Welcome to the abandoned art portfolio

Jamilah // They/She // 26

[jampocalypse]

FF14 RP/GPOSE SIDE BLOG

Hello to my oomfies and moots old and new! FF14 related and otherwise! I have this side blog that I'm pretty proud of and thought it was about time I made a pin for it! If you like virtual photography or 25 year old trans girls rambling about their emotional support oc's then I'm your girl~

[dalishious]

Dragon Age’s Story of Slavery

An exchange between a fan and Trick Weekes, former lead writer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard (DATV), was recently leaked:

Fan: YEAH

Fan: i love that choice

Fan: to show how the empire is -- people

Fan: and how Southern Thedas is bigoted in other ways

Fan: yeah i'd have liked to see the slaves BUT Dock Town wouldn't have slaves! it's a working class place!

Fan: you have people peopling

Fan: probably -- the biggest thing i learned from living in the US is that USians are... regular people lol

Fan: I knew that of course

Fan: I had USian friends online I'd been to the US

Trick Weekes: Yeah, we DO have the slavery -- it's in the Blood of Arlathan plot, with Venatori sitting on people posed like thrones.

Trick Weekes: Yeah, "Slavery Bad" was a pretty simple message that didn't need a lot of space.

Trick Weekes: (Like, a good message! Slavery is bad! But after you show it, continuing to hammer it in stars to feel superfluous.)

Fan: and it was unnecessary

I would argue that this very exchange proves that it was, in fact, necessary. But that would require writers who actually care to risk bruising their white fragility, and we can’t have that now, can we?

Before tackling the root of this exchange, however, I believe it is crucial to take a step back and look at the Dragon Age’s franchise established history with depicting slavery. The state it in DATV has not always been the case, and it is baffling, after recently replaying Dragon Age: Origins (DAO) again, just how far things have progressively fallen in terms of quality on this subject matter.

Slavery in Dragon Age: Origins

Despite being released in 2009, I believe that DAO remains the best depiction of slavery in the Dragon Age franchise to date. I say this so easily, because the way in which enslavement is depicted starts first with the long-term damage done to a group of people, then works back to the history of it. Introducing slavery into your fantasy setting this way makes it easier to digest and understand the implications on a stronger level, both narratively and empathetically.

The player is immediately given the information that elves were enslaved to humans for a very long time, regardless of the origin chosen, through NPC dialogue or narration. While they may no longer be officially enslaved in Ferelden, the elves of current time still suffer from intergenerational trauma and ongoing oppression. While the effects of this worldbuilding are scattered throughout the entire game, it becomes an integral part of the story once you reach the main quest “Unrest in the Alieange”. In this quest, the player discovers that the antagonist Loghain has made an agreement to sell the elves of Denerim to slavers from Tevinter. This is accomplished through the slavers pretending to bring help for a plague, when in reality, they are trafficking the elves back to their homeland. When this is brought up to the nobility later, one of the reactions from a noble is “there is no slavery in Ferelden!” This one line of dialogue tells so much about how this slavery ring was even possible; because the humans would rather live in ignorance. We are shown time and again throughout the game how many humans treat elves like dirt, benefiting from their underpaid labour and lack of rights as people… only to turn around and yell “there is no slavery in Ferelden!” There was already slavery in Ferelden before Loghain’s deal with Tevinter; it was just dressed up prettier.

The depiction of slavery in DAO runs a brutally honest parallel to real life, and forces the player to see it. The player may make evil choices in their game – it is a roleplaying game after all – but in some ways, you could even say allowing the player to be evil enhances the showcasing of how slavery is wrong, by making it so unquestionable that those options are the evil ones. DAO does not bother to ask the question, “is slavery wrong?” It states as a fact that yes, it is, and then backs up that fact with examples of why.

Slavery in Dragon Age II

Dragon Age II (DA2) carries through with what was already established in DAO, when it comes to slavery in Thedas. The main difference is, through adding a companion like Fenris, who himself is an escaped slave, it takes a more personal and emotional approach to the subject rather than touching it on a larger systemic scale. The player can hear Fenris’s story, and learn how even though he is now free, he is severely traumatized from his experiences when enslaved. Narrowing the topic of slavery down to a single example this way, does a pretty good job growing what has already been pre-established when it comes to the worldbuilding in Thedas.

In addition to everything involving Fenris, there are just regular Tevinter slavers preying on the people of Kirkwall that Hawke fights throughout the game. Much like Ferelden, Kirkwall does not officially sanction enslavement, but apparently does not do much to prevent it either.

