#which is the first worldstate i completed

[a-drama-addict]

i was going to draw and update chronos’ design and oh lord i’ve forgotten how to draw my boy

[blackjackkent]

Me> [struggling to unravel a very annoying UI bug]

My brain, entirely unprompted> H E Y. IF JAHEIRA HAD USED SOME MORE MINOR VERSION OF THAT RITE OF THE TIMELESS BODY ON RASAAD TO EXTEND HIS LIFESPAN, IT WOULD RESOLVE THE MORE FINICKY TIMELINE ISSUES ABOUT RION BEING THEIR KID.

Me> ...ok? I didn't ask right now but thank you for working that out I guess.

[mabaris]

man ok i’ve got so many spoiler tags blocked and the effect instead is that i know Some things are going on but don’t have the full context. but i don’t want to get rid of my filters to understand what everyone else is talking abt because there’s other stuff i want to keep hidden yknow. and i obviously don’t have any way to tell what blocked posts are unimportant enough to look at

[lavellaned]

Actually I think one of the reasons why this game is so awful to get through is how it treats abuse, abusers, and abuse victims.

Under cut due to length of rambling:

First of all, Morrigan. Abused as a child by her mother, Flemeth aka Mythal, learned about the world and how to interact with it in a skewed way. Was treated in a way that no child should be by anyone let alone their parent.

Fast forward to Inquisition, particularly a worldstate in which Kieran is alive. The scene in the fade where Morrigan confronts Flemythal is one of the most important and special scenes in all of dragon age to me.

Growing up through abuse as a child you never think "I don't deserve this", you mainly think things like "Why is this happening to me?" and "Bad things happen to me." You know that these things are bad and make you feel bad, but when your baseline for how you should experience the world is abusive, you don't have the point of reference to think otherwise. And then you grow up. You look back on the abuse through the eyes of the child who experienced it but also through the detached, adult view that you currently have and have to reconcile the two. It's not easier nor pleasant. Getting to the age your abuser was/getting into the position of power your abuser had over you is difficult. Being at that stage and picturing yourself doing what was done to you to someone else is fucking sickening, and then you start to realize "I wasn't the problem, it WASN'T my fault, YOU are the one that's fucked up." But a lot of people can't and therefore the cycle of abuse continues.

But Morrigan does. She straight up tells her abuser "I will not be the mother you were to me." To have a character who survived childhood abuse be able to reach a point in their life where they can take back their personhood from their abuser is pretty damn important, actually. To this day I get weepy just thinking about it.

And then fucking veilguard happened.

Not only does it not matter if Kieran is alive or if Morrigan drank from the well (something that would BIND HER SPIRIT TO HER ABUSER), but Morrigan straight up let Mythal hitch a ride in her. The very thing that Morrigan tried to prevent ever since the first goddamn game? And we're all just supposed to accept and be ok with this?

The only way I can see this not being a complete character assassination of Morrigan is if Mythal just straight up possessed her unwillingly/killed her. Have Mythal use Morrigan as a information receptacle for new players, but also use old players' already-implemented relationship with her as a way to manipulate them. Either way, shit sucks.

Then there's the Crows. You know, the guild who takes children from brothels, orphanages, the streets and puts them through Hunger Games levels of training in which they either die or survive to become a slave assassin for the rest of their life. Not in veilguard. We're all just one big happy family. We rule Antiva, yippee!

Finally, there's Solas. One could argue his entire existence is the product of abuse, and everything that has happened in Thedas is because of it. I think framing his regrets as physical manifestations that want to kill him is a really interesting narrative choice. Unlocking the regret murals was one of the very few parts of this game that invoked a strong emotional response from me, not just because I'm an unapologetic Solas Enjoyer but because the implications are heartbreaking.

And then the game has you sit through the most fucking unbearable CBT group therapy session to talk about them with some of the most annoying damn people in Thedas who treat the literal apocalyptic levels of abuse Solas went through for millennia as something like a joke? And we the player are not given the option to challenge this? This game makes the point to force the player to agree with the flippant attitudes brought up from this.

Then brings up the final scene with Solas. Do I think the meeting with Mythal and Solas was handled well? Yes and no, but that's for another time. Solas is so far in the trenches of the trauma of abuse that he will not stop until his abuser pretty much tells him "I'm done abusing you." I think this was good and bad, again another time.

The way Solas interacts with his abuser is the direct flipside of how Morrigan does. You see more than one way someone can heal/not heal from it.

Morrigan, someone with arguable little power in the world, stands up against her abuser unflinchingly.

Solas, described through history as a GOD, someone with unfathomable amounts of knowledge and power, cowers and offers his abuser a literal weapon to kill him with, unprompted.

If this was a good game, it would be about regret but also about survivor's guilt, something that those who survived abuse have to deal with for the rest of their lives. But it's not, because it's a a bad game.

