God I forgot what an absolute lunatic blackwall is
Man is just out in the hinterlands cosplaying. Like replaying the game knowing Solas is the Dread Wolf adds all this cool intrigue and double meaning but replaying it knowing about Blackwall is fucking wild. He looks you in the face and lies directly out of his ass. Solas is all doublespeak and careful omission and Blackwall just fully makes shit up. What a madlad. I'm obsessed with him. he's so fake it til you make it. He would kill it on TikTok just like "oh yeah grey wardens can't get COVID it's right here in the treaties" and no one calls him on it because the treaties are old as fuck and boring. Alistair (who is supposed to be able to sense the Blight) is like oh hey blackwall haha we've definitely met I totally remember you. No you Haven't, Alistair. You've never seen this jackass ever in your life. He looks Solas, god of betrayal, in the eyes and says with full confidence "Yes, I am a Grey Warden." And Solas is like Sure. Iron Bull? Buys his bullshit completely. Leliana? Thinks he's cool. Everyone else is like "you smell like shit but I guess that's just how Wardens smell" and he's like "Damn Right It Is Have I Told You My Vietnam Stories" guy was born in '68. You can flirt with him almost immediately. Character of all time. What the fuck.
Everyone reblogging this post to add that people don't exist to be hot and bodies can be neutral: you're right. Make your own post about it. This post is about signs of age being hot. I am an adult attracted to other adults. People don't exist to be hot but if you have these traits you are hot, perhaps against your will. Sorry. Happy milf monday.
Cracktheory: Bards in Thedas Actually Do (some) Magic
In short: Whether or not they were born a mage, some bards may actually be able to do small amounts of magic, consciously or otherwise
To spoil the conclusion: because they have an audience in the Fade too. And the spirits LOVE a good, emotional show
So first, the groundwork to lay:
Summarizing and condensing for the sake of attention spans (namely mine), the Fade is the realm of dreams, spirits, and magic. And while theoretically only mages are connected enough to stay conscious in dreams and tap into its energies, non mages can still brush it in dreams./ Templars and Seekers, depending on what you believe about their abilities, seem to access the magics of some form.
Magic itself seems to come from several different sources; the direction actions of sapient spirits, the emotional resonance of semi-sapient wisps, or just pure raw energies from accessing the Fade. And fade spirits still react to strong emotions of battles and such. And they seem to like paying attention to notable figures. In a word, they like experiencing big stories and strong emotions.
(Also, since I hear the objections already in my own head - Dwarves are of course an outlier here. But barring a clearer picture of what exactly Sandal and Valta can do and how, the theory somewhat parses if, instead of “Fade spirit/wisp attention”, you substitute in “a fraction of a Titan’s attention”)
Bards, beyond just the Orlesian type, are set to deliver big stories and strong emotions in spades. They’re often going to be performing for large crowds of notable people. Perhaps some are even called upon on commemorative/remembrance events for places of great tragedy, or heralding great changes.
Their intended audience may be mortals, but what if the spirits of the Fade could hear them too? What if, over time and many performances, a bard catches spirits’ attention? What if, over time, the bard develops an audience of spirits that begin to follow their performances?
There are times when spirits of the Fade seem to be able to affect the physical world - hey, Fade-touched material exists! - whether through cracks in a weakened Veil or pushing hard enough to just influence things just slightly?
Bards in DAO have abilities that buff the entire party in arguably magical ways - granting attack, critical hit, stamina regeneration (heh) and so on. Nathaniel, sometimes spec’d as a bard, can make people fall in love with him despite him being a non roman cable companion in a 12 year old DLC.
That last one might not count, technically, but really. Bards can do some PRETTY SUSPICIOUSLY MAGICAL THINGS.
What if spirits are helping them? What if the fade spirits are just...really excited to see a good show, and are doing what they can to help it along?
What if some bards are aware of this, and are specifically trying to play towards their Fade audience - in the hopes of getting a boon in the form of a lucky break or perhaps a little more?
Leliana in the Sacred Ashes trailer seems to be able to use some pretty magical arrows (and sure, that could be just a magical arrow thing or a faith thing, and is probably actually just artistic license). She’s also gotten visions from the Maker, has an unusually high blight resistance, and, potentially, was so connected to a spirit that one just took her place. Suggesting she might have some magical hookery pokery up her sleeves is not that far fetched
Zither is a bard who is actually a mage, and uses NO abilities that his supposed Circle training would imply, His playstyle in the game is WILD, but focuses a lot on buffing the party but occasionally doing massive attacks of his own.
Mage seems to be doing very well for himself these days, considering how popular his band is.
According to him, anyway. But he is just jauntily out and about in Trespasser, with nary a Templar guard in sight.
