#tales of thedas

[weirdlookindog]

Hugh Rankin - The House of the Golden Eyes

(Weird Tales - September 1930)

[nimthirielrinon]

Chapter 15 of Dania’s Tale is up!

They found the tavern, which was also full to near bursting. They managed to nab a small table and three stools eventually, and while there was no food to be bought, there was watered-down beer. Alistair nursed his, though he barely seemed aware that it was allegedly for drinking, while Dania sipped hers and made a face each time she tasted it. Morrigan refused to have any.

[sanctamater]

so i will say in my dragon a.ge verse amelia did not have a... smooth transition between kirkwall and joining the inquisition as its arm's master. amelia's role in the kirkwall rebellion and the events leading up to it was obviously not an innocent one. she profited greatly off of meredith's paranoias and thoughts of conspiracy and essentially functioned as a war profiteer ( lore accurate amelia trait ) while selling arms to the templars and allowing them to stockpile all manner of weapons.

in all likelihood, amelia would be facing some trial in the aftermath for her involvement in the rebellion. not only did she profit off of it, she ( at least in @ idolbound and i's verse ) would have aided meredith in the lead up to the rebellion ( notation, filing, wanted lists - writing and copying when meredith was too exhausted to ) and would have likely been made to pay reparations to the city of kirkwall to aid in its reconstruction.

[john-marstn]

"Did Varric just become stupid in Veilguard, that he'd walk up to Solas like that?"

No, I just think he knew. He's a 50-something year old rogue; he's lived in a sketchy tavern, fought all sorts of monsters, demons and abominations, witnessed all kinds of betrayal. He's seen it all, from Kirkwall to Ferelden and now Tevinter...you can't convince me he wasn't aware of what would most likely await him at the top of those stairs.

He knew, but he was tired. After losing Bartrand, Kirkwall, possibly Hawke—being away from all his friends, who ended up dispersing all over Thedas—after years of living with his regrets about the Deep Roads, about lyrium, about Bianca—about Anders, whom he couldn't save. A friend whose mind he could not change, a haunting tale now mirrored in his elven companion.

What is there left for Varric Tethras? A broken city to govern, occasional letters from friends. Maybe, but he's so tired. So tired that his well-groomed stubble has now turned into a full bush across his sunken cheeks. His flashy earrings gone, his flamboyant chain and tunic replaced by a more sober outfit, now drained of the fiery, warm colours that used to adorn his wardrobe, his hair, his eyes. Almost in greyscale now, it'd be hard to know it's Varric if it wasn't for his steady sarcastic remarks.

No, Varric was not stupid. Not in 2, not in Inquisition, definitely not in Veilguard. He was just tired, and probably figured if it was time to go, the best way to do so would be to try and redeem himself for all his perceived past failures. A domino of disastrous events started by a lyrium instrument which caused the downfall of a Tethras, ending the same exact way—except this time, it's one last sacrifice to try and break the cycle, to try and save a friend.

[nadas-dirthalen]

Dragon Age: the Veilguard Was Packed with Lore — But Many of Us Overlooked It

— PART ONE — [ 2 ]

Welcome back, friends and travellers. If you've been here a while, you'll know that I wrote 30,000 words of predictions in the week and a half before DA:tV released. But here's the most surprising thing—I was right, for the most part.

I spent my first Veilguard playthrough grinning (and then sobbing) at all the lore reveals. And here's the thing: I think most of us missed a lot of them, including even me.

So let's begin with...

Titans: Dark and Light, Compassion and Rage, the Eternal Hymn and its Endless Listeners (1/2)

This is your warning: This post will contain spoilers for the entirety of Dragon Age: the Veilguard, and all Dragon Age content made before Veilguard.

Alright, pals. If you've been here a while, you know how this goes. I always start by listing what we're going to cover, like anyone who's never fully recovered from academia.

Today's Discussion:

What Veilguard (Re)Taught Us about the Titans

The Titans the first Shapers of the known world.

The Titans are beings of the Abyss.

The Titans are sleeping, dormant—but alive.

Dwarves are the Titans' children, created to tend them.

The Evanuris mined the Titans' bodies to create people.

The Titans—the Earth—fought back.

What Veilguard (Re)Taught Us about the Titans

The best thing about Dragon Age, as someone who loves the series to death, is that its worldbuilding is consistent, but also bears the unique quality that we, as players, are not aware of it all. Our protagonists in each game don't know everything; the people they learn from also don't know everything. We learn what we can through codices that are all biased and need an extra layer of decoding. This is a feature, not a bug.

It also means that we did not know how to understand the Titans before. Even my 30,000 words of theorycrafting, especially my piece all about the Titans, had elements of speculation. I had to check that speculation against other sources like the Chant of Light, which is a source that we REALLY did not know how to decode when it was revealed piece by piece in DAO, DA2, World of Thedas, and Inquisition.

Here, I'm going to break it all down, piece by piece.

The Titans were the first Shapers of the (known) world.

It is said in the Descent DLC that Titans are enormous beings whose singing shapes the world. Their existence predates much of Thedas, if not all of it. The Titans are called the first Shapers for this reason, and in Veilguard it is restated several times over that they did, indeed, shape the world—for instance, by Cole in Inquisition.