[vigilskeep]

avoiding most reviews like crazy for fear of spoilers, however I’m scared that some have said that rook can do no wrong even when picking the most aggressive impolite options, there’s never any social consequences for *choosing* to be rude, or even dismissing others worldviews and beliefs.

i will say a lot about inquisition, but at least it let the player have complicated relationships with the party by not having everyone agree to everything they say as the word of god

us getting to have complicated relationships with the party in dragon age inquisition is, frankly, news to me

personally i’ve seen more of people suggesting you can’t be as rude in the first place, than people saying the game doesn’t react when you are? to which i have to say, yes, interactions with the party are going to be different in veilguard than in previous dragon age games. they’re writing a protagonist who the plot requires to be more of a hero type who chose to join this venture, every party member is essential to the main plot, and they’re openly going for a “found family” dynamic, which (i would strongly argue) they’ve never done before. the group is intended to work as a whole, to be people who all care about each other, rather than simply being tied together by your player character. you’re not going to have a situation like in every other game where companions can get thrown out or betrayed or aggressively belittled by the protagonist, because this party simply would not work if you were doing that to certain members. the story they are telling this time would not make sense

however, i’m yet to see that that means we can’t have complicated relationships with the companions? in fact, we know it allows for main plot choices with lasting, drastic consequences on our relationships with certain companions. we know you can disagree with characters and still progress your relationships with them. there are new opportunities that we never had in previous games for all companions to be closely involved in what’s going on, and thus for all companions to have opinions that matter on all of rook’s decisions. i’ve already seen footage of companion commentary absolutely not holding back on challenging even relatively small choices

i think challenges from this style of companion can be very compelling in their own way. if all these companions are considered equally good-aligned by the narrative and care about each other, and they still sharply disagree, it suggests fewer conflicts with simple right answers. i think that could be a breath of fresh air from previous dragon age games which have often and regularly fallen into the trap of “obvious good answer” and “the answer your slightly evil companions will like”. there’s a reason so many worldstate decisions and quest endings are overwhelmingly popular, right? isn’t it possible it will be just as interesting to engage with a story where you are definitively written as good-aligned, but that means you get real choices between options just as justifiable as each other—or as bad as each other?

it’s a change so it’s by nature not going to be for everyone. you’re not going to be able to play certain kinds of character that you could in previous games and if that’s what you were looking for in another da game, that’s a disappointment. but i don’t think dragon age should necessarily be restricted by that forever? like i don’t think it’s necessarily conducive to good storytelling to always have to input evil/mean options and reactivity just for the sake of it. and i completely understand why it would be detrimental to the game they’ve chosen to make this time. their primary selling point and concept is the complex team dynamics. can you imagine the sheer bulk of writing it would take to have these companions as thoroughly invested in each other’s lives as they seem to be, and let you be horrible to particular ones? for how many players’ benefit? for what story coherency, when building these relationships is the plot of the game? i don’t really see the point

that’s how i feel about it idk. i’m optimistic. i also don’t rlly think jumping to conclusions at this point is worthwhile. the reviews are largely positive. it’s coming out in a day and a half. let’s just wait and see?

[thelonelyshore-if]

The Lonely Shore Devlog #9

( 07/06/2024 ) Chapter One, Part Two: 87,636 words Added: +40,887 words Total Wordcount: 201,865 words

Hey everyone! Popping in for the first devlog in a while. Apologies that I haven't posted one recently--mostly I've been hesitating because I feel like I don't have much new to say.

Still--this is long overdue.

There are a couple of reasons the update is taking a while to be completed. The first--and biggest--is that the ending scene(s) of the chapter are incredibly complex, coding-wise, for me. There are a few different variables to keep track of and I'm far too stubborn to adjust the plot to simplify.

To keep things vague, the MC gets the opportunity to do something, and can either go at it alone or bring Jay, Ravi, or both along. Which means there are essentially four different worldstates I'm accounting for. That being said, I'm finally at the end of it. There's still a bit that needs wrapping up, but it's coming.

Also, my mental health has been...pretty terrible, recently. Writing on top of mental illness and working full time has felt near impossible some days. I'm doing my best to take breaks and practice self-care, but unfortunately it doesn't always lend to the fastest writing.

The goal is to get the update out by the end of this month. I'm determined.

Thank you all for your patience, and here's a little plot-relevant teaser for your trouble:

[loquaciousquark]

you have been my #1 favorite fanfic author of all time for like 7-8 years now for your fenhawke and ive always thought "god i would give anything for quark to write solavellan" but i respected that it wasnt your thing. so imagine the pure unbridled euphoria of checking in on your blog this week to see that he finally got to you. i actually screamed. whatever you come up with i know it is going to absolutely change my life and i am so excited <3

i’m so. sad. i'm SO sad. i was so happy for a decade just being mildly annoyed every time he crossed my dash and now i am having feelings and opinions and i don’t WANT THEM and the only way to get rid of them is to write them out of me, this is why i don’t love fenris or astarion at all anymore obviously

and like, I still don’t love Solas! I still think some things he does and some goals he has are really, really stupid! but this character I created to love him really loves him, and I really love her and want her to be happy even though she lives only inside my head, and that means I need to lay down some structure around her romance to get the shape of it, to build something I can make sense of. I may not love him, but I like him much more than I did, and I certainly understand him better than I did the first time around.

