This post contains the links to all entries in my ongoing "Rewriting Veilguard" series. I shall pin it so that you may always find it with ease. The Tumblr version of this rewrite follows a Veil Jumper Rook.
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this rewrite on AO3
Prologue
Part 1 - The World State
Part 2 - The Shadow Dragons
Part 3 - The Grey Wardens
Part 4 - The Veil Jumpers
Part 5 - The Antivan Crows
Part 6 - The Mourn Watch
Part 7 - The Lords of Fortune
Part 8 - The Inquisition
Act 1
Part 9 - The Dumat
Part 10 - Neve Gallus
Part 11 - Bellara Lutare
Part 12 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Minrathous
Part 13 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Arlathan Forest
https://archiveofourown.org/works/85348651/chapters/225417441
Hi everyone! We're back with our second piece for the Dragon Age Big Bang 2026!
Let's give it up for author Ruby_Fire and artist CelestialTeapot; they did incredible work! Go check out their efforts over on Archive of Our Own, and we hope y'all enjoy!
Rating:
Mature
Summary:
The world is saved. Time for a happy ending. But not everything is perfect between Lily and her Crow. Will they overcome their differences or lose their hearts too?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/85322821/chapters/225334391
Hi everyone! We've made it to the posting segment of the Dragon Age Big Bang 2026! Congratulations all!
Due to the large number of authors who made it to the end, we're going to be posting two (2) works a day, and we hope you're as excited as we are to read all these fabulous works and take in all this amazing art! So, without further ado, let's get started with our first piece of the year!
Let's give it up for author Drakorn and artist myfandomincolor; they did incredible work! Go check out their efforts over on Archive of Our Own, and we hope y'all enjoy!
Rating:
Explicit
Summary:
Irini, a new member of the elusive Shadow Dragons, and the adoptive daughter of Legatus Charon Mercar, dwells in the darkness beneath Minrathous, fighting to make Tevinter a better place. The arrival of Varric Tethras pulls her into the greatest test of her skill yet, for in the bowels of the city, the Venatori unveil a sinister plan that could change the Imperium forever.
What if the Shadow Dragons had an origin story before Veilguard's main plot?
For your Veilguard rewrite, since it looks like Merrill will be an important character, what happens in a world state where she's dead? "I'm pretty sure she can die if your side with the Templars and don't get her friendship/rivalry high enough or don't complete her quests or something.)
So, if Merrill is dead, her part in the Veil Jumper origin story is filled by Salshira, the elf mage we meet in Bellara's recruitment mission. As for any future scenes she'll appear in, I can't really go into details quite yet!
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Anastasia (1997), Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Gleb Vaganov
Additional Tags: Musicals, Song Lyrics, Screenplay/Script Format
Summary:
What if the stage musical found a way to incorporate "In the Dark of the Night"?
I’m loving your rewriting veilguard series! I just finished reading your weisshaupt regional quests and I was curious, I know you wrote that the Anderfels language is based on German irl, and I was wondering if you know whether the words hurlock or genlock are also German or german-adjacent? I know canonically it’s stared that they’re both Ander words, but when I tried googling both I only got some Old English results for hurlock, and nothing at all for genlock. I know it’s possible that a DA writer just made them both up back during DAO but I was curious if there was any irl basis for them.
Thanks for your lovely quest writing! I’m really loving how deeply you’re going into Thedas lore and prior game events and decisions!
Hello!
Thank you for the kind words!
I think these are just terms the writers came up with for the setting. I live in a German-speaking country and not once have I heard or read these words anywhere. So pretty safe to say that they are not actual modern German words. I did see the Old English word Hurlock, though! So perhaps some inspiration was taken from there.
This post contains the links to all entries in my ongoing "Rewriting Veilguard" series. I shall pin it so that you may always find it with ease. The Tumblr version of this rewrite follows a Veil Jumper Rook.
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this rewrite on AO3
Prologue
Part 1 - The World State
Part 2 - The Shadow Dragons
Part 3 - The Grey Wardens
Part 4 - The Veil Jumpers
Part 5 - The Antivan Crows
Part 6 - The Mourn Watch
Part 7 - The Lords of Fortune
Part 8 - The Inquisition
Act 1
Part 9 - The Dumat
Part 10 - Neve Gallus
Part 11 - Bellara Lutare
Part 12 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Minrathous
Part 13 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Arlathan Forest
Rewriting Veilguard Part 18 - Regional Quests at Act 1 Weisshaupt
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Depicting a Slave Uprising in Minrathous
Now that we have completed our side quest ventures through Treviso and Minrathous, it is time to return to the main quest. And in this chapter, we shall tackle one of Tevinter’s darkest topics: slavery.
So far, we have touched upon it here and there, primarily with the concept of the Salvatio Initiative. But now, we shall undertake a main quest where Tevinter’s slavery features as the primary focus. We can’t hide from this forever. And it is important to really show to what dark depths Tevinter is capable of sinking, and what some of its people do in response.
Briefing on the Dumat
Last time, we received word of two leads that may further our search for Fen’Harel: one takes us to Minrathous and a rumoured slave uprising, while the other calls us to Arlathan Forest, as Morrigan seems to have uncovered something.
We make a decision and choose to investigate the slave situation in Minrathous first, and call a meeting aboard the Dumat.
Varric informs us that Maevaris made contact from Minrathous. Apparently, there is something huge stirring in the city’s slave district, a rumoured uprising if word is to be believed.
As a Veil Jumper and a Dalish, we have already seen some of the horrors of Tevinter’s slavery culture, but the mention of an entire district dedicated to slaves causes us to have a moment of rage. Are there truly that many slaves in one city alone? Varric sighs. Indeed, there are. And they might all be in trouble now. We feel a burning desire to aid them, which Varric approves of. Neve, in particular, is alarmed by this news, as the Shadow Dragons usually take great precautions in protecting Minrathous’ slave population to the best of their abilities. What has changed?
Bellara is anxious to go back to Minrathous, as the previous experience really didn’t sit well with her. Lucanis, on the other hand, is quite eager. Perhaps he will find some Venatori to assassinate while we’re there. Davrin would rather stay as far away from that city as possible, calling it a lost cause, and only agrees to go for the sake of the innocent slaves. For Harding, a visit to Minrathous is nothing new at this point. She developed a thick skin towards its horrors.
With the destination chosen, Isabela sets course for Minrathous and the Dumat blasts away.
The Shadow Lair
Back in the Shadow Lair, a place we always love to revisit, we are immediately approached by Maevaris. We notice that the Shadow Dragons seem on edge like never before. Also...where are most of them? The Shadow Lair has never been so empty. Then, Maevaris drops the bombshell news: The Salvatio Initiative has been legalised by both the Magisterium and the Archon. The Divine and a few Senate members were against it, but they were so immensely overruled. It seems that Laskaris’ war with the Qunari is devastatingly increasing in its utter ferocity. The victory in Marnas Pell has been spun as a propaganda piece for Tevinter’s military. The fact that a Dalish elf duelled Kathaban on her own is, of course, left out.
Maevaris further tells us that, upon hearing this, the population within the Slave District began to stir and openly rebel, something they hadn’t done on such a magnitude before. Since then, the entire Slave District has been warded off by the Templars and a few present legionnaires. Nobody gets in or out until the situation is dealt with. Maevaris asks us to aid the Shadow Dragons in protecting the slaves.
At this point, we wonder just how this could relate to the Dread Wolf. Well, we would have helped the slaves regardless, but this task was sold to us as a potential lead on Solas. Varric reminds us that Solas hates slavery, something we, as a Dalish, still have trouble believing. Perhaps a slave uprising on such a scale would draw his personal attention, as he just can’t resist freeing the chained when he can. We look at Varric in slight disbelief as his words almost make the Dread Wolf sound like a good guy. But we now understand what this mission is about.
We are then joined by a new face: the Viper. As a Veil Jumper, this is our first time meeting him. We didn’t play the Shadow Dragon origin, and we had Fenris in Marnas Pell.
The Viper shall be the leading Shadow Dragon on this mission. He informs us that Tarquin, Rana, and Brom are with the Templars, trying to prevent the worst, while other Shadow Dragons operate in secrecy to prevent slave casualties. He informs us that the whole operation is being led by Magister Bataris, a high-ranking member of the legion and a Venatori to boot. He is one of the strongest supporters of the Salvatio Initiative. If we can stop him, we can stop the chaos. Neve confirms this, as she saw Bataris and his son at the gathering where Laskaris presented the Salvatio Initiative for the first time.
Upon our inquiry whether we can hope for Fenris’ aid, the Viper denies it. Fenris is currently on Laskaris’ trail. He has been pursuing him ever since Marnas Pell.
Maevaris expresses utter frustration that she can’t join the fight that’s happening in Minrathous right now. The Viper and Varric reassure her that she is far too important for the effort to risk death like that. She is needed here, where she can coordinate everything. Besides, Varric remarks, she does still have ties to the upper circles. Maevaris seems to understand what he implies.
The Viper then instructs us to follow him through the catacombs and sewers. There is a secret entrance to the Slave District that not even the Venatori know about. This is now our way in.
Entering the Slave District
We then transition to a nearly empty square in a dark environment. In the centre stands a dead tree, with golden chains wrapped around it. This is a vhenadahl, probably one of the only ones in Tevinter. The lore behind this tree is that most of Minrathous’ slave population comprises elves. The Slave District can therefore be seen as Minrathous’ Alienage, but in a much, much worse state. The elves were permitted to have a vhenadahl in their midst, but it’s a corpse of a vhenadahl, a corpse wrapped in chains.
Rook, the Viper, and the rest emerge from beneath the vhenadahl. The tree had been planted right above the secret passage. Maybe an elf of the past knew of the tunnel and wished to provide an escape route for those in the know.
At once, we see chaos around us. Slaves are being chased around by Templars and legionnaires. The Salvatio Initiative is in full effect. All unpurchased slaves are to be brought to Laskaris.
The Viper tells us to go and find Tarquin, Rana, and Brom, for they also had the task of overseeing Bataris’ movements. He had last seen them heading towards the House of Chains, the main building of the Slave District. We shall pick two of our companions, Neve and Lucanis, in this case, while the rest go with the Viper to assist the other Shadow Dragons and hinder the Venatori forces.
As a Dalish, we give the vhenadahl a sad and angry look, before we proceed further into the streets.
The Slave District
What follows is Rook, Neve, and Lucanis making their way through the Slave District, once again, a small strike force sent for the main objective while the others perform some of the more epic stuff.
We are pretty much immediately assaulted by a bunch of legionnaires, and no matter what any of us say, a fight is inevitable. Neve has never seen the Slave District in such utter uproar before, and Lucanis is mildly impressed by his welcome to Minrathous. It hasn’t been this loud on his previous visits.
From a distance, we can see magical barriers set up by the legion’s mages preventing the slaves from escaping through the streets and into Minrathous.
And now, let’s talk about the Slave District in general, because there is some lore here. So, first of all, it looks like the worst Alienage we have ever seen in all of Thedas. The one in Denerim is an absolute paradise compared to this. Even the one in Val Royeaux, from the descriptions we could gather, is not nearly as bad as Minrathous’ Slave District. The houses are all run-down and breaking apart, due to them being ancient and not as well-maintained by magic as the rest of Minrathous. The streets are uneven and dark. There is a constant sense of oppression and fear in the air. We have seen Dock Town, basically the slums of Minrathous. We have seen the Shadow Lair, surrounded by sewers and catacombs. Both of these locations feel more welcoming than this. And yes, it’s called the Slave District, and not the Slave Quarters, because Minrathous has so many slaves that they pretty much require an entire district for themselves. It has been that way ever since Minrathous was first constructed. In Ancient Tevinter, when the Old Gods were still worshipped, this was called the Chain- or Vinculum District, in honour of Andoral. This is where all the unpurchased slaves reside, the ones to be presented at the great markets.
The longer we venture through this place, the more furious and disgusted Rook becomes. How can such utter injustice still exist in the world? How can Tevinter get away with it? Well, the simple answer is...not enough care to change things. And those who do, such as the Shadow Dragons, fight an utterly uphill battle.
While we progress through the Slave District, there are a few optional things we can run into:
At some point, we enter a House of Healing, similar to the one we saw in Marnas Pell, though in a much worse state. Even the Slave District has one, for what good are slaves who are not fit to be sold due to pesky things such as sickness or injury? In there, we encounter a group of Venatori who are rounding up the injured slaves who were just tended to by a healer mage. Upon fighting the Venatori, we learn from one of the slaves that all of this started when an elf named Fravun came into the Slave District. Fravun is not an unknown person here, for he was a slave himself before being purchased by someone very important. We heal the slaves and tell them to head for the vhenadahl and hide beneath it until things die down.
We encounter Lorelei, who fights a vicious battle against a few Templars on her own while protecting a bunch of slave children. We immediately rush to her aid and fight off the Templars. Thankfully, these are not the Southern Templars who have anti-magic abilities. Lorelei thanks us. She was powerless when Teyrn Loghain had her and many others sold to Tevene slavers during the Blight. Now, she fights. She tells us there are other groups of Shadow Dragons who are currently fighting. If we have the chance, they can use our help.
Pursuing this little side encounter, we can rush through the Slave District and find three other groups of Shadow Dragons fighting Templars, Venatori, and legionnaires, respectively.
At some point, we see the Viper and the rest of our companions being pursued by a horde of dracolisks let loose by the legionnaires. We hear Davrin shouting eagerly for a monster challenge while Assan swoops down upon them.
The Templars
After a while, we come across a most unfortunate scene: Tarquin, Rana, and Brom have all been cornered by a group of fellow Imperial Templars, led by none other than Knight-Captain Jahvis. Neve is furious. Jahvis has betrayed them after all they went through together?
We watch as Jahvis orders the Templars to attack and leads the charge himself. He fights Rana and is about to strike her down when Brom throws himself between them. After a vicious struggle, Jahvis decapitates Brom in front of Rana and Tarquin. This is something even a healing spell can’t fix. Rana cries in fury and desperation. It is at this moment that we reach them. Neve lets out a furious shout, attracting the Templars’ attention to us. Jahvis quickly orders us killed, and we jump into the fight without hesitation.
The fight is tough but short, and in the end, we overcome Jahvis, who lies dying before us. His helmet falls off, and we see, to our horror, that he has been given one of the blood collars. He begs us to take it off, even if it means his death. We comply, and he confesses that Bataris applied the collar to him because both he and Knight-Commander Lenos had begun to suspect him. He managed to conceal Tarquin’s involvement with the Shadow Dragons, but Brom and Rana were ratted out, and he was ordered to kill them. He dies, utterly regretting what he was forced to do.
Rana, in utter fury, picks up her sword and runs for the House of Chains, determined to make Bataris pay. Tarquin informs us that Fravun, the mysterious elf who stirred the Slave District into uprising, is currently being held there by Bataris, so it’s in our very best interest to pursue Rana. He is going to try to find the Viper and join the others in their movement.
To the House of Chains
With Jahvis and Brom dead and Tarquin gone to join the others, Rook, Neve, and Lucanis quickly begin to pursue Rana through the streets. Neve really doesn’t want to lose another friend today.
The closer we move to the House of Chains, the more visceral the fighting around us gets. Now, we don’t just see slaves running and trying to escape. Now, we see them fight. There is a furore among them; enough is enough. It seems that Laskaris heavily underestimated just how devastating an effect the Salvatio Initiative would have on the slaves themselves. The thought that they might even consider rising up never even occurred to him. Why should it? He only sees them as tools to be used, not actual people.
Occasionally, we can jump into the fray and help some of the slaves fight off their attackers, which we do every single time.
As we are about to reach the House of Chains, the centre of the Slave District, we suddenly see quite an odd sight: A group of legionnaires seems to be escorting an elven woman and a small elven girl, definitely her daughter. At the group’s helm is Albin Bataris, Magister Bataris’ son, whom Neve quickly identifies.
Lucanis urges us to take the chance and strike down Albin. He is his father’s son, and his loss/disappearance is bound to put a damper on him. Neve understands all of that, and in any other case, she would agree, but she really doesn’t want to see Rana get killed if we don’t hurry to her aid immediately.
So, we have a choice:
Do we pursue Albin and free the two elves but risk Rana getting hurt or even killed?
Or do we head straight for the House of Chains, guaranteeing Rana’s safety but abandoning the elves to their fates, and allowing Albin to get away?
While we do sympathise with Rana, we even moreso sympathise with the elven slaves that are probably being taken to a nightmarish place as we speak. Rana can hopefully take care of herself for a few more minutes.
Quickly, we pursue Albin’s escort.
Albin Bataris
We quickly pursue and catch up with Albin and the legionnaires in an open area. Albin snobbishly looks us up and down, not expecting ever to see a Dalish in Minrathous who isn’t in chains. Well, that can still be arranged.
We demand to know why he wants these two elves in particular. Albin simply ignores us and keeps talking about giving us to the slavers. Or perhaps he’ll just take us for the Salvatio Initiative. We look like our blood would respond particularly well to it.
Neve condemns him for being one of the Venatori, to which Albin simply laughs. She has no proof, and Neve Gallus’ words alone will not sway the Magisterium. Besides, with them permitting the use of blood magic in the war against the Qunari, the Venatori are as close as they have been since Corypheus’ downfall to assume power in Tevinter. Soon, they won’t even need to conceal themselves anymore. The Venatori rise. And there is nothing some disgraced mage who refused her destiny can possibly do about that. We give Neve a questioning look, but she declares that she will bring Albin in alive.
