#what is the population of Thedas anyway?

[catofadifferentcolor]

Random DA Thoughts (2/?): Population Demographics

The other day I became obsessed with the question of just how many people were in Thedas. This is in itself an easy question - Thedas is analogous to High Middle Ages Europe, and therefore likely has a population somewhere between 65-100 million people during the Dragon Age. Given the Blights, this is likely to be at the lower end of things.

But then the real question becomes: what is the population of each race in Thedas, given these limitations?

The answer I came up with is: 38 million humans, 21 million elves, 6 million dwarves, and 10 million kossith - for a total population of 75 million.

I will admit a lot of this is guesswork - the size of Par Vollen and the fact they've not been able to successfully conquer Thedas had me assuming that the entire Qunari population is no more than 8 million - mostly kossith, with a negligible number of human, dwarf, and elven converts. The non-Qunari kossith are concentrated in north-eastern Thedas, becoming rare as one moves south and west.

Likewise, the population of the dwarven kingdoms is likewise limited. The World of Thedas says that the population of Orazammar is over 100,000... and to be honest even a combined subterranean population of 1 million feels excessive. The vast majority of the dwarves live on the surface, mostly in Orlais and Tevinter as merchants, or in Ferelden close to the Orazammar surface entrance. You can find them where there's a thriving merchant class.

Elves are split into three populations: Dalish, City Elves, and elves enslaved by the Tevinter Imperium.

The Dalish are concentrated mostly in Orlais, near the Dales, but travel significantly. Their population is roughly 6 million and though they claim no nationality, their number count toward whichever country they happen to be in at the time. (Dalish Elves in Tevinter are largely confined to Arlathan Forest and rarely exceed ten thousand.)

City Elves live mostly in alienages in the largest cities of any one nation, but is also something of a misnomer. Many elves in Ferelden, Orlais, and the Anderfels, where many live in villages as farmers or artisans with the same lifeways as their human or dwarf neighbors. Their total population is roughly 10.25 million and concentrated in Orlais.

While all races can be enslaved in Thedas, the vast majority are known to be elves. The practice is confined in the Dragon Age to the Tevinter Imperium, but the thralldom practiced in some parts of Orlais shares many of the hallmarks. Roughly 4.75 million elves are enslaved across Tevinter and its holdings in Seheron.

The remaining population is human, with Tevinter and Orlais each having 13 million. This can perhaps be bumped up as high as 15 million, but I wanted to maintain a slightly-more-than-half percentage of the total population to illustrate how precarious human domination of the continent really is. They rule and their politics dominate... but that does not have to be the case.

When divided by nation, Orlais is the largest, with a total population of 22 million. Tevinter is is next, with 20 million - not counting their claims to Seheron. Par Vallen is next, with its population of 7.5 million - not counting its claims to Seheron. Of the remainder, only Ferelden has a population of over 5 million. The 4 million of the Free Marches is divided across multiple city-states and largely urban.

As stated above, a lot of this is guesswork based on the size of the maps, the assumption that High Middle Ages-levels of technology in-game correlates to High Middle Ages-levels of population, and the characters who actually appear on screen. I have not attempted to account for which proportion of the human populations identify as Orlesian or Ferelden and not tribes such as Avvar. Nor have I attempted to break down what percentage of this population might be mage, Grey Warden, Templar, or any other faction or class.

It's probably safe to assume that 90-95% of this population is made up of peasants, with whatever nobility exists being human (with a smattering of dwarf). With magic to ease some of the burden and grease some pre-industrial wheels, it could be as low as 80%.

It's also probably safe to assume a higher literacy rate than would have been common in the High Middle Ages, what with all the books lying around and the sheer number of printers in Minrathous - I'd guess possibly as high as 60%, split evenly across gender and race, though enslaved populations and those that honor oral traditions would have less, and Circle mages would have more.

As we've seen no sign of preferment of men over women (or vice versa) in-game, it's probably also safe to assume that the sex ratio across Thedas is roughly 1:1. I would also assume that the population pyramid is fairly stationary - which is to say, a birth rate that matches its death rate, and might allow for population growth were Thedas not constantly beset by Blight, civil war, and various other apocalypses.

I'd also assume a high level of religiosity in Thedas, as seen in DA2 and DA:I, with most humans and City Elves being the local flavor of Andrastian and most Dalish and other races following their respective gods. There would of course be exceptions - Avvar would follow their traditions, Venatori would worship the Old Gods, and some City Elves may follow the elven pantheon - but few would have no religion.

Lastly: immigration and emigration. There is likely some between nations, especially when a war or Blight is going on, but none outside of Thedas. Because it's always Thedas. It may be only one continent, but unlike with Europe there's no analogous Asia or Africa for people to move to. Those places may exist, but nobody's talking about them. (Thedas doesn't even seem to have a word for the physical world that means Thedas plus something else.) And they're certainly not going there.

Anyway, this is just my best guess. Let me know what you think - I'm always happy to argue world-building for my hyper fixations.

More Random DA Thoughts: Skyhold Layout

[axiomsend]

Thinking about Kieran coming across a Modern Girl in Thedas and just being so confused about her. Why is her blood older than time itself? He asks what she is, because she can't possibly be human, but she doesn't look like an elf, and beside that, her blood is older than elf's blood.

[gyrovagi]

something im frequently thinking about is . i think it's literally only mentioned in merrill's codex that there's fewer mages among the dalish with every generation BUT huge caveat this is never picked up again or even implied anywhere else that i'm aware of. i think there's a casual remark elsewhere in da2 anyway that the circles are seeing more mages over time but there's any number of explanations for why this could be inaccurate or biased etc. i DO think the idea that over time the proportion of mages in the population is steadily changing - whether growing or shrinking - and it's directly related to the status of the veil would have been interesting to explore. what if the longer the veil is up thedas actually gets further cut off from the fade? what if one day a child is born tranquil? OR the veil was slowly eroding anyway and we're seeing more mages capable of greater feats of magic than the previous generation. Avenues to explore that exist only in OUR beautiful minds

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Following you was the best decision I've ever made. Where else am I going to learn things like the types of cacti shown in the Anderfels in game are not ecologically accurate? I am being 100% genuine here I love it when you contribute random knowledge in lore discussions, best parts of my day when it happens

LMAO thank you anon this is very kind. the truth is I am simply an ecologist who cannot turn that part of my brain off even when i know better. like i KNOW the reason why there's cacti there is because someone just picked them from a list of vegetation assets to populate the region with but also 😭 😭 😭 ITS TOO WET THEY WOULD DIE

but yeah specifically i double majored in biology and geology in undergrad, then worked in a plant genetics lab during undergrad & the first year after I graduated, then I moved out west to do desert based fieldwork and started adding in a lot of soil science. now i have a masters in soil microbiology and am currently weeping my way through a PhD (dont ask about that one grad school is Hell).

but YEAH MAN specifically i've been living in and researching deserts for the last decade of my life so i'm always extra excited about those in games lmao. I'm the Hissing Waste's number 1 stan they RULE everyone else is just a COWARD who HATES RUNNING ACROSS HUGE MAPS FOR HOURS. have you instead considered taking a job in Death Valley so when you run through the dunes for 10 hours a day in 110º weather you can console yourself with the thought "at least there isn't a phoenix attacking me right now. the worst thing that's happened to me today is falling into a rodent burrow"????? o those were the days. i used to write all my fanfic by headlamp in my sleeping bag while listening to coyotes get alarmingly close, and cursing the moon for how bright everything gets with light colored sand. If there were two moons in real life i WOULD be mad enough to condemn one to the otherside of the earth for 100 years so i could get some sleep too actually.

