#the Dellamorte boys were written back then

[jynxeddraca]

Post-Game Headcanons/story idea for my Veilguard Universe

Just a non-exhaustive list of headcanons for my "canon" universe that may or may not ever get written down in story form. Focus on Rook, Lucanis, and the Crows because them navigating their relationship after everything has been my hyperfixation. As a note, Rook is Zea Aldwir - a Dalish mage Veil Jumper.

General stuff:

The Veilguard was a name given to their group by their allies and became it's own organization after the end of the game with each faction sending volunteers to the Lighthouse where the Veilguard is still based at - though because of the events in Minrathous much of the organization is made up of the remaining Shadow Dragons and Thread members.

Pretty quickly, the various factions' volunteers are really more about making their factions look good rather than any real desire to provide aid.

I'm thinking that the OG Veilguard have alternating 'shifts' at the Lighthouse post-game but will all show up if needed for something.

Neve is in charge of the Veilguard when Rook isn't around and part of that is because she pretty much lives at the Lighthouse.

There is a week or two between the big final battle in Minrathous where loose ends are wrapped up and when everyone "goes home".

Lace and Taash go to Rivain together, though Lace travels to Kal-Sharok often for Titan related things - so they're gone for long stints at a time.

Bellara goes back and forth pretty regularly between Arlathan and the Lighthouse.

Neve absolutely keeps Bellara up-to-date on drama-filled serials from Tevinter.

Emmrich resumes Mourn Watcher duties and his teaching position in Nevarra, but visits Strife in Arlathan regularly. He and Bellara see each other quite often as a by-product.

Lucanis asks Rook to come back to Treviso with him and she agrees.

Lucanis spends most of his time post-game in Treviso juggling all his new responsibilities, relationship, and family drama.

Rook spends an equal amount of time between Treviso, Arlathan, and the Lighthouse.

Things that would be included in this post-game story - in no particular order - if I ever find the spoons/motivation to write it:

During the time between the big battle and going home, Lucanis does move out of the pantry and into the meditation room with Rook (the room creates a curtained off alcove with a bed) because the pantry at the Lighthouse gets too busy for him to be comfortable sleeping there anymore.

Illario finds out Lucanis was sleeping in the pantry for months and absolutely gives his cousin shit about it.

At some point Illario will also find out about the 'Pantry Scene' and not only gives Lucanis shit about it, but vows that it will be a story told at the wedding if he ever marries Rook.

The Caretaker does like the bustle at the Lighthouse, but will not allow anyone in that is planning on causing mischief and has all but said this. I feel there are a couple of incidents that eventually crop up about this.

Rook's family is aware that Lucanis is a Crow, probably also that he is an abomination - because of gossip from the Veil Jumpers - and there are Opinions™ about that even though he did help Rook save them from being sacrificed.

Important to note that in-game Lucanis mentions that he and Illario do not live in House Dellamorte, having moved out when they were old enough to. I like to think they have a place they share, probably a small villa so they can live on opposite wings and have some privacy.

Illario has probably been staying with Viago and/or Teia after his failed coup and - even though he isn't imprisoned in my canon - he is essentially under house arrest, forced to do paper work, but post-game moves back to his home with Lucanis and now Rook.

Caterina is Not Happy™ that Lucanis invited Rook to live with him. She doesn't dislike Rook, but she thinks Lucanis is making a poor decision, showing weaknesses, thinks Rook won't accept much of how Crows operate leading to influencing Lucanis to be dangerously soft.

Caterina would rather Lucanis get involved with another Crow.

Speaking of other Crows - there is this ballsy De Riva that has been away for a while that Rook finally meets. Her name is Lilya, she's Viago's protege, and she has beef with Illario.

Lucanis and Caterina have very different opinions on how to run the house and Lucanis shocks Illario by actually standing up to Caterina for once.

Rook sees how Caterina treats both Lucanis and Illario, starts to have Opinions™ about it, and accidentally causes some friction when she points out to Caterina that Illario is not half as incompetent as she likes to say he is.

I'm not saying that Illario develops a crush on Rook, but I'm not not saying Illario develops a crush either.

