#metaphysics of thedas

[amaryllis-sagitta]

I've always disliked the spirit origin theory and I finally know why

To put it briefly: it's the cornerstone of the Thedosian brand of gnostic pessimism ingrained in the worldbuilding around both Fade spirits and elves, that subtly condemns their existence among the living no matter how hard the writing tries to compensate in the other direction (and to be fair, it hardly ever does).

I have already mentioned in several analyses that the worldbuilding in Dragon Age is trying to impose some objective moral order through the system of virtues embodied by Fade spirits and the speculated position of the Maker, illustrated through the visual allegory of The Gaze. Every place where the Gaze does not fall is identified as the Void - the realm of the Blight, demonic whisperings, evil in mortals' souls, oblivion and erasure.

This moral compass ingrained in Thedosian worldbuilding is outlined in the Canticle of Threnodies. I have always posited that we can read the Canticle's "Maker" as a purely formal locus meant to hook up some form of prisca theologia that would be partially true regardless of whom we put in the Maker's seat.

For example: the Canticle claims that when "The Maker" created the physical world from a portion of the Fade itself, then Their firstborn, Fade spirits, turned away from their perfect resonance with the Maker. They envied what they were not, and for this poisoning of the heavenly "song" with discordant (so, evil) intentions, the Maker castigated them, declared them the first demons, and made humans Their "chosen" race -- presumably, this time building them of both Earth and Spirit so that they would not envy partaking in either.

After multiple hints left in DAI Trespasser, that sparked speculation about the spirit origin theory as the dominating fan theory years ago, DATV confirmed that the "firstborn elvhen" were Fade spirits that manifested physically. They used lyrium, the blood of the Earth's Titans, to build themselves physical bodies. The Stone retaliated, and the first elvhen waged a war with it, eventually devising a way to sunder the spirit essence/ dreams from all Titans. It is heavily implied that this choice to carry out their existence on Earth as war and conquest has twisted whatever the "virtuous" spiritual nature was left in the Evanuris, and that after the end of that war, Elgar'nan simply could not stop.

Why would they do it though? While some concept art from the artbook shows spirits observing primordial dwarves dwarfing, in the end, the Regret mural that shows Mythal inviting Solas into the world explicitly tells us he had no desire to live "as HUMANS" (and the story fails to bridge that lore drop with the known lore about humans allegedly arriving to Thedas from across the seas, and only being able to thrive after the Veil).

So, despite disproving the story about the Chantry's Maker creating the Veil, the writing confirms the Chant's initial overtly anthropocentric orientation. Humans were always special and spirits were always meant to backup and store their ethically charged concepts. But the important accomplishment here is that spirits/ elvhen are doomed with an inherent moral error that snowballs into inevitable strife, destruction and error!

But wait, there's more! Because now that we have the anthropocentrism as our implied position towards the Thedosian races, the history of the elvhen race looks even more like some bizzare form of "karmic" reckoning that completely misses the point of a reckoning, to replace it with unwarranted generational punishment. First, as a result of the Great Betrayal, the elvhen are sundered from their connection to the spirit essence, and thus subjected to the Quickening, which I guess is supposed to be a way of the world giving the elvhen a taste of their own medicine and saying "Be careful what you wish for". Then, once they are finally effectively like humans in every metaphysical respect (unbeknownst to everyone except the remaining ancient elvhen), the moral corruption of the Evanuris gets passed on as the Tevinters learn to glorify blood sacrifice at the behest of their Old Gods (who are really Evanuris speaking through their Archdemons, at any capacity they still have left). This gets used to further humiliate the remainders of ancient Arlathan. What happened to the elvhen now gives Solas reason to hate the mortal physical existence of elves twofold.

The fact that elves keep being punished by the narrative is a direct result of BioWare implementing the spirit origin theory the way they did, because it was devised as a scenario of original sin that necessitates conflict and moral downfall, and ends up snowballing into dooming elves through and through.

But more than that, as I have mentioned in another post, on the metaphysical level, "pure" spirits should be occupied solely with their respective defining abstracts. Spirits should know no desire. Desire is the "unquenchable flame" that defines humans. As far as DAO, we would read that the more benevolent spirits prefer to sit back in the Fade and not interfere with the mortals, and the ones with the greatest drive to join the living are predatory demons.

And the reason for all of this is "the Maker" being bored of perfection in the Golden City, and wanting some change. That the world requires change and opposition to let its best aspects shine is not an controversial idea. However, in the Dragon Age worldbuilding, this necessity for change is not introduced under a milder Hermetic assumption that, even after being cast down into a darker realm of the incarnate, one can successfully control their mundane passions and heal their soul from corrupting influences whilst existing physically... Not on the grand scale, at least.

Once spirits decided to enter the physical world, they started acting like they were trapped and forced to fight for their lives (despite them being the trespassers). The vast majority of them got spiritually corrupted (if they didn't represent vices like Tyranny from the get-go), they dragged their hesitant kin down with them through manipulation. The elvhen race fell into tyranny as their "First" were actually the worst, yet people looked up to them for survival. One particularly inventive specimen devised two catastrophic tools -- one, to deflect onto the Titans whatever should have happened to the first elvhen in order to sunder what has been wrongly joined; the other, to sunder the tyrannical Evanuris from the rest of the elvhen and spirits and stop their corrupting influence. Yet, because the world changes, the collateral of one such tool introduced a wholly new type of rampant evil, and the collateral of the other made the whole elvhen race spiral down... even further into their entrapment in physicality!

The way they built up the spirit origin theory, it draws a full circle: first, the Southern Chantry and the Dalish demonize Fade spirits - one for dogmatic reasons, because it sees the marriage of spirit and flesh as something that is evil even in humans, the other because they can't be denied that healthy cackle of metaphysical irony even if they try their hardest. Then, with DAI Solas and Cole, we're acquainted with a more sympathetic understanding of Fade spirits as being that are fundamentally different but operate on a logic that doesn't automatically lead to a shitshow of a moral downfall. But then, we learn that a group of spirits doomed the entire world to millennia of strife because they felt curiosity for the Other and because the choice to cross the great threshold almost automatically made them forget the virtues they supposedly embodied and spiral down into the "lower" survival instincts.

Personally, I believe that spirits & elvhen could be built on a fundamental existential difference in a way that would have made their excursions into each other's realm temporary. I believe that the spirit origin theory, even if upheld, could have been taken in a direction that didn't imply instant rampant and thoughtless colonialism on the elvhen part. I believe that such choices would have enforced worldbuilding that didn't need to condemn the spirits/ elvhen with that weird version the original sin that receives completely unsympathetic treatment as the time goes by.

[undragoning-the-ages]

Dirthamen's Soliloquy (Codex)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64117600

Rating: G

Category: Gen

Additional tags:

Codex (Dragon Age), fan codex, fan worldbuilding, Elvhenan, Elvhenan Culture & Customs (Dragon Age), Ancient Elves (Dragon Age), The Fade (Dragon Age), Fade Spirits, metaphysics of thedas

[amaryllis-sagitta]

This lowkey supports my lore suspicions made in this post... It is possible to read Solas's regrets as him making the wrong choices all along. This includes a pure, unmanifested spirit portrayed as capable of choice, embracing it, and remaining spectacularly bad at it for most of his incarnate existence. Again, no wonder he's so hung up on the pessimistic assumption that one cannot become effective at something one was not made for (a brand of essentialism straight out of Plato's analysis of virtue).

Yet, based on a simplified Kantian take on freedom of will, free choice is always, at any given moment, a realization of one of two mutually exclusive possibilities through sheer force of will. For a choice to occur, both possibilities must be equally probable in their fulfillment, regardless of experience and habit that condition us towards a singular option. In simpler terms, for us to speak about choice, it must always be possible to pick the option that one was not previously compelled to pursue. Even if most of our real choices happen in ruts imposed by all sorts of conditioning, it's always possible to escape the determinism of whatever history, essence or purpose we conceive of.

In this sense, the choices that do the real weighlifting are the ones that break established cycles.

This has heavy implications for Thedosian spirit lore.

A pure, singularly focused, one-concept spirit cannot be formally capable of choice. They can't be intrinsically pulled towards the opposite of their nature. If they are dragged towards the opposite of their conceptual nature by force, they become that opposite as a demon. No fork between two mutually exclusive options, no choice.

For a spirit to be capable of choice, they must be broken in their conceptual singularity just so that the "fork in the road" appears for them to manifest in two equal ways, but not enough to simply flip sides.

In other words, "pure" spirits should be blind to the possibility of joining the world as separate individuals. Not hesitant, not reluctant. They should filter it out and ignore it. Any spirit that wished or consented to join the world was already corrupt in this tiniest bit.

This is another unexpected win for the Canticle of Threnodies: spirits who chose to join the world of living were driven by a desire that wasn't exactly envy but subtly anticipated it: curiosity for the Earth's creations turned into a desire for the greener grass among a race that was supposedly harmonious with itself, self-content in its preoccupations. Spirits becoming concrete, incarnate individuals did stem from a kernel of the Void sneaking into their ethereal peace, that became a yearning for corporality that was "no longer formless, ever-changing".

Weekes on Solavellan after Veilguard

I'll be documenting everything they say on bluesky/interviews that may add more context to what we see in a game.

Disclaimer: Personally I'm happy with the ending, but the execution leaves to be desired. Still Weekes replies helped me look at last exchange between Solas and Lavellan in a better light, so hopefully others will find what they look for too.

Question: Does he want to reunite? Is it a choice he makes himself? Lavellan is open and proactive during conversation, but he almost seems resigned. “There is no fate but our love” does he realise he can say no?

Weekes: My intention was that after almost destroying the world, he does not feel he deserves love until he fixes what he did wrong (just like he couldn't move forward until he fixed the wrongs he did in Mythal's service). That's why the Inquisitor has to reach out to him.

Question: Was the nature of that solas/Mythal was more queerplatonic than romantic? And if Solas had to choose between Mythal and Lavellan, with whom might he consider sharing his life or save in the face of great danger?

Weekes: Mythal is Solas's past. Horrible mistakes made with good intentions. Lavellan is the hopeful future Solas doesn't think he deserves until he fixes the world he broke.

Question: Can you share any insights on what was going through Solas's mind after Mythal freed him and before he goes into the Fade with Lavellan?

Weekes: That one I think I need to let sit until it's been a bit longer.

Question: One more question, if you can answer! Was solas under a geas for Mythal?

Weekes: It's a possible reading, but there are plenty of people who made terrible decisions for a charismatic person and then felt like they didn't have a way to go forward. It's a story about regret, and regret requires choices.

[crows-rook]

The students of theoretical metaphysics are thrilled to finally have their professor back from his year-long sabbatical. They’d heard some pretty interesting rumors about Proefssor Emmrick "by the book" Volkarin having left Nevarra to help save the world but there's no way that's true. The gossip mill is rife in the Necropolis but there is no way that a man as uptight as him fought blighted gods, venatori, darkspawn and antaam all over northern Thedas.