In fact, much like his mundane bard counterparts, his abilities seem to buff his party through enhancing their attack, or offering them some protection.
So...why would a Circle trained mage have abilities more in common with a mundane bard than the various battle magics we see used in game?
Is it possible that it’s simply because bards are already tapping into a small form of magic in their adoring Spirit fans, and ZITHER! is just a really amped (heh) up version of their magic?!?
Who knows. It’s just a crack theory. But I like it.
thinking about it. its straight up kind of politically insulting that rendon howe suggests a match between female cousland and thomas when nathaniel hasn’t been disinherited. cousland is the daughter of one of the most powerful families in the kingdom and howe offers a third son who at the time of the offer doesn’t stand to inherit anything major unless both nate and delilah are out of the picture. i know he later murders the couslands in their sleep so this is arguably just some vague declaration of a desire to keep the families united to keep people off guard but still.
So, meta wise, its probably because Nathaniel didnt exist yet. Once DAA was in development, they wanted a Howe to open complicared discussions about family guilt, but perhaps they felt Thomas was too attainted by Rendon, since there's in game references to Thomas being actively in charge of some things as late as the Landsmeet. (One of the nobles mentions Thomas, begrudginly acknowleding he wasnt going to hold him responsible for his son's torture since his son swore up and down Thomas had nothing to do with it.) Delilah they just...forget about as a possibility. Boom, Nathaniel is born. Very conveniently impossibly far away from his father's evil, so no questions about culpability. But plenty of questions that can now be asked about family legacy.
But meta only is no fun for me. As a result, I've always assumed Nathaniel was well and truly disinherited by this point. Considering how late an age Nathaniel started squiring at, and how long he lingered in the role, I get the sense that Nathaniel was shoved out of inheritance early on in his squirage, and lingered awhile in the Free Marches because he didn't feel he had a place to return. Perhaps Rendon even specifically sent him off to pave the way for Thomas to get named heir, exactly as Nathaniel always feared. Passed over by a father he worshiped, unable to secure his approval and seeming to not know why.
Imagine you ran into someone who loved Dragon Age but had never heard of Nathaniel Howe. What's the *first* character trait of his that you'd describe?
I love this question. I’d be deeply tempted by kindness, or empathy, but in the end, I’d probably have to go with “thoughtful”, because it encompasses so much
Then, because this poor fool who made the mistake of asking me about Nathaniel Howe is still there, I’d tie them down and elaborate.
From the first you meet him, Nathaniel is testing you and getting a read on you. He tries to aggravate you by belittling you, he tries to suss out if you’re feeling guilty at all. Then he brags about how dangerous he is, because he, at this point, has given up, and just wants to spit on you in the way down.
Throughout the rest of the game, Nathaniel explores his companions and gets to know them, testing them, often gently at first but occasionally pushing back further. (After that mockery in the jail cell, suddenly the meanest he gets to his companions is calling Velanna’s ears clownish, which, rude, but it had come right after asking if she bad about killing a lot of innocent people, to which she cheerfully denied it). He wants to know more of Justice’s purpose, of what life was like for Sigrun, of Oghren’s history and ferocity and experiences; of where Anders’ anger comes from. He’s deeply thoughtful and considerate of his fellow companions, learning about them and for the most part, choosing kindness, including acknowledging when they push back - Sigrun pointing out how ignorant he is, for example.
He also comes to realize how blind he was, and why he was so willing to believe in lies about the Wardens, refusing to see the truth about his father. Delilah calls him out on it, that his father was his hero and he’d always worshiped Rendon. And he realizes that. That that worship warped him and his perceptions. While at the same time, he doesn’t throw it all away - his father still read him bedtime stories, after all. And Nathaniel spends the rest of the game struggling to reconcile those two things.
But most importantly, he realized that he owed the Warden an apology for his mistakes. He has a wonderful moment of self reflection, and unlike a lot of “redemption” arcs, he doesn’t try to snidely step aside from his need to own up - he does it, a full throated apology, and keeps working to make things better.
As of now, I’m planning on posting my commissions here once I figure out how to link them up to their proper artist. And I’ll definitely keep y’all updated on my writing adventures - Nathaniel deserves more funs stories where he can be his snarky but thoughtful self and maybe be surrounded with certain folks who absolutely adore him. I also intend to put a bunch of character analysis stuff here; it was always too long for twitter threads, and Tumblr feels like the place!
Anyway, point is...stick around! I’m excited to show y’all what I’m working on
You know, I’ve told a bunch of people on twitter about my account here, but then haven’t done much, so I think it’s time to post this art breeder picture I made of Nathaniel Howe. Not the first time I’ve posted it, but I’m ok with that. I still love this pixel man