There is 100% invitations not only to a Crow "yay the world is saved" party but also one from the King to Rook (after hearing that she may be in town) to a celebratory ball for saving Antiva.

This is how Rook learns Viago is related to the King, realizes she has zero idea how the Antivan government works, and gets a crash course in fancy etiquette. Also Teia kidnaps her to go shopping.

At some point there's a midnight assassination attempt on Rook and the Dellamortes. Bonus if it happens in House Dellamorte and Caterina sees Rook in nothing but one of Lucanis's shirts after they deal with all the would-be assassins.

At some point, it is revealed that the pin/brooch Illario is wearing is from Zara and uses the fragment of a trapped Envy demon to give Illario the ability to use blood magic - the more Illario uses it, the stronger the grip of the demon with the end goal being it bonding with him and Zara would finally get her Envy demon.

Except Illario used it very sparingly (a whole twice - both on Lucanis) because he trusted Zara like he trusts a goblet of poison and it doesn't get enough power for anyone to clock it for what it is until after the events of Veilguard.

Speaking of Illario and demons: he has mixed feelings on Spite because of things like a Chantry culture upbringing, the fact Lucanis was supposed to be dead (how do I know this really is Lucanis?), Spite trying to kill him, etc. However, Spite is also the reason that Lucanis not only survived the Ossuary, not only was able to come home, but also why Lucanis was able to help Rook kill gods ultimately saving his home. Most importantly: Without Spite, Rook never would have been able to save Lucanis from himself.

Illario may be just as emotionally constipated and allergic to true feelings as Caterina is, but he is actually incredibly relieved and happy that Lucanis is home - safe, happy, acting more like how he used to, and is finally refusing to let Caterina use him as her puppet (even though it pisses Illario off so much that it happened because of Rook and not him).

An aside, Illario knows how to charm people and this apparently, eventually, extends to demons - so Illario and Spite oscillate between acting like feral cats being forced to share territory and being reluctantly friendly with each other.

Do I have any kind of plan or ending decided for this story? Nope. Am I just running off of vibes for the time being? Yes. Do I think I could do justice to some of the things here? Not really.

Especially the dynamics between all the Dellamortes. Because they're all so horribly traumatized by things outside their control - as well as a non-zero amount of fucked up directly because of each other - and it has made all three of them so incredibly allergic to having an honest conversation with each other. Spite does not have any skill or ability to help the situation and tends to just be spiteful, Teia and Viago are Crows and have the view of 'Dellamortes will be Dellamortes', leaving Rook to be the one playing emotional referee and calling out bullshit as she sees it. But Rook is not a therapist, she would fully step on toes, and she would be watching all of their drama without a clue as to how to help while also getting a crash course in Crow politics, Antivan politics, and city life (because she's Dalish, she's never lived in a city, she has no idea how shit works).

[dellamortethelesser]

The Wigmaker Job

Notes and Thoughts - Part 1

pt1 | pt2 | pt3 | pt4 | pt5 | pt6 | pt7 (FINAL)

This quickly grew out of hand so this is only covering the first scene lol. This is my attempt to organize my thoughts nearly line-by-line as I go through and analyze the relationship between Lucanis and Illario. These are my personal opinions and I'm open to discussion about any points I present here.

From the first time we are introduced to Illario from Lucanis's perspective, it is… almost derogatory? (dressed how an Antivan would think a Vint would dress). i thought you trusted him to handle this job at a party?

"it's a job" / "a party at a job" / "any excuse to primp" ← This back and forth feels natural between siblings (or those who have a sibling relationship) but with wider context feels… a little icky

Already, Illario is disparaging himself in relation to Lucanis ("Only 'the Great Lucanis Dellamorte' could refuse a summons from the First Talon") and even he says he's only here because Lucanis asked him to be. why bring him if you ostensibly don't trust him to handle the job? Lucanis's inner pov is different from how he speaks to and acts with Illario.

of course Illario is generally thick-skinned until it comes to Caterina. so are you. she's abused you both and treats Illario undoubtedly worse because he's not the favorite.

re: Caterina's abuse as listed. no food or water. beat them with her cane until their backs were scarred for 'letting their guard down' or 'fumbling footwork'. Lucanis says she "beat into him his commitment to his contracts" (re: veilguard banter where he didn't kill that 14 year old. lying? or proof of further favoritism?)

