#that's four grey wardens

[thewardenisonthecase]

saw this on twitter and I stopped to think that these four men would be in the same room together

the 'I love my wife' ass group ever

[extravagantliar]

maybe fifty two year old Varric wouldn’t hire an asshole, but thirty five year old Varric would

[a-gay-bloodmage]

Day 22: Camp 

(Blackwall x Mallory Trevelyan)

Sticking to his plan to keep dressing like a woman after being caught in the Conclave in his feminine attire sounded like a great idea at the time. Now, stuck out in a camp in the middle of the woods, Mallory Trevelyan is realizing just how tough it’s going to be.

[thelearnedsoldiertoo]

Someone confiscate my art supplies dear god

I've drawn more art today than I've drawn in the past four years. @gizmoshorseemporium's OC Lethe! Long story but basically she was a Tevinter slave with Lyrium Tattoos, similar to Fenris, though she also had a brand suppressing most of her emotions and more-or-less making her Tranquil. She was rescued by my Hero of Ferelden, Ciara Tabris, during Unrest in the Alienage, and accidentally cured of the brand when Wynne used her abilities as a Spirit Healer. She joined the Grey Wardens just before the end of the Fifth Blight, fighting at the Battle of Denerim in support of the other Wardens.

[lipglossanon]

Shimmer

Leon S. Kennedy x Fox Fem!reader <one shot>

Warnings: 18+ MDNI, very little world building, smut a plenty 😆, Leon POV, hybrid reader, teasing, flirting, kissing, dirty thoughts, dirty talk, nipple play, oral (f receiving), breeding kink, mommy kink, unprotected sex, creampies

not proofread ✌️ just a smutty hybrid au

title from Shimmer by Fuel

Leon couldn’t believe his eyes. You wind around the trunk of a tree, bright eyes locked on him as a little smile hovers on your lips like a secret. He swallows, tracking your movement, tenebrous colored tail flickering in and out of the tree line. He didn’t know he’d see a pretty little fox this far out. 

Leon planned for his four day weekend to be a relaxing hike in the local mountains, camping for a night (maybe two), and then heading back home to veg out in front of the tv before the next work week starts. He’s been out here in the forest for a few hours now and finally found a place to bed down for the night when you appear. A gray fox isn’t as common as the red, but he’s heard people in town talk about the few that have been spotted out here in Arklay. 

Leon doesn’t consider himself a hardcore outdoorsman, but he at least knows enough about the local wildlife. The closer you get to his little campsite the more enraptured he becomes; you’re absolutely captivating. His fire crackles and keeps him warm despite the chill permeating the night air; he’s afraid to move once you take a graceful seat on the opposite side of his fire pit, flames highlighting the hollows of your face. 

“Hi,” you smile, sharp little fangs glinting at him. 

“H-hi,” he croaks, throat dry so he tries to clear it.

“Camping, hmm?” Your gaze lazily drifts to his tent and satchel before landing back on him. 

“Yeah, needed a break,” he shrugs, hands clasping together to give them something to do, “you live near here?”

“Now why would I tell a stranger where I live?” You laugh, a throaty sound that makes Leon’s blood run hot. 

A flush overtakes his cheeks, “Sorry, I-I’m just making small talk.”

You laugh again, tail shifting to drape across your lap, “You’re cute. What’s your name?”

“Leon. What’s yours?”

He listens as you answer but his eyes can’t stop darting between your perked ears and soft tail. 

“Do you want to pet me?” You grin, tail swishing back to your side. 

“What—no, I mean, maybe,” Leon’s sweating bullets, mesmerized by you but also terrified you might rip his throat out with your sharp little teeth.

Smiling even broader, you stand up and make your way to him, folding down into a crouch in front of him. This close up, Leon quickly takes in your facial features before noticing the small black collar wrapped around your neck; his eyes trace down the modest sundress to your bare legs and feet. 

“Aren’t you cold?” He murmurs, blue eyes roving back up to your curious gaze. 

“No,” you smile, “but I’ll be sure to let you know if I am.”

Leon blushes and you look delighted, kneeling closer to peer up at him. 

“You’re pretty far out for camping, little Leon,” you fingers graze over his jeans, sharp nails making his pulse race, “aren’t you scared you’ll run into some big scary animal?”

Swallowing, he shakes his head no, “I-I brought bear mace and I’m sticking to the game warden trails.”

He watches your head tilt as one of your ears flick back, listening to the dark forest behind you. 

“Hmmm, you should be safe enough then,” your smile returns and Leon feels your tail brush across his arm, “want to see how soft it is?”

With hands steadier than his heart, Leon carefully strokes over the soft fur. It’s more silver than grey with a streak of black that ends at tip of your tail. Some white highlights catch his eye as his hand softly glides down the length. 

“It’s lovely,” he murmurs, dazed eyes coming back up to lock on your bright ones. 

“Thank you, Leon,” you purr, flicking your tail away behind you, ears perking forward, “you’re no slouch yourself.”

You let your nails brush across his sandy blonde fringe before pulling away. Leon doesn’t know what it is but he’s so drawn to you that his defenses are completely down. So he makes no move to stop you when you drag those sharp claw tips across his scalp and down his neck. 

A low groan slips from his mouth and he jerks away, an embarrassed blush crawling up his neck. You laugh and inch closer, hands moving down to skate up his jean clad thighs before resting on his chest.  

“Little Leon,” you coo, “are you feeling flushed? You look red.”

“I’m,” he coughs, trying to cover up his nerves, “maybe I’m just too close to the fire.”

“Do you need help to your tent?” You hold his gaze, your little grin showing off an incisor, “don’t want you to pass out.”

Your fingers drum across his pecs and he has the intrusive thought of you ripping into his shirt to tease his nipples. Biting back another groan, he nods jerkily. 

“I should probably lay down,” he clumsily stands, watching as you easily stand next to him, hands hovering over his shoulders. 

“I’ll help,” you take his arm and guide him the few feet away over to his accommodations for the night.

Pulling back the flap, you help Leon ease down onto his knees so he can kick off his boots before placing them inside next to the opening. Before he can thank you, you crawl in next to him, tail brushing across him as you splay out on his sleeping bag. 

“Comfy,” you pat the space next to you, “come lay down, Leon.”

His cock twitches in interest and he quickly zips the tent closed; the light glow of the fire can still be seen through the mesh. Moving over to you, he copies you, lying on his side with his head propped against his arm.

“Figured you might like some company tonight,” your eyes drop down to his mouth, “don’t want you to feel scared.”

“Thank you,” he murmurs, pulse thundering in his neck as you shift closer, legs tangling with his. 

“Maybe,” you murmur, lips ghosting across his, “you should get comfortable for bed.”

Without any other prompting, he quickly shucks off his jeans and socks before taking his shirt off just leaving him in his briefs. His cock sits half hard against his thigh and he watches as your greedy eyes take him all in.

“Mmm, not bad,” you grin at him, tail waving back and forth behind you. 

He settles back where he was and you move into his space, lips kissing across his jaw before pressing softly against his own mouth. With a groan, Leon lets your hot tongue lick into his mouth, hips rolling forward until you finally push him on his back and lay atop him. You break the kiss once to stare down in his face while you rock your wet little cunt against his bulge before lapping at his parted lips. 

Kissing you messily, Leon can’t stop from moaning and groping your ass through your sundress. The hard press of your nipples against his chest makes him grind against the apex of your thighs even rougher. Pulling away, you raise up into a sitting position over his lap. Your sharp nails tease across his pink nipples and his whole body jolts like he got an electric shock. 

“Oh, Leon,” you grin. 

He feels powerless while your fingers pinch and tug his stiff buds until he’s mewling and rocking up into your ass. Hands grabbing onto your thighs, he presses your dress up until he can see your bare cunt coated in clear slick that makes his mouth water. 

“Sit on my face,” he pants, “fuck, sit that fucking chubby pussy on my face, please.”

“What a dirty boy,” you lean forward and bite his nipple. 

Leon keens in his throat, a sharp high noise he’s never made in his life. Fuck, he thinks he might cum from just you abusing his nipples. His eyes flutter as your wet little mouth decides to suckle and tease his swollen buds; your sharp teeth scraping across them has his cock weeping precum, staining his briefs. 