The first day of class is pretty boring, they go through the motions of talking about what will be taught this term, what texts are best to understand this year's material and extra credit options they can undertake for their end of year scores. At the end of the lesson, one of the students raises a hand and asks about the professor's so-called connection with the veilguard and with Rook.

Every person alive now knows the story of Rook, Slayer of Gods and Hero of the Veilguard. They chat and brag about what stories they'd heard about them or even boast if they'd gotten a rare look at them out and about with their companions. It's great hearing the rumor that the Hero of Thedas is a Mourn Watcher, but without knowing who they actually are, all the young students can do is guess. It's become a game at this point.

The professor is about to answer when the door bursts open and Manfred comes bustling in dragging Ingellvar with him. Now everyone knows about that watcher, kicked out of the Mourn Watch for their role in the War of the Banners, only to be allowed back nearly two years later. What surprises them is the fact that they are not alone. There are two others with them, Neve Gallus and a warden called Davrin, both members of the veilguard.

With Manfred running around the room hissing Rook's home, Rook's home, it quickly becomes pretty clear to the students of Professor Volkarin's Theoretical Metaphysics class that their stick-in-the-mud teacher did spend his sabbatical fighting ancient gods and darkspawn. But there's no way it means the rest of the rumors are true right?

Least not until they see Thedas's hottest new hero practically examines the man's tonsils with a kiss that is not appropriate for the classroom.

When they leave, the flustered man looks at the class and asks; "Are there any more questions, or do you mind if I go home to my spouse?"

[supernova2395]

Solas and Inaction

"Those fools and duty. Responsibility is not expertise. Action is not inherently superior to inaction."

I've seen a couple of posts now saying how, should Solas have just waited, his plan would have been done for him and things would have been better for him that way. However, I think that's a misreading of his character, and because everything would have been so much worse had Solas not acted.

The veil was tied to the evanuris, who were tied to the archdemons, who were being killed off one by one each blight. By acting when he did, Solas was trying to stop the inevitable descent into a blighted Thedas that he sacrificed everything to stop when he created the veil in the first place.

Solas painfully knows that the veil will fall after the 7th blight, that's part of why he's so motivated to get his plan done quickly. There is nothing Solas hates more than slavery and suffering, and there is little doubt that a blighted world would cause nothing but suffering.

Not only that, but those things are an issue in Thedas anyway, and the longer he waits, the more harm they cause.

But then, to truly see it through Solas' eyes, you need to take into account the effect the veil has on Thedas anyway:

It's physically (metaphysically??) in an awful state even before Origins. Practically everything thins the veil (death, particularly concentrated amounts of it, like battlefields, blood magic, normal magic in enough quantities, even just at random, like in the Frostback Basin) and that makes it more likely that spirits will be drawn through and, in most cases, corrupted.

There can be no true understanding between spirits and non-spirits because spirits are locked away, and only a select few can talk to them. But even then, spirits are a reflection of expectations, and the world teaches that they are all demons out to possess you. That they should be feared and banished, and because you're afraid of seeing a pride demon, you're more likely to see a pride demon.

Spirits should never have been separated from the world and although some are happy to simply dwell in the fade, others want to go to 'exotic Rivain', which they should have been able to, but the veil prevents them from doing so unless they possess someone. So many spirits do want to possess mages as a way to experience what they should have been able to anyway. Which also has the added effect of making mages a 'danger to society' because possessing someone will often corrupt the spirit (see the previous point) and cause both the spirit and mage to lose control.

To Solas, his options are:

Do nothing and let calamity take Thedas after the 7th Blight

Lock the Evanuris and Blight away in a new prison and leave the veil torn to shreds, spirits being corrupted and demonised (hah), mages ostracised, and hope it doesn't get worse (this assumes that locking them in their new prison wouldn't sever their ties to the veil or the veil wouldn't fall at some point anyway because of *gestures to everything*)

Lock the Evanuris and Blight away and bring down the veil in a somewhat controlled manner

And like I don't blame Solas for his plan, especially with the precarious position the Elves are in in Thedas. What was he supposed to do? Go to the powers that be and say:

"So, you see, elves originated from spirits (yes the ones you are constantly afraid of and demonise at every turn) and thousands of years ago we fought with the Titans because we used lyrium to make our bodies… and didn't realise we were hurting them until it was too late and they retaliated. Which, fair, but we did not want to die so I... inventedtranquilityandseveredthemfromtheirdreams. Which I regret, for obvious reasons, but at the time, saw no other way.

"Then it turns out the people I did that for declared themselves gods and started enslaving my people *and* continued mining the Titans for their lyrium, so I rebelled. Then they decided to draw on the power of the severed dreams to stomp out my rebellion and tortured those dreams until they created the blight, which they then used with abandon to make themselves more powerful, and when Mythal finally confronted them on it, they killed her.

"There was no way we were going to be able to stop them, as the first of my people do not simply die, so instead I tried to create a prison for them but I was not powerful enough to do it and accidentally severed the waking from the dreaming stranding countless in uthenera and killing countless more who got stuck in the passages in between.

"Then I fell asleep for millennia because of the power it took to defeat the Evanuris, but the world *was* saved from the blight… UNTIL YOUR MAGISTERS SCREWED EVERYTHING UP AND RELEASED THE BLIGHT ANYWAY cough sorry, and with each successive blight you have been killing those powering the veil, weakening it and meaning that it will fall and blight the world after the 7th blight. But also with every battle, the veil gets weaker and will probably fall at some point anyway… do you maybe want to help me avoid a complete catastrophe?"

I just don't see any way that would have ever gone over well, even if they could be convinced that what he was saying was true.