"Their ancient shapers were mountains drawn of all their wills, walking their memories into valleys of the world." —Cole dialogue.

Inquisition told us so much more about the Titans than just that, though. The Titans have a realm all their own, a counterpart to the Fade, mentioned over and again in the Chant of Light and referenced as a quest name in Inquisition.

Here lies the abyss: the well of all souls.

The Titans are beings of the Abyss.

Now, it's important that I mention right here that the Chant of Light has existed long before Inquisition. In fact, its tale is what opens DA:O as the game begins. Recently Eurogamer stated that BioWare has had a massive lore document for the 20+ years of its existence, and I believe that there is no truer example of this than in the Chant of Light itself.

The Abyss, for a long time, was a mystery to us. Inquisition cleared it up a lot—not only with its game content, but with World of Thedas' publication shortly thereafter.

Not only is the Abyss referred to in many elven codices, but we go there. The key locations of the Descent DLC—the Forgotten Caverns, Bastion of the Pure, and the Wellspring—are in a region called the Uncharted Abyss.

Now, with Harding, we go deeper into the Deep Roads than the average dweller. The same is true in that instance: venture down far enough, and we reach a Titan's heart.

We find a Titan's heart there. But the Titan does not wake—none have before DA:tV, and even then, they have not fully woken. Because, for as long as we have known...

The Titans are sleeping, dormant—but alive.

"It's singing. A they that's an it that's asleep, but still making music." — Cole dialogue.

There is so much Cole dialogue in Inquisition that speaks on the sleeping Titans, on their old songs that once sang the same, on how they will never wake up, that it would be folly to try and post every codex here. Suffice it to say: Cole knows of the Titans, knows of their songs, and knows they are asleep. He is one of the pathways to our knowledge of the Titans in Inquisition, and his words are peppered throughout the game.

The Chant of Light also makes reference to a mountainous Maker, who oft speaks about a forgotten mountain. When Andraste meets the Maker "in darkness unbroken," specifically, these words are used:

The Maker Appears to Andraste (7) Eyes sorrow-blinded, in darkness unbroken There 'pon the mountain, a voice answered my call. "Heart that is broken, beats still unceasing, An ocean of sorrow does nobody drown. — Andraste 1:7

Heart that is broken, beats still unceasing — a being who has been broken, but whose heart still beats. We can hear that, in the Descent DLC.

Veilguard confirms that both sources are true through Harding, her personal quest, and the codices for the Dwarven people.

Records that exist outside of Orzammar mention "great sleeping Titans" and "the First Ancestors." — Codex Entry: Harding's Notes: Orzammar and Titans

Harding's experiences in Veilguard, in this way, serve to prove Cole right. That is a deliberate narrative choice: BioWare's way of saying, Yes, this is true. Yes, you should take Cole's take on Titans as correct.

We also know, from Cole, that this state of being is permanent. Not only are the Titans asleep, but they don't know how to wake.

Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can't remember how. No one should be here. — Cole dialogue.

This becomes crucial information in Veilguard, and central to the main plot. It serves as the backdrop for what actually matters most to the characters living in Thedas right now, which is...

Dwarves are the Titans' children, created to tend them.

By now, a lot of people have seen this reveal in the art book: the dwarves were created to tend to their Titan hosts/makers. But we knew this before—we just didn't know it in context, and therefore we did not believe it to be objectively true of Thedas.

In truth, we've known about the elves and the dwarves' origin since the Chant of Light came out in full with World of Thedas volume 2.

At last did the Maker From the living world Make men. Immutable, as the substance of the earth, With souls made of dream and idea, hope and fear, Endless possibilities. — Threnodies 5:5

I talk about it in more depth in my Chant of Light dissection, but what this verse says in context is that the dwarves (the Maker's second children) are beings crafted by the maker: bodies made of lyrium, souls made of the same "dream and idea, hope and fear" as the original spirits.

This concept has already been massively hinted toward with both Valta (who has become The Oracle in DA:tV) and Dagna, who both connect to isatunoll during Descent and Inquisition's base game, respectively.

We've known about the Evanuris' horrible crimes since before Inquisition, as well, for the same reason and from the same verses in the Chant of Light.

Until, at last, some of the firstborn said: "Our Father has abandoned us for these lesser things. We have power over heaven. Let us rule over earth as well And become greater gods than our Father." (8) The demons appeared to the children of earth in dreams And named themselves gods, demanding fealty. — Threnodies 5

With the context given to us by Trespasser and Veilguard, we know without a doubt that the Evanuris are those "jealous spirits" that comprise the Maker's first children.

And just like the Chant describes, they sought to conquer the earth: the realm of the Titans.

The Evanuris mined the Titans' bodies to create people.

Trespasser taught us so much of what we needed to know about the Evanuris' and Titans' conflicts. Its codices in the Deep Roads outline how it was Mythal, specifically, creating some of the first elves in the coffins found in that zone. The Temple of Solasan features coffins of the exact same kind.

