#this is canon actually bioware told me

[marictheirins]

" this should have been merrill " argument is so fuck annoying. yeah lets do that, lets take merrill give her to flemeth to be mentally & physically abused, manipulated, groomed, & ultimately made hollow to become the next vessel of mythal. this shouldnt have happened to morrigan, why are we wishing it on merrill. morrigan did the due diligence to learn about elvhenan history from keepers all over thedas, was raised directly by mythal, & has dedicated more of her life to the same studies that led merrill to be tricked by a demon & then she of her own volition instead of making up for her mistakes just straight up leaves her clan then wistfully acts as if she has no family or friends & is so unloved & unworthy boo hoo its horrible. she turned away from her own people in favor of a mirror she doesnt even unlock. ultimately it doesnt matter who is better suited because my bottom line point is can we stop this argument every goddamn game of which woman should we throw under the bus because its supposedly the better choice because ougvbbh human vs elf the human shouldnt be here despite the context behind her character, the elf is always better choice.

[qunaricatnip]

thinking thoughts about anora being the “real power behind the throne” and why I don’t particularly vibe with that bit of canon

[queen-beefcake-sqx]

you know, I’m about 30 hours in — almost to the end of Act 1 — and I think I’ve finally pinpointed what’s been really bothering me about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Light spoilers up to end(ish) of Act 1 below.

A little after I got Davrin and dealt with the Minathros vs. Treviso dilemma, I told my gf that this game was a fun RPG, but it didn’t feel like a Dragon Age game and I was having a hard time pinpointing what it was, because there are a lot of things I really love or understand about design-wise why certain choices were made.

The battle system is fun and dynamic, and I find myself switching my builds often when I’m stuck on a fight. The accessibility options have been great for my and my gf’s needs, including the difficulty scalers. I love the return to DA2 style maps except like, even better? The verticality is INSANE and the various environmental puzzles feel like the right amount of difficulty. I enjoy the characters and their interactions (mostly, more on that in a second).

And I understand the decision not to carry over EVERY SINGLE CHOICE since DA:O, and I actually think it’s smart to use a system that carries over specific choices — although I think they could have done more — and my gf even suggested the brilliant idea of a future DLC model that has you pick certain DLC-specific past choices that flesh out the impact of past choices as DLC. Which I think is a brilliant option for combating choice creep, because let me tell you — it becomes a LOT of writing and alternative dialogue lines for things that ultimately don’t have to have a direct impact on Rook, and I’d rather not have to feel the urge to set three games worth of choices every time I do a run.

And I can even handle either a little handwaving or just outright rewriting some past canon to make certain choices all wind up with a consistent outcome. I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan! I’m used to it!!! Whatever.

But it finally hit me what IS bugging me — DA:TV is the most sanitized, depoliticalized Dragon Age ever. It’s like Bioware read all the criticism of DA:I’s plot and the choice to make the Elvhen gods slavers over their own people and went, “Oh people didn’t like that, so we’ll stop doing that. We won’t mention the Antivan Crow’s history of training child slave soldiers, we’ll relegate the social discrimination toward the elves to a single Davrin line, children aren’t ripped from their parents under the Qun, and we’re going to show you all these ~*vaguely bad groups*~ without really giving any context of what makes them so truly awful. You’ll get the idea, because your groups are the good guys and the Big Damn Heroes.”

And I’m over here slamming my hands on the table shouting NO! It wasn’t that we didn’t want the politicized stuff! We wanted you to do it better! We wanted to feel conflicted working with the Antivan Crows, needing their network but despising their methods! We wanted to see the roots of an uprising in Minrathos lead by the escaped elves with Magisters like Dorian on the inside! We wanted false gods who could be slain to return the Elvhen parthenon, the gods the elves had always worshipped, but who had been prisoned and replaced — we wanted to find how much of Solas’s tales were truths versus lies! We wanted a goddamn nuanced look at the non-soldiers within the Qun, the ones who truly feel at peace knowing they have a purpose!!!

Not knowing what��s happening is an intentional choice, because if they spelled it out — set the conflicts within the larger geopolitical tensions that have brewed over three games — they’d have to acknowledge a long series of questionable narrative choices the games and supplemental material have made in the past. And from where I’m sitting, it looks like they chose to ignore and handwave 90% of it instead of actually wrestling with it and trying to bring some nuance to it. And that’s just disappointing.

[hellslayersomething]

thoughts on all the DA4 news this past week, from a tired old veteran who's been wandering the bloodied plains of the DA fandom since Origins' release:

I still don't believe that this game actually exists and won't until it's in my hand, in my PS5, I've clocked 50 hours, and I hit credits.

After the news came out that there were 7 companions, I told a friend I would need a solid 4/7 of them to be pre-existing characters in the canon. Harding, Neve, Lucanis, and Emmerich put it at exactly that number, so good show there.

The "Hero Shooter" character reveal trailer was a massive mistake. BioWare and the influencers they're paying had to spend the past two days doing frantic PR to convince people that the game doesn't actually look like that, it's not indicative of the game's tone, it definitely feels like Tevinter Nights and not Fortnite, and it's not a fee-to-pay live service game. They should have led with the gameplay video.

All of the people freaking out about Lucanis being labelled a "Mage Killer" just goes to show that DA discourse truly is a circle. (Also, read "The Wigmaker Job", it's so good.)

The dialogue suuuuucks. Wow, it's been a while since I've encountered a game that respects its audience's intelligence this little. [Earthquake] Harding: "The tremors are getting worse!" [demons show up] Neve: "And we've got demons!" Is BioWare expecting the core player base to consist of people who have never encountered media before? The extent to which the game over-exposits is quite actually mind boggling. I'm genuinely curious if there's anyone who watched this video who didn't come out of it feeling insulted by the game's lack of trust that you have basic cause-and-effect recognition skills. I know people like to bandy about "media literacy is dead", but surely it hasn't gotten so bad that players need to be told out loud "Watch out for lightning" when a boss shoots lightning at them. I'm hoping this was just included for the sake of the gameplay video, but several of these very bad lines seem pretty integral to what's happening on screen, so I guess we'll see.

