budding Dragon Age FanFic writer, Dragon Age enthusiast, Lover of all nerddom, sucker for high fashion, science fiction and a combination of the 2. Read my fic "In Spite of All This" on a03.
What they don't tell you about writing is that as you write, you discover scenes and entire plots that you hadn't accounted for that need to be written. So you can spend two hours writing and editing only to realise you're further away from the finish line than you thought you were when you started
I am smoking up Skyhold’s entire elfroot supply with this one, but:
Are the Executors… save-scumming?
To be clear, I’m not convinced true time travel is possible in Thedas. I tend to think In Hushed Whispers was the illusion of time travel rather than real time travel. The Fade has access to everyone’s dreams, it could create a pretty detailed prediction of the future (or rendering of the past) from all that information.
But for now, let’s polish up our shiniest tinfoil hats and assume IHW was real time travel. That would sort of imply that you could just… do that, prior to the Veil’s creation. If so, why wasn’t it happening constantly? For example, why fight the titans rather than reversing the action that pissed them off?
Presumably, the ritual to perform a large time reversal would be long, difficult and easy to interrupt. Maybe things are kept mostly stable because multiple powerful mages can cancel each other out. The evanuris seem to have benefited from the war with the titans, so they’d be actively canceling out any attempts to reverse it.
Until they got imprisoned. At which point, someone who regretted the war might eventually attempt a rewind. Except that the magic went wild and the Veil extended to cover the whole world, conveniently blocking that from happening. If the Executors also had access to time magic pre-Veil (+ post-Veil if it gets torn down in the future), they could adjust their actions such that they’re never directly interfering with people’s choices, but by a string of “coincidences” they get exactly the result they want. Reloading the timeline until the butterfly flaps its wings at exactly the right moment. A complex ritual, already prone to going wrong, would be a good place to disguise that kind of influence.
Anyway I keep thinking about that lore drop that Solas knows more about the executors than any other living being, and he’s crossed paths with them prior to Tevinter Nights. Why has he, specifically, seen more of them than the other evanuris have?
And since he knows they’re watching, is he doing anything to try to trick them in Veilguard? Are we sure we know the motivation behind all his choices, or is some of it a performance aimed at fooling the Executors?
Also, why is it so interesting to him that Sera experiences déjà vu?
Castles in the Fade, or What Was the Point of the Veil Anyway
Something that will now haunt me until the end of time is why was the concept of the Veil ever introduced into this series.
We’ve been hearing about it since the very first game. There’s a codex entry about tears in the Veil in Origins. Tamlen mentions a thin spot in the Veil if you play a Dalish elf. Sandal has a prophecy in Dragon Age 2: “One day the magic will come back—all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see.” Admittedly, this is just one line said by a character who often says odd things, but it hinted to the fact they were planning to do something with the Veil from the very beginning. The state of the Veil is repeatedly brought up. It all had to mean something! Or so I thought.
When I saw “The Dread Wolf Rises” quest in Veilguard, I said, “Oh, here we go!” The Veil is coming down, magic is coming back, and it’s going to set up such an interesting story for the next game.
Alas, no.
I hadn’t really enjoyed my time playing Veilguard up until this point. It felt like the game was ducking and dodging every bit of world building and lore that could possibly bring nuance or complexity to the story. Every returning character or faction was a cardboard cutout of themself. They shoved Solas is a time-out box and gave him nothing to do. They refused to let him have any impact or influence on the story when he had been set up to be our main antagonist back in Trespasser. This game used to be called Dreadwolf! And while we learn about his past… we never talk to him about it. In the present, he’s in stasis.
Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain are our villains. And they are your typical evil for evil’s sake villains. They are mad, bad, and only as dangerous as the narrative will allow as to not give Rook and co too much trouble. They are surprisingly patient while Rook fixes all their companions’ problems… until Elgar’nan moves the moon to cause an eclipse. A vital component in making his own lyrium dagger. For some reason. This guy can move a satellite!? And he just let Rook walk away in previous encounters… twice. Ok. Sure.
