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felassan · 2 months ago

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard art book pages, under a cut due to spoilers:

Scoundrels The scoundrels were an idea to add unique encounters to spice up combat and imply narrative depth. These would be like Batman B villains that cross your path, mess with you, and then run off to bother you another day. The main criteria was that they should be built using existing assets (some of the most rewarding work happens within extreme limitations). Right: The stalker that will never die (returned from Origins). Center: The hardest part about designing scoundrels is knowing you won't be able to build them all (yet). We liked the idea of them joining forces and creating an "anti-party: a group that could specifically counter each of your followers. Illustration labels: The Mouse, Stalker, Son of Sky Watcher, The Blacksmith, The Blood Witch, The Golden Mercenary, The Professor, The Librarian, The Beast, The Owl Gang, The Fox, The Fist, The Librarian, The Dove, The Spectre, The Champion, The Duelist, The Hunter

Illustration labels: The Lava Queen, The Artifact, The Interogator, The Flame, The Black Dragon, The Cartographer, The Marshal, The Blackbird, The Faithless, The Deadly Stillness, The Prince, Madam Venatori, Prof. Skeleton, The Swarm, The Beyondernaught, The Bank, Mournwatch Soldier, Poltergeist, Necroknight

Top: Scoundrels were originally proposed as a replacement for the Inquisitor's judgement scenes. After defeating a scoundrel, you would have a choice about how to deal with them. Bottom: If you killed a scoundrel, you could take their weapons and costume (no matter how outlandish). Or you could spare their life and call on them for a favor later on down the road.

The scoundrels also offered the opportunity to give more faces to the various regions and factions of Thedas. Tevinter libraries may be vast, but how much more vast do they seem if they produce a scoundrel like "the Librarian"?

Bellara Bellara is a Dalish technomancer. When the elven gods emerged, the blighted energy that they brought caused previously dormant elven artifacts to come to life, and Bellara focused her energy on learning how they worked for the benefit of both her fellow Dalish elves and her teammates. Top right: The first sketches of Bellara started with the description of "Jules Verne dork". Center left: She's very intense. She tries to be focused - but attempts too many things at once and ends up getting overwhelmed and not doing any of them, which makes her feel guilty. She then compensates by taking on too much once again. Center right: The rings on Bellara's gauntlet rotate and then lock in place. Bottom left: Bellara's gauntlet allows her to interact with ancient elven technology. ^ Illustration annotations: Moving/semiliquid mirror particles, Also portal for shards, Eluvian map

Top: We designed her to look like the elven version of an academic doing research in the field. Semiformal but simple elven clothing, with every piece of gear she thinks she might need, as well as room to store any fascinating specimens. Center: She likely will never unfold her eluvian map in-game, but we know it's there. Bottom: An unused endgame appearance: Bellara as the new icon of the splendor of the ancient elven empire.

Left: Bellara's space is mostly a workshop where she can continue her research. It's full of ancient elven artifacts, Veil Jumper tools and furniture, and lots and lots of mirrors. Right: Hanging elven artifacts, a metaphor for the weight of her mission pressing down on her.

Left: Hanging fabric to make it cozier. Right: A mirror with someone frozen in it.

Davrin He's an elf in his early thirties, but not a delicate, refined one. He's a monster slayer, tougher than your usual elf in stature and demeanor. Davrin is a seasoned veteran trying to nurture good in a world that keeps throwing evil at him. There's a confidence in him that comes from knowing he's good at what he does. He broke away from his elven clan in his teens because the insularity stifled him. He wanted adventure. Top right: He actively seeks the challenge of monster hunting to test and better himself, figuring if he can come out of a fight alive, it'll forge some steel in his soul. Center: We tried to find the right balance between his elven past and his Warden present. Center right: A soldier surviving in the wilderness. The armor is lighter but preserves the Warden quality. Many elements of his costume are designed to look like pieces he created or modified for himself out in the field with available materials. Bottom: Fighting Elgar'nan's darkspawn at Weisshaupt.