Lucanis, on the side, offers to just assassinate him. He talks too much. At this moment, Albin and his legionnaires attack.
The fight is tough, much tougher than the one against Jahvis earlier. But with Neve and Lucanis at our side, we manage to overcome the legionnaires, and Albin is backed into a corner.
Rook advances to incapacitate him. Albin tries to fire one last spell, but we counter with a magical blast of our own, which hits him right in the face, scarring him permanently.
In his pain and rage, Albin brings down a nearby dilapidated building and uses the chaos to escape through the rubble.
We then turn to the elven woman and child. Since we’re an elf ourselves, they are more trusting towards us than they would otherwise be. We ask Neve and Lucanis to head for the House of Chains to catch up to Rana. We’ll follow shortly. In truth, we just want a conversation between elves alone, as we get the feeling we’ll be able to learn a bit more.
Once our companions are on their way, we have a short conversation with the two elves. The mother says that Albin sought to bring them to the Venatori for torture and questioning. Torture and questioning about what, we wonder. At this point, an explosion shakes the earth and a dracolisk stumbles out from between two buildings, falling dead relatively close to us. We see that this place isn’t really what we would consider safe. We urge the elves to head for the vhenadahl or find one of the Shadow Dragons. The mother reassures us that she knows exactly where to go.
Just as they leave, the little girl turns to us and looks at our vallaslin. She then calls Rook a slave herself. We are taken aback by that. What? She points to our tattoos. The evil ones enslaved us once, she says, until he broke the chains of all who wished to be free. Maybe he will break ours, too. Who, we ask in rising confusion. The girl smiles faintly. The Dread Wolf.
The two elves leave, and we are left in a slightly unsettled and shocked state. For a short while, we just stand there, alone, until we gather ourselves and rejoin our companions.
Both Neve and Lucanis see that we are shaken, but we dismiss it. Now, we need to focus on the House of Chains. We have delayed long enough.
The House of Chains
The House of Chains is a vile place. It is where all new slaves are brought in for approval...and where those who attempted to escape or committed any other kind of wrongdoing are held up.
In the days of Ancient Tevinter, it had been the Tower of Chains, a temple to Andoral. When the Chantry took over, the tower was levelled, but its foundations remained to be rebuilt into the much smaller but nevertheless tyrannical House of Chains, which is where we find ourselves right now.
We find a few dead Venatori. Evidently, Rana has already been here. We hurry up the surprisingly quiet staircase and see some remnants of what had once been the Temple of Andoral, namely some stone dragon heads and chains carved into the walls.
Before we head to the boss fight with Bataris, we can actually explore the area a little, even though both Neve and Lucanis urge us to get on with it. But if we do keep on exploring, we eventually come upon a room where we find a few Venatori guarding what appears to be a magical longsword, glowing with power.
Upon defeating the Venatori, we find a note from Bataris, instructing them to keep this sword safe, as it belongs to Fravun. So...this strange elf is a warrior of sorts. Neve utters the theory that we’ve all been thinking: is Fravun one of Fen’Harel’s agents? It’s certainly possible, we agree, but we won’t know for sure until we find him.
We follow the trail of dead Venatori to a large chamber on the upper floor, where we finally come face to face with Magister Bataris.
Magister Bataris
Magister Bataris stands in the centre of the room, surrounded by Templars and legionnaires, all of whom have the blood collars around their necks. Rana lies wounded before Bataris, and just as we arrive, he places one of the collars around her own neck, while she moans in pain, unable to do anything against it. Bataris’ blood-streaked hands glow red, as do Rana’s eyes for a moment. She then stands up and joins the others in their ranks.
Behind Bataris, several slaves kneel upon the ground, wrapped in magical chains that seem to be extending from the very walls. The name “House of Chains” is very much meant to be taken literally. Some of Ancient Tevinter’s terrible magic still remains here.
Among those slaves is a tall elf with flaming red hair. Just by looking at his defiant stature and the way he’s bound with extra security, we can tell this has to be the mysterious Fravun.
Bataris greets us callously and hopes that we’ve been having fun causing headaches for the Magisterium all day. The Templars and legionnaires we see before us are those who didn’t really see eye to eye with the Senate’s decision regarding the Salvatio Initiative. As such, they were deemed to be punished. At this point, Rook is just utterly enraged at everything she has seen thus far. Neve demands Bataris release Rana and the others at once. This is the most emotional we’ve ever seen Neve be so far. Lucanis calmly states that Bataris won’t ever do such a thing. He has seen Venatori like him before. There is only one way this ends.
Bataris states that it doesn’t even matter if we kill him today. The Venatori rise. Razikale and Lusacan are whispering again. This is now the second time we hear of this. The time to return Tevinter to its former glory has come. First, they will wipe out the Qunari plague. And then, they will retake the lands that are rightfully theirs. A new age of enlightenment approaches. And even if he dies, his son will carry on his family name.
We have had enough, and choose the most angry and vicious response possible. We met his son, and he ran from us like the coward he is after we scarred his face. We take a step forward and point at our vallaslin. Look at this, Bataris. This is the face of a Dalish elf. We destroyed your Ossuary, we saved Marnas Pell. And now, he dies.
For the first time, Rook is the one to trigger the boss fight as she just launches herself at Bataris in pure rage. Neve and Lucanis gladly follow suit.
Magister Bataris is the toughest Venatori we have faced so far, and we have faced quite a few at this point. It can also be seen as a more difficult version of the Felicia Erimond fight. Bataris sends the Templars and legionnaires, including Rana, against us while attacking at the same time. This time, there is no way for us to stun those who are being controlled. The only way we can prevent these innocents from dying is to simply avoid attacking them, which makes the whole fight even harder.
At some point, Bataris starts draining the fighters of their blood in order to heal himself. Similar to Felicia Erimond, if we don’t stop him, the blood magic turns him into an abomination. But let’s just say that we do make it in time, and break Bataris’ concentration. Furiously, he turns to us. We are here to free the slaves, are we not? He also saw that we don’t harm the innocents. Well...good luck with that. And he turns his blood-controlled warriors upon the chained slaves.
We now have to choose:
Do we fight Bataris’ puppets to protect the slaves? This would mean potentially having to kill them, including Rana.
Or do we keep attacking Bataris but risk several slaves dying before we manage to bring him down and disrupt his control over the fighters?
Or, a third option pops up: throw Fravun his blade and free him from captivity.
We take a close look at Fravun. This elf could be one of Fen’Harel’s...but right now, he came here to free slaves, just like we did. Making a choice, Rook throws Fravun his magical sword, which cuts through the chains like butter. We call for him to aid us. Fravun leaps upon Bataris like he’s been waiting for this opportunity ever since we came through the door, instantly breaking his concentration and stunning all blood-controlled fighters.
Now, Bataris finds himself on the losing side and is quickly backed into a corner. He is quickly brought down to 0 HP, and we get a very quick choice:
Do we kill him?
Do we let Fravun deal with him?
Do we spare him and take him to the Shadow Dragons?
At this point, Rook is angry. Furious. Hateful. We choose option 1. And now we get the equivalent of Rook’s personal Rage of Sparta moment.
We knock Bataris to the ground and grab one of the nearby blood collars still without usage. Then, with unending hatred, Rook rams the spiky collar into Bataris’ neck. We press and press and press, and Bataris chokes on his own blood as life fades out of him.
Rook sits there, utterly shaking in rage as her eyes fill with tears, and she keeps beating and striking Bataris’ corpse in blind fury.
Neve looks on in rising concern, while Lucanis has something like understanding written all over his face. He has wanted to do this so many times.
In the end, however, it’s Fravun who snaps us out of it by placing a gentle hand on our shoulder. It’s over, he’s gone. We did well. And Fravun’s voice is surprisingly warm and fatherly, the kind that instantly makes you calm down.
Shakily, we get to our feet and face the strange elf. We then feel the magic coming off of him. He’s a mage, not just a warrior wielding a magic blade. As a Dalish, familiar with our history, we recognise him as an arcane warrior. He nods and compliments us on our knowledge. He then proceeds towards the collared fighters, including Rana, and casts healing spells upon them, ordering them to take off the collars while the spell is in effect to avoid blood loss. The fighters do as they’re told, and are soon freed of their blood collars.
And this is why exploration is so rewarding in this game. We only achieved such an amicable outcome because we took the time to find Fravun’s sword.
At this point, Neve actually recognises Fravun, though she has never heard his name before. He is Archon Radonis’ personal bodyguard, the possibly highest position an elf can achieve in Tevinter’s hierarchy. He had also disappeared a year ago.
Fravun grimaces. Yes, indeed, he was that. But not anymore. At this point, we decide to just ask him outright: Is he an agent of Fen’Harel? Fravun hesitates for a moment, but then confirms it. The Dread Wolf permitted him to return to Minrathous when Fravun pleaded for the slaves trapped there. We grow increasingly troubled. This matches up with Varric’s statement of Solas despising slavery. Every single elf we have encountered who was in service to Fen’Harel only spoke positively about him. Not once did we see actual fear or get the sense that they were indoctrinated. For the first time, we entertain the possibility...what if the Dread Wolf isn’t evil? But this is so at war with our Dalish upbringing. We were told the Dread Wolf is the most evil being in creation. He trapped the other gods, preventing them from aiding the People when the humans arrived.
We hesitantly ask Fravun: What is he like? Fravun is about to answer when an explosion shakes the House of Chains.
Right, we need to get out of here. For the moment, we should consider Fravun an ally. We are both here to help the slaves of Minrathous. We must get them to safety. We want to know more about Fen’Harel...but we agree.
We ask Rana and the freed fighters to protect the slaves outside, to which they agree wholeheartedly. They are all deserters now, unable to return to their posts. They have to fight for the people of Tevinter in other ways.
So, this is us basically adapting Rana losing her position as a Templar. I think doing it like this makes it a bit more intriguing than her getting sacked for snooping around where Lenos didn’t want her. She could have even died in this encounter, but we played our cards correctly.
The Last Stretch
We all leave the House of Chains together. At this point, we ask Fravun how he actually got into the city. He tells of a secret path he used that is unknown to most. Minrathous is built on the foundations of an Elvhenan settlement. There are some passages that even Tevinter’s underworld does not know about. Sounds like another secret tunnel.
We also have the vhenadahl to use as an escape route. Fravun agrees. But he still has a few remaining slaves to rescue before he can lead everyone away.
At this point, Tarquin joins us. He requests our backup, for the Viper and the rest of our companions are currently trying to fight the legionnaire mages that are holding up the barrier around the Slave District.
Fravun is in support of this idea, but at the same time, he needs to save those who are currently besieged at meeting spots he himself told them to go to. So...a choice falls upon us:
Do we aid the Viper in the slaying of the legionnaire mages to break the barrier around the Slave District?
Do we aid Fravun in helping the slaves within the district?
Third option: Send everyone else to help the Viper and stay with Fravun ourselves?
Fourth option: Leave Neve and Lucanis with Fravun and aid the Viper?
The third and fourth options are only available because we managed to save everyone Bataris was controlling with his blood collars. In this scenario...we choose the third one.
Knowing full well what danger we are putting ourselves into, we tell Rana, the Templars, the legionnaires, Neve, and Lucanis to go and help the Viper. Rook and Fravun will take the slaves and bring them to safety.
Lucanis immediately states Rook isn’t going to return from this alive. Neve asks if Rook has lost her mind. He just admitted to being an agent of Fen’Harel, and we want to go with him on our own? At least let someone else come and help.
Our companions need all the help they can get, we state. And we can’t risk Fravun slipping away with important information. One person must keep a check on him. And it must be us. Our absence alone won’t make a difference.
Finally, Neve and Lucanis relent, and Neve promises to immediately follow up on us the moment the barriers are down. With that, they take the freed fighters and follow Tarquin. Now it’s just us, Fravun, and the freed slaves.
Freeing the Slaves
We bring the slaves we rescued from the House of Chains to the vhenadahl. Fravun didn’t actually know about this passage and admits himself impressed. He then tells us that there are three meeting spots he had arranged for those he freed. And they are still besieged by the warriors of Tevinter. We must put a stop to this.
The first stop is a ruined selection of houses, all converted into one larger location. Here, we fight off a group of Imperial Templars, which isn’t all that difficult. Fravun is an absolute unit and fully tears into the Templars with ease. We have the distinct feeling he wanted to be captured by Bataris. There is no way he would have simply been captured like that. When the Templars fall, we enter and take the group of slaves with us, all of whom are elves.
The second stop is a hidden basement beneath a ruined guard outpost. We fight off a group of legionnaires besieging the outpost. Once they’re dealt with, we head into the basement and free the slaves within. Once again, all of them are elves.
The third and final stop is a section within the sewers, accessed through a caved-in road. There, we fight off a group of Venatori, who have a few mages among them. Once those are done, we proceed towards the slaves. Once again, all of them are elves.
Once all slaves are freed and we have amassed quite a following, Fravun directs us to the very edge of the Slave District. There, we enter a tunnel beneath what appears to be the statue of a grim, bald woman wearing a dress made of chains. A codex entry reveals her as Magister Fronia Larcia, the last high priestess of Andoral. An educated guess tells us that this would probably be one of the Magister Sidereal.
After trekking through a long, dark tunnel, we come into a large, slightly flooded chamber. The architecture in here very much reminds us of the ruins in Arlathan Forest. This must be an elvhen place.
There are other elves here already, other liberated slaves, waiting. Again, only elves. At this point, we do take notice of this and ask what this is about, and where the supposed path away from Minrathous is.
Before Fravun can answer, an elven woman and girl run up to embrace him. We recognise them as the ones we saved from Albin earlier. They are Fravun’s wife and daughter. The girl tells Fravun excitedly how we beat the shit out of Albin and saved them. Fravun is overjoyed and thanks us profusely.
Then, he steps further into the chamber and illuminates the shape of a giant mirror...an eluvian.
The Eluvian
Fravun begins addressing the elves. The uprising has been a great success, and soon all of them will be free of Tevinter’s chains. Soon, there will be no chains at all. For now, Fen’Harel, the great liberator of the ancient world, has returned. And he will return the world of the elves, the world of freedom, the world of immortality. And it will happen soon.
The elves seem to be familiar with this story already, for they whisper, sigh, and cheer in relief. We see no indoctrinated puppets, no cannon fodder. We see people who genuinely want to follow Fen’Harel. And we are terrified.
At this moment, the great eluvian lights up. The way is opened. Someone opened it from the other side.
Fravun turns to the former slaves and directs them to leave. The path to freedom is now theirs to walk.
A little choice comes up:
Do we let this happen?
Or do we try to talk the elves out of it?
Regaining our senses, we step up and try to be heard. Fen’Harel lies. He is the great deceiver. He plans to bring down the Veil to restore the ancient world. We will all die if he succeeds.
The elves do not heed us at all. Fravun looks at Rook in pity. There is so much that we do not yet understand. He stretches out his arm. We have been good allies just now. Why don’t we just join Solas? He has our best interests at heart.
We step back, but we feel so conflicted at this point. Fravun sighs and brandishes his sword. He can’t let us just walk away, either. But then, he hesitates and looks at his wife and daughter. Without us, they would have been taken by Albin. He owes us for that. All he asks is that we don’t follow him. And he actually turns away, sheathes his sword, and approaches the eluvian once all other elves have gone through.
Do we let him leave?
Do we attack?
In a last-ditch effort to stop Fravun, we brandish our staff and run towards him. But suddenly...our body freezes. We can’t move. And then...we see a shadow.
Before Fravun, in the eluvian, we can just make out the shape of another. It seems to be the shape of a man, albeit a very tall one. Through the eluvian, we can’t make out any certainties, but his eyes seem to be glowing in a pale light.
As we stand there, frozen, we hear the first, quiet, sinister strings of the Dread Wolf’s theme. And somehow...we just know that what we’re looking at is him, through the eluvian.
As a Dalish, Rook’s face, for the first time, contorts in uncontained fear, as she looks into the distorted, pale eyes of Fen’Harel.
Fravun gives us one final look and says, “Live well, while time remains.” This echoes directly back to Trespasser, just before Solas walked through the eluvian. And just like that, Fravun vanishes.
For a few, terrifying moments, Rook just stares into those pale-glowing eyes. Then, the light fades, and the eluvian closes. A loud crack sounds, and the mirror shatters.
Rook falls to the ground, weak and numb, shivering viciously. Her energy fully drained, she falls unconscious.
Strange Help
At one point, we wake up, but our vision is wholly blurry. We see the shape of a woman kneeling beside us, placing some manner of healing magic on our body. We can’t make out her face. Everything goes black.
When next we wake, we find ourselves lying in the streets of the Slave District. The woman walks away and vanishes in a blast of green light. Everything goes black.
When next we wake, we are approached by our entire party, and Varric bends over us. Everything goes black.
Back on the Dumat
We wake up back on the Dumat, in our cabin. Varric sits next to us, commenting dryly on how we finally decided to wake up again.
We slowly sit up and wonder what happened. Varric gives us the details: The Viper led them to victory against the legionnaire mages, and they successfully broke down the barrier. The Archon's Palace turned in the sky and put a stop to the remaining conflict, citing that the Templars had no authority to engage with this and that the legionnaires were to retreat as well. They were tasked with collecting unpurchased slaves, not laying waste to the district. Maevaris contacted some individuals within the Magisterium who were able to bend the rules just enough for this to work. Rana and those who were freed from Bataris’ control have now joined the Shadow Dragons full-time. And Albin Bataris...unfortunately, is alive and well and has become the new Magister of his house.
