For questions about Lace because I love her very much: What do you think about her upbringing as an Andrastian vs. her reconnecting with the Stone? It's such an intense shift of perception of the world, I want to know your thoughts :)
Codex from Dagna: "How can anything be both all and one, together but separate? It doesn't make sense, does it?" While in reference to the Titans and the literal connection between their people, and maybe the Shade and Harding, I think it's a quote that relates to Harding and her entire character.
She has always been dual-sided: both LACE and HARDING, with all that implies. And now, a connection to two religions, Andrastianism and the Stone.
There's the humble side of that connection: She's close to her family, who are Andrastian, and while they can trace their family back to Orzammar, they're unable to return and are very cut off from that culture. Ma's mother never left Redcliffe. Harding, and her family, never had Stone sense before. Harding IS Andrastian.
And now she has found family in the Stone too. The Titans are her ancestors, and the ancestors of her people, of all dwarves; they are all Children of not just the Stone (which I'm haunted by the fact this could theoretically include the Evanuris, who made their bodies from the same materials), but the Titans.
But on a bigger level, Harding now plays a key role to the institutions of both, to the worship of both.
Harding directly serves in the Inquisition, under the Herald of Andraste. She still is close to the Inquisitor in Veilguard. That speaks to how devoted she is to the cause, as an Andrastian. But I think it's interesting ... for serving the Inquisition, she has to be nameless, for her role as a scout. "Nobody should see me coming." It requires her to be less open, she tells the Inquisitor and Rook to never tell anyone her fears or anything too embarrassing. Leliana can potentially take interest in her as a successor. And Leliana is like, a whole other can of worms when it comes to devotion to the Maker. Says a lot that there's overlap between the two.
ALSO LACE WAS A SHEPARD. SHE HERDED SHEEP FOR HER NEIGHBOR. AND THAT IMAGERY, VERY IMPORTANT TO ME. Very archetypal.
Then we get to Veilguard, her reconnection to her ancestors and to the Stone. I find it interesting that under Andrastianism, the dwarves are notably not included as the Maker's creation, and Harding very much accepts the Titans as her creators, her identity as their Child. I find that to be. Interesting. Intriguing!!!
During the Singing Blade quest, Harding picks up the lyrium dagger, pushing Rook away, because she takes full responsibility for what happened with Varric. Of the Harding/Rook duo, she's the one who remembers the pain. "I should've taken the shot."
This is also the role she now inhibits for the Titans: she is the one to remember the dead and dying, the hurt, for someone who cannot bear it. For someone, and something, whose mind has been altered by Solas. When she accepts the rage of the Titan, she is able to heal its veins. She is able to connect other dwarves to the Titans, if only for one moment. Despite her own rejection from Orzammar due to being a surfacer, she has found her own way to worship. Isatunoll, the prayer and the proclamation. The Chant, The Song. There's a thought here.
Memory is such a big part of dwarven culture, stemming from the loss of memory from the sundering of the Titans, the loss of their own ancestors. ... Which, they don't even remember triggered this need, to find perhaps a Paragon in something else. It was so long ago, it was erased long ago.
And memory is such an interesting thing because it plays into the other religions of the Dalish and obviously of Andrastianism. There are overlapping events between each! There are people rewriting the history of them all, all the time! There are people who were THERE and saw it all and have decided to hold their tongue.
There are empires that are building on the previous one as an ouroboros of endless suffering, all of which keeps Harding and other dwarves (and the elves!) from being able to reconnect to their roots.
There's a lot to say there and explore there ... But I think Harding as this touchstone of both is just really interesting, narratively, as a result of all these overlaps. Harding is not as blindly faithful as others in the series, she has that inqusitive nature. She wants to explore and question and to seek the truth. It's all she can talk about when it comes to understanding why the Titans had to be hurt in such a way, why they had to be hidden by both the Evanuris and by Orzammar. She’s the FIRST to ask if the reveal of the Evanuris and the Blight disprove the Maker …
I love that despite everything, Harding STILL isn’t completely SURE in her beliefs by the end. There's a codex where Harding notes that despite the Stone belief of being eventually returned, should proper requirements be met anyways, she doesn't hear the dead in the Stone when it sings. She asks Emmerich about death and what could come after. She's IMMORTAL NOW? I don’t know if that fully gets confirmed but it’s at least a possibility …
Something about becoming bigger than you ever imagined, so central to the systems of becoming a Paragon, to Andraste herself. A bloody prize!
Reverse unpopular opinion: Wenduag’s character & arc 👀
i tend to be drawn to characters who hide their biggest insecurities behind a mask of competence, whose coping mechanism is basically to suppress any and all signs of vulnerability. like "i was hurt because i wasn't good enough so obviously the solution to never being hurt again is to just Be good enough". and i love when they slowly let their walls down and learn how to trust
so yeah wenduag is an extremely Me-coded character lmao and she's probably my second favourite companion in the game. on the surface she's selfish and power-hungry, but you have to take what she says with a grain of salt. all her bluster about survival of the fittest, about how she chooses to bow to those who are stronger than her because she's smart, it's all rationalization; a survival mechanism. wenduag refuses to see herself as a victim so she's constantly trying to convince herself and everyone around her that the things that happened to her were choices she made. it's why she's so critical towards anyone who rejects her worldview, why she's so desperate for power; she needs the validation, she has to believe that she's making the smart choices. she's not evil for evil's sake, she's a product of her environment and you have to understand this to earn her loyalty and respect
if you romance her she allows herself to be vulnerable with you and actually starts to soften that harsh worldview of hers. i know some people don't like it when part of a companion's story is locked behind romancing them, and there are some games that do it unnecessarily, but i think it makes perfect sense for a character like wenduag to only let herself be fully vulnerable with someone that she trusts entirely. the fact that she's only willing to completely open up to a partner she loves and feels respected by just adds to her complexity imo and it makes for an incredibly satisfying character arc
also she's a monster with throwing axes and she's voiced by the incredible amelia tyler <3
send me a topic and i'll tell you what i like about it
evilios posted about how apollo should have white skin.
hiding behind an anon in order to accuse another user of racism behind their back is scummy behavior, ESPECIALLY when you don't provide any evidence for your claims. if you're also a Hellenic Polytheist, spreading claims with no evidence certainly violates Xenia. however, this is a VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE to pay attention to in Polytheistic spaces, so I indulged your idea and searched for proof you so unhelpfully didn't provide.
i went to @evilios 's page and went through every single post they had that was related to Apollon. these are the ONLY posts I found that were in any way related to your claims:
below is taken from this post asking about Apollon and Yarlio. here, he describes some physical attributes of Apollon that are attested. note he says nothing about skin color.
below is from this post where they describe an ancient statue of Apollon. it's possible to have misread this part, if this is what prompted the ask.
and finally, this is from the tags of this reblogged post. this definitely requires some context. in antiquity, pale skin and light hair was commonly considered the height of beauty. since Apollon was commonly an effeminate Deity, these features would convey to ancient people that this statue honored those aspects.
so, to conclude, I found no evidence for your claims on their current profile. honestly, I found more evidence of the opposite. accusing people of racism without looking into context for yourself can take attention away from people who actually need to be ostracized. take this as a learning experience.
of course, if you actually do have evidence, feel free to share. next time, present it with your claims.