Ir sa tel'nal Mythal las ma theneras Ir san'a emma Him solas evanuris Da'durgen'lin Banal malas elgara Bellanaris, bellanaris. — Codex: Torn Notebook in the Deep Roads, Section 3

My (updated) translation: Isatunoll Mythal gives you dreams Lyrium within Becomes Solas evanuris Little stone boy You give nothing to the Titan (anymore) Forever, forever.

Trespasser reveals that Mythal mined the bodies of slain titans and rendered their demesne unto the People: she conquered Titans and used their bodies for her own ends. The hints about these actions, however, are not exclusive to Trespasser, nor to Solasan. These seeds were planted all the way back at the Temple of Mythal.

Elgar'nan, Wrath and Thunder, Give us glory. Give us victory, over the Earth that shakes our cities. Strike the usurpers with your lightning. Burn the ground under your gaze. Bring Winged Death against those who throw down our work. Elgar'nan, help us tame the land.

This codex to Elgar'nan makes reference to Elgar'nan giving victory over the Earth (capital-E, the Titans). Trespasser would follow this up with much context—that it was Mythal who was first known to have slain Titans, "rendering their demesne unto the People."

I theorized that Mythal's mining of Titans for lyrium to make elvhen bodies was what angered the Titans, based on codices in Trespasser and the Temple of Solasan. (I go into much more depth there!) Veilguard confirms this theory in Solas' Memory #4: A Memory of Manifestation.

Solas: I have the Fade. Besides, this talk of taking on a solid form. When you took the glowing stone to build your body, did the earth not shake? Mythal: The lyrium gives us the strength we had when we were of the Fade. We are the best of physical and spirit.

Mythal's crime was what took the war with the Titans in a new, darker direction. It was what would set off the chain of events that would change the very nature of the world—and it was foreshadowed, back in Inquisition, by Cole.

The Titans—the Earth—fought back.

"They made bodies from the earth, and the earth was afraid. It fought back, but they made it forget." — Cole dialogue.

In this post, I theorized that it was Solas' creation itself that caused the first Titan to "go red." That is to say, to change its nature and fight back. I used codices from Trespasser and Solasan to get there, as well as one paragraph from World of Thedas and this codex on Fen'Harel that describe the Forgotten Ones as "beings of terror, malice, spite, and pestilence."

Thinking about those words, and specifically terror, I read the codex in the secret Deep Roads room in Trespasser with fresh perspective.

For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast.

Terror. The first of the turned Titans. The fire/plant/ice imagery also caught my eye, and when I went back to Solasan to check, there were many hints that this was, indeed, where Terror came into being. (For more, go look at the most recently linked post in this section!)

Huge implications for Solas aside, what this codex taught me is that Titans' natures could change. This was confirmed in Veilguard many times over, yes—but my point here is that Inquisition taught this to me, just a few days before I gained the context of Veilguard. This was never a retcon! However, this lore plays exactly to BioWare's rules: we did not have the full context, and so almost no one read that Deep Roads codex as it was meant to be interpreted—including me, the first few times I read it!

It was only when I'd seen the achievement icons before Veilguard's release that it all clicked for me. All of the lore of Inquisition and everything before it made sense. That was never a bug, never a retcon, but a genius twist on BioWare's behalf: one that almost no one guessed at for an entire decade.

One that changes everything.

Titans, we know for certain now, behave as spirits. Obscure hints in World of Thedas, Inquisition, and the previous games have been confirmed in Veilguard. This new understanding changes not just the Titans, not just the dwarves, but reframes everything we know about the entire history of Thedas and how its magic system works.

______

Thank you for reading! It means a lot when people engage with these. And don't worry: I'm not nearly through with them. It's taken me a while to compile everything, but with more of Veilguard added to the wiki every day, it's a lot easier to compile things for these posts!

(Immense thanks to the wiki staff, of course. <3)

Up Next: Titans and Spirits are far more similar than we think, and it means everything.

[felassan]

The Next Dragon Age Has a New Title

by Author - BioWare - Posted on June 6, 2024

"Join us on Tuesday, June 11 for the Official Gameplay Reveal Hi everyone, Summer is nearly upon us, and as promised, we’re ready to provide an update on our big reveal. We’d like to invite the world to join us on Tuesday, June 11, for the official first look at gameplay for the next Dragon Age! After Dragon Age: Inquisition launched, the studio was given an incredible opportunity to explore, test, and validate a variety of gameplay concepts as we worked to determine what the next Dragon Age could look like. We brought everything to the table which, yes, even included a multiplayer concept. The time we spent experimenting and iterating gradually taught us a lot. This work, and the amazing support from EA, helped us re-focus on creating an incredible single player game, with all the choices, characters and world building you’d expect from us. At BioWare, we create worlds of adventure, conflict and companionship, where you’re at the center of it all. As fans of our franchise know, every Dragon Age game has delivered a new standalone story. Set in the world of Thedas, these tales explore epic locales and threats, always thrusting you into a new conflict. Each game also introduces a new lead hero – The Warden, Hawke, The Inquisitor – that you can call your own. You can expect all that, and more, with the new game. And of course, much like your unique hero, it wouldn’t be a Dragon Age game without an amazing cast of companions – right?  Each of the seven unique characters that make up your companions will have deep and compelling storylines where the decisions you make will impact your relationships with them – as well as their lives. You’ll unite this team of unforgettable heroes as you take on a terrifying new threat unleashed on the world. Naturally, the Dread Wolf still has an important part in this tale, but you and your companions – not your enemies – are the heart of this new experience. So, to capture what this game is all about, we changed the name as the original title didn’t show just how strongly we feel about our new heroes, their stories and how you’ll need to bring them together to save all of Thedas. We proudly introduce to you Dragon Age™: The Veilguard.