Assan and his siblings are the first live griffons we've seen in Dragon Age. Much like medieval illustrations of exotic animals, there is a slight disparity between living griffons and their artistic representations.

Top right: Classically, griffons' bodies are based on large cats. The bodies of Thedas's griffons are based more on dogs, specifically Great Danes. Center: Assan was a rare first-draft design. The first image of him was exactly right. Center left: An unused endgame appearance for Davrin with a matching "griffon commander" set for him and Assan, marking him as the head of the newly formed griffon cavalry unit. Bottom right: Each one of Davrin's carvings represents countless hours of tracking, studying, and hunting - a symbol of his accomplishments as he carves his way through the monster world, beast by beast.

Left: Davrin's room was meant to allow for lots of natural light and fresh air (as much as you can get in the Fade). Right: Davrin's area is filled with monster-slaying tools and research, as well as a generous number of perching options for Assan.

Emmrich Emmrich is a professor specializing in death magic, hexes, and necromancy. Despite his mastery of dark arts, Emmrich is a friendly, energetic man who loves company and adventure. Deeply curious about everything, especially magic, he's kept himself active by exploring the dangerous catacombs underneath his city and can more than handle himself in a fight. He's part of the Mourn Watch, an elite group of necromancers who protect the world of the living from occult horrors. Right: Emmrich is a very emotive talker: he gesticulates, underlines points with his hands, etc. His enthusiasm comes through transparently in his body language. Left: For his outfit, we explored a combination of academic, mortician, and conductor.

Left: Emmrich's work encompasses death and grief. He's sensitive to how they leave people vulnerable and in need of compassion and kindness. He has a deep well of both, especially for his friends. Right: A regal-looking lich.

Top left: Emmrich has always had thanatophobia - he is a necromancer afraid to die. Through long study and rituals, he's discovered a way to cheat death by becoming undead himself. Center top: Events of the game force him to choose between this strange immortality and reviving a dear friend. Top right: Emmrich must decide to make peace with dying or seize immortality, but either way he comes to a better relationship with death. Bottom: Manfred's space is ideal for studying death and magic in equal measure.

Top center: Emmrich has a collection of artifacts used to study the esoteric. Top right: Emmrich's Fade telescope. If you dare to look, make sure you're not alone. Center left: A Nevarran teapot that belonged to Emmrich's mother. Center: We gave him "guts" made from useful containers Emmrich might need out in the field. Center right: What can be said about Manfed? He is Emmrich's loyal assistant, mentee, and friend.

Harding The dwarf scout from Dragon Age: Inquisition. The girl next door that develops mysterious, powerful abilities connected to the ancient past of her fellow dwarves. Compassionate and cheerful, she is the heart and conscience of the team. Harding strives to remain true to herself and her humble upbringing even as she is flung into darkness and world-changing threats. Center: Harding is the moral compass of the group. A kind woman, she has an optimistic outlook and views the world and those who live in it as inherently good, even as she faces monstrous evils. She does not view attributes like empathy as weaknesses but strengths. A friend to everyone on the team. Bottom: We tried to make Harding's outfit an evolution of an Inquisition uniform. We imagined her on a mission, waiting for days in a sniper perch, biding her time by embroidering beautiful patterns into her sniper cloak.

Top left: Harding must deal with her newfound Stone-based powers that she inadvertently acquires during an early mission in the game. Top right: Even with her new powers, Harding would still be an archer. It was fun to explore what that might look like. Center left: In the early stages, Harding's Stone powers were more extreme, including her skin transforming during combat. Center left 2: It was challenging to make the stone skin look appealing and not like an infection. Bottom left: Harding has a green thumb. Over the course of the game she transforms a dead space into a lush garden (a feat even more impressive in the Fade). Bottom right: A corrupted red lyrium version.

Lucanis A trained assassin possessed by a demon of spite, Lucanis is constantly battling to control the darkness within himself. He is a black-hat badass who can kill anything. As a member of the Antivan Crows, Lucanis feels a sense of loyalty to his house that goes beyond duty or monetary gain. Family is as ingrained in him as holding a dagger the correct way. Center: Lucanis dresses in the Antivan Crows' interpretation of a simple black suit. Center right: Though a hardened killer, Lucanis is cultured and comfortable in both upper-class and underworld social settings. He studies his enemies, learning and testing their weaknesses before striking. Bottom: Lucanis tries not to sleep, so his room is sparse and brooding.