And to be honest, there’s a part of me glad I’m coming to it as late as I have. I don’t think I’ve ever read a single Solavellan fic in my life (I actually had to pause here to check the spelling). I have NO idea what tropes are popular with him or what interpretations are the biggest. I have a lot of opinions on how his personality and identity work in a romance with this particular character I’ve created, but because I’ve been so siloed I have no idea if I’m bucking the grain or not, which is fine by me.

Plus, it helps I’m not going to have ten years to build up a lot of personal headcanons and jossable thoughts before playing the new game. I’m not someone who easily ignores canon when it clashes with my imagination for the major things, so I think this will (hopefully) keep me from major disappointments.

It's kinda funny; earlier today I was going back through my DAI tag and reminding myself of all my impressions from the first time I played the game. Some of them I definitely still stand by; others have completely changed. I even said twice that a Lavellan/Solas romance would be my next playthrough, which was true if ten years late.

But it's things like: apparently the first time through I loved Solas and Sera, both of which certainly were not true going into this replay. (I barely even have a memory of Solas and Priory ever being in the party together, though the historical records say I took him to Adamant.) I apparently had a lot of hopes Gideon Emery would be voicing Fenris. I originally thought Priory was going to romance Bull, which is very ?????? after all this time. (I did still, even then, know Here Lies the Abyss completely broke her as a character, and ten years on I never could fix her for good.)

I really did not expect to change my mind on Solas going into this replay, I guess is the point. I replayed because knowing the story of DAI and Solas, I felt it was a story most personalized to elves and specifically a Solas-romancing Lavellan, and that was the worldstate I wanted to take into the new game. I played it out because that's the kind of person I am (I can't just invent characters wholesale in my head) but I really thought it was going to be a perfunctory playthrough as a stepping stone to a different game and a different PC and (presumably) a different romance. I didn't expect to love this character as much as I do, and even if I don't have ten years to write her out the way I did Hawke, I feel like I still owe it to her & her doomed romance to give her a little time in the spotlight. Lucky girl!

[monabee-draws]

Okay but HOW did the South all fall to the Blight anyways? I get that Ghilan'nain altered it to be more vicious but the world of Thedas has survived Blights more than a century long with no knowledge of how to 'safely' combat them (the First Blight lasted 192 years) and though yes parts of the Anderfels remained Blighted for centuries, they managed to repel it well enough that other parts of the region remained habitable. By contrast, modern Thedas has survived five Blights, each of which was combatted more efficiently the last. Even the disastrous Fourth Blight which resulted in the near extinction of the griffons was managed. You're telling me that two of the world's biggest powers (Ferelden and Orlais) just rolled over and died in the span of what must be no longer than a few months??? The latter Empire which did not even 'recently' suffer a Blight and may well have both absorbed the forces of the Inquisition and had the aid of the entire Southern division of Wardens after they defect from Weisshaupt.) Or Ferelden which has a good chance of being ruled by a former warden who may be getting on in years but is deeply aware of the threat of the Blight and likely to be quick to mobilise?

This is why we needed a proper worldstate system. Because it would only (VERY BARELY) make any sense that Orlais and Ferelden fall so easily if you completely ruined both kingdoms' political relations with each other, they fought a war that depleted both countries' resources, AND all the Southern wardens were killed or exiled to Weisshaupt. Which sure, COULD be the canon. But instead we get nothing at all. Except a convenient wiping clear of the board as if none of those places and people ever existed. And we can't say or do anything about it despite the Eluvian network almost certainly reaching those locations as well.

Ghilly isn't even PRESENT in the South at any point according to the Inquisitor's letters, so the presence of the Evanuris speeding the spread/voracity of the Blight (which is implied through D'Meta's Crossing and the Blighting of Minrathous and Treviso) doesn't even apply there. There's no direction for a darkspawn hoard in the South - no Archdemon or Evanuris. And we're told repeatedly that the Blight is dangerous (in comparison to the general darkspawn presence) because their leadership makes them smart. They are organised and fight well against martial resistance. The new darkspawn are clearly less intelligent and do not work together using tactics, but rather swarm or do their own individual things. And yet no one can organise a meaningful resistance against them such that two ENTIRE COUNTRIES WORTH OF LAND aren't completely annihilated? Nah. This will always be the biggest plot hole contrivance nonsense to me.

