Happy pride to Leliana, whom I am SO grateful is attracted to women because if she wasnât then Iâd have to figure out the minefield that is Origins modding.
Happy pride to Solas, who is definitely nonbinary and a kisser of all genders. RIP boy Trick Weekes did you dirty.
Happy pride to Dorian, who seriously has an amazing character arc about his own male attraction, even back in 2015 when it got people outraged and calling the game âwoke.â
Happy pride to Strife and Myrion, who are both canonically gay (or at least bi or pan) AND held hands in Tevinter Nights.
Happy pride to Lucanis, my bisexual crow. We needed more representation of demisexuals, and of adult virgins who arenât portrayed as complete lame-os (as I too am one and sometimes beat myself up about it).
Happy pride to Emmrich, who is so unashamedly a kisser of men and will love you no matter your gender.
There are many more LGBT DA characters, but Iâm only including characters I have ships with. Anyoneâs welcome to reblog with their own ships.
I'm thinking about Neve and a Warden Rook again. Because she calls them a hero so many times.
This woman who could have turned her back on dock town and lived a comfortable life like any other mage of her skill would have. But she has the most beautiful heart you've ever encountered and won't turn her back on her home. Who dedicates her life to helping who she can. But she can't see her own worth and she calls you the hero.
You who didn't have much say in the joining, who'd been a drift most of your life, an orphan no one cared about, a grubby little thief, been a scoudrel, a cheat. More deserving of the title Trouble. Yours an oath in blood you'll never be able to escape, not like her loving dedication. You may have found redemption and purpose in the Order, maybe even a home before it was lost. But how could she think you are the hero of this pair.
'You're my hero Neve Gallus' if you could only make her believe it and see the hope she brings.
Emmrich Volkarin literally said love at first sight is real, actually. Emmrich Volkarin said I've been falling in love with strangers for twenty years because I still believe the love of my life is around every corner. Emmrich Volkarin said I've wanted to be in love so badly for so long and thank you thank you for loving me. Let me show you bits of my soul. Let me tell you secrets. Let me share the deepest most personal parts of my psyche INSTANTLY because when I met you a part of my soul screamed and said there there that's my person I know them that's who they've always been. Emmrich Volkarin said boys can U-haul too.
All the romanced characters writing to the Inquisitor in Veilguard
I should have checked the codex. Here are all the letters from the romance in Inquisition to the Inquisitor
I have to say Iron Bull (so emotional! and he mentions Dorian too) and Josephine (marriage proposal??), followed by Dorian (very sweet) and Sera (bonkers), are my absolute favorite. Cullen is quite sweet too (with him unable to fully express himself as he would want).
Also if you do not romance anyone you have Varric's:
thinking about romancing Emmrich and that throw away line from Ghilan'nain about how she wants to get him for experimenting on him, and how upon hearing it, Emmrich says "don't worry, dearest, it won't come to that" and rook says "if they touch you, death will be the least of their problems" like YES I love protective Rook!!!!
Rook seeing a Mortal!Emmrich dying a thousand different ways in the regret prison. Watching him decay, or torn apart, or infested with red lyrium and blight.
"This is your fault," Johanna's voice echoes, because Emmrich never would. "If you weren't so selfish he'd have been safe from this."
Rook being a very physically touchy person and Lucanis avoiding touch at all costs from built up trauma from childhood, his work as a Crow, and the Ossuary. Them always asking for Lucanis' permission to touch him, and before Tearstone Island, they hug him and he still flinches but he holds them tight
As Rook is taken into the Regret prison and they see a vision of Lucanis' body on the ground, they scream his name out of concern and fear but all Lucanis hears is them screaming for him to help, and then they're gone. They're gone. He thinks they were screaming his name, begging him to save them and now they're gone.
Weeks into Rook being taken into the Regret prison and now a man who couldn't be touched without reflexively drawing a blade is craving the warmth of his partner who he thinks he'll never see again
Lucanis pulling Rook out of the prison, knowing it's them right away because of their hands. He missed their hands, he missed their touch, he missed their warmth, he missed them.
When Rook gets back, Lucanis' touch is slow and soft, almost unbelieving. Weeks of stress and torture and pain and guilt and regret, and now they're here. Once they're finally together, he feels as though the world is in their arms and if killing a god is the only way to stay there, he will do what a Crow does best and fulfill this contract
Feeling as though Rook is secondary to Neve? You shouldnât, not really at least because Rook is irreplaceable for the same reasons people are holding animosity towards Neve.
âNeve gets him without doing any of the hard work.â Rook is the only person alive who could even be able to. Thatâs the whole point.
Saving Minrathous results in the Inner Demons quest never happening.
Meaning an unhealed Lucanis never makes peace with Spite.