The dialogue and voicing for the trash mobs is especially bad. I hate to say the word, but I truly think "cringe" is applicable here.

Nice FFXIV reference. (Listen, if this game is going to play follow-the-leader with any one other game, since apparently DA can't get away from that habit, FFXIV is the one I'd want them to chase. Certainly a better fit than Overwatch.)

The battle system seems fine. Reminds me of DA2's, which was perfectly cromulent. Sincerely, I don't expect deeply satisfying gameplay from DA, they've never delivered it before, no need to start now. Passable is fine.

Happy to see the DA2 dialogue wheel return too. Hope that means the invisible personality system comes along with it.

No rivalry system :( Again :(((((

Seriously though, the marketing for this game is a massive mess and their marketing lead should probably be out of the job. All of the news from this week has led to increased confusion about what the game is, what it's called, whether it is DA4 or not, whether it's a single player RPG or not, whether it's an effective franchise reboot or not--and they're all but shadow-dropping it (theoretically) after 10 full years of releasing no other Dragon Age games. This franchise has close to no momentum (many people considered it outright dead until this week), and now that they're ready to start actually talking about DA4, they've completely stumbled out of the gate and given themselves only 3-6 months to come up with a PR plan to correct for that. Embarrassing, frankly.

I guess that's it. The new gameplay video has returned my mood on DA4 from "absolutely the fuck not" after the character reveal video back to a resounding "I nothing this game", which is...actually maybe a worse place for me to be. The last time I went into game feeling a hollow nothing from the promotional materials, it was FFXVI, and we all know how that turned out for me. Anyway, in conclusion:

[bluerose5]

Okay, different anon, but the thing about Zev (and Fenris) being in their 20's-30's has so much angst potential. Like, they age like humans. All of the other elves at the camp don't. They would probably just assume that the Thedas elves live for as long as they do, because why wouldn't they? And then they find out how young their otherworldly friends are. And that they're both considered to be adults, and will die so much sooner than the other party members assumed...

Alright, let me preface the post with an author's note and apologize to anon in advance because this is about to be a long one. I made a note of this topic last night before I went to bed with the intention of continuing it, so a very brief, one sentence synopsis was already saved in my drafts on tumblr when I got this ask, which was very convenient timing. One thing I want to address from the beginning is that a lot of this headcanon is going to reference the Codex Entry: Arlathan: Part One. I know fandom wiki is not to everyone's tastes, so I will not be linking it, but it was the source that I used for now. I agree that there is a lot of angst potential in a BG3/DA crossover with the differences in elven lifespans, but what if I told you that our beloved elves from Thedas might actually live longer in Faerûn? Here's where I take Bioware's canon and twist it into headcanon. I take my crack seriously if you can't tell. Bear with me, though, I'll make my way back around to Zevran and Fenris eventually.

First things first, in order to understand elven aging in Thedas, one must understand the phenomenon known as "the quickening." Unfortunately for us, though, not much really seems to be known about it. The term itself is used to label the effect of elves aging faster around other races, namely humans; however, a couple of issues arise when we examine the source of the codex.

Issue number one: bias. It is important to examine works in the context that they are written in. Now, there is much to be admired about the Dalish and their pursuit to preserve their culture and history in a setting that is ultimately against them, but this does not make their perspective infallible. The codex is told by a Dalish Keeper, according to the excerpt, in study of their ancestors. From that, we can already assume that some level of bias is introduced, given that there are groups of both the Dalish and the ancient Elvhen that take issue with humans and/or think they are inferior. If that is not convincing enough, take a look at the negative connotations when referring to humans in the text. They are "pitiful creatures". They are "brash and warlike". They have "no patience" when compared to "elven diplomacy".

Taking a look at these biases gives way to issue number two. There is no objective standpoint that addresses how and why quickening happens to elves. It is mentioned that more elves die of natural causes, such as those exposed to new diseases that the humans introduced to their people, but there isn't much explanation as to why others started experiencing shorter lifespans around humans. A lot of the answers from the elven perspective seem to boil down to the idea that elves were "tainted" by how impatient and short-lived humanity was, or that they were deemed unworthy of longer lives by their gods and sentenced to stay among them. There is no scientific approach, no deconstruction of the process. The best explanation we get out of this is "humans bad," which isn't all that satisfactory in my opinion.

This leads me into my current theory and headcanon. The elves' lifespan in Thedas is intrinsically tied to their connection to magic, not their proximity to other races. This connection can be nurtured —and their lifespan expanded even more— through the use of additional measures, such as spells and rituals. There seems to be some uncertainty about whether the Dalish actually live longer than the city elves; although, if true, then this can lend further credence to the idea that magic is an essential factor, mostly because we were not given much reason to assume that the Dalish limits their number of mages until Inquisition. (Don't get me started on that.)

Because the thing is, some of those ancient elves were implied to live freely among the humans. They "bartered and negotiated" with them. They apparently interacted with said humans long enough for the quickening to take a noticeable effect. In my opinion, what happened was that some of these ancient elves who stayed with the humans found that they liked it there. Some might have decided to settle down for good with them. Some could have found a home, companionship, family. Whatever their reason may be, they left behind Elvhenan, which the very idea would have been blasphemous to others at the time, and they lived out their lives among the humans. Eventually, some of them let go of their connection to magic, to the spells and rituals, so that they could die alongside their loved ones when the time came. They were at rest. They were at peace.

When framed in this context —set aside the fact that Bioware decided to make an oppressed group the oppressors of old— one must realize that Elvhenan was an empire. It was ruled by an elite, slave-owning class. A group of elves, even if it was only a small group, living apart from their people and giving up such an intrinsic part of themselves would prove a threat to the status quo those in charge hoped to maintain. They couldn't let others defect, so what do they do? They spread these ideas that humans caused the quickening or that unworthy elves are cast out and die sooner because it keeps others in line. These were lies at best and fear mongering at worst. Eventually, Elvhenan isolated themselves in response, and that was that. The truth was hidden. Then, the Veil was created, and all elves were cut off from the Fade, from their most natural form of magic. That being the reason why their lives shortened once more.