And, honestly, I truly don't think that (had BioWare been brave), bringing down the veil would have needed to be catastrophic, especially if they allowed the discussion about the veil and the harms it brings to actually be discussed in the game and not just shoved aside.

Mostly because the Frostback Basin exists: a place where the veil is naturally so thin that spirits can slip through without being corrupted, and a place where the locals live, not only in peace with them, but with them in an understanding not seen anywhere else in modern Thedas.

I'm sorry, but tying Solas to the veil will never not be deus ex machina to me, and I actually hate it narratively, especially with the build-up from the previous three games and extras. RIP Sandal and the fricken Chant of Light.

I just feel like there could have been a really compelling story that could easily have been within the confines of the game, especially if Veilguard had dealt with the "inevitability" of the veil coming down early and had that as the reason why the Inquisitor was not around.

Like, "Oh Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are really focussed on Northern Thedas, that means that you in the South can be using your College of Enchanters and remnant circles to deal with the veil issue" and then you can confront Solas with Plan 2: Electric Boogaloo, "you don't need to destroy this world Solas" "I am glad to be proved wrong, my friend" as your redeem ending and "we can't let you do it your way, fuck you" as your hatred ending (fight him and incapacitate or kill him or lock him away with the blight idk 🤷🏻‍♀️). The veil comes down, but Thedas is saved. You’ve got your soft reboot, and don’t completely ignore parts of the lore from your previous games.

I'm going to stop ranting now, TL;DR: Something had to be done. I don't blame Solas for what he was doing, and BioWare should have been braver with their narrative.

[caughtnyact]

hihihi welcome to thedas weekend 💖💖💖 perhaps your Kayla Mercar and Emmrich with "i had a lot of dreams about you recently" from the pining/yearning prompts

OR!! Emmrich and Johanna with "you should know me by now" from the preestablished connections prompts

whichever inspires you most! 💖

I love u and these @thedasweekend prompts <3333 Trust and believe that I am going to eat that Volkoss prompt up some time soon 😩

@draco-illius-noctis wrote the most beautiful letter from Emmrich to my Rook, and I just HAD to write a response letter!!

No warnings - 280 words

To my most verbose esteemed Professor,

I would very much like to read the previous seven drafts of your letter to me. I think ‘runaway carriage’ is too generous a description of just how ugly you make me laugh; Davrin told me that it’s more akin to a screeching griffon (which, of course, made me laugh even harder.)

I’ve had a lot of dreams about you, recently. While I would love to see your ears turn the most delightful shade of pink at whatever absolutely lecherous fantasies I could concoct, they were dreams of a different kind. I dreamt of the most mundane domestic vignettes with you. How I would love to listen to you lecture on about the metaphysics of autogenous liminality, or snuff out your candle as you doze off at your desk so you don’t set fire to the laboratory. I would be absolutely devastated to see you smoldering by means other than by my hand.

I miss you almost as much as I miss my sweet Manfred; I was just about to close the gap in our eternal struggle for Rock Paper Scissors supremacy when you both were summoned back to the Necropolis. I’m sure he’s just as inconsolable, which means that you simply must get back to us as quickly as possible.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take my teasing foot off your lovely neck to give you the chance to take a breath. While toying with you is my favorite pastime, I’m not interested in torturing (unless you’re into that, of course.) My answer, by the way, is ‘yes’— I would love to get dinner with you.

Don’t keep me waiting,

Rook

[amaryllis-sagitta]

(LARGE IMAGE - use external links)

Picture only: https://kdrive.infomaniak.com/app/share/1491551/c70b5f49-8f18-4e4f-8858-005ed52cdfb0 This is my tribute to one of the most profound secrets of Thedas -- the nature of spirits and their link to the presumed "Maker" of that world.

This piece is inspired by DA lore crafting through Codices, murals, stylized concept art, and in-universe research like The Grim Anatomy. Another thread is my speculation from Metaphysics of Thedas about the great metaphysical duality being at work in Thedas, one between a supposed Maker and the counter-balancing force known as the Void or primal Silence. Yet another element I used is the visual of the Tree of Porphyry - a type of diagram that medieval philosophers used to classify the universals according to the Aristotelian rules of definition through genus and differentia specifica.

Of course, spirits of Thedas are not classified this way - for what we know, some leading "virtue" types of spirit can be corrupted into "vicious" types of demons if their conceptual nature is compromised or abused. Still, the way we keep learning about the new spirit types outside the crude classification of the Southern Chantry, brings to mind a picture of a tree where spirit types spread out into more and more nuanced variants.

The corners of the picture are adorned with rudimentary depictions of the Forbidden Ones - the four mysterious powerful demons that bear proper names instead of universal names, whose nature seems more elaborate and elusive than the usual single notion assigned to most spirit types. These are: Xebenkeck, harboring an insatiable bloodthirst, whose presence was noted in Kirkwall and might have something to do with the city's history of violence; the still unknown Formless One; the duplicitous Imshael, who manipulates mortals into choices that bring out a monstrous side in their morals; and Gaxkang, a shapeshifting predator luring mortals with a false promise of riches and glory, only to bury the trace of their existence.

[undragoning-the-ages]

Reposting a degoogled version of an old mini-project for a 18-sign based Thedosian Zodiac

[queenaeducan-writes]

Laundry Day

Pairing: Solas x Non-binary!Lavellan Warning: DA4 Spoilers (Regret Murals) Other Tags: Modern Thedas, Crack Fic, Spirit!Solas Originally written for the DAFF server. Inspired by this post by fangbanger3000 Read it here on AO3.

