#reading the tevinter thing

[ndostairlyrium]

I wish I was the floor beneath her shoes

[wardensantoineandevka]

Warden Antoine is so funny for being someone who will make a stirring declaration about how the Wardens have an opportunity to reach for a future in which they are dedicated to protecting and restoring and nurturing the life and landscapes lost to the Blight, that it is their duty and it will give them purpose as they reckon with the end of Archdemons, then immediately provide you with like three hundred pounds of explosives he personally developed from scratch so you can blow something up for him

[felassan]

Some notes from today's new BioWare Blog post, which contained some new character insights and also gave some information on what is coming next and when:

Creative Performance Director Ashley Barlow helped to cast and direct over a thousand conversations in the game

Lucanis is bloodthirsty, calculated, and a workaholic. He was raised with high expectations and fears disappointing those he loves. To him, being an assassin is his only job and identity to be excellent at. He's constantly attuning himself to the kind of shifting terrain of every mission. There's a lot of love between him and Illario

As Zach is a comedian, he would easily find the humor in anything Lucanis was saying

Neve is a Shadow Dragons rebel who cares deeply about helping people and never leaves work half-done. Epler: " [she is] the working class hero trying to make her hometown better"

Emmrich is sincere, friendly, scholarly, sophisticated, eager to teach and learn, a well-meaning but oblivious academic, with a "hot nerdiness". He assumes everyone has an academic's curiosity so can be pedantic on select topics

The Mourn Watch are revered in Nevarra but odd at best and evil at worst outside of it

Nick: "I love the fact that the writers took Emmerich and explored the whole idea of death and the whole idea of necromancing by bringing kindness into it. I really responded to that and got into that and I know it sounds crazy, but it’s to not have this idea that death is vulgar or something to be terrified about, but something to actually engage with on so many levels. I just love the fact that the writers had the courage to do that in a game like this."

"Often Nick is just playing off of someone making a sound, and he takes it and internalizes it and gives it meaning and care, which is amazing to watch."

The world has changed a lot since DA:I

Harding has been leading teams through the wilderness while covering friends in battle

Harding loves her mom. She loves to write letters home and is always talking about her mother. She likes plants and raising plants. She has grown and is a veteran now, a trusted voice at the table

Footage of the full DA:TV @ SDCC companions panel should be available in a couple of weeks

Next month there will be a new roadmap, more looks at the game, and the reveal of the release date

[emphasis mine]

And this paragraph:

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard sees players embark on a perilous quest to face powerful Elven gods and stop the apocalyptic destruction they’re unleashing. You’ll step into the role of Rook, battling on the front lines alongside a deep and compelling cast of companions who together comprise The Veilguard, a group of heroes who have come together to stop the veil from breaking and bringing about the end of the world. Rook must become the unexpected leader who can rally and unite the group. Throughout the game, you can explore the detailed storylines of each companion, navigating love, loss, and complex choices that influence your relationships."

[source]

[lizzybeeee]

DATV is overly reliant on Supplemental Media - especially if you are a returning player

TL;DR: Supplemental material should not be required reading in order to understand what's going on in the main game -> it's additional material that enhances what we were given. If what we were given is lacking and unable to coherently tell us a story, then the writers and those in charge did not prioritize what was important.

Not a take that's unique to Dragon Age, but one that is very relevant when talking about DATV. I've made a few posts about plot/story points that either make no sense or have been dropped entirely in the lead up from DAI to DATV. Every now and then I get a few comments or messages about how certain points I made were addressed in supplemental material released in the lead up to this games release.

This isn't a call out post, by the way! But it's frustrating, to me, that this games writing is so lacking that my understanding is being inhibited because I can't remember details from a book I read two years ago - not to mention various podcasts, comics, and short stories. My understanding of a video game in a video game series should not be reliant on additional/optional content.

DATV is a weird game in that it is absolutely a 'soft/scorched earth' reboot while also marketing itself as a continuation to what was set up in Inquisition and Trespasser. Personally, I think that if you are up to number 4 in a game series, one with a continuous story-line, it should be expected that new players won't be able to catch up to everything -> it's the game developers job to make the world and story intriguing enough that the new players will go back to previous games in the series and fill in the blanks themselves.