here have some drylands ive worked in while i'm being nostalgic

worldbuilding is my favorite favorite favorite part of fantasy/sci fi and i know not everyone has my background in how the actual "world" part works. so i don't condemn people who have gone into writing and arts fields for not understanding these things when they build maps but i really cannot turn off the part of my brain that opens a book or game map and instantly sees they have made the rivers 1. go uphill 2. diverge midway through (not a thing) and 3. in places that would make no sense given topography, mountains, etc that would impact weather & rainfall. only my TRUEST AND MOST WIZENED OG FOLLOWERS will remember how much i wept trying to map out the plate tectonics of Thedas in order to explain what the fuck the mountain ranges are doing what they are.

anyway lots of people have followed me in the last couple months so thanks for this excuse to make an intro post with a lil more about me :)

[vigilskeep]

Thoughts on how the only (known) Dwarven civilisation left in Thedas is located/accessed in Ferelden and how that must affect politics with the dwarves and humans (do some countires consider dwarves to be effectively Ferelden? Does Ferelden get priority in trade deals with Orzamamar?) and even affects on the Lyrium trade?

MANY AND MUCH...

i do think orzammar's position in the frostbacks gives orlais a level of access to trade too (though i'm unsure if gherlen's pass can be taken through to orlais? or if there's any other entrance to orzammar, though none is mentioned to my recollection) and it's certainly true that the orlesian civil war canonically has a catastrophic effect on orzammar's access to goods and food. it's also true, iirc, that orlesian nobles make the assumption that a dwarven inquisitor in we&wh is a servant. that implies a dwarven presence in orlais but also that they might be better off in ferelden or the free marches where they typically hold higher rank outside of the carta

i do believe there's a large surface dwarf population in the areas of ferelden closest to orzammar i.e. in the coastlands and around lake calenhad. i would just think that anyway, but we see this carried out in canon; ser jory references surface dwarves plying their trade as smiths in highever, vigil's keep has dwarven stonemasons, brother burkel and the mercenary dwyn call redcliffe home, etc.

the (legal) lyrium trade is controlled by the chantry but it could be a factor in orlais' imperial interest in ferelden and the chantry's involvement. i also think it's very fair to make an argument that the extensive nature of the mage underground in ferelden is allowed for by access to less reputable links to orzammar. they have to get lyrium potions and stave enchantments from somewhere

other evidence of trade connections is a little far-fetched for me to pick up on but i'll do it anyway... i'd like to decide the tabris wedding dress being a dwarven model means something, for example. but in general there are dwarven traders just wandering around ferelden, and when a fereldan sees a dwarf, they canonically immediately assume they're a trader. they seem to be considered makers of quality/luxury goods

the fereldan crown maintains close diplomatic relations with orzammar; cailan has met king endrin, and considers him a role model, and people like loghain hold the dwarves of orzammar in high esteem. someone chantry-educated like alistair has a fair bit of basic knowledge, especially with his sense of curiosity (my beloved), but it's a little generalising and confused in a way that reads like it's been taught to him by a chantry source like genitivi that treats orzammar as an oddity/exception, rather than from dwarven sources

culturally there's also people like the ash warriors, a fereldan unit whose skills claim descendance from dwarven berserkers and who hold dwarves in high esteem. other such transfers could be possible. they originate from a man called 'luthias dwarfson', which also brings me to the note that there should be a decent number of half-dwarves in ferelden, too! and though we haven't seen them in game, all sources point to half-dwarves being a more standard genetic blend than whatever the hell bioware was trying to do with 'elf-blooded'

that's what comes to mind!

[ziskandra]

11 and 22 if you're choosing violence? 😈

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered Answer here! but tl;dr: about 30 or so 22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores Chantry history!! CHANTRY HISTORY!!! While the pre-Chantry era (e.g. the Magisters Sidereal, Andraste) frequently comes up both in-game and during fandom discussions, outside of the Exalted March on the Dales, I rarely encounter much talk around the early centuries of the Chantry as an establishment, and how it solidified its political power. I think this in turn leads to a lot of my major bugbears with Dragon Age fandom, such as: 1. reducing the conflict in thedas as purely a mage vs. templars issue: we now have clear evidence that there's much more happening! the qunari are advancing south! of course, the templars (and mages) were a HUGE part of southern thedas's defenses! while corypheus might have failed in his goals, the entire south is still in. shambles, which leaves them vulnerable to further incursions.

2. speaking of incursions. the qunari. i feel like people sometimes forget that the qunari wars were relatively recent (the llomerryn accords were only signed in 7:84 storm! ~150 years before current events!), and prior to that, they had amassed so much territory across tevinter, rivain, antiva and the free marches that the imperial chantry and the southern chantry had to team up (unprecedented!) to force them back. anyway we know the qunari are coming back and they are NOT fucking around. i just. haven't seen this discussed much lately? (although please, someone, anyone, if i am missing a conversation somewhere PLEASE let me know. i wish to devour it whole with my eyeballs). also the codices in the history of kirkwall series mention how instrumental the chantry's mages were in combating the sarebaas during the qunari wars, which is only more incentive for the Chantry to keep a tight hold on the mage population (of the ones who are useful enough to fight wars or otherwise contribute to the cause, that is...) 3. basically, i'm just fed up with how huge chunks of the fandom criticise the worldbuilding and writing, especially when it comes to the interplay of political power. of course, there are groups that are more complicit in various atrocities than others! but without examining the reasons behind these issues, it's not actually possible to develop viable long-term solutions to these problems. without a thorough understanding of why something came to be the way it was, the oppressed can so easily become oppressors bc. well. power corrupts!! and if one looks at dragon age through a lens of it being a story about geopolitical and the corrupting properties of power, it feels like to me it's very obvious what story the team is trying to tell? don't get me wrong, of course there are always critiques to be made of how bioware is telling that story. i can understand that there are times where the team fumbles the ball or addresses something clumsily, and i think there are a lot of valuable conversations to be have on these matters! but it often feels like people are more invested in discussing the game they wished dragon age was rather than the game that actually exists. so often posts that gain traction these days are like 'this is how i would totally revamp character x/event y', and while i think that can be a useful exercise too, it just feels overpowering at times? that like, there's this sense that everyone agrees that the same things are wrong and must be fixed, which is. frustrating. because again, we are all different people with different experiences! we connect with parts of the narrative, different parts of characters! we are all complicit in our personal biases!! and i feel like there would just be. a lot less defensiveness and hard feelings if people allowed each other more space for alternate perspectives on the games. my own takeaway is this: personally, i think that dragon age, at its core, is a cautionary tale against hubris, and more specifically, the hubris of any one individual or group thinking they know what's best for everyone. of how, as people, we're more powerful when we're able to put our minor differences aside to tackle the bigger problems. of how everyone is coming from their own experiences and backgrounds and how that impacts their behaviour in the present and future. of how some narratives can be more dominant than others. of how history is never 100% certain. and in light of this, and the state of dragon age fandom as a whole, i have chosen to view the fandom as an elaborate piece of community performance art (of which i am also a part). this in turn makes the whole endeavour less frustrating, and dare i say it... sometimes even fun.

