Imperial Prince Luke was Lord Vader's greatest pride and much beloved by the Empire. A bright and cunning man, the prince became his father's right hand in enforcing the emperor's will throughout the galaxy. He shared Lord Vader's skill in lightsaber combat, yet he was not cold and ruthless in the manner of his father; in fact, many of their enemies would come to vastly prefer meeting the prince in battle instead of the dark lord.
Contrary to what the rebels would have us believe, the prince was a strong advocate for justice and the welfare of others. He worked tirelessly to abolish slavery in the Outer Rim, bestowing especial favour upon Tatooine, and eradicated the Hutt Cartel among many other prominent crime syndicates. His philosophy was to rule with a kind hand rather than an iron fist; indeed, none could resist his benevolence in the end, and those that did would live to dearly regret it.
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Here is Luke's official portrait as the Imperial Prince, also commissioned by Vader as part of the dual set with Leia's! This one is entirely based on George IV's 1821 coronation portrait by Thomas Lawrence; George has a sweeping black cloak in that one which matches Queen Victoria's portrait very nicely, so I went with it XD
I added Bast Castle to the background to indicate Luke's loyalty and closeness to his father. That's not to say that Leia isn't close to Vader in this AU by comparison, but I imagine she'd vastly prefer the brightness of Coruscant to the depressing lava world of Mustafar loll And, just like his sister, Luke reaches for his lightsaber to assert his dominance and power, especially with the Dark Side ;)
Here are some of my outfit concepts for Luke, mainly using sun motifs to complement Leia's moon/night designs! The third one was heavily inspired by Princess Irulan's dresses from Dune pt2, especially the beading; I really wanted to bring out that rays-of-sunlight look to his outfits while also keeping that "evil" vibe loll And his black cloak remains the simplest design, of course XD
Everyone who has played through the Trespasser DLC already knows that the ancient elves were in the deep roads, but I noticed some things in my most recent playthrough that I haven’t seen discussed. Mainly, the coffin room:
But let’s go through the area first. We exit the Eluvian and find ourselves in this weird combination of elven-dwarven ruins beneath Thedas. One of the things that stood out to me about this area is how Evanuris symbols we find (or at least I could find) are Mythal’s and Fen’Harel’s. There are two giant Mythal statues in this section, one is near the Eluvian we enter:
And the other is deeper into the area:
There's this one:
And finally two handing over the "coffin room" at the very back of this area:
There's also lots of wolf statues, some framing the eluvian:
Or caved in hallways:
On the path leading through the area:
And framing the "balcony" overlooking the coffin room:
Notice what there isn’t? Any statues for the other gods.
All the other elven ruins we’ve seen have had multiple gods portrayed in them, even in temples dedicated to one specific god. For example, the Temple of Mythal had a whole separate area depicting the other gods as well as hart and owl statues. The Temple of Dirthamen also had hart statues and statues of Mythal and Fen’harel. But in the deep roads? It’s only Mythal and Fen’harel. This to me implies that whatever operation was going on the deep roads, it was Mythal’s project.
Let’s go over some of the comments companions make in the area.
Cole has a few things to say. The first thing he’ll say is: “Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can’t remember how. No one should be here.”
This immediately made me think that Cole was referring to a Titan. Lyrium, the blood of the titans, is frequently described as singing. Cole makes similar comments if you take him through the deep roads in The Deep Descent DLC. Valta also describes what she hears from the Titan as a song, but she also tells us something else that’s important: Titans do not stir lightly. The Titan from the Deep Descent was asleep for a thousand years, and only woke up and started causing trouble because the breach disturbed it. Cole says that the songs are screaming far away, so it’s possible that this is a dormant titan that is near the area we are in.
Dorian will say: “It shouldn’t be this dark. Dwarven buildings are lit by molten rock. That doesn’t just go out.”
I’m not sure what to make of this comment, but it seemed odd to me. Maybe someone else has thoughts on this?
Further in, Cole will make a comment about the Qunari and Lyrium: “The stone sings. The song scares them. It’s the wrong song, the wrong blood. They don’t know how we stand it.”
Is this suggesting that Qunari have a greater sensitivity to Lyrium? What does the “wrong blood” mean? Is it referring to the Lyrium, the titan’s blood, or the Qunari’s blood? If Cole is referring to the Qunari’s blood, this wouldn’t be the first time someone has commented on their blood in the game. Kieran can comment on the Qunari Inquisitors blood at Skyhold if he has the Old God soul:
Kieran: You're the Inquisitor. You're very tall. Mother didn't say you were a Qunari.
Inquisitor: Oh? I'm told it's the first thing one notices about me.
Kieran: I noticed your blood. It doesn't belong to your people.
Here’s where things might get a little tin-foily.
When we get to the end of this area, the part looking over the coffin room, Cole will say:
“They’re all singing. Coffers, coffins, corpses that aren’t dead. A song crying out in the dark.”
The type of coffins/tombs we see in this area can be found in other parts of the main game. Here is an up-close screenshot of the tombs in this area:
And here is an example of the same type of tomb from the Solasan Temple, which is also associated with elves:
Based of Cole’s comment, I think the tombs we see in this room may contain ancient elves that are in uthenera. The “corpses that aren’t dead” part is what really makes me think this is the case. Uthenera is described as an alternative to dying for the ancient elves. When they didn’t want to be a part of the world anymore, they went into uthenera. It sounds similar to a coma. Abelas calls it the blissful sleep that never ends. The Mythal statues poised above the tombs, looking down on them/watching over them, makes me think that these are some of her people that have been put into Uthenera.
I’m not done with this topic yet; I still want to discuss the notes left behind by a dalish Qunari, but this post is already stupid long so it will have to wait.
Armored Core: you're a cog in the death machine of capitalism and freedom lies in the hands of those strong enough jam the gears and break the apparatus. you should def use the Baby Flayer 9000 to achieve that goal btw
Gundam: war is fucked man, so much senselss death and killing all in the name of lofty ideals. anyway we'll be rolling out the orphan thresher as soon as next quarter
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