Veilguard, as a sequel, is overly reliant on content that comes from outside the games themselves (including DLC's) if you want to make sense of the world and story. Trespasser left us with an epilogue that set up some plot points for the next game: Solas & the Veil, the Elven Rebellion, and War with the Qun - plot points that have been built up since the time of Origins. But when we get into DATV two of these points have been dropped and resolved, off-screen.

There are more questions, but these are the ones that bothered me the most while playing the game:

What happened to the Agents of Fen'harel/ Elven Rebellion? -> answered in a cursed reddit AMA.

What happened to the Qunari following Trespasser -> addressed in Tevinter Nights, and a codex entry you can pick up (optional).

Why is Skyhold infested with demons? -> mentioned in Tevinter Nights.

How did the Dalish go from worshiping their own pantheon to knowing they are false gods? (specifically those we meet in the Veil Jumpers) -> mentioned in the Missing comic series.

What's up with Nevarra's Royals? -> Tevinter Nights addresses that there is a power struggle in the Pentaghast family and the role of the Mortalitasi in making it worse - though it does not address the whole 'mage puppeting a corpse' issue and all the implications it has.

This is a video game series -> the bulk of the information required for me to understand the story and its relation to previous entries needs to be included in the final game version. I am playing a video game and not attending a uni class - I should not need to have a required reading list in order to understand what the fuck is going on. I should definitely not need to go onto a reddit AMA to understand what happened in-game, either.

What makes this stand out the most is that DAI was very successful in tying in previous games, DLC's, movies, and books! Inquisition did a great job in getting you up to speed on the events of the previous games early on, providing personalization if you played those games, and giving the player the opportunity to inquire into these events.

Hiding away the answers in additional material or a codex entry that may be missed is not good game design or good writing. DAI didn't assume that you had bought and played the Legacy DLC -> it made certain you experienced the conversation with Varric and Hawke if you wanted to proceed in the game. It didn't hide away imperative information in codex entries - it had characters talk about it in scripted scenes and encourage the player to ask more. You would actively need to avoid interacting with characters for you to not experience this information in DAI.

Leliana talks about her role during the Blight, her calling by the Maker, and her relationship with Dorothea/Justinia -> DAO and Leliana's Song DLC.

Cullen talks about his time as a templar at Kinloch & Kirkwall -> DAO and DA2.

Cassandra speaks about her history, investigation into Hawke, and the Seekers -> Dawn of the Seeker movie, DA2, & Asunder novel.

Varric talks about Hawke, Kirkwall, and Corypheous -> DA2 and Legacy DLC.

Cole talks about how he discovered he was a 'demon' - it leads to further conversations about Rhys, Evangeline, and Lord-Seeker Lambert -> Asunder novel.

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts -> the game literally continues what the Masked Empire novel sets up, the Orlesian Civil War. The game does a decent job of telling us about the players (Celene, Gaspard, Briala etc...) and the reasoning behind the conflict through dialogue, the ability to explore the battlefields, quests, ambient dialogue, etc... The book is not required reading - though it greatly adds to the complexity of the characters, motivations, and political intrigue!

I never once, playing DA2 or DAI, felt penalized or like my experience was lacking because I had not engaged with supplemental material or DLC's. I got into Dragon Age when I was in high school, it wasn't until I graduated and began working after that I had the disposable income available for experiencing the extra material. I cannot say that for DATV - If you have played Inquisition and go into DATV straight from that you will, absolutely, be confused about how we got from A to B.

Which is especially strange to me!? Why is it that new players will be less confused than those that are returning players? It's like the game is actively punishing you for playing and caring about previous games in the series.

Supplemental media is bought because the main product has earned your investment, love, or interest. Not everyone has the income available to buy it with their own money - especially if you live outside the US and have to pay additional shipping costs. Not everyone has the ability to buy or 'obtain' the digital versions either. My understanding of the main story of a video game in a video game series should not require additional monetary investment into other mediums.

The game itself should be enough and DATV is not enough.

