#rooks about to take Davrin with her into that void

[dovesnroses]

This post by @guardianofthedawn has been rotating in my brain since I saw it, and now this appears

[fangsandfeels]

"Everyone gets along because there is a threat", yadda, yadda, yadda.

Bullshit. This is not how real scenarios work and it has never been.

russia is a global threat right now, but the world can't decide between sucking its dick and politely asking it to stop because the mere thought of confronting russia makes it shit its pants. The very few countries who scream into the void, warning about russia and telling people to wake the fuck up are ignored and viewed as crazy doomsayers.

This is how real crisis looks like. Nobody works together against a threat because people are spineless cowards who would rather throw their neighbors under the bus than fight. Nobody learned anything from history lessons, books or survivors.

The only difference in a fantasy game is that NPCs end up having more spine and moral principles than real people.

But in Veilguard, everyone gets along because they have NO reasons not to.

Davrin has no real reasons to beef (if you can call it that) with Lucanis because he is a Grey Warden. He knows where Grey Wardens take their conscripts from. He knows that Grey Wardens regularly recruit mages who are a lot more likely to get possessed if they're not careful. Working with an assassin who knows friend from foe isn't the worst thing ever. One subtle warning about taking action if demon takes over is enough.

Taash has no reasons to antagonize Emmrich aside from horrible writing.

Neve gets along with Bellara because writers gave Bellara a happy childhood with her family and turned Dalish artifacts into Apple store gadgets, while refusing giving Neve any nuance as the citizen of Tevinter.

Emmrich gets along with everyone because he is generally a kind and well-mannered person who doesn't like to stir the pot.

Any companion who could have had a sharp edge, got that edge ripped off and a cartoon band-aid slapped on.

Never doesn't deal with people who don't know about Shadow Dragons (and they probably shouldn't know much because when you work against a powerful government who wants to destroy you, you shouldn't show off), so she constantly has to deal with the fact that people assume she is a noble or a slave-owner because she is from Tevinter; that they don't know that she had to literally fight against being enslaved herself because in Tevinter mages who refuse to use their power to dominate others are turned into slaves as well.

Bellara isn't conflicted about working with humans, especially Tevinter humans at all. She seems to never have dealt with oppression her whole life and she is super quick to write off Cyrian as evil even though there are clear SIGNS that he was tricked and controlled by the Forgotten One. But no, she never thinks "He is still there, I can save him, I won't lose him again", she goes straight to "Oh nooo my brother is dead to me".

Emmrich doesn't get burdened by people reacting to him and his sincere intention to help with fear, because of all the sinister rumors revolving around necromancers and Nevarra. He isn't hurt by people assuming that he loves death and things dying. If even he openly admitted that he is deeply terrified of death, they wouldn't have believed him.

Harding isn't burdened by the revelation she learned and what to do with it. Should she storm her way to the Orzammar? Should she talk to fellow surface dwarves and reconnect them with their history? Should she never breach the subject because the truth hurts and it's too much pain, too much anger to live with - and maybe she shouldn't let other dwarves go through it?

We don't even have a party divided on what to do with Solas (kill or talk it out)? Even though it's logical to have companions who are convinced that Solas has to die and those who think that he is misguided and can be convinced to stop.

Also, there are NO companions whose background, viewpoints and attitude would rile other companions up. We have no controversial characters whose interactions with the crew Rook would have been forced to intervene in unless they want their team to start throwing hands with each other.

We could have had Imshael - to give EVERYONE a reason to worry, and argue, and have conflicts. We could have had an ex-Venatori Calpernia bashing heads with Neve, Bellara, and Emrich. We could have had a Qunari spy who'd make Lucanis' dagger-arm itch.

If writers didn't forget about the Architect, we could have had an intelligent Darkspawn companion Davrin could be losing his shit around.

Or heck, we could have had a former red templar who got partially (magically?) reversed from their mad state and is now not a mindless beast, but still is on a borrowed time, probably needed due to their strength, but barely tolerated by anyone.

Who is fanatical, mostly because they have to believe they made a noble sacrifice, that it all was for the greater good -- because the truth scares them to their core. Who gives Lucanis shit for being an assassin and abomination, who bashes necromancy, and mages, and talks about purity, while downplaying their own actions as "Yes, these are my sins, but they are for the better world, and I would be proud to die for that world unlike you heathens who would rather ruin it than repent for your flaws". The kind of companion you'd initially want to do nothing with, but who can reveal an entire gallery of fucked up contradictions and trauma if you decide to keep them around.