“I-I’m gonna cum if you keep that up,” he finally gets out, hands tangling in his own hair, “fuck, please baby, sit on my face.”

“I guess since you’re being so good,” you sigh, sitting up to pull your dress up and off, nude body coming into view for the first time. 

“God, you’re beautiful,” he breathes out, eyes sweeping down your body. 

Your ears twitch and you smile, “You’re so sweet, Leon. Now sit back so I can ride your face.”

“Please,” he whines, helping you crawl up his body.

As you move, Leon shimmies his briefs down and off his legs. Your knees then rest on either side of his head and you gently sit your fat dripping cunt down onto his face. With a moan, Leon’s lapping and sucking up all of the slick coating your pussy lips, tongue running up and down your slit. Settling more of your weight down, you relax against him and he humps the air, cock drooling everywhere as he licks your pussy. 

“So good, Leon,” grinding your cunt down on his mouth, he flattens his tongue letting you rut against the slick muscle. 

He moans, hands cupping your ass to keep you from moving off of his face. Even if he suffocated, Leon would die a happy man. Chillbumps race down his body when your tail brushes over his chest and stomach. The soft fur of your tail eventually drapes itself over his stiff and leaking cock making him lap eagerly into your cunt, tongue fluttering against your pussy walls. 

“Right there,” you purr, nails carding through his hair and scratching at his scalp, “suck on my clit and I’ll cum all over your pretty mouth, Leon.”

More precum leaks from his slit, cock so swollen it aches. His eyes shut in an effort to control himself, control his thoughts before he cums all over himself like some virgin. You rock and grind down on his tongue, low moans filling the tent as he laps along your clit before sucking it into his mouth. Keening, you press your bodyweight down, making sure he stays suckling your swollen bud until your orgasm finally overtakes you. 

Leon moans just as loudly as you do, drinking up your slick like he’s a man dying of thirst. You undulate in place until the overwhelming feeling of his mouth has you shifting back down into his lap with a pleased little hum. 

“Fuck, you taste good,” he rasps, eyes blown out as he takes in your relaxed posture.

“Glad to know,” you tease, running your hands down his pecs and across his puffy nipples. 

He lets out a low hiss but doesn’t stop your touches. Your soft hands drift down to the thatch of hair at the base of his cock before sweeping down his thighs. 

“Finally,” you sigh, one hand slowly stroking his dick while the other cups his balls, “a nice fat cock.”

Said cock jerks and leaks even more into your palm, balls throbbing as Leon watches you play with his dick. 

“Fuck,” he whimpers, slowly rocking his hips up, “you like it?”

“Mm hmm,” you purr, “I’ve had lots of men over the years, but you have the prettiest cock I’ve ever seen.”

A spark of jealousy lights in his chest but it’s washed away by the twist of your wrist around his tip making him lose all train of thought. 

“I’ve been looking for someone like you,” you whisper, eyes flashing, like it’s a secret— Leon supposes it might honestly be, “someone to mate.”

His cock kicks, a glob of precum dripping over your fingers where they’re wrapped around his length. You use the sticky wetness to glide your hand more easily up and down his dick, slowly jacking him off. He groans, hips pumping but you only loosen your grip with a sly little grin. 

“Please,” he murmurs, “it hurts.”

“Does it?” You pout, hand softly massaging his sac before tracing the seam down to his taint, “poor little Leon wants to cum?”

“Uh huh,” he drops his head back with a broken moan, “please, w’nna cum for you.”

“Oh?” 

The way your voice piques with interest has his gaze lasered back in on your face. Your attention is focused on his cock but he sees the want sitting as heavily on you as he feels.

“Since you’re being so sweet,” your eyes flick to his and you hold the connection as you rub his cock over your slippery clit, mouth dropping open to pant. 

“God, you feel so good,” he grunts, hands grabbing your waist, thumbs digging into your hip bones, “please, please.”

You press his cock against his stomach and glide your soaked cunt up and down—the world's most torturous pussy job he thinks dazedly. His tip leaks so much there’s a small sticky puddle of precum forming on his stomach as your slick coated pussy lips part around his cock, hole dripping and rubbing against him. 

“You’re going to stretch me open so much,” you coo sweetly, tail swishing excitedly behind you, “hope you don’t cum too soon.”

Before Leon can even argue, you tilt his cock up and sink your pussy down on him; he knows he’s gripping you too hard, but he can’t let go when your hot little cunt’s sucking him in so agonizingly slow. 

He’s babbling too, but fuck if he knows what he’s saying; whatever it is, you don’t mind since you’re giving him that same throaty laugh from earlier that makes him wanna spill deep in your greedy hole.

It feels like a lifetime before you start to bounce on his lap, pussy squelching deliciously, making his mouth flood with saliva knowing what you taste like. The pace picks up and before he can blink, you’re riding him rough and fast, pussy clamped down on his cock like a vice. 

“I’m gonna cum,” he grunts, hands going to your hips ready to pull you up and off so he can spill all over your pussy.

He feels like a fucking teenager, not able to hold back on cumming inside your pussy like he’s never fucked a woman before. Hybrid pussy must be something else, he thinks dizzily, cock throbbing as your slippery walls pulse and throb around his thick length. 

“Cum inside,” you moan, nails digging into his forearms so harshly blood runs down his arms. 

The pinprick of pain makes him buck up harder into your spasming hole. His brain fizzes in arousal, dick buried balls deep in your soaked cunt. 

“Can’t,” he gasps, “fuck, what if you get pregnant?”

His cock thickens at the thought, balls tight against his body, at the hint of knocking you up. You laugh, that throaty sound that makes Leon throb, and you grind harder down on his lap. 

“Then mate me, little Leon, spill your seed deep inside and give me kits,” your lips spread in a smile so wide your fangs show, “breed my pussy like your cock’s begging you to.”

“Oh god,” he whines, “I-I can’t,” but he doesn’t stop himself from fucking into your pussy harder and deeper, balls aching to shoot his load.  

“Aww you can’t?” You mock, guiding his hands up to grab your breasts, “can’t fill my cunt with your thick cum? Can’t breed a wet pussy that wants it so bad?”

He’s losing the battle. It just feels too good inside your fluttering walls while he rabbits his hips against yours, cock stuffing you on every thrust. He squeezes his hands until your tits spill over his fingers, nipples hard against his palms. 

“Make me a mommy, Leon,” you croon, voice saccharine sweet in his ears and he nods before even realizing what you’ve said. 

“M-mommy?” He slurs out, body flushed and overheated as he fucks up into your cunt. 

You giggle and lean forward, “Mm hmm, you like mommies, Leon?”

He gasps, eyes rolling back as he leaks heavily inside your hole, “Ye-yes. Love mommies.”

“Good boy,” you murmur, dropping a dizzying kiss to his lips and he chases your mouth with a moan. 

“Mommy, want you to be a mommy,” he babbles out, brain complete mush now from the arousal, “want you to be my mommy.”

“Ohh?” You sigh gustily and lean forward more, pressing your breasts into Leon’s face. 

Taking the hint, Leon’s hand shift down to your ass so he can mouth and suck at your tits, licking and suckling your nipples as he thrusts sloppily. 

“Mommy,” he murmurs, tongue lapping at the soft skin of your breasts before sucking a nipple into his hot mouth. 

Whining, his eyes flutter shut. If he breeds your cunt, you’ll leak milk from these gorgeous tits. He moans loudly, the thought turning him on so much he can’t stop sucking your nipples. He pumps his hips up into your soaked cunt, feeling you drip slick down his cock to drip off his balls. 

“So hard, Leon,” he distantly hears your voice, “being such a good boy for me, fucking your mommy so good.”

Mewling against your breasts, he bites the puffy bud in his mouth, tongue lashing against it until you’re squeezing and rocking down on his dick. He could fill you to the brim, bust his load deep in your pussy and keep you on his cock til it takes. Eyes rolling in pleasure, he swaps to your other breast, mouth greedily suckling the hard nipple into his mouth. 

He pulls away, mouth brushing across the stiff peak as he looks up at you, “Mommy, gonna cum for you, gonna cum so hard in your pussy.”