[curioussubjects]

been thinking about the critique of the lords of fortune being too sanitized wrt how they handle their loot. i don't disagree that it's rather cute that these pirates are the good guys, promise! BUT i don't think it's a lazy writing cop out meant to evade accusations of being ~problematic (or, well, not entirely anyway).

first thing: that view is largely given to the player by taash, who i think appears to be a bit naive about the entire endeavor. they are, after all, much younger than the rest of the veilguard. and they have a lot of personal reasons to be biased in favor of the lords of fortune.

second thing: it seems datv is taking for granted the worldstate in which isabela comes back to kirkwall with the relic and helps hawke deal with the fallout. that mess being what it was, it makes perfect sense that isabela (as a founding member and leader of the lords of fortune) would try to...not replicate that outcome in the future -- and she implies as much during taash's recruitment task when she says a relic can be worth gold or a war. it's a very pragmatic approach to plunder rather than a completely altruistic one (and flies a little in the face of taash's "we aren't assholes" claim). i mean, the lords straight up charge a finders fee for the important ~cultural relics they find. and rook themselves can call it out as extortion (even if leadership tries to avoid it from being too much extortion lol)

third thing: i think the lords of fortune as they are presented in the game are also a thought experiment. can there be ethical pirates and delvers? and i can't fault the dev team for playing with the concept because that's definitely something fiction is for. whether they did it well or arrived at a satisfactory answer is another matter entirely, but the presence of the attempt isn't inherently a problem.

all that being said, criticism about the dev's settler bias are important here and deeply affect how the lords of fortune are characterized and how well the thought experiment is handled narratively. i'm not, however, qualified to make that analysis properly, so i won't touch on it beyond acknowledging that it matters a lot.

[sampirism]

talkn bout my opinions on rook and varric and roleplay and feeling disconnected (roleplay in a game sense not the freaky sense. sorry) - SPOILERS FOR ENTIRE GAME, BEWARE. this post is WAY too long. sorry about that too.

it's very evident that bioware/EA wanted an action/adventure game first and an RPG second, but let me type at you.

i hate to say that i didn't feel particularly sad about varric's fate, due to the structure of the game. it is, in hindsight, completely obvious that he was not alive! i just hadn't been thinking about varric much at all the entire game because you have limited opportunity to talk to him in the infirmary or when he plops around barefoot when everyone decides to sit at a table and talk about how fucked we are. i genuinely forgot he was there otherwise.

he barely feels like a guy himself. because there's no personalized worldstate, any specific mentions to events or characters might be jarring to the player who may have made a different choice along the way.

no one talks about how sorry they are about varric because they CAN'T or the twist is completely revealed. even with another DA2 character in the game (who my hawke romanced. who is now dead in the fade. glad to see you're LIVING IT UP ISABELA!!! (I'm jk. a little.))

there's no response rook can say to condolences outside of "oh, thanks" without the game fully revealing its Twist, because "I'll tell him you said hi" and "he'll be up and walking in no time!" are only reasonable responses from a Mourn Watcher, and even then, should still cause your companions to be a little alarmed. the closest we get to this is the inquisitor making reference to lost friends, and rook visually registers it, but its swept under the rug and moved on from immediately.

(i know we're all mentally unwell in this lighthouse repressing our feelings but jesus christ)

despite spending two games with him and enjoying him as a character, I struggle with feeling much for his loss AS my rook, because i found there to be no meaningful connection between him and rook. i was only told i was supposed to have one.

the game wanted so badly get the ball rolling with an immediate threat, its at the expense of roleplay. you could argue that da2 and inq also started with Immediate Threats but you are also very limited in the choosing of your backstory in those games.

rook was deliberately designed to be more open-ended, with more similarity to origins, but still gave you a prequel where you felt what your life was before The World Began To End.

there's this conversation you can walk in on with lucanis and davrin, where they're talking about their worst jobs. there are three dialogue for rook I think and i can only remember two but they were "I don't want to talk about it" or "man I have the dreadwolf in my head". (I... honestly think the third option was very similar to the second one but I have a very bad memory. sorry)

i played a mourn watcher mage. i had to have done some messed up spirit stuff. some bone shenanigans. not able to mention my Down With Nobles rebellion at all. i halfway expected it to be revealed that my rook was just like a shitty pawn (haha) and actually all her memories are fake and not real. but obviously you meet people from your shared backstory and they do know OF you but they don't really know you

in mass effect 1, there were some unique missions related to both the backstory and psychological profile you picked for shepard. they were short, and nothing happens like that in 2+3 that i remember, but they are unique to your character and are something at least.

no one really asks you much more about yourself! mourn watcher rook is literally Found In The Crypts as an Infant, an incredible mystery that you have to fill in the blanks yourself, which could be something someone wants-- but i personally like my characters a little more predefined in a game such as dragon age. vague history worked for me in games like skyrim and fallout new vegas, even baldurs gate! but makes me feel wholly disconnected from the story and group here.

there was a fair amount of dialogue choices for mourn watcher, especially with Emmrich-- talking with emmrich was one of the few times my rook felt like A Person-- but there were other times that my companions seemed to think emmrich was the only necromancer/watcher on the team. (i even specialized in death caller!)

by containing all the dialogue with companions to ! markers and outings, it's weird to be unable to have any conversations without being able to provide personal insight, whereas some NPCs in inquisition actively asked you about your past.

its particularly noticeable because of lucanis, whom my rook romanced. the dude has a lot to say about nevarran culture and the necropolis and such, and we can have zero conversations on the matter lol.

maybe this is like, really a mourn watcher thing? maybe it feels better as a crow or a warden. but if you offer me the choice to be a freak crawling around in a tomb. i am going to be.

