Duster in the Wind

Dragon Age dwarf fan returning for Veilguard

[fimrila]

[fimrila]

Reflections on a Dwarf Mourn Watcher

I've finished my Mourn Watch dwarf run, complete with an Emmrich romance for the peak Watcher experience. This is certainly the most glamorous dwarf I've ever had!

I will say that while I found the Grey Wardens more immersive and narratively fulfilling, the Mourn Watch offered a fresher, more exciting vibe; it gave me roleplay opportunities to play a more cunning/witty character (based on the amount of extra studies a dwarf Watcher would have taken on) that I wouldn't have had with a no-nonsense Grey Warden.

However, I ultimately felt that the Mourn Watch faction was mainly written for mages. I was never really clear on what exactly warriors brought to the table. (Maybe I missed a dialogue branch or codex that would have explained this.) I honestly would have been fine with dwarves being hired as crypt guards or something Carta-like. Instead, it just felt like a few lines were tossed in to acknowledge the rareness of dwarves.

I first noticed this disconnect during Emmrich's "Walking the Graves" quest when he asked Manfred to kindly step aside so we could light the candles. Dwarf Rook commented: “I’ve resurrected simple undead before, but I’ve never seen a wisp animate a corpse so smoothly.”

I handwaved this as a writing oversight since dwarves couldn't do magic, but then it would happen again and again with Rook asking Taash if their "necromancy" bothered them or with Rook using the royal "we" in Johanna giving their necromancy a bad name. It wasn't a big deal to reload and just pick a different dialogue option to sidestep these references, but it was immersion breaking. To be entirely fair, there were several lines to acknowledge the lack of spellcasting: "I'm not a spellcaster, but any Watcher can recognize a necromantic evocation."

Either way, it was still a mixed bag.

On the whole, I enjoyed leaning into the savagery of the Reaper warrior specialization and experiencing firsthand the code-switching between Watcher Rook and Emmrich. Since I took him with me everywhere to maximize the amount of banter from him, I had a fresh perspective of the Fade and magic in general because of his insights. I appreciated his compassion towards the other companions and felt that he was a one-of-a-kind character. Both Ingellvar and Thorne definitely scratched different itches.

Favorite Mourn Watch-related lines: Isabela: "Great show. Guess the Mourn Watch are good at fighting more than just skeletons." Rook: "Well, when you think about it, we're always fighting skeletons. Sometimes they're just still inside people." -- Neve: "I follow the leads I've got. What, you don't like a good stakeout?" Rook: "I'm a Mourn Watcher. If I can sit through our ceremonies, I can sit through a stakeout." Neve: "Oh, the picture of patience." Rook: "(Laughs) When I need to be." -- Emmrich: "Unbelievable. Johanna's stolen a chamber from the Grand Necropolis and transposed it under Blackthorne Manor!" Lucanis: "Mages. You want contracts on your life? This is how you get a contract on your life."

[fimrila]

Catebees Commission: Fimrila Thorne

I got a delightful commission of Fimrila Thorne, a dwarven Grey Warden in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, from @catebees. I adore the messy bun (honestly my favorite thing) and the no-nonsense demeanor (as requested)! She's absolutely spot on. Fantastic style and great vibes. Thank you, Cate!

Credits/artist information you must bookmark: • Catebees' Flash Commissions info • Catebees' Ko Fi gallery for other amazing OCs to look through

For the Grey Wardens!

[violadesdragons]

[fimrila]

108 hours.

Finally beat Veilguard after 108 hours with everything maxed out. You can imagine how it ended.

The game got me good. I was surprised multiple times by the plot twists and by the choices I actually made. I had planned to start with the Mourn Watch, but I heard the calling of the Grey Wardens once again so back into the fray (grey?) I went. As a long-time dwarven player, the faction was incredibly satisfying: plenty of reactivity as a Grey Warden and way more reactivity than I expected for the dwarven lineage.

Davrin was also another surprise considering that he wasn't even on my radar. There wasn't that much information out there on his character compared to a few others. Besides I had "been there, done that" with romancing Grey Wardens with none of them being successful. (Alistair left. Blackwall became Thom Rainer so it technically didn't count. =p) I thought Davrin would just be the generic warrior of the group. There wasn't anything mysterious left about the Grey Wardens, right? Right?

Yeah. I was wrong again. I knew I was in trouble when I started laughing at his dry comments during his recruitment quest. We just vibed for the rest of the game. I enjoyed his character growth and I appreciated his kindness towards Harding. Those two were my ride-or-die to the very end.

Needless to say, I went into Act 3 completely blind. I thought I was prepared. I was not. It was just one emotional gut punch after another. Yeah. Outstanding cinematics though! You could really feel the scale of the battle and how high the stakes were. Truly top notch.