The Evil Duo need their own dagger ostensibly to tear down the Veil, because they want to unleash the full force of the Blight onto the world. Because they are evil. And they were thwarted last time they tried to Blight the entire world. Why do they think Blighting the world is a good idea? What’s the point of ruling a world if everyone is dead? I guess they haven’t thought that through, because of the madness and the evilness.
Ok, I thought. Perhaps the gods will be the one to tear down the Veil. Or maybe we’ll have a choice to let Solas do it his way before they can, which will be less chaotic and less full of Blight. Because the Veil has to be coming down one way or another? Why introduce the concept of the Veil, especially a Veil that has been thinning and failing since the series began, if it’s just going to… stay.
There is a principle in storytelling called Chekov’s gun. If something is mentioned in a story, it must have a purpose. If you keeping mentioning that gun hanging on the wall over the fireplace, it’s because at some point in the story, someone is going to take it down and use it. The Veil felt like Chekov’s gun to me. Chekov’s Veil, if you will. It’s been here from the beginning of our tale, the spectre hanging over our protagonists’ heads for multiple games.
The Veil has been a character unto itself. It was the central focus of the third game, and its dissolution was set up to be the core conflict of the fourth game. We learn everything we thought we knew about the Veil was a lie. It was not created by the Maker to separate the Fade from this world because of jealous spirits, it was created by a guy named Solas to trap the elven gods and the Blight from destroying the world. Also, the elven gods were never gods, and they are also evil.
This reveal will surely throw the Andrastian religion into chaos! This puts the very existence of the Maker into question! The Evanuris are a lie; it’s only fair Catholicism—oh, I mean—the Chantry is a lie too. We briefly touch on that in Veilguard… then it is quietly discarded. Religious crisis averted.
But I digress.
When the title of the fourth game was changed from Dreadwolf to Veilguard, I started to see the writing on the wall. Still, I held out hope the Veil would have some greater purpose in the story. That its introduction as a concept was for a reason. That something in this world would change.
Instead, from the get-go, the question of the Veil is no question at all. We only get Solas and Varric making oblique or catastrophizing statements about it. Solas says little beyond he has a plan. If I ever wanted to hear a villain monologue about their plan, it was now! Varric, on the other hand, decries Solas’s plan. He warns that should the Veil fall, it will destroy the world and drown it in demons. And that’s that.
We never really learn why Solas wants to tear the Veil down, or why he thinks it will help anyone. “The Veil is a wound inflicted upon this world. It must be healed,” he says. And that’s basically all he says about it in Veilguard. In Inquisition and Trespasser, we learn it took the immortality from the elves. It cut most of magic off from the world. Spirits are trapped and are being corrupted into demons, and most of what we know about spirits and demons is wrong. There are ancient elves possibly asleep? That part is left vague, but ancient elves are still about. We meet some in Mythal’s temple. There seems to have been some merit in bringing it down, because elves were flocking to Solas’s cause at the end of Trespasser. He had agents working for him already. What do they know that we don’t know?
Apparently nothing, because by the time Veilguard rolls around, there are no mention of agents. He is working alone. His only motivation now seems to be he’s too deep in his sunk-cost fallacy. The Veil is unnatural, so it must be removed—consequences be damned. We are never given any reason to think Solas has a leg to stand on in his pursuit of tearing down the Veil. We never hear any kind of counter argument from anyone, not even Solas, as to why the Veil should come down. We are only told it will destroy the world. It will drown the world in demons. This is all Solas’s fault.
There is no nuance. No complexity. No moral quandary to mull over. The game gives us vague warnings with no explanation as to what exactly is so world-annihilating about the Veil coming down. We must take Varric’s word at face value. We’re the heroes; Solas is the villain. Stop him.