TLDR: i really feel that a prequel mission, a recruitment by varric then a timeskip, a personal quest tied to the consequences of your backstory, something, anything, to make rook feel like an actual part of the world, was a necessity and sincerely a missed opportunity. if you actually read this far, thanks!

[quinn-of-aebradore]

Most likely, he resents her still. It’s only in this life that she’s managed to shed that habit herself—loathing potent enough to sink into the bone—and it’s one she watched him inherit. She cannot fault him for it, if that is how he feels. Worse, though, he could simply not care anymore. If she taught him anything, it was apathy. Light, that would break her heart, shatter it irreparably, but she cannot deny the likelihood of it, nor the fairness of it. All his life, she’s behaved as though she hasn’t cared for him. Only now, in this life, has she found the will to try and show him otherwise. She knocks; three steady, resolute raps against the wood. A minute passes, in which she patiently waits, before the door swings open. The man standing across the threshold is not her son. Three hundred years after the Red Solstice, a much-changed Deirta Thelyss seeks out her son for the first time in centuries and finds herself greeted by an unfamiliar face: Essek's current partner. It's an unexpected turn of events and Essek is must-changed himself, when he arrives, but perhaps there is a chance at healing left for the two of them.

My friends, it is finally complete; the Deirta fic. It's not only about her though. This is also the first fic I am publishing that features Thyme Ficaria, an OC of mine who is many things, but most importantly is Essek's second husband in my Exandrian worldstate. It was very fun and such a labor of love to explore him in this fic, as well as dive into Deirta properly for the first time and really get into the roots of her relationship with Essek. I really hope you enjoy it and also that the coming year is kind to you 💜💜💜💜

Thyme, Deirta, and Essek designs under the cut!

Neither Thyme or Deirta are quite this dressed up during the events of the fic and Essek is obviously wearing something very different, but these are pretty typical outfits for them during this period of time! Thyme is perhaps an exception to this, as he's not currently doing much work that would require him to be armored, but sans breastplate and bracers, that's his general look!

There is also this gorgeous illustration of him that I commissioned from @oriato back in the spring, which you should absolutely go take a look at. It's so beautiful.

[a-drama-addict]

the dragonage brainworms so bad im already planning my dadw character. ough

[blackjackkent]

One of the things I've been excited about regarding reaching this point in the game is that @astreamofstars informed me that there is Additional Minsc Content which I missed during Hector's playthrough! Specifically, last time I was so excited to follow him and meet Boo that I completely missed that you can see Minsc's little hideout down in the sewers, with his living area and some of his keepsakes. c:

He's actually got kind of a cute little setup here - bed area (complete with a cute little divider), cooking firepit, washtub, dining table. A lot of random chests and boxes and papers lying around. It amused me that the first thing I noticed was that the only thing on the dining table is "Whole Chicken" which feels on-brand.

The washbasin has several soap bars and sponges next to it. I know I'm hung up on the presence of this washbasin but for some reason I am deeply charmed at Minsc living in a sewer with his rodent and nevertheless having an elaborate bathing setup. (Alternate interpretation - he has it because it is His Home and Should Have a Bath but never actually used it. XD )

On a table next to the bed is a book labeled "The Stone Lord's Sketches," which is both adorable and heartbreaking:

Buddy. :( It's okay, you can remember him and have him back now.

The real treasure trove, however, is in the next room, past the wall Minsc smashed through, which has a number of items in what seem to be places of honor on pedestals along the walls.

It seems like someone at Larian forgot to make models for these items, because all of them (with the exception of the "Cracked Wooden Mask" look in-game like inscribed stone tablets. But we can use our imaginations!

All of the characters have commentary on each one if they're the active character to click on them, although Minsc's comment takes precedence if he's in the party even if he's not the active character. I'm going to list out all of them because I like digging through the dialogue files, but obviously Minsc and Jaheira have the most relevant things to say about each.

-----

Starting with "A Mailed Fist":

Narrator: A mailed fist in the Firecam armor style. RAKHA: Gorgeous mail on that fist. ASTARION: A mailed fist, for all your punching needs. LAE'ZEL: A mailed fist? Brutal indeed, but I prefer weapons with a more elegant profile. GALE: The mailed fist of a paladin of Torm. No doubt many felt the steely grip of its wearer's righteous justice. SHADOWHEART: A mailed fist. There must be a story behind this. WYLL: A mailed fist? Great for a paladin. Not so much for a warlock. KARLACH: Nice mail. HALSIN: A mailed fist. What tale does this have to tell? MINTHARA: A mailed fist - an inelegant but brutal weapon. JAHEIRA: Keldorn Firecam. He tried to teach Minsc much - a happy thing, that paladins are so patient. MINSC: Keldorn Firecam! He spoke much of honor and faith, but he fought like a berserker when it counted.