“Good boy,” you smooth back the sweaty strands of hair sticking to his forehead, “if you fill me up you can keep me, a mommy all to yourself.”

His eyes drop to your collar and you grind down hard on his cock making him moan. 

“This is to keep people from getting any ideas,” you smooth your hands down his chest, nails scratching at his abs and making them tense, “you can put your own collar here if you want.”

Leon closes his eyes, trying his best to behave. Having you in a collar he picked out? Coming home to you waiting for him, maybe even splayed out in his bed, wet and wanting his cock. Shuddering, he blindly mouths at your chest nuzzling until he finds your nipple to pull into his mouth with a rough suck. 

“Mommy, ‘m so close,” he groans, “wanna keep you on my cock forever.”

You pull yourself from his lap with a loud wet suctioning noise that makes his balls draw up tight. The words to keep you sitting on his cock die in his mouth as you kneel down at his feet with your back facing him. You dip at the waist to press your chest into the sleeping bag as you arch your ass into the air. Your tail mesmerizes him for a minute before he scrambles up onto his knees behind you. 

“So pretty,” he slowly strokes his hand down your tail and you moan longingly, spreading your knees to present your wet little cunt to him. 

“Breed me, Leon,” you look back at him, ears twitching and teeth biting your bottom lip, “want you to fill me up.”

“Fuck,” he hisses, notching the head of his cock at your opening before slowly sinking inside. 

His hands grip the fat of your ass, eyes unable to pull away as he watches your pussy eagerly suck his cock back into your slick soft heat. The first few thrusts are slow and deep, letting him luxuriate in the feeling of burying his cock in your hot little pussy. 

“Harder,” you whine, hips pushing back, “give it to me, Leon.”

He lets out a pained grunt as he pumps his cock in and out of your tight hole. Leaning forward, he braces one hand on your shoulder to pin you down as his other grips your hip. The new angle lets him piston his dick deep and hard into your slick greedy hole. Moaning, Leon rabbits his hips faster and faster, balls smacking your clit on every thrust and making you squeeze his dick. 

Moving the hand from your hip, his fingers seek out your slippery swollen clit and rub soft circles across the pudgy bud. 

“So good, such a good boy,” you pant, nails clawing his sleeping bag to shreds, “god, you’re gonna make me squirt.”

The words turn Leon on so much he nearly blacks out. Chills race down his back and he teases your clit from side to side, dipping down to wet his fingers from the slick leaking from your stuffed cunt before pinching your bundle of nerves.

“Your pussy is so perfect,” he gasps, leaning back as he slides the hand from his shoulder down to grab the base of your tail, “gripping me so fucking tight.”

He tugs lightly and you keen, body thrashing wildly as your pussy clenches rhythmically around his cock. 

“Fuck that’s hot,” he groans, chin dropping to his chest to watch him fuck your cunt. 

The more he pets and tugs on your tail, the harder you squeeze down on his dick. Leon’s fingers also never let up on teasing and rubbing your clit while the fat tip of his cock kisses your cervix and makes you squeal. 

“Leon, ungh— fuck, I’m gonna cum,” you slur out, drooling on the slick material of the sleeping bag.

“Please cum for me,” he keeps the same breakneck pace paired with circling your clit and tail, “want that fat pussy creaming my cock, mommy.”

Your body locks up underneath him and Leon feels a gush of slick push his cock out and wet thighs; quickly recovering, he shoves his dick back inside your spasming walls and humps your pussy fast and hard. 

“You fucking squirted,” he whines, “never had a girl squirt on my cock and you fucking—god, I’m cumming, fuck, this chubby fucking pussy is making me cum, oh mommy—”

Leon nearly collapses as he presses himself as tight against your ass as possible, balls drawn up tight and pulsing as he spills deep inside your cunt. Your slick walls milk him for every drop— his dick spurting rope after rope of thick hot cum until it’s dripping from your used hole. 

When he goes to pull out, you whine and press your ass back against him. 

“Stay,” you sigh, “don’t want a mess just yet.”

Shuddering, he groans as your walls flutter and hug his cock. In no time, he’s just as stiff and hard as he was ten minutes ago. 

You moan low in your throat, “You can go again?”

“Yeah,” Leon’s breathless reply surprises himself, cock flexing inside your pussy and making you whine. 

The second time Leon creampies your pussy is rough and nasty. 

Pulling out, he flips you onto your back and slips his cock back inside your cunt. Slick and cum ooze out around his fat cock, but he’s too busy pressing your legs up and over his shoulders to notice.  

Mewling against his messy kisses, you clench and whine from Leon’s rough fucking. At this point, he can’t stop himself from giving it to you hard and fast.

“Gonna fuck your little cunt all night, mommy,” he knows he has no filter at this point, completely pussy drunk, but it doesn’t stop him from talking, “you’re gonna be stuffed to the brim, stuffed full of my cum.”

“Leon,” you moan, nails digging into his back and making him buck harder, dick knocking into your cervix roughly. 

“Yeah? Like that? I’m gonna pound this hot little pussy til you can’t take it anymore. Fuck, ‘m gonna give my mommy what she needs,” he growls out, feeling your heels bounce against his back with his thrusts.

“Want it,” you grin wickedly up at him, “give it to me, Leon. Be a good boy for mommy.”

He’s too wound up from earlier so in no time at all Leon’s cumming inside your pussy for the second time that night. His fingers pinch and rub your slippery clit until you’re clamping down tight on his cock, milking him into overstimulation as he finishes spilling his seed in your sticky walls.

Pulling out with a grunt, Leon collapses next to you with a sigh. Laying there in the quiet, he lets his heart rate drop back to normal before turning to you.

“You really want to get pregnant?”

You smirk and it makes his pulse race. 

“No, that little issue has been fixed,” you kiss the tip of his nose, “but it’s fun to pretend, right?”

Leon’s cock twitches against his thigh and he nods. 

“Yeah,” pink blooms across his cheekbones, “I liked it.”

Curling up into his side, he softly runs a finger across one of your ears. 

“Can I really keep you?” He whispers.

Night sounds slowly seep back into his awareness as a cicada screams nearby. 

“Can you truly keep a wild thing?” You muse humorously, head tilting back so he can see your bright eyes. 

At his contemplative silence, you run your hands through his hair with a half smile, “But I want to go home with you, Leon. If the offer is there.”

“Please,” he blurts out, not caring if he sounds desperate or whipped, “I’d love for you to come home with me.”

Smile softening your features, you brush the fringe from his eyes, “Then, I’m yours.”

Relief and excitement fills his chest and he grins, “Perfect.”

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 2

[Link to Part 1]

Post is under a cut due to length.

There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media user’s post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and played the game. nb, this post is more of a ‘info that came out in snippets from articles and social media posts’ collection rather than a 'regurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay reveal’ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this.

Character Creation

It is the best CC BioWare has ever made in a game [source]

The faction we choose will determine who we as protagonist Rook were before they were recruited to put a stop to Solas [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

Faction choice affects a lot of things [source]

There aren't unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

"body customization and morphing. From more muscular characters, to curvier builds, and just about any shape you want to give your character, there are all sorts of toggles to adjust so you can give them any figure you want". "There's even features that let you choose proportions, so you can alter their height, give them wider shoulders, and much more" [source]

There are makeup options [source]

There are tattoo options [source]

The hair uses a "Strand system" to "make them behave and move in a believable way for the different races" [source]. (Fel note/speculation: I think "race" here refers to irl, as opposed to like human vs qunari or something, as the language they are using for human/elf/dwarf/qunari is "Lineage")

There are 4 voices to choose from for Rook: two feminine and tow masculine (one American, one British for each) [source]

In CC, 'Lineage' is the game's parlance for race i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari [source]

We can pick Rook's name, but the dialogue calls them 'Rook' [source]

In CC we can "make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins" [source]

"I really do think its our most feature-ful character creator ever." [source]

Story and lore

In the opening segment of the game (see more on the story's opening moments here), we're too late and Solas' ritual worsens, so Rook and the companions go to stop him. When travelling to the next location (Arlathan Forest) in the chase after Solas, the characters travel through an eluvian [source]. The Forest is where his ritual is taking place. Varric then asks the player if he should confront Solas, and players then work to take down the surrounding statues in order to stop the ritual. "I won’t spoil what happens next, but I’ll just say the player and Veilguard have a tall task ahead of them if they want to save Thedas." [source]

