#like multiple times i mentioned veilguard and multiple times

[birb--birb]

The way it took all my willpower to not just turn todays therapy session into a veilguard infodump sjhdhakdkf

[cultural-marxism-official]

Its extremely bizarre how veilguard utterly ignores dalish elves, when the whole game is about their GODS coming back. E&G shouldnt even need to corrupt people, they would absolutely have countless dalish and elven slaves flocking to them if soley for the purpose of fucking up human shit.

You have innumerable tevinter slaves who wouldnt need any convincing to join them just to see the world burn after being abused all their life and seeing countless friends and family die at tevinter hands. How fucking morally interesting and heartwrenching would it be to have to fight freed slaves who willingly joined the gods because all this shit, lets burn this shit world down and all the shem with it.

You have so many dalish who have been waiting, PRAYING a day like this would come, a day their gods came to them and said now its time to take thedas back, to take their rightful place once more. To handwave it off as "oh the gods dont sctually care abt elves" is stupid and makes no sense. Theyre tryinf to amass a force to kill everyone, what do you mean they wouldnt cate about the tens of thousands of willing fighters they wouldnt even need to corrupt, in all corners of thedas. They'd use them just as any other tool or weapon at their disposal.

Also i can barely count the veil jumpers as dalish. Theyre not a single clan, they have no keepers, they dont act like dalish and neither does bellara. Ive never heard her mention her clan, her traditions beyond the veil jumpers. And to have the veil jumpers trust non elven, non dalish outsiders with their operations, their peoples deepest most sacret artifacts and secrets is BONKERS

Like dont get me started on how there is just no spirituality AT ALL in this game. The game about GODS. Nobody cares that the elven gods are REAL and the maker isnt. Theres a single scene about it and hardly any of your companions give a shit, because the writers forgot that most people of thedas are religious, andrastian specifically. Everyones just kinda agnostic or atheist now i fucking guess. Its not ljke there have been multiple crusades because of religion in thedas.

Whatever

[flowersforthemachines]

Some facts about Neve (and Tevinter) gathered from the banters

I went through all companion banters on DanaDuchy's channel after playing the game to write down all facts about companions/the world that I haven't seen brought up anywhere in the game as a writing reference (and for funsies).

Note: This list may not be exhaustive. I might have missed some something or didn't write it down because I considered it common knowledge. If you have anything to add, please DM me or send an ask! (do specify what banter the information is coming from, though)

Note 2: Posts from this series (mostly) don't include information from banters specific to quests or between companions and faction members. I plan to do another playthrough to capture more of those and will add any relevant info to the character posts.

Other characters' posts: Bellara, Davrin, Harding, Lucanis, Emmrich, Taash. I'm also planning a post about just the Lighthouse some time later

About Neve:

General:

Neve isn’t rich, and her best coat is a gift from a grateful tailor after she saved his warehouse from an arsonist

Neve’s coat is woven with enchantments to resist fire and lighting 

Neve has never done blood magic. She is against it on principle and judges those who use it 

Neve doesn’t seem to like entertaining extreme hypotheticals since she reacts to Harding’s questions like “What would you take with you to a deserted island?” with asking why she would end up in such situations in the first place 

Neve wouldn’t want gems on her leg, because she thinks they would get stolen within a day of working in Minrathous, and she generally prefers to keep a low profile while on the job

However, she still considers saving up for a new, fancier leg to have more fashion choices. She likes Taash’s idea of getting a ruby inlay for it

Neve never visited Rivain before joining the Veilguard, though she now finds its beaches charming

Ever since she was a baby, Neve was stubborn and asked too many questions (and hated unanswered questions as well)

Neve likes Qunari food but thinks it’s very spicy

Neve likes seafood 

Neve doesn't drink tea

Neve isn’t really close with her family

Neve once tried to use a wisp-repelling artefact the Veil Jumpers found to get rid of the wisps in her room, but it only attracted wisps from the entire Lighthouse

Neve isn’t interested in exploring the mysteries of the Lighthouse because she has enough mysteries on this side of the Veil

(If Rook chooses to save Minrathous) Neve sends civil engineers to assist in Treviso 

On work: 

Neve didn’t want to be a detective when she was a child (not as if in she didn’t like the idea, she just didn’t consider it), though she didn’t have any dream career either 

Neve got into detective work by picking up odd jobs and building a reputation of being good at finding things. Eventually, she was hired to find someone’s brother, a case nobody else wanted to pick up, and her career took off 

Neve agrees that she is cynical and married to her job, but doesn’t consider herself ‘serious’  

Neve allegedly has a system for sorting her papers (Emmrich and Rana are sceptical about its existence) 

(If Neve becomes Dock Town's protector) Elek is implied to visit the Lighthouse again multiple times. Taash mentions seeing him poking around the library. Neve explained that he thought he could grab some fade-touched items to sell, and told him to run the plan by the Caretaker (one would think they did not approve)

On life in Minrathous: 

Neve was born and raised in Minrathous

Neve has never been inside the Archon’s Palace

(If Neve chooses to become Dock Town’s inspiration) Neve doesn’t regret letting Aelia live because she got information on Venatori out of her, and her death wouldn’t change the past

(If Neve chooses to become Dock Town’s inspiration) Neve gets to take a break for once in her life because Rana keeping an eye on the Dock Town actually helps

(If Neve chooses to become Dock Town’s inspiration) People gossip about Neve and Rana after they start their agency :)

Neve describes the rain of Minrathous as "cold fingers down your neck", but she misses it now that she's away from the city. The sound helps her fall asleep 

Neve’s entire apartment could fit inside villa Dellamorte’s dining room 

One of Tevinter papers referred to Neve as "Dock Town dirt-chaser," and to Emmrich as "sinister foreign necromancer”

A Tevinter paper called The Minrathous Herald once wrote that Neve should be exiled. The same paper called Shadow Dragons “traitors to the Empire” 

Neve never runs out of ink because she's on good terms with Minrathous ink sellers 

There is however one banter where she runs out of ink (I think it was with Davrin). Make of that what you will. 