Keldorn! In this worldstate he traveled with Caden for a little bit and was a good mentor to the young Bhaalspawn for a time - although Caden eventually forced him to stay home and fix his marital problems. XD

-----

Next, "A Turnip":

Narrator: A humble turnip, preserved by drying. RAKHA: Huh. Dinner? ASTARION: It's - it's a turnip. Just a turnip, for all to see. LAE'ZEL: A turnip. Or is it a swede? Could never tell them apart. GALE: A humble vegetable depicted amongst such adventurous company. That is a turnip for the books. SHADOWHEART: A turnip? Not the most exciting of keepsakes. WYLL: A turnip. That's, er, something all right. KARLACH: All right, explain the turnip. HALSIN: A turnip? Not my favorite of nature's root vegetables, I must admit. MINTHARA: Is this animal, mineral, or fungus? I have not seen its like before. JAHEIRA: Jan Jansen. I admired his respect for growing things. Less so, his disregard for his own ripe smell. MINSC: Jan. A strange little man, but a fine friend. I can forgive him his love of turnips.

LOL. Of the five past companions represented here, Jan is the only one Caden never traveled with. He witnessed the little gnome getting carted off to prison early in the game, promptly decided that was something well worth minding his own business about, and never followed up further.

Also holy shit, that world-class pun from Gale out of nowhere.

-----

"A Warhammer":

Narrator: A worn but still capable warhammer, sized for a halfling. RAKHA: What a hammer. Looks like it has a history, too. ASTARION: Ah, a warhammer. A beautifully messy weapon. LAE'ZEL: Quite the warhammer. I imagine it's crushed more than a few skulls. GALE: No ordinary warhammer. Carved with the Luiric symbol for the number three. I wonder why. SHADOWHEART: It must take quite some brawn to wield a warhammer like that. WYLL: A warhammer like this cracks your skull, and you won't ever be the same after. KARLACH: Oh, wow. I bet that can do some real damage. HALSIN: An impressive hammer. MINTHARA: This hammer could shatter even the thickest of skulls. JAHEIRA: Mazzy Fentan. A living lesson not to trade tankards with a halfling; they have much less distance to fall. MINSC: Mazzy Fentan. Hah - not even the gods dared deny her when she sought to become a paladin!

Mazzy! Definitely Caden's favorite of the "flex slot" companions he traveled with in BG2. She was a super fierce halfling and wasn't officially a paladin but wanted to be. Nice to hear that maybe she reached that pinnacle in the end. :) (And LOL Jaheira.)

I'm not sure what the significance is of Gale's comment about the number three, and Google is unrevealing.

-----

"A Pair of Wings":

Narrator: A woodcarving of a pair of wings, like an eagle's but longer somehow. RAKHA: A pair of wings. ASTARION: Some discarded... wings? All right... LAE'ZEL: A pair of wings... GALE: The sylvan pinions of an Avariel. No easy task to capture their hollow delicacy in stone. SHADOWHEART: Wings? Who did these belong to? WYLL: A pair of wings? Hm. KARLACH: Some... wings? HALSIN: A pair of wings? MINTHARA: Wings. Were these plucked from some unfortunate celestial? JAHEIRA: Aerie's wings. She didn't need them, in the end. MINSC: Aerie. A brave avariel, who agreed to be my witch while I needed. She went in search of new wings.

Haha, the whole Act 1 gang is pretty befuddled by this one apparently. (And it seems like there might have been some confusion among the writers about whether they were carved wings or real ones.)

But awwww, yay, Aerie! Jaheira's comment on her is very sweet. :3 In this worldstate, of course, Aerie is safely in Faenya-Dail with her husband Caden and (by this point) several generations worth of descendents. I choose to believe that Minsc is speaking in a poetic metaphor, and the new wings Aerie went in search of were those of her son Quayle. :)

-----

And finally... the "Cracked Wooden Mask":

Narrator: A cracked wooden mask with female features, in the Rashemi style. RAKHA: Nice mask. What's the story here? ASTARION: A wooden mask. Not bad, but it's seen better days. LAE'ZEL: A wooden mask, perhaps of some cultural significance? GALE: A wychlaran face veil, worn by powerful witches in the Urlingwood wilds of Rashemen. The adornment of a skilled spell-weaver. SHADOWHEART: A wooden mask. Looks old. WYLL: A wooden mask - the sort worn by Rashemen's witches. KARLACH: Nice wooden mask. HALSIN: A wooden mask. For what purpose? MINTHARA: This mask is beautiful. I envy the one who had the authority to wear it. JAHEIRA: Hah. Even the wychlaran's mask could not hide Dynaheir's beauty - nor dull her daggered eyes. MINSC: All over Rashemen, they raised statues to Dynaheir. But this is Minsc's true monument to her - her wychlara mask.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. <3 <3 Dynaheir. <3 Minsc is such a good, loyal boy.

