for some reason... bees. I don't know why."

She turns and stares at the crystal again, her smile fading. "And I don't know why this won't work," she adds irritably. "Thought I'd figured it out. But it keeps breaking, and I can't get my thoughts to line up."

(A/N: Once again - Bellara is saying things I have absolutely said word for word at work myself. XD )

Helena resists the urge to grin. Bellara is obviously upset and frustrated - but all of this is so far beyond anything Helena has any experience, and Bellara has already done things that seemed impossible from the outset. "You fixed the eluvian, though," she points out.

"The eluvian was easy," Bellara says distractedly, waving away the hint of compliment in the words. "Once I replaced the resonance crystal, adjusted the lyrium lens, it worked fine. I mean... I had to realign the matrices. But it just worked. Not like this thing."

(A/N: I love her, your honor. And I feel you, girl, I've been there so many times.)

Helena chuckles. "You don't give yourself enough credit," she says firmly. "You're smart. You'll figure it out."

(A/N: This is actually a flirt line in game, because fuck it why not, but I am not sure Helena is really thinking about it that way just at this moment. She legitimately does think Bellara is really smart, and knows things way beyond anything Helena could even begin to figure out, so the admiration here is sincere.)

Bellara blinks - and then that wide smile flashes back again. "Well - thank you. For thinking that."

"Of course," says Helena. She flicks her eyes past Bellara back to the statue, which seems disconcertingly like it's watching them. "Also... what is it exactly?" she asks cautiously.

"it's the Nadas Dirthalen!" Bellara perks up visibly at the questionj. "The eighth archive. We-- I-- heard it was gone forever, but here it is!"

"So what does it do?"

"It knows things! Whatever its creator knew, at least," Bellara explains. "So much knowledge. All the wonders of Elvhenan... or at least, bits of them. Which is more than we have." Her voice picks up pace as she warms to her subject. "Once I figure it out, at least. Whoever made it was powerful, but clumsy. It's resonating off-tempo. Need to match it. First, introduce a microfracture. But before that, you'll need Fade harmonics, so--"

She trails off abruptly and rubs the back of her neck with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry," she says hastily. "I ramble sometimes. I'm a rambler. Ruined a lot of relationships - most of the people I've been with didn't care for it."

A pause. "And... I'm doing it. Again." She sighs.

Helena grins. It doesn't surprise her at all that some people have been, perhaps, overwhelmed by Bellara's combination of intelligence and energy. But the whole thing is so much outside Helena's own wheelhouse that she is mostly just bemused - and impressed. "I've been known to ramble now and then," she says mildly. "Sometimes I get ahead of my thoughts, and when I try to sort them out, they're all jumbled."

Bellara, clearly thrilled at this expression of understanding, perks up again. "Yes!" she says eagerly. "And they're slippery, and fast, and you can only catch some of them. I wish I could catch the thought that would let me fix this thing."

She sighs, puts out a hand on the statue's cool stone for a moment. "I'll get back to it soon," she mutters. "But I think I need a break. Maybe a nap. And I can finish later."

Helena chuckles. "Personally, I always endorse napping."

"Right? Never underestimate a good nap," Bellara says cheerfully. She grins eagerly at Helena for a moment-- then turns suddenly away, her smile turning almost shy. "Anyway. Let me know if you need me. I'll be ready."

[blackjackkent]

Aight, poking at a bit more Veilguard tonight!

We've finished Lucanis's recruitment, so our first order of business is to go round and check in with everyone at the Lighthouse.

It's now a daytime vibe, which is nice, and apparently we also have the option to go back to Antiva and wander around if we want, but that's not a top priority at the moment. (Next up is going to Minrathous, which Helena is very excited about. :D )

Neve has nothing to say at the moment, but Lucanis, Bellara, and Harding all do. Let's start with Lucanis since he's the new boy and we should be sure he's settling in okay.

He's holed up in the pantry area behind the dining hall, where he's set up a little bedroll for himself on what appears to be a low table.

"You asked for time," Helena says conversationally. "Is this long enough?"

Lucanis looks at her warily for a moment, then nods. "Yes," he says. "My head's clearer. Though I would kill for a decent cup of coffee."

"Have you?" Helena asks before she can stop herself. "For coffee, I mean?"

Lucanis looks at her steadily. "Not today," he says, deadpan dry.

Ah, so he does have a sense of humor, albeit a subtle one. Helena relaxes a little. He seems like a valuable asset for their ragtag little group - but if he was as humorless as he appeared down in the Venatori prison, he would no doubt find Helena very difficult to work with before long.

He still might, I guess.

Lucanis crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow expectantly. "You've got questions," he says. "You might as well ask them."