Neve and Lucanis told the rest of what happened...and that they encountered an agent of Fen’Harel. And how Rook let herself go in rage.
Now we can choose how to react to this. And we choose the overwhelmed option. Immediately, the whole encounter comes back to Rook, from the fight with Bataris to everything that transpired afterwards. And for the first time, Rook actually cries, as everything is just too much. Only Varric is here to see, and we trust him at this point.
Varric puts a comforting hand on our shoulder and tells us to relay everything to him in our own time. We tell him everything...and how we saw him. Varric’s eyes widen. We...saw Solas? Yes, through the eluvian. There was a sense of power about him, unlike anything we have ever felt before. And he was...terrifying. How could Varric have known him? How could he speak well of him? How could anyone? All we saw...all we felt was the Dread Wolf.
Varric sighs. Seems like Chuckles hasn’t lost his flair for the dramatic. That, or he truly has changed over the years. Or, well, perhaps the Solas he knew was just the mask, even though he has trouble believing that he faked everything about his time in the Inquisition.
We also tell Varric about the strange figure that helped us out of there. Varric has no guesses as to who that might be. But this isn’t the first time we had some shadowy help, if we harken back to the Ossuary.
Well, even though we have no lead on the Dread Wolf himself, we know that he has a powerful servant called Fravun, that he has just gotten many willing supporters, and that the slaves are free. We can’t forget that. No matter how terrifying Fen’Harel might have appeared to us...he still freed those slaves.
Varric tells us to rest up. Whenever we’re ready, we may proceed to Arlathan Forest, where Morrigan awaits us. And he's going to alert the Inquisitor.
We are left to our own thoughts. To our own worries. Rook simply closes her eyes, and goes back to sleep.
Solas’ first appearance in this game is...probably not what you would have expected. I didn’t want to make it a full-on appearance yet. It’s too early for that. No, I wanted it to be something shadowy, almost untouchable. We need to establish the sheer presence Solas has in the world before we properly show him. And right now, we can do that through his agents. Soon, our fight against Fen’Harel shall continue...in Arlathan Forest. The only other thing that worries us: now, he has seen us.
The Other Rooks
As always, now it's time to see what some of the other Rooks might have done!
Shadow Dragons
Rook knows about the Slave District in great detail.
Rook is used as a propaganda piece against the Qunari. The legion spreads the word that a valiant member of House Mercar defeated Kathaban.
Rook can place the Mark of Disgrace on Albin before he escapes.
Rook can place it on Magister Bataris too.
Rook can personally recruit the freed fighters and even some of the freed slaves into the Shadow Dragons.
Grey Wardens
Rook can offer some of the freed fighters and slaves to join the Wardens.
Antivan Crows
Rook can send word to Viago to place a contract on Albin Bataris' head, or try to at least.
Mourn Watch
Rook can use a wisp to inhabit Magister Bataris' fading thoughts and extract some extra information about the Venatori movement before it's too late.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can raid the House of Chains and find a large stash of gold the slave hunters received when delivering the last load of slaves. They can then distribute it among the freed slaves.
And that is it for this time! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing. Next time, we shall head to Arlathan Forest and see what Morrigan would have of us! Stay tuned.
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
At the end of our current chapter of "Rewriting Veilguard," two new main quests unlocked for us: We could either go to Minrathous and investigate the rumours regarding a massive slave uprising. Or we could answer Morrigan's call and travel to Arlathan Forest? In both cases, this might give us leads on the Dread Wolf.
Rewriting Veilguard Part 18 - Regional Quests at Act 1 Weisshaupt
Rewriting Veilguard Part 17 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Treviso
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Introducing and Writing Side Quests for Weisshaupt during Act 1
Weisshaupt is going to probably undergo some of the bigger changes in this rewrite, namely being an explorable location in the first place. I consider the Siege of Weisshaupt to be one of, if not the best, missions in Veilguard, but it never really sat right with me that that was all we ever got of the legendary fortress of the Grey Wardens we’ve been hearing so much about over the course of the previous three games.
We have already seen some of my takes on Weisshaupt in the Grey Warden origin story, but now it’s time to integrate it into the main game. Similar to Treviso, I imagine this to be an optional location in Act 1, the visitation of which will, though, help us in later stages of the game. As such, same as with Treviso, there won’t be that many side quests associated with Weisshaupt at this point in time. That will change later, of course, but we still have to keep Act 1 Weisshaupt a worthwhile place to visit.
With that in mind, let us now continue our rewrite journey by introducing Weisshaupt into the game!
Arrival in the Anderfels
Before we get to properly explore Weisshaupt, we must first establish contact with the Grey Wardens. After our tumultuous adventures in Treviso, we find ourselves back on the Dumat. We could either be pursuing our main quest to search for Solas, or we could follow up on Davrin having to actually report back to Weisshaupt Fortress about the incident in the Deep Roads. Since we’re having a pretty completionist playthrough here, we choose to go with the latter first. Again, Weisshaupt is completely optional in Act 1, but if we do go there now, we shall be rewarded for it.
There’s a bit of trouble, however: Weisshaupt doesn’t really have a large source of water that the Silence can travel through to reach it. It gets its water from underground springs and trade agreements. If Davrin was going on his own, he could just take Assan and fly to Weisshaupt, but that’s out of the question here.
Eventually, Davrin comes up with a suggestion. We could take the Silence as far north as we possibly can if we follow one of Tevinter’s rivers and travel the rest of the way on foot. He knows the way. So that’s what we decide to do. Isabela grunts that she has to abandon the Dumat for such a long river trek, and getting back and forth to Weisshaupt is going to be absolute hell.
Davrin is a required party member to open up Weisshaupt as a location. As our second person, we shall be taking Harding. The Anderfels is a perilous place, and a skilled scout can very well be of use here.
We take the Dumat as close to Tevinter’s shores as we can, and then board the Silence. Assan is...obviously not going to fit into that tiny submarine, so he’s let out earlier. At least that’s how we can justify him being able to leave the hub.
We don’t have to see the journey to the Anderfels depicted on-screen, as we can very well visualise it in our heads with the information given to us. Nothing a loading screen and a depiction of the map can’t fix for us. There’s no need to waste resources here.
Eventually, the Silence emerges from a river deep in the Anderfels’ countryside. As a Veil Jumper, we...have never ever seen land so barren before. We must not forget that the Anderfels used to be a place of lush vegetation, but the effect of two Blights essentially turned it into Thedas’ Wild West, a Wild West mixed with Germanic elements, since that’s what the Ander language seems to be. As someone who lives in a German-speaking country, I can say to you that pretty much 90% of all Ander names have some sort of Germanic root. So, for this rewrite, I’m going to treat German as the Ander language, the same way French is meant to be Orlesian.
Anyway, once Isabela drops us off, she quickly disappears back into the river since she doesn’t really like the Anderfels. It gives her the creeps and feels unnatural to just walk in. Maybe that’s just her perception as someone used to tropical environments.
Right, so we have arrived in the Anderfels. As mentioned, our Veil Jumper is...not exactly impressed. Davrin gives us some lore about why the land is how it is, as we set off on the road towards Weisshaupt. We are actually in an ideal position, as it turns out, for we are on the very road that leads from Tevinter to Weisshaupt. It is called Carinus’ Road, for this is the path the legendary founder of the Grey Wardens supposedly took with his people, until he reached the place that would later become Weisshaupt. Davrin has read up on some Warden lore, but even he can’t say whether Carinus was real or not. He’s kind of like a King Arthur-type of person.
Carinus’ Road
As Rook, Davrin, and Harding advance further on Carinus’ Road, we can have a bit of banter to skip the time over. While Davrin drops us some Warden lore as mentioned above, Harding wonders if Stroud came this way all those years ago, when he set off to report on the events of Adamant Fortress. Davrin confirms this and mentions how the First Warden was not overly enthused by the news. Especially since that was his second year as a First Warden. Here we establish that the First Warden we heard about in Origins was a different one than Jowin Glastrum, because that wouldn’t make much sense otherwise, given how short a Warden’s lifespan is.
While we travel, we get some gorgeous scenic views of the Anderfels. These aren’t the Hossberg Wetlands, not yet. Our goal is to showcase the Anderfels as the barren wasteland it is, but even then, there’s beauty to be found here, in its own twisted way.
The Caravan
At one point, as evening approaches and we traverse the Hunterhorn Mountains, expecting to reach Weisshaupt soon, we suddenly come across the ruins of what appears to be a caravan of sorts. By investigating it, we quickly deduce that this was a Grey Warden caravan. Of course! Davrin tells us that new Warden recruits often use this road to get to Weisshaupt, and some Wardens pick them up at the border to get them here. This is a long-held tradition, dating back to the First Blight.
Harding, being a scout, spots several traces of footprints that haven’t yet been blown over by the sands. But before we can pursue them, Davrin cautions us: there are darkspawn nearby. What? Up here? On the surface? Just like that? Our Veil Jumper is rather distressed at that notion. Davrin explains that the Anderfels is such a blighted place that darkspawn often leave the Deep Roads to terrorise the settlements.
To make matters worse, a sandstorm approaches from the endless scorching plains and is about to reach us.
Well, we still have to help the Wardens, so we rush off after the caravan. No doubt they’re the reason the darkspawn have come in the first place.
It doesn’t take us long to find them, despite the sandstorm unleashing itself upon us. A group of Warden recruits has been pushed back against a rocky wall, surrounded by darkspawn. Shielding them from the beasts are...Antoine and Evka!
We immediately break into combat and fight the darkspawn. It’s not a particularly hard fight, as it’s just a bunch of hurlocks led by an alpha. But it is enough to establish just how dangerous a place the Anderfels is, if this is a common occurrence here.
Once the darkspawn are dealt with, Davrin reunites with Evka and Antoine, who then properly introduce themselves to Rook. Rook, of course, remembers them from Charter’s report.
There isn’t much time to talk, though, for it is revealed that one of the hurlocks managed to bite one of the recruits, a Tevinter woman named Ava, as it attempted to drag her away into the Deep Roads. The Wardens explain that Weisshaupt is the only place that can save her now, but we’re not sure how much time she has left. Plus, the sandstorm really isn’t making things easier. So, we can then contribute with a choice:
Do we risk Ava getting blighted and wait out the sandstorm?
Do we try to brave the sandstorm now?
Do we risk Davrin’s secret mission and summon Assan to take Ava to Weisshaupt?
Or do we kill Ava to prevent her from blighting anyone else?
It is a tough choice, indeed, and brings back some of that dark nature from the previous games. In the end, however, we take Davrin aside and ask him to take Assan and fly Ava to Weisshaupt. We’re sure Antoine and Evka can lead us there on foot.
It takes a bit of persuasion, but Davrin ultimately agrees. He’ll just have to land Assan somewhere outside the fortress to prevent the other Wardens from seeing him.
He takes Ava and allows her to lean on him, and slowly ventures out into the sandstorm with her, taking out his griffon whistle as he does so. Antoine and Evka are rather confused, but we assure them that Davrin knows what he’s doing.
The rest of us wait out the sandstorm for as long as we can. Eventually, though, Antoine and Evka sense further darkspawn approaching from the far distance. The sandstorm has calmed down enough for us to go, anyway, so that’s exactly what we do.
Weisshaupt Fortress
The small caravan continues its way through the darkening Hunterhorn Mountains as dusk is about to give way to night. This is all conveyed through a small montage sequence that just features us trudging up Carinus’ Road. Further and further we go, until we reach a narrow mountain pass that eventually opens up into a cliffside vale.
There, perched atop the highest peak, illuminated by the last rays of the fading sun, we see a giant castle made of pure white stone. This is Weisshaupt Fortress, the ancient seat of the Grey Wardens. The place we have heard so much about in the previous games is finally ready for our visit.
As a Veil Jumper and Dalish elf, we can’t help but feel utterly awed by the magnificent sight before us. Antoine and Evka grin. That’s usually what anyone’s first reaction to Weisshaupt looks like. I would like to invoke a similar scene to when we first see Skyhold. And for good reason! Before the Inquisition, Weisshaupt was the only place that housed an organisation made up of all kinds of different races and cultures without prejudice.
Unlocking Weisshaupt
As we move through the great portcullis of Weisshaupt, we are immediately greeted by Davrin. Ava is fine; she has already embarked on her road to recovery, in other words, the Joining, which we don’t yet know about as a Veil Jumper. But...the First Warden saw Davrin fly in on Assan and wasn’t all too happy about that. He now requests to speak to us immediately.
Evka and Antoine wish us good luck and are glad to have met us in person. But we do hear some form of resentment towards the First Warden. They then proceed to take the recruits into the fortress, where they are to undergo their Joining ritual.
Davrin takes Rook and Harding through the fortress without us getting a chance to explore anything. All we see are a few Wardens passing us by, but even that is more Wardens than we have ever collectively seen in one location over the course of the past games.
Eventually, we arrive at a war room that is quite grander in scale than the one we have on the Dumat.
There, we are met by High Constable Janos and the First Warden himself, Jowin Glastrum.
So...we are the supposed remnants of the Inquisition, the First Warden begins. Well, technically, we are just the northern branch. Glastrum immediately starts grilling us on how much we actually know about the Grey Warden secrets and how big of an effect we had on Davrin’s mission.
The First Warden appears to us as an arsehole at first, but we can quickly grasp that he’s a harsh but disciplined man. He takes the survival of his order very seriously. So, we choose to be forthcoming. We tell him everything, from Rasaan to the brood mother, the Archdemon’s prison, to us knowing about Assan and the other griffons. The First Warden is angered at first, and expresses his desire to punish Davrin, given that he just saw him fly a recruit into the fortress on Assan’s back. Rook makes a persuasion check and convinces the First Warden that it was our idea, and we are good at operating in the shadows. The First Warden can trust us. At that, Glastrum tries to conscript us into the Wardens so that us knowing about things wouldn’t be an external affair anymore, to which Davrin objects as Rook is way too important to risk potential death during the Joining ritual. As a Veil Jumper, we can slightly panic over why the Joining ritual would kill us. This convinces Glastrum that we haven’t been prying into the order’s secrets, and somewhat calms him down. He makes us swear we won’t disclose the griffon secret to anyone outside of our Inquisition branch, to which we agree.
Davrin also asks the First Warden for permission to join us for the time being, as there is a great threat to fight. At first, Glastrum wants to refuse, as he needs Davrin and Assan here, but Janos reminds him that him and Rook found out about the Archdemon’s prison being located by the Qunari. And we are the ones directly in the thick of that conflict now. This eventually causes Glastrum to give his permission for Davrin to join us, as we can’t have the Qunari attempt to awaken the Blight. And if they do, the Grey Wardens must know about it immediately. We...don’t tell him about the Dread Wolf, as that would just cause him to label us a mad conspiracy theorist.
Janos also reminds the First Warden that Warden Thorne and many other Wardens died because of something he ordered, so he can’t risk overlooking this threat. This, of course, references that Warden Rook died because Varric didn’t pull them out of the Deep Roads. To his credit, Glastrum seems to regret this mission and permits Rook and the rest of the crew to use Weisshaupt as a base of operations when they’re in the Anderfels. Janos, more kindly, states that there are some things the Wardens could use help with, if we have time to assist them. The First Warden dismisses us.
Outside the war room, we ask Davrin what that bit about Thorne was about. Davrin says, with a hint of resentment just like Antoine and Evka earlier, that Thorne was sent to Lavendel to defend it from darkspawn, but they were meant to perish in the attack to signal just how dire the situation with the darkspawn is. Weisshaupt, even though it appears magnificent, lacks new recruits, and the numbers of the current Wardens are thinning. Antoine, Evka, and Caronel were the only ones to survive that massacre.
Once the scene finishes, Weisshaupt and its surrounding wilderness are opened for us to explore.
As is the case with Treviso, Weisshaupt during Act 1 is an optional area. As such, there aren’t too many quests attached to it just yet. There will be faction-specific quests centred around the Grey Wardens, but we shall talk about them later. For now, we’ll be taking a look at the Regional Quests, of which there are two. As always, the following titles aren’t meant to be seen as the quest names, only as placeholders to get the idea across. Let’s begin!
The Mine
While traversing the Hunterhorn Mountains in Weisshaupt’s vicinity, Rook, Davrin, and Neve come across a man called Heinrich. He is the Steiger, or the Foreman, of the acclaimed Silberstein Mine, a place rich in silverite, which is the metal the Wardens forge their weapons out of, for it is most effective against blighted things. He is on his way to Weisshaupt to ask the Wardens for aid, for something has been taking his miners into the depths. Davrin is immediately up for this, for this sounds like some kind of monster he could deal with, and the Silberstein Mine is very important to Weisshaupt. Neve agrees as well, feeling reminded of some tasks when the Shadow Dragons had to fight some beasts in the sewers of Minrathous.
We then transition to the entrance of the mine, and here’s where I would like to exemplify that even the side quests in this game are curated and often have their own unique locations. This is very much possible, as games like Witcher 3 have aptly demonstrated.
Before we even go into the mine, we take a few minutes to talk to the remaining workers and maybe hear some accounts that may help us. Here’s what we can pick up on if we go through this effort:
The attacks always happened when a miner was on their own, cut off from everyone else, so whatever did it possessed some kind of tactical mind.
There was a collapse right before the attacks happened.
Upon being pressed by Neve, Heinrich admits that they delved too greedily and too deeply, and might have stirred something in the darkness. He begs us to find the missing miners.