Center left: A pragmatic and confident gangster with a dry, dark sense of humor. He offers no apologies for being morally gray. Center: Calculated and ruthless, he fights with an effortless grace that comes from years of training and experience. Center right: He is an executioner who always gets his mark.

Neve Magical noir detective in the big city. She cares more about everyday people with "right-now problems" than the big picture. Word spread through Minrathous that she'd help people both on and off the record, so she works whatever cases come her way that are worth taking. Her motto: she takes a job, she finishes it, she walks away... If only things were ever that simple. Her fighting style is low, broad, staccato, and effortless. Center: We found consultations with amputees to be very valuable in helping us design not only a stylish and practical prosthetic for Neve, but also the accompanying accessories. Center left: Her ascot is designed to evoke a pit of snakes. Bottom right: The dark elements on her shoulders are based on shoulder holsters.

Top: Neve's outfit is a mix of detective and femme fatale. Center left: As mentioned earlier, Neve's place on the team was originally occupied by the returning villain Calpernia from Inquisition. After the decision to create a new character, the first versions of Neve's design were "Calpernia as a detective". Center right: A cynic with a heart of gold, Neve is clever, driven, and guarded. She has a dry but playful sense of humor. Beneath her nonchalant attitude is someone who cares about what they do and wishes things were better. She can act comfortable in upper-class situations, but she's known to be an outsider, and she's truly in her element in Minrathous's less-rich neighborhoods. Bottom right: Meeting with consultants changed everything about how we designed her prosthetics and equipment. The first impulse was to make something flashy and multipurpose. Instead, we chose not to draw too much attention to it, lest it distract from her character.

Top: Another lesson we learned from the consultants was to not make her prosthetic central. It's off to the side, just a normal part of her day. Bottom: Neve's desk. Humble by Tevinter standards and marked with serpent imagery.

Center: Neve's room is the cassic gumshoe film noir office, with moody lighting and a wall of evidence that grows throughout the game.

Taash As someone who grew up in the free-spirited, multicultural country of Rivain but was raised to respect the Qunari heritage, Taash is a dragon-hunter who walks in two worlds. Top left: Taash can breathe fire thanks to remnants of Qunari dragon blood. Top right: With Taash we tried to find a good balance between Qunari heritage (rope, dragon skin) and Lords of Fortune allegiance (coins, jewelry).

Top left: Taash's idle pose was drawn to give the impression of a fighter after a match. Top right: Taash understands dragons on an instinctual level and hunts and kills any that are a danger to people. Taash is a part of the Lords of Fortune faction, adventurers who seek dragons worth slaying and treasure worth taking. A pair of axes and light armor allow for quick movement - and even getting onto the backs of large enemies.

Getting the Gang Together The characters were largely approved, and this was the first time we saw them all assembled.

Varric It's a joy to revisit characters. It's a great opportunity to visually tell the story of all the years we've missed. Varric is older, a little scruffier, maybe preferring comfort to style as his adventuring days near their end. He's also let go of some of his old priorities, not needing to be flashy, not as concerned about keeping his beard short. We also decided to go with a darker and more washed-out color palette, for reasons that people who have played through the game will understand. Top left: Varric spends the majority of the game bedridden, so we wanted to make the severity of his injuries visible. ^ Illustration annotations: back, front Top right: It's not just Varric that has been on a journey. We wanted to show that Bianca had been well loved over the past decade. Bottom left illustration annotations: Custom-engraved metal plate. Swappable lens. Gem affects abilities. Bianca's scarf. Retractable; see rail on original. Engraved. Rear. Stock made from ancient myrtle tree. Finish is black with hints of blond patterns. Edges line in ivory, while ornate designs are metal. Bottom right: An ancient elven room converted into an infirmary, where Rook recovers.