She's got plenty, but the practical ones come first. There's little point making plans to fight gods with a man who doesn't want to be there. "I know Caterina 'volunteered' you to work with us," she says briskly. "Are you okay with that?"

Lucanis shrugs. "When the First Talon of the Crows gives you a job, you do it," he answers. "Especially if she's your grandmother. But there's plenty of reason for me to work with you beyond that, Rook."

She searches his expression, but there's no trace of ribbing or mockery in the words. He seems to be being perfectly sincere. "Such as?" she asks, a little ruefully. She knows her own skills plenty well, but she still isn't entirely convinced to match Varric's certainty that leadership is one of them.

"I owe you a debt, for one," Lucanis says mildly. "And after a year in that hole... maybe I'm looking forward to stabbing a god or two in the back."

Helena smiles faintly. That is certainly the right attitude, under the circumstances.

She settles herself on a nearby barrel of fruit and crosses her arms, looking at him curiously. "You're the best mage-killer in the Antivan Crows. So how'd the Venatori catch you?"

Lucanis's expression hardens. "Someone set me up," he says bitterly. "I had a contract for Calivan. In the Ossuary. I took a ship from Treviso to Minrathous. They were waiting for me - knew which ship and when it would arrive. I don't know how they convinced the Crows I was dead - but I woke up in the Ossuary with Zara gloating about it."

Helena grunts thoughtfully. That might bear some thinking about. She knows as well as anyone - and better than most - not to underestimate the Venatori; there's plenty of ways they could have gotten that information. But it does suggest that the Crows might have a mole in their organization, which is not a comforting thought.

Well, no point in thinking about that for now. She looks around, checking that he seems to be getting comfortable in his little hidey-hole. "The Crossroads can be dicey," she says conversationally. "But the Lighthouse is safe. Oh - and if you see a spirit around called the Caretaker, they're friendly."

The truth is she's not entirely sure of the truth of any of these statements. But it can't hurt to at least act for now as if they have a handle on the situation.

"After the Ossuary, that will be a pleasant change," Lucanis says dryly. He hesitates, then squints at her narrowly. "You haven't asked about Spite."

She isn't really even sure WHAT to ask about Spite. Her handle on magic stuff is shaky enough as it is, but Spite's presence in Lucanis doesn't make sense even with the small bit she knows.

"From what I've seen, I'd say he picked the right name," she says noncommittally.

This time there's no humor in Lucanis's voice, not even in deadpan. "He's stronger when I sleep," he mutters. "So I try not to do it much." One fist clenches at his side, then slowly loosens. "No one was in the Ossuary by choice. Not even the demons. We... both did what we had to do, to get out of there."

Helena frowns, watching his expression. She doesn't envy him the experience he went through - but she also doesn't understand how it happened in the first place, or how worried they all need to be about it. "So..." she says carefully, "if you're an abomination..."

Lucanis sighs. "I suppose I should get used to that..."

"But I heard that only mages can get possessed by demons," Helena presses. She's seen it happen more than once in Minrathous, both among powerful mages and those of lower stature, and it's never a pretty sight.

Lucanis smiles crookedly and spreads his hands with an air of uncertainty. "I'm skilled with a blade, but I promise you - without Spite, I have the magical talent of a brick. There must be some difference between a demon deceiving their way into a body and being forced into one."

Helena frowns. None of this makes sense, and it's more than a little unsettling. If this Zara is out there performing experiments to shove demons into the bodies of non-mages, then she's a danger even to dwarves with their disconnect from the Fade.

Helena has been so sure of who she was for a long time. A dwarf among mages, yes, but one who knew how to deal with them, how to live in Minrathous's shadowy corners and do the things that needed doing.

Now, though... everything that she thought she knew to be true seems to be changing.

She sighs. Well, like Varric said - we've just got to step up and deal with it.

"We should know," she says, reverting back to practical questions again. "Is there anything in particular that upsets Spite?"

"Not getting his way." Lucanis snorts. "Getting his way, and not liking the outcome."

Helena raises an eyebrow and then grins. "Sounds like a child."

But Lucanis, again, is not smiling as he answers. "Have you seen a child when they realize they don't control the world?" he says flatly. "Except Spite's anger has real power behind it." He shakes his head. "Leave Spite to me. If he's trapped in this world, he has good reason to fight for it."

He turns away, busying himself with straightening the bedroll on his makeshift bed. "For now... I must honor our contract. Gods, magic, politics..." He lets out a heavy breath. "Hm. Things are going to get very bloody."

[blackjackkent]

Our next combat mechanic involves more explosions, which continues to fit right into my headcanons about Helena's sneaky bomb specialties.

This is actually kind of fun; you can pair up different abilities across the companions based on which apply a particular condition and which detonate it.