Slavery in Dragon Age: Inquisition

Storytelling involving slavery took a turn for the worse in Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI). For starters, the only voices on slavery now come from Tevinter, in Dorian and Calpernia. Dorian, the companion with whom you are supposed to appreciate, does actually ask the question “is slavery wrong?” and follows up with disapproval if you tell him yes. Throughout the entire game, this is never followed up on. It isn’t until Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights where we get confirmation that he has actually changed his mind, and if you didn’t read that book, your only chance to learn it is if you find a specific codex entry in DATV. (But more on that later.) Calpernia, one of the antagonists, may not even appear at all in the game depending on if you choose to do the quest “In Hushed Whispers” over “Champions of the Just”. Calpernia is a former slave herself, and yet somehow believes that working with the Venatori, blatant slavers, are the key to her goal of ending slavery in Tevinter. It does not actually make any sense that Calpernia would be kept in the dark about all the slavery from the Venatori until the player tells her, yet be one of their leaders at the same time. I like Calpernia as a character in concept, but she definitely suffers from a weak personal plot.

So, there is no more personal level to discussing slavery from a character perspective. That must mean there is at least a systemic approach to addressing this part of the main antagonistic force in the game, the Venatori, right? Well, no! There is none of that, either! We only know that the Venatori are even actively using slaves through easily missed or avoidable side quests, and war table missions. DAI somehow accomplishes fighting slavery without actually saying much about slavery at all.

Slavery in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Despite the Tevinter Imperium taking up a large portion of the setting in DATV, there is very minimal discussion or depiction of the slavery we know from previously established lore the empire runs on. We know that the Shadow Dragons help free slaves through ambient dialogue and a few scattered notes, and if you play as a Shadow Dragon, part of your Rook’s backstory is that they helped free slaves personally. However, one thing is made very clear over and over: every time slavery is even remotely brought up, it is always blamed on Venatori alone… as if Tevinter in its entirety isn’t run on legalized slavery, and has been that way for far longer than the Venatori have even existed! There is no sign of everyday slavery; it is always exclusively the actions of the Venatori, or people connected to the Venatori. This is a blatant attempt to simplify or dodge altogether portraying systemic slavery; by putting the blame solely on one single cult, it both pretends that fixing slavery is a simple answer of just getting rid of a few fringe bad guys, and tries to rid the rest of the nation of culpability… and while I say “try”, apparently the attempt worked on some fans, because it sure sounds like the one in the exchange with Weekes is under a poor impression.

Slavery is NOT Simple

To claim that “Dock Town wouldn’t have slaves” because “it’s a working class place” is absolutely false in every way. The myth that only the rich were slave owners during the age of chattel slavery in the Americas is just that – a myth. While merchants owned the largest number, even your average farmers and the Church owned slaves. [X] Additionally, Dock Town has a dock, with ships. Ships that you would think transport a lot of enslaved people in and out of Minrathous. There is every reason to expect to see signs of slavery in Dock Town as much as anywhere else in Tevinter, if not arguably even more so.

What especially disgusts me from that anonymous fan though, is the classification of “regular people” apparently not including anyone enslaved. Going on to compare “regular people” of Tevinter to “regular people” of the USA is especially telling. Why does this fan believe that it is the privileged settlers of colonial empires who are the ones needing sympathy and normalization? You may question if perhaps the intention of the writers was to do what was done in DAO, and show that most people are blissfully ignorant of it. If that is the case, then they failed, because in order to do that, you have to actually show the slavery happening in tangent with the people not caring.

Weekes makes reference to the slaves shown during the “Blood of Arlathan” quest in their response. However, yet again I must stress the issue of only ever associating slavery with the Venatori: trying to turn legalized slavery into a problem only sourced from a single cult, diminishes the entire conversation about how slavery operates in Tevinter. In the heart of the slave trade in Thedas, we could and should have realistically seen and heard so much more.

Most white settlers are never satisfied with already always being the centre of attention; they need their asses wiped and baby bottles full at all times, too. Then the minute the conversation gets slightly uncomfortable, they either throw a tantrum or start to cry big tears about how they don’t like feeling so guilty. If the topic of slavery was as simple as Weekes claims, then why is it currently being banned to discuss in classrooms across the United States? [X] The only people who benefit from not learning about or discussing slavery, be it in media or in a real life, are the people who want it to continue.

[tealkittenpaws]

Sneak peek at my piece for the @striderszine

[dalishious]

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do I'm half crazy, all for the love of you...