Solas While known as Solas in present-day Thedas, he was once known as Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf, the elven god of betrayal. In ancient times, he rebelled against the other gods, the Evanuris, and sealed them away from the living world, behind the Veil. Solas's true identity remained hidden from the world through the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition and was revealed in the Trespasser DLC. During that time, he was an Inquisition follower masquerading as a simple hedge mage. Top left: Solas's outfit is designed to represent that he has stopped hiding. He is committed to his path, and so he returns to dressing like he did in the old days. Right: The central MacGuffin of the game is Solas's lyrium dagger. Originally it was hidden away in the idol from Dragon Age II. Bottom left: One of the palettes Solas used when painting one of his many historical and confessional murals. Bottom center: Most of the elven gods had dragons. Ever the outsider, Solas instead embraced the Dread Wolf nickname on a grand scale. This creature was based on one of Solas's cards from Inquisition.

some other pages -

Some opening pages

Foreword

Google Books preview pages Part One

Google Books preview pages Part Two

Amazon preview pages

Page batch

Page batch 2

Book art credits:

BioWare art: Matt Rhodes, Ramil Sunga, Albert Urmanov, Christopher Scoles, Nick Thornborrow, Steve Klit

Volta art: Gui Guimaraes, Stéphanie Bouchard, Akim Kaliberda, Alejandro Olmedo, Alexey Zaryuta, Julien Carrasco, Maksim Marenkov, Marianne Martin, Mariia Istomina, Marion Kivits, Matti Marttinen, Mélanie Bourgeois, Pablo Hurtado De Mendoza, Rael Lyra, Rodrigo Ramos, Thomas Schaffer, Tiago Sousa, Tristan Kang, Vladimir Mokry, Yintion J, Joseph Meehan, Stefan Atanasov, Julien Carrasco

Additional art: Marc Holmes, Thomas Scholes

#dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age the veilguard spoilers #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #solas #injury cw #blood cw

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tigersharktheautisticseawing · 8 months ago

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WAIT GUYS FUCK I GOTTA TALK ABOUT THIS OR I'LL FUCKING DIE

(spoiler alert: this somehow grew from five talking point to almost 2000 words of Bad Trip symbolism, so buckle up, buttercup, cuz we goin' for a wild ride)

So, I'm rewatching Truth Seekers with a friend, and Moxie's Bad Trip and Blitzø's Bad Trip, and I just noticed some things (this is gonna be heavily Blitzø centered, so prepare for that)

Moxie's Bad Trip

In this, I specifically want to point to four things

So Blitz is very accurate throughout Moxxie's whole segment (read his pegging comments and "Because you my precious little bitchboy are tripping balls!"), but I want to point to one moment specifically

At 10:09 Moxie says

"Cause you're thoughtless and cruel and you'll end up alone!"

And at that point, at exactly 10:11, Blitz makes this face

Up until this point and from this point onward his eye on the mask part of his face is glowing red and undetailed, pupil not visible

This singular frame shows exactly how deep Moxxie hit Blitz with that comment, and foreshadows the fact that he has a massive phobia/obsession on the whole "dying alone" thing. Like, I want to scream, this is so beautifully done. Whoever thought of this frame in this context has my fullest respect

The second thing is what Moxxie says just before the first part of Blitzø's Bad Trip

At 9:02 Moxxie says

"Cause if you're here causing frustration, I'm torturing you in your hallucination!"

Now let's take a look "causing frustration" and "torturing you", because that's exactly what's happening here

In Moxxie's Bad Trip, the worst Blitzø does is call him a bitch/bitchboy and making some comments about the whole M&M pegging thing, but that's about it. It's mostly Moxxie screaming at Blitz and singing with him about becoming better

In Blitzø's Bad Trip, Moxxie brings up Blitz's worst insecurities, calls him basically stupid once, and kinda just rants what Blitz thinks about him

So the words "frustration" and "torturing" definitely fit the respective songs

The third thing is that the mask replaces Blitzø's scar

Under that mask Blitz has a completely normal and unscarred face

Meaning that Moxxie's subconscious straight up erased the physical embodiment of Blitzø's most major trauma and replaced it with a mask, of all things

I saw a theory on here, concerning the people at the Blitzø hate party, that the fact that the Blitzø cake is unscarred means that Blitz hid the vulnerable side of his and showed it off as "tough guy scars", so they stripped him of it as a "fuq u ur not tough", when meanwhile it's exactly what Blitzø would want happening, his scars just straight up disappearing one day.

