Yena Mercar, my Rook! She turned out much younger looking than I originally planned, but she's very pretty! Low Erika Ishii voice, Shadow Dragons, and Rogue. Would've liked the qunari to have even half the amount of hair options as the others but hey it already took me hours to make her so maybe that's for the best.
I also spent a lot of time trying to make Bastan Adaar before going it's good enough!! Ten years of hunting Solas while your long distance husband tries to change Tevinter apparently takes a toll. That forehead tho 😭 I can't believe they gave us the green lighting again. I stuck with disbanded and stopping Solas, even though it kinda lacks the context that they were actually friends.
as important as the rising is to the lore of ffxiv it remains deeply funny to me that on a yearly basis, we dissociate so hard that our wols meet a real human being, and not just any human being but The Guy Who Produces The Video Game You Are Playing
Not enough people talk about the Avvar, which is a shame because they have some amazing history and practices. I find the way they handle mages to be especially enlightening and based as fuck.
So I made this post to summarise it!
In the above video, I captured two conversations with the Augur of Stone-Bear Hold, and Sigrid - the mage-in-training who went into a self-imposed exile. I'll summarise what mage training looks like for the Avvar, and then delve into the implications.
Augurs are the spiritual leaders of the Hold, but are not necessarily mages - though they often are.
Spirits are called 'gods' by the Avvar. The Avvar do also have named gods, and these appear to be particularly powerful spirits.
Mages among the Avvar bind themselves to a spirit in order to be trained - i.e., they become 'abominations' in the eyes of the chantry, which Dorian confirms in the video. This occurs at a young age, in Sigrid's case when she was a child.
The spirit becomes the mage's trainer. Years later, when the training is done, the mage releases the spirit in a ritual which requires only a small sacrifice (like a bird) and a vial of lyrium.
If a mage cannot release the spirit, then the situation is handled carefully. In Sigrid's case, she just didn't want to say goodbye to a good friend. She goes to the Augur after this, and he confirms that they are working on helping her overcome her loneliness.
If the reason is they are truly incapable of releasing the spirit (they are 'weak', though it's unclear what this means), then the Hold and spirits watches over them to prevent them from growing 'sick'. The Augur implies that if the mage does sicken and endangers themselves or the Hold, they are euthanised and pass away peacefully in their sleep. He says it is a very sad event.
What are the implications of this, then?
Reversing 'possession' can actually be really easy. We knew it was possible from DAO, but now we see that it need not require a massive amount of lyrium or blood magic. If the 'possession' does not happen in a state of extreme desperation/distress (which the Circle and Templars love to put mages in), then reversal is simple.
Mages who cannot release the spirit might 'sicken' - and I suspect that's what they tried to show with Anders. What 'sicken' means is not clarified by the Augur, but from our Anders experience we can piece together that the Augur means they grow mentally and physically unwell. But even this can be prevented or mitigated with proper care.
It appears to be very, very rare that mages among the Avvar turn into the types of abominations we fight in the games, because the Augur never even mentions it happening.
So, in conclusion: The Avvar treat their mages with the most humanity and compassion of everyone, resulting in very few instances of violent abominations.
(Note: tbh I have no idea wtf the Dalish mage training is like because the games contradict themselves even within the same clan, so I can't really draw comparisons to the Dalish, unfortunately.)
Finally finished my Inquisition run woo! Totally making this my canon world state because almost everyone's endings seem so much better this time. (Also so my Cadash can live happily ever after with her wife and not deal with whatever's happening next.)
Went to the Keep because I was very curious whether Vivienne would "consider me a friend" or not, because I was seeing conflicting info if that was approval based or "did their personal quest the way they wanted" based. And was shocked to see this:
Apparently Vivienne hated my Adaar so much that she gaslit herself into believing he didn't even do her quest. Girl I know you think he's an idiot who makes terrible choices but I thought maybe we bonded the tiniest bit on that! I have the tarot card to prove it! Alas.
Leliana really is the best option for Divine because 1) she undisputably does the most progressive shit while being completely ready and able to protect herself and her people when people inevitable come after her for that, 2) she makes it extremely clear that she will not leave the Warden once she becomes Divine and will basically publicly make the Warden her trophy wife (ideal for my warden) so there's no bittersweet angst if you romanced her in Origins you actually get information of what your Warden is doing (being Leliana's trophy wife) in Trespasser, and 3) she is just the funniest option like my girl breeds nugs and puts them in her official portraits you know she has official chantry robes and regalia for all of them
Finally back to actually progressing the plot, and prepared for the upcoming approval hits for being respectful. But first, had to make use of all my dragon parts and kit everybody out in fancy new duds. The only money I have spent this entire game, besides on blank runestones, has been for these schematics. This is only partially an apology to Dorian for making him wear the hideous Vestments of the Pure robe through the Descent dlc.
I love playing as Adaar for many reasons, but perhaps most of all because it's so so funny to me that the Conclave gathered an unprecedented number of the most important religious figures on the entire continent under one roof, and the one person who stumbles out of the rubble as a very confused messiah at the end of it all is essentially the bouncer. you played cardinal roulette and somehow ended up with the doorman.
I just. I love the delivery on "and also you Blackwall!" Like he just remembered hey wait! My buddy Blackwall is here! He's also definitely for sure a Warden!
Bringing Dorian along on Bull's personal quest immediately after Dorian's romance quest is a trip.
Dear, you know how you're determined to repay me for the whole necklace thing? How about you try it right now by not making me have to debate you on the merits of slavery versus brainwashing, thanks ever so.
Ten years late to the party, but I have to say it's a fucking wild decision to have Solas' "you're not a savage like the rest of your race" conversation take place on your balcony and not give your Adaar the option to yeet him the fuck off of it.
With all the trailer hype, the fact that it's currently on sale for Xbox for four bucks, and that I honestly have forgotten a lot of the actual plot - I started replaying Dragon Age Inquisition!
Bastan Adaar is trying very hard to project that he is just a good and funny guy whose definitely not stressed about how every conversation feels like tap dancing over a minefield. No no don't mind the horns and the fire, I'm just here to help, haha please stop saying I'm the herald it's really not actually helping our case here.
So far he's getting along best with Sera, Solas, and Blackwall, only one of which was planned. Biggest disappointment was trying to bond with Iron Bull, who immediately shot that down and then insulted his mom. :( It's fine, whatever, he's just gonna head off to Redcliffe next to steal your boyfriend.
Also I have much better armor I could put on him at this point but like. Why would I do that when he could instead have his twelve pack out 24/7:
