#so i may have my first game of veilguard be 'she will save solas from himself'

[luckyjak]

I'm debating about changing my personal canonical world state for Veilguard because I fear "choosing to stop Solas at any cost" will get me a "Lavellan hates him now" ending and not the murder/suicide my Lavellan actually planned.

[teamdilf]

J's Veilguard Predictions

Realizing I hadn't put together a list of my predictions so that I have something to look back on once I've finished the game, so I've snuck back on to post them!

FYI, this has speculation based on content we've seen from the gameplay preview in September.

Solas is either already blighted as a result of his efforts to purify the red lyrium idol or becomes blighted over the course of the game.

His imprisonment was entirely his own doing and potentially even something he'd planned in advance. He'd left the eluvian unlocked because Varric interrupting was somehow part of his plan - but Rook knocking down the columns was not, so he was left to improvise. Perhaps, assuming point number one is correct, imprisoning himself was part of the plan all along in order to protect Thedas from him when he inevitably goes mad from the blight.

Solas created the connection between him and Rook using blood magic and when he indicates that he abhors blood magic during their first conversation, he's totally projecting his feelings regarding his own actions.

Neve has some sort of connection with the Magisters Sidereal.

Mythal is now residing within Morrigan and is using Solas to serve her own ends, potentially making her the act 3 villain, alongside a blighted Solas.

Saving Solas may involve choosing him over another person. I don't think it'll be him or the inquisitor but him or Morrigan or him or Varric are the most likely possibilities in my mind.

Rook can end the game as the new mythical trickster figure in Thedas, taking over Solas' role - perhaps adopting the mantle of "Dread Wolf", but I'd personally prefer if they got to keep "Rook" because it's fitting for a trickster.

There are seven companions and seven Evanuris. I think there's a connection there - perhaps in addition to Rook being the new trickster figure, the other companions all become some manner of mythical guardians.

I no longer think the veil is coming down - instead, I think it will be altered to create some manner of bridge, allowing free access in both directions, with the Veilguard remaining as a sort of coast guard to protect both realms.

The best Solas ending has him exiling himself to the Fade to serve as a Keeper/guardian to his people. A romanced Lavellan has the option to join him, though, given that the inquisitor is not playable, I don't think we'll see that conversation on-screen. Instead, Solas tells Rook he intends to ask if she would join him, allowing the player to choose how their Lavellan would react to the off-screen conversation.

A more bittersweet ending has Solas dying and potentially being reborn as a spirit of wisdom. If Lavellan is romanced, he may remember her, because he promised he would never forget her, but remembers nothing else.

In order to get the best ending, Rook will need to challenge Solas, calling him out on his behaviour, but also show a willingness to listen and understand his perspective. Basically, Rook needs to rival him. If Rook agrees with his actions, Solas will be empowered to continue on the path he's set himself on.

[roykentschesthair]

The more we learn about Veilguard, the more I’m dreading the inevitable companion betrayal.

It’s my least favorite thing that BioWare does with the Dragon Age franchise. And other than Anders has been very clunky, in my opinion.

Morrigan isn’t really a betrayal and honestly her willingness to do a ritual pushed on her by her mother (who she’s terrified of and asks you to kill) in order to save you and Alistair feels more like a confirmation of friendship than a betrayal to me.

(Her not forcing the issue and instead opting to leave makes me question her own reasoning in terms of the ritual being a selfish choice for her)

Solas is incredibly clunky and obvious that he isn’t who he says he is. No I’m not saying I knew he was the Dreadwolf from the first conversation however he looks drastically different from other elves and it’s incredibly clear that his knowledge coming directly from the Fade is a lie (he slips several times, especially if you take him to the Winter Palace/travel with both him and Sera)

So while Blackwall is a decent red herring in terms of betrayal. Let’s be real, Solas was always suspicious as hell.

Anders “betrayal” is an inevitable consequence of his descent into madness. (Depending on your Hawke you may not feel betrayed, but even a romanced fellow mage Hawke is lied to and participates in the actions without the proper knowledge to consent to it)

So while Anders is the most successful and in many ways the most obvious companion betrayal it at least feels like a character progression instead of a removal of a mask?

Plus it’s desperate and bittersweet and while I don’t personally like Anders, it’s a great bit of character writing, the tragedy of it.

But in all honesty I find it boring.

I want a group of loyal companions. I don’t want someone inside waiting to betray you, especially if it’s going to be another mage character.

I want internal struggle and clashing (suddenly living with people you don’t know that well is a great start to character writing/building/development) but the ticking time bomb of someone working against you is a rehash of Inquisition, and they barely managed to pull it off.