I love that Gale was able to clock the significance of all of these items (except the turnip) on sight. Wyll picks up on this one too which is interesting; wonder if a Rashemi envoy or two came through Wyrm's Rock when he was younger.

-----

All in all I'm a big feels puddle about all of this. I love that (more or less by chance) these are almost all characters that Caden did indeed hang out with extensively in the past games. And it is very bittersweet to see Minsc, who had the past ripped away from him by force, clinging on to these little remnants of it - particularly pieces of his past witches - with all of his strength.

[a-morrigan-loving-brosca]

Let's talk about the Well of Sorrows (or more precisely about the aftermath).

My first playthrough, Kieran did not exist. I hadn't imported my save even though my warden had romanced Morrigan, so even if it didn't show in Inquisition, I was veeeery attached to Morrigan (and I still am !). Then, going blind into the Well of Sorrows quest, I let Morrigan drink. First thing to say is that my morriganmancing warden had refused the dark ritual, and died. I regretted not trusting her. So letting her drink from the Well was a way for me to trust her at least with this character, at least in this timeline.

Then came the reveal of Flemythal. And I was devastated. I wanted so hard for Morrigan to be free from her mother, and here I sent her right between her claws. I wanted to trust her but I felt like I doomed her instead, etc etc. This was the first time I was devastated by this quest.

Fast forward to today. I play the trilogy a second time (this time using imports to have a coherent worldsave). My queen Cousland accepted the ritual, Kieran existed, all good. And then I did the Well of Sorrows again. I think "this time, I will not doom Morrigan, so I will drink from the well". It seems only fair that my Lavellan gets to reclaim what she can of her culture, anyway. So I go with my messy memories of no Kieran/morrigan drank to this worldstate where kieran exists/inquisitor drank. Which gives a quest, well, vastly different from what I remember - the chase in the Fade, meeting Flemeth there... Well no matter, because Morrigan is free, right ?

Except Flemeth has Kieran, she wants to take him, and I can't even help because my Inquisitor drank from the well so she's forced to hold Morrigan back. Fuck. Though I suppose having Morrigan drinking wouldn't have helped either. And all the scene where Morrigan talks about how much she cares for Kieran. And Flemeth saying she will always chase her and her son even if she leaves now. Shit. Not to mention the fact that Morrigan thanks me for drinking from the Well instead of her (I'm sorry I didn't the first time ! I'm sorry I can never save you completely !)

Second time this quest has devastated me, except that this time I thought I came prepared.

I have so much to say about Morrigan and so much to say about Flemeth. They just make me crazy.

[invinciblerodent]

I'm a very decisive person and I need genuine help because I'm like. straight up unable to choose one myself 🥲

Propaganda:

Tristan is very direct and "thinks in straight lines"- he's very much an "ends justify the means" person, which both makes sense for someone who's been possessed by a spirit of Purpose since he was just 17, and will create an interesting dynamic with Solas. (Doesn't leave a lot of time for gathering relationship experience though, so he's going in blind on that front- which, the undead/necromancer thing is just...! Chef's kiss.) Cons, he's a warrior like my first Rook, and him making a key choice with this "greater good" mindset will create a similar overall game.

Coris has a very specific plan heading into the story, which she will fail spectacularly at step one by catching legitimate feelings for her target- definitely something the Crows would discourage. She's a bit less tied to the main plot, but for her worldstate I rolled a solavellan one, just to see, and rogue gameplay has been new and a lot of fun in the short segment I've played so far. (plus, there's the thought that "no one in house Dellamorte kneels", but she's a dwarf, so that's the only way she and Lucanis can actually see eye to eye, which I like a lot.) Cons, I just finished an run in which I played a female character and romanced a male one, and I kinda want some change on that front.

Marcus has a lot of gender-thoughts (he/him nonbinary), a gentle affection for the strange or macabre, and a knack for getting himself into trouble in all new, and excitingly strange ways despite meaning well. His affinity with loss and grief is also going to work really sweetly with Bellara's romance path (it'll give me a chance to stretch my philosophy muscles), and I'm kind of excited to finally try out a mage- so far mage gameplay has never jived really well with my style, but this one feels dynamic and pretty fun so far! Cons, he'll probably make a lot of the same decisions as my first character, just by virtue of being nice (and maybe even somewhat naive). (Pro, he's, like, really pretty.)

Tanner will need a severe redesign, if not a complete reroll, because I'm not really in love with the face she currently has, but I'm still a sucker for her anyway. She's 500 pounds of whoopass in a 120 pound bag, a definite knife enthusiast, and one who, in her poetry, will likely exchange imagery of rolling waves likened to the curve of a lover's hip for that of a star-filled, infinite sky like an inverse map of freckles. Cons, there's a part near the ending that is going to be really, really difficult emotionally for her story specifically, and it'll probably color the entire experience somewhat. (My partner is also planning a Harding-kisser f!dwarf for his second run after he's done with his first, Neve-kissing run, so that dings Tanner's score too.)