[choose violence ask meme]

[bees-bees-fear]

The other trans rep we do get is so... What's a word. It's more natural in Thedas than the real world, it seems, to be trans or nonbinary. (I've seen people "complain" that you don't learn Flynn or Ivenci's pronouns, you just know them). No questions asked, no confusion. It's inconsequential in most contexts (again I've already gone over how being trans in the Imperium is considered a dereliction of duty rather than the real world treating you like an abomination. One can abscond without being trans or gay, it's just a thing you can do. Those are just their reasons). So Taash's story is so awkward when it comes time to teach the player things. It's like it's got exposition just for bigots so that they can't deny it. It doubles down on itself in real time. Maybe it's just because I'm nonbinary and I already "get it".

And to clarify, I'm not talking about Taash telling their mother that they're nonbinary. That's just, how coming out works. You say "I am" and it's a conversation.

I just wish we could watch Taash's journey (I always want to apologize for calling it a journey because they said they don't want to have to have a journey) unfold and appreciate it for what it is, without the narrator staring over my shoulder at the rest of the audience to make sure they're paying especially close attention.

Our trans friends talk about being trans. They are called trans, but to my memory they don't *say* it. (Bioware still not audibly saying "trans" or "gay" out loud by any character is also part of why Taash being nonbinary feels like we skipped a few generations on inclusivity, and again, it ends up with ALL of that history manifesting through Taash. It's a heavy burden. All critical analysis of Taash is suddenly reduced to this facet because of how much weight was put on them)

Anyway, our friends, they talk about their experiences that only trans people could have in this world. There is no other assumption to make. And they don't come out to you. These are just their experiences. They could only happen to them because they are. And there's no "well I can explain it away by saying they're something other than trans" happening for them. It's avoidable without the explicity. It's so open. No assumptions are made by Rook, just information recieved. Trans people exist and they do stuff and it's colored by being trans. Same as men and women, mostly? Tell me how much attention to detail was paid to Bellara or Davrin's gender. Their actions and interests are colored by their masculinity and femininity, but it isn't a focus. It doesn't need to be. The writers probably never even consciously considered their gender. But Taash doesn't get the luxury of just, being a nonbinary person in this world, figuring out what that means. Having their experiences colored by being nonbinary. Taash also has to function as a vessel for teaching the player what nonbinary is.

And just for a little extra oomph, would anyone like to analyze, just a little bit, the potential transphobia and misogyny behind deciding to implement lore around menstruation just to apply it to the nonbinary character? I thought about it as an obstacle at first, since many trans people have dysphoria one way or another about this concept. But at least Taash doesn't resent it, and their meds are not to suppress it. Maybe that was the writer assuring everyone that Taash doesn't experience physical disphoria. (They have issues perceiving themself as "ugly", repeatedly, but I don't think that's gender related other than they probably think they're "supposed" to look a certain way. They like to be perceived as a man, and that's not really tied to any of their physical attributes)

And with that we have the problem of the "moon-cycle" in contrast to the formal word. We "fantasy"ed one of the most normal concepts in the world for half the population. It creates a stark contrast. It's one thing to say "Tevinter is more socially and linguistically advanced, and brought the term to Taash's attention" (which is good), but the freaking SCHOLAR doesn't call it menses? Okay. You're more interested in forcing the audience to acknowledge the reality of nonbinary people than the reality of PERIODS. All my bruh.

Anyway to summarize. Taash doesn't get to be "nonbinary". Taash is "bioware's first attempt at making a nonbinary character". Their story suffers for the emphasis.

I've seen people saying it's good that Taash is explicitly nonbinary because people are ignoring Lucanis being demisexual. They're not. They know he's demisexual, and they don't like it, hidden under the guise of not liking his "traits". People will ignore whatever they want to ignore. They'll look just as stupid and ignorant regardless of how explicit it was. The only outcome here is people attack Taash directly, instead of nonbinary traits, I guess. Tanking.

Writing challenge!

Taash doesn't get to exist as the character they intended because of how it was decided to use them to introduce the concept into the IP. Taash's whole character and storyline could exist exactly as it plays out, and they could be presented as "Here 👍" just as plainly as the other nonbinary characters you mentioned. But the writers figured they needed to use them as a tool, because they skipped over all the other real world LGBTQ history, and had to bum rush the full implementation. Taash is the only vehicle they have for this, they get watered down into this whole YUP NONBINARY PEOPLE EXIST, IT'S TOTALLY NORMAL, DEFINITELY NOT OUT OF THE ORDINARY, BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME, WE'VE DEFINITELY EVER HAD NONBINARY PEOPLE IN MIND, orientation of excuses. They didn't make any room for Taash to simply exist, to simply be, and have their experience with finding theirself. Taash carries the entire weight of everything trans in Thedas. If you took Taash out, there's only tidbits here and there (though Taash theirself is very well implemented. I've mentioned many times how "being nonbinary" is very well engrained in Taash's character, and not just a post-it note that was slapped on their portfolio, left for any player to go "I'ma just go ahead and rip that back off there and ignore it").

Everything rests on them, and it dilutes their actual characterization.

Taash has to be "how Bioware implemented nonbinary characters" in the same way nobody ever talks about any actual aspects of Krem, he's only brought up for the trans conversations.

[rock-teh-elf]

You know what I don't get about Qunari?

Im Dragon age inq the bull mentions that the tamas bred qunaris like thedas breds dogs ect for specific roles.

Yet tamas still have to figure out to what role you fit before you are 12?

I mean if some ideology sees nothing wrong with breeding it's population like dogs with a specific purpose in mind (which afak happened in a certain fascist country at a much smaller and failed scale) then why is the nurture aspect still acknowledged at all?

If some boy whose father is the hulk in military and mother the hulk of what? Worker class? bred for some military role or (worker class because sexist division and they couldn't know he'll be a boy), why let him be part of the priest class if he shows interest in learning and teaching, spying more than fighting? Did I understand it right? What was the purpose of breeding him into the role of a soldier?

Iron Bull is part of a priest class but you can't tell me that being larger than his peers doesn't mean he was originally bred to be in the military.

They divide by sex out of sexist reasons only allow the fewest exceptions ever but somehow this doesn't extend to their logic that someone being bred to be a soldier could never be good enough of a priest member?

I know it's fantasy yet I can't help but feel like it's pretty unplausible to have a large humanoid population reproduce like that anyways, perhaps that's why they fled to the south because the average kossith actually doesn't want to live in a beehive.

It's pretty clear that the Qunari at first only just served as the ottoman empire against the Christian Europe that is thedas, the qunari representing the exaggerated different way of life that threatens the way of live of thedas. Otherwise they would have been more explored and had more intrinsic logic

Though I do think that the personal freedom vs. control argument is bullshit since thedas is mostly feudalism, or not?

GOD UR RIGHT !! IT LITERALLY MAKES NOT SENSE !!