After a long and somewhat hectic fight, things settle down, and it's time to head back to the Lighthouse for a followup discussion.

First, though, we get an unsettling little interstitial cutscene with the evil gods themselves:

Elgar'nan: "Your pet has failed, sister. And now the magic of the Dread Wolf's dagger is hidden from me. Fen'Harel meddles once again."

Ghilan'nain: "If his dagger is beyond our reach, we must craft another."

Ghilan'nain: "Made of red lyrium."

-----

So that's horrifying. I guess it makes a certain amount of sense; red lyrium is basically lyrium infected with the blight, right? And Ghilan'nain definitely seems more fucked up and blighted than her brother does; she has a buttload of tentalces and at least four arms that I could count. Elgar'nan, by contrast, at least still seems relatively humanoid.

Obviously Helena doesn't know anything about this but I'M concerned. XD

[blackjackkent]

All right, we also have the option to set up a little bit of past history for the Inquisition!

I am setting Helena's adventures in the worldstate of Dominic Trevelyan!

(And Elliot Hawke and Daniel Cousland, but they don't take a role in this, I am given to understand.)

Ah, Dom, my boy, I have missed you.

Dom was (is) the son of the Bann of Ostwick, youngest son of a large family, a devout Andrastean who was in training to be a templar before the breach happened and shoved him into the role of the Inquisitor. His story ended up being a lot about him struggling in (and eventually succeeding in) holding onto his faith while learning to see a much broader perspective on the world at large.

He romanced Cassandra, who became the Divine; the Inquisition under his leadership became a part of the southern Thedosian Chantry, serving as Cassandra's personal honor guard. (As part of this arrangement, I decided that he and Cassandra continued their relationship more or less in secret; they never married or made much of an ostentatious show of their love, but have been there for each other behind the scenes and relatively happy in spite of their public responsibilities).

I'm legitimately unsure about the question of whether Dom "vowed to stop Solas" or "vowed to save Solas from himself". My old liveblog did not make the decision 100% clear and it's been a decade and I forgor. XD

I think that I am going with "vowed to save Solas from himself," though. Above all else, even his faith, Dom's golden-retriever friendliness was his defining characteristic. And I do have some writing at the end of his liveblog about how that aspect of him affected Solas's certainty even during Inqusition:

All of a sudden that weird conversation on the battlements from several years ago makes sense. Dom, with his laughing eyes and fierce loyalty and sense of the absurd, was the first to bring home to Solas that he was in a world of people, and not just a dead echo of the place that was once his.

So I think Dom wants to believe that he can still convince Solas to stand down without having to kill him. He was definitely very angry and hurt to learn of Solas's plans and if it comes down to it he won't hesitate to do what's necessary to protect the world from him. But... he still has hope that it won't be necessary.

(Per Dom's end cards in DAI, he also ended up doing a bunch of work with Sera as a member of the Red Jennies, also under the radar. Hard to say if that took the entire ten years of interim; unsure if the game is going to give further sense of what he has been up to in this time.)

And after considerable effort... here is how he looks in Veilguard!

He definitely looks somewhat more depressed than he looked in Inquisition. Then again, maybe that's apropos, given that it's been ten years and a lot has (presumably) happened in that time. XD Frankly, no rendition of him that I could do in Veilguard would match his face in Inquisition, which still stands as one of the crowning achievements of my long career of Making Hot People In Video Games.

But this is not bad, all things considered. He at least doesn't look like the guy playing him in Veilguard is horribly miscast. XD

And with that, all of the CC work is done! Time to dive into the game!

[blackjackkent]

Initial exploration of the Crossroads:

I'm assuming we're going to be coming back here, since there are definitely pathways that are currently closed off. Makes sense since it's a hub area in a Watsonian as well as a Doylist sense. Some of the paths are quite... ominous:

(This is apparently a level 35 quest, so we won't be figuring this out for a bit.)

More notes from Felassan:

Cactus!

Deeply unsettling statues!

Coffins(?)

Arriving at the first quest marker, the Caretaker shows up in a giant-ass boat with which it can apparently ferry us between Crossroads islands:

"Places between," it intones ominously while carting us to the next quest location.

-----

The new island is full of ghosts.

"The spirits here were driven out," the Caretaker explains. "Refugees, now, from the gods' minions."

"I have summoned the guardians of the Crossroads to protect them. Beware - the guardians repel all interlopers."

"Ancient defenders aren't very discerning," Bellara agrees sagely.

I'm not sure if the implication here is that we're going to have to fight and destroy the very guardians the Caretaker summoned here to protect these spirits, but that seems counterproductive to its request that we help it. :P

UPDATE: The guardians are already fighting somebody, and guess who it is!

