[potatofantiger]

For scientific purposes, who was your FIRST romance in each DA game.

[bluestrawberry7]

bg3 companions' responses to "I want a baby"

[segamascott]

[rozieramati]

[katsdom]

There is a great deal of truth there. Sometimes special moments happen purely by accident. But most of them happen because you make a plan and create the conditions to let them happen.

[jollyfurydragonballer]

[siriosa]

so soothing. cancel my appts. gonna be watching a bubble freeze in real time for the foreseeable

[the-ghostlight]

It actually baffles me that even in Joplin the Inquisitor returning as the protagonist was never on the cards?

I don’t mean to sound rude (actually, I do) but how lacking in self-awareness as a writer and a creative team do you need to be to think that the way trespasser ended was the PERFECT introduction for a new protagonist not even remotely tied to the narrative at all?

The Inquisitor literally says “ILL HAVE TO STOP YOU”

The Inquisitor, the Herald of Andraste

The Inquisitor, Survivor of the Breach, Herald of Change, Hero of the South

You know the Inquisitor - do you remember them, BioWare???

Not only that but THEY TOOK THE INQUISITOR’S HAND

They set it up so perfectly - because what better way to narratively justify the protagonist having to relearn everything than that??

I mean, yes, I get writing an RPG is different and difficult in a way I probably couldn’t even begin to understand

But even with that in mind - WHY BOTHER WRITING IT LIKE THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE??

[rederiswrites]

Just saw a (perfectly good otherwise, which is why I'm making my own post, because I have no desire to beef) post that talked about how good Veilguard is and hinged part of its argument on the idea that bringing down the Veil would kill everyone and would definitely be a bad thing. But that theme worked specifically because they forced the narrative that bringing down the Veil was a bad thing, and purged all evidence to the contrary from the game's lore!

Look, I think Veilguard IS a great game! I love it! But, like every other DA game before it, it leapfrogs right over some established lore to tell a different story, and the story it ultimately told was not about quite the same Solas many of us loved in Inquisition and Trespasser, and the difference is significant.

There was quite a LOT of reason to believe that the Veil is an unsustainable artificial structure that, by its existence, does literally incalculable harm. And no one, probably Solas included, knows what the final consequences of bringing it down would be.

The Veil was a mistake in the first place. It changed Thedas so completely that even the ancient lore of all currently existing cultures does not talk about what it was like before. It's unimaginable. We see only tiny glimpes of a world where gravity might as well not exist and form is mutable and elves don't age and if you got bored you could go on a whole-ass vacation from your body, for centuries if you wanted. Where magic was inextricable from physical existence. Where you could spend centuries playing a piece of music. And not only was it a mistake, but it didn't quite do what it was designed to do! The Blight got out anyway! Slower, and less, but it still got out.

So what Trespasser set up was a choice--continue the deep harms of the current world, a world that is in a near-constant state of apocalypse, or incur the terrible harms of bringing down the Veil for what might be a better world after. But what Veilguard gave us was a man who was used by someone he loved, betrayed by people he trusted, and never in all his wisdom managed to move past that. And your choice is to either trick him or help him move past that. It was actually a compelling story! I can buy it. The story of a spirit, deeply damaged by the things he felt trapped into doing. But it WAS a forced narrative, and they had to brush a bunch of really pivotal lore under the rug to make it work. "What is a Circle" levels of don't mind the man behind the curtain.

I defend the right of creatives to alter their story and tell it the way they want to. I also recognize the difficulties they face dealing with technical and business realities. But let's not pretend that people who were disappointed with Veilguard just don't get it or didn't understand the lore correctly. We can enjoy the game and also not invalidate that disappointment.

[thegrubfromhollowknight]

Emmrich sweetie the blight

[rederiswrites]

It is the middle of the night and I cannot sleep and am once again thinking about what Veilguard could have been.

Do you ever think about the fact that there's not a single abomination in the whole game? Doesn't happen. Not even to Venatori. No, Lucanis does not count. He genuinely is not actually an abomination. It's just that most of the cultures of Thedas don't have any other term for spirit possession. I just think it's interesting that in the game where your whole and unquestioned job is to keep the Veil up, there's not a single example of this well established tragic consequence of the Veil.

Not a single living ancient elf. Solas had agents. There were unequivocally still ancient elves around. We see none. No one who could attest to what the world once was. No one who might dare agree with Solas. And what of the spirits who were waiting to help? Not a one in Solas's own crossroads? None. The spirits there are silent. They have no voice.

Is there a single mention of uthenera? I don't remember one. The unknown number of elves who might still live, cut off from their bodies. Don't worry about it! Don't you worry.