His world is nothing but colour, vivid and bright.

He is a kite upon the winds of the Fade, turning according to its whims. He allows it to carry him, the ill-defined appendages of his metaphysical form flowing with the current. Memories, too, wash over him: the relief as a shop sign flips from open to close; the eager tug of loving hands pulling the wearer by their apron; the chill of the apartment floor where it is stripped away and forgotten.

Recollections of the last week occur to him in visions of cotton and linen, as though his body is the stitching holding the whole together. He does not fight it, forgetting struggle as his tail meets the spread of his six eyes.

The sudden stop jars him to greater consciousness, but any questions that might occur with the notion tumble with the rest of him out of an unknown portal.

Solas falls limply into something physical, the seam between dreams and reality made hard by a mage's hands. They hold him like a damp wad of paper they're trying hard not to tear. Their voice, no such luck.

"Solas"— Ian's gasp is sharp, needlelike— "Ir abelas! Are you- please be all right."

As the world slows to its own deceptive stillness, his vision clears, blinking up with a blearly grasp upon reality. Ian is pale over him, save for pink-rimmed eyes, pin-pricked by tears. Something had happened, he surmises.

"I am fine," he assures him, that much is certain. "Are you?"

"Me?" Choking on his anxiety, Ian squeaks out a laugh. "You- you were in…"

The answer trails off, though Solas quickly discovers the answer for himself. Gathered alongside his metaphysical form are a collection of clothes heavy with soap and water, piled in Ian's lap where he'd dragged Solas from the washing machine.

Ian hiccups. "I'm so sorry. One moment you were in a sunbeam, and the next-"

"Put me back.""I- you- what?"

"Put me back, please," Solas corrects himself. Grateful this shape doesn't have ears to burn (though he feels remarkably little shame), he adds, "It was not unpleasant."

"You… you're kidding." Ian's stutter is bewildered more than nervous, giggles breaking through disbelief. "Do you want to be dried, too?"

"Air drying is more energy efficient… but I suppose I am curious."

"Ma nuvenin, Vhenan," Ian laughs.

The last thing Solas sees before the cycle is renewed is Ian's face beaming through the concave glass.

[dreadfutures]

The people who don't engage with thoughtful criticism *from their own friends* and only look at whatever randomly shows up in their For You tab or the main tags unfiltered have such a skewed view of what the core problems are with the game and their defensiveness and rebuttals are just heartfelt "I enjoyed the game it can't be bad!" for the most part

I also enjoyed the game, it is objectively a very well crafted game. It is the best DA game to play. I like the characters. We agree on that. Have you taken the time to consider the gaping plot hole i tripped on, the complete loss of the main character's motivation, the "don't look behind the curtain" metaphysics of Thedas and its accompanying morality, the criticism of the game's clear message that the status quo is god, or the racism that many fans of color can't overlook? You're just going to gloss over how racist and awful Taash's quest is for anyone who comes from a mixed experience because we got our trans rep? You're just gonna ignore the upsetting non-progress, anti-community, and racist messaging baked into Harding's quest? Your essays about how the game made you feel good are not helping. I'm happy for you. I'm happy Lace Harding is allowed to be angry. I'm happy Taash found a queer community and their mom's dying breath validated them. I'm happy both your choices for Archon and all the good guys around them think slavery is bad and are going to take care of it. If you don't want to look deeper, fine, but stop making "essays" that "address" "the haters" because they aren't essays (they aren't structured arguments), they aren't addressing criticisms that are in good faith (because you are ignoring all of them very pointedly except for the absolutely wildest batshit takes you saw on YouTube 2 months ago being parroted by some random Tumblr user you've never met before in the main tag), and I'm not a hater 😔

I keep going and touching grass and recentering my fandom experience with people who just enjoy the game and aren't defensive about it and then someone has to come out swinging with "people who have problems with this game are just reactionary haters because it made me feel good and I am the only person who considered that we needed a story that makes us feel good right now and just like every other DA game these haters will go away--"

You know, I think a lot of the criticisms I have for DA4 are actually founded in some real soul searching and serious thought that I had post-game, after the warm fuzzy feelings wore off. The more I think about them and re-play the game and re-experience those moments, the deeper my concerns and critique go. That is not reactionary "she wasn't the bioware game ***I*** built up in my head" y'know?

[high-voltage-rat]

I think the problem with Veilguard is mostly just that they were so focused on giving a culmination of the Deep Lore that they forgot about the shallow lore we've had for the last 3 games. Anything about the chantry systems, the dalish as we know them, the political situation as it currently stands in general- it's fallen by the wayside pretty much completely. But deep lore theories about the blight, lyrium, old gods, spirits, the origin of elves and qunari, titans and the dwarves, etc. have all been addressed. However, in the process, these big reveals end up feeling pretty par for the course, rather than a groundbreaking revelation to the characters uncovering it OR to us, the players.

I get the sense that this game was built on the core goal of trying to give closure to all the little lore threads they'd planted in the last 3 games. It wasn't to explore the current state of thedas, or the effects of the events that we dealt with in each game- just the metaphysical state of the setting and how it came to be. In a weird way, it seems to be built to appeal to new players and deep lore buffs, but not to the people who just, like, played all three games and are invested in the present-day storyline. But honestly I think the shine for lore buffs is even limited, because so many of the great mysteries of the setting have been explained that there's nothing left to really theorycraft about. Our own world has so many mysteries, so much unknown- it's what gives life wonder. Even in a fictional world, taking that away makes things feel flatter. If everything is known, why explore?