Four of the 6 faction options for Rook (Mourn Watch, Lords of Fortune, Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragons) are "rooted in northern Thedas" [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

There aren't unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

A line of dialogue Dorian had at the Winter Palace in DA:I about what Tevinter is like informed the devs' approach to bringing to life the setting of Tevinter: ""There's a line in Dragon Age Inquisition that we always like to call back to," Epler says. "Dorian goes to the Winter Palace, which, up to that point, is probably the most impressive thing you've seen [as the Inquisitor], and [he] says something like, 'Oh, this is cute.' And we had to ask, what does it look like? What is Tevinter if Dorian sees that [the Winter Palace] and thinks that?"" [source]

The fact that Minrathous used to be the land of the elves was factored into the location's design. John Epler: "You can see the architecture has changed. It's become a lot more elven focused. And something that we've kind of hinted at, but we've never really shown explicitly, is the idea that Tevinter is built on the bones of the ancient elven empire. Tevinter itself, Minrathous itself, all the magic you see, that's just a pale imitation of what the elves are capable of. So you'll start to see as you get deeper into the game, the elves, for example, worked Lyrium into their building materials. Tevinter can't quite figure out how to do that. So instead, you'll see more gold and gems, kind of imitating it, but not ever quite approaching what the elves are able to do, and really creating that continuity of the space. Obviously, Solas isn't too thrilled that this world is the way it is, because he lived in a time of miracles and magic, and even the most magical place in Thedas isn't magic like the elven people used to be able to do" [source]

At the end of the opening portion of the game there is a "jaw-dropping title card cliffhanger" [source]

On the opening sequence: ""One of the things we wanted to do with this game is make the prolog feel like the final mission of a different game," John Epler says. "We really needed to get the stakes, the spectacle, right off the bat. Obviously, players who had been waiting to confront Solas have been waiting for just this moment."" [source]

Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story [source]

You cannot succeed without the companions. Each of them has a reason why they need to be part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world [source]

All 7 companions are recruited in the game's first act [source]

The firey demon looking guys shown near the start of the Gameplay Reveal are Rage Demons. Demons in general got a revamp in this game "to more closely align their look", this can be seen with the shades and the Pride demons as well. "they’re creatures of emotion so they have a spectral nervous system look" [source]

The Pride demon the group fight at the Solas face-off in the Gameplay Reveal video "was more a direct tie to Solas than anything else, but it didn't escape us how much it echoed the beginning of DA:I". they wanted to show the stakes and the scale of Solas' power [source]

Characters, companions, romance

Harding was one of the earliest characters that the devs wanted to bring into DA4, because she was such a fan favorite. She is this game's 'traditional returning' character [source]

Each character's romance flavor or style is different. They don't want every character for the romance to feel the same. They want everyone to have their own flavor that's appropriate to them as a character [source] [two]

"We found as we were building a story, more than ever before, it's a story about the people around you; a story about building this team, and working with them." [source]

Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story [source]

You cannot succeed without the companions. Each of them has a reason why they need to be part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world [source]

All companions are pansexual (specifically pansexual, not playersexual) [source]

Their pansexuality may come through in what we learn about their backstories [source]

No companion romance is race-locked [source]

Companions reference their past experiences or partners, and they reference who they'll become romantic with. [source]

If you don't romance a character, they may find a different partner for themselves. This could be within the companion roster itself or outside of it in the broader world. [source] For example, if the player does not romance Harding, she may get together with Taash [source]

The game is rated M [source]

The game contains nudity [source]

We can start flirting with the companions pretty early [source]

All 7 companions are recruited in the game's first act [source]

It is not until later parts of the game that you really commit to romance and things get pretty spicy [source]

The nudity, spicy things etc is more towards the end of the game [source]

The devs want the companions to be relatable and fully realized. So things get spicy, but in a more relatable way for people than e.g. some of the more shocking and comical scenes of this nature in Baldur's Gate 3 [source]

How sexually explicit the scenes are varies between characters. Some are more spicy than others. They have diverse personalities like in real life. "Some of them are more physical, more aggressive, and some of them are more... we have a gentleman necromancer [Emmrich], for instance, that is more intimate and sensual." [source] "some characters may be a little more steamy while some characters maybe a little bit more innocent" [source]

The romance and relationship system is more fleshed out than in previous BioWare games. A character's romance will be better woven into their personal story arc and into their involvement in the core questline of the game [source]

"BioWare has also worked to ensure that getting to know your characters as friends feels just as satisfying - and that just because you're not banging your buddy, their (platonic) relationship with you will still continue." ""One of the things we tried to do with The Veilguard is it's not just romantic relationship building," Epler continued. "You need to get to know a person before you can really build that kind of relationship with them, and if you choose not to build a [romantic] relationship, we never want to feel like you're being cut off. There's no 'okay, well, their arc isn't progressing, I'm done'." We want to make sure the non-romantic relationships are deep as well, with friendships not just for companions and yourself, but also between companions across the party."" [source]

GDL reprises his role as Solas [source]

Gameplay, presentation, performance etc

The game has a photo mode [source]

Combat is fast-paced [source]

If you pause the game using the ability wheel you can scan enemies to learn more information about them [source]

Each of the 3 main classes is distinguished by how it generates and spends energy for abilities [source]

Each of the 3 subclasses for each 3 main class promise to offer some meaningful distinctions from each other [source]

for this, rogues have momentum. You build momentum by attacking, by dodging, by parrying, and you lose it by being hit, so there's really a focus with rogues on avoiding damage, avoiding attacks. They build momentum quickly, but they lose it quickly. Warriors have rage, which they build a little bit more slowly, but they don't lose [source]

Attacks can be cancelled [source]

Regarding enemy weaknesses, some of these are elemental. In other cases their defenses are more vulnerable to specific types of abilities [source]

Combat seems to be a matter of managing our abilities as best we can to whittle down enemy defenses and take advantage of their weaknesses [source]

Over the course of the game we get access to three abilities per companion as well as an additional two abilities we can slot, and an additional ability that coms off of items that the devs will not talk about for now [source]

Fully offline single player, no EA account linking, no micro-transactions [source]

The game uses advanced rendering tech in Frostbite, nice subsurface scattering, high quality meshes, while having a striking pseudo-painterly look [source]

There are blood spatters in the game [source]

Production values on the game have gone through the roof. It looks like a big improvement on what came before [source]

On the music: "lots of foreboding tunes mixed with epic flair" [source]

Good voice acting, great facial animations, good hair tech, busy-looking environments and worlds [source]

It's not open world. "There are open areas you can explore around in, but it's mostly structured/mission based, sort of like Mass Effect." [source]

There are difficulty options [source]

They will talk about PC spec stuff at a later time [source]

There is probably an option to see damage numbers [source]

There are many reasons why the game is M-rated [source]

There are lots of abilities, with 3 swapped in on the wheel at any one time [source]

There are a bunch of accessibility options and they will talk about these soon [source]

The ability wheel gives you flexibility to enhance your playstyle. If you don't want to use it at all, you don't have to and that's no issue as shortcuts are available [source]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

[crownedinmarigolds]

Man I don't know just had an idea for a scene between them and had to feverishly draw it before bed (it's four am). Lucanis and Noa share some coffee and there is a strange revelation of the status of their relationship! (AKA, when your stoic and watchful leader turns out actually likes having you around) Write up below the cut! (Also in ALT)

Warden Noa "Rook" Espinoza and Lucanis Dellamorte are having some coffee together, making light talk as they're both quiet people. We catch them mid-conversation. Lucanis: Ah, so we are close in age. It's strange to think we may have lived so close to the other. Lucanis: smiling nervously I find myself wondering if we would've liked each other, had we met. Noa: looks into her coffee No, probably not. Lucanis: A little hurt how easily she turns down the thought, he tries to smile through as if it didn't phase him Oh! Haha, maybe not. Noa: She turns to look at him, face remaining stoic I was different then, afraid and naive. Without my experiences, I could not be as I am now. It's the same for you. Noa: off-panel, continues I do not like imagining the road not traveled. Who you are now is enough for me. Why would I want anything different? Lucanis: is a bit unsure how to take her words, though he does understand them as kind Lucanis: He's silent a bit, overwhelmed by such a strong statement after such light conversations during their journey together thus far, but he accepts that this is just her way of thinking. Straight forward, strong, unrelenting. Clearly why she's survived as both a Grey Warden and a Mage. Thank you, Rook. I don't know if I'm a better man after all I've done, but I'm happy you will take me as I am. Noa: simply goes to sip her coffee I do. Lucanis: sighs a bit as he tries to figure out what their relationship actually is