All of this to say that, once Zevran and Fenris are in Faerûn, I headcanon that "the quickening" slows once more, thus giving them longer lifespans even though they're oblivious to that fact and think they're only going to live about as long as the average human. This is also in part why I headcanon that Fenris and Zevran can cast magic in Faerûn as well. Think of their existence as elves (from Thedas) as a magnet, and think of magic as its opposite pole. While in Thedas, their connection to the Fade —and by extension, magic— is interrupted because the Veil acts as a repelling force. A force that only mages can surpass.

Now, while in Faerûn, magic is in abundance. No longer is there a repelling force to interrupt the pull of the magnets towards each other. The Weave, for example, is a well of power that is more easily accessible, and its presence is similar enough to the magic in Thedas that it acts as another opposite pole for them. It's not something for them to think on. It simply is. The magnets click together, and both their magic and lifespan are restored by that connection.

Of course, if they were to return to Thedas, then so long as Solas hasn't fucked things up while they were gone they would presumably revert back to that previous state, but that's a whole other can of angsty worms. The inevitable question of whether or not a character in a crossover will return home, but we'll save that discussion for another day.

[omniblades-and-stars]

🍕 ❤️ 💚 🧠 for Korak and Crash pls I’m having a weird day and they’re comfort characters for me

I'll bring you the good stuff for our beloved saints Crash and Korak just for you Korbs.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Crash: I already answered this elsewhere, but now I am on my phone because I have to pretend to do my job, so I will copy it here.

"There is an elcor street food vendor on Omega that serves the best food out of a giant pot that Crash has ever tasted. She doesn't know what's in it (he must have told her a hundred times, but she's pretty sure it changes every time), but it's delicious."

Korak: OK, I made up a food one time and I can't even remember if I fucking named it because of who I am as a person. Basically, it's like a goulash, heavy on that one little snippet of world building Bioware gave us about there being a spice called ignac native to Khar'Shan, and full of all sorts of delightfully weird alien veggies. Korak is also quite fond of sukiyaki he's found.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Crash: I gave an answer for Crash already, but she's such a joyful person, let's hit you with another. (I am coming up with this off the dome by the way.)

There was a young turian kid living on Omega who she knew well because his family lived in the same building as she did and he was often left unattended (latch key kid sort of situation). One day he comes to her crying because he can't find his ragged little stuffed varren toy.

Well, she went looking for it and found it pretty easily, the little scamp had dropped it just outside and it had gotten kicked out of the footpath. But instead of just giving it right back to him, she set up a little adventure/mystery for him to go on with her to rescue his toy.

They went mucking through the jungles of Sur'Kesh (the back alley behind the mega-complex) but alas! He was not there! So they trudging through the deserts of Tuchanka (an abandoned lot in front of an empty warehouse) and broke into the crumbling ruins of the evil krogan warlord's secret base (the warehouse) where they had a very intense imaginary battle to rescue the stuffed animal. Burn took a nasty wound to the snout, but our little turian hero was there to save the day and patch him up!

The best thing about this story is that her little buddy grew up and got off the station before it dragged him down or killed him like it so often does for so many others.

Korak: The first Nos Astra sunrise that Korak saw when he and Aumellio left Omega behind together. It was a simple thing. They were staying in a cheap hotel, didn't even have a place to actually live yet, all of their possessions condensed into a few not very large boxes. But leaning against a balcony rail together, watching a new beginning literally light up before them.

Cheap hotel coffee tastes really good when there's hope on the horizon.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Crash: You know, it's an interesting thing to think about, how krogan perform gender. The examples we get canon-wise in game, krogan society is deeply gendered at least culturally. The women have their own clans, their own spiritual practices even. Crash rejected all of that. She left Tuchanka which it seems like not very many krogan women do. She wears armor and has no desire to live like the women on her homeworld do. But she still identifies as "female" for whatever that might mean. If we base all of what we know of krogan females on Urdnot Bakara, one might say she's gender non-conforming at the very least.

Though I suspect all of this is just another failure on Bioware's part to include non-cis-male aliens in their initial world building.

Crash is firmly asexual and aromantic. (She does however like romance stories but she won't tell you that.)

Korak: Korak is a cis dude, and he's very much a gay man. There's not a lot to elaborate on there, he's a pretty simple guy.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

Fuck how am I supposed to choose?

Crash: I think my favorite thing about Crash is how sure she is of herself and her joy. She made a conscious decision a very long time ago to live in a way that made her happy, made her feel fulfilled, and she does it with all of her hearts because she knows she's doing what she wanted all along.

Korak: My favorite thing about Korak is that he's actually a bit of a sweetheart and he's so lost trying to be a good dad, but goddammit he is giving it all he's got.

Plus he's kind of a hunk.

[crossdressingdeath]

Greagoir: And this one, newly a mage, and already flouting the rules of the Circle. Irving: I'm disappointed in you. You could have told me what you knew of this plan, and you didn't. Jowan: You don't care for the mages! You just bow to the Chantry's every whim! Tahel: Jowan, please don't make it worse. Greagoir: Enough! Greagoir: As knight-commander of the Templars here assembled, I sentence this blood mage to death. Greagoir: And this initiate has scorned the Chantry and her vows. Take her to Aeonar. Lily: The... The mages' prison. No... please, no. Not there! Jowan: No! I won't let you touch her!