Eventually, we make our way into the Silberstein Mine, and Davrin’s darkspawn senses immediately go off. There is something tainted down there. Naturally, Neve draws the conclusion that the miners probably accidentally dug into the Deep Roads and attracted a horde of darkspawn. We must be extra careful then, for Davrin is the only Warden here.
As we dive deeper into the mountain, we find that the passages feature increased amounts of giant spider webs. Oh by the gods, we’re going to be facing spiders. Yeah...this quest is probably not going to do any good for our fellow arachnophobes.
It doesn’t take long until we enter the most recently dug mining passage and are immediately assaulted by a group of giant spiders, with ample warning from Davrin’s blight senses. As a Veil Jumper, we have fought spiders in Arlathan Forest before, but those had simply been magically enhanced spiders. These beasts are utterly blighted and corrupted, and we hate everything about that.
Eventually, we pass into a cave system that...definitely hasn’t been used by the miners. This must be the passage they accidentally dug open.
As we traverse through the darkness and fight off some spiders along the way, we come across a great cavern that is full to the brim with raw silverite. It also happens to house a huge spider colony. But there is no trace of the miners, not here. We also haven’t found any bones, which suggests they might still be alive. But if we could free the silverite...well, we have a choice:
Do we just ignore that most perilous room of horrors and move on to find the miners?
Or do we slaughter the spiders in there to get our hands on the silverite?
Against our better judgment, we decide that the silverite is too valuable to pass up. As such...we move into the spider colony.
This fight is rather difficult, as we are faced with waves upon waves of giant blighted spiders. This is one of those spots where a higher level will do us much good.
Eventually, we defeat the spiders and look upon a huge stash of silverite. The miners will certainly be happy about that.
Now, further onwards. We still have people to hopefully save.
Eventually, we come upon a great cavern with another large spider colony. But this is also the nest of the Spider Queen, a giant, bulbous, utterly corrupted beast that is guaranteed to appear in your nightmares when you go to bed after this gaming session. If you’re an arachnophobe like me, please don’t play this mission before bed. Do something else afterwards. Maybe drink some hot chocolate or listen to some ASMR, I don’t know. That’s what I would do.
After being collectively spooked by the appearance of the Spider Queen, Rook notices the other miners. They are all trapped in cocoons around the chamber. Just as we realise that, the Spider Queen attacks.
This boss battle is absolutely tough, for the Spider Queen constantly keeps summoning her blighted minions while dishing out enormous hits herself. There is also a special gimmick involved: whenever her health gets low enough, the Spider Queen advances on one of the cocooned miners to consume them and heal herself. It is, therefore, very much advised that we free the miners before she gets to any of them.
After a long and horrifying battle, the Spider Queen lies dead before us. The miners are saved.
Before we leave, however, we get the chance to investigate the arena a little bit. At the very back, we find a massive hole in the wall that leads further into the darkness. This must be the entrance to the Deep Roads that the spiders emerged from. We will need to tell Heinrich so that he can have it sealed up.
As we return to the surface, physically and mentally scarred, Heinrich thanks us profusely, and we inform him of everything that transpired, including the silverite veins and the Deep Roads entrance. For saving all the miners, Heinrich doubles the reward. Davrin is in a good mood, for Weisshaupt will soon receive more silverite to forge weapons from.
Whether Heinrich actually seals up the entrance or keeps digging...we’ll have to wait until Act 2 for that.
The Drought
For our second adventure in the Anderfels, let us take to exploring the Hunterhorn Mountains around Weisshaupt once more. Rook, Davrin, and Lucanis encounter a travelling merchant who is currently on his way to Hossberg after doing some deals in Laysh. He tells us a most strange tale. On his journey, he rested in a small village called Grünberg, which was hit by a drought of a most strange nature. He was there when it happened: suddenly, the water in the well practically evaporated. Davrin wants to help out, for the Ander population is already spread out thinly. Lucanis thinks it’s a waste of time, but there might be some entertainment found. We agree to check it out, and the merchant gives us directions before travelling on.
After a while, we reach Grünberg, which is, indeed, quite a small settlement. The largest building is a Chantry, and even that isn’t overly large. We are immediately met by quite a suspicious lot, led by a Chantry mother called Hildegard, who immediately looks down upon us for being Dalish, as does the rest of the village. We must remember something about the Anderfels: it contains the most devout followers of Andraste in Thedas. This can, unfortunately, lead to some dangerous territory.
We ask about the drought, but the villagers seem to not really be bothered about it. We learn that it’s an annual thing, one that doesn’t really leave the confines of the village. When asked how we came to know about it, we speak of the merchant who informed us. This confuses Mother Hildegard, for no merchants travelled through Grünwald in recent times.
We ask if there is anything we can do to help, to which we immediately get the response that the Maker wouldn’t entrust an elf to solve this problem. We cheekily remark that the Herald of Andraste was a Dalish, which causes Hildegard to hesitate, but then she rebukes us by reminding us that Lavellan never claimed to have been chosen by Andraste, and admitted to the contrary being the case. As was said, the drought is a yearly event, and we have no meddling to do here. We are free to stay at the inn for the night, but she wants us gone by morning. When the crowd disperses, Lucanis remarks what lovely people live in this country.
Before we can make our way to the inn, we are met by a man called Eberhard, who invites us to discreetly visit his house if we want to know more. So, we take a wide berth around the village to make our way to Eberhard’s farm. As we do so, we notice that Grünberg seems to be preparing for some kind of festivity. What could that possibly be about?
At Eberhard’s farm, we get to hear a most strange tale: the droughts only started ten years ago. The Chantry sends someone to embark on a holy pilgrimage to the Green Hill, which the village is named after. The villagers volunteer willingly, and Mother Hildegard simply chooses randomly. Thing is, none ever returned from the pilgrimage. All that happened was that the water began to flow again.
We ask why Eberhard tells us this. He grows dark and says that his wife, Adelheid, was chosen for the pilgrimage ten years ago. And this time, his daughter, Ilse, is to go. He knows there is something off about the pilgrimage, and he doesn’t want his daughter to succumb to it. She already left for her pilgrimage yesterday. Davrin insists that we need to hurry. Lucanis wonders if there is more to be learned here. Eberhard believes the Chantry knows more than it lets on. Rook huffs. There’s no way a Dalish would be permitted to enter this sort of Chantry after the scene outside.
Lucanis leans forward and offers to sneak inside. He’s the best Antivan Crow around. A small Chantry won’t stop him! We ask him not to kill anyone, to which he reluctantly agrees, calling us a spoilsport.
Shortly after, Rook and Davrin stand outside the Chantry, hiding in a bush. We see Lucanis sneak into the building and spend some time inside. Davrin wages ten coins that Lucanis is going to kill someone. We bet otherwise.
Eventually, Lucanis emerges and, miraculously, hasn’t killed anyone. Davrin pays up with a growl.
Lucanis presents us with Hildegard’s personal journal, which we start reading, only to learn to our disappointment that it’s all in Ander. Luckily, Davrin knows Ander, so he skims a few entries. Apparently, Hildegard mentions that generosity turned to hunger, whatever that means, and now the pilgrimages have to increase.
At this point, as a mage, we can make an educated guess as to what that could mean. And...indeed. We come to the conclusion that a spirit of Generosity transformed into a demon of Hunger. But why? What happened? Then we recall that the droughts increased ten years ago. What happened ten years ago? Exactly, the Breach. The entire Veil was impacted. Even a secluded spirit far away in the Anderfels was not spared.
We need to save Ilse as quickly as possible, so we hurry away from Grünberg towards the Green Hill in the distance.
We arrive to find a most barren hill with dead trees, a typical Anderfels sight. We venture up the hill and come across the entrance to a cave. Readying ourselves for the worst, we proceed.
It doesn’t take us long to find what we’re looking for. Deep below the hill, we find a wellspring. Around it, we see the shrivelled up bodies of the demon’s previous victims. Next to the wellspring, lying on the ground, we see Ilse, Eberhard’s daughter. Above her stands someone who looks like an ordinary woman, but as soon as she turns to us, Spite emerges out of Lucanis and identifies the woman as an abomination.
Hunger, who is still possessing Adelheid, reveals to us that once it was Generosity, an old spirit living in these lands before the Chantry took hold here. It kept the wellspring fed all throughout the Blights until a cataclysm of the Veil transformed it into Hunger ten years ago. Since then, it’s been craving the life force of mortals. Hildegard came to vanquish it once, but eventually made a deal to sacrifice a villager every year to keep the water flowing.
Hunger notices our might and offers us a deal. If we leave it alone, it will gift us a flask of healing water that never runs out, a remnant of power it once held as a spirit. This would surely be useful in the battles to come. So...we now have a choice:
We could fight Hunger here and now, killing Eberhard’s wife in the process.
We could accept Hunger’s deal and take the potion.
Mage-exclusive option: we could enter the Fade and fight Hunger there, thereby freeing Adelheid of its possession.
This harkens back to the Connor situation in DAO. Back then, we needed an entire group of mages to get someone into the demon’s realm in the Fade. Here, we have Rook alone. This option also applies if another mage party member is present. Rook decides to give it her best shot and challenge Hunger in the Fade. We focus all of our magic and challenge the demon. At first, nothing happens. But then, Spite adds its own power to ours, allowing us to enter the Fade.
In the Fade, we quickly find the Hunger demon in its own little pocket. Furious at our refusal, the demon attacks us, and we are pulled into a one-on-one boss fight against the demon. It’s a tough fight, so we need to make sure we’re ready for it.
At the end of it, Hunger lies defeated before us, and we deliver the final blow. The demon screams at first, but the scream soon turns into a sigh of relief, as the spirit’s essence disperses across the Fade to be remade.
Back in the Waking World, both Ilse and Adelheid awake from Hunger’s influence, and the water flows again, no longer dependent on a spirit’s influence. But it also means that the water isn’t guaranteed to remain pure anymore.
Both the girl and her mother thank us profusely, and Spite lets Lucanis take control again. He feels...weird. Spite has actually cooperated for once?
We then make our way back to Grünberg, where we are met by an angry mob led by Mother Hildegard. She is about to send the villagers upon us for daring to interrupt this Maker-given ritual, when Adelheid steps forward and exposes her deal with Hunger all those years ago. As further proof, we present the villagers Hildegard’s journal.
This, combined with Adelheid’s account, is enough to turn the villagers against Hildegard. They want to publicly tear her apart for contributing to so much death. We now have a choice:
Do we let the villagers do their thing?
Do we stop them?
Well, Hildegard has done some less-than-favourable things, but we won’t let an entire village turn into murderers on her account. We urge the villagers to stop, and just about manage to keep Hildegard out of harms way. Well, punishment is still demanded, so there are some things we can do:
Have Hildegard imprisoned to serve her time.
Have Hildegard banished from the village to wander the Anderfels on her own.
Have Hildegard sent to Val Royeaux to be judged by Divine Victoria.
This time, we actually get to use our connections to the Inquisition. We choose to have Hildegard be sent to Val Royeaux, before the Sunburst Throne, where Divine Victoria (aka Leliana) will deal with her. The villagers accept this outcome, and Hildegard is taken away. We can’t resist a petty remark that she was saved by a Dalish savage.
Eberhard embraces his wife and child and thanks us, declaring us heroes of Grünberg. There is a celebration, but this time on our account. Eventually, however, we bid the people farewell, make sure the well has water again, and depart back to Weisshaupt.
Back on the Dumat
With our side quest ventures completed, for now, we find ourselves back on the Dumat. It’s high time we resume our search for Fen’Harel.
Fortunately, not just one, but two leads emerged in the meantime. Maevaris writes that there is unrest in Minrathous’ Slave District as talks of an uprising grow louder. And Morrigan has made contact from Arlathan Forest, that there is something in need of our attention.
Finally. The wolf hunt may resume.
The Other Rooks
And now it's once again time to have a look at what the other Rooks could have done in this chapter!
Shadow Dragons
Rook would have some familiarity about Carinus' Road from history lessons in Tevinter.
Hildegard despises Rook for being a follower of the Imperial Chantry.
Grey Wardens
Rook immediately knows everything about how to get to Weisshaupt.
Rook senses the darkspawn at the same time as Davrin.
Evka and Antoine know Rook from the past and the reunion is more heartfelt.
The people Rook has conscripted so far are part of the caravan to Weisshaupt.
Rook can oversee the Joining Ritual of the people he recruited.
Rook senses the blighted spiders immediately.
Rook can read Hildegard's journal by knowing Ander.
Rook can enter Grünberg's Chantry by pretending to sense the Blight and ordering a Grey Warden inspection.
Rook can conscript Mother Hildegard.
Antivan Crows
Rook can sneak into the Chantry herself.
Rook can convince the people of Grünberg to make a contract on Hildegard.
Mourn Watch
Rook can summon spirits to occupy Hunger's victims and gain an edge in the coming fight.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can strike a bargain with Heinrich to make themselves a co-owner of the Silberstein Mine in a very Hawke-style manner.
And that would be it for today, guys! Thank you for reading, and I hope you had fun. Next time, we shall be looking at one of the two next main quest scenarios, which should be rather juicy. See you there!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 19 - The Slave Uprising
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
Love your rewrite so far! Will Ashur get an identity reveal at some point? As part of a main or side/faction quest? Who knows? If she doesn't know, how will Neve react? Tarquin?
Thank you!
I won't spoil anything but there are definitely plans for Ashur that weren't fully depicted in OG Veilguard. And when it happens, I'll make sure to describe all the reactions.
Sorry for being so slow with updates rn, I just had a busy time.
Rewriting Veilguard Part 17 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Treviso
Rewriting Veilguard Part 16 - Davrin
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Introducing and Writing Side Quests for Treviso during Act 1
Treviso is a bit of a difficult topic in Veilguard, at least for me. On one hand, it’s an absolutely gorgeous map, one of the best-looking there is in the game. I love how absolutely Italian it looks (down to the city’s name, which is just directly taken from a real-life city in Italy), and the idea of the Antaam occupying it would lend itself to some very interesting conflict between the Qunari and the Antivan Crows. On the other hand, nothing that happens in Treviso feels particularly...well...unique to the location. If you take all the Treviso stuff that isn’t directly tied to Lucanis and place it somewhere else, the plot wouldn’t really change all that much. The Qunari could have occupied any city with the exact same outcomes. Here, I will give credit where credit is due; at least Minrathous and Arlathan Forest have instances and quests that feel like they could only be taking place in those locations.
So, what we shall be aiming to do here is introduce Treviso and its quests in a way that feels specifically tailored to that particular region of Thedas. In addition, we shall also tackle how the Antivan Crows present themselves outside their origin story. How would they react to outsiders who now have to work with them?
So, without further ado, let’s explore Antiva.
Arrival in Treviso
So, let us now return to our game. We have just recruited Davrin in the Deep Roads and are now faced with a bit of a choice. Do we continue with the main story and our efforts to find the Dread Wolf, or do we follow up on our two newest companions’ requests to take them back to their respective home bases?
At this point, I would like to present something: Going to either Treviso or Weisshaupt during Act 1 is completely optional. The two locations will become important in later acts, but right now, the only reason we’re going there is to deliver our companions’ reports to their leaders. As Rook, we can very much say that we’re going to absolutely ignore all of it and focus on the main quest. However, that might have difficult consequences for both the locations and our companions later, first and foremost being our relationship with them. At this point in the story, Treviso and Weisshaupt act more like the Fallow Mire or the Hissing Wastes in DAI: Entirely skippable, but you probably don’t want to skip them because you’ll be missing out on some very interesting content. I actually really liked exploring Inquisition’s optional maps because of the lore discoveries to be made there.
So, to stay in our companions’ good graces and perhaps gain additional favour with the respective factions, we shall be putting our main quest on hold for the time being. It’s time to do some exploration and begin the forging of additional alliances. Besides, we’re completionists to the core, we’re going everywhere, and we’re doing everything.
With that in mind, we set course for Treviso. And this time, it should be incredibly easy to get there as it lies right on the coast of the Rialto Bay.
While the Dumat journeys through the deep waters of the North, Varric approaches Rook and Lucanis in the Meeting Chamber. The Crows know we’re coming and expect us. But there is also troubling news. It is here that we fully learn that Treviso is actually currently being occupied by the Antaam and that we should ready ourselves for difficulties. Lucanis is utterly enraged by this and loudly wonders how such a thing is even possible. How could the Antivan Crows have permitted this?
So yeah, something that struck me as rather odd in Veilguard was how Lucanis...does not react to Treviso being occupied by an army of Qunari. He treats it as something utterly casual, as though he is already familiar with it all. But that shouldn’t be the case. Lucanis was imprisoned for over a year, and the Butcher attacked during that time. So how would Lucanis be familiar? Did Zara tell him just to taunt him? It’s possible, yeah, but I personally think it’s way more interesting if Lucanis doesn’t know. Obviously, he would know if we’d be playing an Antivan Crow because we were literally there to see it. But we’re playing a Veil Jumper. We weren’t there. This is a first for us.
Lucanis immediately begins to think about ways the Butcher could have conquered Treviso, but he just can’t come to a conclusion. We’ll just have to get there and see for ourselves.
At some point, the Dumat arrives in the Rialto Bay, and we get to choose our second party member, as Lucanis is kinda required for this introductory bit. In order to make things go a little smoother, we shall be taking Varric. After all, he already knows some of the Antivan Crows and how to talk to them. The rest of the party stays behind until we know how things actually are.