On the Shadow Dragons: 

Neve didn't know Dorian personally until she joined the Shadow Dragons

Neve figured out the Viper's identity even before joining the Dragons. Her not revealing it to the public is one of the reasons he recruited her

Tarquin calls Neve a pain in the ass 

Relationships with companions: 

Neve calls Manfred ‘Fred’ (he seems to like that)

Manfred learns to say Neve's name (likely only happens if you revive him at the Necropolis, though I am not sure)

Neve introduces Lucanis to a spice shop in Dock Town

Harding describes Neve’s tastes in coffee as “made of gutter water filtered through an old sock”

Lucanis once showed Neve’s coffee to Viago. He found it “unsettling” 

Davrin thinks drinking Neve's coffee is worse than the Joining

Neve spoils Assan (but denies that accusation)

Neve is rather quick to consider questioning corpses with Emmrich’s help for her cases 

Neve is very apprehensive about lichdom and the perspective of Emmrich eventually turning evil (just like Emmrich isn't thrilled about her taking over the Threads for similar reasons)

Lucanis is concerned about Neve taking over the Threads. Mainly, about how much they are paying her

Neve has multiple banters with Taash discussing her relationship with Lucanis. Taash initially thinks of it as some sort of predator-prey dynamic, but Neve says she is not into that and explains that they are taking it slow and cautious. They both went through a lot of pain in their lines, which they tend not to show for different reasons

Neve's relationship with Lucanis is also more than she usually looks for with people

Neve takes Taash to Hal’s fish fry stand. Taash loved it :)

Taash offers Neve help on ladders in case she may need it/it gets stuck on steps due to being hook-shaped, mentioning they knew a Lord of Fortune who lost a hand and whose shoulders hurt while climbing because of it. Neve seems to appreciate the gesture, even though she can handle herself

Neve thinks Taash is nice to work with, offering help without being overbearing like some people are

Neve asks Taash to teach her Gold Thief (a Lord of Fortune dice game), so she can play it with the Shadow Dragons, and then subsequently gets beaten by the Viper

On Tevinter: 

Fashion is important in Tevinter because a good outfit lets people know you are under the protection of someone powerful

There aren’t many mages in Docktown, which is one of the reasons the government doesn’t care about it 

The big red cat near Halos’s stand is named Ferdinand

Stains on clothes can be cleaned with magic

You can get pineapples anywhere in Minrathous 

Neve calls the magic used for the lights in Minrathous a party trick, but Emmrich considers it a high-level enchantment because of its quality and duration

Tevinter doesn’t regulate the charms sold in the market (which is why there are a lot of scammers who sell fakes) 

[sammakesart]

Castles in the Fade, or What Was the Point of the Veil Anyway

Something that will now haunt me until the end of time is why was the concept of the Veil ever introduced into this series.

We’ve been hearing about it since the very first game. There’s a codex entry about tears in the Veil in Origins. Tamlen mentions a thin spot in the Veil if you play a Dalish elf. Sandal has a prophecy in Dragon Age 2: “One day the magic will come back—all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see.” Admittedly, this is just one line said by a character who often says odd things, but it hinted to the fact they were planning to do something with the Veil from the very beginning. The state of the Veil is repeatedly brought up. It all had to mean something! Or so I thought. 

When I saw “The Dread Wolf Rises” quest in Veilguard, I said, “Oh, here we go!” The Veil is coming down, magic is coming back, and it’s going to set up such an interesting story for the next game. 

Alas, no. 

I hadn’t really enjoyed my time playing Veilguard up until this point. It felt like the game was ducking and dodging every bit of world building and lore that could possibly bring nuance or complexity to the story. Every returning character or faction was a cardboard cutout of themself. They shoved Solas is a time-out box and gave him nothing to do. They refused to let him have any impact or influence on the story when he had been set up to be our main antagonist back in Trespasser. This game used to be called Dreadwolf! And while we learn about his past… we never talk to him about it. In the present, he’s in stasis.

Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain are our villains. And they are your typical evil for evil’s sake villains. They are mad, bad, and only as dangerous as the narrative will allow as to not give Rook and co too much trouble. They are surprisingly patient while Rook fixes all their companions’ problems… until Elgar’nan moves the moon to cause an eclipse. A vital component in making his own lyrium dagger. For some reason. This guy can move a satellite!? And he just let Rook walk away in previous encounters… twice. Ok. Sure.

The Evil Duo need their own dagger ostensibly to tear down the Veil, because they want to unleash the full force of the Blight onto the world. Because they are evil. And they were thwarted last time they tried to Blight the entire world. Why do they think Blighting the world is a good idea? What’s the point of ruling a world if everyone is dead? I guess they haven’t thought that through, because of the madness and the evilness.

Ok, I thought. Perhaps the gods will be the one to tear down the Veil. Or maybe we’ll have a choice to let Solas do it his way before they can, which will be less chaotic and less full of Blight. Because the Veil has to be coming down one way or another? Why introduce the concept of the Veil, especially a Veil that has been thinning and failing since the series began, if it’s just going to… stay.

There is a principle in storytelling called Chekov’s gun. If something is mentioned in a story, it must have a purpose. If you keeping mentioning that gun hanging on the wall over the fireplace, it’s because at some point in the story, someone is going to take it down and use it. The Veil felt like Chekov’s gun to me. Chekov’s Veil, if you will. It’s been here from the beginning of our tale, the spectre hanging over our protagonists’ heads for multiple games.

The Veil has been a character unto itself. It was the central focus of the third game, and its dissolution was set up to be the core conflict of the fourth game. We learn everything we thought we knew about the Veil was a lie. It was not created by the Maker to separate the Fade from this world because of jealous spirits, it was created by a guy named Solas to trap the elven gods and the Blight from destroying the world. Also, the elven gods were never gods, and they are also evil.

This reveal will surely throw the Andrastian religion into chaos! This puts the very existence of the Maker into question! The Evanuris are a lie; it’s only fair Catholicism—oh, I mean—the Chantry is a lie too. We briefly touch on that in Veilguard… then it is quietly discarded. Religious crisis averted.

But I digress.

When the title of the fourth game was changed from Dreadwolf to Veilguard, I started to see the writing on the wall. Still, I held out hope the Veil would have some greater purpose in the story. That its introduction as a concept was for a reason. That something in this world would change.

Instead, from the get-go, the question of the Veil is no question at all. We only get Solas and Varric making oblique or catastrophizing statements about it. Solas says little beyond he has a plan. If I ever wanted to hear a villain monologue about their plan, it was now! Varric, on the other hand, decries Solas’s plan. He warns that should the Veil fall, it will destroy the world and drown it in demons. And that’s that.

We never really learn why Solas wants to tear the Veil down, or why he thinks it will help anyone. “The Veil is a wound inflicted upon this world. It must be healed,” he says. And that’s basically all he says about it in Veilguard. In Inquisition and Trespasser, we learn it took the immortality from the elves. It cut most of magic off from the world. Spirits are trapped and are being corrupted into demons, and most of what we know about spirits and demons is wrong. There are ancient elves possibly asleep? That part is left vague, but ancient elves are still about. We meet some in Mythal’s temple. There seems to have been some merit in bringing it down, because elves were flocking to Solas’s cause at the end of Trespasser. He had agents working for him already. What do they know that we don’t know?