Don't get me wrong, I still love it. I'm having a lot of fun and I really love the lore reveals we've been given. I'm a deep lore guy. I had already put together that Ghilin'ain was blighted, that original elves were spirits in lyrium bodies, that old gods corresponded to evanuris and were probably their dragon servants, and I've been excited to see my theories come true. But as someone who also has a great love for the dragon age setting in its present day, I am also pretty disappointed that you can play the game without any real knowledge of what the circles in the south are like, why the mages rebelled, what happened with the antaam in Kirkwall, what the current living conditions of elves are, the relations between the Grey Wardens and Ferelden, the colonial history of Orlais and its chantry... and lacking any of that knowledge will make no difference to your understanding of the game. It will never even tell you that info, aside from some short and oversimplified codex entries, because you don't need to know. If dragon age historically operated on this kind of simplified, "only what you need to know" style, we would never have the lore threads this game is based on to begin with.

[amaryllis-sagitta]

I'm watching carefully how Solas straight up uses Platonic language when referring to spirits because it Must Mean Somethimg on the larger scale. Like, spirits are viewed as the key to how reality should maintain its identity throughout time and upheaval, and the threat to the state of spirit world is probably linked to the vague threat to "all existence" that Solas mentions in Tevinter Nights.

Theory: Solas isn't doing it to save the elves, he's doing it to save the spirits.

With the new information coming out about Solas's plan in in DAV and the much-memed back and forth between Solas and Varric, I think we may have gotten the wrong end of the stick regarding what is at stake, or why Solas is doing what he's doing. There has been increasing back and forth about whether the Veil should come down in the decade since DAI, but a lot of conversation has focused on a) the collateral damage necessary to do so and b) elven immortality. The assumption being that Solas has decided that any collateral damage (with opinions varying from 'some' to 'apocalyptic' in what they expect that to look like) is worth it to bring back ancient elves, aka 'his people'.

However, repeated dialogues throughout DAI and Trespasser paint a different association - Solas refers to the elves as 'our people' when convenient (eg when trying to get the Inquisitor on side following their first confrontation with Corypheus). When you or other characters ask him about what he considers to be 'his people' he either dodges the question, or to Abelas:

Solas: There are other places, friend. Other duties. Your people yet linger. Abelas: Elvhen such as you? Solas: Yes. Such as I.

While this seems pretty straight forward, it begs the question what the ancient elves, what the Elvhen actually are. Think about the origin of Elvhen as a deliberate identifier, rather than just using 'elves' which Solas repeatedly rejects. Breaking down the word the answer may have been staring us in the face this whole time: vhen is translated to 'people', and El is the root for spirit. I think there is a very good chance Elvhen literally translates to 'spirit people', and that has been the key distinction all this time.

What that functionally meant before the Veil (spirits that chose to manifest personality/bodies, spirits that were bound to bodies, perhaps 'possession' or symbiosis was the norm) is yet to be determined. But the connection to spirits is what Solas considers his people, which is why appeals to save 'this world' will ultimately fail for him, even in a state where he acknowledges mortal beings are 'people':

Inquisitor: We aren't even people to you? Solas: Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong, again. That does not make what must come next any easier. Inquisitor: You'd murder countless people? Solas: Wouldn't you, to save your own?

While many players would consider the current world state 'acceptable' to those living in it, that discounts the perspective of those trapped on the other side of the Veil. The spirits are very clearly suffering, which will not improve while the Veil remains, and it's why Solas can't just live with 'this world'.

[thedragonagelesbian]

thedas is a setting where violence--structural historical & ongoing--leaves lasting metaphysical & material scars in the fabric of the world, and then repairing those scars is completely divorced from systemic/revolutionary change liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike

[scuttlingcrab]

wip time, yo

Pssssttttttt! I've finished a new Emmrich one-shot! Hoping to post it tomorrow hehe. It's a wild AU Canon Convergence piece, focused on Emmrich getting stuck in the bloody Fade after he pulls Rook out lmao.

Lots of timey-wimey nonense. Also our QUEEN Johanna Hezenkoss is along for the ride because she is unfortunately tethered to the damned professor. (and I can't stop writing in her POV)

Here's another cheeky WIP in the meantime (lots of editing/re-reading to do *tops up wine glass*)

***

Of all the ninnies and lovesick halfwits in Thedas, let alone in the entirety of this metaphysical realm, of course it was Volkarin who had to follow his heart—abandoning all semblance of logic for the sole purpose of rescuing that wretched paramour of his. Forget the fact that the fate of the world hung in a balance and a blighted elven god was on a rampage! Rook, Rook, Rook. It had to be Rook. And what good did it bring Volkarin in the end? 

Johanna had forewarned him, many times over, that love would only cause him unnecessary pain, existential suffering that would distract him from his true prospects. Volkarin was better suited focusing his pursuits elsewhere, towards Johanna’s own aspirations most of all, some of which they had once shared—dreams of Lichdom, refining Nevarra City, traversing parts of the Fade no mortal had been fortunate enough to see, much less returned from alive. The things they would’ve achieved had their friendship proved successful…

Now, the fool was stuck in some sort of confinement instrumented by the Dread Wolf himself, that much was obvious to even the most dimwitted of Volkarin’s companions. 

In any other circumstance Johanna would’ve happily left him to rot, watching from the periphery as he was forced to act out the same tragedy until the end of his sorry existence. Oh, it was too perfect. And it enraged Johanna she couldn’t think of it herself, laying the groundwork of his misfortunes, knowing the right traps to prepare, and how undeniably he would come to pieces at each stage of her master plan. All she had to do was keep pulling at the frayed thread, the same one she had been picking at for decades…

In all sincerity, Johanna loathed Volkarin. He was the first person on practically every revenge list she’s ever made, teething with vengeance as she carved his name into the parchments like it was a dagger to his own flesh—hoping that would be enough for him to feel her spite from the comforts of his gaudy flat in the Necropolis. 

