#i got that WARDEN in me

[jackalopedaily]

Jackalope Daily Day 349

HELLOOOOO FELLOW JACKALOPE FANSS

imtalkingtolike4peopleincludingmyself

How would YOU feel if I started posting about my MILGRAM THEORIES on THIS Account?

Should I reserve it for jackalope only content or should share my incredibly vast wisdom??? 🤔🤔

[crowpendragon]

The end of another, unknowable path. Once two flames, now one, alone. Flickering, faded by a choice.

"Ar lath ma, vhenan."

"Cruel to the end."

[kiivg]

.thers a blight happening or smth idk.

[emmavakarian-theirin]

soooooo i accidentally got lucanis killed trying to trigger new dialogue but i guess you could say i got a bunch of new dialogue anyway :')

[the epilogue slide]

[lizzybeeee]

Personal take: One of the weirdest things Veilguard did, outright baffling, in fact, is how it feels like they reset the status quo of the world to Origins - even further back, if anything.

The game avoids (at all costs) meaningfully delving into exploring what these events/lore reveals mean to the world and characters at large. But the entire time I was thinking: holy shit this is bad.

What happens in game has very, very bad implications for the rest of Thedas and how they're going to look at groups like the Elves and Mages. I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone whose played all three previous games, not from the perspective of datv which really brushes over all moral complexity and sociopolitical issues. Of course, it's just my interpretation but its based off what happened in previous games.

Elves

The Elvish Gods of legend came back, blighted, and ended up wiping out the majority of the South - I find it hard to believe that the elves would not be 'roped in' as being responsible somehow.

Elves could sneeze in a previous game and people would blame them for causing a plague and purge the alienage -> life is shit for an elf and the events of datv would have absolutely made life a thousand times worse.

Would there be purges of alienages? Are there groups like the chavaliers or mobs of humans going about an killing elves because 'It's your Gods. It's your fault.'

Obviously, it isn't. But there are plenty of examples in Thedas' history of people acting rashly/cruelly out of terror and anger - and it's the most vulnerable people, like the Elves and Mages, who are targeted.

The Dalish Elves, what remains of them, would likely be perceived as 'Blight/Old God worshipers' - people would chase them off for the 'crime' of living too close to them in the woods in DAO.

Terrified, angry people would not care if the Dalish said they had nothing to do with what's happening - there would be bloodshed.

If anything improved for the elves from the time of Origins -> Mahariel, Tabris, Lavellan, or Briala...it's likely back to ground one as the best possible outcome, and closer to the Exalted March on the Dales at it's worst.

Mages

Mages could, potentially, have been living a life of unprecedented acceptance if Leliana was Divine -> along come the Evanuris, mages, who are allied with the Venatori who are causing devastation in Orlais and the Free Marches specifically.

Missive - Message from the Front -> The Tide Turns "The Venatori and the Orlesian royal armies clash daily in Orlais. Val Royeaux is now under control of the rebels, and from there the Venatori launch attacks as far east as Kirkwall."

The original magisters (evanuris) wielding the Blight and Old Gods 2.0 x2.

Any templars who remained, who had the old mindset and outlook of how mages should be treated, absolutely would be pointing at the venatori and saying "we warned you what would happen without the Order."

Normal people wouldn't give a shit that it's only a 'few' mages -> their entire home is gone, their families are dead, and the people responsible are wielding magic.

Fear of magic would likely be at an all time high - If the Order doesn't exist people would likely be demanding for them to come back.

The mages - whatever goodwill they earned - are likely being faced with suspicion and terror because this is proof of what magic can do in the hands of power-hungry douchebags.

Maybe they help to fight and people don't get so suspicious of them - who knows! This game doesn't want to address the previous games so it's in limbo.

Spirits

Other people have done great posts about how the spirits were completely tossed aside in this game. Three games worth of humanizing spirits, with Justice and Cole, only to go back on it with Solas reinforcing the Veil and...maintaining the status quo?

He so earnestly discussed with us his perspective on spirits and how they're just as 'real' as those on this side of the Veil - we saw it with Cole firsthand. But I guess they can all chill in the Fade till Solas dies or whatever.