[lesbiansforboromir]

I'm still so annoyed about the whole Warden narrative too. Like why do I, a Warden, have to act surprised that Wardens did something shadey and amoral in order to defeat a blight some hundreds of years ago? That's literally all Wardens do. Even if you have lived a blessed and benevolent warden life from the moment of your joining till now, you at LEAST know that your order lies to it's recruits about what the Joining entails. You at least know that that has cost countless 'honourary wardens' their lives, including some who were simply killed because they refused to drink the soup. Why the HELL would the Wardens expect the order to treat their steeds with more honour than they treat their own members. Like I cannot concieve of this Warden that is unnerved to discover that the Wardens kept a secret vault of all the recovered archdemon remains. WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY GOT ALL THE JOINING BLOOD FROM!! Are you all stupid?? 'What are all these numbers above these big doors' 'they're the years a blight ended' 'well thats not ominous' IT'S LITERALLY NOT? WHAT THE HELL IS OMINOUS ABOUT SEEING BLIGHT DATES IN A DARK SITE RUN BY THE BLIGHT-STOPPING-ORDER??! And for that matter, what is so bad about putting all the griffon skeletons here anyway? I mean it's already bizarre that they didn't just burn them, that's the funery practice for most of the continent, but since they've kept these thousands of blighted Griffon skeletons why is it bad to keep them in the Cauldron? It's The Place For Blighted Corpses. It's a research site. Sure it's also where you put the things you don't want the rest of Thedas to know about, you know, like the JOINING? The thing literally all wardens go through!! The first and blackest and most haunting secret that all Wardens must keep!! Isseya is like 'The Wardens abused the Griffons, once proud warriors left in this Cauldron and forgotten' THERE ARE SO MANY GRIFFON STATUES EVERYWHERE!! WITH THEIR NAMES ON PLAQUES NO LESS. THEY REMAIN ONE OF THE MOST REVERED CREATURES IN THEDAS, THEY PAID THE PRICE EVERY GREY WARDEN IS EXPECTED TO PAY AND ARE HONOURED AND BELOVED FOR IT, WHO THE HELL ''FORGOT'' THEM?? Certainly not the goddamn Wardens who use them as their heraldry and emboss them on every piece of armour or scrap of leather they can find! You're saying NONE of these people even think to say 'well hang on, it was tragic that the joining turned out fatal for the Griffons, but the Grey Wardens didn't know that at the time, the fourth blight had been going on for more than a decade, the Griffons were dying from being infected with the blight anyway and this choice DID successfully lead to the end of the fourth blight, which is the single only thing we are here to do! Seems like business as usual in Grey Warden Town to me.' Like!! Why are we going through some moral reckoning with Warden actions from fucking four hundred years ago when Clarel tried to mass-warden-blood-sacrifice up a demon army to invade the deep roads like.... YESTERDAY.

[high-dragon-bait]

I've almost got all the descriptions for the hypothetical Dragon Age 5 companions complete, but I'm too tired to finish them tonight. Here're the four that are concretely done as a little WIP/motivation booster to finish these tomorrow

Hypothetical Dragon Age 5 "Plot":

Playing as either a child of or a great admirer of a past protagonist, 30 years after the events of Veilguard. It is 9:82 Dragon, and you are determined to become the last great hero of this Age before it ends.

You have decided your path is not in Thedas, but across the sea, and have joined a dangerous expedition to discover what may lay beyond the world...

Companions WIP

Asala - Qunari Rogue - Female

Summary - A qunari in her late thirties. Asala has lived her life in deep devotion to the Qun, but she carries a secret. She was never truly satisfied with her role, no matter how hard she tried to be. She eventually met a Sten, and trained with him in secret, discovering her love for the physical arts of combat, and passion. In time Asala gave birth to a child, whose conception was not approved by the tamasraans. Asala has joined the expedition to atone. Taking on the name "Asala" meaning "Soul", she will become the embodiment of the very soul of the Qun and carry it to wherever the Qunari began eons ago, and perhaps then she will be worthy of her role once again.

Appearance - Dark, dark grey skin with a violet undertone. Incredibly fine tuned muscles on her back and arms. She has just as dark black hair, thickly curled and tied into a long black cascade down her back, with a single shorter lock falling in front of her face between her horns. Her eyes are molten amber, set into black sclera. Burning at you from the rest of her face. Her horns are long, ribbed and twisting like an antelope's. She wears silver rings between each rib, with a thin chain connecting them from two pierced points at the tips.

Hissera - Qunari Mage - Female - Romance Interest

Summary - A qunari in her early thirties. A tal-vashoth seraabas, the qun shaved her horns to nothing and cauterized them with molten gold, after cutting out her tongue, and sewing shut her mouth. Hissera lived like that for years before she finally escaped, and has slowly been reclaiming herself and the identity she was denied, scars and all. Hissera has joined the expedition in hopes of seeing where the qunari came from, and if the cruelty she experienced at their hands is truly part of their very origin.

Appearance - Warm grey skin, like a storm cloud at a dawn, contrasted against glittering silver hair. She wears it in a half-braided style, one thick braid in the center, and the rest of her hair being allowed to flow down beneath it. Her horns are sawed away and covered in once-molten gold to keep them from growing back. Forever set in a frozen drip pattern down what's left of them. She wears heavy golden weights in stretched ear lobs, and gold studs in the holes that once held her mouth shut. The largest stud being in the middle of her upper lip. Her eyes are a vibrant blue set into bluish-white sclera, like a clear still pond.

Tamsin - Elf Warrior - Female - Romance Interest

Summary - An elf in her fifties, Tamsin became a Warden only a year before the sixth blight ended all blights. While there were still Darkspawn to be fought, Tamsin felt she had missed the golden age of being a warden. Now, darkspawn are growing scarce, as is the time Tamsin has left before the taint takes her body at last. She has decided to join the expedition for one true adventure, before it is all over.

Appearance - Dark brown skin that has just begun to settle into creases around her eyes and mouth. Once vibrant brown eyes have faded under age and blight, and her full curled hair is growing in grey at the roots, with some strands already beginning to streak through. She wears it tied back haphazardly, and many stray strands stick out of various places on her head. She carries many scars of being a warrior. She has a long jagged scar from the corner of her right eye to the center of her cheek, and she is missing half of her left ear, a matching scar cut into the scalp just behind it.

Glory - Spirit Warrior - No - Romance Interest

Summary - A spirit of glory drawn to you and your quest by your drive to be remembered. It becomes infatuated with you, and molds itself into your idea of what is "glorious" as the story goes on.

Appearance - A faceless golden impression of a person. Its body ends at its hips, leaving it floating legless a few feet of the ground. It carries a large yellow blade on its back, and a flowing swirl of energy around its echos of shoulders that could be an attempt at hair or a cape, depending on how you choose to look.

[joudama]

And that’s that for Veilguard. Got all the achievements and got the four main possible endings (didn’t bother with the bad ending where you do none of the side quests, everyone dies, and you end up trapped in the Fade forever with Solas).

My four Rooks:

Female Shadow Dragon elf mage - saved Minrathous - romanced Harding - punched Solas in the face

Female Antivan Crow human rogue - saved Treviso - romanced Lucanis - tricked Solas into using the fake dagger

Male Grey Warden dwarf warrior (this was originally going be a Qunari, but I couldn’t get over the yassified look of all the qunari I tried to make and I gave up) - saved Treviso - romanced Davrin (meant to romance Bellara and lol welp, that didn’t happen) - big softie who sent Solas into the Fade with the Inquisitor

Male Mourn Watch elf mage - saved Minrathous - romanced Emmrich (meant to romance Bellara or Neve and lol welp, that didn’t happen) - told the Inquisitor she could do better and made Solas go off into the Fade alone.