"For years, he'd hated her…" and then goes on to say that he'd learned that her cruelty was her way of ensuring their survival. Notably this isn't forgiveness but an acknowledgment of what she'd done and how it benefited them as assassins, which I would argue that it did. Child abuse is bad but I think she did prepare them both for the world they were being raised into as assassins.

"Beneath the bitterness in Illario's tone was something rotten." ← KEY LINE TO ME. Why point out how rotten it is unless he… already suspected Illario's resentment? Jealousy? He can identify the bitterness bc Caterina won't step aside, but also. ROTTEN.

"your time will come" / "will it?" ← Lucanis watching Illario watch him in the mirror. Really interesting moment because this is where Illario reminds him that Lucanis is the favorite. Lucanis goes on to say that he KNOWS this and has HEARD the rumors and still tries to assure Illario that his time would come.

"So, if she named you heir to House Dellamorte, you'd refuse?" ← really interesting thing to note here is that Illario is asking about being named as HEIR. Lucanis doesn't answer, they're interrupted, but "heir" doesn't hold the same weight as 'first talon".

they're not arguing who gets the role, they're arguing over who is even in line for it? so you mean to tell me that Caterina has been stringing them along like this… the whole time? Just name a fucking heir for fucks sake. the older one at least! if this was set up from childhood there would be way less room for jealousy and competition, or it would at least be clear WHO would be in line.. that being said I do believe she either did this on purpose. There's just no other excuse. Caterina what if you died the next day. they'd still have to fucking fight it out! (or maybe Lucanis would finally feel brave enough to absolve himself).

maybe that's it though? it's a test right? this whole fucking thing…. man.

"Illario's pretty-boy mask slipped as a coldness flooded his features." ← would have loved to see more of this in Veilguard. Regardless of whether you think Illario's writing is consistent between the books and the game, you're kidding yourself if you tell me he wasn't written operatically obvious in Veilguard. here there is more of a level of calculation and concealment? unless you want me to believe that his behavior was obvious to everyone except Lucanis… not discounting that reading of their relationship, just disagreeing with it personally.

Skipping ahead in to the fight scene, we see that Lucanis is living up to his name as the Mage-Killer as he pretty handily dispatches their assailant. Illario takes on more of the charmer role, tying up the mage—but then Lucanis immediately kills him. Why even let Illario do all of that work if you're just going to kill him?!

He even comments on it. "If I'd known you were just going to kill him, I wouldn't've put so much effort into the knots." ← Lucanis tells him after this to check his pockets and finds a note that does, admittedly, reveal the Venatori allegiance. That being said… you still could've killed him and got the same note. Unless it was just because he was a mage? But he was already dazed at that point. Why waste the time?! It's so maddening. This is the first of many instances where Lucanis sort of… bulldozes over Illario.

As Lucanis is removing the blade—"Careful, remember the tanner job? You ruined my best shirt." Kind of prissy behavior (Illario takes two steps back away from the blood), but when his cousin protests, Lucanis just… smirks and continues to extract the blade. If I'm reading this generously it could be simple sibling-esque banter, but Lucanis is not the sort to be readily endearing himself to Illario at any point.

Illario remarks that the Venatori's fanaticism re: nationalism and theology regarding the Black City isn't "worth it" (so he doesn't like the Venatori much either, mark that down?).

Lucanis says that it's because Illario isn't "a true believer—except when it comes to coin". My first thought is to think of Zara Renata's corpse conversation in Veilguard when she remarks that what Illario wanted, he wanted more than power, family, coin, etc etc.

So Lucanis's perception is that Illario is the sort of man who'd do anything for money (as the House of Crows is KNOWN TO DO, YOU KILL PEOPLE. FOR MONEY), and it matches up with his opinions previously established in regards to Illario's dress, motivations, mannerisms, etc. That Illario is… kind of a pretty-boy charmer who is only worried about coin and good clothes.

Hm. All bodes well on the Cain & Abel front.