We know you’ve been waiting a long time for this reveal and we’re so ready to show you what we’ve been up to. We’ll see you on Tuesday, June 11th at 8:00am PT at the Dragon Age YouTube channel with over 15 minutes of gameplay from the opening moments of the game that has you jumping back into Thedas on your new adventure. This moment means so much to everyone at BioWare, and we wouldn’t be here without you. We’re ready to have some fun, so join the chat early…we’ve got a few special surprises for you.  Thank you for all your support. See you soon, Gary McKay Executive Producer, Dragon Age, and General Manager, BioWare"

[source]

[alderaanplacesss]

After the events of Veilguard, Rook and her companions become quite famous over Thedas. They’re spoken about in ways that will one day become lore, like the legend of the Inquisitor and the immortal wolf who loved her.

But they also have lives, and families, and normalcy to return to. And what isn’t as famous at first, is Rook’s sweeping romance that started at The Lighthouse.

It isn’t until she starts showing up at the back of Mourn Watcher lecture halls, or is spotted frequently in Nevarran gardens that people start to gossip.

Rook is hard to miss; the person who fearlessly commanded Elven Gods to stand down definitely has a presence. She doesn’t fit the mold of a student, and she certainly isn’t in need of instruction. No, her sudden and frequent appearances to The Necropolis are for something else entirely. Someone else.

Emmrich does anything but hide it. He’s madly in love with his scandalously younger girlfriend. The professor blushes when students ask him about their epic tale, happy to gush about his beloved Rook. He has a framed portrait of her on his office wall, where he can sometimes be found writing her love letters when she is away. Emmrich escorts her on his arm when they walk through the halls of the college, always making time for her.

One day, the couple is spotted in the cemetery during Emmrich’s lunch break, and Rook is wearing a gorgeous black diamond on her ring finger. The future Mrs. Volkarin, is how he proudly refers to her now. Sometimes it is My beloved fiancee. He can hardly wait for it to be My Darling Wife.

The day they marry, all the wisps in the Necropolis dance and chime so brightly that the dark city is filled with a constellation of spirits. It’s a sight to behold - a rare and beautiful thing that is talked about for years to come.

[kirkwallguy]

if i was alive in thedas during the dragon age i would be there in the trenches calling varric tethras homophobic for the way he wrote anders in tale of the champion

[uchidachi]

See, the thing is, Dragon Age lore has always been given to the player second-hand, complete with the biases, lies, and misunderstandings of whomever is telling the tale. So whatever we have learned through codexes, character interactions, and even supplementary materials like the World of Thedas books come with a certain level of uncertainty that prompts the reader to think “how trustworthy is this source?”

And, most of the time, the answer is “not very trustworthy.”

In Origins we get the character of Brother Genetivi, whose writings are codexes in the following games. He’s a fantasy medieval historian/monk, and his reliability is at about the same level as real world medieval historian/monks. How accurate do you consider the works of the Venerable Bede?

The entire game of Dragon Age 2 is as-told-by Varric Tethras, a known liar, to Seeker of Truth Cassandra, who occasionally calls bullshit when she knows he’s lying. Do we think she was able to find every inaccuracy in his story? Or did some things slip by her?

A main theme of Inquisition is that it doesn’t matter whether the player character believes in the Maker or whether they are truly Andraste’s chosen, history will remember them that way in any case. This is reinforced by the Jaws of Hakkon DLC where you meet the previous Inquisitor, and learn that most of what history has remembered about him is wrong. What other characters have had their stories told by others? What changes would the story-tellers make?

In the Inquisition DLC, Trespasser, the Inquisitor’s former companion, Solas, is revealed to be the ancient elven god of lies & trickery, Fen’Harel. An Inquisitor who romanced him can accuse him of lying to them, to which he replies “only by omission.” Do we think it is possible that he is generalizing, or just lying about whether he was lying, or perhaps only speaking of things he neglected to tell them within the context of their romantic relationship?

Does this one line mean he should be considered a more trustworthy source than any other in the games?

[vigilskeep]

i’m a bit late, but it’s time to talk abt the thedas festival of wintersend!!