I'd argue that the elves and mages are in an even worse position than they were in Origins. It's just not fulfilling, to me at least, to see the World I got so invested in just regress to the status quo after three games of challenging it. For it to not be meaningfully discussed or spoken about in-game, just brushed aside...I may not have liked the decision to do this but it could have been interesting (at least) if they actually discussed it.

Also, people don't just 'band together' because of the Blight - Origins showed us very well that in times of strife and pressure peoples petty/deeply ingrained beliefs, prejudices, and values come to the forefront. Alistair's comment about “You know, one good thing about the Blight is how it brings people together" -> was him being snarky about how everybody as Ostagar was on the verge of throwing hands with each other. They were united in cause not in belief - the cause being to eradicate the darkspawn.

It's just so grim, and with how they handled sociopolitical issues and moral complexity in datv (not at all) I have no hope that they'll be able to address this at all, if they even bother to and don't just...ignore it, I guess.

Maybe this is what the devs meant when they said that the 'tone' was similar to Origins - just straight up erasing whatever strides was made in the previous games and setting it back to square one lmao

[plutonious]

wahtever I like emmie and gogo I want to talk about them.

after emmet gets to hisui ingo is verrry cheerful due to the amount of affection he recives from emmet

ingo's been basically trained out of initiating physical contact from being a part of pearl clan for so long, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like it, just that he forgets he's allowed to do so when theres someone he can do so with, so everytime emmet touches him he practially melts. emmet is latched onto ingo half the time so that's really often. something something he grew up with one million affection and then didn't realize he was missing it until he got it back. now he doesn't like being apart from his brother for too long. because it's warm and cozy to be hugged.

[boar-sjn]

he doesn't get paid enough for this. (he doesn't get paid at all actually.)

[dredgesnails]

rest in peace wild life mumbo 🫡

[cartoonishreal]

hypothetically, what if i decided to spend my assembly mimicking @waywardstation 's style instead of paying attention?

[rosieofcorona]

unfortunately i did start a king alistair x warden fic in which my warden's calling starts early. maybe after this i'll cry myself to sleep idk

[vero-valzer]

Warden Ingo from Pokémon Legends: Arceus at Sakura-Con 2025

@vero-valzer as Warden Ingo

📸 by JustCosCosplay on IG

[6-atlas-6]

Erik it's been 3 years for the love of gods PLEASE let me kiss Vega

[lotusliasart]

I don't know what happened but I fell into the Evka/Antoine pit overnight after rereading parts of Tevinter Nights, and there's only a handful of things when I search for them so I'm adding to that pile myself!!

They've appeared multiple times in short stories and even the comics so I'm just waiting for DA4 stuff like "👀". Bioware pls give us the cute Wardens (preferably alive and well shjhfg but I'm expecting them to hurt me emotionally anyway bc this is DA after all, and there's been so much foreshadowing ;;v;;)

(Lineart below)

[wolfsong-the-bloody-beast]

I'm kind of obsessed with Blackwall's idealized ideas about the Wardens. He was once picked up by a Warden and lulled by the promise of atoning for his crimes and turning his life around, only for that opportunity to slip away when the Warden not only saved him, but sacrificed his own life to do it. This whole experience makes our Blackwall become a Warden in heart, if not in blood, but with his own ideas of what a Grey Warden should be - noble, brave, inspiring, heroic, self-sacrificial. Everything he now wants to embody. He knows well that he's not there, but he wants nothing more than to start from scratch and be that.

In his beliefs, he reminds me a bit of Wynne in Origins who tells the Warden at some point that the Grey Wardens are supposed to be more than killing machines and weapons against the blight.

“There’s more to being a Grey Warden than killing darkspawn and saving the world from the Blight. Ultimately, being a Grey Warden is about serving others, about serving all people, whether elves or dwarves or men. As a Grey Warden, you are a guardian of men. And you guard them because their continued existence is more important than you are.”

However, we know that's not exactly how it works. That's what they want the Wardens to be. The light against darkness. The shield against monsters.