My Mourn Watch one is probably going to be my “canon” run, since I liked it the best (that’s not saying much) of my runs. I went with a life leeching run for him, including using the unique items that made health potions/companion heals not work, and beefed up leeching. Literally the only time I died was when my controller ran out of juice in the middle of a dragon fight. The Elgar’nan fight was over so fast I was like, “Wait, is that it?” It was like the curb stomp fight in Inquisition with Corypheus before they let you have enemies scale up with you.

And now for my thoughts. And oh boy, do I have a lot of them. Hoo.

I have…so many issues with this game. It is a very good…whatever the gaming equivalent of a popcorn flick is. It’s great if you go in with your brain turned off and enjoy all the shiny. But that’s not what I want in a Dragon Age game. I’ve been replaying DA2 - the game that DATV is basically trying to channel - while playing these, and the difference in writing quality and intricacy of plot and world building could not be more sharp. The first time I played DATV, I thought it was fine. Almost aggressively fine. I had fun with streaming the game and seeing where it went. I loved the reveals with the wolf statues. I had some major issues with the writing being as subtle as a brick to the face at times (more on my thoughts about the dialogue LATER, because oh boy), but it was serviceable. And I genuinely thought Veilguard had been robbed by not being nominated for Art Direction at the Game Awards, because say what you will, the areas are fucking gorgeous. But, even then, I was like, “Yeah, this would not have deserved a GOTY nomination had it gotten one,” and placed it at a 7 or 8 out of 10. A good enough, enjoyable game that ran well, but was not by any means GOTY material.

Then I made the mistake of playing it again, and the cracks began to show. By the time I hit the middle of Act 2 of my third run, I was just so done. I hated every time certain companions had anything to say at all. I hated that you couldn’t call people out for being a jerk but had to be the supportive nursery school teacher at all times to them. And for the first time playing any BioWare game at all, I found myself wishing I could either not recruit certain people or kick them out of camp. The cracks were beyond showing at that point, and I no longer thought the writing was even “serviceable.” Things that hadn’t seemed so bad on that first popcorn flick run suddenly became a problem - not being able to actually talk to your companions to get to know them went from “it feels more natural to have them saying this stuff while out in the field” to “what is even the point of going around the Lighthouse if all it gets me is a line spoken at me or overhearing bits of them having ACTUAL conversations?” It legitimately hurt replayability. I missed being able to actually talk to my companions, and I realized I cared more about Manfred and Assan than most of my companions because Manfred and Assan actually seemed to like interacting with me. I will take Manfred’s rock-paper-scissors game over a “hey Rook” and dead-eyed stare.

By the time I hit late act 2, I couldn’t wait for it to be over so I could delete the damn game off my hard drive…only for the last achievement I had yet to get to NOT pop when I finished the game. I looked it up and discovered it wasn’t set by triggering a certain end state, but was tied to picking some flowers in Act 2, and wanted to cry. I don’t usually 100% games, especially if I feel like some of the achievements are bullshit I don’t want to do (‘sup, MELE needing you to do some Armax Arena Spectre-level fight - I would sooner chew off my own arm than do that, as anyone who watched me stream Veilguard would have guessed watching me kvetching the whole time I was doing that Hall of Valor shit), but that was just frustrating. I decided to try to get it on a fresh run as a Mourn Watcher, since I’d heard that was one of the surprisingly good faction backgrounds, and that was a good choice. Mourn Watch became my favorite faction, when it had been Shadow Dragons until then. It added so much to a lot more conversations than I would have thought, and made it so I actually enjoyed the sadly few times you get to actually have conversations instead of eavesdropping/being talked at. I’m glad I decided to slog through one more time for that achievement, because if I’d ended it on that third run, I know I would have never played it again. It turned back into a popcorn movie again, aided by me knowing when to put on a YouTube video and watch or scroll through Bluesky instead of listening to a certain character be the fucking worst. If I ever play again, it’ll be a Mourn Watcher (I already know the Veil Jumpers and Lords of Fortune are considered, shall we say, lackluster background factions.)

Which brings me to some of the big, fundamental problems this game had.

This is not a CRPG. It’s just not. It’s an action RPG now, with the focus on “action” not “RPG.” It’s part of the whole Mass Effect-ification of Dragon Age. And I say this as a huge Mass Effect fan:

Dragon Age should not be like Mass Effect. And vice versa.

When Andromeda came out, they decided to ditch the Paragon/Renegade system, and instead went for DAI-style emotion-based options. Which seems great! More speech choices to make a more nuanced Ryder instead of picking up or down! Great! Only no! A lot of people hated it because it didn’t feel like Mass Effect. They had taken away something that had seemed like a major part of how you roll played in the series, and replaced it something very different. It was the first time they took a mechanic from one game and ported it into another, and it didn’t really go over well with a lot of ME fans because it didn’t feel like a Mass Effect mechanic.

And now with Veilguard, they basically made a Mass Effect game with a Dragon Age skin on it. And it just doesn’t work.

Combat: They copied the combat wheel from Mass Effect, but did it kind of badly. I honestly hated it because I tried to play like I do in Mass Effect - pull it up, use it to look around and get a handle on my environment, then pick an enemy or a safe space to bolt to - and the camera snapping the enemies meant I couldn’t. It drove me crazy because it was like the Mass Effect wheel but fundamentally not, and the camera drove me mad because I’d pull it up trying to find where the nearest blight boil was, and it would snap on enemies instead of just letting me look. It’s like they wanted to get rid of every little bit of tactical game play and replace with smashy smashy bang bang instead. Don’t think, don’t plan, just attack…which fits in with the popcorn flick-ness of DATV. Don’t think, just do. Turn your brain off and look at the particle effects.

Another Mass Effect-ification with regards to combat is dropping from taking 3 companions to 2. Which you need to do to have that Mass Effect style combat wheel, and the Mass Effect 3/Andromeda style primer/detonation style interaction of companion powers. Detonations were very satisfying, but not very Dragon Age-y, and requires throwing out some of that DA lore to make it work, because now everyone uses magic-based abilities even if they aren’t mages. Assan attacks deal fire damage. You can spec a warrior who calls up a giant lightning hammer to twirl around, and…how? That’s not enchantment, that’s plain ol’ magic, and how?! Warriors didn’t deal magic-based attacks unless their weapons where enchanted before, but now, everyone is just tossing magic attacks at everything. That’s not how the world of Thedas has worked until now, but you can’t have those flashy explosions or particle effects otherwise, so shhh, turn off your brain and don’t think, shhh. Look at the screen light up and the pretty lights. It worked in Mass Effect because they had already set up tech and biotic attacks, but there’s no way to make hitting something hard with a sword cause it to blow up and damage all the other baddies around them, so now everyone has magic. OK.

As an aside, it was also a really bad idea of get rid of how aggro worked. Dragon Age had always worked by warriors drawing aggro because they had the heavier armor (or could use taunt on enemies targeting squishy mages or rogues). Rogues had lower aggro because they had lighter armor, and could sneak. Mages had even lower aggro because they had the lightest armor and were distance fighters. DATV threw that out the window, and Rook draws all aggro because they are the only ones with a health bar. Your squad is immortal in fights, which means there’s no reason for enemies to ever target them. Which means god help you early game when mages and rogues have no real skills yet. Enjoy dodging while your companions hit the enemies with what seems like attacks as powerful as spitballs. It also means that there are times what the game tells you and the fight you just did are completely at odds. Remember that fight with the Wrath of the Stone in Harding’s companion quest? That thing is on your ass the entire time, but then at the end of it, Rook says something along the lines of “It really hates Harding,” and…are you gaslighting me, game? That thing ignored Harding the whole damn time in favor of trying to stomp me like a cockroach. Harding did not exist to it during my fight. It had a hate boner for Rook and Rook alone, no matter what the game tried to insist on after.

Now, imagine how that would have felt if Harding actually could have been killed/knocked out during the fight, and it was only going after her? What if you couldn’t damage it if it took her down, so you had to make sure she stayed alive? Imagine how different that fight would have hit then? But no, that would mean the devs have to think about how to rez characters and how healing would work, and would mean players have to be tactical, and shh, no, no more of that, no thinking, just dodge and hit things and look at the particle effects. Shh. Have some more popcorn.