this festival is celebrated at the beginning of guardian, which is what the people of thedas call february. (isn’t that a little early for the end of winter? no wonder i missed it! anyway.) back in tevinter’s day, wintersend was called urthalis and dedicated to the old god of beauty, urthemiel. (yes, that’s the archdemon from origins.) these days it’s a celebration of the maker, presumably because when light and warmth returns to the world, you feel like celebrating whoever created it? same reason it’s a good time to celebrate the old god of beauty i suppose

wintersend is celebrated with tourneys and contests all across the continent, from the gladiators in the proving grounds of minrathous to the swordsmen and archers of what are said to be the particularly grand tournaments of nevarra, for which the nobility spares no expense. good day to be a rook mercar or ingellvar, if you’re into that! free marchers never miss an opportunity for that kind of thing either, i’m sure kirkwall puts something on and the champion is the favourite for the win, great day out for the whole party. it’s also said to be a day of gathering for trade or theatre. the trade aspect might be because mountain passes are said to open up as winter eases; the first travelling merchants might arrive, and for templars and mages in circle towers, perhaps the first shipments of lyrium if heavy snows prevented travel from orzammar? i think the theatre aspect is super cute because i bet that ranges all the way from the kind of high standard orlesian drama josie and leliana might attend, to, in smaller towns and villages, the kids preparing all winter to put on a little play. maybe the crows flock to the villa dellamorte’s opera house for some more normal reasons than they do in the game; maybe the inquisition’s soldiers stage a production or amaranthine puts together its best performers for the warden-commander

and my favourite of all: in some areas, wintersend is the day to arrange marriages! if you or your love interest is determined to do things properly, this is the day to take three goats and a sheaf of wheat to someone’s mother

probably because it has a snappy name, this is a festival that gets mentioned on occasion by characters. vivienne talks about wintersend gift lists and met her duke at orlais’ imperial wintersend ball. (dorian asks josie for an invitation to the wintersend ball in lydes—they must be the orlesian tradition for the season.) nadia and elio from the vows & vengeance podcast met at wintersend, too! for a grimmer tale: in the soldier’s peak dlc, you can find a letter about an arl’s entire family killed by a tyrant king whose wintersend spending he criticised. more cheerfully: emmrich’s mother made that nevarran hazelnut torte every wintersend

[corseque]

I wanted to make a last-minute prediction post based on what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t looked at new Dragon Age news for the past couple (3? 4?) weeks, and I know I’m (on purpose to avoid spoilers) missing some (probably a lot of) details that other people already know. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. So if I’m already right or wrong about something,

PLEASE please DON’T TELL ME.

You can come back in a month and tell me THEN. It’s just one more month to wait.

Also, this is just for fun, and it’s not serious. It’s based on vibes and also based on what I would write myself. I have developed a surprisingly specific image of what might happen to Solas and I’m just want to write it down.

I’m thinking “there is no possible way this is right………” but then I’m like “unless…..?” so a vague chance of potential spoilers

First, I’ve been suspicious about the elven gods getting free and Solas being trapped. If you think about what Solas says in Trespasser, it’s very

Part of Solas’ aim that has so far been revealed to us is he likely wants the Veil torn down, and one of the only things that is keeping him from that is the reality of the elven gods trapped in there, who would be released.

Inquisitor: “If you destroyed the Veil, wouldn’t the false gods be freed?”

Solas: “I had plans.”

But that is no longer a concern from that moment in the gameplay trailer where they are released. 

“I intend to restore them. Doing so will most likely destroy your world.”

Two elven gods rampaging across Thedas sounds like the kind of “the world is being destroyed” situation Solas was talking about. It is his incision that breached their prison, and it isn’t impossible that Rook may have been almost manipulated into completing it. I wonder if Solas is playing his two sets of enemies against each other yet again?

In the old tales, Solas uses his enemies to fight each other while he is tied to a tree, trapped. He gives both sides equal advice until they are both defeated, at which point he frees himself and finishes what he set out to do. 

Honestly, even though he’s “trapped,” it sounds exactly like the sort of thing that needs to happen for his work to continue.

(All of this is speculation that I think I’ll have a better idea about once I hear the full first conversation with him, and exactly how he words his point of view of what happened. If he’s very squirrelly in his wording, I’ll know he may have caused it on purpose.)

“I seek regeneration,” he said in Vows & Vengeance. The devs had said that Solas has been bringing back magic for centuries before the series even started. Perhaps it explains why the dragons have returned. It seems that his reshaping the world, regenerating it, will be successful because it seems to be moving steadily without him. So maybe this is a last and, once in motion, inevitable step in “healing” the injured world.

I think that the elven gods are very scary and world-ending, but Solas is the only one of them that reshaped the world successfully. He will be the one to do it again, not Ghilan’nain or Elgar’nan or any other god. He is a trickster his, and Tricksters are the Gods of Inevitable (otherwise catastrophic) Change.

One of the greatest criticisms of Inquisition was the lack of screen time Corypheus had. And how the climax fell flat at the end because he didn’t have enough screen time. This leads me to believe that Solas may be the “Last Boss” of DA4. Because we definitely HAVE a complicated satisfying personal relationship with him that has been set up for two whole games.

So the ending for Solas needs to do a lot of things:

“These are the times in which legends are born or slain” Solas as the Dread Wolf will die

It needs to work for both people who love and hate Solas

In order to defeat the Elven Gods, Rook has to find their weakness, which is Solas’ weakness too (maybe a fatal flaw, or how they can be truly killed) so it can be used on Solas too. Perhaps this will involve Solas trying to obscure this from Rook as best as he can

Solas fully is on Rook’s side against the evanuris, but when they’re taken care of, he doesn’t need to team up anymore

I don’t believe that you will be able to stop Solas’ plans, and I hope that they will change Thgedas’ world no matter what. I hope it’s just a fact of life that the Veil comes down

The story basically needs to involve Solas betraying Rook again, because new players need to experience that feeling in order to be in the same place with him as they were in DA3

It needs to give players a torn situation about him, one that makes you feel he’s reasonable but at the same time make it satisfying to fight him. So I believe this is why he will betray the player again, even if he is getting along with them.