[ladeaeveld]

Notes on Tevinter Nights

I finished reading Tevinter Nights not so long ago, so here is an overview of what is happening in Thedas. There is probably nothing particularly new since I'm a bit late to the party. However, I find such overviews convenient to refresh my memory when needed. Perhaps it will be useful to someone else!

This overview was meant to be short, but there were so many interesting details... now, it is huge.

Also, since I’ve read the translated version, any help with wording clarifications is greatly appreciated!

The post is under a cut due to Tevinter Nights spoilers (and length).

Global events

- There is a war between the Qunari and Tevinter.

- Three branches of the Qun do not agree with each other. The Antaam, the military branch of the Qun, attacked Ventus and continued the invasion without the permission of the other two. It results in faster progress of the invasion as the other two branches were a moderating influence on the Antaam. The Ben-Hassrath holds a neutral position.

- In Tevinter, the Venatori are still a problem.

- Smaller countries like Rivain and Antiva are under serious threat of the Qunari’s invasion.

- The heads of the Antivan Crows, eight Talons, held a meeting to join their forces, protect Antiva, and withstand the Qunari's invasion. The meeting was disrupted, and four out of eight Talons were murdered. New heads of the Crows will be chosen soon.

- The king of Nevarra is on the brink of death. The Mortalitasi, who have always had great power in Nevarra, continue to interfere in politics.

- All the Grey Wardens were summoned to Weisshaupt.

- We were introduced to a considerable amount of characters from the guild of treasure hunters, the Lords of Fortune.

- Regarding the Inquisition, little is known. All external issues of the organization seem to be handled by Varric Tethras. He gives quests, monitors their implementation, hires new people.

- One of the Executors, or ‘those across the sea’, showed up in the flesh. Solas said they are particularly dangerous and cautioned against interacting with them.

- By now, many have heard rumours of the Fen’Harel’s cult.

Minrathous

- A demon or something far worse is imprisoned under Minrathous. With the help of the Venatori, it is now unsealed (will probably be sealed again later). Yet, to awake it, some blood-magic ritual must be performed.

- The creature was sealed with eight blood-bonded enchanted clay disks. They showed a long and thin four-winged dragon rising from the dark waters.

- It is said that ‘demon’ is not the best word to describe this creature. It is something ancient and mighty, unnamed, something that will subject to god only.

- This ‘demon’ was a part of Corypheus’ plan of making Tevinter great again. According to this plan, Minrathous was to become the cradle of the new world. If Minrathous had not surrendered to Corypheus, the ‘demon’ would have left the city no choice.

- Most of the population of Minrathous could have perished as a result of this creature awakening.

- Enchanted predators and monsters resulting from magical experiments seem to be common in Minrathous.

Elven experiments

- In Nevarra, under a mountain with three asymmetric peaks wrapped around each other, there is a dwarven thaig. This thaig is called Hormak, and it was lost to the darkspawn hundreds of years ago.

- In Hormak, Grey Wardens have found elven halls, where experiments on living were conducted. And it is quite lively in these halls now.

- There is a huge pool with a greyish fluid that reeks of brine. It creates hybrids.

- There were different types of hybrids: darkspawn with other darkspawn, animals with other animals, darkspawn with animals, and even a centipede and a Grey Warden hybrid.

- When a hurlock stepped in the greyish fluid, it was enveloped and then transformed into a drake and a hurlock hybrid.

- The transformed Grey Warden said that the fluid affects ‘them’ (sentient races?) differently. To be transformed, it is not enough to touch it. The fluid should get inside the body.

- All over the place were large repetitive bas-reliefs depicting ancient elven. There were three types of them. The first one showed majestic elven kings and queens with reverent supplicants. The second one showed elven mages healing sick. The third showed big aravels, drawn by herds of hallas, going to distant mountains (one of the mountains had three peaks wrapped around each other).

- Later, those bas-reliefs were described differently. On the first one, elven rulers were arrogant and despised their subjects, who seemed to be in great terror. On the second one, mages weren’t healing sick, but on the contrary, they were injecting corruption into bodies. On the third, a halla had a strange rounded body and very long and ridged horns, and an aravel had bars on its windows, which made it look like a cage.

- Somewhere at the entrance of the halls was one more type of repetitive bas-reliefs. It showed three figures: a supplicant, a priestess, and a monster. On each subsequent bas-relief, a supplicant and a monster were different, while the priestess remained the same. It seemed that with each subsequent bas-relief, her grin grew wider.

- The experiments are directed by some will, which is referred to as a female. ‘She’ is not yet there, ‘they’ are waiting for ‘her’.

- Symbols of horns of a halla are present on each column in the halls.

- According to bas-reliefs, there are twelve such places in total.

The Inquisition members and allies

For completeness, this part should have included information from the comic, but I tried to avoid that.

- According to Tevinter Nights, Varric and Charter remained in the ranks of the Inquisition.

- Charter mentions her lover, Tessa.

- Vaea and ser Aaron show up but without a clear relation to the Inquisition.

- There are two mages, Vadis and Irian, who saved a peaceful Qunari settlement called Kont-aar from an agent of Fen'Harel, thus keeping the chance of subtle peace between the Ben-Hassrath and Tevinter. The Ben-Hassrath returned the favour by directing said mages to Kirkwall, to a certain dwarf, where they intend to go after seeing Val Royeaux.

- Sutherland and Company are still loyal to the ideals of the Inquisition.

- Quentin Calla, who was a bearer of the enchanted clay disk for a while, provided the Inquisition with some information.

- Philliam, a Bard!, (formerly) Sister Laudine, and Brother Ferdinand Genitivi, with the help of the Lord of the Fortune, Mateo, accepted and completed the quest from the Inquisition.

Fen’Harel and the red lyrium idol

- The red lyrium idol's adventures ended. It is now in Solas' hands, or at least he says so.

- There are three descriptions of the red lyrium idol's appearance. The first one, made by the dwarf, the Carta assassin: two figures, too thin to be dwarves, caressing each other. The second one, by Mortalitasi: two lovers or a god mourning the sacrifice. The third, by Solas: crowned figure comforting another one. (Note: I remind you these are not exact quotes but a translation of the translation, and nuances might have been lost.)

- Some qualities of the idol: red lyrium weighs more than the usual one; the idol is liquid inside; it reacts to other lyrium.

- The idol created or revealed a ritual blade.

- Solas calls the idol his.

- The Mortalitasi recounted the events in the Fade in which Solas took a form of a giant wolf the size of a high dragon. He had burning eyes like those of a pride demon and wings of fire which later resolved themselves into lesser demons. The Fade is called his natural home, and it is said spirits serve him gladly.

- Solas pays special attention to the actions of the Inquisition.

- Members of Fen'Harel's cult would rather die than be captured.

- The ritual the Dread Wolf performs already affects the Fade.

Random interesting facts

- The Qunari slowly cut down a part of the Arlathan Forest.

- The Ben-Hassrath are said to know the most about Solas’ actions.

- Among four killed Talons was Giuli Arainai, Eighth Talon, and this might be a good time for Zevran to show up somehow.

- There was a lyrium crystal that produced a light with shades of green and yellow in Hormak.

- Dorian no longer has slaves, only hired labourers.

- Josephine sent Dorian some good Antivan wine. :)

- Vaea now possesses a healing artefact, which seems to be able to heal anything except death.

- There is an example of a dwarven metal prosthetic of a leg, which does not seem to restrict movement in any way.