Well, I think the same happened to Moxxie

I think he doesn't see the scar as a sign of vulnerability and/or physical embodiment of his worst mistake that caused his trauma, but as a tough-guy mask, designed to make him not have to talk about his feelings

(If you think something else's going on here, do tell! I just realised that last one while writing this and I find it very interesting)

And, lastly, Blitz's short line just before the one I talked about in point 1

Aka:

"I don't know, eventually everyone goes"

It feels really self aware of Blitz, but this isn't Blitz, this is Moxxie

So Moxxie, consciously or not, realised that Blitz pushes people away with his behaviour and that it's a genuine problem, but didn't realise the whole scar thing

So I wonder what exactly is Moxxie's image of Blitz. Like, considering what we know that Moxxie knows, he seems to have some elements of the puzzle but not the whole picture, and assumed incorrectly what the full picture is

2.Blitzø's bad trip

Now, here we begin the absolute fucking masterpiece that is the symbolism in this one

For one, let's talk about the spectre's voices

Moxxie and Stolas's voices are pretty on-point, at least to me, and we'll later touch on why I think that's the case, but let's talk about Bad Trip!Verosika, Striker and Fizz first

All three of them don't sound like normal

Instead, they sound like Blitz trying to make their voices

Striker's has an obvious tinge of Brandon Rogers in it, honestly it sound more like Blitz than Striker, as if Blitz hadn't really memorised his voice that well

Fizz's is, in my opinion, more well-balanced. I can hear a bit of Alex Brightman in it but also quite a lot of Blitz

Lastly, we have Verosika. She sound a lot like Blitz, but her manner of speaking is purely Verosika, which imo makes this the most accurate one.

Now, what does the Blitzø-voice mean?

Well, it all has a very specific motif

It's things that Blitz would say as a form of self-hatred

Think about it

"I don't need you, I can do this shit on my own so easily!" "But you don't want to do things alone Blitzo!"

"You tried the solo act, but it didn't work out so well!"

"Yet you still shove away anyone who gets too close until they resent you for being a selfish, shit spittin' snob!"

(the bold parts are the hallucinations, the red is Blitz)

Now, the things they said are very much the stuff Blitz would hate in himself. The fact that he wants someone to care for him, the fact that he can't do what he wants alone even though he tried, and, of course, his inability to get vulnerable with anyone causing him to push people he cares about away until they hate him.

So, I think that these are the thoughts that plague Blitz's brain daily, his self hatred, but it chose to talk through the mouths of the people most affected by said flaw

Striker was literally invited to join IMP. That proves that Blitz didn't want to do this stuff alone

Fizzarolli was his duo act for a while, and his robo version saw him trying the solo act, so it makes sense for him to say, that, on top of the circus vocabulary

Verosika is pretty self-explanatory. He shoved her away when she tried to be vulnerable with him, and she now resents him

So, now that we have that outta the way, let's talk about Moxxie and Stolas

Moxxie does a lot of rambling, but he also roasts him pretty bad

"I simply follow your orders! It's not my fault that your orders are as nonsensical as a suntanning bed left out on the cold rainy porch of a fresh April shower"

"Perhaps you should crack open a dictionary sometimes"

"Admit it, my dear boss. You don't know what you're doing half the time, and you depend on me and the missus to manage your foolish flights of fancy"

"I believe your subconscious is trying to tell you that you simply cannot fathom proper intimacy, but also crave it as well. It’s rather unfortunate sir, considering it’s often how you treat those who stand by you, such as myself"

"Are you worried I might have enough of it one day as well?"

