Do you know of any Latine characters in dragon age? I figured antivan characters but they're supposedly just spanish.
Antiva has more in common with Latin America than Spain and Italy (the other one often said.) So the TL;DR version is yeah I think most Antivan characters like Zevran and Josephine could be considered Latine. (And Josephine was clarified to be a WOC, though we weren’t given any details beyond that because BioWare.)
Also you should totally check out @latinxdragonage!
First, just a reminder that there is no 1:1 ratio of Thedosian countries and IRL equivalencies, but rather general regions of the world. So please don’t misinterpret this as me lumping all of Latin America together, but rather I believe that is what BioWare did in terms of pulling inspiration from a wide range of places and cultures. Antiva is a large place and there’s lots of room for differences across it!
Zevran says that in Antiva it rains often. Spain has a dry climate compared to nations like Colombia (which has been ranked as the rainiest country in the world) and neighbouring countries:
That it rains so much in Antiva makes sense why they have a region called “the Drylands,” if it’s dry unlike most of their country, instead of the other way around like Spain.
Antiva is also hope to the Tellari swamps, which is a giant wetland [some images are included in this post]. Four of the worlds most major wetlands are in South America, including The Pantonal, which is also one of the largest. Looking at the actual comics though, while it’s called a swamp it appears more like a rain-forest to my eye at least. In which case that still definitely wouldn’t bring Spain or Italy to mind, would it?
Still talking about geography, Antiva shares The Hundred Pillars with Tevinter, which is a long stretched mountain range like the Andes.
Last Flight describes Antiva City being decorated with turquoise tiles, just like the Aztec people used it for, among other things as it was favoured for both ornamentation and ceremonial use. There is no turquoise in Spain.
Also in Antiva is gold; their symbol is a golden drake. And yeah the Spaniards sure loved their fucking gold, but who did they steal it all from again?
Antiva is where coffee is produced in Thedas. The world’s biggest coffee producer is Brazil (by a lot), with Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia and Mexico also being on the top ten list.Some other foods that are known to come from Antiva are peppers, corn and passion fruit, all foods native to Latin America, and only brought back to Spain by colonizers.
Antiva is specifically named when discussing fine weaving skills, with rugs apparently identifiable as Antivan by look. Weaving is an iconic textile tradition from many Indigenous peoples in South America.
Zevran mentions something called a “lillo flute” being a common instrument used by Antivan minstrels. This may be a fictional type of flute, and not that they have the copyright on all flute music, but flutes are among the most used instruments in Andean music.
Antiva has a huge history of piracy and as a trade hub similar to the Caribbean, including the existence of pirate seaports, which were a large contributor to the establishment of Antiva as a nation.
Finally, a few things entering headcanon territory but I’ll include anyway:
I like to think the Drylands could be equivalent to the drylands in Mexico, Argentina and Chile.
That Antivans have notable weaving textiles would also suggest that they have the animals it takes to produce the fibres, like llamas and alpacas? Which would thrive in the Drylands and mountains. And the Dalish of Antiva probably use halla wool.
It’s not that there aren’t any things that Antiva has in common with Spain and Italy, like previously being a city-state (something Gaider specifically pointed out when asked if Antiva City was Italy) and known for wine exports. But I think Orlais has more in common with those countries, when we’re talking about the quantity of similarities……And frankly, I am really tired of the fantasy genre only equating to Europe. Dragon Age is one of the only franchises not to do that.
See the sources in this post re: food
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
snowghoul
romaincrisis
titsay
kaledo-art
areudirty