Although it's not entirely wrong, either, I suppose, all things considered. The more darkspawn they obliterate and push back, the more people are protected from them. Of course, sacrificing their lives to fight literal monsters, which means those same monsters don't eat everybody's kids, ultimately is heroic, and it's something that must have been born out of the need to protect the world and its inhabitants (from the Blight). But to have idealized opinions of the Wardens to this degree, you have to ignore all the other shady stuff and the mentality we, as players, also know the Wardens for. The fact that the Wardens are primarily weapons to slay darkspawn, prevent and end Blights, by any means necessary. The last part is important. After all, they are the Grey Wardens, not the White Wardens. They recruit from all walks of life and are famous for taking in criminals. Not to redeem themselves and get a second chance at life, but because they usually have nowhere to go and nothing left to lose. It's not a coincidence that each of the Origins gets chosen by Duncan, not only because he sees them as capable, but also because they are in a situation they can't escape from. Either they join the Wardens, or they're done for.

We know the Wardens from a few games now, but does the public in the setting even know? Does the average person have any idea how far the Wardens are willing to go? Besides grand stories of slaying monsters in the dark and preventing the end of the world? Probably not. The order is very secretive. And it explains a lot. The Wardens end up sounding almost romantic, when being a Warden is anything but. Is it ignorance talking out of these characters? Perhaps.

It once again shows us this aspect of Dragon Age where you can't take everything a character says as a fact, because the setting is full of people who have no idea what they're talking about, but who are absolutely convinced that they do.

And yet, I can't help but also like Wynne's and Blackwall's romantic ideas about what the Wardens are or should be, almost knights in shining armour and all that. They're fairy tales, but they're beautiful fairy tales. And I can't fault the characters for wanting to believe it or even live it. Especially in case of Blackwall, who sees it as a way to make up for the crimes he committed, somewhat. In the end, this might actually be a bigger draw to join the Wardens than, "Got nowhere to go? Come suffer horribly and probably die gruesomely with us!" It all sounds great on paper, though. I can't fault Davrin for trying to find purpose in life by becoming a monster hunter, either.

And maybe a little bit of idealism doesn't hurt. Not only it's good motivation, but in the end, doing things by "any means necessary" doesn't always pay off, either. It led the Wardens into all kinds of trouble, like getting tricked into employing dangerous forms of blood magic and demon summoning, basically into doing their enemy's work for them. In their determination to win at any cost, they helped trigger a cataclysmic event. Maybe having some principles isn't so bad after all.

In the end, I can appreciate that we get to see the clash of the old and new blood in Veilguard, where there's hope for the order to transform into an organization that's less secretive, less exclusive, and hopefully less prone to letting corruption spread through its ranks and make other devastating mistakes. Duncan once said that letting people join the Wardens isn't an "act of charity", and I like how Evka and Antoine go, "Yeah, you know what? Fuck that." And that likely inspires more loyalty. I imagine Blackwall would like that.

[listlesswhistle]

AAAAA im thinking about Ingo in Legends Arceus again. They really fucking did that. Im so insane about it, like-

Okay. So. You have this preestablished thing in Pokémon called Fallers. Basically its people who fell into the pokemon world from an entirely different universe. Sometimes theyre alternate versions of known characters. The one thing they all have in common is that they remember nothing from before they fell.

With me so far? Good.

Now we move onto Legends Arceus. Here we are, some hundred or so years in the distant past, exploring the wonderful land of Hisui when, hold on, is that Ingo? The train man? You're in the wrong time period, my guy! And what's that? His memory's gone? Damn that sucks, alt-Ingo got a real shitty deal when he Fell. Trains haven't even been invented yet smh.

Anyway, case closed. Just another Faller making the best of what they have. Cool, but nothing new, lets move on right?

Except. Maybe not.

You see, this "Hisui" region has a little bit more going on with it. Its actually the ancient version of the modern day Sinnoh region, and theres all kinds of fun little details tying the two together: location names, area themes, little nods to Sinnoh myths and pokedex entries, the whole nine yards. Huge gen 4 nostalgia trip. Theres even a bunch of characters that are just blatantly ancestors of important DPPt characters. And you betcha the pokemon match as well!