I believe there needs to be a boss fight against Solas because he does have a cool big monster form and people have been promised to be able to kill him

It needs to be satisfying for those who romanced him too, but it also needs to be beautifully sad because part of the draw of the romance compared to all the others in the series is that it’s beautifully sad

For that reason, I suspect (not because I particularly want this to happen, I’m just saying what I see most likely) is that fighting and killing Solas may not actually be optional, and he is killed in every worldstate. This way, everyone gets a last boss fight and everyone experiences pretty much the same story without much branching 

I think the difference between friendly and unfriendly version may be whether he is brought back to life by the efforts of those who care about him after he is killed

So basically:

Veil comes down/magic comes back

Solas helps Rook take down evanuris

Solas betrays Rook when it seems the story should be over

Boss fight with Solas as the Dread Wolf (see: my Tulpa Theory)

Solas is defeated and killed

Story ends there if Solas is hated, (story about Rook getting revenge)

If Solas is loved, Solas is brought back and rebirthed in another freer form through a spirit ritual, perhaps as Wisdom, but some part of it is bittersweet like Rose and Doctor 10 (story about regret).

But basically, no matter how Solas and Lavellan’s story ends, their love enduring will be the path to joy, or them being together. Rook can kill Solas and Lavellan can bring him back. Even if it has to just happen off-screen or in fanfic.

I think it is very likely that Solas kills Varric or another character as a way to transition from passive threat to active threat. Or maybe Rook is responsible because of the theme of regret, idk. But I think we’ll get a great cathartic end for Varric probably.

I think we may have to choose between Varric and the Inquisitor, because it’s similar to the Hawke-Alistair choice

I would be very surprised if the story ended with Solas and Lavellan went off into the sunset together in a perfectly happy ending with nothing bittersweet. But sadly, I don’t really see this happening and I think bittersweet may be the name of the game.

Other things I predict:

We can assume that the Inquisitor will have an optional death scenario when they reappear, where we choose either to let them sacrifice themselves in some way, or save them. So perhaps there is an ending where Solas and Lavellan die together and can be free as spirits, which would also be bittersweet.

I don’t really have predictions for anything but Solas, so the big lore reveals might change the situation so much that none of this applies or makes sense anymore. In which case I will probably be HAVING FUN.

I am not EXPECTING any of this to happen, I am just writing it down and posting it in case I’m right. Anyway please wait until I’m done playing to tell me if I’m right or wrong, and this is just for fun, I wouldn’t mind if the whole game was completely different.

[sha-brytols]

literally constantly thinking about how fucking stupid the tale of aveline is in the context of thedas like did they not think critically about that whole thing for more than five seconds

[eurekq]

can you even imagine the horrible romance novels that had to have come out in the wake of the release of tale of the champion. like come on... theres gotta be so much unauthorized hawke-adjacent smut out in thedas. anyways i only started thinking about this because i realized this drawing looks like a bad romance novel cover

[mllemaenad]

There's a great deal I don't like about Veilguard but I have to hand it to them on "Andraste was probably a dwarf" being an idea that would piss off everybody. The Orlesian Chantry would hate it. The Tevinter Chantry would hate it. Orzammar would hate it.

And yet.

I know I'm not saying anything new here – others have raised it before – but the most likely candidate for the being Andraste encountered is a titan.

Eyes sorrow-blinded, in darkness unbroken There 'pon the mountain, a voice answered my call. "Heart that is broken, beats still unceasing, An ocean of sorrow does nobody drown. You have forgotten, spear-maid of Alamarr. Within My creation, none are alone." Lo! My eyes open'd, shining before me Greater than mountains, towering mighty, Hand all outstretch'd, stars glist'ning as jewels From rings 'pon His fingers and crown 'pon His brow. Sword-shattering fear filled me overflowing. Grandeur of godhood no gaze should defile. Trembling, I called out: "Forgive me, Most High, I should sing Your Name to the heights of heaven, But I know it not, and must be silent." The Wellspring of All said, "None now remember. Long have they turned to idols and tales Away from My Light, in darkness unbroken The last of My children, shrouded in night." There I saw the Black City, towers all stain'd, Gates once bright golden forever shut. Heav'n filled with silence, then did I know all And cross'd my heart with unbearable shame. Then did I see the world spread before me, Sky-reaching mountains arrayed as a crown, Kingdoms like jewels, glistering gemstones Strung 'cross the earth as a necklace of pearl. "All this is yours," spake the World-Maker. "Join Me in heaven and sorrow no more." The Chant of Light: The Canticle of Andraste

It's hard to ignore the similarity between this and Dagna's experience of becoming "mountain tall" and thinking "all the thoughts", or more recently, of Harding's interaction with a titan:

It's also interesting to think that, with that context, the business about the Maker's children living in darkness may not be some metaphor about ignorance and worshipping false gods, but a literal statement on the fate of the dwarves, who were first driven underground by the Elvhenan empire and then driven to the brink of extinction by the blight.