Boarding the Silence, Isabela takes us towards Treviso. The first thing we see, however, is the small but formidable fleet of dreadnoughts docking outside the city. This is nowhere near on Kathaban’s level, but still more than enough to pose a threat to a single major city. Isabela really doesn’t like what she’s seeing as she’s once again reminded of her time in Kirkwall and how much of it was her direct fault. Varric, too, feels reminded of the Arishok’s occupation but also shrugs and remembers all the things Rook did with the Qunari already. Maybe we’ll be lucky again.
Across the Rooftops
Isabela lets us out by a very secluded place in the Drowned District, far away from any Qunari. Upon seeing the dreadnoughts, Lucanis’ rage grows, and for a moment, it’s almost as though Spite will come out, but he restrains himself just in time. We need to find out what in the Void is going on here, and for that, we’ll be meeting the Crows. Varric scheduled a meeting at the Café Pietra, which is, of course, the same café we visit in both the actual game and our Antivan Crow origin story.
As we are about to head for the streets, we see a huge Antaam patrol passing by. Lucanis tells us that the streets do not seem safe right now. Therefore, we’ll be traversing the Crow way and make for the rooftops. As a Veil Jumper, we are used to travelling across high places, but rooftops are new.
We then watch as Lucanis easily scales window ledges and cracks in the stone. It should look like a scene from Assassin’s Creed. We gape at him in awe. We can’t do that! Lucanis grins and points at a nearby ladder. We’ll just use that. Varric grumbles that he’s really getting too old for this.
Once we’re atop the roof, Lucanis complains that we’re being really slow right now. Some proper athletic exercise would do us wonders. But then, we are treated to an absolutely gorgeous view of Treviso. Now, we see the city in its entirety. And this is where Lucanis delivers a slightly rewritten take on the intro monologue we get in the actual game when we first enter Treviso. On that note...why is Rook the one telling us about Treviso in the game? Sure, it makes sense for an Antivan Crow Rook, but I was playing a Shadow Dragon from Minrathous. I wasn’t familiar with the place. I don’t know, it just seemed a little odd that this was the only place where such an intro happened, whereas we just walked in everywhere else.
Anyway, we follow Lucanis across the rooftops. And while we’re doing that, we occasionally get to see Antaam patrols down in the streets. At one point, we even see how two Qunari pull a man out of his house and drag him down the street. We have a small, minor choice here:
Do we ignore the man’s pleas for help?
Do we interfere?
Lucanis cautions us against drawing too much attention to ourselves before we even have a full picture. But we just can’t leave him to his fate. We have seen firsthand what the Qunari do to some prisoners in Tevinter. This man is either going to be enslaved, killed, or given the qamek treatment. So, we hurry from the rooftop and lunge at the two Qunari.
The battle is quite short and not even difficult. When it’s over, the man thanks us profusely. We learn that he is actually a merchant from Dairsmuid who got stuck here when the Butcher’s fleet arrived and sank his ship. The Qunari have been pursuing him for a while because they found gaatlok on board and want to know who sold it to him. But he kept his client’s name hidden. Well, he thanks us for our help, he certainly owes us a favour, but he has to hide again now. And so, he disappears in the alleyways. You might want to remember this encounter, as it will factor into something later.
Well, back to the rooftops we go! It’s not far now to Café Pietra.
Café Pietra
We make it to Café Pietra, which looks...strangely intact given the Qunari are occupying the city. Perhaps the Antaam is simply not interested in destroying culinary places, who knows?
Lucanis, even though still angered by the presence of Qunari in his city, for the first time feels something akin to comfort. Café Pietra is a place he used to spend a lot of time in, sometimes with his cousin, Illario, and quite often on his own. This place has a strange tranquillity to it.
But we do notice something strange: where are the Crows? They were supposed to meet us right here.
Varric sighs, sits down, and orders himself the strongest brew they have. This is certainly some kind of trap, and he wants to at least be drunk enough for when it springs. Ah, but this place only serves tea and coffee in terms of drinks. Varric sighs and orders the strongest coffee, which Lucanis joins him in. As a Veil Jumper, we have never heard of coffee before. What is that? And why are we so relaxed when this is certainly a trap? Lucanis and Varric both laugh. They have both been in more traps than they can count. And we ourselves may recall a certain Venatori encounter in Minrathous.
So, we sit down and order a coffee. We get a fun little moment where we can roleplay Rook’s reaction to it. In our case, we are shocked and utterly overwhelmed. And why are we suddenly so awake?
At some point, a group of Antaam warriors enters the café. Ah, there is the trap. So, somehow, the Qunari knew about our meeting with the Crows. And where are the Crows themselves? Have we been set up?
As the Qunari block the exit, we are joined by another person, one Lucanis recognises immediately: Rayan Ivenci, Governor of Treviso and the most influential of Merchant Princes in the region.
This is our first look at Ivenci if we haven’t played the Antivan Crow origin. You might remember that I did some changes to their character. The biggest one was that they are openly villainous from the very beginning. Yes, there was a short deception to get the Crows to where they wanted them to be, but after that, they are outed as a traitor in the prologue. Yes, there is probably a way to set up Ivenci’s plot twist in a way that feels satisfying, but the way it was done in the game was so incredibly obvious that they might as well not even have bothered. So, in this rewrite, we get to explore Ivenci’s character as an antagonist. And I honestly think their character benefits from that. Now we can focus on why and how they are aligning themselves with the Butcher, which are far more intriguing questions than having us guess whether or not they are a secret twist villain.
So, Ivenci declares to us that we are breaking Treviso’s new laws. Antivan Crows are no longer tolerated in the city. It’s time to put the assassins back in their place. And the Demon of Vyrantium should have stayed dead. Varric expresses relief that at least one scumbag in Thedas does us the courtesy of openly being one.
What follows is a fight, in which Ivenci sends all the Antaam warriors against us. This fight is way more difficult than the side encounter we had earlier. But, as we dwindle the Qunari numbers down, we are suddenly joined by two figures clad in black leather: Teia and Viago!
Glad to see them, we quickly overcome the rest of the Qunari, and are about to jump Ivenci, when they suddenly display blood magic powers to us. They use their own blood to form sharp projectiles that wreck the majority of the café. In the confusion, Ivenci escapes. You might remember from the Antivan Crow origin that Ivenci is a blood mage, but only Rook and the Butcher got to see those abilities. In this world state, our De Riva is dead, so they never got to tell anyone. As such, Ivenci caught us off guard. Well, we’ll get them next time.
Once we’re recovered, Teia and Viago greet us, and Lucanis is greatly pleased to see them. Turns out that the Crows let it slip to Ivenci that the Demon of Vyrantium was coming home, knowing they wouldn’t be able to resist the bait. Unfortunately, they escaped. And now they will retreat back to their palace, which is guarded by the fiercest of the Butcher’s warriors, among other anti-Crow traps.
We then introduce ourselves to the Crows as Rook, and Teia especially thanks us for saving Lucanis. Viago tells us that we quickly have to get back to the Nest. Once we’re there, the First Talon shall approve Lucanis’ contract to us. Teia looks at Lucanis and states that he looks absolutely terrible. He has to get himself reequipped. Lucanis sighs. Yes, he is aware.
The Nest
What follows next is a cutscene of Teia and Viago leading our trio across the rooftops, towards Treviso’s Chantry. As we have already established in the Antivan Crow origin, our rewrite places the Crows’ base not in the Cantori Diamond, but in the gigantic upper area of the Chantry. Rook, being entirely unfamiliar with hopping across rooftops, is incredibly exhausted by the time we get there. Viago states that Rook and her team are about to be presented with a special privilege, for only Crows usually get to enter the Nest. But these are strange times, so an exception will be made. This particular exchange does not influence the gameplay whatsoever, but it’s crucial to acknowledge in-universe that Rook is an exception to the rule.
Anyway, just like in the Crow origin, we enter the Nest through a secret passage in the walls of Treviso’s Chantry. We might have expected some kind of dank attic area, but oh no. What we see is a quite luxurious villa-like interior that has somehow been ingeniously built into the Chantry.
We are immediately surrounded by various Crows, who are both awed at Lucanis being not only alive but returned to them and also pointing daggers at Rook and Varric. Lucanis immediately calls them off and places us under House Dellamorte’s protection. Nobody is to harm us. If they do, he will personally see to their demise. The Crows back off. But then, we are joined by none other than Illario!
What we get here is a genuinely emotional reunion between the two cousins. Unlike Veilguard, I don’t want to make Illario yet another obvious twist villain. And it doesn’t really line up with his character that we got to see before the game’s release. They squabble; there is definitely a rivalry between them, but I just can’t see Illario purposely aligning with the Venatori in order to imprison and torture Lucanis just so that he might have a shot at leading House Dellamorte. While that is his aspiration, I don’t think it would eclipse his brotherly love for Lucanis (even though they’re cousins, they grew up akin to brothers).
In this rewrite, Illario, as you might recall from the Crow origin, was given the chance to lead House Dellamorte, and, by extension, the Crows, while Caterina was injured. And here we learn that Illario has actually been doing a pretty good job so far. An excellent job, even. This is the role he was born for. He minimised Crow casualties, reinforced the Nest’s protection, and has eyes and ears in the entire city to be up to date on both Ivenci and the Butcher’s plans. He let it slip to Ivenci that Lucanis was coming back, knowing full well his cousin was more than prepared to deal with this danger.
Lucanis, upon learning all this, congratulates Illario. He hopes that Caterina sees his skills now. We do get to see that Illario is somehow reluctant, though. Lucanis being alive and well naturally means that the title of First Talon rightfully belongs to him again, once Caterina passes. But Lucanis reassures him. For now, he is under contract to travel with Rook in search of a most prestigious target. In the meantime, Illario is very welcome to keep up the good work. Illario doesn’t admit it, but that statement does fill him with relief. He enjoys his current position of power, and not having to contest his beloved cousin makes it all the better.
We are led through the Nest towards the First Talon’s private chambers, which are currently occupied by an injured Caterina Dellamorte. But, make no mistake, she might be injured, but she is far from out of it. When we enter the chamber, Caterina rises from her bed, and immediately starts berating Illario for not having informed her of the latest situations again. Then, she looks at Lucanis, and berates him too, for having the audacity to disappear for such a long time. But then, the two embrace. Caterina is harsh on her grandchildren, but there is still love there.
She is pleased to hear that Lucanis fulfilled his contract on Calivan and that the Ossuary is destroyed. She then eyes Rook and Varric. It’s truly rare when someone who makes a contract actually proves themselves competent in their own right. She thanks us for saving Lucanis, and, as promised, approves his contract with the crew of the Dumat. In addition, we are free to use the Nest as our base while we operate in Treviso.
She dismisses us and orders Lucanis to make himself presentable again before he disgraces the family name.
Unlocking Treviso
What follows is a cutscene in which Rook, Varric, Teia, Viago, and Illario sit at a table somewhere in the Nest and discuss everything that’s been going on in Treviso lately. So basically, we get a recap of the events depicted in the Antivan Crow origin story. The Butcher and Ivenci have allied; the entirety of House Vallisti, save Antonio, has been eradicated. Viago bears a most personal grudge against the two, for they have killed the most promising member of his house, referring, of course, to the De Riva who would have been Rook had fate aligned itself differently.
Since then, Illario tells us, Ivenci openly welcomed the Antaam into the city, granting them official permission to occupy and rid it of Crows, blaming the massacre in the streets we saw in the origin squarely on them. The Antivan Crows, safe to say, have been outlawed in Treviso. Since then, no more Crows have come to the city. Fortunately, nobody quite knows how to besiege the Nest. For now, they are safe here. It’s troubling, though, that Ivenci is a blood mage. Blood mage, governor, Merchant Prince, this person would make it far in a place like Tevinter.
Teia knows that Rook and Lucanis have a different mission, one of greater danger than anything here. But if they can spare a moment, the Antivan Crows would welcome outside help for once. And it’s important that she’s the one saying this, as she’s easily the most idealistic of the Crows. We made a point in the Crow origin to establish that Caterina purposely picked the Crows with a larger moral compass to assist in Treviso, while the truly cold and uncaring assassins are operating elsewhere.
As we’re speaking, the door suddenly opens, and in walks Lucanis. Now, he is fully groomed, recovered, and dressed in the leathers of the Antivan Crows. Now, he wields his own daggers, looking incredibly confident and ready to take on the world. This is the first time we see him in his full attire, which I think is much better than finding him fully equipped in the Ossuary.
Lucanis is now at our full service. We are offering him the contract of a lifetime, and he is surely not going to miss it. Illario sighs and chastises Lucanis for being such a show-off wherever he goes. But everyone in the room is happy to welcome him back to the Antivan Crows.
And now, the city of Treviso has been unlocked to us. Now, we can explore and do side quests, both regional and faction-based.
But, this chapter is only going to focus on the regional ones. As I said before, the faction-specific ones are going to be shown at a later stage. For now, let us explore the city.
Since Treviso in Act 1 is an optional area, there isn’t that much to do compared to Minrathous and Arlathan Forest. However, I do have two regional quests prepared for you, which will hopefully prove just as interesting as those that came before.
As always, the names I’m presenting here aren’t meant to be the actual quest names, just some working titles for now.
The Gondolier
Okay, so Treviso is so obviously inspired by Venice that I think there just has to be a quest that focuses on the most iconic thing about Venice: gondolas!
I think we should amp up the Venice inspiration even further and have parts of Treviso only be accessible through rooftops, boats, and a few bridges. And we can also do some environmental storytelling here: Since Qunari don’t have that kind of structure in their cities, we can say that they have started building additional bridges between certain sections of Treviso in order to get around more easily. In fact, Treviso operating so heavily on water might just be the reason the Qunari don’t have as big a presence yet as they might wish. Sure, they have dreadnoughts, but they are way too huge to pass through the canals. Treviso has no army save the Crows, but it has pretty effective defence mechanisms purely based on the way it’s built.
Let’s begin this quest with Rook, Lucanis, and Neve walking through the streets of Treviso at night, preferably in a zone free of Antaam warriors, when we suddenly become aware of a strange commotion by the docks. We approach to see a screaming young woman being grabbed and placed on a gondola by a very tall, cloaked figure. There is a man on the docks, calling for the figure to give the woman back to him. But the figure evidently casts some magic, and the gondola surges away on the dark canal.
The man, whose name is Tommaso, begs us to help him. His daughter, Cinzia, has been forcefully abducted by the gondolier. Tommaso is a wealthy fisherman and promises us a hefty reward if we help him. Lucanis knows Tommaso and Cinzia, having often bought fish from them at the markets. So, we pick up the trail and rush after the gondola.
What follows is another timed event, where we can’t leave the gondola out of sight for too long while racing across rooftops and over bridges. Sometimes, we have to cunningly dodge Antaam patrols or risk entangling ourselves in a combat encounter.
Assuming we successfully pursue the gondola, we chase it to an abandoned and half-ruined mansion close to the Drowned District, a building that experienced its fair share of ruin. No gaatlok or anything, it’s just an old place that has succumbed to time.
We pursue the cloaked figure and Cinzia inside, until we encounter them in a room. The figure is bent over Cinzia, who has fallen unconscious, casting some kind of magic on her. We can then:
Attack the figure immediately to prevent it from doing further harm.
See what the figure actually does before making hasty actions.
This time, we choose to attack immediately, which triggers a mini-boss fight with the cloaked figure. It’s actually rather difficult because it hurls all kinds of primal spells like fire and lightning at us. But in the end, we defeat the stranger, and the cloak falls off.
To our surprise, we find the stranger to be a Qunari. But not just any Qunari. We see that his horns have been sawed off, and there are traces of his mouth having been sewn shut recently.
Neve immediately recognises the Qunari as a Saarebas. But he bellows with a very deep voice, telling us not to call him that. He is simply The Gondolier. We learn that, in the early days of the occupation, he managed to escape his Arvaraad by viciously drowning him in a canal. Presumed dead by the Antaam, he hid in this house for a long while. Neve notes that Saarebas are usually resigned and accepting of their fate, as they know no other way. Could this particular one be Tal-Vashoth, or even simply Vashoth, who was captured by the Qunari? The Gondolier confirms this but won’t expand on his backstory.
We demand that he release Cinzia. At this point, however, Cinzia stands up on her own and brings an entirely new perspective to the table.
See, what actually happened was that Cinzia wished to escape Treviso. What nobody in the party knows is that the Gondolier has been a sort of vigilante in Treviso, a thorn in the Antaam’s side. He is known to help those escape who are pursued by the Qun. And Treviso has a lot of people the Qunari see as wrong and needing to be moulded into something “useful”.
Then why was Cinzia screaming, and what was the Gondolier doing bent over her so sinisterly? Well, turns out that Cinzia was wounded, and the Gondolier just healed her. Wounded? How? By her father, Tommaso. And here we get to see just how meticulous, cold, and methodical some generals of the Qun operate. So basically, Cinzia and Tommaso are both involved in fishing. The Butcher noticed that Tommaso is rather wealthy and has kinda let himself go in terms of arrogance and wealth. As such, he has judged that either he or Cinzia must be turned over to the Qun, so that one of them can fish for the Antaam and the other may lead a more balanced life. Tommaso was taken over by cowardice and put forth Cinzia to be given to the Qunari. Cinzia, however, ran away and called upon the Gondolier as she saw him sailing the canals at night. Tommaso pursued and wounded her so that he might take her with no resistance. It was in exactly this moment that we stumbled into the story.