When Johanna was a mortal, and not a dismembered skull wasting away in some sad sap’s laboratory, she’d fall asleep fantasising about all the ways she’d soil Volkarin’s reputation in response to his abandonment—jealousy keeping her bed warm, tucking her in snuggly every night when no one else would, as scenarios played out of his demotion, empty lecture halls, and poorly reviewed theses. 

Alas, as fortune would have it, Johanna needed to help Volkarin. She was tethered to him, whether she liked it or not, due to their bond in the waking world. Volkarin’s intricate ether-seals that kept her interned within her own skull, unable to use or learn new spells due to the cumbersome wards, was what kept her drawn to him—the same predicament that allowed her to jump seamlessly between his consciousness and the reality that was waiting for him back in the Lighthouse. 

For as long as Volkarin was trapped within his own mind, so was Johanna. If the fool somehow managed to perish, to lose this fight, then his soul would not pass on—he would be bound within the echoes of this prison, his memories on an everlasting loop, and Johanna would be cursed to join him. Sharing the shame tomb, how ironic. Truly, an outcome worse than death itself.

Johanna had witnessed the prelude to Volkarin’s death spiral in real time, observing from her pedestal as he fell asleep at his desk, struggling to stay roused as he readied himself for Rook’s extraction from the Fade. She had talked him through it the evening before, as she had done night after night since Rook’s disappearance—the old acquaintances theorising what he could do to find weaknesses in the Veil, or how he could follow the trails leading to Rook’s isolated location. She humoured the old codger, quite enjoying their conversations, despite the severity of his ongoing dilemma. It was as if they were back in their 30s, crammed into a tiny booth in the mess hall and busying themselves with talk about the future, on what the uncharted territories of the Fade could offer them.

“It’s no use!” Emmrich exclaimed, shredding another stack of parchments. He quickly added them to the growing pile of rubbish besides his desk, burying his face in trembling hands. He was more choleric these days, cheeks hollowed, infraorbital darkening adding at least 5 years to his senescence.

“Have you analysed the latest variances?” Johanna countered, slightly perplexed at why he might give up so easily. Volkarin. The same idiotic man who once, just to ease a random spirit’s temperament after a chance encounter, fought tooth and nail to track down their long lost family heirlooms—which had somehow ended up in Val Royeaux, of all places. 

“Another dead end. Same as the last lot.” 

“You know as well as I, Volkarin, the Fade cannot hide things for too long. Eventually Rook’s location will show itself.”

“Yes, Johanna. However, we don't have the luxury of waiting around for that precise moment, now do we?”

“Oh, it hasn’t been that long.”

“It’s been nearly 3 weeks.”

“But for Rook, likely an hour or two has passed. She’s fine. I wager you’ll find the girl by the time your body’s ready for burial.”

Emmrich slammed his hands on the desk, twisting his body to face her, like some demented owl. 

“That’s quite enough. I’m in no mood for one of your quips, Johanna.”

“Have you ever been inclined to receive them?”

Emmrich narrowed his eyes, scowling at her. And praytell, was that an eye roll? From that decrepit man?

“I jest, Volkarin. Please carry on with whatever nonsense you were working on if it gives you any peace of mind.”

He let out a low growl, swiftly turning around. He continued with his idle scribblings, searching through dusty tomes until ultimately falling asleep at his desk. 

The next morning Emmrich rolled out of his writing chair, muttering incoherently to himself as he dressed, leaving his quarters without so much of a goodbye.

Johanna’s world altered in the span of a few hours after Volkarin’s absence, feeling the exact moment something shifted. The wards around her burned, her spirit sizzling as if it was being cooked inside her skull, raw energy piercing a heart that no longer existed. It was a new kind of torture, pulling her apart in a thousand different directions, imperceptible hands reaching for a strand of her essence, her very being, and trying to pull it apart, to reforge her. It made Johanna want to vomit, replicating the exact sensations she once experienced while harboring a mortal form—that sourness in her mouth, uneasiness in her stomach. Her eyesight violently flickered, splitting into two separate locations, two different versions of herself sharing the same skull.

Her left vision showcased greyness, a bleak and disquieting territory she had never seen before—while the right was still stuck in the present, in Volkarin’s laboratory. She watched through her left eye, skull trembling as Volkarin stumbled into view. He screamed out into the void, calling for help, calling Rook’s name—a primal, guttural sound, unsettling even to Johanna. Volkarin then fell to his knees, weeping into his hands as he suddenly turned to stone. 

Flicker. 

Flicker. 

Flicker. 

Johanna’s vision merged back into one, nearly restoring her view of the laboratory in full. She let out a pained gasp, green energy oozing from her eye sockets in shock—not at the grey tinge still covering her left vision, but at the sight of Volkarin now sitting faced down in his desk, exactly how he had woken up mere hours ago. Her right vision still showcased Volkarin’s empty quarters, back in their current reality.

There was certainly something amiss, and the crux of the problem was Volkarin. 

In the present, shouting echoed outside of his quarters—confusion, anger, and sounds of multiple boots charging up stairs. Johanna expected Volkarin to come bursting through the doors with some explanation, perhaps even a solution to the utter lunacy she was experiencing, but no one came. Even the Lighthouse seemed to silence itself in suspense, holding its breath as it stood by for an outcome, ceasing its movements through the ether all together.