Apparently nothing, because by the time Veilguard rolls around, there are no mention of agents. He is working alone. His only motivation now seems to be he’s too deep in his sunk-cost fallacy. The Veil is unnatural, so it must be removed—consequences be damned. We are never given any reason to think Solas has a leg to stand on in his pursuit of tearing down the Veil. We never hear any kind of counter argument from anyone, not even Solas, as to why the Veil should come down. We are only told it will destroy the world. It will drown the world in demons. This is all Solas’s fault.

There is no nuance. No complexity. No moral quandary to mull over. The game gives us vague warnings with no explanation as to what exactly is so world-annihilating about the Veil coming down. We must take Varric’s word at face value. We’re the heroes; Solas is the villain. Stop him.

It makes me wonder why Solas was ever a companion in Inquisition, let alone a romance option. Solas was presented to us as a complicated character in Inquisition. We had the potential throughout the game to make him see the value of this world, to help him realize he was wrong about it. “We aren’t even people to you,” the Inquisitor says in Trespasser. Solas replies, “Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong...again.” He began the third game viewing the world as tranquil, seeing the people in it as nothing more than figments in a nightmare, just as we saw our companions in the In Hushed Whispers quest. He ends the game having made friends, having recognized he was mistaken. He might have even fallen in love. (Or he may still seen no merit in this world if the Inquisitor antagonized him the entirety of their time together.) But something makes him continue with his plan to tear down the Veil, despite recognizing this world is real. He must know something we don’t. Something we’ll learn about in the next game.

We’ve been hearing about the Veil for three games now. We’ve set up our complex antivillain for the next installment, and he’s going to tear the Veil down. We swear to stop him or save him. But it has to be more complex than that. It can’t be so straightforward. Uncomplicated. Simple. Boring. Right? Right?

Nope. He really is just the villain, mustache-twirling and all. He apparently had no greater motivation, no as of yet unrevealed knowledge that would put this whole Veil thing into a new context. It was really as simple as the Veil falling will destroy the world, so Solas must be stopped. There is no new information that is revealed which makes us question what we are doing. Solas is never given any nuance or complexity to his actions. Nuance and complexity have actively been taken away. Both him and the Veil are looking like they are the worst things to be in a story: pointless. Why introduce the Veil if it’s just going to remain unchanged? Why introduce a character like Solas, bother humanizing him (for lack of a better term), giving us his backstory, setting him up as a cunning antagonist, only to make him look stupid, then put him on a shelf until the last ten minutes of your game?

Solas was the trickster archetype of this tale. He was our version of Loki from Norse mythology. What is the role of the trickster archetype? To challenge the status quo. To bring about events of extreme change, like say, the tearing down of a Veil that holds back all of magic. Loki is a huge contributing factor in Ragnarök. Through his manipulation, he causes the death of the beloved god, Baldr. This ushers in a long winter, which signifies the beginning of the end. Loki is imprisoned for this crime. When the final battle between gods and giants begins, the sun and moon are swallowed, plunging the earth into darkness. The earth shakes and Loki is freed to fight on the side of the giants. The world burns in raw chaos, falls beneath the sea, and is reborn. The world is remade, and a new realm of the gods and a new, better earth is formed.

It really felt like this was the setup they were going for. Solas causes the death of Mythal, and this is his catalyst for creating the Veil, which ushers in a world without magic. This could be seen as equivalent to the long winter. Solas falls asleep, trapped in dreams. He wakes and sets in motion bringing about the apocalypse. It’s not a perfect one to one, but it’s there if you squint. We have a war against the gods in Veilguard. I was expecting a few remaining Titans to wake and join the fight. But we don’t get any of that. There is a final battle, but it does not end in the end of the world. Or a better world. It just ends, and everything is the same.

It seems our trickster god caused his apocalypse thousands of years before our story started, when he created the Veil. His role in this tale was over before ours began, and he really is just some relic from a long-past age. He has no role, no purpose in this story. He is here to be thwarted. He is no Loki at all.

If you can’t tell, I wanted the Veil to come down. Did I think the Veil coming down would be painless? Have no negative consequences? No. Of course not. But keeping it up has negative consequences too. And it made for an interesting story. Or at least it could have. But we never explore that. The game presents no counter argument to having the Veil stay up, which, again, begs the question: what was the point of introducing the concept of the Veil at all?

Did I think the Veil coming down was actually the best solution to help Thedas become a better place? I don’t know, and I never will, because the game never argues for it one way or another. It just tells you to want it in place and to stop asking questions. In real life, a catastrophic event is not the best way to solve any of the world’s problems. But this is the realm of fiction. We have gods and monsters, magic and myth. We have introduced the status quo of Thedas, recognized it needs to change, then our trickster god appears ready to fulfill his role in the narrative. 

Instead, it all comes to nothing.

I got to the end of Veilguard… and everything was more or less the same as it was at the start of Origins. Veilguard actually tries its hardest to pretend any previously mentioned problems don’t exist, so of course the Veil coming down has no merit. There are no problems to solve in this world, apparently. Solas is just stuck in the past and can’t get with the times. Silly Solas.

The Veil isn’t even a permanent solution. It wasn’t to begin with. It was some duct tape wrapped around a broken pipe, and we’ve just slapped an extra piece of tape on it. It’s still leaking. It is still unnatural, and will fall eventually one way or another. Large amounts of bloodshed weaken it, so I guess Thedas better achieve world peace real quick to avoid any battles. There were seven super-powered mages holding it together… now there is just one. Ironically, the Veil was going to fall after two more Blights anyway. The Wardens were doing Solas’s work for him! It would also have released the full force of the Blight at that time… which Solas was trying to avoid, I presume.

It feels like keeping the Veil up just pushed a big problem onto Thedas’ future generations. We’ll keep slapping bandaids on it until it all falls apart. Someone else can deal with the fallout, but we’ll be dead by then, so who cares.

Primarily, I wanted the Veil to come down from a storytelling perspective. The Veil was an interesting concept and I wanted the story to do something interesting with it. Conflict is what makes stories stories and the Veil coming down could create so much compelling and complex conflict. And the Fade is weird, and I like weird. Stories are also about change, and I wanted to see Thedas change. Yet, Veilguard is over, and barely anything has changed. Instead of magic coming back being a conflict for the next game, they went with Fantasy Illuminati. Oh.