Well damn, we probably should have asked some questions first. Neve suggests that we just leave and pretend we never caught them. Lucanis immediately wants to orchestrate a contract to be put on Tommaso, possibly influenced by Spite. However, before we get to make any kind of decision, we hear sounds from outside. We look and see that Tommaso has led an entire Antaam patrol to our doorstep, overcome with fear for his own life if the Butcher found him without his daughter.
Okay, this just got more serious. There are quite a few Qunari out there. Lucanis weighs our options. It would be smarter for us to just slip away without attracting the Antaam’s attention. But it would mean potentially sacrificing the Gondolier and Cinzia to the mercy of the Qun. Neve urges us to help. This is a very clear case here.
So, we can:
Leave the Gondolier and Cinzia to be picked up by the Qunari.
Face the Qunari ourselves and allow the Gondolier and Cinzia to get away.
After seeing everything the Qunari did in Tevinter, we just can’t abandon the Gondolier and Cinzia to a most gruesome fate. As such, we decide to face the Antaam group ourselves.
If we hadn’t fought the Gondolier, he would have joined us here, but since we have, he’s now too weak to help us.
Outside, we face Tommaso and the Qunari, who demand we surrender, immediately seeing us for the Bas-Saarebas that we are. We can, at this point, choose to intimidate them a little. We make a high persuasion check and relay to them that we’re the ones who fought Kathaban in Marnas Pell and walked away victoriously. The Arishok’s fleet admiral only lives thanks to our mercy.
Some of the Antaam hesitate, no longer quite sure of whether or not this battle truly will be as one-sided as they presumed. Since Lucanis is in our party, he will not, for any reason, allow the Qunari to survive this encounter and potentially report on us. We are therefore drawn into another fierce battle against the might of the Antaam.
Once it’s over, us having been forced to slaughter every single Qunari, Tommaso kneels before us, trembling. He begs us to spare him. Cinzia runs out and accuses him of practically gifting her to the Antaam. Tommaso explains that she was the much better choice. He knows how to run his business, and she can find a new placement amidst the Qun, a new role. She always complained about not being satisfied in Treviso. Now is her chance.
Lucanis, at this point, gives in to his anger at the man and steps forward to slice his throat. As a mage, we can tell that Spite is growing stronger. We can:
Let him kill Tommaso.
Spare him and give him another fate.
While we are angry at Tommaso ourselves, we don’t want Lucanis to darken his grasp on himself. We hold him back, which does cause some disapproval to come in. Now, we have another choice. What do we actually want to do with Tommaso? We can:
Let him go and live out his life.
Let him go against a favour.
Give him to the Qunari.
Change our mind and actually let Lucanis kill him.
In this instance, we choose to let fate do its thing. Tommaso may go. But we threaten him that should he ever cause problems again, we will come for him. But we also tell him how pathetic this is. As a Veil Jumper, our parents came together because people were fleeing the Antaam. There is nothing to be gained by sacrificing your loved ones to them. And, we will only let him go against a favour. This requires a persuasion check, which we accomplish, and Tommaso accepts. Lucanis is pissed, but Neve approves. There are ways he can be watched, and if the Qunari still want something, they’ll come for him anyway.
Tommaso staggers to his feet and runs away, leaving Cinzia behind with us. We return to the Gondolier, who has now healed himself enough to move again. He thanks us for not abandoning him and Cinzia. But now that the danger has passed, they will have to move. It won’t be long until the Butcher hears of what happened. He’ll be needing another hideout in the future. But, thanks to Rook and her party, he will have a future in which he can continue helping the unfortunate ones. With that, the Gondolier leads Cinzia away, and we return to the streets of Treviso.
The Qamek Thief
Our second side quest takes us, once again, to the streets of Treviso. Rook is accompanied by Lucanis and Bellara. At some point, we come across a house from which we hear loud sounds and screaming.
We run to see what’s happening and notice a young woman being dragged away by a bunch of Qunari. We can either ignore this or rush to help her. We choose to do the latter, and dispose of the Qunari in a quick fight that isn’t all that difficult.
To our surprise, the woman acts disappointed upon being freed. When offered help, she refuses and puts a healing spell on herself. Aha, so she’s a mage. Her name is Sofia, and this is where things get interesting. We learn that Sofia was once part of the Circle of Magi in Antiva City. After the Mage-Templar War and the conflict with Corypheus, she travelled to Cumberland and became part of the reestablished College of Enchanters, which is, of course, led by none other than Fiona. This, of course, very much depends on the World State we have, but in our case, Leliana is Divine Victoria and the mages were the Inquisition’s allies, so College of Enchanters it is.
Sofia explains that she wants to be captured by the Antaam so that they may deliver her to one of the Tamassrans, as they have qamek supply. But why would a mage of the College wish to steal qamek? That is a purpose she won’t reveal to us just yet. We can either help her or keep going our separate ways.
Well, in this case, we are rather intrigued, as is Bellara. So we accept the quest. This promises to be good.
Our first task is to...well...get ourselves captured, or rather Sofia, though we are most welcome to participate. After all, we’re a mage ourselves, and mages immediately get put to the qamek. We can either:
Go directly to one of the Antaam’s outposts in the city and cause some chaos there.
Or we can frighten some civilians at the marketplace.
We choose the former, as we don’t want to risk too much attention than what this is already going to produce.
So, we find ourselves a small Qunari outpost, manned by about five Antaam members. Now, we get to make another choice, and this will have some interesting effects on the immediate story:
We can let Sofia do her thing and follow the Qunari to wherever the Tamassran is, so we can then assist in the qamek theft.
Or we can, and this is a mage-exclusive option, let ourselves be captured alongside Sofia, instructing our party members to follow us in secrecy.
Rook really doesn’t want to do it, but...she’s also curious. What is it about Sofia? Also, it’s not like we can’t handle ourselves against the Qunari if things really take a bad turn. So, we choose the latter. Let’s cause some chaos.
Rook and Sofia step towards the Qunari, and Sofia does the talking. She hams up her Antivan accent to sell her status as a local and demands that the Antaam leave Treviso, or else they shall face our magical fury. The Antaam, of course...attacks.
We put up a fight, but not too much of one. Eventually, we are knocked down (that fucking hurt, thanks Sofia), and brought away. We see that Lucanis and Bellara follow us from a distance.
The Qunari brings us to an abandoned warehouse not far away from the Drowned District. We are placed in chains and pushed inside. There, we are greeted by one of the Tamassrans, a fairly young Qunari who seems to have only recently departed Par Vollen. She speaks to us in a gentle voice and instructs the warriors to place us in the cells. Behind her, we see several people labouring on what appears to be Antaam armour. We also notice that these people are absolutely mindless. They have already been exposed to qamek.
We find ourselves imprisoned...but there is something strange. We seem to be the only two prisoners. Everyone else is already lost.
We now get a chance to talk to Sofia a little bit. So...what exactly is she hoping for? We are so hopelessly outmatched, it’s actually insane. What exactly is her goal here? How are we going to get to the qamek? Sofia tells us to simply be patient.
Eventually, the Tamassran arrives, flanked by two Antaam warriors. She tells us that we are about to be released from the torment that is our fate as Bas-Saarebas. We are going to experience enlightenment and serve as part of the Qun. We shall become part of the greater whole. We perceive something interesting, though. It would appear that the Tamassran’s heart is not wholly into it. She seems to say it with some manner of bitterness or even regret. With some good voice acting, we can certainly get that across.
The Tamassran opens a chest and produces qamek. And, let me just talk about the way qamek looks for a second. You see, in Veilguard, it’s presented as this poisonous substance with green gaseous fumes. However, in earlier depictions, especially the comics, qamek is presented in a much more mysterious way. It looks like a glowing, golden orb of sorts that needs to be held close to the victim in order for it to work. In fact, it’s very much implied that qamek is something of inherently magical origin, something the Qunari are quite ignorant towards. To go from that to green gas is a bit...well, I don’t know, I think it’s a bit of a downgrade. So, for this rewrite, we shall stick with the original depiction of qamek because it’s just so much more interesting.
So, the Tamassran prepares to deal out the qamek. At first, she approaches us. But that seems to go against whatever Sofia had intended, as she starts to immediately act out, and even summons a blast of magical energy that knocks one of the Qunari out. She is immediately restrained. The Tamassran gives her a pitying look, before applying the qamek to her instead. Rook tries to help, but the Antaam restrain her.
What happens next is actually rather interesting. Instead of losing her mind and becoming nothing but a flesh puppet for the Qunari to command, Sofia seems...entirely unaffected. She smiles at the Tamassran, who looks at her in shock, before clasping the qamek orb with both hands. The glow increases, and suddenly Sofia fires a massive arcane blast that kills all the present Qunari.
Sofia stands and helps us up, effortlessly putting the qamek back into the chest. We look at her in shock. This should not have happened. As a Veil Jumper, we heard stories from our adoptive father on what qamek did to the people who were exposed to it. Mages in particular should be immediately lobotomised by it. So what in the Void was that? Sofia tells us that she’ll explain another time. But for now, we should know that qamek has no effect on her. She is immune.
Wow, someone actually immune to qamek who isn’t a Qunari? That’s insane! Not even Qunari are fully unaffected when closely exposed to it. So what is going on here?
We can’t really talk now. Suffice to say, Sofia is a pretty unique case. In any case, we should leave.
Just before we do, the Tamassran suddenly stirs. Sofia readies herself to kill her. We can now choose:
Do we let Sofia kill her?
Do we spare her?
In an act of mercy, we prevent Sofia from killing the young Tamassran, stating that we saw that her heart wasn’t fully in it. Sofia insists that she will betray them to the Qun, and she can’t have any of them knowing that there is someone out there who’s immune to qamek. We insist, and even have to persuade Sofia. In the end, she relents. The Tamassran may live.
We get back into the main area of the warehouse and are immediately surrounded by the rest of the Antaam stationed here. At this moment, the doors fly open and we are joined by Lucanis and Bellara, who have successfully tracked us and are now coming to our aid.
We make short work of the Antaam and escape into the streets of Treviso, where we quickly hide in one of the numerous alleyways.
Well, that was certainly an experience, and we’re not sure if we’re keen on repeating it. Rook asks Sofia if she has what she needs, which she affirms. We can then be a bit curious and ask why she didn’t go to Tevinter, as there is much more qamek to be found in the main host of the Antaam. Sofia chose Treviso because Antiva is her homeland, and because the Butcher’s occupation being so much smaller gives her an advantage, for there are fewer Qunari she has to deal with. For now, we part ways. But what does she even need the qamek for? Well, maybe we’ll see each other again. Next time, Sofia will tell us more.
Once Sofia is gone, we tell Lucanis and Bellara about her immunity to qamek. Lucanis finds that incredibly interesting. If she would share her secret, maybe the Crows can equip themselves. Bellara is more interested in the scientific aspects behind that immunity. Is it something in her blood, perhaps? Or her mind? Or her magic? Well, we will only know if we meet again. For now, we are done here.
The Other Rooks
As always, now it's time to look at what the other Rooks might have done in this part of the game!
Shadow Dragons
Rook can make a gloomy prediction for what will eventually happen to the citizens of Treviso if nobody stops the Butcher. But he can also admit how unusual this particular occupation is.
Rook has heard of the Antivan occupation earlier because Tevinter tracks all Qunari activity.
Rook is much more familiar with the concept of qamek and what it does.
Grey Wardens
Rook can state some Grey Warden lore by talking about how the Fourth Blight took its central stage in Antiva in particular.
Rook can invoke the Right of Conscription on Tommaso.
Antivan Crows
Rook, of course, knows everything about the Butcher's occupation, and so does Lucanis, so they come to Treviso very well-prepared.
The Crows already know that Ivenci is a blood mage and are thus able to deal them a significant wound during the meeting. They still escape, but they are scarred for the remainder of the game.
Rook has a much more heartfelt reunion with Teia and Viago, Viago in particular, even if he denies it.
Everyone at the Nest treats Rook with far less suspicion.
Rook can orchestrate a contract to be placed on Tommaso after the quest.
Mourn Watch
Rook feels a strange sensation coming from the qamek, almost as if there is something spiritual about it.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can blackmail Tomasso for a huge chunk of his recent fishing profits in exchange for his life.
And that's it for this time, guys! Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Next time, we shall be introducing Weisshaupt Fortress, as well as receiving some side quests for that region. Stay tuned!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 18 - Regional Quests at Act 1 Weisshaupt
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
It's been a while since the last update, for which I apologise! But it's still going. November and December are just incredibly swamped with work and project deadlines for me. Once I get some breathing room, we'll be right back.
This post contains the links to all entries in my ongoing "Rewriting Veilguard" series. I shall pin it so that you may always find it with ease. The Tumblr version of this rewrite follows a Veil Jumper Rook.
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this rewrite on AO3
Prologue
Part 1 - The World State
Part 2 - The Shadow Dragons
Part 3 - The Grey Wardens
Part 4 - The Veil Jumpers
Part 5 - The Antivan Crows
Part 6 - The Mourn Watch
Part 7 - The Lords of Fortune
Part 8 - The Inquisition
Act 1
Part 9 - The Dumat
Part 10 - Neve Gallus
Part 11 - Bellara Lutare
Part 12 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Minrathous
Part 13 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Arlathan Forest
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Rewriting Davrin's Recruitment Mission
When we first learned about Veilguard’s companion roster, Davrin was one of those I was actually excited for the most. I am a massive fan of DAO, and to see an actual Warden among the companions again filled my heart with joy. And he had a griffon, too! So the events of Last Flight would, in some capacity, be acknowledged. He was also one of the companions we heard of first, all the way back in that tech demo. The Wardens were going to be an important part of the story once again, and I was very much here for it.
What we ended up getting in Veilguard was alright, I suppose. The Wardens are actually one of the factions I am the least disappointed in, even though there were still some questionable decisions made. Mostly, I believe them to be cases of wasted potential.
Let us look at Davrin. His concept is amazing: a former Dalish who joined the Wardens to fight against evil. He is a monster hunter and also one of the first Wardens with a griffon in centuries. There is so much you can do with it. Unfortunately, most of what we do is take Assan out on walks. There was something very interesting going on with the Gloom Howler story, so there is that.
But in this entry, we shall focus on rewriting Davrin’s recruitment mission for our take on Veilguard. And this one is going to be rather different. While the previous companions still allowed us to take the bare story threads their recruitment mission entailed and adapt them for our needs, for Davrin...we’re going to need to do a bit more work.
Briefing on the Dumat
So, we continue with another briefing aboard the Dumat. We have obtained some priceless intelligence from the Ossuary, as well as freed and recruited Lucanis. Now it is time to follow up on the other lead: the Deep Roads. What do the Qunari want down there? What are they searching for?
Well, we are about to have some answers, for Charter’s report has come in. Yeah, so, since we could have gone to the Deep Roads before the Ossuary, we, naturally, also need a Spy Report mission for here, as the concept needs to be introduced no matter what.
Just like with the previous one, Rook slowly starts reading the report, and her voice eventually morphs into Charter’s, and another Spy Report begins.
The Qunari and the Deep Roads
Once more we dive into the distinct visual style of the Spy Report. Charter’s mission begins in the Tevinter city of Vol Dorma, which lies further inland. It’s also close to the border of the Anderfels, only a few days’ journey at most. The city also serves as the ancestral seat of House Laskaris, for those who wish to know more about our dear Imperator.
Charter has managed to track down the Qunari all the way here, but is now in need of assistance. As such, she has reached out to some of her contacts among the Grey Wardens. And in a small tavern far away from the city centre, we meet them. They are none other than Antoine and Evka. If we haven’t played the Grey Warden origin story, this is the first time we see them in the game.
Antoine and Evka have been in contact with the Inquisition ever since encountering Varric and Harding in The Missing. Yeah...I do question a little how so many characters just happened to run into Varric and Harding in those comics, but it is far less egregious of a story decision than some of the things Veilguard did, so we shall just take it for what it is. Plus, it makes establishing connections here much easier.
So, anyway, Charter knows that there must be some kind of hugely important entrance to the Deep Roads somewhere in the region, to which Evka and Antoine agree. While the two were mostly stationed in the Anderfels and only had one other venture into Tevinter besides this one, there are records they got to study. Evka, being from Orzammar, has been particularly interested in learning all she could about how the Deep Roads were originally set up, before being nearly utterly destroyed during the First Blight.
Together, the three discuss how the darkspawn have been known to leave the Deep Roads in great numbers during earlier Blights, and always in this region. Perhaps the Qunari are looking for that specific entrance.
All this time, Charter throws inconspicuous glances around the tavern, as though she’s observing something or someone.
Antoine begins poring over some maps and eventually deduces that the most likely entrance would be that of the Varanin Thaig, once one of the Great Thaigs, before being lost to the Darkspawn Horde. It lies deep beneath Tevinter, somewhere in this region. And Antoine even knows how to get there!
Charter nods before asking, “Is that right so far?” into the room. The trio is then ambushed by a group of Ben-Hassrath spies, which are quickly dealt with. The one left alive last, a young human, seems to be a rather new convert, for his heart is not fully in it. He begs for mercy and offers to lead them to the Deep Roads, and past the Qunari outposts.
Well then...
Will Charter deal with the spy right now?
Or will she allow him to take them to the Deep Roads?
Charter is pragmatic, so she spares the Ben-Hassrath spy for now, and orders him to take the trio to the Varanin Thaig.