[higadoyrinon]

Executive Dysfunction

[fellahimedia]

Now that the Flotilla members have been released and with those photos of brutal physical abuse and sexual assault, can we admit that there is no line they wouldn't cross. Let's be serious the israelis know that even attacking the "untouchable" ie people with european and american passports won't cut off the aid they get from the very countries the members come from. Its a message to peaceful advocates everywhere that they are not hesitant to treat you like palestinian prisoners. And i think the lib zionist reaction that this is "ben gvirs doing" is so fucking laughable. If the israeli government really disapproved they would arrest him. This faux condemnation of ben gvir is a distraction from the fact that hes been given greenlight to do whatever he wants bc israel is a settler colony. Their purpose is eradication of the indigenous people. There are no red lines.

I said this before but there is no peaceful action or violent act that the israelis wont respond to with violence. And the israelis will respond to violence from Palestinians with incredible violence. But violence threatens them the most. When an iof soldier is killed, when a checkpoint is attacked, when a wall is breached after years of standing, it shows the holes in their power structure. It tells other palestinians that there are ways to hurt them, that they are not totally invincible. That is why they reacted to october 7th with horrific violence bc palestinians everywhere learned that a multi biilion dollar wall with latest technology can be breached with less. This is why standing with palestinians that raise guns and trying to meet them where they are is important. We wont ever raise an army equal to them, but we dont need to. Empires have come down with less. The FLN was almost completely disarmed and imprisoned in Algeria but France left only a few years later to a renewed rebellion.The French didn't leave bc their people "got tired of the war," their people got tired bc it was clear to them that the indigenous will always fight and their colony will never be secure. The US dropped millions of napalm bombs on Vietnam and left but they could have continued. These empires have the money and the weaponry but when they realize that no weapon will give them total control, then their effort will be abandoned. But under the oppressed who love their land, there will be traitors but there will always be those fighting no matter the cost. That is the difference and that is why armed resistance matters more than boycotts and more than flotillas. If there is no palestinian with a weapon, then there is no threat to israeli power

[anarchistmemedistro]

an asymmetrical and decentralized insurgency is nearly impossible to defend against

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 28 April 1909, biracial Black German anti-Nazi labour organiser and actor Hilarius Gilges was born in a working class household in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 1926 he joined the Young Communist League of Germany (KJVD), and a few years later he founded a radical worker entertainment group called the Northwest Ran. Northwest Ran put on working class plays, music and other entertainment, as well as organising anti-fascist protests. After a conflict with racists and police at a demonstration, Gilges was arrested and jailed for one year. Despite this, he continued his activism, and travelled through many towns and villages attempting to mobilise opposition to Nazism. After the Nazi takeover, in June 1933, he was abducted from his apartment in front of his family by a dozen SS officers. His body was soon found in the River Rhine, with 37 stab wounds and a bullet wound to the head. One of his daughters, Franziska Helmuss, later recalled: “His funeral was well attended, but exclusively by women. The men were too afraid to be associated with him. The stonemason who made the gravestone for my father was incarcerated for five years in a Nazi concentration camp.” Despite some of his killers being known, none of them were punished after the war. A plaza in Düsseldorf by his apartment was named after him in 2003. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9972/hilarius-gilges-born https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=616808703825682&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[anemonetea]

Arlathan 🦌 🍃 ✨

[whichoftime]

You’ve got nothing but the future ahead of you.

(Requested by the wonderful @turnways :3)

[trollinstinct]

its their birthday, everybody say happy birthday

[feriowind]

Thrice Upon a Time.

[fallensnowfan]

Voting for the new popularity poll has begun!

Kiku nation, you know what to do.

The 2nd Global ONE PIECE Character Popularity Contest

The 2nd Global Popularity Poll is open, where fans around the world choose their No.1 from a total of 1,560 characters!!!

[b0tster]

FUCK THE UNITED STATES AND FUCK ISRAEL

[blanchebees]

there's an unreleased game on steam called "Knight's Path" and i think there's a lot of realistic armors for the player character (a knight). I thought you might like to know.

Oh i know, i was really looking forward to it until they fumbled with this

So this game is just for them incels who are just cheering and being queerphobic in the comments. They even made a poll...

God forbid i wanna romance another dude knight in a game where they added dragons and giant snails! But knights buttfucking is too not fun and unrealistic.... Aight

[lo-batteryy]

My delusion is that she looks like this

[imammunition]

oh wow june again

[irl-loading-screens]

Liam Ramos and his father, legal asylum seekers with no criminal record, have been returned home from detention after being arrested so ICE could reach their arrest quota.