The Veil turned out to be a nothing-burger, and no problems in this world are even close to being solved. Slavery is still rampant in Tevinter. The elven people are still oppressed everywhere. Mages have no more rights in the South than they did in Origins. Spirits are still trapped and being corrupted. The Calling still exists, though might be different somehow now? They don’t really get into that. The Chantry’s validity is still not allowed to be questioned. The Blight still exists in some form, but again it’s vague. Oh, and we learn the dwarves have been gravely wronged, and the Titans are still tranquil. At least if you redeem Solas and a romanced Lavellan joins him, they can work together on healing the Blight and helping the Titans. Oh, good. One problem is being acknowledged and some action will be taken. Offscreen. Hurray? Solas doesn’t have a really great track record of fixing problems, so Lavellan is definitely going to need to be there to make sure he doesn’t fuck it up.

For some reason, this game seemed terrified of letting us think about anything for more than two seconds. It shied away from complexity or nuance at every turn. The game is called The Veilguard—ironically, that word is never uttered in the game—but we are given no real motive for guarding the Veil. We’re unquestionably the hero. The villains are uncomplicatedly evil. Save the world… never wonder what you are doing or why.

I wanted the game to make me question if the Veil staying up or coming down was the right choice. I needed to be given a real counter argument. Convince me the alternative would actually be better or worse, because as I mentioned… things suck quite a bit in Thedas already for a lot of people right now. Let the Veil’s fate be a difficult choice to make. If the conflict cannot be what to do about the Veil, it should be am I doing the right thing about the Veil. If the heart of your game is so thin on motive, everything else falls apart around it.

I hoped they were setting up a complex, Thedas-sized existential conflict for this game in Trespasser, but no. I wanted something to happen, but nothing did. 

I want to feel challenged and changed by a story, not left feeling empty. I’m tired of superficial entertainment. I want to sink my teeth into a narrative that doesn’t paint the world in broad strokes of black and white, good and evil, heroes and villains.

Ultimately, I think my issue is why even introduce a concept like The Veil if you’re not going to do anything interesting with it. Or anything at all. What I thought was Chekov’s Veil turned out to just be a MacGuffin. And that’s disappointing.

[sunsetwaltz]

I knew I wasn't imagining things!

They changed the spelling of the din'anshiral between Trespasser and Veilguard:

Or more likely someone at Bioware forgot to fact check or proofread this dialogue lol.

I believe "din'anshiral" is the more correct spelling since the word din'an comes up multiple times in Inquisition. And DAI is unequivocally the elfier elf game.

Full screenshots below if anyone's interested:

A tiny parallel with Lavellan looking pained in Trespasser vs Solas looking devastated in DA:V after the din'anshiral is mentioned?

[dalishious]

One thing i HAVE rlly liked abt veilguard is how they do a lot to make me like dorian again. I knew they were going to show he had changed from his apathy on slavery in inquisition, but i was pleasantly surprised to see that its been mentioned multiple times in the codex and shows the advocacy work hes been doing. I wish wed gotten to push back more in inquisition abt it, but i still do like getting this.

Yeah I like his codex entries a lot.

[msunitedstatesjames]

Rating Veilguard companions based on their living spaces:

I'm coming up on the last handful of missions in Veilguard, and I noticed that I hadn't really spent all that much time looking around the rooms of the companions. I pretty much burst in and out, only staying long enough to hear whatever they have to say. So I decided to do a more in depth look. (There will be some moderate spoilers ahead if you haven't worked your way through most of Emmrich's companion quests.)

7. Lucanis

Okay, we've all heard the reasoning behind Lucanis's room of choice, but this "room" is still sad. As awesome as access to the kitchens is, this is just a straight up trauma room. That's without even mentioning the perilous number of candles near the bed of such a haunted (literally) man. But, at least he has somewhere to sleep, unlike some others, and he has plenty of supplies of citrus fruit, so scurvy won't be an issue.

6. Emmrich

I hate to rank this one so low. Not only is Emmrich my romance of choice, but I'm a huge book lover in real life, and I love this aesthetic. But this man doesn't have anywhere to sleep! He's in his 50s and has nowhere to sleep! Much has been said about where he might be sleeping every night. Does he sleep on the corpse slab? Does he sleep in the big red chair? Does he curl up in front of the fire like a hound? If he was 19 maybe those options would be feasible. But I'm in my early thirties in real life, and the idea of spending a night on a hard floor/slab is already unbearable to imagine, and sitting upright all night is only done if I'm so ill I can't do otherwise. No bed is just unforgiveable. Also, he's stuck with the skull and spirit of his former friend/rival seemingly listening in on everything and critiquing him constantly. Imagine just minding your own business and having a skull call you "moldering" while implying you're too old to be with your partner of choice. On the other hand, I envy the shelf space, the spiral staircase, and the gorgeous balcony view.

5. Taash

Maybe Taash likes having a gloomy room, I don't know. But sometimes this room looks like a straight up dungeon. Also, though there is some good functionality for training and such, the room lacks daily functionality due to the sheer amount of stuff everywhere. I get that Taash is a Lord of Fortune and treasure hunting is like their whole thing, but like, does Taash really need multiple huge stacks of silver bars and random sheaths of fabric here in their temporary Fade bedroom? What's the point of having so many tables if none of them have any more room to set things on when you actually need to? Some of these rugs are fantastic though. And Taash is one of only two companions with a real bed, so that counts for a lot.

4. Bellara

This is more workshop than bedroom, which I guess suits Bellara well enough. But there's a couple of issues here. First, there's some pretty spiky tools a little close to her cot. God forbid she has a nightmare and jerks upright out of a deep sleep, she'd get slightly impaled. Also, imagine trying to sleep with the smug face of the Archive looking out at you all the time. And don't forget the room is just full to bursting with mirrors. That seems like a confusing, hazardous, headache inducing horror. There is some cool elven decor though.

3. Neve

Neve has a pretty tiny space compared to some of the others, but I guess it's fitting for a noir style detective. She does have a bed, though it's only a less than stellar cot. She also has a bunch of wisps stealing her stuff all the time. But she has a beautiful view, more privacy than some of the others, and a nice desk, which is essential to a detective. And in the end this room is kind of gorgeous.

2. Harding

This whole place is fabulous. The plants are amazing. The magic butterflies are enchanting. The giant ceiling flower is beautiful. Harding doesn't have a real bed, but she has a canopy and a bedroll, which she's probably pretty comfortable in by now after 10+ years of being a scout. I also like that this room grows and transforms over the course of the story. Personally, I think this is the most aesthetically pleasing of the rooms, and I imagine there's some crickets in there to give you that peaceful summer evening soundtrack.

1.Davrin

Davrin's biggest advantage is the simple fact that he has a private sleeping area with a real bed. No one else has both of those things. On top of that, it's a functional space for he and Assan. It's open and has a nice perch for easy Assan access. It has shelf space for his carvings. He has lots of cool knick knacks. He has lots of natural light and a great view. But after looking more closely at his space I almost dropped him down a spot for one reason. NUGS. Did I miss a dialogue line about his love for nugs? Because there's A LOT of nug memorabilia in this place. There's a taxidermy nug with a face only Leliana could love. There's little nug carvings. There's bigger nug carvings. There's drawings of nug anatomy. I don't know if I'm more freaked out by the idea that Davrin brought them or the idea that Solas left them. Still, he does have a cozy fireplace/chair combo, as long as you don't mind being watched by the empty stares of a thousand lifeless nugs.