What follows next is a beautiful transition of Charter, Antoine, and Evka following the Ben-Hassrath spy through the streets of Vol Dorma, and then through the wilderness of Tevinter. In the meantime, the man reveals that the Qunari have indeed launched an expedition into the Deep Roads, and it’s being led by Rasaan, the highest of the Tamassrans, chosen successor to the Ariqun, and the personal advisor to the Arishok. Charter asks whether Rasaan is still doing this unofficially, to which the spy knows no answer.
Eventually, they reach a great crack in the earth, a gorge almost. This is the entrance to the Deep Roads, to the Varanin Thaig. And they immediately see a Qunari outpost.
Now we have another small choice to make:
Do we sneak inside completely unnoticed?
Or do we play a Qunari convert, and leave Antoine and Evka behind?
Well, Antoine and Evka are Grey Wardens, and they very much look the part. There is no way they can play convincing converts. We tell them to stay put, and order our new spy friend to get us past the outpost.
To his credit, the spy keeps his word to us. Since he is an actual Qunari convert and Charter is an excellent actress, they get past the Antaam guards without any issues whatsoever.
In the main camp, which is located just beyond the entrance to the Varanin Thaig, Charter observes Rasaan conversing with another high-ranking Ben-Hassrath, one known as Ashasala. Ashasala is to lead the first scouting expedition beneath the Thaig. Beneath Varanin Thaig, they are finally going to find answers. But she also cautions against the darkspawn.
Aha, so they’re looking for something beneath Varanin Thaig! Very good. That’s all the information Charter can gather for now.
Together with her Ben-Hassrath spy, she returns to Antoine and Evka and relays her findings. The Wardens agree that they must quickly report this to Weisshaupt. Charter says that she will bring this matter to the crew of the Dumat, and that this could be a valuable partnership, should they and the Wardens meet in the Deep Roads.
Antoine and Evka bid Charter farewell and take the Ben-Hassrath spy along with them, for he had requested to join the Wardens as that was his true dream as a child. So...they’re going to invoke the Right of Conscription on him.
Charter, meanwhile, heads off into the night, and the report concludes.
Arrival in the Varanin Thaig
The voice shifts back to Rook’s, and we find ourselves back on the Dumat with the normal game graphics. After having read Charter’s report, we don’t very much look forward to encountering more Qunari. Rook asks if anyone here has any experience with this Rasaan, which Isabela affirms. She had a rather unpleasant experience many years ago. Rasaan is obsessed with finding out the true names of things, for she believes it will give her power over them. Varric remembers that encounter, as well as the account of Brother Genitivi, Phillam, a Bard!, and (Formerly) Sister Laudine, who had a run-in with her in a strange elvhen library that “fell” into the Deep Roads.
So, Rasaan is a pretty serious deal among the Qunari we have to face. Well, we faced Kathaban already and that went surprisingly well. Isabela cautions us that we shouldn’t expect the same kind of treatment from Rasaan. She’s as shrewd as the Qun allows one to possibly be.
So then, the Varanin Thaig is our next destination. And we might even get help from the Grey Wardens. Should we then expect darkspawn? Probably, it’s the Deep Roads after all. The two biggest questions we’re facing right now are: What exactly is it about the Varanin Thaig that made it so attractive for darkspawn during past Blights? And what about it has roused the personal interest of the Qunari, even Rasaan herself?
Well, that’s enough questions for now. We won’t get any answers by sitting around here. Isabela sets course for the uttermost south of the Nocen Sea, and we get another cutscene of the Dumat moving through the waters.
Once the Dumat arrives on the shores of Tevinter, Isabela quickly searches for a river that could take the Silence further inland. But she’s not sure if it could take us all the way into the Deep Roads. We might have to walk some distance.
Thankfully, the Silence is able to take us quite a good chunk into Tevinter’s mainland, even past Vol Dorma. But at some point, we have to park our little submarine, and Isabela promises to pick us up when we’re done.
The last part of that cinematic sees Rook and the whole party so far traverse through Tevinter’s wilderness, until, at night, we reach the giant crack that Charter has told us about. This is the entrance to the Varanin Thaig, and the Deep Roads. As a Veil Jumper, we have never been into the Deep Roads, so this is a rather new experience for us.
Ahead of us, we see the Qunari outpost on the surface. So, what do we do? We can’t really replicate Charter’s trick, and we have no Qunari among us to pull of a potentially successful masquerade. Yes, one does not need to be Kossith to pass off as Qunari, but Charter had an actual convert the Qunari would have recognised. We have no such advantage. No, this time, we need to do things a little differently.
It is here we get to pick our party member (just one, since Davrin will be joining us later). While the rest of our crew distracts the Qunari with acts of sabotage, the two of us shall sneak ahead and learn about Rasaan’s expedition. Well, this is going to require a lot of stealthing and scouting, so we’re choosing Harding to accompany us. While it would be nice to see Lucanis in action already, he’s still not in top shape, so we’ll keep him with the others for now. Both Neve and Lucanis have experience in fighting the Qunari, as does Varric. Bellara will support them with whatever tinkering magic she can bring up. She does have experience with caves, at least!
Rook and Harding stay in the back, while the rest of the gang gets to work. Varric saunters up to the outpost and introduces the Qunari to Bianca by permanently damaging their outpost’s doors. As the Qunari emerge to fight, Neve freezes them while Lucanis attacks from the shadows with his daggers. Bellara, meanwhile, shoots magical bolts further into the outpost.
With the Qunari sufficiently distracted, Rook and Harding quickly move past the fighting and descend into the earth, towards the Varanin Thaig.
The Qunari Encampment
Rook and Harding arrive in the first layer of the Varanin Thaig, which is the Qunari encampment Charter spoke of in her report. Harding notes that it isn’t nearly as full and occupied as the report made it out to be. This can only mean one thing: Rasaan’s expedition has already departed further down. But what about this Ashasala? She was to lead the first venture into the Deep Roads. Did something happen that made Rasaan follow her? Perhaps we could find some reports in the camp. All we need to do is sneak around. Harding would very much prefer to stay out of trouble and let the others catch all the attention. Of course, if we are caught by Qunari, we can fight our way out of it as we desire. As a Veil Jumper who still isn’t fully used to open combat, we agree with her, and thus, our sneaking around begins.
It is entirely possible to pass this whole segment without any combat whatsoever. Since we picked Harding as our companion here, she’s naturally good at stealth, so all we have to do is follow her lead by picking the best hiding and sneaking spots. At some point, the rest of the party descends from the upper outpost and focuses the Qunari attention on themselves, making it easier for us to obtain the information we need. Of course, we can choose to help the other party members by diverting some of the Antaam to us, but we choose to stick to the plan. The others are seasoned fighters; they know what they’re doing.
As we sneak around the Qunari encampment, there are a few things we can find:
A report from Ashasala to Rasaan, requesting immediate assistance in the Deep Roads, as they have been ambushed by darkspawn.
An exchange of letters between Rasaan and the Arishok, wherein the Arishok warns her not to be tempted to stray from the path again. The Dread Wolf is all our enemy, and the Qunari can only fight him as one body. This is an indication of the books and comics, where it was mentioned that Rasaan did some unsanctioned things with her part of the Antaam.
A journal entry by Rasaan, in which she reflects on the failure of Dragon’s Breath, and how Solas was behind it. We get a bit of insight into how that operation truly tested the morale of the Qunari, especially the Antaam, but the Arishok and Rasaan were still able to put minds at ease, even though Rasaan committed unsanctioned attacks on Tevinter, which eventually forced the Arishok’s hand to return to full-scale warfare.
A short set of notes written by Ashasala, through which we learn that the Varanin Thaig truly is ancient. It seems to have been one of the first thaigs to have been built, shortly after Kal-Sharok.
A final note from Rasaan on how she is about to set off after Ashasala. Whatever happened to her, they need to find the sealed passage deep beneath the thaig.
After obtaining all that very valuable intelligence, we head back to the rest of the crew for a short exchange. They have, by now, managed to incapacitate most of the Qunari who were left behind, and the rest are currently forming a last wave of attack. Rook tells Varric that she and Harding will press on after Rasaan, and that something seems to have happened to Ashasala. Varric cautions us against the darkspawn. It would be really good to have Grey Wardens at our side now. It’s unfortunate that they didn’t tell Charter when and where we would meet up. Maybe they’re already further down in the Deep Roads, kicking ass. Who knows? Varric says that they’ll be joining us soon, once they’re done with the rest of the Qunari. Rook and Harding then wish them good luck and storm off into the darkness.
Pursuing Rasaan
With Varric and the rest of the team holding off the Qunari, Rook and Harding quickly make their way further into the Varanin Thaig. Harding comments on how she remembers being in the Deep Roads before. The most recent event was when she was hunting Solas with Varric. But by far her most memorable experience was in Ferelden, when she provided support to the Inquisitor as she descended into the heart of a Titan. Rook heard a few vague stories about the Titan on the Dumat and wonders what that was like. While Harding never saw what happened there with her own eyes, she saw enough from the outside and heard enough from the Inquisitor. It must have truly been breathtaking and terrifying at the same time.
As we descend further into the Varanin Thaig, there are a few things we can come across:
We get attacked by a bunch of deepstalkers, marking their return from DAI.
We find a large statue of a mighty dwarven lord. We presume it to be the first Varanin, after whom the thaig was named. Harding makes a note to research this house when we get back to the Dumat.
We find a few dead Qunari in a nearly collapsed passageway, presumably a few members of Ashasala’s party.
All in all, this is a relatively short section, and only serves as a transition between two bigger phases of the mission.
Rasaan
Eventually, Rook and Harding make their way onto a big stone bridge over a dark abyss. As we cross it, our way is blocked by several Qunari. Their leader steps forward, and she is unlike any Qunari we have ever seen: she is tall, obviously, but her clothing is both a combination of priest-like robes and leather armour. Beneath it, parts of her body are painted in dark red vitaar. Her eyes are of a deep orange, and her long horns have been painted ruby-red. This is Rasaan. I have taken inspiration from her promotional design from Heroes of Dragon Age because I just think she looks sick in it.
Rasaan orders us to stop and go no further. She introduces herself, removing any confusion in regards to her identity. She then demands to know who we are. We introduce ourselves as Rook, to which Rasaan immediately cuts us off. This is not our true name. We can then either be cordial and reveal our true name of Aldwir, or we can remain stubborn and insist that Rook is our current name. We choose the latter, as Rasaan has no business knowing our real name.
Displeased, Rasaan utters something in Qunlat to her followers, then slowly steps further onto the bridge and wants to know what we seek here. Upon seeing Harding, she quickly deduces that we are from the remnants of the Inquisition. As such, we must be seeking the Dread Wolf, is that not so? After all, such was how matters ended at the Exalted Council. She, too, has been looking for the Dread Wolf’s true name, and she nearly found it, in a precious library beneath the Silent Plains. However, what she found instead led her here. So, how did we come by this information? Have we been to the library ourselves or have we simply followed her? Well, it matters not. She can’t have the Inquisition get involved in the affairs of the Qun again.
We attempt some diplomacy and offer to work together with Rasaan. We don’t have to be enemies. As she guessed correctly, our foe is the Dread Wolf. We would all be better off if we united against him. Rasaan remarks on how the Qun offered an alliance to the Inquisition before, and received nothing but betrayal in return. She will not aid us in our death throes, for that is how she perceives the Inquisition right now. Besides, we are Saarebas. There is no trusting us.
Rasaan brandishes two golden scimitar-like blades and moves in for the attack. This triggers a mini-boss sequence in which Rook and Harding go up against the Tamassran leader. Rasaan moves with both grace and efficient brutality, causing us to truly weigh each of our moves. No matter how the battle ends, eventually, a cutscene plays. Rook, Harding, and Rasaan fight in the middle of the bridge, while the rest of our crew finally joins us. Rasaan then barks an order to her Antaam warriors, and one of the Qunari throws a gaatlok grenade onto the bridge. Before we realise what’s happening, the grenade explodes, and the bridge crumbles. Rasaan brandishes a new Qunari gadget: a grappling hook. With that, she quickly pulls herself back to her people and watches as Rook and Harding plummet into the abyss. Varric curses as he and the rest of the party watch us fall. Then, all goes black.
A Horrifying Awakening
Eventually, Rook opens her eyes. We’re lying somewhere dark. The fall was deep, but we’re surprisingly still alive. As we slowly sit up and grunt in pain, we realise that we’ve landed on something...soft.
We rise and notice that the ground beneath us is black and fleshy. With slowly rising panic, we call out to Harding, and hear grunting in the distance. Quickly, we hurry over and find her lying on equally black and fleshy ground. After helping her up, we take a look around...and see glowing eyes in the dark, which quickly multiply. Harding curses. We seem to have landed in some kind of darkspawn nest.
And then they emerge, hurlocks and genlocks, much in the design as we remember them from DAI. Since we haven’t played the Warden origin here, this is our official introduction to the darkspawn in this game.
The creatures surround us, roaring and seething. And Rook and Harding get ready to fight. The fight against the darkspawn is tough, firstly because our health has been massively reduced after the fall, and we sustained several injuries. Secondly, there are just so many of them. The time for stealth is over; this is pure fighting for survival.
We fight, and fight, and fight, but there just doesn’t seem to be an end to them. We truly have landed in a nest. But then, we see something land in the horde ahead of us, followed by a great explosion that kills a bunch of darkspawn at once. A moment later, we are joined by a figure wearing the armour of the Grey Wardens.
Davrin
Before our eyes, surrounded by dead darkspawn, stands none other than Davrin. He assumes that we are the people he was supposed to meet for a shared mission? We agree, and he nods. Then let’s finish this horde and talk. And, just like that, Davrin joins the party.
Now the fight is much more even, and Davrin strikes the darkspawn with the unrelenting force that we may expect from the tank he is. After a while, we hear shrieking in the distance. A moment later, a group of shrieks joins the fight, and we see that Davrin visibly enjoys fighting darkspawn, which only bolsters our own spirits.
Finally, after what at first seemed like an endless wave, the darkspawn lie dead before our feet, and we take a well-earned breather.
We introduce ourselves as Rook and Harding, while Davrin finally gives his name, calling himself a Warden of Weisshaupt. As a Dalish elf, we take a closer look at him, and recognise his vallaslin. They are Ghilan’nain’s. So yeah, we are never actually told what Davrin’s vallaslin are. We know that Bellara’s are Dirthamen’s, which fits her rather well, but Davrin was never specified. The general consensus seems to be that they are Andruil’s, since he’s a monster hunter, and that’s a great fit! However, I would like to propose Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin for this rewrite. I have two big reasons for this. Firstly, Davrin was stated to have tended to the halla with Eldrin when he was young, singing songs as he did so. He would have received his vallaslin at that time, not when he became a Warden. As such, I find Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin rather fitting, especially since after getting them, he has been following a path more closely linked to Andruil’s. Secondly, it makes for such narrative juice to have a former Dalish with Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin be forced to go up against the Mother of the Halla later. But we’ll get there when we get there.
Davrin confirms our astute observation and asks us where we’re from. When we tell him we’re from Arlathan Forest, he gets excited and wonders if we know his uncle, Eldrin, which we do! He’s doing very well at D’Meta’s Crossing. Are we then perhaps from Clan Morlyn, Davrin asks. Yes, we are. Davrin smiles. While he does not remember us from his childhood, it’s good to know that his former home is doing well.
Let us now talk business. We are pursuing a group of Qunari further into the Varanin Thaig, and Charter, Antoine, and Evka seemed to believe Warden back-up was needed. Davrin affirms this. There have been strange reports of increasing darkspawn activity in this thaig, and he was sent to investigate and to meet up with the Inquisition, which he assumes us to be. He didn’t think we’d be around anymore. Well, we are and aren’t. It’s a shadow organisation at the moment, and we are searching for a great foe which threatens the entirety of the world. Davrin will gladly hear of this foe once we are done here. He can sense more darkspawn in the caves. Before we go, Rook is slightly confused. Davrin is the only back-up we’re going to get? Davrin smiles and states that he’s not alone. His partner is just investigating a different area right now. But he’ll come when he’s needed.
We then proceed to leave the now-vacant darkspawn nest, entering some good old-fashioned ruined dwarven halls of stone once more. Davrin states that it’s quite troubling that the darkspawn are amassing here, of all places. The First Warden emphasised how crucial it is that there are no darkspawn here. Usually, the Varanin Thaig would be guarded by a permanent Warden outpost, but the numbers are thinning and all Wardens are currently needed at Weisshaupt Fortress. That’s how easy the Qunari were able to get in here. There was simply nothing holding them back. And whatever they want here, it can’t be good. Harding states that the Wardens were called back to Weisshaupt a decade ago. She remembers how Stroud went there to report on Corypheus’ doings in the South. Yes, Davrin sighs, he remembers that. Unfortunately, the situation has only changed for the worse.
As we enter another hall, Davrin stops and tells us to gear up. Darkspawn are approaching. We hear footsteps that make the earth shake, and a moment later, not one, but several ogres break through the walls. Davrin calls out in alarmed surprise. Several ogres at once? What is going on here?
We tell him that now would be a very good time for his partner to join us. Davrin agrees, then picks up a whistle and strongly blows into it. A strange sound echoes through the thaig, and the ogres keep approaching. “Come on,” Davrin mutters. “Come on, you lazy beast.”
The ogres are almost upon us, ready to strike. And then, we hear a loud screech somewhere above us, and a large creature descends upon the ogres, instantly knocking down one of them. Rook and Harding stare at it with open eyes. Is that...a griffon?!