It makes me wonder why Solas was ever a companion in Inquisition, let alone a romance option. Solas was presented to us as a complicated character in Inquisition. We had the potential throughout the game to make him see the value of this world, to help him realize he was wrong about it. “We aren’t even people to you,” the Inquisitor says in Trespasser. Solas replies, “Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong...again.” He began the third game viewing the world as tranquil, seeing the people in it as nothing more than figments in a nightmare, just as we saw our companions in the In Hushed Whispers quest. He ends the game having made friends, having recognized he was mistaken. He might have even fallen in love. (Or he may still seen no merit in this world if the Inquisitor antagonized him the entirety of their time together.) But something makes him continue with his plan to tear down the Veil, despite recognizing this world is real. He must know something we don’t. Something we’ll learn about in the next game.
We’ve been hearing about the Veil for three games now. We’ve set up our complex antivillain for the next installment, and he’s going to tear the Veil down. We swear to stop him or save him. But it has to be more complex than that. It can’t be so straightforward. Uncomplicated. Simple. Boring. Right? Right?
Nope. He really is just the villain, mustache-twirling and all. He apparently had no greater motivation, no as of yet unrevealed knowledge that would put this whole Veil thing into a new context. It was really as simple as the Veil falling will destroy the world, so Solas must be stopped. There is no new information that is revealed which makes us question what we are doing. Solas is never given any nuance or complexity to his actions. Nuance and complexity have actively been taken away. Both him and the Veil are looking like they are the worst things to be in a story: pointless. Why introduce the Veil if it’s just going to remain unchanged? Why introduce a character like Solas, bother humanizing him (for lack of a better term), giving us his backstory, setting him up as a cunning antagonist, only to make him look stupid, then put him on a shelf until the last ten minutes of your game?
Solas was the trickster archetype of this tale. He was our version of Loki from Norse mythology. What is the role of the trickster archetype? To challenge the status quo. To bring about events of extreme change, like say, the tearing down of a Veil that holds back all of magic. Loki is a huge contributing factor in Ragnarök. Through his manipulation, he causes the death of the beloved god, Baldr. This ushers in a long winter, which signifies the beginning of the end. Loki is imprisoned for this crime. When the final battle between gods and giants begins, the sun and moon are swallowed, plunging the earth into darkness. The earth shakes and Loki is freed to fight on the side of the giants. The world burns in raw chaos, falls beneath the sea, and is reborn. The world is remade, and a new realm of the gods and a new, better earth is formed.
It really felt like this was the setup they were going for. Solas causes the death of Mythal, and this is his catalyst for creating the Veil, which ushers in a world without magic. This could be seen as equivalent to the long winter. Solas falls asleep, trapped in dreams. He wakes and sets in motion bringing about the apocalypse. It’s not a perfect one to one, but it’s there if you squint. We have a war against the gods in Veilguard. I was expecting a few remaining Titans to wake and join the fight. But we don’t get any of that. There is a final battle, but it does not end in the end of the world. Or a better world. It just ends, and everything is the same.
It seems our trickster god caused his apocalypse thousands of years before our story started, when he created the Veil. His role in this tale was over before ours began, and he really is just some relic from a long-past age. He has no role, no purpose in this story. He is here to be thwarted. He is no Loki at all.
If you can’t tell, I wanted the Veil to come down. Did I think the Veil coming down would be painless? Have no negative consequences? No. Of course not. But keeping it up has negative consequences too. And it made for an interesting story. Or at least it could have. But we never explore that. The game presents no counter argument to having the Veil stay up, which, again, begs the question: what was the point of introducing the concept of the Veil at all?
Did I think the Veil coming down was actually the best solution to help Thedas become a better place? I don’t know, and I never will, because the game never argues for it one way or another. It just tells you to want it in place and to stop asking questions. In real life, a catastrophic event is not the best way to solve any of the world’s problems. But this is the realm of fiction. We have gods and monsters, magic and myth. We have introduced the status quo of Thedas, recognized it needs to change, then our trickster god appears ready to fulfill his role in the narrative.
Instead, it all comes to nothing.
I got to the end of Veilguard… and everything was more or less the same as it was at the start of Origins. Veilguard actually tries its hardest to pretend any previously mentioned problems don’t exist, so of course the Veil coming down has no merit. There are no problems to solve in this world, apparently. Solas is just stuck in the past and can’t get with the times. Silly Solas.