Meaning he goes on to enter a relationship with a woman (to no fault of her own) who could never, and would never, force him to face his fears and give him the unyielding encouragement needed to live without compartmentalizing every important thing to ever happen to him.
Without Rook completing that questâ Lucanis remains chained down by his debilitating fear of disappointing Caterina, the shame of being made into an abomination against his will, the guilt of being the one who got off easier than Neve and the pain and anger Illarioâs betrayal brought onto him.
âThoughts live here. Ideas. Feelings.â Disappointment. Shame. Guilt. Betrayal. All of which Lucanis felt were too big, too messy to face.
Solavellan is Rookanisâ foil. Except Rook is if Lavellan had succeeded in persuading Solas to face his regrets.
And what was the crux of the replacement Fade prison Solas crafted for the Evanuris? It was a prison built on regret, and the only way to leave would be to face them. Which Ghilanânan and Elgarânan would never be able to do.
Spite says âLucanis is here. Behind locked doors. I canât break through.â But Rook can.
In his mindâs eye, Lucanis makes Caterina, Harding, Neve and Illario his jailers of negative emotions in a prison of his own creation.
And in all that inner turmoil, his idea of Illario says, âRook, youâre too good to be here.â
Rook isnât one of his jailers, not because they donât matter enough compared to the others, but because Lucanisâ thoughts, ideas and feelings for Rook are too good.
Rook opens doors, theyâre not a jailer who throws away the key. In Lucanis and Spiteâs eyes, Rook is the key. They are a liberator, a hero, the only one heâll listen to.
Love, understanding, the unwavering promise of companionship (platonic or romantic) despite the risk to themselves sets Lucanis free.
Iâve seen people who are disappointed in his storyline complain that it feels as though âRook strong arms him into a committed relationshipâ that he somehow âfeels obligated to indulgeâ and engage in as a result of saving Treviso. I believe these claims just end up ignoring the really good diamonds in the rough weâre given in terms of Rookanis relationship development.
A romanced!Lucanis gives way to lines like âI donât know what Rook sees in me. Iâm happy to just be around them.â
And paralleling scenes like when Caterina chastises a kneeling Illario with âA Dellamorte never kneels.â Only for Lucanis to later walk over to a post-Fade trapped Rook and literally kneel at their feet like theyâre the only deity he cares to worship like this is Take Me To Church by Hozier.
And what is Rookanis as a ship, if not Rook teaching him itâs okay to assert himself, which leads to Lucanis reclaiming his humanity through an act of love? Just saying. Given time, and love, he turns into a Gomez Addams sort of romantic figure.
If Rook were associated as any feeling to Lucanis then theyâd be love. Affection. A state of understanding. Purpose? Freedom?
Better yet, Rook could be determination. After all, Rookâs defining characteristic is that they âjust canât seem to quitââ in the face of the man they care about saying âgive up on me, iâm damaged goodsâ why wouldnât they win him over in the end?
Lucanis Dellamorteâs perfect relaxation: Sprawled on top of Rook, head on their chest. In one hand Rook holds the newest book from his favorite romance serial, from which theyâre reading aloud. Their other arm is around him, and that hand alternates between stroking his hair and scratching his back.
Manâs completely blissed out. Barely knows his own name. Whatâs a Talon? He doesnât know.
(Spite takes over briefly. âI think. You broke him.â
Rook laughs.
No, Lucanis replies blearily in his mind. I think they fixed me.)
I've seen a lot about Spite joining in Lucanis's anger at Solas for imprisoning Rook, which is always a treat.
I've been thinking though of how Spite would take the blood magic/mind manipulation but specifically though. We do get that fun line at the end game about "You. Hurt. Rook."
But especially when Rook first reveals the mind control to Lucanis? Especially a romanced Lucanis?
Mages using blood magic to warp your very nature is not only a real and intense source of danger for spirits, something they maybe understand even better than mortals, it is a trauma Spite has specifically endured.
Venatori Blood mages pulled Determination unwillingly through the Fade, imprisoned it in Lucanis, and for all Spite seems set in keeping its new name, that was a major source of trauma for it.
Now Pride is somehow also a blood mage and has used Blood Magic to entrap Rook and to alter their mind enough to make them fit into the locks of the Regret Prison. Literally trying to change their sense of self.
Rook, who Spite trusts more than any other human, even Lucanis, who Lucanis loves, who Spite loves in so much as an embodiment of Spite can love, and Pride has tried to hurt them and trap them and change them the way Spite was hurt and trapped and changed. No matter how confusing mortal emotions and pains and existence are that is something Spite can understand and dread/resent.
Solas is very lucky that Rook was returned to them by the time Spite and Lucanis saw him next is all I'm saying.
shoutout to lucanis dellamorte for losing his v card on solas' terrible bachelor pad aquarium couch, true love really can conquer anything and make a heaven out of hell
no im not thinking constantly about the early game hilarity of when its just the ladies of da:v lounging around the dining room watching a freshly freed Lucanis bus about the stoves making food for his new strange flock of poorly fed women.