Since I’ve read Tevinter Nights after the last Dragon Age Day... - Evka became a Grey Warden and did rescue the next one!

- The hunger demon that turned a person into a werewolf in the village called Eichweill was not completely defeated.

- It seems those elven artefacts do strengthen the Veil, after all.

- The Randy Dowager is Ferdinand Genitivi. Five scarves fluttered in shock out of five.

⠀

This is all for Tevinter Nights for now. I did not include plenty of curious facts, probably enough for another post. I hope you enjoyed it anyway!

If you have any corrections regarding facts, or grammar, etc., don’t hesitate to DM me! Or you may leave a comment in my ask box if you want to stay anonymous.

Thank you for the attention, and have a nice day!

[tartcherryscones]

On the Rarity of Elves and Dwarves in Thedas

I had a chat with @makkwastaken about the Veil and it got me wondering. Solas says that elves began aging because of the Veil. There is no further detail about when exactly this aging began to take effect relative to the advent of the Veil, only that it was misattributed to human proximity.

But I had a thought: I wonder if elves are not just becoming mortal, but losing fertility, becoming more human, or simply disappearing.

There are so few elves left that they can mostly be confined to ghettos in majority human cities, it seems. Presumably they, as the dominant humanoid race on the surface, filled their habitat with as many individuals as it could bear. That makes for a serious decline in population. Genocide and war take their toll, but violence might not be the only force at work here. The dwarves are also dwindling, although in-game reasoning for this is always given to be Blight-related. But maybe this isn't the entire truth.

Maybe the fantasy races are dying out because their habitat no longer sustains them magically.

Elven blood is used preferentially in at least one instance (the ancient breach of the Veil by the magisters sidereal) over human blood by blood magic practitioners because of its Fade-ish/magical properties. Solas mentions that he had not thought to see a spirit become embodied as Cole does again. This implies that he has seen it before, possibly before the Veil. If elves come from spirits, as More Human-Cole came from a spirit, or if they come from some other manifestation of Fade energy (perhaps in special combination with the Waking World), then they might be losing part of themselves to the Fade over time or part of themselves might not be receiving the magical "nutrients" it needs to survive. The Veil might be literally dividing elves from themselves, from what they used to be, or at least the way they used to manifest.

There is some evidence that the elves are diminishing. They are inconsistently stated to have been shrunk in the centuries since the Veil. While Solas and Felassan are a typical height for modern elves in the series, the Sentinels are significantly larger. Also, Briala remarks that the ancient elves must have been larger because their stairways used larger steps in "The Masked Empire." If elves are getting smaller, maybe it isn't just their heights that are shrinking.

Maybe when enough time has passed with the Veil in place, elves will simply start getting rounder ears, becoming more human, like Cole. Or perhaps they will simply die out due to some new weakening factor, like increasing susceptibility to illness, or due to an ever shrinking lifespan. When people are starving, their immune system can become compromised, as is unfortunately frequently seen in cancer patients who can't eat due to nauseating chemo/radiation.

There has been no statement made as to whether or not elven lives have been relentlessly shrinking, only that they are no longer immortal. The decrease over time might be gradual and continuous. If elven lifespans become insufficient to reach puberty, if they literally cannot live long enough to have offspring, they would die out.

If elves are becoming more human, then this wouldn't explain why elves are consistently depicted in all games as being shorter than humans, but this disparity could be the result of pervasive malnutrition... Except for the Dalish elves also being shorter than humans. Itinerant hunter-gatherer societies, which the Dalish are strongly implied in all the games to be, tend to eat pretty well and be less prone to suffer for local scarcity, because they can just pick up stakes and move to where the food is when there is a drought, a flood, or a fire that would otherwise ruin crops and leave farming societies in a tight spot. True, farming gives you a surplus, but not always reliably.

Anyway, if the diminishment of the elves is ongoing, how much more are the elves going to diminish? Is it possible that they could simply disappear?

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

It is why I appreciate Solavellan fics that go “ok, there must be a way to take the veil down *safely*, then”.

If anything DATV has proven that the writers are in the business of making whatever the fuck up, so there *is* in fact a way to tear down the veil safely, we just don’t know about it, or Solas doesn’t know about it because it is a unique spell that he alone has ever managed to cast.

The whole “well spirits are suffering” thing is like.. okay so are corporeal mortal elves? In terms of fiction, elves are more “real” than spirits, so why are you skipping the line and prioritizing the spirits over the marginalized minority-coded race of people??? Mm. Mmmm. Mmm. Look I love spirits. They shouldn’t have their natures twisted and broken and what-have-you, but how about we focus on making the world better for the people presently living and bleeding and worry about the spirits later. You’re putting the cart before the horse. Think about it: If spirits reflect the emotions and sentiments of the physical world, then improving modern Thedas will mean that benign spirits will have tons of inspiration and means to embody good qualities in the Fade. If you export the Avvar way of interacting with spirits, just as an example, I guarantee you will see change. A simple violent revolution is not enough to change material conditions. You must have a plan. What is Solas’s plan? To bring back the ancient elves, whatever the fuck that means. Let’s assume it’s “locked away spirits taking mortal form” or “waking up ancient elves that have been asleep in uthenera comas like mummies”. What plans does he have to prevent opportunists from going Genghis Khan on the shattered modern Thedas, from going overboard and “taking what they are owed”? How do we know that the elves he is bringing back (again, assuming we’re doing some weird spirit transplant or something) haven’t gone completely insane with anger and resentment and despair for having been stuck wherever Solas is yanking them out of?

This isn’t just fiction, it’s fiction that the writers have messily attempted to inject with serious sociopolitical currents to grant it that tweak of intrigue. Thus we cannot just pause in applying certain considerations for why this might be a bad idea. It’s not a simple matter of “keeping status quo”. People suffer within the status quo, and when the status quo is ruptured, the marginalized—those with the least wealth, fewest means of escape, laws made against their rights to self-defense, and next to no out-group allies to rely on for mutual assistance and protection—are the first to be targeted during the destabilizing inferno. This will happen regardless if people find out that ancient elves made the Veil and the Blight and all that jazz. Somehow people always fucking forget that.

I’m not willing to sacrifice “real people living right now” just to revert the world to its primordial state because some wisps are having a bad time, I’m sorry. It’d be like wiping out 80% of the modern world so we could return to the Akkadian empire of 2250 BCE. Like what are we even arguing here. Solas isn’t providing ANY explanations or details of how shit will be run, where the elves will sit in relation to what few people survive. Will they lord over the remaining population like post-war US over devastated Europe? Like the British with their “superior weaponry” and racist disdain and imperialism when conquering the Zulus? Like “benevolent stewards” over the “lesser developed” peoples, i.e. humans and dwarves a la “the white man’s burden”?

Not to mention that for all we know, the chaos and suffering will trigger corruption in spirits regardless and cause them to transform into demons anyway…

This is why my favorite fanon “solution” is for the Veil to be eroded away gradually like our ozone layer. If it happens over generations, then the world should grow used to more and more magic seeping through to the real world. A behavioral and mindset change will have to occur if society wants to survive. It happened during the Black Death, it happened during the humanist Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, it happened during the environmentalist movement in the late 19th-early 20th century and again in the 60s and 70s.