While it's possible that a human or an elf might contact a titan, we only really know of dwarves developing bonds with them. And there's strong evidence for intermarriage between the dwarves and the Alamarri. There are two legends specifically about this: Tyrdda Bright-Axe and Luthias Dwarfson (and while World of Thedas I says that "Dwarfson" was a name given him later in life, given, well, everything about his story, I strongly suspect Luthias was very much always a dwarf). Notably both legends also lean heavily into trade deals and alliances. So I think we can say with confidence that dwarves lived with, and interbred with, the various Alamarri tribes.

So, yeah, Andraste was probably a dwarf. Maybe a half-dwarf. Who knows? But very dwarfish.

What I find fascinating is how that is probably what allowed her to shape the world ... and how it likely also led to her downfall.

Communion with and/or reverence for spirits is the common state of religion in Thedas. It can be easy to forget that, given how prevalent Andrastanism is in the modern day, but go back to any traditional culture and you find spirits: the Rivaini, the Avvar, the Chasind, the Nevarrans, even the foreign Kossith were animists before they were Qunari – it's spirits all the way down.

So if an Alamarri mage were to encounter a spirit that claimed to be a god ... well, that'd be business as usual, right? Depending on how persuasive Andraste was, and how persuasive the spirit was, maybe the tribe would get a new god. But it wouldn't be, well, earth-shattering, let's say.

But if our girl is a dwarf ... well, dwarves don't do that. They very much do not engage with spirits. They don't touch the Fade. It's one thing everybody knows about dwarves! Yeah, they'll stab a demon if it's present in the physical world and trying to kill people, but they do not bond with spirits. So that's weird.

And furthermore, she insists it's not a spirit. Whatever it is, this being is very much not a spirit. In fact, it's got kind of a thing about spirits. Really deep grudge. Keeps pointing angrily at that strange city in the Fade? That's even weirder.

And well ...

As the Alamarri pressed against the true borders of the empire, several events convinced the faithful that theirs was a divine mission. Some were the result of the Blight, so even if there was a doubt about the Maker's role, it could be seen as Tevinter paying for its own mistakes. "The Maker, seeing the will of Our Lady, struck down mighty Tevinter with drought, wildfires and the weakening of the very earth beneath them," wrote Sister Damson in her Secrets of the Most Holy. The miracles of the day are now assumed to have been assisted by natural consequence. When the hordes of darkspawn carved their way to light during the Blight, they didn't dig with a careful eye. They bludgeoned the earth, and in the years following, the effects continued even though their scrabbling claws were gone. It is suspected that many rivers were diverted as natural caverns fractured and water found a new path. Thaigs reported underground reservoirs drying up, which corresponded to surface fields in some locations becoming parched and spare. – World of Thedas II

Now, I don't want to downplay the part the First Blight played in the fall of the Tevinter Imperium. Two centuries of war, famine and disease will absolutely cripple a nation. But also ... maybe Andraste could move rocks around. Supercharged Stone Sense could absolutely make a difference in a battle.

And that would be weirdest of all. A dwarven woman claims to talk to something that can move the earth ... and who then actually moves the earth? No wonder everyone went absolutely bonkers over it. It would defy everything everyone knew about how the world works. Even Orzammar has erased the titans from its Memories. "Well, that's a fucking miracle, I guess" actually feels like a rational response.

But then there's the dark side.

In the end, the Alamarri were victorious. But it wasn't the route that the faithful remember. There were losses, including most of the Alamarri leadership. The last reins on Andraste were lost, and they were no longer a people fighting for freedom; they were an arrow launched by the Maker. Scholars of war know that the best an arrow can hope for is a quick kill, because if the enemy is not slain, there is no returning to the bow. Examining the resources of the day, the Alamarri knew they didn't have the ability to fortify the outposts they took, and Tevinter reversed a number of Our Lady's early victories by reoccupying abandoned conquests. This had the effect of slowly flanking the Alamarri. In addition, the farther into the Imperium Andraste pressed, the more resistance she encountered. Her army was running out of governed territories eager to accept liberation. The closer they came to the heart of the empire, the more they faced the enemy on its home ground. There were a number of outright losses that history all but ignores. Andraste was now fully enraptured by her role as a messenger for the Maker. "These fringe defeats were instructions," wrote Drakon. "Our Lady was not to aim the wrath of the Maker's children at peripheral holdings. She was meant to guide this sacred force directly into the heart of the heretical monster. She was not meant to diminish Tevinter as a neighbour; she was meant to destroy it, and guide the Chant of Light from every living mouth." – World of Thedas II

I mean ... can you imagine experiencing this, with no context or understanding?

By the time Harding encounters her titan, three other teams (Warden, Champion, Inquisitor) have delved into the long and weird history of Thedas. There are pieces still missing, yes, but Harding knows about the evanuris and the war between them and the titans; that the titans once connected her people; that Stone Sense is a manifestation of that connection. Yes, she's confused and volatile, and this is all very new ... but she has some idea of what is happening to her.

Andraste would have had none of that. How much sense would she have got from her Maker? Titans tend to be cryptic at their very best, and fountains of incoherent rage at their worst.