The Veil isn’t even a permanent solution. It wasn’t to begin with. It was some duct tape wrapped around a broken pipe, and we’ve just slapped an extra piece of tape on it. It’s still leaking. It is still unnatural, and will fall eventually one way or another. Large amounts of bloodshed weaken it, so I guess Thedas better achieve world peace real quick to avoid any battles. There were seven super-powered mages holding it together… now there is just one. Ironically, the Veil was going to fall after two more Blights anyway. The Wardens were doing Solas’s work for him! It would also have released the full force of the Blight at that time… which Solas was trying to avoid, I presume.
It feels like keeping the Veil up just pushed a big problem onto Thedas’ future generations. We’ll keep slapping bandaids on it until it all falls apart. Someone else can deal with the fallout, but we’ll be dead by then, so who cares.
Primarily, I wanted the Veil to come down from a storytelling perspective. The Veil was an interesting concept and I wanted the story to do something interesting with it. Conflict is what makes stories stories and the Veil coming down could create so much compelling and complex conflict. And the Fade is weird, and I like weird. Stories are also about change, and I wanted to see Thedas change. Yet, Veilguard is over, and barely anything has changed. Instead of magic coming back being a conflict for the next game, they went with Fantasy Illuminati. Oh.
The Veil turned out to be a nothing-burger, and no problems in this world are even close to being solved. Slavery is still rampant in Tevinter. The elven people are still oppressed everywhere. Mages have no more rights in the South than they did in Origins. Spirits are still trapped and being corrupted. The Calling still exists, though might be different somehow now? They don’t really get into that. The Chantry’s validity is still not allowed to be questioned. The Blight still exists in some form, but again it’s vague. Oh, and we learn the dwarves have been gravely wronged, and the Titans are still tranquil. At least if you redeem Solas and a romanced Lavellan joins him, they can work together on healing the Blight and helping the Titans. Oh, good. One problem is being acknowledged and some action will be taken. Offscreen. Hurray? Solas doesn’t have a really great track record of fixing problems, so Lavellan is definitely going to need to be there to make sure he doesn’t fuck it up.
For some reason, this game seemed terrified of letting us think about anything for more than two seconds. It shied away from complexity or nuance at every turn. The game is called The Veilguard—ironically, that word is never uttered in the game—but we are given no real motive for guarding the Veil. We’re unquestionably the hero. The villains are uncomplicatedly evil. Save the world… never wonder what you are doing or why.
I wanted the game to make me question if the Veil staying up or coming down was the right choice. I needed to be given a real counter argument. Convince me the alternative would actually be better or worse, because as I mentioned… things suck quite a bit in Thedas already for a lot of people right now. Let the Veil’s fate be a difficult choice to make. If the conflict cannot be what to do about the Veil, it should be am I doing the right thing about the Veil. If the heart of your game is so thin on motive, everything else falls apart around it.
I hoped they were setting up a complex, Thedas-sized existential conflict for this game in Trespasser, but no. I wanted something to happen, but nothing did.
I want to feel challenged and changed by a story, not left feeling empty. I’m tired of superficial entertainment. I want to sink my teeth into a narrative that doesn’t paint the world in broad strokes of black and white, good and evil, heroes and villains.
Ultimately, I think my issue is why even introduce a concept like The Veil if you’re not going to do anything interesting with it. Or anything at all. What I thought was Chekov’s Veil turned out to just be a MacGuffin. And that’s disappointing.
"Did Varric just become stupid in Veilguard, that he'd walk up to Solas like that?"
No, I just think he knew. He's a 50-something year old rogue; he's lived in a sketchy tavern, fought all sorts of monsters, demons and abominations, witnessed all kinds of betrayal. He's seen it all, from Kirkwall to Ferelden and now Tevinter...you can't convince me he wasn't aware of what would most likely await him at the top of those stairs.