I’m beyond excited for the game. I can’t wait, but I want my companions to surprise me and argue with me and have their opinions/morals but a betrayal is boring and I’m ready for something else.

[butterflydm]

It's ~official~ (DAV posting)

I don't know how much of the game is left but it feels like things might be picking up towards the endgame. My save game data tells me that I'm currently over seventy hours into playing this character (though that includes menus and such, I assume), so no complaints if we are headed towards endgame! But I am loving the game, so I will be sad when we reach the ending (though I do already have my plans to replay as a dwarven and/or Shadow Dragon Rook).

Put down those two blighted dragons that attacked Treviso and Minrathous, so that's a win, and I shot a ballista bolt into Ghilan'nain. So that was a pretty big success, and I'm back to doing all the side quests and character quests that popped up in the aftermath of that story quest.

We finished through Harding's personal quest and confronted the Titan's Shade, so she's now officially a Hero of Veilguard. It feel fitting that she be the first one to get that status, considering that she came from DAI and all. She's finishing what the Inquisitor started.

I really liked learning more about the history of the dwarves and the Titans, heartbreaking as it could be at times. And since I took Bellara with me on Harding's personal quest, it was two elves that were talking to her at the end. Unintentional on my part there, but it really made a lot of Harding's lines feel like they resonated even more, because it was the elven people who benefited from what Solas and the other elven gods did to the Titans.

The damage that history does feels like a big theme - both in things like the elven gods being the ones who shattered the Titans, or in things like those same elven gods trying to recreate their glory days of being worshipped. One of the lines that Harding says at the end of her personal quest - "we will thrive in spite of you" (and having two elves there definitely gave that line a special punch; I wonder if that line is different if you don't play as an elven Rook or if Harding processes that part any differently if you're also a dwarf) just really felt powerful.

Sins of the past would be an other way to put it -- that applies in most every case we've seen. Regrets that stem from the past.

I got confirmation on a few of my guesses from last time -- the Gloom Howler was a Gray Warden who left on her Calling. More specifically, she's an elven mage who blighted the griffons on the First Warden's orders in order to win the fourth Blight.

Emmrich also interrogated Rana's body and confirmed that Illario is a traitor and sold Lucanis out to her in order to gain his place as First Talon of the Antivan Crows. But she was supposed to kill Lucanis, not use him for her experiments, so Illario was genuinely shocked when Caterina learned that Lucanis was alive and imprisoned.

Harding haunted by the trauma of what was done to the Titans centuries ago (millenia ago? i haven't plotted out the timeline), the splintering that created the dwarven people. Bellara is haunted by her brother, who she thought died chasing the very elven artifact that we first found with her (the archive spirit) but who made a deal with one of the Forgotten Ones of the elven gods instead. What she could have been, a deal that she fears she would have made if put into his place.

Emmrich haunted by an old colleague and Neve by an old case that got away.

Darvin is haunted by the ugly legacy of the Gray Wardens and what it means to be willing to do anything to stop the Blight, no matter what the collateral damage may be. Even if that's an entire species.

Taash's struggle has been against gender expectations, as set against the background of growing up with a Qunari mother and having escaped the Qun. A legacy of their birth culture, and deciding what they want to take from their differing cultures they grew up in. Not the sins of Taash's past but of the culture that they escaped from but still feel some connection to.

And Varric, of course, is haunted by Solas -- a friend that he's worried he can't save (and who is the echo of a friend that he believes he failed to save -- Anders and Solas have a LOT in common).

(the list of things that Solas is haunted by span the entire game lol)

On a lighter note, I took Harding and Taash out together and they flirted! <3 And then they flirted again back at the Lighthouse! <3 Harding had a dream about Taash! <3 It's charming! <3

And to get to the title of the post -- I went through Lucanis's Inner Demons quest and then we talked in the kitchens afterwards and we are officially exclusive.

It was really great too -- the quest. Spite leading me through the prison that Lucanis had constructed around himself, because he's afraid of himself after what happened in the prison. Being able to support Lucanis and also to talk to Spite to let him know that... that Lucanis isn't trapping him in that prison deliberately. It's just that it takes time for people to heal from deep trauma like that. I love how it was entirely dialogue-based and not about literally fighting to get to Lucanis but about talking to the parts of himself that were afraid and hiding.

It seemed like a good place to stop for the weekend, since I do have some non-DAV things to do.

[msviolacea]

So there's apparently a rumor floating around that you have to make a very specific choice early in the game in order to get the "best" ending in Veilguard - a choice that would lock you out of one particular romance. And as far as I can tell that isn't true at all? I'm not sure where the rumor came from.

