This is a sideblog for my inquisitors, wardens, hawkes, rooks, and headcanons. Main blog is @ijltln so if I follow you it's from there! Current icon is Plaio Lavellan (yes his eyes are closed because he has Seen Enough), header is Cillian Ingellvar. I have taken canon and shaken it to fit my needs so my canon worldstate is this: Daria Brosca, Garrett Hawke, and 4 Inquisitors- Kiilani Cadash, Plaio Lavellan, Minerva Adaar, and Enzidya Trevelyan. Going forward, i consider any of my rooks as if they're from a different canon worldstate. block datv critical or bioware critical to avoid negative posts
Welcome to dragon-age-sideblog, it's exactly what it says on the tin! This is my sideblog solely dedicated to dragon age, my main is @ijltln, i will follow you from there. My canon world state is Daria Brosca, Garrett Hawke, and four inquisitors (I believe they all touched the orb at the same time and survived): Kiilani Cadash, Plaio Lavellan, Minerva Adaar, and Enzidya Trevelyan. All my characters have tags on this blog, if tumblr tag search is willing to function.
I also choose to believe that all of my Rooks are from a different world state*, and i'm still playing through veilguard so I'll update this with new rooks as I go. Currently I'm on Lorenze Thorne.
There will be critical and negative posts on this blog from time to time, send me an update if you need me to add tags. Feel free to message me or ask questions any time! I love talking about my OCs and dragon age in general
If bioware is allowed to disregard everything that happened in the former games, then I'm going to view Veilguard as something happening in an entirely different universe. Say what you will about it being set in different countries a decade or so later but our choices and decisions from before SHOULD still have some impact on what's happening in the world now *shrug emoji*. Anyways I kinda pick and choose what I believe to be canon anyways as y'all can see from me having four inquisitors in the same world state lol
hi, veilguard peeps, can we take a moment to talk about rook mercar? because rook mercar is possibly one of the most batshit rooks in the game and they deserve to be recognized as such.
but not only that, mercar's backstory shades the shadow dragons and venatori conflicts in very interesting ways so let's talk about them.
so first, the nessus job.
i don't blame you for forgetting (or not knowing, i know the shadow dragons aren't everyone's cup of tea) so here's your quick refresher from the shadow dragon background blurb found in the character creator:
Breaker of Bonds
“Rook risked everything to liberate the enslaved people of Tevinter, even knowing it would anger the ruling elite.
The foundling Rook was adopted into a military family and joined the Shadow Dragons to fight from the shadows for change in Minrathous. While guarding a visiting dignitary who was investigating a slavery ring in the nearby city of Nessus, Rook concluded that the mission would fail without throwing caution to the wind. Alone, s/he(/they) sneaked the dignitary deep into Venatori-controlled zones and brought him back, along with the rescued slaves. These actions brought Rook to the Venatori's attention, and the Shadow Dragons decided to keep Rook out of sight.”
that is the nessus job.
except this doesn't quite square with what the game has to say about it.
the background:
first, here's the viper's letter about the job:
so right away, note how weird it is that the viper's writing mercar's letter. i say this is weird because, with the other factions, the person writing rook's letter is someone they're familiar with, usually in a position of leadership. antoine and evka are the notable leadership exceptions here, having actually been involved in thorne's backstory actions.
here's the rub: mercar doesn't know the viper. they've heard of him, certainly, but when that little popup telling you that you've worked with these faction agents before appears, mercar doesn't have the option to act like they know the viper.
the lines mercar gets are:
it's an honor to stand beside a legend
i know he likes to make an entrance
i know he gets things done
now, i will grant you that some of the responses to mercar's comment indicate tarquin is familiar with both rook and ashur (his response to the honor line is 'well, that'll go straight to his head' while the entrance line earns the viper's comment 'no one watches the rooftops' and tarquin's exasperated 'sure, that's what he says') but the point is, for a character mercar is "supposed" to be very familiar with, neve still tells them about the name ashur. like, seriously, it's the same dialogue tag every rook gets.
which is weird because veilguard is actually pretty good at keeping track of rook's faction and seamlessly changing up the conversation while still getting across the relevant information.
but it doesn't stop there, oh no.