He knew, but he was tired. After losing Bartrand, Kirkwall, possibly Hawke—being away from all his friends, who ended up dispersing all over Thedas—after years of living with his regrets about the Deep Roads, about lyrium, about Bianca—about Anders, whom he couldn't save. A friend whose mind he could not change, a haunting tale now mirrored in his elven companion.
What is there left for Varric Tethras? A broken city to govern, occasional letters from friends. Maybe, but he's so tired. So tired that his well-groomed stubble has now turned into a full bush across his sunken cheeks. His flashy earrings gone, his flamboyant chain and tunic replaced by a more sober outfit, now drained of the fiery, warm colours that used to adorn his wardrobe, his hair, his eyes. Almost in greyscale now, it'd be hard to know it's Varric if it wasn't for his steady sarcastic remarks.
No, Varric was not stupid. Not in 2, not in Inquisition, definitely not in Veilguard. He was just tired, and probably figured if it was time to go, the best way to do so would be to try and redeem himself for all his perceived past failures. A domino of disastrous events started by a lyrium instrument which caused the downfall of a Tethras, ending the same exact way—except this time, it's one last sacrifice to try and break the cycle, to try and save a friend.
If you've ever wanted to be a little goose terrorizing the populace, I invite everyone to play the Untitled Goose Game. It's a 2019 puzzle stealth game that can be single player or co-op and your whole obhective is: to be a problem.
He was more costly than I usually spend on anything for myself, but he was the only thing I wanted in lieu of christmas or birthday gifts for the next...forever, and hubby ordered him.
He'll go perfectly with the DA fanart I got prints of.
Maker preserve me, I am so fucking happy!
Side note: The base is a lot heavier than I expected and Spite's wings are rather pink, but i get to have this guy watching over my small nerd shelf so who fucking cares.
uh, so: the hawkes flee ferelden directly after loghain’s betrayal at lothering, and when they arrive at the gallows, the guards say kirkwall has been taking in refugees “for months.”
uh. the significance of that particular point in time just occurred to me, specifically in relation to the gallows itself.
because alistair and the warden are happily pelting around ferelden right this moment with a newly liberated morrigan, an adorable zombie granny, a tal-vashoth sten, a mabari, a nun/bard, and a sexy, sexy antivan crow, right? and one of the places they may be present in… is kinloch hold.
….the gallows may be a horror show but say a prayer for the future knight-captain, lads. he’s currently off being extensively tortured right this minute by blood mages in a different circle tower!
either that or he’s locked up in a chantry to “recover.” for like. a hot second. how long does it take before hawke meets cullen in kirkwall? two, three years? not long enough.
(god, it explains so much about act one cullen, though. trying to act like he knows how to be a knight-captain. and he’s like, all of twenty-two years old, still dosing with holy cocaine and dealing with horrific ptsd. shaking my fist at meredith stannard)
one year. hawke is in kirkwall for one year & change and still saving up for the deep roads venture when she receives the opportunity to check on the wounded coast for a missing templar, and first meets brand-new knight-captain cullen stanton rutherford.
i mean no wonder the guy is trying new intimidation tactics that nearly get him killed and falls back to repeating dogma when confronted with opinions on mages!!! he’s practically a fuckin teenager!
fresh from a nightmare-inducing trauma at ferelden circle, wants to impress his absolutely terrifying knight-commander
and the stakes are SUPER high because not only did she specifically import him to kirkwall to specifically imbue him with a fear & hatred of mages in order to take her spot….. but he also took his vows like, two years ago & older templars resent it, his parents died in the Blight & he undoubtedly doesn’t even know where his siblings went yet. he is reliant on the templars for lyrium and alone in a strange city. obeying the knight-commander’s orders without question is literally his only option.
and now the recruits he’s meant to be training and protecting (some of whom may be older than him????) are going missing and he’s worried they’re dead or in thrall to blood mages
worst of all, now he’s made a complete tit of himself in front of a pretty girl with a big sword. and her judgy friends
:(
what the hell do people expect of cullen in this game???? he is NOT having a good time. poor ferelden dingus
Bear with me as I'm thinking Corypheus thoughts and potential connection to things we didn't get in Veilguard. SPOILER WARNING FOR DRAGON AGE INQUISITION (its been a decade, i know, but new fans are new fans).
