#which is the first worldstate i completed

[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.

[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

[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:

[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!

[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

[rubyvroom]

BG3: the first playthrough

Because I always do my first playthrough of a game blind (unless I get completely 100% stuck, no guides) I have no idea how good/bad my worldstate is in BG3. But since I have not managed to romance* anyone I consider it a failure and I'm already planning my next playthrough. But since I've finally reached Baldur's Gate I'm going to play it out and see what kind of crazy result I'm going to get on my own.

I'm on a goody-two-shoes Paladin playthrough so it's probably pretty typical, but she's also a vengence paladin and a high persuader/deceptive so that keeps things lively

Good? Points? Maybe? Reformed Shadowheart away from Shar. Opposed the queen Gith and Lae'zel supports Orpheus now. Recruited Halsin and saved the nature kid. Rescued Tieflings from Moonlight Tower before I did Shar's Gauntlet. Isobel and Nightsong are hanging out in camp making heart eyes at each other and I keep trying to get in on that action

Bad? Things? Missed rescuing anyone from the fire in Act One. Some of the Tieflings died when I rescued them from the tower and others are mad at me. Could not figure out how to work the forge or do the brain puzzle. Did not rescue Zevlor or Mol or Will's Father. Killed Orthon. Jaheira is dead (big oops). Buddies with Emperor, don't know if that's a good idea. I'm half squid and I don't like what it did to Vez's face. Gale is also half squid. Realistically he was the only companion I could imagine doing it without being bullied into it. But I also bullied him into it. XD

Am currently looking for Astarion's vampire lord, not sure if I will encourage him to ascend or not. Would like to free Orpheus but my buddy Emperor will not like that. I let this kid into my camp but she is maybe a murder shapeshifter? Will do everything possible to save my BFF Karlach and find Shadowheart's parents and burninate the elder brain. Let's go endgame

*Was TRYING to romance Karlach and turned down everyone else trying to get with her, but it turns out I recruited her too late and got locked out. I did manage to get both Astarion and Halsin to visit the Drow twins with me, which was exciting at first, but kind of a bummer in practice.

[seldaryne]

"Wyll's quest regarding the Wyrmway is now a subquest instead of part of his main quest."

"Wyll's quest regarding Ravengard will now more reliably and frequently receive updates in Act III."

so mechanically speaking then, was the demotion of quest status in the first point required for them to implement the functionality of the second or??? because i genuinely don't understand why it became a subquest, especially when the game's structure already allows you to just ignore quests & move on to the next area if you want. most of the patch notes that directly mention wyll are bug-related or scripting flow, which i don't have a problem with (bug fixes are great, we love those). i'd love to hear any thoughts about this, though, because i really can't think of a reason why it had to become a subquest?

i also initially read that second point as planning for future updates to wyll's content but at a second glance i think it may just be referring to journal updates? i don't know, i'd like to believe my initial reaction was the correct one but... yknow. anyway i maintain that this is yet Another example of some really goddamn weird choices on the developmental end of things. if the companion quests exist on a sliding scale of 'most related to current main storyline to least,' wyll is very much at the top end of things. optimistic thought is that a lot of his scrapped content existed in the parts of act 3 that were cut, but i would think that as a studio you'd see that & make an effort to level things out with how much screentime the other companions have. at the bare minimum, your player base shouldn't be able to clock so many weird holes in his story arc where it's clear that something else was supposed to be offered.

i'm also not saying that the other companion arcs weren't clunky in some areas & didn't need a bit of help, but the disparity here makes deprioritizing those edits seem like a more logical course of action. like there's a difference between some slightly unpolished scenes vs. something that feels fundamentally lacking in a lot of structural ways, especially when you get into the finer points of the comparisons. act 3 imo is the one that feels the most bare-bones to me. like yes, there's Stuff there visually and quests too but it doesn't feel as lived-in as acts 1 & 2. i would say that the underdark to ketheric section feels the most dense, content-wise, and i don't think it's a coincidence that it's the bracket of the game i enjoy the most. i maintain that giving wyll's storyline the attention it needs would not only help with the character arc itself, but also pad out the quieter stretches of act 3. at this point i don't really see how they'd be able to add in the upper city without either completely changing the trajectory of the third act (so like, almost definitely something we Will Not See Happen & understandably so from a production standpoint. weird post-release editing aside, it is still a finished game.) & i'm also not sure what a DLC would look like here because the main story feels pretty complete too. off the top of my head, maybe one where you follow wyll & karlach into avernus would work, but that's worldstate dependent & probably wouldn't get made for that reason.