Yeah, thats cool, but what does this have to do with Ingo again? Weelll, turns out, two of those gen 4 pokemon makin a comeback just so happen to be the gods of time and space. And things have gone a bit fucky with them.

There are these things called "space-time distortions" going around, popping up all over the place, sitting there lookin like big, spooky soap bubbles, and spitting out objects and pokemon from all over the timeline. We're talking dinosaurs and data viruses. Because of these things, Porygons technically existed before the computers that birthed them. And while its never explicitly stated that they're how Ingo got there, how else do you suppose the New Yorker ended up in feudal Japan?

"Alright, that makes sense, but didn't you say he lost his memory? Isn't that kinda a whole thing with fallers?"

Oh yeah, right, thanks for catching that! I guess this was a bust after all. Time travel's not exactly new to the pokemon universe, and it doesn't usually cause memory loss, barring extenuating circumstances. (Ingo didn't turn into a pokemon, so I think we're safe on that front) This isn't even the first time Dialga's gone mad, actually! He must really be a Faller then. I mean, what are the odds that Ingo just tripped into a random space-time distortion, only to run into something entirely unrelated that just so happens to be well known for erasing memories, perfectly replicating the symptoms of a Faller?

Buckle up, this is where things get interesting.

So, when Ingo faceplanted in Hisui, he got picked up by this group called the Pearl Clan. They're this native tribe that worships Palkia, but like, under the wrong name, and they think Dialga's a false version of their god worshipped by these other natives, and they're actually kind of both right, except not, because they thought the were actually worshipping the creator god, Arceus, and it's this WHOLE thing. That's not important. What matters is that they picked up Ingo. Just. Remember that. Pearl grabbed Ingo.

Now, aside from the two big gods and their good ol' poppa Arceus, there's actually another trio of minor gods who took care of smaller business. Relatively. They like to rest at the bottom of three lakes spread around the region, and each one represents a certain gift they were said to have given to the world: Uxie, God of Knowledge; Mesprit, God of Emotion; Azelf, God of Willpower. When Arcues made them, the went out, did their thing, gave their gift, then went straight to bed in their lakes, where they stayed for... pretty much ever. Yeah, these guys are actually pretty chill. Apparently theyre tied for highest base friendship out of all pokemon?

Getting back to the Pearl clan, their camp in the Alabaster Icelands is actually pretty close to Lake Acuity! Way closer than any other settlements are to the lakes, at least.

I know what you're thinking: "What does ANY of this have to do with Ingo's memories??" Well, there's one more thing we need to cover about the lake trio. Y'see, there's this little myth about them, hidden away on a shelf in the back of modern day Canalave library. As calm and relaxed as they usually are, its easy to forget that they're still gods. Powerful gods. Direct decendants of Arcues themself, embodiments of the very gifts which they gave unto the world. The myth goes that, should someone be foolish enough to raise their hand against the lake gaurdians, they would quickly find that those gifts can be taken away.

Harm Azelf, and find yourself as still as stone, drained of even the willpower needed to move. Touch Mesprit, and find yourself in a pointless world, drained of all emotions, joyless and empty.

…Look into Uxie's eyes, and find yourself lost and confused, fallen into a world unknown, without even the knowledge to find your way back to a home you can't remember.

...Yeah

Hisui is plaqued by Distortion, ripping creatures out of their proper Time and Space. Uxie makes their home at the bottom of Lake Acuity, just outside where the Pearl Clan makes camp. The Pearls found Ingo alone, no memory of his past, no evidence of how he came to them.

So you see now. How I might be a little obsessed.

Oh, are you still wondering if he's actually a Faller or not? Well…

I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA!

This was the first game he appeared in since Black and White 2, and he hasn't been mentioned since! His story is never expanded on!!!

He's probably? not??? Unless he fell out of an ultra wormwhole and into a distortion?? And the ultra beasts couldn't find him??? They literally NEVER hint at a possible cause for his arrival in game, I think. We're just. Left. With this.

What the fuck.