However, writing such companions takes skill, courage, and requires absence of greedy corpo "we don't want to scare away new players with all that moral nuance" thinking.

[authorellenmint]

2 AM

Even in a world without night or day, a sun or moon, Lucanis could still tell when it was 2 AM. There was an edge to the air, like the too taut string of a lute about to snap, or a bracing wind cutting through a secret passage in a wall. Save a few errant wisps traversing to Maker knew where, no one stirred in the Lighthouse.

I don’t. Want this!

No one save the demon in his head.

“Too bad,” Lucanis murmured to himself. He’d let himself falter for a few hours and woke to find his foot hovering above a fall to nowhere. Spite, despite nearly sending them both plummeting into the void, wouldn’t cease pouting. He was worse than a child demanding a cookie. At least the child couldn’t take over their parent and kill them.

I want. To Talk. To Rook!

“No.” Lucanis cut his constant refrain off with a curt snarl. He had no idea what Spite wanted from Rook, but he wasn’t going to risk it…risk her to his inner demon. Spite growled at being denied once again.

Lucanis had been let himself be pleased after the dinner. Less so the Antaam’s surprising attack, but for a brief moment he’d held her in his arms. Let himself give in to the pinging strings of his heart as she’d melted against him.

Then Spite began to whine.

Rook. Will Understand.

“I highly doubt that.” Lucanis hadn’t fully weighed what being with someone, someone who meant the world to him, would mean while his mind wasn’t entirely his own. Perhaps a foolish part of him had hoped that Spite might take the evening off. Instead, after that evening, he became obsessed with Rook.

Always asking for her. Always demanding to take control.

It worried Lucanis what his demon wanted, and if he could stop it.

His pacing steps took him up one of the many stairs circling the balcony. A delighted hiss startled him. “Hello,” he said to the death mage’s pile of bones. It clacked its mandible and hissed again.

As a man raised to bring death from a young age, it was disturbing to find bones once laid to rest up and walking around. At least Manfred wasn’t one of his contracts. And Maker help him if he ever was.

I must. Talk to—

“I said no!”

Why not?

“Because.”

Be. Cause. Why?

“Because I said so.” Mierda. Toddlers were easier to handle than Spite, and those he just bribed with a promise of chocolates. Would that work on a demon too?

Where is Rook?

“I don’t know,” Lucanis admitted. They had barely returned from Antiva before she was whisked off to handle a problem with Bellara, then Davrin and the Grey Wardens. He would be foolish to think he could monopolize all of her time, but there was a small part of him that wished he could be by her side for it. Should she drop her guard, would the Warden be quick enough to shield her?

I want. I need. To talk. To—

“For the last time, you are not talking to—” Lucanis’ mad rant slammed into a wall from a soft gasp before him.

Draped in a blanket around her shoulders, her feet bare, and hair beautifully mussed, she turned from gazing out over the Lighthouse to him.

“…Rook,” he whispered, his wild pacing stumbling a crawl. “What are you doing here?”

“It is my secret clubhouse,” Rook said with a wink. Her shoulders stooped and the blanket slipped lower, revealing a vast stretch of bare skin. As Lucanis’ mind struggled with piecing together how much of her was without clothing under that simple scrap of wool, her stance softened. She drew a palm over the railing. “I couldn’t sleep.” A warm eye drifted back to him. “I’m guessing you’re having the same problem.”

“Spite.” Lucanis grimaced. “He wants something.”

“Have you tried gingerwort truffles?”

“Truffles give me gas,” Lucanis said then his eyes opened wide. “I mean—” Whatever excuse he had evaporated at the harmonious delight dancing on her face.

She was beautiful, a fact that always struck him like a bolt from the shadows. It wasn’t that he was without eyes. He’d certainly noticed upon that first meeting in the Ossuary as she’d stood before him, cheeks flushed, chest heaving from battle. But every day with her brought a new angle to her beauty. Her kindness shone in her eyes. Her care graced her delicate fingers. And even her biting wit gleaned along her wickedly delicious lips.

Let me. Talk to Rook!

Lucanis scrunched up his face to drown out Spite.

Rook saw it all. “Is he hurting you?” There was that generous spirit that she gave and gave to every soul who crossed their paths.

“Only in my mind. He likes pushing me to my wit’s end.” Lucanis strolled to stand beside Rook. His fingers danced across the railing, chasing the pattern that didn’t exist as he tried to quell the storm tossing in his head.