all that to say, from where i'm standing it really seems like giving wyll the same respect other companions are offered would by extension fix some of the act 3 issues, without having to release an entirely new area of the game (i'd love it i just don't think it's realistic lmao). like i know why/what the factors are that led to wyll getting the short end of the stick, it's bullshit but it's not the first time we've seen black characters handled unfairly by devs (& fans), but beyond that it's literally just. so confusing to me on the basis of writing alone. why wouldn't you use the character with that many ties to the titular city of the game more? why isn't he more integral to the story when it really seems like he has every reason to take the spotlight in certain areas?? like that's a fantastic resource of a character to use to move the narrative along and Yet.

idk. this started off as just a reaction to patch notes but it's so unbelievably frustrating to watch it keep happening every patch.

[a-drama-addict]

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

[themarydragon]

Trouble the Water Continuation

It will be AWHILE before I have anything written, as I am still working to finish my first playthrough, I have a lot of things happening in my life, I am 75% done with the first draft of the first book of my own original world, and my only coherent thought about TOTK right now is SUFFERING 

but

Issues and contemplations below the cut. Some reference to TotK in the fifth paragraph that is spoilery. I tried not to make it explicit, but you have been warned.

First, IDK if you caught it, but the very last chunk of Chapter 2 in Born a Storm talked about sages. Let the record show, I posted that in June of 2020. I have a lot more I had planned for Born a Storm, and stopped writing it due to completely unrelated (cough cough Covid cough cough Loved and Lost) issues. Also, I realized if I was going to turn it into a complete work, like I kinda wanted to, I was either going to have to take it down, or somehow move chapters around as I went and I never actually decided how I wanted to manage that. I am still undecided, and I have to make that decision before my brain will allow me to work on totk in that universe. THE POINT, though, is I thought of a way to tie in sages (just a hundred years too early) that would be satisfying for me to write and not contradict TotK.

Second, SO FAR nothing I’ve found in TotK has completely screwed up my Trouble the Water [TtK] storyline. I’m not FINISHED yet, so that might change, but it really looks like the TotK worldstate is more or less compatible with where I left off in The Quiet River Rages [tQRR] with just a very little bit of handwaving.

Third, YOU CAN’T JUST GIVE ME THIS ANGST AND EXPECT ME NOT TO RUN WITH IT. 

Fourth, I feel like I have all the jumping-off points already loaded into the existing work. For example, tQRR, Chapter 5:  “I would have waited millennia if that’s what it took to get you back. Link, I chose-” Or Zelda’s gentle commune with the sword from Chapter 12 of CWRD.

Fifth, I want to write two parts. One is [spoilers] Zelda’s POV from-then-until-now just like Remember the Spring, and with the same flavor (and for the same reason). Again, I haven’t FINISHED it, but the Master Sword IS sentient and DOES talk to her, canonically, so it’s NOT EXACTLY ALONE and I don’t think forgetting was allowed, not entirely. The final Tear, which is NOT ancient, but rather we witness being shed, indicates possession of Sense of Self or at least Memory that I am definitely going to run with because angst. The other part is Our Boy desperately searching, finding Tears, and reflecting on how F’d up it is, given Zelda’s canonical parental history (her mother, then Rhoam). I don’t know yet exactly what I will include or exclude, but I’ve been in this place before and I know I have to write about it eventually. 

Last, if anybody expected me - ME - to see an amputee kilted tattoo’d protagonist and leave that shit alone, you got another thought coming. My husband has had some REALLY great insight into some of the cinematic moments (Link’s pause before taking Zelda’s hand for the Reverse Time ability) that I think deserve some love.

[crossdressingdeath]

how do you feel about veilguard taking place ten years after dai? it seems like a weird decision for me. (at first i even thought they did this purely to match the amount of real world time that passed, before i realized that gamedev doesn't happen instantly and there probably were delays due to covid so it's probably not that)

like, as you said when answering another ask, it's been so long that there is little reason for people to care or to mention things that happened. and personally, trespasser gave me kind of a sense of urgency, that we have little time left before solas does whatever he does, but apparently it takes at least a decade. i don't know, i just feel like a shorter timeskip (3-5 years) would have been better for this.

I think it might actually be because it's been so long since the last game. They might have increased the timeskip when it became clear that it was going to be a long time before the game was ready to ship (between them basically completely starting over when they escaped EA multiplayer hell and Covid this game is definitely coming out way later than it was originally supposed to); separating DAV from the previous games means the players don't need to have super clear memories of those previous games, because no one in-universe would either.