RE: the true believer statement. Worth pointing out that the House of Crows was first established by Andrastian monks in the hills outside of Treviso; they assassinated a duke. Would love to have learned more as to whether there was more religious influences in the guild at any point.

Quotes are either paraphrased or taken directly from The Wigmaker Job, written by Courtney Woods.

[aeneia-art]

I have an uncomfortable and very personal connection to Lucanis, Illario & Caterina's (and Taash & Shathan relationship tbh, they're honestly a flip side of the same trauma) family dynamic, and it's sadly "neurospicey with high expectation caretaker (that is tbh, also Neurospicey)" that I want to shed a bunch of headcanons that I don't see brought up but OH BOY, I KNOW SOME THINGS.

It's unfortunately the "woman who lost all her children and now there is just one survivor" because my mother had six kids before me, they all died in infancy or early childhood, and there are things that I just feel about their upbringing. Bonus, my mother is Italian-Australian, if you want that extra cultural relevance I guess. But it made me very much appreciate their writing of her - because I recognised that hollowed out woman so well that watching her felt like a gut punch of familiarity.

SLAPPING A BIG OLD WARNING ON THIS AND UNDER A CUT because yeah, a lot of discussions of child death, intergenerational trauma, child abuse and family trauma. Seriously please mind those warnings!!

( and if you read these and go... OP are you okay,,,,?? its okay, I am told its called "intergenerational trauma"! and the therapist gave me pills about it! I kid, but also - yes i do therapy about it, don't sweat it, I also find these things kind of therapeutic because instead of just having these life experience rolling around I can use them to help others write good or understand character beats that might not be apparent straight away and honestly this kind of trauma is not written often or well, which is far more frustrating and upsetting, because often there is a lot of shame around failed motherhood, but also no one ever wants to talk about what its like to have dead children. Even if high infant mortality rates and loss of even up to age 15 children has dominated much of human history, but outside of horror movies, it's seldom actually discussed what that does to a family or the women involved over the long term. Weirdly outside of horror I can find it more readily about men than I can about women. )

Illario and Lucanis are often called the wrong name as children, when they are children especially, but even sometimes into adulthood. The exhausted moments when Caterina turns to Lucanis and goes "Giovanni, go get your brother." Then she stops, he stops, and then just get on with it.

The correction at them in training: "Maria- how many times have I told you not to-" then she swallows, their child eyes stare up, Illario wants to ask, Lucanis jerks his head to stop. Caterina swallows and taps a foot back into position.

They do things sometimes, training, talking, and especially gesturing, that Caterina's eyes just close and a pain falls over her face and there is no asking what it's about, but its clear, for a moment, just one or two, they were the same: they moved the same, acted the same, and the times and places blur.

Lucanis and Illario grow up without a sense of ever being completely alone in any room, especially when Caterina is present. The are ghosts in House Dellamorte, they do not know them particularly, but they know they wear their faces often.

There are anniversaries that they do not understand the importance of, moments that for some reason they will never be privy too, they must be present. They will seem sometimes so innocuous and unimportant, no one ELSE around them will ever understand it, but they know they can never miss it.

My immigrant kids will know this one well, but over protective parenting? It's turned up to 11. Imagine every stereotype about Asian / Eastern European / African / Latino / Mediterranean parents, but on HIGH BLAST. It's more akin to stories I have heard about parents who had to live through a war-zone and what their kids grow up with. You can't go anywhere, do anything, say anything, no one outside of your family is to be trusted. Friends? Keep them at arm's length, if they're allowed at all. Activities are limited to what can be supervised. And what's worse? There is no arguing that it's just them being paranoid. The proof is there. It happened. There is no saying that it's anxiety, it's over the top, because the worst has happened and they know it. You can't say it's "just paranoia talking" because it happened over, and over, and over again.

They wake up with Caterina walking in to check their breathing. I am 30+. My mother still does this, and every time I hear her take a relieved breathe. Life will never be taken for granted. Survival will never be taken for granted. She checks on them constantly, and it probably felt strange and spooky to feel her hovering as a child, but some point around 16, it probably started to make sense.

As children, they want to ask, they need to understand, they want to know why they have to live this way when others don't. It's frustrating too because others seem to know all the details when they don't and they're fed it in pieces. Then by adulthood, they understand and the pain is theirs too, now, whether they wanted it or not.