All of a sudden Helena is in a much better mood. She recognizes the robes and the cruel sneer in the voices; she'd know Venatori anywhere. And this she knows how to deal with.

-----

From here we had to kill the Venatori and the guardians, before finding the path blocked, separating us from the "Fade tear" that we need to close to stop the gods' minions from getting in.

Opening it entails killing another enemy, a "champion" of the gods, whose blood is necessary to clear the passageway.

Along the way to the champion, we find:

More Venatori and more guardians

New armor for Harding:

The champion itself is hiding inside a "Blight cyst," which is disgusting:

And is a giant ogre called "Sirin the Twice-Forged." No idea what that name means:

Bit of a scary fight; the thing moved FAST and was constantly attacking, so Helena spent her time doing lots of dramatic flips while running like hell and shooting over her shoulder.

-----

Having obtained the essence, we head on back towards the blocked path. On the way, we find a new type of puzzle; there are statues of Fen'Harel in the Fade that, when activated, turn to point in the direction of a bit of treasure which turns out to be a smol wolf statue; collecting it gets us a free skill point!

There's definitely a couple of other paths around here to investigate, but we'll go ahead and open the main gate for now:

"I've never seen so many eluvians in one place," says Bellara wonderingly. "Where do they all go?"

"Time to find out," says Helena.

From here, we pick whether to go first to get the Crows or the Shadow Dragons.

I'm definitely more looking forward to the Shadow Dragons (other than getting Lucanis) bc of Helena's connection with them, so we will get the Crows out of the way first before heading off to Minrathous. :D So that will be Thursday's plan!

[blackjackkent]

First mission completed!

Woohoo!

Lots to do before we head off on our next quest to investigate the missing Jumpers.

Helena and Bellara have new bows; Helena's is called "Veil's Edge" and looks pretty cool actually:

We now have access to skill trees for the companions. They're not nearly as complicated as Rook's, but we can basically put points into upgrading any of their five available skills, along with a mysterious locked skill at the center:

Among other things, Bellara has a skill that lets her use an Arlathan relic to slow down time for enemies, which is pretty dope.

Every companion also has a relationship score that will increase by doing content with that companion. We're currently at level 2 with Bellara but only 1 with Neve and Harding, which is pretty funny since we just met Bellara five minutes ago. XD

Some new codex entries from Bellara's journal, including some interesting info about the archive spirit:

There's definitely an eluvian on the lower level of the camp (labeled "Crossroads Eluvian" on the map) but it doesn't seem to be active at the moment. There's also a glowing artifact labeled "Beacon" that seems to be a respawn and fast travel point.

Merchant!

As always, bless any game that provides an easy "Sell All Junk" button.

There's not a lot I'm interested in buying just at present, but I'm interested in the "Appearance" tab of the shop; it looks like you can buy things to act as outfits over your armor, which is always a big plus. All of them (and many other things) require a higher "shop rank" which we get from leveling up the merchant with supplies and with high enough faction reputation. We don't have enough of either yet, so we'll come back later and investigate what fits she has available for us.

Neve claimed she's coming with us to D'Meta's Crossing, but she's not in the party which maxes out at two companions. Unsure what's going on there.

Bellara has some exposition in a chat with Harding as we get out on the road:

"Seems like a lot's happened around here." (this from Harding) "What *hasn't* happened. This area is where Tevinter magisters destroyed Arlathan City centuries ago. Whole lot of blood magic during the war." "What about now?" "Whatever Solas did stirred up everything again. The old blood magic from the war - it never went away. Ancient relics appear out of thin air, ruins float... It's like an old wound that never healed, and now it's bleeding again."

We get a look at the city in question on the road to the Crossing. "What a view," Helena says, and she's right:

"That was the capital city, Arlathan," Bellara explains. "This is what's left of it after the war."

"I don't imagine it floated back in the day," Helena says dryly.

Lots of side paths on the route to the quest, including the ability to open shortcuts back to camp, furthering my impression that someone on the design team is a Dark Souls fan.

A DEEPLY concerning set of statues (I can't tell if they're supposed to be wood or stone carvings) that appear to be of some people running and one of them getting eaten by a tree. For some reason no one in the party comments on this.

-----

Neve is waiting for us by the boat that's supposed to take us to D'Meta's Crossing, an area called Ruins Reach which is frankly gorgeous.

And once again the game is placing a lot of emphasis on Neve's injured status. Unsure if this is leading to something upsetting or just intended to make me feel bad for bringing her into danger:

"Neve, you sure you're up for this?"

"I'm fine. Couldn't sit still much longer."

Once again, this is turning out to be Helena's attitude as well - she likes to be doing something proactive and has a very low priority for her own personal safety - so she really doesn't have a lot of room to quarrel.

Let's go see what's happening at the Crossing!