It's fascinating to me how the Warden's presence is barely mentioned here. Greagoir and Irving acknowledge them just enough to make it clear that they know they're there and Jowan doesn't acknowledge their input at all. I would've liked a bit where... I don't know, maybe Jowan actively steps in front of them and makes himself the target as the person who dragged them into this mess to begin with? Greagoir and Irving try to excuse their presence, or alternately try to throw the lion's share of the blame on them? The whole thing with this incident is that it's a pissing contest between the Chantry and the Circle, and the First Enchanter's favourite apprentice assisting with it isn't deemed important? If nothing else you'd think the Templars would see them as a much bigger threat than Jowan, given again they're Irving's favourite apprentice and explicitly, canonically a magical prodigy! But... nope, they're just kinda there. Jowan even pretty clearly leaves them out of his protective blood magic; it's "I won't let you touch her", not "I won't let you touch them". Kind of wish that if one of them was getting left out it was Lily seeing as Jowan's known the Warden for over a decade and Lily for a few months...

Also: why is Lily being sent to Aeonar? She's not a mage. She doesn't belong there. Thedas does have normal prisons! This is never justified and it's always bothered me. Also like. the way Greagoir can sentence someone to death with no actual trial or any sort of procedure is... terrifying! Thank you for the reminder of how truly, unfalteringly horrific the Circles are, Bioware! Doesn't make DAI's retcons even worse in the slightest!

[villainanders]

You have a few posts about how Oramas arc is literally the same if you enslaved her or not and I wonder how would you rewrite it/her?

Oo this is a good question thank you! What really bothers me about Orana is that when working for Hawke she still doesn’t really seem to have any other choice or agency in what she wants to do, and while she could leave she’s been conditioned her whole life to not see that as an option. In my headcanon I always imagine Hawke trying their hardest to make it clear to her that she’s welcome to stay working for them as long as she wants, but she’s free to move on and they’ll do what they can to support her in finding what she wants to do.

In game I’m imagining this like.. after you hire Orana you can progressively click on her and continue talking with her at the estate, and just generally ask her questions about herself and her life and be supportive (probably with the option to be an asshole boss instead, which I imagine would stop this plotline from progressing). (I’m just now realizing how similar I think an Orana arc would kind of look like Zevran’s arc lmao, as wild as comparing those characters is, I think they’d be in very similar places of latching onto the player character because they’ve never really had agency before). And then if you’ve done that consistently then near the final half of Act 3 you could get some kind of very mini side quest from her. I feel like it could really be a lot of things as long as it sets up as moving forward with her life. Like idk maybe she tells you she always loved baking and you can help set her up getting a job doing that, or maybe she tells you she has family or friends still back in Tevinter and you can talk to a couple of people to help her reunite with them. And at the end she tells you she’s going to move on and thanks you for your help and whatnot. And ofc this is all entirely optional/contingent on you interacting with her so if you don’t do this I guess it could play out like it does in canon with maybe a line or something about her leaving Kirkwall with Bodhan and Sandal at the end of the game bc I do worry about her and would like to know that she ended up okay

As for what happens if she’s enslaved, that’s a tougher question. Mostly bc I think Bioware shouldn’t have made that an option if they weren’t going to deal with it more significantly but I think that would require a way bigger rewrite than what a little chosen choice in a side quest for a character a lot of players miss on their first time would conceivably have, so in the spirit of what I think DA2 actually could have done, I think I’d keep what actually happens with Orana more or less the same (so, you know, just kind of being there. Maybe safer than when she was enslaved a crazed blood mage but separated from her family with no other real options. And then maybe Hawke could have a line in DAI mentioning she left kirkwall with Bodhan and sandal too bc like I said I like to know she ended up okay) but with more reactions and consequences from everyone else.

So obviously a sizable approval hit from the companions (I would say sake of the way the game works everyone in the party, but that doesn’t make SENSE to me bc everyone is going to find out later and react to it, so fuck it absolutely everyone. Maybe not Carver and Bethany if we pretend that nobody told them. I don’t care this is the only choice in the game where that happens). I do like/find it interesting that a diplomatic Hawke can minimize rivalry by arguing that she doesn’t have anywhere else to go so we can keep that. Fenris should leave your party or mayyyybe I could buy him staying with high enough friendship or rivalry, but you take a big rivalry hit/all of your friendship swaps to rivalry (like Merrill will do in her act 2 quest) and he breaks off any romantic relationship with you. Not totally sold on that but I am compelled by the super fucked up “companion goes along with things totally against their values” rivalry path dynamic you can get in like the Anders rivalry. Idk tho. Anyway beyond that I just think it needs to be a thing they bring up and not let you forget about it! I’m willing to buy that the champion is an important enough figure that they’re able to get away grievous crimes but “the champion literally participated in human elf trafficking” is a thing people would bring up. Leandra should comment on it (she does but weirdly permissively), Bodhan should ask about it, people should whisper about it in the hanged man, companions should DEFINITELY bring it up in their high rivalry cut scenes (that’s one of the bigger asks bc it would involve having a separate version of a cut scene depending on one decision but I feel like they could record a line that gets included or not). You could even have either Orsino or Meredith (whoever you side against) bring it up at the end of the game to point out that Hawke is a fucked up person too. If there was space to do a little more with it I’d like to see the city elves and the dalish being resistant to interact with you and maybe even have a fight at some point with a group of vigilantes trying to attack you bc you are, well, literally a known slaver. Idk it’s a tough balance. That all simultaneously feels like too much hinging on one choice in a side quest and not enough given what’s actually going on but something like that idk! Actual consequences that show people remember the things Hawke has done

[sparatus]

❤️💥👻🎨

fanfic writer asks

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

ohhhh so many, lemme see

from absolution:

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, he thinks as he cuddles closer to her on the couch, to strip away the old blood from his face and let her anoint him in gold.

i don't get to wax poetic very often and this was actually the first line of the whole thing i thought of, i just love garrus nearing the end of his character growth musing on what he's been through and craving the fresh start and soft epilogue life with tasora offers, he's been through so much and he wants to rest

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

oh me and canon duke it out every time i grudgingly have to consult the codex, it's a shorter list to say what i KEEP cause bioware didn't do jack shit for research and i have a firm policy that if your plot hinges on a convenient contrivance then it's a shit fucking plot

if i must say something. the council deserved better, they're literally framed by the narrative to make you hate them when they're just trying to do their jobs. also if they could bring eva core back from the comics then they could bring abrudas, she deserved to be in me3 and give us a more balanced perspective on the brothers (and like, confirm des's existence in the games PERIOD since there's for some reason a lot of ppl in fandom who don't consider non-game content canon)