Teia must have been a breathe of fresh air to the entire household when she visited, the soul person that can banish the ghosts. Because Teia is an elf, there can be no confusing her for any of the other children, some confused creeping despair. She's Teia and she's only Teia, and it's probably in part why Caterina enjoys her company, because she's clearly no afraid of the old woman, but that there can be no mistaking there here and now of it.

Speaking of creeping despair: probably thank the Maker there are no mages in the family, if demons are born out of human emotion twisted??? What in the fuck must the Fade look like just the other side of House Dellamorte? IT'S A GOOD THING NO ONE IN THE FAMILY CAN GET POSSESSED RIGHT [stares directly into the camera like the Office]

The long nights of despair are palpable when alone in House Dellamorte after the servants are gone to bed and Illario and Lucanis sit doing study nearby. They watch her at times stare into the hollow depths, and at times when conversations veer about survival, choices, making assessments, she speaks candidly of crawling out of that place with her own two hands, not for pity, but on how one learns to live and go on. She says it's that or death, Illario asks if that means because the enemies of House Dellamorte will kill them? She says no and leaves it at that. They only realise in adulthood how often their grandmother sits and contemplates death, and not from another assassin's blade. It is only that it is completely unacceptable for her to ever give up that made her drag herself out. It's not grand declaration, it is a simple contemplation, she'd never want your pity. Even if therapists did exist in Thedas, what would they even say? Or do? There aren't enough therapists and drugs in the world. Everyone understands that no parent should bury their child, but to do it over and over and over? After awhile, there is only the quiet shuffling and exhaustion.

Of course Lucanis attracted a Spirit of Determination that became a Spirit of Spite, that is exactly what he has had shaped to him. Welcome to the other side of despair. Welcome to how you live through the worst days of your life. The first funerals of the Dellamorte House were probably the typical big wailing Mediterranean-type funerals. You scream, you cry, your rip your hair, you throw yourself at the coffin and wail. She thinks there is nothing worse in the world, and then - she finds out - there is worse. The last Dellamorte funerals are silent. There is no more grief to tear out. What is left is only determination, only resilience, only spite that drives the will to go on.

Likewise, it doesn't surprise me that he could calm himself even in the depths of torture, to make a deal with Spite. The Ossuary was hell, shut off and shut down as he says. But he and his family are a long won lesson on survival even when survival cannot feel worth it, anymore, a test of endurance that not even Zara would be able to scratch the surface of. When submission to pain would be so much easier. That is a resilience that didn't come from Caterina's torture, it comes from growing up in a graveyard that ebbs around you, that everyone sees when they look at you, and yet finding a way through, for good and bad. Perhaps not even well, but they have, they did, they continue to do so.

Caterina is past grief and it makes the woman before and the woman afterward, like two seperate lives. Which makes it so odd for Lucanis and Illario when... you know that moment when you find out that your parents were whole people that did wild shit before you ever existed that have just been sitting in the back? It's like that but worse. They hear stories and learn deeds, and it's hearing about a completely different person. Caterina that other people remember likely used to smile, and laugh, danced, did hijinks. They find old letters, portraits, commemorations, to this woman that seems to be as much as a ghost as all the other dead aunts and uncles. They have been robbed, not just of their family, and yes a peaceful childhood, but of that woman who could have been Nonnina, and now is just La Signora Dellamorte.

The apple never falls far from the tree, and I imagine that Caterina-before-the-deaths was some split of Lucanis and Illario. Which comes to something that I am sure might be contentious because I imagine it's hard to hear and see for someone who became so outright abusive as Caterina was to her grandchildren when we all love the boys dearly, but in a game about how good intentions and the best wishes and parts of us can be twisted I feel this isn't a far leap. You think you end up with five kids for someone as savvy as she was because she was an unpassionate, unloving woman? She was likely as fierce and devoted and passionate as the boys are now. (Which if you think all of this is to excuse her abuse, no, being broken by the world does give excuses to visit upon the next generation, that is the big difference between my mother and Caterina, my mother took her grief and shoved it fiercely into reminding me every day that I am loved). I understand it's easy to say abusers just woke up mean one day to hate the world, but the reality is probably way muddier than that, as often is in Dragon Age especially, this is a world where everyone has reasons they became what they are, and often did not start that way - and I think the unfortunate truth is that Caterina was once like Lucanis and Illario: passionate, driven, full of life and interest, hope and ambition to be the best she could be, and never dreamed of what it would all become.