[vargamornight]

i don’t read or watch reviews of anything until after i've finished it so i may be repeating what others have said but here is my impression of dragon age: the veilguard

overall i like it. it's a fun game with a good story, likable characters who feel interwoven with the narrative in a pleasant way, really good character customization, and a nice style that rides the fence between realistic and cartoonish that i actually really enjoy.

i do feel like they made this game with the intent for it to be picked up and turned into a tv show, a la arcane, if arcane wasn't allowed to have nuance.

every edge has been sanded down. there is almost no mention of the anti-elf racism, anti-mage bigotry, slavery, etc that were HEAVILY important in the first three games. the mage stuff makes a bit more sense since it takes place in tevinter, where mages "rule," but still. (they also only mention slavery when your character has a background in freeing slaves, as though the fact that the nation you currently inhabit has slaves is irrelevant unless the player character decides to care.)

in the first three games, the bad guys were guys. just some dudes. every villain, with the exception of the archdemon, was a person. it was an elf selling elves into slavery, a human turning his back on the grey wardens, a man insisting the mages be slaughtered just in case one of them was an abomination. in da2, it's your friend's brother who tries to kill you, the fantasy sheriff who tries to kill everyone, your friend and/or lover who blows up a building. in inquisition, it's your friend's old mentor who tries to erase you from time, your friend and/or lover who was lying the entire time, and a DIFFERENT friend and/or lover who was ALSO lying the entire time. who the villains even were is occasionally debatable, but every villain was familiar. you knew them, you cared about them and their story, so it added weight to your decisions about how to deal with them. this is present in all three games.

in veilguard, the bad guys are grotesque, ancient mages akin to gods, so far removed from anything familiar that you cannot possibly mistake them for anything other than the villains. they are completely foreign to you. you don’t give a shit about them, because there's nothing more to them than "they're evil and need to be stopped." all nuance is gone. the biggest decision in the entire first third of the game just hardens one character. compared to any big decision you could make in origins or inquisition, where your choices literally shaped the future of multiple nations, it seems very... meh. and the decisions you made in the previous three games have no bearing whatsoever on the world in veilguard! i knew i wouldn't like that when they announced there would only be three decisions included, and i was fucking right.

basically veilguard feels like it was written for people who have never played a dragon age game, with the express purpose of netflix adapting it to a pg13 original series, so it has absolutely no teeth.

comparing veilguard to origins feels like going from the shawshank redemption to toy story. toy story is still an amazing movie, but how the hell did we end up here?

[catyo90]

Romance Scenes I Imagine for Veilguard Companions

Davrin: Outside Rook sees him with his griffin Assan, training it and nurturing it, As they speak he reveals how he found and/or tamed her. Rook asks if how big Assan will get and plays fetch with her. Inbetween throws Rook and Davrin flirt with each other and the last throw causes Assan to jump on Davrin while Rook laughs and helps him up, with a small pause inbetween.

Taash: Like other qunari, trains hard and in need of practice asks Rook to join her for a sparing match, here the player may decide to let her win and go easy on her, or the opposite. Who ever loses laughs it off and the winner comments how cute the loser looks when they laugh, after the loser gets up and says they should do this again sometime. The winner hates to see them leave but loves watching them go.

Harding: In the nearby lounge, Rook asks about her past with the Inquisition, She tells how she was there in the final fight against Corypheus and how Solas was good/bad. (Depends on Inquistors view). She then shows them all the corresponding letters between her and the past companions, with some hidden mentions of past relationships when Rook asks if she ever was with anyone else. She claims that its a tale for another time. After that Rook asks to keep her company while she writes responses, where Harding smiles.

Lucanis: Rook finds him in the Library (early morning or late night.) overlooking old contracts on multiple mages and others in need of a quick end. He sits at a desk with a cup of coffee and kettle. Rook asks if he ever regrets taking a life, (answers depends on class) where he explains that contracts are like a game of Wicked Grace, some cheat the deck and win, others play honest and lose. He tries to change the subject, he seems tired where he sips his coffee and offers Rook a cup to enjoy with him.

Bellara: In the wave of a sudden inspiration to create, Rook finds her tinkering with fade magic, where a small minor explosion of colorful smoke surrounds the room, Bellara walks through now covered in rainbow hue, she snorts and laughs as she pulls Rook into the room showing a new update to her gauntlet. Rook impressed and scare-roused from her intrigue offers any help, (all classes as well get blasted with another cloud of color.) Bellara laughs at Rook and wipes away the stains on their face before punching Rooks arm laughing again at their wacky experiments and conclusion.

Emmerich: In the study Rook walks in on him using magic on Manfred, who makes puns about the situation and after noticing you gets distracted causing the spell to cause Manfred to fall into a pile of bones, Emmerich, slightly annoyed and now has to deal with putting him back together properly, basically volunteers you to help each time you pick up a bone, Manfred jokes claiming its in the wrong spot. While this happens Emmerich gets to know you better and says how your not entirely hopeless as Manfred cackles laughing with a arm around saying if he wants your attention he needs to be nicer.

Neve: Rook sees her in the main chamber of the base, smoking on her pipe with her hair down reading a particular book, Hard in Hightown. She claims how the way Varric writes is quite good but romanticized as the true art of finding the culprit is scientific, not emotional. (LIke Sherlock Holmes) How the art of deduction can change the life of everyone, but it can be messy at times as well. Where we see her cross her protetic leg under her other. She is unsure whether to show it or not. After all the incident was not light on the mind. Rook eases her mind in telling her that she doesn't have to talk about it until she is ready.

[wardensantoineandevka]

sometimes I think about the just incredibly insane trajectory of Antoine's life.

merely existing as an elf in Orlais sucks as is, already a terrible start. the country estate he was working on experiences a rare incident of a darkspawn attack, it's not even a blight, and he nearly dies ensuring the other servants get away safely. he spends multiple days dying alone in a situation so dire that he tells himself that plan A is to keep living and plan B is to simply die. the Warden who arrives on the scene decides to offer him the Joining, despite him not even barely fitting the typical profile of a Warden-Recruit, and against the odds, he survives. he is assigned to a quiet outpost for his first posting, but the two of them are intercepted on the way and their orders changed to go to Weisshaupt because this is a very fraught political moment within the order following the events of Inquisition, not that he would know about any of that. while on their way to Weisshaupt, they stop to fight some werewolves created by a hunger demon in the third, fourth, and fifth combats Antoine has ever participated in — during which the demon plays mind games with Antoine (it's winning) and bites him, very briefly cursing him with lycanthropy.