But he also says some rather self-deprecating stuff that he wouldn't say in real life

"And then maybe you can understand half of the frivolous things I carry on and on about on my many rants about upbringings"

So, I think that this is Blitz's opinion of Moxxie. Now, why do he and Stolas keep their normal voices?

Well, I think that it's because, in Truthseekers, they both didn't hate him yet

That wasn't his self-hatred speaking

That wasn't him speaking

Well, at least in Stolas's case

In my opinion Moxxie's voice is altered for one of two reasons

• Moxxie is literally right next to him and high with him, so his voice is fresh in his mind

Not fun, kinda boring, but reasonable

• He hasn't fucked up with Moxxie yet, so his subconscious hasn't created lines that would be repeated so much in his mind that his voice slowly seeps into them

Very fun, also very reasonable

And that second reason is what I think happened in Stolas's case too. His voice is kinda flirty/condescending because that's the Stolas Truthseekers!Blitzø knows. He doesn't know his personality yet. For now he's just a rich, blue-blooded asshole he fucks once a month.

Now, another thing, Blitzø's outfit

He's dressed like a clown here, specifically he looks kinda like in the Loo Loo Land flashback

And his outfit changes when he gets dragged around in chains by Stolas

So this (I think), symbolizes one of three things:

• He fucked up relationships with people in the past

This is his past outfit, so it obviously has something to do with his past, and this is a pretty sound theory, but Striker kinda makes it fall apart

• The people he fucked up relationships with see the past version of him

A bit better, and pretty good overall

• This is himself at the worst point in his life in that outfit he wore in the past

Yeah, his self hatred would *absolutely* exploit him like that, plus he kinda hated himself at that time, so bonus points!!!

Now, the fucking marks on his face

For one, his usual tattoo that looks kinda like an imp/succubus got replaced by a broken heart both in Blitzø and Moxxie's Bad Trips, but in Blitzø's bad Trip at one point the heart (and his outfit) get replaced by his normal self

When does this happen?

When he's near Stolas

I think this symbolizes how Stolas heals his heart and fixes it, as well as how he sees him for his present instead of his past, which is very sad considering *couch cough* the last two episodes *cough cough*

Now, the tear

The fucking tear

If it was on both sides of his face, this would be maybe about how sad he is

But, it's only on the white side

Only on the scar

So I think this is sort of an opposite to what happened with the scar in Moxxie's Bad Trip

Moxxie's subconscious got rid of the scar and replaced it with a mask, since Moxxie thinks of it as a sort of Tough Guy Personality™ thing

Meanwhile Blitzø's subconscious recognized the scar as a physical reminder of his emotional pain and added a tear, a single tear, that can mean that the scar is something left of a time of sadness and grief, a time of tears

Another thing is that the imps fanning Stolas with those big-ass fans are actually Blitzø's but completely black

So that's Blitz's subconscious telling him that he will end up serving Stolas/is already doing that/is under him, while also trying to tell him that he loves the bird

Also, how the mud on the golden stairs disappears after feathers touch it Again, just like with the heart thing, I believe it's another part of the whole "Stolas heals you" symbolism thingy

Also, notice how he turns from Past!Blitzø to normal Blitzø gradually, and the closer to Stolas he gets the more normal he gets

So I actually just realised that and I'm pretty sure it's part of the whole thing I mention in the (hopefully) las paragraph of this post

And, lastly, how he gets covered up in golden feathers at the end there? I think it's some part of him trying to say "You're gonna end up trapped, tied down, unable to escape, so escape NOW"

So yeah, now I'm interpreting Blitzø's Bad Trip as two parts of his subconscious fighting, with the dead dog of the matter being "Should we trust Stolas?"

(Yes, it did turn really Stolitz in the end there huh? Now I gotta add the tags!)

#helluva boss #helluva blitzo #helluva analisys #helluva deep dive #helluva boss truthseekers #Moxxie's bad trip #blitzø #blitzo #helluva boss blitz #helluva blitz #this is way too long #But this is so much symbolism crammed into one #perfect song #(technically two but we won't adress it)#stolitz

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