We roam the halls of Arlathan itself. Not a single veilfire rune with visions of a time before death, when magic was as easy as breathing. Not a glimpse into the world that existed before the Veil. Not a moment of wonder over what once was.

It's been scrubbed.

[thebearmuse]

This extended conversation between Bellara and Emmrich is absolutely blowing my mind:

Bellara: I never get used to it. The ancient elven magic, I mean.

Emmrich: How so?

Bellara: It feels weird. Different. From other magic.

Emmrich: It is more powerful than most of what we're used to, certainly.

Bellara: Maybe. A little bit. But it's more than that. It feels almost cold.

Emmrich: How interesting. Is it an external sensation?

Bellara: No, it's inside cold. Not outside cold.

Emmrich: I understand what you meant about old elven magic feeling "cold," Bellara.

Bellara: Really? I don't even know if I did.

Emmrich: The Mourn Watch pulls on very different magic for our rituals.

Emmrich: It's more... still than what you'd use to manipulate rock, or summon lightning.

Emmrich: It anticipates.

Bellara: I'm not sure I'd like that. Magic just... waiting for me.

Emmrich: Perhaps. But it lends a solid foundation to our work.

Bellara: Maybe "bracing" is the right word.

Emmrich: For what?

Bellara: The ancient elven magic. That we were talking about.

Bellara: Every time I use one of the artifacts... it wakes me up. Like a bucket of cold water. Only not cold.

Bellara: I wonder why that is?

Emmrich: All magic touches the Fade. Perhaps the old elves tapped something we've lost.

Bellara: What you said about ancient elven magic. The way it touches the Fade. I think you're right.

Emmrich: You've made a discovery?

Bellara: So, um. Don't be mad. But I went outside the bubble at the Lighthouse.

Emmrich: Bellara! That was rather foolhardy.

Bellara: I know! But I was safe. Mostly. Anyways, when I went out there. I could feel it. Somewhere. Like the elven magic.

Emmrich: Ancient elven magic draws from the Deep Fade? Fascinating. The amount of magic you could harness...

Bellara: Explains a lot. About how they did what they did.

Aside from the question of HOW Bellara got outside the bubble (seriously, WHAT DID SHE DO????), I am excited to know how the old school magic works.

[thebearmuse]

The tags on this post are gifts that keep on giving.

[solasisms]

solas sketch-dump part iii

[anikorsmthnidk]

He’s a pookie

[chromunist]

May the Dreadwolf never hear your steps

[galadrieljones]

Looking for a good post on why we should just let Solas tear down the Veil. I'm just interested in the perspective.

I know I saw a few arguments for this maybe a couple weeks back. But I have no idea where they went or who wrote them.

[evanhereonearth]

I have a whooooole laundry list of reasons I want to lay out in text but I did a (ever so slightly salty) TikTok about it a couple weeks ago, and that’s here.

What could Thedas look like without the Veil if we didn’t view it through a lens of fear?

But in short:

1. It is the natural state of the world, a bit like if we’d built a dome between us and the sun for millennia as an extremely imperfect and basic metaphor

2. Spirits are people who belong with flesh-based people; the veil’s existence harms them and also prevents them from strengthening society. Probably half the population of the world are spirits, maybe more, and the veil is unjust to them for its mere existence AND because when they get forced through it, it twists them against their nature in torturous pain and then flesh people kill them or they kill each other. No good for anyone.

3. It is a fallacy based on Chantry hysteria and the games being in themselves unreliable narrators for the predominant narrative they give us to believe that we’d be “drowning in demons” because

4. The Breach and the rifts and general tattered state of the veil is not indicative of what a world without the veil would look like. Those are closer to what would happen to fish in an ocean-sized sphere if you punched holes in it and they got violently wrenched through with the force of escaping water; if they didn’t get forced through something traumatic, they’re far, far less likely to be twisted against their purpose. A world without the veil is an ocean. They can just…swim.

5. We have a number of canonical, profound examples of symbiotic coexistence even with the veil in place (the Avvar especially but also Rivain, the Mourn Watch to an extent) where even with the veil causing a barrier to understanding, spirits and the people who respect and care for them can exist peacefully and successfully together

6. As evidenced by Dorian’s letter to the Divine in codex, it’s really only the Southern Chantry lands where abominations and possession are even an issue, in large part because they’re the absolute kings of self-fulfilling prophecy. They teach that magic is dangerous and that all spirits want us to possess you so naturally they get what they expect.