Story: DATV wants so badly to be ME2. It wants to recall the companion loyalty quests and the big suicide mission where you have to have everyone ready or you’ll all die. But you can’t copy what you did before and get the same flowers and results. You just can’t. You can try, and all you’ll get is diminishing returns. They tried to do the big cosmic horror of ME1, complete with a Virmire choice, then have the big final stakes of ME2, and no. You can’t follow a template and get the same greatness. That’s not how it works.

And speaking of following templates…

Romances: The romances in Veilguard are just dismal. And I think it’s because they decided to follow the Mass Effect pacing formula instead of the Dragon Age one.

Dragon Age: You start flirting in Act 1. You usually flirt with everyone because hey, why not? Some time in Act 2, things start getting serious, and you have to settle on who you want to go for. Things start to get serious, you get together, and then you get happy fun adult time with your new LI. You get the option to break it off or commit to them fully. By Act 3, you’re in a committed relationship. People comment about it. You can go to them and spend time with them - nothing major, maybe just a kiss. There might also be a special scene that’s just with them and unique to the romance. And by the end, after the lengthy amount of time that’s passed, you are Together.

Mass Effect: You start flirting in Act 1. You usually flirt with everyone because hey, why not? In Act 2, you keep on flirting with everyone. By the end, you might have to make a choice if you’re flirting too hard with everyone and the two LI options tell you to pick someone already, but you’re just picking who you’re interested in. Early in Act 3, there might be an almost kiss, but it’s mostly just the occasional anticipation of eventually boning and nothing really happens until right before the final big fight, when your LI shows up to your cabin for “oh shit, we might die in a few hours, so let’s go out with a high note” happy fun adult time. The only time you get that “committed relationship” vibes is in ME3 if you’re romanced the same character for at least one other game, and you choose to continue the relationship.

The Mass Effect pacing works in the Mass Effect trilogy because each game is only 20-40 hours long. Veilguard is a good 80 hours long. That means using that same amount of romance you use in ME is going to mean you’ve got too little butter to spread over too much bread. It’s why you have a good start for the romances in Act 1, then act 2 is a such a desert of nothing after you commit that I genuinely wondered if I’d hit the wrong option at said no at several points during the very long third act. There’s not just enough content for that long of an Act 2. Near the end everyone starts commenting on you being with them, but it’s not actually happening in the game. There’s no flirting, there are no extra scenes, and even the scene when you commit to them is based on a scene that happens with everyone, just with a romance option tacked on. The only person (of the ones I romanced, so I can’t speak to the others) who really get unique scenes was Emmerich. He actually takes you out on a unique date. It helped a lot to make Emmerich’s romance feel more fleshed out than the others. And Davrin had so many little jaunts out in the woods that those turned into romantic trips out, which added a lot to his. But Lucanis’ and Hardings? With both of them, like I said before, I genuinely wondered if I had accidentally opted out. Their romances most used the Mass Effect format, and it just doesn’t work for a game this long. BioWare knew that once, long ago, because Andromeda did not use the ME trilogy format for romances and was closer to one they used in DA. But DATV is trying to be ME2, so they used ME2’s very thin romances as a guide.

And we can all see how well that turned out.

The Executors: Fuck me, they feel like Cerberus reskinned, and I absolutely hated when Mass Effect shifted from sci-fi/Lovecraftian horror to space opera with Cerberus as the main bad guys you have to fight with the Reapers functionally falling to the background. The Executors are a secret, shadowy organization pulling strings from behind the scenes like the Shadow Broker codexes in ME2 retconned Cerberus into having been doing in ME. Ugh.

The Andromeda-ification of dialogue: Remember Peebee? Remember how she talked? Give her long hair and pointy ears, and she’s Bellara. Down even to the techno-babble. It’s like they’re trying to change magic to just “sufficiently advanced technology.” Everyone speaks in that modern, quippy style that was annoying in a game set hundreds of years in the future because it felt dated by the time the game came out (Ryder makes a Frozen joke, y’all). And it feels completely out of place in a game set in an early modern setting (I don’t think DA is medieval, honestly - it’s more a pre-industrialization/early scientific revoltution setting, so more 1500-1700s, and I’m gonna stop now). It was jarring. You can only let one quirky character break the rules about how people talk (Alistair in DAO, Varric in DA2, Cole in DAI) but when everyone does, it’s jarring. You can be anachronistic, but you have to know what you’re doing and how to do it when you do, and I’m sorry, but the current crop of BioWare writers don’t. They wrote the dialogue like it was a modern day YA novel, not a Dragon Age game. It would have been fine for a modern day urban fantasy game. It was not fine for a DA game set in the same time period as people using the four humours for “modern” medicine (remember the surgeon in DAI? Talked about the four humours? Yeah.)

OK, I did not intend to go on for this long, and I haven’t even gotten to what the game did to how religion is handled or the sociopolitical aspects of Thedas, and how they threw out so much that made Dragon Age unique in their urge to do a soft reboot, so I’m just going to end it here. I wanted to love this game, and I can only do that if I turn my brain off, and that’s not what Dragon Age should be.

[thedissonantverses]

My Flesh and Bone

Chapter 22 is live! We have an official chapter count now too! This is 22/27. Almost there folks!!! And I can't wait. Have a couple screenshots while I'm at it!

Weisshaupt as it was never meant to be, pain echoing through the ages so strongly it was rewriting history. The fighting went hard. Davrin was on the edge, threatening to tip over. He’d driven a soldier’s pace to get to that spot in the Deep Roads, and Taash and Harding followed, and it was everything. And not enough. The false Wardens found no quarter with him, forsaking his mercy when they’d forsaken their own.

The First Warden awaited them. A broken sentry, on his last watch.

“Davrin…They brought Rook. She’s here.” He coughed. “The Gloom Howler…She’s through those doors. But the darkspawn…”

Davrin grabbed his arm. “Ser. I can’t leave you like this.”

“You can. Go. Save the griffons. Save Rook. That’s an order.”

He’d remember. After. Dream about it, most likely. The scent of the blight in this pit. Taash and Harding never flinching, guarding his back. The crunch as he splintered Warden plating with the force of his blows. A cut on his cheek and what did he care. A blow to his back that strained his shoulders and slice across his leg and he cut them down for it.

Davrin heard Assan cry out and he went, not hearing if the others were behind him. But then there was a blast of magic and the howl of Isseya and Rook was there only it wasn’t Rook. Magic cascaded from her hands and her eyes glowed blue and it wasn’t her. Her eyes locked on him and the name of the bastard was ripped from this throat.

“Solas!” Davrin and Harding cried out together, voices matched in their rage.

He ran. Took her and ran. Abandoned them to the swarm of darkspawn. Isseya saw Davrin and aimed for him, but four hundred years of rage and regrety proved no match for his own. Assan gave his battle cry only he was joined by two others and Assan went for the witch only Davrin was distracted, and his son was bested and Taash and Harding were fighting off the swarm and everything hung on the tip of Davrin’s blade as she raised the blighted dagger to Assan’s heart. Assan squawked his fear and squirmed but looked to Davrin, faith and love and loyalty and that was turlum. 

“Touch him and you die!” His snarl caught her attention.

“I’m giving him his freedom!”  The voice of the damned. “I’m releasing him.”

Davrin threw up his arm. “I know who you are…Isseya. A Grey Warden who lost her way. You blighted the griffons! You doomed them.”

The yellow eyes of a monster, the hiss of one too. “The Wardens doomed them. By their own decree. I saved the eggs. These are the future! With the blight in their veins, the griffons will be immortal. The Wardens will never harm them again! I will be their shield against the pain.”

Oh, Davrin knew her. “You were a Grey Warden once! Act like one! Be the light in the darkness, or die here and now!”

“The Darkness offers protection. So it must be!”

So, it must.

“Assan! Like an arrow!”

Sure enough the griffon true to his nature and to Davrin struck true and Davrin drove his blade through her, pulled close for a moment until, he was sure. Then he released her, the ground taking her as her blood poured across the tiles, the scent of ichor hot in his nose and Assan safe behind him.