during mercar's unpacking scene, we get these default shadow dragon lines:
now, these right here ping for the following reasons:
varric isn't the "visiting dignitary" that rook was guarding, given that rook had to get to nessus before meeting varric
the fact that rook's backstory happens dao style, where all events are true but only one has duncan varric available to pluck rook out of the immediate consequences
minrathous slaves, specifically, are mentioned as being freed here, even though we're supposed to be in nessus. now i'm not saying that minrathous citizens can't be enslaved and sent elsewhere, i'm just pointing out the phrasing here
the magisters who were financially benefiting from the nessus ring (aka venatori and their backers) knew enough about rook to put a name and a face on them. the structure of the sentence here is that everyone knows who is "too much trouble" to keep around and that is fucking wild kids. no, seriously, that is wild. there is so much wild here, put a pin in it.
no, seriously, this matters and matches the backstory blurb that the job "brought Rook to the Venatori's attention." put a fucking pin in it.
whatever rook's feelings, they always take pride in freeing those slaves- impulsive rook just dislikes that it comes at the cost of putting the shadow dragons in danger (put a pin in it), righteous rook thinks that the shadows should have used the crackdown to start a full out war with the venatori and their magister backers mind you while finally stoic rook just hopes that the shadow dragons weathered the storm safely.
okay, so ready for more batshit mercar?
the next solas conversation is the one where rook tells solas why they're going to stop the gods and here's what mercar has to say about that operation:
i just want y'all to marinate in that little gem of a line for a sec.
done screaming yet? it's cool, take another minute. no one's doing it like mercar.
okay, so finally a fuller picture of mercar's backstory comes into focus, if you ignore the weird bits. like the fact that the shadows made a plan with varric to rescue a friend, which does not appear to be the original nessus job, mind you.
mercar met varric, something went screwy, and mercar and varric decided the only way they had a chance was to start an armed rebellion in the city of nessus. the slavery ring is busted, said rebellion is (apparently) put down, the venatori and the magisters know who to blame for it all, and mercar hightails it out of the country with varric. simple and straightforward, right?
wrong, we have so much to work through.
the fallout:
like why the fuck are ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in dock town, exactly? tarquin lives there but those three surely have a high town shadow dragon cell they can go bug, right? and why is ashur the only one of the three making any cell decisions? i mean, points to mae for being a decent house guest, i guess, but what exactly is going on here? why are the venatori breathing down the shop's neck, to the point that they knew its location well enough to deliberately target it in the save treviso route?
remember those pins? it's time to pull them.
i repeat: this is real fucking bad for the shadow dragons. unlike the rest of the origins, the shadows are a covert operation. they don't want anyone knowing who their members are, who their backers are, any of it. the people in power being able to identify shadow dragons is how you lose shadow dragons: to arrests, targeted killings, beatings, destruction of their livelihoods, etc. ya know, like the viper mentions in his letter.
the fact that the first warden can not only link rook's face and name to the shadow dragons but to very specific crimes, crimes for which rook can absolutely be arrested, should set off all the alarm bells. as dorian says, the man is more politician than warden and as charter's letter from marnas pell states, "Assume every noble Tevinter family not with Shadow Dragons has Venatori pulling strings." this is extremely bad.
after nessus, the venatori had rook's identity as mercar and what did they do? they started looking into every single person mercar had known contact with, every path they took, their home, their family, the bar they stopped in for breakfast that one time. that's how resistance cells die, by the way. including, potentially, mercar's. this is why the shadows were more than happy to see mercar out of the way for a while where they couldn't cause any more trouble; so long as they're not around, they can't compromise more of the various cells' activities and members. it's the safest move for literally everyone involved.
because the damage has been done:
mae's related to varric via marriage, by the way, if the full picture hasn't come into focus yet.
mercar and varric were id'ed in that rebellion, the venatori were pissed at the lost revenue streams and suddenly mae's knocked out of the magisterium?
yeah.
my guess is that there is no high town cell anymore because of the nessus job. for all that mae worked to ensure that dorian was out of the line of fire and squeaky clean, the shadows and their backers couldn't stop the venatori crackdown after nessus, as mentioned by ashur's letter. ashur and mae are here specifically because there is no other cell to go to.
this is why tarquin is snippy, by the by. mercar and the highbloods are drawing attention to him and endangering all of his people just by being there.
hang on, it gets worse.