I'm pretty neutral on the ten year jump, personally. It's good in terms of simplifying the worldstate (which... okay I don't like how Bioware handled it but I really don't blame them for wanting to slim down the variables, just thinking about writing in variations for every single mentioned event across all three previous games is giving me a headache), and since we know from Tevinter Nights that Solas has been active throughout it doesn't feel to me like he was just sitting around doing nothing; he wasn't immediately prepared and it took him some time to get moving, I can run with that. Also, it justifies none of our new companions appearing in DAI; they're all highly regarded in their respective fields, many of them are well known, and I'd argue most of them would have been useful during DAI. Hell, Lucanis is even a specialized Venatori killer. By making the timeskip ten years instead of 3-5 Bioware has created a situation where most of them would've been at the very least way less experienced and well known, and possibly too young to be active in their field at all for the youngest among them (like Taash, who I think is confirmed early-mid twenties and so would've been a teenager during DAI).

[merrybandofmurderers]

I love all the different ships you have! There's no limits, anyone in the lore is game! 🤩 I've seen OC x OC on your dash before, especially on wip wednesdays, and I've read a few~ Now, though... I kinda wanna know more! Are you just making them up as you go? Do they all have some (wip?) stories to go along with them?

(the Iron Bull x Sable x Fenris and Briala x Zenith are especially interesting to me... 🫣)

so i've actually like, played-played very few of my ocs. i've made all of them--and thus played the first quest--in game at least once (altho some have appearances i need to update), but long-term playtime is more sparse. i do tend to figure out my oc's personalities BY playing, so as a result, some ocs are more fleshed out than others

i've slowed down on the oc-making, but when i first started playing in,, 2018? 2019?? i just kept getting more and more ideas the more i played, and then i'd have to start over to make the next, and then the next

see, i only started playing dragon age FOR the ocs. becuz i LOVE making ocs! even for original writing, it's always been my favorite part of story-telling. and by far the best part of dragon age--and the thing that keeps me here tbqh--is the fandom aspect of sharing ocs and talking about ocs and doing oc memes and getting commissions of your ocs and making your ocs kiss your friends' ocs. ahem

anyway. i STILL haven't played dao and da2 (altho i WILL, if for no other reason than i have so many oc ideas for them), but inquisition was enough to spawn LOTS of oc concepts. um, i just counted and it looks like i've plateaued at 64 lmao (not counting kids cuz there's only a few that i'm completely decided on)

i do plan to write SOMETHING for every oc. not as involved as the pavellan or tranquil oc fics, but something. i've got a handful already in the works and several more in the planning stages

~

so i did start with the canon origins and canon romances but,, that obviously did not keep me satisfied lmao. i have certain characters selected as inquistors with others being strictly companions (atp most of my ocs are "companion ocs")

i'm not really sure how to explain this, but basically all of my ocs exist in thedas at once, with different handfuls all being part of individual worldstates. in each worldstate there is a designated inquisitor with others being companions, and that is those characters' story. but regardless of which worldstate is at the fore, the rest are still in thedas doing their thing, either related to their origin or working for the inquisition more distantly (i really need to make a spreadsheet for this)

there are some ocs though that are designated "inquisition agents" that are technically present in every worldstate even if they don't feature in the individual story. sable and zenith are two of those. they are part of a vigilante squad that travels thedas helping alienages. the other two members are jude and wren. in every iteration they end up joining the inquisition as agents

the four of them originate from the starkhaven alienage. sable (ze/they) is from another alienage that was purged and ze settled in starkhaven with wren's family. zenith (ze/zir) is the child of a ben-hassrath who gave birth in the alienage while on the run and gave zir up to an elven couple. jude (they/them) is a half-elf/half-dwarf mage, their mother being an alienage elf and their father a carta dwarf. wren (he/him) is the most normal of the lot, being your average city elf

sable is a two-handed warrior, and ze develops a romance with bull; after the inquisitor [unspecified] leaves hawke in the fade, fenris shows up, and in the process of mourning and healing, partners with the pair of them. zenith, a dual-wield rogue, first develops a romance with sera, then gets close with briala during WEWH and begins a romance with her too. jude, the group's mage, romances harding; wren, a sword and shield warrior, romances krem

~

so. that's a run-down on the oc situation and the ocs you asked about. as established, i LOVE talking about ocs, so you're welcome to ask about any that pique your interest in particular!