Warmth brushed across his shoulder, wrenching his head around. For a beat he noticed her eyes, full of concern, before they drew to find her blanket had slipped to reveal more than just a peek of Rook’s undershirt. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Thoughts tumbled in his fracturing mind. Of him taking her offered hand and pressing a hundred kisses to her palm. Plucking her off of her feet and setting her on the banister. Kissing her worries off her lips, running his hands under that blanket. Diving into all of Rook’s beauty with no plan to surface.

A walled off Lucanis stared down at the Caretaker’s little shop across the way. “You needn’t worry about me.”

She didn’t slip away. In a soft voice, she said, “Try and stop me.”

[lunastarlight593]

Gonna talk about my Cannon Rook and Dragon age a lot on here so I’m introducing Anna “Taron” de Riva!!! I love her so much and the questions are from @pinkhallaclub

1)Where in the Thedas is your Rook from?

Anna is born and raise in Tevinter, specifically from Minrathous until she was 13-15 years old

2)What is your character’s alignment?

Chaotic neutral or true neutral. Anna will do whatever she believes is right, even if it seems wrong to others and will be really reckless/won’t think before doing. At least at the beginning of the game

3)Race and subclass?

A human mage

4)If your Rook was companion, where would they be found?

She would be found in Minrathous on a contract, kinda. The “contract” is actually one she failed a year or two ago, before the game story takes place of course, and her mentor was killed by the man/contract she was supposed to kill and has finally found him again after that failure

5)What emotion did they usually pick?

Mostly the sarcasm/sassy ones and the stoic/serious ones

6)What companion are you platonically close with?

I would say Anna is close to Davrin and Bellara the most. After spending time with Davrin, she sees him as a genuine chill guy and not as bad as she thought for a Warden. And sees Bellara as a younger sister, like having Bellara ramble to her about anything

7)Romantically close with?

Lucanis :)

8)Who are they suspicious of?

Neve only cause she doesn’t trust any mages from Minrathous

9)Does your Rook get along with their chosen Faction?

Yes but after the fucking up the Talons operation, its now a “meh”, but slowly getting along again

10)Are they proficient in playing any instruments?

Yes, Anna plays a elven bass, specifically her father’s bassve

11)Weapon of choice?

Dagger and elemental orb, does use a staff from time to time tho. Uses thunder magic but knows a few neurotic spells

12)What is their orientation?

Bisexual

13)What are their thoughts on killing? Is it a necessary evil or do they enjoy it?

I mean to her it’s a necessary cause she is a Crow but if it’s not for her job, she still will depend on the situation

14)What hobbies does your Rook have?

Anna plays music and dances, training either her fighting skills or magic, reads but not as much, gambling in card games and making bets with her fellow Crows, cooking, making poisons and alchemy, and origami

15)What NPCs do they like? Which one's do they dislike?

Anna loves Antoine and Evka and is she is honestly surprised to get along well with the Wardens. Has a love/hate relationship with Viago, sees her as a brother but after sending her away, Anna is piss with him still but their relationship gets better later on in the story. Love Teia but who doesn’t love Teia. Kinda hates Illario but not really at the same time. Really hates the First Warden and Governor Ivenci but yet again she hates politicians/military

16)Do they have a favorite creature in the Thedas?

Likes snakes, halla, and birds

17)Do they enjoy life as an adventurer?

She does, especially when Anna is traveling with Varric to find Solas cause it’s not her typical contract

18)What would your Rook be doing if they weren't recruited by Varric?

Honestly, she would probably be either kick out by crows or might even be kill by them. Or she would still be finding that failed “contract”

19)How do you think they'll meet their end?

Either old age or on a contract

20)Would they side with Solas or fight him?

Anna would fight him for sure

21)What is your Rook's favorite ability?

Void Blade and Tempest

22)What languages is your character fluent in?

Common tongue and Tevinter, some Antivan, and a bit of elvish. But she knows every curse word lol

23)What do they do after an absolute crisis?

She will keep acting her usual self, until Anna is by herself and she will just yell and scream and cry

24)Does your character believe in the afterlife?

Not really

25)What specialization best represents your Rook?

Spellblade cause it was specialise with the Crows but it also works for her story too

26)What animal best represents your Rook?

A cat or maybe a falcon

27)What was their life like before the events of Veilguard?

Lived in Minrathous for 13-15 years, jump on a boat and landed in Trevio, robbed people including Viago, was brought in to the crows by Viago, Viago and someone else(don’t know his name yet)train Anna, loses her other mentor due to her mistakes on a contract, meets Lucanis and gets along with him, Anna gets captured by the Venatori while finding the contract, and gets magic at the age of 32 because of the Venatori

28)Is your character the de facto leader of the party? Or do they consider someone else to be the leader?