because the venatori are obsessed with the viper and proving that he's the divine (he is the divine, for the record, there are too many ambient dialogues, codices, and missions pointing in that direction). and to that obsession, i say, what the fuck? how did they come to that conclusion, exactly? what trail did the divine leave behind that first got the venatori on his tail?
well, he's related to and has close ties with mae's family. secondly, the divine is known for being quietly supportive of slave liberation. but the real reason, i think, is the original nessus job.
because again, why were the shadows in nessus originally? why was mercar in nessus to meet varric in the first place? who was the "visiting dignitary" that mercar was guarding?
yeah, i think the dignitary was the divine. and i think he was there in his official capacity. it would handily explain the discrepancy that ashur knows mercar but mercar doesn't know ashur. while the divine might not have a lot of actual power, the power of the press and drawing attention to issues and plights should never be discounted. especially when it's a plausible excuse to get several minrathous shadows in place to shut down the nessus slaver ring.
the divine being guarded by a now known shadow dragon (the viper likely made an appearance, ashur is known to pop up when slave rebellions start) combined with his anti-slavery views and ties to anti-slavery politicians turned the venatori's eye on ashur's night job.
remember, the shadow dragons are officially labeled as insurgents; if the venatori can tie the divine and all his people to them? that would be a death knell for any political support for liberation. the checkmate for the anti-slavery cause for the next age.
tldr: mercar exposed their ties to the shadows (and possibly the divine's) by starting an armed rebellion with varric to free slaves and shut down a slaver hub. in response, the venatori sniped several cells using mercar and varric's likely contacts, which led to ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in the dock town shadow dragon cell instead of some high town cell.
This is an excellent breakdown!!! A wonderful aid in piecing together the puzzle that is Mercar’s backstory. Will definitely be referring to this in the future for writing purposes. 😌🙂↕️😏
it's amazing (actually very unsurprising) how the Dragon Age fandom manages to be racist about Seheron and Rivain even though Thedas does not even have "race" or colonialism / systems of imperialist extraction of resources that are based on geography in any way that resembles reality
it's an entirely alternate universe with an entirely different history, customs, languages etc. and yet you people are still just like "the air of Seheron smelled exotic, like spices" ugh fuck off you are so boring
correct me if I'm wrong but to my memory we have no evidence at all that Rivain or Seheron ever exported spices to Fereldan or the Free Marches, no evidence that a conceptual divide between "North" and "South" (this would be analagous to Earth's "East" and "West") was ever created, no evidence that Seheron and Rivain were ever reduced to stereotypes of themselves to drive a market for "exoic" goods that imperialist powers of the South exploited them for
we know that Orlais conquered Fereldan and that Fereldan gained its independence, and that Tevinter and the Qunari both fight for control over Seheron and are resisted by its native population—but there's nothing at all in the history that should give somebody from Fereldan (as Hawke is) the idea that Seheron is the "land of spices" in the way that India was to the English
and yet Hawke gets to Seheron and is all "the warm breeze wafted the smell of spices yada yada" just because you, the writer, have decided that Seheron is basically fantasy SWANA. fuck offfffff
Not at all trying to defend fandom - fandom is super racist. However, this is a case of racism being passed back and forth between the developers and fans, not just fans coming up with it on their own.
The concept of "race" absolutely does exist in Thedas, as has been confirmed by dev comments out of game, written in World of Thedas vol. 1, and in-game dialogue. Darker skinned people in Thedas canonically suffer from colourism/racism. This is a choice the devs made because I guess they couldn't possibly imagine a fantasy world where that doesn't exist.
The entirety of Thedas is colonized... but even after human colonization, we have a plethora of examples of human-run nations colonizing other human-run nations. Mostly from Orlais and Tevinter. And in terms of specifically colonizing for the purpose of extracting - well, Kirkwall is right there, with its history of being nothing but a mining colony for Tevinter. We don't even know what happened to the people who lived in the area known as Kirkwall prior to this, other than that they existed, because we're just not supposed to think about it I guess...
There is indeed canonical confirmation that Seheron exports spices. From Hard in Hightown: "They say you can buy anything in the Lowtown Bazaar. It's mostly true. On the right day, you can find vendors hawking spices from Seheron..." And the writers have indeed thrown around the word "exotic" to describe Rivain (and Rivaini themselves) especially.
