space for me to make datv related posts and interact with the fandom warning: this blog will probably contain 18+ content at some point, i am a whole adult link to a page of info about my rooks in the lower right corner, feel free to send asks
Wait no hang on bc Illario WASN'T lying here though. He asked Zara to kill Lucanis, not kidnap him, he actually did think Lucanis was dead this whole time, he really did find out about the Ossuary minutes ago.
I see so many post-vg fanfics about Lucanis and Rook having to part ways for a while and both of them hating it (and I love that angst please keep writing them all of them are so good) but I just cannot do that to them, sorry. Post game To Me they're both velcro dogs. If they don't see each other for more than six hours at a time both of them start snarling and/or whimpering Lucanis starts biting (stabbing) people because he Has To Get Home To His Wife and Rook will genuinely just walk out of a room in the middle of a conversation to Go Find Her Husband because she misses him even though she saw him that morning. To me, if Rook says they want to help in Minrathous or the South Lucanis is like 'ok give me ten minutes to tell Caterina we're leaving and we can go'. Is that a little unhealthy? Maybe. I don't care. They bonded so strongly it's like they lost vision in an eye whenever the other one isn't there.
there's something so incredibly compelling to me about crow!rook x emmrich. it's about the shared fixation on death but coming from opposite directions. it's about rook de riva's "live fast die young leave a beautiful corpse even though it'll probably just get dumped in a canal" attitude crashing directly into emmrich volkarin's endless deference for the dead and existential terror at the prospect of shuffling off this mortal coil at any age. it's about emmrich making rook stop and think about the value of his own life, making him feel like it actually matters to someone. it's about rook's unflinching interest and fascination with the morbid and the macabre, the way he takes emmrich's culture and special interests in stride, the glancing at a skeleton and casually referencing the likely cause of death based on the chipped rib cage that perfectly aligns with the thrust of a blade.
a young man steeped in death to the point of desensitization getting swept up with an older man desperately trying to avoid death's clutches at any cost who falls for this constant reminder of his own mortality. emmrich is having panic attacks every other night from all these near death experiences. rook is pressing kisses to his pulse points and tracing arteries with gloved fingertips and whispering I'm familiar with the finer points of anatomy, too, professor. and emmrich feels like he's losing his mind along with his heart.
emmrich is calling rook "darling" and "dearest" as if no amount of blood on his hands could make him less lovable, as if his worth were a foregone conclusion, kissing him in a cemetery where the air tastes like forever, promising an enduring affection, a flame eternal, a love that asks nothing save to be returned. and it is, it is, it is.
I will say tho, it is extremely funny seeing one of the alleged reasons why the lich route is supposedly bad, is because rook will eventually die and leave emmrich alone. You know, as opposed to the other option available, which is that emmrich, the canonically older of the two, will die before rook, leaving them alone. Because i guess its only fair if emmrich is the one dying and leaving his partner alone instead of rook
I'm neutral on the choice but I mean. I do think there's a considerable difference between "grieving your partner for the next 2-3 decades until you join them in death" and "grieving your partner for all eternity, knowing that if all goes to plan death will never reunite you"
Like one of those is significantly more bleak, I would say. And that's fine! It's not bad to like or be intrigued by tragedy! But it's also a little disingenuous to act like these outcomes are the same, emotionally and narratively.
This is also assuming Emmrich would absolutely die first, which isn't necessarily the case. Any number of scenarios could kill Rook first even if Emmrich is human. It's not like Rooks are all living perfectly safe and healthy lives with 0 risk factors, pretty much the opposite.
i am probably forgetting/overlooking heinous amounts of obscure lore with this but hear me out...
[Spoilers Ahead]
theoretically it should be possible for at least half the Veilguard to be some flavor of immortal by the end of the game. behold, my list:
Emmrich - Fairly obvious example if you choose the Lich route. We are not talking about the choice itself here, this post ain't about that, this is a "if, then" bullet point.
Harding - There's actual dialogue/party banter that speculates on whether or not Harding is immortal after merging with the Titan Shade. Can't really say if it's true or not, but it could be! Call it a non-zero chance.
Lucanis - This is my first real Hear Me Out example, but listen. Listen. As far as we know spirits/demons don't die natural deaths. So what's the deal with abominations? We don't have a lot of examples and Lucanis and Spite are particularly unique what with the whole Lucanis not being a mage thing, but... I'm going to call this another non-zero chance. We just don't know what the biological effects of Spite are on Lucanis. We do know that spirits can inhabit corpses, so there's some more morbid speculation to be done there but I won't be doing it here. Anyway I think it would be really funny if Mr. "Why Would You Want To Be Immortal?"/"Everything Dies" was little a immortal, as a treat. (For me, the treat is for me, Lucanis would hate it.)