Some spoiler details behind the cut. Including what my game state was, and I got what I'm pretty sure is the "best" ending you can get. I tried to avoid specific details about the plot, but there are some allusions that you can probably make some educated guesses on, so be warned. This is not advice for someone who wants to complete a spoiler-free first run, but for people who are either a) on their second plus run or b) very concerned about getting the best ending on their first run.

I've seen like 3 different people say that you have to save Minrathous over Treviso to get the best ending. Whichever city you save, you lose the companion who belongs to the other city (Neve or Lucanis) for a period of time, they become hardened, and you can't romance them.

I saved Treviso, but still got the best ending possible, I'm pretty sure.

Here's what I think you need to do for the best ending. This may or may not be true or exhaustive, but I cannot come up with any other factor that would come into play.

Make sure all your companions are "Heroes of the Veilguard" at the end. This is possible even for whoever gets hardened, you just have to make sure to do all the faction missions, etc.

Raise all the factions as high as you can. I had everyone except the Shadow Dragons at 3 stars, and everyone showed up to the final fight.

Finish everything in the Crossroads, including Solas's memories and clearing out all the Blight.

When Morrigan shows up to talk to you in the Crossroads, she can give you advice on how to proceed with the next bit of the quest. Take it, and succeed in completing the quest without a fight.

You're going to lose one companion for sure near the end. I don't think there's a way around that. (It will seem like you lose two. That's not necessarily true, wait it out.)

(That having been said, if you want to assure yourself a happy romance ending, when given a choice between people to send out on missions during that stretch, do not send your love interest.)

When you're asked to make choices about where to send your companions in the final assault, pay attention to the tool tip! For example, if it says someone with front line experience should go, don't send a squishy mage!

When you get to the final conversation with Solas, as long as you did the things about the Crossroads mentioned above, you'll have an extra dialogue option. Take that one.

And voila. Good ending. Complicated ending, but the best one possible, as far as I know. If there's somehow a "better" ending out there - an "everyone lives" ending, or even some random background details that can be better in the end - I'd love to know what the world state is for that and why!

[greypetrel]

FINALLY I JOIN THE PARADE

For Cullen and Aisling: 84 and 86 And for Radha and Solas: 63 ( >:D) and 90

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG BOY- 🎶

Wrong parade, wrong parade!

Tis the prompt list

84. Have they ever almost lost one another? How does it effect their relationship?

Yes. A couple of times, but the worst is in Trespasser.

My headcanon is that the Anchor started to get bad before the Exalted Council, flaring up more and more often. Nothing she tried worked, she was only getting worse and worse. Dorian didn't find anything in Minrathous on the subject: she reached the Exalted Council and she knew she was dying. Perks of being a healer.

Solas saved... well, not the day but her life. She survived yet again, but felt him going as if he was abandoning her. Her deepest fear is Abandonment, so yeah.

it was the kick she and Cullen both needed to stop pursuing the right thing to do and disband the Inquisition, finding something that they wanted to do, not just... Were called to do and fit them.

86. Who gives the best gifts? Who gives the more thoughtful? Who goes for expensive?

Aisling needed time to get back believing he was there to stay for real and find the way to trust him and other people again. She'll need more time alone and he'll need all his patience to bear through it without turning into an helicopter husband overtly worried. She gave him and everyone around her reason to worry. It'll be a couple of rough years of readjusting and learning to live without no one else telling them how to. In the end, tho, they're good for each other and the right people to power it through.

And when the situation gets too gloomy, there's Sera and Dagna living next door.

(Cullen will sustain Aisling in redeeming Solas, but not agreeing with her. He's there for her, she knows him better and he trusts her on the matter. He still has a plan B, C and D just in case, and will take him quite some time to stop giving him the cold shoulder should they meet. And, he won't exactly be as calm as he was from her leaving without him, even if it's temporary. He'll need some time too.)

Cullen would give the more thoughtful. Purely out of the fact that he'll find difficult to find something she may actually appreciate in the way he wants. She's low maintainance and won't require much, will appreciate a dirty handkerchief if it comes from him, but he wants something special. So it's always extra thought and extra attention. Like: a set of farrier tools. She never considered it but LOVED it. (Josie loved it less because "Yes there's the inquisitor, filing the hooves of the horses. Don't mind the horse munching on her hair, please *sigh*")

Aisling is a listener and a giver with a great memory. She'll gift him usually THAT thing he said he could possibly need or like, absent-mindedly. She's a cheapskate for herself, but for gifts? He said it would have been nice to have another mabari to keep Bran -the first one- company? At the ready, she'll bring him to the kennel and tell him to choose all the puppies he wants.

She's precise and pinpointed in everything, and in gifts too.