Thin the Veil, and keep allowing it to thin. Do it over a period of time so that when it does erode, it’s not a giant dramatic catastrophe but a long time coming that people have at least mentally prepared for and gotten somewhat used to the side effects (weird magic shit, spirits slipping through to the other side, etc.). But hey, my idea could be as stupid as Solas’s. At least I gave more than half a second to how it could affect everyone.

The arguments I’ve seen of “the Veil should’ve been taken down” made something itch in the back of my head like I forgot something, and then just now I remembered:

Trespasser dialogue:

Solas confirms that countless people will die once he tears down the Veil. I feel like his throwaway comment in DATV that “he had spirits on standby to help minimize losses” is 1) A sort-of lie to make Rook feel even more stupid for interfering, 2) This is a detail that has been added to the narrative for whatever reason, 3) His idea of “minimizing losses” is “Instead of three-fourths of the world dying, only half will die”

But again we don’t know. Lavellan asked, “So lots of people are gonna die?” and Solas responded with, “Yeah, lots”.

And I gotta say—I GOTTA SAY—that I am all for changing the status quo, but not when that involves an indeterminable number of casualties and side effects that we don’t know the full scope of. Am I insane for wanting to know how many deaths we’re talking before doing this? If there is ANY way for people…like say…the MODERN elves.. to prepare for what will result from this? Because any way you slice it, Solas is doing this for ancient elves and spirits at the cost of the lives of marginalized descendants of the people that DATV reveals he fought to free and liberate, and then accidentally condemned to mortality and spirits to being stuck on one plane of reality when the ritual he was casting to seal the Evanuris got fucked with and made the Veil cover the world like an oil spill, an accident on Solas’s part.

Solas should be advocating and disrupting the systems in place with his magic powers and influence. He should be manipulating things from the shadows to install leaders who will give concessions and land and liberties and rights to elves. Scheming is something he’s good at. It’s clear these big heroic gestures never pan out.

[ishouldgay]

Didn't the Divine order the genocide of the entire Kirkwall mages population before Anders took action? They would have been all murdered in cold blood anyway, at least some got to evade thanks to Anders before getting slaughtered by the Chantry?

(Let's not forget the Divine also ordered the Circle of Dairsmuid to be wiped out, likely the same year or soon after sending the orders for the Annulement of Kirkwall, for the sole reason that the Rivaini Mages of the remote and fairly small Dairsmuid Circle on the other side of the Continent [so... not much of a threat at all] were allowed to be in contact with their families and also study local, traditional rivaini Seer Magic. She litteraly agreed to their immediate execution without trial because... She couldn't tolerate that the Templars in charge there allowed people to remain in contact with their parents and siblings and to maintain their own culture? [while still being jailed till death for the crime of being born, let's not forget that either]. Those Mages didn't do anything at all, they followed the rules set by their Templar jailors, they didn't cause any incidents or problems as far as we know, they didn't rebel (before she called for their death) and she decided they had to die anyway. Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just, right? The Chantry-Templar army she sent to kill them all also used the occasion to indulge in cultural genocide as well by destroying everything they could find about the local magical traditions, be that entire libraries, archaeological artefacts or ancient treasures. Anything that wasn't "Chantry-Sanctionned" : into the bonfire! Which is something we also know they have done routinely and still do accross Thedas. There is truly no winning against the Chantry. No matter the rules they make up, no matter if the Mages follow them without resistance or not, they will be murdered by the Chantry in the end. [Same goes for the Elves btw.] Can't you imagine, even for one second, the absolute anguish and crushing despair of the Mages? Can't you feel any compassion at all and try to understand them? We're even being told in the games that the situation is so so so bad a terrifying number of Mages in Circles comit suicide every year.)

Also the Divine wasn't really doing anything to prevent the "war"? She very much orders two genocides at the beginning of it, sure... But then what ? In Masked Empire it takes Empress Celene seeking Lelianna *in person* to twist the Divine's arm into doing anything at all, after two whole years, maybe three, of ongoing Rebellion ?

"She saw the war coming" well given that she had recieved potentially hundreds of reports concerning the templars' abuse and straight up use of torture in the Circles all over Thedas for years and didn't do anything about it (and among all that: Meredith using the Rite of Tranquility on Harrowed mages which is forbidden by Chantry Law, Meredith calling for Annulement without any evidence whatsoever to justify herself or the whole thing with Kirkwall's templars using the Rite of Tranquility to sexually abuse mages without any consequences? Urh.), yeah wasn't *that* hard to predict a wide scale Rebellion when the word about any of that (or the rest) got out. It's both surprising it took that many centuries to happen, and kinda unsurprising given how frighteningly and efficiently repressive the Chantry have been during those centuries.

The abuses of the templars are nothing really new to anyone in Thedas either I think, well maybe the extent of it might be, (but lots of people under the Chantry rule are seemingly ok with it, probably because the Chantry controls the education system [and murders people going around saying stuff that endangers their rule/power, often under the guise of The Game] preaching all over the Continent that Mages are not people/sub-humans and actively deserve to be abused) and certainly no breaking news at all for the Head of the Chantry who has one of the most efficient web of informers and spies in the known world. (Also why do you think all the nobles hide their kids with magical abilities instead of sending them to Circles? They know full well it would be sending their children to their deaths or worse.)

Didn't Cassandra also says in the beginning of DAI that the war didn't start because of Anders but because of one the Chantry's Big Secrets got out, ie that the first Seekers discovered the Rite of Tranquility and knew for over 800 years that it was reversible? (They also promised Inquisitor Ameridan they would only ever use it as a last last last resort weapon against Mages and never abuse it. They lied. Insert PikachuShock.)

I believe that it's also confirmed in Asunder. Also that the Divine was looking into the Rite on the side to see if she could use it (...thus bypassing the Seekers?) to sever people from Magic/The Fade permanently but without totally lobotomizing them (which, if vaguely commandable, is still very much torture) before the Divine's team investigating was murdered by the Seekers themselves. By I digress.

There's also the fact that the Kirkwall Chantry was using all the tithe-money they collected from people to embellish their Palace-Church while almost everyone in the city was starving and living in the slums or straight up in the sewers. For a whole decade.

While it can be argued that blowing up that golden symbol of centuries of Violent Oppression and Death was perhaps not the ideal solution (there wasn't any non-violent solution though, the Mages were litteraly facing Deathsquads coming to silence them in the days to come), it's impossible in my opinion to seriously argue that the Kirkwall Chantry was innocent of blatant wrong doings either or even righteous in their actions. (Like Templars cutting down unarmed non-mage civilians because they felt like maybe perhaps mayhaps there's mage-sympathizers among them?). They saw Blight refugees flowing in their city, they saw conflict, slavery and then saw the Poor starve for 10 loooong years and did absolutely nothing. Well safe for keeping their Palace in Hightown all pretty and build new statues in Lowtown. Very decent, much useful to all the people starving for sure. (I believe that there was somewhat of a retcon in the dlcs by adding in one single line of dialogue about one single person in the Kirkwall Chantry who helped some poor sods once? Never got that dialogue myself so can't say for sure. But even so. It's laughable an argument and a retcon.) And what about the Grand Cleric who lie to the mages/Orsino for more than a decade while she never had any intention of doing anything for them at all, never did squat to stop Meredith either nor stepped in to do anything really. Tsss.