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

nihlus's dad who died when he was 16 wasn't his bio dad, his actual bio father was a one-night stand with @korblez's oc marius cassi, this is entirely a crackpot theory we rambled out in like 5 minutes and then ran with forever. nihlus wasn't told because his parents hoped that if they kept repeating the lie maybe someday they'd forget it was a lie, but then when nihlus and his mom were fighting about him going to the military the secret slipped out and that's a big part of why he ended up going to the military after all, he just had to get away and be angry about being lied to his entire life. i have so much content for this actually i am going to hurt you with it in itlog i have so many feelings about martelian kryik who might not have been nihlus's father but he sure fucking was his dad

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

i mean obv any fanart of exdiff would be amazing but i'd actually love to see art of the man in the mask, i put a lot of symbolism and heart into that one and the images of the moon and des's position etc etc all have MEANING not just convenient for the scene

[robotslenderman]

6, 7, 8 and 9 :D

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

My Rook is my Lavellan, Liriel. Liriel was not the Inquisitor in my playthrough - Sable Trevelyan was - but she, along with two other Lavellans (Lahariel and Mahanon, who belong to @orodrethsgeek), were headcanon companions instead.

Liriel had a Solavellan "romance" which was very different to the canon romance and was more like enemies with benefits, tho by the end of the game there was genuine fondness between them. (Stronger on Solas's side, due to Liriel's passion for knowledge; Liriel knew better than to get too attached to someone who looked down on her.) Liriel figured out who Solas was but didn't tell anyone other than Lahariel and Mahanon until Trespasser. At first she wanted to kill Solas, but Cole speaking up for him plus her softening over time means that by DA4 she's willing to hear him out, and possibly aid him if it means not killing innocents in the process. But if he goes ahead with it, yeah, she's gonna fuck him up.

She is convinced the Evanuris are the Archdemons.

DA4 actually perfectly lines up with my headcanon post-DAI for her - after meeting Mythal Liriel was bitterly disillusioned and set out on a quest to uncover the secrets of Arlath'an that Solas was keeping from her. The Veiljumpers fit her perfectly bc of that. I think she'd already be great friends with Bellara.

She did have a kid with Solas. Celysel will be around ten by DA4. She knows she "comes from" Solas but doesn't consider him her father at all; she considers Lahariel and Mahanon her dads and is a bit confused that people expect her to be upset that she never knew Solas. She doesn't know he's the Dread Wolf, but she may be told during DA4.

7. Which character from the previous games or other media are you most hoping will make an appearance in DAV?

So Fenris hasn't been Liriel's dad in eight years since I made her Liriel instead of Leandra, but it's still gonna fuck her up if he shows up lmao. (If he does I'm just going to headcanon that her actual dad is tagging along, since their backstories are still p much the same and they'd get along really well). I'm also hoping for Dorian and Leliana, our Divine.

8. What faction are you most excited to learn more about?

Veiljumpers, for obvious reasons!

9. Which romance, if any, do you plan to pursue first?

Liriel won't be pursuing any romances because she has husbands at home.

Altho if Bioware smiles upon me and makes it possible to romance the egg woof again I'd absolutely love to see how that goes purely bc I miss watching Solas and Liriel argue and I'd honestly love to see how the whole "yeah you're an omnicidal maniac" angle overshadows it. It'd be JUICY

also if Liriel brought Solas home it'd be hilarious to picture Mahanon's reaction of "yay! Solas is back!" contrasted with Lahariel's "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU BRING THIS ASSHOLE HERE I THOUGHT WE GOT RID OF HIM"

[mneiai]

Reading/re-reading a bunch of Dragon Age books and thought I'd give my quick thoughts for the ones I've gone through the last few days:

Asunder - 6/10. Always shocked Gaider wrote it, it does not feel like someone who knows the lore or games well, except insofar that a lot of the fight scenes are "this is how I envision it would play out in the game" as opposed to ones meant to be read. I can't remember if the printed version was this bad, but either there some horrific typos in the digital version or, again, it does not feel like someone that knows the lore wrote it ("Rite of Annulment" what the fuck). Creates some weird conflicts with established lore for no good reason. Last half better than the first half and Cole, Rhys, and Evangeline are genuinely likable once it gets going, at least.

Tevinter Nights - 3/10 to 10/10. Weirdly find the Talons story incredibly engaging and the characters very interesting (though that could be my OCD-based sympathy lol) and wish it were a book of its own and not just a short story that had to rush over a lot. In fact, I'd say most of the Crows-related stories are good, as well as the ones actually set in Tevinter. The Grey Wardens ones vary in quality and the Nevarra ones read like someone took passages from the World of Thedas and told a writer they had to come up with an excuse to infodump with poor mysteries shoved in. Most of the rest were just blah.

Magekiller - 2/10. This is so bad. The intro feels like some 12 year old writing about their OC and the addition of the relationship between Marius and that one DAI NPC that never goes anywhere again makes the protags honestly look way more at fault for some of the shit that goes down in DAI than Cole ever could. And this is true about all the comics, but the art is Not Great and relies very heavily on lazy shortcuts normally found in lower quality comics. Also a lot of lowkey ableism considering how Marius comes across. Never had strong feelings about Charter before, but now I dislike her.

Alistair comics - 5/10. The collection doesn't seem to have a good name to call all these lol Anyway, some interesting parts, getting to see one of my fav Tevinter characters and the way she's handled is always nice, but the whole thing is very C-quality-DLC-plot-thrown-out-during-development. Just all over the place. Hated the Isabella stuff, what even was that? We're not even going to get into the multiple international innocents that should have happened, but the whole thing was honestly ridiculous. Mae carries this shit.