I point out that he's been a Warden for like two or three fucking weeks, maybe four, by this point just based on travel times. he's having a WILD month.

he hasn't even met his new boss yet, a guy who clearly doesn't like him and that Antoine clearly dislikes in return by Veilguard. he eventually falls in love with and marries the Warden who saved him. he turns out to have a particularly high sensitivity to the blight. haven't even mentioned that he is pursuing research in mechanical engineering, chemistry, and alchemy, and has projects on a wide range of things from automatic doors to higher grade explosives, not even to speak of the other research he's doing in ecology and folklore just out of personal interest. after the Siege of Weisshaupt, he's functionally second-in-command of the order, arguably functioning High Constable? if the griffons return to the Wardens, he is in charge of training them.

what a whirlwind of a life he's living. what a series of events. in such a short period of time too.

[littlevgvent]

Every time I think of what Veilguard could have been I look back to Tevinter Nights. A book from 2020 that had made me excited for what the game was going to be.

Solas being a force to be reckoned with. He can kill people in their dreams. He had his followers who killed themselves before being captured.

There were multiple interesting/returning monster ideas. Werewolves being back, the demon of regret that took the shape of Solas' paintings, the really fucked up shit Ghilan'nain was creating, whatever the hell was in Dorian's garden.

The dalish actually acted like dalish and were wary of humans. The Talon story mentions Zevran. The ben-hassrath struggling with the antaam. Tevinter actually being Tevinter and being discriminatory towards elves. ( a whole other can of worms in itself )

It just still had the real Dragon Age charm to it.

[kirkwallguy]

i agree with your takes on dragon age's relationship with queer content a lot. a straight female inquisitor (bonus point if elf) gets the most romance options, zevran and leliana's romance feels secondary *by narrative* compared to romances of characters who's a warden/king alistair and morrigan, sebastian being bisexual being a cut content*

* i just don't get it why the templar boys always got to be straight. like why can't men engage with their romances and experience this narrative when chantry and religion is so important for the story of these games? after all romance adds a different perspective for all characters.

here we have veilguard, the pansexual crew, and well... the romance content is the weakest in franchise

and i'm not saying queer romances were bad btw!! its just that i wish people who wants to play mlm or wlw get to see such perspectives in the story or these characters' stories too. like a male warden romancing alistair and all the juicy stuff that comes with it (the hurt or angst or the complications. are you sparing loghain? did you just marry the love of your life off to his sister-in-law for the future of your beloved country? did he become a drunkard visiting bars after bars because of the decisions you made even tough you were intimate?)

no exactly! i do tend to want to give them some slack given they're very Of Their Time (for a 2009 game even including bisexual options was scandalous, and dorian's bare bones coming out narrative was pretty standard for 2013 tv shows / rare in aaa games) but it annoys me when people act like they're these flawless beacons of queer rep that you can't criticise just because we should be happy with being given anything at all. even if you don't count seb, 1/2 of the games pretty much require you to play an f/m relationship in order to experience a narratively relevant relationship. i find dai more insidious tbh because like... sure, don't make solas bi for whatever reasons you want to give. but cass and blackwall? there's 0 reason for them to be straight lol. (especially the bait and switch where you're allowed to flirt with cass as a woman for AGES before she turns you down despite characters like cullen shutting you down on the first flirt. it's funny when you do it intentionally but just feels cruel otherwise?) at least leliana and zevran feel like they're doing the most they were allowed to do

a gay or bisexual chantry/templar character who struggles with their sexuality would be SO interesting. honestly it would require more introspection about thedas' attitude towards sexuality than da has ever done - i feel like they could have done a fun subplot with this in da2 honestly.

and the thing about the dav characters is... they went to great lengths to make sure they avoided the playersexual allegations, multiple characters had a past where they dated people of various genders, taash having a preference for women was mentioned (in the weirdest way possible) but i still... don't know how they feel about their sexuality at all? neve is a tevinter mage, did her liking women play a part in her seeing through the issues with the system? does bellara have any lingering feelings about irelin at all? did harding realise she didn't have to be straight when she joined the inquisition and met people outside of her small ferelden town? (potential extra dialogue for an f/f romancing inquisitor???) it doesn't need to be a big Thing, but just a one-off dialogue during romance (davrin m/m exclusive dialogue on your date: "the first time i brought a man to meet my uncle i was so nervous etc etc") or a comment during a banter. it just establishes a little bit more about the characters and stops them feeling so flat... then again ig that's an issue with the whole game LOL.

[scribbing]

Veilguard Review and Final Thoughts

All in all, I enjoyed myself well enough while playing this game and I've replayed it a few times all the way through and haven't had a drop in enjoyment while playing. Its a fun little popcorn playthrough.

I will say I think that a lot of balls were dropped. There were choices made that absolutely were at odds with previous games (ie: Crows are just fun and family led freedom fighters) and the absolute lack of the right tone or atmosphere for a Dragon Age game.

I also have a major issue with Rook. Namely that Rook is not the main character of their own story. They're the water guy on the sidelines of the team just there to shout praises and prop up the actual players. This was something that did irritate me early on, that lack of being anything but The Nice Guy with no real ability to push back/challenge/disagree or do anything really. You are just...a nice guy (or gal). But Rook to me had zero substance and never rose up out of that situation. Why is Rook in charge? Why isn't Harding? What about Rook is special enough to make everyone divert to their leadership? In my opinion, absolutely nothing. Rook has no real meat to them at any point in the game. Rook is overshadowed in their own faction by whatever companion comes from it. Rook has nothing special other than I guess Solas being trapped in their head which is absolutely not enough to hold a game's main character. Not to mention, I have no ability to make Rook stand for anything, make a statement on anything or various other options.

Now that's not to say that I don't enjoy more solid 'this is who they are' RPG characters because Commander Shepard of Mass Effect absolutely is Shepard, regardless of what I do. But even in that I feel more in control and more like this character has a viewpoint, has beliefs and has the ability to not be liked by everyone and make bad choices and refuse to be sorry for them.

Not to mention the companions....were not it. All of this 'they're going to be the most flushed out companions! It's all about the companions!'....no? Baldur's Gate did it a thousand times better. I was allowed to disagree with my companions, dislike them, hate them even, argue with them, have them 1000% disagree with me and hate me. Veilguard? If you talk to them they like you at the end of the conversation. If you bring them with you, they like you more regardless of what you're doing. To do a side quest is to make them love you. It's not good and it absolutely is not great character writing.