The "smells of spices" probably stems specifically from this line of dialouge from Sten in DAO: "I miss the smells of Seheron. Tea and incense and the sea. Ferelden smells of wet dogs."
@/icewa1ker has gone into greater detail about what a mess of orientalism BioWare has inserted into the games when it comes to Rivain especially. Really great posts.
I just think it's important to note that Dragon Age itself came up with these very racist lore choices first. But does that mean fans have to go along with it? Absolutely not. Many fans are if anything, only furthering this problem.
So Davrin hasn’t been back to his clan since he left, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Because Davrin clearly cares a lot about being elven. He’s the first to point out how the actions of Solas and the Evanuris will negatively impact elves. He talks about how important the halla are, and the Way of Three Trees is core to his approach to life. It’s heavily implied that HE named Assan.
And yet he’s never gone back home. He didn’t fit in with clan life, and he’s obsessed with finding a purpose. I wonder if he feels guilty, like he needs to have an ultimate justification for why he left to “redeem” the choice. Because otherwise he’s betraying his people, his culture, to become part of the world at large— the world that harms elves and persecutes them. Is he afraid he’ll be scolded? That he won’t fit in anymore? That he won’t be seen as “really elven”?
This is why the scenes with Eldrin are so important. When Eldrin says “I’m glad you took the road less traveled” essentially, he’s giving Davrin permission to not feel guilty for his choices. He’s telling Davrin that he doesn’t have to Be A Specific Way to still be Dalish. He’s allowed to be himself and ALSO a Dalish elf— which goes hand in hand with the conflict between being a hunter and being a caretaker.
Technically Davrin’s arc starts when you meet him, but his character progress starts when he survives Weisshaupt. He’s been forced to face the fact that the world isn’t what he thought it was, which means he doesn’t have to hold himself to these strict rigid standards between categories. And that’s what Assan teaches him over the course of the game as well. He’s allowed to be many things, and he can accept all parts of himself without fear or shame.
literally insane to me how sera's entire philosophy is "revolution doesnt have to be organized or even particularly coherent. all that matters is reminding the aristocracy they are mortal and the common people that their power is contingent on our compliance" and the game just completely fails to find it thought provoking at all in fact you as the player are expected to find it juvenile and baffling there is no way to even humor her in her beliefs without an added disclaimer that the inquisitor still finds it all ridiculous and isnt really taking her seriously
The goal of this survey is to collect data on the demographics of and choices made by the Tumblr-based Dragon Age fandom. Everything is 100% anonymous, and all questions on the form are skippable - just keep in mind that the more questions you answer, the more accurate and thorough the data will be!
The form is split into the following sections:
Voter demographics and series-wide preferences - this asks things like your age range, gender, favourite game in the series, and which mainline and side-content installments you've played
Choices specific to and your preferences within Dragon Age: Origins
Choices specific to and your preferences within Draon Age II
Choices specific to and your preferences within Dragon Age: Inquisition
Choices specific to and your preferences within Dragon Age: The Veilguard
And a very optional bonus section where you're invited to share your more specific opinion on each individual main game and companion, along with a place to share any feedback on the blog and suggestions for future tournaments!
This form will remain open for a month - submissions will be accepted until July 7th, and results will be shared shortly after.
Anyway I think more video game quests should make you uncomfortable and guilty and mislead you and corner you between a rock and a hard place and offer hollow victories. There's nothing more annoying than quest writing that scrambles to assure you that you're niceys and good and nothing you put your hand on can ever have negative consequences. "You cannot save everyone" and I cheer and whoop etc.
"look. he’s probably losing a fair fight. but has gamlen amell ever suggested that he would participate in a fair fight? no. exactly."
"Gamlen did manage to be the only Amell left in Kirkwall for years after the family’s fall, and that has to count for something. The man lost almost everything, ended up in Lowtown, got tangled in debts and bad decisions, and still somehow made it to the start of DA2 alive. Kirkwall isn’t kind to people who can’t look after themselves at least a little."
"He wins if the fight takes place in his house, because the opponent gets distracted by how depressing it is."
vs. Krem Aclassi
"He’s trained, experienced, level-headed, and trusted to be in charge by a commander who is extremely good at reading people"