Ok. the Legacy DLC from DA 2. Hawke finds Corypheus in a prison/tomb thing guarded by...Grey Wardens. Ok. Cool.
Corypheus shows up again in Inquisition. Big baddie. Ok.
Then the dreaded choice (depending on your canon world state): Here Lies the Abyss. Warden or Hawke. Left in the Fade, it's very sad, very noble, Varric is potentially devastated. We all know it.
Ok. SO.
Inky, in the final blow to Corypheus, says this: "You wanted into the Fade?" Then opens a rift where's he standing and he disappears into it.
He's dead right?
...right?
We assume so because he's gone. Poof. Not seen again.
BUT.
There's now either a Warden physically in the fade, where Inky just presumably sent him, or Hawke. Whose blood imprisoned/released him in the first place.
Hear me out: what if those two options were intentional? If even a sliver of Corypheus survived having a rift opened inside him before being sucked through, he now has a physical manifestation of someone with the taint he can transfer to OR someone he's connected to with blood magic. PHYSICALLY IN THE FADE.
What if Corypheus's arc wasn't totally finished and events in the Fade then had consequences for how things go down with the Evanuris? Two of his gods alive *and* now released into the physical realm?
Just saying, if the Warden was the choice, Corypheus now has a body to use. If Hawke was the choice, it's potentially a battle to prevent him from getting his gods to bless him with another chance to serve (or take them down himself as he is disillusioned with them being elves or something).
Knowing the person in the Fade was going to have a role of some kind in the game (before it became what it was) has me wondering what it would have looked like. And since the final battle with Corypheus was somewhat lackluster, i also wondered if that was *also* intentional.
Some locations have phases that activate specific content in the game. Tearstone Island, Arlathan Crater, and Weisshaupt have phases of cut encounters with the Executors. According to the banter names, there were supposed to be four encounters in total. It's unknown where another one was meant to take place.
The script contains lines describing post-game achievements. Rook returned to familiar places, and apparently that eventually brought them to the Executors.
000FD957 On return to Rivain Island, defeat the Executor and collect the Memento for Davrin/Harding
000FD923 On return to Weisshaupt, light the final beacons for the 6th + 7th Blights
Not sure for what purpose Rook returned to Arlathan Crater. This questline was supposed to progress in a specific order. Hard to say where it started, but the final encounter was meant to be in Weisshaupt. I managed to trigger only the last phase, but it's very rough, so no video.
Most likely, this content was replaced in the release with three codex entries featuring the Mysterious Circle and a post-credits scene. Although the game still has banter where Rook talks to the Executors, those conversations were originally more extended. They even had lipsync, though there's no audio in the files.
First encounter.
Approach banter
Executor: Missing. Gone.
Executor: Two dead. One caged.
Executor: Others approach. Hands bloodied. They did it.
Executor: Test them? Test us?
Executor: Yes. We fight.
75% Health
Executor: Fascinating. Unforeseen.
Executor: Skilled. Strong. Even sundered. Unexpected.
Executor: Worthy enemies. Even still. Unexpected.
Executor: Their blood. Strength. Power. Unexpected.
Executor: Skill. Power. And defiant. Unexpected.
Rook: Who are you?
Executor: Irrelevant. Immaterial.
Bellara: Well, that's helpful.
Davrin: Suit yourself.
Emmrich: We require a more satisfactory answer!
Harding: Don't need to know your name to take you down.
Lucanis: True.
Neve: No need to play modest!
Taash: What the crap does that mean?
50% Health
Executor: Pain. We had forgotten.
Executor: Distracting. Distressing.
Rook: We can stop any time you want.
Executor: No. We continue.
Executor: We learn.
25% Health
Rook: Why are you here? What do you want?
Executor: To see. To find.
Executor: To prepare.