Took charge as soon as when Varric ask her to, but Anna is starting to regret it/thinks she is a awful leader after the dragon attack and Weisshaupt

29)If you could choose a different faction for your Rook, which one would they have joined and why?

Anna would either join the Shadow Dragons or Lords of Fortune. For the Shadow Dragons: if she had stayed in Minrathous longer, Anna would have found out about them and joined. For Lords of Fortune: would have probably ended up there instead, Anna didn’t know where the boat would have taken her when she snuck on

30)What's your favorite thing about your Rook?

Anna’s sassness and her relationships with the characters(and looks cause god damn she is fine)

[mossarchives]

Veiltober Day 1 - Veilguard

Name: Rook Brosca-Aranai de Riva Pronouns: They/Them Race/Class: Qunari Spellblade Faction: The Antivan Crows Background: The adoptive Qunari child of Warden-Commander Beth Brosca and Zevran Aranai, trained in magic by her aunt Morrigan, and now leader of the Veilguard.

What a nightmare… 

Rook sighs, letting their legs dangle into the ether of the veil swirling below the Lighthouse. One wrong move and they might slip into the void forever, though they can’t deny there’s a part of them that is curious what would happen. It’s the fade, so they wouldn’t die. They’d just float. Would the Dreadwolf save them? Or maybe the Caretaker? If things got desperate, maybe Davrin could send Assan to lug them back to semi-solid ground. 

Most of them is just… tired. They’ve been running all across Thedas like a nug in a maze, fighting, recruiting, arguing, learning, leading -- it was starting to wear on them. Between the numbness in their fingers from channeling mana and the various half-healed wounds across their skin, their whole body is wrapped in a dull ache. 

The view is nice, though. That sunrise warmth casting a gold glow over the pale stones with thin white clouds swirling beneath their feet. Rook lets their mind drift with those pale wisps, trying to pretend they’re alone in the world and not the far-too-young leader of a group fighting blighted gods.

They’re not sure how long they’ve sat there before footsteps bring them back to themself. A pair of black boots catch their eye first, then the bottom of a mug being offered down to them. Lucanis is quiet, but his mouth twists upwards in one corner. It’s more of a smile than smirk, and Rook accepts the mug of coffee he’s offering with a grin of their own. 

“Thanks.” 

He straightens up and Bellara appears at his side, followed by Davrin. “Mind if we join you?” 

“Not at all.” Rook pats the stone beside them.  “Plenty of space for more on this rock. Just watch your step, I’m not sure what happens if you slip.” 

“Let’s not find out.” Lucanis cautions, taking a seat on one side of them while Bellara flops down on their other side. Davrin settles in further back with Assan sprawling in his lap, chirping happily at being included. 

“I’m with you on that.” Rook takes a sip of coffee, kicking their heels back against the rock beneath them. A childish motion that they quickly put an end to, frowning into the drink. Just another reminder of how unsuited they are to leading the group.

Bellara smiles sweetly at her. “Maybe there are other ways we can test it. Safer ways! Maybe Assan can scout it out for us!”

“I doubt it.” Davrin’s words are affectionate but ring with exhaustion. “We’re still working on his training.” 

 A new voice adds to the discussion as three more join them, Taash reaching out to ruffle Rook’s hair as she passes. “We could tie a rope around your waist and throw you over, see what happens.” 

“Not me!” Rook bats her hands away and then smiles at Harding and Neve. “I’m too big, we need someone smaller!”

Harding holds up her hands, retreating to Davrin’s side before Taash can get any closer. “Not it. What about Manfred?” 

“Absolutely not.” As if summoned, Emmerich and the skeleton in question appear. Manfred sets a stool down behind the group for his summoner to rest on, the man waggling a stern finger at Harding. “You cannot simply throw him around!” 

“That’s enough.” There’s a tired sigh from the resident detective who eases herself beside Bellara. “We’ve already invaded Rook’s hiding spot, let’s not fill it with pointless chatter, hm?” 

The group quiets down at her words, settling down to take in the view. Bellara and Harding occasionally point out a strange cloud or sparking light, while Rook raises the mug towards Lucanis, who cheers them with a slight roll of his eyes. The quiet had been nice, but Rook finds they don’t mind the intrusion. They may have come together under odd circumstances, but were united in more than just their goals.