Also some choices were just....why? Why is Bellara falling over herself every other conversation to be depressed and sad and feel guilt for everything? In my mind I'm guessing that its meant to be sort of unresolved trauma from blaming herself for her brother but I'm not going to lie it started to get too much too quickly. Her needing to 'feel guilty over the gods, over the elves, over Solas and the Titans, etc.' was just more than I could take at certain points. Taash? Taash was not well handled in my opinion and there was SUCH a story to be had there. So much opportunity for nuance and raw emotion. As a mixed child of two completely different cultures? Heck yes I can identify and understand the story of struggling with the parent figure and learning to find yourself in a world that demands you pick one or the other and doesn't allow anything else. That was an AMAZING opportunity even without all of the extra options Taash had going for her and yet...it falls so flat. We don't get to tell her who she is...but actually no we will tell her who she is...multiple times.

Neve? Holy shit Neve had so much POTENTIAL!!! I'm literally foaming at the mouth at all the things she could have been!?! A literal Sherlock Holmes/Noir Detective going around and solving cases? I love mysteries and I loved Neve's baseline character design...in honest playing though it just...was meh. And at times almost...stupid? Which should never be something attributed to a character design like Neve's? (Her pretending to be a venatori will forever be the most eye rolling and pathetic dialogue scene ever). But also Minrathous? So many opportunities?!? Slavery, mages abusing power, politics, etc - and instead we get...none of that? No issues with elves or QUNARI?!?

Don't even get me started about the lack of Andraste and all that? We get a scene 'did we just disprove all of Andrastrianism?' and then immediately get 'oh but we should keep this to ourselves because you know they might hate on elves' like what the actual hell?

Davrin and Emmerich were perfect. No comments there. Just kidding, would have loved to delve more into their own situations and belief systems and just more? Emmerich's fears regarding death, Davrin's belief system and his need to have a cause and his connection and distance from his own roots. So many options!!!

And Lucanis...Lucanis. The guy I thought I'd love the most and I really can't tell him apart from a piece of soggy bread. His romance option was so painful, you're throwing everything at him and he's just ignoring you. Past that he's just...silly? Even not as a romance option he's a CROW, he's THE CROW...but oh its more important to know how he loves coffee...and how he cooks I guess? And Spite....WHY DID THEY MAKE SPITE THAT WAY?!!?? Spite had so much potential to be a threat, to be dangerous, to be something. Instead he's a joke. Lucanis is a joke. The whole thing with his pathway is an obvious joke. I'm still salty.

Also, I would have loved more Solas. More interactions with Solas. More engagement with Solas. And I might be a minority but less 'Solavellan' because there's something that irritates me that a strong, powerful, secure woman like the Inquisitor spent what ten years moping about a crush? They were never in a real relationship, he cut it off before that. TEN YEARS?!?! And she's still simping after this guy and willing to give up her own world to help hold his hand and pat him on the head? No. That needed to have been handled so much better. Plus Mythal. You tell me Mythal is this wise, ultimate judge and then you give me....none of that. Why was Solas so loyal to her? We needed more, we needed SO MUCH MORE to make it work.

And Harding? It's hard for me to say something bad about Harding but also hard to say something good. Harding is just...there? I don't know why she fell so flat for me when back in Inquisition I literally looked forward to seeing her at the opening of each new area and even had my Inquisitor romance her a time or two? But DATV Harding is just...meh?

So for a game so concerned with the companions and so hyped up about them - absolutely none of them really held up to the hype? Is there plenty of space for fanfiction? Yes. Is there any real volume to it without it? Not really.

Also, Elgar'nan and Ghil? The most bland bad guys to bad guy. That Solas spends so long warning you about them, Elgar'nan in particular, and then that's the final battle - that's the dude...I'm staring into the distance with an absolutely unimpressed look.

[intpstyle]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review Pt. 3 - "How to move on?", On Community

DA:TV Spoilers ahead!

Pt. 1 is here, Pt. 2 is here

The capital-h Hero brings me to the second point: community. One could argue that Rook simply doesn’t have the luxury of breaking – there is too much on their shoulders. The game drops multiple hints in that direction, but (again) doesn’t seem to fully commit to the idea. Just one scene of Rook pacing their room, frantically going over battle plans, tossing in their sleep (even just staring out into their aquarium with a furrowed brow for a particularly stoic Rook - anything!) before a companion knocks and they put on their smiley/calm “Yes, I am the boss and have all the answers” demeanour would have been worth gold. What a fantastic opportunity, too, to have them break in front of their Love Interest and their Love Interest alone! As some other reviewers have already mentioned, I also would have loved ANY codex entry mention of the other companions being worried about Rook. As it is, Rook stands alone.

This is reinforced by the game mechanic that only allows Rook to eavesdrop on conversations in the Lighthouse rather than join them, the odd mirthless reactions when you buy companions gifts, the much-maligned book club that never asked you to join, etc. I was also missing a scene like the Inquisition card game that showed everyone just …hanging out. If there is enough time in-between the world saving business for a book club, there is enough time for a shared meal or two, maybe with storytelling and reflecting on the adventures the team has already overcome. Before the final battle, Solas says something to the effect of Elgar’nan choosing only pawns that grasp for power like him, while Rook has assembled a team of skilled professionals and invested in their skills, which is why they will win. And … yes. But for my taste, the game does not invest enough on either side of heavy is the crown; leaders stand alone // we win with the power of friendship; we’re like a family! When escaping from Fade Prison, we see the hands reaching for Rook and can piece together that they have been gone for weeks, but why not show us the moment Rook tumbles through, back into the Lighthouse, back home, and their team huddles around them with victory cries? Say what you will about The Dawn Will Come (or even the jailbreak scene in Origins!), but there is no scene that fullfils a similar function here. All we get are (hilarious!) snippets of Venatori fangirling over Rook, but when has Rook reached this level of prominence? Where are the in-between steps?

All that to say: once again mirroring Solas, but not in a great way, both Rook and Solas stand alone. While I appreciate the story for Solas we got, it is a shame that his vast elven network did not play any role in the plot, and it is a shame that Rook does not seem to be affected by the juicy parts of having to move on from anything ever, leaving them somewhat removed and in an almost supervisory position towards the other companions (which is also not explored in much depth). The main theme of Mythal relieving Solas of his sole responsibility and guilt, and Rook helping every companion with their quest is that “you don’t have to go through this alone. We can move on together.” I just wish this had been stressed more, particularly in regard to Rook.