Knight Errant - 8/10. Vaea and Ser Aaron are a trope, but it's a good one for comics and well-done in this, they're very cute. Varric feels way more natural here than in the Alistair ones, not sure what's going on with Sebastian but I think that has more to do with how wishywashy he has to be for Bioware canon than anything else. Literally nothing will make me care about the Magekiller romance, though, and it's honestly weird that's the conceit for the job.

Wraiths of Tevinter - 6/10. I think this was slightly better because it had to establish some of the characters, but it wasn't great (and what the hell did they do to my poor Fenris?!). The original stuff was better than when it started mixing into the overarching comics plotline, and the fact that 50% of these DA works fall back on "Qunari Ex Machina" got very old by this point. I cared absolutely zero amount about any of the villains and the Magekiller characters felt incredibly out of place in an already large cast. If it weren't for the endearing Knight Errant team and the mabari, I'd probably mark it down lower. Also lol why am I supposed to care about a slave owner Venatori apologist just because she had a bad childhood? Literally every one of the characters had a bad childhood. Fenris and Marius were literally slaves!

Also actually sitting down and reading the World of Thedas volumes instead of just looking stuff up in them and they're...fine. I still wish they were more encyclopedia like and I'm still confused at some of the assumptions people make based on things clearly not actually said in them, but that's fandom for you.

[sapphim]

bioware's magical genetics are widely panned and rightly so but it does mean one can point at pretty much any human character in the game and go "that's an elf actually" and can't be proven wrong, so

ser aveline I'm absolutely convinced of. like, not quite at an "andraste was a mage" level where I'm certain it's actually canon, but in an "it's canon to me ♥" way. so the story goes that aveline, knight of orlais was abandoned as a baby and taken in by a clan of dalish elves. she entered a tournament by disguising herself as a man, but her identity was revealed and a sore loser killed her for the crime of daring to be a woman and a superior fighter. after her death, the law prohibiting women from knighthood was abolished and she was knighted posthumously. now first of all, a few things, 1) this story is a classic "wait but I thought joan of arc was jesus in this universe?" moment but also 2) her origin story, that she was abandoned to die as a baby because her father wanted a son, is already a blatant fabrication for the sake of the rather trite narrative. and we know from shartan and ameridan that humans are happy to erase and/or claim elven figures as their own. was aveline a human taken in by elves, or was she a human-passing child of the clan? either way, as an adult member of the clan, whether or not she was born into it, surely the reveal of her vallaslin would cause as much if not more offense than her gender.

leliana is more of a "you can't prove she's not" case, but her mother was a servant who moved to orlais to keep her job after the occupation ended, and the andraste's grace flower she associates with her mother and her childhood is found growing in the alienage. it's not a strong argument, but it resonates with other elements of her character, like how she appears to be orlesian due to her upbringing and accent, but she personally considers herself fereldan because she was born in ferelden to a fereldan mother. I'm not married to this one, I think I like it better in the context of dao alone than the series taken as a whole.

someone said goldanna and, yeah, especially as that would be a necessary addition to any headcanons that prefer alistair to be more visibly elven/less human-passing. and, yes, alistair is half-elven and his mother is fiona, canonically, and this has been directly stated by word of god to clear up any popular misconceptions. even if alistair is fully human-passing, it's entirely possible that he could have been told that his mother was elven and an elven woman chosen for the cover up. it's not directly stated to the contrary.

ok rn I'm curious how widespread it is to headcanon that leliana or ser aveline (the chevalier, not the da2 companion) are half-elven, and if there are any other characters it's common to headcanon as mixed human and elven

[greenteabtch]

da characters who can realign my spine in one hug (from highest probability of success to lowest)

1. Shale - please

2. Velanna - probably knows pressure points

3. Carver - i want a body pillow of just his arms

4. Sigrun - the comfiest realignment. the most ideal hugger. i would pay money for sigrun to hug me

5. The iron bull - :)

6. Fenris - wide muskle man

7. Cassandra - 2 busy being tender and blushing so shes on the lower end

8. Leliana - deadly precision. Actually u might die

9. Sten - probably doesnt want to touch u in the first place

10. Alistair - either he succeeds or ur in terrible pain for a week. the choice is yours

11. The Archdemon - near the bottom because its not the good kind

12. Varric - he can but like. only the part near your butt

13. Oghren - same but i dont want to hug him in canon

[dragonageconfessions]

I was around in the fandom since about 2010, just after the first game came out, and was witness to a lot of the discourse that went down. I think there's a misunderstanding here, willing or not, going on that Couslands were hated because humans are boring or they were inherently racist (that was not a wide-scale talking point back in the early 2010s, sorry). Couslands had a bad rep because a lot of the players themselves were bullies. Many a cous main disparaged the other origins because a Cousland could become ruler/marry Alistair, thus making them 'more canon'. If a player wanted to be a poc cous, they were pinged by other cous mains that 'it wasn't accurate unless you made them a bastard' or 'the name is scottish so they cant be poc'. #notallcouslands or whatever for those of you that will immediately jump on with 'BUT NOT ME' or 'I DIDNT SEE IT'. It still happened. A lot.

I don't think anyone /actually/ cares if you play a human or not. And you shouldn't care if they do. This is a dumb fantasy roleplay game about smashing pixelated dolls together that has given a lot of us a lot of joy, especially in recent years. You wanna play human? Play human, not everyone does or has to enjoy it but that shouldn't impede your ability to.

But some of y'all havent changed in 10 years and need to learn some basic manners and get off this terminally online behavior.

This is in response to some recent confessions. I didn't think it was necessary to make this into a confession so I'm just posting as is along with a few of my own responses since I've been doing this blog for ten years and have seen it all.

First:

"I was around in the fandom since about 2010, just after the first game came out, and was witness to a lot of the discourse that went down. I think there's a misunderstanding here, willing or not, going on that Couslands were hated because humans are boring or they were inherently racist (that was not a wide-scale talking point back in the early 2010s, sorry). Couslands had a bad rep because a lot of the players themselves were bullies. Many a cous main disparaged the other origins because a Cousland could become ruler/marry Alistair, thus making them 'more canon'. If a player wanted to be a poc cous, they were pinged by other cous mains that 'it wasn't accurate unless you made them a bastard' or 'the name is scottish so they cant be poc'. #notallcouslands or whatever for those of you that will immediately jump on with 'BUT NOT ME' or 'I DIDNT SEE IT'. It still happened. A lot."