[kunosoura]

veilguard final thoughts

I liked the moment to moment gameplay even if it was comically obvious they didn’t want you playing mage because of the resistances. Went through the whole game building towards stacking shock damage, guess what was never once an enemy weakness in the final level lol no was in fact resisted by quite a bit. Plus losing Davrin on the penultimate quest then having to leave taash because they were the only one who was obviously fit to leave behind leaving me warriorless on the final run. Or the fact that you don’t have a warrior for like the first quarter of the game. Yannow.

As for the writing, I liked some parts of it more than I was expecting. I think basically every companion puts their worst foot forward and grows more likeable as you know them, but not in like a ME2 Miranda where they’re intentionally prickly and hard to like at first. More that their characters are established in quip heavy ways that embody the game’s issues with tone, but you only get to know their actual compelling sides way later. Except for Davrin, who was introduced as a straightforward no nonsense solid sort of guy that I immediately liked because at that point he was interesting by virtue of how average he was compared to the cartoonishness of the other characters early on, only for him to slowly become a pit bull guy for his griffon in ways that could become a little hard to take seriously at times. Him dying in my run was genuinely a bit of a gut punch. Taash especially grew on me a surprising amount; I was worried they’d be a retread of the worst aspects of Sera (intentionally abrasive and kind of meant to not be liked) with the worst aspects of Dorian (kind of hamfisted lgbt very special episode type character arc), and while they don’t exactly beat those charges there’s also more compelling and interesting things going on there than I expected.

In general, the game saves a lot of its strongest moments for later. I like that the ending wasn’t just a retread of the ME2 loyalty mission and it pushed back against the “you can do it perfectly!” Nature of that writing by having a few no-win choices. The choice on which city to save felt a bit contrived, but choosing who you send into imminent danger did a better job of setting itself up with context. The Solas conversations did a surprising amount of work to build up that tense rapport between him and Rook, and as natural as it is to play it like the solaswife sequel I like that you do also get a lot of chances to push back, argue, even oppose him bitterly. The Varric twist was just bad, though - contrived and for what? Very very little would change if he wasn’t in the game. You don’t even care like you would if he had died in Inquisition or 2 because he and Rook do not have any actual rapport. The fucking evil council whatever at the end was even worse LOL. It was also pretty comically obvious the Inquisitor was only in the game for the solaswives too, admittedly that's what I chose for my run but I cannot imagine what possible purpose they serve returning if you aren't gunning for the "good" ending.

I’m more willing than most to accept that the game was of limited scope and thus they didn’t want to import tons of choices into the game, but a few were glaringly omitted. Harding talking about the Divine, Morrigan presumably being identical regardless of whether she’s spent the last few decades with the love of her life and raised a child, the codexes and missives talking about Ferelden and Orlais with no mention of who is in charge leading their resistances, the wardens having to exist in a complete void of context regarding how the last blight ended, what happened at Weisshaupt in inquisition, Awakening once again (though who isn’t used to that by now)… A few extra voice lines or codex entries supporting these would have done wonders to make it feel less cut off from context. Do that, be just a little more willing to have the main factions be morally ambiguous and market the game more honestly as a spinoff and I think 90% of the criticism could have been cut off at the head. Except for the people complaining about the "forced lgbt shit", there's no saving them and they've literally cropped up for the release of every game all the way back to origins.

I don’t think the writers hated dragon age like some said, I actually think there are moments that show a surprising regard for the world’s history and complexity; rather, I think that the decision to drastically reduce the choice continuity came from above the creative team, probably when the game got restructured a second time, and when the writing team got purged a relatively inexperienced team did the best they could, which manifested a lot of problems (from the big like retconning the Crows to tone down their worst aspects to the small like that goofy ass inclusion of the ritual cup from origins).

Um, all in all, better than people are saying but really held back by the obvious multiple mid-development reboots and even then not all the problems can be laid there. A very off-putting start that ends up better than I expected. Very marvel though, from the quippy dialogue to the credits with a stinger and "The veilguard will return" like was that meant to be a joke. a bit of humor to make me laugh. as if we don't already know that there's no reasonable future where Mass Effect 5 is successful and bioware doesn't get closed so this is the last game in the series.

I wish we'd gotten to see more of Minrathous, not the muddy ugly docks we were stuck in but the really cool high fantasy things we only got a taste of at the very beginning and very ending of the game. Oh and um why was the antagonist of the crows storyline a theythem. Not to be #enbyphobic but that is an evil 40 year old politician. Was that your idea of theymab representation.