63. How would they describe one another in bed?

(Delfino curioso!)

Radha is asexual, so... yeah. There won't be much description here. They never got to the point that she was willing to try it for his sake. As for what it's gonna happen in Veilguard... Ask this again in a year? xD

90. Would they ever consider starting a family?

Yes, absolutely. She gave him a bonding gift in Skyhold.

Radha is very attached to the family and albeit she doesn't want to have children of her own, she'd be ready to start one. Just the two of them, adopting children, spirits... She'd really like a cat.

But.

I don't like theorizing much on Veilguard because I prefer to get into the game without ideas of my own.

But in the meanwhile she became an aunt. Both of her siblings spawned, and she loves her niece and nephew to bits.

She is willing to start a family with him, if he has a mind to it. But her one condition is that the Veil stays up, or he brings her proofs whose bibliography is not "I saw it in a dream" that when the Veil falls, the situation will be manageable and under control, and that there won't be an issue with you know. The Evanuris free again and very angry.

Should the Veil fall and something happen to their parents, she'll step up and take care of them without thinking it twice. She will go the extra mile to grant them the best life she can, there's not even a question for her.

She won't ever be able to forgive him for leaving them orphans, tho.

[5mcsinatrenchcoat]

for the veilguard hype thing, 4 and/or 6?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard HYPE Q&A

4. What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

Hmm. Well, my Tabris saved Ferelden and lived to tell the tale, also Kieran is her son by whatever (blood) magic we lesbian Morrimancers decide that happened - I'll have to put my Warden as male in case any of that happens to be relevant, I guess. Anora rules Ferelden alone, while Alistair was a Warden and got left in the Fade, sorry, my guy.

My new Hawke, whose playthrough I'm currently finishing up, will side with mages and that will ultimately result in a dead Fenris, which will be... interesting in case of any potential cameos. Bethany is in the Circle, altho I don't think that will be relevant.

EDIT: False alarm, Fenris did stay by her side! Somehow! Yay!

And I'm not changing my forever Inquisitor, so, human, Trevelyan, sided with mages, took the Wardens in, did NOT drink from the Well, Leliana (softened) is the Divine and last we checked Briala was pulling the threads of the Orlesian throne. Kinara herself is married to Sera and I am flinching in advance awaiting the inevitable explanation on why they are separated when Inky appears in the game (as was with Hawke and their LI previously).

She also kept the Inquisition going and swore to stop Solas by any means instead of trying to change his mind so uuuh yeah Varric does not act with her authority there. Curious to see how THAT plays out.

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

I have a thought, although we'll see if I'll run with it. Way back when I was playing the Inquisition for the first time, at some point I conjured a non-Inq OC who was a dwarf pirate, which would nicely translate into a Lord of Fortune backstory. She wasn't especially detailed (or I do not remember), so she could be a nice jumping point for the Rook.

That said, I would need to rethink her design a bit, 'cause she suffered from the same careless choices Kinara did - and I know better now!

But also I may open the CC, say "Woooow" and hard pivot in some other direction entirely, who knows. This is the only thought I have by now.

I am thinking dwarf either way, though, to break the elf-human-human line a bit. And most likely a two-hander warrior, my beloved. Hopefully the swords stopped clipping through the ground on short MCs...

The first mission should look fun btw. Snow White and seven dwarves are out, Neve and three dwarves are in!

[manystarredface]

Rambling Thoughts on the end of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, spoilers below

I think it's hysterical that Solas had to be convinced NOT to tear open the Veil by two ex-girlfriends and a kid he backstabbed TWICE. I would have liked a harsher tone a little bit from Lavellan, but that doesn't play into 1) the themes of Regret and Forgiveness of the game and 2) Solas likely wouldn't have heard her if she'd been harsh about the whole thing. I liked their ending.

I loved the way they played more into the cunning aspect of Solas in DATV rather than the knowledgeable aspect from DAI. I romanced him in my only true playthrough of DAI (i don't think i ever finished the other runs), so while he was a little cheeky and did lie about the big stuff or omitted it, I don't remember any out-and-out manipulations or word play in DAI that were at all like in DATV.

I WISH my Rook could have laughed in his face when she waltzed into the cutscene with him in Minrathous!! XD

I thought that manipulation of Rook was fantastic and a good character moment. I also loved that he very specifically swore that the veil would not be opened by his hand and then gave us the Final Quest "you're the only one who can save us" bullshit by saying "the final blow must be dealt by you." I wish Rook could have laughed in a "this fucking guy!" way when Bellara revealed the consequences of killing Elgarnan.