Isseya the Grey Warden, doom and savior of the griffons, was no more.

[dragonageannual]

DAA 2025: Legacies Product Previews!

It's almost time! Our 2025 shop opens in just five short days on October 1st. Check out the product previews below for a sneak peek at the amazing creations on offer!

All proceeds from 2025 sales will be donated to War Child UK.

👉 Follow us on itch.io to be the first to know when our shop opens 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter for spoiler-free DAA news! 👉 Give back to the Dragon Age community by donating toward a Community Copy! More information coming soon.

Dragon Age Annual 2025: Legacies

A Dragon Age Annual classic! We're excited to say that this year the calendar comes with a pre-punched hole so that you can easily hang and display the beautiful creative works inside. Our calendar celebrates your favourite characters, stories, and all there is to love about Thedas. With designs that span the entire Dragon Age franchise, there's sure to be something you'll want to see!

Keep reading to see previews for Sagas: A DAA 2025 Zine and our merchandise pack, including art prints, mini tarot cards, stickers & sticker sheets, magnets, and a wooden charm!

Sagas: A DAA 2025 Zine

Featuring 4 full-length fanfics, 2 comics, and 7 art pieces, this booklet celebrates even more of Thedas' myths, legends, and heroes. From Grey Wardens to The Qun to ancient and Dalish elves, you won't want to miss out on this one-of-a-kind anthology!

Prints

Decorate your home and make sure your guests know you'd rather be in Thedas with these art prints featuring our favorite Seeker, Cassandra Pentaghast, and the fabled Emerald Knights! Keep an eye out for our stretch goals to find out how to get these prints upgraded to A4-sized 👀

Mini Tarot Cards

Divine your Dragon Age destiny with our set of four mini tarot cards! Featuring the new DAA logo on the back, flip the cards over to find that your future holds four brand new fanart designs.

Stickers

Water bottle looking a little bare? Or maybe you need to decorate your new laptop? Either way, we have a sticker extravaganza to suit your needs! *Unlock The Broken Arrow for all physical orders with one of our stretch goals. **Unlock Iron Bull Planner Stickers for all physical calendar orders with one of our stretch goals.

Magnets

Satisfy the demands of the Qun by picking up this magnet set! Featuring Qunari legends, Sten and The Iron Bull, these button magnets will make sure no space on your fridge—or wherever you display them—is wasted.

Charm

Purchase of this charm includes a golden bead ball-chain, so it can easily be used as a key chain or zipper pull! If a necklace is more your style, simply pair the conveniently sized and lightweight charm with your own chain or cord and wear to show off your Andrastian pride!

[vigilskeep]

the thing is that the chantry teaches us that it is the hubris of men which brought the darkspawn into our world the mages had sought to usurp heaven but instead they destroyed it they were cast out twisted and cursed by their own corruption they returned as monsters the first of the darkspawn they became a blight upon the lands unstoppable and relentless the dwarven kingdoms were the first to fall and from the deep roads the darkspawn drove at us again and again until finally we neared annihilation until the grey wardens came men and women from every race warriors and mages barbarians and kings the grey wardens sacrificed everything to stem the tide of darkness and prevailed it has been four centuries since that victory and we have kept our vigil. we have watched and waited for the darkspawn to return but those who once called us heroes have forgotten we are few now and our warnings have been ignored for too long it may even be too late for i have seen with my own eyes what lies on the horizon maker help us all. as if its my fault

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Dragon Age Veilguard seemed innocuous at first but once I recruited everyone the writing dropped off a cliff and now I can safely say it is the worst written game of anything I've played in the past 10 years. This includes Assasins Creed Odyssey, it includes Mass Effect Andromeda, and it includes Metaphor Refantazio (unpopular opinion but I think that game's writing is a distilled bad Persona formula with no soul).

Like, you do the big battle for the Grey Wardens and any nuance and intellect that was in the writing fucking evaporates. Allegedly loads of people died but you didn't see it, just like you don't see anything happen. Suddenly all the characters are like "Well, that was terrible! It happened because we all have problems! Hey, Player, solve our problems!". The game acts as if the person playing it is Four Years Old and this is the first story they've ever read. I've seen shows on cbeebies with more depth and respect for the viewer.

The game is also constantly telling you what your choices mean instead of giving them meaningful consequences. It's faking being a Bioware game.

Envision: Two dialogue options. If you hover over one, a popup says "This will upset Neve". If you upset Neve, then instead of Neve being upset, she will act exactly as she was doing before and the game will say "Neve is upset because you picked this option". And then nothing of consequence will happen. It's the new "Character will remember this".

I'm brute forcing my way through this game because I need to find out if Varric is actually a ghost, or if the characters only act as if he's dead because the game's development was so troubled and he was supposed to be but they changed their mind last minute.

[thewardenisonthecase]

Dragon Age Masterlist

Alistair (DAO)

Thank you for caring - Alistair x F!Cousland

Buddy - Alistair x F!Cousland + Dog

After the Archdemon is Slain - Alistair x F!Cousland

Stars - Alistair x F!Cousland

Ungrateful / part 2 - King Alistair x Queen Cousland

Four Years - Alistair x F!Cousland

Wish You Were Here - Alistair x F!Cousland

Fenris (DA2)

Festis bei umo canavarum - Fenris x F!Hawke - part 1 / part 2

To have you in my arms again - Fenris x F!Hawke

Solas (DAI)

Change your mind - Solas/F!Adaar

Names - Solas/F!Adaar

Lucanis Dellamorte (DATV)

Of Nightmares and Sleepless Nights - Lucanis x Grey Warden!Rook

Rest Easy / Early Morning - Lucanis x Grey Warden!Rook

Moments in Between - chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / chapter 4 / chapter 5 / chapter 6 / chapter 7 (final)- Lucanis x Grey Warden!Rook

Honey and Lavender - Lucanis x Grey Warden!Rook

Lucanis Drabble/Ficlet

Free me - Lucanis x Grey Warden!Rook

Third Book Club Meeting - Lucanis x Warden!Rook (Dawn Thorne)

Knives - Lucanis x Warden!Rook (Dawn Thorne)

Burden - Lucanis x Dawn Thorne

Family - Lucanis character study

14 Days of Circle Mages (character study fic on my rook, Dawn Thorne)

Upbringing/Arrival/Phylactery

Weathering the Storm (Veilguard Fix-it Fic)

Chapter 1: Before the Storm

Chapter 2: The Storm Hits

[elkattacks]

With the new Dragon Age coming out, this is the first time I've ever paid attention to a game launch before. I didn't play Origins until 2016 and then didn't play Inquisition until 2021. But once I did I was hooked.. absolutely pulled in, no looking back, try to learn all the things!

So with the recent Game Informer article seemingly spoiling a couple pretty big story points, I wondered.. what did GI have to say about Origins? I bought a copy of the November 2008 edition off of Ebay (yes, I prefer physical media) to check it out.

The article starts off noting that DA was "announced over four years ago" (so, 2004?) And then re-emerged in 2008 with the new name added "Origins". Interesting!

The article goes into some detail on a Mage background origin playthrough and goes right up to the plot point that you'll eventually become a Grey Warden, and then that the battle at Ostagar starts, goes awry, and that King Cailan is grabbed by an ogre. They go on to say that they won't tell you the result of that. So that's some somewhat big spoilers for the setup of the game up till maybe 5-6 hours in?

It also has an interesting note that "the development team prototyped the entire story using the Neverwinter Nights engine" not all the gameplay but the plot, dialoge, and quests- neat!

The article doesn't share anything about companions other than they exist, some might be surprises, you might not get all of them, some will disagree with your actions and/or each other and there will be banter and a "camp" to go back to.

It then gets into some gameplay mechanics- pausing, tactical fighting, how much you can let your companion do their own fighting.

And finishes talking about how the game is providing "an extensive toolset that allows you to make your own adventures and share them with the community". Is that true though? I've seen plenty of people doing mods for better hair/skintone and cosmetic things but did people actually create adventures- I'm guessing fights or scenarios to go through? I haven't heard of that but I've really only been in the fandom since 2021.

I'm pretty interested to see now exactly how much the GI article spoiled of DA4 and what they're not telling us! Fall 2024 is so far away..