DATV started out as a bit of a slog, but went out with a bang. My Aeducan declined the Dark Ritual all the way back in Origins and I always wondered what that meant long-term for the dwarves. Was it the right choice? Was my logic sound? Veilguard provided enough answers with the retroactive closure that I needed and the hopeful future that I wanted.

For the Grey Wardens!

[fimrila]

[fimrila]

[DAY 31] 31 Days of DA: Introduce your Rook - Fimrila Thorne

A teeny bit late, but I'm still gonna toss this up after a long day of downloading! Meet Fimrila Thorne!

A mere month ago, I was dead set on a Mourn Watch dwarf, but seeing the Grey Wardens in the release trailer last week got me weak in the knees. I went back and forth for days, but once I was finally in the CC, it just felt so right to be a Grey Warden again. I'm stoked to be in the same faction with Evka Ivo -- it's gonna be great!

I didn't pick a face tattoo because 1) I had no idea which represented what because there were no labels (come on, really?) and 2) I have no idea if the game will let me declare myself as being from Orzammar or a casteless or a surfacer. We shall see. So far, I am LOVING the chats with Harding and being acknowledged as a dwarf here and there in general conversations. My heart is full!

[31 Days of Dragon Age prompts]

Lighthouse screenshot under the cut. Probably mild spoilers. (It's just Neve, Harding and Thorne chatting around the table. No text is shown.)

[fimrila]

[DAY 30] 31 Days of DA: What Do You Hope For in The Veilguard?

Closure. I want Rook's story to feel complete when the end credits roll. That's it.

[31 Days of Dragon Age prompts]

[catebees]

Time allowing and muse willing, I'd love to see your interpretation of Evka Ivo, a dwarven Grey Warden from DATV!

She's so beautiful her hair is so fun!

[antivangoth]

DRAGON AGE info spreadsheet

i've made THIS SPREADSHEET that has different information about Dragon Age media, such as:

· the canon ages of DA important characters · known info about the DATV companions · where you can find the DATV devs on social media · a tab with relevant links to archived lost media, interesting dragon age posts, official content, and other useful things like this sheet

everything with sources :)

(these images are previews. i strongly advice you to check the sheet itself and not these images for updated info in case there were mistakes, i added new stuff, for links and for better quality.)

some of the things i'll be adding to the sheet next are (probably):

· a sheet with all dragon age media in chronological order (+ relevant links) · visual references (official clear images of the companions mostly, + other things) · more characters in the "character ages" sheet (if there's an interest, let me know if that's the case) · and characters' nationalities (in-game and irl approximations)

keep in mind that there are spoilers all over it, for all games (even datv, who hasn't yet come out at the time of posting this) and for other dragon age media (books, comics, etc.) i did my best to add warnings though!

reach out to me (mostly here or twitter) if there are any mistakes, or if you have any sort of feedback regarding the contents, formatting or accessibility! i'd appreciate it a lot! and talk to me to if you'd be willing to collaborate with me for the upcoming information! i could use the help.

and if the link is broken:

if got it from a reblog, look at the original post and check if it works there (in case i changed it for whatever reason)

if not, just reach out to me (op)

there's more information on the sheet itself. make sure to scroll all the way down and to the right to see all of the sheet :]

i hope this is useful for someone. i did this because most people don't take the time to source their information, and i also find it more comfortable to have most stuff in one place. it took (and continues to take) a loooong time to do this lol it was exhausting. thanks for your attention!

[fimrila]

This is super, super useful info. I wasn't interested in a Bluesky account until suddenly I was and having a list of devs to follow was so, so nice. It's a real blast to see the ages of the characters throughout the games.

[loustica-lucia]

DATV — Calico "Rook" Aldwir

A little outfit idea I had for my Rook, Calico Aldwir💜

[fimrila]

"i tried sooo hard to make dwarves look good, even if its a small percentage of ppl playing them like short rep needs a good view too ok!!!" -- Carlyqueue on X, 10/25/2024

I remember when John Epler talked about the extra hours they put in to make the animations work for an Iron Bull and dwarf romance. The end result was comical at times, but I just really appreciated that they stepped up and swung for the fences.

It tickles me to see the same determined "we can do this, dammit" attitude back in full force for a dwarf x Taash romance!

Source: (1) Carly 🫶 on X: "Tall enough to screw me over any time a dwarf has a scene with her 😤" / X

[lehtelia-arts]

I don't know what happened but I fell into the Evka/Antoine pit overnight after rereading parts of Tevinter Nights, and there's only a handful of things when I search for them so I'm adding to that pile myself!!

They've appeared multiple times in short stories and even the comics so I'm just waiting for DA4 stuff like "👀". Bioware pls give us the cute Wardens (preferably alive and well shjhfg but I'm expecting them to hurt me emotionally anyway bc this is DA after all, and there's been so much foreshadowing ;;v;;)

(Lineart below)

[fimrila]

Damn, after that trailer that was released earlier today with the Grey Wardens at the forefront, I almost want to scrap my planned Mourn Watch dwarf and mirror this beautiful pairing with dwarf Thorne and Davrin.