Answer:

I do not disagree with this at all. When I first took over the blog there were quite a few obnoxious Cousland posts that I deleted. I actually posted on the old BioWare boards back in the day and told people they were making it bad for the entire fandom. I still remember being told to shut the hell up and that my opinion did not matter because my first Cousland romanced Zevran. My second Cousland is when I romanced Alistair. I also did not do the queen route until a much later play through. One person on the old BioWare boards even sent me hate messages over how I played.

But the thing is there were many Cousland fans who minded their own business, stayed in their corner and they were lumped in with the obnoxious ones.

As for people claiming to NOT seeing the racist and bullying behavior I have seen that response for every character fandom that has an obnoxious sect. I just deleted a submission from someone who started their submission with "I'm not racist but..." (And this submission was NOT about Couslands)

What I learned from this blog during the last ten years is that the majority in the various character and ship fandoms do not like to acknowledge that there are problematic and obnoxious people within their fandoms. Its human nature to not want to address things like that but people should not be surprised if their fandom ends up with a bad reputation.

I remember many Cousland fans were surprised at how bad the fandom reputation was.

I've seen this with every fandom. But what I have learned is those obnoxious people within the various character fandoms are NOT representative of the entire fandom.

Second:

"I don't think anyone /actually/ cares if you play a human or not. And you shouldn't care if they do. This is a dumb fantasy roleplay game about smashing pixelated dolls together that has given a lot of us a lot of joy, especially in recent years. You wanna play human? Play human, not everyone does or has to enjoy it but that shouldn't impede your ability to."

Answer:

For the record I have received and deleted submissions attacking people for playing humans. It does happen. I honestly think that while it won't end entirely I think the issue will lessen if the next human protagonist is NOT a noble.

Third:

But some of y'all haven't changed in 10 years and need to learn some basic manners and get off this terminally online behavior.

Answer:

I agree. There really are some obnoxious people in the various fandoms and some have occasionally made doing the blogs difficult. Since I am one person doing two blogs there are certain things I make a point of limiting because I don't want the stress it can cause.

[corseque]

This is very SPOILERY Dragon Age meta that is exploring a possibility that I was thinking about a few months ago, and only found in my drafts now. I think that there are still Reveals that are yet to come about Solas because he’s still suggesting that you’ll have “questions” for him, and there are a few possibilities of what those reveals could be, and this is one of the more likely possibilities.

This depends on the theory that Solas was originally a spirit, so if you don’t agree with that theory this won’t have legs for you, but maybe you’ll find it interesting.

So given established lore, if you draw a Wisdom spirit from the deepest Fade and you bind that spirit and charge it with something opposed to its nature/original purpose—fighting, as extremely clearly defined specifically in Solas’ personal quest  —

 (or “it started with a war,” as Solas describes while grimacing in Trespasser, and also “he did not want a body, but she asked him to come. He wanted to give wisdom, not orders”) 

 — that is exactly how you corrupt a wisdom spirit into (specifically) a pride demon.

So if that’s the case, and if Solas was originally a wisdom spirit

—then we are being told very clearly that Solas was actually “corrupted” into a demon thousands and thousands of years ago.

If he ever started as a Wisdom spirit, a theory that is extremely cemented to me after hard revisiting his content the past few weeks, then Solas, if those other banter comments also apply to him, must have been technically “corrupted” into Pride, ever since the war in which he was bound to fight. With the story we know, and what we know about spirits, it would be more technically accurate to call Solas a demon. And then, when he “broke the binding” of the vallaslin, and was able to become “himself again” perhaps he found some equilibrium, but he also seemed to have been changed. “He calls himself Pride.”

This explains several strange things about his character and his viewpoints, especially if we consider what we also know about the established intended canon of Compassion/Despair and Justice/Vengeance as well.

—why he gets absolutely the most incensed compared to anything else by one of his oldest friends also being drawn forth, bound, and corrupted specifically (and almost strangely specifically) by orders to kill.

—why that is what Patrick Weekes chose to explore for his personal quest, because it is ACTUALLY telling you about Solas himself in a way that is extremely illustrative

—Solas’ personal quest is ACTUALLY personal, it’s the most personal it could be, because it’s about him

— “You summoned that demon! except it was a spirit of wisdom at the time! You made it kill! You twisted it against its purpose!!”

— he never wants that to happen to any spirit ever again (the way it happened to him) 

— In my collection I made when finding all the times Solas yells, for the “solas yelling for 10 minutes” post I did, by far the MOST ANGRY and UPSET he gets is during his personal quest. This is personal for him, this isn’t the way he yells when he is defending someone else. And the way that he immediately wants revenge by burning them alive! It’s about him and what happened to him!

— why when Patrick Weekes was writing Cole’s personal quest, the original idea was for him to choose between being a Spirit and a Demon (not a spirit and human), because that would cover a lot of ground for Solas too

—why Solas is very nearly as incensed by the Grey Warden’s plan to corrupt an army of demons

—why he, when walking through the lair of an enormously fat, powerful fear demon, has an extremely mild and calm aura

—why he is so obsessed with learning and wisdom and finding out knowledge, but also mentions pride about as much

—the hint with Abelas/Sorrow about how the ancient elves would change their names through traumatic events

—why Solas is SO opposed to bindings in any way, shape or form, and is driven single-mindedly to set spirits and elves free every chance he gets

— why Solas had so much insight for Cole about what it means to choose not to be a demon.

— why Solas can appear as a giant demon wolf with multiple eyes, but also a nice spirit wolf with two eyes

— why in Tevinter Nights, the Dread Wolf’s 6 eyes were described specifically as being like a pride demon’s 6 eyes.