.... And all Verbena needs as propaganda is 1. she's a Davrin-kisser (and now that I KNOW how that goes I can get more purposeful with it for fic-fuel), and 2.

helplessly gesturing at her pretty, pretty face

[thunderboltfire]

I don't want the next Mass Effect game.

Let me preface it with me saying that I've enjoyed Veilguard a lot. As well as I've enjoyed Andromeda. This is not me saying that I believe the studio is putting out consistently bad quality when it comes to the games, even though BioWare, truth be told is a bare-bones skeleton when it comes to writers and I don't think their shady practices and unhealthy working conditions are going to draw any of the old guard back.

I've basically thought the same thing since I've seen the first trailer for upcoming ME5, and heard what the game is actually going to be about. My feelings have only solidified since I've heard that the studio is now supposedly going to focus on ME5.

What is important is that we just observed in DA series that the magnitude of the choices of the players was so big that the sequel have failed to implement, or even reference them, despite the sequel having a comfort of being set in a different place than the previous installments. ME5 won't have that comfort, and the choice at the end of ME3 have impacted the world on a WILDLY bigger scale than anything the Inquisitor could do in DA:I. We're talking about three, (possibly four if we count denial), wildly different fates of the entire civilized galaxy. This is completely, absolutely impossible to implement if the game is going to be set in the same location! It's not, as it was in DA:I, the difference in conditions of living and legal status of some marginalised groups, not a different person being a monarch - every sentient being in Milky Way was heavily impacted by the ME3's ending. To honor the player's ability to choose, they either would have to do 3 wildly different games, or essentially retcon the consequences by introducing the destruction of such a magnitude, that both Synthesis and Control endings would be essentially undone. Which is, if you think about it, a really hopeless perspective. And I think I know which one of the two will it be, because if they couldn't implement a few high-impact choices from one game to the other, they sure won't do three wildly different worldstates just to appease people. And surely not when they got rid of most of their writers.

I don't think we should be back to the Milky Way. What many people are excited about for me is the dealbreaker.

Veilguard's biggest fault was not acknowledging the player's choices from the previous games. People in the gaming industry have mentioned that DA:I have given the player the agency that couldn't feasibly be accounted for in the sequel, and I think that this may be partically true, especially when it comes to possible cameos or different storylines based on some choices. However one has to remember that considering the game's location and the plot, our view on the South is basically only through dialogue and codex entries. So while the choices themselves related to the shape of the world, the geopolitics and possibility of cameos created a complex net that proved impossible to implement, I think even changing or adding some letters or dialogue to reflect the consequences of the player's choices (even if only those from DA:I) would be appreciated. And it wouldn't be entirely unfeasible, if the game didn't have to be redone 3 times over. Anyway, I digress.

Andromeda deserved to be its own thing, and it deserved a proper sequel, made by well-paid, and well-treated team. OT not only doesn't need a sequel, I firmly believe it won't handle a sequel. ME has had a wildly better track record of implementing players' choices across three games than DA had, and with that in mind, ME5 just based on its premise is bound to be incredibly dissapointing.

Another thing which I don't like in ME5 being a return to Milky Way is the fact that The Trilogy is a closed story. I got so disheartened when I saw people cheering at the return to the Milky Way (because anything but that lousy Andromeda, right?) and hoping to see their Shepard again, because Shepard has already earned their ending, whatever it was. Andromeda, while a publicity fiasco, was a good and enjoyable game that deserved the DLC it never got, and deserved a proper sequel that wouldn't use players' love for the original trilogy as a crutch. Andromeda was different from the OT, and I think it was partially the marketing of it as a sequel of OT that influenced its poor reception. People expected another Shepard and Ryder is not Shepard. I'm still angry at the cowardice that made BioWare swiftly retreat from Andromeda to dig up Shepard's corpse again (ironic in itself, considering what happened to it previously) in the name of nostalgia.

I can't shake the feeling that this move is such a cheap cash grab, it's such a clearly purely financial decision instead of a storytelling one, because storytelling-wise it's nearly undefensible! By the way, it also baffles me as a financial decision, because ME:A did sell well! It made a lot of net revenue! It sold 5 million copies, which is a number comparable to ME3! It's disheartening to see that people in charge, despite of it got so scared of a media backlash that they stopped believing in their own product.

In all of it I'm not even touching the working conditions problem. Andromeda's problems and bugs stemmed from the fact it was done by a fresh team under heavy crunch conditions. Veilguard's faults stemmed from unorganised development cycle, with consecutive heads of the project unable to see it through and executives not knowing what they wanted. What do we know next? Layoffs, layoffs, skeleton crews that supposedly are meant to work on a new game. You'd think they'd learn something, like that they should treat their crew fairly, implement better practices, and to stop laying off people with experience, because it makes it a lot harder to coordinate work and figure out solutions. I think they've learned nothing. It was a miracle that Andromeda came out in a playable state, and even bigger that Veilguard came out at all. But You can't rely on miracles forever.