Emmrich is a man who likes cuddling, any partner he has, no doubt, no question.
But I know deep in my bones that cuddling a chubby Rook Unlocks Something in him. The decadent softness. The plushness that makes him sigh and completely let go. The shocking comfort, in every position, where every other partner has needed a certain amount of unsexy human tetris so that his ultra bony joints aren't clashing up against theirs.
He's not just enjoying this. He's fixated. Obsessed. Infatuated. Desperately trying to pretend that he's not being deeply affected (and betrayed every time by the fact it's obvious that once he's nestled in, he NEVER wants to get up. Also, the faces he makes.)
emmrook has been swimming inside my head for days now, so here are some intimate emmrook moments that i've been chewing on.
----
helping each other dress, rook slips golden rings on emmrich's fingers. they make sure to do so slowly, every movement done with intention. caressing emmrich's skin and commiting to memory exactly how they feel. admiring his beautiful hands, and placing gentle kisses on each wonderful digit.
the way emmrich studies rook's face during a discussion, his gaze giving focus on each feature. by now he can tell whether a smile is genuine from the curve of their eyes. the slight crinkle of their nose when hiding displeasure. a tug on the corner of their lips when a mischievous thought is born. emmrich sees even the sublest of change in rook's expression and have come to know what they mean.
the attack of joy rook feels when they catch a hint of his aftershave, his freshly laundered clothes, the scent of his pomade. all of which they have come to associate with safety and comfort because that is what emmrich is to them. when emmrich is away rook has taken to sleeping in his quarters, or with an article of clothing that still has his scent when they miss him, or to soothe an anxious heart.
emmrich reading to rook in bed. it doesn't matter what kind of book or topic, it's his voice. his cadence. every word comes out with purpose, and rook finds it endlessly engaging... until they can't. it is then, when rook's eyes are shut, that emmrich leans down to give them a peck on the head, running his fingers through their hair as he continues to read in silence.
when rook returns to the lighthouse, they're greeted with words like "darling, welcome back." "dear love, how i've missed you." "(rook's name), my sweetest. you're home."
eye contact. emmrich and rook have the most intense eye contact. a thousand words conveyed with a lingering glance. they will find each others eyes even in a crowded room. and both will crumble even at the hint of a smile.
Emmrich: The number of languages you speak really is remarkable, Rook.
Rook: For?
Emmrich: Iâm sorry?
Rook: Sorry. Iâm used to there being a qualifier at the end of that sentence. You know, âfor an elfâ or âfor a soporati.â
Emmrich: I think itâs impressive for anyone, as well as quite attractive.
Rook: Iâll keep that in mind.
â
Taash: You speak Qunlat?
Rook: Kind of. I can read and understand it but Iâm not great at pronunciation.
Taash: Crisp consonants.
Rook: Exactly.
Taash: Say something.
Rook: Uh⌠Mar-anaamra benâari ebadim. (you donât get to tell them who they are)
Taash: (laughs) Your accentâs terrible. But thanks.
â
Taash: Howâd you learn Qunlat?
Rook: It was part of my education growing up. Itâs useful for Tevinter military officers to know.
Taash: Because of the war?
Rook: Victoria ad Imperium.
Taash: Huh?
Rook: Itâs Tevene. âVictory to the Imperium.â
Taash: How many languages do you know?
Rook: Enough.
â
Taash: I told my mom you know Qunlat.
Rook: What? Why?
Taash: I thought it might make her trust you more.
Rook: Iâm not going to like this, am I?
Taash: She thinks youâre Ben-Hassrath.
Rook: Fasta vass!
â
Taash: I told my mom that you know Qunlat because you were military.
Rook: My familyâs military. I never enlisted.
Taash: âKay. She doesnât think youâre Ben-Hassrath anymore.
Rook: But?
Taash: Now she doesnât trust you because youâre Tevinter.
Rook: (sighs)
â
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Mini-essay incoming:
I am obsessed with the fact that Rook knows a bunch of languages. Exactly how many depends on your race/faction and obviously you decide your Rook's knowledge level, but in-game all Rooks know some amount of Qunlat (they will translate what the Antaam are saying on Tearstone if Taash isn't in the party) which is wild because Qunlat is supposed to be really hard to learn. My elf Shadow Dragon Rook translates/speaks four languages in-game (Trade, Old Tevene, Qunlat, and Elven; and if they know Old Tevene presumably they also know Tevene). What other characters in the series know that many languages? Flemeth? Solas? Some linguist at a university, probably, but Rook is just a normal(ish) person. It's wild. Rook may be a chaos agent but they're also really intelligent and I love that for them.