Johanna kept herself occupied in the hushness by watching Volkarin through her left eye. He continued to sleep at his desk, immobile. She had an inkling what this could be, where she might be viewing him from, but she needed more proof, concrete evidence in advance of jumping to conclusions. Before starting to panic. And Johanna never panicked, not even in her darkest hours.

It wasn’t until sometime later that the doors to his quarters finally creaked open.

“About time, Volkarin! I’ve just experienced the most—” Johanna began what would have been a whirlwind monologue berating the fool, but she cut her words short when Rook staggered through the threshold. 

The elf was slovenly, more so than usual—blood dripping from her tattered armour, hair tangled, as if she had killed a group of Venatori right outside the door. Had she no decorum? Back from the Fade and she couldn’t at least change her clothes, let alone bathe before showing herself? 

Frankly, Rook was always in some slatternly state or another, wearing clothes that were fit for a lowly housekeeper rather than some so-called leader. Johanna didn’t know what Volkarin saw in her. Aside from her youth, naturally—one good romp from a young woman was enough to keep him distracted from the grave that beckoned him. Pah! Rook was devoid of any sophistication or charm—it was like Johanna was talking to a bloody cadaver whenever they were forced to converse.

“Oh. You’ve returned.” Johanna said instead, rather matter of factly, trying to keep her energy contained to conceal her rising irritation. 

Rook approached Volkarin’s desk, slumping into the writing chair. She pulled out a plain dagger from her belt, stabbing it into the wood. 

“I’m going to fucking kill Solas.” She garbled.

“Where’s Volkarin? Is that dotard going to make an appearance at some point?”

Rook’s neck twitched at the question, on hearing Volkarin’s name, and she pulled the knife from the desk, slicing into it repeatedly. Over and over again she went, until a piece of wood broke off.

“He’s in the infirmary. Something happened. When h-he pulled me from the Fade. Something went… wrong.”

Johanna’s green energy fulminated from her plinth, bursting from her eye sockets, from the base of her skull, as her bones clattered against the surface. 

“Take me to him. This. Instant!” 

Rook stared back at Johanna, goggle-eyed, hand gripping the hilt of her dagger.

“Why would you wanna—? I mean, wouldn’t that ruin your…”

“You imbecile! My wards are tied to Volkarin. You could throw me into the fireplace and I’d remain there, like a piece of cinder, unable to escape. Now please, do something instrumental for once, and transport me to the infirmary!”

Johanna didn’t have to demand a third time. Rook picked up her skull, holding it as far away from her body as possible—as if Johanna was blighted, risking infecting Rook and everyone else in the Lighthouse. 

[exceedinglygayotter]

So I've been reading a lot of Elder Scrolls fanfic recently, and I noticed that it's fairly popular to write crossovers with Dragon Age, specifically to have the author's version of the Last Dragonborn fall into Thedas at the start of Dragon Age: Inquisition and become either the Inquisitor or a companion of theirs.

I've never played Dragon Age (massive CRPGs just aren't my thing), but the idea is a really interesting one. How would Dragon Age characters react to someone who is clearly capable of magic, but has no connection to the Fade because that's just not how magic works on Nirn? How would a Skyrim character react to being thrown into a world that is so superficially similar to their own, yet so fundamentally different, with dragons, elves, and dwarves that bear only the slightest resemblance to what they're used to those words meaning?

Anyway, I had a neat idea for one of these, but since I'm sure I'll never write it I figured I'd post it here. I just think that there's a lot of potential in making the character who gets trapped on Thedas be an ohmes khajiit.

If you don't know, khajiit can be born into one of 16 different "furstocks" depending on the phase of the moons when they are born, ranging all the way from talking house cats (the alfiq) to 10-foot-tall tiger-men (the pahmar-raht), with the ohmes pretty much just looking like elves to the point that many ohmes tattoo more feline features onto their faces in order to make it more obvious that they're khajiit. This means they'd be able to blend in relatively easily since they could just pass themself off as an elf, but would still be a member of a species completely alien to Thedas. Humans are just humans, and even mer could be thought of as basically just weird elves, but there's nothing even similar to the khajiit.

Furthermore, the moons of Nirn are extremely important to every part of khajiiti society from their government to their religion, and this would mean they'd be thrown into a world where those moons just... aren't there. The very sky of Thedas would be alien to them, and a khajiit would be the most affected by that out of all of Nirn's cultures.

On a more metaphysical level, khajiit are innately tied to the Lunar Lattice, which is basically the khajiiti name for the barrier separating Mundus from Oblivion and Aetherius. Azura is worshipped by them as Azurah, a "keeper of all gates and keys, all rims and thresholds," and it's implied that Azurah created the khajiit to help maintain the Lunar Lattice in some way. Seeing as the main plot of DA:I is heavily focused on the Veil between the mortal world and the Fade, you could probably do some very interesting stuff with a character who has an innate connection to a similar metaphysical barrier.

I understand why nobody's done something like this (at least as far as I'm aware), since a lot of people don't even know that the different furstocks exist and ohmes haven't been playable since Arena, but I feel like you could do some really fun stuff with it.

[vaultsixtynine]

heres the deal: to give thedas an actual necromancy structure requires that Someone (me) actually put some work into "what happens to people when they die", a weirdly neglected part of da lore for some reason (it's because the general worldbuild is not really interested in building out lore for things it does not directly touch and The Fade is its handwavey answer to A Lot of things)

great! sure! however at that point i may as well just tackle the rearrangement of the basic foundations of the physical and metaphysical world. lol. is dragoned age worth that level of effort. probably Not