I know how that last part sounds but I'm not trying to do some "victim blaming" here or whatever (concerning the people who died in the Chantry's explosion, they didn't deserve it personaly. In my humble opinion.), but people sure seem to like blaming the Mages and Anders for everything, while disregarding a huge amount of things that don't fit their own comfy little narrative. :/

Especially all the absolutely horrific colonialist, revisionist and obscurantist shit the Chantry has been pulling for what, 1000 years? From what we've been told in every DA media so far, we absolutely KNOW that the Chantry has LOT of blood of its hands. Not fair to go after Anders like he's the only one, guys. What about the others characters doing even similar stuff? The Divine had hundreds of people straight up murdered? Celene too? Greagoir as well? No? What about Chantry Mother Petrice? By definition, she is a terrorist as well : she tortures and murders the Viscount's Son for taking an interest in another religion, go after non-humans because she judge them "impure" and try to spur a whole ass holy war against the Qun which very much end up in hundreds of people getting killed even if you resolve the Isabella side of the situation. If you sided with Petrice, she even survives, pin the murder on the non-believers and the only consequence to her actions is to be demoted of her high rank. Because murder and instigating a climate of terror and chaos "was undignified of her station". That's it. Talk about double standards. (She then later talk about starting her own murder-non-believers cult or whatever lol.)

Things always happen in a given context, so yeah, I guess that was just my two cents about said context and correcting some stuff as to why Anders didn't see any better solution because let's be honest : there is no way of fighting the Chantry and win (or even just : there's no way to stay alive for Mages). Especially when you're an oppressed minority without any support of any kind in a world that has been taught to wish you a very die. Obey? You get tortured, raped and killed. Rebel? They send you deathsquads. Run? They send killers after you. There's no way out. Terrifying.

(Sorry for the very long rant! x) )

Listen none of that changes the fact that Anders’s actions were short sighted and selfish. My Hawke killed him, she feels guilty about, but she she still kills him. Dude is a murderer and a terrorist.

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

running around Val Royeaux and remembered you can find this tree and accompanying codex. what's fun here is this is NOT actually a tree at all--it's actually modeled off a "tree fern". If you look at the leaves, you'll notice that unlike palm or cycad, the leaves are subdivided a second time as they branch out from those midveins (bipinnatifid). Tree ferns are older than the common 'modern' groups we think of (gymnosperms like conifers, and much later angiosperms that became a lot of the deciduous trees most people are familiar with) and reproduced by spores rather than seeds. There's still tree ferns all around Earth today, but it does have me wondering now about whether Thedas had major extinction events... one of the cool things about the KT extinction that killed all the dinosaurs on Earth is that ferns basically took advantage of everything else being dead and exploded in population afterwards. that's not relevant to anything at all just a fun fact. a little sneaky science treat for ya. anyway if nothing else its fun for ME to know there's tree ferns around the jungles of Par Vollen at least since we never got to go there in game

[rodimissliveblogs]

ANOTHER ONE ABOUT THE SOUTH. Every time I think about them nuking it entirely with a megablight I feel more and more insane. I try not to get so heated about fucking video games like this but. Hello. Hello. Last letter from the Inquisitor says that Redcliffe fell, and with it all of Ferelden, and the last holdout in that area is Skyhold. Hello. Hello.

Remember Dragon Age: Origins, a dearly-beloved game to me that I will not be able to replay without thinking "all of these locations, all of these people I come to love in this deeply interesting, expansive, and nuanced world? yeah I buy them 20 years of peace and then they're all dead in a megablight because honestly, truly, how much of Ferelden's population can you fit in Skyhold to shelter them."

Insane. Insane. I actually get madder every time I think about it. "Here's the end to a narrative you've waited 9-10 years for, we decided off-screen to nuke everywhere and almost everyone you knew and loved."

Hey. Hey Bioware. I just wanna - yeah I just wanna talk. Hey. There's a lot of the game I can shrug at and say "yeah, it's been 9 years in development hell, EA fucking sucks, they tried to turn this game into live-service and then Bioware had 3 years to rebuild it after that" but. But this. This choice. What. Why. How. How did this happen. Who came up with this. Who do I blame. Like. The devs surely can't have thought that was a good idea that players would be okay with, right? Right? Hello? Hello?? Can we blame EA for this somehow?? Did they say "we need this lovingly-crafted world to be accessible to new gamers, so dumb it all down and nuke everything you had before"? What kind of executive meddling could lead to that?? Because surely the devs can't have. like. thought this was good. insane thing to do to your fans if that's what you wanted to do with no external pressure?? Who do I blame. Who should I blame. EA laid off most of their experienced writers/Dragon Age team before the game came out. I feel like I need to blame EA somehow. They don't care. We know they don't. But I'm still. argh. You can't have been a dev on a long-running series and thought this was a good idea? Right??

Anyway it's such a huge, world-shattering thing they do by nuking the South and then it only comes up in one optional conversation branch and codex entries. Why's Harding talking about going camping in Ferelden. Ferelden is gone. The darkspawn nuked it all. Harding you were there when the Inquisitor told us that.

It's such an insane thing to do and then not address at all in the slightest in the narrative. Like yeah the gods are bad. Darkspawn are bad. Two archdemons at the same time are bad. It would cause a lot of death and destruction, yes. It's not unrealistic that the entire South would have such a bad time But if you're gonna commit to that, you need to actually care about the death and destruction in the narrative. Rook and the companions need to care! Not just never address it beyond a single side tangent with the Inquisitor! I dunno, if I was Rook, and I let these gods out, and they killed everyone in half the continent, I would be thinking about that a lot! Mention it to Solas, probably, that just like him, I've destroyed the world! But the fact that I spent three games there coming to know and love that part of Thedas, and the game doesn't care about it at all that it's all gone! The characters don't care! Insane! Enraging! I care! I invested so much into this world you've just wiped away without a second glance or even acting like you expect me to care. Hello. Am I crazy.

At least the fact that the narrative doesn't even bother to care about what it claims has happened will make it easier for me, and everyone else, to ignore, once I'm done feeling fucking insulted and enraged by the audacity of it. Which might take a while. Because every time I think about it I get more mad, not less. I'm not sure I've felt this actively insulted by a video game before.

I’m also definitely feeling able to like…formulate some issues with the game as I’ve been playing so much, and I probably won’t unpack those till the end and I see everything come together, but there keep being places that just feel…shallow. Like you had so much depth and worldbuilding and history through the series and you’re not engaging with the implications of it. Can we talk about the Dalish actually please. Can we talk TO the Dalish. Not the Veil Jumpers, just a normal Dalish clan. Why does everyone unquestioningly accept that the gods are bad. How’d that get out over the years. Why’d everyone believe it. Is that what Solas’ rebellion and network of spies was doing in between games. What happened to that network anyway. Surely there’d be some of the people who joined him over the years who’d be worried that he suddenly lost contact with everyone. Where’d that plot thread go.