If you’re unfamiliar with the couple and don’t have Tevinter Nights, this super short story is a fantastic glimpse: https://www.ea.com/games/dragon-age/dragon-age-inquisition/news/wont-know-when

This is gonna be a loooong week!

Won't Know When

For the Grey Wardens, danger lurks around every corner. Two Wardens must decide what that means for their future.

[lelianasbong]

Dwarf players, what would you say your favorite specializations are in DAO/Awakening/DAI? Leaning towards thematic or character-driven reasons but Gameplay Fun is also welcome

[fimrila]

DAO/Awakening: Dwarf Warrior Champion carrying the Aeducan Family Shield. It fit thematically as a defender of Orzammar and eventually as a defender of those on the surface during the Blight. Aeducan returned to Orzammar as a paragon to continue to fight against the darkspawn in the Deep Roads.

DAI: Dwarf Warrior Reaver with a 2H weapon. Leaned into Cadash's previous work as a violent ex-Carta thug who escorted caravans. I really loved the 2H approach more for the get-in-your-face vibes.

DATV: I will be a dwarf warrior again for Veilguard (what can I say? I have a type), but I'm waiting to see the in-game explanations for what a warrior does in the Mourn Watch before deciding on a weapon or specialization. I prefer 2H, but if there's a wicked shield for the Mourn Watch, definitely will not say no to that.

[ging-ler]

I thought I might... give it to you, actually. In a lot of ways, I think the same thing when I look at you.

[fimrila]

[DAY 22] 31 Days of DA: Favorite Inquisition Romance - Blackwall

Why Blackwall?

I remember the eyebrow wiggling and giggling on the forums when Blackwall was first announced as a companion: "His beeeeeard!" IIRC, he was the first romanceable character with a beard, and we were collectively here for it!

On a more serious note, I personally liked that he wasn't a man of many words, but you always knew exactly where you stood with him.

Inquisitor: "Make sure you save at least one dance for me." Blackwall: "All of them."

I actually loved the plot twist for Blackwall's character arc. Don't get me wrong, I was shocked. I had to process it just like anyone else, but I was exhilarated that they took a big risk with the writing, how his personal revelation dovetailed with the overall masquerade theme. It was a big gamble for the writers because feelings were going to get hurt, but they executed it very well. I definitely respected that.

Adversity can make or break a relationship, and I liked that Blackwall and the Inquisitor got tested and were stronger for it. It reminded me of Shepard and Kaidan (or Ashley, if you will) being on opposite sides in Mass Effect 2 and you could choose to fight for the relationship or cut your losses. Same thing with Alistair walking out at Landsmeet. (Until they finally announced that Hawke, not the Warden, would be the new protagonist in the next game, I had hoped to run into Alistair again to make amends with him, but alas.) So, this whole story arc with Blackwall ended up scratching a narrative itch that I didn't know was there.

[31 Days of Dragon Age Prompts]

[fimrila]

[DAY 21] 31 Days of DA: Introduce Your Inquisitor

This is dwarf warrior Nogna Cadash, ex-Carta thug.

I had forgotten how rough the CC was. I do remember picking that forehead scar as a way to explain away that weeeeeeird receding hairline.

(Nogna, baby, I'm gonna give you such a glow-up in Veilguard, just you wait.)

Ever since I've returned for the upcoming release, I've been admiring other people's recent Cadash screenshots and I'm stunned at how far modding has come along in the last decade. All I remember is how revolutionary the "nug pajamas" were when we started to figure out how to mod that awful beige Skyhold suit.

According to the notes I saved, Nogna does believe in the Stone (but not Andraste, that's all you, Varric), has visited Orzammar via bribes, and was a violent thug who guarded caravans.

My three decisions to import into Veilguard will be below the cut as a spoiler precaution. (For those reading in the future, the game releases in 10 days!)

[31 Days of Dragon Age Prompts]

"Tired of Saving the World" commission by Katie Baker, who went by static-byte on tumblr and deviantart (both now defunct) ten years ago. (Wherever you are, Katie, thank you!)

The three decisions to import into Veilguard will be:

Romanced Blackwall.

Disbanded the Inquisition.

Vowed to redeem Solas.

A note on the last decision: It had been 10 years since I played the Trespasser DLC. I was sure I vowed to hunt down Solas, but after reviewing the Keep and my screenshots, I was actually surprised to see that Nogna wanted to redeem Solas. Apparently, they had built up a mutual respect for the other's perspective throughout the game so I will honor the original decision to see how that plays out. Rook, on the other hand, is under no such obligation. =p Actually, it'll be fun to see if Solas can convince Rook as well. I'm a whole decade older and a lot more jaded now, Solas! Bring it. =p