Bellara/Lucanis/Taash: Prepare for what?
Davrin: I can't wait for this. For what?
Emmrich: For what?
Harding: Prepare? For what?
Neve: Prepare. All right. For what?
Death
Executor: They… pass?
Executor: No. We… fail.
Death Reaction
Rook: Okay. Does anyone know what just happened?
Rook: Who was that? Or what?
Bellara: I'll ask around. See if anyone knows anything.
Davrin: And I thought the Gloom Howler was weird. I'll ask around. See what I can find.
Emmrich: Completely unfamiliar to me. I'll see if there's anything in the Watcher's archives.
Harding: I'll ask my contacts. Maybe someone knows.
Lucanis: I'll ask. If the Crows know, you'll know.
Neve: I'll start asking questions. See what I can dig up.
Taash: No idea. I'll check with the Lords. See if anyone knows anything.
Second encounter.
Approach banter
Executor: They interrupt. As predicted.
Executor: As expected. As hoped.
Executor: Stronger now. We will fight. We will win.
Fight
Rook: I thought we killed you.
Executor: No. Impossible.
Executor: Other forms. Multitudes.
Executor: We persist.
75%
Executor: They fight. They resist.
Rook: It's kind of our whole thing!
Executor: The end, inevitable. The outcome, certain.
Executor: Only delay. Never prevent.
50%
Executor: Are they stronger?
Executor: Yes. For now.
Rook: Did you know that you're very unsettling?
Executor: Unimportant.
25%
Executor: Unpredictable. Chaotic.
Rook: Not the first time we've been called that.
Executor: Must change. Adapt.
Bellara: We need to take this thing down, and quickly.
Davrin: Time for this thing to die, and quickly.
Emmrich: We almost have them. Strike quickly!
Harding: Come on! We have to take this thing down!
Lucanis: We need to finish this.
Neve: We need to end this fight. Now!
Taash: Kill it before it talks more!
Death
Executor: More knowledge. More defeat.
Executor: We will… learn.
Executor: We will… triumph.
Death Reaction
Rook: So can we just never kill this thing?
Rook: We've seen it die twice. And I think it's gonna come back again.
Bellara: Maybe they're like the Evanuris? You can't kill them until you kill whatever they're tied to? That said, something felt weird about the magic. Almost like it was… greasy.
Davrin: Maybe they're like the elven gods and the Archdemons. Have to kill one before the other. Assan sure didn't like what he was smelling.
Emmrich: That manifestation… Could it be an extension of another's will, much like the elven gods and their dragons? Regardless, there's a pall about its magic.
Harding: Like the Archdemons? Or Corypheus? Linked to something you have to kill first. I don't know. Something felt really strange about it, like an itch in my mind.
Lucanis: Perhaps they're like the elven gods and their dragons. We have to kill its heart first. Spite says the magic smells like oil on water.
Neve: Perhaps they're tied to another creature? Like the Archdemons and elven gods. But the magic… It feels different. Almost… greasy.
Taash: Maybe they're tied to another creature. Like whatever the elven gods did with their dragons? I dunno. Something felt weird about it.
Rook: Reach out to your contacts. I'll reach out to mine. Maybe we'll find something.
Third encounter.
Approach banter
Executor: You return. We are content.
Executor: Another chance. Another test.
Executor: Learn. Adapt. Triumph.
80%
Rook: Why do you keep fighting us? What do you want?
Executor: Not now. Not yet.
Executor: We will show you. Soon.
60%
Executor: You quelled the storm. Stilled the waters.
Executor: We felt it. The ripples. They went far.
Executor: But we did not move yet. We waited. Watched.
40%
Executor: Then the tyrant. The sun. Dimmed by blood. His own.
Executor: The ripples joined. Expanded. Extended.
Executor: We readied. Consulted. Planned.
20%
Executor: And then the wolf. He knew of us. In part. Not in whole.
Redeem ending:
Executor: You changed him. Saved him. With the other. She lingers.
Outsmart ending:
Executor: Fought him on his terms. Defeated him on yours.