And all the news about the megablight in the South and everything burning and being terrible is like. It’s the Ace Attorney escalation problem. Where the stakes keep getting bigger because they think that’s what it needs. I was fully invested in the fight for northern Thedas and the fates of my new friends and allies, you don’t need to say “ALSO EVERYTHING YOU KNEW AND LOVED DOWN SOUTH IS BURNING AND BLIGHTED AND ALL THE CITIES YOU KNOW ARE FALLING AND ITS ALL TERRIBLE” like okay jesus christ calm down. I guess that’s just them trying to justify keeping the Inquisitor out of the way. Had to give them some big problem too. But like. :/ you didn’t need to do that. I could be invested in stakes that aren’t that.

I’m having fun. I’m enjoying the characters. I like getting lore. But there’s a splinter in my foot.

Also why doesn’t Solas hate the Grey Wardens anymore. We’re talking about archdemons and their lore and there’s nothing in it that gives him reason to have been so freaked out at the wardens’ plan in Inquisition. What’s that about. Why’s he keep telling me we need warden help and not even a snide “they’re the best hope you have to fight the blight, not that it means much.” He’s a bitch about the wardens. Why’s he not being a bitch about the wardens.

[dalishious]

So I’m super new to anything DA outside of the game and I truly didn’t know people like Cassandra and Dorian were poc. Could you please let me know which nations are poc and which are white, so I can know but also so I can safely make ocs? Also thanks for looking at all my asks!

I mean, it’s not as simple as saying “everyone in this country is white, and everyone in this country, is brown.” There’s diversity in every nation in Thedas. But with that said, there are different demographics of course, with Southern Thedas being more white, if I am understanding what you are asking?

Orlais, Ferelden and I think at least most of the Free Marches have a dominantly white population

Rivain has a dominantly Black population [Link]

Nevarra has a dominantly brown population (specifically, there are some obvious MENA parallels [Link] [Link])

Antiva has a lot of both lighter and darker skinned people, but I’m still willing to say most Antivans are nonwhite

Tevinter also has a mix of lighter and darker skinned people, but with even more confidence I’m going to say that most Tevinters are nonwhite

Not much is concretely known about the Anderfels, but I’m willing to guess similarities to Nevarra, Tevinter and Orlais

Anyway, since you mentioned Cassandra and Dorian: [Link] [Link]

[dimancheetoile]

I read your tags for dragon age and like I n DA4 we'll be in Tevinter. Mages already rule and they actively subjugate and even enslave people. Do you think you would still side with mages? I have always sided with mages bc yeah but Tevinter isn't like the rest of Thedas. What do you think bc I've been struggling with this thought since the first teaser...

hey there! so first, i’d like to say that it’s very likely i won’t pay da4. I hated DAI on many, many levels, and though I did enjoy some things, it’s overall a game I don’t like and wouldn’t recommend to anyone. So if da4 resembles DAI more than it does DA2 or DAO, I probably won’t play it.

But for the sake of argument, and just in case I do end up playing it, here’s what I think:

1. I don’t think they’ll have us side once more on the mage/templar debate. They’ve done that for the past two games (and arguably in DAO too, although it was a less prevalent plot point) and I don’t think that conflict has the same weight in Tevinter. Templars are basically useless in that context, because mages have such a different societal rank, place, and power, that you can’t think of them as mages.

I’m going to give an example that I think is fitting. See how black people are treated in north-america, and the power law enforcement has over them? Let’s say black people are mages, and law enforcement are the templars. In that context, siding with the templars is a terrible thing to do, considering the oppression and the power they have over mages. Now let’s say you suddenly move to Mali, or Ghana. The population will be an overwhelming majority of black people, with law enforcement being of the same ethnicity. Now, every disparity in power between citizens and law enforcement will come from the inherent inbalance between those two groups, and the civil rights breaches will be limited to human rights, and not racism anymore. Does that make sense? I hope it does. So if your Ferelden, for ex, is the US, then Tevinter is Ghana. Suddenly, siding with the mages doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s like being in Ghana and saying you side with black people. I sure hope you do, it’s their fucking country!

So that’s why I think the devs won’t write in the mage/templar conflict. I personally think the conflict will be more in line with Fenris’ storyline in DA2. I think they’ll have you choose between siding with the Magisterium, the people in power, in order to gain an alliance or something to fight the big bad threat, and between siding with, most likely, either a slave rebellion or the mages of lower class Tevinter, who aren’t Magisters, just mages (I know there’s a canon word for it but I can’t remember).

In that case, I’d personally side with the slaves, all day, every day. Now, what they could do to make that choice very interesting and agonizing, would be to be unequivocally brutal about the consequences. For ex, because you pissed off the Magisters and sided with the slaves, the Magisters won’t join you in the big battle. You therefor have so little forces that the losses you suffer in the battle are tremendous. I’m talking companions dying permenantly, civilian death, many slaves dying if they join you, etc. Now, your choice is interesting. Do you free the slaves or aid the lower class mages, in exchange for most of their lives? Or do you side with the Magisters, keeping the slaves alive but still in slavery? 

Anyway, that was me fantasying about the writers having balls and finally writing consequences for their so-called “big choices”.

But let’s actually answer your question.

2. I would still side with the mages, if the mage/templar conflict was maintained. Here’s my reasoning: all the bad shit we hear about Tevinter comes from the Chantry, who hates them, ex-slaves or mages who suffered under their power, or templars who are basically just the Chantry 2.0. Now, the bad shit you hear about the Templar is, imo, so much fucking worse. Because to me, slavery is NOT related to the Magisters being mages. It’s related to them being awful fucking people, bigots and racists and morally bankrupt. I don’t believe that to be an inherent quality of mages. So, in a matter of civil rights, should I refuse black people rights because there are looters in BLM protests? Fuck no. My hope is that the writers will be clever about this and siding with mages won’t mean siding with slavers, because that would undermine the message they tried to get across in the last three games (as awkward as it was). Forcing us to side with the templars because suddenly mages are assholes will be an empty-ass choice.

3. Magisters don’t equal Mages. I’m pretty sure it’s Dorian who makes a point of this, but my memories of DAI are fuzzier than those of the other two games so I could be wrong. So we could side with the mages without siding with the Imperium, depending on how the writers handle it

4. Templars are just so fucking terribles, and that includes to themselves. Samson is such a sad character, seriously. Not only do they destroy mages’ lives, but they destroy the lives of their own recruits. I will never not be angry whenever I see that cutscene with Cullen where he’s such an abusive asshole to Willmord in DA2, after the poor guy was tortured and abused. And when you free the other recruit, he’s punished and set back years if you select the right options, and down-right expelled or killed, which will lead to his sister dying of starvation too. So the “good” ending is this guy stuck in the same rank for 10 years because he was tortured? WTF??? And Cullen is like “oh yeah this is such a good thing i’m doing for him” like fuck this guy omfg i hate him. Ahem. anyway.

5. In the end, I think it comes to this: the conflict is different in Tevinter because the culture is different. If the writers do their job right, the conflict should reflect that. If they don’t, it’ll suck ass but I’d still side with the mages. Putting up Templars to replace Magisters in the Imperium won’t be what frees the slaves or gets the lower class mages out of poverty, trust me on that. On the contrary, even. When have they shown an ounce of compassion or kindness, and especially for slaves, elves and mages? 

Wow that got very long, but I’m passionate about this. Hope that helps! Feel free to ask other stuff if you want to keep discussing this, I think it’s a very interesting topic. Thanks for asking and have a great day, my friend.