#its also really neat goijg back to after so many years

[tseecka]

So--many, many years ago, I applied to be a writer for BioWare--i suppose if I had gotten it, I would have been working on the first iteration of what eventually became Veilguard (probably would've gotten laid off somewhere along the line though). Part of the application process was to write a quest line for a Dragon Age game. This is the one I wrote.

It reimagined Alistair's background in an alternate timeline where he was not a companion in Origins, and instead is, like Cullen, a returning NPC with an expanded role as a companion in Inquisition. The quest was written to trigger after Here Lies the Abyss.

It got...honestly, a fair bit of traction. There was a month or so where the plays were solidly going up day after day; given that I hadn't posted it elsewhere (not even to DARP which I was active in at the time), it was getting a lot of attention from BW. The same day I got the rejection, DG tweeted something about how one should never try to write someone else's character as part of an application because you will inevitably not be able to manage it. My mind decided that tweet was about me, and it shattered my confidence as a writer for a really long time.

Anyways. I revisited it recently and if I'm being honest--I'm pretty proud. Some of the writing isn't great--I'd rework the introduction for sure--but the intricacy of the branching and the complexity of the interactions with Alistair, and the impact choices can have on the outcome of the conversation, is something I'm pleased with. I also think I got his voice pretty spot on, even if Gaider didn't like what I did with his backstory.

Anyways! It's been long enough now and I am working to heal as a writer, so I thought I'd post it for anyone to play. I would love to hear your thoughts! (Please play it through at least a couple times if you do and want the full experience--I cannot stress enough how much the dialogue branches and changes depending on your set up and conversational choices throughout!)

ETA: JESUS CHRIST I was mean. Y'all it's real hard to get Alistair's good romance ending. I promise it's doable. I wanted to make it a similar challenge to successfully romancing Fenris in DA2 but I've played it four times and I haven't gotten it yet, lmao.