7. Even in the Southern Chantry, the first Inquisitor, Ameridan, had a “spirit companion” he speaks of casually, either a spirit that stayed with him or consensually possessed him in the way of young Avvar mages (not clear which) so even down south, it wasn’t always just AAAA DEMONS DEMONS BAD

8. The Frostback Basin, if you bring Solas and Cole, you learn that it is remarkable for having virtually NO veil. So threadbare Cole says he could “skate right across”. There are spirits everywhere, and they’re far more peaceable than the bloody human Jaws of Hakkon lmao. Also some fascinating evidence here that killing malign spirits like Hakkon himself allows them to reconfigure themselves into less twisted form when they’re reborn

9. We have plenty of evidence even with the veil that spirits like to help. The spirits of Compassion/Undying Hope we meet in VG despite the Venatori doing everything they can to make things worse. Solas mentions his host of spirits ready to help, and you’re free to believe him or not, but that has *always* been his MO. Spirits eager to reunite with the world in peace. They are fundamentally his people as much as the ancient elves are; I’ll trust what he says about spirits above what anyone else does.

10. The primary argument for me for the veil staying in place was the imprisoned Evanuris and the blight and now…they’re dead and the blight is less of a threat for not having their direction. Also better contained. People can find proactive solutions now instead of reactive ones.

11. Mages should be taught their magic is a gift and not a curse, how to work with spirits and not see every single one as a potential threat or an object to be exploited. It’s not something that could happen overnight but it’s far less likely to happen at all with the veil in place because I shudder to think of how the backlash of Veilguard is going to increase already unconscionable acts of genocide (annulment of mage circles by Templars we’ve had in every game but VG—though Rowan speaks of Dairsmuid—and purges on alienages and Dalish clans) against mages and elves so once more those who suffer the most will suffer more

12. Maybe if Solas’s original plan had gone forwards and he’d just torn down the veil with the orb and Corypheus had died as expected, everything would have been violent, terrible, and bloody. But that’s not Veilguard Solas, influenced by the Inquisition and his friends there whom he loved and taught him that there was life worth preserving in Thedas. So I truly believe that, with the mitigation he’d put in place that the writers didn’t see fit to like…share with the class beyond a few throwaway lines that it would not have been the nightmare Varric was screeching about. Minrathous at the beginning was probably the worst of it, because fish were getting wrenched backwards through holes, not just free to enter and exist and swim without violence. That would have ended when the veil was down, judging by everything we’ve seen evidence of. Now we will likely never know.

Anyway! I wrote out a whole thing I guess. I want it better organised and sourced than bullet points, but it’s something, at least. Hope it helps! Bottom line is there’s a lot we don’t know, but the only actual real canon example of a nearly veil-less world we have to go on is the Avvar and the Frostback Basin, and if that’s somewhere near what’s possible? I’m in.

Loss of life happens either way. I guess it just depend on whose lives matter to the one deciding. I personally think the end result of allowing the world to exist in its natural, veil-less state would ultimately be better for everyone.

Looking at Earth right now, we’re facing similar questions and honestly, similar strategy: keep the harmful status quo even though those who already suffer the most have the most to lose with climate change, then punish them when they come to safer places to seek help.

[reagan-the-saunders]

Fen'Harel In Action

[corseque]

I realized that I could easily do the same to DAI's script, and I did that, but then I immediately created my magnum opus:

A Text File of Everything Solas Says In Inquisition and Veilguard, The Ultimate Fanfic Resource For Writing Solas' Voice*

and I fell on the floor because it made me happy.

*edited to correct a minor mishap

[that-wildwolf]

hey, remember being 18 years old and playing mass effect for the first time and it's got this like intense aura of being very small and very insignificant in a very big, very empty galaxy? remember playing mass effect for the first time and everything all of this is so new and mysterious, and it's 2am and you're sitting in a dark room in the light from your tv and you're playing through feros for the first time and you feel that this is someting very old and very ancient and you are somewhere you shouldn't be and you don't know what's going to happen or where you're going but you keep on. there's a tingling in your stomach and you're playing mass effect for the first time. the thorian is a milennia old sentient plant being. the rachni queen is old and telepathic and a hive mind and in pain. sovereign is an ancient machine that has not been built but is, and has always been, and this is something so alien and so unlike and beyond anything your human mind can comprehend, and this is something unexplainable and huge and as uncaring and indifferent as the empty galaxy around you. you're playing mass effect for the first time and you're walking on the surface of an almost completely empty planet with nothing but your two companions silently walking beside you and everything is so huge and empty and silent and you're so small and insignificant and it's so beautiful and so scary and you feel like you are on a rollercoaster about to drop down. you are playing mass effect for the first time and you're playing the mission on the moon and you stop and just look up at earth visible in the sky. you know this. this is home. you are playing mass effect for the first time, and the galaxy is so big, and you are so tiny, and everything is about to change for you.