Because then, yeah, Solas may have been a little truthful when saying "shit Rook, I made a mistake, I can't defeat him as I am" because he really is going into the fight with NOTHING and NO ONE and he probably realized "ah, I do not have the support I once had in the first fight, this was a bad call," BUT I think he was mostly just manipulating Rook again. He wanted to set her up as the fall guy so he could say "I didn't really betray you. I told you that it wouldn't be by my hand and it wasn't."

The game did a great job of making it feel like I'd chosen "the" combination of characteristics for my Rook. She was an elvhen Mourn Watcher, so she was connected to the issue through her heritage and her job/skills. I'd be interested in trying a different combination to see if it fits just as well (based on some posts I've seen, it sounds like they do a pretty good job of it).

There was one post that pointed out how wild all the Fade Physical Walking was and I'm going to chock that up to us only being in Ferelden in DAO where it's established to be a bad thing and the kingdom mostly being hyper conservative when it comes to magic. I'd be interested to know if the Mourn Watchers move regularly between the Fade and back, given their jobs.

I worry a little bit about the future game, given the power creep of the whole series. We're at God Level enemies who destroyed most of Southern Thedas with the Blight and took out a LOT of northern Thedas with the Blight, too. The road to recovery may mean the formation of new kingdoms, I'd imagine, especially since Denerim was overrun completely and, I think, so was Redcliffe, which were the primary spots of power. Orlais might make its way out of the apocalypse, but I don't see how Ferelden does.

My next play through is going to have Solas redeemed again and my Lavellan show up again, but I'm going to swap around who lives and who dies in the Harding side of things. I'm glad she passed on some of what she knew to the Kal-Sharok dwarves. :( I didn't expect her to get wiped out like that, but maybe she returned to the stone and we haven't seen the complete last of her in some form or another?

[ryniadora]

So I finished Veilguard.

As a game, about a 6/10. As a DA game, about a 3/10.

First and foremost, it runs like absolute dogshit. Now this may be on me because it warned me not to install in on my HDD but I thought it'd be fine ... nope. Constant popin, having to wait minutes at at time for quest objectives to spawn, quests breaking because certain NPCs didn't spawn/I accidentally moved over the trigger too fast ... oh and every now and again when I load a save my character returns to default. I could handle the long loading screens but UGHHH.

I love Lucanis with my entire chest but the romance feels so unearned because you can never just talk to him, get to know him outside of heavily scripted scenes. Well-written as they are, it's just not enough and it makes the entire thing feel ... not real? He makes you a dessert (cute af by the way 10/10) and then ... everyone starts saying you're a thing??? And I'm like ARE WE??? Then suddenly he busts into your room and is all lovey dovey and adorable and it's just ?????????

Looking forward to writing it though.

Gameplay is meh, but I expected that. Played on baby mode and basically stomped everything, had to actively stop DPSing to hear all the dialogue sometimes xD Mage was frustrating as you'd get stunlocked all the time, though that may be a skill issue.

Main story was OK. Very much too focused on certain people who shall not be named, but it was okie. Please let the inquisitor hug egg, he needs a hug.

Companions were very disappointing. I went in expecting to love Davrin, but found him very boring. Bellara was too "look at me, I'm SO QWERKY". I never liked Harding much so was meh. Neve I expected to like but went cold on relatively quickly. Taash pissed me off from the get-go, and I got bored of their shit real fast.

Emmerich, though. I went into the thing fully expecting to LOATHE him, but he turned out not to be a snarky rat man but a very nice, sweet college professor and I was actually very tempted to romance him. May well do so on a second playthrough.

Side stories varied in quality wildly, and a lot of it felt like it was written with entirely different games in mind.

Definitely not enough Dorian, and too much Isabela.

But the most egregious crime is that nothing matters. Nothing we did in the previous games mattered except "what was your inquisitor's relationship to Solas?". It even let me pick who she romanced but it didn't matter, even when Dorian teased her about it in one throwaway line there were no names mentioned, not even a mention of her GOING HOME TO HER HUSBAND DORIAN PLS. I feel that choice is there just to ferret out the Solavellans ...

Where is Hawke? Where is the Hero of Ferelden during this crisis? You can't even choose who the Divine is, and it seems to default to it being Divine Victoria based on some Harding dialogue.

Fenris was lurking around Tevinter being a menace, where the fuck was he? I was holding on to hope I'd see my husband =(

Also I was proud of myself for only getting one person killed through the whole thing (sorry Harding I couldn't risk Assan's neck, he is best boy) on my first try. I feel like it's possible to get everyone through? Maybe? Difficult to say.

Overall I had a good time but it didn't feel like what we'd been waiting 10 years for. They threw out most of the established world building and just kind of winged it.