One last thought on choices: another change that could have taken this game to the next level would be to commit to the follow-through of danger. I loved D’Meta’s Crossing and was so excited to get into “real” Dragon Age territory, but the fantastic build-up with shuffling through the dripping blight and people losing their minds left and right should have been a high-adrenaline boss fight or cut scene, not a rather tame moral decision on leaving the mayor to his fate or not. Same for Mila, the girl in Weisshaupt – she’s a brilliant character and adds real tension to the siege, but to not have a single scene where she’s truly in danger? Missed opportunity.

Anyway, it is easy to criticise a cake when it stands baked before you, and considering that the oven was malfunctioning, that the ingredients were hard to get, that the chefs were underpaid and overworked, and that the restaurant owner at some point wanted a soufflé, it is still a damn fine cake. Every creator puts themselves in their creations to some degree, so I wonder if there isn’t also a sad and rather obvious reason why Rook feels so under-pressure, unallowed-to-break, and alone, and why the catharsis is not included in the game itself. Respect to the Bioware developers that pulled through – may they be rewarded in the way they deserve and the industry currently does not allow.

So yes, all in all, Veilguard was a 7/10 for me, and I can’t wait to see where the series will move on to from here.  

[sha-brytols]

how's trisha/alistair post awakening. divorce? should-divorce-but-refuse-to? functional relationship?

i dont know who you are but if youre the same person thats sending me these asks about her specifically please know i love you and all of my friends know about you. mwah. i love getting these asks.

also is it possible for the answer to be all of the above but also none of the above. alistair is actually very clueless to trisha's. well. (waves vaguely at the war crimes) because for the most part they didnt actually start until awakening. during the events of origins she was actually relatively sweet and very naive and innocent; it was really seeing the effects of the blight firsthand that began her downward spiral (sacrificing isolde was just because i personally felt like the mage option in that quest was like. a weird copout that took away from an otherwise really interesting moral dilemma (<—fallout fan)) so i think he has a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on, mixed in with the general fact that she's very careful about keeping him in the dark about the worse things she's done. not to mention canonically alistair and the warden spend most of their relationship away from each other anyway, so it's not like he really Can know about it unless someone else tells him.

the cat does eventually get out of the bag though. sometime during veilguard(?) when he meets duncan and finds out that he has a fucking son she never told him about. i think before then he was starting to see the signs but was still somewhat willfully blind because, like, not only is that the woman he spent the fucking apocalypse by the side of and he has loved for 20+ years at this point, but like he does know objectively with all of his heart that she's only doing this to ensure that the world doesnt end up right back where it was in origins.

but also you know. alistair remembers what it was like being the bastard son who never knew their parents and spent most of his life alone and unwanted and wondering why nobody ever came back for him or even wanted him to begin with. he is Not Pleased. also the fact that the kids name ended up being DUNCAN was just salt in the wound. its still a work in progress for me but one thing i know is he fucking loses it on her and. i'm hardpressed to say he would ever "divorce" her but i feel like they'd be in a similar place as like. i guess for example anders and a romanced hawke that didn't support the chantry thing. it's just never the same (not to mention in my vaguely outlined plan of events trisha ends up sacrificing herself at the end of veilguard anyway so)

trisha's side of things isn't anywhere near as complex she just loves him and is willing to fucking commit multiple counts of crimes against humanity if it means he can live to grow old without the taint taking him before his time. i wasnt kidding when i said she's like if anders and solas fused into a disney princess with mental illness LMAO

[felassan]

Hey so something caught my eye in the latest GI video interview, I was wondering if you'd seen anything more about: "each faction has a follower, as well as an ancillary character we’re calling 'agents', who exist as these, face of the faction." I couldn't find anything else about agents in the original article(s) but I was wondering if you'd seen anything? It sounds like they're different to the companions in our party?

hello! ◕‿◕ answer under a cut (contains spoilers from DA:TV GI cover story).

Mention in the GI video:

John Epler: “The message of The Veilguard is, you’re not saving the world on your own. You need your companions but you also need these factions, these other groups in the world. You help them, they help you. Now, something we wanted to avoid, because, you know, there’s always the trope of, 'oh yeah, I would help you save the world but I need you to go gather 200 wood’, it’s kind of a silly concept, so what we wanted to build is these factions that do want to help you but have realistic challenges, problems in front of them. So narratively, you help them with their problems, they will help you with yours when the time comes, but beyond that each faction has a follower, as well as an ancillary character we’re calling 'agents’, who exist as these, face of the faction. We’re not gonna get too deep into those right now, but we didn’t wanna just say, 'here’s the Wardens, go deal with the Wardens’, we wanted to have characters within that faction who are sympathetic, who you can see and who become the face of that faction, so even if there’s moments where the faction as a whole may be on the outs with you, these characters are still with you, they’ve still got your back. It’s a core with what we’ve done with the storytelling in this game. We wanted to make sure all the content you did felt relevant. Everything you do has a purpose and has a tie back into the critical path. Sometimes it’s more explicit than others, but there is always a sense that you are moving towards the goal of stopping the elven gods, stopping the end of the world, and it’s not just [like how some of the side content in DA:I was]. Helping these people, helping these groups, so that they can help you when the time comes.” [source] <- DA:TV spoiler warning for link

these "agent" characters were mentioned before in this article, where John Epler said:

"Gameplay-wise – each of our classes has a specialization, and each of them is tied to a faction," Epler continues. "But beyond that, each faction has a [companion] as well as [people we're calling agents, ancillarily] who exist as the faces of these factions. We didn't want to just say, 'Here's the Grey Wardens, go deal with them.' We wanted characters within that faction who are sympathetic, who you can see and become the face of the faction, so that even if there are moments where the faction as a whole may be on the outs with you, these characters are still with you; they've still got your back." [source]

but this looks like it's mostly the same quote as the first one (it sounds like the GI video interviews were turned into a lot of the GI text articles). I don't recall seeing anything more on them.

it does sound to me like they are different to the companions in our party though, as they're saying that each faction has a companion/follower + an agent[s?]. this is speculation only, but based on this excerpt from the GI cover story,

"A few moments later, we’re back in the Arlathan Forest, and just before a demon-infested suit of mechanized armor known as a Sentinel can attack, two new NPCs appear to save us: Strife and Irelin. Harding recognizes them, something Dragon Age comic readers might know about. They’re experts in ancient elven magic and part of the new Veil Jumpers faction. The ensuing cutscene, where we learn Strife and Irelin need help finding someone named Bellara Lutara, is long, with multiple dialogue options. That’s something I’m noticing with Veilguard, too - there’s a heavy emphasis on storytelling and dialogue, and it feels deep and meaty, like a good fantasy novel. BioWare doesn’t shy away from minutes-long cutscenes."

I wonder if e.g. Strife and Irelin could be the agent[s] for the Veil Jumper faction? also as an aside, I'd love to see Teia and Viago for the Crows!!

[GI video]