So, yes, if you want to know what Illario and Lucanis look like after they have been actually, truly, soul-crushingly broken in a way that can never be repaired, look no further than Caterina. You can already see the shades of it in the Hardened Lucanis run, he turns himself away from remorse, redemption, love. The way Illario is trying to goad Lucanis into killing him. There but for the grace of the Maker, go her grandsons.

In that vein, I suspect she saw the traits that failed her most in Illario, and the ones that helped her survive in Lucanis, which in part lead to the divide in her treatment of the two of them.

There is probably some moment when someone is an edgelord at her, as dramatic mediterraneans are wont to do, spouted off about torture and pain and suffering. Caterina probably laughed in their face about it. It has big "you cannot hurt me in any way that matters" and "you can't hate me more than I hate myself" energy. She has stared into the abyss, she knows the darkest parts of herself, and some rat thinks they can frighten her back?

The only threat that hangs is someone hurting Illario and Lucanis. Nothing is too far, nothing is too much, when it comes to protecting what she has left. Caterina is both impassive to them, unknowable at times, frustrating at others, but then she throws down in broad daylight even as she enters true old age. I shudder to think about the torture she now inflicts in the name of her family.

[earthfire-75]

Title: Fel'vilise

Genre/fandom: Dragon Age: The Veilguard (video game)

Pairing: none, as such, it's an introduction to my de Riva Rook character, working out a backstory (and yes, I do plan on romancing Lucanis Dellamorte.)

Warnings: none. Trying to avoid spoilers for anyone who doesn't want them. Shitty writing, maybe? Very short. Written pre-release

So, they need a mage-killer. Rook knows of one, a very skilled assassin. She stands by the fireplace, staring into the flames, remembering…

*One day she and the other children from the orphanage were playing just outside. She had separated herself from the others, drawing symbols into the dirt with a stick. Ancient symbols she couldn't quite remember how she had learned. She had to be careful not to let anyone see or she’d get into trouble again. The last time the marm had caught her, the woman had threatened to turn her over to theTemplars on principle.

She was unaware, however, that someone was already watching her. Shortly, she heard a name being called, but since it wasn't hers, she ignored it, until suddenly, closer than she expected.

“Lucanis!” An old woman called up to a nearby tree.

She had looked up then, seeing a lanky boy drop from the branches of the tree. “I told you to stay by my side, did I not?” The woman scolded.

The boy glanced at her before looking up at the older woman. “Sorry, Grandmother.”

The old woman shook her head in exasperation. “Well, at least tell me what has pulled you from my side, dear boy.”

The boy, Lucanis, glanced her way once more, and this time the older woman followed his line of sight.

“Ah, I see. You have always an eye for pretty things, Lucanis. But be careful, pretty things can also be dangerous. Still, let us have a closer look, hmm?”

Before she had a chance to react, the marm was next to her, none too happy. “What did I tell you would happen if I caught you drawing those, those…things again?!”

A metal tipped cane tapping hard against stone stopped the marm in her tracks.

“I am sure whatever punishments you have in mind for the girl is…unnecessary. I will take her off your hands” when the old woman saw the marm’s hesitation, she added, “Name your price.”

Once gold had exchanged hands, the old woman beckoned her to follow. “ What is your name, child?”

“Fel’vilise,” she had answered.

“Passionate spirit”, it was the boy who had spoken, showing off his knowledge of Elvahn. Her bright, iridescent green eyes widened at that.

“I am Lucanis”, he said, taking her hand in his and kissing the back of it, just above the knuckles, as he had been taught. “This is my Grandmother”*

“Rook?” Bellara calls, bringing her out of her memories.

“I will send word to the Crows. If anyone knows anything about our mage killer, it will be Catarina Dellamorte.”