Assan
Davrin quickly introduces us to his partner. His name is Assan. Then the ogres attack, and we ready ourselves.
The fight is quite tough, but whenever hope seems lost, Assan swoops in and deals huge amounts of damage, clawing the ogres where he can. But he doesn’t bite them, as that would mean Blight.
When the ogres finally lie dead before us, Davrin calls Assan to his side, and the griffon reluctantly stops playing with one of the ogres’ corpses. Davrin compliments him on the fight but states that his form still needs discipline and precision.
Meanwhile, Rook and Harding just look at Assan in utter bewilderment and amazement. Because, yeah, we are looking at a creature that is believed to have been extinct for a very long time. And now we have just fought with a griffon, like in tales of old!
As both Rook and Harding stutter to express their emotions, Davrin states that, yes, Assan is a real griffon. One of several. But that is a secret of the Wardens. A clutch of eggs was discovered years ago, and eventually, all of them hatched. Assan here is the youngest and smallest of the flock. Bear in mind, this version of Assan is bigger and older than the one we see in Veilguard. He’s as big as a moderately sized horse, definitely large enough to ride.
Now, why did I make Assan older and bigger? Well, he’s from the clutch of eggs Valya and her companions discovered during the events of Last Flight. And that was ten years ago. Even if Assan was the last one to hatch, there is no way he’d still be such a baby by the time of Veilguard. So, instead, we’re getting a more teenage version of Assan. He’s still cute and adorable, but aged accurately.
Assan slowly approaches us and begins circling and sniffing Rook and Harding. Harding lets out a few nervous laughs. Davrin tells us to remain calm. Assan is simply taking in our scents. Eventually, Assan gives Harding a head bump, which results in a squeal from her side. He then does the same with Rook, who reacts in much the same way. Davrin sighs. Yeah, that’s how it usually goes when he meets new people. He asks us to keep the secret to ourselves, which we agree to do.
Davrin tells Assan to fly back up and stay out of trouble. And to come faster when he calls him. Assan lets out a shriek and flies back up into the dark. Harding turns back to Rook and asks if we really just saw a griffon.
Through the Varanin Thaig
What follows next is a sequence of Rook, Harding, and Davrin exploring the depths of the Varanin Thaig. Our goal is to find Rasaan and whatever it is she’s looking for.
As we traverse through the darkness, Davrin notes how strange it is to see so many ogres in one place. Usually, that happens only during a Blight, and currently, there is no Blight ravaging the world, neither above nor below.
Assan becomes a summonable skill, quite similar to the actual game, but more of a lengthier action. Whenever we fight something and feel like we require aid, Davrin can blow his whistle and summon the griffon for a certain period of time to fight by our side. Assan does a lot of damage, but when the time limit is up or his health bar is drained, he retreats, and we need to wait for the skill to recharge before being able to use him again.
While traversing through the Varanin Thaig, we experience the following encounters:
We are constantly attacked by swarms of deepstalkers and various smaller darkspawn hordes. This is a much more action-oriented level. Darkspawn don’t require as much subtlety and careful treading as more conscious enemies do.
We find an abandoned Qunari campsite with several dead Antaam warriors. They have evidently been gored by darkspawn. As we explore it, we can deduce that this was Ashasala’s camp. But Ashasala herself is nowhere not be found. No body, no remains, nothing. Has she escaped, perhaps? It is a possibility, Davrin says, but he is beginning to have a much darker suspicion.
At some point, we hear sounds from ahead and, across a vast chasm, spot the rest of our party fighting darkspawn. When Varric sees us, he’s relieved that we’re alive. We quickly introduce Davrin as our Warden back-up. Assan is currently nowhere to be seen. Varric informs us how they’ve been tracking Rasaan, but then a huge darkspawn horde tore right into their midst, and all trails were lost. Now everyone just needs to press on. We’ll see that we’ll meet somewhere further down.
There is a completely optional hidden path amidst the rocks that we can just ignore if we want to. But if we decide to follow it, we enter a round chamber filled with shallow, cold water. It is there that we are attacked by a large rock wraith, marking their return from DA2. It is a tough mini-boss battle, which fits right into Davrin’s monster hunter job. Several times, the rock wraith urges us to leave this place, and in all fairness, we can always run away. But if we stay until the end, the rock wraith eventually shatters and opens up another pathway for us to follow. Passing through, we discover a mural, an ancient mural. While it is certainly dwarven, as a Veil Jumper, we recognise elvhen influence as well. It depicts a mighty dwarf lord, very similar to the statues we saw earlier, presumably the Varanin ancestor, along with several other dwarves, chaining and binding a great dragon in a deep, dark pit. Floating high above them, shrouded in golden light, we see a figure that very much reminds us of Ghilan’nain, especially when we study the headwear. Another connection to the Evanuris. But what does it show us?
After encountering all these interesting details, we are suddenly attacked by two more ogres. Once they are dealt with, Davrin states that he senses something powerful and blighted up ahead. We should tread extremely carefully from now on. He’s beginning to guess exactly what it is we’re about to face, and if you have been paying attention to the clues laid out in the Varanin Thaig, so will you. If you played DAO, what happens next will very much tingle your memories in the most terrifying way possible.
We enter quite a fleshy corridor, absolutely disgusting. Here and there, we see dead Qunari, who have been absolutely gored. Suddenly, we hear a howl from up ahead, a deep, painful moan. It must have belonged to a woman once, but now it’s just distorted and unnatural. And the closer we get, the louder it becomes.
At one point, we pass a side corridor, from which we hear scratching, grunting, and desperate fighting. We enter another fleshy room and see Rasaan, right as she’s being dragged away into the darkness by another two ogres. Davrin knows exactly what they intend to do to her, and so do we if we remember the old lore. The darkspawn most probably intends to turn Rasaan into a broodmother.
Now we get a choice:
Do we save Rasaan and try to make her an ally?
Or do we leave her to her fate and remove a powerful enemy from the board?
So, no matter how much of an enemy someone is, nobody deserves such a monstrous fate. We probably wouldn’t even allow Zara Renata to be taken like this. This is just horrible. So, after giving Davrin and Harding a sign, we move in for the attack.
What follows is a tough but doable ogre fight, which ends with the darkspawn dead and Rasaan lying on the ground, heavily breathing and very visibly shaken. Even the legendary resolve of the Qunari couldn’t withstand this horror.
Rather awkwardly, we help Rasaan to her feet, and she immediately stumbles against a nearby fleshy wall, from which she immediately recoils. Trying to regain her composure, she asks us why we saved her. Davrin proceeds to explain exactly what the darkspawn would have done to her had they not saved her in time. They would have fed her blighted flesh over the course of many days, and eventually, her body would have transformed into a broodmother. Since Rasaan is a Qunari, she would have become a broodmother for ogres, which is the worst kind of all. And, given the number of ogres we met and the pained howls we hear in the distance, we deduce that this fate already befell Ashasala.
For the first time, we see genuine horror and regret come over Rasaan’s face, and she immediately wishes to slay the broodmother ahead. Hesitantly, we allow her to join us for this.
When Rasaan notices Assan, she finds herself momentarily fascinated and wonders just how many more secrets the Wardens have kept from the world. Davrin tells her that it’s absolutely none of her business, and that we should focus on the broodmother.
With Rasaan temporarily joining us, we proceed further ahead, towards the horrifying sounds.
The Broodmother
In a very similar way to DAO, we enter a larger chamber, somewhere deep beneath the Varanin Thaig, and see, before us, a gigantic, monstrous creature. Now, I would like to remind you that the broodmother we saw in DAO was once a dwarf, and therefore one that produced genlocks. And the Mother in Awakening was obviously a human broodmother, albeit made very self-aware by the Architect.
What we now see before us is a Kossith broodmother, that which is left of Ashasala. She is gigantic and grey, and shows many spikes and two great horns. Her tentacles are covered in hard, grey scales.
Upon seeing this, both Rook and Harding react with absolute disgust and horror, while Davrin readies his weapons and whistles for Assan to come. Rasaan, meanwhile, has a moment of shock before being overcome with rage. No member of the Qun shall be imprisoned in such a grotesque manner. Ashasala will be freed. And so begins a very tough and very disgusting boss battle.
The broodmother, or Ashasala if we want to keep calling her that, constantly lunges her tentacles at us, and beating them takes significant skill. We constantly keep spamming Assan to give us an edge, and Rasaan’s presence is certainly welcome right now.
Occasionally, the broodmother shields herself and unleashes two ogres upon us. It should be noted, at this point, that all of the ogres we faced in the Varanin Thaig are smaller and weaker versions when compared to the proper ones from the previous games, since they have just been born. Therefore, their HP is significantly less than what we might expect from older ogres later down the line.
At one point, the broodmother lashes out with all her tentacles, grabbing all of us individually. At this point, the rest of the party appears on an upper area and begins firing salves, spells, and daggers at the broodmother, which causes her to release Rook. Similar to the battle with Ghilan’nain in the actual game, we must now race across the battlefield and free Harding, Davrin, and Rasaan from Ashasala’s grasp. We can occasionally activate a salve from the rest of the party above as a summonable action to help us along.
Once all are freed, the broodmother lowers herself and begins fighting us with her own claws and horns, roaring and howling in pain and rage. Eventually, after a long and gruesome battle, we get an epic cutscene of Ashasala trying to wrap us with her tentacles again, only to be wounded by another salve from the party above. Following this, Rook fires a spell into her face, and Harding unleashes an arrow into her eye. Rasaan uses her grappling hook to propel herself upwards and impale the broodmother’s neck. The final blow comes from Davrin. He gives Assan a whistle, and the griffon carries him right to the broodmother’s head. He jumps and rams his sword right into her mouth. Whatever remains of Ashasala groans and moans and finally dies.
At this moment, we notice that the broodmother was positioned right above a massive chasm that leads further down into the depths beneath the Varanin Thaig. With a last death throe, Ashasala collapses into the darkness, and her massive tentacles cause the walls to crack and boulders to follow her. After a few loud moments, the chasm is sealed beneath layers of rock.
As an innocent Veil Jumper and Dalish elf who has never experienced this horror before, Rook steps aside and vomits onto the ground. Davrin comforts us and commends us on our skills in battle.
Rasaan, meanwhile, stares at the sealed chasm and grunts in barely acknowledged defeat. We use the opportunity to ask her what it is that she was looking for. What did she find in that library that led her here? What could be as important as the Dread Wolf?
Davrin frowns. The Dread Wolf? Is that who we’re hunting? The ancient elven god? Fen’Harel? We turn to face him and confirm this. Indeed, we are searching for the Dread Wolf, for he has returned and is seeking to end the world. Davrin stumbles back, visibly taken aback. Even though he’s a Warden, he’s also a Dalish elf. Fen’Harel is someone he would believe in, for he is a figure right out of his religion. But to hear that he’s actively walking around and planning something sinister is a lot to take in.
Rasaan admits that she has been searching for a way to defeat Fen’Harel ever since the Exalted Council ten years ago. She does not believe him to be an actual god, but definitely a mage of unimaginable powers. When she was in that library, trying to discover the Dread Wolf’s true name, she came upon another piece of information instead. Down here, in the Varanin Thaig, slumbers a power strong enough to defeat Fen’Harel, and aid the Qunari in the war against Tevinter. It would tip the scales immeasurably: The Issataash, the Master Dragon, or the master of the great ones.
Davrin finally puts everything together. The Archdemons. Rasaan is looking for an Archdemon? Now it all makes sense, why the First Warden wanted this place clear of all darkspawn. There is an Archdemon down there, deep below the Varanin Thaig. One of the remaining two! Indeed, and Rasaan wished to awaken it in its untainted form.
We look at Davrin in shock. The Wardens know where the remaining Archdemons are? Yes, but that doesn’t mean much when you can’t reach them. Their prisons are located in deeply unstable ground, and all who try to reach them perish. Did Rasaan know that?
Rasaan curses in Qunlat. Had they been more numerous, they would have reached the Issataash. At this point, the rest of the party joins up with us, and Varric has a nice little chat with Rasaan. It’s over. Her Qunari are gone. She is all that’s left. She should just admit defeat and return to the Arishok’s side. Or she could stubbornly get herself killed somewhere in the darkness.
Rasaan eyes each and every one of us, weighing her options carefully. Then, she grunts, sheathes her weapons, and leaves. She turns around one last time and declares that she will not pursue Rook, we did help her after all. But we should not hope to meet on opposing sides during the war. She turns around, and leaves, presumably to return to the Arishok.
The rest of the party is in visible awe at Assan. While Bellara freaks out over seeing a living griffon, Neve and Lucanis study him with great interest. Oh yes, this is a fine addition indeed. Varric suspected that the Wardens were keeping something hushed, but to see a living griffon in his lifetime? Well, now he truly has seen everything.
Davrin tells us that he has to report all of this to Weisshaupt. Well, we say, we can go together. After all, we did this together. And in the meantime, and perhaps even afterwards, would Davrin consider joining the crew? Davrin asks if it really is true that the Dread Wolf has returned from the Fade and is now seeking to end the world? Yes, we confirm, and we couldn’t believe it either when we first heard it. We have to find and stop him. And there is a high chance the darkspawn presence is linked to him somehow. Rasaan was looking for Fen’Harel’s true name, and instead came upon the location of an Archdemon’s prison.
Davrin considers and then agrees. He will join us for the time being. This is an important battle to fight. And Assan will get a lot of good practice. Assan gives a happy screech at that. Well, Davrin, welcome aboard!
Back on the Dumat
With our mission accomplished, we find ourselves back on the Dumat, with Davrin and Assan now part of our crew. Davrin is utterly amazed by the ingenuity of the submarine, but equally surprised that we gave it the name of the first Archdemon.
Back in the Meeting Chamber, we discuss our recent progress. So, the Qunari were looking for one of the remaining Archdemons. Somehow, they got this information from an elvhen library in the Deep Roads. Rasaan called the Archdemon an Issataash, a Master Dragon. So even they are aware that the Old Gods are something way more than regular high dragons.
At this point, we may express a bit of frustration. We have done so much, have gone to so many places, and yet it always feels like the Dread Wolf is still beyond our grasp. We encountered some of his agents, sure, but what about the man himself? When can we finally find something solid? We haven’t even encountered Revas or Merrill again.
Varric calms us down. Despite not having gotten close to Solas yet, we have fought off several other dangers. Like right now: We stopped Rasaan from potentially awakening an Archdemon. We have also fought Venatori and done some good in the war between Tevinter and the Qunari. We may not have accomplished our main goal yet, but we aren’t doing nothing. And he’s confident that we’ll be getting something more juicy quite soon. We must not forget that the Inquisitor is still out there, using her resources, as well as Charter and her spy network.
Very well, we shall keep searching. For now, though, the meeting is adjourned.
The Arena
With Davrin now part of the team, another room on the Dumat becomes unlocked: the arena. It is a large, round chamber secured by enchanted rock, which serves as a room of training and fighting. Davrin and Assan spend most of their time here, practising and staying alert. Assan in particular needs to train his mind, for he is definitely not used to being underwater in an enclosed location.
Now, aside from conversing with Davrin and Assan, the arena obviously serves another function as well: fighting different kinds of monsters. So, whenever we encounter new creatures on our journeys, we can fight them here in a safe environment. We can study their movements and even gain damage or defence bonuses against them. Basically, this is adapting the Hall of Valour from Veilguard. To make it even more amusing, we can have Isabela as the battle commentator here, too.
We may not have found the Dread Wolf yet, but the Dumat has gained another very valuable addition.
The Other Rooks
As always, now it's time to explore what the other Rooks might have done on this mission and how their experiences could have differed.
Shadow Dragons
Rook has heard of Rasaan before, from his military lessons on the Qunari.
Rook has heard of the Varanin Thaig before. It used to be an important trading hub between Tevinter and the Dwarven Empire.
Rook is much more ready to face the Qunari in open battle.
Rook has a much harder time talking to Rasaan, given his Tevinter mage status.
Grey Wardens
Antoine and Evka are far more willing to work with the Inquisition, since Thorne is already part of it.
Rook has heard of the Varanin Thaig before from his studies at Weisshaupt. He remembers that there always used to be a Warden outpost stationed there, but he doesn't know why.
Rook immediately senses the darkspawn as the party enters the Deep Roads.
Rook has an easier time navigating the Deep Roads as his newly-found Stone Sense returns.
Rook and Davrin share a very heartfelt reunion, and the revelation of Assan allows Rook to properly roleplay a Warden's reaction to learning of that secret.
Rook can deduce on his own that they're about to face a broodmother.
Rook knows that the highest-ranking Wardens know of the Archdemon prisons.
Antivan Crows
Being a Qunari herself, Rook can actually masquerade as a Ben-Hassrath agent when approaching the outpost and walking through the encampment later.
Rook can express her desire to find someone who would give her a contract on Rasaan.
Mourn Watch
Rook can distract the spirit trapped within the rock wraith and perform a powerful attack against it.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can find a few bottles of qamek at the Qunari encampment.
Rook heard of Rasaan through Isabela's stories about her.
Rook can find an ancient dwarven treasure chest in the Varanin Thaig and greatly enrich themselves.
And there we have it! This is our rewritten version of Davrin's recruitment mission. Next time, we shall not proceed with another main quest but take a look at either Treviso or Weisshaupt. The two areas are rather optional at the moment, but they still contain regional and faction-related quests. The next two chapters will focus on the regional ones. Stay tuned for that!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 17 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Treviso
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