Defeat ending:
Executor: Took his strength. Fought him with yours.
Rook: You know an awful lot about me.
Executor: But not enough! Not yet!
Death
Executor: The pattern… continues.
Executor: Nearly… enough.
Death Reaction
Rook: That thing gets creepier and creepier every time we kill it.
Bellara: It sure seems to know a lot about us. You know. Given that we've never met it before.
Davrin: How's it know so much about us? We've never met.
Emmrich: Studying us in turn. It knows far more about us than it should from these encounters.
Harding: What is it, and why does it know so much about us? Is it watching us or something?
Lucanis: It seems to know a lot about us. It's been watching us. How?
Neve: It seems to know enough about us. From watching? Or doing homework? And why?
Taash: What is this thing talking about? It keeps talking like it knows us.
Rook: Yeah. I was kinda trying not to think about that part.
Rook: This just gets weirder every time.
Fourth encounter.
This part of the quest started in the Main Hall of Weisshaupt Library. From there, Rook rode the elevator to the West Wing and then headed toward the Dragon Trap. The Executor appeared at the site of the fight with Razikale. The gameplay here is unfinished; this boss has no health bar or animations. I've previously posted what this looks like.
Approach banter
Executor: We have finished. Succeeded.
Executor: Now we have knowledge. Now we have certainty.
Executor: Fight again? Last time?
Executor: Yes. Nothing to lose. Much to gain.
80%
Executor: You are skilled. Strong. Unpredictable.
Executor: Yet mortal. Still flesh. Still alone.
Executor: Your victory, impossible. Yet it happened.
Executor: How? Why?
Bellara: A lot of planning. A lot of hard work. And a lot of luck!
Davrin: Sharp minds and sharper blades.
Emmrich: So there's a limit to your piercing sight!
Harding: Ooh, so you don't know everything about us!
Lucanis: So you don't know everything.
Neve: Now there's the question! If you figure it out, let me know!
Taash: I hit you in the face with an axe!
60%
Executor: Troubling. Still strong. Even now.
Executor: We must change. Adapt.
Executor: Yes. New thoughts. New plans.
Rook: What're you talking about?
Executor: Soon enough.
40%
Executor: We can win. We can change.
Executor: No. Not now. Not necessary.
Executor: Must not reveal. Must not alarm.
Executor: Soon, though. Very soon.
20%
Executor: The plan changes. Adapts.
Executor: Speak to the others? Let them know.
Executor: Yes. We have learned much. Can share much.
Death
Executor: This form… exhausted. Done.
Executor: But… we learn. Soon… the storm.
Executor: Next time will… be… different.
Death Reaction
Rook: So… any ideas what it was talking about?
Rook: "The others"? "The plan"?
Bellara: Shouldn't we let someone know about it? Charter, maybe?
Davrin: Maybe we should tell someone about whatever that was? Charter?
Emmrich: None whatsoever. Perhaps Charter should know of this.
Harding: We should tell someone about this. Charter?
Lucanis: Charter may want to know about… whatever this is.
Neve: Leaving us with questions—at least it's consistent.
Taash: We should tell someone about this. Maybe Charter.
Rook: Let her know what? We fought someone spooky in a robe, they came back to life three times, and after the last time, they issued a cryptic warning?
Rook: But… yeah. We should let Charter know.
There's one final conversation related to this questline in the files, but it's empty. Perhaps Rook reported what they saw to Charter, though that's just speculation.
Oooh interesting! Ghilan'nain had some ocean concept art and they refer to her as "the storm" here. Wish we would've gotten that. Too much like "The Oncoming Storm" though. The executors looking exactly like Vorgoth is KILLING me— what if Vorgoth is a *good* executor? Like a defector or something? They do say "no one knows what Vorgoth is".
....unless he's the mage betrayal we get in every DA game.
i am always thinking about that one quote from the wigmaker job which is like “lucanis was the kind of man you couldn’t look away from- until he looked at you” and then when rook says “nothing i’m seeing makes me want to look away” oughhhghghhh
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