— why the “tiny scar” on Solas’ face was mentioned specifically in Tevinter Nights, because “it left a scar when he burned her off his face” and that detail is still important and still going to reveal perhaps, that he was bound into a demon

— why Mythal would apologize to Solas in the stinger after-credits scene. She corrupted him all those years ago!

— Why Solas has that very specific viewpoint on spirits vs demons, and how it’s your expectations that affect the spirit. And how the player’s pov of Solas could change him into a demon, just like Solas describes happens to spirits. If you expect a spirit to be a demon, it will adapt, he says. Or they could become fast friends. The exact same thing happens with Solas.

It’s also a very BioWare thing to do. To find out that this character has been technically a “demon” the entire time. It would make some people think “welp, time to kill.” While those who like him could be like “well, what does that mean exactly? Isn’t he his own person? Hasn’t he become a complex person?” and would make others think “how could we ever trust anything he says or does?” It’s just, I feel, a likely gray area Bioware place they could take it. I feel like there MUST be a reveal for this character still waiting in the wings, and this could be what it is. It could be several things, though, or the details could be different. If he “took a body” it could give it different nuance.

Thinking about it in this way actually clears up a lot of the lingering details that sort of have been hanging for me for several years, especially about why his extremely specific personal quest is the way it is, and I think it’s where they’re going. 

[exhausted-archivist]

Yeah, I was speaking strictly from a doylist perspective and ended with what I thought would have been more compelling for BioWare to have done with her. Because I think they under utilized her (and Cole and Vivienne but that’s a whole other thing).

Personally, I always go Vivienne for Divine like I mentioned in my tags. Because she has the most big picture view, especially if you listen to her talk about concerns for Leliana and Cassandra in the role. As you pointed out the narrative goes out of its way to vilify Vivienne and make her opinions the ultimate bad. When if you actually listen to her, hear her concerns, and read the codices about mages, the war, and templars; she’s not. Which is part of the problem, so much context is packed into codices that isn’t condensed into the base story - which isn’t new player friendly.

If you got the impression I thought Vivinne was presented as an equally good choice, that wasn’t my intention. I was just trying to focus on Cassandra and my thoughts on her narrative uses. My whole thing was just the doylist perspective of how things are geared for Cassandra to not only be the best choice to the player that they just about railroad her into the role despite the entire game showing she sucks at politics, doesn’t want to do them, doesn’t have an open mind, is critical of non-Andrastians, doesn’t work to understand people who don’t share her world view unless forced to, is super big on loyalty to a fault, is act first and ask questions later, runs with the guilty until proven innocent, believes in “holy mandate” to where if you don’t she lashes out is someway, and Cassandra herself mentions that her trainers told her she was brash.

I don’t find her to be a good candidate nor do I like or prefer Cassandra as Divine. But objectively, from a doylist angle (and arguably a watsonian depending on whose perspective/opinions in-world you’re looking at) is the best choice when you’re considering new players. Particularly if you want a simple, non-branching storyline that you’d likely get with Leliana or Vivienne in certain regards. As well as all the stuff I mentioned previously.

When I say she’s the best choice for new players is, I mean that she doesn’t introduce nearly as much new status quos that need context nor is her worldview and opinion buried in codices or previous games. Cassandra isn’t even centrist, she’s stagnant. Which, is helpful for the BioWare canon when introducing the series to a new player.

Not that the BioWare canon doesn’t reflect aspects of the world the writers prefer: King Alistair for example. But simplicity and not introducing highly quantum aspects is also a focus. Why Alistair rules alone in the BioWare canon.

Which is what I was talking about.

As for all the aspects I wished they explored, Cassandra’s story in Inquisition makes it seem like no one knew about the reversal (which isn’t true, we know from ambient dialogue. Dialogue that comes from Avexis and Mother Giselle). I wish we saw something of how finding out Justinia hid going against the Seekers, and more specifically hid it from Cassandra, from 9:35-9:40. I wish that factored into Cassandra’s half baked storyline of becoming disenfranchised from the Seekers. That should have meant something, considering Leliana was in the know to the point where she was helping the mage circles rebel. So knowing that Justinia was putting a bid to get mages more freedom to a degree, since she clearly wasn’t fully supporting the Templars let alone the Seekers.

If what Justinia did/planned on doing really mattered to Cassandra, as her monologue in the prologue suggests and how she goes on about how “we need to act as she would have acted”. Then why didn’t that influence anything? Why does Cassandra put things right back as they were essentially?

I was just questioning Cassandra’s story and musing how if it had explored things it would have at least made her more nuanced and interesting. To me anyways.

Cassandra = worst choice for Divine.

1000% for sure without a doubt!!!!

... at the same time, i do feel like bioware was clearly rooting for her to be divine.

there's no war table option to support leliana's candidacy, which means getting leliana to become divine is entirely dependent on your in-game choices. if leliana and cassandra have the same number of points, leliana defaults to a win -- but that only balances out the fact that the wartable mission gives cassandra +10 points support.

the portrayal of the templars as necessary comparatively to the mages in sealing the breach, and then the subsequent portrayal of the templars as innocent victims is intended to push the player to recruit the templars as allies, which is the outcome that gathers the largest support for cassandra

getting a public truce between briala, gaspard and celene gets no support for leliana

supporting leliana as divine can only happen after you've completed her personal quest, which can happen very late game; by then, you might have already supported cassandra or vivienne instead

at the winter palace in trespasser, leliana as the divine gets an agent to call you outside, only to then call a recess herself, which is a bit confusing -- she could have just called a recess without needing to make the inquisitor look bad by walking out in the middle of negotiations. this sequences of events only makes sense with cass as divine, or even vivienne as divine.

so, uh. yikes.

if bioware had forced that decision on us, like they did with almost EVERYTHING ELSE in this game, could you imagine??? your inquisitor fighting tooth and nail to use this shitty position they've suddenly got to do some real good, enact some real change, only to have the divine just reset everything pre-breach again...

hmmm... turning this concept over in my mind like a rotisserie chicken now...