[silverhalla]

when I was little I used to play clue with my sister and when I won by being like “okay YOU don’t have the candlestick and I don’t have the candlestick and there are no more cards, so it’s gotta be the candlestick” she would get really mad and tell me I was cheating because I wasn’t supposed to be making assumptions like that and she didn’t understand where I was getting the info from, so I was ruining the game for her

anyways I don’t rly get why people on twt are THAT mad about veilguard spoilers because they do not seem that deep

[calxeria]

appreciation for antoine dragon age, your strangeness and beautiful looks have captivated me

[ufogoo]

read the art book. joplin you were bigger then the sky

[rubensmuse]

a shame that i've gotten so into the lords of fortune while also maintaining this quiet assumption that they'll remain underexplored

[bosspigeon]

once i get my ottoman and complete my cozy little reading nook it's over for you hoes

[derivaderci]

im hoping so hard that we get some crumbs about how the circles work now. clearly its cool for mages to just be running around doing their thing, but a mage rook had a "final project" so there must be some kind of schooling? neves templar contact doesnt talk about southern templars like theyre a thing of the past, so whatre they meant to be doing if the circles arent prisons that need wardens?

i know theyll probably keep it super vague so theres no issue of which divine is supposed to be making these decisions but i want to knoooow

[ndostairlyrium]

SCUSI?

[wardensantoineandevka]

seeing Evka by herself in the Blighted Dragon trailer is like, where is your husband, asking because I'm not sure Antoine should be without you for too long as, given his track record, I'm not all that confident he can get out of trouble on his own

though, given his track record, Antoine tagging along is a good way for him to quickly fall into peril that he needs help getting out of, so actually maybe it was a better idea to leave your husband at home

[pausegame]

Did nothing but play Inquisition yesterday and it was ✨ magical ✨ 🥲😭🙏❤️❤️

[vrisbian]

This actually perfectly mimics the propaganda real life travelers would do when creating guides or detailing other countries in the time before standard or common travel. Herodotus, the most famous ancient historian and traveler, did this often. Countries that had slightly more freedom for women ‘the women run wild and dominate the men’ in countries where people ate outside ‘they may as well piss in the streets’. He wrote as a Greek, in a Pro-Athenian era that is genuinely part of the origins of Nationalism, for his entirely Greek audience. Even when he was in awe of a Egypt he was a foreigner looking in not fully getting it.

Brother Genitivi is writing as a Fereldan, but one who is working for the Orlesian Chantry and the Orlesian University. He is entrenched in their empire and is writing of Tevinter as a direct contrast (the older empire, on the other side of the schism) that must always come out as inferior, bc Orlais has to be the future.

lmaoooo @ genitivi (rip) leaving the most bitter yelp review in the world for the imperium. it's not giving critiquing power structures here it's giving 'they're so mean to me there, customer service doesn't exist, the shopkeepers don't even SMILE'. because to be clear he's ragging on a city that looks like this:

police state though she may be, minrathous looks absolutely GORGEOUS?

how did tevinter hurt you, personally, genitivi?

[revvethasmythh]

The Fool and the World for the Ask Game!

The Fool: Where did Rook's journey begin? What were they doing before joining the Veilguard?

Talking about the immediate years preceding Veilguard (not, like, her entire backstory), honestly she's just been working! She's a bit of a workaholic in her own right. Timeline-wise, it's been ~8 years since she was a galley slave/joined the Lords of Fortune, and as a serial avoider of feeling her feelings, really put her all into taking jobs with the Lords and doing them well. If she wasn't out on a job, she would be back in the Hall of Valor, picking up as many skills as she could to make up for all the things she couldn't learn when she was growing up (i.e. swimming, reading/writing, music, how to make explosives, etc. she also definitely learned how to read from smut books Isabela loaned her). She's a big proponent of a "work hard, play hard" mentality, and slotted in easily with the Lords because of it. Pretty much all she's been doing the past decade-ish is working (on jobs or skills) and living it up, since she finally had the chance to. Also, again, serial avoider of feelings. It's hard to feel bad if you focus exclusively on having a good time!

The World: What does happily-ever-after look like for Rook? Is it attainable, or just wishful thinking?

This is an interesting question, because Rook is so not a person to think ahead. I don't think SHE knows what "happily-ever-after" looks like. If you asked her, she'd probably say, "I'll figure it out when I get there."

But honestly? I don't think it wold look that different from her normal life, just a version of it where she was less alone. A group of close friends and a lover are kind of the only things she might have wanted to take her life from "normal" to "ideal." Work as something she enjoys and is good at and finds fulfilling, friends to fill out her days, and someone to go home to at night. It's mundane, but that's really all she needs. So, certainly attainable, imo.

Rook Tarot Asks

[lucaniisdellamorte]

pacing my cage thinking about Lucanis' questline tbh

whoops spoilers in the tags