Rook - Specifically for elf Rooks, sorry other Rooks. Listen, it's a major lore fact/plot point that elves in DA used to be immortal. The Veil cutting off their connection to the Fade also cut them off from their immortality, this is one of the reasons Solas feels he owes it to them to tear it down. And then Mr. Dread Wolf Immortal Elven God himself does a tiny bit of blood magic specifically to link himself to Rook so he can do dream projections in their head. After which Rook proceeds to spend months living in the Fade itself, plus running around the Crossroads shedding blood everywhere doing a bunch of fighting. What I'm saying is there are multiple reasons to assume that an elf Rook could be considered as re-connected to the Fade, so theoretically it's possible they have elven immortality and just don't know it. Maybe Solas didn't realize that'd be a potential side-effect, maybe he didn't consider it relevant to mention with everything else going on, maybe he thinks it's funnier to let them find out on their own, or maybe he just straight up forgot to tell them, who knows! All I know is that this sounds like a perfectly plausible consequence of Solas' questionable choices to me.
Based on that last point i do think there are (admittedly much weaker) cases to be made for Bellara and Davrin to also possibly have re-linked to the Fade and unlocked elven immortality, but I think an elf Rook being confirmed to have been linked via blood magic to an immortal elven "god" is more compelling evidence.
do i think all of this is canon? no, probably not. do i think there's enough wiggle room to come up with fun scenarios, headcanons, and AUs? yes, that's what i'm here for.
these concepts/subcultures do not exist in the dragon age universe but spiritually emmrich is a sophisticated romantic goth and pari [rook] is like, a mall goth. one of them has subtle skull embroidery on his suit vest and is drawing eyeliner directly on his waterline just thin enough that no one at the university can call him out on it, the other is carrying at least three bic lighters at any given moment and uses them to singe the ragged ends of his tripp pants, do you see my vision
Thinking about Emmrich writing Pari's name in the margins of his notes when he's been researching a little too long. "Pari" surrounded by hearts over and over like a teenager and then a thought occurring to him and he's jotting down notes like "if we get married would he be able to take my last name or would I be able to take his? Would I be allowed to without being initiated? Is he required to keep the House name as long as he's a Crow? How do Crow Houses account for marriage? Could he hyphenate?"
Emmrich: "Pardon me, Lucanis, if you have a moment I had a question about Crow house names and matrimonial practices-"
Lucanis: "Whatever you think I know about this topic, I don't."
low key obsessed with the concept of crypt baby Rook Ingellvar who was saved by spirits but wasn't found by the Mourn Watch until they were well past the infant and toddler stage.
i can't decide if it would be better to have a team of Mourn Watchers exploring the halls and stumbling on them completely coincidentally, or if a group was specifically sent out to find the kid that Keepsake and Curio finally remembered to mention to Vorgoth (listen, when you've existed for thousands of years it's super easy for four or five of them to slip by before you realize you didn't do that thing you meant to do) but please imagine for me a semi-feral five year old Rook raised entirely by a hodge-podge collection of spirits. wisps are always doing silly playful things in the Necropolis anyway so no one thought much about the uptick of them stealing food from the kitchens/dining halls/grave offerings over the past several years. little Rook is dressed in stolen shrouds and covered in old scrapes and scars from trial and error attempts of spirits figuring out the physical limitations of a mortal child and how to bathe and clothe and teach them. at least one of the spirits looking after them was cogent enough to speak, so little Rook can talk, but their speech is mainly centered around emotions and features a lot of blunt exclamations. they've been learning to read from plaques and headstones. they have no manners and no sense of fear. Vorgoth adopts them on sight.
Neve Gallus as the new boss of the Threads makes me insane, it's SO good. Not only for her character, but thematically for the game! What are you willing to do to save people? To stop evil? What are you willing to sacrifice? Are you okay with being demonized, misunderstood, hated, called a monster, if it means people are alive to call you anything at all?
Neve gives up the idea of being an inspiration or being seen as a hero in order to actually be one. She embraces making harsher choices if it means saving more lives. She accepts that protecting the town and the people she cares so deeply for is worth more than being recognized for it.
Becoming the leader of the Threads is also harm reduction. If she's in charge, she can direct and re-route their activities, she can use them against the Venatori and other oppressors, she can steer them away from more vulnerable citizens. I'm not saying she can fully change a criminal organization into a force for good overnight, but things will be a damn sight better with her calling the shots than someone less invested in the overall wellbeing of Dock Town and its people.
There's also something poetic about a detective who has spent her life chasing leads (following threads) and piecing together clues (using thread string to tie together the evidence on her wall) taking over a group called the Threads.
Nothing happens in Dock Town anymore without Neve Gallus hearing about it. No one knows all Dock Town's secrets, but everyone knows something and Neve Gallus has a whole collection of Threads to pull.
To every egotistic old money magister and puffed up Venatori cultist, to every power-hungry blood mage and would-be slaver and drunk-on-authority templar who sees Dock Town as an easy target: I hear the Threads protect their streets, you should think about that.
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