All she may have known was that it was angry, and that fury had to go somewhere. She wasn't even, strictly speaking, pointing it the right way. Yes, between the whispers of the Old Gods and the theft of elven knowledge the Tevinter Imperium was certainly problem adjacent, but it wasn't the actual problem. The true targets for the titan's fury were completely out of reach. The last attempt to get anywhere near them nearly ended the world.

It must have eaten her alive. How much of Andraste was even left by the time they burned her? The very contact with her god was the thing that destroyed her. Its vengeance could never be satisfied so she could never be satisfied. She was doomed the moment she laid eyes on it.

Which leads me, very tiredly, here. This is all Veilguard has to say on the subject of Andrastianism:

I mean ... yeah, Harding. Andrastianism as you understand it is pretty clearly not true. Even the codexes and supplementary material constantly emphasises that these stories were stitched together from bad or late or disparate sources.

But something much more interesting and infinitely more tragic likely happened here ... and we do not get to talk about it.

[ephemeralinstance]

Solas' plan succeeded

There seems to be a misunderstanding where some people seem to think that Solas' plan with the blood magic and the prison was another failure because Rook escaped the prison. But that's wrong, because of course Solas' goal was not to trap Rook: his goal was to escape himself, and that's exactly what he did. So the plan was, in fact, a great success!

Did he expect that Rook would be able to escape? Probably not. But does he care? Not really. Solas just doesn't care that much one way or another about Rook. They're opposed to his goals, sure, but so is nearly everyone in Thedas, and there's nothing special about Rook to make them particularly threatening to Solas; if Rook hadn't been there at the end trying to stop him, someone else would just have taken their place. So Solas puts Rook in the prison because that's the only way for him to get out himself, not because he specifically wants Rook to be in a prison.

Indeed, that's one of the great things about this part of the plot in my opinion: it allows us to see Solas being successful for once! We've frequently been told that he's smart and cunning, but in terms of on-screen representations we've mostly seen him fail, so there was a bit of a mismatch in his characterization. This part of the plot rectified that because we saw him succeed. And not only that, he succeeded against very difficult odds: as he says, he was alone and trapped with no tools available to him other then his 'tenuous connection' to Rook's mind, and nonetheless he managed to escape. It wasn't a nice thing to do, sure, but it was very clever!

It's also really great because it fits so well with the established lore on the Dread Wolf! We've heard several Dalish tales about how the Dread Wolf escaped some trap or another - e.g. Felassan's story about him escaping Andruil's captivity. So for me felt really appropriate and a nice nod to the backstory for his plot in Veilguard to be centered around him cleverly finding his way out of a trap.

[rookinthecrownest]

🖊️ + the oc closest to your heart via dragon age (the one you always go back to)

Oh! This was a bit of a tough one anon, but I have to say, Madeleina takes it <3 Let me explain why under the cut, and under this little doodle of Mads and Lucanis I whipped up in like 15 min (excuse the ... everything)

Ok so why is Madeleina so special to me - well, I consider all my DA OC's special to me bc this game has been a huge part of my life - literally for over a decade now - but I digress, she's special to me for a few reasons.

Not gonna lie chat, this year has been one of the hardest year's of my life. The release of DATV, which I'd been waiting for since Inquisition finished up with tresspasser (like many of you), was something I was really looking forward to. And I NEEDED. In many ways, this game saved me.

She was the first Rook. The first one I took with me on this crazy journey. And as I played the game and romanced Lucanis for the first time - I dunno, I can't explain how much of a chokehold Madeleina and Rookanis had on me.

I initially made this blog just to keep up to date with DATV release news, but they made me want to post my art and my writing. And I'd never really tried to write fanfic before, but I started writing the Bedtime Stories for a Demon fic, where Madeleina and Lucanis fall in love over stories from all over Thedas (fairy tales that I adapted for the DA setting). And I had so much fun with it! As I wrote it I fell more and more in love with the character and the pairing.

I can only speak for myself but I think a lot of ppl would agree that Rookanis is a great ship because of like...how soft and tender and loving it is, and how it's the little things they do for each other that's the focus. The understanding, the comfort. Not that we haven't had that in other DA romances but Lucanis' romance hits different? It's just like, so sweet, I want to cry. They're SOOO important to me it's almost silly.

They fall in love over fairy tales but their love story is the greatest fairy tale that will ever be told.

The Charming Rogue and the Hapless Hero!

To focus more on Madeleina herself for a bit, she's also important to me because she's kind of an amalgamation of a few different disney/fairy tale princesses. She has Cinderella's optimism, Rapunzel's quick wits and humour (and long hair!!), Ariel's curiosity and thirst for knowledge. With my other DA OC's, I've made them more... gritty. More suited to a dark fantasy setting. So Madeleina is important to me because she's so relentlessly positive and loving and kind and genuine, like the princesses I grew up watching. They were a source of comfort for me when I was young and going through tough times, like Mads has been a source of comfort for me as a grown up.

I've always been a lover of stories, and I think hers and Lucanis' is my favourite story in all of fiction.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling (even though the point of these asks was to gush/ramble haha).

Thank you for the ask anon!